- Wake up, Dr. Floyd! - there was a cheerful voice in Heywood's surrounding silence. - You are aboard the Universe Ten, which follows through the Exodus-23 system to the Catapult Exodus-23 Beta. Today is the twenty-fourth of June, two thousand sixty-eighth year, so it is time to congratulate you on your hundredth birthday!
- Thank you, - Floyd replied politely, trying to sneak in. It was as if sand had been poured into his eyes, and the noise in his ears was making it difficult to listen to the speaker's words, but... But nothing particularly unpleasant. Almost the usual departure from the anesthesia that accompanied the hibernation. No almost usual joint problems and so on, and in general almost unusual ease in the body.
- You've been fixed a little bit during your flight, so don't be surprised," said Floyd's voice, noticing Floyd's body movements.
Then it got easier, and a couple of minutes later, through the current tears, Heywood Floyd saw the speaker talking.
- Walter Kernow, - he identified as - a broad-ranging astrophysicist, - as this cheerful fat man called himself when he met him.
- That's right, Doctor! - he was not smiling at all.
- How are your stars? Have you already discovered all your secrets?
- Not yet. But it's not even evening!
- Fine, - Floyd got on his feet and scrolled his joints. - What's new?
What happened was that Walter shut up for a second and shook his shoulders:
- There's going to be a lot of new things for you, but the news from Earth is catching up with us with enviable regularity, even if it's a couple of days late. Well, for example, just the other day Space-Colorado shipyards launched the first production thermonuclear-powered spacecraft.
- Have you really done it at last?
- Yeah. Such a bird would be the route that we overcame in seven years with two refueling stations - at Arcturus and Terra-Nova - would have passed in three years without refueling and would not have been suffocated at the same time. Only by the decision of the TERD Congress, Wyvern Technologies' production facilities are primarily used for commercial in-system cargo trucks in order to reduce development costs and to encourage business. So our flight to Sleeping Cthulhu will not be repeated.
- Cthulhu"? It's from Lovecraft, isn't it?
- Yeah. The shipbuilders are going to name the first series of TYARD spaceships after its creatures. Still, one hundred and forty years have passed since the publication of "Zova Cthulhu".
- However... - Floyd shook his head indefinitely and nodded approvingly. - I'm fine.
- Come on, Doctor, - the astrophysicist turned around and came out of the medical unit.
- What else is new?
- Well, we've found another life-compatible planet. Surprisingly, in the stream of Arcturus.
- And why surprisingly?
- This is a starry stream of Arcturus, Doctor, - the astrophysicist even stopped. - Accumulation of old stars. Metals are crumbs, the rest, except hydrogen and helium, too. The fact that there is a liveable stone planet there is nonsense! But it's nice. There and on Eden, as the second planet at Exodus 14 was called, colonists are already flying... That's it, we've come, - with these words the fat guy dived into the hatch.
- Happy birthday! - the crew in the spaceport exclaimed.
- And I had made it earlier," Walter smiled widely.
Floyd smiled and greeted everyone.
Elizabeth M'Bala, Eva Merlin, Ekaterina Rudenko, Elena Orlova. Floyd caught himself thinking that the authors of the list of the crew were joking, picking up the female half only with the names on the letter E. The men's part - the aforementioned Walter, Dmitry Semyonovich, Victor Willis, Lawrence Tsung, Max Brylovsky and two more cosmonauts unknown to Floyd, John Smith and Savisubramanian Chandrasekarampilai, now sleeping in the frost - did not stand out from the crowd.
Catherine, the chief medical officer of the crew, clapping her hands with everybody, approached Floyd and unceremoniously examined him. Checked his pupils, counted his pulse, pushed to the pain point after his elbow - after that she looked him in the eye and nodded approvingly:
- You're in great shape, doctor.
- So you can give him a gift," smiled the captain of the ship and was simply the leader of the expedition, Lawrence Tsung.
- And what have you prepared for me as a gift? - Floyd was genuinely interested.
- Somehow it turned out that all the ejections on our long journey you spent in hibernation. We decided that this was wrong, and that's why you are ejecting to the Horsehead Nebula in full consciousness, sound mind and on your birthday.
Floyd opened his mouth with surprise, and then gathered his thoughts, picked up his jaw and asked:
- Can I see where we are now? As an astronomer, I am very interested in this.
- Yes, of course - the Chinese man nodded to Dmitriy and gave up commandingly. The image appeared on the wall.
