Only it seems that the universe is infinite. Far beyond the edge of the developed space, four bezamungsgereits1 emerged at one point. All four look like blood-pumped bedbugs. Two are cheap New-Krimean budget homes that are built for orphans, with no protection or amenities. The third is a higher class. The fourth is a luxury Daimler with a three-horned crown on its head, the symbol of the prestigious imperial genefabrik. It has a triple chitin body, a massage box. The hibernation compartment of the Budgeters looks like a huge pale belly in a mesh of blue veins. The Daimler has it completely hidden by tightly fitting black scales.
– Holy moly… – I'm unlucky, – Mashka whispered, looking at her rivals. – Unlucky me. Simba2! General Challenge.
Four faces appeared in the uneven ovals: one of them was hers.
In the Daimler's dock there sat an imperial, like the posters of the Kaiserjugend: Roman profile, thin lips, coiffed hair. The patch read "Ulrich von Gneisenau." Also an aristocrat. Behind him is a portrait of Wilhelm the Third in a ceremonial suit.
The second zucher3 was a chubby kid, Spanish or Italian by the looks of it. Yes, Italian: «Bruno Valetti» is on his patch.
And the third…
He had a Slavic, cheekbone-faced, second-grade, potato nose, and pockmarked cheeks. He had a chunky body, a shabby overalls with a patch on it: «Victor Shmyga». Mashka knew him. They lived in the same orphanage, they went to be zoohers together, only she after the first grade and he after the second. They were lying next to each other when the doctors injected the symbiotes into their left ear.
It was scary as hell. The technicians rolled up the tank with the adult Dbigu. Roughly, with forceps, they pulled out two thin tentacles. Vitya then took her by the hand and held it tightly, but she didn't break free. Even when the slimy sprout penetrated her ear, and a fetus separated from it, she did not cry. She looked into his eyes, and he looked into hers. Silently. And on the neighboring bunks there was a roar…
Mashka only opened her mouth, and immediately got a text message: «Shut up! You don't know me.»
– Right! – she said, not shutting her mouth for no reason. – This is my planet, the rest of you run away while you're still in one piece!
– Baby, – Ulrich said haughtily. – I went into space before you did. So get your trough away from my planet.
– Listen, German pepper sausage4, – said Vityka, – I got here first, and it's on the control cameras. When I jumped out, your belly was still in subspace.
– So? – He shook off a non-existent speck of dust from his jumpsuit. – He's the one who stuck his nose out first.
– No, he didn't," said the Italian. – The first is the one who first dragged the hibernation bay. He's in charge of the ship, so it counts for him!
– And you're still not the first, – Mashka stuck her tongue out.
– So what? – Bruno shrugged. – Soon the bot judge will get here, and then we'll see whose planet it is.
The subject of their dispute was an earth-like celestial body, covered with a blue atmosphere, remarkably similar to his and Vitya's native New Crimea. Four Bezamungsgereits hovered above it three degrees above the plane of the ecliptic and decided whose "Inseminator" would give rise to a new human colony.
Simba scanners detected a disturbance in the fields. Just above their ships, a small black disk with an imperial eagle appeared.
– Zucher third year von Gneisenau, Zucher second year Valetti, Zucher third year Shmyga, Zucher second year Kareva, confirm access.
Mashka gave a command to the symbiote, and now the judge's voice sounded right in her head.
– Gentlemen of the Zuchers, I am a judge bot, sent here to settle a dispute over the right of the discoverer.
The Zuchers began to chatter, interrupting each other.
– Silence! – the bot shouted.
When everyone fell silent, he said:
– In the history of the exploration of the planets of Dbigu space, there has never been an occasion when four Bezamungsgereits have entered the same point in space at the same time.
The bot was silent for a few seconds, then continued:
– Neither was three. There were two, but the advantage of one was fixed and confirmed. In this case it was recorded that the nose deflectors of three of the four Bezamungsgereits appeared simultaneously in three-dimensional space. The fourth, Bruno Valletti's ship, was three point twenty-three hundredths of a second late. The lag is fixed and confirmed. The sequence of Bezamungsgereit's entry into three-dimensional space is recorded, confirmed and sent to the Dbigu Space Development Control Center. Destroying the judge bot is now meaningless.