The Before Short Story Series. Part 1

Igor cast a quick glance around his daughter’s room: Everything as usuaname = "note" a mess, a mess and complete chaos. A poster with someone unknown was attached with white tape to the walname = "note" a guy wearing make-up, in a torn T-shirt and zebra-print leggings was shouting something at the top of his voice, as if trying to escape from the wonderland of the poster, in which he found himself against his will. He wanted to get out and be with you. Igor shook his head, trying to get rid of the obsession. Robin’s clothes were scatered everywhere—on the bed, on the armchair, the leg of jeans hung from the closet. He came over and started pulling on the jeans off the door of the closet.

‘What are you doing?! Don’t do it, please!’ Robin, noticing what her father was about to do, protested loudly. Clothes fall on him from the closet, including sweatshirts, socks and underwear.

‘My God… Robin… I understand everything, of course… But you have a closet here!’

‘Don’t touch anything here! Is that clear?!’

Retreating, and nearly leaving the room, Igor briefly mentioned addressing his daughter:

‘And why did you turn on the air conditioner? I know it’s summer outside. But we don’t get above five degrees here.’

‘A complete copy of the mother,’ Igor reflected. ‘Distracted, unfocused and disorganized as her mother. Just emotions, and everything is on the verge. All or nothing. Music—making the whole village listen. Getting ready for exams—nothing else happen to exist around. No food, no father, no friends.’ Approaching the stairs, Igor looked at the closed door on the left. Holding the handle of the door, he stood there for a couple of seconds, no more. And started going down the stairs.

Closing the door to her room, Robin stared at her father’s lean figure near her mother’s home office.

Friends

The drone with passengers was descending smoothly on a small airport site near the Sagarmatha National Park. Igor was sitting in the car in a parking lot, waiting for the dust and sand, which was lifted into the sky by the flying taxi electric motors, to settle.

‘Hello! Hi Edik, Rusya! Welcome to the holy land of Nepal!,’ hugging old friends, Igor greeted the guests and pointed the way to the car.

‘We are very glad to finally get out to you, dear! Let me look at you, old boy!’ Edward was carefully examining Igor from head to toe. ‘Robin’s not feeding you well enough, I see. You’re kind of skinny. Well, let’s hug again! I’ve missed you so much, Igor! Rusya, come to us. Come here! Don’t be shy!’ Edward was gesturing to his wife inviting her to join the ritual of friendly hugs. ‘Well, never mind, Professor, we’ll get you on track in a couple of days! I promise!’

‘Guys, I am very glad to see you! Let’s go to the car,’ Igor picked up the bag from Ruslana.

‘And you call this ancient piece a vehicle, Igor? I see you’ve completely lost yourselves in your prayers here.’

‘There you go! Your husband, as always… He’s not off his track. This isn’t Moscow, my dear. Your Mercedes, even if we were to deliver it here, still won’t move. There are no highways here.’

‘It’s obvious that everything is fine with the infrastructure in this place—we have already realized this flying in. Don’t you even doubt it. But I have to say, Igor, we didn’t come here to visit local so to say beauty shops’.

‘That’s it! Enough! I do object! Just arrived and start this measure for measure approach’.

Igor put his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

‘Well, of course! You and I are going to have a great weekend, my dear!’

‘What an amazing air is here after all! Ruslana took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

‘Rusya, take care. This ground is shaky! Amazing air is the area of Mr Professor’s competence.’

‘My feelings in any case do not let me down, Ed. And if we compare it with the Moscow air… we are in the Garden of Eden.’

Having settled in the car, Igor instructed the digital assistant:

‘Soba, we’re going home.’

‘All right, Igor. Is there anything else I can do?’

‘Set the temperature to twenty two and … Perhaps turn on Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries.’ Music started playing softly on the background.

‘The passenger in the back row has not fastened his seat belt. Please fasten your seat belt,’ the car’s digital voice requested. Ruslana obediently buckled herself in.

‘I assume that your musical preferences have not changed?’ Igor asked his friend.

‘Marvelous! I couldn’t have counted on a warmer welcome,’ with a smile Edward rolled up his eyes blissfully.

‘You’d better get ready, Ed. Robin listens to pieces that earplugs won’t help. This morning it just happened that I had to come back home unscheduled so to say…’

‘What do you expect of a girl, Igor? How is she? How is she doing?’

‘Well, everything is fine. She’s already getting up for the institute.’

‘Where does she want to study?’

‘I am very pleased with her choice—the Institute of Ecology in Odessa, oceanography specialty.

‘Following in your footsteps, it turns out?’

‘To some extent. Nearby, I would say.’

‘Great! But the enrolment slot has closed already. Isn’t it too late?’

‘We are planning for the next year’s admission.’

‘Oh, you guys… Everything is according to plan and in advance. Well done.’

‘Well, what about leaving your staff and going out for dinner? How’s the plan for you, guys?’ checking on the trip itinerary on a large information screen in the car, Igor tried to set the evening program.

‘I’m in. Ruslana, are you? Edward turned to his wife.

‘Of course. I need five minutes and I’ll be ready. Is Robin coming with us, Igor? It would be great to meet her.’

‘I’m afraid not. Our girl has new priorities now. Some guy showed up recently. An American, I think. What do you reckon she would prefer?’

‘Still, I hope we will definitely get to know her,’ Ruslana replied.

‘You think?! You say that your daughter is dating some new guy, and you don’t even know who he is, where he comes from and what his name is!’ Edward was confused.

‘You’re right, as always. I should have lunch with them or something,’ Igor agreed.

‘Of course you should, Igor. And the sooner the better. You’d wonder how we monitor our Alyona.’

‘Ed, it’s wishful thinking. We’re both here. Alyona is on her own in Moscow. What d’you think she is doing?’ Ruslana remarked reasonably.

‘I do not doubt a minute that my daughter went to the Central Library,’ the friends smiled.

A grey roadster pulled up to a residential village, stopping at Igor’s two-storey house, passengers left the car.

‘Now I understand why you decided to settle down here,’ Edward said, looking around.

The peaks of the snow-capped mountains, bathed in the pink sunset light, framed the perimeter behind the houses, safeguarding the homefront. The villagers could feel safe. It would not be easy to conquer the highest ridge on Earth unnoticed. The clouds, as if stuck on the rocky peaks, were hiding the exact indicator of the inaccessible height, leaving the brave souls who miscalculated their strength, face-to-face with their fate.

Following the setting sun, the temperature was going down as well. Puddles on the road confirmed the coming cold spell with a thin film of ice covering them. Descending the slope by the stairs of the giants, with the houses of the Bholi complex huddled, two more houses, also recently raised in the park, were located a few levels below. The snap of cold made the mountain air even more transparent and clean. Everything seemed to be flickering around.

‘I won’t argue with you this time. It’s an amazing place here,’ Igor replied. ‘When I come here, you know, after a few days I begin to perceive things differently. Time flows differently. Watching news channels becomes completely irrelevant for me. Moreover, I’d say that I am beginning to treat the information flow in a somewhat lenient way, you know. I am nearly moved by the seriousness with which we in our the so-called civilized world perceive what is happening in society. Here you finally understand what is really important, and what is just meaningless hustle and bustle.

So, yes, my friend, I am glad that fate has brought me here, where I can live as an individual, not merely as a member of a society with performance indicators that are measured online.’

Edward looked at Igor:

‘I see, you’ve planted deep roots here, taking in the philosophy of life… Ruslana, we have to be careful, and we definitely can’t stay here for a long time.’

‘Okay, okay,’ smiling to his friends, Igor pointed in the direction of the house. ‘Let’s go in at last, or we’ll freeze.’

Microplastic

The date of arrival of his friends fixed, Igor booked in advance the best table in a local restaurant—on the second floor near the window there was a great view of the canyon: they’d definitely like it.’

The choice of a place was not particularly difficult. In a small village, there were simply no other alternatives. But there was no need for them either. The restaurant, more like a local pub in some English village, was full of people at the end of the working week. As, indeed, on any other day.

It was hard to remember a morning when one wouldn’t notice, looking out of the window, skiers rushing to the lifts or just tourists walking around the village. This was the very idea of such small towns scattered across Nepal in its mountainous areas. Investors were ready to put money in the construction of clusters of small tourist centers, where scientific teams could be located as well. Everyone benefited—the flow of tourists, thinning out for a while from time to time, was compensated by permanent residents, for example, involved in research work, like Igor and his team.

Friday night is a special time, regardless of the point on the world map. The upcoming weekend was attracting people to get together. There was a buzz of conversations in the restaurant, with the music playing in the background finally concealing the words and voices, and competing with enthusiastic visitors by decibels of volume. Some young guy with an unruly beard, like a broom, a German judging by the accent, crawled to the panoramic window next to the table where Igor and his Moscow friends were sitting, and tried to explain something to his comrades pointing his finger at the window. A group of snowboarders sat nearby with large mugs of beer, blocking up the aisle with their gear. One might have thought that it didn’t matter in the end what sort of food was served there. But the chef clearly was of a different opinion about his mission. After reading complimentary reviews about the local cuisine, the whole area tried to get into the restaurant, including the two nearest villages.

‘Now, tell us! How is your project going?’

‘That’s a good question, Ed,’ Igor replied.

‘Well, we don’t do any other ones,’ the second round of glasses of red wine finally reconciled them, allowing to relax.

‘Our project is integrated into the global air composition monitoring system around the world. This station is not working in particular in the Himalayas just for nothing. It can be assumed that it is here that one of the cleanest ecological areas on the Earth is. But in fact, everything is somewhat different. In the southwest there is India, and in the north China. Our complex is located between two of the most active industrial zones on the planet. Depending on where the wind blows, we are always experiencing consequences either on one side or on the other. And we are literally experiencing and testing them. Our laboratory continuously monitors the composition of the atmosphere.’

‘Well, that’s it! Our mate got carried away!’ Edward winked at Ruslana.

‘You’ve asked the question yourself. So I’m telling you,’ ignoring the sarcasm, Igor continued enthusiastically. ‘What matters here? This is the key, the important moment,’ he moved closer to the table. ‘Over the past fifty years, we have made great progress on the environmental agenda. Suffice to mention just only one network of the ITER thermonuclear power plants all around the world.

This step alone has fundamentally changed the map of the energy system on the planet. And what is ITER? From an ecological point of view, this is a tangible reduction in the carbon footprint of humanity. And that in itself is priceless. And so far we are talking only about one example from a wide range of steps taken to improve the environmental situation.

‘Wait, Igor. And in such a case why are you… if ITER is such a great achievement, has changed everything around, what sort of negative environmental background from India and China are you talking about?’

‘Ed, let’s go step by step. We’ll get to that now. So,’ continued Igor, ‘as you know, the PAX artificial intelligence has brought in an invaluable gift to people—ITER, as Prometheus once gave us fire.’

‘What a rhetoric! Look at him!’ Edward laughed.

Not paying the slightest attention, Igor continued:

‘A network of decarbonizing installations on all the six continents where people are now leading active life. Recycling and disposal systems for all and everything— we are working hard on their efficiency, with greater depth of processing every year. The civilized world has practically stopped mining on the planet. In the first place, we use widely recycled components, and secondly, as you know, we have mastered mining on the Moon, Mars and the asteroids. Over the past fifty years, we have recovered forestland in those areas where it was almost eradicated by negligent mining. A lot has been done to date. But there is an understanding that more needs to be done.’

‘Igor, you might end in our Duma, or, at worst, sit in the Federation Council. Our senators are very fond of listening to the reports of the enlightened.

‘I’m ready! But here’s my question for you: are Duma and Senate yet active in Russia?’

‘Uh-uh… My dear. It turns out things are so much neglected with you. You’ve completely lost your way here, that’s what I see. They are active and very much so! What do you think, since today we are part of the United Federation of Nations, we no longer need to bother about our own state system!

Uh, no, my fellow comrade! It wouldn’t have gone anywhere that way. Our entire federation would have gone to pieces in different directions. Anyway, what have you been doing here!? Can you imagine, Rusya, this person does not know the political system of his own country! You, Igor, are a political barbarian!’

‘You are barbarians yourselves,’ Igor smiled. ‘My task is supra-confessional and cross-border. I need to clean up all the stench away from the planet that we managed to make a mess of in just a few hundred years, after millions of centuries of its development and prosperity.’

‘This hat is not for a small head, isn’t it?’ after taking another sip of wine, Edward suggested.

‘The task is so difficult, guys, I’ll tell you, that it hardly fits anyone. But someone has to try. Someone has to clean all the stables! Laugh all you want, but there really is enough work there for several generations. I’ll tell you what.’

‘And what is your main focus for the team now?’ Ruslana asked, her head resting on her hand.

‘Oh, guys, it looks like I’ve tired you a little with my story about…’

‘Not at all, Igor, on the contrary,’ Ruslana waved her hand, interrupting him.

‘And you seem also to be tired, you were on the road,’ Igor insisted on his own way.
‘Listen, we’re not tired. If you don’t want to reveal your secret projects, just say so.’

‘Ed, no secrets at all. We are an open organization. I am only glad to share the news,’ Igor continued enthusiastically. ‘What humanity has not been able to cope with so far—we have been working on this issue for more than a hundred years—is the problem of microplastics. At first glance, it may seem that we are talking about something not too serious to pay attention to and to invest heavily in the fight against this worldwide pandemic. But unfortunately, this is not the case. Based on the conducted research, the microplastic pollution is responsible for hundreds of thousands of people annually entering the risk zone of a wide range of dangerous diseases, ranging from obesity and up to brain problems. Thanks to the Tracker, to our microchips, we of course are capable of timely cutting short these problems, but what to do with animals, with fish, what to do with the air we breathe. Here we come to the essence of the work our team is doing.’

‘Listen, Igor, it looks like another horror movie of some kind,’ Ruslana was happily eating another piece of juicy steak.’

‘I don’t want to kill your appetite, but I can’t help noting that, most likely, according to statistics, the piece of meat that you are about to swallow now also contains microplastics,’ Igor smiled at Ruslana, who stopped chewing. ‘This is not a movie for a while, friends. This is our reality. You go on chewing, Ruslana. Don’t be afraid.’

‘Come on, Igor,’ Ruslana protested. ‘You are saying all sorts of nasty things.’

‘I’m only telling the truth. But I agree with you—it’s difficult to find a substance on our planet nastier than this. The truth, as you know… oh well, no one needs this truth.’

‘Let’s say for a moment, Igor,’ said Edward.’What kind of technique would you suggest to combat this universal scourge?’

‘A small problem is that my answer will take an hour-long lecture. But, given your, so to speak, limitations, I will give you a brief squeeze.’

‘Thank you, Lord Protector! Come on, let me order you some more snacks. Otherwise, you’ll soon demote us into jellyfish,’ Edward began waving his hand to attract the waiter’s attention.

‘The thing is that microplastics surrounds us everywhere. Literally. In the water, in food, in the air, in the ground… well, literally everywhere! Could you have imagined, this parasite is even on Mt Everest! It is the plague of our century! How to fight it is the main question! We are improving the existing installation of decarbonizing units, complementing their functionality with appropriate filter elements. There are already more than six thousand such installations around the world today. The second and one of the key conditions: we are actively working together with petrochemical companies to ensure that their products have the minimal plastic decomposition period. This is where a whole bunch of problems comes in. Economics, as you know, determines the expediency of most, if not all, processes. Everything that implies an increase in the cost of goods has a negative impact on business. An equally controversial factor is long life of plastic products.’

Igor looked at his friends, finally exhausted with fatigue:

‘Oh no, guys, enough with this boredom. Let’s better call it a night and go to have some rest. Home and to bed! Eh?’

‘What are you talking about, Igor! You’re mad!’ Edward shook his head. ‘I’m for the continuation of the story! And what about you, Rusya? Ru-sya?’