This is my entry for the - FUTURISTIC CYBER ART contest @nTopaz.
The chief engineer of the trolleybus park was sitting at his desk, studying outfits for repairs. He really wanted to forget about everything and go with the family to the sea. Before the holidays, another month and a half. But, about the vacation, you can forget. Yesterday, another trolley bus, a Third, was brought from flight, in tow. This iron basin, which is more than forty years old, has long been needed to be scrapped.
Critical is not enough trolley on the flight. Passengers suffer, forty minutes, under the open sun, they are waiting for their trolleybus. Complaints from them, arrive like mosquitoes in the evening hours.
The engineer sighed, but he could not breathe out completely. The door to the office with cotton opened, the director stood on the threshold. It seemed that steam was coming from his head. In his hand, he held a bundle.
The director took two steps to the engineer’s table and loudly threw a newspaper on the table.
“Read it!” He said.
The engineer unwrapped the bundle and on the first page saw the headline "Americans sent a dog to Pluto."
“Interesting,” said the engineer and looked inquiringly at the director.
“You haven’t understood yet?” Said the director and, with his hands on the table, he hung like a cloud over an engineer.
“I didn’t understand at all what I should understand,” said the engineer, took out a handkerchief and began to wipe the glasses with glasses, they were sweating from the director’s breath.
“How slowly you think!” Snapped the director and even closer hung over the engineer.
“Tomorrow, there will be a lot of people willing to feed and pet a dog that walks around Pluto.” The director of the trolleybus park pretended to be deep in thought and continued. “Do you know how much the photographer’s community will pay us for being able to take the first picture, hug, with this dog?”
“We must be the first, and arrange regular flights to Pluto. Children and pensioners, they will be discounted tickets. "
“But how do we overcome gravity ?,” said the engineer thoughtfully.
“You, every day, overcome gravity!” Thundered the director.
“For forty years, these tin cans are taking flight !,” losing composure, shouted the director.
“I gave you everything! You have a phone and a calculator on your desktop, what else do you need? ”
“How do you even move these dead piles of scrap metal?”
The engineer tried to calm himself down and timidly glanced through his sweaty glasses at the furious director.
“It's simple, I issue from a warehouse, under strict accountability, two hammers. I give one hammer to the trolley bus driver, the second hammer, I give it to the conductor. ”
“When we manage to start a trolleybus engine, the conductor knocks the composter with a hammer, and, driver, he knocks the dashboard heavily with a hammer. As a result, a resonance is obtained that adds a few horsepower to the electric motor, and so we drive. ”
The director began to walk from one wall of a small office to another wall. He clenched his fists, which made his knuckles crack and click like scrambled eggs in a frying pan.
After a minute, he broke the silence.
"It will be so, I will give you three conductors and four sledge hammers, will you manage?"
The engineer extended his hand to the calculator, turned it on and began to make calculations.
"Theoretically, we can handle it, but, to increase our chances of success, I ask you to discharge from the warehouse, under my responsibility, the M12 bolt and the bottle of turpentine"
The director looked at the engineer as if he had stolen from him the most valuable thing he had.
"I will give you a bolt and two nuts, but, do not count on turpentine, turpentine, I will not give you, did you agree ?," the director extended his sweaty palm to the side of the engineer’s face.
The engineer really wanted to go on vacation, really wanted to. The thought of the azure sea was a great motivator. The engineer sighed, and stretched out his hand in response.
Three days later, the wheels of the third trolley bus touched the dusty surface of Pluto.
I loved reading fantastic stories from my childhood, many of them are filled with sparkling humor. Robert Sheckley, Robert Lynn Asprin, Harry Harrison, they have a special sense of humor. Utopia, probably every work, comes down to this word, like most science fiction movies. But, I have not seen films based on the works of these authors. This is sad, the cinema has lost a lot. Little stories are filled with great meaning and a large dose of good mood.
Among the authors who wrote in the post-Soviet space, I should mention the Strugatsky brothers, with their not less sparkling humor.
I decided to put together the real, old trolleybus that I see every day, the waiting for this trolleybus at the bus stop, and the experience of science fiction writers. This is my first fantastic story and illustration to it. How I did it.
