Their bright yellow light was broken by moving semi-spheres and illuminated only the foot of the column.
Super Queen-Mother was watching the formation of plasmoids.
They came out of different parts of the column and had different areas of blowing, like soap bubbles from tubes of different diameters. The plasmoids grew, and after they reached their critical volume, flew off from the column.
“Probably, it’s a side effect of the device’s operation”, Super Queen-Mother thought.
The plasmoids came off from the column and slowly rose up. They resembled big, cloudlike, shining pieces of jelly, because they were shaking while rising up.
They quickly went away to the upper part of the rock. When a large number of plasmids came out of the column, they formed one big plasmoid at the top, which immediately went away into the ground.
Super Queen-Mother understood what kind of shining formations of different sizes the astronomers of Earth saw while watching the Moon.
She flew out of the cave and saw that plasmoids were coming out of the ground not directly above the working device, but dozens of miles from it, in different directions.
After that some plasmoids under the action of some forces, perhaps, of gravitation or a magnet field of ore deposits, or some other natural causes, again went away into the ground or just disappeared; sometimes they tore off from the Moon and with high acceleration vanished in cosmic space.
Everything worked in a random way and without any visible external control.
Suddenly, she saw some plasmoids that acted in a different way in comparison with the others.
To be on the safe side, she gave a command to her battle ship on Earth: “Active guard!”
She at once got a reply from the Administration of the Galaxy “Milky Way”:
“The Moon is under surveillance, there’s nothing dangerous”.
“And what about the plasmoids I see? Some of them divide and take the form of balls and disks. It seems to me they are watching me”.
The answer was quite unexpected:
“According to the agreement with the General Cosmic Civilization, a space beacon was set on the Moon, acting in autonomous regime and served by automatic ships.
Those are their ships, but they mind their own business, there is no harm from them. Their technologies are better than ours; that is why their ships are so unusual. Don’t pay attention to them”.
“Stone the crows!” thought Super Queen-Mother, “Maybe, there is something more nearby that I don’t know about? That won’t do. I will certainly report about this at the meeting of the General Council of the Galaxy!”
Super Queen-Mother got a general impression about the Moon. There were no inhabitants from other planets or other worlds on it, but the Moon was TECHNICALLY inhabitable.
“For how many thousand or million years is this technical device working inside the Moon? It’s unknown. What kind of device is it? This is also unknown. Only one thing is clear – if something is uncertain, one has to beware of it, in spite of the assurance of safety”.
She decided to visit the Moon again when she had time, and now every minute counted.
Super Queen-Mother thought over all she had seen. Except for the technical device she had discovered inside the Moon, she found nothing dangerous for the people on Earth there.
She left the Moon, accelerating with every minute.
Her beautiful Earth grew larger and larger, and the Moon became smaller.
A thought about a rest on some uninhabited island in tropics came into Super Queen-Mother’s mind. She wanted to stay alone for a while and relax before the long workdays began.
Chapter 2
Flying over the ocean, she was looking for a small island or rather an isolated deserted reef. She had no need to worry about prophylactic immunization.
Soon she found what she was looking for.
It was a small piece of earth in the form of a horseshoe, elevated on the ocean sand bar, with an internal lagoon and thirty or forty palms, nodding at the blue water.
There was nothing besides snow-white coarse sand, mixed with the remnants of broken shells, and the crabs, sidling on the shoreline in search of food, washed to the sand by quiet breaking waves.
Super Queen-Mother landed near the island oasis and lay on the sand near the shadow of the palm.
Only the monotonous noise of the oncoming waves and the rustling of sand, carried away by the withdrawing waves, were heard. After a short rest she decided to swim in the ocean.
Super Queen-Mother got up and stretched herself. Some sand stuck to her body, but she did not want to shake it off.
The light wind took away the tropical stuffy heat. Small waves added to this picture of the settled world order on this small island.
Super Queen-Mother slowly came into the water and swam.
The ocean bottom mainly consisted of sand, coral and shell debris. Numerous corals, fantastic in their beauty, shells and algae were growing on them.
Small fish schools were swimming round them; they resembled a rainbow, broken into pieces. There were all colors one could imagine.
They had never met a human being and swam close to Super Queen-Mother without fear.
The fish tried to bite off a piece of her, but, as they had no teeth, their tingling made her laugh.
She dove for some time in the shallow waters and swam farther from the shore.
Super Queen-Mother plunged her head into the water and opened her eyes.
Sun rays reached the bottom, lighting the underwater world.
Fish were larger at this depth. Huge devilfish, like underwater sailing-ships, soared slowly above the other dwellers of the ocean. Smaller fish gathered into schools, it was safer so.
Super Queen-Mother turned over with her face to the sun, undulating on the waves, half asleep. Neither people, nor planes, nor ships…
Only herself and the ocean…
It was the state Super Queen-Mother dreamt about for a long time.
She opened her eyes and saw… a yellow-waxen picture.
Super Queen-Mother instantly intensified the yellowish-waxen color of the picture and swam aside.
The big jaws of a shark with several rows of bared sharp and curved teeth showed up on the surface of the ocean, where she had just been lying.
Its body was running out of the ocean at great speed. It seemed it would never end.
The thirty feet death flew out of the ocean, rising ten feet above its surface, stopped dead for a second and, having made one-half turn in the air, fell down into the water with a loud noise.
“So much for a paradise”, Super Queen-Mother thought, “one can appear in somebody’s belly in it!”
She imagined how this artful terror of the ocean had found her out and then took a run from the bottom vertically up, having opened its formidable jaws, while approaching its prey.
The prey was not at the spot, however. While the beast did not attack her again, Super Queen-Mother rose a little above the water and returned to her sandy beach, under the palm’s shadow.
From there she was watching the shark and its congeners, attracted by the noise, looking for the vanished prey. Sharks’ fins were cutting the surface of the ocean in all directions.
In the meantime, their prey was taking a tan on the sand and smirking to herself, looking at the unlucky hunters.
This minor accident in the ocean did her good. Super Queen-Mother threw off her sleepy state, took a glance around the island that had hosted her and… set off for home.
Chapter 3
Nobody looked for her at home; everybody was sure she was having a rest in one of the rooms.
Super Queen-Mother walked about the house and went into the yard. It was small and cosy. She thought that soon she would have to move to another place.
