The novel was conceived by me in the eighties of the last century. Even then, I drew an attention to the fact that the main conflicts on which the plots of most novels are based are connected with aperson’s desire for the inappropriate: for unearned money, fame, power, pleasure and women. So it occurred to me to write a novel based on conflicts of a different kind. Let the majority of the characters in my novel strive for the happiness of mankind. And let the conflict be connected only with a different understanding of this happiness and the paths to it.

I compiled an approximate list of the main characters of my first book, granted them powers and superpowers, settled them in mythical countries on our Earth, so that they could lead humanity to a bright future! To my surprise, in spite of benevolent intentions, they organized an all-planet massacre and as a result, giving up the power to aliens, but it’s good that it was not to the full extent. Just so my first book with the title “End of the World” appeared.

Somehow coping with all the problems, I left my heroes for a thousand years. During this time, under the control of aliens, the problems of my heroes didn’t decrease, and the other way around a lot of new ones appeared. And then the reptilians got into a game. For many thousands of years they have been hiding in caves underground. The second book was called “War with the Reptilians”.

After the win over the reptilians, I wanted to finish my novel already. But looking into the future of the Earth after thousand years, I saw a very sad picture. Something was again quite out of order. It will be necessary to fight again! But with whom? It seems that life on the Earth was established, and there was simply no evident enemy. Thus was written the third book of the novel, called “The Invisible Enemy”.

The action of the trilogy takes place not only on the Earth, but also on other planets of the nearest cosmos: inhabited “Dhana”, “Rable”, and as yet uninhabited “Dark”, not far from which functions an alien connection station – a space station “Junction”.

Comparison of the worldview of people with different approaches to life was another object of the trilogy. In this respect, much attention is paid to religion, not only to that of Earth, but also to alien one. This is done not with the aim to popularize or criticize this or that religion, but just to compare the worldview of believers and irreligious creatures.”

©Andrei Prudkovskii, 2016

Characters of the first book of the novel
(dates are given in relation to the conditional date: uew, aew until and after the end of the world)

Upyg and Radogast – two alien observers which are bioconstructions created by two competing alien civilizations to observe the Earth civilization. The action of the novel refers to the end of the fifty-thousand-year period when the fate of humanity should be decided in the Galactic Association of Intelligent Civilizations (GAIC). Upyg and Radogast possess superpowers, such as reading thoughts, practical immortality, but they do not have the right to directly intervene in the life of earthlings.

UYY – very old evil sorcerer from Dhana planet, subsequently is the immortal emperor Ku-U of the country of Khem on the Earth.

Raa – he was born in the 50th year until the end of the world in a primeval forest on the planet of Dhana. His parents are unknown. He died in the 6th year after the end of the world.

Siegle – she was also born in the 50th year until the end of the world in the tribe of the Ant Lords on the planet of Dhana, later the wife of Ra, died in the 15th year after the end of the world.

Raa and Siege children – they was born on the planet Dhana: daughter Raegle (Rose) was born in the 30th year until the end of the world, son Rasieg was born in the 4th year until the end of the world.

Valentina Semenovna Kotlovanova – she born approximately in the 60th year until the end of the world in Foundation Pit, his parents are unknown.

Semen Andreevich – he is one of the main secret agents of Upyg, apparently born in the 80th year until the end of the world, died in the 8th year until the end of the world on the same day as Valentina Semenovna Kotlovanova.

Lyuba – she is a daughter of Valentina Kotlovanova and Semen Andreevich, she was born in the 32nd year until the end of the world in the village No. 573 (Pitvill).

Twins Aleksandra, Maria – they were born on February 13, 50^th year until the end of the world, in the village No. 573 (Pitvill) of Aleksander Serheyevich Ryaboy and his wife Lyubov Dmitrievna Ryabaya.

Radek (Radem, Ibn-Kalb) – he was born in the 28th year until the end of the world, his father is Ra, his mother is Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ryabaya.

Petruha, Peter (Granddad Plop, the great warrior Yek-gush) – he was born around the 40th year until the end of the world in the inner-city slums, his parents are unknown.

Raegle (Rose) – she was born in the 30th year until the end of the world, died in the 18th year after the end of the world.

Children of Rose and Peter:

Polina (the 7th year until the end of the world), Valentina (the 5th year until the end of the world), Raisa (the 3rd year until the end of the world), Daria (the 1st year until the end of the world), Lidia (the 4th year until the end of the world), Maria (the 7th year after the end of the world), Lyuba (the 10th year after the end of the world), Petya (the 15th year after the end of the world).

Levushka the Little Fox (the 9th year until the end of the world) – deaf-mute, later the Master of the Earth and the Magical Fox.

Bartolomew (the 3rd year until the end of the world) – he is the son of Lyuba and Radek.

Padre John – he is an Orthodox churchman. Dates of birth and death, as well as biographical data are unknown.

Georgiy (3rd year until the end of the world), Nadezhda (10th year after the end of the world) – children of Padre John and Nina (Naily – Ethiopian).

Aleksandr Zotov – he is an astronaut who was one of the first to visit Dhana.

Said the fun – he is the Marazian Sheikh, his son is Said junior (Bars) (21st year until the end of the world).

Timothy (Ahmed) – he is an inventor, a friend of Petruha.

Della – she is a gypsy, the sister of the mother of the early deceased girl Rose, whose name Raegle used.

Sara – she is the daughter of earthly immigrants, was born on Dhana in the 1st year after the end of the world, later the wife of Rasieg.

Introduction from the storyteller

My friend suggested that I publish my research on the end of the world that happened 50 years ago. I doubt very much that there are still those who wish to delve into the past. Are you interested in these events of ancient times; you, before whom hundreds of inhabited planets, hundreds of civilizations living on them are open…?

I am a translator and systematizer, because I translate and systematize a bunch of dissimilar manuscripts related to this event, which upended the entire order of life on Earth. I wrote this beautiful phrase and immediately wondered if this was true. What actually happened in year zero, that this year is now considered the year of the new reckoning on the globe?

To be honest, this year just nothing special happened. There seemed to be no major disasters, the weather was ordinary, the sun was still shining, there was no war, it ended three years before. People who lived in zero year still did not suspect that they were living just at that time, which they would later solemnly call the year of the end of the world.

But no, the one significant event did happen – an alien spaceship arrived on the Earth. Maybe you think that this is what made earthlings admit that the end of the world has come. It’s no such matter. Firstly, this was by no means the first alien ship to visit the Earth, although the previous ones observed this or that disguise, but this one arrived openly. Secondly, perhaps you think that aliens immediately landed from this ship and began to teach earthlings reason, which was perceived as the end of the world. So, and this did not happen! There were no aliens. There was an alien ship, but there were no aliens then. And what a normal alien will agree to sit for a hundred years inside some piece of iron to spend a week on a provincial semi-wild planet, where it has not yet been tidied up after all the outrages that happened before the end of the world!

Of course this ship was fully automated; there were no living creatures on it. He did not stay on the Earth for a long time: it seems like a month, maybe a little more. It mounted a device that would be called the “house of ghosts” on the Earth, and flew away. By itself he took about a hundred people from the Earth and drove them to the Dhana.

Now they began to forget what Dhana is. Indeed, now before humanity is opened a huge cosmos. There are thousands of civilizations and you can study anyone. And what is Dhana? It seems like a semi-primitive planet. So… let’s look at the catalog of planets that are inhabited by intelligent creatures. There is Dhana, but with the mark “supposedly reasonable” and “no visits” – that’s about it. They all forgot about it and, but in vain because it was the first planet where our spacecraft discovered intelligent life.

Well, I wrote this and think that again that I wrote not quite the truth. There were no these spaceships, but there was only one small spaceship that survived only two flights to Dhana, and then it was decommissioned and lost somewhere in the difficult war years. Of course, it discovered an intelligent life, but nothing was known to the general public. The main discoverers were rotten in a psychiatric hospital, and although there were some studies, but almost nobody knew anything about them since they were strictly classified and used for military purposes.

Do you understand the complexity of my task now? I am trying to describe the most grandiose event on the globe – the end of the world. And there’s nothing to write about. But there was something!

Or maybe the whole thing is in the characteristics of the psyche of the earthlings? Now the people are close enough and at times, I must say, they are too closely familiar with many aliens and you can notice the significant differences between humans and other alien civilized creatures. The first thing you can notice is the unbridled imagination of the earthlings. Aliens never fantasize. Usually they always tell only the truth, although not the whole truth, and if they lie, then for serious (from their point of view) reasons. The second thing that distinguishes the earthlings is wild forgetfulness. Aliens remember everything and all in their brain is well-organized and available for use at any time. Maybe this is simply due to the age of their civilizations. Maybe we, the earthlings will remember everything in a couple of a thousand years. But then we can stop fantasizing. And so, having met several dozens of aliens, honestly speaking, you can be very disappointed. Yes, they know a lot! Yes, they remember any and all. But, oh God, what a boring persons they are! No fantasy!

Well, I wanted to write about the end of the world, but took up my favourite thing – criticizing these boring and overly smart aliens. So, go back to the topic. Maybe the word “end” is simply related to our habit of looking for ends and beginnings in everything. Think a little while moving away from your habits. Well, where did you get the idea that each phenomenon must have the end and the beginning!? Well, there are no such objects in the nature!!! The end and the beginning is purely our human abstraction, like the concept of a point in geometry. In fact, as you look, the end or the beginning is a process that is smoothly stretched over time.

After a somewhat protracted introduction, it’s time to cut to the chase. Of course, since everyone says that it was the end of the world, it remains to agree that it really was. It is generally accepted that the end of the world occurred in the noughties. And I tell you that it happened for some fairly long time, and maybe now, in the 50th year after the end of the world, everything is still happening. And the noughties are simply the conditional middle of this process, which everyone calls the end of the world. Therefore, we begin the description of events with a symmetrical relative to the present moment of the 50th year until the end of the world.

Now let’s get started!

“Radogast! Radogast!”

“I hear you, Upyg!!”

“You lose! 50 thousand years are running out.”

“Until the end of the world still are 50 years!”

“And over these years you will prove that people are reasonable?! Well, well!”

Chapter 1. 50—35 years uew (Until the end of the world)
Birth of Raa

First of all, I would like to talk about two people who played a significant role in the subsequent events related to the end of the world. Only a few people on the Earth know about their fate. Firstly this is mother Valya (Valentina Semenovna Kotlovanova). They remembered her as a caring midwife, then as the director of the hospital, but only her daughter Lyuba knew about other activities of hers… Secondly, Raa – Raa the Great, the holy warrior of Dhana, but only his son, Radek, knew about his earthly life… According to my information, Lyuba and Radek are on Dhana now and it is not possible to question them. Only their diaries and letters remained and I also a copy of the sacred Red Book of Dhana fell into my hands, compiled by Rose (Raegele), the daughter of Raa and his wife Siegle.

So, Raa was born on Dhana in a wild forest inhabited by terrible unknown creatures.

From Red Book of Dhana

Raa the Great was born in the Sacred Forest. His father was Han the Sun, and the mother was Dhana the Earth. After birth, the parents gave the child to the fierce sacred ants. And the fierce sacred ants did not tear the baby into small pieces, but carried it to Those – Who – Command – the Ants to raise a Supernal child in the wisdom and the power of the Supernal number four.

As you know, no one can become the Lord of the Ants without being born to them, but the Supernal Raa became him, and the Lord of the Ants Fatidic Siegle, who was then still five years old, swore allegiance to him and became his wife.

From the notes of Radek Reksovich about his father

The hollow tree where Ra was born.

My father Raa was born in a dense forest on the planet of Dhana. Here’s how he told me about his childhood:

Imagine an ordinary dense forest on the planet Dhana. Under the square Sun are huge but square on a cut trees. Under them are bushes, sundews, poisonous cobwebs, swallowing lawns, false pegs and everyone catches their game animal, which crawls, runs, jumps but just does not fly. Only mushrooms fly, scattering their spores. In a huge tree there is a hollow hut, and in it is dad, mom and a child of about five:

“Mom! … Boring!”

“Well, go tease the stump… Take the basket and collect the zingwas. Just do not go into the cobweb – it is poisonous (if anyone does not know, zingwa is a kind of mould on the Ingwas – trees that grow on Dhana).”

“Mom, why is it all the same here? Why is nothing happening?!”

Dad:

“You shouldn’t wishthis, because desires are sometimes fulfilled!”

And my desires, my dear child, were fulfilled with frightening inevitability. I just played with the old stub, and suddenly my father and mother grab me, wrap me in several layers of soft white-tree bark and demand that I be silent and not move.

The rustle of thousands of feet, the stifling smell of acid, the gnashing of jaws clenching me… There is the last mental cry and then the silence. The telepathic connection with parents, which until now has not been interrupted for a moment, has disappeared forever. They carry me, carry me. A day or two or three – into the unknown world.

And now imagine an anthill on the planet of Dhana. It looks like an ordinary earthly, only adjusted for the growth of ants. On Dhana, they are of human height. Of course, around the anthill everything is trampled for a kilometer – not a blade of grass, just dust. Ants rush with soft rustling like cars on our roads. There are people here, each with a small water bottle with formic acid on the belt, which they periodically spray on. All calmly go about their errands. They wash and hang clothes, collect mushrooms and mould, a detachment of hunters riding on ants’ rides to a distant forest, women carry formic milk from below, and young people play with rodent ants. The goal of the game is to beg the ant for what it carries. This is done this way: they take two sticks and in a certain rhythm tap them on the ant whiskers. If everything is done correctly, then the ant will give the carrying.

Little Siegle is five today, the age when the children of the tribe of the Lords of the Ants are solemnly declared adults. She, like everyone else, rushes along the edge of the anthill, trying to intercept one or another rodent ant. One of the ants stumbles upon her and knocks her down. Here you can’t yawn; otherwise they will vividly consider you food. Siegle quickly taps the password “friend” on the ant moustache and a request to give her the white bundle that is clamped in his jaws. The ant relieves its burden with relief and disappears inside the anthill. He needs food and rest after a long expedition. Siegle scarcely drags a heavy bale to her home. What did she get? A real living boy – he is sleeping!

“Take it to the ants. Let it be eaten, anyway we can’t save it!” – The mother says.

“No, he’s mine. I’ll take care of him.”

“The Elder will not let you do this!”

“I will blandish them!”

“The Elder cannot be blandishing. They do everything only according to the Law – according to the Great Law of the Four Truths, about which, my little one, you still do not know anything. But you can speak on the Council yourself, because from today you are already an adult.”

Siegle on the Council

Elder:

“The law says: a stranger who appears near an anthill must be given to ants.”

Siegle:

“My mom said that you decide according to the Law of the Four Truths, but for now you have informed me only one. And what do the other three TRUTIONS say?”

Elder:

“They will not help you. Listen: if a stranger appeared near the anthill through no fault of his and the ants didn’t touch him, then he should be taken to the nearest forest within two days and released. When the same stranger reappears, the basic rule of the Law is applied to him. So tells the second TRUTH.

If a stranger is needed by the tribe and invited by its members, then he is a guest and can remain on the territory of the tribe for 10 days, while a guardian is appointed, who must all the time stay with the Guest all these 10 days. So tells the third TRUTH.

According to the second TRUTH, you can take a stranger to the forest, but it is dangerous because you are small and fail to protect him from a running ant. However, he will also be eaten in the forest.”

Siegle:

“No, it’s not that. And what is the fourth TRUTH?”

Elder:

“This truth does not suit you. Moreover – it is generally impossible!”

Siegle:

“Tell it!”

Elder:

“If a member of the tribe of the Lords of the Ants decided to connect his life with a stranger, becoming his husband or wife, then he is obliged to take full responsibility for the stranger’s behaviour and to prove to the tribe within a year that the stranger can become one of us. Otherwise he becomes a stranger and forever expelled from the tribe together with his ward.”

Siegle:

“That suits me. I will be his wife!”

Elder:

“????????? – Let it be!”

Mother:

“She is only five.”

Elder:

“The law says: at the age of five, the child becomes an adult and is responsible for his decisions. Let it be as she decided! And may you have no other husband besides what you chose! This is what the law says!”

A year had gone by. Siegle and Raa were inseparable. They played, worked and studied together. A year later, the Elders recognized that Raa had no difference in his skills from other children of his age. He was no worse than others in talking to ants with a “stick code”, asking for a drop of sweet food from them or what they carried, did not forget to spray himself with acid, and even once before everyone’s eyes he rode on an ant. So Ra became one of the Lords of Ants.

From the Registry Office of the village No. 573 (Pitvill)

Aleksandra and Maria are twins, born on February 13, 50th year until the end of the world.

Parents: father – Aleksandr Sergeyevich Ryaboy, mother – Lyubov Dmitrievna Ryabaya.

From the records of Sasha’s and Masha’s neighbour – Valentina Semenovna Kotlovanova

Sasha and Masha grew up before my eyes. They are good girls. Sasha loved to say: – I’m not Sasha! I am Aleksandra!

They got a difficult fate. Father drank. At home it was hungry. I often fed them. When they were 10 years old, their father died, and a year later their mother died.

By that time, the girls had matured and coped well with their non-consuming economy. Mostly they ate food from their garden, and some of the villagers helped. They had no money. They wore clothes given by the state, and received it in the school for poor. The girls grew up large, strong, but they didn’t have any admirers, apparently, it was due to their unfortunate surname Ryabaya, therefore, maybe they possessed no outstanding beauty. And the guys were afraid of their heavy hands and a severe look. After the eighth form, Masha became a milkmaid, and Sasha suddenly left for the city.

Explanation of Lyuba, daughter of Valentina Semenovna

I think the history of our village¹ and the fate of my mother needs to be told.

The village was inhabited by all the servicemen, who must prepare food, wash clothes, and sew up their pants. But nobody from the village stuck their noses into the pit. There were only some people in uniform, those designated as “secret ones”. Then the pit was either finished or abandoned – in general, no one knows about this. Those in uniform went off somewhere. And where did the convicts go – no one knows. Just before departure, a young soldier came to the village and took out a roll bending from his bosom:

“Here,” he said, “Valentina, she’s an unaccounted girl, she’s not been registered anywhere, so grow her yourself as you want, and let her patronymic be Semenovna, I will share my name with her.”

We were surprised by the kindness and courage of the soldier. After all, the girl was the child of the convicts, but he was not afraid – he carried her and even gave her his own name as patronymic.

That is how my mother grew up as everyone’s favourite; they gave her the surname Kotlovanova. She has been to each house of the village, everywhere she got taught something new. She became Jill of all trades. People even came to her to be healed. As the girl became an adult, she was provided with an abandoned hut; she finished and fixed it. Never got married though – lived all by herself. She repeated: “I am Semenova, I will remain like this.” As if she knew! Once that Semen came back to our village. He drove a black car, with the retinue – he became a great man. They spent the whole day in the foundation pit, behind the barbed wire. I don’t know what happened there, but people heard how loudly Semen shouted. There were rumors that supposedly we are about to be resettled, farther from the secrets! But it went fine. Semen stayed overnight in our house. His retinue located in the tent near our house, they either slept or guarded him. In a year I was born, hence I am Semenovna too. By that time, our neighbor Aleksandra has already been working in the city, and the milkmaid Maria has been bringing me, little girl, milk. Auntie Maria often babysitted with me, when mom left for the city. There she studied at the courses of midwives-nurses. From the city she always brought presents and letters to aunt Maria from her sister Aleksandra. For some reason, the sisters never used mail.

From Aleksandra’s letter to her sister Maria

Dear Maria,

I am doing alright, do not worry! I earn enough; live in a separate apartment…

At first it scared me being here! First things first.

I arrived. There were thousands of people. They were running, hustling. A uniformed galloped up to me, asking:

“Lady, do you need help?”

He took my suitcase and walked on, I followed him. And then I heard somebody screaming:

“Watch your steps! You’ve crushed me!”

I looked under my feet – there was a kiddy about 6 years old.

“I am Petruha-the-ragged-ear” he said and showed me his ragged ear “you can’t step on me!”

Then I looked around, and that one – with my suitcase – vanished into thin air. I ran out to the square. Cars are buzzing… No suitcase, anywhere! No money, no stuff, no books… I’m standing burst out crying in the middle of the square, and people are running, they don’t look around, cars go around me… Nobody cares about me. Then it buzzed, went motorcyclists in black. The police guard shouts:

“Move, move!” – pushing me somewhere, but he couldn’t shift me. I was too heavy… And the buzz was getting closer. A big black car is racing. The guard became wheyfaced, put his hand to his head and froze. And I rooted to the ground. I stood, with my mouth opened. The car stopped, and some small, but, an important person came out of it.

“What is going on?” – he asked. Everyone is silent. Then it hit me:

“I’m from Pitvill. I arrived here, but my suitcase was stolen!”

“Now we will check from what Pitvill. There is no such village! And there wasn’t! Get in the car.”

I sat petrified and we drove. And the car howls and howls, plug your ears, if don’t want to become deaf.

We arrived somewhere. Well, at least my passport remained in my bosom. He took it and says:

“What is Pitvill? Here – in the passport it says that you live in the village number 573, not a word said about Pitvill.

“Excuse me,” I said, “but no one can remember this number 573, everyone says Pitvill, and I said so.”

“Okay,” he said “to hell with Pitvill. Tell me!”

“Tell what?”

“Tell me everything! About your whole life. Come on, look at me!”

And he looked at me so menacingly that something died inside me, and I began to tell him everything. And here is the thing – now I don’t remember anything about it. What did I tell him? What happened next?..

I woke up in the middle of nowhere. It was sort of a hospital. No clothing, no passport, I only had a gown on – white, long, apparently, hospital. I tried the door-handle – it was locked.

A nurse dressed white came in. She washed me, gave breakfast. She did not say a word, perhaps, she was completely deaf. So I lived in this hospital for three days. Finally, someone came: “Get ready, let’s go.”

This nurse quickly dressed me in a public baggy robe. We went out and got into the car. And again I appeared in a room, where I was telling everything. The head came in and said:

“Aleksandra Aleksandrovna, we have checked everything. You will work with us. The salary is good. The work is interesting, important, but secret.

So, to you, sister, I will not write anything about it.

“You will be provided with a separate apartment. And buy a car in a year or so, with your salary you will be able to allow it. You will call me Semen Andreevich. If you have any difficulties, contact my deputy first of all, and if not, then directly me. “Between us,” he said “I am familiar with Pitvill very well. It will be necessary to go there, see what is what. Oh, by the way, here is your suitcase!”

And here I felt gratitude and love for this man, which I can’t describe.

So, since then I’ve been working…

Write me back soon!

Yours, Aleksandra

From the tales of Granddad Plop told to his grandchildren

My dear children, you all live in a beautiful green forest, you are full, dressed, and everyone loves you. And I was born in a terrible wild city where no one loved each other. And sometimes people even killed each other. That’s what a dreadful place I lived in being your age. If you go up that hill and look north, that city will be visible on the horizon in the form of a dirty black spot. Savage people live there now. And now there is poisoned soil and air. So you kids never go there. In my childhood, a thousand times more people lived in the city than now. And then my name was Petruha-the-ragged-ear because, as you can see, one ear really is all ragged. I lived at the station and at the market, and ate what I managed to steal. You, children, must not steal, as doing this is not good. But in the wild city where I was born, without theft I simply could not feed myself, as I was still a little boy and couldn’t work. You might ask why not I ate grass or bark of trees. I will answer: back then people still did not know how to eat only grass. And now those in the city do not know how to do this. And my wife, my sorceress Rose, taught us to eat grass. But in the city this would not help either. There was little grass there.

So, consequently, I stole at the station and the market. Once the traders caught me, beat me up, and dragged me by the ear. Since then I became – a ragged ear boy. And soon something happened that changed my whole further life. Back then I stole in league with the swindler Black eye. His name was because he actually had a black eye. Apparently he was once punched in such a way that it remained with him for life. He was a neat and polite swindler. He was never rude with anyone and took things from people in thirty three ways, but always very politely and without the slightest disrespect. Once we were standing at the train station, looking at the crowd of arrivers, and there she was – a lady! Well, a thief’s dream to be honest! Big, charmless, with extremely naive eyes, dumbly blinking.

Black eye said:

“Come on!”

And I was still gazing at the lady. And it’s not that I felt sorry for her, but rather felt myself uncomfortable. That, as my wife Rose says, your foresight stirred.

The village received its name, Pitvill, because of the huge foundation pit nearby (The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov (1930) http://www.sovlit.net/foundationpit/). Convicts dug the foundation pit, but it is unknown why and for what purpose.