I look up at the sky, into the black sparkling crystal. How did I say that to Vika? "They've stolen the sky from us"?

Yes, they have, and the more people leave here, the further the stars will become.

It's not only the stars though. There always will be somebody for whom this world will stay out of reach: the restless teens who can't find work, the girls from fish packing plants… Fish heads, accurately arranged in rows in tins will come first. Is it just a joke or a silent cry, a protest? Fish heads will come first. And only then human heads will start to roll.

Does the second advent of machine destroyers await us? The rebel against machines, more and more incomprehensible and scary ones for average citizens, or the way out will be found finally?

I turn over and look at Unfortunate. If you are the mind of the Net, if you are the human who have conquered virtuality, then you might be that very way out, the break through the barrier, the exit from this deadlock. Surely Dibenko understands that if Man Without Face is really him.

Should I play noble hiding Unfortunate? If he is salvation, a merge of two worlds?

I don't know. I'm just an ordinary man, accidentally having this stupid resistance against the deep-program. This helps me to earn my piece of bread, and sometimes – it even comes with a thick layer of butter and caviar. But it's not me who should save the world or decide what is good and what is evil for it.

I don't have anything except that funny shabby moral for which Vika was grieving, but moral is a strange thing, it never gives answers but on the contrary, it hinders from finding them.

It's much easier to be a just person or a scum than just a human.

I start feeling myself extremely bitter and lousy. A provincial sportsman might feel so, included in the Olympic team and ordered to compete with the champions. Not my destiny it is…

And at this moment a sound is born above.

I turn onto my back looking up into the blackish crystal again, and see a crack in it – a blue stripe across the whole sky, a dazzling straight arrow rushing down.

– What is it, Lenia?

Vika is already sitting, casting strands of hair from her face. When have she woke?

Or when have I fallen asleep?

What is it around us, a dream or reality?

– A meteor, – I reply to Vika.

The blue arrow is lower and lower, a thin ringing trill is its train, a clot of fire at the end – its spike.

– This is a star falling, – says Vika very seriously and I understand that I'm sleeping after all.

Unfortunate doesn't move.

The crack draws across the sky to the end and plunges into the ground. The blue strip dims – the sky knows how to cure its wounds. Only where the star have touched the ground, a pale light is glowing.

– You promised me that we'll find a fallen star, – says Vika.

Everything is simple in the dream. I rise and give her my hand, we step over Unfortunate and start descending the slope. It's wrong, one is supposed to go up to reach the star, but one shouldn't argue with dreams.

The blue flame sparkles in the grass, neither burning nor casting shadows. The star have fallen into the gully between two hills. A bit further is a conglomeration of cliffs, absolutely out of place here, as if torn from another world. This is important for some reason but now we only look at the star.

A clean flame, a fuzzy fiery ball, very small one, one can hide it in the hands.

I stretch my hand, touch the star and feel warmth, as tender as if I've set my hands under the spring sun.

– Now I know what the stars are, – says Vika, – These are the splinters of the daylight sky.

I'm about to pick the star up but Vika stops me.

– Don't. It is tired already.

– From what?

– From the solitude, from the silence…

– But now we are near.

– Not yet. We've passed our path but it's only half of the way. Let the star believe in us.

I just shrug, I can't argue with Vika. I want to smile to her but she's not by my side anymore, only the voice have left.

– Lenia, wake up!

What the hell, why…

– Lenia, Unfortunate is gone!

I open my eyes.

Morning, the pink light from the East, scared Vika's face.

Unfortunate is not by the fire. The sleep is great deceiver.

– Damned! – I swear jumping up, – When have he disappeared?

Vika fixes her hair, in the same gesture as in my dream.

– I don't know, Lenia. I've just woke, and he was gone.

– So here's the answer, – I whisper, looking around, – Here's the answer…

Unfortunate's gone. Fled from the Deep. So everything was in vain?

No, not everything, I've met Vika because of him.

– He had made us to know each other, – she repeats my thoughts, – Thanks for that at least.

I hug her, nudging my face into her hair. We stand like this for long, the dawn brightens around, the snow crest of the huge mountain sparkles, ripping the sky. It's no birds here, maybe Vika forgot to make them but the mountains become alive even without them, filling with rustles of wind, of leaves and grasses.

– I'll make birds for these mountains, – I whisper, – If we ever restore your hut…

– I don't want to change the mountains, they are free! – objects Vika immediately.

– The birds are free too. I'll just set them out through the window and will say: "breed and multiply"!

Vika laughs quietly.

– Okay, try.

– What's so hard? – I summon up my courage – A simple program… I'll study Bram, will make a behavior algorithm. I'll draw various chaffinches and sparrows in the beginning, then hawks. Biogeocenosis… right? I've forgotten, I think we studied this in the fifth form, at the lessons of the nature study…

– Biologist you. Maybe you'll set free Zuko's slippers as well? Lenia, let's surface now and go to some restaurant. Have you ever been to "Pink atoll"?

– No.

– A beautiful place, Shultz and Brandt drew it. I invite you.

– Okay. Let's search before we go though…

Vika steps back from me and asks sharply:

– Search for whom?

– For Unfortunate.

– He exited the deep, why don't you understand?

– I do. But let's look for him anyway, okay? Maybe he wanted to go to do pee-pee and fell into the canyon?

– So he deserves it… – mumbles Vika, agreed already.

Firstly we pass the edge of the nearest slope, looking down. Then Vika searches the valley to the left from the stream, and I – to the right. Involuntarily my gaze is attracted down into the gully where I found the star in my dream: some cliffs can really be seen there.

But the business first. I must make sure that Unfortunate is not with us anymore.

I even climb up a little, following our path, it's just for the sake of it, to clear up my conscience.

And there, in the small crevice which we easily jumped over in the light of the dimming day I find Unfortunate.

I stand above the crevice silently, looking at Unfortunate from a ledge 3 meters above him. A couple of minutes passes until he makes sure that I've noticed him and raises his head.

– Good morning, Gunslinger.

I stay silent, I don't have strength even for the anger anymore.

– It's too hard to see in the dark, – utters Unfortunate an amazingly fresh and genius idea.

It wasn't that much to fall but he was unlucky. Even from above I can see that his right leg is swollen and Unfortunate is sitting trying not to touch it. I get the slippers from behind my belt, put them on and descend.

– I'm sorry, – says Unfortunate when I pick him up and scramble out of the crevice.

– Why? – I just ask.

– So that you wouldn't hesitate. I can't explain anything anyway.

– You're fool. Only suicidal ones are wandering in the mountains at night… or the Black Alpinist.

– I never was in the mountains before. And who is the Black Alpinist?