Beetle in an Anthill
Encyclopedia : B : BE : BEE : Beetle in an Anthill
| This article concerns a Noon Universe novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky |
| [[Noon: 22nd Century]] |
| An Attempt to Escape |
| Faraway Rainbow |
| Hard to Be a God |
| Disquiet (book)>Disquiet |
| Inhabited Island |
| The Little One |
| A Guy from Purgatory |
| Beetle in an Anthill |
| The Time Wanderers |
Beetle in an Anthill (Жук в муравейнике) is a 1981 sci-fi novel by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky set in the Noon Universe.
Plot Summary
The novel is set in 2178 AD and follows the story of Maxim Kammerer, an experienced investigator of COMCON-2 who receives an order to track down a man named Lev Abalkin, who was not supposed to return to Earth but has returned never the less. The order was issued by Rudolf Sikorski, the chief of COMCON-2 himself (to whom Kammerer himself refers as "Excellency"), therefore this mission is completely secret and Kammerer is to report directly to Sikorski. Kammerer is not very pleased by the task ahead and even less so when he discovers that Abalkin is a progressor, that he can be anywhere on Earth and that he has no more that five days to locate him. However, Maxim personally knows Sikorski (from Saraksh) and understands that he wouldn't give such task to anyone but his best agent.
Studying the materials on Abalkin that Sikorski provided him with, Kammerer discovers that prior to his arrival on Earth, Abalkin participated on Saraksh Project as an undercover agent in the power structures of the Insular Empire. Now, Kammerer recalls meeting him personally back on Saraksh in 2158 AD, but still doesn't understand why Sikorski ordered to find him. Among other materials, he find a sheet of paper with a strange symbol resembling the Cyrillic letter "Ж" which only adds to his confusion. However, Kammerer quickly manages to concentrate on his mission, quickly reads through Abalkin's rather interesting biography (for example, he was the one in charge of nearly all official negotiations with Headies) and starts planning his search.
First of all, Kammerer decides to meet everyone Abalkin would like to meet with on Earth - his parents, his mentor and his family doctor. However, his parents have both apparently perished shortly before his birth (Abalkin was a post mortem child, a human born of his parents' DNA according to their last will) but both his mentor and his observing doctor were on Earth. Kammerer pays a visit to Abalkin's mentor, Sergey Fedoseev, playing a role of a journalist gathering material for his book on humans and Headies' relationships. However, Fedoseev doesn't even know what Headies are and is very embarrassed by the role he played in Abalkin's decision to become a progressor despite his apparent talent for zoopsychology. When Kammerer asks him about Abalkin's childhood friends, Fedoseev replies that there were none, except for, perhaps, Maya Glumova who is now a historian.
Maya Glumova, as Kammerer soon finds out, works in the Museum of Extraterrestrial Cultures (MEC) but is currently away both from her home and her workplace. Her son, Toyvo Glumov, tells Kammerer that she'll probably be back tomorrow. Abalkin's observing doctor, Yadviga Lekanova, is also a disappointment for Kammerer since she doesn't want to talk about him with any one. As Maxim runs out of ideas, "His Excellency" Sikorski storms in and demands for the results. He is very displeased by his agent's slow progress and tries to explain him how important this mission is by comparing it to what happened with Maxim on Saraksh in 2157. But an extra motivation doesn't change the fact that Kammerer has to wait so he decides to read some of Abalkin's reports included into the materials on him.
The narrations switches to the second storyline describing the operation "Dead World" on Hope as seen by Abalkin and his Headie companion, Schyokn-Itrch, who were exploring the surface of the planet. The report begins with him and Schyokn entering an abandoned city in the middle of nowhere. Soon enough, they encounter a strange person looking like a clown but when Abalkin tries to follow him, the Headie senses danger right behind them and the "clown" disappears. After fighting off a pack of wild dogs, Abalkin receives a message that a contact with the locals has been established by another group and starts receiving the linguistic data...
The next morning, Kammerer visits Maya Glumova at her workplace in MEC. Kammerer tells her the same legend he told Fedoseev, but his persuasive techniques call forth an unexpected revelation by Glumova about her and Abalkin's childhood. It appears that their relationship was a kind of love-hate one wouldn't normally suspect from two people so young. But Glumova quickly pulls herself together and is embarrassed on what she has just told to a stranger. Kammerer deduces that she actually met with Abalkin the day before and hurries to apologize and leave. Before he leaves, however, Glumova tells him where Abalkin can be found - at a summer resort in Valdai Hills.
Of course, Kammerer rushes to Valdai Hills but finds nothing more than bits of paper, scattered all over the bungalow where Abalkin and Glumova spent this night. The paper was covered by skillful drawings suggesting that Abalkin was a very talented artist, if not a genius. No traces of him are left, however. Kammerer reports to Sikorski and again, he is displeased by Maxim's progress. However, when "His Excellency" finds out that Glumova works in the MEC, he is so shocked that he ends the conversation abruptly and orders Kammerer to double the effort without giving any reasons.
Back on Hope, Abalkin and Schyokn are moving deeper into the city. After a couple of hours, the analysts report that the planet suffered an ecological catastrophe but the local population "vanished" for some other reasons. Shortly after that, Abalkin discovers traces of thousands of people gathering on a square decades before. On the square, he finds a strange rectangular patch of clean asphalt. Schyokn finds it terrifying for some reason and begs Abalkin to leave the square immediately. The progressor himself is shaken by the sight of a terrified Headie and agrees with him. Later, based on Schyokn's report, the analysts deduce that the "patch" was actually a sealed portal to some other planet where Wanderers have taken the local population.
A new problem appears as the two leave the square and discover a strange "shower cubicle" on the street. Abalkin cautiously opens it, encouraged by Schyokn's words that he doesn't feel any danger from inside, - only to discover a Pandorian crayfish-spider waiting for prey! Strangely enough the beast doesn't chase them but Schyokn is never the less humbled by his mistake. Soon after, they discover a very old man who at first doesn't notice them and then simply dies in front of them of an old age. They leave the dead body only to stumble across another local who is much younger and carries an automatic rifle. Despite Abalkin's efforts the local avoids a contact and escapes from their view.
Kammerer's reading is disrupted by a videophone call by Lev Abalkin himself. Abalkin acts very strangely praising Maxim for "all the work he has done in studying Headies" while deliberately playing down his own successes. When Kammerer sets straight that he only discovered Headies, that the entire work with Headies was under Gennady Komov's responsibility and that he, Abalkin, has always been the leading specialist on the kynoid race, Lev Abalkin agrees to meet with Kammerer in the same summer resort he met with Glumova in. Upon reflecting on their dialogue, Maxim comes to conclusion that for some reason, Abalkin has always been assigned as far away from Headies as possible, despite the fact that they were the only scientific subject he wanted to study.
To ask, why Abalkin was sent to Progressor Academy, Kammerer calls his mentor, Fedoseev, and discovers that Abalkin visited him as well. Apparently, he accused his own mentor for ruining his life by sending him to progressors instead of making him a zoopsychologist or an artist. Fedoseev was enraged by such claim and explained that he was not the one to decide that. Abalkin apologized, thanked him and left. Kammerer reports back to Sikorski about these two conversations and receives an order to go to Valdai Hills despite a low probability of Abalkin appearing there. Apparently, "His Excellency" has also received a similar videophone call and is now eager to hear of some progress by Kammerer.
Therefore Kammerer decides to pay some attention to Abalkin's former and current colleagues. Schyokn-Itrch, as he discovers, is currently the Head of Headies' Embassy on Earth, located in Canada. Progressor Korney Yashmaa, with whom Abalkin once met on Giganda, catches Maxim's attention for several reasons: both men were post mortem children; both men were born on the same day; a short notice among the materials referring to their short encounter on Giganda called them "twins". He feels that there is some connection between them but cannot confirm it.
As the night comes, Abalkin and Schyokn reach the center of the city. Very soon they come across two children who after some persuasion, agree to talk with Abalkin. Here a scary truth about Hope is revealed: after the ecological catastrophe, people started aging at an unnatural pace. As if that wasn't bad enough, aliens (probably, Wanderers) appeared and offered to transport the people to another, clean environment. Most agreed and vanished. Those who stayed, especially the children became subject to a consequent hunt by traps, "bad people", monsters etc. In the middle of conversation, they are interrupted by a crayfish-spider but Abalkin manages to disintegrate it.
Children run off and when the duo follows them, they meet a group of adults who greet them seemingly neutral and offer to come with them to talk. Abalkin agrees, playing a role of a scout sent by a distant country that has not suffered such tragedy as this one and is now able to help others. Upon their arrival (Schyokn pretends to be a normal dog), Abalkin is filled in with more details on the catastrophe and Wanderers' actions but in the worst possible moment, Abalkin's camouflage suit malfunctions and makes him invisible. The locals are shocked and decide that he is just another agent of Wanderers. A firefight breaks out...
In the next morning, a call from "His Excellency" wakes Kammerer up to order him to contact Glumova again and find out whether Abalkin tried to gain access to the closed sections of MEC drawing on their mutual past. Maxim looks for her everywhere but nobody knows where she is. At last, he gives up and goes to the resort in Valdai Hills and much to his surprise, finds Glumova also waiting for Abalkin there. They talk for some time (to get the answers he seeks, Kammerer drops his previous legend) and it becomes clear that Lev Abalkin is not even a bit interested in Glumova's current job and anything but their past.
From Valdai Hills, Kammerer contacts Sikorski and receives further orders to visit Schyokn-Itrch but leave Korney Yashmaa alone (since the latter has already departed for Giganda). Using null-T to travel from Russia to Canada, Kammerer visits the Headies' Embassy and quickly gets an appointment with Schyokn. Schyokn acts a bit strange even for a Headie, but Kammerer understands that Abalkin visited him and asked him whether the Headie felt any difference between him and other humans. In the end, Schyokn declares that "the race of Headies will not provide sanctuary for Lev Abalkin" and leaves.
This time, Sikorski is very pleased by Kammerer's performance and orders him to rest until evening. In the same night, both of them secretly infiltrate the MEC in order to ambush Abalkin (although Kammerer still wonders what would Abalkin want in the Museum). However, the one who comes to the Museum tonight is not Lev Abalkin but rather Aizek Bromberg, Sikorski's fiercest opponent in his policy about knowledge and its classification. Maxim witnesses one of their infamous verbal duels during which he discovers a lot of things nobody but the specialists are supposed to know.
But the truth behind the Abalkin's case is revealed only when Sikorski and Bromberg calm down a little. Apparently, Abalkin has called Bromberg via videophone and talked to him about the "detonators", an artifact stored in the closed section of MEC where Sikorski and Kammerer laid their trap. Reluctantly, Sikorski agreed to tell Maxim about the s.c. "Stepchildren Case": Abalkin (as well as Korney Yashmaa) was a "Stepchild", one of thirteen humans born from embryos stored in the s.c. "Sarcophagus" left by Wanderers and discovered by Earthlings on an unnamed planet in EN-9173 system. "Detonators" were thirteen small discs each carrying a strange symbol identical to the one that one of the "Stepchildren" had on his/her elbow. Abalkin's symbol was the one resembling the Cyrillic letter "Ж" (for more information, see the article about the Stepchildren).
Upon returning to his COMCON-2 office with Maxim, Sikorski admits that he always believed that all "Stepchildren" carried a program deep in their subconsciousness that was potentially dangerous for Earth. It was because of this that all of them received an education that implied that they work as far from Earth as possible. And because of this Abalkin's sudden urge to return to Earth made "His Excellency" believe that it is the "program" that drives him and that he must be stopped. And a part of the "program", Sikorski suggested, was obtaining the corresponding "detonator". He also explained Abalkin's latest behavior by the program slowly taking over his human soul.
However, Sikorski cannot entirely convince Kammerer and offers another explanation: maybe, it is just as if some scientist put a beetle into an anthill and now registers nuances of ants' psychology. The beetle is Abalkin and the ants are Kammerer, Sikorski and all other humans. However terrified and ready to give their life in order to protect the anthill the ants may be, the beetle does not want anything from them. It just crawls away sooner or later and nothing will change in the anthill. But Sikorski refuses to accept such theory - because if it's wrong, the consequences will be disastrous. And at this point, Abalkin comes in personally.
After a short conversation in which Abalkin demands and receives the truth about himself and furthermore demands to be left alone, he leaves and Sikorski orders Kammerer to follow him. Sikorski himself sets off for the MEC. Kammerer is convinced that the moment Abalkin enter the Museum and touches his "detonator", Sikorski will kill him and therefore he tries once again to convince the former progressor to leave Earth - to no effect. Maxim tries to stun Abalkin but gets rendered unconscious himself. By the time he enters the Museum of Extraterrestrial Cultures, Abalkin (apparently, Maya Glumova has let him in) is shot three times by Sikorski and is dying on the floor millimeters from his "detonator".
The Title
"Beetle in an Anthill" is the title of a theory explaining the Stepchildren phenomenon. Another example of such title in Strugatskys' books is the "Roadside Picnic", describing a possible origin of the "Zones".
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