— Are these all the protocols of your measurements? — aged man in horn-rimmed glasses, looking through the papers spread out on the desk in the office of the head of the city's electricity department, Mehrikanan. The head of the company shifted in his chair and answered uncertainly:
— It seems that these are all reports. I didn't think that a couple of short jumps would interest the power engineers from Tashkent.
The man in horn-rimmed glasses cleared his throat without looking up from his papers, but did not answer. Having appeared early in the morning on the threshold of the main administrative building of the enterprise, he patiently waited for the end of the meeting and entered the office of the head, presenting the certificate of the Ministry of Energy. The boss was slightly surprised. Of course, he was always ready for inspections, which were sometimes carried out with or without reason. Electricity is an unpredictable business. There have been serious accidents and various kinds of extreme situations, where there was an unforeseen ending and consequences. I had to create a commission, write reports and travel to Tashkent, to the carpet to the authorities in the ministry. But the current situation was mundane and routine. There was always a short circuit somewhere and surges occurred, which meant that a substation was knocked out or a high–voltage cable was on fire. In a word, daily work. And so, to check this routine, a special person arrived from the capital itself. So we could check the whole country. There are accidents everywhere and the same jumps and fluctuations. The cables are old, the planned replacement is slow, and, as always, there are not enough hands. The boss suddenly felt the weight of the burden of problems as soon as he remembered that he had to call about the delivery of the next batch of cable.
— I need a master who went to the call and took these measurements. Is he here? — the voice of the representative of the ministry, who had already put all the papers in a neat pile, brought the chief out of a thoughtful flight of thoughts. He roused himself and reached for the antique intercom, which was still functioning.
— Yes, I thought I was here. Let's clarify now. He pressed a certain button and said loudly:
— Munira! Find me Dilshod Aka. Tell him to come to me quickly!
There was something loud and indistinct in the speaker of the intercom, but the boss understood everything that was said. Surprisingly, I didn't have to wait long. About ten minutes later, there was a confident knock on the office door. Without waiting for an answer, the door swung open, and a small man in a uniform with a magnificent gray mustache appeared in the opening. He looked like an old beaver that had been pulled out of the construction of a water barrier. Despite his age, the peasant was energetic, and it was clear that he had a lot to do.
— Did you call Hamdam Sabirovich? The tower is waiting for me there. What do you have? — Dilshod Aka asked impatiently.
— I wanted to talk to you. About the abnormal jumps on the thirtieth and thirty-first of August. My name is Bakhtiyar. I'm from the Ministry of Energy. I've looked at your reports. They are very competently and accurately compiled, Dilshod Aka. — said a middle-aged, intelligent-looking man in horn-rimmed glasses, who absolutely did not fit into this smoky office of the chief of the town's energy supply.
— I told the district officer back then, who was also interested in the strangeness of these closures. Strange interruptions. I have reflected everything in the report as it is. — said the guy in the uniform.
— Could you, once again, personally show me everything on these drawings? — Bakhtiar asked, quickly laying out a diagram of the energy distribution of the town on the table.
— Why not? Sure. Look, here and here, I measured it three times. Because the figures were four minutes apart. — speaking like that, Dilshod aka showed two dots on the diagram, which he himself circled with a red pencil and continued:
— But on these transformers, the reverse reaction on the fuses worked, and they worked a little longer than the other two substations. Do you know what the reverse effect is? It's like ripples on water, the further the spread goes, the more destructive it becomes. That is, in the center of the collapse, all the transformers were intact, but they were switched off in an incomprehensible way, for no apparent reason. That's the whole strangeness of this incident. It seems that some kind of mechanism or something like that instantly absorbed, drawing the current into itself, while creating a surge with reverse thrust. With the opposite effect, a powerful wave of energy was created. An anomaly! We are still eliminating the consequences.
— Are you saying that this leap created a big surge of energy? What about the source? — Bakhtiar seemed to understand what the old beaver meant when he pointed at the first two points in the diagram. Dilshod, Aka scratching his head and looking at the diagram again, replied:
— But with the source, I can't say for sure. According to my measurements, this source is located either on Gulshan Street or in the Raykhon mahalla. My instruments are not designed for more accurate calculations.
But Bakhtiar was pleased with what he heard. He did not even dare to count on a more accurate location of the anomaly, under the current conditions. With a smile and gratitude, he firmly shook Dilshod Aka's hand and said,
— Thank you very much, Dilshod Aka. You've been very helpful. — and already turning to the boss, he said in a commanding tone:
— And I'll take these diagrams. I hope you won't mind.
Everyone in the office was pleased and quickly said goodbye. But the most satisfied was Hamdam Sabirovich. He was glad that, in fact, he got off very smoothly and easily from another, as he assumed, check.
Bakhtiyar left the administrative building and got into his car. After driving a hundred meters away from the building, he stopped at the curb and carefully unscrewed a simple finger-sized device from the gearbox switch. Switching a couple of buttons, he brought the device to his mouth and said softly:
— The first one. The first. The third one is calling you. The first one is the third one.
There was a rustle in the device, and a clear voice was heard:
— I'm listening to you, third. This is the first one. What do you have?
— I have information about the location of the anomaly. There is an estimated location of the source.
The meeting lasted until late at night. After the so-called exposure of the professor, the parents of Shara and Alisha, as well as Khadicha Jabbarovna, heard a rather unusual story from grandfather Mahmud about who this Alikhan was and how this anomalous rift appeared. To live in this favorable and cozy mahalla of Rayhon all your adult life and not know that there is a miracle right next to you, it made everyone sitting in this living room think hard. And two old friends from school, Anwar and Shavkat, and the mothers of curious children, Fazilat and Zamira. The guys, who were afraid to move, sat and listened to this incredible story of Grandfather Mahmud. Even Suraye, being the granddaughter of this man, listened with her mouth open, which indicated that she did not know anything about her famous grandfather, and that this was a discovery not only for everyone, but for her as well. As for Khadichi Jabbarovna, she had moved to this town relatively recently, but on the other hand, she knew the professor and his scientific works on astrophysics and practically built her scientific foundation on his research. He was her teacher, who had guided her invisibly all these years. His sudden disappearance from academic circles has given rise to all sorts of guesses and misconceptions. In those years, when the country, which had only recently gained its independence, was shaking and shaking, creating with great difficulty a new system at all levels of social, political and scientific life, Professor Saidumarov disappeared. It was said that he suddenly left the country, going either to England or to the USA, where he was invariably and constantly invited. There were even rumors about his sudden demise. Trusting their intuition, everyone in the room, forgetting about their sudden questions, did not dare to interrupt the professor's story, realizing how difficult this confession was for him.:
— I was shocked to hear from my granddaughter that Yusuf had somehow come into contact with Alikhan. Even if not directly, even through that old and honorable gentleman, but I was happy to hear that he was safe. I fully believe what Yusufzhan said. I've been hoping for so many years to find out something about him. And it must have happened that it was the kids who managed to clarify the whole story. It began at the end of the nineteenth century, right on this very spot. Yes, yes, don't be surprised. I have spent many years studying the history of our town. I searched all the archives in Tashkent and beyond. Finding out the truth about the events of those years has become my life's goal. Now you are here and you can see this huge and green courtyard with a large two-storey house and a beautiful garden where my friend Nazir, his children and grandchildren live. But then, at the end of the nineteenth century, everything was different here, and Said Umarbek, a wealthy landowner and entrepreneur, lived here. On this very land, he had a huge house with a large stable and a rather large extension for servants. He was a very advanced man for those years, with pro-Western views on life and was always on the side of progress. Having a factory for processing cotton raw materials, he created comfortable working conditions for his workers by the standards of that time. Under Umarbek, people lived very well. He always helped ordinary people, whether it was a peasant working in a cotton field or a worker who stood at a machine. People idolized him for his modesty and honesty. Knowing the entire Quran by heart, he also read Shakespeare and Goethe in the original. He opened many schools in our town for children from poor families. You probably know our local clinic? An old building in the "palazzo" style. Did you know that our clinic is built in the Italian style? It's all Umarbek. He brought an Italian architect who lived here for a year and a half and built this clinic, which was free after opening. He brought good doctors from Russia, who also began to train talented local youth in healing and paramedic work. — Professor Saidumarov suddenly cleared his throat, and only when Fazilat quickly poured a bowl of green tea and after taking a sip of the invigorating drink, the cough calmed down. Grandfather Mahmud asked to open the window wider. Everyone felt the gentle night breeze, which brought a refreshing coolness into the living room. The professor continued his story:
— But Umarbek had an unhealed wound. He had no children, although he loved children very much, dreamed that he would one day become a father himself. He was married only once to a woman he loved very much. But his wife's illness put an end to Umarbek's dreams of having offspring. Although at that time he was advised and told that he could marry someone else more than once. According to Sharia law, this was not a prohibition. But every time, he rejected these conversations and suppressed various gossip. He took her everywhere. He showed her to all the doctors. I traveled all over Europe with her. And eventually, the Almighty heard his pleas and the couple had a son. How happy he was then! The only thing that further darkened his life was the death of his wife. After giving birth to a son, a year later, his wife died suddenly. It was a blow for Umarbek. He spent the rest of his life alone, never marrying. He gave all his great love to his son, naming him Alikhan at birth. As you can understand, I have been collecting information bit by bit and from various sources. And if there is a mistake somewhere, I'm sorry in advance. The materials from those years have not been preserved, and it cost me a lot of effort to learn at least something about Umarbek and Alikhan. So, the boy grew up very smart and with a great thirst for knowledge. I have not been able to establish what he did before his sixteenth birthday, but I do know for certain that he had academic talents from an early age. After the October Revolution, it was difficult to find family archives and documents, the Bolsheviks destroyed a lot of things then. All I know is that after his son came of age, Umarbek first sent him to Russia. He went to the Imperial University in St. Petersburg, where Alikhan studied chemistry for two years. Only then did he go to England. First to the University of Canterbury, and then transferred to McGill University, where he became a student of Rutherford himself. I corresponded with this university for a long time to get information about Alikhan. It was Rutherford, with his theory of artificial transmutation of elements, who infected Alikhan with applied physics and awakened in him the future great experimenter. Together with his teacher, he substantiated the theory of irradiation of nitrogen nuclei in the air with alpha particles and their transformation into oxygen atoms, which were accompanied by the appearance of high-energy particles. This theory became the starting point for Alikhan's further research. The next stage in his life was the study of cosmic energy. You've probably heard that Nikola Tesla's idea of generating energy from ether and transmitting it by air was popular in those years. Back then, many scientists were puzzling over how to get free and clean energy from space. Alikhan has gone far ahead in this field. But the news of his father's sudden death changed his plans. In a sad and sorrowful state, he returned home. He decided to continue his research in his homeland. Returning to Mehrikan, he assumed the rights of heir, taking over Umarbek's industrial empire. The October Revolution thundered and the Bolsheviks came to power. At first, Alikhan sympathized with the new government. He gave his father's cotton processing factory to the newly created new republic. And I think he did it deliberately. He was a scientist through and through. And it was a burden for him, a burden in the form of a factory and dozens of hectares of land. He left behind only his father's house, where we are at the moment. He built a two-tiered laboratory for his future research, did you probably guess where it used to be?
— I know where the lab was, or rather I can guess. — Alish said softly, but in this silence, his quiet voice rumbled like thunder.
— Where the plane tree grows now. — Yusuf added to everyone's surprise.
— Exactly! You're right, kids, it's exactly where the plane tree is growing now. — the professor confirmed and continued:
— I do not know exactly what methods Alikhan used and how he was able to do it, but he was able to create this rift. And yet, I want to tell you a very big secret. I do not know if I am doing the right thing by telling you this right now, but deep down I know that I have to tell you this. It is for you, gathered here. Alikhan opened another rift.
— Another rift — Suraye jumped up and said.
— Yes. Another passage to another dimension. Only this fault is located in Tashkent. And I went there today. The passage is guarded and guarded by a guardian.
— Have you seen the guardian of the Rift? Who is he? Is he human? — Alish was overwhelmed by the abundance of classified information. Saidumarov smiled at Alish's reaction and calmly replied:
— Yes, quite a normal person. And this is my old friend. His name is Samandar.