Robert Sheckley "Ghost-5"

Arnold and Gregor - Founders, owners and sole employees "AAA-PPS" - Astronautical anti-entropy agency for the improvement of the natural environment. Honestly, things are not going well for them, but they are not discouraged, and their business somehow keeps afloat.

Their next task is to unravel the mystery of the mysterious violent death of the colonists on the planet Ghost 5 and make a dangerous planet suitable foraccommodation. Arnold, as always, assumes the functions of the think tank and remains at headquarters on Earth, and Gregor has to personally go to Ghost-5 to provide Arnold with information for reflection.

Ghost 5 seems to Gregor to be a real paradise: a beautiful nature, not a single living being. Who could have killed the colonists? Until evening, he puzzles over the riddle, and at night ... At night they come to him the most terrible childish fears.

The clothes hanging on the chair find life and try to kill Gregor. Monster Hvat - Cancer Cervix, which they invented in childhood together with Arnold, burns with a desire to eat Gregor on May 1, and certainly in a chocolate sauce. And in the doorway hides hideous skinny Tenepops, insidiously attacking in the dark.

Will Gregor succeed with the help of Arnold? unravel the mystery of this mysterious planet, cope with the monsters, which he himself came up with, and leave Ghost-5 alive and unharmed?

The story "Ghost-5" is included in the cycle humorous fiction stories about Arnold and Gregor, not too fortunate, butresentful specialists in the improvement of the natural environment. In addition to "Ghost-5", the cycle includes stories "The Laxian Key" (in another translation - "Indeterminate Key"), "Necessary thing" (in some translations - "Configurator" or "Minimum required"), "Flight of a milk van" and "Mutiny of the boat".

Every time the companions take on the next task, something goes wrong, but they get out of difficult situations, keeping (well, or at least trying to keep) a sense of humor and optimism. Cheerful stories of Robert Shackley - a perfect example of humorous fiction, they will certainly come to taste to children and adults alike.

Quotations from the book

"Before Gregor some figure was raised, just like yesterday, the security system did not work.

Gregor looked up slowly. Someone standing in front of him, reached ten feet in height and resembled a man, but only with a crocodile head. His body was crimson with cross cherry stripes. In the paw, the monster squeezed a hefty brown tin.

"Hello," he said. "

"After supper, he lay down on his bunk and only closed his eyelids as he heard a delicate cough.

"Hi," Hvat greeted the Cancer Cervix. A personal, deeply intimate hallucination has returned with gastronomic intentions! "

"... The grumbler managed to grow in all its gigantic growth." Gregor and Arnold shied into the cockpit and slammed the last door behind him.

"Think, Gregor," pleaded Arnold. "No boy will invent a monster, without providing any protection from him!"