                         Sviatoslav Loginov

                       OBJECTIVES OF PROGRESS


   Ugr loudly swallowed saliva in his throat from hunger  and  said to 
his son:
   "I found out where we  could get  a lot  of food.   Look up.  Every
evening  the sun, dim and hunger-swollen,  climbs  underground  and in 
the  morning  it is strong and  bright  again.  So, there is plenty of 
delicious  rich  meat underground. But  it  is very  difficult to get. 
If we approach the edge  of  the world,  it  will  escape  like a deer 
escapes a hunter. But we  shall  not pursue it.  We just have to dig a
hole so deep that it ends at  the  other side of  the earth.  We shall
climb into this hole and eat sun food."
  Ugr stood up and  tore  out a nearby  lonely bush,  creating a small
hole in the ground.  He  squated near  the  pit and started to dig the 
dirt with his hands. 
   As time passed, his son whose name was  also Ugr, grew up and began
to help his father. The digging went faster, even more so that the son
started to dig with a rock shard.
   Ugr the Third dug with a quite decent stone chopper.
   Ugr the Fifth attached a handle to the chopper  and created a pick.
   Ugr the Ninth invented how to make a wooden casing in the pit.  Now
the hole rather resembled a mine.
   Ugr the Fifteenth installed a  pulley near  the mine to  carry  the 
rock up in baskets.
   Ugr the  Thirty  Second reached  iron ore  deposits  and  made  the 
first metal hoe.
   Ugr the Thirty Ninth  started to work with a chisel hammer, and the
Forty Fourth dynasty member was the first to operate a mining machine.
   Soon it  became  hot  in  the  mine, so Ugr the Forty Eighth set up
water cooling system.
   Ugr the Fifty Third used a drilling device for  penetration,  which
was replaced  by  pin-point  blasting.  Ugr  the Fifty Seventh was the 
first to use it.
   Ugr the Sixty Second reached magmatic associations and the work was 
brought to a standstill.  Only Seventy Fourth Ugr moved forward, using
liquid nitrogen cooling. Ugr the  Seventy Fifth replaced nitrogen with
helium, to almost no effect.
   The great inventor,  Ugr  the  Eighty  Seventh, used all his mighty 
genius to deepen the pit.   He created plasma holders and the work was
in full swing again.
   Materials  with  condensed electrone shells  synthesized by Ugr the 
Ninety Sixth allowed to pass the core of the earth.
   All these  scientific  advances  were  summarized by Ugr the Ninety 
Ninth, who constructed a universal underground  rover relying on them.
   Finally, Ugr the Hundredth made  his  way  to  the  surface  in his 
father's  machine.  It  was  early  morning  there.  Tender breese was 
stirring  fruit  trees'  crowns,   huge  coconuts  were  falling  from 
coco-trees.   Ugr  took a look at the surroundings, quickly undressed,
climbed  into the biggest tree and plunged his teeth  into the  golden
pulp of a fruit.
   His eyes quickly dulled to a vacant gaze.



--------------------------------------------------------------------
This work  is  being distributed in electronic form  with  copyright 
holder's knowledge and consent  on  non-commercial  basis as long as 
the integrity and invariability of the text is maintained, including
this notification. Any commercial use of this text without copyright
holder's knowledge and direct consent IS NOT ALLOWED.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 
(c) Sviatoslav Loginov, 1990
(c) Translation from Russian - Denis Lianda, 2002
(c) Proofreading - Faina Khait, 2002