Episode 5

Overview

The Guest has a Double, his evil alter ego, which exists autonomously on Earth. They meet in the Soyuz Hotel. The double offers the Guest a certain plan of existence without interference for each other — in different time dimensions. As arguments for his position, he shows the alien a story from Ray Bradbury's story "On the Wanderings of the Eternals and on the Earth": people of the distant future "pull out" from the past the geniuses of their field who are dying and extend their lives for a while so that they have time to write their last painting, novel, etc. The guest refuses, and the Double disappears. The second plot in the issue is taken from the story "The Choice" by Kir Bulychev: the alien refuses to return to his own and stays with his beloved earthling.