On autopilot she made it to the airport and checked in.
On the plane, she turned on some music and slept all the way to the Emirates. At the airport, while she waited for her next flight, she walked through the stores and looked at people while eating ice cream.
The next day she arrived in Kathmandu. At the Tribhuvan airport she was met by a man with a sign saying “Yulia Danilina. Roscosmos.” He took her straight to the observatory, aka planetarium, and the science museum. Yulia sincerely thought it was very likely that the observatory would be a hotel, too.
Dr Giyanu Lamichen the director of the observatory turned out to be a very nice man. He sat Yulia down on a chair and sat next to her.
“You know, Yulia,” he smiled, speaking in English, “this new telescope is not just a new telescope. It’s a new opportunity for us. You must understand that we are very grateful to have you here.”
“Thank you,” Yulia was embarrassed by the high-handedness of the doctor, “it’s just the adjustment of the equipment.”
“No-o-o-o,” Giyanu Lamichen interrupted her abruptly, “simple things are the most valuable.”
Yulia hesitated for a moment and felt a great cloud of responsibility suddenly appear from behind the high mountain of her pride.
“Oh shit,” she thought, “now I’m going to worry if I do everything right, Nepalese you Dr House.”
Dr Lamichen looked at her nonchalantly and nodded to something, and then said that all the antennas were set up and the observatory was already waiting.
Yulia put a bag in the corner of the director’s office and took out the necessary documents, a laptop and a flash drive.
“Then let’s go,” said she in a confident tone.
She went up with the doctor to the observatory and saw seven thin and sickly looking men. They smiled as they looked at her and said in Russian ‘welcome’. Dr Lamichen led Yulia to the healthiest-looking one of them and introduced a balding and tired-looking man with a small gray beard and glasses. He looked about sixty, his face swarthy and smiling. He was dressed in slacks and a sweater over a shirt.
“This is Dr Capri,” Lamichen circled his arm around the man’s torso.
“Welcome to Kathmandu, Yulia,” nodded Dr Capri, “you can call me Tulu-Manchi,” he pointed to a table where many wires and miscellaneous equipment were present, inviting her to come over there.
“Hello,” Yulia nodded, “what stage are you at now?” going towards the table, she asked.
“We installed the telescope according to the instructions last week. Now we have finished installing all the antennas and repeaters along the perimeter of the observatory. All the cables are out here.”
Yulia looked at the table that Dr Capri pointed at and realized that it was an ordinary wooden table, similar to the one her grandmother had in her kitchen. Yulia crinkled her face and saw that the wires were lying tied up with some kind of rope. “God, they don’t even have plastic ties here,” she was horrified.
Yulia sat down at her desk and turned on her laptop, getting ready to work. She checked the chair, which squeaked a little, and logged on to the program.
Dr Capri began plugging in all the cables to the control box that stood nearby. He gently untied the rope and carefully read the numbers on the wires, and then inserted them into the appropriate connector on the control box. Everyone else gathered behind the doctor and Yulia’s backs. They looked on with a sense of deep satisfaction and pride at their unsophisticated work. Yulia felt this anticipatory look of wonder at the workers on her back and whispered to Dr Capri.
