A summary of "Escape Attempt" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

This science fiction novella was written in 1962. This book is the authors’ first work in which the bright communist world of Noon collides with an immature, cruel feudal-slave civilization. It first articulates the problem of ethical choice and the permissibility of advanced cultures’ intervention in the lives of underdeveloped worlds.

The story is part of the "World of Noon" series. In 2023, the work was adapted into a short feature film, a joint production between Poland and the United States.

Preparing for flight

Vadim, a young structural linguist, and his friend, Anton, a pilot, are planning a vacation on the protected planet Pandora, hunting dangerous predators called tahorgs. On the lawn in front of their cottage, they load a tourist starship with equipment, food, and weapons. Their neighbor, Uncle Sasha, is trying to repair his Kolibri helicopter, but Vadim accidentally drops a scalpel inside the biomechanic, shorting out its power supply.

Just before takeoff, a stranger in a white suit approaches the pilots with a heavy leather briefcase. He introduces himself as a twentieth-century historian named Saul Repnin. Saul insistently asks the young men to change their route and drop him off on any unknown, unexplored planet. He claims to be skilled in cooking, sewing, driving, and shoe repair. Accidentally dropping a rare combat weapon — a scorcher disintegrator — from his shirt, Saul persuades his friends to agree.

Flight and landing on an unknown planet

Anton sets course for the yellow dwarf star system EN7031, located 150 parsecs from Earth. During the transition through subspace, passengers experience unpleasant nausea, but Saul endures the jump completely calmly, sitting in a tube chamber.

Having registered the system’s second planet in the ship’s log, the travelers decide to name it Saula. The planet’s characteristics are similar to those of Earth: a day lasts 28 hours, its mass is 1.1 times that of Earth, and its atmosphere is breathable. Vadim takes control and lands the starship on a snowy plain near the ocean coast.

Emerging from the hatch into the freezing snow, the travelers make a horrific discovery. Ten steps from the ship lies the snow-covered corpse of a young man with gilded nails, dressed only in a rough jute sack.

Saula’s research

Anton determines that the young man died of exhaustion and exposure several days before their arrival. Saul explores the nearby hills and finds four more similar frozen bodies. Dreams of a carefree vacation are shattered. Anton decides to grow an antigravity glider, a "grasshopper," from the mechano-embryo to search for possible survivors.

Saul suggests performing an autopsy, but Anton refuses. The historian hypothesizes that they encountered a local civilization at a medieval level, and the dead youths were victims of robbers or religious fanatics. Anton reminds him that the EN7031 system is likely on the path of the mysterious Wanderers.

The crew takes off on a glider flight. On a snowy plain, they see herds of hornless deer and giant birds of prey with hooked beaks. Later, they discover a huge crater half a kilometer in diameter, filled with blue smoke, surrounded by the snow-covered ruins of a city.

A highway leads away from the crater. Along it, a never-ending stream of columns of various vehicles moves: platforms, tracked turrets, field synthesizers. All of them disappear irrevocably into the gray smoke. Eighty kilometers away lies a second identical crater, from which these vehicles emerge. Vadim realizes that they are facing a subspace null-transportation system.

A giant pit

Turning onto a dirt road, the heroes see birds of prey digging through the snow in search of frozen bodies. Soon, the glider approaches a snow bank, behind which lies a giant pit.

Thousands of emaciated, barefoot people in jute sacks are swarming around the pit. They’re tinkering with incomprehensible mechanisms, watched over by well-fed guards in fur coats, armed with spears and swords. The mechanisms jerk chaotically, maiming and crushing people. When a heavy tank crashes into the crowd, screams erupt, and the snow turns bloody.

The Earthlings descend into the pit with medical supplies and food. Anton attempts to administer first aid to the wounded, using colloidal bandages. However, the wounded and the guards panic. Hearing the guards’ piteous cries, the prisoners cover their faces with their hands and obediently file away.

Anton and Saul examine an abandoned, quasi-living tank. Anton inserts his little finger into one of the control panel’s holes; an internal spike pricks his finger, and the engine starts. Anton realizes that the machines were created by the non-humanoid Wanderers and are not designed for human anatomy.

Saul explains to his friends that they are witnessing a cruel social system — slavery. He cites the parable of Aladdin, who mistook the robot’s remote control for a magic lamp containing a genie, and warns the earthlings against naive interference.

The village and a clash with security

At night, the glider arrives at the prison settlement. Stench, filth, and bitter cold reign there. Vadim enters one of the shacks and sees dozens of freezing, barefoot people lying in piles on the dirt floor. Many of them are already dead, and one of the prisoners is singing madly without words.

Seeking information, the earthlings head to a two-story guardhouse. A team of twenty barefoot prisoners stands at the porch, pulling a sleigh with a guard. Vadim tries to talk to the fat security chief, but he becomes aggressive. The guard throws a spear at the glider.

The heroes decide to catch up with the team and capture the guard for interrogation. Vadim disarms the guard, but the prisoners unexpectedly rush to defend their tormentor. One of the naked prisoners wounds Vadim in the side with a sword. Saul drags the guard into the glider. Anton treats Vadim’s wound with psychosurgery and colloid.

Khaira’s interrogation and the controversy over history

The prisoner’s name is Khaira. Saul finds tank plans and a bloody piece of Earth plaster in his clothes. Vadim programs a linguistic analyzer in two hours and implants mnemonic crystals in Khaira.

During interrogation, Khaira reveals that the country’s ruler is "The Great and Mighty Cliff." The people in the sacks are criminals who dared to encroach on power or "wishes for something strange." They are forced to randomly press buttons on the Wanderers’ machines to compose instructions for the ruler. Khaira himself boasts of having killed three of the prisoners.

A heated argument erupts between Saul and the young men. Saul argues that historical milestones cannot be forcibly skipped: "Communism must be earned through suffering." He argues that simply showering a slave with benefits will turn them into parasites or usher in a new dictator. Anton and Vadim believe that Earth can help the lagging world without bloodshed.

At the end of the conversation, Khaira mentions that the slaves protected him for the promise of freedom: they were promised amnesty for the successful delivery of the guard. Since Khaira was kidnapped, all twenty prisoners will now be slaughtered at dawn.

Saul’s Rebellion

Wanting to rescue the prisoners, the earthlings rush back to the village. Khaira behaves brazenly, hoping that the earthlings will be forced to work in the pit and that he will get their belongings.

In the village, the head of security dons mnemonic crystals but refuses to release the prisoners. He declares that "the highest virtue consists of obedience and silence" and orders the prisoners to be taken away to be executed, and the earthlings to be brought food and stripped.

Unable to bear the abuse, Saul screams, "Bastard!", rams the glider into the roof of a house, and heads for the highway. Drawing his scorcher, Saul opens fire on the convoy of Travelers’ vehicles, picking them off one by one. The red-hot debris blocks the highway, creating a burning mountain.

The scorcher’s ammunition runs out. The stream of cars pushes the wreckage aside and continues moving. Another prisoner is driven out onto a dirt road, and a car hits him. Saul realizes the futility of his impulse: "Nothing can be stopped… Remember, you must always begin by sowing doubt."

Return to Earth and the Secret of Saul

On the way back to Earth, Saul is tossing and turning in a delirium. In his cabin, Vadim sees 20th-century documents bearing Nazi symbols that have fallen out of his briefcase.

The starship lands on Earth. Anton calls an ambulance. At that moment, Saul disappears, leaving a scorcher and a note on the table. In it, he admits that he is not a historian, but a fugitive from the past, who tried to hide in the future but is now returning to finish his work.

The note is written on the back of a 1943 denunciation from a Nazi concentration camp. The denunciation reveals that the prisoner, Saul, is Red Army commander Savel Petrovich Repnin, who was captured near Rzhev.

The finale moves to 1943. Nazi officers examine the body of Savel Repnin, who was killed by the side of the road, clutching a machine gun, and take his leather briefcase.