"Zastava" by Sergei Lukyanenko, summary Automatic translate

This science fiction novel, written in 2013, opens the "Borderland" series. It tells the story of Centrum, an intermediate dimension linking parallel universes. A formerly highly developed civilization suffered a catastrophe due to a "plastic plague" that wiped out its oil and polymers, throwing the local society back to the age of steam engines. In 2014, the work won the Ayu-Dag Constellation Award, and in 2015, it received the RosCon Award for Best Multi-Author Project.

Appearance in Centrum and new allies

Moscow musician Ivan accidentally opens a dimensional portal while leaving the shower in his apartment. He finds himself naked in the middle of the wild steppe. There, he is found by an elderly gamekeeper, Alexander, nicknamed "Old Man." The savior explains the workings of the multiverse to the newcomer. It turns out that people from Earth often develop a latent ability to shift between dimensions when in a certain emotional state. Many aliens become smugglers, trading cheap Earth goods for local treasures. Others join the Border Guard Corps.

Ivan chooses military service and receives the call sign "Udarnik." The sixteenth outpost of Klondal, where he is taken, unites broken people from Earth. The tough-as-nails retiree, Witch, a former intelligence officer, keeps watch here. Sniper duty is handled by Kalka, a young, traumatized woman who hates being touched. Fire support is provided by the hot-tempered Caucasian Ashot, who answers to the nickname "Skripach." Communications and equipment are handled by the stuttering Khmel, who gains clear speech through singing. The youngest soldier is Romka, a teenager who escaped from a Smolensk orphanage. The squad is commanded by the wise Old Man, a lathe operator by profession on Earth.

Ivan gets used to patrolling the steppes, learning to shoot and interdict illegal traffic. He tracks down thieves smuggling batteries through the mountains and begins a passionate romance with a local mercenary, Eigel, from the Tai-Kleus mountain clan. Life at the outpost flows smoothly until outside forces disrupt the established order.

A mysterious arrest and a dangerous chase

Their routine ends when Corps Headquarters orders the immediate arrest of the entire Sixteenth Outpost. The Old Man manages to gather his colleagues in a Moscow apartment to discuss the threat. The border guards decide to voluntarily report to headquarters and prove their innocence. Returning to Centrum, they find the base destroyed. The doors are sealed, the dog is killed, and the Old Man, Kalka, Witch, and Romka are captured by unknown special forces.

Ivan, Ashot, and Khmel, along with the mercenary Eyzhel, set out in pursuit. They pursue a special train — a priority special train carrying their comrades to the Marine prison. They are forced to find a shortcut through dangerous terrain. The group hires an old engineer, Pagaso, who agrees to transport them across the monstrous Rift on a dilapidated suspension bridge. The ancient structure can’t support the locomotive’s weight and begins to collapse. The steel cables snap one after another. Pagaso steers the locomotive across the chasm just as the tracks collapse. The group survives thanks to Ashot’s quick reaction, opening a life-saving portal right in the cab of the falling locomotive, protecting the crew from a fatal impact with the support structure.

Left without transport, the fugitives construct a homemade jet engine from gas cylinders and a cast-iron cauldron, mounting the device on a handcar. They reach the Irtan junction station. Internal security awaits them at the station. The horrific truth about their fellow traveler is revealed: Eyzhel poisons the escorts with an unknown gas, kills the guards, and stabs herself. She stages the attack to ensure her entry into General Headquarters along with all the captives.

Secrets of Counterintelligence and a Spy from the Hearth

In the General Staff prison, Colonel Berndt Becker interrogates Ivan. Counterintelligence reports shocking information. Patrols recently captured a courier carrying a detonator to the sixteenth outpost. The courier worked for the Hearth — a hidden and highly advanced hostile world. It was the Hearth that once unleashed a devastating plastic plague on Centrum, halting the technological progress of its competitors. Now, the aggressors plan to destroy Earth. Without plastic and insulating materials, Earth’s civilization will collapse, leading to the shutdown of power plants, mass starvation, and the death of people.

The security services intercepted the detonator, but the biological bomb itself is hidden somewhere within the outpost. A mysterious traitor among the border guards is tasked with activating the device and smuggling it to Earth. Interrogations reveal Eigel’s true nature. The mercenary turns out to be an undercover agent of the Hearth. She easily opens her own portal right in the interrogation chamber. Black-armored saboteurs emerge from a dark passage. A brutal hand-to-hand fight ensues, and the headquarters is rocked by the explosion of the planted dynamite. The enemies attempt to recapture the detonator, but fail and escape.

The final battle at the sixteenth outpost

Ivan and his comrades are released from custody, having been cleared of suspicion. They rush to the sixteenth outpost to outrun the enemy and find the hidden bomb. Ajel acts swiftly and brings sixty-five armed mercenaries to the border base. She offers the defenders the chance to surrender and leave alive, but they fight to save their homeworld.

An old man rolls out a Maxim machine gun, secretly purchased on Earth and modified in a lathe shop. Heavy machine-gun fire halts the initial massed assault. The mercenaries breach the wooden fence, but the border guards fire back accurately, using old rifles and grenades.

During an intense firefight, one of the grenades flies into the barracks. Ashot makes a heroic move and throws himself onto the explosive, saving the others at the cost of his own life. The old man suffers a serious bullet wound in the back and falls through an open portal leading to his relatives in Munich. Ivan finds a wooden box containing detonators in a storage room, but the enemy breaks through the defenses. Eyzhel bursts in with a raiding party and takes the survivors captive.

Destroying the threat and reviving the squad

The mercenaries brutally beat and tie up the border guards. Eijel calmly explains her plan. The bomb is safely hidden here, the detonators are back in her hands. The girl demands that Ivan open the portal to Earth, otherwise she will torture his friends long and painfully, starting with Kalka and Romka. The musician is forced to agree for the sake of saving those closest to him.

Eigel brings a bucket of cold water, as Ivan needs to simulate a shower to concentrate. The prisoner uses his imagination and breaks his habitual mental pattern. He opens a portal with a slight spatial shift — a shift in the breach coordinates. A boundary between worlds appears directly inside Eigel’s body. The spatial anomaly cuts the Hearth agent into pieces. The saboteur dies instantly, never having managed to deliver the deadly cargo to Earth. Left without a leader, the mercenaries take the bodies of the dead and retreat into the steppe.

A month later, the outpost resumes its usual work. The old man recovers from his wound and retires to his family. Ivan officially assumes command of the detachment. The new leader recruits new soldiers from among the local residents of Clondal, training them in the craft of war. The border guards ceremoniously burn the Hearth propaganda brochure left by Ajel in a bonfire. They refuse to read enemy propaganda, forever rejecting the lies that justify the destruction of worlds. The white flag of the Border Guard Corps once again flutters proudly over the green hill.