карта звезды

When I was about four years old, I was drawing all the time. Once, in kindergarten, I was creating another masterpiece of an illustrated sci-fi book, which included the map of a star.

It took me quite a while to colour the centrefold of my wonderful book with a crayon. Eventually it looked more or less like this:

(Alas, the original is lost, so this is just a weak imitation, you understand.) Somewhere in the middle of the map I put a circled black dot ◉, a flag ⚑, and the word Евсток (Evstok). In my view, it was a perfect name for a research station on the surface of a red giant.

Alas, my teacher did not quite understand what I was doing. When I explained, as patiently as I could, that this is the map of a red giant (everybody knows that red giants are orange), she congratulated me but crossed Евсток and wrote Восток (Vostok). What a stupid cow, I thought, but did not say so, because I was a polite boy. I was not about to give any more explanations.

All these years later, there’s still no sign of a research station on any star. Now, people of the earth, listen. When you finally manage to put one on the surface of a red giant, please name it Евсток.