“Black Pawn” is a story in the science fiction genre|, describing the structure of the Island Empire of the planet Saraksh. Serves as an apocrypha to the Strugatskys’ novel “Inhabited Island”, a version of the development of events proposed in return for the promised by A. and B. Strugatskys, but never written novel “The White Queen”. Author: A. Lukyanov. Instead of the familiar Maxim Kammerer to the readers of the Strugatskys, a new one appears on the stage (unknown from the Strugatsky novels) hero, the “black” progressor Vseslav Lunin, sharply contrasting with the “white” (i.e., destructive, according to the symbolism of the story) Kammerer. Having had some experience working on Saraksha, but subsequently retired from business, the hero suddenly develops his own program of introduction into the Island Empire and forces COMCON to accept it. Lunin initially acts in tandem with Lev Abalkin (whose activities in the Island Empire are mentioned in the Strugatskys’ story The Beetle in the Anthill), but after naturalization on the Archipelago, the paths of the two progressors diverge forever. Immersed in the study of the caste-fascist regime of the empire, the hero reveals its effectiveness in comparison with the war-ravaged Mainland. A favorable impression on Lunin is made by the absence in the empire of racism, familiar from the fascist regimes of Earth (due to the anthropological homogeneity of Saraksh). Despite obvious nervous exhaustion and warnings from COMCON, Lunin stubbornly continues his research and experiments on the native civilization, gradually turning from an agent of the Earth into a citizen of the Island Empire. At the end of the story, the progressor transfers the collected materials to COMCON, returns to the Archipelago and stops attempts by the Earth to interfere with his future fate. The story, equipped with digital illustrations and claiming to be hypertextual, is replete with reminiscences and quotes from the Strugatskys’ work. Some episodes present obvious allusions and political satire about post-Soviet reality, a parallel to which is depicted by the collapse of the “country of the Fathers” on Saraksha. Additional materials for the story contain the “Saraksha Encyclopedia” - an attempt to describe the realities of the planet left “overboard” by the Strugatskys’ works. V. Bakanov, Yu. Dolotov, P. Dronov, R. Ibatullin, S. Kazakov, S. also worked on the encyclopedia. Osokin, V. Stoyakin, T. Useinov and others. Attention is just the text basis of the e-book. Of course, it is inferior to the full version - with video and audio inserts and illustrations. In addition, the DVD version is equipped with an electronic “Saraksha Encyclopedia”, which is not inferior in volume to “Pawn”. Those interested can contact: and [email protected] book’s text has been translated from the original language using an artificial intelligence system. In most cases, the translation is accurate and clear, but occasionally there may be incorrect phrasing or individual words left untranslated.