Definitely Maybe Chapter 6 - Gubar's Nightmare

If Weingarten’s story was disturbing, Gubar’s is something else entirely. Chapter 6 is funny, terrifying, and sad all at the same time. The Strugatsky brothers were really showing off here.

Meet Zakhar Gubar

First, let me tell you about this guy. Gubar didn’t finish school. He started as a hospital orderly, then worked his way up to lab assistant, and eventually became a valued electronics engineer at a closed research institute. Completely self-taught. The man built radios and electronics from scratch, earned patents, and invented things that his formally educated colleagues couldn’t figure out.

In the Soviet system, this was both rare and impressive. Most paths to science went through universities and doctoral programs. Gubar skipped all of that and got there anyway on pure talent and stubbornness.

But Gubar has a weakness. Women. The man is a legendary lady-killer. And here’s the thing I respect about how the Strugatskys write him: he’s not some sleazy womanizer. He actually treats his lovers with kindness and respect. He’s just got a lot of them. A whole lot.

This matters because whatever force is targeting these scientists, it uses their personal weaknesses against them. For Malianov, it was comfort and luxury. For Weingarten, it was career advancement and rare collectibles. For Gubar, it was going to be women.

The Ex-Girlfriend Invasion

Gubar’s harassment started with a skin rash. Annoying, but nothing crazy.

Then ALL his ex-girlfriends started showing up at his apartment.

Not one or two. All of them. On the worst day, five showed up at the same time. They fought each other. They broke his dishes. Some tried to poison themselves. Some tried to poison him. Their husbands showed up too. His apartment turned into a war zone.

I’m sorry, but I laughed reading this part. The image of this poor engineer trying to do circuit board work while five women are having a brawl in his kitchen is peak Soviet absurdist comedy. The Strugatskys could write horror and comedy in the same paragraph without either one losing its power.

Gubar lost 15 pounds. He broke out in rashes everywhere. He had to take unpaid leave from his institute. For ten days, his life was absolute chaos.

And then it just stopped. All at once. The women left. The phone stopped ringing. Silence.

The Woman with the Boy

After the storm came something quieter and much worse.

A woman showed up with a five-year-old boy. The same boy who is now sitting in Malianov’s apartment being creepy. She said the boy was Gubar’s son from a brief relationship six years ago.

She was married now. To a good man she loved. She couldn’t explain why she was there. She didn’t want to be there. Something had made her come.

Then she took Gubar into the bathroom, turned on the water to cover their conversation, and told him about the Union of the Nine.

An ancient, secretive organization. Nearly immortal wise men who have been around for centuries, maybe longer. They watch over human civilization. And one of the things they do is control the pace of scientific progress. When someone gets too close to something dangerous, or just too far ahead of what humanity is ready for, the Union steps in.

And right now, they were targeting Gubar. And others like him.

The woman left the boy as some kind of warning or marker. She left crying.

I’ve seen this trope before in other books, the secret council of elders pulling strings. But here it lands differently because of how it’s delivered. Not through a dramatic reveal in a castle somewhere. Through a scared woman whispering in a bathroom with the tap running. That’s the Soviet version of a conspiracy. You don’t make grand speeches. You whisper near running water so the microphones can’t pick it up.

Growing up in the USSR, everyone knew about talking near running water. That detail alone tells you the Strugatskys were writing about something much closer to home than aliens.

So What Is It?

Now we’ve got three stories on the table. Three different explanations.

Weingarten says it’s aliens. An extraterrestrial civilization watching us and stepping in when we get too smart. The red-haired man said so directly.

Gubar’s source says it’s the Union of the Nine. Ancient humans, not aliens. A terrestrial conspiracy that’s been around forever.

And Malianov? He doesn’t know what to think. He just knows his neighbor is dead and his apartment keeps filling up with strangers.

The scientists start arguing. Weingarten wants to report everything to the authorities. Go to the KGB, the police, someone. Malianov thinks that’s insane. Who would believe them? A biologist who talks to aliens, an engineer attacked by ex-girlfriends, and an astrophysicist who got a free grocery delivery. They’d end up in a psychiatric hospital before lunch.

And then there’s Snegovoi. He was military. He couldn’t just drop his classified research even if he wanted to. If whatever is out there gives you two choices, stop working or suffer the consequences, and your job literally doesn’t let you stop, then what? Maybe that’s why he killed himself. Not because he was weak, but because he was trapped.

That thought sits heavy on everyone.

Calling for Backup

They decide they need Vecherovsky. The mathematician upstairs with the clear head and the good coffee. If anyone can think through this logically, it’s him.

Gubar also wants to bring in a friend named Glukhov, an orientalist, a scholar of Eastern cultures and languages. Turns out Glukhov has been having similar problems. Terrible headaches every time he tries to sit down and write his research. Sound familiar?

The pattern keeps growing. More scientists. More interference. More evidence that something, whatever it is, doesn’t want these people to think.

Chapter 7 is going to be the big meeting. Everyone in one room, all the stories on the table, trying to figure out what they’re actually dealing with. I can already tell it’s going to be one of those chapters where everyone talks and nobody agrees.

Just like real life when smart people argue.

Previous: Chapter 5 - Weingarten’s Alien Story Next: Chapter 7 - A Debate with No Answers

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