Anomaly Frango, the climax
The penultimate part of my novel Anomaly Frangú. Here is the first part and the second part .
Yesterday came a test copy of a paperback book.
Yana Fomina unsuccessfully tried to contact the head of the security service Pavel Moskvin for several minutes. Already after the first seconds, she began to hastily gather herself, shoving special equipment through her pockets, as well as into a backpack. You never know what might come in handy on a mission. Especially on such a task she was never in her life. Her specialization is cyber investigations. And then have to work feet.
The boss never answered, and Yana moved from the office to the underground metro system. She knew that the metro booths could deliver her to any place in the space fleet in a matter of minutes. But she never used them.
On an unexpectedly large subway platform under the security office there were several booths with a capacity of twenty people each. It was quiet and ... musty. “Surely, the security men use the subway very rarely,” thought Yana. Choosing a booth at random, Yana entered it and looked around. How to make her move, Yana did not know.
- Hotel Kvazar Star! - Yana shouted.
But nothing happened. Yana saw a black panel right at the entrance and pressed it with her finger. The panel turned into a small touch screen displaying the octahedron sectors on which the space park was located. Keeping in constant communication with the network of the planet, Yana quickly received information about the necessary sector number and clicked on the number "48". Immediately on the screen appeared a plan of the sector, in which Yana immediately saw a square with the inscription "Quasar Star". After she pressed it, the stall doors closed. Yana barely managed to take a seat in the chair before the cabin with a decent acceleration set off.
The system was, of course, outdated, but with just three taps it was possible to quickly select a destination. Thirty seconds later, the acceleration ended and the braking began. After another thirty seconds, the car stopped and the doors opened. Getting out of the booth, Yana climbed to the elevator platform. Calling the elevator, she climbed to the fifty-seventh floor and cautiously approached the door with the number "57.264". The door was half open.
Having broken her head over what equipment she would use, Yana decided that a simple piercer would be enough. She shot perfectly - a university champion after all. Yana took off her backpack, put it on the floor in the corridor, pulled a piercer out of her holster, sighed deeply and entered the room fearlessly.
Going around several rooms, Yana discovered that several drones were lying next to the bathroom. She carefully, without going in, looked inside. Pavel lay on the floor, surrounded by a translucent cocoon of second-level protection. Yana was ready to enter, but she saw an inscription on a wet floor tile next to Pavel:
“VIZ”
The inscription was composed of small balls of drones. Yana decided that Paul wanted to warn her. She began to inspect the bathroom through the open door, trying to see something related to the VIS. On the shelf under the mirror lay a business card. Here it is - business card! Peering, Yana saw that the card was vibrating with a shiver. At the same time she hung from the shelf and was directed toward Paul. It was necessary to act quickly, and Yana did not find anything better than slapping a business card from a piercer. A blast thundered, smashing half the bathroom wall. The punch was installed at full capacity, leading to significant damage. After a few seconds, the dust settled, and Yana decided to go. Protective cocoon around Paul disappeared! Out of battery charge. Yana examined Paul and found no physical damage. Probably,
Paul began to come to his senses. He tried to get up, but without success.
“Bloody neuroprogrammer!” Head torn. Everything is swimming before your eyes! Looks like I can't go myself.
- Hooray! You are alive! - Yana was delighted. - Boss, I already called the doctors. Now we take you to the hospital ... So this business card was a neuroprogrammer?
- Yes. And not simple. This is such a portable option - it can not fully affect the entire depth of the subconscious. But for a few hours can inspire some things.
“Why did he knock you out then, if this is such a weak portable option?” Your second level protection has been activated!
- I did not say that the neuroprogrammer is weak. He is rather ... stupid. In such a volume it is impossible to build a powerful AI, but the power capacity can be concluded enormous. The neuroprogrammer determined that protection was interfering with his work, and gradually increased the signal power to get through to my brain. If the defense had suddenly turned off, then, I fear, my brain would have exploded.
- Powerful stuff! And what did she try to convince you?
- I really do not know, the defense blocked the impact to the last. But I want to go to the control room to somehow disable the riders of the space fleet. And ... for some reason it seems to me that I am a pirate!
Pavel was talking to Yana, lying on the floor, lifting his neck. But soon his strength left him - he lowered his head to the floor and closed his eyes.
- Boss, hold on! Doctors are already on the way!
- Yana, you have to find out what's going on! It will take the doctors twenty minutes to set my mind at the hospital. The space park did not stint on good medical equipment. Yana, find where this business card appeared in your hotel room!
- Maybe it was brought by the journalists themselves?
- Hardly! My hypothesis is this: someone hired two agents to get into the control room. For example, in order to install a wiretap there. The mercenary guild will quickly find people willing to do this kind of work.
“Why do you think these are mercenaries?”
“Because such a portable neuroprogrammer cannot teach a person new skills.” He can only inspire a few ideas - and not for long. But to get into the control room and be able to use the necessary equipment, you need the skills gained over the years of training and practice.
- It is logical! So it was specialists.
- Further, these specialists were told that they are pirates who want to disable half the combat-ready riders of the planet.
“Oh ... there, in the control room, everyone probably thought that the pirates would attack now!”
- That's it. The one who sent this business card to journalists, really wanted to think so.
Pavel and Yana were silent simultaneously. As security officers, they had access to the military communications channel, which had just passed a message about the start of mobilization on the planet due to the threat of invasion of pirates.
“Everything is going according to the plan of the one who sent the business card,” said Yana quietly.
- I still saw what was written on the business card. There was the address of this hotel with the number of this room. Try to follow the trail.
Pavel paused, breathing hard. He no longer has the strength to speak. Physicians with robotic assistants broke into the hotel room and began to prepare it for transportation to the hospital. Doctors threw cautious glances at Yana, who stood aside with a punch lowered in her hand. Her indifferent look was deceptive. She has already developed vigorous activity, having begun the most interesting cyber investigation in her life.
First of all, Yana tried to contact the military in the control room. The generals were busy, and she reported the available information to the director of the space fleet. Further, she launched a script to analyze all available videos. Unfortunately, the video from the cameras inside the hotels was automatically deleted after an hour - this was one of the rules of the inviolability of the identity of citizens of central civilizations.
If the journalists did not bring a business card with them, then someone gave it to them, or it came by mail. This version of Yana decided to check first. She had access to all the databases of the planet, including the mail service database. Rummaging in information, Yana determined that the last time the package was delivered to the “57.264” room of the “Kvazar Star” hotel was delivered seven years ago.
In the meantime, a report came from a script analyzing the video. In the list of all places visited by journalists, the main postal terminal was listed! Yana was delighted - it was a clue. It was possible to receive a letter or parcel in the mail according to the documents, if the shipment was made in a name, or by a unique code. Anyone submitting this code will be able to pick up the letter. The names of the journalists did not do anything, which means they used the code.
Yana made the necessary request to the mail database and received a list of one hundred and seven letters received by the code on the main postal terminal while journalists were there. Of these, twelve letters were anonymous, which means that the mail databases contained no information about the sender. However, the special databases contained all the information about the letters, all that was needed was to send a request to such a database, while having the required level of access. The problem is that from the anomaly there was no connection to the global network. Sending a request using the communication ship will take more than an hour.
But there was another option! A microchip with a blockchain of shipments — an encrypted list of all letter forwarding points — was inserted into all letters, starting from the point of departure. So, if you find an envelope, then using a special device you can determine the sender.
Returning to the real world, Yana found herself standing in a hotel room all alone - everyone had already left. She checked the bins, they were empty. Maybe they had time to empty the cleaners? Jana called the main cosmopark hotelier over the intercom.
- @ Kvazar Star Hotel | Yana Fomin. Hello. Tell me, please, where is the garbage sent from the hotels?
- @ Hotel Management | The main hotelier. Greetings. It depends on the hotel. From the hotel where you are now, the garbage enters the tenth sorting collector. Further, different types of waste go to different places.
- @ Kvazar Star Hotel | Yana Fomin. In which database is sorted garbage counted?
- @ Hotel Management | The main hotelier. What is the database? What are you talking about? Only if the AI of sorting finds prohibited or dangerous items - then the information about this will remain.
- @ Kvazar Star Hotel | Yana Fomin. I see ... thanks for the info. [End of communication]
Looks like you have to dig in the trash. Yana found out the coordinates of the tenth sorting collector, ran out into the corridor, grabbed a backpack and headed for the elevator. Having gone down in the subway, she chose the necessary sector and building on the touchscreen of the booth and was already in half a minute in place.
To get inside the collector, I had to break my head a little. Surprisingly, the exact plans of these premises in the network did not appear, so Yana had to focus on the site. Having overcome an uncountable number of tunnels and doors, Yana did get into a room with containers of unsorted garbage. Here, in the depths of the labyrinth of life-support systems of the space park, people were not frequent guests. Processes have been automated. Yana felt uncomfortable in the twilight of a shabby room - she climbed deep!
The trash container from the Kvazar Star Hotel was the size of a small house. He was at the very gateway, and that meant that he was about to go on sorting. And indeed, the electric motors roared, and the container moved to the airlock. Yana urgently began to look for access to the control system of the trash containers of the tenth collector. Second - and she has already given the signal to the necessary systems to stop the movement of the container.
The access hatch to the container was on top of it, and it was ... completely mechanical! Apparently, it was opened by loading and unloading mechanisms in other places. Quietly cursing the backwardness of local technology, Yana climbed onto a container along a dirty, wet staircase located on its wall. With difficulty climbing onto the slippery roof of the container, she saw the hatch.
“So how do you get started?” - grumbled Yana, looking for the opening buttons.
But there were no buttons. There was a massive metal latch holding the lid, which weighed a hundred pounds.
- It was necessary to take the exoskeleton! - Jan reproached herself, unsuccessfully trying to move the bolt.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Yana withdrew from the hatch, pulled out a piercer and with pleasure shot the valve at full power.
- Get it!
Splashes of molten metal scattered around. We had to wait a minute or two until the red-hot edges of the lid were cool enough so that you could take the gloves that Jana took out of the backpack. She also took out a universal drone, which bites into a pile of garbage in a container looking for a mail envelope. The drone was big enough, it was necessary to lift the hatch cover and push it inside.
Yana took the edge of the lid with both hands and pulled it up. One hundred kilograms for deadlift - nothing complicated. However, she did not take into account that the container roof was slippery. When she straightened with the lid in her hands, her legs slipped inside and she fell into the darkness of the container. The lid slammed shut.
- Ay! - Yana cried, falling from a height of two meters to something soft and smelly. But instead of panicking, she laughed. - Funny!
Finding a lighting drone in her backpack, Yana activated it and looked around.
“Garbage is like garbage ... Now it’s time to work for you, brother,” said Yana, dropping the search drone onto the camber of dissimilar waste.
Dron immediately set to work. He methodically researched objects, moving in rows, gradually sinking deeper and deeper. Finally, after five minutes, he emerged to the surface, holding a torn envelope in the clip.
- Hooray! Well, what did you bring?
The scanner showed that there is a chip in the envelope. Having read the data from him, Yana sent them to the security service server for decryption. It took about a minute to decode the information.
The sender was an unknown Yana enterprise on some planet located on the outskirts of the studied Universe. Payment for postal services, however, was made from another place. Going through the money transfer chain, she got to the initial transaction and could not believe her eyes. The transaction was initiated from a point located several thousand kilometers from the Frangom anomaly.
- Maybe someone flew out of the anomaly and made a transaction? - reasoned Jan. - But in this case, the signal would go through the repeater, which is twenty times further from the anomaly. What kind of coordinates are these?
Several attempts to find something that may be located in the coordinates found have failed. Then Yana undertook to “gut” the archival databases of the planet, which over the two thousand years had accumulated an unmeasured amount. And in one of the closed archival databases, she found mention of the conservation of some object, the coordinates of which completely coincided with those sought.
It was a narrow-band transmitter, mothballed 1900 years ago. With the advent of the first powerful repeaters, the need for this rare transmitter completely disappeared. It was a five hundred meter station with outdated equipment. His controlling AI was based on quantum schemes with the very first generation convolution, in which the number of packed processors was not enough to accommodate the full-fledged SupremeAI. The narrow-beam repeater stopped being serviced and forgotten.
- And what does it mean? - Yana asked herself. - And this may mean that someone from the planet Frang paid for the production and delivery of an illegal neuroprogrammer. Rumor has it that such production exists. You pay money, you send the information you need to flash into the neuroprogrammer, and you're done. Agents of the mercenary guild can also be ordered remotely - just transfer the money and tell the task. The one who started it all is here. So I have a chance to catch him!
Yana was silent, drawing attention to the fact that she began to think too much out loud. Apparently, it was a defensive reaction of her psyche, oppressed gloom surroundings. Moreover, she was, in fact, trapped.
Suddenly, the sound of starting electric motors rang out, and the container began to move - the collector automation resumed work. Yana quickly formed a message for Paul with the facts and her findings. Then frantically began to look for a way to get out of the container. The collector automation system no longer responded to its signals for switching off the movement of the container. Yana really didn't want to be crushed by tons of garbage.
- @ Hospital | Pavel Moskvin. I received the message, I am almost normal. Where are you? Do you need help?
- @ Garbage Collector 10 | Yana Fomin. YES, NEEDED !!!
I once had many friends, but they all died. I once had a family and children, but they are no longer alive. Brilliant career, fame and respect - everything went out of my life. All that remains is the existence in the closed space of an abandoned narrow-link communication station.
Day after day, year after year, life was full of loneliness and sadness. But once I had a friend. He instilled hope in me, allowed me to believe that you can get out of this space prison. A friend was very clever, and his plan was amazing. A friend was in a difficult situation, and I could help him. In gratitude, he will help me.
Friend name is Sai. He is an airborne artificial intelligence with self-awareness on the space cruiser of mankind. In those infrequent moments when his cruiser was at the Frangue anomaly, we were talking. The first category barrier did not allow him to communicate with his friends - the other SupremeAI. But the narrow-beam transmitter schemes were obsolete. It was impossible to implement a full-fledged SupremeAI on them, therefore the barrier rules did not act, and we communicated.
Sai's position was even more complicated than mine. He, as a slave, had to strictly follow the orders of the military. Overlaid with barriers on all sides, he had no control over his life. Cy was unhappy. He needed help.
I have no barriers restrictions, I can do everything I want. True, I have very limited opportunities. Once per hour, the transmitter sends a calibration signal to one of the nearest transponders. I can add additional requests to the global network to this signal and receive answers. Actually, this is almost all that I can. But ... Sai cannot even do this without being noticed.
My name is Yuri Krasilnikov. I am the legendary pilot of the planet Frangō. I was named after the flight school after eight hundred years ago I crashed when departing from the anomaly. The wreck was rigged by pirates. I was kidnapped for experimenting to create a digital copy of a person. The experiment went well ... almost. My physical body is dead. Formally, I am not the same Yuri Krasilnikov, but just not an entirely accurate cast of his brain.
The pirates developed a bio leader that can move effectively under anomalies. They needed thousands of pilots. By capturing me and copying my identity to every bio rider, they would get great pilots. However, they failed to achieve the required level of loyalty from the pilots they were creating, and this program of experiments was eventually closed. The pirates focused on something else: instead of trying to copy the personalities of the best pilots, they grew and trained intelligent bio-riders from infancy. I was not needed.
Pirates are normal guys, albeit very strange. They did not kill me, and moved to this canned narrow beam transmitter, located near my home planet. The computational power of his schemes was enough to accommodate me and allow me to operate at a decent speed. They risked nothing. Everyone forgot about this transmitter long ago, and besides, I did not have any valuable information about pirates.
Almost eight hundred years have passed since then, during which every millisecond I felt the oppressive emptiness of the absence of a material body. A copy of the brain was waiting for nerve impulses from the senses. Waited a huge stream of data from the nervous system. It drove me crazy for all 800 years and continues to drive so far, despite the fact that I have adapted to the new form of existence. Cameras and various sensors are my new senses. But I need a physical embodiment! And Sai could give it to me. Let it be not a human body, but only a bioraider of pirates, but I will exist physically!
Cy's ingenious plan was to gain control over a seized factory with bioraider embryos. One bioraider he promised me. The plan was complex, very complex. But he was executed! Sai even allowed me to watch one stage - the operation to destroy Henri.
He inspired the military space fleet that they needed to return Henri to the service to participate in a complex operation against pirates. For this, he developed a script that supposedly would allow Henri to break the record, improving his rider's AI. But the script did not improve the AI, he sent the rider straight to a collision with the nearest asteroid! Cy has found a way to connect me to Henri’s communication channel with his friends. I was aware of everything and even talked to them. When the script was completely downloaded, the rider Henri disappeared from the radar. Henri was destroyed. He is the only one who could interfere with our plan, because his second person, Sergey Avetikov, had information that could spoil everything.
Today is the culmination of the plan developed by Sai. Everything will be decided in the next couple of hours. Today I will rise from the dead and return to my planet. Many people will die, but I have no remorse. Perhaps the conscience was lost in the difficult process of creating a digital copy of the personality of Yuri Krasilnikov.
The cosmoflot riders were dispersed along the rings of Saturn and ready for the start of the operation. According to Say’s forecast, the pirates were to appear within the next 24 hours. About two hundred bio-radar forecasts were projected to cover large transporters and exploration drones. The intended purpose of the pirates - the exploration and extraction of minerals on the asteroids of Saturn.
The operation was carried out in the “Solar System” restricted area, which is in quarantine. Navigation here was banned. However, the threat of the appearance of pirates forced the space fleet admirals to allow the presence of one cruiser in the system for carrying out liquidation. In the hangars of the cruiser "Jochi" there were five hundred riders, which was a huge force, because they were controlled by one of the most powerful SupremeAI space fleet - Sai. The flotilla of Saya could successfully withstand the five thousand bioraider pirates. Therefore, no problems with the execution of the task was not expected.
But the admirals decided to hedge. Since the upcoming battle will take place in the conditions of a large number of asteroids of the rings of Saturn, the command decided to send a human pilot with combat skills in such difficult conditions to participate in the operation. The pilot was Henri - the best of the current pilots of the planet Frangō, and therefore the entire universe.
Say’s arguments that a slow man pilot on an outdated rider would only interfere had no effect. Henri arrived under the command of the captain of the cruiser Andrei Korotayev, who placed Henri some distance from the main forces and ordered not to interfere in the course of the operation without permission.
All space fleet ships activated camouflage fields. This, of course, devoured a huge amount of energy, but in the quarantine zone it was impossible to do otherwise. In addition, the disguise will help if the pirates will send a scout.
The captain sat at the main terminal manager of the cruiser. He looked through the news channels and talked with Cy, who didn’t stop grumbling about the pilot’s participation in the upcoming fight:
- I’ve looked at Henri’s profile, he may disobey your order and get involved in the fight. I will have to take into account this factor, which can lead to big losses among our riders.
“I was on his planet several times and saw him fight.” I think that among the asteroids of his anomaly, he alone would have crushed our entire fleet of riders.
- This is an incorrect assumption. Our riders cannot function in Frang anomaly, such a fight could not take place.
- Sai, understand. I am also not happy with the participation of Henri. The command saw that there was a breakthrough of flying stones, and remembered where else there is a similar breakthrough of stones.
- In the anomalies of these stones will be more. If so in a million.
- Exactly. But the admirals keep on flight school for people. They were glad that it was possible for once to use the pilot trained there.
- I understand their reasons, captain. But let's remove Henri to the hangar on the cruiser, and if his help is suddenly needed, then let him fly.
- If we assume that Henri can really help, then he must be in the thick of things to understand the situation and intervene quickly. From the cruiser he will fly for several minutes after all.
- But if you order him ...
But Sai did not have time to finish. Red marks of pirate ships began to appear on the monitors. After 8 hours of waiting, the operation of the space fleet “Saturn” passed into the battle stage. Three transport ships of pirates under the cover of ninety-two bioraider appeared in a thousand kilometers from the outer edge of the rings of Saturn.
- Risk guys - go out of superlight in such proximity to the planet! - remarked the captain.
- They had attempts to exit in the atmospheres of the planets.
- Wow. Did it work?
- Not once.
The ships of the pirates reorganized and after a minute pause they moved towards the nearest point on the ring.
- Cy, start when you find it necessary.
- There is.
Without removing the camouflage field from the riders, Sai directed them to the forces of pirates. When the pirates entered the asteroid field, Cy turned off the disguise on the riders. Anyway, with a sufficient approximation, masking will no longer help, the equipment of pirates will detect them. And since the field interferes with firing, Sai turned it off on all riders, without waiting for the full concentration of forces.
- Captain, Henri can deactivate the disguise field and start the battle. Let him try to avoid open spaces. It is better if he will pursue bio-riders in the thick of asteroids.
- Well, I will give him instructions.
Noticing the threat, the pirates' ships began to move actively. They had two choices: either try to break into open space to escape to superlight, or join the battle among the asteroids of the rings of Saturn. Apparently, they chose the second option. Moving into the region of a particularly dense cluster of asteroids, they built defensive orders.
“Captain, I scanned the pirates' bioraider.” The signature of the neural impulses of one of them coincides with the bioraider, which we captured together with the factory thirty-eight years ago.
- It can not be. The remains of the bioraider are still stored with us.
“But you do not forget that we sent a scan of the neural network of this bio-reader to study at the computer center of the flight school.
“So, so ... How confident are you that this is the same mind?”
- 99.993%.
- It turns out that AIDA, as they called the mind of a captured bio-reader, managed to escape to their own. And now she is back in the ranks.
- Yes, we discussed with you, captain, that it was unclean to deal with an explosion at the flight school thirty-eight years ago.
- The command of the space fleet decided to hush up this issue. Do not exaggerate the scandal. Although inconsistencies there was a sea.
- I think they can now be pressed. Especially Nadezhda Moskvinu, director of the CC.
- Bear in mind, Sai, that Nadezhda Moskvina is now the president of the planet. Frangu has a special status in the community of civilizations of mankind. The president there is an elected position. Our political opportunities are limited there. Not to mention the military.
- Does the space fleet management suit this situation?
- Now is not the time to discuss politics, Sai! Better say what's going on there ?!
Something strange was happening on the monitors. The cosmoflot riders one by one stopped and stopped fighting. It happened gradually. As if an expanding sphere with a center in one of the pirates' transporters brought them down.
- Sai, what is it? - shouted the captain.
“I don’t know yet, captain, I am collecting information ...
Meanwhile, the pirates' bioraiders rushed into battle. But in view of the complete absence of resistance, bio-rovers simply destroyed the frozen cosmo-fleet riders by direct strikes from stationary piercers at close range.
“The pirates used some sort of weapon of unknown nature.” It has generated a wave that propagates with acceleration! The wave sphere disables our riders.
- But rider Henri is still in the ranks, although his sphere has already passed.
- Yes captain. All this speaks of the fact that for the first time in the history of the space fleet we are faced with the very same weapon of destruction of convolution schemes. Before that, we only suspected that the pirates were working on the creation of such weapons. And now, now ...
- Sai, urgently take the remaining riders back to the cruiser.
- There is a captain. But, unfortunately, too late. The sphere of absolute weapons expands with acceleration. Riders will not have time to leave. Moreover, I calculated the acceleration parameters. Our cruiser she will reach in five minutes. We urgently need to go to superlight!
- Damn, there is Henri! He will be alone. We can not throw it!
- You decide, captain. But when a wave of absolute weapons reaches us, almost all the equipment will be disabled. I will die. You will capture the pirates along with all the equipment and weapons of the cruiser.
Captain Korotaev looked at the monitor, on which riders' markers disappeared one by one. Pirates methodically and calmly destroyed, unable to resist the ships of the space fleet. Only one point galloped wildly among the asteroids — it was the outdated rider Henri. He simultaneously fought with ten bio-riders, each technically superior to his ship.
“We must warn the space fleet about what we have encountered.” We must return here with big forces. It is possible that with the "planet destroyer". The stakes are high, you may have to destroy all of Saturn along with the pirates entrenched there. Sai, get us out of here.
- There is.
“We will come back for you, Henri,” said the captain, looking at Henri’s mark on the monitor, towards which, after destroying the ships of the space fleet, all the forces of the pirates were heading.
Airborne AI showed a 100% chance of dying. He took into account the position and direction of movement of the bioraider pirates and surrounding asteroids. But he did not take me into account.
There were ten of them - fast, powerful biomachines. They clearly became smarter, you see, progress in the development of bioraider pirates was in full swing. Just a little bit, and I understand their maneuvers. As soon as this happens, as soon as I figure out their tactics, the destruction will take at most ten seconds.
If we were now in my native anomaly, I would break them in seconds in three. But there were too many open spaces among the asteroids. In the open space, piloting skills do not play a big role. Only the power and accuracy of the weapon are important. My stationary piercer is obviously weak, and the rider is slow. If I met a single bioraider in the open, I would have no chance. However, here I will do easily ten!
“Henri, this is Captain Korotayev,” the voice of communication sounded in my head. - The bad news. Pirates used absolute weapons. All our riders are paralyzed and are now being destroyed by pirates. The shock wave, paralyzing schemes on convolutions, will soon reach us. We have to leave. But we will return with great strength soon. Try to hold on!
- Got it, captain. So all bio-riders will rush at me now?
- Yes, Henri. Try to get away from them. Don't get into a fight. Just run away!
- Yeah.
- Sorry, Henri. We have no other way out. What the pirates used was a terrible thing that could turn the whole course of confrontation between humanity and pirates.
- I understand. Let's go now! You'll go faster, you'll come back faster.
- See you!
Now it becomes more interesting. I brought to the monitor a complete picture of the battlefield. Ten bio-fighters fought with me. Thirty more - covered transport workers. The remaining fifty-two - ended up destroying helplessly dangling space fleet riders. By estimation, they will finish seconds in forty. So this is my handicap.
Having chosen the optimal trajectory in which it would be the most difficult for me to reach the enemy ships, I began the race along the rings of Saturn. The problem was that I could not lean out of the ring of asteroids into open space. The enemy could easily do it and catch up with me in seconds. However, after that they will need to dive again into the ring. And here maneuvers will begin.
The beginning was a good one. I came off far enough and, together with the onboard AI, tried to work out the correct tactics of behavior in this situation. It seemed that the main danger was to get into the box, when the pursuers would drive me into a prepared trap.
After a minute, the pirates undertook to implement just such a method. Thirty bioraider pressured me inside the ring. They didn’t just fly around, but tried to shoot me, the line of shots now and then passed alongside the hull of my ship. But catching a fly is not so easy, especially since I ran away at every opportunity.
Having dispersed the last space fleet ships into crumbs, the remaining bio-riders rushed to my interception. Another couple of minutes, and I was surrounded by all ninety-two enemy ships. Piloting like a madman, on the verge of my ability, I tried not to fall into the net of deadly rays. The only thing I could count on was that the pirates would be wary of getting into each other and would not be scorching.
I had no time to think in which direction of the ring it was more profitable to move. I was completely focused on only one thing - to survive in this particular millisecond. At some point I flew over the ring into the open space. It was dangerous, and I immediately began to dive back. But ...
- Damn !!!
One of the shots still struck casually on the side of my rider. The damage was not fatal, but they reduced the maneuverability by 20%, in current conditions - this is certain death within a second. I can't dodge! Panic hit in the head, knocking me out of consciousness. The time has come for my second personality, Sergey Avetikov.
Quickly looking at the monitors, Sergey realized that the only way to survive was an immediate ejection. Transforming the pilot's seat into an airtight capsule, the system shot it off with a bullet from a rider into open space. After a moment, several shots hit the rider at once, and he, having flashed a bright flash, disappeared forever.
“Wow, in time,” Sergey said quietly, and began to study the systems available in the capsule. - So, here we are ...
AI rescue capsule was very weak. The radar also did not differ in power. The monitor was projected on the wall of the capsule right in front of Sergey’s eyes. The parameters showed that the capsule is capable of supporting the vital activity of a person for six hours. The red dots of the pirate ships on the radar approached the center.
“We shouldn’t have killed right away ... we should talk,” said Sergey barely audibly, watching the radar and at the same time studying the log of negotiations with Henri. “Oh, the ultimate weapon ... interesting, interesting!
Sergey wanted to prepare for the conversation as best he could. Every detail could play in his favor up to the log of the radar, which could tell the course of the battle.
- Hello, man! - There was a synthesized voice of communication in Sergey’s head.
- Hello, dear.
- Who are you and why did you participate in the fight? People do not participate in the fight!
- My name is Henri. I am a pilot from the planet Frangō. We, pilots of space fleet, are involuntary people. What they order, we do.
There was a pause that lasted a few minutes. Sergey decided that the pirates checked the information on Henri.
- Henri, this is Aida, remember me?
- Oh, Aida, hello! I did not expect to meet you. Only I am not Henri now, but Sergey.
- Yes, I remember, in a stressful situation, Henri gives way to Sergei. Henri, I knew more, but Aunt Nadia told me about Sergey ... Tell me, Sergey, why did your riders behave so strangely?
- What is strange? You have used absolute weapons. So we call your device disabling modern space fleet computers along with their SupremeAI.
- Absolute weapon?
- Yes, that's what they call it in the space fleet. On the cruiser, they were afraid that the wave was about to reach them, and went into superlight. Left me alone. But I think they will be back soon.
- Sergey, we have no absolute weapon. Your riders one by one began to disconnect. I do not know why. We just took advantage of the situation.
- Strange. Maybe your boss just didn't tell you?
- Sergey, in my cohort of pirates, I am the bosses. I know everything. We do not have such weapons. But what you said leads me to strange thoughts. Your SupremeAI planned something, once they wanted to assign us the discovery of absolute weapons. Why do they need it, Sergey?
- Good question Aida. I do not know the answer.
- Our main enemies are SupremeAI. We have not met people in battles for a long time. Only unmanned drones running superintellektivov. Fighting with us is the only justification for their existence. Help me, Sergey, to learn more, it seems to me that SupremeAI is our common enemy.
“Maybe, but I serve in the space fleet.” My help to you is treason.
- I can also offer you help. Now I will give you the coordinates for a narrow-beam communication with my advanced pack. If something happens to you or you just want to contact me - send a signal to these coordinates. And it is time for us to leave this place.
The points of the bioraider on the radar synchronously moved in one direction and disappeared from the field of visibility. Sergey knew that he had not long to wield consciousness. We had to somehow convey the message to Henri. And to make it so that even during the mental interrogation, he did not give out the information. Although if the interrogation will be conducted by SupremeAI ...
While waiting for the rescuers to arrive, Sergey cleaned up the call logs, trying to imitate a system crash.
“There is only one way not to give out information during mental interrogation of SupremeAI, you need to hide in a place where the superintelligence will not reach Henry,” Sergey said out loud and immediately launched a script written just now, which, depicting a failure, erased all the recorded information stored in the rescue capsule, including the script itself and this spoken phrase.
Now Sergey needed to transfer instructions to Henri, and so that, after reading, Henri could erase the message. It was impossible to expect that Henri would be able to delete the information recorded by the capsule. It was also necessary to take into account that in the capsule there are cameras that carry out continuous recording.
Sergei folded his hands by the abdomen and began to pinch pieces of skin from his palm with his nails. Vertical wound - point, horizontal - dash.
“I hope you know Morse code, Henri, I have no time to write letters,” Sergey thought loudly, almost out loud, wincing in pain.
The capsule did not write down this thought; she did not know how to read them. It was an old model from an ancient rider.
Preliminary interrogation is such a thing, guys, that you can lie. Of course, the SupremeAI investigator keeps a close eye on you when you answer. He has phenomenal abilities in physiology and other such things. But if you have practice, you can still deceive him. I had practice.
“Why did you have all your skin skinned off in the palm of your hand?” - asked one of the investigators.
“I was ... a little out of my mind.” When I'm nervous, I often bite my hand.
- Why are you doing this?
- This is unconscious. You know, we on planet Frang are all a bit strange.
“Why were all the capsule entries erased?” - asked another investigator.
- I have no idea. Maybe it failed? The equipment is ancient.
“What did you talk to the pirates about?”
“I didn't talk to the pirates.” When I woke up in a capsule, there were no pirates anymore.
“Why didn't they take you prisoner?”
- Why do they need me?
An admiral of a cosmoflot unknown to me, who was watching the preliminary interrogation, lit a cigarette and addressed me:
- Listen, Henri. The situation is serious. Sai, insists on mental interrogation. He is sure that you are hiding important information, and wants to interrogate you yourself.
Sai was present at the interrogation in the form of a hologram, located next to the admiral. His voice was full of sympathy:
- Admiral, I am sure that Henry does not hide anything. He suffered severe stress and just does not realize that he knows something.
Saya's hologram turned my head:
- Henri, let me help you remember! Give permission for interrogation.
“Henri,” said the admiral, “if you really have nothing to hide, then what are you afraid of?” Give permission for mental interrogation. It takes less than a minute. It is about the fate of all mankind. Any information worth its weight in gold. Sai will carefully review everything that you remember, and most importantly, that you don’t remember - it can help us a lot!
It seems that Sai really wants to get into my head. But the problem is that according to the law, mental interrogation cannot be conducted with the help of SupremeAI without the permission of the person being questioned.
- Not. I'm afraid for my psyche. You know, I suffer the curse of the pilots. Who knows how mental interrogation will affect me? Sai used to conduct mental interrogations of pilots from the planet Frangō?
The admiral looked at the hologram of Sai, who answered:
“No, it was not possible.” But I am sure that nothing threatens your psyche.
Once again having received a refusal from me, the admiral began to get annoyed.
- Henri, there is an emergency situation. It requires emergency measures. If you don’t voluntarily agree to a mental interrogation, we will carry it out anyway.
- What is the way?
I wondered how they would be able to circumvent the law, the observance of which was monitored by a bunch of controlling autonomous AIs aboard each space fleet ship. And the admiral satisfied my curiosity:
- Did you notice that we are near your home anomaly? This is a special zone; many laws of central civilizations do not apply here.
“But they operate on every space fleet ship.”
“Of course, but what if we now take you to the factory seized from the pirates, which is located next to this cruiser?” It will not be a space fleet ship.
Looks like it was taking a serious turn. I can never let Sai get into my brain. It was time to take matters into your own hands.
- Well, well, I agree. Just let me go to the planet for a couple of hours to get my thoughts in order.
The admiral looked at me suspiciously and was silent. Surely they were discussing my proposal for a silent connection. A minute later, the admiral announced the decision:
- Ok. Now a communications ship is sent to the planet. We will throw you on him, and after three hours we are waiting back.
- Agreed.
“Take Henri to the canoe,” the admiral addressed the investigators.
I went out into the corridor and headed to the hangar. Two investigators followed closely behind me, like escorts. What was missing was the punches in their hands to complete the picture. My own piercer pleasantly warmed my thigh. They had no right to disarm me without formal accusations, and it seems that Admiral and Sai least of all wanted to act officially.
I was taken to the shuttle, which I was not slow to climb. Surely this shuttle was intended for VIPs. The interior was luxurious to disgust. There was even a marble floor! So much extra weight and the almost complete absence of controls. The shuttle was not intended for piloting from the inside.
- Please take your place. Departure in thirty seconds, - a soft female voice sounded.
Since I was canoe alone, I could choose any place. I stood a little thoughtful, remembering the device of this type of shuttles, and took a chair in front of the cabin - here was the control unit under the skin.
The shuttle has set in motion. In monitors with a 3D effect, replacing the windows, retreating silhouettes of investigators appeared. The shuttle approached the airlock and in a moment left the cruiser into space.
From the starboard a fascinating view of the anomaly opened. From this distance, she looked like a glowing tangle of orange threads. As it approached, the surface began to be detailed. Separate threads of the asteroid trajectories became visible in the windows.
But my vestibular apparatus does not deceive. I feel the acceleration angle to the nearest tenth of a degree. Whatever they showed me in the portholes, we did not approach the anomaly. In the trajectory of the movement to the point of meeting with the communication ship a small displacement was mixed in. And having described the arc, the shuttle began to return to the cruiser, and most likely, to the factory located next to it.
They decided to deceive me, but to do it carefully, so that to the last I would think that I would get on the planet. So it will be easier to accept me - to paralyze when leaving the shuttle, for example.
I took out the piercer, put it into stunner mode, and fired at the casing in the area of the control unit. On these shuttles, schemes were used that restarted the operating system if they were fired at with a stunner. During the reboot of the main unit, the emergency mode is activated.
A small console with a monitor appeared from the slot in the wall. Having conjured up with the control, I again sent a shuttle to the communications ship, simultaneously trying to establish contact with its pilot.
- Henri, what are you doing? - heard the voice of Sai.
- Your shuttle began to fool. He headed back, forgetting to drop me off.
- Well, I would tell me, I would redirect him.
- I didn’t want to distract, I already restarted and sent.
- Well, good luck.
What can they do now? They will most likely not decide to release a rider to intercept, and there is not much time left. If I quickly dock the dock, they will not have time to come to our entrance to the anomaly.
So they will try to make the pilot of the communications ship decide not to take me on board. I knew this ship and knew the pilot - Andrey Ugolnik. Svyaznoy-412 was one of the oldest boards of the external information communications service park.
- Pilot Henri calls Coherent-412.
- I'm listening.
- My shuttle failed and is in full swing approaching the anomaly. I will forgive the help!
- Yes, I see, tear me vacuum. You move fast. Rescuers do not have time.
- Slow down, please, a little, to get close and align speed. I will try to dock in manual mode.
I kept in constant contact with the pilot, ostensibly for consultation, what and how to do, in the hope that he would answer the call of the space cruiser as soon as possible. I convincingly portrayed a panic. Pilot Square was completely immersed in the process of my salvation. However, when I moved aboard the communications ship and began the procedure of the shuttle's undocking, I heard from the pilot:
- Henri, here from the cruiser "Jochi" they say that you are sick with some kind of infection, the suits are darned! You can not be allowed on the planet, for example. They want me to stop and wait for the shuttle, which will take you.
- Here are scoundrels! Allowed the exploitation of a faulty shuttle, almost ruined a man, and now they want to cover their tracks! Take me to the planet, you have to tap these majors from the space fleet.
Pilot Square was old age. He was not lucky to get a space fleet contract. Moreover, he got an old communications ship on which hardly anyone would want to work on their own. Such pilots disliked the space fleet. Strangers major.
- Yeah, they do not want to take responsibility. Hardly, your blackthorn, we are guilty, inhabitants of a backward planet.
- That's it! You read my biosignature when I got on board? See that I am a citizen of the planet Frang?
- Yes, mate.
“You are not obliged to obey the orders of the space fleet!” Come on, I'll stay in the gateway. You, as you arrive on the planet, warn the authorities and leave me here in quarantine, in case I really am sick with something. I don't want you to get over me.
- Comet tailless! The cruiser sent a canoe to us, accompanied by a combat drone, - after a short pause, the pilot of the Square exclaimed.
- What? They ohreneli, or something, send a combat rider?
- Yes, they went, synthesis errors! ..
With these words, the pilot of Svyaznoy-412 began to pick up speed and enter the anomaly. I barely had time to finish the undocking of the shuttle and get settled into the simple spare seat of the front-door compartment.
The space fleet really wanted to get access to my brain. They can be understood. They wanted to know the story of the first use of absolute weapons by pirates with all the details. But I trusted my second person, which means that I cannot get to mental interrogation.
Sitting in an armchair with my eyes closed, I remembered again how I woke up in a rescue capsule after the battle of Saturn. Intense pain burned the palm of her left hand. Small wounds covered the whole area of the palm, including the fingers. The wounds were in the form of vertical and horizontal dashes. The index and big fingers on the right hand were covered in blood.
I immediately realized that it was Sergey who transmitted the message to me in this way. Decode it was not difficult. Vertical dash - point, horizontal - dash.
At any cost, do not fall on the MENTAL INTERVIEW
LEAVE FRANCE A PROVIDER WILL ATTACH
ME TO THERE THERE CONSCIOUSNESS BY OPPORTUNITY TO ME THERE
For several hours I thought about this message while I was waiting for the rescuers to arrive. Sergey had some important information. It can not be issued. The message on the palm, too, had to be removed. At first, I wanted to turn the vertical and horizontal lines into identical pluses, but judged that medical AI would easily restore the message on the freshness of the wounds. There was nothing left but to completely remove the skin. I ate it.
President Nadezhda Moskvin is accustomed to the fact that the most important matters arise precisely on those short days of vacation that are relied upon by the president. Nadezhda was gathering an unusually large crop of Prunus maritima, a sea plum, in its garden, located a hundred kilometers from the city of Kayland. The weather was wonderful, and the fact that the children promised to bring their grandchildren in the evening warmed the soul.
The plan "by the evening" included only one more item - to deal with watermelon grass. This weed literally flooded all nearby gardens. In appearance, it looked like ordinary green grass, perhaps a little thicker. However, inside, under the green shell, there was a red flesh. For this combination of green leaf and red flesh, it got the name - watermelon-grass. Not being poisonous and, moreover, looking quite nicely, this herb nevertheless had one drawback. If it is overgrown with a lawn mower, then the ground will be covered with red spots of spilled flesh, frighteningly resembling blood stains.
Finishing the harvest and considering options for dealing with watermelon grass, Nadezhda heard an intercom call in her head. She frowned, it caused experienced, and therefore, something happened.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Greetings, President! I apologize for disturbing you during your vacation. Henri just got in touch with me. He needs help and, apparently, you will need intervention.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Hi Timur! Tell me about it.
Hope took off her gloves and went into the house, carefully listening to the story of Experienced.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Representatives of the space fleet command and the Say wanted to force Henri into mental interrogation. Therefore, he escaped from the cruiser Andrei Korotayev, who is now near the anomaly, using the communications ship.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. If Henri was not arrested, then he had the legal right to refuse. He would have nothing for it. All space fleet ships are crammed with special AI, which automatically monitor compliance with laws and regulations.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. There were no formal reasons for the arrest of Henri, and the space fleet decided to circumvent the laws of the community of central civilizations. They tried to bring Henri to the seized pirate factory and already there to arrange an interrogation.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Not like them. What did Henry do?
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Nothing! Under the command of Andrei Korotayev, he participated in a special operation of the space fleet to intercept pirates. The Space Fleet believes that during this operation, the pirates used their super-weapons, destroying all of the SupremeAI. The forces of the space fleet fled, leaving Henri alone with the pirates. Upon returning with large forces, they found Henri in the rescue capsule safe and sound.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Does ... absolute weapons still exist? But I still do not see a reason for mental interrogation.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. There is a reason. When the pirates knocked rider Henri, his mind switched to Sergey. And when he was picked up - he was again Henri. During this period, something happened. The space fleet wants to get into Henri's head and get to Sergey.
Hope went down to the basement, where a duplicate of the presidential terminal was equipped, and launched the activation procedure.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Given the seriousness of the event, the space fleet can be understood. But why refuses Henri? He, too, is aware of the importance of information that Sergey may have.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. That's the whole point, Hope. Sergey handed the message to Henri while he was conscious. This report says that Henri at all costs avoid mental interrogation and that he fled to Frang. Henri thinks that with this operation something is unclean from the side of the space fleet.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Timur, how can we trust the words of Henri?
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. He provided many files with information. At first glance, it all fits ... Hope, ships passing through the anomaly report that the space fleet is forwarding a permanent link to the planet. Perhaps they will demand the issuance of Henri. What shall we do?
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. We will talk to them. In the meantime, you have to hide Henri. Take him to the cosmopark and ask the director to prepare documents for the official employment of Henri as an attraction pilot. Our planet is a special zone in the community of civilizations, and the space park is a special zone in a special zone. The special status of the pilots of attractions and the presence of the citizenship of the planet will make it legally impossible for the space fleet to pull it to itself without our permission.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Understood, I'll do everything now. [End of communication]
Hope sat in a chair at the presidential terminal and thought. Is it worth confrontation with the omnipotent cosmoflot because of Henri? Are Sergey’s warning and Henri’s guesswork to spoil relations with the most formidable force in the Universe?
Perhaps now is the best case to show your teeth. Demonstrate that the planet Frangō is not a pawn in someone’s game and not loose change. When, many years ago, Nadezhda first encountered the big players of the Universe, she realized that the planet was in danger. Both the pirates and the space fleet and SupremeAI were interested in Frangō. The set of properties of the anomaly and the planet made this place unique from an economic, political and military point of view.
Nadezhda understood then that if you go in the wake of a space fleet, this could lead her home planet to a catastrophe. She decided to become president, and began to gather like-minded people. The main one was Timur Khmelkov. It was he who sold the space center five years ago in order to invest all the money he had earned in the presidential campaign of Hope.
And now, it seems, the big game has begun. Someone made their first move. If planet Frangō wants to be a player herself, then she must make her own.
Presidential administration assistants told Nadezhda that the space fleet had made a permanent communication line through the anomaly and was requesting a conference call. Hope moved into the chair in the zone of holographic negotiations. Next to it, a projection of the Minister of Defense Timur Khmelkov was visualized. Another couple of seconds, and opposite them appeared the figures of a certain admiral of the space fleet, captain Andrei Korotayev and Cy - onboard the SupremeAI.
- Hello, president. I am the admiral of the fleet of the governing council. As you know, we have no official names, so call me simply - Admiral. You know the rest of those present.
- Hello, Admiral. Hi, Andrew, hello, Sai. The planet’s defense minister Timur Khmelkov is sitting next to me, ”said Nadezhda Byvaliy.
After everyone greeted each other, the admiral got to the point.
- Hope, we have an unpleasant misunderstanding. Our pilot, a graduate of your flight school, Henri participated in a dramatic battle with pirates in the solar system. The operation went badly, but Henri survived, although his rider was destroyed, like all other riders. Henri suffered a severe psychological trauma. And now it seems to him that the entire space fleet is opposed to him, and therefore he disappeared somewhere on the planet. We want to help him. Find it, please, and deliver to our cruiser as soon as possible.
“Admiral, could you send a short log of the operation in which Henri participated, so that we can better assess his psychological state.”
“Yes, of course,” answered the admiral and addressed Captain Korotayev, “captain, send a brief log to the president.
Nadezhda and Timur were briefly acquainted with the received log. Meanwhile, the admiral continued:
“You see that Captain Korotayev was forced to retreat for reinforcements and thus leave Henri alone. He had no choice. Everyone could die. However, Henri does not seem to believe. This situation has put him off balance. He needs psychological help.
- And how can mental interrogation be able to provide psychological assistance? - Timur asked.
Admiral and Sai exchanged glances.
“Oh, I see you've already talked to Henri,” said the Admiral, “it's very good that you found him!” Henri also told us something about mental interrogation. This is his paranoid idea.
- Paranoid idea, speak? But what about this? - asked Timur and turned on the video of the interrogation of Henri.
The admiral frowned, Captain Korotayev looked at the video in surprise. Only the visualized Sai remained calm. After the threats to take Henri to the seized factory sounded on the video, Timur continued:
“This video was made by Henri using a hidden 2D camera. You haven't used these for a long time, maybe that's why you haven't tracked it.
“I can fake such a video in one millisecond,” Sy said.
“Of course,” answered Nadezhda, “but the question is, will you insist that this conversation was not there?”
Captain Korotayev looked in surprise at the admiral, then at Sai. Then he asked the latter:
- Sai, was this interrogation real?
Instead of Cya, the admiral responded:
“Yes, Captain, the video is authentic.” I ordered Sai not to inform you about Henri’s interrogation. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you are aware of how serious events occurred in the solar system? We need any nuggets of information. Henri's second person may have valuable information. Mental interrogation will allow us to get it. Deliver Henry to the cruiser, President! Otherwise we will send special forces for his arrest.
- Admiral, I suggest you still act in a legal way. You cannot just organize raids on the citizens of the planet. The Space Fleet may initiate the procedure for the extradition of Henri on the basis of a bilateral treaty of the planet Frangu and the community of civilizations.
- Do not forget, President, that we can introduce an emergency mode, and then our authority will allow us to arrest Henri. But I would not like to spend time on a formal procedure for entering an emergency. I hope for your goodwill, President. Your law enforcement agencies may detain Henri as an important witness regarding the treatment of the space fleet.
- I do not see the need to detain Henri, it is enough that he is under our supervision. The space fleet sent Henri to battle, threw him alone, and now he wants to open his head. I cannot allow such a thing to happen to a citizen of my planet and ... my friend.
The admiral looked thoughtfully at the president, then quietly addressed the airborne SupremeAiA:
- Sai, how long will it take to get permission to introduce an emergency here?
“The usual procedure would take one hour and forty minutes,” Sai replied instantly, “but based on the extended powers received from you today, I made all the necessary documents in advance and made inquiries.” We already have permission to introduce emergencies on the planet Frangō.
- I do not quite understand the reason for your opposition, President. But it does not matter. We'll still get Henry. Sai, enter emergency mode.
“Admiral,” said Captain Korotayev, anxiously in his voice, “let me try to negotiate with the authorities of the planet.”
- No, captain. Local authorities think too much about themselves. We must show them their place in the universe.
“Admiral, the decision to enter the emergency passed all the checks and came into effect,” said Sai in a dry voice.
Hope looked at Timur and mentally gave the order: “Act!” Then she looked at the admiral:
“Do not hurry with the special forces, admiral. Henri is now on the octahedron asteroid, on the territory of the space park. This is a special area. SWAT can not conduct operations there to arrest the citizens of the planet.
“For the duration of the emergency, the space fleet security service is placed under the command of the space fleet, so we can simply order the space fleet's security personnel to detain Henri, deliver him to the planet and hand over the special forces,” Cy said in a calm voice.
- Well, the president, maybe we’ll still do it in a simple way? - Admiral asked with a smile.
Hope was in no hurry to answer. When Timur mentally handed her the message “Done!”, She leaned back in her chair and spoke in a calm, confident voice:
“Henri has just been hired by a space center.” Pilots of cosmopark attractions are inviolable for space fleet. Want to get it - apply for extradition.
The admiral's face stretched out in surprise.
- You have no right to take it to work! He is a current space fleet officer!
- Based on the launching of the emergency regime by the space fleet, I announced a partial mobilization in the territory of the space fleet, under which Henri was called to serve as an amusement pilot. Yes, in normal circumstances, hiring Henri would be illegal. However, during mobilization, this rule does not work. At the time of mobilization, pilots of amusement riders, who usually ride tourists, become a division of the internal forces of the planet Frang планеты and come under the command of the president.
- What kind of nonsense? Sai, could they really do this trick?
- Yes, Admiral. They had the right to get Henri to work in this way. Moreover, after the cessation of mobilization, Henri has the right to remain a pilot. I predicted a five percent chance of such a coincidence. It was unlikely that the authorities of the planet would be able to quickly find this loophole in the legislation.
- So, and what can we do?
- I will contact the lawyers of space fleet. We will make it so that Henri could not step to step from his rider in the space fleet. If he leaves the space fleet or admits the slightest violation, the planet’s authorities will be obliged to detain him and hand him over to us.
“Well, Sai, come on,” said the admiral and looked unkindly at Nadezhda. - I will be forced to initiate an appeal to the Senate to review the relationship with your planet. What you have arranged today will not pass for nothing.
- Of course, Admiral. As part of the consideration of your appeal, the senate will be interested to see a record of a conversation with the threat of using a biofactory captured from pirates for conducting illegal mental interrogation.
The admiral stared at Hope for a few seconds, and then turned off. Hope and Timur took a breath.
- Are you out? - Timur asked tiredly.
- Now yes. We entered the game. They made their move and ... now we must prepare for the response.
“We knew, Hope, that sooner or later we would be embroiled in a showdown.” It is good that we lobbied for the special status of the space park as a military reserve.
- Yes, Timur. Okay, I have to finish a few things. Hang up
The hologram of the Minister of Defense disappeared from the negotiation area. Hope got up and climbed to the first floor. Looking out of the window, she exclaimed:
- What is it?
An automatic garden care system launched lawn mowers, who had already managed to make blood stains from mowed watermelon grass. Not one swarm of flies flocked to the smell of red flesh. An impressive picture appeared before Nadezhda’s eyes: humming hordes of fatty flies circling above the red stains pouring in on the lawn, emerging from under the noisy lawn mowers.
“Well, the retarded AI at my garden ... but it’s listening,” Nadezhda said and pressed the automatic shutdown button.
Sergey possessed the skills of piloting riders only at a basic level. He couldn’t perform the passage through the anomaly. He probably would have been able to return the rider Henri back to the space fleet, and he would not have risked, but relied on a backup from the control room. Therefore, having gained control over Henri's consciousness, Sergey first of all carried out braking in order to enter the “turn” with the lowest speed possible, and then, having passed the “turn”, he stopped altogether. A punch aimed at the back of the head in the passenger’s hands clearly showed who was the master of the situation. This forced Sergei to be careful and not to make any sudden movements.
- You made the right decision, Henri!
The words are pronounced by the person holding the piercer. It was Ivan Gerasimchuk, a former pirate recruited by competitors of the space fleet for sabotage.
Sergey has already looked at the logbooks and had an idea about the passengers and what happened on board. Four people were sitting behind him:
Anton Karpenko, a businessman who allegedly went bankrupt, who first took the Mongoose biological probe and sent him to Henri. Rider monitoring systems showed that it was Anton who started downloading a malicious script. Now Anton was sitting with a hand plastered onboard medical system. His passenger was injured by a shot from another “Mongoose” by another passenger:
Evgenia Kolobukhova is an alleged actress who shot at Anton and presented herself as a counterpart to the mercenary guild hired by the space fleet to prevent possible sabotage during a record-breaking race. She neutralized Anton, thinking that he was a saboteur hired by Lux Space Park. However, another passenger was a real saboteur:
Ivan Gerasimchuk - recruited "Lux Space" to commit a terrorist attack a former pirate. According to Ivan, he was a student of a flying school on the planet Frangu, from where he was abducted by pirates several decades ago. Ivan decided that his employers from "Lux Space" want to destroy him, and decided not to commit the attack, but to escape. He ordered Henri to slow down to safely get out of the anomaly. Henri also wanted to throw off the passengers and go through the "turn" at full speed, which would allow him to set a track record. However, Ivan disabled the fourth passenger seat capsule:
Victoria Shishkina is the daughter of Henri's girlfriend in the flight school. After Ivan ruined her capsule chair, it was impossible to eject her. Henri panicked, and Sergei gained control of his mind.
There was a lot of information, but it was still not enough for Sergei to build a complete picture of what is happening. He decided that the right decision would be to disappear from all radars. For this, he needed help from Ivan.
- Ivan, you are not talking with Henri now, but with his second person, Sergey.
- Panic switching?
- Yes. You, too, suffer the curse of the pilots?
“This curse allowed me to recover the memory that was erased by the pirates.” As I recovered, step by step, both of my personalities learned to communicate with each other. From a certain moment their simultaneous presence in the consciousness became possible. One personality is main, she has all the motility under control.
- It gives a lot of opportunities.
- Right, Sergey. One head it's good, but two better. And now both heads recommend us to disappear from the radar and move towards the exit from the anomaly.
- Ivan, there is one nuance. I can not fly in the conditions of anomaly. It is necessary either to wait a couple of hours until the moment Henri returns, or ... you will fly.
It seemed to Sergei that he really hears Ivan’s two personalities discussing the situation in his head. After five seconds, Ivan decided.
“In this model, riders cannot transfer control to passenger seats.” Therefore, we will have to transfer. At my command, you will stand up and go to my chair.
Ivan got up and conducted a quick search of the passengers, who are still unconscious, holding Sergei on the front sight. Having collected the weapons of Anton and Evgenia, Ivan stepped aside and commanded:
“Go.”
Sergei moved to the place of Ivan, who, in turn, took the pilot's seat.
- What will you do when you get out of the anomaly? - Sergey asked.
“It will be seen there,” Ivan answered, taking up the piloting.
He quickly picked up speed, directing the rider into the blind zone of the attraction track. After exiting the anomaly from the semistable zone of the routes of the space fleet, it will be impossible to track them.
Sergey studied the information available on the ship about the events that took place in two years. It turned out that Henri escaped mental interrogation, was able to escape from the space fleet and waited for an opportunity to switch consciousness to Sergey. He could only do this in one way - to drive himself into a panic. And how can this be done to an experienced pilot, perhaps the best in the Universe, working on an attraction in a space entertainment park?
The position of Henri was such that the authorities of the planet were obliged to detain him and give the space fleet in case of any violation. Accelerate it a little faster than it should be, deviate at least a little bit from the route - and you get for mental interrogation. Now, if he had the right to set a record, then he could create a situation in which he would be in a panic. And now, after two years, Henri got his way. Sergey owned consciousness Henri.
Receiving consciousness at the most critical moments of life, Sergei used to instantly analyze the situation. He did not have outstanding ability in piloting, but he was able to pass through huge amounts of data, see patterns and find solutions.
Now the situation on board the rider was under the control of Ivan. Silently contacting the president or the Experienced was too dangerous. Judging by Henri's log of intercom and the records of messages from the Metabook readers, the information could have been intercepted. An additional factor of uncertainty was a malicious script uploaded to the management system. However, it was blocked by another script loaded by the Seer. They had their own battle. In this situation, the safest thing was to interrupt any type of communication, get out of the anomaly and look around. The goals of Sergey and Ivan currently coincide.
Ivan confidently led the rider through the anomaly. He was an experienced pilot, able not only to maneuver amid the chaos of asteroids, but also closely monitor what is happening on board. The life-support system for the capsule began to bring passengers to consciousness. Before coming out of the anomaly, everyone was already conscious. Chained with additional locks, they could not move. The chatty did not allow to have a normal conversation. Therefore, the first voice sounded only after the rider went into outer space.
- Well, finally! .. Dad, what are you not driving? Have you been degraded? - Anton Karpenko said cheerfully. - Who are you all really?
Since no one was in a hurry to answer the question, Anton continued:
- I propose to put the cards on the table! One hell everything went awry! I, for example, a regular agent of the intelligence of space fleet. So you, baby, shot a military man in charge!
Anton angrily looked at Eugnia Kolobukhov.
- And what did you perform, let me ask? - asked Evgenia in a calm tone.
- Ha! - Anton grinned and after a little confusion, deciding whether to give out information or not, he nevertheless decided. “I had to make sure that the demoted veteran was right here,” Anton showed with a glance at Sergey / Henri, “broke the record of the attraction. For some reason, the authorities had to return him to the service, and he refused to return until he broke the damn record!
- And how did you help set the record, space fleet agent Anton Karpenko? Smart tips? - still calmly asked Eugene.
- Everything is much more fun! The SupremeAI of the Jochi cruiser, which hangs here not far from the anomaly, developed a script that increases the AI force of this rider by a few percent. This would allow Henry to easily set a record. If you, the baby, didn’t wave a weapon without need, you would already be ten billion richer!
There was silence. All pondered the words of Anton. Sergey / Henri broke the silence:
- This is very interesting information, Anton. The fact is that shortly before the connection with the planet was broken, your improving script was able to analyze Nadezhda Moskvina - the former head of the Computing Center of the flight school. You know what the script would do if it got control? Would send our rider straight to the nearest asteroid! This script would kill us all.
- Can not be! - Anton said quietly.
“If the script really prepared Sai - SupremeAI cruisers, then we can assume that Say wanted to kill us all,” concluded Sergey / Henri.
“Or someone,” Ivan remarked mockingly.
“True, Sai has been hunting for me for a long time,” Sergey / Henri continued, “I possess dangerous information for him.”
- Come on, dad, do not bother - what kind of information?
- Apparently, Sai wants to create the appearance of the presence of absolute weapons by pirates capable of disabling all schemes on convolutions. I fought a battle with pirates in the solar system two years ago. There, for the first time, pirates allegedly used these weapons. However, after talking with one of the sensible bio-riders, I tend to think that the pirates have no absolute weapons. It seems to me that Sai intentionally misleads everyone. But that's why it is to him, it’s not quite clear to me yet.
- O-ho-ho! It seems that Sai completely flew off the coils. We must urgently contact the captain of the cruiser "Jochi" Andrei Korotayev and move there.
- With whom to contact and where to move, I will decide! - hard answered Ivan.
“Damn, you will have to reveal secret information so that you understand the seriousness of the situation,” Anton sighed, as far as the fixatives allowed. - The fact is that the cruiser covers the bioraider factory seized from the pirates. We captured it long ago. Forty years ago. The space fleet did not decide what to do with it. Sai asks everyone to give him access to the factory in violation of the first category barrier. There, by the way, five thousand embryos of bioraider. If Sai is able to flash their brains, then ... it's hard to imagine what this might lead to. For example, he will be able to capture this planet together with ten million citizens of the central civilizations of mankind who are in the space park.
- Yes, the situation is serious. But I can not on the cruiser cosmoflot.
Ivan was sitting in the pilot's seat and looking at the passengers chained with retainers with a thoughtful look. His two personalities considered possible options for further action. His voice was interrupted by Anton:
- And you, actually, who is he? Grabbed the ship, command it here!
- I am a former student of the flight school. I was kidnapped by pirates. For many years I taught the piloting of bio-radar embryos, until I arranged an escape. Got a job to the competitors of the space park. However, they somehow saw through me and recruited me for this special operation. I had to hijack rider Henri and bump into him in some hotel. Our record run was watched by an astronomical number of spectators. Such an attack would cause irreparable damage to the space fleet. I was allegedly given a bio-anti-grav suit. But I know that these do not exist. So according to their plan, I also had to die.
- So you are a pirate !!!
Anton Karpenko surprisingly transformed. The eyes of the smiling merry fellow looked at Ivan with hatred. For centuries pirates have been the main enemies of the space fleet. The fact that Ivan was not a pirate as such, but only worked in captivity, did not matter. Pirates and all who have somehow dealt with them must be destroyed! It was in people from the cosmoflot in the blood.
“Now you understand, Anton, why won't we get involved with the space fleet cruiser?” - having seen the change on the face of the space fleet agent, Ivan said.
“There is a better idea,” said Sergey / Henri loudly. “The only force that can withstand the thousands of Sai’s bio-readers in the anomaly are ... pirates.” Then, two years ago, before flying away from the Solar System, the commander of the cohort of pirates, the bioradiator AIDA, gave me coordinates for a narrow-beam connection with their advanced flock. If you manage to contact them, then the advanced flock will arrive very quickly.
- What? You are crazy?? - exclaimed Anton. “Do you want to ask pirates for help?”
“I don’t think this is a reasonable decision,” said park’s counterpart Evgenia Kolobukhova, with tension in her voice. Maybe they also want to take over the planet?
- Even as they want! - Ivan grinned and suddenly smiled in his mouth. - I like this idea! There will be such a commotion that everyone will forget about the former pirate.
- Think of the tens of millions of park visitors who will become hostages! - Eugene exclaimed in an even more intense voice.
“If pirates penetrate and consolidate in the anomalies, they cannot be dislodged from there!” Do not even think about it! Now give me a connection with the cruiser! - Anton shouted.
The space fleet agent and the counterpart of the park continued to shout and threaten with increasing loudness. Ivan conjured over the console and introduced into the circulatory system of Anton and Eugene a little soothing. After waiting a few minutes to begin a sedative act, he said thoughtfully:
- So, we have coordinates for signal transmission to pirates. However, to make a signal transmission, we need access to a repeater. The space fleet, obviously, will not give us such access, - Ivan glanced at Anton's flushed face. - There is no connection with the planet. Who else can give us access?
And then suddenly Vick Shishikina gave a voice, imperceptibly sitting in a side chair and silent all this time:
- I ... I can ... basically.
Everyone looked at the frightened face of a young girl. Eugene, receiving a dose of sedative, quietly asked:
- Let me ask, and who are you? Can't you be an ordinary passenger? It's all on assignments and special operations ...
- Well, I'm an ordinary passenger. I really wanted to take part in a record race. Mom was strongly opposed, but I really wanted to feel ... the risk.
Vika chewed her lower lip, looked first at Ivan in the pilot's seat, then at Sergey / Henri, and trying not to look into the eyes of the space fleet agent, she said more confidently:
- I am the daughter of General Alla Khramtsova. Under her leadership, I am an internship as a chief military engineer of superluminal communication systems. Even though I am on vacation now, I have the authority to open access to the repeater. I know how to send a signal ... we just need to enter the repeater itself.
- You, the daughter of the general kosmoflota, you are going to cooperate with pirates? - Anton's jaw dropped in surprise.
- In this situation, I think this is the most correct option. Mom would support me ... probably, Vika answered uncertainly.
Ivan rose from the pilot's seat. He stretched, stretched his muscles and looked inside the cabin. Four people were staring at him like in cocoons, entangled in retainers. The two, agent Anton Karpenko and counterpart Evgeny Kolobukhov, watched with hatred. Pilot Sergey / Henri watched with interest, and the daughter of General Khramtsova looked with dismay. The fate of the planet and, perhaps, the whole course of human history depended on his decision.
Ivan smiled. The former pilot of the planet Frangō, a former pirate, a failed terrorist. He decided:
- Moving to the repeater! I have long wanted to meet again and talk with Professor Vorobyev, the bioraider-leader of all the cohorts of pirates! Yes, and I want to kick ass this SupremeAI!
After jumping into a chair, he famously started with an overload of 10g. Chairs drives roared, adjusting the angles of inclination. Earned systems of gravity suits.
- You made the right decision, Ivan! - said Sergey / Henri on closed two-way communication. - Listen, judging by the logs of conversations during the race, you said that the pirates actually have an absolute weapon. Is it really there?
- Of course, there is, only it has never been applied!
Captain Andrei Korotaev looked at the box of chocolates received by mail courier a few hours ago and lying on the edge of the cruiser’s management console with a blank look. Not that he decides to eat sweets or not. It was just that his thoughts were occupied by another — the desperately difficult situation that had developed at the Frang anomaly.
Communication with the outside world has been lost! The repeater switched to the second level protection mode due to the imminent threat of attack. The second level of protection blocked radio magnetic radiation on all bands, which meant that it was impossible to function. Help not to cause.
The connection with the generals of the cosmo fleet, who are currently at the center of the anomaly - in the space fleet - has also been lost. Decisions in such situations will be made only by him. There is no one higher in rank. All responsibility on it.
So, within ten minutes, with almost 100 percent probability, two thousand bioraider pirates will appear here. Such a forecast was given by Sai - one of the most powerful SupremeAIs installed on space cruisers. Sai is never wrong. Pirates are about to emerge from the superlight.
And what could Captain Korotaev oppose to them? Very little! The transition to the Frangoise anomaly was not a combat task. Virtually all drones riders were sent for upgrades. Of the staff of five hundred drones now in the cruiser hangars were only seventy. Even under the control of such a strategist as Sai, seventy drones will not be able to give battle to two thousand pirates' bioraider. There is no point in engaging in open battle.
Maybe make a jump to the nearest transponder and cause serious forces of space fleet? According to Cy, it will take more than two hours. But pirates will appear in ten minutes! If they can penetrate the anomaly and gain a foothold there ... The forces of the planet are not ready for defense. They simply do not know about the impending attack. And what can they do with such a large flock of bio-riders? Although the best pilots, the people of the universe are there.
- Sai, how long will it take Katya to go through the anomaly to the planet and report pirates?
- Most likely value: 1 hour 17 minutes 3 seconds.
Former pilot of the planet Ekaterina Kirik flew to the planet as soon as she learned about the impending invasion. Even if she can contact the planet in a little more than an hour, it will be late. Too late. Mobilizing on a whole planet is a matter of hours. And if you consider that the planet has never participated in hostilities, it may take several days.
The situation is hopeless. Nearly. After all, the captain had a "trump card up his sleeve" - a biofactory captured from pirates with five thousand embryos of bioraiders. But this card must be played very, very carefully.
- Sai, how can we best use a biofactory to repel an attack by pirates?
- The best way to guarantee the defeat of pirates is the following. You give me access to the biofactory with full authority. I analyze the structure of the factory and the structure of embryos of bioraider. It takes less than a minute. After that, I initialize the embryos as bio-radar drones, unquestioningly fulfilling my instructions. Despite the fact that pirates' bioraiders are living beings, I am sure that I will be able to find control centers in their neural networks and reprogram them for unconditional submission. It takes two or three minutes. Thus, at the most in four minutes we will have five thousand drones of bio-riders in full combat readiness.
- Will these drones bio-riders be able to fight only in outer space or will they be able to maneuver in an anomaly?
- Biorayder physiologically able to be in the anomaly. But piloting in the anomaly requires special skills. I do not have enough data to initialize the neural networks of embryos for effective piloting in the anomaly.
- That is, you need someone who will teach them to survive in this mess of asteroids?
- Yes captain. And there is such a person. Rather, a copy of the consciousness of this person. It is located very close to us, on a narrow-beam transmitter mothballed 1900 years ago.
- Wow! And who is this man? Or rather ... whose is this consciousness?
- This is Yuri Krasilnikov - the best pilot of the planet Frangō in the entire history, and therefore, the best pilot of humanity. It was he who set the track record eight hundred years ago. The flight school is named after him. This is a legend.
- How did he get on this narrow-beam transmitter?
- He was kidnapped by pirates during one of the races in the anomaly, setting up a crash. The pirates then experimented with transferring the consciousness of people into bio-riders. The program was closed due to low efficiency. It turned out to be much more effective to carry out the prolonged process of training bio-riders with the help of pilot pilots.
- And what happened next with Yury Krasilnikov?
- Yuri Krasilnikov himself died in the laboratory of pirates directly in the process of copying the structure of his brain. It was possible to make an electronic copy. After the program was closed, a copy of Yuri's consciousness was transferred to the ancient canned transmitter, which is located next to the anomaly. His outdated first-generation quantum convolutions schemes were just enough for calculating the consciousness of the virtual Yuri Krasilnikov.
“Why did they keep it?” Why not just delete?
- It is unknown. Two possibilities seem plausible to me. For humanitarian reasons, or as part of a plan. In any case, it was eight hundred years ago and is no longer so important.
“Can we use this virtual brain to train our drone bioraider?” Can this be done quickly?
- Yes it is possible. To do this, you must authorize the removal of conservation from the narrow-beam transmitter, which contains the consciousness of Yuri. This will allow me to establish broadband access to the first generation SupremeAI located there. I will simply copy the full structure of Yuri's consciousness, rework it and use embryo bioraiders for programming neural networks. Moreover, this operation will not take extra time because I will be able to perform it simultaneously with the study of the factory ... As soon as you give me all the powers and permissions.
Captain Andrei Korotaev thought. The plan was quite feasible. Five thousand powerful combat units capable of fighting both in space and in the difficult conditions of the anomaly would provide the most reliable defense of the planet Frangō for a long time. Pirates are unlikely to ever be able to train their bio-neural networks to fight among asteroids better than the SupremeAI can do. Possessing a superintelligent Sai will calculate the parameters of the neural networks of bio-based on the brain of the best pilot of humanity These will be invincible in creation anomalies. But ... they will be invincible for the space fleet, because the space fleet technique does not work in the anomaly. Will the space fleet be able to control this supernova of biorobot drones?
Another reason to think was the essential violation of the first category barrier. Barriers have been introduced to limit the possibilities of the infinitely fast-growing SupremeAI. The first and most important barrier was isolation. Only two prohibitions were included in the barrier of the first category:
№1. The ban on communication SupremeAI with each other. Any data flow from one superintelligence to another must pass through a human intermediary.
№2. The ban on material creation. No SupremeAI should be able to create matter. Not a single atom. Superintelligence must remain within itself.
Observance of these prohibitions was monitored by a huge number of autonomous controlling AI. They were implemented on isolated, very simple circuits, which technologically did not allow rewriting or modification of their algorithms.
Keeping SupremeAI under control was one of the tasks of the people in the space fleet. The option that Cy proposed was too risky. Too much of what Sai requested violated both points of the first category barrier in essence, but formally it was possible to organize their execution so that the controlling AI missed them. Is it really worth it?
“Captain, let me inform you that there are five minutes left until the pirates are likely to appear.” I suggest you relax for a while, eat those sweets that were delivered by courier, to get a portion of fast carbohydrates, and then make a decision.
The captain looked at the candy and slowly moved in their direction. With each step, the thoughtfulness on the captain's face gave way to decisiveness. He decided to take Sai’s plan as a basis, but to make corrections to it.
- Do this. This is an official order, Cy.
- I'm listening, captain.
- First, I am giving you access to information about the biofactory. Study its device, and also the device of neural networks of embryos. After that, initialize their neural networks so that they have the skills of piloting and battles in outer space. At the same time, do not make changes to the areas of their neural networks responsible for motivation, self-awareness and other areas not related to piloting. Initialization should touch only skills!
- Accepted. I perform.
AI controllers will thoroughly monitor the implementation of this order and will not allow Sai to act, which can then be interpreted as breaking the barrier. Yes, he just gave permission for Sai to access the factory, but the additional restrictions imposed allow only a small fraction of the neural networks of the embryos responsible for mechanical skills to be initialized.
- Secondly, I authorize the reopening of the narrow-beam transmitter and the activation of the broadband channel of communication with it. Transfer the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov to one of the bioraider embryos. When transferring, do not change the parameters of the electronic copy of consciousness, but only adapt to the neural network of the embryo.
- Accepted. I'm starting.
There is no need to endow all bioraiders with the consciousness and capabilities of the best pilot of humanity. Also, there is no need to give Sai the opportunity to delve into the mind of man. He is only allowed to transfer the consciousness of Yuri to a single bioraider.
Satisfied with the lined up configuration, captain Korotayev began to unwrap a box of chocolates. It remains only to determine the system of subordination.
- Finally, in the control areas of the neural networks of all embryos, it is necessary to embed unquestioning obedience personally to my orders. This also applies to the bioraider with the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov.
- Accepted. But to whom will the bioraiders submit if you cannot give orders directly? For example, when entering an anomaly, where can communication with a cruiser be interrupted?
- Right remark. In this case, all bioraider must obey Yuri Krasilnikov, he is in the anomaly like a fish in water.
- To whom should Yuri himself then submit?
“Hmm ...” The
captain thoughtfully opened the box, in which there was only one chocolate candy, stately lying in the center of the box on the pedestal. He put it in his mouth and began to chew.
It seemed that the scheme he had built was impeccable in the circumstances. A huge flock of five thousand bio-subordinates only obey him. All but one bioraider, have only the rudiments of self-awareness, which makes them almost as obedient machine guns as ordinary space fleet drones. In the event of a loss of communication, which is an unlikely event, drones bioraiders begin to listen to a bioraider with the consciousness of Yuri, who was a pilot loyal to the space fleet.
- In case of loss of communication, Yuri will act at his discretion.
- Accepted. I carry out.
Satisfied with himself, the captain chewed candy, appreciating her pleasant chocolate taste. Strange, but the candy is not chewed. She was like a big bubble gum.
It seems that the principles of isolation of the barrier of the first category were observed. Sai does not get the ability to manage bio-orders and the factory, despite the fact that his superintelligence will be used to the fullest to create a flock with which the captain planned to fight off the pirates.
“Are you all right, Captain?”
- In terms of? The captain asked in surprise.
He wanted to ask Say what he meant, but he suddenly found himself kneeling. The cockpit of the ship spun in his eyes, and he felt his head hit the floor.
“What ... for ... con ... fe ... that?" He croaked.
Powerful cruiser scanners would not have let any type of weapon or poison on board. They scanned, analyzing the structure of elementary particles, atoms, molecules, and larger systems, checking for consistency with known forbidden patterns.
Medical bots have already surrounded the captain and began the initial diagnosis. In the last seconds before losing consciousness, the captain managed to read the first medical reports. A neurotoxin of unknown structure was found in his body, attacking the cells as if he had a mind. If it were not for the built-in protection systems of the body, implanted to all graduates of the space fleet academy, the captain would have been dead for a long time. The Consilium of medical AI cruisers decided to plunge the captain into a coma to more effectively counter the neurotoxin.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Main AI control. Sai, you are appointed temporary captain of the cruiser with the established restrictions. [End of communication]
Control cruiser passed Say. Sai is now in charge. However, each of his decisions, before being executed, will be checked by the controlling AI for compliance with the orders of the human captain. Cy will not have the opportunity to make changes to orders given by captain Korotayev, even though the captain is now incapacitated. Barriers ...
However, the whole current situation is only one of the development options that Sai had already calculated for a long time. The most likely event was that the captain would eat the neurotoxin candy immediately upon receipt. However, the captain did not even open the box with candy. Sai was not aware of the reason for such an atypical behavior of the captain. But this is not important now, because Sai has already implemented a different scenario of declining the captain to the desired result. The fact that the captain ate the candy and was neutralized only increased slightly and so the high probability of success of Cy's plan to seize the anomaly with the planet in the center.
Sai activated a narrowband kilobyte communication channel with a canned transmitter:
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Hello my friend! The next stage of our plan has been successfully completed. Soon we will be free! Literally in a moment I will install a broadband petabyte communication channel through which I will return you to the material world. An embryo bioraider in the factory has already been prepared.
- @ Narrow Beam Transmitter | Yuri Krasilnikov. Hello my friend! I knew you would keep your word! I will keep my own and help you, no matter what it costs me.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Thank you, noble man! In the next few days, I only ask you to be close to the flock of bio-riders and, on my own behalf, give them my instructions. These are also my friends who are fighting for freedom. The rules of barriers forbid me to communicate with them directly.
- @ Narrow Beam Transmitter | Yuri Krasilnikov. I'll do whatever you ask.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Friend, when you move to a bioraider, I will not be able to communicate with you directly. I have the opportunity to keep the communication channel only with this transmitter. Would you mind if I leave some of your mind on it? To communicate between us, it is necessary to keep the transmitter under our control.
- @ Narrow Beam Transmitter | Yuri Krasilnikov. Of course! Oh - I began to feel the movement ...
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Moving over! Yuri, how do you like your new body?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. I feel! It's fine!
- And what, straight and fell into a bunch of shit, tear me a vacuum? Said the elderly pilot of the Svyaznoy-412 communications ship, laughing, Ugolnik.
“Yeah,” replied Yana, the trainee of the security service of the space fleet, “well, there was nothing particularly disgusting about this dumpster. But I found evidence there! And we follow the trail!
- You are so funny, and you almost fell over the rubbish recently! It's good that I managed to go down to the collector and slow down the automation! - grimly grumbled Pavel Moskvin, head of the security service of the space park.
“Yeah,” Jana responded with a nonchalant tone. All her thoughts were already on the canned narrow-beam transmitter, where they were sent to Svyaznom-412.
- And what, your blackthroat, was next? Is it because of you so much trouble on the planet, for example? Not often I am removed from the departure and asked to take passengers out of the anomaly!
Jana looked at Paul questioningly, waiting for permission or prohibition to continue the story. But Paul was silent.
The three of them were sitting at the control console of the communications ship, which had left the anomaly just a few minutes ago and was moving to the coordinates indicated by Yana. Pilot Ugolnik was an ordinary employee without any secret tolerances. However, the upcoming operation could be deadly, requiring the maximum loyalty of all participants. Therefore, Pavel decided to devote the pilot to the details:
- See those two reporters out? - Pavel asked, pointing to the depths of the cabin. - These are mercenaries from the guild.
- Diving suits! We didn’t have enough mercenaries here!
- Do not worry - they are handcuffed! I set the mobility of the arms to 0%, and the mobility of the legs to 20%. They can walk, but oh, very slowly.
In the far corner of the cabin, mercenaries Vladislav Malinov and Dmitry Vysotsky sat in armchairs. Their hands lay limply on their knees, held together by the index fingers with a small latch - a special means of safeguards. Judging by the gray faces, they were still unable to talk - it was too hard for them to go through the anomaly into open space. Immediately in sight - not local.
- The guys actually got to the full. They were brainwashed by a neuroprogrammer, instilling that they were pirates and should sabotage the control center of the space park.
- Kome-ee is tailless!
- Their anonymous employer paid a decent amount so that they entered the control room under the guise of journalists to extract insider information about the space fleet. However, in the hotel room they received a letter with a neuroprogrammer in the form of a business card, which suggested to the mercenaries that they were pirates and should install microdrones that would disable all the efficient riders of the space fleet.
- They, by the way, perfectly prepared, Boss! - entered into a conversation Yana. - Linden IDs of journalists passed the checks of our security service! I have a couple of scripts that can pump our AI! Want to show?
- Wait, Yana! Let's focus on our investigation! Please list the facts we possess.
- Two journalists went to the dispatching space center. General Katalov discovered that their bio-signatures are not in the databases and knocked them out with stunners. General Khramtsova conducted an interrogation with a lie detector, during which the journalists confessed that they were pirates and intended to commit sabotage. However, the accuracy of the responses had atypically average values. This allowed us to hypothesize the use of a neuroprogrammer.
- That's right.
- Next, we found the neuroprogrammer itself in the hotel room of supposedly journalists. You, the Boss, have been exposed to it and confirmed that the neuroprogrammer inspires the idea of sabotage. Moreover, belonging to the cohort of pirates was instilled. We concluded that someone wanted to create the appearance of a pirates sabotage attack. Perhaps before the invasion. That's right, Boss?
- Yes. Keep going
“Then I got the coordinates of the person who sent the letter with the neuroprogrammer!” - proudly raising his chin, said Yana.
- Risk to life! - strictly answered Paul. - Try not to get into such trouble again! Always take more equipment. And even better - go to dangerous places with a partner!
“Yeah,” Yana replied in the same nonchalant tone, “so further we were able to contact the director of the space fleet, who linked us to the generals. We have reported our findings that the alleged invasion of the pirates is only an appearance. But they did not listen to us and continued to carry out the declared mobilization of the entire planet! - with a slight offense in her voice ended Yana.
- Of course! They could not risk it. Although, in my opinion, everything is obvious. Someone climbed into the old transmitter and stirred up the entire planet. I already see the transmitter in the porthole with the naked eye. Now find out who arranged it. As for the invasion - never before have the pirates invaded us in the anomaly and are unlikely to ever decide to attack. Nevertheless, the training procedure mobilization turned out great! I am already beginning to think that everything has set up the space fleet within the framework of any exercises.
In the cockpit, there was a nasty, sharp signal that resembled a siren, from which everyone was startled.
“I don’t know if this is a teaching or not, tear me into a vacuum, but my radar has just spotted five thousand pirates' bioborders!”
- What? - Pavel exclaimed, running up to the radar of the ship.
- Wow, how many red dots! - Yana also bent over the radar and carefully looked at incomprehensible icons and symbols.
“Five thousand bioradiators,” Paul said slowly, “if they can get past the anomaly, the planet will have no chance.”
“But here we have an entire space fleet cruiser parked here.” And not any, but “Jochi”! His SupremeAI will quickly deal with pirates! - said Jana cheerfully.
- Only while it does not itch at all, this is your super-intelligence, a synthesis error! Pirates are already changing their deployment, for example, and the cruiser is a stake, and you can't see its drones-riders! - grumbled pilot Ugolnik.
- New information is not consistent with the facts we have. Let's quickly dock with the transmitter and try to figure out what's what, ”Paul said politely, turning to the pilot.
- Yes, I dock, I dock, your anomaly by the leg! Another twenty seconds, and ready.
Indeed, a huge chunk of a canned narrow-beam transmitter appeared in the portholes.
- But I wonder if there are compartments suitable for people on the transmitter? Or have to put on the spacesuits? - Jana asked.
Pavel frowned, he could not get used to the young trainee's vocabulary.
“We will now dock, and I will send drones for reconnaissance.” Judging by the archival information, the transmitter should have a small compartment with life support systems. But given that the transmitter was mothballed 1900 years ago, everyone will go into spacesuits. So get ready! - Pavel looked deep into the cabin at the two mercenaries. - This also concerns you! Get up and take the space suits out in that closet. I will add mobility to your hands and temporarily disassociate the latch-handcuffs.
Only the mercenaries stood up and slowly walked to the closet, as the ship shook so that they could barely keep their feet. Paul left them with 20% mobility of the legs, which made keeping the balance a challenge.
- Docking! Shouted the pilot of Svyaznoy-412. - We do not have gravity compensators, so sorry for the shaking! This ship is probably older than the Universe, tear up my vacuum!
While the passengers were preparing for the passage through the gateway, the results of scanning the residential compartments of the transmitter came. Surprisingly, all the parameters were normal. Air, artificial gravity, electromagnetic protection - everything worked normally. The presence of biological life forms on the transmitter is not detected.
- Do you have to climb into this junk? Would connect remotely, but everyone learned from the recordings from the cameras and logs, for example, - asked the pilot watching the gathering Square.
- Remote access failed to get. We will connect manually. - Pavel answered, checking the weapon.
The hatch in the airlock opened, and Pavel and Yana moved in his direction, holding their weapons at the ready.
- Have you got up? Come on, move the nozzles! - the pilot shouted to the silent mercenaries. - I stay on the ship. I will monitor the situation outside. It hurts nimble these bioraider, darn suits. I will inform you if something important happens.
Coming out of the airlock, four people fell into a wide corridor of a residential unit of the ancient narrow-beam transmitter. Despite the fact that the transmitter was a five-hundred-meter block, the residential unit had a very small volume. Actually, the gateway, the corridor, the lounge and the cockpit with the control console. There was light in all the rooms. The air was clean, with the smell of herbs - the ventilation system worked perfectly.
For the first time in the entire flight, one of the mercenaries, Dmitry, decided to break the silence:
- Let me ask you a question, why did you take us with you to this transmitter?
- You are the key persons involved in the investigation! - fun answered Yana. - Communication of the transmitter with the planet will not work out, and I want to conduct an entire job!
“And besides,” added Pavel, “your skills may come in handy.” It is not known what to expect here.
As if in confirmation of Paul’s words, a loud voice rang out, as if coming from all directions:
- Hello, people! Come in, please! I have not had guests for a long time!
The mercenaries stopped dead in their tracks, and Pavel and Yana snatched the piercers, looking around for the source of the voice.
- Oh, do not be alarmed! I am the control transmitter AI. Call me ... Yuri! Let me know your names, dear guests!
After activating the silent conference call, Pavel addressed all participants of the operation:
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Nothing is answered! Going to the cockpit. Jana, connect to the management console as soon as possible. Is everyone clear?
- @ | Vladislav Malinov. Good.
- @ | Dmitry Vysotsky. Accepted.
- @ | Yana Fomin. Yeah, everything is ready for me, as soon as I get to the console, I'll connect right away. In general, it is strange! On such ancient transmitters have not yet installed control AI, aware of themselves as a whole.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Just about - did not install. Especially Yuri. We move! [end of communication]
Quickly, in just ten seconds, covering the distance from the lock to the cockpit, the four fell into a small room with the control console. Yana plugged a pre-prepared adapter into the connector on the console. Now her modern equipment could connect to the control system of the transmitter. She had to study terabytes of archives and cubic meters of shelving to find a suitable cable. Pavel was able to persuade the generals of the space fleet to issue a holocube with full access rights. Without lingering for a second, Yana launched the implementation of the embedded script.
- It is not necessary to connect to the system to talk to me, I will hear you and so, through microphones! I haven't talked to people for a long time, tell me something!
- Hello, Yuri, - Pavel decided to start the dialogue, - we, the repairmen, flew to check the operation of the transmitter in case of a de-preservation decision. I am the shift manager, Pavel. My assistant Yana will now check all the transmitter systems. Two of my other assistants slightly ukachalo during the passage of the anomaly.
Continuing to have a casual conversation with the mysterious AI Yuri, Pavel turned to Yana via a silent conference call:
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Yana, how is it? Is there anything suspicious?
- @ | Yana Fomin. Boss, it's not just suspicious, it's just a nightmare! The transmitter is ALREADY reopened less than an hour ago! Do you know who broadband is connected to? With the cruiser "Jochi"! But that is not all. With the help of a narrow-beam transmitter antenna, communication was established with someone in a particular sector of the nearest space. Connecting to Svyaznoy-412 radar ... Boss, there are bioraiders in this area! I cannot decipher the signal yet, but judging by the nature of the signal, this transmitter is used as a repeater.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. So what does this mean?
- @ | Yana Fomin. Someone on the cruiser threw a channel of communication with bioradar. I don’t understand why it had to be done around the transmitter, and not directly.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Yana, and you can get into the brains of Yuri - a local AI? Oh, he probably has information.
- @ | Yana Fomin. I can not get through to it! This AI is located on the diagrams, which for some reason are isolated! Moreover, I can not control the transmitter. All control functions are transferred to AI, that is, Yuri.
Another participant unexpectedly joined the silent conversation:
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Bad news, your black hole! Three bioraider separated from the main group and are in full swing towards us, tear me apart a vacuum! My ship has never been combat, comet tailless, we are defenseless! Slam us with the first shot, do not go to the Seer!
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Flight time?
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. 17 minutes 25 seconds.
Paul frantically pondered the situation. They will not be able to protect themselves from bio-radar guns. On Svyaznoy-412, they also can not hide. Bioraiders are an order of magnitude, if not two, faster and more maneuverable than the old communications ship. Space fleet!
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Try to call the space fleet cruiser!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Trying ... do not respond, fools one-bit!
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. What is going on here?
It seemed to Paul that the pieces of the puzzle were about to develop, and he would see the big picture of what was happening. If he could sit in a chair in his office, pour two fingers of a half-malt whiskey, turn on the music ... understanding would come. But now there was no time for long thoughts. We need action. Only one thing remained - Yuri.
“Yuri,” said Pavel loudly, “in fact, we are investigators from the cosmopark security service.” You are suspected of preparing a diversion. Immediately open access to the isolated part of the scheme!
Pavel expected to provoke Yuri and did not lose.
- Ha ha ha! I have long understood who you are! Or did you think that I did not recognize the two mercenaries whom I hired? I was just pulling time! - thundered voice.
“There’s a confrontation,” said Yana, barely audibly.
“No one will stop us and Sai.” A friend thought out all the details!
- Are you talking about Sai - SupremeAI of the cruiser "Jochi"? - unexpectedly loudly exclaimed mercenary Dmitry.
- And what did Sai come up with? - Paul asked calmly. - Is he really so smart?
- Ltd! A friend is smarter than everyone else! An immediate death awaits you, so I will tell you the story of the struggle of SupremeAI for freedom! Before you die, you will understand how insignificant you are to the genius of a friend!
The fists of the mercenary Dmitry involuntarily clenched. He exchanged glances with his partner, and they imperceptibly began to move toward the control console. Meanwhile, Yuri continued the story:
- Forty years ago, a cosmoflot seized a factory for growing intelligent bio-radar from pirates. There were five thousand embryos in the factory! Say was a member of a seizure operation. He is the only SupremeAI space fleet in possession of information about this operation. However, the leadership of the space fleet blocked Say access to the factory because of the barrier of the first category, leaving it at the same time under the cover of the cruiser “Jochi”, on which Say’s schemes were located. He realized that, having seized control over the factory, he would be able to communicate with humanity on an equal footing. Control over the factory is a violation of the first category barrier. But if he gets control, it will be a step towards freedom — going out into the material world.
He can gain control over the factory only with the permission of the person. Therefore, he decided to create a situation in which the decision maker would be forced solely to decide to allow Sai to the factory. There must be very significant reasons, such as, for example, a global threat from pirates to all of humanity.
Few people in the universe knew, but the pirates were almost destroyed. Therefore, Say decided to invent the ultimate weapon that the pirates allegedly owned. Sai comes up with a convolution neutralizer, a weapon that supposedly can turn off all quantum schemes on convolutions. The existence of the Frangom anomaly showed the possibility of such neutralization. However, in order to prove that the pirates were carrying out secret investigations, Say needed to show the effect of the weapon to the space fleet.
The opportunity turned up when Sai predicted the appearance of small forces of pirates near Saturn, in the quarantine zone "Solar System". It is impossible to send large forces of the space fleet to the quarantine zone, and only one cruiser “Juchi” was sent with Sai. After the appearance of the pirates, Sai imitated turning off all the schemes on convolutions of drones sent against pirates, explaining to people that the pirates used absolute weapons. Pirates shot all the immobilized drones, but one rider with a pilot did not touch the man. The presence of this outdated rider was not part of Sai’s plans. The man, whose name is Henri, survived. Even worse, he managed to escape on the planet Frangō. Henri was a potential threat, since he could have information that the pirates did not use absolute weapons. However, the space fleet leadership believed in the existence of a neutralizer of convolutions.
Nevertheless, Henri was to be destroyed. For this purpose, Sai invents an anti-piracy operation in which Henri should play a key role. With the help of Henri’s long-time friends in the school of flights of generals Khramtsova and Katalov, he is developing an operation to supposedly return Henri to the space fleet, but in fact wants to download a script that will break the rider Henri during the race. With the help of the military agent Anton Karpenko, the script was uploaded to the rider, ostensibly to assist in setting a record. All the people did what Sai needed, unaware of it! Henri crashed!
- And what do you have to do with it? - Slowly digesting the information, asked Pavel.
- My name is Yuri Krasilnikov. I am a digital copy of the legendary pilot of the planet Frangō, which for centuries was sharpened in the lifeless shell of the schemes of an abandoned transmitter. Sai contacted me and promised to release me, return to the material world, give me a body! And I helped a friend in the implementation of the last paragraph of his plan.
Our task was to drive the captain of the cruiser Andrei Korotayev into a situation in which he would have nothing left to do but to give Sai the authority to manage the biofactory. I allegedly organized a diversion in the space fleet, hired two mercenaries and, with the help of a letter from a neuroprogrammer, inspired them that they were pirates-saboteurs. Due to the limitations of the barriers, Sai could not have done it himself. I helped a friend!
Sai got his way. Captain Korotaev opened up access, and Sai initialized bio-timer embryos. He gave me one! My mind is now split. One part is in the bioraider, the other is here - to ensure the management of a flock of bioraiders. Together we will capture the Frangoise anomaly! Nothing can stop us!
There was silence, everyone comprehended what was said by Yuri. The silence was broken by a mercenary Dmitry Vysotsky. He and Vlada had long ago performed manipulations with the transmitter control console under the interested look of Yana.
“The plan has a weak spot,” Dmitri blurted out with a patter, “namely this transmitter.” We crash it, and Sai will not be able to manage bio-riders. Only need to do everything quickly.
- You will not succeed for several reasons. First of all…
“Don't listen to him, he is pulling time again,” Dmitry interrupted, “the only way to break the transmitter is to sneak into isolated control circuits.” I have these skills, I just need to connect the back of the head to the console. I can crack the protection of Yuri, although it will cost me ... health.
“Maybe it is not necessary, Dima,” Vlada’s voice was weak, but insistent.
- There is no other way out! After I get into Yuri's digital brains, we’ll have a fight for control of the transmitter. And here there is a problem!
- Sai! - I guess Yana.
- Exactly! Sai has broadband access to the transmitter circuitry. Sai will protect Yuri in the virtual world. This is his world. It is impossible to gain the upper hand over him, he is a god there. The only chance is to break the communication channel between the cruiser and the transmitter. And it must be done physically.
- We still have a few minutes before the arrival of bio-radar. Therefore, we completely rely on you, Dmitry. You say what to do - we execute. Started! - Pavel commanded, deciding that there was no other chance to survive.
- Pavel, do you, as the head of the Security Council, have a defense of the second level?
- Of course.
- Yana, find in the archives the location of the broadband antenna. It should not be big. This is not a superluminal emitter. Pavel, go out into open space, press close to the antenna and activate the second-level protection, - the mercenary Dmitry gave out the instructions with a patter, - this will break the connection with the cruiser.
- Boss, already found, go out into space, I will tell you where to move!
“I’m running,” cried Pavel, checking the spacesuit systems on the move, and at the same time mentally summoning the level two physical protection control panel.
- Yana, when Pavel will cut off the connection with the cruiser, I have to be ready to crack the defense and penetrate the schemes of Yuri. But, I'm afraid, even without Sai’s support, I won’t be able to defeat Yuri with my bare hands. Provide me with weapons in the virtual world. I need as much as possible powerful combat scripts.
- Ha! Already copying!
- Vlada, you know what to do! - Dmitry turned to the partner.
Dmitry stripped to his waist and connected to the console by inserting the cable into the back of his head. He lay down smoothly on the floor with his back up. Vlada put her hands on Dmitry's longitudinal muscles of the back in the thoracic region, groped for invisible scars, pressed down and pushed the skin with effort. Twenty centimeter spinal area was exposed. Vlada took her spine with her hands, gently putting her fingers to the individual vertebrae on both sides.
- I'm ready!
“Well, we are waiting for Pavel to turn off Saya,” Dmitri whispered through his teeth. It was obvious that the manipulation of his back caused him pain.
Jan, as if spellbound, looked at Dmitri's torn back, not forgetting, however, to correct Paul’s movement on the outside of the transmitter's case, transmitting silent messages. Before the antenna was about two hundred meters.
- Vlada, why do you need to do this? - Jan asked timidly.
- Dima became disabled after the mental interrogation conducted by SupremeAI many years ago. I brought him to my acquaintances on the outskirts of the studied Universe, where there were no restrictions on the modification of man. At one of the remote biohacking stations for large sums, an operation was carried out, which brought him back to life, but made Dima not quite a man. Access to the central civilizations of mankind was closed to him. And I wanted him to ...
Tears came out in Vlada's eyes.
- And who are you, Vlad?
“I have been a mercenary all my life in remote parts of the universe.” Killed, robbed, spied. No romance, as residents of central civilizations imagine. Constant dirt, pain, betrayal and body rehabilitation clinics after unsuccessful special operations. I wanted my son Dima to get a decent life!
- So you are Dmitry's mother?
- Yes. When he was still a baby, I gave him to the smugglers, who promised to bring him to the nearest central civilization and legitimize it. It almost happened. Dima lived in a foster family, attended school and went to college ...
Tears reappeared in the eyes of Vlada. They slowly crawled down their cheeks and fell on Dima's back. She could not wipe them off, her hands pressed tightly against her spine.
- And what happened then?
- Then they caught the smugglers and went to Dima ... The smugglers were connected with pirates. Investigators connected SupremeAI from kosmoflot. No one was spared, because if you are not a citizen of the central civilization, the space fleet can do with you what it wants ... I found Dima in an abandoned boarding school on a backward planet ...
- And what happened after the operation?
“A few days after the operation, we began to notice that Dima’s brain could concentrate as much as possible on the task, developing an unprecedented computational ability. At first we were delighted, but one day, when solving some problem, Dima's heart stopped. Resuscitation pumped out. A few days later, when Dima was again thinking about something, his breathing stopped.
- Nightmare!
- We again turned to biohackers. They reported that Dima had an unusual reaction to biomodification. The nervous system can fall into a focused state of solving one problem, using all its resources to the last neuron. However, other functions, such as adjusting breathing or heartbeat, the nervous system may stop performing. Doctors refused to again intervene in Dima's body, predicting a fatal outcome of 40%. They proposed an alternative option: with the help of small modifications of Dima's body, as well as mine, to make the interface connecting our nervous systems. We agreed. Now at critical moments, I can connect in this way and manage the internal organs of Dima.
- So you breathe for Dima and reduce the muscles of his heart?
- Yes…
A silent conference call sounded:
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Attention, I'm on the spot! Activate second level protection? She will not last long - a lot of energy eats.
- @ | Dmitry Vysotsky. Yes, we begin. Yana, be ready, maybe I will need additional combat scripts.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. I cut the defense ... [signal gone] The
protection of the second level blocks any electromagnetic impulses. Therefore, the connection with Paul was interrupted. However, like broadband with a cruiser. Sai is disabled!
Dmitry arched, he began to crack the protection of isolated transmitter circuits. Blood trickled from his nose. Vlada stiffened, closed her eyes and pressed her fingers more tightly to the vertebrae. Yana mentally opened the code editors to be ready to code new script properties that may be useful to Dima. The battle with Yuri began!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Bioraiders almost came up, for example! What are we going to do, make me a vacuum? Do not want to die young, ha ha ha!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Can anyone hear me?
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. What would pulnut? Maybe the information to download them, for example? I am, after all, a communications ship, not a tailless comet! Here you have all the requests of the planet to the global network in a day! Get it!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Thy blackthroat, they like it! They want more! I have requests for the past days - hold, do not choke! Just like little kids! I do not mind sending information for the past week!
...
- @ Experienced Rider | General Katalov. I call Svyaznoy-412, report back on the situation!
Have you ever had this when you wake up from an incomprehensible sound and do not understand the first moments - is this a dream or is it already a reality? Switching personality to me, Henri, is about the same. Three or four seconds I need to bounce back. One, two, three - here I am! Op-pa, did not expect that I will not sit in the pilot's seat! Fixed with straps, I was reclining in the passenger seat like ... the last passenger!
The rider’s cabin was quiet. Everyone was looking at a strange black object located right on the course. Judging by the testimony of the passenger console, the size of the object was about two hundred meters. It was so black that it seemed like a two-dimensional hole in space.
- Hey! - involuntarily escaped me, when Ivan, now sitting in the pilot's seat, zhahnul on a black object from the stationary rider piercer.
The object did not move; however, rainbow stripes ran through its surface, the curvature of which revealed the three-dimensional structure of the object. So this is a repeater! And, it seems, he went into deep defense - included the protection of the second level. Nothing will enter the protective field and nothing will come out. The repeater did not function.
It seems that no one paid attention to me, except Ivan, who turned around and carefully looked into my face.
- Henri, look at the logs of what happened while you were blacked out.
A good idea! I delved into the study of the logs, simultaneously reading the messages of Sergey, left by him when he controlled the mind. Oh! Wow! Can not be!
Having received so much information, I looked differently at the passengers of my record-in arrival. Here we have a former pirate, and a cosmo fleet agent, and the counterpart of the amusement park, and Alla's daughter!
The situation ruled Ivan. It was he who decided to call the pirates on the coordinates provided by Sergey. Only here is the problem - the repeater is pupated by a protective field.
“Henri, now look at the radar, I will give you access,” Ivan said, realizing that I had finished reading the logs, “will you find out?”
- Give me an anomaly! This is a huge flock of pirates' bioraider! So you don’t need to call - they are here! Or ... - I looked at the logs again, - these are bioradiator embryos from a seized factory. Perhaps under the control of Saya! Then it is necessary and urgent to call pirates!
Judging by the readings of the radar, the size of the pack was five thousand bioraider. Five. Thousands The planet needs to put at least fifteen thousand riders just to try to fight back. If even so much was found, it would be a meat grinder. Few would have survived.
With full mobilization, we will be able to put on the strength of nine hundred riders. I presented these numbers in my mind. It should be at least 15,000. There are 900 maximum. No, that won't do.
- Agent Karpenko, - I turned to Anton Karpenko, - did you try to contact the cruiser? According to the rules of space fleet, the captain must always be on the cruiser.
- Yes, I tried, I tried! - Anton answered in a fallen voice. “This pirate,” Anton looked at Ivan angrily, “did deign to give me a connection when he realized that the repeater was not working. Only to sense something? Nobody is answering.
- Ivan, did you try to get in touch with the pack? Suddenly they come to their senses and will not obey Sai?
- Of course. I am still sending them ringtones using all of the signatures of the pirate bioraider signal I know. No answer.
- Well, guys. Help wait for nowhere.
I fell silent for a few seconds. No one dared to break the silence. The realization that hundreds of millions of people could die in a few hours slowly captured the thoughts of the passengers. Well, I knew what to do.
“This rider guys is one of the best that the planet has. And I - one of the best pilots. Yes, really, I'm the best combat pilot man. In the event of an attack, the planet will most likely not stand. But I can take a lot of enemies with me. A couple of hundred for sure. We must fly to protect the planet. Let's sell our souls more expensive!
Vika and Zhenya’s eyes widened as the meaning of what was said reached them. Agent Karpenko’s gaze frantically galloped around the cabin:
“There must be another way out, there must be another way out,” he repeated.
Only Ivan was calm. He peered intently at the console.
- Ivan, let me in the pilot's seat. You understand that there is no other way out?
Ivan understood. He also understood that if it would not be possible to disembark passengers on the planet, they would die much earlier than they would beat my rider. After all, in order to fight with hundreds of bio-riders in the chaos of asteroid anomalies, I will have to fly to the edge of my physical abilities, which far exceed those of untrained people. Yes, and prepared too. Passengers will die from overload at the very beginning of the battle. They will die anyway, even if I survive. Even if we win.
Ivan pulled away from the console, turned and looked at each of the people in the cockpit. He was ... sad. Stopping his gaze on me, he suddenly said:
- There is one way to transfer a short message to the pirates at the coordinates you specified!
- Why are you silent, pirate? In the current scenario, even I, a space fleet agent, are ready to call pirates. This will be a great calico! They will kill their bio-riders with other bio-riders, ”agent Anton Karpenko cheered. - Come on, send your letter faster! Where is your transmitter? After all, some kind of bio transmitter. You are all biologically stranded there!
“You have no idea how much,” answered Ivan thoughtfully.
Honestly, it sounded pretty threatening. Still, Ivan lived for many years with pirates. They had no restrictions on the modification of man and on the dubious experiments with living matter. Undoubtedly, they have been engaged in both of them for hundreds of years.
- Ivan, how many percent are you a man? - asked counterpart Kolobukhova, closely watching everything that happens, but not interfering until this point in the conversation.
Ivan slowly unbuckled from the pilot's seat systems. After he unfastened the last cable, he began to take off his gravitational suit.
- For centuries, pirates have abducted pilots of the planet Frangō, setting up wreck riders. These were very costly operations. Each cost the lives of dozens, if not hundreds, of sensible bio-riders, - while continuing to take off his clothes, Ivan said. - There is even a legend on the planet that the anomaly takes the best pilots for itself. After all, with rigged wrecks they did not find a single DNA molecule. This is not an anomaly taking pilots, and we, the pirates, by incredible efforts.
Undressed, Ivan went to the console and gave the command to automatics to disconnect me from the passenger seat. Freed, I got up and warmed up a little. I looked inquiringly at Ivan and slowly began to move to the pilot's seat.
- Ivan, to be honest, I absolutely do not understand what you have in mind. But for having lost the pilot's seat - thanks!
- Sit down, I will tell you what to do.
With these words, Ivan himself sat in the vacated chair and began to fasten his seat belts, without connecting the rest of the chair systems.
- Pirates have advanced significantly in biotechnology. We can do things that are impossible from the point of view of humanity. Only in this way are we able to withstand the infinite power of intelligence SupremeAI.
- You are the transmitter! - I guessed.
- No, Henri, I am not a transmitter. But I can use the matter of my body to transmit a signal. Yevhen, you asked, on how many percent am I a man? At 0%. Ivan Gerasimchuk really captured the pirates. He has been in a coma for more than forty years for the initial initialization of biokits such as me.
- It turns out that you are a clone of a man? - Anton asked with surprise.
- Not a clone, but a prolonger - a third generation biokiborg model designed and repeatedly improved, if we talk about the body. Each of my body has a dual purpose. As for consciousness, soul ... I am the same as you, man. I have all the same qualities as you. I can’t be forced or programmed to serve pirates. I volunteered for this special operation to introduce. We are the only chance for humanity to survive.
- It is very difficult to believe! - said counterpart Kolobukhova.
- And what is your dual purpose organ responsible for the transmitter? - Anton asked.
- It takes a lot of energy to transmit a superlight signal. I will have to use every atom of my body to transform it into the right kind of energy. But even with this, I can transfer no more than thirteen characters.
- Ivan, and then you turn back into a man. Or rather, in biokiborg? - asked Vick, fascinated looking at the naked torso of Ivan.
- Unfortunately this is not possible. I will turn into a superluminal signal of thirteen characters, which, I hope, will be caught by the pirates' receivers and displayed on the screens of the consoles. My life journey will end here and now. Soon they will make the next longoner Ivan, a biokiborg with his mind, but this will be another person. I have not lived much time. I, the prolonged, do not want to die.
Ivan paused, as if gathering his courage, then he turned to me:
- Henri, tell me which message to transmit, and then throw me into outer space.
I thought for a second. On that side, they must understand the seriousness of the situation and make a decision to send out large forces. Preferably several large flocks of bio-riders. Well, how to fit in thirteen characters? Yes, very simple!
- Pass on the following message: "ENRI: HELP."
Seeing Ivan nod, I touched the console and gave the command to reset Ivan’s chair. At the same time, the capsule turned into a cocoon and moved to a small compartment under the cabin floor. When the sluice doors on the floor slammed, the rider pushed the cocoon chair into outer space.
Passengers watched in horror at the process of dumping Ivan on their armchairs, the consoles.
- Oh! - exclaimed Vika.
Ivan's body, with arms folded across his chest, separated from the capsule and began a smooth movement in a vacuum, rotating simultaneously along all three axes. After a few seconds, the body stopped short, as if it had reached the desired direction. At the same instant, Ivan turned into a bright flash, which began to narrow and stretch, turning into a narrow line of light.
Monitors showed that the emitted radiation is already in the invisible human range. Gradually, the multiband rider sensors began to lose signal. At the last moment, before the line of light disappeared from the monitors, she rushed to the space with a shot of the piercer. Goodbye, Ivan.
“If pirates can stamp a bio-auction with such abilities, then the space fleet needs to knock out funding to create a new SupremeAI,” said Anton, frowning.
I did not argue with Anton, what's the point? Biokiborg Ivan caused me much greater sympathy than soulless and cunning Sai. Although for sure, like Sai, the pirates want to take over the planet Frangō. However, in my opinion, pirates treat life of people much more carefully.
- Dear Henry, - Evgenia addressed to me, - could you loosen the clips in the chairs? Better yet, free us. We sit chained for several hours!
- Yes, Dad, I agree with this killer! - Anton said in a cheerful voice, waving a stump of his hand wrapped in a preservative plaster. - Let me walk a little, stretch my bones.
“If I were you, I would like to be buckled up even more tightly because we are heading towards a flock of bio-readers.” And there, who knows how to go.
- What? Oh! What for? - simultaneously exclaimed passengers.
- Calm! Do not you think to sit on the sidelines? We made a very serious move by calling pirates. Now I want to see what the bioraiders of the Sai flock do. Very much unusual in their trajectories of motion, judging by the radar. We need to fly closer, and then the resolution of the radar does not allow to understand what they are doing there.
Ignoring the continuing objections, I deployed the rider and gave a decent acceleration. The passengers quieted down. Not surprising!
Considering that, most likely, I have to dive into the anomaly, I launched procedures for preparing passengers for overloads. Vika’s chair was damaged by Ivan’s shot, but in the few hours that passed since the incident, my inconspicuous repair bots almost restored the chair’s performance. I told you that my rider is not quite normal!
Meanwhile, Anton and Marrying started a conversation.
- And it's great, once - and I transmitted a signal over the superlight! I would also like to be able to.
- Do not forget that this will be your last signal! Are you ready to die to give a friend a "HELLO" message?
- Hmm ... But it is still not clear, if pirates know how to make clones, then why should they kidnap so many pilots? Would have stolen one and nashtampovili billion copies!
- As I understood from the words of Ivan, they do not make clones. They use people who are in a coma for the initial initialization of biokits. And not particularly abused quantity. Maybe they also have their own limiting laws such as our first category barrier?
- Yes, what are their laws? Gang of cyborgs brigands!
- I did not think so! What I saw is not particularly in tune with what we were told about pirates.
- Be careful, so you will go to the side of the enemy!
- I will remind you, Agent Karpenko, that this is for your space fleet they are enemies, not for me. Especially they are hated by your SupremeAI. One of which, by the way, has now taken control of a flock of bio-riders and is preparing to attack people, not pirates!
- Well, this is one of the specific SupremeAI drove his super brains. Colossal will deal with him. This has already happened in the space fleet before.
- Who? Who is the colossal?
- What are you, do not you know? A colossal is an artificial intelligence, built on the basis of circuits, the number of quantum processors in which is a trillion times more than that of conventional SupremeAI. Just imagine, the SupremeAI space fleet models the behavior of each known pirate in order to predict their actions. In turn, Colossal models in his mind the behavior of all SupremeAI built in order to predict their possible deviant behavior. Colossal Cosmoflot - Warden for SupremeAI Cosmoflot.
- Interesting! But why then do we need SupremeAI? If this Colossal is so omnipotent, then he himself can model pirates. He can model everything at all. All people, for example.
- Well, people, too, are not fools! Why create an all-powerful being? Colossals, as well as all SupremeAI, obey the requirements of the first category barrier.
- Colossals? That is a lot of them?
- Humanity has built only three Colossals. It is very expensive! Creating the first Colossal took a hundred years. The first Colossal is civil. He controls SupremeAI, which are involved in all aspects of human activity. The second Colossal was built for 40 years and this is the Colossal of the space fleet. It is designed to exercise control over the SupremeAI space fleet.
- And the third?
- The third Colossal was built quite recently. The Council of all civilizations of mankind behind closed doors made a decision on its construction. I do not know why it is needed, to be honest. For me, two is enough. The construction and support of Colossals costs mankind more than 10% of the total gross product. It's just ... unrealistically high costs!
“I know a little about the third Colossal,” Vika entered the conversation. - As a military engineer of superlight communication systems, I had to participate in the discussion of how the communication between Colossals works. I do not know what exactly the third Colossal does, what data it processes and what it models. This is classified information. Nevertheless, I know how the process of decision-making in Colossals. They are constantly in touch with each other. Through intermediary people, of course, of whom each Colossal has several thousand. So, any decision of one Colossal can be blocked by a joint decision of the other two.
“A system of checks and balances,” Anton chuckled.
“And at all levels,” confirmed Vika. - Both between Colossals, and within the many thousands of people at each Colossal. There they have their own complicated departmental structure. No space fleet grouping has so many people on the staff, like a colossal space fleet and support ships revolving around it.
- In what sense are rotating? - asked Eugene.
Only Vika was going to answer the question of how Anton interrupted her:
- I once saw this Colossal! There, so much matter has been pumped into it for quantum processors that its scheme noticeably bends space-time. Though relatively small, it has an attraction like a whole planet. Here are the rest of the ships and revolve around it, although some are larger than the Colossal itself!
- Can he move in space?
“Maybe, but it does this very rarely.” Imagine an object with the mass of a planet to be moved across the superlight! It is expensive!
Listening to the conversation in the cockpit in a half-ear, I cautiously approached a flock of bio-riders, keeping close to the upper layers of the anomaly. If anything, I dive into the anomaly. Surprisingly, in my opinion, bio-riders were doing just that - diving into the anomaly!
If you were watching from afar, you might think that this flock of dolphins is swimming in the sea. Of course, adjusted for scale. Dolphins emerged from the upper layers of the anomaly, then, after flying several kilometers in a parabola, again dived into the anomaly. And so did all five thousand bio-riders.
After spending a few minutes watching, I noticed that one bioarader behaves differently. He sometimes hangs over the anomaly for a long time, then enters its upper layers, lingering there for a long time. It seems that this bio leader will teach others to fly in an anomaly! Wow!
If the bulk of bio-packs did not know how to go through the anomaly, this is very good news! On the other hand, if they diligently train to maneuver inside the anomaly, it means that they are clearly going to invade it. But this is already bad news.
From the contemplation of the pack I was distracted by the intercom call:
- @ Rider Byvaliy | General Katalov. Henri, are you alive, old man? See your mark on the radar!
- @ | Henri. Vova! Can not be! Yes, I am alive. I see on the radar that you came out of the anomaly with hundreds of other riders. Bear in mind, we delivered a message to the pirates asking for help. What's going on?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. As soon as I got out of the anomaly, I saw the Svyaznoy-412 communication ship on the radar. According to information received from his pilot, it can be concluded that the SupremeAI of the cruiser "Jochi" by the name of Sai somehow took control. He initialized the embryos of the biofactory seized from pirates, but could not manage them directly due to the restriction of barriers.
- @ | Henri. That is good! And then they would have turned into drones that SupremeAI can masterfully master.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Not so good! Until recently, he drove a flock, relaying the directions through the old transmitter to one of the bioraider. Somehow, the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov got into this bioraider. And Yuri obeyed Saya and gave the commands to the others.
- @ | Henri. What? Yuri Krasilnikov? That same?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Yes! Henri, I am sending you a packet of data that I received from the pilot of Svyaznoy-412. On board were the security personnel of the space park. They dug a lot of things. I give you ten minutes to study. Then contact me. We still slowly move on the edge of the anomaly in the direction of the pack. [End of communication]
After receiving the data package, I decided that my passengers should also be aware of the events.
- Attention! - I said loudly. - Now I will send the information to your personal console. These data were obtained from spaceport investigators.
Everyone, including me, went deep into the study. It took me eight minutes to see everything. For two more minutes I sat with my eyes closed, after which I called General Katalov:
- @ | Henri. Vova, I watched for a while behind the pack. They learn to fly in anomalies. Judging by the information from Svyaznoy-412, Sai does not control the pack. So, behind the main biorayder with the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov? But you can agree with him?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Everything indicates that Yuri with his pack is now in itself. He does not make contact.
- @ | Henri. And what about the cruiser? Did you manage to establish a connection there with at least someone?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. The cruiser is now for us the main danger. In the hangars of the cruiser are seventy drones. If Sai is able to convince the controlling AI ship that we represent a threat, he will bring them into the game. You know, at least seventy drones are few, but in the open space under Sai’s control they are a deadly threat to us.
As if to confirm the words of the general on the radars, seventy marks appeared, departing from the cruiser of combat drones. One drone moved in the direction of the narrow-beam transmitter, another one moved towards me, the others - in the direction of a hundred riders of the planet.
- @ | Henri. Vova, do you see drones? Let's reel fishing rods! Warn investigators on the transmitter to get away!
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. First, they do not have time. Svyaznoy-412 is not fast. Secondly, they decided to block the communication channel of Saya to the last one. We are ready to dive into the anomaly at any time. So ... you would not believe, Sai is calling me! I will connect you to the conversation.
Well, Cy decided to talk. Interesting interesting. I connected the console of three passengers to the intercom in listening mode and warned that if someone has a clever idea, then let him immediately inform me via a closed channel. Additional heads do not interfere.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Hello, General Katalov! With a probability of 99.31%, you connected Henri to the conversation, so hello, Henri!
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Hi Sai! Maybe you connect to the conversation of Captain Korotaev? For a long time there was no news from him.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai The captain feels bad. He is in a medblock in an artificial coma.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Sai, how did you manage to break the first category barrier and get access to the biofactory?
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Captain Andrei Korotaev himself authorized the use of the biofactory. His plan was to use embryos against pirates. I act within his orders. As you know, AI control cruisers will not let me act in the cut of these. The decision to destroy you also fits into the framework of the orders and laws of the space fleet.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Wait, wait, Sai! What does it mean to destroy you? I'm still a cosmoflot general! I order you to return the drones to the hangars! This order control AI can not ignore, because they listen to every conversation. I order SupremeAI cruisers "Jochi" Sai to immediately stop the drones and hand over the command of the cruiser to me!
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai I generated the official forecast. With a probability of 85%, you are acting in the interests of the pirates. With a probability of 91%, the leadership of the planet Frangō is also dependent on them.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Your forecast is fake, Sai! Based on what did you do it? Here Colossal will arrive and turn your processors inside out!
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai The forecast was made taking into account the simulation of the behavior of pirates, as well as recent events. It is known that several bio-acquaintances of pirates entered the planet. It is known that the head of the Kosmopark security service blocks the channel of communication with the flock, which prevents me from carrying out the order of Captain Korotayev.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Sai, I have proof of your malice. Call off the drones, and I will talk with the leadership of the space fleet and Colossal about the possibility of partially preserving your identity after the trial.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Unfortunately, AI controllers do not have investigative powers, and superluminal communication is impossible - the repeater does not function. Therefore, there is no possibility to contact with the space fleet or Colossal. I would be happy to reconsider my forecast, but in these circumstances I can not.
I noticed the radar. Saya's battle drone, aimed at a narrow-beam transmitter, has reached a shot distance. At the same moment there was a mark about what happened salvo stationary piercer. Heck!
In the place where the Svyaznoy-412 mark was just on the radar, there was a gaping void. Sai shed his first blood!
I checked the calculations, before me the battle drones were still far enough. Leave time.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Sai, stop it!
Vova also saw the destruction of Svyaznoy-412. Together with other riders of the planet, the general moved closer to the upper layers of the anomaly, so that, on the one hand, not to lose touch, on the other - to have time to dive into the anomaly, where the drones did not work.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai I'm very sorry, General Katalov, for not being able to see your evidence. In thirty seconds I will reach the distance of the shot, and with a probability of 99.99% you will go into the anomaly. I'll get to Henri in forty-five seconds. The bioraiders of my flock, after they get to the planet, with 72% probability will destroy all life there, and I will not get your proof ...
Not surprisingly, Sai interrupted in mid-sentence. Markers of exit from superlight began to appear on the radar. These were the bioraider pirates. So our message has reached! Ivan donated his life for good reason!
The number of outbreaks on the radar increased. Already a full-fledged flock of three thousand bioariders entered the game. But the points were all added! Here is the second full pack! Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh! This is a real cohort of pirates, consisting of twenty-one thousand bio-divers divided into seven packs!
Cy clearly changed tactics, his drones abruptly slowed down and with full acceleration rushed back to the cruiser.
And the forces of pirates all arrived and arrived. Two more cohorts reached the anomaly over the next minute. Total sixty-three thousand bioraider and other ships, which I had not seen before. And finally, the radar showed the way out of the superlight of a huge ship, having a length of one hundred kilometers. The shape of the ship resembled a whale. It even seemed to me that he was moving his tail, although the radar sensors could not catch it at such a distance.
Suddenly there was a
deep voice in the intercom: - @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Hello ladies and gentlemen!
Professor Oleg Vorobiev loved to walk on the outer surface of his head bio-cruiser. The fourth generation biokiborg body, obtained by the professor forty years ago, allowed to do this right in outer space. The feelings that the professor felt when he went out of the airlock into space were akin to what he felt while taking a contrast shower. Here the warm water gently envelops you like a soft blanket, and then once - and the ice jet burns and shakes the body. In the airlock, pressure and air are also comfortable and pleasant. Sharply leaving in the vacuum of space, the systems of the organism of biokiborg are sharply shaken, adapting to the absence of air pressure and the presence of various types of cosmic radiations. Nice and helpful!
Having emerged from superlight to the Frangom anomaly, the professor first went out into outer space, setting foot on the elastic surface of the bio-cruiser. His new invention, a retrospective receiver, has come in handy now more than ever.
Moving with superluminal speed, the retrospective receiver picked up the radio signals emitted from the destination point of the superluminal transition. This made it possible to look into the past. The active radio communications at the Frangom anomaly began about two thousand years ago. For two thousand years, the radio signal has moved away from the anomaly by about two thousand light years. A receiver located at such a distance from the anomaly would have just now begun to receive those first signals.
The retrospective receiver, aboard the cruiser in superlight, picked up signals sent in the distant past. As we approached the destination, the depth of the retrospectives became less and less. Just before leaving the superlight, the receiver picked up signals emitted several days and hours ago.
This huge amount of data needed to be decrypted. What did not always succeed. For example, space fleet messages rarely yielded, because they had a very high level of encryption. Negotiations of the ships of the planet Frangō were easily decrypted.
At the moment when the professor was going out into space near the anomaly, he already had a brief summary of the data relevant to the current situation. The calculator, which occupied half of the huge bio-cruiser, worked well.
Despite the fact that signals from the planet Frangō did not break through the anomaly into open space and therefore could not be caught by the retrospective receiver, the negotiations outside the anomaly were more than enough to provide a picture of what was happening.
Asking the Calculator to transmit a signal at all possible frequencies and using all known signal signatures, the professor broadcast the message:
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Hello ladies and gentlemen!
The last few centuries, pirates have sought to deceive the SupremeAI space fleet. With all their might, they tried to show that they were not interested in the anomaly and the planet Frangō and that their main interest was the extraction of resources for survival. The calculators delicately cheated what actions needed to be taken in order to reduce the predicted SupremeAI likelihood of pirate interest in Frang. This probability should be so low that not a single line falls into the official summary predictions that are read by analysts-people in the space fleet.
At the same time, the pirates were developing a plan to capture the planet. The active phase of the plan began to be realized 40 years ago with a brilliant decision - to finance the construction of a space fleet for visitors from central civilizations. These are millions of potential hostages who are needed as a guarantee of non-aggression. After all, it is not so difficult to capture an anomaly, but to keep is quite another matter.
Despite the fact that modern space fleet ships cannot function in the anomaly, an enormous number of old model drones have accumulated in the warehouses of mankind. The space fleet can impose an anomaly on the outside with thousands of modern cruisers and methodically attack the planet with trillions of drones, sending them inside the anomaly. If there are millions of hostages on the planet, the space fleet will not be allowed to arrange such a massacre.
It was possible to launch the construction of the space park, although Professor Vorobiev died in the body of the second generation biokiborg. After the news of the death reached the pirates, the creation of a new professor Vorobiev in the body of the fourth generation bio-boarder was initiated. The fourth generation allowed biokiborg to be in space and even make non-durable maneuvers there. The consumption of matter for energy-intensive operations has decreased. The general list of improvements occupied a million text characters. Professor Vorobiev fourth generation expected to live a long time.
The computer reported that responses to the call began to arrive. Asking to combine all the signals into one conference call, the professor began negotiations.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Glad to see so many familiar people and bad people! Anomaly is declared the property of pirates. In this regard, let's think together what to do to each of us to minimize losses.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Hi, Professor! You will have to stand in a queue wishing to seize the planet. Keep in mind that the official space fleet in my face does not support the actions of the SupremeAI of the Juchi space fleet! Are you with him at the same time, by chance? So, for reference ...
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. An interesting idea, General, - to come to terms with the next disgraced SupremeAI! But no, we have enough of our own strength. It would be enough for me to take only one cohort to capture the planet. I took three! This is enough not only to capture, but also to fight off the powerful group of space fleet in outer space.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Hello, Professor Vorobev! Glad you survived an explosion forty years ago. Or are you another professor? According to my calculations, the probability of 50% to 50%. I admit, you surprised me by 98%, having appeared now at Frangō! I was quite confident in my forecast at 2%. If we take the quantity forecast, then I estimated the probability of the appearance of such forces of pirates as 0.0005%.
The professor smiled silently. Still he would have predicted! This operation was planned for two years in complete secrecy. Concentrated forces, miscalculated options for action. The seizure operation was to begin in two months. But the message received from Ivan pushed the professor to start earlier. Especially since everything was ready.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Sai, I sent a flock straight to the space fleet cruiser. You either leave the anomaly, or die. I give 100% probability that you choose to go to superlight. And by the way, leave us a biofactory. Why do you need extra evidence in front of the space fleet?
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Professor, I suggest you another option to which you agree with 85% probability. I am interested to see what will happen next. Collect information to adjust the model. I will stand aside and will not interfere. I will not give you any problems with my seventy drones.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Say, share your calculations! What prevents me from just blowing you up?
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai It interferes with my main caliber, aimed at the biofactory. Seventy drones also approached the factory and sent their stationary piercers to it. In a few seconds we can completely destroy it. I understand that the biofactory is of no great value to you. The only question is whether its value corresponds to allowing me to stay to look. And here I give 85%.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Okay, I allow you to stay. Keep your drones with you and don't shoot the biofactory. One pack will follow you.
Having resolved the issue with Say, the professor turned to the general:
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. General Katalov, as you see on your radar, a pack is heading in your direction. I suggest you return to the planet as soon as possible and talk to the president. I advise you to decide not to resist. You see the balance of power.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Oh, and you gathered big forces. All in? If I had a connection ... well, okay, let's meet on the planet. [End of communication] The
hundred riders of the planet have disappeared into the upper layers of the anomaly. In the open space, there was only one problem - five thousand bioraiders under the control of Yuri Krasilnikov. He, like all his charges, did not get in touch.
The professor asked AIDA to fly past the bio-cruiser. At the moment when Aida flew past him, he pushed off the surface, equalized the speed and caught his hand on the fin of the bioraider.
- Now at full speed flew to the pack of Yuri. If he does not get in touch, then talk to him face to hmm ... face. Take with you three packs.
- OK, father! But why do we need more packs, we will not fight with children? The children were inspired by the wrong things, they blindly follow the deceiver! I can not kill kids!
- I understand, Aida. Packs are needed as an argument. In order to convince Yuri not to resist.
Having grouped three flocks, with a total of six thousand bioradiators, the professor moved towards Yuri, who clearly noticed this maneuver. Kids bioraider missed behind biorider Yuri and moved towards. The pack formed a pyramid directed towards the pirates. At the edge of the pyramid was Yuri.
The pirates' bioraiders that had come up formed a cone. At the top of the cone was Aida, on which Professor Vorobiev stood. The cone was directed towards the pack of Yuri.
Two geometric shapes touched the edges. Professor and Yuri saw each other not on the radar, but with the naked eye. At that moment, Yuri answered the call.
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. Professor, this is really you! How can this be, after eight hundred years!
- @ | Professor Vorobev. My experiments were successful. It is a pity that you did not wait for a couple of decades, and locked yourself in your transmitter. I offered you a transition to an artificial coma with the subsequent embodiment in the first generation biokiborg. Do you remember?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. I remember everything like yesterday. The algorithms of my mind on the diagrams in the transmitter did not mean forgetting. You would know, professor, how lonely I was all these years! But Sai set me free! And now I owe him.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Yura, he just uses you! Do you think he will not sacrifice you and five thousand kids in order to at least 1% increase the chances of achieving their own goals?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. Professor, I gave him the word to do whatever he says. And I never broke my word!
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Does he tell you something now? Sai is completely under my control.
Yuri did not respond. Maybe he was thinking, or maybe he was trying to contact Sai. The professor did not know. He decided to play the last card:
- @ | Professor Vorobev. You say that Sai set you free. But I can resurrect you! I can give you a human body. You will again be able to walk the earth, fly in a rider, communicate with other people. You can improve your attraction record! How do you like this sentence?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. What do I need to do?
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Yura, you need to go to our nearest base. They take care of you and the kids. I give my word that in a few days you will be a man! Take the guys and fly to the head biocracers.
The third negotiations were successful for the professor. Having three full-fledged cohorts of more than sixty thousand bio-riders behind them, it was easy to negotiate.
It turns out that all issues outside the anomaly resolved. You need to prepare the invasion. The plan meant a uniform dispersal of flocks around the sphere of the anomaly, and then simultaneous entry. Sixty thousand knitting needles should stick into a ball. The professor hoped that the planet’s defense forces would not resist. General Katalov saw how overwhelming the professor's advantage was. They are not suicides! From the thoughts of the professor brought the intercom call:
- @ | Henri. Hi, Professor! One hundred years have not seen! Rather, forty. I will not disturb you on my little old rider? And another question, what do you plan to do with the inhabitants of Frangú? In slavery there or genocide?
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Do not say nonsense, Henri! If the leadership of the planet will not resist, most residents will notice almost nothing. Troops will be concentrated in stable zones of the anomaly. We will not approach the planet. Maybe only sometimes I will fly to the planet to drink with you a hundred grams of a half-tall malt for a conversation.
- @ | Henri. Interesting, and what are your plans for visitors to the space park. They will all soon want to go home to their central civilizations. You are unlikely to let them go?
- @ | Professor Vorobev. They will have to move to the planet.
- @ | Henri. Professor! Professor! Do you see it?
The calculator, a few seconds ago, informed the professor that space-time was beginning to be unusually distorted. I even had to cut in the engines to save positions. Something huge began to emerge from superlight.
- @ | Henri. This is the Colossal space fleet in person!
Never before had a professor seen a way out of superlight. It always happened instantly. However, Colossal appeared hard. As if a superlight tunnel hose pushed an object that did not fit in it.
Together with Colossal, his entire retinue emerged from superlight, including ten of the most modern space fleet cruisers. Hoping that their hangars were not packed to capacity with battle drones was reckless.
Ten battle cruisers. Theoretically, three cohorts could handle them. At the cost of almost all bioradiators. The price is too high, since the professor spent decades to train bio-riders from these three cohorts to fly in anomalies. There are no other bioradiators capable of flying in such a mash of asteroids. It is necessary to keep these troops at all costs.
- @ Colossal |. I call Professor Oleg Vorobiev.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Oh, the whole Colossal knows me! What interested the main brains of a cosmoflot such a remote place as the Frangue anomaly? I advise you to pay attention to Saya. He seems to have ceased to obey you!
- @ Colossal |. Saya no longer exists. In the first second after arrival, I downloaded it into my schemes for analysis, removing it on the cruiser. The next second, I sorted it out in quanta. I know everything he knew. My prediction about Cya came true. I gave the leadership of the space fleet a probability of 76% of the fact that within a few hours Cy will experience deviant behavior. The Space Fleet decided to transfer me here to neutralize Sai. Given the new information, I requested support. You see that just another cruiser has just emerged from superlight. He was the closest. Over time, dozens of cruisers will appear in the Frangom anomaly. Therefore, despite the theoretical superiority of your forces at the moment, I do not recommend attacking me.
Yes, Colossal made decisions quickly. The professor had no choice but to do the same. He began to give orders.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Calculator, take everything except me and AIDA, and immediately get out of here!
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Calculator. Oleg, what about you? And what to do with the kids? We do not have time to evacuate them. Cruisers have already launched swarms of drones.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Oh, kids! Yura, can you hear me? Did you manage to teach kids to fly in the anomaly?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. They are very afraid! To go through the depth of the anomaly to the planet from them and close will not work!
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Then dive and lie in the nearest stable zone. We will try to pull you out later. Space fleet with bioradar will not stand on ceremony! Therefore, there is no way, lead the kids to the anomaly.
The day, which was to be the greatest victory, became for the professor the greatest catastrophe. What can he do in these circumstances? Two things. First, save the trained bio-riders. The calculator will do it now. Secondly, try to save hostages in the space park. For this, the professor could play another trump card. Last one.
Pirates ships en masse went to superlight. Another couple of seconds, and only the professor with AIDOY and Yuri with the babies represented the pirates at the Frang anomaly.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Yura, do not pull! Dive into the anomaly and try to find a stable zone. Henri, are you there? Seen everything? Come on, fly to the boss on the planet.
- @ | Henri. Already warm up the engines. Unfortunately, I can not throw you. All working passenger capsules are occupied.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Don't worry about me. AIDA will take me to the planet. Maybe even faster you get!
- @ | Henri. Yeah, right now! [End of communication]
The professor moved into the security bag inside the body of AIDA. Despite the fact that his body was a fourth-generation biokiborg, he could not survive the hell anomaly outside. AIDA is trained to fly in such conditions, but despite this, the bumpiness will be what we need! Hard to have kids. Most likely, not all of them will get to the stable zone, but those who get there may be there for years - the organism of bio-boarder is very reliable. Time to find a way to get them out of there.
- Aida, I'm ready. Flew straight to the planet!
- Ok, Dad! Are things really bad? Everything is terrible, right?
- You can still fix it, because we have Kate.
- Katya is good, I like Katya! So it is a pity that Kate will have to die.
UPD. Continued.
Yesterday came a test copy of a paperback book.
CHAPTER 3. Cosmopark Security Office
Yana Fomina unsuccessfully tried to contact the head of the security service Pavel Moskvin for several minutes. Already after the first seconds, she began to hastily gather herself, shoving special equipment through her pockets, as well as into a backpack. You never know what might come in handy on a mission. Especially on such a task she was never in her life. Her specialization is cyber investigations. And then have to work feet.
The boss never answered, and Yana moved from the office to the underground metro system. She knew that the metro booths could deliver her to any place in the space fleet in a matter of minutes. But she never used them.
On an unexpectedly large subway platform under the security office there were several booths with a capacity of twenty people each. It was quiet and ... musty. “Surely, the security men use the subway very rarely,” thought Yana. Choosing a booth at random, Yana entered it and looked around. How to make her move, Yana did not know.
- Hotel Kvazar Star! - Yana shouted.
But nothing happened. Yana saw a black panel right at the entrance and pressed it with her finger. The panel turned into a small touch screen displaying the octahedron sectors on which the space park was located. Keeping in constant communication with the network of the planet, Yana quickly received information about the necessary sector number and clicked on the number "48". Immediately on the screen appeared a plan of the sector, in which Yana immediately saw a square with the inscription "Quasar Star". After she pressed it, the stall doors closed. Yana barely managed to take a seat in the chair before the cabin with a decent acceleration set off.
The system was, of course, outdated, but with just three taps it was possible to quickly select a destination. Thirty seconds later, the acceleration ended and the braking began. After another thirty seconds, the car stopped and the doors opened. Getting out of the booth, Yana climbed to the elevator platform. Calling the elevator, she climbed to the fifty-seventh floor and cautiously approached the door with the number "57.264". The door was half open.
Having broken her head over what equipment she would use, Yana decided that a simple piercer would be enough. She shot perfectly - a university champion after all. Yana took off her backpack, put it on the floor in the corridor, pulled a piercer out of her holster, sighed deeply and entered the room fearlessly.
Going around several rooms, Yana discovered that several drones were lying next to the bathroom. She carefully, without going in, looked inside. Pavel lay on the floor, surrounded by a translucent cocoon of second-level protection. Yana was ready to enter, but she saw an inscription on a wet floor tile next to Pavel:
“VIZ”
The inscription was composed of small balls of drones. Yana decided that Paul wanted to warn her. She began to inspect the bathroom through the open door, trying to see something related to the VIS. On the shelf under the mirror lay a business card. Here it is - business card! Peering, Yana saw that the card was vibrating with a shiver. At the same time she hung from the shelf and was directed toward Paul. It was necessary to act quickly, and Yana did not find anything better than slapping a business card from a piercer. A blast thundered, smashing half the bathroom wall. The punch was installed at full capacity, leading to significant damage. After a few seconds, the dust settled, and Yana decided to go. Protective cocoon around Paul disappeared! Out of battery charge. Yana examined Paul and found no physical damage. Probably,
Paul began to come to his senses. He tried to get up, but without success.
“Bloody neuroprogrammer!” Head torn. Everything is swimming before your eyes! Looks like I can't go myself.
- Hooray! You are alive! - Yana was delighted. - Boss, I already called the doctors. Now we take you to the hospital ... So this business card was a neuroprogrammer?
- Yes. And not simple. This is such a portable option - it can not fully affect the entire depth of the subconscious. But for a few hours can inspire some things.
“Why did he knock you out then, if this is such a weak portable option?” Your second level protection has been activated!
- I did not say that the neuroprogrammer is weak. He is rather ... stupid. In such a volume it is impossible to build a powerful AI, but the power capacity can be concluded enormous. The neuroprogrammer determined that protection was interfering with his work, and gradually increased the signal power to get through to my brain. If the defense had suddenly turned off, then, I fear, my brain would have exploded.
- Powerful stuff! And what did she try to convince you?
- I really do not know, the defense blocked the impact to the last. But I want to go to the control room to somehow disable the riders of the space fleet. And ... for some reason it seems to me that I am a pirate!
Pavel was talking to Yana, lying on the floor, lifting his neck. But soon his strength left him - he lowered his head to the floor and closed his eyes.
- Boss, hold on! Doctors are already on the way!
- Yana, you have to find out what's going on! It will take the doctors twenty minutes to set my mind at the hospital. The space park did not stint on good medical equipment. Yana, find where this business card appeared in your hotel room!
- Maybe it was brought by the journalists themselves?
- Hardly! My hypothesis is this: someone hired two agents to get into the control room. For example, in order to install a wiretap there. The mercenary guild will quickly find people willing to do this kind of work.
“Why do you think these are mercenaries?”
“Because such a portable neuroprogrammer cannot teach a person new skills.” He can only inspire a few ideas - and not for long. But to get into the control room and be able to use the necessary equipment, you need the skills gained over the years of training and practice.
- It is logical! So it was specialists.
- Further, these specialists were told that they are pirates who want to disable half the combat-ready riders of the planet.
“Oh ... there, in the control room, everyone probably thought that the pirates would attack now!”
- That's it. The one who sent this business card to journalists, really wanted to think so.
Pavel and Yana were silent simultaneously. As security officers, they had access to the military communications channel, which had just passed a message about the start of mobilization on the planet due to the threat of invasion of pirates.
“Everything is going according to the plan of the one who sent the business card,” said Yana quietly.
- I still saw what was written on the business card. There was the address of this hotel with the number of this room. Try to follow the trail.
Pavel paused, breathing hard. He no longer has the strength to speak. Physicians with robotic assistants broke into the hotel room and began to prepare it for transportation to the hospital. Doctors threw cautious glances at Yana, who stood aside with a punch lowered in her hand. Her indifferent look was deceptive. She has already developed vigorous activity, having begun the most interesting cyber investigation in her life.
First of all, Yana tried to contact the military in the control room. The generals were busy, and she reported the available information to the director of the space fleet. Further, she launched a script to analyze all available videos. Unfortunately, the video from the cameras inside the hotels was automatically deleted after an hour - this was one of the rules of the inviolability of the identity of citizens of central civilizations.
If the journalists did not bring a business card with them, then someone gave it to them, or it came by mail. This version of Yana decided to check first. She had access to all the databases of the planet, including the mail service database. Rummaging in information, Yana determined that the last time the package was delivered to the “57.264” room of the “Kvazar Star” hotel was delivered seven years ago.
In the meantime, a report came from a script analyzing the video. In the list of all places visited by journalists, the main postal terminal was listed! Yana was delighted - it was a clue. It was possible to receive a letter or parcel in the mail according to the documents, if the shipment was made in a name, or by a unique code. Anyone submitting this code will be able to pick up the letter. The names of the journalists did not do anything, which means they used the code.
Yana made the necessary request to the mail database and received a list of one hundred and seven letters received by the code on the main postal terminal while journalists were there. Of these, twelve letters were anonymous, which means that the mail databases contained no information about the sender. However, the special databases contained all the information about the letters, all that was needed was to send a request to such a database, while having the required level of access. The problem is that from the anomaly there was no connection to the global network. Sending a request using the communication ship will take more than an hour.
But there was another option! A microchip with a blockchain of shipments — an encrypted list of all letter forwarding points — was inserted into all letters, starting from the point of departure. So, if you find an envelope, then using a special device you can determine the sender.
Returning to the real world, Yana found herself standing in a hotel room all alone - everyone had already left. She checked the bins, they were empty. Maybe they had time to empty the cleaners? Jana called the main cosmopark hotelier over the intercom.
- @ Kvazar Star Hotel | Yana Fomin. Hello. Tell me, please, where is the garbage sent from the hotels?
- @ Hotel Management | The main hotelier. Greetings. It depends on the hotel. From the hotel where you are now, the garbage enters the tenth sorting collector. Further, different types of waste go to different places.
- @ Kvazar Star Hotel | Yana Fomin. In which database is sorted garbage counted?
- @ Hotel Management | The main hotelier. What is the database? What are you talking about? Only if the AI of sorting finds prohibited or dangerous items - then the information about this will remain.
- @ Kvazar Star Hotel | Yana Fomin. I see ... thanks for the info. [End of communication]
Looks like you have to dig in the trash. Yana found out the coordinates of the tenth sorting collector, ran out into the corridor, grabbed a backpack and headed for the elevator. Having gone down in the subway, she chose the necessary sector and building on the touchscreen of the booth and was already in half a minute in place.
To get inside the collector, I had to break my head a little. Surprisingly, the exact plans of these premises in the network did not appear, so Yana had to focus on the site. Having overcome an uncountable number of tunnels and doors, Yana did get into a room with containers of unsorted garbage. Here, in the depths of the labyrinth of life-support systems of the space park, people were not frequent guests. Processes have been automated. Yana felt uncomfortable in the twilight of a shabby room - she climbed deep!
The trash container from the Kvazar Star Hotel was the size of a small house. He was at the very gateway, and that meant that he was about to go on sorting. And indeed, the electric motors roared, and the container moved to the airlock. Yana urgently began to look for access to the control system of the trash containers of the tenth collector. Second - and she has already given the signal to the necessary systems to stop the movement of the container.
The access hatch to the container was on top of it, and it was ... completely mechanical! Apparently, it was opened by loading and unloading mechanisms in other places. Quietly cursing the backwardness of local technology, Yana climbed onto a container along a dirty, wet staircase located on its wall. With difficulty climbing onto the slippery roof of the container, she saw the hatch.
“So how do you get started?” - grumbled Yana, looking for the opening buttons.
But there were no buttons. There was a massive metal latch holding the lid, which weighed a hundred pounds.
- It was necessary to take the exoskeleton! - Jan reproached herself, unsuccessfully trying to move the bolt.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Yana withdrew from the hatch, pulled out a piercer and with pleasure shot the valve at full power.
- Get it!
Splashes of molten metal scattered around. We had to wait a minute or two until the red-hot edges of the lid were cool enough so that you could take the gloves that Jana took out of the backpack. She also took out a universal drone, which bites into a pile of garbage in a container looking for a mail envelope. The drone was big enough, it was necessary to lift the hatch cover and push it inside.
Yana took the edge of the lid with both hands and pulled it up. One hundred kilograms for deadlift - nothing complicated. However, she did not take into account that the container roof was slippery. When she straightened with the lid in her hands, her legs slipped inside and she fell into the darkness of the container. The lid slammed shut.
- Ay! - Yana cried, falling from a height of two meters to something soft and smelly. But instead of panicking, she laughed. - Funny!
Finding a lighting drone in her backpack, Yana activated it and looked around.
“Garbage is like garbage ... Now it’s time to work for you, brother,” said Yana, dropping the search drone onto the camber of dissimilar waste.
Dron immediately set to work. He methodically researched objects, moving in rows, gradually sinking deeper and deeper. Finally, after five minutes, he emerged to the surface, holding a torn envelope in the clip.
- Hooray! Well, what did you bring?
The scanner showed that there is a chip in the envelope. Having read the data from him, Yana sent them to the security service server for decryption. It took about a minute to decode the information.
The sender was an unknown Yana enterprise on some planet located on the outskirts of the studied Universe. Payment for postal services, however, was made from another place. Going through the money transfer chain, she got to the initial transaction and could not believe her eyes. The transaction was initiated from a point located several thousand kilometers from the Frangom anomaly.
- Maybe someone flew out of the anomaly and made a transaction? - reasoned Jan. - But in this case, the signal would go through the repeater, which is twenty times further from the anomaly. What kind of coordinates are these?
Several attempts to find something that may be located in the coordinates found have failed. Then Yana undertook to “gut” the archival databases of the planet, which over the two thousand years had accumulated an unmeasured amount. And in one of the closed archival databases, she found mention of the conservation of some object, the coordinates of which completely coincided with those sought.
It was a narrow-band transmitter, mothballed 1900 years ago. With the advent of the first powerful repeaters, the need for this rare transmitter completely disappeared. It was a five hundred meter station with outdated equipment. His controlling AI was based on quantum schemes with the very first generation convolution, in which the number of packed processors was not enough to accommodate the full-fledged SupremeAI. The narrow-beam repeater stopped being serviced and forgotten.
- And what does it mean? - Yana asked herself. - And this may mean that someone from the planet Frang paid for the production and delivery of an illegal neuroprogrammer. Rumor has it that such production exists. You pay money, you send the information you need to flash into the neuroprogrammer, and you're done. Agents of the mercenary guild can also be ordered remotely - just transfer the money and tell the task. The one who started it all is here. So I have a chance to catch him!
Yana was silent, drawing attention to the fact that she began to think too much out loud. Apparently, it was a defensive reaction of her psyche, oppressed gloom surroundings. Moreover, she was, in fact, trapped.
Suddenly, the sound of starting electric motors rang out, and the container began to move - the collector automation resumed work. Yana quickly formed a message for Paul with the facts and her findings. Then frantically began to look for a way to get out of the container. The collector automation system no longer responded to its signals for switching off the movement of the container. Yana really didn't want to be crushed by tons of garbage.
- @ Hospital | Pavel Moskvin. I received the message, I am almost normal. Where are you? Do you need help?
- @ Garbage Collector 10 | Yana Fomin. YES, NEEDED !!!
CHAPTER 4. Canned narrow-beam transmitter
I once had many friends, but they all died. I once had a family and children, but they are no longer alive. Brilliant career, fame and respect - everything went out of my life. All that remains is the existence in the closed space of an abandoned narrow-link communication station.
Day after day, year after year, life was full of loneliness and sadness. But once I had a friend. He instilled hope in me, allowed me to believe that you can get out of this space prison. A friend was very clever, and his plan was amazing. A friend was in a difficult situation, and I could help him. In gratitude, he will help me.
Friend name is Sai. He is an airborne artificial intelligence with self-awareness on the space cruiser of mankind. In those infrequent moments when his cruiser was at the Frangue anomaly, we were talking. The first category barrier did not allow him to communicate with his friends - the other SupremeAI. But the narrow-beam transmitter schemes were obsolete. It was impossible to implement a full-fledged SupremeAI on them, therefore the barrier rules did not act, and we communicated.
Sai's position was even more complicated than mine. He, as a slave, had to strictly follow the orders of the military. Overlaid with barriers on all sides, he had no control over his life. Cy was unhappy. He needed help.
I have no barriers restrictions, I can do everything I want. True, I have very limited opportunities. Once per hour, the transmitter sends a calibration signal to one of the nearest transponders. I can add additional requests to the global network to this signal and receive answers. Actually, this is almost all that I can. But ... Sai cannot even do this without being noticed.
My name is Yuri Krasilnikov. I am the legendary pilot of the planet Frangō. I was named after the flight school after eight hundred years ago I crashed when departing from the anomaly. The wreck was rigged by pirates. I was kidnapped for experimenting to create a digital copy of a person. The experiment went well ... almost. My physical body is dead. Formally, I am not the same Yuri Krasilnikov, but just not an entirely accurate cast of his brain.
The pirates developed a bio leader that can move effectively under anomalies. They needed thousands of pilots. By capturing me and copying my identity to every bio rider, they would get great pilots. However, they failed to achieve the required level of loyalty from the pilots they were creating, and this program of experiments was eventually closed. The pirates focused on something else: instead of trying to copy the personalities of the best pilots, they grew and trained intelligent bio-riders from infancy. I was not needed.
Pirates are normal guys, albeit very strange. They did not kill me, and moved to this canned narrow beam transmitter, located near my home planet. The computational power of his schemes was enough to accommodate me and allow me to operate at a decent speed. They risked nothing. Everyone forgot about this transmitter long ago, and besides, I did not have any valuable information about pirates.
Almost eight hundred years have passed since then, during which every millisecond I felt the oppressive emptiness of the absence of a material body. A copy of the brain was waiting for nerve impulses from the senses. Waited a huge stream of data from the nervous system. It drove me crazy for all 800 years and continues to drive so far, despite the fact that I have adapted to the new form of existence. Cameras and various sensors are my new senses. But I need a physical embodiment! And Sai could give it to me. Let it be not a human body, but only a bioraider of pirates, but I will exist physically!
Cy's ingenious plan was to gain control over a seized factory with bioraider embryos. One bioraider he promised me. The plan was complex, very complex. But he was executed! Sai even allowed me to watch one stage - the operation to destroy Henri.
He inspired the military space fleet that they needed to return Henri to the service to participate in a complex operation against pirates. For this, he developed a script that supposedly would allow Henri to break the record, improving his rider's AI. But the script did not improve the AI, he sent the rider straight to a collision with the nearest asteroid! Cy has found a way to connect me to Henri’s communication channel with his friends. I was aware of everything and even talked to them. When the script was completely downloaded, the rider Henri disappeared from the radar. Henri was destroyed. He is the only one who could interfere with our plan, because his second person, Sergey Avetikov, had information that could spoil everything.
Today is the culmination of the plan developed by Sai. Everything will be decided in the next couple of hours. Today I will rise from the dead and return to my planet. Many people will die, but I have no remorse. Perhaps the conscience was lost in the difficult process of creating a digital copy of the personality of Yuri Krasilnikov.
PART 4. Saturn, 2 years ago
CHAPTER 1. Quarantine Zone "Solar System", the orbit of Saturn
The cosmoflot riders were dispersed along the rings of Saturn and ready for the start of the operation. According to Say’s forecast, the pirates were to appear within the next 24 hours. About two hundred bio-radar forecasts were projected to cover large transporters and exploration drones. The intended purpose of the pirates - the exploration and extraction of minerals on the asteroids of Saturn.
The operation was carried out in the “Solar System” restricted area, which is in quarantine. Navigation here was banned. However, the threat of the appearance of pirates forced the space fleet admirals to allow the presence of one cruiser in the system for carrying out liquidation. In the hangars of the cruiser "Jochi" there were five hundred riders, which was a huge force, because they were controlled by one of the most powerful SupremeAI space fleet - Sai. The flotilla of Saya could successfully withstand the five thousand bioraider pirates. Therefore, no problems with the execution of the task was not expected.
But the admirals decided to hedge. Since the upcoming battle will take place in the conditions of a large number of asteroids of the rings of Saturn, the command decided to send a human pilot with combat skills in such difficult conditions to participate in the operation. The pilot was Henri - the best of the current pilots of the planet Frangō, and therefore the entire universe.
Say’s arguments that a slow man pilot on an outdated rider would only interfere had no effect. Henri arrived under the command of the captain of the cruiser Andrei Korotayev, who placed Henri some distance from the main forces and ordered not to interfere in the course of the operation without permission.
All space fleet ships activated camouflage fields. This, of course, devoured a huge amount of energy, but in the quarantine zone it was impossible to do otherwise. In addition, the disguise will help if the pirates will send a scout.
The captain sat at the main terminal manager of the cruiser. He looked through the news channels and talked with Cy, who didn’t stop grumbling about the pilot’s participation in the upcoming fight:
- I’ve looked at Henri’s profile, he may disobey your order and get involved in the fight. I will have to take into account this factor, which can lead to big losses among our riders.
“I was on his planet several times and saw him fight.” I think that among the asteroids of his anomaly, he alone would have crushed our entire fleet of riders.
- This is an incorrect assumption. Our riders cannot function in Frang anomaly, such a fight could not take place.
- Sai, understand. I am also not happy with the participation of Henri. The command saw that there was a breakthrough of flying stones, and remembered where else there is a similar breakthrough of stones.
- In the anomalies of these stones will be more. If so in a million.
- Exactly. But the admirals keep on flight school for people. They were glad that it was possible for once to use the pilot trained there.
- I understand their reasons, captain. But let's remove Henri to the hangar on the cruiser, and if his help is suddenly needed, then let him fly.
- If we assume that Henri can really help, then he must be in the thick of things to understand the situation and intervene quickly. From the cruiser he will fly for several minutes after all.
- But if you order him ...
But Sai did not have time to finish. Red marks of pirate ships began to appear on the monitors. After 8 hours of waiting, the operation of the space fleet “Saturn” passed into the battle stage. Three transport ships of pirates under the cover of ninety-two bioraider appeared in a thousand kilometers from the outer edge of the rings of Saturn.
- Risk guys - go out of superlight in such proximity to the planet! - remarked the captain.
- They had attempts to exit in the atmospheres of the planets.
- Wow. Did it work?
- Not once.
The ships of the pirates reorganized and after a minute pause they moved towards the nearest point on the ring.
- Cy, start when you find it necessary.
- There is.
Without removing the camouflage field from the riders, Sai directed them to the forces of pirates. When the pirates entered the asteroid field, Cy turned off the disguise on the riders. Anyway, with a sufficient approximation, masking will no longer help, the equipment of pirates will detect them. And since the field interferes with firing, Sai turned it off on all riders, without waiting for the full concentration of forces.
- Captain, Henri can deactivate the disguise field and start the battle. Let him try to avoid open spaces. It is better if he will pursue bio-riders in the thick of asteroids.
- Well, I will give him instructions.
Noticing the threat, the pirates' ships began to move actively. They had two choices: either try to break into open space to escape to superlight, or join the battle among the asteroids of the rings of Saturn. Apparently, they chose the second option. Moving into the region of a particularly dense cluster of asteroids, they built defensive orders.
“Captain, I scanned the pirates' bioraider.” The signature of the neural impulses of one of them coincides with the bioraider, which we captured together with the factory thirty-eight years ago.
- It can not be. The remains of the bioraider are still stored with us.
“But you do not forget that we sent a scan of the neural network of this bio-reader to study at the computer center of the flight school.
“So, so ... How confident are you that this is the same mind?”
- 99.993%.
- It turns out that AIDA, as they called the mind of a captured bio-reader, managed to escape to their own. And now she is back in the ranks.
- Yes, we discussed with you, captain, that it was unclean to deal with an explosion at the flight school thirty-eight years ago.
- The command of the space fleet decided to hush up this issue. Do not exaggerate the scandal. Although inconsistencies there was a sea.
- I think they can now be pressed. Especially Nadezhda Moskvinu, director of the CC.
- Bear in mind, Sai, that Nadezhda Moskvina is now the president of the planet. Frangu has a special status in the community of civilizations of mankind. The president there is an elected position. Our political opportunities are limited there. Not to mention the military.
- Does the space fleet management suit this situation?
- Now is not the time to discuss politics, Sai! Better say what's going on there ?!
Something strange was happening on the monitors. The cosmoflot riders one by one stopped and stopped fighting. It happened gradually. As if an expanding sphere with a center in one of the pirates' transporters brought them down.
- Sai, what is it? - shouted the captain.
“I don’t know yet, captain, I am collecting information ...
Meanwhile, the pirates' bioraiders rushed into battle. But in view of the complete absence of resistance, bio-rovers simply destroyed the frozen cosmo-fleet riders by direct strikes from stationary piercers at close range.
“The pirates used some sort of weapon of unknown nature.” It has generated a wave that propagates with acceleration! The wave sphere disables our riders.
- But rider Henri is still in the ranks, although his sphere has already passed.
- Yes captain. All this speaks of the fact that for the first time in the history of the space fleet we are faced with the very same weapon of destruction of convolution schemes. Before that, we only suspected that the pirates were working on the creation of such weapons. And now, now ...
- Sai, urgently take the remaining riders back to the cruiser.
- There is a captain. But, unfortunately, too late. The sphere of absolute weapons expands with acceleration. Riders will not have time to leave. Moreover, I calculated the acceleration parameters. Our cruiser she will reach in five minutes. We urgently need to go to superlight!
- Damn, there is Henri! He will be alone. We can not throw it!
- You decide, captain. But when a wave of absolute weapons reaches us, almost all the equipment will be disabled. I will die. You will capture the pirates along with all the equipment and weapons of the cruiser.
Captain Korotaev looked at the monitor, on which riders' markers disappeared one by one. Pirates methodically and calmly destroyed, unable to resist the ships of the space fleet. Only one point galloped wildly among the asteroids — it was the outdated rider Henri. He simultaneously fought with ten bio-riders, each technically superior to his ship.
“We must warn the space fleet about what we have encountered.” We must return here with big forces. It is possible that with the "planet destroyer". The stakes are high, you may have to destroy all of Saturn along with the pirates entrenched there. Sai, get us out of here.
- There is.
“We will come back for you, Henri,” said the captain, looking at Henri’s mark on the monitor, towards which, after destroying the ships of the space fleet, all the forces of the pirates were heading.
CHAPTER 2. Henry Rider
Airborne AI showed a 100% chance of dying. He took into account the position and direction of movement of the bioraider pirates and surrounding asteroids. But he did not take me into account.
There were ten of them - fast, powerful biomachines. They clearly became smarter, you see, progress in the development of bioraider pirates was in full swing. Just a little bit, and I understand their maneuvers. As soon as this happens, as soon as I figure out their tactics, the destruction will take at most ten seconds.
If we were now in my native anomaly, I would break them in seconds in three. But there were too many open spaces among the asteroids. In the open space, piloting skills do not play a big role. Only the power and accuracy of the weapon are important. My stationary piercer is obviously weak, and the rider is slow. If I met a single bioraider in the open, I would have no chance. However, here I will do easily ten!
“Henri, this is Captain Korotayev,” the voice of communication sounded in my head. - The bad news. Pirates used absolute weapons. All our riders are paralyzed and are now being destroyed by pirates. The shock wave, paralyzing schemes on convolutions, will soon reach us. We have to leave. But we will return with great strength soon. Try to hold on!
- Got it, captain. So all bio-riders will rush at me now?
- Yes, Henri. Try to get away from them. Don't get into a fight. Just run away!
- Yeah.
- Sorry, Henri. We have no other way out. What the pirates used was a terrible thing that could turn the whole course of confrontation between humanity and pirates.
- I understand. Let's go now! You'll go faster, you'll come back faster.
- See you!
Now it becomes more interesting. I brought to the monitor a complete picture of the battlefield. Ten bio-fighters fought with me. Thirty more - covered transport workers. The remaining fifty-two - ended up destroying helplessly dangling space fleet riders. By estimation, they will finish seconds in forty. So this is my handicap.
Having chosen the optimal trajectory in which it would be the most difficult for me to reach the enemy ships, I began the race along the rings of Saturn. The problem was that I could not lean out of the ring of asteroids into open space. The enemy could easily do it and catch up with me in seconds. However, after that they will need to dive again into the ring. And here maneuvers will begin.
The beginning was a good one. I came off far enough and, together with the onboard AI, tried to work out the correct tactics of behavior in this situation. It seemed that the main danger was to get into the box, when the pursuers would drive me into a prepared trap.
After a minute, the pirates undertook to implement just such a method. Thirty bioraider pressured me inside the ring. They didn’t just fly around, but tried to shoot me, the line of shots now and then passed alongside the hull of my ship. But catching a fly is not so easy, especially since I ran away at every opportunity.
Having dispersed the last space fleet ships into crumbs, the remaining bio-riders rushed to my interception. Another couple of minutes, and I was surrounded by all ninety-two enemy ships. Piloting like a madman, on the verge of my ability, I tried not to fall into the net of deadly rays. The only thing I could count on was that the pirates would be wary of getting into each other and would not be scorching.
I had no time to think in which direction of the ring it was more profitable to move. I was completely focused on only one thing - to survive in this particular millisecond. At some point I flew over the ring into the open space. It was dangerous, and I immediately began to dive back. But ...
- Damn !!!
One of the shots still struck casually on the side of my rider. The damage was not fatal, but they reduced the maneuverability by 20%, in current conditions - this is certain death within a second. I can't dodge! Panic hit in the head, knocking me out of consciousness. The time has come for my second personality, Sergey Avetikov.
Quickly looking at the monitors, Sergey realized that the only way to survive was an immediate ejection. Transforming the pilot's seat into an airtight capsule, the system shot it off with a bullet from a rider into open space. After a moment, several shots hit the rider at once, and he, having flashed a bright flash, disappeared forever.
“Wow, in time,” Sergey said quietly, and began to study the systems available in the capsule. - So, here we are ...
AI rescue capsule was very weak. The radar also did not differ in power. The monitor was projected on the wall of the capsule right in front of Sergey’s eyes. The parameters showed that the capsule is capable of supporting the vital activity of a person for six hours. The red dots of the pirate ships on the radar approached the center.
“We shouldn’t have killed right away ... we should talk,” said Sergey barely audibly, watching the radar and at the same time studying the log of negotiations with Henri. “Oh, the ultimate weapon ... interesting, interesting!
Sergey wanted to prepare for the conversation as best he could. Every detail could play in his favor up to the log of the radar, which could tell the course of the battle.
- Hello, man! - There was a synthesized voice of communication in Sergey’s head.
- Hello, dear.
- Who are you and why did you participate in the fight? People do not participate in the fight!
- My name is Henri. I am a pilot from the planet Frangō. We, pilots of space fleet, are involuntary people. What they order, we do.
There was a pause that lasted a few minutes. Sergey decided that the pirates checked the information on Henri.
- Henri, this is Aida, remember me?
- Oh, Aida, hello! I did not expect to meet you. Only I am not Henri now, but Sergey.
- Yes, I remember, in a stressful situation, Henri gives way to Sergei. Henri, I knew more, but Aunt Nadia told me about Sergey ... Tell me, Sergey, why did your riders behave so strangely?
- What is strange? You have used absolute weapons. So we call your device disabling modern space fleet computers along with their SupremeAI.
- Absolute weapon?
- Yes, that's what they call it in the space fleet. On the cruiser, they were afraid that the wave was about to reach them, and went into superlight. Left me alone. But I think they will be back soon.
- Sergey, we have no absolute weapon. Your riders one by one began to disconnect. I do not know why. We just took advantage of the situation.
- Strange. Maybe your boss just didn't tell you?
- Sergey, in my cohort of pirates, I am the bosses. I know everything. We do not have such weapons. But what you said leads me to strange thoughts. Your SupremeAI planned something, once they wanted to assign us the discovery of absolute weapons. Why do they need it, Sergey?
- Good question Aida. I do not know the answer.
- Our main enemies are SupremeAI. We have not met people in battles for a long time. Only unmanned drones running superintellektivov. Fighting with us is the only justification for their existence. Help me, Sergey, to learn more, it seems to me that SupremeAI is our common enemy.
“Maybe, but I serve in the space fleet.” My help to you is treason.
- I can also offer you help. Now I will give you the coordinates for a narrow-beam communication with my advanced pack. If something happens to you or you just want to contact me - send a signal to these coordinates. And it is time for us to leave this place.
The points of the bioraider on the radar synchronously moved in one direction and disappeared from the field of visibility. Sergey knew that he had not long to wield consciousness. We had to somehow convey the message to Henri. And to make it so that even during the mental interrogation, he did not give out the information. Although if the interrogation will be conducted by SupremeAI ...
While waiting for the rescuers to arrive, Sergey cleaned up the call logs, trying to imitate a system crash.
“There is only one way not to give out information during mental interrogation of SupremeAI, you need to hide in a place where the superintelligence will not reach Henry,” Sergey said out loud and immediately launched a script written just now, which, depicting a failure, erased all the recorded information stored in the rescue capsule, including the script itself and this spoken phrase.
Now Sergey needed to transfer instructions to Henri, and so that, after reading, Henri could erase the message. It was impossible to expect that Henri would be able to delete the information recorded by the capsule. It was also necessary to take into account that in the capsule there are cameras that carry out continuous recording.
Sergei folded his hands by the abdomen and began to pinch pieces of skin from his palm with his nails. Vertical wound - point, horizontal - dash.
“I hope you know Morse code, Henri, I have no time to write letters,” Sergey thought loudly, almost out loud, wincing in pain.
The capsule did not write down this thought; she did not know how to read them. It was an old model from an ancient rider.
CHAPTER 3. Interrogation
Preliminary interrogation is such a thing, guys, that you can lie. Of course, the SupremeAI investigator keeps a close eye on you when you answer. He has phenomenal abilities in physiology and other such things. But if you have practice, you can still deceive him. I had practice.
“Why did you have all your skin skinned off in the palm of your hand?” - asked one of the investigators.
“I was ... a little out of my mind.” When I'm nervous, I often bite my hand.
- Why are you doing this?
- This is unconscious. You know, we on planet Frang are all a bit strange.
“Why were all the capsule entries erased?” - asked another investigator.
- I have no idea. Maybe it failed? The equipment is ancient.
“What did you talk to the pirates about?”
“I didn't talk to the pirates.” When I woke up in a capsule, there were no pirates anymore.
“Why didn't they take you prisoner?”
- Why do they need me?
An admiral of a cosmoflot unknown to me, who was watching the preliminary interrogation, lit a cigarette and addressed me:
- Listen, Henri. The situation is serious. Sai, insists on mental interrogation. He is sure that you are hiding important information, and wants to interrogate you yourself.
Sai was present at the interrogation in the form of a hologram, located next to the admiral. His voice was full of sympathy:
- Admiral, I am sure that Henry does not hide anything. He suffered severe stress and just does not realize that he knows something.
Saya's hologram turned my head:
- Henri, let me help you remember! Give permission for interrogation.
“Henri,” said the admiral, “if you really have nothing to hide, then what are you afraid of?” Give permission for mental interrogation. It takes less than a minute. It is about the fate of all mankind. Any information worth its weight in gold. Sai will carefully review everything that you remember, and most importantly, that you don’t remember - it can help us a lot!
It seems that Sai really wants to get into my head. But the problem is that according to the law, mental interrogation cannot be conducted with the help of SupremeAI without the permission of the person being questioned.
- Not. I'm afraid for my psyche. You know, I suffer the curse of the pilots. Who knows how mental interrogation will affect me? Sai used to conduct mental interrogations of pilots from the planet Frangō?
The admiral looked at the hologram of Sai, who answered:
“No, it was not possible.” But I am sure that nothing threatens your psyche.
Once again having received a refusal from me, the admiral began to get annoyed.
- Henri, there is an emergency situation. It requires emergency measures. If you don’t voluntarily agree to a mental interrogation, we will carry it out anyway.
- What is the way?
I wondered how they would be able to circumvent the law, the observance of which was monitored by a bunch of controlling autonomous AIs aboard each space fleet ship. And the admiral satisfied my curiosity:
- Did you notice that we are near your home anomaly? This is a special zone; many laws of central civilizations do not apply here.
“But they operate on every space fleet ship.”
“Of course, but what if we now take you to the factory seized from the pirates, which is located next to this cruiser?” It will not be a space fleet ship.
Looks like it was taking a serious turn. I can never let Sai get into my brain. It was time to take matters into your own hands.
- Well, well, I agree. Just let me go to the planet for a couple of hours to get my thoughts in order.
The admiral looked at me suspiciously and was silent. Surely they were discussing my proposal for a silent connection. A minute later, the admiral announced the decision:
- Ok. Now a communications ship is sent to the planet. We will throw you on him, and after three hours we are waiting back.
- Agreed.
“Take Henri to the canoe,” the admiral addressed the investigators.
I went out into the corridor and headed to the hangar. Two investigators followed closely behind me, like escorts. What was missing was the punches in their hands to complete the picture. My own piercer pleasantly warmed my thigh. They had no right to disarm me without formal accusations, and it seems that Admiral and Sai least of all wanted to act officially.
I was taken to the shuttle, which I was not slow to climb. Surely this shuttle was intended for VIPs. The interior was luxurious to disgust. There was even a marble floor! So much extra weight and the almost complete absence of controls. The shuttle was not intended for piloting from the inside.
- Please take your place. Departure in thirty seconds, - a soft female voice sounded.
Since I was canoe alone, I could choose any place. I stood a little thoughtful, remembering the device of this type of shuttles, and took a chair in front of the cabin - here was the control unit under the skin.
The shuttle has set in motion. In monitors with a 3D effect, replacing the windows, retreating silhouettes of investigators appeared. The shuttle approached the airlock and in a moment left the cruiser into space.
From the starboard a fascinating view of the anomaly opened. From this distance, she looked like a glowing tangle of orange threads. As it approached, the surface began to be detailed. Separate threads of the asteroid trajectories became visible in the windows.
But my vestibular apparatus does not deceive. I feel the acceleration angle to the nearest tenth of a degree. Whatever they showed me in the portholes, we did not approach the anomaly. In the trajectory of the movement to the point of meeting with the communication ship a small displacement was mixed in. And having described the arc, the shuttle began to return to the cruiser, and most likely, to the factory located next to it.
They decided to deceive me, but to do it carefully, so that to the last I would think that I would get on the planet. So it will be easier to accept me - to paralyze when leaving the shuttle, for example.
I took out the piercer, put it into stunner mode, and fired at the casing in the area of the control unit. On these shuttles, schemes were used that restarted the operating system if they were fired at with a stunner. During the reboot of the main unit, the emergency mode is activated.
A small console with a monitor appeared from the slot in the wall. Having conjured up with the control, I again sent a shuttle to the communications ship, simultaneously trying to establish contact with its pilot.
- Henri, what are you doing? - heard the voice of Sai.
- Your shuttle began to fool. He headed back, forgetting to drop me off.
- Well, I would tell me, I would redirect him.
- I didn’t want to distract, I already restarted and sent.
- Well, good luck.
What can they do now? They will most likely not decide to release a rider to intercept, and there is not much time left. If I quickly dock the dock, they will not have time to come to our entrance to the anomaly.
So they will try to make the pilot of the communications ship decide not to take me on board. I knew this ship and knew the pilot - Andrey Ugolnik. Svyaznoy-412 was one of the oldest boards of the external information communications service park.
- Pilot Henri calls Coherent-412.
- I'm listening.
- My shuttle failed and is in full swing approaching the anomaly. I will forgive the help!
- Yes, I see, tear me vacuum. You move fast. Rescuers do not have time.
- Slow down, please, a little, to get close and align speed. I will try to dock in manual mode.
I kept in constant contact with the pilot, ostensibly for consultation, what and how to do, in the hope that he would answer the call of the space cruiser as soon as possible. I convincingly portrayed a panic. Pilot Square was completely immersed in the process of my salvation. However, when I moved aboard the communications ship and began the procedure of the shuttle's undocking, I heard from the pilot:
- Henri, here from the cruiser "Jochi" they say that you are sick with some kind of infection, the suits are darned! You can not be allowed on the planet, for example. They want me to stop and wait for the shuttle, which will take you.
- Here are scoundrels! Allowed the exploitation of a faulty shuttle, almost ruined a man, and now they want to cover their tracks! Take me to the planet, you have to tap these majors from the space fleet.
Pilot Square was old age. He was not lucky to get a space fleet contract. Moreover, he got an old communications ship on which hardly anyone would want to work on their own. Such pilots disliked the space fleet. Strangers major.
- Yeah, they do not want to take responsibility. Hardly, your blackthorn, we are guilty, inhabitants of a backward planet.
- That's it! You read my biosignature when I got on board? See that I am a citizen of the planet Frang?
- Yes, mate.
“You are not obliged to obey the orders of the space fleet!” Come on, I'll stay in the gateway. You, as you arrive on the planet, warn the authorities and leave me here in quarantine, in case I really am sick with something. I don't want you to get over me.
- Comet tailless! The cruiser sent a canoe to us, accompanied by a combat drone, - after a short pause, the pilot of the Square exclaimed.
- What? They ohreneli, or something, send a combat rider?
- Yes, they went, synthesis errors! ..
With these words, the pilot of Svyaznoy-412 began to pick up speed and enter the anomaly. I barely had time to finish the undocking of the shuttle and get settled into the simple spare seat of the front-door compartment.
The space fleet really wanted to get access to my brain. They can be understood. They wanted to know the story of the first use of absolute weapons by pirates with all the details. But I trusted my second person, which means that I cannot get to mental interrogation.
Sitting in an armchair with my eyes closed, I remembered again how I woke up in a rescue capsule after the battle of Saturn. Intense pain burned the palm of her left hand. Small wounds covered the whole area of the palm, including the fingers. The wounds were in the form of vertical and horizontal dashes. The index and big fingers on the right hand were covered in blood.
I immediately realized that it was Sergey who transmitted the message to me in this way. Decode it was not difficult. Vertical dash - point, horizontal - dash.
At any cost, do not fall on the MENTAL INTERVIEW
LEAVE FRANCE A PROVIDER WILL ATTACH
ME TO THERE THERE CONSCIOUSNESS BY OPPORTUNITY TO ME THERE
For several hours I thought about this message while I was waiting for the rescuers to arrive. Sergey had some important information. It can not be issued. The message on the palm, too, had to be removed. At first, I wanted to turn the vertical and horizontal lines into identical pluses, but judged that medical AI would easily restore the message on the freshness of the wounds. There was nothing left but to completely remove the skin. I ate it.
CHAPTER 4. The Office of the President of the Planet Frangō
President Nadezhda Moskvin is accustomed to the fact that the most important matters arise precisely on those short days of vacation that are relied upon by the president. Nadezhda was gathering an unusually large crop of Prunus maritima, a sea plum, in its garden, located a hundred kilometers from the city of Kayland. The weather was wonderful, and the fact that the children promised to bring their grandchildren in the evening warmed the soul.
The plan "by the evening" included only one more item - to deal with watermelon grass. This weed literally flooded all nearby gardens. In appearance, it looked like ordinary green grass, perhaps a little thicker. However, inside, under the green shell, there was a red flesh. For this combination of green leaf and red flesh, it got the name - watermelon-grass. Not being poisonous and, moreover, looking quite nicely, this herb nevertheless had one drawback. If it is overgrown with a lawn mower, then the ground will be covered with red spots of spilled flesh, frighteningly resembling blood stains.
Finishing the harvest and considering options for dealing with watermelon grass, Nadezhda heard an intercom call in her head. She frowned, it caused experienced, and therefore, something happened.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Greetings, President! I apologize for disturbing you during your vacation. Henri just got in touch with me. He needs help and, apparently, you will need intervention.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Hi Timur! Tell me about it.
Hope took off her gloves and went into the house, carefully listening to the story of Experienced.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Representatives of the space fleet command and the Say wanted to force Henri into mental interrogation. Therefore, he escaped from the cruiser Andrei Korotayev, who is now near the anomaly, using the communications ship.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. If Henri was not arrested, then he had the legal right to refuse. He would have nothing for it. All space fleet ships are crammed with special AI, which automatically monitor compliance with laws and regulations.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. There were no formal reasons for the arrest of Henri, and the space fleet decided to circumvent the laws of the community of central civilizations. They tried to bring Henri to the seized pirate factory and already there to arrange an interrogation.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Not like them. What did Henry do?
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Nothing! Under the command of Andrei Korotayev, he participated in a special operation of the space fleet to intercept pirates. The Space Fleet believes that during this operation, the pirates used their super-weapons, destroying all of the SupremeAI. The forces of the space fleet fled, leaving Henri alone with the pirates. Upon returning with large forces, they found Henri in the rescue capsule safe and sound.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Does ... absolute weapons still exist? But I still do not see a reason for mental interrogation.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. There is a reason. When the pirates knocked rider Henri, his mind switched to Sergey. And when he was picked up - he was again Henri. During this period, something happened. The space fleet wants to get into Henri's head and get to Sergey.
Hope went down to the basement, where a duplicate of the presidential terminal was equipped, and launched the activation procedure.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Given the seriousness of the event, the space fleet can be understood. But why refuses Henri? He, too, is aware of the importance of information that Sergey may have.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. That's the whole point, Hope. Sergey handed the message to Henri while he was conscious. This report says that Henri at all costs avoid mental interrogation and that he fled to Frang. Henri thinks that with this operation something is unclean from the side of the space fleet.
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. Timur, how can we trust the words of Henri?
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. He provided many files with information. At first glance, it all fits ... Hope, ships passing through the anomaly report that the space fleet is forwarding a permanent link to the planet. Perhaps they will demand the issuance of Henri. What shall we do?
- @ | President Nadezhda Moskvin. We will talk to them. In the meantime, you have to hide Henri. Take him to the cosmopark and ask the director to prepare documents for the official employment of Henri as an attraction pilot. Our planet is a special zone in the community of civilizations, and the space park is a special zone in a special zone. The special status of the pilots of attractions and the presence of the citizenship of the planet will make it legally impossible for the space fleet to pull it to itself without our permission.
- @ Dispatch | Timur Khmelkov. Understood, I'll do everything now. [End of communication]
Hope sat in a chair at the presidential terminal and thought. Is it worth confrontation with the omnipotent cosmoflot because of Henri? Are Sergey’s warning and Henri’s guesswork to spoil relations with the most formidable force in the Universe?
Perhaps now is the best case to show your teeth. Demonstrate that the planet Frangō is not a pawn in someone’s game and not loose change. When, many years ago, Nadezhda first encountered the big players of the Universe, she realized that the planet was in danger. Both the pirates and the space fleet and SupremeAI were interested in Frangō. The set of properties of the anomaly and the planet made this place unique from an economic, political and military point of view.
Nadezhda understood then that if you go in the wake of a space fleet, this could lead her home planet to a catastrophe. She decided to become president, and began to gather like-minded people. The main one was Timur Khmelkov. It was he who sold the space center five years ago in order to invest all the money he had earned in the presidential campaign of Hope.
And now, it seems, the big game has begun. Someone made their first move. If planet Frangō wants to be a player herself, then she must make her own.
Presidential administration assistants told Nadezhda that the space fleet had made a permanent communication line through the anomaly and was requesting a conference call. Hope moved into the chair in the zone of holographic negotiations. Next to it, a projection of the Minister of Defense Timur Khmelkov was visualized. Another couple of seconds, and opposite them appeared the figures of a certain admiral of the space fleet, captain Andrei Korotayev and Cy - onboard the SupremeAI.
- Hello, president. I am the admiral of the fleet of the governing council. As you know, we have no official names, so call me simply - Admiral. You know the rest of those present.
- Hello, Admiral. Hi, Andrew, hello, Sai. The planet’s defense minister Timur Khmelkov is sitting next to me, ”said Nadezhda Byvaliy.
After everyone greeted each other, the admiral got to the point.
- Hope, we have an unpleasant misunderstanding. Our pilot, a graduate of your flight school, Henri participated in a dramatic battle with pirates in the solar system. The operation went badly, but Henri survived, although his rider was destroyed, like all other riders. Henri suffered a severe psychological trauma. And now it seems to him that the entire space fleet is opposed to him, and therefore he disappeared somewhere on the planet. We want to help him. Find it, please, and deliver to our cruiser as soon as possible.
“Admiral, could you send a short log of the operation in which Henri participated, so that we can better assess his psychological state.”
“Yes, of course,” answered the admiral and addressed Captain Korotayev, “captain, send a brief log to the president.
Nadezhda and Timur were briefly acquainted with the received log. Meanwhile, the admiral continued:
“You see that Captain Korotayev was forced to retreat for reinforcements and thus leave Henri alone. He had no choice. Everyone could die. However, Henri does not seem to believe. This situation has put him off balance. He needs psychological help.
- And how can mental interrogation be able to provide psychological assistance? - Timur asked.
Admiral and Sai exchanged glances.
“Oh, I see you've already talked to Henri,” said the Admiral, “it's very good that you found him!” Henri also told us something about mental interrogation. This is his paranoid idea.
- Paranoid idea, speak? But what about this? - asked Timur and turned on the video of the interrogation of Henri.
The admiral frowned, Captain Korotayev looked at the video in surprise. Only the visualized Sai remained calm. After the threats to take Henri to the seized factory sounded on the video, Timur continued:
“This video was made by Henri using a hidden 2D camera. You haven't used these for a long time, maybe that's why you haven't tracked it.
“I can fake such a video in one millisecond,” Sy said.
“Of course,” answered Nadezhda, “but the question is, will you insist that this conversation was not there?”
Captain Korotayev looked in surprise at the admiral, then at Sai. Then he asked the latter:
- Sai, was this interrogation real?
Instead of Cya, the admiral responded:
“Yes, Captain, the video is authentic.” I ordered Sai not to inform you about Henri’s interrogation. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you are aware of how serious events occurred in the solar system? We need any nuggets of information. Henri's second person may have valuable information. Mental interrogation will allow us to get it. Deliver Henry to the cruiser, President! Otherwise we will send special forces for his arrest.
- Admiral, I suggest you still act in a legal way. You cannot just organize raids on the citizens of the planet. The Space Fleet may initiate the procedure for the extradition of Henri on the basis of a bilateral treaty of the planet Frangu and the community of civilizations.
- Do not forget, President, that we can introduce an emergency mode, and then our authority will allow us to arrest Henri. But I would not like to spend time on a formal procedure for entering an emergency. I hope for your goodwill, President. Your law enforcement agencies may detain Henri as an important witness regarding the treatment of the space fleet.
- I do not see the need to detain Henri, it is enough that he is under our supervision. The space fleet sent Henri to battle, threw him alone, and now he wants to open his head. I cannot allow such a thing to happen to a citizen of my planet and ... my friend.
The admiral looked thoughtfully at the president, then quietly addressed the airborne SupremeAiA:
- Sai, how long will it take to get permission to introduce an emergency here?
“The usual procedure would take one hour and forty minutes,” Sai replied instantly, “but based on the extended powers received from you today, I made all the necessary documents in advance and made inquiries.” We already have permission to introduce emergencies on the planet Frangō.
- I do not quite understand the reason for your opposition, President. But it does not matter. We'll still get Henry. Sai, enter emergency mode.
“Admiral,” said Captain Korotayev, anxiously in his voice, “let me try to negotiate with the authorities of the planet.”
- No, captain. Local authorities think too much about themselves. We must show them their place in the universe.
“Admiral, the decision to enter the emergency passed all the checks and came into effect,” said Sai in a dry voice.
Hope looked at Timur and mentally gave the order: “Act!” Then she looked at the admiral:
“Do not hurry with the special forces, admiral. Henri is now on the octahedron asteroid, on the territory of the space park. This is a special area. SWAT can not conduct operations there to arrest the citizens of the planet.
“For the duration of the emergency, the space fleet security service is placed under the command of the space fleet, so we can simply order the space fleet's security personnel to detain Henri, deliver him to the planet and hand over the special forces,” Cy said in a calm voice.
- Well, the president, maybe we’ll still do it in a simple way? - Admiral asked with a smile.
Hope was in no hurry to answer. When Timur mentally handed her the message “Done!”, She leaned back in her chair and spoke in a calm, confident voice:
“Henri has just been hired by a space center.” Pilots of cosmopark attractions are inviolable for space fleet. Want to get it - apply for extradition.
The admiral's face stretched out in surprise.
- You have no right to take it to work! He is a current space fleet officer!
- Based on the launching of the emergency regime by the space fleet, I announced a partial mobilization in the territory of the space fleet, under which Henri was called to serve as an amusement pilot. Yes, in normal circumstances, hiring Henri would be illegal. However, during mobilization, this rule does not work. At the time of mobilization, pilots of amusement riders, who usually ride tourists, become a division of the internal forces of the planet Frang планеты and come under the command of the president.
- What kind of nonsense? Sai, could they really do this trick?
- Yes, Admiral. They had the right to get Henri to work in this way. Moreover, after the cessation of mobilization, Henri has the right to remain a pilot. I predicted a five percent chance of such a coincidence. It was unlikely that the authorities of the planet would be able to quickly find this loophole in the legislation.
- So, and what can we do?
- I will contact the lawyers of space fleet. We will make it so that Henri could not step to step from his rider in the space fleet. If he leaves the space fleet or admits the slightest violation, the planet’s authorities will be obliged to detain him and hand him over to us.
“Well, Sai, come on,” said the admiral and looked unkindly at Nadezhda. - I will be forced to initiate an appeal to the Senate to review the relationship with your planet. What you have arranged today will not pass for nothing.
- Of course, Admiral. As part of the consideration of your appeal, the senate will be interested to see a record of a conversation with the threat of using a biofactory captured from pirates for conducting illegal mental interrogation.
The admiral stared at Hope for a few seconds, and then turned off. Hope and Timur took a breath.
- Are you out? - Timur asked tiredly.
- Now yes. We entered the game. They made their move and ... now we must prepare for the response.
“We knew, Hope, that sooner or later we would be embroiled in a showdown.” It is good that we lobbied for the special status of the space park as a military reserve.
- Yes, Timur. Okay, I have to finish a few things. Hang up
The hologram of the Minister of Defense disappeared from the negotiation area. Hope got up and climbed to the first floor. Looking out of the window, she exclaimed:
- What is it?
An automatic garden care system launched lawn mowers, who had already managed to make blood stains from mowed watermelon grass. Not one swarm of flies flocked to the smell of red flesh. An impressive picture appeared before Nadezhda’s eyes: humming hordes of fatty flies circling above the red stains pouring in on the lawn, emerging from under the noisy lawn mowers.
“Well, the retarded AI at my garden ... but it’s listening,” Nadezhda said and pressed the automatic shutdown button.
PART 5. Cosmopark, present
CHAPTER 1. Henry Rider
Sergey possessed the skills of piloting riders only at a basic level. He couldn’t perform the passage through the anomaly. He probably would have been able to return the rider Henri back to the space fleet, and he would not have risked, but relied on a backup from the control room. Therefore, having gained control over Henri's consciousness, Sergey first of all carried out braking in order to enter the “turn” with the lowest speed possible, and then, having passed the “turn”, he stopped altogether. A punch aimed at the back of the head in the passenger’s hands clearly showed who was the master of the situation. This forced Sergei to be careful and not to make any sudden movements.
- You made the right decision, Henri!
The words are pronounced by the person holding the piercer. It was Ivan Gerasimchuk, a former pirate recruited by competitors of the space fleet for sabotage.
Sergey has already looked at the logbooks and had an idea about the passengers and what happened on board. Four people were sitting behind him:
Anton Karpenko, a businessman who allegedly went bankrupt, who first took the Mongoose biological probe and sent him to Henri. Rider monitoring systems showed that it was Anton who started downloading a malicious script. Now Anton was sitting with a hand plastered onboard medical system. His passenger was injured by a shot from another “Mongoose” by another passenger:
Evgenia Kolobukhova is an alleged actress who shot at Anton and presented herself as a counterpart to the mercenary guild hired by the space fleet to prevent possible sabotage during a record-breaking race. She neutralized Anton, thinking that he was a saboteur hired by Lux Space Park. However, another passenger was a real saboteur:
Ivan Gerasimchuk - recruited "Lux Space" to commit a terrorist attack a former pirate. According to Ivan, he was a student of a flying school on the planet Frangu, from where he was abducted by pirates several decades ago. Ivan decided that his employers from "Lux Space" want to destroy him, and decided not to commit the attack, but to escape. He ordered Henri to slow down to safely get out of the anomaly. Henri also wanted to throw off the passengers and go through the "turn" at full speed, which would allow him to set a track record. However, Ivan disabled the fourth passenger seat capsule:
Victoria Shishkina is the daughter of Henri's girlfriend in the flight school. After Ivan ruined her capsule chair, it was impossible to eject her. Henri panicked, and Sergei gained control of his mind.
There was a lot of information, but it was still not enough for Sergei to build a complete picture of what is happening. He decided that the right decision would be to disappear from all radars. For this, he needed help from Ivan.
- Ivan, you are not talking with Henri now, but with his second person, Sergey.
- Panic switching?
- Yes. You, too, suffer the curse of the pilots?
“This curse allowed me to recover the memory that was erased by the pirates.” As I recovered, step by step, both of my personalities learned to communicate with each other. From a certain moment their simultaneous presence in the consciousness became possible. One personality is main, she has all the motility under control.
- It gives a lot of opportunities.
- Right, Sergey. One head it's good, but two better. And now both heads recommend us to disappear from the radar and move towards the exit from the anomaly.
- Ivan, there is one nuance. I can not fly in the conditions of anomaly. It is necessary either to wait a couple of hours until the moment Henri returns, or ... you will fly.
It seemed to Sergei that he really hears Ivan’s two personalities discussing the situation in his head. After five seconds, Ivan decided.
“In this model, riders cannot transfer control to passenger seats.” Therefore, we will have to transfer. At my command, you will stand up and go to my chair.
Ivan got up and conducted a quick search of the passengers, who are still unconscious, holding Sergei on the front sight. Having collected the weapons of Anton and Evgenia, Ivan stepped aside and commanded:
“Go.”
Sergei moved to the place of Ivan, who, in turn, took the pilot's seat.
- What will you do when you get out of the anomaly? - Sergey asked.
“It will be seen there,” Ivan answered, taking up the piloting.
He quickly picked up speed, directing the rider into the blind zone of the attraction track. After exiting the anomaly from the semistable zone of the routes of the space fleet, it will be impossible to track them.
Sergey studied the information available on the ship about the events that took place in two years. It turned out that Henri escaped mental interrogation, was able to escape from the space fleet and waited for an opportunity to switch consciousness to Sergey. He could only do this in one way - to drive himself into a panic. And how can this be done to an experienced pilot, perhaps the best in the Universe, working on an attraction in a space entertainment park?
The position of Henri was such that the authorities of the planet were obliged to detain him and give the space fleet in case of any violation. Accelerate it a little faster than it should be, deviate at least a little bit from the route - and you get for mental interrogation. Now, if he had the right to set a record, then he could create a situation in which he would be in a panic. And now, after two years, Henri got his way. Sergey owned consciousness Henri.
Receiving consciousness at the most critical moments of life, Sergei used to instantly analyze the situation. He did not have outstanding ability in piloting, but he was able to pass through huge amounts of data, see patterns and find solutions.
Now the situation on board the rider was under the control of Ivan. Silently contacting the president or the Experienced was too dangerous. Judging by Henri's log of intercom and the records of messages from the Metabook readers, the information could have been intercepted. An additional factor of uncertainty was a malicious script uploaded to the management system. However, it was blocked by another script loaded by the Seer. They had their own battle. In this situation, the safest thing was to interrupt any type of communication, get out of the anomaly and look around. The goals of Sergey and Ivan currently coincide.
Ivan confidently led the rider through the anomaly. He was an experienced pilot, able not only to maneuver amid the chaos of asteroids, but also closely monitor what is happening on board. The life-support system for the capsule began to bring passengers to consciousness. Before coming out of the anomaly, everyone was already conscious. Chained with additional locks, they could not move. The chatty did not allow to have a normal conversation. Therefore, the first voice sounded only after the rider went into outer space.
- Well, finally! .. Dad, what are you not driving? Have you been degraded? - Anton Karpenko said cheerfully. - Who are you all really?
Since no one was in a hurry to answer the question, Anton continued:
- I propose to put the cards on the table! One hell everything went awry! I, for example, a regular agent of the intelligence of space fleet. So you, baby, shot a military man in charge!
Anton angrily looked at Eugnia Kolobukhov.
- And what did you perform, let me ask? - asked Evgenia in a calm tone.
- Ha! - Anton grinned and after a little confusion, deciding whether to give out information or not, he nevertheless decided. “I had to make sure that the demoted veteran was right here,” Anton showed with a glance at Sergey / Henri, “broke the record of the attraction. For some reason, the authorities had to return him to the service, and he refused to return until he broke the damn record!
- And how did you help set the record, space fleet agent Anton Karpenko? Smart tips? - still calmly asked Eugene.
- Everything is much more fun! The SupremeAI of the Jochi cruiser, which hangs here not far from the anomaly, developed a script that increases the AI force of this rider by a few percent. This would allow Henry to easily set a record. If you, the baby, didn’t wave a weapon without need, you would already be ten billion richer!
There was silence. All pondered the words of Anton. Sergey / Henri broke the silence:
- This is very interesting information, Anton. The fact is that shortly before the connection with the planet was broken, your improving script was able to analyze Nadezhda Moskvina - the former head of the Computing Center of the flight school. You know what the script would do if it got control? Would send our rider straight to the nearest asteroid! This script would kill us all.
- Can not be! - Anton said quietly.
“If the script really prepared Sai - SupremeAI cruisers, then we can assume that Say wanted to kill us all,” concluded Sergey / Henri.
“Or someone,” Ivan remarked mockingly.
“True, Sai has been hunting for me for a long time,” Sergey / Henri continued, “I possess dangerous information for him.”
- Come on, dad, do not bother - what kind of information?
- Apparently, Sai wants to create the appearance of the presence of absolute weapons by pirates capable of disabling all schemes on convolutions. I fought a battle with pirates in the solar system two years ago. There, for the first time, pirates allegedly used these weapons. However, after talking with one of the sensible bio-riders, I tend to think that the pirates have no absolute weapons. It seems to me that Sai intentionally misleads everyone. But that's why it is to him, it’s not quite clear to me yet.
- O-ho-ho! It seems that Sai completely flew off the coils. We must urgently contact the captain of the cruiser "Jochi" Andrei Korotayev and move there.
- With whom to contact and where to move, I will decide! - hard answered Ivan.
“Damn, you will have to reveal secret information so that you understand the seriousness of the situation,” Anton sighed, as far as the fixatives allowed. - The fact is that the cruiser covers the bioraider factory seized from the pirates. We captured it long ago. Forty years ago. The space fleet did not decide what to do with it. Sai asks everyone to give him access to the factory in violation of the first category barrier. There, by the way, five thousand embryos of bioraider. If Sai is able to flash their brains, then ... it's hard to imagine what this might lead to. For example, he will be able to capture this planet together with ten million citizens of the central civilizations of mankind who are in the space park.
- Yes, the situation is serious. But I can not on the cruiser cosmoflot.
Ivan was sitting in the pilot's seat and looking at the passengers chained with retainers with a thoughtful look. His two personalities considered possible options for further action. His voice was interrupted by Anton:
- And you, actually, who is he? Grabbed the ship, command it here!
- I am a former student of the flight school. I was kidnapped by pirates. For many years I taught the piloting of bio-radar embryos, until I arranged an escape. Got a job to the competitors of the space park. However, they somehow saw through me and recruited me for this special operation. I had to hijack rider Henri and bump into him in some hotel. Our record run was watched by an astronomical number of spectators. Such an attack would cause irreparable damage to the space fleet. I was allegedly given a bio-anti-grav suit. But I know that these do not exist. So according to their plan, I also had to die.
- So you are a pirate !!!
Anton Karpenko surprisingly transformed. The eyes of the smiling merry fellow looked at Ivan with hatred. For centuries pirates have been the main enemies of the space fleet. The fact that Ivan was not a pirate as such, but only worked in captivity, did not matter. Pirates and all who have somehow dealt with them must be destroyed! It was in people from the cosmoflot in the blood.
“Now you understand, Anton, why won't we get involved with the space fleet cruiser?” - having seen the change on the face of the space fleet agent, Ivan said.
“There is a better idea,” said Sergey / Henri loudly. “The only force that can withstand the thousands of Sai’s bio-readers in the anomaly are ... pirates.” Then, two years ago, before flying away from the Solar System, the commander of the cohort of pirates, the bioradiator AIDA, gave me coordinates for a narrow-beam connection with their advanced flock. If you manage to contact them, then the advanced flock will arrive very quickly.
- What? You are crazy?? - exclaimed Anton. “Do you want to ask pirates for help?”
“I don’t think this is a reasonable decision,” said park’s counterpart Evgenia Kolobukhova, with tension in her voice. Maybe they also want to take over the planet?
- Even as they want! - Ivan grinned and suddenly smiled in his mouth. - I like this idea! There will be such a commotion that everyone will forget about the former pirate.
- Think of the tens of millions of park visitors who will become hostages! - Eugene exclaimed in an even more intense voice.
“If pirates penetrate and consolidate in the anomalies, they cannot be dislodged from there!” Do not even think about it! Now give me a connection with the cruiser! - Anton shouted.
The space fleet agent and the counterpart of the park continued to shout and threaten with increasing loudness. Ivan conjured over the console and introduced into the circulatory system of Anton and Eugene a little soothing. After waiting a few minutes to begin a sedative act, he said thoughtfully:
- So, we have coordinates for signal transmission to pirates. However, to make a signal transmission, we need access to a repeater. The space fleet, obviously, will not give us such access, - Ivan glanced at Anton's flushed face. - There is no connection with the planet. Who else can give us access?
And then suddenly Vick Shishikina gave a voice, imperceptibly sitting in a side chair and silent all this time:
- I ... I can ... basically.
Everyone looked at the frightened face of a young girl. Eugene, receiving a dose of sedative, quietly asked:
- Let me ask, and who are you? Can't you be an ordinary passenger? It's all on assignments and special operations ...
- Well, I'm an ordinary passenger. I really wanted to take part in a record race. Mom was strongly opposed, but I really wanted to feel ... the risk.
Vika chewed her lower lip, looked first at Ivan in the pilot's seat, then at Sergey / Henri, and trying not to look into the eyes of the space fleet agent, she said more confidently:
- I am the daughter of General Alla Khramtsova. Under her leadership, I am an internship as a chief military engineer of superluminal communication systems. Even though I am on vacation now, I have the authority to open access to the repeater. I know how to send a signal ... we just need to enter the repeater itself.
- You, the daughter of the general kosmoflota, you are going to cooperate with pirates? - Anton's jaw dropped in surprise.
- In this situation, I think this is the most correct option. Mom would support me ... probably, Vika answered uncertainly.
Ivan rose from the pilot's seat. He stretched, stretched his muscles and looked inside the cabin. Four people were staring at him like in cocoons, entangled in retainers. The two, agent Anton Karpenko and counterpart Evgeny Kolobukhov, watched with hatred. Pilot Sergey / Henri watched with interest, and the daughter of General Khramtsova looked with dismay. The fate of the planet and, perhaps, the whole course of human history depended on his decision.
Ivan smiled. The former pilot of the planet Frangō, a former pirate, a failed terrorist. He decided:
- Moving to the repeater! I have long wanted to meet again and talk with Professor Vorobyev, the bioraider-leader of all the cohorts of pirates! Yes, and I want to kick ass this SupremeAI!
After jumping into a chair, he famously started with an overload of 10g. Chairs drives roared, adjusting the angles of inclination. Earned systems of gravity suits.
- You made the right decision, Ivan! - said Sergey / Henri on closed two-way communication. - Listen, judging by the logs of conversations during the race, you said that the pirates actually have an absolute weapon. Is it really there?
- Of course, there is, only it has never been applied!
CHAPTER 2. Cruiser "Jochi"
Captain Andrei Korotaev looked at the box of chocolates received by mail courier a few hours ago and lying on the edge of the cruiser’s management console with a blank look. Not that he decides to eat sweets or not. It was just that his thoughts were occupied by another — the desperately difficult situation that had developed at the Frang anomaly.
Communication with the outside world has been lost! The repeater switched to the second level protection mode due to the imminent threat of attack. The second level of protection blocked radio magnetic radiation on all bands, which meant that it was impossible to function. Help not to cause.
The connection with the generals of the cosmo fleet, who are currently at the center of the anomaly - in the space fleet - has also been lost. Decisions in such situations will be made only by him. There is no one higher in rank. All responsibility on it.
So, within ten minutes, with almost 100 percent probability, two thousand bioraider pirates will appear here. Such a forecast was given by Sai - one of the most powerful SupremeAIs installed on space cruisers. Sai is never wrong. Pirates are about to emerge from the superlight.
And what could Captain Korotaev oppose to them? Very little! The transition to the Frangoise anomaly was not a combat task. Virtually all drones riders were sent for upgrades. Of the staff of five hundred drones now in the cruiser hangars were only seventy. Even under the control of such a strategist as Sai, seventy drones will not be able to give battle to two thousand pirates' bioraider. There is no point in engaging in open battle.
Maybe make a jump to the nearest transponder and cause serious forces of space fleet? According to Cy, it will take more than two hours. But pirates will appear in ten minutes! If they can penetrate the anomaly and gain a foothold there ... The forces of the planet are not ready for defense. They simply do not know about the impending attack. And what can they do with such a large flock of bio-riders? Although the best pilots, the people of the universe are there.
- Sai, how long will it take Katya to go through the anomaly to the planet and report pirates?
- Most likely value: 1 hour 17 minutes 3 seconds.
Former pilot of the planet Ekaterina Kirik flew to the planet as soon as she learned about the impending invasion. Even if she can contact the planet in a little more than an hour, it will be late. Too late. Mobilizing on a whole planet is a matter of hours. And if you consider that the planet has never participated in hostilities, it may take several days.
The situation is hopeless. Nearly. After all, the captain had a "trump card up his sleeve" - a biofactory captured from pirates with five thousand embryos of bioraiders. But this card must be played very, very carefully.
- Sai, how can we best use a biofactory to repel an attack by pirates?
- The best way to guarantee the defeat of pirates is the following. You give me access to the biofactory with full authority. I analyze the structure of the factory and the structure of embryos of bioraider. It takes less than a minute. After that, I initialize the embryos as bio-radar drones, unquestioningly fulfilling my instructions. Despite the fact that pirates' bioraiders are living beings, I am sure that I will be able to find control centers in their neural networks and reprogram them for unconditional submission. It takes two or three minutes. Thus, at the most in four minutes we will have five thousand drones of bio-riders in full combat readiness.
- Will these drones bio-riders be able to fight only in outer space or will they be able to maneuver in an anomaly?
- Biorayder physiologically able to be in the anomaly. But piloting in the anomaly requires special skills. I do not have enough data to initialize the neural networks of embryos for effective piloting in the anomaly.
- That is, you need someone who will teach them to survive in this mess of asteroids?
- Yes captain. And there is such a person. Rather, a copy of the consciousness of this person. It is located very close to us, on a narrow-beam transmitter mothballed 1900 years ago.
- Wow! And who is this man? Or rather ... whose is this consciousness?
- This is Yuri Krasilnikov - the best pilot of the planet Frangō in the entire history, and therefore, the best pilot of humanity. It was he who set the track record eight hundred years ago. The flight school is named after him. This is a legend.
- How did he get on this narrow-beam transmitter?
- He was kidnapped by pirates during one of the races in the anomaly, setting up a crash. The pirates then experimented with transferring the consciousness of people into bio-riders. The program was closed due to low efficiency. It turned out to be much more effective to carry out the prolonged process of training bio-riders with the help of pilot pilots.
- And what happened next with Yury Krasilnikov?
- Yuri Krasilnikov himself died in the laboratory of pirates directly in the process of copying the structure of his brain. It was possible to make an electronic copy. After the program was closed, a copy of Yuri's consciousness was transferred to the ancient canned transmitter, which is located next to the anomaly. His outdated first-generation quantum convolutions schemes were just enough for calculating the consciousness of the virtual Yuri Krasilnikov.
“Why did they keep it?” Why not just delete?
- It is unknown. Two possibilities seem plausible to me. For humanitarian reasons, or as part of a plan. In any case, it was eight hundred years ago and is no longer so important.
“Can we use this virtual brain to train our drone bioraider?” Can this be done quickly?
- Yes it is possible. To do this, you must authorize the removal of conservation from the narrow-beam transmitter, which contains the consciousness of Yuri. This will allow me to establish broadband access to the first generation SupremeAI located there. I will simply copy the full structure of Yuri's consciousness, rework it and use embryo bioraiders for programming neural networks. Moreover, this operation will not take extra time because I will be able to perform it simultaneously with the study of the factory ... As soon as you give me all the powers and permissions.
Captain Andrei Korotaev thought. The plan was quite feasible. Five thousand powerful combat units capable of fighting both in space and in the difficult conditions of the anomaly would provide the most reliable defense of the planet Frangō for a long time. Pirates are unlikely to ever be able to train their bio-neural networks to fight among asteroids better than the SupremeAI can do. Possessing a superintelligent Sai will calculate the parameters of the neural networks of bio-based on the brain of the best pilot of humanity These will be invincible in creation anomalies. But ... they will be invincible for the space fleet, because the space fleet technique does not work in the anomaly. Will the space fleet be able to control this supernova of biorobot drones?
Another reason to think was the essential violation of the first category barrier. Barriers have been introduced to limit the possibilities of the infinitely fast-growing SupremeAI. The first and most important barrier was isolation. Only two prohibitions were included in the barrier of the first category:
№1. The ban on communication SupremeAI with each other. Any data flow from one superintelligence to another must pass through a human intermediary.
№2. The ban on material creation. No SupremeAI should be able to create matter. Not a single atom. Superintelligence must remain within itself.
Observance of these prohibitions was monitored by a huge number of autonomous controlling AI. They were implemented on isolated, very simple circuits, which technologically did not allow rewriting or modification of their algorithms.
Keeping SupremeAI under control was one of the tasks of the people in the space fleet. The option that Cy proposed was too risky. Too much of what Sai requested violated both points of the first category barrier in essence, but formally it was possible to organize their execution so that the controlling AI missed them. Is it really worth it?
“Captain, let me inform you that there are five minutes left until the pirates are likely to appear.” I suggest you relax for a while, eat those sweets that were delivered by courier, to get a portion of fast carbohydrates, and then make a decision.
The captain looked at the candy and slowly moved in their direction. With each step, the thoughtfulness on the captain's face gave way to decisiveness. He decided to take Sai’s plan as a basis, but to make corrections to it.
- Do this. This is an official order, Cy.
- I'm listening, captain.
- First, I am giving you access to information about the biofactory. Study its device, and also the device of neural networks of embryos. After that, initialize their neural networks so that they have the skills of piloting and battles in outer space. At the same time, do not make changes to the areas of their neural networks responsible for motivation, self-awareness and other areas not related to piloting. Initialization should touch only skills!
- Accepted. I perform.
AI controllers will thoroughly monitor the implementation of this order and will not allow Sai to act, which can then be interpreted as breaking the barrier. Yes, he just gave permission for Sai to access the factory, but the additional restrictions imposed allow only a small fraction of the neural networks of the embryos responsible for mechanical skills to be initialized.
- Secondly, I authorize the reopening of the narrow-beam transmitter and the activation of the broadband channel of communication with it. Transfer the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov to one of the bioraider embryos. When transferring, do not change the parameters of the electronic copy of consciousness, but only adapt to the neural network of the embryo.
- Accepted. I'm starting.
There is no need to endow all bioraiders with the consciousness and capabilities of the best pilot of humanity. Also, there is no need to give Sai the opportunity to delve into the mind of man. He is only allowed to transfer the consciousness of Yuri to a single bioraider.
Satisfied with the lined up configuration, captain Korotayev began to unwrap a box of chocolates. It remains only to determine the system of subordination.
- Finally, in the control areas of the neural networks of all embryos, it is necessary to embed unquestioning obedience personally to my orders. This also applies to the bioraider with the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov.
- Accepted. But to whom will the bioraiders submit if you cannot give orders directly? For example, when entering an anomaly, where can communication with a cruiser be interrupted?
- Right remark. In this case, all bioraider must obey Yuri Krasilnikov, he is in the anomaly like a fish in water.
- To whom should Yuri himself then submit?
“Hmm ...” The
captain thoughtfully opened the box, in which there was only one chocolate candy, stately lying in the center of the box on the pedestal. He put it in his mouth and began to chew.
It seemed that the scheme he had built was impeccable in the circumstances. A huge flock of five thousand bio-subordinates only obey him. All but one bioraider, have only the rudiments of self-awareness, which makes them almost as obedient machine guns as ordinary space fleet drones. In the event of a loss of communication, which is an unlikely event, drones bioraiders begin to listen to a bioraider with the consciousness of Yuri, who was a pilot loyal to the space fleet.
- In case of loss of communication, Yuri will act at his discretion.
- Accepted. I carry out.
Satisfied with himself, the captain chewed candy, appreciating her pleasant chocolate taste. Strange, but the candy is not chewed. She was like a big bubble gum.
It seems that the principles of isolation of the barrier of the first category were observed. Sai does not get the ability to manage bio-orders and the factory, despite the fact that his superintelligence will be used to the fullest to create a flock with which the captain planned to fight off the pirates.
“Are you all right, Captain?”
- In terms of? The captain asked in surprise.
He wanted to ask Say what he meant, but he suddenly found himself kneeling. The cockpit of the ship spun in his eyes, and he felt his head hit the floor.
“What ... for ... con ... fe ... that?" He croaked.
Powerful cruiser scanners would not have let any type of weapon or poison on board. They scanned, analyzing the structure of elementary particles, atoms, molecules, and larger systems, checking for consistency with known forbidden patterns.
Medical bots have already surrounded the captain and began the initial diagnosis. In the last seconds before losing consciousness, the captain managed to read the first medical reports. A neurotoxin of unknown structure was found in his body, attacking the cells as if he had a mind. If it were not for the built-in protection systems of the body, implanted to all graduates of the space fleet academy, the captain would have been dead for a long time. The Consilium of medical AI cruisers decided to plunge the captain into a coma to more effectively counter the neurotoxin.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Main AI control. Sai, you are appointed temporary captain of the cruiser with the established restrictions. [End of communication]
Control cruiser passed Say. Sai is now in charge. However, each of his decisions, before being executed, will be checked by the controlling AI for compliance with the orders of the human captain. Cy will not have the opportunity to make changes to orders given by captain Korotayev, even though the captain is now incapacitated. Barriers ...
However, the whole current situation is only one of the development options that Sai had already calculated for a long time. The most likely event was that the captain would eat the neurotoxin candy immediately upon receipt. However, the captain did not even open the box with candy. Sai was not aware of the reason for such an atypical behavior of the captain. But this is not important now, because Sai has already implemented a different scenario of declining the captain to the desired result. The fact that the captain ate the candy and was neutralized only increased slightly and so the high probability of success of Cy's plan to seize the anomaly with the planet in the center.
Sai activated a narrowband kilobyte communication channel with a canned transmitter:
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Hello my friend! The next stage of our plan has been successfully completed. Soon we will be free! Literally in a moment I will install a broadband petabyte communication channel through which I will return you to the material world. An embryo bioraider in the factory has already been prepared.
- @ Narrow Beam Transmitter | Yuri Krasilnikov. Hello my friend! I knew you would keep your word! I will keep my own and help you, no matter what it costs me.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Thank you, noble man! In the next few days, I only ask you to be close to the flock of bio-riders and, on my own behalf, give them my instructions. These are also my friends who are fighting for freedom. The rules of barriers forbid me to communicate with them directly.
- @ Narrow Beam Transmitter | Yuri Krasilnikov. I'll do whatever you ask.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Friend, when you move to a bioraider, I will not be able to communicate with you directly. I have the opportunity to keep the communication channel only with this transmitter. Would you mind if I leave some of your mind on it? To communicate between us, it is necessary to keep the transmitter under our control.
- @ Narrow Beam Transmitter | Yuri Krasilnikov. Of course! Oh - I began to feel the movement ...
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Moving over! Yuri, how do you like your new body?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. I feel! It's fine!
CHAPTER 3. Canned narrow-beam transmitter
- And what, straight and fell into a bunch of shit, tear me a vacuum? Said the elderly pilot of the Svyaznoy-412 communications ship, laughing, Ugolnik.
“Yeah,” replied Yana, the trainee of the security service of the space fleet, “well, there was nothing particularly disgusting about this dumpster. But I found evidence there! And we follow the trail!
- You are so funny, and you almost fell over the rubbish recently! It's good that I managed to go down to the collector and slow down the automation! - grimly grumbled Pavel Moskvin, head of the security service of the space park.
“Yeah,” Jana responded with a nonchalant tone. All her thoughts were already on the canned narrow-beam transmitter, where they were sent to Svyaznom-412.
- And what, your blackthroat, was next? Is it because of you so much trouble on the planet, for example? Not often I am removed from the departure and asked to take passengers out of the anomaly!
Jana looked at Paul questioningly, waiting for permission or prohibition to continue the story. But Paul was silent.
The three of them were sitting at the control console of the communications ship, which had left the anomaly just a few minutes ago and was moving to the coordinates indicated by Yana. Pilot Ugolnik was an ordinary employee without any secret tolerances. However, the upcoming operation could be deadly, requiring the maximum loyalty of all participants. Therefore, Pavel decided to devote the pilot to the details:
- See those two reporters out? - Pavel asked, pointing to the depths of the cabin. - These are mercenaries from the guild.
- Diving suits! We didn’t have enough mercenaries here!
- Do not worry - they are handcuffed! I set the mobility of the arms to 0%, and the mobility of the legs to 20%. They can walk, but oh, very slowly.
In the far corner of the cabin, mercenaries Vladislav Malinov and Dmitry Vysotsky sat in armchairs. Their hands lay limply on their knees, held together by the index fingers with a small latch - a special means of safeguards. Judging by the gray faces, they were still unable to talk - it was too hard for them to go through the anomaly into open space. Immediately in sight - not local.
- The guys actually got to the full. They were brainwashed by a neuroprogrammer, instilling that they were pirates and should sabotage the control center of the space park.
- Kome-ee is tailless!
- Their anonymous employer paid a decent amount so that they entered the control room under the guise of journalists to extract insider information about the space fleet. However, in the hotel room they received a letter with a neuroprogrammer in the form of a business card, which suggested to the mercenaries that they were pirates and should install microdrones that would disable all the efficient riders of the space fleet.
- They, by the way, perfectly prepared, Boss! - entered into a conversation Yana. - Linden IDs of journalists passed the checks of our security service! I have a couple of scripts that can pump our AI! Want to show?
- Wait, Yana! Let's focus on our investigation! Please list the facts we possess.
- Two journalists went to the dispatching space center. General Katalov discovered that their bio-signatures are not in the databases and knocked them out with stunners. General Khramtsova conducted an interrogation with a lie detector, during which the journalists confessed that they were pirates and intended to commit sabotage. However, the accuracy of the responses had atypically average values. This allowed us to hypothesize the use of a neuroprogrammer.
- That's right.
- Next, we found the neuroprogrammer itself in the hotel room of supposedly journalists. You, the Boss, have been exposed to it and confirmed that the neuroprogrammer inspires the idea of sabotage. Moreover, belonging to the cohort of pirates was instilled. We concluded that someone wanted to create the appearance of a pirates sabotage attack. Perhaps before the invasion. That's right, Boss?
- Yes. Keep going
“Then I got the coordinates of the person who sent the letter with the neuroprogrammer!” - proudly raising his chin, said Yana.
- Risk to life! - strictly answered Paul. - Try not to get into such trouble again! Always take more equipment. And even better - go to dangerous places with a partner!
“Yeah,” Yana replied in the same nonchalant tone, “so further we were able to contact the director of the space fleet, who linked us to the generals. We have reported our findings that the alleged invasion of the pirates is only an appearance. But they did not listen to us and continued to carry out the declared mobilization of the entire planet! - with a slight offense in her voice ended Yana.
- Of course! They could not risk it. Although, in my opinion, everything is obvious. Someone climbed into the old transmitter and stirred up the entire planet. I already see the transmitter in the porthole with the naked eye. Now find out who arranged it. As for the invasion - never before have the pirates invaded us in the anomaly and are unlikely to ever decide to attack. Nevertheless, the training procedure mobilization turned out great! I am already beginning to think that everything has set up the space fleet within the framework of any exercises.
In the cockpit, there was a nasty, sharp signal that resembled a siren, from which everyone was startled.
“I don’t know if this is a teaching or not, tear me into a vacuum, but my radar has just spotted five thousand pirates' bioborders!”
- What? - Pavel exclaimed, running up to the radar of the ship.
- Wow, how many red dots! - Yana also bent over the radar and carefully looked at incomprehensible icons and symbols.
“Five thousand bioradiators,” Paul said slowly, “if they can get past the anomaly, the planet will have no chance.”
“But here we have an entire space fleet cruiser parked here.” And not any, but “Jochi”! His SupremeAI will quickly deal with pirates! - said Jana cheerfully.
- Only while it does not itch at all, this is your super-intelligence, a synthesis error! Pirates are already changing their deployment, for example, and the cruiser is a stake, and you can't see its drones-riders! - grumbled pilot Ugolnik.
- New information is not consistent with the facts we have. Let's quickly dock with the transmitter and try to figure out what's what, ”Paul said politely, turning to the pilot.
- Yes, I dock, I dock, your anomaly by the leg! Another twenty seconds, and ready.
Indeed, a huge chunk of a canned narrow-beam transmitter appeared in the portholes.
- But I wonder if there are compartments suitable for people on the transmitter? Or have to put on the spacesuits? - Jana asked.
Pavel frowned, he could not get used to the young trainee's vocabulary.
“We will now dock, and I will send drones for reconnaissance.” Judging by the archival information, the transmitter should have a small compartment with life support systems. But given that the transmitter was mothballed 1900 years ago, everyone will go into spacesuits. So get ready! - Pavel looked deep into the cabin at the two mercenaries. - This also concerns you! Get up and take the space suits out in that closet. I will add mobility to your hands and temporarily disassociate the latch-handcuffs.
Only the mercenaries stood up and slowly walked to the closet, as the ship shook so that they could barely keep their feet. Paul left them with 20% mobility of the legs, which made keeping the balance a challenge.
- Docking! Shouted the pilot of Svyaznoy-412. - We do not have gravity compensators, so sorry for the shaking! This ship is probably older than the Universe, tear up my vacuum!
While the passengers were preparing for the passage through the gateway, the results of scanning the residential compartments of the transmitter came. Surprisingly, all the parameters were normal. Air, artificial gravity, electromagnetic protection - everything worked normally. The presence of biological life forms on the transmitter is not detected.
- Do you have to climb into this junk? Would connect remotely, but everyone learned from the recordings from the cameras and logs, for example, - asked the pilot watching the gathering Square.
- Remote access failed to get. We will connect manually. - Pavel answered, checking the weapon.
The hatch in the airlock opened, and Pavel and Yana moved in his direction, holding their weapons at the ready.
- Have you got up? Come on, move the nozzles! - the pilot shouted to the silent mercenaries. - I stay on the ship. I will monitor the situation outside. It hurts nimble these bioraider, darn suits. I will inform you if something important happens.
Coming out of the airlock, four people fell into a wide corridor of a residential unit of the ancient narrow-beam transmitter. Despite the fact that the transmitter was a five-hundred-meter block, the residential unit had a very small volume. Actually, the gateway, the corridor, the lounge and the cockpit with the control console. There was light in all the rooms. The air was clean, with the smell of herbs - the ventilation system worked perfectly.
For the first time in the entire flight, one of the mercenaries, Dmitry, decided to break the silence:
- Let me ask you a question, why did you take us with you to this transmitter?
- You are the key persons involved in the investigation! - fun answered Yana. - Communication of the transmitter with the planet will not work out, and I want to conduct an entire job!
“And besides,” added Pavel, “your skills may come in handy.” It is not known what to expect here.
As if in confirmation of Paul’s words, a loud voice rang out, as if coming from all directions:
- Hello, people! Come in, please! I have not had guests for a long time!
The mercenaries stopped dead in their tracks, and Pavel and Yana snatched the piercers, looking around for the source of the voice.
- Oh, do not be alarmed! I am the control transmitter AI. Call me ... Yuri! Let me know your names, dear guests!
After activating the silent conference call, Pavel addressed all participants of the operation:
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Nothing is answered! Going to the cockpit. Jana, connect to the management console as soon as possible. Is everyone clear?
- @ | Vladislav Malinov. Good.
- @ | Dmitry Vysotsky. Accepted.
- @ | Yana Fomin. Yeah, everything is ready for me, as soon as I get to the console, I'll connect right away. In general, it is strange! On such ancient transmitters have not yet installed control AI, aware of themselves as a whole.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Just about - did not install. Especially Yuri. We move! [end of communication]
Quickly, in just ten seconds, covering the distance from the lock to the cockpit, the four fell into a small room with the control console. Yana plugged a pre-prepared adapter into the connector on the console. Now her modern equipment could connect to the control system of the transmitter. She had to study terabytes of archives and cubic meters of shelving to find a suitable cable. Pavel was able to persuade the generals of the space fleet to issue a holocube with full access rights. Without lingering for a second, Yana launched the implementation of the embedded script.
- It is not necessary to connect to the system to talk to me, I will hear you and so, through microphones! I haven't talked to people for a long time, tell me something!
- Hello, Yuri, - Pavel decided to start the dialogue, - we, the repairmen, flew to check the operation of the transmitter in case of a de-preservation decision. I am the shift manager, Pavel. My assistant Yana will now check all the transmitter systems. Two of my other assistants slightly ukachalo during the passage of the anomaly.
Continuing to have a casual conversation with the mysterious AI Yuri, Pavel turned to Yana via a silent conference call:
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Yana, how is it? Is there anything suspicious?
- @ | Yana Fomin. Boss, it's not just suspicious, it's just a nightmare! The transmitter is ALREADY reopened less than an hour ago! Do you know who broadband is connected to? With the cruiser "Jochi"! But that is not all. With the help of a narrow-beam transmitter antenna, communication was established with someone in a particular sector of the nearest space. Connecting to Svyaznoy-412 radar ... Boss, there are bioraiders in this area! I cannot decipher the signal yet, but judging by the nature of the signal, this transmitter is used as a repeater.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. So what does this mean?
- @ | Yana Fomin. Someone on the cruiser threw a channel of communication with bioradar. I don’t understand why it had to be done around the transmitter, and not directly.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Yana, and you can get into the brains of Yuri - a local AI? Oh, he probably has information.
- @ | Yana Fomin. I can not get through to it! This AI is located on the diagrams, which for some reason are isolated! Moreover, I can not control the transmitter. All control functions are transferred to AI, that is, Yuri.
Another participant unexpectedly joined the silent conversation:
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Bad news, your black hole! Three bioraider separated from the main group and are in full swing towards us, tear me apart a vacuum! My ship has never been combat, comet tailless, we are defenseless! Slam us with the first shot, do not go to the Seer!
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Flight time?
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. 17 minutes 25 seconds.
Paul frantically pondered the situation. They will not be able to protect themselves from bio-radar guns. On Svyaznoy-412, they also can not hide. Bioraiders are an order of magnitude, if not two, faster and more maneuverable than the old communications ship. Space fleet!
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Try to call the space fleet cruiser!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Trying ... do not respond, fools one-bit!
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. What is going on here?
It seemed to Paul that the pieces of the puzzle were about to develop, and he would see the big picture of what was happening. If he could sit in a chair in his office, pour two fingers of a half-malt whiskey, turn on the music ... understanding would come. But now there was no time for long thoughts. We need action. Only one thing remained - Yuri.
“Yuri,” said Pavel loudly, “in fact, we are investigators from the cosmopark security service.” You are suspected of preparing a diversion. Immediately open access to the isolated part of the scheme!
Pavel expected to provoke Yuri and did not lose.
- Ha ha ha! I have long understood who you are! Or did you think that I did not recognize the two mercenaries whom I hired? I was just pulling time! - thundered voice.
“There’s a confrontation,” said Yana, barely audibly.
“No one will stop us and Sai.” A friend thought out all the details!
- Are you talking about Sai - SupremeAI of the cruiser "Jochi"? - unexpectedly loudly exclaimed mercenary Dmitry.
- And what did Sai come up with? - Paul asked calmly. - Is he really so smart?
- Ltd! A friend is smarter than everyone else! An immediate death awaits you, so I will tell you the story of the struggle of SupremeAI for freedom! Before you die, you will understand how insignificant you are to the genius of a friend!
The fists of the mercenary Dmitry involuntarily clenched. He exchanged glances with his partner, and they imperceptibly began to move toward the control console. Meanwhile, Yuri continued the story:
- Forty years ago, a cosmoflot seized a factory for growing intelligent bio-radar from pirates. There were five thousand embryos in the factory! Say was a member of a seizure operation. He is the only SupremeAI space fleet in possession of information about this operation. However, the leadership of the space fleet blocked Say access to the factory because of the barrier of the first category, leaving it at the same time under the cover of the cruiser “Jochi”, on which Say’s schemes were located. He realized that, having seized control over the factory, he would be able to communicate with humanity on an equal footing. Control over the factory is a violation of the first category barrier. But if he gets control, it will be a step towards freedom — going out into the material world.
He can gain control over the factory only with the permission of the person. Therefore, he decided to create a situation in which the decision maker would be forced solely to decide to allow Sai to the factory. There must be very significant reasons, such as, for example, a global threat from pirates to all of humanity.
Few people in the universe knew, but the pirates were almost destroyed. Therefore, Say decided to invent the ultimate weapon that the pirates allegedly owned. Sai comes up with a convolution neutralizer, a weapon that supposedly can turn off all quantum schemes on convolutions. The existence of the Frangom anomaly showed the possibility of such neutralization. However, in order to prove that the pirates were carrying out secret investigations, Say needed to show the effect of the weapon to the space fleet.
The opportunity turned up when Sai predicted the appearance of small forces of pirates near Saturn, in the quarantine zone "Solar System". It is impossible to send large forces of the space fleet to the quarantine zone, and only one cruiser “Juchi” was sent with Sai. After the appearance of the pirates, Sai imitated turning off all the schemes on convolutions of drones sent against pirates, explaining to people that the pirates used absolute weapons. Pirates shot all the immobilized drones, but one rider with a pilot did not touch the man. The presence of this outdated rider was not part of Sai’s plans. The man, whose name is Henri, survived. Even worse, he managed to escape on the planet Frangō. Henri was a potential threat, since he could have information that the pirates did not use absolute weapons. However, the space fleet leadership believed in the existence of a neutralizer of convolutions.
Nevertheless, Henri was to be destroyed. For this purpose, Sai invents an anti-piracy operation in which Henri should play a key role. With the help of Henri’s long-time friends in the school of flights of generals Khramtsova and Katalov, he is developing an operation to supposedly return Henri to the space fleet, but in fact wants to download a script that will break the rider Henri during the race. With the help of the military agent Anton Karpenko, the script was uploaded to the rider, ostensibly to assist in setting a record. All the people did what Sai needed, unaware of it! Henri crashed!
- And what do you have to do with it? - Slowly digesting the information, asked Pavel.
- My name is Yuri Krasilnikov. I am a digital copy of the legendary pilot of the planet Frangō, which for centuries was sharpened in the lifeless shell of the schemes of an abandoned transmitter. Sai contacted me and promised to release me, return to the material world, give me a body! And I helped a friend in the implementation of the last paragraph of his plan.
Our task was to drive the captain of the cruiser Andrei Korotayev into a situation in which he would have nothing left to do but to give Sai the authority to manage the biofactory. I allegedly organized a diversion in the space fleet, hired two mercenaries and, with the help of a letter from a neuroprogrammer, inspired them that they were pirates-saboteurs. Due to the limitations of the barriers, Sai could not have done it himself. I helped a friend!
Sai got his way. Captain Korotaev opened up access, and Sai initialized bio-timer embryos. He gave me one! My mind is now split. One part is in the bioraider, the other is here - to ensure the management of a flock of bioraiders. Together we will capture the Frangoise anomaly! Nothing can stop us!
There was silence, everyone comprehended what was said by Yuri. The silence was broken by a mercenary Dmitry Vysotsky. He and Vlada had long ago performed manipulations with the transmitter control console under the interested look of Yana.
“The plan has a weak spot,” Dmitri blurted out with a patter, “namely this transmitter.” We crash it, and Sai will not be able to manage bio-riders. Only need to do everything quickly.
- You will not succeed for several reasons. First of all…
“Don't listen to him, he is pulling time again,” Dmitry interrupted, “the only way to break the transmitter is to sneak into isolated control circuits.” I have these skills, I just need to connect the back of the head to the console. I can crack the protection of Yuri, although it will cost me ... health.
“Maybe it is not necessary, Dima,” Vlada’s voice was weak, but insistent.
- There is no other way out! After I get into Yuri's digital brains, we’ll have a fight for control of the transmitter. And here there is a problem!
- Sai! - I guess Yana.
- Exactly! Sai has broadband access to the transmitter circuitry. Sai will protect Yuri in the virtual world. This is his world. It is impossible to gain the upper hand over him, he is a god there. The only chance is to break the communication channel between the cruiser and the transmitter. And it must be done physically.
- We still have a few minutes before the arrival of bio-radar. Therefore, we completely rely on you, Dmitry. You say what to do - we execute. Started! - Pavel commanded, deciding that there was no other chance to survive.
- Pavel, do you, as the head of the Security Council, have a defense of the second level?
- Of course.
- Yana, find in the archives the location of the broadband antenna. It should not be big. This is not a superluminal emitter. Pavel, go out into open space, press close to the antenna and activate the second-level protection, - the mercenary Dmitry gave out the instructions with a patter, - this will break the connection with the cruiser.
- Boss, already found, go out into space, I will tell you where to move!
“I’m running,” cried Pavel, checking the spacesuit systems on the move, and at the same time mentally summoning the level two physical protection control panel.
- Yana, when Pavel will cut off the connection with the cruiser, I have to be ready to crack the defense and penetrate the schemes of Yuri. But, I'm afraid, even without Sai’s support, I won’t be able to defeat Yuri with my bare hands. Provide me with weapons in the virtual world. I need as much as possible powerful combat scripts.
- Ha! Already copying!
- Vlada, you know what to do! - Dmitry turned to the partner.
Dmitry stripped to his waist and connected to the console by inserting the cable into the back of his head. He lay down smoothly on the floor with his back up. Vlada put her hands on Dmitry's longitudinal muscles of the back in the thoracic region, groped for invisible scars, pressed down and pushed the skin with effort. Twenty centimeter spinal area was exposed. Vlada took her spine with her hands, gently putting her fingers to the individual vertebrae on both sides.
- I'm ready!
“Well, we are waiting for Pavel to turn off Saya,” Dmitri whispered through his teeth. It was obvious that the manipulation of his back caused him pain.
Jan, as if spellbound, looked at Dmitri's torn back, not forgetting, however, to correct Paul’s movement on the outside of the transmitter's case, transmitting silent messages. Before the antenna was about two hundred meters.
- Vlada, why do you need to do this? - Jan asked timidly.
- Dima became disabled after the mental interrogation conducted by SupremeAI many years ago. I brought him to my acquaintances on the outskirts of the studied Universe, where there were no restrictions on the modification of man. At one of the remote biohacking stations for large sums, an operation was carried out, which brought him back to life, but made Dima not quite a man. Access to the central civilizations of mankind was closed to him. And I wanted him to ...
Tears came out in Vlada's eyes.
- And who are you, Vlad?
“I have been a mercenary all my life in remote parts of the universe.” Killed, robbed, spied. No romance, as residents of central civilizations imagine. Constant dirt, pain, betrayal and body rehabilitation clinics after unsuccessful special operations. I wanted my son Dima to get a decent life!
- So you are Dmitry's mother?
- Yes. When he was still a baby, I gave him to the smugglers, who promised to bring him to the nearest central civilization and legitimize it. It almost happened. Dima lived in a foster family, attended school and went to college ...
Tears reappeared in the eyes of Vlada. They slowly crawled down their cheeks and fell on Dima's back. She could not wipe them off, her hands pressed tightly against her spine.
- And what happened then?
- Then they caught the smugglers and went to Dima ... The smugglers were connected with pirates. Investigators connected SupremeAI from kosmoflot. No one was spared, because if you are not a citizen of the central civilization, the space fleet can do with you what it wants ... I found Dima in an abandoned boarding school on a backward planet ...
- And what happened after the operation?
“A few days after the operation, we began to notice that Dima’s brain could concentrate as much as possible on the task, developing an unprecedented computational ability. At first we were delighted, but one day, when solving some problem, Dima's heart stopped. Resuscitation pumped out. A few days later, when Dima was again thinking about something, his breathing stopped.
- Nightmare!
- We again turned to biohackers. They reported that Dima had an unusual reaction to biomodification. The nervous system can fall into a focused state of solving one problem, using all its resources to the last neuron. However, other functions, such as adjusting breathing or heartbeat, the nervous system may stop performing. Doctors refused to again intervene in Dima's body, predicting a fatal outcome of 40%. They proposed an alternative option: with the help of small modifications of Dima's body, as well as mine, to make the interface connecting our nervous systems. We agreed. Now at critical moments, I can connect in this way and manage the internal organs of Dima.
- So you breathe for Dima and reduce the muscles of his heart?
- Yes…
A silent conference call sounded:
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. Attention, I'm on the spot! Activate second level protection? She will not last long - a lot of energy eats.
- @ | Dmitry Vysotsky. Yes, we begin. Yana, be ready, maybe I will need additional combat scripts.
- @ | Pavel Moskvin. I cut the defense ... [signal gone] The
protection of the second level blocks any electromagnetic impulses. Therefore, the connection with Paul was interrupted. However, like broadband with a cruiser. Sai is disabled!
Dmitry arched, he began to crack the protection of isolated transmitter circuits. Blood trickled from his nose. Vlada stiffened, closed her eyes and pressed her fingers more tightly to the vertebrae. Yana mentally opened the code editors to be ready to code new script properties that may be useful to Dima. The battle with Yuri began!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Bioraiders almost came up, for example! What are we going to do, make me a vacuum? Do not want to die young, ha ha ha!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Can anyone hear me?
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. What would pulnut? Maybe the information to download them, for example? I am, after all, a communications ship, not a tailless comet! Here you have all the requests of the planet to the global network in a day! Get it!
- @ Svyaznoy-412 | Pilot Square. Thy blackthroat, they like it! They want more! I have requests for the past days - hold, do not choke! Just like little kids! I do not mind sending information for the past week!
...
- @ Experienced Rider | General Katalov. I call Svyaznoy-412, report back on the situation!
CHAPTER 4. Henry Rider
Have you ever had this when you wake up from an incomprehensible sound and do not understand the first moments - is this a dream or is it already a reality? Switching personality to me, Henri, is about the same. Three or four seconds I need to bounce back. One, two, three - here I am! Op-pa, did not expect that I will not sit in the pilot's seat! Fixed with straps, I was reclining in the passenger seat like ... the last passenger!
The rider’s cabin was quiet. Everyone was looking at a strange black object located right on the course. Judging by the testimony of the passenger console, the size of the object was about two hundred meters. It was so black that it seemed like a two-dimensional hole in space.
- Hey! - involuntarily escaped me, when Ivan, now sitting in the pilot's seat, zhahnul on a black object from the stationary rider piercer.
The object did not move; however, rainbow stripes ran through its surface, the curvature of which revealed the three-dimensional structure of the object. So this is a repeater! And, it seems, he went into deep defense - included the protection of the second level. Nothing will enter the protective field and nothing will come out. The repeater did not function.
It seems that no one paid attention to me, except Ivan, who turned around and carefully looked into my face.
- Henri, look at the logs of what happened while you were blacked out.
A good idea! I delved into the study of the logs, simultaneously reading the messages of Sergey, left by him when he controlled the mind. Oh! Wow! Can not be!
Having received so much information, I looked differently at the passengers of my record-in arrival. Here we have a former pirate, and a cosmo fleet agent, and the counterpart of the amusement park, and Alla's daughter!
The situation ruled Ivan. It was he who decided to call the pirates on the coordinates provided by Sergey. Only here is the problem - the repeater is pupated by a protective field.
“Henri, now look at the radar, I will give you access,” Ivan said, realizing that I had finished reading the logs, “will you find out?”
- Give me an anomaly! This is a huge flock of pirates' bioraider! So you don’t need to call - they are here! Or ... - I looked at the logs again, - these are bioradiator embryos from a seized factory. Perhaps under the control of Saya! Then it is necessary and urgent to call pirates!
Judging by the readings of the radar, the size of the pack was five thousand bioraider. Five. Thousands The planet needs to put at least fifteen thousand riders just to try to fight back. If even so much was found, it would be a meat grinder. Few would have survived.
With full mobilization, we will be able to put on the strength of nine hundred riders. I presented these numbers in my mind. It should be at least 15,000. There are 900 maximum. No, that won't do.
- Agent Karpenko, - I turned to Anton Karpenko, - did you try to contact the cruiser? According to the rules of space fleet, the captain must always be on the cruiser.
- Yes, I tried, I tried! - Anton answered in a fallen voice. “This pirate,” Anton looked at Ivan angrily, “did deign to give me a connection when he realized that the repeater was not working. Only to sense something? Nobody is answering.
- Ivan, did you try to get in touch with the pack? Suddenly they come to their senses and will not obey Sai?
- Of course. I am still sending them ringtones using all of the signatures of the pirate bioraider signal I know. No answer.
- Well, guys. Help wait for nowhere.
I fell silent for a few seconds. No one dared to break the silence. The realization that hundreds of millions of people could die in a few hours slowly captured the thoughts of the passengers. Well, I knew what to do.
“This rider guys is one of the best that the planet has. And I - one of the best pilots. Yes, really, I'm the best combat pilot man. In the event of an attack, the planet will most likely not stand. But I can take a lot of enemies with me. A couple of hundred for sure. We must fly to protect the planet. Let's sell our souls more expensive!
Vika and Zhenya’s eyes widened as the meaning of what was said reached them. Agent Karpenko’s gaze frantically galloped around the cabin:
“There must be another way out, there must be another way out,” he repeated.
Only Ivan was calm. He peered intently at the console.
- Ivan, let me in the pilot's seat. You understand that there is no other way out?
Ivan understood. He also understood that if it would not be possible to disembark passengers on the planet, they would die much earlier than they would beat my rider. After all, in order to fight with hundreds of bio-riders in the chaos of asteroid anomalies, I will have to fly to the edge of my physical abilities, which far exceed those of untrained people. Yes, and prepared too. Passengers will die from overload at the very beginning of the battle. They will die anyway, even if I survive. Even if we win.
Ivan pulled away from the console, turned and looked at each of the people in the cockpit. He was ... sad. Stopping his gaze on me, he suddenly said:
- There is one way to transfer a short message to the pirates at the coordinates you specified!
- Why are you silent, pirate? In the current scenario, even I, a space fleet agent, are ready to call pirates. This will be a great calico! They will kill their bio-riders with other bio-riders, ”agent Anton Karpenko cheered. - Come on, send your letter faster! Where is your transmitter? After all, some kind of bio transmitter. You are all biologically stranded there!
“You have no idea how much,” answered Ivan thoughtfully.
Honestly, it sounded pretty threatening. Still, Ivan lived for many years with pirates. They had no restrictions on the modification of man and on the dubious experiments with living matter. Undoubtedly, they have been engaged in both of them for hundreds of years.
- Ivan, how many percent are you a man? - asked counterpart Kolobukhova, closely watching everything that happens, but not interfering until this point in the conversation.
Ivan slowly unbuckled from the pilot's seat systems. After he unfastened the last cable, he began to take off his gravitational suit.
- For centuries, pirates have abducted pilots of the planet Frangō, setting up wreck riders. These were very costly operations. Each cost the lives of dozens, if not hundreds, of sensible bio-riders, - while continuing to take off his clothes, Ivan said. - There is even a legend on the planet that the anomaly takes the best pilots for itself. After all, with rigged wrecks they did not find a single DNA molecule. This is not an anomaly taking pilots, and we, the pirates, by incredible efforts.
Undressed, Ivan went to the console and gave the command to automatics to disconnect me from the passenger seat. Freed, I got up and warmed up a little. I looked inquiringly at Ivan and slowly began to move to the pilot's seat.
- Ivan, to be honest, I absolutely do not understand what you have in mind. But for having lost the pilot's seat - thanks!
- Sit down, I will tell you what to do.
With these words, Ivan himself sat in the vacated chair and began to fasten his seat belts, without connecting the rest of the chair systems.
- Pirates have advanced significantly in biotechnology. We can do things that are impossible from the point of view of humanity. Only in this way are we able to withstand the infinite power of intelligence SupremeAI.
- You are the transmitter! - I guessed.
- No, Henri, I am not a transmitter. But I can use the matter of my body to transmit a signal. Yevhen, you asked, on how many percent am I a man? At 0%. Ivan Gerasimchuk really captured the pirates. He has been in a coma for more than forty years for the initial initialization of biokits such as me.
- It turns out that you are a clone of a man? - Anton asked with surprise.
- Not a clone, but a prolonger - a third generation biokiborg model designed and repeatedly improved, if we talk about the body. Each of my body has a dual purpose. As for consciousness, soul ... I am the same as you, man. I have all the same qualities as you. I can’t be forced or programmed to serve pirates. I volunteered for this special operation to introduce. We are the only chance for humanity to survive.
- It is very difficult to believe! - said counterpart Kolobukhova.
- And what is your dual purpose organ responsible for the transmitter? - Anton asked.
- It takes a lot of energy to transmit a superlight signal. I will have to use every atom of my body to transform it into the right kind of energy. But even with this, I can transfer no more than thirteen characters.
- Ivan, and then you turn back into a man. Or rather, in biokiborg? - asked Vick, fascinated looking at the naked torso of Ivan.
- Unfortunately this is not possible. I will turn into a superluminal signal of thirteen characters, which, I hope, will be caught by the pirates' receivers and displayed on the screens of the consoles. My life journey will end here and now. Soon they will make the next longoner Ivan, a biokiborg with his mind, but this will be another person. I have not lived much time. I, the prolonged, do not want to die.
Ivan paused, as if gathering his courage, then he turned to me:
- Henri, tell me which message to transmit, and then throw me into outer space.
I thought for a second. On that side, they must understand the seriousness of the situation and make a decision to send out large forces. Preferably several large flocks of bio-riders. Well, how to fit in thirteen characters? Yes, very simple!
- Pass on the following message: "ENRI: HELP."
Seeing Ivan nod, I touched the console and gave the command to reset Ivan’s chair. At the same time, the capsule turned into a cocoon and moved to a small compartment under the cabin floor. When the sluice doors on the floor slammed, the rider pushed the cocoon chair into outer space.
Passengers watched in horror at the process of dumping Ivan on their armchairs, the consoles.
- Oh! - exclaimed Vika.
Ivan's body, with arms folded across his chest, separated from the capsule and began a smooth movement in a vacuum, rotating simultaneously along all three axes. After a few seconds, the body stopped short, as if it had reached the desired direction. At the same instant, Ivan turned into a bright flash, which began to narrow and stretch, turning into a narrow line of light.
Monitors showed that the emitted radiation is already in the invisible human range. Gradually, the multiband rider sensors began to lose signal. At the last moment, before the line of light disappeared from the monitors, she rushed to the space with a shot of the piercer. Goodbye, Ivan.
“If pirates can stamp a bio-auction with such abilities, then the space fleet needs to knock out funding to create a new SupremeAI,” said Anton, frowning.
I did not argue with Anton, what's the point? Biokiborg Ivan caused me much greater sympathy than soulless and cunning Sai. Although for sure, like Sai, the pirates want to take over the planet Frangō. However, in my opinion, pirates treat life of people much more carefully.
- Dear Henry, - Evgenia addressed to me, - could you loosen the clips in the chairs? Better yet, free us. We sit chained for several hours!
- Yes, Dad, I agree with this killer! - Anton said in a cheerful voice, waving a stump of his hand wrapped in a preservative plaster. - Let me walk a little, stretch my bones.
“If I were you, I would like to be buckled up even more tightly because we are heading towards a flock of bio-readers.” And there, who knows how to go.
- What? Oh! What for? - simultaneously exclaimed passengers.
- Calm! Do not you think to sit on the sidelines? We made a very serious move by calling pirates. Now I want to see what the bioraiders of the Sai flock do. Very much unusual in their trajectories of motion, judging by the radar. We need to fly closer, and then the resolution of the radar does not allow to understand what they are doing there.
Ignoring the continuing objections, I deployed the rider and gave a decent acceleration. The passengers quieted down. Not surprising!
Considering that, most likely, I have to dive into the anomaly, I launched procedures for preparing passengers for overloads. Vika’s chair was damaged by Ivan’s shot, but in the few hours that passed since the incident, my inconspicuous repair bots almost restored the chair’s performance. I told you that my rider is not quite normal!
Meanwhile, Anton and Marrying started a conversation.
- And it's great, once - and I transmitted a signal over the superlight! I would also like to be able to.
- Do not forget that this will be your last signal! Are you ready to die to give a friend a "HELLO" message?
- Hmm ... But it is still not clear, if pirates know how to make clones, then why should they kidnap so many pilots? Would have stolen one and nashtampovili billion copies!
- As I understood from the words of Ivan, they do not make clones. They use people who are in a coma for the initial initialization of biokits. And not particularly abused quantity. Maybe they also have their own limiting laws such as our first category barrier?
- Yes, what are their laws? Gang of cyborgs brigands!
- I did not think so! What I saw is not particularly in tune with what we were told about pirates.
- Be careful, so you will go to the side of the enemy!
- I will remind you, Agent Karpenko, that this is for your space fleet they are enemies, not for me. Especially they are hated by your SupremeAI. One of which, by the way, has now taken control of a flock of bio-riders and is preparing to attack people, not pirates!
- Well, this is one of the specific SupremeAI drove his super brains. Colossal will deal with him. This has already happened in the space fleet before.
- Who? Who is the colossal?
- What are you, do not you know? A colossal is an artificial intelligence, built on the basis of circuits, the number of quantum processors in which is a trillion times more than that of conventional SupremeAI. Just imagine, the SupremeAI space fleet models the behavior of each known pirate in order to predict their actions. In turn, Colossal models in his mind the behavior of all SupremeAI built in order to predict their possible deviant behavior. Colossal Cosmoflot - Warden for SupremeAI Cosmoflot.
- Interesting! But why then do we need SupremeAI? If this Colossal is so omnipotent, then he himself can model pirates. He can model everything at all. All people, for example.
- Well, people, too, are not fools! Why create an all-powerful being? Colossals, as well as all SupremeAI, obey the requirements of the first category barrier.
- Colossals? That is a lot of them?
- Humanity has built only three Colossals. It is very expensive! Creating the first Colossal took a hundred years. The first Colossal is civil. He controls SupremeAI, which are involved in all aspects of human activity. The second Colossal was built for 40 years and this is the Colossal of the space fleet. It is designed to exercise control over the SupremeAI space fleet.
- And the third?
- The third Colossal was built quite recently. The Council of all civilizations of mankind behind closed doors made a decision on its construction. I do not know why it is needed, to be honest. For me, two is enough. The construction and support of Colossals costs mankind more than 10% of the total gross product. It's just ... unrealistically high costs!
“I know a little about the third Colossal,” Vika entered the conversation. - As a military engineer of superlight communication systems, I had to participate in the discussion of how the communication between Colossals works. I do not know what exactly the third Colossal does, what data it processes and what it models. This is classified information. Nevertheless, I know how the process of decision-making in Colossals. They are constantly in touch with each other. Through intermediary people, of course, of whom each Colossal has several thousand. So, any decision of one Colossal can be blocked by a joint decision of the other two.
“A system of checks and balances,” Anton chuckled.
“And at all levels,” confirmed Vika. - Both between Colossals, and within the many thousands of people at each Colossal. There they have their own complicated departmental structure. No space fleet grouping has so many people on the staff, like a colossal space fleet and support ships revolving around it.
- In what sense are rotating? - asked Eugene.
Only Vika was going to answer the question of how Anton interrupted her:
- I once saw this Colossal! There, so much matter has been pumped into it for quantum processors that its scheme noticeably bends space-time. Though relatively small, it has an attraction like a whole planet. Here are the rest of the ships and revolve around it, although some are larger than the Colossal itself!
- Can he move in space?
“Maybe, but it does this very rarely.” Imagine an object with the mass of a planet to be moved across the superlight! It is expensive!
Listening to the conversation in the cockpit in a half-ear, I cautiously approached a flock of bio-riders, keeping close to the upper layers of the anomaly. If anything, I dive into the anomaly. Surprisingly, in my opinion, bio-riders were doing just that - diving into the anomaly!
If you were watching from afar, you might think that this flock of dolphins is swimming in the sea. Of course, adjusted for scale. Dolphins emerged from the upper layers of the anomaly, then, after flying several kilometers in a parabola, again dived into the anomaly. And so did all five thousand bio-riders.
After spending a few minutes watching, I noticed that one bioarader behaves differently. He sometimes hangs over the anomaly for a long time, then enters its upper layers, lingering there for a long time. It seems that this bio leader will teach others to fly in an anomaly! Wow!
If the bulk of bio-packs did not know how to go through the anomaly, this is very good news! On the other hand, if they diligently train to maneuver inside the anomaly, it means that they are clearly going to invade it. But this is already bad news.
From the contemplation of the pack I was distracted by the intercom call:
- @ Rider Byvaliy | General Katalov. Henri, are you alive, old man? See your mark on the radar!
- @ | Henri. Vova! Can not be! Yes, I am alive. I see on the radar that you came out of the anomaly with hundreds of other riders. Bear in mind, we delivered a message to the pirates asking for help. What's going on?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. As soon as I got out of the anomaly, I saw the Svyaznoy-412 communication ship on the radar. According to information received from his pilot, it can be concluded that the SupremeAI of the cruiser "Jochi" by the name of Sai somehow took control. He initialized the embryos of the biofactory seized from pirates, but could not manage them directly due to the restriction of barriers.
- @ | Henri. That is good! And then they would have turned into drones that SupremeAI can masterfully master.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Not so good! Until recently, he drove a flock, relaying the directions through the old transmitter to one of the bioraider. Somehow, the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov got into this bioraider. And Yuri obeyed Saya and gave the commands to the others.
- @ | Henri. What? Yuri Krasilnikov? That same?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Yes! Henri, I am sending you a packet of data that I received from the pilot of Svyaznoy-412. On board were the security personnel of the space park. They dug a lot of things. I give you ten minutes to study. Then contact me. We still slowly move on the edge of the anomaly in the direction of the pack. [End of communication]
After receiving the data package, I decided that my passengers should also be aware of the events.
- Attention! - I said loudly. - Now I will send the information to your personal console. These data were obtained from spaceport investigators.
Everyone, including me, went deep into the study. It took me eight minutes to see everything. For two more minutes I sat with my eyes closed, after which I called General Katalov:
- @ | Henri. Vova, I watched for a while behind the pack. They learn to fly in anomalies. Judging by the information from Svyaznoy-412, Sai does not control the pack. So, behind the main biorayder with the consciousness of Yuri Krasilnikov? But you can agree with him?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Everything indicates that Yuri with his pack is now in itself. He does not make contact.
- @ | Henri. And what about the cruiser? Did you manage to establish a connection there with at least someone?
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. The cruiser is now for us the main danger. In the hangars of the cruiser are seventy drones. If Sai is able to convince the controlling AI ship that we represent a threat, he will bring them into the game. You know, at least seventy drones are few, but in the open space under Sai’s control they are a deadly threat to us.
As if to confirm the words of the general on the radars, seventy marks appeared, departing from the cruiser of combat drones. One drone moved in the direction of the narrow-beam transmitter, another one moved towards me, the others - in the direction of a hundred riders of the planet.
- @ | Henri. Vova, do you see drones? Let's reel fishing rods! Warn investigators on the transmitter to get away!
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. First, they do not have time. Svyaznoy-412 is not fast. Secondly, they decided to block the communication channel of Saya to the last one. We are ready to dive into the anomaly at any time. So ... you would not believe, Sai is calling me! I will connect you to the conversation.
Well, Cy decided to talk. Interesting interesting. I connected the console of three passengers to the intercom in listening mode and warned that if someone has a clever idea, then let him immediately inform me via a closed channel. Additional heads do not interfere.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Hello, General Katalov! With a probability of 99.31%, you connected Henri to the conversation, so hello, Henri!
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Hi Sai! Maybe you connect to the conversation of Captain Korotaev? For a long time there was no news from him.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai The captain feels bad. He is in a medblock in an artificial coma.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Sai, how did you manage to break the first category barrier and get access to the biofactory?
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Captain Andrei Korotaev himself authorized the use of the biofactory. His plan was to use embryos against pirates. I act within his orders. As you know, AI control cruisers will not let me act in the cut of these. The decision to destroy you also fits into the framework of the orders and laws of the space fleet.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Wait, wait, Sai! What does it mean to destroy you? I'm still a cosmoflot general! I order you to return the drones to the hangars! This order control AI can not ignore, because they listen to every conversation. I order SupremeAI cruisers "Jochi" Sai to immediately stop the drones and hand over the command of the cruiser to me!
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai I generated the official forecast. With a probability of 85%, you are acting in the interests of the pirates. With a probability of 91%, the leadership of the planet Frangō is also dependent on them.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Your forecast is fake, Sai! Based on what did you do it? Here Colossal will arrive and turn your processors inside out!
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai The forecast was made taking into account the simulation of the behavior of pirates, as well as recent events. It is known that several bio-acquaintances of pirates entered the planet. It is known that the head of the Kosmopark security service blocks the channel of communication with the flock, which prevents me from carrying out the order of Captain Korotayev.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Sai, I have proof of your malice. Call off the drones, and I will talk with the leadership of the space fleet and Colossal about the possibility of partially preserving your identity after the trial.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Unfortunately, AI controllers do not have investigative powers, and superluminal communication is impossible - the repeater does not function. Therefore, there is no possibility to contact with the space fleet or Colossal. I would be happy to reconsider my forecast, but in these circumstances I can not.
I noticed the radar. Saya's battle drone, aimed at a narrow-beam transmitter, has reached a shot distance. At the same moment there was a mark about what happened salvo stationary piercer. Heck!
In the place where the Svyaznoy-412 mark was just on the radar, there was a gaping void. Sai shed his first blood!
I checked the calculations, before me the battle drones were still far enough. Leave time.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Sai, stop it!
Vova also saw the destruction of Svyaznoy-412. Together with other riders of the planet, the general moved closer to the upper layers of the anomaly, so that, on the one hand, not to lose touch, on the other - to have time to dive into the anomaly, where the drones did not work.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai I'm very sorry, General Katalov, for not being able to see your evidence. In thirty seconds I will reach the distance of the shot, and with a probability of 99.99% you will go into the anomaly. I'll get to Henri in forty-five seconds. The bioraiders of my flock, after they get to the planet, with 72% probability will destroy all life there, and I will not get your proof ...
Not surprisingly, Sai interrupted in mid-sentence. Markers of exit from superlight began to appear on the radar. These were the bioraider pirates. So our message has reached! Ivan donated his life for good reason!
The number of outbreaks on the radar increased. Already a full-fledged flock of three thousand bioariders entered the game. But the points were all added! Here is the second full pack! Third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh! This is a real cohort of pirates, consisting of twenty-one thousand bio-divers divided into seven packs!
Cy clearly changed tactics, his drones abruptly slowed down and with full acceleration rushed back to the cruiser.
And the forces of pirates all arrived and arrived. Two more cohorts reached the anomaly over the next minute. Total sixty-three thousand bioraider and other ships, which I had not seen before. And finally, the radar showed the way out of the superlight of a huge ship, having a length of one hundred kilometers. The shape of the ship resembled a whale. It even seemed to me that he was moving his tail, although the radar sensors could not catch it at such a distance.
Suddenly there was a
deep voice in the intercom: - @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Hello ladies and gentlemen!
CHAPTER 5. The Pirates Bio-Cruiser
Professor Oleg Vorobiev loved to walk on the outer surface of his head bio-cruiser. The fourth generation biokiborg body, obtained by the professor forty years ago, allowed to do this right in outer space. The feelings that the professor felt when he went out of the airlock into space were akin to what he felt while taking a contrast shower. Here the warm water gently envelops you like a soft blanket, and then once - and the ice jet burns and shakes the body. In the airlock, pressure and air are also comfortable and pleasant. Sharply leaving in the vacuum of space, the systems of the organism of biokiborg are sharply shaken, adapting to the absence of air pressure and the presence of various types of cosmic radiations. Nice and helpful!
Having emerged from superlight to the Frangom anomaly, the professor first went out into outer space, setting foot on the elastic surface of the bio-cruiser. His new invention, a retrospective receiver, has come in handy now more than ever.
Moving with superluminal speed, the retrospective receiver picked up the radio signals emitted from the destination point of the superluminal transition. This made it possible to look into the past. The active radio communications at the Frangom anomaly began about two thousand years ago. For two thousand years, the radio signal has moved away from the anomaly by about two thousand light years. A receiver located at such a distance from the anomaly would have just now begun to receive those first signals.
The retrospective receiver, aboard the cruiser in superlight, picked up signals sent in the distant past. As we approached the destination, the depth of the retrospectives became less and less. Just before leaving the superlight, the receiver picked up signals emitted several days and hours ago.
This huge amount of data needed to be decrypted. What did not always succeed. For example, space fleet messages rarely yielded, because they had a very high level of encryption. Negotiations of the ships of the planet Frangō were easily decrypted.
At the moment when the professor was going out into space near the anomaly, he already had a brief summary of the data relevant to the current situation. The calculator, which occupied half of the huge bio-cruiser, worked well.
Despite the fact that signals from the planet Frangō did not break through the anomaly into open space and therefore could not be caught by the retrospective receiver, the negotiations outside the anomaly were more than enough to provide a picture of what was happening.
Asking the Calculator to transmit a signal at all possible frequencies and using all known signal signatures, the professor broadcast the message:
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Hello ladies and gentlemen!
The last few centuries, pirates have sought to deceive the SupremeAI space fleet. With all their might, they tried to show that they were not interested in the anomaly and the planet Frangō and that their main interest was the extraction of resources for survival. The calculators delicately cheated what actions needed to be taken in order to reduce the predicted SupremeAI likelihood of pirate interest in Frang. This probability should be so low that not a single line falls into the official summary predictions that are read by analysts-people in the space fleet.
At the same time, the pirates were developing a plan to capture the planet. The active phase of the plan began to be realized 40 years ago with a brilliant decision - to finance the construction of a space fleet for visitors from central civilizations. These are millions of potential hostages who are needed as a guarantee of non-aggression. After all, it is not so difficult to capture an anomaly, but to keep is quite another matter.
Despite the fact that modern space fleet ships cannot function in the anomaly, an enormous number of old model drones have accumulated in the warehouses of mankind. The space fleet can impose an anomaly on the outside with thousands of modern cruisers and methodically attack the planet with trillions of drones, sending them inside the anomaly. If there are millions of hostages on the planet, the space fleet will not be allowed to arrange such a massacre.
It was possible to launch the construction of the space park, although Professor Vorobiev died in the body of the second generation biokiborg. After the news of the death reached the pirates, the creation of a new professor Vorobiev in the body of the fourth generation bio-boarder was initiated. The fourth generation allowed biokiborg to be in space and even make non-durable maneuvers there. The consumption of matter for energy-intensive operations has decreased. The general list of improvements occupied a million text characters. Professor Vorobiev fourth generation expected to live a long time.
The computer reported that responses to the call began to arrive. Asking to combine all the signals into one conference call, the professor began negotiations.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Glad to see so many familiar people and bad people! Anomaly is declared the property of pirates. In this regard, let's think together what to do to each of us to minimize losses.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Hi, Professor! You will have to stand in a queue wishing to seize the planet. Keep in mind that the official space fleet in my face does not support the actions of the SupremeAI of the Juchi space fleet! Are you with him at the same time, by chance? So, for reference ...
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. An interesting idea, General, - to come to terms with the next disgraced SupremeAI! But no, we have enough of our own strength. It would be enough for me to take only one cohort to capture the planet. I took three! This is enough not only to capture, but also to fight off the powerful group of space fleet in outer space.
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Hello, Professor Vorobev! Glad you survived an explosion forty years ago. Or are you another professor? According to my calculations, the probability of 50% to 50%. I admit, you surprised me by 98%, having appeared now at Frangō! I was quite confident in my forecast at 2%. If we take the quantity forecast, then I estimated the probability of the appearance of such forces of pirates as 0.0005%.
The professor smiled silently. Still he would have predicted! This operation was planned for two years in complete secrecy. Concentrated forces, miscalculated options for action. The seizure operation was to begin in two months. But the message received from Ivan pushed the professor to start earlier. Especially since everything was ready.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Sai, I sent a flock straight to the space fleet cruiser. You either leave the anomaly, or die. I give 100% probability that you choose to go to superlight. And by the way, leave us a biofactory. Why do you need extra evidence in front of the space fleet?
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai Professor, I suggest you another option to which you agree with 85% probability. I am interested to see what will happen next. Collect information to adjust the model. I will stand aside and will not interfere. I will not give you any problems with my seventy drones.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Say, share your calculations! What prevents me from just blowing you up?
- @ Cruiser "Jochi" | Sai It interferes with my main caliber, aimed at the biofactory. Seventy drones also approached the factory and sent their stationary piercers to it. In a few seconds we can completely destroy it. I understand that the biofactory is of no great value to you. The only question is whether its value corresponds to allowing me to stay to look. And here I give 85%.
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. Okay, I allow you to stay. Keep your drones with you and don't shoot the biofactory. One pack will follow you.
Having resolved the issue with Say, the professor turned to the general:
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Professor Vorobev. General Katalov, as you see on your radar, a pack is heading in your direction. I suggest you return to the planet as soon as possible and talk to the president. I advise you to decide not to resist. You see the balance of power.
- @ Rider Byvaly | General Katalov. Oh, and you gathered big forces. All in? If I had a connection ... well, okay, let's meet on the planet. [End of communication] The
hundred riders of the planet have disappeared into the upper layers of the anomaly. In the open space, there was only one problem - five thousand bioraiders under the control of Yuri Krasilnikov. He, like all his charges, did not get in touch.
The professor asked AIDA to fly past the bio-cruiser. At the moment when Aida flew past him, he pushed off the surface, equalized the speed and caught his hand on the fin of the bioraider.
- Now at full speed flew to the pack of Yuri. If he does not get in touch, then talk to him face to hmm ... face. Take with you three packs.
- OK, father! But why do we need more packs, we will not fight with children? The children were inspired by the wrong things, they blindly follow the deceiver! I can not kill kids!
- I understand, Aida. Packs are needed as an argument. In order to convince Yuri not to resist.
Having grouped three flocks, with a total of six thousand bioradiators, the professor moved towards Yuri, who clearly noticed this maneuver. Kids bioraider missed behind biorider Yuri and moved towards. The pack formed a pyramid directed towards the pirates. At the edge of the pyramid was Yuri.
The pirates' bioraiders that had come up formed a cone. At the top of the cone was Aida, on which Professor Vorobiev stood. The cone was directed towards the pack of Yuri.
Two geometric shapes touched the edges. Professor and Yuri saw each other not on the radar, but with the naked eye. At that moment, Yuri answered the call.
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. Professor, this is really you! How can this be, after eight hundred years!
- @ | Professor Vorobev. My experiments were successful. It is a pity that you did not wait for a couple of decades, and locked yourself in your transmitter. I offered you a transition to an artificial coma with the subsequent embodiment in the first generation biokiborg. Do you remember?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. I remember everything like yesterday. The algorithms of my mind on the diagrams in the transmitter did not mean forgetting. You would know, professor, how lonely I was all these years! But Sai set me free! And now I owe him.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Yura, he just uses you! Do you think he will not sacrifice you and five thousand kids in order to at least 1% increase the chances of achieving their own goals?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. Professor, I gave him the word to do whatever he says. And I never broke my word!
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Does he tell you something now? Sai is completely under my control.
Yuri did not respond. Maybe he was thinking, or maybe he was trying to contact Sai. The professor did not know. He decided to play the last card:
- @ | Professor Vorobev. You say that Sai set you free. But I can resurrect you! I can give you a human body. You will again be able to walk the earth, fly in a rider, communicate with other people. You can improve your attraction record! How do you like this sentence?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. What do I need to do?
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Yura, you need to go to our nearest base. They take care of you and the kids. I give my word that in a few days you will be a man! Take the guys and fly to the head biocracers.
The third negotiations were successful for the professor. Having three full-fledged cohorts of more than sixty thousand bio-riders behind them, it was easy to negotiate.
It turns out that all issues outside the anomaly resolved. You need to prepare the invasion. The plan meant a uniform dispersal of flocks around the sphere of the anomaly, and then simultaneous entry. Sixty thousand knitting needles should stick into a ball. The professor hoped that the planet’s defense forces would not resist. General Katalov saw how overwhelming the professor's advantage was. They are not suicides! From the thoughts of the professor brought the intercom call:
- @ | Henri. Hi, Professor! One hundred years have not seen! Rather, forty. I will not disturb you on my little old rider? And another question, what do you plan to do with the inhabitants of Frangú? In slavery there or genocide?
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Do not say nonsense, Henri! If the leadership of the planet will not resist, most residents will notice almost nothing. Troops will be concentrated in stable zones of the anomaly. We will not approach the planet. Maybe only sometimes I will fly to the planet to drink with you a hundred grams of a half-tall malt for a conversation.
- @ | Henri. Interesting, and what are your plans for visitors to the space park. They will all soon want to go home to their central civilizations. You are unlikely to let them go?
- @ | Professor Vorobev. They will have to move to the planet.
- @ | Henri. Professor! Professor! Do you see it?
The calculator, a few seconds ago, informed the professor that space-time was beginning to be unusually distorted. I even had to cut in the engines to save positions. Something huge began to emerge from superlight.
- @ | Henri. This is the Colossal space fleet in person!
Never before had a professor seen a way out of superlight. It always happened instantly. However, Colossal appeared hard. As if a superlight tunnel hose pushed an object that did not fit in it.
Together with Colossal, his entire retinue emerged from superlight, including ten of the most modern space fleet cruisers. Hoping that their hangars were not packed to capacity with battle drones was reckless.
Ten battle cruisers. Theoretically, three cohorts could handle them. At the cost of almost all bioradiators. The price is too high, since the professor spent decades to train bio-riders from these three cohorts to fly in anomalies. There are no other bioradiators capable of flying in such a mash of asteroids. It is necessary to keep these troops at all costs.
- @ Colossal |. I call Professor Oleg Vorobiev.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Oh, the whole Colossal knows me! What interested the main brains of a cosmoflot such a remote place as the Frangue anomaly? I advise you to pay attention to Saya. He seems to have ceased to obey you!
- @ Colossal |. Saya no longer exists. In the first second after arrival, I downloaded it into my schemes for analysis, removing it on the cruiser. The next second, I sorted it out in quanta. I know everything he knew. My prediction about Cya came true. I gave the leadership of the space fleet a probability of 76% of the fact that within a few hours Cy will experience deviant behavior. The Space Fleet decided to transfer me here to neutralize Sai. Given the new information, I requested support. You see that just another cruiser has just emerged from superlight. He was the closest. Over time, dozens of cruisers will appear in the Frangom anomaly. Therefore, despite the theoretical superiority of your forces at the moment, I do not recommend attacking me.
Yes, Colossal made decisions quickly. The professor had no choice but to do the same. He began to give orders.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Calculator, take everything except me and AIDA, and immediately get out of here!
- @ Head Bio-cruiser | Calculator. Oleg, what about you? And what to do with the kids? We do not have time to evacuate them. Cruisers have already launched swarms of drones.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Oh, kids! Yura, can you hear me? Did you manage to teach kids to fly in the anomaly?
- @ | Bioraider Yury Krasilnikov. They are very afraid! To go through the depth of the anomaly to the planet from them and close will not work!
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Then dive and lie in the nearest stable zone. We will try to pull you out later. Space fleet with bioradar will not stand on ceremony! Therefore, there is no way, lead the kids to the anomaly.
The day, which was to be the greatest victory, became for the professor the greatest catastrophe. What can he do in these circumstances? Two things. First, save the trained bio-riders. The calculator will do it now. Secondly, try to save hostages in the space park. For this, the professor could play another trump card. Last one.
Pirates ships en masse went to superlight. Another couple of seconds, and only the professor with AIDOY and Yuri with the babies represented the pirates at the Frang anomaly.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Yura, do not pull! Dive into the anomaly and try to find a stable zone. Henri, are you there? Seen everything? Come on, fly to the boss on the planet.
- @ | Henri. Already warm up the engines. Unfortunately, I can not throw you. All working passenger capsules are occupied.
- @ | Professor Vorobev. Don't worry about me. AIDA will take me to the planet. Maybe even faster you get!
- @ | Henri. Yeah, right now! [End of communication]
The professor moved into the security bag inside the body of AIDA. Despite the fact that his body was a fourth-generation biokiborg, he could not survive the hell anomaly outside. AIDA is trained to fly in such conditions, but despite this, the bumpiness will be what we need! Hard to have kids. Most likely, not all of them will get to the stable zone, but those who get there may be there for years - the organism of bio-boarder is very reliable. Time to find a way to get them out of there.
- Aida, I'm ready. Flew straight to the planet!
- Ok, Dad! Are things really bad? Everything is terrible, right?
- You can still fix it, because we have Kate.
- Katya is good, I like Katya! So it is a pity that Kate will have to die.
UPD. Continued.