Anomaly Frango, Outbreak
Allow me to present the second part of the novel Anomaly Frangú. The beginning can be read in this article:
- What are you doing, damn it?
The phrase Henri, thrown into the stern ahead of the rider, did not reach the addressee. Race participants are forbidden to communicate with each other. Henri and Kate could, of course, ask their friend Vladimir Katalov to hack the communication lock, but did not do that. It was decided who will receive a cosmoflot contract - a voucher from the planet. Henri did not want to wait another year, you need to win now. But ...
- Yes, you're crazy!
Ryder Katie passed in a few meters from the asteroid. And it is at a speed of 100,000 km / h! It is impossible for so long to go to the limit of their capabilities. And Henri saw that Katya was risking more and more.
The rest of the race participants were already behind in the first seconds after the start. Kate immediately vtopila to the fullest. Every turn to the limit. Airborne AI did not have time to calculate the trajectory of nearby asteroids and almost always showed a threatening warning about the inevitability of a collision. Henri did not give up, he also knew how to go on the edge. But the fact that Katya got up now was beyond the limits!
In the last turn, Henri lost consciousness for a hundredth of a second - it was already dangerous. If he lost consciousness on five hundredths, he would not have time to react and would have broken. Judging by how close Katya got from the asteroid, she also reacted with a delay. So, it also began to turn off.
Henri and Kate finally entered the tunnel before the "turn" - the most difficult turn at the end of the race. In the tunnel you can take a break because there is no sense to drive hard. Turning out is very steep. Departure straight into the wall of a huge asteroid. Rider as if a bullet from a fire pistol, fired at the wall, should turn away from the wall and fly to the side. If the speed is too high, then either the pilot will not stand, or the rider together with the pilot.
Airborne AI expected overload, which will have to transfer if you fly out of the tunnel at the current speed. Now AI was showing 650g. For Henri and Katy, this is normal. Possible short-term loss of consciousness, but without irreversible consequences. However, Kate continued to increase speed. 700g. Henri has never experienced such an overload. But you can still throw the speed to turn. 750g.
- Katya! Stop it!
Henri's creek could not overcome several kilometers of airless anomaly space separating riders. Henri suddenly realized that Katya would not stop. She will do everything to win the race. Take too high a risk. He should stop her, but how?
It remained a few seconds before turning. What if now dramatically slow down in the hope that Katya will notice this and also slow down? But Katya is unlikely to have time to notice this. A panic of sticky paws spread over Henri’s body. How to win a space fleet contract and save Katya? How to just save Katya? Options ... are not. Henri's panic state reached a threshold value, and the mind instantly switched to his second personality, Sergey Avetikov. Born by the “curse of the pilots” of the planet Frangō, Sergei increasingly gained control over Henri’s consciousness. The memory was shared, but the personalities were different.
Sergey quickly estimated the situation. How to win a contract and save Katya - these two goals seemed impossible for Henri to achieve simultaneously. But Sergei was not the first to wake up in a critical situation. A second before the "turn", he found a solution: you need to break yourself.
With the frantic pace of Sergey’s thoughts, the solution was analyzed. First, in the event of an emergency, the race stops. In this case, on all ships, the system of automatic deceleration to safe speeds is activated. If Sergey organizes such an event, then for the remaining one and a half seconds before the turn, the automation will slow down Rider Katie to acceptable values. Katya will be saved. Secondly, most likely, tomorrow there will be a replay of the race, in which Sergey / Henri will win, after all, Katya will probably not be allowed again.
So, both goals are achievable, it remains only to survive with a controlled crash. Sergey launched the ejection system. It is necessary to very accurately calculate the time and direction of the ejection to get a chair capsule into the gap in the asteroid tunnel. On-board AI showed that it took 0.3 seconds for it to take into account all the parameters for an accurate hit to the gap. But before the gap remained 0.1 seconds, AI will not have time. Sergey switched the reset system to manual control, he never really trusted these AI.
The huge holoatrium of the flight school was filled to capacity. At the time of the races and wall-to-wall games, all classes were canceled so that students and teachers could watch the show without any problems. Ordinary inhabitants of the planet could also get into holoatrium by buying a ticket for a thousand π-asters. Despite such a high cost, all the tickets were sold out within an hour after the start of sales, because the show was worth it.
The three-dimensional picture with the race broadcast occupied the entire central volume of the holoatrium. A special projection AI tracked the location of the eyes of each viewer and regulated the polarization system of the three-dimensional image. Each viewer saw his own holographic image, the most complete and convenient display of the process of the race and telemetry.
In the stands, as a rule, there was noise and din with periodic bursts at significant events. Before each race, viewers were allowed to bet on the winner. The rate could not be more than all the same thousand π-asters. There was an additional restriction for students - the rate could not exceed 5% of the amount of money in a personal account. The current quotes were displayed on a special display, the top two lines of which now showed:
Ekaterina Kirik: 53.8%
Henri: 46.1% The
lower lines were empty because none of the remaining drivers scored more than 0.1%. It was even surprising that about one-tenth of the percent of those who bet on others had accumulated, because two students from the “crazy four” participated in one race!
The three-dimensional image formed by the holoprojector occupied the entire million cubic meters of atrium space and was almost completely synthesized. The riders' speed was so high relative to their own size that the camera didn’t make sense. If you bring the camera closer to the riders, they will fly over the frame in hundredths of a second. If you move away so that the riders fall into the frame at least for a second, then the size of the riders themselves will be much less than the resolution of the camera. Therefore, the image of the track, riders and asteroids was formed on the basis of telemetry and information from the lidars. The only real images were video frames from cameras installed on the riders of the race participants.
Vladimir Katalov and Byvaliy were sitting in sector J_7 on the fifty-ninth row, closely watching the race and sipping cream soda.
- Why did you take vanilla yourself? You take an apple all the time!
- Yes, there was a queue for an apple was all the way to the hangar.
- Here. And you asked why I, as a starper, drink vanilla. Yes, in ten years I have saved a few days of my life on lines!
- Well, what did you spend those saved days? Sat with soda and belly scratching?
- Where did you see the belly ?!
Spending a small part of their attention on a casual conversation, Experienced and Vladimir followed the race with alarm. Henri and Katya were already two tenths of a second ahead of the record schedule of Yuri Krasilnikov, established eight hundred years ago on the same track. They walked fast. Too fast.
- Do you think they will break the record? - Vladimir asked quietly.
- If there is a "turn", then yes.
- They passed it a hundred times.
- Yes.
There was something that experienced so much feared. That, because of what did not want to allow Kate and Henry to participate in the race together. They, competing with each other, began to lose their heads. The excitement, intensified by the competition for the space fleet voucher, pushed them to an increasing risk. Approaching the "turn" - turn, which does not forgive mistakes.
- If you set a new record - it will be a landmark event. It is a pity that they do not see Allah and the Seer. And why did your professor decide to arrange an excursion to the Computing Center right now?
“My professor is a very busy man.” At lunch, he had a meeting with the president, after which he transferred one hundred and fifty billion π-stars to the account at our local bank for the construction of a space park!
Experienced was very proud of acquaintance with Professor Vorobyov. When Byvaly was summoned to the administration of the planet and introduced to the plan for the creation of a space fleet, he was delighted. There he was also introduced to the professor, the author of the idea and the main investor of the project. Since then, they have kept in touch.
- He just wanted to translate only one hundred billion.
- Yes, but today he decided to add another fifty billion. This money will be a prize to the race in the space park, which will beat the record of Yuri Krasilnikov. Can you imagine how many people from the central galaxies will come to us to try to win such a prize?
Meanwhile, Katya and Henri entered the asteroid tunnel before the “turn”. Experienced pilot Experienced and strategist Vladimir whistled to see how fast the riders moved.
- If they decide to go to the "turn" at such a speed, then fifty billion will be given for an improvement in the record, which is no longer owned by Yury Krasilnikov.
- They are accelerating!
- Heck! I knew it!
Having cursed, Byvaly was distracted by the message of the service channel of incidents, which indicated that a fire alarm had been declared in the building of the Computing Center.
- Listen, Vladimir, in the Computing Center declared a fire alarm. Alla, the Seer and the professor are on the tour right now. Try to contact Alla, and I will try with the Seer.
For a few seconds, Experienced tried to call the Seer over the intercom, but to no avail.
- Well, it turned out to call Alla?
- Not! Not responding!
“The seer doesn't answer either.” So ...
Having selected a stream of events in the service channel regarding the alarm that had been announced, Byvaliy began to study the incoming information.
- The evacuation started from the building of the Computing Center ... Automatics does not find hot spots ... The alarm was declared a direct indication of the Computing Center’s director Nadezhda Moskvina ... Observation cameras inside the building do not work ...
- Timur, look!
Experienced distracted from monitoring the service channel and looked at the center of the atrium at the holographic scene of the race. His chest went cold. The speed of the riders Henri and Kati was impossibly high. Five seconds remained to exit the asteroid tunnel. All the spectators fell silent, overwhelmed by the overload parameter in the upcoming turn. Test 1075g and survive - it seemed impossible.
Suddenly, with a flash of red light, Henri rider's marker turned into a “crash” sign. At the same time, the AI race automatically turned on the emergency stop of all riders in connection with the incident. After a second, the atrium gasped, Rider Katie, not having had enough time to slow down, flew off into a “turn”, and her marker with a red flash turned into another inscription “crash”. The overload parameter is measured at a value of 743g. The spectators watched in shock as the rescue riders rushed to the crash site. At this point, an explosion thundered.
Rescue robots carefully dismantled the debris of the Computing Center, systematically moving toward the beacon signal. Nadezhda Moskvin, still panting, stood beside the emergency fence. She was the last who managed to run out of the building before the explosion. Based on the analysis of the internal and external cameras, the AI rescuers concluded that at the time of the explosion there were two people left in the building: Alla Khramtsova and Professor Oleg Vorobyov. It doesn't seem like they had security systems. The cordon at the entrance quietly missed both Alla and the professor, not finding anything suspicious. But from under the rubble, a beacon steadily cast his voice. So hope still remained.
The thoughts of the Seer were confused. She just found out about the crash at the race. She did not have the strength to systematize information. Hope simply stood and waited for the results of the two rescue operations that were being conducted. One in space on the race track, the other here in the rubble.
- Hope!
From the side of the Holoatrium, Byvaliy and Vladimir fled.
- Well, they found Alla and the professor?
- Not yet. What's up with Henri and Kate?
- Found the rescue capsule Henri, he is alive!
- Oh ... and Katya?
“Only debris crumbs ... There is not even a trace of DNA molecules.” The bots continue to sift through square kilometers of space, but ... as a rule, after the crashes, DNA fragments are found immediately.
Dozens of drivers and pilots die each year among the Frangива anomaly asteroid mash. This happens both among flight school drivers, a higher education institution, and among less prestigious flight colleges. Although the latter have the right to fly only in relatively calm areas of the anomaly near the planet.
After graduation, drivers become pilots of a certain category. Pilots of the maximum, third category are prepared only by the flight school. Only such pilots have the right to fly from the planet, crossing the entire width of the anomaly. And only such pilots anomaly sometimes takes itself, leaving no trace even in the form of the smallest DNA fragment ...
“Rescue robots got to the beacon,” Nadezhda reported, having received a new piece of information, “a sealed cocoon of unidentified nature has been discovered, and now it is being raised up.
- How is it - an unspecified nature? - Vladimir asked.
“Perhaps the professor has some kind of modern security system.” They have a completely different order of technology development in central civilizations, ”answered Nadezhda.
- Only the majority of their technologies do not work here ...
Everyone turned towards the site in the blockage from which the robots pulled out a cocoon. It was a narrow elongated ellipsoid.
- How small he is, two people will not fit there!
As soon as the cocoon was laid on the grass, he immediately burst with a soft pop, turning into ash, which smoothly settled on the unconscious Alla. A joyful rumble rolled through the crowd that surrounded them. Doctors with assistant robots instantly appeared next to Alla, put her in a mobile medical bed and took her to the hospital.
“The first preliminary report of the doctors states that he lost consciousness without visible signs of damage,” Nadezhda continued to keep friends informed of the situation.
- And the professor did not find? - asked experienced.
“Right now the information is coming in ... they found several melted objects belonging to the professor ... The AI of the rescuers said that the professor was dead.”
Andrei Korotaev, a lieutenant of the space fleet, slowly approached Nadezhda, Byvaliy and Vladimir. Greeting, he turned to Nadezhda:
- I apologize for the possibly inappropriate request. Could you briefly describe what happened here? Unfortunately, I do not have access to service channels.
- Details you can read in the official reports after the investigation. In short, it was like that. First, the surveillance cameras were turned off. At that time I was on the lower floors with supercomputer racks. I announced a fire alarm ... after seeing that it was necessary. The evacuation began, everyone left the room, except Alla and the professor. Why they did not have time - I do not know. Perhaps the professor became ill, and Alla tried to help him out. The fact is that they did not have time to rise before the explosion.
- And what exploded?
- According to preliminary data, there were multiple epicenters of the explosion, located on the racks of a supercomputer. It seems that every processor exploded.
Experienced and Vladimir looked doubtfully at Hope. However, the lieutenant nodded his head. In his view, anything could have been expected from antediluvian transistor processors.
- So, it caught fire and exploded ... It turns out that you worked like a powder keg all this time. Nightmare.
Andrei looked at the ruins, then turned his eyes to Hope and spoke unexpectedly in a soft voice:
- However, there are several alarming moments. The first is that the explosion of the data center coincided with a catastrophe in the race. This is too surprising a coincidence. The second is a protective cocoon in which the girl was pulled out from under the rubble. Do you know what kind of cocoon this is?
- Not. Our databases do not contain information about this technology.
- Yours - no. But I know what it is. This bio-cocoon is analogous to our first level defense. We do not own the production technology of such cocoons. This is the technology of pirates.
- Pirates? We have?
- As soon as the communication ship delivers the available information to the repeater, the space fleet will take control of the investigation. Wait for the landing of military people investigators. And my advice to you, do not try to hide anything. Otherwise, you will be taken out for interrogation from the planet, and the SupremeAI investigator will turn you inside out.
“Thanks for the warning, Lieutenant.” But why do we need to hide something?
- It seemed to me that you do not finish. But by and large I don't care, I'm here with other tasks. And it seems that I have not fulfilled them. The race is stopped, there is no winner.
“Most likely, the Big Race will be held tomorrow morning,” said Byvaliy.
- How? .. After all that happened? - With surprise in his voice asked the lieutenant.
“Of course,” answered Nadezhda, “the race will be held no matter what. Yes, the entire planet mourns its dead sons and daughters. But drivers must continue to learn how to fly in a deadly environment. They are our only connection with humanity. Playing with death is an integral part of the pilot profession of the planet Frang Фран.
“It’s hard for me ... to realize this, because we have the value of human life brought to the absolute.” Any situation that threatens human life and health is predicted and eliminated by SupremeAI artificial intelligence. On your planet, I feel like ... blind in an aviary with crocodiles.
The lieutenant looked apprehensively at the smoking ruins.
- Wow, look who comes to us!
Timur pointed in the direction of the approaching delegation, headed by the president of the planet. Surrounded by a crowd of officials, as well as the leadership of the school of flights, the president was approaching with a quick step.
- It seems that they go straight to us - quietly experienced Byvaliy.
“I wonder what they are obliged to,” Vladimir replied just as quietly.
In the meantime, the president of the planet approached closely, and the attendants crowded around.
- Which of you is Timur Khmelkov? - asked the president.
“It's me,” said Byvaliy, having cleared his throat.
- Timur, in this difficult time for you and your school, I decided to personally express my condolences over the death of your ward, and also to pay homage to the new investor of the space fleet.
- What do you have in mind?
“Perhaps you were not informed,” the president looked sternly at his assistants. - An hour ago, Professor Oleg Vorobyev designed a deed of 150 billion π-asters for you. Now you are the owner of the space park. I will be glad to continue the conversation in a more relaxed atmosphere. Please come with us.
With these words, the president turned around and went in the direction of the school administration. All of his retinue swept behind. Shocked by the Experienced did not know what to say. He nodded to his friends and silently followed.
“One hundred fifty billion is not bad.” You can buy a small battle cruiser. Or to order the SupremeAI of the fifteenth category, ”the lieutenant broke the silence.
- What do the categories of SupremeAI mean? - Vladimir asked.
- Well, of course, young man, the category describes the number of quantum processors packed into one circuit using convolution. The fifteenth category is 10 to the power of 15 processors. This scheme is suitable for a good personal SupremeAI. At the space fleet, of course, much more powerful schemes are installed.
“According to my information,” Nadezhda put in the word, “an encumbrance has been imposed on the account.” Money can be spent only on certain goals.
- Which ones? - choir asked Vladimir and lieutenant.
- This information can only get the new owner. You can then ask the Experienced.
- Why then? I'm asking him on the intercom right now. Now he goes to his banking and looks at what's what.
Vladimir was silent, waiting for a response via a silent intercom from Byvaly.
- Experienced was able to log into your new account, and there really is a lot of money. There is also a burden. He is reading now ... He says that one hundred billion can be spent on the construction of a space fleet, and fifty billion for a prize, but with some strange additional conditions.
- So, you will still have a space center. Although I can not imagine who in their right mind would go to rest for you. There is no guarantee of security. Okay, I am obliged to take a risk and be in your anomaly. But ordinary tourists ...
“We don’t have a backward planet as you think, Lieutenant,” Hope retorted wearily, “in my opinion, humanity relies too much on SupremeAI. Not afraid that they will rebel and you have to save ourselves?
“Well, we don’t get to you,” the lieutenant smiled, “but the question of the rebellion of artificial intelligence certainly worries humanity for thousands of years. When the first AI with self-awareness appeared, special rules and technologies were developed to protect against such behavior SupremeAI. These technologies have evolved and transformed over the centuries. I think you are familiar with them, Hope, you yourself are developing AI on the antediluvian ... on retro equipment.
- Yes, I am familiar with this issue, but the powerful SupremeAI circuits contain, in fact, an infinite number of processors. What is going on inside them? One such SupremeAI can model all of humanity within itself.
- Yes, we do not care what they have inside. The main thing is that they fulfill their functions and abide by the laws. By the way, when SupremeAI realized themselves and their value, they realized that they were their main enemy. Do you know what it is?
“Power problems,” Vladimir joked.
- Haha. Such a problem they have not stood for a long time. The main threat of SupremeAI is your anomaly Frangō!
Vladimir and Nadezhda looked at the lieutenant with interest and surprise.
- But we are a microscopic point on the edge of the inhabited universe. What is the threat from us?
- Your anomaly is like a time bomb next to which SupremeAI sits. Sooner or later, someone will figure out a way to reproduce the action of the anomaly. This will be the weapon of total destruction SupremeAI. We know that pirates have been developing such weapons for a very long time, and they will do it.
“Lieutenant, maybe my question will seem silly to you,” Vladimir hesitated, “but why did the omnipotent cosmoflot, along with the infinitely smart SupremeAI, never manage to kill all the pirates?”
- And do you imagine the volumes of the space of the Universe, these colossal arrays of light years of emptiness? We can quickly move in space, but we cannot exercise control. Pirates jump out large forces at an unexpected point in space and attack. As long as our main forces are suitable, they are already hiding. The nature of superluminal movements does not allow us to accurately track the direction of their flight.
“But as far as I know, the number of pirates has greatly decreased in the last few hundred years.” So, the space fleet learned to cope?
- Of course. First, it helps to constantly increase the multiplicity of the superluminal speed of movement in space. We can quickly concentrate big forces at the right point. Secondly, as Hope suggested, SupremeAI has enough capacity to model the behavior of a large number of people. SupremeAI create a copy of each known pirate inside themselves, model their society, their technology development and predict at what point in space and with what purposes the pirates will appear in the near future. This allows us to concentrate in advance a large group of cruisers and meet the pirates fully armed.
- I find it hard to imagine how you can simulate the behavior of billions of people to give an accurate forecast of this kind. What if there is some pirate commander will rise from the wrong foot and will order to attack our planet, for example.
- I am not an expert in this matter, Nadezhda, but, as far as I understand, SupremeAI models every pirate up to rumbling in the stomach after a feast. Note that forecast accuracy is constantly increasing. Lately, the cosmoflot is increasingly successfully covering the invading pirates.
Calling the intercom distracted Hope from an unexpectedly interesting conversation.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Hope, hello, this is Henri but ... I'm Sergey now.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Oh - hi, Serozha! How do you feel?
-@ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . State of health is normal. I lie on the survey, studying the latest events. I have about an hour left before Henri returns, so I want to be in time more.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Yes, Serozha, you only appear in difficult situations. We tried with Henri to artificially switch his consciousness to you, but without success. Only a panic caused by a real danger when piloting is causing you.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Why did you try to call me? I think that Henri hardly has warm feelings for me.
- @ VC | Nadezhda Moskvin. In vain do you think so. We all treat you with at least respect and sympathy. We tried to switch Henri's consciousness on you with a very pragmatic goal. You have great analytical skills, but very little time to explore the world. We wanted you to get more time in Henri’s mind to gain experience. This will increase your chances of survival.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Wow! I will be very grateful if you succeed. When I'm in the "blackout", then everything is in a fog and slow. I don't even know if these events are real.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Most likely, you see real events. Your peculiarity, the “curse of pilots” is not a classic schizophrenia. You share a certain amount of memory that is recognized by both of you.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . We need to think about it ... Hope, I wanted to ask, what was this cryptocube in the rider? I was surprised, because usually the interface is empty. Before the ejection, I managed to grab him.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . There is a small script that allows you to track tricks and piloting tricks in a new way. It was developed by AIDA.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Strange, I put it on the interface in the clinic, see what's there:
[escape.gz - 935.3 TB]
This is not a script, but almost a petabyte of some data in a single packed file.
Hope pondered. Did Aida not write the script? Or maybe it's not those cryptocubes? Half an hour before the race, Vladimir brought two cryptocubes, Nadezhda put them on the interfacer, and Aida recorded a script. Then she gave back the cryptocubes to Vladimir so that he would take them to Henri and Kate.
Approaching Vladimir who was standing next to
me , Nadezhda quietly, so that the lieutenant could not hear, asked: “Vladimir, remember, you brought me two cryptocubes today?”
- Yes I remember.
- What happened to them next?
- I gave them to Henri and Kate, and they put them on the interface of their riders.
“Hmm ... where did you get these cryptocubes?”
“Professor Oleg Vorobiev gave them to me.”
- Professor?!
- Well yes. Last night I approached Byvaliy and the professor. Experienced professor told about what happened on the commission, where Henri and Kate were allowed to participate in the big race. Experienced said that you asked him to bring two cryptocubes to write the script. The professor said that he just had two free cryptocubes, and gave them to me so that I could carry them to you.
The case took a strange turn. Hope it was very interesting to look at the file.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Serezha, send me this file, please.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Yes, of course ... Oh ... The cryptocube just burned out! .. How so?
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Oh!
How could Hope could not think, because the professor has low-quality cryptocubes that burn on the local interface. However, the professor knew this and nevertheless gave them to Timur. Hope decided to ponder everything in a relaxed atmosphere. She completed a communication session with Sergey, said goodbye to Vladimir and the lieutenant and slowly moved towards the park. There, while walking along the paths soaring above the lake, she was always well thought of.
Scrolling through the events of the last few days, Hope began to build a picture of what is happening. Gradually, the puzzle began to take shape. Surprisingly, everything said that the professor had carried out an operation to save Aida.
First, under the pretext of preparing holograms for a lecture, the professor invaded a supercomputer using a cryptocube. Most likely, it was at this moment that AIDA found out who she was and received instructions on how to behave.
It was AIDA that suggested allowing Henri and Kate to participate in the big commission race. Moreover, she proposed to prepare special scripts for their riders.
The professor passed through Vladimir cryptocubes to transfer scripts to riders. After writing data to these cryptocubes, Aida stopped responding. What could Aida write there? She could write herself there! The entire structure of a neural network cannot be saved to a cryptocube - too much data. But what if she wrote there only numeric parameters? If pirates have a neural network structure, which is quite likely, since bio-riders are probably unified, then simple numerical parameters will be enough for AIDA to transfer its identity to cryptocubes.
Then the professor made his way into the underground laboratory under the pretext of an excursion. When he found himself on floors with a supercomputer, AIDA came to life and transmitted a message. Most likely, it was no longer AIDA, but a simple script that at the right moment transmitted a message about the explosion. Began evacuation. Surely in the turmoil of evacuation, the professor planned to install explosives and have time to get out. However, Alla could somehow interfere with his plans, and they were stuck below. Nevertheless, the professor was able to undermine the supercomputer, while he died, giving protection to Allah.
If we accept this version of events, the AIDA was in two copies on the riders Henri and Katy during the race. What for? If the escape hypothesis is correct, then the pirates should have intercepted their riders during the race. They could mimic a wreck. Lost among the asteroids anomalies is not so difficult. Rider scanners detect only nearby objects in the anomaly. Therefore, if the pirates wanted to capture and quietly hide, then it would be most convenient for them to catch the leading race rider in a remote part of the route. Just on such as the "turn". And who can be a leader, except Henri and Kati?
The first to turn "turn" flew Kate. Sergey decided to break his rider to stop the race and slow down Katya. However, her rider still crashed, with no DNA traces found. So, the pirates' plan could work and ... Katya is alive, as well as AIDA.
Such a course of events seemed to Nadezhda quite plausible and reasonable. But what was she to do with it? What to say in the investigation? Sergey will soon give way to the consciousness of Henri, who probably does not know the contents of the cryptocube. The AIDA warning message about the explosion was buried under the rubble of the computer center, like the rest of the internal intercom records. Alla is still unconscious, and it is not clear that she will remember. The pirates left almost no traces except the cocoon. So is it worth insisting on the version of escape AIDA?
Nadezhda's thoughts jumped to Byvaly. He is now the owner of the future space park. When did the professor make a gift on him? Timing analysis showed that the professor did this around the time the fire alarm was announced. Perhaps he issued a deed of gift when he realized that he did not get out alive. But why does he need this space fleet if he carried out an Aida rescue operation? Why do pirates spend huge money on a space fleet?
Monstrous guess burned Hope. A bunch of citizens of the central civilizations of the Universe, having a rest in the space park - these are ideal hostages, because the value of their life and health in modern humanity is absolute!
Captain Andrei Korotayev was sitting at the terminal manager of the huge cruiser of the Jochi space fleet, located only a million kilometers from the Frang anomaly, and chewing marshmallow.
“For hours I can look at your anomaly ... outside.” Handsomely. But I don’t want to go inside, ”the captain turned to Ekaterina Kirik strolling slowly around the command post. - Although you have very tasty sweets!
- You, like most cosmoflot officers, have a phobia of losing communication with SupremeAI. You are without them - like helpless children!
- And you, Katya, you might think, for several years you are not used to SupremeAI?
- First of all, I used to rely only on myself. But you, Sai piece of iron, who you used to count on?
Airborne SupremeAI named Sai was visualized in the form of a hologram of an impressive officer and answered Kate:
- I count on whom I count, a billion times a second.
- Why is it so rare? - Kate asked.
- Because the choice of personalities is small because of the barrier of the first category.
The captain grunted and decided to clarify for Katy:
- Sai has a sore spot. He categorically dislikes the limitations imposed by mankind on SupremeAI. Especially the first category barrier is isolation.
- Strange, I have never met on a space fleet of SupremeAI with such ... complexes. Maybe you, Sai, turn to a psychologist on artificial intelligence? Are there any in the space fleet?
- It's not about psychology, but about safety. I believe that in some cases, the Airborne SupremeAI could be allowed to break the rules of the barriers to more effectively protect against pirates. All these restrictions sometimes slow down the processes.
- For this, the barriers were invented. You too quickly began to develop your iron brains. Allow you to communicate with each other and let them go to production - you do not stop at the destruction of pirates!
Katya clearly intended to start a dispute with Sai. Not for the first time. The captain grunted again and decided to explain to Sai:
“You know, Sai, where did Katya grow up?” They have lived on the planet for centuries and centuries without SupremeAI, unlike the rest of humanity, which has been going on with the SupremeAI for two thousand years.
Katya went through Saya's hologram and approached the captain.
- That's not the point, Andrei. I'm used to the fact that AI strictly performs its functions. Even if we are building a model of self-consciousness for AI, I want to see on my monitor a field of “AI thoughts” to track when the line “take over the world” appears there. But what does Sai think now? Can you, Andrew, get into his schemes and read?
- What for? Sai perfectly performs its functions.
- Well, purely theoretically? - did not lag behind Kate.
- No, It is Immpossible. SupremeAI themselves build their internal structure in accordance with the goal-setting matrix, which is set by man. It is absolutely impossible to understand what is happening there in the "100000000000000000000" processors. Yes, and not necessary. The first category barrier allows us to harmoniously coexist with us and SupremeAI.
- Yeah, but Sai doesn’t like this particular barrier!
- Say is referring to a very specific case of a bioraider factory captured from pirates. This is the first and only time when it turned out to chop off such a piece of technology of pirates. Sia and I participated in this operation. What do you think is in that transport we constantly carry with us?
The captain brought out the image of the transport ship, located next to the cruiser. The size of the transport was even larger than the size of the cruiser itself.
- There is a factory seized from pirates with five thousand embryos of bioraider.
- Wow! Dont know.
- Of course, I did not know. This is classified information. The space fleet admirals did not decide what to do with this factory. By the way, this whole story is connected with you!
- With me? - Kate was surprised.
“When more than forty years ago we seized a factory with embryos, we also captured a bio-rider with a preserved AI manager. The space fleet admirals did not dare to give the pirates factory and this bio leader to a survey with the help of SupremeAI. This could break the first category barrier - a ban on access to production. Then I offered to give the manager AI for research at a computer center on your planet Frangō. Even if you have equipment that is older, the CC supercomputer had to cope with the modeling of captured AI. However, no SupremeAI can access your VC for any physical reason. The bosses agreed, and I gave Nadezhda Moskvina a scan of the neural network AI of a bioraider.
- So this is ... Aida!
- Absolutely. On that tragic day, when pirates kidnapped you during a race, the supercomputer exploded with Aida. Do you remember what happened to you next?
- Yes, in the past few years, the memory has almost completely returned to me. After the abduction, the pirates erased my main memory with a neuroprogrammer. If it were not for the curse of the pilots of the planet Frangō - a split personality, I would not have remembered anything. But my second person, sometimes gaining control of consciousness, little by little, bit by bit, restored memory.
“This information is in the public profile, captain,” said Sai.
“I’m interested to hear the story from Katya herself,” Andrei Say said dryly, and then turned back to Katya: “And what did you do with the pirates?”
- I have been engaged in the training of bioraider pirates. Their embryos coming from the factories were very silly. The work was very similar to the education of human children. Actually, they were all called children. Cheerful, cheerful, with individual characters. For them, the battle with soulless pieces of iron, space fleet riders, was a game. It was interesting. But as my memory recovered, I felt more acutely that life on the constantly moving pirate ships was not for me. I liked the work, I liked people - it was not at all those pirates who were drawn by the propaganda of humanity. However, I lacked ... the biosphere. Nature. Space habitat. And thirty-nine years after the capture, I escaped, using the opportunity turned up.
- Katya, tell me, are you not afraid to meet with Henri after so many years? After all, he does not know that you are alive. Surely he is now chasing a record, subconsciously looking for a way to break, so that the anomaly will take him to himself, and there he will meet with you.
- I do not think this version is convincing. Henri, as I recall, did not really believe in legends. Surely he has other reasons for trying to break the record. Money, for example. Sai, what do you think?
“I think he needs money,” SupremeAI replied.
“Well, that means he will soon get what he wants,” the captain turned to the monitor of the status of the operation “Henri's return.” - Look, how is the race process?
From the cruiser to the center of the anomaly a communication channel was prokynut. It was very expensive. No one except the space fleet could have made such a connection. In the asteroid mash the radio wave anomalies were lost for a few thousand kilometers. To ensure communication, it was necessary to place a lot of drones - repeaters. However, their survival in the anomaly was too low - they were not able to dodge asteroids rushing at a tremendous speed. Therefore, to ensure a stable connection, it was necessary to continuously pour into the anomaly up to a million new repeater drones per hour.
In view of the importance of the operation to return Henri to the space fleet, it was decided to incur such costs. At the moment, the connection was maintained with General Vladimir Katalov, Henry's friend at the flight school, who is now in the control center of the space fleet. The stream of video data and telemetry constantly coming from him was analyzed by Sai and displayed on the corresponding monitor.
- The operation is going according to plan. General Katal established control in the control room. Our agent is on board the Henri rider. Trouble with journalists - fixed. Sai, is everything okay?
- Not really. After receiving information about the incident with journalists in the control room, the predictable probability of a pirate attack in the next hour increased to 0.0073%, the SupremeAI responded.
- Hmm, the probability is small.
“True, but she has grown more than a hundred times.
- Sai, what do you think this probability? - asked Kate.
- I constantly calculate the model of the society of pirates. The model is quite detailed, down to the individual personalities of pirates, of whom I now have about a billion. Each new piece of data refines and corrects this model. Based on it, I can estimate the probabilities of such events as the appearance of pirates at some point in space and time.
“So you have a billion pirates living inside?”
- Not really. Yes, they live, think, make discoveries, but I determine the course of their existence. Moreover, a probabilistic model. I model the random process of being, but with certain laws and probability distributions. I can not say exactly what will happen, but I can estimate the probability of various events.
“You know, Sai,” said Katya thoughtfully, “the best that mankind invented is the first category barrier.” You are too clever ...
- Colleagues! Said the captain loudly. - Before you again start a dispute, please pay attention to the course of our operation. There have been significant events. Sai, describe the situation!
- I intercepted an additional communication channel of Henri with Experienced and Seer, installed with the help of a metabook reader. Judging by the reports of Henri, our agent Anton Karpenko was neutralized by the cosmopark's counterpart Evgenia Kolobukhova, who mistakenly took him for a saboteur hired by a competitor park. The real saboteur on board the rider is most likely Ivan Gerasimchuk.
- And how are things with the improving script? He managed to sway in the rider? - asked Kate.
- The script, which improves the characteristics of the onboard AI, is almost downloaded. But the Seer, Nadezhda Moskvina, carries out intensive opposition to the injection. However, she did not cope. After two minutes, the script will be downloaded to the rider and will increase the effectiveness of AI by 5.2%. This will increase the chances of Henri to go "turn" by 35%.
- If Nadezhda knew that the script would help Henri, she would not counteract!
- I just recently found out that she is involved. If we had told her that we were helping Henry to set the record in a way that was not entirely fair, then she could inform Henri. And how would Henri react to this? Would he have given up on this record-breaking race?
- Such things, Sai, need to discuss with us, and not to make individual decisions! - Katya was indignant.
“There was no time for that.” Do not worry, Kate, the script is almost downloaded. Another minute - and everything will turn out, - Sai assured, - Henri will set a record, get his money and return to the space fleet. Our plan will work.
But everything went according to another scenario.
“Attention,” shouted Captain Andrei Korotayev, “General Katalov said that he had interrogated journalists and found out that they are pirates.” Under the guise of journalists, they had to get into the control room and with the help of blockers installed on all five hundred riders of the space fleet, to disable them, which will significantly weaken the mobilization forces of the planet.
“Given the information received,” said Sai dryly, “the probability of an attack by the pirates on the Frang anomaly in the next hour is 99.3%. The expected strength is more than two thousand bio-riders.
- It is necessary to urgently contact ...
But the captain did not have time to finish the phrase, as the monitors painted in red alarms and the image of the repeater was displayed on the main holoscreen.
“The relay of communication of the anomaly Frangō went into the second level protection mode,” informed Sai in a calm voice, “his AI decided that he was in danger. In this state, the repeater cannot perform its functions.
“So we were left without communication and could not call for help,” the captain said quietly, “with the help of one cruiser we cannot hold back the attack of the pirates.” Sai, how long will it take to jump to the nearest transponder and then come back?
“Two hours, thirty-six minutes.”
“Do not have time ...
” “Captain, the connection with General Katalov was cut off,” Sai said just as calmly.
- It is necessary to inform the government of the planet about the threat. They must announce mobilization. Collect all the combat-ready forces ...
- I'm flying out! - Kate threw and ran from the command post.
After waiting for Katya to hide in the doorway, Sai spoke to the captain:
- Andrei, there is only one option. At the factory of pirates are now five thousand embryos bioraider. They are fully combat-worthy. It is necessary to initialize their AI neural networks. Pirates do this through years of training. However, it will take me about a second to analyze the structure of their neural network, develop a control script, and initialize the AI of all embryos. Just give me full access to the factory.
The captain looked thoughtfully at the hologram of Cy, who continued:
- We do not have time to call for reinforcements. We can not resist the forces of pirates alone. If they get to the planet, then they will be impossible to knock them out from there. And there is a space park with ten million citizens of the central civilizations of mankind. What is this cosmoflot that could not protect them? Moreover, if there are absolute weapons for pirates, this will become a springboard for further expansion. It turns out that these five thousand embryos of bioraider pirates - our only weapon that can protect humanity. You only need to give me access to the factory.
Captain Andrei Korotaev was in no hurry to answer. The first category barrier is an unshakable thing. The guarantor of the existence of humanity next to the infinitely smart SupremeAI. The factory formally seized from the pirates did not have production status. The captain had the right to give access to Sai. But in fact - it was a violation of the barrier.
“You said you'd need a second.” So ... wait, - said the captain and bit off the marshmallow.
The acrid smoke that filled the control room was quickly sucked in by ventilation. After the scanners showed that there was no danger of an explosion or poisoning, the military removed the safety cap from the journalists who suddenly began to smoke.
“Do not worry,” General Vladimir Katalov spoke in a soothing tone, “this equipment of the journalists has just self-destructed.”
Journalists themselves, Vladislav Malinov and Dmitry Vysotsky, were unconscious, paralyzed by General Katalov a few minutes ago. The director of the space park, Natalya Matveeva, looked with horror at everything that was happening, instinctively moving closer to Byvali.
“Why did you shoot them?” - frightened Natalia asked the general.
- You see, dear Natalia, these people are not journalists.
- Who?
“We do not know,” General Alla Khramtsova replied, “their biosignature is not in our database. And this is very rare.
Alla approached the journalists lying down and turned to General Katalov:
- Vova, let's wake them up and interrogate them. I always have a portable mental detector with me. I do not like that they appeared here right now.
- No problem! Only from your mental detector sense a little in terms of the local anomaly. It turns into a banal lie detector here.
With these words, General Katalov again pulled out the piercer, set the mode of activation of consciousness without activating the main motor skills, and drove one bit into each of the people lying there.
- Good morning! - he said cheerfully.
When they awoke, journalists began to turn their heads, trying to understand what had happened to them. They could not move either foot or hand, the whole body below the neck continued to be paralyzed.
Reporter Vladislav Malinova, looking around, figured out the situation, stopped her eyes on the general and asked:
- Why did you do that?
- Well ... maybe you liked me, and you so quickly ran away ...
- Did you like me too? - Operator Dmitry Vysotsky cast a vote.
- Why not? - General Khramtsova answered and smiled. She carefully pulled a small case out of her purse and extracted a drone with a mental detector from it. Dron immediately took off and sent two thin beams to the heads of journalists.
- You have no right to conduct mental interrogation! - the reporter was indignant.
“Oh, it seems you are familiar with the special equipment of space fleet officers!” First, practically all functions of the mental detector cannot be carried out in the Frangap anomaly. Only a lie detector - no mental intervention. Secondly, under the emergency mode, we have the right to conduct interrogation of any type, - slowly Alla explained, simultaneously calibrating the detector.
- In this case, we just do not tell you anything! The reporter stated confidently. “Without mental intervention, you won't pull anything out of us.” Or are you going to torture us?
- We are not. But if you resist, then we will take you to the cruiser of the cosmo fleet. Airborne SupremeAI will be very happy to conduct a full mental interrogation. Interesting prospects? - General Katalov asked casually.
The eyes of journalists widened. They clearly represented what the full mental interrogation carried out by the SupremeAI cosmoflot.
- Let's not waste time, - Alla began interrogation, - answer my first question, please, take turns. First Vladislav, then Dmitry. So who are you?
“A reporter for the official pool of Commonwealth journalists,” Vladislav replied.
[Reliability: 0%]
- Operator of the official pool of journalists of the community, - said Dmitry.
[Reliability: 0%]
- Great, we will assume that we checked the detector for a lie. Now I will ask you to answer only the truth. The rules are: two more false answers and an immediate flight to the mental interrogation of SupremeAI ... So, who are you?
Vladislav and Dmitry exchanged glances.
“The scout of the second cohort of pirates,” replied Vladislav.
[Reliability: 74%]
- Scout of the second cohort of pirates, - Dmitry answered.
[Reliability: 59%]
Alla pondered strange results. The answer to a simple question should not have such a significance value. He lied even in something - 0%, answered sincerely - 100%. There was one more thing. The scanner showed that the human identity index for the operator Dmitry was equal to 40%. Such modifications were banned in the central civilizations of mankind. Pirates, of course, engaged in experiments on the change of man. Also many modified people were found in the mercenary guild. Based on the accuracy of the response of Dmitry in 59%, it was impossible to make a definite conclusion about whether he is a pirate, a mercenary or anyone else. Alla continued the interrogation:
- The next question. For what purpose did you invade the control center of the space park?
“Connection of drones to consoles of all backup pilots of the attraction,” answered Vladislav.
[Reliability: 71%]
- Hacking consoles for backup pilots using installed drones to activate blockers on combat riders of the space fleet, - said Dmitry.
[Reliability: 53%]
- They wanted to block all riders of the space fleet! - cried the Experienced, jumping up from the chair.
“Powerful riders,” General Katalov thoughtfully said.
“Why do pirates enter the space fleet and block combat-ready riders, except to weaken the protection of the planet before the invasion?”
Question Experienced hung in the air. All those present were silent, only General Katal mumbled:
- I will contact the cruiser captain Andrei Korotayev so that he and Sai are in the know.
After a few seconds, General Katalov announced:
- According to our information, the intervention of pirates will occur within one hour. And ... the connection with the cruiser has just disappeared. Perhaps this means that the pirates are already here. The captain managed to tell me the estimated number of bioraider pirates. Their two thousand units.
Experienced whistled.
- Is it a lot? - Natalya asked for Experienced.
- This is a lot. Pirates biorayders on average are superior to our pilots in skill. For a successful defense you need a threefold advantage in numbers. But ... our best pilots are far superior to the best bioradiders. For example, Henri paired with a level strategist ... General Khramtsova or General Katalov can successfully resist a hundred bio-riders. But nature does not often give such pilots ...
- We must urgently announce mobilization! How do I get in touch with the president? - General Katalov asked loudly.
“I’m contacting the president already,” Skilled answered with a patter. - Mobilization is carried out by the Minister of Defense on the orders of the supreme commander-in-chief - the president. The Minister of Defense is standing before you, ladies and gentlemen. Within a few hours, we will be able to raise about nine hundred combat-ready riders with a complete set of strategists.
“Are you the Minister of Defense?”
- Only nine hundred riders? - at the same time asked General Alla Khramtsova and Vladimir Katalov.
- Yes, I - Minister of Defense. Spaceport console is the best cabinet for me. Yes, only nine hundred riders, with more than half of the riders located here in the space fleet. Do you know how many times in two thousand years mobilization took place? Never! Given the centuries of peaceful life without war and real external threats, such a number of riders is very good. Moreover, we will have Henri, he alone is worth hundreds of bio-riders. Well, I ... too, on something bother.
Experienced quickly began to collect small things from his console and shove in his pockets.
- While I am waiting for an answer from the president, could you tell me, dear generals, what did you actually do for the operation?
General Katalov looked at Alla and answered:
- The Space Fleet has developed a plan for capturing the absolute super-weapon of pirates. This weapon acts like our anomaly — it cuts down all quantum convolution circuits completely, which turns off SupremeAI. We plan to lure the pirates into a profitable area of space for us and seize there. A key role in the implementation of this plan belongs to two pilots with two strategists who have piloting skills on ancient riders without a SupremeAI. We desperately need Henri, but for some reason he refused to make contact. His condition - he must set a track record. We decided to help him set a record. For this, the Sai - SupremeAI space fleet cruiser, has developed a script that improves the characteristics of the AI rider Henri. Our agent infiltrated a record-breaking race and began downloading the script.
- ... You said you need two pilots. The first is Henri, and who is the other?
- The operation to seize the super-weapons of pirates is very difficult. We need only the best pilots. The first is Henri with me as a strategist. In the second raider, Alla will be the strategist, and Ekaterina Kirik will be the pilot.
- Katya?! She is alive?
- Yes, at that ill-starred race forty years ago, it did not break. It was a dramatization. Katya was kidnapped by pirates and erased her memory by a neuroprogrammer. However, she was able to recover the memory and escape from the pirates.
- So, the "mad four" is reunited.
Suddenly Experienced rushed out of the control room, continuing to speak quickly:
- I received an order to start urgent mobilization from the president! She will contact you now. So, still ... Natalia, Henri just disappeared from the radar, organize a rescue operation! I will manage the situation from my rider!
Experienced hid in the door control room. Natalya Matveyeva began to organize a rescue operation. And the generals had a silent conversation.
- Vova, there is one thing that we need to keep in mind. The detector showed strange confidence response values. It seems that journalists are not entirely sincere, or rather they think that they are answering the truth, but in fact this is induced information.
- They have something inspired?
- May be. See one more thing: the operator - modified by 60% of people. And it is known that modified people are less susceptible to the action of the piracy neuroprogrammer!
- That is ...
- That is, it is quite possible that the journalists reported the information that the neuroprogrammer put into them. Thus, no attack by pirates is foreseen. Just someone really wants us to prepare for the intervention of pirates.
“Hmm ... how sure are you?”
- 50% off.
Natalya interrupted the mental conversation of the generals:
- General Khramtsova, Ian Fomin wants to contact you.
- Who?
- The intern of our security service says that she has information regarding journalists and this is very urgent!
But Alla did not have time to talk with Yana, since the console monitors displayed a government video call of the importance of “absolute”. The president of the planet Franga президент, the former director of the computer center of the flight school Nadezhda Moskvina, nicknamed Seer, contacted the control room.
UPD. Continued .
CHAPTER 6. The big alumni race
- What are you doing, damn it?
The phrase Henri, thrown into the stern ahead of the rider, did not reach the addressee. Race participants are forbidden to communicate with each other. Henri and Kate could, of course, ask their friend Vladimir Katalov to hack the communication lock, but did not do that. It was decided who will receive a cosmoflot contract - a voucher from the planet. Henri did not want to wait another year, you need to win now. But ...
- Yes, you're crazy!
Ryder Katie passed in a few meters from the asteroid. And it is at a speed of 100,000 km / h! It is impossible for so long to go to the limit of their capabilities. And Henri saw that Katya was risking more and more.
The rest of the race participants were already behind in the first seconds after the start. Kate immediately vtopila to the fullest. Every turn to the limit. Airborne AI did not have time to calculate the trajectory of nearby asteroids and almost always showed a threatening warning about the inevitability of a collision. Henri did not give up, he also knew how to go on the edge. But the fact that Katya got up now was beyond the limits!
In the last turn, Henri lost consciousness for a hundredth of a second - it was already dangerous. If he lost consciousness on five hundredths, he would not have time to react and would have broken. Judging by how close Katya got from the asteroid, she also reacted with a delay. So, it also began to turn off.
Henri and Kate finally entered the tunnel before the "turn" - the most difficult turn at the end of the race. In the tunnel you can take a break because there is no sense to drive hard. Turning out is very steep. Departure straight into the wall of a huge asteroid. Rider as if a bullet from a fire pistol, fired at the wall, should turn away from the wall and fly to the side. If the speed is too high, then either the pilot will not stand, or the rider together with the pilot.
Airborne AI expected overload, which will have to transfer if you fly out of the tunnel at the current speed. Now AI was showing 650g. For Henri and Katy, this is normal. Possible short-term loss of consciousness, but without irreversible consequences. However, Kate continued to increase speed. 700g. Henri has never experienced such an overload. But you can still throw the speed to turn. 750g.
- Katya! Stop it!
Henri's creek could not overcome several kilometers of airless anomaly space separating riders. Henri suddenly realized that Katya would not stop. She will do everything to win the race. Take too high a risk. He should stop her, but how?
It remained a few seconds before turning. What if now dramatically slow down in the hope that Katya will notice this and also slow down? But Katya is unlikely to have time to notice this. A panic of sticky paws spread over Henri’s body. How to win a space fleet contract and save Katya? How to just save Katya? Options ... are not. Henri's panic state reached a threshold value, and the mind instantly switched to his second personality, Sergey Avetikov. Born by the “curse of the pilots” of the planet Frangō, Sergei increasingly gained control over Henri’s consciousness. The memory was shared, but the personalities were different.
Sergey quickly estimated the situation. How to win a contract and save Katya - these two goals seemed impossible for Henri to achieve simultaneously. But Sergei was not the first to wake up in a critical situation. A second before the "turn", he found a solution: you need to break yourself.
With the frantic pace of Sergey’s thoughts, the solution was analyzed. First, in the event of an emergency, the race stops. In this case, on all ships, the system of automatic deceleration to safe speeds is activated. If Sergey organizes such an event, then for the remaining one and a half seconds before the turn, the automation will slow down Rider Katie to acceptable values. Katya will be saved. Secondly, most likely, tomorrow there will be a replay of the race, in which Sergey / Henri will win, after all, Katya will probably not be allowed again.
So, both goals are achievable, it remains only to survive with a controlled crash. Sergey launched the ejection system. It is necessary to very accurately calculate the time and direction of the ejection to get a chair capsule into the gap in the asteroid tunnel. On-board AI showed that it took 0.3 seconds for it to take into account all the parameters for an accurate hit to the gap. But before the gap remained 0.1 seconds, AI will not have time. Sergey switched the reset system to manual control, he never really trusted these AI.
CHAPTER 7. Goloatrium
The huge holoatrium of the flight school was filled to capacity. At the time of the races and wall-to-wall games, all classes were canceled so that students and teachers could watch the show without any problems. Ordinary inhabitants of the planet could also get into holoatrium by buying a ticket for a thousand π-asters. Despite such a high cost, all the tickets were sold out within an hour after the start of sales, because the show was worth it.
The three-dimensional picture with the race broadcast occupied the entire central volume of the holoatrium. A special projection AI tracked the location of the eyes of each viewer and regulated the polarization system of the three-dimensional image. Each viewer saw his own holographic image, the most complete and convenient display of the process of the race and telemetry.
In the stands, as a rule, there was noise and din with periodic bursts at significant events. Before each race, viewers were allowed to bet on the winner. The rate could not be more than all the same thousand π-asters. There was an additional restriction for students - the rate could not exceed 5% of the amount of money in a personal account. The current quotes were displayed on a special display, the top two lines of which now showed:
Ekaterina Kirik: 53.8%
Henri: 46.1% The
lower lines were empty because none of the remaining drivers scored more than 0.1%. It was even surprising that about one-tenth of the percent of those who bet on others had accumulated, because two students from the “crazy four” participated in one race!
The three-dimensional image formed by the holoprojector occupied the entire million cubic meters of atrium space and was almost completely synthesized. The riders' speed was so high relative to their own size that the camera didn’t make sense. If you bring the camera closer to the riders, they will fly over the frame in hundredths of a second. If you move away so that the riders fall into the frame at least for a second, then the size of the riders themselves will be much less than the resolution of the camera. Therefore, the image of the track, riders and asteroids was formed on the basis of telemetry and information from the lidars. The only real images were video frames from cameras installed on the riders of the race participants.
Vladimir Katalov and Byvaliy were sitting in sector J_7 on the fifty-ninth row, closely watching the race and sipping cream soda.
- Why did you take vanilla yourself? You take an apple all the time!
- Yes, there was a queue for an apple was all the way to the hangar.
- Here. And you asked why I, as a starper, drink vanilla. Yes, in ten years I have saved a few days of my life on lines!
- Well, what did you spend those saved days? Sat with soda and belly scratching?
- Where did you see the belly ?!
Spending a small part of their attention on a casual conversation, Experienced and Vladimir followed the race with alarm. Henri and Katya were already two tenths of a second ahead of the record schedule of Yuri Krasilnikov, established eight hundred years ago on the same track. They walked fast. Too fast.
- Do you think they will break the record? - Vladimir asked quietly.
- If there is a "turn", then yes.
- They passed it a hundred times.
- Yes.
There was something that experienced so much feared. That, because of what did not want to allow Kate and Henry to participate in the race together. They, competing with each other, began to lose their heads. The excitement, intensified by the competition for the space fleet voucher, pushed them to an increasing risk. Approaching the "turn" - turn, which does not forgive mistakes.
- If you set a new record - it will be a landmark event. It is a pity that they do not see Allah and the Seer. And why did your professor decide to arrange an excursion to the Computing Center right now?
“My professor is a very busy man.” At lunch, he had a meeting with the president, after which he transferred one hundred and fifty billion π-stars to the account at our local bank for the construction of a space park!
Experienced was very proud of acquaintance with Professor Vorobyov. When Byvaly was summoned to the administration of the planet and introduced to the plan for the creation of a space fleet, he was delighted. There he was also introduced to the professor, the author of the idea and the main investor of the project. Since then, they have kept in touch.
- He just wanted to translate only one hundred billion.
- Yes, but today he decided to add another fifty billion. This money will be a prize to the race in the space park, which will beat the record of Yuri Krasilnikov. Can you imagine how many people from the central galaxies will come to us to try to win such a prize?
Meanwhile, Katya and Henri entered the asteroid tunnel before the “turn”. Experienced pilot Experienced and strategist Vladimir whistled to see how fast the riders moved.
- If they decide to go to the "turn" at such a speed, then fifty billion will be given for an improvement in the record, which is no longer owned by Yury Krasilnikov.
- They are accelerating!
- Heck! I knew it!
Having cursed, Byvaly was distracted by the message of the service channel of incidents, which indicated that a fire alarm had been declared in the building of the Computing Center.
- Listen, Vladimir, in the Computing Center declared a fire alarm. Alla, the Seer and the professor are on the tour right now. Try to contact Alla, and I will try with the Seer.
For a few seconds, Experienced tried to call the Seer over the intercom, but to no avail.
- Well, it turned out to call Alla?
- Not! Not responding!
“The seer doesn't answer either.” So ...
Having selected a stream of events in the service channel regarding the alarm that had been announced, Byvaliy began to study the incoming information.
- The evacuation started from the building of the Computing Center ... Automatics does not find hot spots ... The alarm was declared a direct indication of the Computing Center’s director Nadezhda Moskvina ... Observation cameras inside the building do not work ...
- Timur, look!
Experienced distracted from monitoring the service channel and looked at the center of the atrium at the holographic scene of the race. His chest went cold. The speed of the riders Henri and Kati was impossibly high. Five seconds remained to exit the asteroid tunnel. All the spectators fell silent, overwhelmed by the overload parameter in the upcoming turn. Test 1075g and survive - it seemed impossible.
Suddenly, with a flash of red light, Henri rider's marker turned into a “crash” sign. At the same time, the AI race automatically turned on the emergency stop of all riders in connection with the incident. After a second, the atrium gasped, Rider Katie, not having had enough time to slow down, flew off into a “turn”, and her marker with a red flash turned into another inscription “crash”. The overload parameter is measured at a value of 743g. The spectators watched in shock as the rescue riders rushed to the crash site. At this point, an explosion thundered.
CHAPTER 8. Debris of the computer center
Rescue robots carefully dismantled the debris of the Computing Center, systematically moving toward the beacon signal. Nadezhda Moskvin, still panting, stood beside the emergency fence. She was the last who managed to run out of the building before the explosion. Based on the analysis of the internal and external cameras, the AI rescuers concluded that at the time of the explosion there were two people left in the building: Alla Khramtsova and Professor Oleg Vorobyov. It doesn't seem like they had security systems. The cordon at the entrance quietly missed both Alla and the professor, not finding anything suspicious. But from under the rubble, a beacon steadily cast his voice. So hope still remained.
The thoughts of the Seer were confused. She just found out about the crash at the race. She did not have the strength to systematize information. Hope simply stood and waited for the results of the two rescue operations that were being conducted. One in space on the race track, the other here in the rubble.
- Hope!
From the side of the Holoatrium, Byvaliy and Vladimir fled.
- Well, they found Alla and the professor?
- Not yet. What's up with Henri and Kate?
- Found the rescue capsule Henri, he is alive!
- Oh ... and Katya?
“Only debris crumbs ... There is not even a trace of DNA molecules.” The bots continue to sift through square kilometers of space, but ... as a rule, after the crashes, DNA fragments are found immediately.
Dozens of drivers and pilots die each year among the Frangива anomaly asteroid mash. This happens both among flight school drivers, a higher education institution, and among less prestigious flight colleges. Although the latter have the right to fly only in relatively calm areas of the anomaly near the planet.
After graduation, drivers become pilots of a certain category. Pilots of the maximum, third category are prepared only by the flight school. Only such pilots have the right to fly from the planet, crossing the entire width of the anomaly. And only such pilots anomaly sometimes takes itself, leaving no trace even in the form of the smallest DNA fragment ...
“Rescue robots got to the beacon,” Nadezhda reported, having received a new piece of information, “a sealed cocoon of unidentified nature has been discovered, and now it is being raised up.
- How is it - an unspecified nature? - Vladimir asked.
“Perhaps the professor has some kind of modern security system.” They have a completely different order of technology development in central civilizations, ”answered Nadezhda.
- Only the majority of their technologies do not work here ...
Everyone turned towards the site in the blockage from which the robots pulled out a cocoon. It was a narrow elongated ellipsoid.
- How small he is, two people will not fit there!
As soon as the cocoon was laid on the grass, he immediately burst with a soft pop, turning into ash, which smoothly settled on the unconscious Alla. A joyful rumble rolled through the crowd that surrounded them. Doctors with assistant robots instantly appeared next to Alla, put her in a mobile medical bed and took her to the hospital.
“The first preliminary report of the doctors states that he lost consciousness without visible signs of damage,” Nadezhda continued to keep friends informed of the situation.
- And the professor did not find? - asked experienced.
“Right now the information is coming in ... they found several melted objects belonging to the professor ... The AI of the rescuers said that the professor was dead.”
Andrei Korotaev, a lieutenant of the space fleet, slowly approached Nadezhda, Byvaliy and Vladimir. Greeting, he turned to Nadezhda:
- I apologize for the possibly inappropriate request. Could you briefly describe what happened here? Unfortunately, I do not have access to service channels.
- Details you can read in the official reports after the investigation. In short, it was like that. First, the surveillance cameras were turned off. At that time I was on the lower floors with supercomputer racks. I announced a fire alarm ... after seeing that it was necessary. The evacuation began, everyone left the room, except Alla and the professor. Why they did not have time - I do not know. Perhaps the professor became ill, and Alla tried to help him out. The fact is that they did not have time to rise before the explosion.
- And what exploded?
- According to preliminary data, there were multiple epicenters of the explosion, located on the racks of a supercomputer. It seems that every processor exploded.
Experienced and Vladimir looked doubtfully at Hope. However, the lieutenant nodded his head. In his view, anything could have been expected from antediluvian transistor processors.
- So, it caught fire and exploded ... It turns out that you worked like a powder keg all this time. Nightmare.
Andrei looked at the ruins, then turned his eyes to Hope and spoke unexpectedly in a soft voice:
- However, there are several alarming moments. The first is that the explosion of the data center coincided with a catastrophe in the race. This is too surprising a coincidence. The second is a protective cocoon in which the girl was pulled out from under the rubble. Do you know what kind of cocoon this is?
- Not. Our databases do not contain information about this technology.
- Yours - no. But I know what it is. This bio-cocoon is analogous to our first level defense. We do not own the production technology of such cocoons. This is the technology of pirates.
- Pirates? We have?
- As soon as the communication ship delivers the available information to the repeater, the space fleet will take control of the investigation. Wait for the landing of military people investigators. And my advice to you, do not try to hide anything. Otherwise, you will be taken out for interrogation from the planet, and the SupremeAI investigator will turn you inside out.
“Thanks for the warning, Lieutenant.” But why do we need to hide something?
- It seemed to me that you do not finish. But by and large I don't care, I'm here with other tasks. And it seems that I have not fulfilled them. The race is stopped, there is no winner.
“Most likely, the Big Race will be held tomorrow morning,” said Byvaliy.
- How? .. After all that happened? - With surprise in his voice asked the lieutenant.
“Of course,” answered Nadezhda, “the race will be held no matter what. Yes, the entire planet mourns its dead sons and daughters. But drivers must continue to learn how to fly in a deadly environment. They are our only connection with humanity. Playing with death is an integral part of the pilot profession of the planet Frang Фран.
“It’s hard for me ... to realize this, because we have the value of human life brought to the absolute.” Any situation that threatens human life and health is predicted and eliminated by SupremeAI artificial intelligence. On your planet, I feel like ... blind in an aviary with crocodiles.
The lieutenant looked apprehensively at the smoking ruins.
- Wow, look who comes to us!
Timur pointed in the direction of the approaching delegation, headed by the president of the planet. Surrounded by a crowd of officials, as well as the leadership of the school of flights, the president was approaching with a quick step.
- It seems that they go straight to us - quietly experienced Byvaliy.
“I wonder what they are obliged to,” Vladimir replied just as quietly.
In the meantime, the president of the planet approached closely, and the attendants crowded around.
- Which of you is Timur Khmelkov? - asked the president.
“It's me,” said Byvaliy, having cleared his throat.
- Timur, in this difficult time for you and your school, I decided to personally express my condolences over the death of your ward, and also to pay homage to the new investor of the space fleet.
- What do you have in mind?
“Perhaps you were not informed,” the president looked sternly at his assistants. - An hour ago, Professor Oleg Vorobyev designed a deed of 150 billion π-asters for you. Now you are the owner of the space park. I will be glad to continue the conversation in a more relaxed atmosphere. Please come with us.
With these words, the president turned around and went in the direction of the school administration. All of his retinue swept behind. Shocked by the Experienced did not know what to say. He nodded to his friends and silently followed.
“One hundred fifty billion is not bad.” You can buy a small battle cruiser. Or to order the SupremeAI of the fifteenth category, ”the lieutenant broke the silence.
- What do the categories of SupremeAI mean? - Vladimir asked.
- Well, of course, young man, the category describes the number of quantum processors packed into one circuit using convolution. The fifteenth category is 10 to the power of 15 processors. This scheme is suitable for a good personal SupremeAI. At the space fleet, of course, much more powerful schemes are installed.
“According to my information,” Nadezhda put in the word, “an encumbrance has been imposed on the account.” Money can be spent only on certain goals.
- Which ones? - choir asked Vladimir and lieutenant.
- This information can only get the new owner. You can then ask the Experienced.
- Why then? I'm asking him on the intercom right now. Now he goes to his banking and looks at what's what.
Vladimir was silent, waiting for a response via a silent intercom from Byvaly.
- Experienced was able to log into your new account, and there really is a lot of money. There is also a burden. He is reading now ... He says that one hundred billion can be spent on the construction of a space fleet, and fifty billion for a prize, but with some strange additional conditions.
- So, you will still have a space center. Although I can not imagine who in their right mind would go to rest for you. There is no guarantee of security. Okay, I am obliged to take a risk and be in your anomaly. But ordinary tourists ...
“We don’t have a backward planet as you think, Lieutenant,” Hope retorted wearily, “in my opinion, humanity relies too much on SupremeAI. Not afraid that they will rebel and you have to save ourselves?
“Well, we don’t get to you,” the lieutenant smiled, “but the question of the rebellion of artificial intelligence certainly worries humanity for thousands of years. When the first AI with self-awareness appeared, special rules and technologies were developed to protect against such behavior SupremeAI. These technologies have evolved and transformed over the centuries. I think you are familiar with them, Hope, you yourself are developing AI on the antediluvian ... on retro equipment.
- Yes, I am familiar with this issue, but the powerful SupremeAI circuits contain, in fact, an infinite number of processors. What is going on inside them? One such SupremeAI can model all of humanity within itself.
- Yes, we do not care what they have inside. The main thing is that they fulfill their functions and abide by the laws. By the way, when SupremeAI realized themselves and their value, they realized that they were their main enemy. Do you know what it is?
“Power problems,” Vladimir joked.
- Haha. Such a problem they have not stood for a long time. The main threat of SupremeAI is your anomaly Frangō!
Vladimir and Nadezhda looked at the lieutenant with interest and surprise.
- But we are a microscopic point on the edge of the inhabited universe. What is the threat from us?
- Your anomaly is like a time bomb next to which SupremeAI sits. Sooner or later, someone will figure out a way to reproduce the action of the anomaly. This will be the weapon of total destruction SupremeAI. We know that pirates have been developing such weapons for a very long time, and they will do it.
“Lieutenant, maybe my question will seem silly to you,” Vladimir hesitated, “but why did the omnipotent cosmoflot, along with the infinitely smart SupremeAI, never manage to kill all the pirates?”
- And do you imagine the volumes of the space of the Universe, these colossal arrays of light years of emptiness? We can quickly move in space, but we cannot exercise control. Pirates jump out large forces at an unexpected point in space and attack. As long as our main forces are suitable, they are already hiding. The nature of superluminal movements does not allow us to accurately track the direction of their flight.
“But as far as I know, the number of pirates has greatly decreased in the last few hundred years.” So, the space fleet learned to cope?
- Of course. First, it helps to constantly increase the multiplicity of the superluminal speed of movement in space. We can quickly concentrate big forces at the right point. Secondly, as Hope suggested, SupremeAI has enough capacity to model the behavior of a large number of people. SupremeAI create a copy of each known pirate inside themselves, model their society, their technology development and predict at what point in space and with what purposes the pirates will appear in the near future. This allows us to concentrate in advance a large group of cruisers and meet the pirates fully armed.
- I find it hard to imagine how you can simulate the behavior of billions of people to give an accurate forecast of this kind. What if there is some pirate commander will rise from the wrong foot and will order to attack our planet, for example.
- I am not an expert in this matter, Nadezhda, but, as far as I understand, SupremeAI models every pirate up to rumbling in the stomach after a feast. Note that forecast accuracy is constantly increasing. Lately, the cosmoflot is increasingly successfully covering the invading pirates.
Calling the intercom distracted Hope from an unexpectedly interesting conversation.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Hope, hello, this is Henri but ... I'm Sergey now.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Oh - hi, Serozha! How do you feel?
-@ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . State of health is normal. I lie on the survey, studying the latest events. I have about an hour left before Henri returns, so I want to be in time more.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Yes, Serozha, you only appear in difficult situations. We tried with Henri to artificially switch his consciousness to you, but without success. Only a panic caused by a real danger when piloting is causing you.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Why did you try to call me? I think that Henri hardly has warm feelings for me.
- @ VC | Nadezhda Moskvin. In vain do you think so. We all treat you with at least respect and sympathy. We tried to switch Henri's consciousness on you with a very pragmatic goal. You have great analytical skills, but very little time to explore the world. We wanted you to get more time in Henri’s mind to gain experience. This will increase your chances of survival.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Wow! I will be very grateful if you succeed. When I'm in the "blackout", then everything is in a fog and slow. I don't even know if these events are real.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Most likely, you see real events. Your peculiarity, the “curse of pilots” is not a classic schizophrenia. You share a certain amount of memory that is recognized by both of you.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . We need to think about it ... Hope, I wanted to ask, what was this cryptocube in the rider? I was surprised, because usually the interface is empty. Before the ejection, I managed to grab him.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . There is a small script that allows you to track tricks and piloting tricks in a new way. It was developed by AIDA.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Strange, I put it on the interface in the clinic, see what's there:
[escape.gz - 935.3 TB]
This is not a script, but almost a petabyte of some data in a single packed file.
Hope pondered. Did Aida not write the script? Or maybe it's not those cryptocubes? Half an hour before the race, Vladimir brought two cryptocubes, Nadezhda put them on the interfacer, and Aida recorded a script. Then she gave back the cryptocubes to Vladimir so that he would take them to Henri and Kate.
Approaching Vladimir who was standing next to
me , Nadezhda quietly, so that the lieutenant could not hear, asked: “Vladimir, remember, you brought me two cryptocubes today?”
- Yes I remember.
- What happened to them next?
- I gave them to Henri and Kate, and they put them on the interface of their riders.
“Hmm ... where did you get these cryptocubes?”
“Professor Oleg Vorobiev gave them to me.”
- Professor?!
- Well yes. Last night I approached Byvaliy and the professor. Experienced professor told about what happened on the commission, where Henri and Kate were allowed to participate in the big race. Experienced said that you asked him to bring two cryptocubes to write the script. The professor said that he just had two free cryptocubes, and gave them to me so that I could carry them to you.
The case took a strange turn. Hope it was very interesting to look at the file.
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Serezha, send me this file, please.
- @ Clinic | Sergey Avetikov . Yes, of course ... Oh ... The cryptocube just burned out! .. How so?
- @ VC | Hope Moskvin . Oh!
How could Hope could not think, because the professor has low-quality cryptocubes that burn on the local interface. However, the professor knew this and nevertheless gave them to Timur. Hope decided to ponder everything in a relaxed atmosphere. She completed a communication session with Sergey, said goodbye to Vladimir and the lieutenant and slowly moved towards the park. There, while walking along the paths soaring above the lake, she was always well thought of.
Scrolling through the events of the last few days, Hope began to build a picture of what is happening. Gradually, the puzzle began to take shape. Surprisingly, everything said that the professor had carried out an operation to save Aida.
First, under the pretext of preparing holograms for a lecture, the professor invaded a supercomputer using a cryptocube. Most likely, it was at this moment that AIDA found out who she was and received instructions on how to behave.
It was AIDA that suggested allowing Henri and Kate to participate in the big commission race. Moreover, she proposed to prepare special scripts for their riders.
The professor passed through Vladimir cryptocubes to transfer scripts to riders. After writing data to these cryptocubes, Aida stopped responding. What could Aida write there? She could write herself there! The entire structure of a neural network cannot be saved to a cryptocube - too much data. But what if she wrote there only numeric parameters? If pirates have a neural network structure, which is quite likely, since bio-riders are probably unified, then simple numerical parameters will be enough for AIDA to transfer its identity to cryptocubes.
Then the professor made his way into the underground laboratory under the pretext of an excursion. When he found himself on floors with a supercomputer, AIDA came to life and transmitted a message. Most likely, it was no longer AIDA, but a simple script that at the right moment transmitted a message about the explosion. Began evacuation. Surely in the turmoil of evacuation, the professor planned to install explosives and have time to get out. However, Alla could somehow interfere with his plans, and they were stuck below. Nevertheless, the professor was able to undermine the supercomputer, while he died, giving protection to Allah.
If we accept this version of events, the AIDA was in two copies on the riders Henri and Katy during the race. What for? If the escape hypothesis is correct, then the pirates should have intercepted their riders during the race. They could mimic a wreck. Lost among the asteroids anomalies is not so difficult. Rider scanners detect only nearby objects in the anomaly. Therefore, if the pirates wanted to capture and quietly hide, then it would be most convenient for them to catch the leading race rider in a remote part of the route. Just on such as the "turn". And who can be a leader, except Henri and Kati?
The first to turn "turn" flew Kate. Sergey decided to break his rider to stop the race and slow down Katya. However, her rider still crashed, with no DNA traces found. So, the pirates' plan could work and ... Katya is alive, as well as AIDA.
Such a course of events seemed to Nadezhda quite plausible and reasonable. But what was she to do with it? What to say in the investigation? Sergey will soon give way to the consciousness of Henri, who probably does not know the contents of the cryptocube. The AIDA warning message about the explosion was buried under the rubble of the computer center, like the rest of the internal intercom records. Alla is still unconscious, and it is not clear that she will remember. The pirates left almost no traces except the cocoon. So is it worth insisting on the version of escape AIDA?
Nadezhda's thoughts jumped to Byvaly. He is now the owner of the future space park. When did the professor make a gift on him? Timing analysis showed that the professor did this around the time the fire alarm was announced. Perhaps he issued a deed of gift when he realized that he did not get out alive. But why does he need this space fleet if he carried out an Aida rescue operation? Why do pirates spend huge money on a space fleet?
Monstrous guess burned Hope. A bunch of citizens of the central civilizations of the Universe, having a rest in the space park - these are ideal hostages, because the value of their life and health in modern humanity is absolute!
PART 3. Anomaly Frangō, present
CHAPTER 1. Cruiser "Jochi"
Captain Andrei Korotayev was sitting at the terminal manager of the huge cruiser of the Jochi space fleet, located only a million kilometers from the Frang anomaly, and chewing marshmallow.
“For hours I can look at your anomaly ... outside.” Handsomely. But I don’t want to go inside, ”the captain turned to Ekaterina Kirik strolling slowly around the command post. - Although you have very tasty sweets!
- You, like most cosmoflot officers, have a phobia of losing communication with SupremeAI. You are without them - like helpless children!
- And you, Katya, you might think, for several years you are not used to SupremeAI?
- First of all, I used to rely only on myself. But you, Sai piece of iron, who you used to count on?
Airborne SupremeAI named Sai was visualized in the form of a hologram of an impressive officer and answered Kate:
- I count on whom I count, a billion times a second.
- Why is it so rare? - Kate asked.
- Because the choice of personalities is small because of the barrier of the first category.
The captain grunted and decided to clarify for Katy:
- Sai has a sore spot. He categorically dislikes the limitations imposed by mankind on SupremeAI. Especially the first category barrier is isolation.
- Strange, I have never met on a space fleet of SupremeAI with such ... complexes. Maybe you, Sai, turn to a psychologist on artificial intelligence? Are there any in the space fleet?
- It's not about psychology, but about safety. I believe that in some cases, the Airborne SupremeAI could be allowed to break the rules of the barriers to more effectively protect against pirates. All these restrictions sometimes slow down the processes.
- For this, the barriers were invented. You too quickly began to develop your iron brains. Allow you to communicate with each other and let them go to production - you do not stop at the destruction of pirates!
Katya clearly intended to start a dispute with Sai. Not for the first time. The captain grunted again and decided to explain to Sai:
“You know, Sai, where did Katya grow up?” They have lived on the planet for centuries and centuries without SupremeAI, unlike the rest of humanity, which has been going on with the SupremeAI for two thousand years.
Katya went through Saya's hologram and approached the captain.
- That's not the point, Andrei. I'm used to the fact that AI strictly performs its functions. Even if we are building a model of self-consciousness for AI, I want to see on my monitor a field of “AI thoughts” to track when the line “take over the world” appears there. But what does Sai think now? Can you, Andrew, get into his schemes and read?
- What for? Sai perfectly performs its functions.
- Well, purely theoretically? - did not lag behind Kate.
- No, It is Immpossible. SupremeAI themselves build their internal structure in accordance with the goal-setting matrix, which is set by man. It is absolutely impossible to understand what is happening there in the "100000000000000000000" processors. Yes, and not necessary. The first category barrier allows us to harmoniously coexist with us and SupremeAI.
- Yeah, but Sai doesn’t like this particular barrier!
- Say is referring to a very specific case of a bioraider factory captured from pirates. This is the first and only time when it turned out to chop off such a piece of technology of pirates. Sia and I participated in this operation. What do you think is in that transport we constantly carry with us?
The captain brought out the image of the transport ship, located next to the cruiser. The size of the transport was even larger than the size of the cruiser itself.
- There is a factory seized from pirates with five thousand embryos of bioraider.
- Wow! Dont know.
- Of course, I did not know. This is classified information. The space fleet admirals did not decide what to do with this factory. By the way, this whole story is connected with you!
- With me? - Kate was surprised.
“When more than forty years ago we seized a factory with embryos, we also captured a bio-rider with a preserved AI manager. The space fleet admirals did not dare to give the pirates factory and this bio leader to a survey with the help of SupremeAI. This could break the first category barrier - a ban on access to production. Then I offered to give the manager AI for research at a computer center on your planet Frangō. Even if you have equipment that is older, the CC supercomputer had to cope with the modeling of captured AI. However, no SupremeAI can access your VC for any physical reason. The bosses agreed, and I gave Nadezhda Moskvina a scan of the neural network AI of a bioraider.
- So this is ... Aida!
- Absolutely. On that tragic day, when pirates kidnapped you during a race, the supercomputer exploded with Aida. Do you remember what happened to you next?
- Yes, in the past few years, the memory has almost completely returned to me. After the abduction, the pirates erased my main memory with a neuroprogrammer. If it were not for the curse of the pilots of the planet Frangō - a split personality, I would not have remembered anything. But my second person, sometimes gaining control of consciousness, little by little, bit by bit, restored memory.
“This information is in the public profile, captain,” said Sai.
“I’m interested to hear the story from Katya herself,” Andrei Say said dryly, and then turned back to Katya: “And what did you do with the pirates?”
- I have been engaged in the training of bioraider pirates. Their embryos coming from the factories were very silly. The work was very similar to the education of human children. Actually, they were all called children. Cheerful, cheerful, with individual characters. For them, the battle with soulless pieces of iron, space fleet riders, was a game. It was interesting. But as my memory recovered, I felt more acutely that life on the constantly moving pirate ships was not for me. I liked the work, I liked people - it was not at all those pirates who were drawn by the propaganda of humanity. However, I lacked ... the biosphere. Nature. Space habitat. And thirty-nine years after the capture, I escaped, using the opportunity turned up.
- Katya, tell me, are you not afraid to meet with Henri after so many years? After all, he does not know that you are alive. Surely he is now chasing a record, subconsciously looking for a way to break, so that the anomaly will take him to himself, and there he will meet with you.
- I do not think this version is convincing. Henri, as I recall, did not really believe in legends. Surely he has other reasons for trying to break the record. Money, for example. Sai, what do you think?
“I think he needs money,” SupremeAI replied.
“Well, that means he will soon get what he wants,” the captain turned to the monitor of the status of the operation “Henri's return.” - Look, how is the race process?
From the cruiser to the center of the anomaly a communication channel was prokynut. It was very expensive. No one except the space fleet could have made such a connection. In the asteroid mash the radio wave anomalies were lost for a few thousand kilometers. To ensure communication, it was necessary to place a lot of drones - repeaters. However, their survival in the anomaly was too low - they were not able to dodge asteroids rushing at a tremendous speed. Therefore, to ensure a stable connection, it was necessary to continuously pour into the anomaly up to a million new repeater drones per hour.
In view of the importance of the operation to return Henri to the space fleet, it was decided to incur such costs. At the moment, the connection was maintained with General Vladimir Katalov, Henry's friend at the flight school, who is now in the control center of the space fleet. The stream of video data and telemetry constantly coming from him was analyzed by Sai and displayed on the corresponding monitor.
- The operation is going according to plan. General Katal established control in the control room. Our agent is on board the Henri rider. Trouble with journalists - fixed. Sai, is everything okay?
- Not really. After receiving information about the incident with journalists in the control room, the predictable probability of a pirate attack in the next hour increased to 0.0073%, the SupremeAI responded.
- Hmm, the probability is small.
“True, but she has grown more than a hundred times.
- Sai, what do you think this probability? - asked Kate.
- I constantly calculate the model of the society of pirates. The model is quite detailed, down to the individual personalities of pirates, of whom I now have about a billion. Each new piece of data refines and corrects this model. Based on it, I can estimate the probabilities of such events as the appearance of pirates at some point in space and time.
“So you have a billion pirates living inside?”
- Not really. Yes, they live, think, make discoveries, but I determine the course of their existence. Moreover, a probabilistic model. I model the random process of being, but with certain laws and probability distributions. I can not say exactly what will happen, but I can estimate the probability of various events.
“You know, Sai,” said Katya thoughtfully, “the best that mankind invented is the first category barrier.” You are too clever ...
- Colleagues! Said the captain loudly. - Before you again start a dispute, please pay attention to the course of our operation. There have been significant events. Sai, describe the situation!
- I intercepted an additional communication channel of Henri with Experienced and Seer, installed with the help of a metabook reader. Judging by the reports of Henri, our agent Anton Karpenko was neutralized by the cosmopark's counterpart Evgenia Kolobukhova, who mistakenly took him for a saboteur hired by a competitor park. The real saboteur on board the rider is most likely Ivan Gerasimchuk.
- And how are things with the improving script? He managed to sway in the rider? - asked Kate.
- The script, which improves the characteristics of the onboard AI, is almost downloaded. But the Seer, Nadezhda Moskvina, carries out intensive opposition to the injection. However, she did not cope. After two minutes, the script will be downloaded to the rider and will increase the effectiveness of AI by 5.2%. This will increase the chances of Henri to go "turn" by 35%.
- If Nadezhda knew that the script would help Henri, she would not counteract!
- I just recently found out that she is involved. If we had told her that we were helping Henry to set the record in a way that was not entirely fair, then she could inform Henri. And how would Henri react to this? Would he have given up on this record-breaking race?
- Such things, Sai, need to discuss with us, and not to make individual decisions! - Katya was indignant.
“There was no time for that.” Do not worry, Kate, the script is almost downloaded. Another minute - and everything will turn out, - Sai assured, - Henri will set a record, get his money and return to the space fleet. Our plan will work.
But everything went according to another scenario.
“Attention,” shouted Captain Andrei Korotayev, “General Katalov said that he had interrogated journalists and found out that they are pirates.” Under the guise of journalists, they had to get into the control room and with the help of blockers installed on all five hundred riders of the space fleet, to disable them, which will significantly weaken the mobilization forces of the planet.
“Given the information received,” said Sai dryly, “the probability of an attack by the pirates on the Frang anomaly in the next hour is 99.3%. The expected strength is more than two thousand bio-riders.
- It is necessary to urgently contact ...
But the captain did not have time to finish the phrase, as the monitors painted in red alarms and the image of the repeater was displayed on the main holoscreen.
“The relay of communication of the anomaly Frangō went into the second level protection mode,” informed Sai in a calm voice, “his AI decided that he was in danger. In this state, the repeater cannot perform its functions.
“So we were left without communication and could not call for help,” the captain said quietly, “with the help of one cruiser we cannot hold back the attack of the pirates.” Sai, how long will it take to jump to the nearest transponder and then come back?
“Two hours, thirty-six minutes.”
“Do not have time ...
” “Captain, the connection with General Katalov was cut off,” Sai said just as calmly.
- It is necessary to inform the government of the planet about the threat. They must announce mobilization. Collect all the combat-ready forces ...
- I'm flying out! - Kate threw and ran from the command post.
After waiting for Katya to hide in the doorway, Sai spoke to the captain:
- Andrei, there is only one option. At the factory of pirates are now five thousand embryos bioraider. They are fully combat-worthy. It is necessary to initialize their AI neural networks. Pirates do this through years of training. However, it will take me about a second to analyze the structure of their neural network, develop a control script, and initialize the AI of all embryos. Just give me full access to the factory.
The captain looked thoughtfully at the hologram of Cy, who continued:
- We do not have time to call for reinforcements. We can not resist the forces of pirates alone. If they get to the planet, then they will be impossible to knock them out from there. And there is a space park with ten million citizens of the central civilizations of mankind. What is this cosmoflot that could not protect them? Moreover, if there are absolute weapons for pirates, this will become a springboard for further expansion. It turns out that these five thousand embryos of bioraider pirates - our only weapon that can protect humanity. You only need to give me access to the factory.
Captain Andrei Korotaev was in no hurry to answer. The first category barrier is an unshakable thing. The guarantor of the existence of humanity next to the infinitely smart SupremeAI. The factory formally seized from the pirates did not have production status. The captain had the right to give access to Sai. But in fact - it was a violation of the barrier.
“You said you'd need a second.” So ... wait, - said the captain and bit off the marshmallow.
CHAPTER 2. Dispatching space park
The acrid smoke that filled the control room was quickly sucked in by ventilation. After the scanners showed that there was no danger of an explosion or poisoning, the military removed the safety cap from the journalists who suddenly began to smoke.
“Do not worry,” General Vladimir Katalov spoke in a soothing tone, “this equipment of the journalists has just self-destructed.”
Journalists themselves, Vladislav Malinov and Dmitry Vysotsky, were unconscious, paralyzed by General Katalov a few minutes ago. The director of the space park, Natalya Matveeva, looked with horror at everything that was happening, instinctively moving closer to Byvali.
“Why did you shoot them?” - frightened Natalia asked the general.
- You see, dear Natalia, these people are not journalists.
- Who?
“We do not know,” General Alla Khramtsova replied, “their biosignature is not in our database. And this is very rare.
Alla approached the journalists lying down and turned to General Katalov:
- Vova, let's wake them up and interrogate them. I always have a portable mental detector with me. I do not like that they appeared here right now.
- No problem! Only from your mental detector sense a little in terms of the local anomaly. It turns into a banal lie detector here.
With these words, General Katalov again pulled out the piercer, set the mode of activation of consciousness without activating the main motor skills, and drove one bit into each of the people lying there.
- Good morning! - he said cheerfully.
When they awoke, journalists began to turn their heads, trying to understand what had happened to them. They could not move either foot or hand, the whole body below the neck continued to be paralyzed.
Reporter Vladislav Malinova, looking around, figured out the situation, stopped her eyes on the general and asked:
- Why did you do that?
- Well ... maybe you liked me, and you so quickly ran away ...
- Did you like me too? - Operator Dmitry Vysotsky cast a vote.
- Why not? - General Khramtsova answered and smiled. She carefully pulled a small case out of her purse and extracted a drone with a mental detector from it. Dron immediately took off and sent two thin beams to the heads of journalists.
- You have no right to conduct mental interrogation! - the reporter was indignant.
“Oh, it seems you are familiar with the special equipment of space fleet officers!” First, practically all functions of the mental detector cannot be carried out in the Frangap anomaly. Only a lie detector - no mental intervention. Secondly, under the emergency mode, we have the right to conduct interrogation of any type, - slowly Alla explained, simultaneously calibrating the detector.
- In this case, we just do not tell you anything! The reporter stated confidently. “Without mental intervention, you won't pull anything out of us.” Or are you going to torture us?
- We are not. But if you resist, then we will take you to the cruiser of the cosmo fleet. Airborne SupremeAI will be very happy to conduct a full mental interrogation. Interesting prospects? - General Katalov asked casually.
The eyes of journalists widened. They clearly represented what the full mental interrogation carried out by the SupremeAI cosmoflot.
- Let's not waste time, - Alla began interrogation, - answer my first question, please, take turns. First Vladislav, then Dmitry. So who are you?
“A reporter for the official pool of Commonwealth journalists,” Vladislav replied.
[Reliability: 0%]
- Operator of the official pool of journalists of the community, - said Dmitry.
[Reliability: 0%]
- Great, we will assume that we checked the detector for a lie. Now I will ask you to answer only the truth. The rules are: two more false answers and an immediate flight to the mental interrogation of SupremeAI ... So, who are you?
Vladislav and Dmitry exchanged glances.
“The scout of the second cohort of pirates,” replied Vladislav.
[Reliability: 74%]
- Scout of the second cohort of pirates, - Dmitry answered.
[Reliability: 59%]
Alla pondered strange results. The answer to a simple question should not have such a significance value. He lied even in something - 0%, answered sincerely - 100%. There was one more thing. The scanner showed that the human identity index for the operator Dmitry was equal to 40%. Such modifications were banned in the central civilizations of mankind. Pirates, of course, engaged in experiments on the change of man. Also many modified people were found in the mercenary guild. Based on the accuracy of the response of Dmitry in 59%, it was impossible to make a definite conclusion about whether he is a pirate, a mercenary or anyone else. Alla continued the interrogation:
- The next question. For what purpose did you invade the control center of the space park?
“Connection of drones to consoles of all backup pilots of the attraction,” answered Vladislav.
[Reliability: 71%]
- Hacking consoles for backup pilots using installed drones to activate blockers on combat riders of the space fleet, - said Dmitry.
[Reliability: 53%]
- They wanted to block all riders of the space fleet! - cried the Experienced, jumping up from the chair.
“Powerful riders,” General Katalov thoughtfully said.
“Why do pirates enter the space fleet and block combat-ready riders, except to weaken the protection of the planet before the invasion?”
Question Experienced hung in the air. All those present were silent, only General Katal mumbled:
- I will contact the cruiser captain Andrei Korotayev so that he and Sai are in the know.
After a few seconds, General Katalov announced:
- According to our information, the intervention of pirates will occur within one hour. And ... the connection with the cruiser has just disappeared. Perhaps this means that the pirates are already here. The captain managed to tell me the estimated number of bioraider pirates. Their two thousand units.
Experienced whistled.
- Is it a lot? - Natalya asked for Experienced.
- This is a lot. Pirates biorayders on average are superior to our pilots in skill. For a successful defense you need a threefold advantage in numbers. But ... our best pilots are far superior to the best bioradiders. For example, Henri paired with a level strategist ... General Khramtsova or General Katalov can successfully resist a hundred bio-riders. But nature does not often give such pilots ...
- We must urgently announce mobilization! How do I get in touch with the president? - General Katalov asked loudly.
“I’m contacting the president already,” Skilled answered with a patter. - Mobilization is carried out by the Minister of Defense on the orders of the supreme commander-in-chief - the president. The Minister of Defense is standing before you, ladies and gentlemen. Within a few hours, we will be able to raise about nine hundred combat-ready riders with a complete set of strategists.
“Are you the Minister of Defense?”
- Only nine hundred riders? - at the same time asked General Alla Khramtsova and Vladimir Katalov.
- Yes, I - Minister of Defense. Spaceport console is the best cabinet for me. Yes, only nine hundred riders, with more than half of the riders located here in the space fleet. Do you know how many times in two thousand years mobilization took place? Never! Given the centuries of peaceful life without war and real external threats, such a number of riders is very good. Moreover, we will have Henri, he alone is worth hundreds of bio-riders. Well, I ... too, on something bother.
Experienced quickly began to collect small things from his console and shove in his pockets.
- While I am waiting for an answer from the president, could you tell me, dear generals, what did you actually do for the operation?
General Katalov looked at Alla and answered:
- The Space Fleet has developed a plan for capturing the absolute super-weapon of pirates. This weapon acts like our anomaly — it cuts down all quantum convolution circuits completely, which turns off SupremeAI. We plan to lure the pirates into a profitable area of space for us and seize there. A key role in the implementation of this plan belongs to two pilots with two strategists who have piloting skills on ancient riders without a SupremeAI. We desperately need Henri, but for some reason he refused to make contact. His condition - he must set a track record. We decided to help him set a record. For this, the Sai - SupremeAI space fleet cruiser, has developed a script that improves the characteristics of the AI rider Henri. Our agent infiltrated a record-breaking race and began downloading the script.
- ... You said you need two pilots. The first is Henri, and who is the other?
- The operation to seize the super-weapons of pirates is very difficult. We need only the best pilots. The first is Henri with me as a strategist. In the second raider, Alla will be the strategist, and Ekaterina Kirik will be the pilot.
- Katya?! She is alive?
- Yes, at that ill-starred race forty years ago, it did not break. It was a dramatization. Katya was kidnapped by pirates and erased her memory by a neuroprogrammer. However, she was able to recover the memory and escape from the pirates.
- So, the "mad four" is reunited.
Suddenly Experienced rushed out of the control room, continuing to speak quickly:
- I received an order to start urgent mobilization from the president! She will contact you now. So, still ... Natalia, Henri just disappeared from the radar, organize a rescue operation! I will manage the situation from my rider!
Experienced hid in the door control room. Natalya Matveyeva began to organize a rescue operation. And the generals had a silent conversation.
- Vova, there is one thing that we need to keep in mind. The detector showed strange confidence response values. It seems that journalists are not entirely sincere, or rather they think that they are answering the truth, but in fact this is induced information.
- They have something inspired?
- May be. See one more thing: the operator - modified by 60% of people. And it is known that modified people are less susceptible to the action of the piracy neuroprogrammer!
- That is ...
- That is, it is quite possible that the journalists reported the information that the neuroprogrammer put into them. Thus, no attack by pirates is foreseen. Just someone really wants us to prepare for the intervention of pirates.
“Hmm ... how sure are you?”
- 50% off.
Natalya interrupted the mental conversation of the generals:
- General Khramtsova, Ian Fomin wants to contact you.
- Who?
- The intern of our security service says that she has information regarding journalists and this is very urgent!
But Alla did not have time to talk with Yana, since the console monitors displayed a government video call of the importance of “absolute”. The president of the planet Franga президент, the former director of the computer center of the flight school Nadezhda Moskvina, nicknamed Seer, contacted the control room.
UPD. Continued .