Unexpected meeting. Chapter 8

    Lex woke up and opened his eyes. The same unhappy hangar appeared to his gaze. Not far away was his ship with an open hatch and ramp extended. Lex sat down carefully. His head ached, but he no longer felt weakness in his body, as in his past awakening.

    Something has changed, Lex thought. He shook his head. “Exactly - there is no chair! - He noted the changes in the situation. “And the keeper disappeared with him - maybe they are somehow connected with each other?” The thought that came to mind was so merry for him that he laughed into the emptiness of the hangar. Distorted and frightening echo silenced him. Lex tried to get up and he did it easily. He shook his head, but he no longer noticed any changes in the hangar setting.



    Comment from the author and abstract
    Комментарий о автора.
    Неожиданная встреча — мой экспериментальный литературный проект. В основе проекта лежат мои размышления о модели управляемого развития цивилизации, представления о будущих технологических достижениях, а также некоторые размышления о научно-техническом прогрессе, его роли и последствиях для развития человеческой цивилизации. Идея книги зародилась в 2013-2014 годах, но только в конце 2015 года у меня появилось свободное время и я смог начать работать над ней. Изначально планировалась серия отдельных рассказов, но, в процессе создания единой вселенной для рассказов, я предпочёл попробовать написать целое научно-фантастическое произведение.

    Аннотация.
    На грузовом корабле неожиданно встречаются два бывших выпускника академии космического флота, которые уже давно не видели друг друга. Оба работают по задаче обеспечения сопровождения груза корабля. Однако, после практически завершённой очередной проверки корабля и груза на нём, происходят события, которые препятствуют дальнейшему расхождению их жизненных путей. В атмосфере взаимного недоверия героям приходится выяснять что происходит и искать решения возникающих проблем. После того, как проясняется общая ситуация на корабле, следует ещё одна неожиданная встреча, которая не только оказывает сильное влияние на будущее обоих героев, но и запускает более масштабные события в мирах, населённых людьми.

    For those who read for the first time or read a long time ago: decoding used abbreviations
    ВКФ — Военно-Космический Флот
    ЗКП — Запасной Командный Пункт
    ИИ — Искусственный Интеллект
    КИРП — Кинетико-Индукционная Роторная Пушка
    НБС — НейроБиоСистемы (корпорация в СЦМ)
    СБ СЦМ — Служба Безопасности СЦМ
    СЦМ — Союз Центральных Миров
    ФИПИ — Физио-Интеллектуально-Психологический Индекс (человека)
    ЦКТС — Центральная Командно-Телеметрическая Система
    ЦУК — Центр Управления Кораблём
    ЭМИГ — ЭлектроМагнитная Импульсная Граната

    “What the hell is going on on this ship? - he thought. - I don’t know how I stepped on it. At first, I ran like a beast from hunters all over the ship, then I steadily act as a training dummy. Am I a wagon? I have to drive everyone here! ”Lex sat back on the floor of the hangar. There are moments in life when it is important to stop and understand what is happening. And this sometimes becomes the most important at the moment. All further actions seem meaningless and useless until a person develops an understanding of the current situation and its place in it.

    The most minimally plausible, thought Lex, was to admit that all this happened for the purposes of my recruitment. Access to spetsverf - such a game was quite worth it. This can explain the fact that I was left alone - in such cases, witnesses are not needed. If I'm still alive, then you can hardly be afraid that something is seriously threatening me right now. Why didn't the keeper get rid of me when I refused? If the Order is such a powerful organization that it can affect anything and anywhere, then why does it need a station wagon? Or is she ... not so powerful? Or maybe the keeper told me a myth that in reality is not? On the other hand, the martial technologies of the custodian argued that all this may well be true. And ... did he get access to the ship? In fact, he hacked into the AI ​​part. When the penetration into the control system was deep enough, the AI ​​simply turned off some of its functions and went to the second level of protection, which the guardian was too tough for. Surely, the keeper can break into the next level and so on, but sometime conditions will come when the AI ​​destroys its core and core of the ship's CCTS, turning it into a useless piece of metal. ” Lex was sitting on the floor and trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle into a single picture. Finally, he made some conclusions and quickly rose to his feet. Lex was sitting on the floor and trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle into a single picture. Finally, he made some conclusions and quickly rose to his feet. Lex was sitting on the floor and trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle into a single picture. Finally, he made some conclusions and quickly rose to his feet.

    Taking a quick step toward the ship, Lex carefully climbed the ramp and looked inside the ship. Finding nothing suspicious, he entered the airlock. Passing the gateway, Lex went through a small corridor, but did not go in the direction of the cabin, but turned into a branch of the corridor and immediately found himself in front of several doors. Lighting was on everywhere, all doors were unlocked. Lex walked into one of the compartments, in which there was nothing but bare walls. On one of the walls, he pressed the panel and she gently stepped to the side, opening a closet with shelves. Lex unlocked a simple mechanical fastener and took out the packaging with a new jumpsuit. This was followed by unloading - in obedience to the neural-network commands, his overalls “gave away” the objects hidden in it, which simply appeared from the growths of the overalls, passing into Lex's hands. All items showed signs of damage and were not suitable for further use. Some things had to be pulled out of the overalls for a long time with force, as close blasts of electromagnetic and plasma grenades did not work in the best way. Finally, Lex was released and tried to pull off his jumpsuit. In obedience to the command, the jumpsuit swelled a little. At first, Lex pulled his hands out of him, then with a force stretched the neck hole from the inside of the jumpsuit, trying to pull him down. It turned out very badly - the jumpsuit was badly damaged and did not want to give in. Many of his places are hardened and have lost their flexibility. In places where there were breakdowns, a solid inelastic crust was formed. After a few minutes of torment, the jumpsuit still fell at the feet of a naked man. Lex used a special customized jumpsuit, which allowed to do without underwear, without creating any discomfort. Thus, they won several hundred grams. Lex preferred to spend on lightening his weight. The old jumpsuit Lex kicked aside and unpacked the package and took out a new one. He tried to peel the biopen from the body, but it turned out badly - the biopen under the influence of high temperature almost merged with the body. Leaving the compartment Lex walked barefoot into the distance of the corridor and went into the shower. Gladly substituting the body under the elastic jets of water, he soaked and with difficulty scraped off the remnants of the biopen, under which bright pink skin areas were exposed. Back in the jumpsuit compartment, Lex started putting on a new jumpsuit. The procedure was repeated in the reverse order with the difference that the new jumpsuit did not cause absolutely any problems when dressing. Lex waited until the overalls were put on him and he would take on the given shape and color of his various parts. From the same closet, Lex took out new shoes, which, when put on, squeezed and merged with the jumpsuit. When the dressing was completed, Lex took on his usual look — if you didn’t get accustomed, it seemed that the man was wearing an ordinary officer civilian costume. Opening another closet, Lex took out two pulse pistols from him and checked them. When the weapon has grown into its place on the jumpsuit, Lex has gained a familiar sense of confidence and left the compartment - the remaining things will be removed and packed with a robot cleaner when Lex translates the ship's control system to normal. shrank together and merged with the jumpsuit. When the dressing was completed, Lex took on his usual look — if you didn’t get accustomed, it seemed that the man was wearing an ordinary officer civilian costume. Opening another closet, Lex took out two pulse pistols from him and checked them. When the weapon has grown into its place on the jumpsuit, Lex has gained a familiar sense of confidence and left the compartment - the remaining things will be removed and packed with a robot cleaner when Lex translates the ship's control system to normal. shrank together and merged with the jumpsuit. When the dressing was completed, Lex took on his usual look — if you didn’t get accustomed, it seemed that the man was wearing an ordinary officer civilian costume. Opening another closet, Lex took out two pulse pistols from him and checked them. When the weapon has grown into its place on the jumpsuit, Lex has gained a familiar sense of confidence and left the compartment - the remaining things will be removed and packed with a robot cleaner when Lex translates the ship's control system to normal.

    Going around the ship’s compartments, Lex didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. It is the turn of the cabin. Sitting at the remote, he called up the electronic keyboard and began to manually enter the emergency authorization code. Confirming the input, Lex called the interface of his neural network and activated communication with the ship through the emergency channel. In accordance with the emergency protocol, which the AI ​​of the ship was currently carrying out, the ship was not supposed to issue any responses until code constructs were explicitly transmitted to it in a certain order at certain time intervals. After half a minute of persuasion, the ship recognized its owner, opened to him a non-standard communication channel and Lex launched the procedure of full identification.

    “Lex Orton, Daona 37 welcomes you,” Lex finally heard the familiar AI voice of his ship. - Attention! An integrity violation has been detected ...

    - Daona 37. Postpone all informational messages. Run a quick self-test and prepare a summary report for me. Keep in touch via LE4. Confirm the operation of this channel. In the event of a threat go to the defense.

    - I do. Link LE4 is established.

    Lex got up, got out of the wheelhouse, and descended from the ship. At first he went to the exit from the hangar, but, changing his mind, he turned around and proceeded to the rubble, a little further than the middle of the hangar. Having reached him, he began to look around the pile of metal until, with some regret, he did not stumble upon an unnaturally twisted human arm. I still have to confirm, Lex thought. He threw away several bent metal sheets and made his way to the body. Carefully, trying not to move the body, he touched his wrist, feeling for a pulse. Pressing two fingers to his wrist for a while, he became convinced that there was no pulse. Lex straightened up. It suddenly seemed to him that at the moment of tearing off his fingers, he felt a blow of blood in the artery on Laer's hand. "Yes ... I haven’t been with me like this for a long time, when I’d really like to wishful thinking," thought Lex. "Oh well, let's make sure finally, ”he said to himself out loud, crouched over his body again and touched Laera’s wrist. After waiting a minute, he suddenly felt the blow. Lex stopped, concentrated, his breathing slowed. Another minute passed and he felt the blow again.

    Lex jumped up and froze for a moment. Laer was on the verge of life and death. In fact, her body has already died, only the neural network struggled for survivability, gathering and accumulating crumbs of energy from somewhere to stimulate the heart. He suppressed his desire to immediately begin to dismantle the blockage and ran to the ship. On the ship, Lex flew into the medical bay, giving instructions to prepare a medical capsule on the go. Medotsek was further logging, almost at the very end of the corridor. Lex opened one of the lockers and took out a resuscitation complex, which was a small box equipped with an auto-injector.

    Having introduced medicamental support for the work of the cardiovascular system and Laere's neural network, Lex began to energetically dismantle the blockage. One large beam crushed Laer’s body across and Lex could not handle it. He looked around and pulled up to him some iron pieces of plating and bent rods. Wielding rods as levers, he tried to jack up the beam in order to enclose sheets of metal at its end. At first it turned out badly, but Lex got used to it and, after some time, he managed to make his plans - the beam rose enough so that from under it it was possible, though with difficulty, to stretch Laer’s body. Freeing Laeru from the iron captivity, he picked her up and ran to the ship.

    When Lex walked into the med case, slightly protruding above the floor, the crystal white low bath was already open and blinked with lights on its control panel. Lex put Laeru on the floor, in front of the medcapsula. Rummaging through one of the lockers, he pulled out a briefcase with an oscillator cutter. Choosing a nozzle, he snapped it on the tool and began to cut the jumpsuit on the woman. In some places, the inside of the jumpsuit was abundantly flooded with biopen and Lex had to carefully peel off some of the pieces, trying not to damage the skin of Laer. When Lex got to the shoes, the work slowed down and the nozzle quickly went off. Damn Special Suits, Lex thought with exasperation, my new nozzle. In the end, he freed Laera’s entire body from his clothes and gently dragged a grayish body into the medcapsule. Lex gave the command to close and launch emergency patient support with a quick diagnosis. A lid slowly protruded from the wall and covered the medcapsule. Now it was to wait. Lex reasonably hoped that he did everything right and on time.

    A few minutes later, the medical complex gave Lex a preliminary picture of the patient's condition. The body was severely depleted by oxygen starvation. In the tissues accumulated waste products, which could not bring an insignificant blood flow, with which it lay for some time. Fabrics began to degrade. The same picture was observed in the brain. The neural network of Laera underwent an emergency folding procedure, only a small part of it worked, which did not allow its carrier to die completely. The medical complex pleased Lex with the fact that the patient's body was well tolerated in emergency resuscitation measures and adequately responds to the artificial stimulation of metabolism. The memory banks of the biomodule were not significantly damaged, and this made sure that the neural network would recover normally. A full diagnosis has already been launched - the medical complex has begun its work. Lex again checked the availability of consumable medical materials and, once again, made sure that they were enough.

    ***

    Lex stood in the hold of the ship. In a huge hangar there were rows of fixed containers in rows. The cargo compartment stretched to a good half of the ship, having very wide exits to the flight decks. Contrary to logic and common sense, the cargo passages to the flight decks were for some reason only on one side of the hold - there was a kind of intersection at the stern of the ship that connected the two flight decks with the hold by spacious corridors. The place where the ore containers were to be located, which is located closer to the exit to the left deck, was gaping with emptiness. Not far from the technical niches there was not a single loader. Obviously, those who took out the containers loaded them onto loaders and drove them to another ship through the flight deck.

    Randomly abandoned loaders showed up at the end of the left flight deck. External inspection of transport gave nothing. Lex examined the locks closest to the loaders and found one with traces of recent use. He carefully examined the remaining traces of the ships that were here. Each ship leaves its trails during takeoff and landing. Lex walked around the deck of the hangar for a while, studying it, and concluded that several ships had recently landed and taken off. He could not determine the type of ships. Landing tracks resembled their ship type, but they were still slightly different and had some kind of blurry look.

    From the flight deck, Lex went to the ship's control center. Having settled down in the captain’s chair, he connected to the ship’s terminal and began to study the current state of the ship. It took him much less time to survey the systems than Laera, but the results differed little from the results of her diagnosis. At least half of the ship systems simply did not work. The second half worked incomprehensibly how. Lex uploaded the ship data to his external databank. Disconnecting from the terminal, he sat for a while in the empty control center, lost in some thoughts of his own, then got up and headed towards the engine compartment.

    After passing the last transitional compartment, Lex was in one of the huge halls of the motor compartment. He went to one of the subsystems of the control of the motor complex. One glance was enough to understand why the motor complex does not pass the tests - part of the control system of the propulsion system was simply absent. The impression was that someone needed some blocks and he decided to barbarously tear them out of the whole structure, damaging everything around.

    The same picture was observed in the long-distance antenna complex.

    Lex is back on his ship. He went to the med case and stopped in front of the medcapsule. Unlike last time, the lid of the medcapsule was no longer transparent, completely hiding the patient's body. Lex stood for a while, then, as if embarrassed, quickly went out into the corridor. Passing into the wheelhouse, he sat down in a chair and opened a neural network connection with the ship.

    - Daona 37. Provide the test results and report the current status of the ship.

    Reports AI ship assured that the ship was all right.

    - Daona 37. Check the possibility of autonomous departure.

    The current test was important. If the autonomous system of remote control of the gateways does not work, Lex will have to come up with something, since there is no one to manually open the gateway. The task is not very difficult or difficult, but Lex frankly wanted to quickly leave this ship - there was nothing more to do on it.

    - The possibility of autonomous departure is present, - said the AI ​​ship.

    - Daona 37. Close the access hatch. Start prelaunch training.

    Using a neural network, Lex monitored the lock process, then watched as the AI ​​gradually launched all the nodes of the ship. It took a few minutes. Finally, the AI ​​reached the end of the test and issued a notice of the ship’s readiness for launch.

    - Daona 37. Departure through gateway number five.

    “I’m flying out,” came the answer.

    Lex got ready for a slight overload when suddenly the lights went out on the ship, the connection with the AI ​​disappeared. After a couple of seconds, Lex began to rise from the chair, but everything suddenly turned back on just as it had turned off.

    - Daona 37?

    - Fixed a critical failure in the system core. The necessary condition for departure is not met. Power failure. The ship is working on an emergency source.

    - Daona 37. What condition is not met for departure.

    - Departure is prohibited if Lex Orton is on the ship.

    Lex perplexedly sat back down in the chair.

    - But I'm your captain!

    - Captain, I confirm this, but for departure it is necessary ... - The AI ​​seemed to hesitate and after a short pause continued, - your absence on board.

    - But how will we take off if I'm not on board ???

    - Captain, we can not fly out if the conditions for departure are not met.

    Twenty minutes Lex spent on communication with the AI ​​ship. Neither arguments, nor persuasions, nor threats helped. The AI ​​stood its ground - Lexa on board the departing ship should not be.
    Lex came out of the wheelhouse and went to med. The medcapsule worked - it had an autonomous power source and a short-term power failure had no effect on its functioning. Lex got acquainted with the full diagnostic report on the state of Laera and its recovery plan. Laere will have to spend a very long time in a medical capsule.

    Lex went out into the corridor, gave the command to open the hatch and proceeded to the exit of the ship. He left the airlock and sat down at the exit of the ship. The familiar outlines of a half-lit hangar appeared to the gaze. He did not leave the feeling that this hangar, this ship, also frowned at him. That he did not want to let go of him. At least alive.

    ***

    It took six and a half days since the ship refused to fly with his captain on board. First, Lex tried to understand the reason for this behavior of the AI. But he could not find and understand anything. When he tried to penetrate the periphery of the core of the AI, he faced a powerful and aggressive opposition from the AI ​​- his captain's access stopped working there. After Lex got a powerful blow to his neural network infrastructure, he stopped his attempts to deal with AI.

    The problem was that the ship could not fully work for a long time on an emergency power source. A week later, an emergency protocol was triggered, which turned off the entire ship, leaving power only for the AI ​​subsystem, which after a while carried out the conservation procedure, leaving only its “duty” part for “awakening” upon certain conditions. In this mode, the ship could be for decades. But this problem created the following.

    The medcapsule in which Laer was located should have had its own autonomous power source, which could be enough for a whole month of its intensive work. Should have been. But she didn’t have it - it turned out that the built-in power supply could have worked for just a minute. Lex did not understand the reasons. It turned out that the ship would be disconnected in a week, and with it the medcapsula.

    Lex spent the next few days trying to restore the ship’s power supply system. It took some time to realize that it would not be possible to sort out the reasons for the restarting error of a regular power converter right away. It was clear that the converter would restart when the main engine was turned on, but for this it was necessary to take off.

    The remaining time was spent trying to force the AI ​​to restart the power converter without departure. Lex even considered options for manually launching the main engine right in the hangar or breaking the shell of the ship to extract the medcapsule. The idea of ​​extending power to the courier from the ship also did not succeed - it would have to pull the power lines directly from the cargo hold, as the hangar was badly damaged as a result of the constant exchange of fire in it. The use of electro-magnetic weapons also did not positively affect the energy structure of the hangar. The hangar was full of powerful power lines, but not of those power parameters, and the power converter on the courier itself did not work. There were lots of solutions to the problems, and Lex was quite creative. But everywhere he lacked only one thing - time. He felt himself cornered.

    In the process of investigating the AI ​​behavior of the ship, Lex found a loophole that would allow him to get out of the situation: Lex could go to the medcapsule during the time of departure. And the AI ​​for some reason would not have noticed. And after the departure it was possible to leave the medcapsule and hope that the AI ​​will not throw out other foci already in space. But in the medcapsula Laer was already lying. And removing it from the capsule at this stage of treatment meant only one thing - guaranteed death.

    Finally, time came out and only one option remained.

    Lex compiled a detailed action manual for the ship and assigned the captain access to the Laer ID. He encrypted all the information on the events that occurred and recorded them in the external data bank, which he marked with one of his official one-time identifiers. A similar data bank, but with some truncated information, was recorded for Laer. The information in it was also encrypted, but the code sequence that she and Laer used in correspondence when they were studying at the Academy of the All-Union Film Festival. He marked this databank with the inscription “Laere from Lex”.

    Lex sat in the mess room and pondered. The last days he stubbornly did not leave the feeling that he was still wrong. Something stubbornly did not give him rest. Considerable time his reflections were occupied by the keeper. He managed to get valuable information and, in accordance with the instructions, should deliver this information at almost any cost. And not to mess around here with a half-dead man. Lex did not understand where he came from and why he was thinking so much about it. He understood that he doubted. But he could not understand the psychological nature of his doubt. After all, people of principle rarely doubt things.

    The future was unknown and incomprehensible. And it was unusual. Lex often found himself in situations with an incomprehensible operational situation. But he always knew or imagined the strategy of his behavior. He will send the information with Laer. And if the main engine does not start? And if it starts, but the power converter does not restart? It would be logical to go on the ship itself. Then he could try to solve problems, increasing the likelihood of success of the entire mission. What if the medical complex encounters a problem, the choice of the solution of which is always given to the person? He will simply stop the process of restoring Laera and, after a while, he will have to make a decision himself. Usually such decisions are made by chance. And if it is wrong, then everything will be in vain.

    And what will he do on this ship? He is a wagon, but even a wagon cannot do anything if half the ship simply does not exist. In the current form on the ship, you can just live. Or rather, live the rest of your life. Although ... The keeper knows where the ship is. And may come back. Or maybe not return - Lex himself refused to cooperate. They did not kill him. But maybe the guardians, too, have a semblance of a code of honor? If the keeper has arranged the trap with the AI ​​on the courier, then what's the point of directly getting rid of Lex - yes, he will live out his last days of life here. Guarantees that the keeper will return no. And if he comes back ... Lex still won't give up the ship's service code. Can keepers get into Lex's neural network? Lex knew about such technologies, but their efficiency was so depressing that no one considered them seriously. However, the keepers with their magical magical technologies, could have something similar. And then, it turns out, Lex should think over the variants of his guaranteed death and be prepared for this. It all boiled down to the fact that sending Laeru with an incomprehensible probability of success was stupid, illogical and wrong.

    At the end of the week, Lex craved similar thoughts. He noticed that he began to spend considerable time on them and often found himself behind useless reflections, instead of some work. The last two days he had a bad headache. At first it surprised him, since this was possible only with incorrect operation of the neural network. But the neural network, if you believe her reports, felt great. He shook his head and stood up. It's time to make some choice.

    Going to Medostsek, Lex issued a command to change the transparency of the cap of the medcapsule. He thought: “Where to put Laer’s body after turning off the medcapsule?” The lid became transparent. In the reddish solution of the medcapsule lay Laer’s smooth, wet and glittering body. The skin of Laera was cleansed and acquired its natural healthy shade. Without a shadow of shame, he looked around at the beautiful and toned body of the young woman lying in front of him and rested on her face. The face has become familiar and liked Lex somewhat pointy chiseled outlines. "But it is not so much and has changed in so many years," Lex said to himself. All his doubts somehow stepped back. “Maybe this is far from the most logical and rational act in my life,” he thought. “But ... it will be better ... An incomprehensible chance to come back to life ... Let it be with you.”



    Unexpected meeting. Chapter 8.
    Text version: 1.0.1.
    Date of first publication: 03/08/2017.
    Last edited Date: Sep 03, 2017



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