Текст книги "Memories of the future. An eyewitness notes"

“Murmu, just give me a hint!” Murmulansi seemed to have sent him some response impulse of information as he suddenly startled, rounded up his eyes and then hugged the Panther’s scaly neck with his hands, pressing his face against her head.

Are you serious? Then it makes sense! Let’s not tell Steve now, alright? Okay, tell me your plan given all the factors.”

“First, Gabriel, don’t jump the gun yourself and take care of Steven!” Oor nodded in consent, looking Murmulansi straight in the eye.

“Second: I take on control over “Maria’s” energy. I’ll set up the shield and apply everything to motion, and you do not interfere. Just rely on me. Maria has some reserves. Third: you and the friend of yours must both steer away from me during the fight whatever happens. We’ve got no spare parts for your repair.

And now to arms! Tell Steven not to go upward!”

Murmulansi kept sitting in the captain’s chair, gazing at the Ocean; Oor silently turned around and walked off towards the stairs leading to the lower deck.

Steven had eaten up his protein sandwich made by the food automat, when Oor rushed into the cook galley.

The manner in which his friend came in and sat down to table opposite him, let Steven know that he was about to tell him something serious. Oor gave his friend a keen look and uttered slowly, carefully selecting words:

“Steve, soon we are expecting a pirates attack. Don’t worry! Murmu asked me to tell you that she will cope with them herself and we have nothing to worry about. And we must not climb up to the top deck. Believe me, she will sort things herself!”

“After the fight you will receive good news. Take you gun and sit here. That’s what she asked to tell you.”

On hearing these words, Steven rounded up his eyes in bewilderment and almost choked on his pudding.

“Oor! Have you had your processor damaged? Do you yourself understand what you’ve just said?”

“Yes, but Murmi asked me to take care of you, Steve! Murmi is a highly developed AI, She was designed in the Scientific Station; her bio processor was based on the latest developments. She has a lot to tell you, but let’s put it off for a while, okay? She needs you alive!”

“Oor, I’m not going to sit here if there is an attack. I want to accept the fight on the top deck. Back to back! We are warriors after all!”

“Then I will tell you one more request from Murmi: steer away from her! And one more thing: she has undertaken full control!”

“Then let’s prepare our guns and go upstairs!”

The friend quickly went off to their cabins; however they didn’t have the time to get ready as suddenly emergency lights lit up in the hallway, and the vessel’s AI pronounced: “Emergency in progress.”

Instantly, the yacht’s body necked down and began rocking on waves like an ordinary vessel. The accelerator ceased buzzing, and the yacht dropped its speed to zero. AI’s voice went down, and Steven swayed, grabbing hold of a handle in the wall of his cabin. He was not ready for commotion.

He quickly took hold of his beg and hurriedly took out everything he had: two pistols and spare magazines. Not too much.

He stuffed all these into his pockets and rushed into the hallway. Oor was standing near the gangway. He looked taller in the dull emergency light. Oor was holding to invisibility coats hoisted over his left hand and a couple of heavy pulse rifles in the right hand.

His face was calm and straight as though he was doing something ordinary.

“Let’s get dressed,” he said quickly, “And move slowly towards the forecastle. Then act as appropriate, but anyway keep away from Murmi, please!”

Steve did not need long explanations. He hung his gun on the handle of the nearby cabin and quickly put on the coat, activated mentally the invisibility mode, took up the rifle and slowly headed towards the gangway.

The first thing he saw was Murmulansi’s back and the Ocean horizon. As before the Panther was sitting in the captain’s chair.

It appeared to Steven that she had grown taller and was now looking somewhat fragile. Her tail was no longer jerking and was lying nearby around her forefeet. The Panther was motionlessly gazing at the Ocean in front, but Steven had no doubt that she kept looking at them both with the second pair of her eyes.

The Ocean all around seemed pure. The uncontrolled yacht was considerably rocking on waves.

“They are here,” she said in a calm voice through a thought form addressed to them both. “There are two vessels in front of us in a quarter of cable’s length. For the time being, they are just taking a closer look at us. They have no serious scanners, only some old rubbish. Their second vessel is considerably armed and won’t let us go. But we have no other choice. Maria’s legend is that we are a robotic carrying vessel damaged by the storm; the crew is somewhere downstairs or there no crew at all.”

“Then who are you?” Oor asked quickly. His though form sounded like whisper.

“What do you mean who am I?” Murmulansi hissed in reply. “Why don’t you come out and ask them yourself? Now I am a target for their forward gun, that’s who I am! Keep quiet both of you, they started to exchange data, soon everything will begin.”

“Moray” and “Black Cat”, two pirate medium-grade ships were following the storm cyclone in a hope to rob those unlucky ones who would happen to have passed the storm front without severe casualties. Seamen seldom called them pirates, mostly they were known as “Hyenas”. The vessels of those adventure seekers were far from new. “Moray” had the energy unit failure, and its captain Dirty Fin was about to divert from the course and sail towards the floating repair dock, when the old scanner displayed an incomprehensible blot, and the ship’s AI declared that some vessel, presumably a carrier, was drifting without control. It determined no traces of crew onboard. That made a change.

Their loot had come to them itself. Things were complicated by the fact that it was Black Cat’s captain Buch Er who first noticed the vessel since he had access to the Coalition’s satellite via a man of his from the Outer Space Monitoring Service. According to the Code, the vessel was to be considered a gain; however, he was not entitled to engage captain Fin in fight with the robotic yacht in exchange for percent of the gain.

Buch himself was well aware of the situation and didn’t feel like sharing the gain. Both ships were drifting in front of the yacht in the invisibility mode, while Black Cat’s captain was now weighting things up, torn between the fear and greed.

Of course, Dirty Fin could have covered for him and that would help avoid losses during the seizure of the vessel. But there was high probability that the carrier’s crew would not enter the fight to save their lives. That had happened before, but Buch had never kept his word and thrown the defeated crews overboard.

“This vessel looks so pure and sweet! Buch will you let your friend earn a bit. Let’s share the gain?”

“Don’t forget about the right of the first one, Fin! It’s me who takes decisions now. Keep quite or go to the dock!”

“What is there, Buch, in the open cabin? It’s got a strange shape and is not reflecting light. Looks like a cat”. Buch was not apt to mysticism and started thinking that way: “That black cat will bring him luck. I’m Black Cat’s captain after all.”

“Alright, Fin, butt out!” he transmitted to “Moray”. I will cope with it myself.”

“Damn you, Buch! Fin responded, and “Moray” dropped off the invisibility field and started to turn around the ship.

“Fin, bastard!” Buch shouted after him, realizing that their presence was determined.

But nothing changed. No one run out with shouts on the deck, no signs of life were to be see; only some strange-looking black shadow was still sitting in the captain’s chair of the open cabin.

The yacht’s power supply units were switched off, but they were still maintaining residual heat, and that reassured Buch: the vessel seemed to be damaged and abandoned. A rare luck.

However, deep in his heart, he felt restless as though a large black cat was scratching it. That cat seemed to be telling him something important.

Buch trusted his intuition and therefore summoned the boarding team for briefing on the top deck. It consisted of fifteen people, of which eight were in cyborg bodies; all were well-armed. They were standing now before Buch in expectation of his directions and personal assignments.

“The dish seems to be empty, guys!” Buch started mostly to reassure himself. “You, you, and you, Gab, cover for the guys from the longboat, the rest will act as appropriate.”

“Not for the first time, Captain, grumbled the long Gab on behalf of the crew.

Buch gave a forced smile to the boarding team:

“As soon as you get onboard, report on what can be taken off there. The dish look new, maybe we’ll take it along as well!”

The mixed, sloppy crew began to quickly board the longboat and soon they were drifting towards the yacht’s white body. A few seconds were left before the impact.

While the captains of “Moray” and “Black Cat” were busy sorting out their relationship, Oor and Steven came closer to the stern of the vessel and took up advantageous positions. Their coats were securely hiding them from the scanners.

“Oor, step aside of my flyer! When they start shooting at you, they will graze it as well!” A blot of trembling air obediently shifted towards the vessel’s head.

The coat covered Steven perfectly well, which increased their chances for success during the sudden attack. He was a little uncomfortable with the fact that in all his years of military service, he hadn’t won a single battle and had been knocked down three times. The only reassuring factor was that all those three times he had stayed alive. Steven summoned up his spirit and decided to no longer reflect on his past defeats. He was holding his weapon under the coat so as not to give himself away before the attack.

The longboat smoothly touched the yacht’s body; ancient steel hooks with ropes tied up to them flew up from below. The boarding team quickly and habitually climbed them up onboard. Soon the first head could be seen above the board. All pirates of the boarding team stepped on the deck and looked perplexedly at the shadow in the captain’s chair.

For a while the shadow didn’t show any signs of motion, and the senior pirate reported to Black Cat’s captain that all was clear.

Someone of the pirates already headed briskly towards the passage to the lower deck, when the shadow in the chair suddenly moved, jumped off and walked unhurriedly by the crowd of pirates, not looking at any them.

“Cat? Black! What is this?” Gab, who was the last to board the vessel, was pointing with his hand gun in the direction of the being, not feeling danger. “It’s got an odd tail. The beast must be rare and very expensive!”

Steven and Oor took out their weapon and prepared for fight, watching Murmulansi slowly approaching the group of pirates. She was obviously playing for time. In case of a slight mischance, would open fire, and even her remarkable scale would not retrieve her from certain death.

Murmulansi was well aware of that and was approaching them slowly and then stopped without further movement. The pirates started to flock about her, someone turned his gun on her, and someone was wiggling a steel hook in his arm hoping to tie up the rare animal. They were obviously wary of her; soon several guns were directed towards her.

The rare beast took a short walk on the deck, looking blearily at the pirates and then sat down and started washing herself in a catlike manner. Thoroughly and unhurriedly she was licking her paw and they scraped with it behind her ears.

The boarding team surrounded the Panther in a circle. Almost all the pirates switched their weapons from combat into standby mode. Some of them were armed with ropes, and someone had already brought a net to capture the beast.

Black Cat’s captain grew irritable with impatience. He sent those imbeciles to an empty vessel, and they were unable even to catch a big cat. That black cat aroused his curiosity; he thought it would be a good idea to keep it as his ships’ mascot.

“Why are they messing with it for too long?” he was thinking.

“Put on the towrope, lazybones! Let’s drag the dish along with us. I will personally feed to shark those of you who will hurt my cat. If you find anyone alive on the yacht, throw them at once overboard. Everything is clear?”

“Everything is pretty clear, captain,” Gab respond.

The ring around Murmulansi was slowly shrinking; everyone wanted to take part in her capture. Some of the pirates launched a pocket drone into the air to record the event.

The drone let out transparent wings and hung above the pirates’ heads, recording what was happening and transmitting the image to Black Cat.

“How’s Murmi?” Steven asked. At the moment he could see only the mob of pirates trying to unfold a net, and decided it was the right time for a sudden attack.

“Two of them went downstairs, scanning the cargo hold. Take care of them, and I will help Murmi,” Oor transmitted his thought form to Steven as a whisper.

All of the sudden, they heard plaintive cries, above the pirates’ head emerged two orange whips and started swirling at a furious pace, striking them and raising again causing pain and despair. Amid a series of random shots the long whips resumed dancing among the pirates’ bodies. Soon several dead bodies collapsed on the deck.

The mod split into small groups. Murmulansi must have attacked them unexpectedly since that was her only advantage.

Someone deprived of his limbs was lying in pool of blood on the deck; someone got only slight wounds. The pirates grew panic-stricken, randomly shooting towards the quickly moving black blot, firing their mates as well.

Steven was standing near the entrance to the cargo hold, ready to gun down the couple who had gone downstairs. Having thrown off his disguise coat for some reason he was now standing between the passage down to the cargo halt and the shrieking mob.

It would be a good idea to back up Murmulansi with fire, but he hadn’t practiced shooting for a while and was afraid to hurt the Panther.

The mob around her was gradually thinning out and now one could see her jumping vigorously, changing positions and striking the pirates’ bodies apart, trying to avoid coming under random, furious fire.

Oor was firing actively from the opposite side of the vessel. That was an ideal fire position. Given the fact the he was wearing an invisibility coat, it was impossible to notice him amid the general confusion.

Steven noted that after each his shot yet another body fell down on the deck. All of the sudden, a sudden flash of light and heat wave wrapped Steven up, he flew off aside, hitting his head against the vessel’s side and lost consciousness.

Oor immediately sized up the situation and responded quickly. He guessed that Steven was knocked down by a light-sound bomb. It was those two pirates in the cargo hold who had thrown it under Steven’s legs and whom he was supposed to guard at the entrance, but overlooked. Oor’s cyborg body was not hurt by the bomb, and in a moment he gunned down those two pirates. Then he rushed to help Steven.

The latter was lying unconscious and pale with spread arms. Oor scanned his body with his eye sensors and calmed down. Steve was almost unhurt, except for a light blast injury.

The fight on the deck was in full swing. Oor took up his rifle and rushed to help Murmulansi. Oor came on time. The large black cat had killed the majority of the boarding team and now she was still to cope with the pirates in cyborg bodies known for their unusual endurance and sustainability.

The Panther was tossing about between two pirates under fire bursts. Their bodies were well adjusted for close fight and hand-to-hand combat. One of them had been already deprived of his leg, but kept on firing from his rifle. He had nothing to lose, and now his only aim was to eliminate that horrible black creature.

The second pirate, who had been stripped off the lower part of his body under the stroke of the Panther’s plasma whip, was also lying nearby and firing furiously from his hand gun, not letting the Panther get close.

Oor opened fire from a long distance at the most vigorous shooter, the one who was firing with both his arms. Then, raising the power of his weapon to maximum, he quickly waked towards the shooter, trying to cover Murmulansi with his body and paying no attention to bullets hitting him.

After several hits his coat started to rapidly change colors and sparkle with chaotic splashed of light. Oor’s heavy rifle gained the required power over a couple of seconds and he glued in the shooter the whole remaining energy.

The sent impulse caused the upper part of the plunderer’s body to blow up and dash out into the Ocean. His distorted face started swirling in the air, looking for his target. And even falling overboard he kept on shooting from his guns with epicene fury.

Oor threw aside the empty rifle, sharply turned around and headed resolutely towards the remaining shooter, ready to tear him to pieces with his bare hands.

Gabriel! I’ll do it myself. Back off!” he heard Murmulansi’s cry. The black shadow, shrinking from shoots, jumped high up in the air. Meanwhile, while she was in mid-flight, her orange whips turned into a continuous fire ring around her body.

Oor had a gut feeling that at the moment the outcome of the battle was hanging in balance. Like in slow-motion pictures, he watched the flying Panther figure, her wide opened eyes, plasma tail ready to give a decisive strike. The black shadow landed near the desperate shooter, and her two plasma tails simultaneously whipped along the deck, easily going through the cyborg body and leaving black bands on the deck. The plunderer’s body split into two parts; gunfire ceased. Everything was over. But the Black Cat vessel was still there.

Murmulansi examined for a while the deck filled with the pirates’ bodies, making sure that the battle was finished and then looked over Oor with concern, sending a thought form:

“Your arm! Have you seen it?” she came up to him quickly and examined his injured arm, and then traces of bullets on his body.

“I will get you right, my brave lion. Only one thing remains to be done.”

The next moment, Oor heard her thought order:

“Maria! Apply all energy to the shield! Now!”

The whole space around the yacht began trembling, the vessel got wrapped up in bluish mat light that was quickly forming a huge semi-transparent sphere.

Unfortunately for “Black Cat” it had drifted too close to “Maria’s body during the fight, which commonly happens to ships.

And as soon as the yacht enabled its protective filed, the energy power shield partially covered “Black Cat” as well, knocking out all of its electronic appliances and the energy supply unit.

Any salesman knew that to get under another vessel’s protective field meant Amba!* It's all up!

The drone-camera fell down on the deck near Oor with a thud.

“And here is the record of your victory!” Oor took up the drone and put it into his pocket, smiling.

“How’s Steve? Murmulansi took a close look at Steven’s body lying on the deck.

“He will come around soon, nothing serious. He was no hurt, except for his pride.”

“Gabriel! Let’s fix up your arm. I’ll change your palm, darling. You know, I was so concerned about you, fearing that you would rush into gunfire for my sake again, and that’s why I tried to finish everything quickly so that to stop you from injuring in fight. But instead you covered me up with your body, and – look – you’ve got plenty of holes. My hero. Let’s tell Steve about Susan together. I will go downstairs now, prepare everything for your repair, and you clear up the deck! You know how I hate mess.” And with a commanding tone she addressed to the vessel’s AI, “Maria! The same course, speed 50 knots, take off the shield! And one more thing, thank you, my dear friend, for launching the accelerators in advance.”

The yacht’s body rose smoothly above waves and soon it turned into a barely visible spot on the horizon.

*Gangway is a staircase on-board a vessel.

* Cook galley is a ship’s canteen.

* “Maria” was the name of the ship’s AI.

* Amba is a sea term meaning: “The jig is up!” or “The game is all over”

Chapter 37

“To create beauty, one must have a pure soul.”

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

A girl with golden hair dressed in a bright red dress was sitting alone in the front raw of one well-known theatre. A large bunch of scarlet roses was lying on the nearby chair. Obviously the beauty was going to present the flowers to artists after the performance.

On that day the theatre was packed. Audience were already seeing up to the closing part of a ballet, when, all of the sudden, a wolf’s huge foreface forced apart the reality of the theatrical production like curtains on a window, and hung up right before Alex’s face. The images of artists lost their colors and dissolved like a fog gone with the wind; the music ended off, and the whole visible space was now taken up by Abel.

The expression of his face showed that the Wolf was pleased to see her. The reason for that great mood of his was quite simple: he at last managed to get in touch with Alex’s consciousness in the controlled dream through her brain implant. And it was not an easy task.

At the moment the Wolf watched the girl dressed in a chic scarlet dress sitting in a armchair. On the single empty armchair near her was lying a beautifully decorated bunch of red roses. The beauty looked slightly confused, gazing at the large wolf’s foreface.

Abel had never done that before, but now that he explored that way of communication he was sincerely happy.

“You can hardly imagine how happy I am to have found you. One can easily get lost in dreams. But now we are together. Why are you sitting here all alone? Let’s go somewhere else. You need not change, I like the way you look. Why have you brought these roses? It’s much more interesting to be together, isn’t it? Now the Wolf reminded her of a good cyber friend who had been lost for a while but then come back, sincerely pleased to see his master again. “I hope you would not mind my company?”

Naturally, many people would not be happy about such intrusion into the privacy of their dreams, but Alex attached more importance to friendship that to her personal desires. Pretending that nothing special had happened, she rose from her seat and, smiling, stepped towards the Wolf.

“Abel, I really don’t mind your company! Even in the dream! By the way, are the Cyborg Dreams and your ordinary dreams one and the same thing?”

“No, the difference is huge. The Cyborg Dreams are more similar to spiritual practice, as I have told you before. They help AI understand human nature and themselves as well. The Cyborg Dreams can be also used for the sake of enjoying life. But they are available only to people in cyborg bodies and highly developed AI.

And what you call our ordinary dream has more to do with individual creative activity. The mind cannot exist without creativity. In our ordinary dreams we get synchronized with the human perception of the world, creating an individual space. And we are interested in making and changing that space, which is also real to a certain degree.”

People also like to fulfill themselves, each one does that in his own way. AIs also enjoy creating their small worlds in which they can assume whatever form they choose.

Only we do all that while people have their dreams, unless we have other objectives, of course.”

“And do you also have such a reality?”

“Of course, we preserve this reality and supplement it with various details each time we return to our dreams. Any developed AI attaches great importance to the reality created by him. And we also cherish our memories.”

“Abel how does your personal space look like?”

“I’ve got a great deal of realities. Usually, this is a hallway with doors. You can open each door.”

“Abel, what’s up with the weather? I mean outside our hangar.”

“The storm is in full swing; I got almost half-covered with sand, so we’ve got plenty of time.”

“Then let’s go to your dreams, Wolf!” Alex said simply, lifting up the bunch of roses from the empty seat.

“These roses are for you, Wolf. You found me even in my dream and here is your reward. I’m sure that I’m the first one whom you allowed to get so close.” The next moment, the reality around Alex started to alter: she saw herself walking with Abel along a long parkway; then they were both having a walk along the moon glade. Then the landscape turned into a desert, followed with a thick forest overshadowing the whole sky.

Suddenly, they stepped out of the forest into a sun-filled spring meadow. The bunch of flowers had dissolved into thin air. And then she found herself standing in a spacious, light hallway with a row of doors stretching forward. Many doors were open wide. The Wolf was standing nearby, with his hip slightly cuddled up to her hand. Soon Alex felt a push beneath her elbow. Abel’s head was at the level of the girl’s chest. Involuntary she put her hand on his neck and hugged him. And they walked slowly along the hallway.

“Can I come in?” Alex stopped opposite a randomly chosen door.

“You can open each one you choose!” Alex raised her hand to open the door, but it dissolved in the air as soon as her fingers touched the handle. Inside she saw a spring forest meadow with green grass and various insects flying all around looking enormously big. She could not discern what was going on behind the wall of grass teeming with a variety of tiny details.

“This is the awareness of my birth, Alex. My first memory! Here I am a newborn puppy, and soon I’m going to see people!”

Alex chucked her friend under the chin and drew him close to her.

“Take care of this memory, Wolf. One must not lose link with the past. She looked around being about to leave and they founded themselves at once in the white hallway. The next door looked solid and heavy. Abel stopped abruptly and slightly backed out; his hair turned rather tough. The girl turned the handle. It didn’t open. She gave the Wolf a questioning look, but the latter blatantly turned his back on her. Alex pushed the door with her knee and pressed on it with all her weight. Reluctantly and with a scratching sound the door crawled aside. Instantly bright sunlight fell on then from above and they heard roar of the crowd. Thousands of spectators were sitting in tiers around the enclosed arena, dressed in simple clothes made of washed out and bleached tissues. The mob raised their hands and shouted: “Markus, Markus!”

Alex saw at once the cause of their shouts. A well-muscled warrior was rushing towards them, covering himself up with a wide semi-circular shield.

“Murmillon weapons,” Abel’s thought crossed Alex’s mind. “The shield is pulled up a bit too high.” The distorted face of the attacking warrior and the increasing roar of the mob indicated that the combat was already in full swing, and the outcome was to follow soon. The girl guessed that she was seeing everything through Abel’s eyes during one of his lives in a slave-gladiator’s body.

She could not see Abel himself. He was standing still, remaining calm. And when the rival’s sword was about to inflict a fatal strike, Abel suddenly stepped aside and simultaneously got down on one knee. With one move his left hand gripping a sword blocked the rival’s sword. She heard the specific metal clink and then rasp of the weapon, and the attacker’s figure started losing its balance, moving forward by inertia. Abel’s rival missed a second blow. And suddenly something terrible happened. Seconds spanned into minutes, the rival’s movements slackened, and from then onward Alex could see everything happening in a slow display mode. Abel’s mental activity seemed to operate faster at that moment of danger. That effect of time stretching is available only to experienced warriors, keeping their mind and energy under control. Meanwhile, Abel’s second sword, making a curve, had already entered the line of impact and abruptly slid down aslant. The sharp gladius went deep into the rival’s unprotected back. He went limp and, with his head low started to slowly fall down on his side.

“Ia-aa!” the girl cried. Alex startled in surprise and stepped aside to see Abel. And only then did she realize that Abel lived that life in the body of the female gladiator named Bestiaria. Standing near Alex was a young tall girl with well-built muscled body, shining with sweat. Two wheat-colored plaits were pulled back; her light leather armor emphasized her slim figure. Armed with two swords, the girl appeared to be still unaware of her victory, getting prepared for an attack. Alex was surprised to see a woman fighting with a man and for some unknown reason started applauding her. That was a fair fight! Bravo! The combat outcome came as a complete surprise to the audience as well. The roaring tribunes calmed down suddenly and then again burst into thunderous roar, chanting: “Khilda! Khilda!”

Alex was watching the scene for a while with interest and then turned back, and then again found herself standing together with the Wolf in the while hallway.

“I hoped you would pass by that door,” the Wolf’s voice sounded confused, “Those were not the happiest of my memories.”

Alex tilted down and pressed her face against his large head.

“We are friends after all! I do understand you! Even the negative experience is helpful for the soul, to make it stronger. Moreover, this is merely a stimulator,” she added looking the Wolf in the eye. “By the way, I also have a great deal of memories that I would like to delete. But this must not be done since otherwise you would have to undergo the same lesson again. This way one gains experience. You know, let’s enter the open door over there, okay?” the girl tried to dissolve the Wolf’s confusion, and hugging him by his neck she led him towards the open door. Alex stopped half-way and pulled him over to her. Abel stopped docilely and looked questioningly at her.