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

“Tyrant”, and the fathomless depths of Space. He thought that it was the worst possible thing to happen.

The radio beacon of his spacesuit automatically activated and, twinkling with blue light, sent a signal to inform that he was alive, and that the remaining life resource was available for only fifty-seven minutes.

Continuing monitoring over the man’s figure in open space and the wrecked rotating spacecraft, “Hanuman-12” withdrew weapons and stopped waiting for further instructions.

“Commander!” Oma exclaimed, “Tyrant” has been defeated. Explosion in the engine unit. And there is a man overboard. Presumably, he is injured. His beacon has sent a signal. His suit is not damaged. The remaining life resource will sustain him for fifty-seven minutes,” she drew nearer a picture with tumbling Hagan “Shall we take him onboard or let him fly away?”

For a few seconds, Raju was looking at the figure, weighting up the situation, and finally came up with a decision.

“Send “Spider” to “Hanuman”. Let’s take him, Oma,” he turned to her “As soon as it drags him in, don’t let him pass through the airlock chamber.”

Raju referred to the spacecraft’s AI:

“Aria, record down the event in the log book. Take minutes of conversation with the prisoner. Report to *FOCC.”

The smoke-filled crew cabin of "Tyrant’s" was heavily rotating. The spacecraft was facing he worst situation possible. Behind the glass one could see flickering views of the Earth and stars. The cabin switched into off-line mode and turned on air cleaning equipment. The onboard processor reported indifferently: “Engine unit damaged. Fire. Critical emergency.”

At such moments, it was the captain who had to decide on undocking of the rescue module that was the control cabin itself.

“Holy crap!!!!” roared captain Hook and quickly darted off the lever to undock the rescue module. The spacecraft shook up again and its rotation increased. Lightning went out.

Edward with his eyes wide open seized by the chair, and captain Steven Hook was shooting out a stream of blasphemies, having lost control over himself.

“I’m fed up with this rotation and cold!” he started wailing “And what are these hot balls that are flying all over the cabin?!”

The hoarse-voiced first mate squeezed out: “Your coffee, Sir”.

Chapter 12

They say that Hope is the last thing to die.. But what if it never dies?

After receiving an assignment, “Hanuman” transferred to its self-contained module and sent the target coordinates through pursuit course of the figure drifting off to outer space. It was called «Spider» owing to the unusual way of capturing small objects in space by means of a net.

The module slowly detached, pinpointed the target and, having retreated a short distance from “Hanuman”, switched on the engine for three seconds. Then it picked up speed and headed towards the target.

Like all engineers, Hagan had a built-in nano-implant that allowed him to easily make use of lots of variable components while working with devices and schemes on internal screen of his brain. And now he made up a three-dimensional model of the situation, cut off panic-driven emotions, calmed down and started thinking.

In a nutshell, things were looking extremely bad for him.

His brain was now analyzing and forecasting the situation at incredible speed. It was pretty obvious that the damage incurred had been aimed to knock out the engines, while the reconnaissance satellite could have easily torn them apart, which had not been the case.

Consequently, they had not meant to kill them, but to shift them off the orbit. Since they had picked up the signal sent from his beacon, only two options were left: either he would be left to die a prolonged death or would be taken captive.

All he could do now was wait.

At heart Hagan liked the Free People for their drive for justice and, despite the Coalition’s propaganda on the cruelty of the Northmen, he had heard a lot from pilots about their generosity during fights and humane treatment of prisoners. Therefore there was strong possibility that he would be found. To avoid looking at the view of space before him, Hagan closed his eyes and started reflecting on his life on Earth. That was the right time for that.

Under present circumstances on the Planet, people no longer made families, and children were born in two ways: through direct implantation of adjusted genes free of any deviations into female ovule or by means of artificial biocarriers. There were many types of such biocarriers. Education of children was done either by their mothers or special gymnasiums.

Up to the age of 10, Hagan lived with his genetic mother, and then entered a gymnasium, where he showed abilities for engineering research. Over time, he conceived a passion for rocket engines and, having attained the required age, joined the military service with the Coalition.

On Earth, he dwelled in a small cell of a residential block within a military unit. His only relatives were his mother, whom he seldom saw, and a cyborg girl. Lots of men chose to live with cyborg girls as they were a perfect choice, especially for the military.

Hagan was clear of the fact that his life duration depended on the remaining oxygen resource in his suit; he only wished he could tell his mother a few cordial words and say goodbye to Neera, his cyborg girlfriend.

But, above all, he regretted that his ideas on engines would be never implemented.

He had always been dreaming so badly of his own laboratory!

His sad reflections were interrupted by a sudden push against his body.

Hagan opened his eyes and saw that he was encircled by a dense net. He also discerned a pull cord and rescue module turning to back course.

His negative emotions instantly dissolved, and he praised the Free People and the Goods he believed in. Rotation suddenly ended. Hagan felt another strong push and slowly sailed off in the opposite direction. Since there was no longer any need to save oxygen, he made a deep breath and smiled looking at stars. At heart he had always believed in the power of good.

The rescue module was now delivering the target to the airlock chamber. Having reduced the cord length for better completion of a maneuver, with a precise jerk it ensured incremental vector and started monitoring the result.

The net with the astronaut sailed precisely into the center of the airlock door.

The module was ready to repeat the maneuver in case of failure, but the estimation turned out to be accurate. As soon as the net smoothly entered the airlock chamber, “Spider” unhooked the cord, keeping watch over the airlock door closure. It sent a picture of what was happening to the cruiser control cabin and started preparations for coupling with “Hanuman”.

When the airlock door silently closed, soft light filled the whole chamber. The airlock began to quickly fill up with oxygen. Hagan could hear a hushing sound indicating pressure was being normalized. Unhurriedly, he unclasped the helmet and with relief breathed in cool pure air, looking around the spacious airlock chamber. Then he came up to the module exit and peeked curiously into illuminator.

He saw a wide white hallway with smooth walls and two lines of lighting fixtures stretching along the ceiling. Tubes with pressurized gas under the floor were covered with secure grid for magnetic boots.

No one was to be seen.

Suddenly, with a loud flapping sound, a pale-green substance got smeared over the glass fully covering the illuminator. Hagan shrank back out of surprise. Lifting one eyebrow, he was examining the blot of the glass, which was now staring at him with small round eyes.

Chapter 13

Discussion of the contact at the Athena base

Having opened her eyes, Alex slowly sat down waiting for nano-gel to flow off her body and unhurriedly got out of the capsule.

Her body still retained the feeling of peace and relaxation. She did a few physical exercises and came up to a large mirror on the wall to examine herself. Staring at her with a smile, was a young pretty girl with a lovely figure. She switched over to her inner perceptions and realized with pleasure that her body was completely restored.

Among other bright impressions of her dream, she recalled the strange scene with the winged creature. She decided to think it over later and cheerfully headed off to the shower room. She was trained to consider any unusual event as an issue to be studied first before coming to conclusions.

“I need to talk it over with the guys,” she mumbled, getting out of the shower. Then Alex got dressed, cast a glance at the mirror and went to the canteen following an explicit soldiery habit.

At the exit of the biological unit she met Abel standing against the wall. The Wolf looked rather perplexed with his gaze fixed at one point and ears aimed at opposite directions. The Wolf seemed to be seriously pondering over something.

As he saw Alex, he joyfully jerked up his head, raised his ears and slightly opened his mouth, which stood for a smile. Alex could barely conceal her joy. She hugged his large head with her both hands and started patting his broad forehead and silk hair. It always feels so good to be met by someone.

“Abel! Thanks for waiting up for me. How are you getting on at the base? I’ve got something to discuss with you,” she talked excitedly. “I had a most usual experience in my dream.”

In a doggy manner Abel rubbed his large head against her palm, screwed up his eyes and slightly downed his shaggy ears. She heard his thought form:

“I’m also glad to see you. All is good? We’ve had only one occurrence at the base: all of our people detected an abnormity, while each could observe it in their own mode, which was most unusual. In discussing and analyzing that, we concluded that it was a contact. I’m not sure how to classify the entry of such large amounts of information into our archives; it was the first time we had dealt with such an upsurge of new data. All of us noted a rather complex wave signature. The only thing we were able to figure out was that some highly developed creature had paid a visit to all of us simultaneously. All of my abilities did not allow me to comprehend that information, although I was told only three simple words. I got overwhelmed with multidimensional diversified information of most illogical type! So I went to see you straight away. I think we’ll be able to talk it over later on. One thing is clear: we had a contact. By the way, before you no one patted me like that.” Alex guessed by the tone of his voice that Abel was a bit confused.

“First rule of a pilot, Abel, is to stick close to the canteen when faced with any uncertain situation. But you won’t understand that; so let’s go there and sort things out!” in response to his perplexed glimpse she chucked him under his scruff. “I’m just kidding!”

Talking about different stuff, they came up to the door of the canteen, which was connected to the common rest room and a small conference hall.

Light partitions with sound-absorbing field that separated the rooms were now removed. When the door noiselessly crawled aside, Alex and Abel found themselves in a large round room which was almost dim except for the conference hall area. The base’s staff members were all present in the form of holographic projections, seating in chairs arranged in semi-circle order. Doctor Helene River, Frol, Alim the Connoisseur were in their cyber bodies. All the three were wearing beige suits with badges of rank.

Alim the Connoisseur had an olive-tinted face with pronounced oriental features. He had created that skinny, athletically-built cyber body of above-average height on the model of his lost biological one.

His brown eyes reflecting intelligence and confidence were looking keenly from underneath his thick eyebrows.

Arvid was also present at the meeting. His cyber body looked exactly like an eagle’s.

Helene turned out to be a girl of average height, slim, almost skinny with thick blond hair and large eloquent gray eyes. She was now standing in the center of the semi-circle, talking about her impressions and the records of scanners.

Alex realized why people and AIs alike chose to use voice format of information transfer. People deprived of their unique bodies wished to preserve more human properties and therefore resorted to hologram projections, or as in case with Helene and Alim – to cyber bodies.

“ …and so we were even unable to fully record that complex signature. I believe that we are faced with the field levels we have not yet studied. These creatures have technologies that by far exceeding ours,” Helene accompanied her words with holographic projections and images.

“Therefore, they have a different dialectic of world perception.” Nikolo, commander of the base, finished up her phrase. He was seating with his head reclined upon his hand in a meditative manner. Nikolo was a tall average-aged man. He had an intelligent face with regular features, long hair combed back into a ponytail. His temples were slightly touched with gray, and large gray eyes reflected intelligence and tranquility.

When Alex appeared, Eagle Arvid shook his wings, turned his head and sent a common though form:

“Alex and Abel have come.”

For a moment the conversation calmed down and everyone present fixed their eyes on them. Alex welcomed everyone and took a chair next to the commander. Abel decided not to be overmodest and lied down behind Helen in the very center of the semi-circle, facing everyone present. He remained frozen on the spot, occasionally moving his tail along the floor.

When the newcomers settled down, Alim took the floor.

“Prior to the contact, we received a report from the orbit,” his low voice sounded peacefully and reasonably. “The “Gruesome-Twosome” knocked down the “Tyrant”, the Coalition’s patrol aircraft. Two crew members managed to escape and must have already reached the Earth. The third one was taken prisoner by a “spider”. Besides, the guys were accurately enquiring whether we were having any abnormities and everything was OK.”

“They both believe they’ve got a processor error!” exclaimed Frol, balancing on the armchair handle at the very end of the first row. He was seating in a relaxed pose with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed; his face was lit with a carefree smile.

“And I here thought we are really busy rescuing girls in the desert, while they are enjoying their Cyber Dreams. But I was wrong!” he said vexedly and rattled his tongue, obviously kidding around. “They were keeping a close look-out on outer space, and did a good job shooting down an enemy and will receive all the honors and awards. And what about us? We’ll get nothing!”

Alex guessed that Frol was joking purposefully to defuse the tension.

The commander turned to her:

“Alex, you’ve been in a bio capsule, watching the chronicles. Do you have anything to say? You may have seen something interesting?” he was staring in her eyes expectantly. Alex was not good at telling stories and sharing impressions, so she only shrugged her shoulders and briefly responded:

“I’ve got no particular or relevant information. Probably everyone goes through the same thing. I just saw something fleeting,” and she gave him a meaningful look to make it clear that she had nothing to add.

“Eol, pilot-navigator of Senior Lieutenant Bjorg is now in complete order,” Alim went on, “He volunteered to serve as Arvid’s mate operator.” Alim looked inquiringly at the commander, and the latter nodded in approval.

“Now the final analysis of the information: if we add up all responses to the contact event on the Planet, we can assume that the extraterrestrial intelligence got in contact with each sentient being. It’s noteworthy that those AIs who have limiting control programs either overlooked the Contact or mistook it for a systemic failure. That is, the AIs that have access only to machine type of thinking were unable to comprehend the Contact.”

“As a matter of fact, we had had contacts before, but those had been of first and second degree,” Nikolo uttered pensively. “And this particular contact event supports the hypothesis that all aliens fall into two categories: those who assist intelligence in its development and those who rob the Planet and parasitize. Now I will tell you about my own encounter with aliens. They showed me what mankind should strive for. My impression was that they took a peek into our future and then invited us over to see that. And now I know when and how to open the door. So be informed, friends, that just a few scientists from the Planet were invited, including me.”

On hearing these words, everyone looked blankly at the commander, while Frol even lost his balance and fell off the chair. Abel raised his eyebrows and got wide-eyed in amazement. Silence fell.

“I suspected that they will not leave quietly,” Frol broke the overwhelming silence. “Maybe they want to help us out with terraforming? Since the Planet’s resources will not be enough to restore everything to the previous state,” with these words he plunged his fingers into his thick red hair and stared with his eyes wide open at a point in front of him. That might have been his long-held habit.

“Commander,” Alim went on in a flat voice as if nothing had happened, “I’ve just processed up-to-date data. Following the contact, new information appeared in the archive files, as I already mentioned in the beginning. The new data significantly supplement those previously compiled on the Planet’s chronicles.”

“All right, then forward these data to the central base, the Urals and the Doughnut with comments,” Nikolo nodded to him.

“That’s about all, except for the weather summery. The storm is still raging and will not go down until tomorrow.”

The commander silently nodded and declared the meeting closed; while he himself remained seated in a chair with a meditative air.

Frol and Helene started an excited discussion on the aliens inviting the commander, while Alim was closely studying the data on his console table. Without a moment's thought, Alex got up and headed towards the catering unit. At the same time, behind her back she heard a distinctive sound produced by Abel’s claws scuffing along the floor. Alex guessed that the Wolf wished to keep her company and looked around, giving him a friendly smile.

Abel’s big body was walking swiftly in her direction across the round hall. In a wolfish manner he lowered his tail and kept his foreface close to the ground. Alex stopped, waiting for him.

“I’m going to have breakfast, will you join me? What do you know about hunger? Have you ever heard about it?”

The Wolf took some time to respond. As he caught up with Alex, he gave her a butt with his head to welcome her.

“I’m familiar with this feeling in several variations, Alex.”

“Then tell me, I am curious to know,” she replied, while selecting breakfast on a food vending machine.

“Let’s call that a “childhood” or “training” stage,” he sent her a thought form. “During that stage, I underwent training by means of a simulator of the Planet’s different epochs. That way I was able to live numerous lives in a human body. Each life I led allowed me to experience lots of feelings and emotions, believe me.” Alex captured a sad irony in Abel’s voice.

“Frol developed a special program for me to better understand people.

At the time I had no idea of the Cyber Dreams, and so my first withdrawal into a Dream I did in a human body. I was a slave-gladiator in the Ancient Rome, where I had to learn everything about pain, feelings and the price of freedom. In another life, I was dying from wounds in desert, deprived of water and food. I was a farmer who raised sheep in the mountains. One interesting life I was allowed to spend in a monk’s body in the Himalayas. I went through so many things thanks to our unlimited resources, time and everyone’s involvement in my training. Even Arvid came up with a suggestion to provide me, as an option, with eagle’s eyesight. Now, for instance, I see the world the way you do. And I chose myself this human frequency range. And you know why? To see the world like a human being, that is to think like a human being, to be closer to people and be able to understand them. Otherwise I would have degraded to the machine level.

So tell me, Alex, if a man could see the world only in infrared spectrum, would he be able to paint pictures, write poetry, or compose music?”

As Alex was taken aback by that unexpected question, Abel answered instead of her:

“Human beings only seem to be imperfect. They successfully develop mechanisms that can see and hear without limitation, but machines will never be able to comprehend the beauty of music or a painting and to follow the path of human perception of the World.

I chose this path deliberately. It is the ability of human perception that allowed me to move beyond machine thinking. And lots of AIs have come to that. However I don’t want to aggravate your hunger, so let’s go and have something to eat.”

With these words they came up to the table, at which Alex had sat before. The Wolf jumped on the next table, lied down and took his usual position. On that day he applied even gray color to his hair.

The Wolf looked curiously at her breakfast and sent her a thought form:

“When you are through with your meal I will show you to an officers’ bunkroom. All of them are free, so you can take any one you choose, by the way, there is a good gym nearby. The storm has not passed yet. We have already informed your commander that you are staying with us. So let’s wait for further instructions. But if you ask me, I can hardly imagine how you are going to pass through the Wastelands. When you first met me, or rather spotted me despite my skillful disguise, I was lying and reflecting on the contradictory issue: while we must not draw anyone’s attention to our base, to let you go would mean your sure death. And when I was thinking, you noticed me. Presumably your commanders believe it’s impossible for a single person or a group to cross the Wastelands. Moreover, we must allow for increased radiation levels in certain areas. Even the most advanced exoskeleton and equipment will be of little help. Aside from GMAs, one can also run into genetically modified beings (GMB) there, which is highly dangerous. Now taking all the factors into account, the most feasible solution seems to be as follows: to minimize the risk, we’ll send you with an accompanying group to a safe place where you’ll be picked up by some vehicle, either at sea or in the air. And then you’ll be taken to the nearest unit to proceed with your pilot duties.”

“And where is the nearest unit?” Alex asked perplexedly and looked the Wolf in the eye waiting for his reply.

Abel was lying in front of her motionless, and Alex soon heard his response thought form in her head:

“Of course, I will tell you. There is only one that fits your profile. The naval air intelligence unit ”Shri Ganesh” is based in the Free People’s area inhabited with Hindu-Arians. You will like them. Their base is similar to ours, but the staff is bigger. So to sum up: a ninety-three percent probability is that you will go there. And one hundred percent probability is that I will be sent to accompany you.”

“How come you are one hundred percent certain about that?” Alex asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise. The Wolf’s response sounded a bit ironical:

“The thing is that Hindu-Arians have created and raised an Artificial Intelligence according to parameters similar to mine. Now they need a good cyber body. Frol acted with dispatch and offered them to copy his engineering design! Hindu-Arians specifically appreciate everything that boggles imagination. So they asked for a pilot model to be delivered to them. That’s how I was invited to come over to their craftsmen.”

“I see, that’s how it is meant to be.”

Alex was silently eating up her breakfast, thinking about Abel’s words. The Wolf was right on every count.

“Okay,” she nodded, “Let’s wait for further instructions”.

Her intuition told her that she would never return to her unit.

Meanwhile, amidst desert sands, in proximity of the base.

By nightfall, the weather had changed drastically. A dark weaving mass of dust storm came over from the south-west and covered the whole sky. It was approaching like a huge wall rising from the very ground. All of the sudden, customary hot wind was replaced with bursts of cold air that were gaining momentum, accompanied with sharp howl. Lifting sand, small stones and rubbish from the ground, the storm carried all these over, twisting it into high poles and forcefully dropping on the ground. The storm was growing in strength.

A combat track-type drone of the Coalition, broad and squatty, was equipped with weather sensors. The storm was no particular obstacle to it thanks to its navigation system allowing it to move about even under zero visibility of the scanners. Stand-alone drones of that type designed for desert conditions were manufactured at underground automatic factories, from where, following program download, those machines were sent on patrol routs.

Its task was to eliminate every object it would come across, which it determined as “alien”, except for animal packs, in accordance with the protocol of moving targets recognition.

Occasionally the drone stopped, put down its side manipulators on the ground, explored the terrain and planted movable mines. Shortly before the storm approach, the drone had detected a group of biological beings moving between hills at the frontal range of his scanners. Pursuing the course of their movement, it climbed to the top of the nearest dune.

As a shorter distance, the drone determined the biological beings to be armed and in procession of energy sources and thus identified them as “alien”, according to its program directory. The group again disappeared from its sight, but the drone already knew their route. With a quite whistling sound of its engines it pulled off in their direction. But as soon as it reached the estimated meeting point, the group was no longer to be found. Its scanners dazzled the torrents of roaring sand. Occasional lightning strokes from within the sand storm cloud hindered its navigation and relocation. All of a sudden, yet another lightning discharge stroke the ground in its immediate vicinity.

That occurrence launched another program of its operation. The drone analyzed the situation and, after considering all the factors, decided to follow the directive of self-preservation under extreme weather conditions.

It climbed down from the hill top to the lowland, covered its scanners with sand to protect them against damage and stood there frozen on the spot with its manipulators straddled on the sides for better sustainability.

A gang of plunderers, who were being tracked by Oma on the orbit and had come in sight of the drone, had hurriedly abandoned the place of Alex’s plane crash and were trying to find shelter from the biting wind of the storm in the town ruins.

Sudden weather changes became the norm on the Planet that previously used to be known for its environmental balance, harmony and beauty.

Chapter 14

Hagan’s vision

The exterior door of the airlock chamber on the “Ares” cruiser had a large illuminator offering a fine view on the sunset. The Universe is the great artist who is constantly creating his masterpieces. None of his pictures ever repeats itself. At the moment, the Sum was illuminating the atmosphere ark and weird-shaped clouds along the Planet’s edge, occasionally merging with them into yellow-green haze with exquisite semitransparent halo along the edges.

With his legs crossed Hagan was sitting on the floor in a triangle of sunlight falling through the illuminator. At his request, light in the airlock chamber was switched off. He stayed there in the privacy of his mind with his eyes fixed on stars.

At the moment he was quite certain about his destination, which brought him the feeling of calm and joy. To make full use of one’s abilities is of paramount importance to any human being. Now he was thinking about his meeting with the angel-like being, trying to recall every single detail. That was how the meeting went.

He was seating on the floor of the airlock chamber, leaning against a bulkhead and staring at the opposite wall. He was replaying in his memory the moments of his rescue and conversation with the captain when the picture of reality in front of him began to distort. It seemed to him that the walls of the chamber started shaking and that their shape altered; then he saw swaying vapor perturbation, and the whole airlock chamber slowly filled up with bright undulating light. Hagan felt that both joy and placidity were taking him over. He felt relief of all his anxiety and concerns. The light was slowly condensing and then from within it emerged a constantly shapeshifting human figure stretching towards him. Hagan felt a touch of something warm on his hands.

On the instant, he was standing in the center of an enormous while marble hall, dressed in light-colored clothes, and the light was wrapping around his joint palms.

In front of him appeared a half-transparent being surrounded with blue light. It was a girl with unusually beautiful and kind face, whose snow-white curly hair was waving in unseen wind. Her image was constantly eluding Hagan’s perception.

The light contours of her perfect body were now and then appearing and disappearing from view. For an instant it seemed to him that he saw swaying white wings behind her back.

She reminded Hagan of the fairytale creatures that his mother used to tell him about in his childhood. The smiling Angel kept silent, looking directly into his soul.

Even many years later, Hagan could not fully realize what happened at that moment between them, but it seemed to him that he was granted access to something important. Although that knowledge stayed with him forever, he was unable to get in tune with those areas of his mind. That was like bliss. It seemed to Hagan that he was in some parallel reality enjoying that Light.