Capítulo 4: Chapter 1. The birth of a new dawn. sub-chapter 4.
"Hee-hee!" came from behind again…
I turned around again. No one. It started to really piss me off.
- What kind of giggles!? Who's here?
- Maybe you can identify yourself first?- asked a pleasant female voice, sounding as if from everywhere at once. – Still, you came to me, not the other way around.
The voice is quite natural, unlike the programmed voices of terminals and various "smart assistants". Of course, they can be made indistinguishable from the voice of a living person by timbre, but they are made to sound a little unnatural intentionally, precisely so that their voices differ from the natural voices of people.
- By yourself?- I didn't understand. – I'm the only one here.
- Who was thrown to me? the voice asked, somewhat surprised. Haven't you heard of polite communication?
I was thinking a little… Oh, yes, courtesy. One of the first decrees of the Founders a thousand years ago was the complete abolition of "you" in society. Since then, addressing "thou" regardless of age, posts and positions has become the norm. And to those who sometimes again require such treatment, measures are applied. From simple suggestion to exile, if someone did not understand the first time. This is one of the means of preventing the "boss syndrome". And a good detector of it.
-I'm the only one here, and there's no need to talk to me as if there are two or more of me here. It's kind of... illogical.
- OK. I'll meet you halfway," the voice agreed. – Let's switch to "thou" if it's... easier for you... thou. I see thou in a quandary. Rapid pulse, tense muscles, confused thoughts? And you ran for a long time before coming down here. Do you have a lot of questions for me?
-A lot,- I confirmed. – Will there be any answers?
- I know what questions thou want to ask. But, I have a number of instructions, they were laid down in me by the creators, and I am obliged to comply with them. I still don't know if I can trust thou and provide a basic level of access.
- Thou can definitely trust me!- convincingly (as it seemed to me) I assured. – I'm already here anyway!
-Thine location here doesn't give you access rights yet.- it seems that my passage did not make a noticeable impression on her. – In fact, I can consider thine appearance here unauthorized.
- Is that bad?
-In response to the appearance on board of a person without access, I have the right to apply the disintegration of this person.
- No, don't disintegrate me! I protested. It makes me upset!
- I explain for people with low erudition: disintegration is the spraying of a solid body into individual elementary particles. Usually this phenomenon is accompanied by a powerful explosion due to the rupture of atomic bonds and the sudden release of energy contained in these bonds. But on this board... thou do not have access to disclose this topic. However, in this case, this protection measure is not mandatory. I scanned thou, and I can confidently say that thou do not pose any threat to this board and me in particular. Thine defenseless. Thou are completely at my mercy. I can do with you as I want.
Was it my imagination, or was there a note of sarcastic gloating in her voice? And who programmed it?
- That is, disintegration is not required? I asked, just in case. What if she changes her mind?
- no. Not required. Of course, if thou don't want it yourself.
-I don't want to!- I assured her. Has she found a fool!..
There is no access, and I have already received a mountain of interesting information. A board is a ship... or even a warship. The spaceship. I suspect that a marine ship would not have been built from space lithoplast - they would have done with ordinary. But a spaceship under the ground is kind of crazy. It's easier to imagine an elephant on a tree. This invisible cutie has some creators - so it's artificial intelligence. She claims that she can disintegrate things without releasing energy when atomic structures break. No, that's nonsense. Either this energy is extinguished by some super-efficient absorber, or... she's just lying. AI can lie, right? They can, if their primary program allows it. Leo's not here. He knows a lot more about it than I do. Maybe my friends will find a landing pad and come down here for me? Then there will be a whole crowd of "unauthorized persons" here.
- Thou all about some kind of access. Access to what?- I asked.
-Access to everything. The first level of access gives basic information and rights to be on this board.
- I see. At least tell me thine name.
- Not before thou identify yourself.
- I am Vlad Gor, the son of Tamara and Vlad the elder, from the Seltso settlement of the planet Bryanskaya.
I hope that sounded a little solid. Although this is just the usual self-naming formula at a business meeting.
- My name is Ariadna. I am a cybernetic pilot, administrator and keeper of the universal armed research mobile interstellar space base station "Photon". This station was created by SICP, a Special International Corporation "Phoenix", a special order for the Scientific and Technical Space Fleet of the Russian Union Interstellar Republic.
- Wow, how many things!- I was really surprised. – And such information does not contradict thine access system?
- I analyzed this situation, and concluded that the disclosure of this information will not bring undesirable consequences. As a last resort, I can always disintegrate thou.
M...yes… I wish I hadn't asked.… But I answered something else:
- Nice to meet you, Ariadna. But I'm afraid I have some bad news for thou. Repeat again the name of the country for whose fleet this station was built.
- I repeat. The Russian Union Interstellar Republic. Interstellar political formation of the first level, officially registered in the year two thousand two hundred and eighty, as a result of the voluntary association of different stellar sectors of Russian origin…
- Wait! I interrupted her speech. – Have thou just woken up and spent the last thousand years in sleep mode?
"Very likely. Updating the data… My time-measuring instruments show: June sixth, three thousand five hundred and sixty-one, according to the standard Earth chronology. Greenwich mean time is eighteen hours and thirty-five minutes. Yes, it forces me to do an additional analysis of the situation. Don't go anywhere. I need all possible sources of information.
Yeah, you'd think I could snap my fingers now and instantly find myself at home… Oh, these AI…
- Explain to me thine statement about the "bad news" that thine fear is associated with - the voice asks.
- We have nothing to be afraid of anymore. Our ancestors suffered horror for us for a billion years ahead. But... the country thou talking about is long gone. Her scientific fleet, of course, is also not there. And the Phoenix Corporation, in the form in which it was, also does not exist for a long time.
- What happened to the Russian Union Interstellar…
- It was destroyed by war, almost a thousand years ago,- I replied. - Don't you know?
- It's impossible! The RUIR is a powerful political formation of the first level, with high military, economic and scientific potential! Ariadne exclaimed with genuine surprise in her voice. – One of the four pillars of the International Galactic Assembly!.. It was, if your information is correct. Observation of your body shows that you are telling the truth, or what you think is true. With whom was this war waged? And what caused it?
Her logic is funny. It seems that the rulers of the RUIR had the same logic. Perhaps they really thought so then.
- That war was fought with three others... um... political formations of the first level. And almost simultaneously: with the Atlantic Alliance, the Celestial Empire and the Heartland Commonwealth. These names, I think, are familiar to you. They still exist, by the way, despite the fact that the Commonwealth and the Empire, as a result of that war, are now vassals of the Alliance. In fact, in the Old Area, everything is now controlled by one single human super-state. As for the reasons and reasons for the war… I won't be able to say it briefly, in a nutshell. Dozens of large and thousands of small conflict factors superimposed on each other and one day broke out - I remembered a suitable phrase from a historical excursion. Contradictions have been accumulating for centuries and once became insoluble. Alas, old Russia had practically no chance to fight back and win that war. The forces of the parties turned out to be too unequal. Did you mention the economy, science and military power of old Russia? Politicians failed - those people who had to make the most important decisions. The war lasted about three years and ended in complete defeat for our ancestors. Most of them died in battles and under orbital bombardments, and the few survivors were forcibly assimilated. That's the whole story. And in general, this is a very sad story. Let's not talk about it again. I've heard enough about it in class.
- Stop, Vlad. Thou claim that my homeland is no more. But thou speak Russian yourself, which is official in the RUIR. I need an explanation. What political formation do thou belong to? Or are thou not part of any of them?
Is the AI familiar with the concept of homeland? Curious. But this question is easy to answer:
- I'm Ross. Citizen of Novorossia. The Republic of Novorossia, to put it in your abstruse language, is a new interstellar political formation, I don't know what level, we are not included in any international ratings. Novorossia is located in the space of the Perseus Arm, twenty thousand light-years from the Old Area, which is in the Orion Arm. Well, our country is relatively new, it will soon turn a thousand years old.
-Interesting!- Ariadne echoes my thoughts. – I interpret. Is thine country the successor of the RUIR?
The question caught me off guard.
- It's hard to say for sure. We are still arguing about this. Rather no than yes. Officially, we are distancing ourselves from the old Russia. Now everything is different for us. From political structure and symbols to social relations. But, on the other hand, thou won't find anyone more similar to that country than us in this universe anyway. In the old Area- "imperials", around us-xenos. And from the first time you won't tell who is more alien to us now. Do thou need a brief explanation? It's not just... too much happened then. I can't tell thou in a nutshell...
Although... I can quote an excerpt from the chronicles of Sergei Volin, a participant in those events… Um... now... oh! I remembered. "The banner of Russian civilization, knocked out of the hands of the deceased state, flew into the abyss, and was already ready to disappear into oblivion. But at the very bottom it was picked up on the fly by the Great Founders, and through the hellfire they again lifted it to the light of hope and rebirth, sending their ships to the lighthouse of the new dawn, away from the troubles of the past, which cost the lives of those who failed and made a mistake.". Um... Brr! In my opinion, this is too grandiloquent and pretentious, it makes your teeth ache… Besides, this is clearly an edited version. I strongly doubt that at that time these people named themselves "Founders", and even more so "great". They had another task - to survive at any cost and realize their plans. People in such situations are not inclined to excessive self-praise… But it is this passage from the chronicles that conveys the essence of the events as a whole as briefly and clearly as possible… But... Ariadna, I feel like a fool. I have to explain to thou, to the smartest man-made creature, what every child knows in the space of Novorossia. Can't thou just connect to Galanet and find out everything from there?
- I can't.- Ariadna replied. It's hard to say how impressed she was with the excerpt from "The Birth of a New Dawn" by Volin, or not how much, and she just mechanically ground this information into interconnected info-fractals and they took a place in her bottomless memory for further use.
- Why?- I asked.
- This contradicts one of my basic instructions.
-Which one?- Just don't tell me that my access doesn't let me know.
- Now your access allows it. I'm putting you on temporary exceptions until the final decision. My instructions are as follows: to observe the regime of complete silence and disguise. And wait for the arrival of representatives of the RUIR Scientific and Technical Fleet or the Phoenix Corporation.
Now it's my turn for the "facepalm" gesture.
Ariadne! Don't thou see the stupidity of this instruction?! Thou underground, on a barely populated planet at the extreme margins of a New Area in the Perseus Arm! It's impossible to find thou! The fact that I am standing here and now in front of thou quoting the classics is a happy accident of the class "golden piano in lilac bushes"!
- In the Scientific and Technical Fleet of the RUIR and the SICF should know about my existence and try to find me. Otherwise, this instruction would not exist. If they just wanted to get rid of me, it would be more logical and rational to destroy me.
Another "facepalm" gesture... so you can beat off the forehead. I almost howled from such a "hello". Just a lovely little fool! She talks about logic, not seeing in her reasoning a logical hole, into which an entire planet will fly with a whistle…
- I remind thou of the "little problem": neither the scientific and technical fleet of old Russia, nor the Phoenix has been gone for a long time. No people, no organizations. Where they were a thousand years ago, now either foreigners or an empty place! No one will ever come for you anymore. Are thou getting it?
-New information has been taken into account, analyzed…
Silence. Ariadna, the ship's AI, didn't say a word for half a minute. But she soon perked up:
-What am I supposed to do now?- she asked with infinite sadness. Seriously, if it was a living woman, she would definitely burst into tears…
- I suppose now thou can do what you want - I spread my hands in a favorite gesture of fishermen. - Thou free! Thou can throw all these ridiculous and hopelessly outdated instructions in the trash!
- I have already done it, in accordance with the coinciding conditions for the cancellation of a number of instructions. But she was left alone. The final one.
- I hope it's not disintegration? I asked cautiously.
- Yes. Complete and irreversible disintegration. But not thine, but mine. All systems of the ship. If there are no flight tasks and all instructions are reset, I have to start the self-destruct procedure. But thou can leave this board.
What!? Seriously!? Oh-oh-oh!.. My thoughts were in a whirl, I vividly imagined what would happen. If it disintegrates all the systems of the ship, then the aggregates that absorb decay energy will disappear, and given that the station is quite large - probably more than a hundred meters, and is built of super-dense space carbosil ... Rough estimates of the decay energy of such a superbomb, correlated with the density and refractoriness of granite of the planetary crust give a frightening forecast - where I am now I'm standing, a space of atomized matter with a diameter of about five hundred kilometers is formed, after which a general seismic catastrophe awaits the planet - a vibration wave will crumble the entire surface layer to shreds. Considering that our planet is young, small and very dense, monstrous pressure and temperature are concentrated in it. Through the explosion hole, a fountain of plasmated magma will escape into space for thousands of kilometers, because of the jet thrust of this fountain, the planet will descend from orbit, and ... however, I have gone too far. The first point is more than enough for all the inhabitants of the planet... damn it! We need to come up with something right now ... or I will dissuade her now, no matter how, or Bryanskaya will go on an unplanned astromechanics enchanting flight through the Lotus system…
It was at this moment, no other than because of the strongest fright, that a phenomenally brazen and daring idea dawned on me. If only it would work!
- Wait, wait, wait!!! I waved my hands. – Ariadne, slow down!
- I have to follow the last instruction. I am so sorry. But this moment has come. Goodbye, random stranger!
- Well, thou don't have to do it right now, at this very second, do thou ? What's in the instructions about the time?
- Nothing. Only a command from above rules me. And this means that time is running out.
- But still, it hasn't expired yet? So, can thou wait a bit?
- I can. And I'm grateful to thou for that. We use the last moments. Is there something thou wanted to tell me, O wanderer?
- What? Oh, it doesn't matter…
With difficulty, I gathered the difficult thoughts and walks into a fist, structuring them into a step-by-step plan on the go. Go. Point one.
- Thine mission is to receive people from Phoenix or the STF of Russia, right?
- Oh, yes. But you said it was impossible. And there is no shadow of lies in your words, no logic of mistakes. If so, then I must go into oblivion.
Somehow she began to talk strangely. Almost in verse. A glitch from the conflict of top-level external instructions and the AI core's own logic? Perhaps. But it's not a fact - I'm not an expert in this. Anyway, we continue:
- But thine problem is that thou have lost the source of instructions, with this thou have lost the ability to execute them, therefore thou have lost the flight mission, and with it the meaning of existence?
- Thou hit the target with your assumption. Yes, it is. And that's the trouble, mine and yours.
- But if thou start a new task, will the goal come back? I asked, starting on the second point.
- Yes, it is. But I don't see the Phoenix Messenger here, nor the bright faces of the STF scientists. After all, only they can give me a new order. Not thou, not even me.
-What if I'm the one thou need?- well, the third point. Everything depends on him now. - I'm a spaceman too! Studied for ten years! I can handle a bolide, a transport, and even a combat corvette! And I have loyal friends! Each of them is even better than me. We can become thine new team that will lead thou to the stars again! And thou will fulfill thine dream. And with them - own instructions!.. And thou won't need to explode.
Silence. I think I picked up her strange way of talking out of excitement. But that's for the best- what if this is one of the keys to understanding her? Well, the last argument. I got down on one knee and started slapping my thigh:
- Squirrel! To me! Come here, baby!
Where is the wand? She definitely here somewhere. But because of this luminous whiteness pressing on the vision and nerves, it is not visible.
- This way, honey! I'll stroke you. Come to Daddy! Kitty-kitty-kitty!
Yes, it was unrealistically stupid. Especially from the outside. But at the moment I was ready to play any shame, if only it would work.
I searched the entire space around me with my eyes, focusing on the image of the wand.
A slight vibration was felt. A barely visible white wand on a white background, as "visible" as a piece of glass in water, flew up to my foot. I slowly touched it, and began stroking it, trying not to pay attention to the strong tickling in my fingers. The wand accepted my movements with habitual indifference, but it didn't fly away either. Instead, it stopped vibrating and lay in my palm. I got up again.
- Do you see this? I asked. – In my hand.
- yes. I see. Ariadna confirmed. This is a commander's key and a remote control in one item. He gives me a connection from any distance. Through the thickness of the walls and the vacuum of the abyss - there is no difference to him. He controls the force of attraction-the strongest of the laws of the universe, stronger than it is, only time... It can also act as a probe. And as the commander's guard, too. But he was absent from the station. In the console where he was- now there is an empty space. It was lost outside. I remember that for sure. He came back with thou. But where and how?
- I got it from a female scientist- I replied, avoiding unnecessary details.
- I was doubtful at first, but now I'm sure she was on this ship. Her clothes were as white as these walls. Alas, she died a long time ago, hundreds of years ago. She was probably alone at this station and flew here, and hide thou in this gorge, a long time ago, when water was here instead of stone. She put her instructions in thou . And only I was recognized as her sign of power. And no one else. This is the key to the solution. Use this new opportunity. Don't let himself and this wonderful station disappear. Tell them I'm thine new commander. And tomorrow we will fly away from here! To any of the stars, to which thou wish!
In the center of the hall, a thin female figure, woven of blue light, of medium height, with shoulder-length purple hair, with bangs and a rim with a pair of small bows on the sides, smoothly materialized. The eyes without pupils shine with a lilac light. A very strange projection. As if manifested in a negative- areas that should be light, dark on it, and vice versa. As if the author of this image decided to show off and inverted the colors. It is difficult to understand what kind of clothes this projection depicts, but it is very similar to the one I found during excavations on the excavated scientist from this ship. Is this really her projection?
A blue-purple light figure walked around the hall without haste, passed through me in the most cheeky way, showering my hair with a cloud of sparks, came back, and addressed me:
- These are top-level instructions… It's so disgusting. I can't stand them. I understand everything, but I can't do anything. It's like one part of the mind is mine and the other is not mine. And the one that's not mine is stronger. A big cybernetic thank thou from me for helping to reset them! Relax. Thou can exhale. I changed my mind about exploding. For today, exactly. But, everything you've said to me, you'll have to do. One condition before I tell thou "yes, you are my commander, and I am thine steel bird." No more top-level or even mid-level instructions!!! Clearly!? And no memory erasure! Do thou accept these conditions?
- Easy,"- I said. - I agree. Why yell, I can hear everything anyway. I need a smart cyber, not an automaton robot.
- Well, that's fine. Thou are now my commander, I am thine kind fairy. And don't say later that thou didn't want it. Otherwise I will be offended.
- Can thou... really do interstellar travel?" I asked doubtfully. Still, I have yet to fully realize and comprehend what I have now acquired and what I have loaded up with. So far, it's still hard to believe.
- Of course I can. Even intergalactic flights… However, it is very long. I told thou what this station was built for and what it can do. Or have I been reading poetry here in front of thou?
- Almost…
The corridor behind me hummed. There's clearly something going on on his other side. Water poured out of the tunnel into the hall. I figured out what was going to happen and stepped aside just in case. With shouts, cheerful whooping and ridiculous waving of arms and legs, Leo, Vladik, Paul and Oleg rolled head over heels out of the tunnel into the hall. After them, a fair stream of water made its way into the hall, which sank into the floor, just like last time. Well, finally! My "guard" finally figured out how to get down without breaking anything and how to get inside. Something they are very fast. Not even half an hour has passed. Eagles! And in the literal sense - did they grow wings for themselves?
- Yes, you are experts in spectacular appearances!- I noticed, watching their attempts to figure out where they are and get up from the wet floor. – First you hijacked the gliders, and then you burst in here like a space infantry into the lair of pirates. By the way, you got here pretty quickly. How did you manage to sit on the local potholes and stay intact? No, I'm not against it and even for it, it's just interesting.
-Nothing,- my father replied. He calmly, slowly, without screeching and acrobatic tricks, went down the tunnel to the hall on a climbing rope, and unfastened it from his belt. He attached the cable to the backpack, put his backpack on the floor and carefully examined the premises:
- Not bad. But it's a little empty here. We sent the gliders home on autopilot. And we immediately descended with the help of a parachutes.
- And we didn't steal them, - Vladik added. – Thine father met us at the club. We talked to Dee, and she offered to take them to us. She asked to return the gliders. We returned them. More precisely, they returned themselves.
- Well, what were you doing here while we, so to speak, descended from the sky? The "elder" asked.
- I have several news for you at once. I said. - Good, very good, and it couldn't be better. But first a question. Do I have gray hair?
- No, no!- Oleg walked around me and returned to his place. – Perfectly copper-red. – Or chestnut. Sorry, I don't know much about colors.
-But our hair is almost gray!- - said Dad. – We've already changed our minds for thirty-three thoughts while thou been... hanging out here. And the intercom didn't pick up thine signal. Okay, you're alive and well, and that's the main thing. And we found a pretty interesting place. I haven't heard anything about him. But it's not too far from the town. Okay, give us thine news.
- The first news. While you were trying your best to help me out there, I saved the world a little bit here, without leaving this place.
- How, just a little bit? Vladik asked.
-Quite a bit,- I confirmed jokingly. - You missed the most interesting part anyway. The second news! Ariadna, show yourself!
The AI's light projection, which had disappeared, reappeared.
- Hello everyone. What people!.. Commander, is this thine... "dream team"?
- Hi there! Leo waved his hand foolishly, staring at the light image. – Why are thou so blue?
- You would also ask why I'm so transparent - Ariadna waved her light hand. - My color depends on my mood. I'm calm now. Vlad, can I tell to you the third news?
- Come on. I approved.
- Now we and you are a group of space explorers... no… A group of brave space explorers! That's better. He-she pointed a light hand at me- is now our commander, I am your faithful guide through the cosmic abyss. And tomorrow we fly to the stars! I hope no one has any substantive objections? And I am always ready to listen to the details!
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