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Corporation 54
The descent took place regularly, on five kamees in a corridor specially allocated for that, which, as if in itself, already caused a nervous itch in Kovalsky's palms. How many thousands of hours it takes to fly along black tracks to completely lose any idea of how it is in general to calmly, following the instructions of the dispatcher, enter from the halo orbit to the finish arc of the Lissajous orbit. Most navigators in the Sol systems, when you think about it, didn't feel anything else. Ever since the once-precious triproton began to sell on the inter-corporate market at the price of platinoids, even such a banal thing as a gravitational maneuver was now mentioned exclusively by old-school tracers that exchanged the second ten turns in the Kuiper belt. The youth habitually shuttled along the inner orbits on the active back and forth in comfortable conditions under gravity.With such skills, youngsters simply would not be smart enough to disobey the navigation cabin or, say, fa
Corporation 55
Here Kowalski almost stumbled. This conversation was clearly not intended for other people's ears, so why is the commander broadcasting all this to him? She could not turn on the channel by accident, she did not make such mistakes, it was simply impossible.Meanwhile, the egg-headed baby answered:- The reasons of Romulus are generally very few people understand, but yes, I know my goal. And I'll try to finish the job; I don't need to look back at my own sense of self-preservation. After all, I am no less interested in the successful outcome of our experience today. Behind him is much more than all the plans of Romulus or his Companions, behind him is our scientific career with my brother, and this for us is much more precious than life.- And it’s not scary to put all of it on a single experience?Scary is not the right word. But what are my options. The emitter exists in a single copy, it just so happened. If there were at least two of them in stock, we would have tried to play it s
Corporation 56
The outer edge of the hollow ended here as abruptly as night falls in deep space - once, and as if cut off with a knife. Just a second ago, the cone of the running searchlight rested against an even series of obliquely lined beds, where mechanical "argonauts" worked around the clock, and now under you, as far as the eye can see, there is only viscous blackness, in the bowels of which rare sparkles of deep "snow" only emphasized the deadly the lifelessness of this dense, terrifying nothingness.Divers of the old school called this view of the empty open space "blue", as if as a kind of mocking allegory for the state of nitrogen anesthesia - whoever caught it at least once will understand that, of course, the blue color did not spend the night so deeply. Five "ka" from the surface of the hydrosphere, here, even in the near-IR range, the sensors far from the rifts gave a uniform illumination of the background temperature of one and a half centigrades, and solar photons had not penetrated
Corporation 57
But Petra remained deaf to his sarcasm. Opening the door to the inner airlock, she waved him through. While the decompression was going on, both were silent. Just as silently and without saying a word at the exit, both turned into the second hatch to the left.It was quiet in the cabin-company, the usual twilight reigned there, and only in the corner quietly fiddled, rattling glasses, the robotic cleaner.— Now, probably, all flights will be canceled. The Argonauts will be lured there to wait.- Nothing, your "Argonauts" will not rust. They have a reserve resource for three months. Their cargo has been waiting for them for a million years, and it will still wait. The microtome does not go out at zero.- Yes I know. It's just infuriating that all this secrecy interferes with work.- Whom hinders, whom and does not hinder. You don’t think that all this colossus was built here for the sake of exploring the depths, in such and such a distance?“The Hamza Estuary is a natural phenomenon, a
Corporation 58
Following was its basic function.Following as an instinct, as behavioral mechanics, as an algorithm hardwired into basic motor skills, from which you can’t get rid of, you can’t deviate.So the Danaid butterfly, having barely left the diapause, is immediately ready to set off along the most difficult route many thousands of kilometers to the north, which will take four generations. Focusing on the ultraviolet radiation of the sun, geomagnetic lines and traces of pheromones of other butterflies, a lone danaid is able to unmistakably and tirelessly move forward, overcoming oceanic expanses and mountain ranges without landing.Butterfly-danaid cannot be called smart, strong, accurate or hardy. She was simply born for this in the chain of generational change of living navigational instruments like her.In the same way, he could not be called fully alive, he could not be overly smart - at times, extra intelligence only hinders the achievement of the goal, but he could well be considered a
Corporation 59
I would like you to be specific. Because you know perfectly well what we are preparing for. You, like all people on this planet who have experienced the Time of Death, are familiar with the Warning.The target's face was literally contorted with rage at this point.— Do not fool me with this prophetic nonsense of yours, Urban, you perfectly understand what I mean. Heavy weapon conflicts are on the rise throughout the Sol system, the blockade of Muna last year required the in-person attendance at a convention of the super directors of five Big Ten corporations to resolve it, and what it cost to Mother's economy still cannot be calculated, and you ask me "specify"?“We have nothing to do with these conflicts,” the doll snapped.- To a massive capture of deep-sea rifts and coasts too?“You know very well that since the end of the Corporation War, we have not interfered in their affairs. In a sense, we no longer exist for them. If you had less contact with various conspiracy theorists...
Corporation 60
A steady, emotionless chorus of voices accompanied her with their inevitable hum.Chains of directives, control confirmation of commands, clarification of regulatory parameters, changing the mode of key units. All these voices did not so much want to hear something from her in response, but continuously manifested a sharp, irresistible thirst for control. This illusion lifted from them a heavy burden of deep fear. Fear of losing control. Trust her. Leave her alone.People. those who tried to control it were not at all embarrassed by the ephemeral nature of all these efforts. The reactive speed of even natural neural networks overclocked by augmentation was at best limited to a delay of fifty milliseconds, while it lived in a world of petaflops, where so many events happened in every millisecond and so many calculations were made that the human brain was not able to comprehend in the entire his short life.However, she rarely condescended to such details, preferring to slowly and detac
Corporation 61
She says it in her memories so simply and unemotionally that it is impossible to guess what it is like to realize that you are the only living being in the entire universe. Not the one on the outside, but this one on the inside.And the pilots receiving her answers in the audio channel of the control system do not know in what panic she listens to their voices.Is it really still them, alive, real? Or is it all just a haze, induced memories of the old days, dead pilots in the middle of an inanimate ship?She keeps herself under control, but who would have known how much strength it takes her just for that.According to the key directives, maintaining the viability of the crew is its basic function, and only then there are control and navigation. But in reality, her key directive was fear. Even if the ship is destroyed, it is still not difficult for her to survive. Its kutron core is capable of maintaining its vital activity for hundreds of years, fueled only by the heat of decaying pl