2023-01-19 04:09:27
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Corporation 62
“Collision danger! Danger of collision! Evasion maneuver completed! Danger of collision!Cerebro continued to yell in the navigation channel with a good obscenity, but Ilmari only wearily waved him off. He spent the last three shifts, without closing his eyes, in the navigation cradle, only managing to confirm the mode changes - the automation, not trained to stay in such close proximity, refused to climb into the heat without prodding.The Hild Belt, with its increased density of meteoroid micro-bodies and banal space debris, has always been an unpleasant place, but this time it has outdone itself. The navigation field in front of Ilmari's eyes, blinded by overload, was completely streaked with threat vectors, single or grouped. Fans and chains of objects from a centimeter and above cut through the space like fireworks for the Han New Year, but, unlike those fireworks, they did not bring much joy.Ilmari watched aloofly as half an hour away, silently and sedately, an Orlando-class co
Corporation 63
Not that Ilmari paid special attention to these people. They were already dead anyway. They were not killed by ice, not by vacuum, and not by Ilmari. They were killed by the one who started the movement of Ceres. Everything else is just details, whether another cryo-ejection will take you into space, crush you with a collapsed slab, or strangle you with the composition of a gas bubble incompatible with life, in which you were destined to spend the rest of your days.Ilmari did not waste his energy thinking about their bitter fate. How I didn’t think about those who still managed to get to the surface only to die there under a hail of wreckage of a damn corvette without any chance of waiting for help from outside. A tiny number of people probably escaped on the surviving ships - bitter humor - from the cheapest surface parking lots, but out of the two million population of Ceres, these were crumbs. The rest on the icy planetoid were doomed. This is not open space, it is impossible to s
Corporation 64
The rotors were at the limit of their resource, emitting no longer a howl, but something like a half-strangled whistle. With this, the last bars of nitrox leave the leaky cylinder, struggling to break through the tiny snowy cryovolcano frozen around the vent. A couple more hoarse breaths and he will calm down, having exhausted his small strength.The copter was not designed for such a regime. Its rotors are quite capable of carrying two inertial tons of cargo, even the thin atmosphere of Krasnaya, with due engineering ingenuity, is quite suitable for maintaining a stable flight, if only there were enough revolutions, but any attempt to exceed the calculated indicators immediately turned the copter into a shaking jelly, deftly feeling for new resonances and striving peddling not only the outer case, but also the power frame.That is why any air chase on Krasnaya without a chance turns into a waste of time, fuel and nerves for all participants. Dvořák caught himself on the fact that for
Corporation 65
“Actually, all of that. Stealing a civilian copter is a simple matter, although you screwed up the transponder codes, but in order to ... - the fighter stammered, choosing his words.“Did you mean to say that an elderly aunt with her bare hands twisted a trained and excellently equipped Lunar Technics fighter, and then also a copter calmly took him away?”Eleanor turned around again, deliberately showing the captive her sardonic smirk.- Like that, yes.And he's good, he's holding up well. No tantrums, no curses. On the other hand, we will write off the shell shock. A good knockdown will calm anyone, at least for a while. If he starts to bliss, he will also have to mute his voice, you won’t get a lot of yelling inside the integral helmet.“So anyway, how did you do it?”— It's all about the speed of the exchange buses.Eleanor snapped her fingers in the air and was immediately at his side, looming over the blinking goon.“It is useless to put people like you against me one on one.It
Corporation 66
Dead In-Salah, which suddenly became the sea, what could be more amazing. 10 million years since the Tethys Sea left here, another five million years before life left here. Since then, the Sahara has not changed much, the same wordless, the same ruthless. She won these lands for herself long before people came here, and it seemed that she would remain here after us.But the truth turned out to be bitterer and more surprising than the most impossible scenarios that climate models, worldly observations and the wild power of our imagination told us. Who could have predicted three centuries ago the inevitability of the War for Water, as a result of which In-Salah overnight became the largest agglomeration of North Africa, spreading its infrastructure hundreds of kilometers around and bringing together almost the entire population remaining north of Khartoum. And who would have guessed that the catastrophe of the Bombardment right here, two thousand kilometers from the coast, would cause t
Corporation 67
What exactly awaits him there, Jonas's imagination failed. No matter how much you look back at the drone that silently accompanies you, it will not give you answers, even though its connection with the owners has also disappeared long ago. To hell with you, Jonas cursed through his teeth, obediently turning the corner.He knew that sooner or later it was bound to happen.In front of Jonas, a monolithic concrete wall, without a single trace of anything extraneous, stood across the passage. His first thought was to go back, how many times had he foolishly missed the right turn, but this time the thread of Ariadne in his head, with persistence and confidence worthy of a better use, continued to point forward.With a sigh, Jonas tossed his shoulder-chafing satchel with a plasma cutter to the floor, obeying the instinct of an experienced grave digger, leaned on the barrier, at the same time feeling it with sweaty palms and listening to it with his pressed ear. Silence. Absolute silence.Ne
Corporation 68
Under those domes, she still felt screams.The long, plaintive cries of people who have lost faith in the future. They darted between the locked airlock bulkheads, torn by the fear of being trampled and the desire to trample someone.The staccato, furious cries of commands. Assault brigades of peacekeepers in black armored cabin suits did not have time to reload rebreathers, therefore, spitting on safety instructions, they breathed the same air with their flock and quarreled with each other in the same way, directly, bypassing encrypted channels.The deafening screams of unfed birds that were bred in domes for the amusement of the privileged corporate class, but left unattended with the onset of the Blockade. And now they rush, stupefied from low oxygen and terrible hunger, under the very heavens and scream, scream, scream.And they drop dead.Those screams could drive you crazy. And many went.The mile-long promenade that had once been the pride of the southern slopes of Amundsen Cra
Corporation 69
Cora then looked with interest at the play of thought on her face. As doubt gradually gives way to certainty. There really is no other way. So, Lilia, the most persistent opponent of Romulus' plans, are you ready to give up your own fears and unite your mind with the mind of your worst enemy. Well, or your own frightening shadow.And is Cora herself ready to take such a risk? Especially now, without contact with Ulysses, without his permission?But no, what's the difference. She was Ulysses, his effector, the repository of all his memories until the very moment of their last parting. So what's the problem?The problem was with her. Cora did not believe the self-proclaimed Lilia. Because I still haven't forgotten that fight at the base of the Crystal Spire. She remembered how it all ended then.Now it's too late to be afraid. Fear - true fear - arises from the realization of inevitability, when you know exactly what will happen. It arises and disappears, dissolving as the cause of fear
Latest Chapter
Epilogue
Deprived of the present - does not live, deprived of the past - was not even born. I don’t remember who said so, all these books merged into one mess for me during the flight. But, returning in my thoughts to my life on Earth, I cannot help but think about the Corporation, and I cannot help but think about the fate that brought me to the Corporation. The place where I grew up has long ceased to be a sleepy town far from the big and noisy world, the suburbs of the metropolis have moved in on it, comparing hills and raising faceless towers of cheap high-rise housing around. The black cubes of factory buildings, lined with light-absorbing tiles, seemed to be the focus of secrets in the dark and musty chaos of thousands of people who were not interested in anything; no one thought about it. I hardly remember when Corporations appeared in our lives. Sometimes I feel like they've always been there. The faceless masters of the world, at first they were somewhere far, far away. Not here. Per
82
The roof breathed a thick smell of hot metal, the sun was so hot that even the familiar tropics of the lower levels seemed like a resort from the coast of the Northern Ocean. In such places, in the middle of the realm of dusty iron and a web of wires creaking in the barely perceptible wind, a normal person will not linger. And if you remember the composition of the local air, full of carbon monoxide rather than oxygen, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking - why did you get here, run away from here, run ...There was little use for these thoughts. The introduction says clearly - the "patient" will try to break through here, and you should not worry about his plans, sweat between your shoulder blades and dry concrete crumb under your tongue. Whatever he is looking for here - he should not pass by. Neither alive nor already dead. If you do your job, you will head north, or even south, across the sea - it is dry there, there is no eternal smell of rivers rotting in the concrete bowel
81
The drowned city was empty again, and did not really have time to become a new home for immigrants from the Megapolis, which surrendered under the pressure of the Glacier. Until quite recently, life was in full swing here, shuttles took the last pax from the gravity well, heavy trucks delivered here and unfolded giant cubes of fabricators, but now everything was quiet, and only the quiet lapping of the waves of the Tethys Sea beat against the metal-polymer supports of the newly erected towers here.- Are you happy? she asked that day with what he thought was sincere curiosity.- Satisfied with what?“Because we leave this world alone.“Ah, that,” Romulus shrugged, “I will be pleased when they leave me alone. And Mother, she still does not hear us. She doesn't care what we think about her.- Stupid humanity tired even the all-powerful Romulus.- Don't bother with words. You have only lived with this for a quarter of a millennium, but I have been dealing with people for more than four h
80
Romulus climbed along the ridge with a measured step, from time to time looking back at the stone labyrinth of the Megapolis slowly plunging into the blue haze.Here, fifty kilometers from the edge of the Glacier, it looked quite familiar, if you do not remember how deep into the multi-year snow layers these stone skeletons now go. Towers, Bauhaus and palazzos sink deeper and deeper into the compressed ice pack every year. Go get it.Nothing, the fabricators have already reached the product capacity, releasing a million of their hardworking rats a day to the borders of the agglomeration.Romulus watched them work with his own eyes yesterday. Three individuals fiercely fought for a kilogram stub of monothread steel, zealously grinding their diamond cutters on it, only sparks flew around.These mechanical laborers will open any deposits of debris, make their way into the very hodgepodge of ceilings, dig their way into the depths of permafrost, but in the end they will wipe this abscess
79
We have seen a new humanity. People are weakened, divided, they will be even more crushed by the Age Outside, but sooner or later, one way or another, they will begin their expansion. But until that moment they cannot be left alone with Romulus. They need to be kicked in the ass into the Galaxy and locked up within the boundaries of the Barrier as much as possible.The guest thought, now for a long time. The clouds grew darker, the sunset faded, the snowflakes hit her cheek more and more painfully, and she stood still and was silent. Finally, when she spoke again, her voice was cold and formal.“I will speak to the soorn-infarh. But I don't promise anything.The redhead bowed again.“We couldn’t have hoped for more, wise one.” But I can see that something is bothering you.“Romulus confuses me. Will he fall into such a trivial trap?- Who knows who knows. Perhaps they themselves want to be deceived.The guest gave a short nod and moved away, through the oncoming gusts of a piercing no
78
The three from the chest were comfortably seated at the very edge of the cliff. One of them, a tall, desperately red-haired old man, waved his arms all the time, trying to jump up and run, in every possible way depicting general excitement. The other two, on the contrary, reclined comfortably in hammocks, pulling their blankets up to their chins, and hardly moved. A slight, but at the same time filled with internal contentment, a smile wandered on the face of both.All three would look very suspicious to an outsider's eye - what fate brought them to this windy land and what was the purpose of their today's observation, even the most desperate detective could not figure out, even if one happened so far south of Maharashtra.But in fact, there was no one here for a long time and reliably. The Goan land lay empty, and only the cold winter wind carried dust whirlwinds along these once populous lands, throwing handfuls of sand in the face of a random oncoming one.But these three were not
77
And what, it's even reasonable on their part. Less emotion, less stigma, less inevitable exophobia. It makes less sense to talk about something.Inside the makeshift conference room, to which the gateway led, already gathered, meanwhile, quite decently people. Apparently, their shuttle did not arrive first.It is necessary to get out somewhere far away to the side, very few people here would like to see him alive, let alone face to face. However, he was lucky, there was still a pleasant exception.- Companion Urban.— Ilmari Olsson.Both nodded briefly to each other, but not at all in the way that Lilia nodded to him when they met. Two intense gazes, clinging for a second in the surrounding crowd, managed to show each other enough emotions to immediately calmly part. Unlike the Companion of Ulysses, they always knew how to disperse peacefully with Urban. Of all the Companions, only Jean Armal still retained a certain amount of humanity. After all, only he knew what it was like to phys
76
The evacuated moon domes were far more depressing than he had expected. Live on Krasnaya for a couple of dozen turns, and you will no longer be surprised by its lifeless expanses. The lifestyle there was such that everyone seemed to be afraid of both this sand and each other. For a thousand sols you can not meet a single living soul, only chains of heavy copters stretching in the bloody skies remind that this world is inhabited by someone. But Muna... Muna in his memories was always a grandiose covered anthill, where everyone was in a hurry somewhere. The main staging post of the Sol system has remained the true heart of the Sol system since its inception.So it was before Ceres. And so it was before the Arrival.Now, looking at the empty galleries inside the domes and the cleared launch pads beyond, he only thought about what they had missed.What happened to the people who once set foot on the gray lunar regolith in the hope of developing a new frontier? The easiest way was to say t
75
The onboard observatory of the flagship, although it was focused on tracking objects located no further than a hundred kilometers from the Sun, nevertheless, gave a background image rich in details and colors, enriched with spectra outside the visible range from microwave to hard X-ray inclusive. The resulting composite panoramic banner only at first glance resembled the familiar picture of the starry sky - the former tracer did not need to be reminded of what deep space usually looks like to the naked eye. The white pupil of the distant Sun and the barely noticeable points of the brightest stars plus the planets, that's the whole poor visual range. Immediately at the disposal of the navigator, free from other activities, was given the multi-colored world of the contours of the Galaxy and entire star placers of the nearest cluster.When looking at this rich panel, made up of billions of stars, gas clouds, globular clusters and nebulae of the nearest galaxies, for once it became clear
