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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
Corporation 70
The vault was asleep. Submerged in half-asleep, life-support mechanisms barely audibly murmured to the beat of his breathing. Occupied, however, with the same concern - to postpone his death for a second, then for a minute, then for another couple of hours. In this stressless race there was neither the excitement of a running sprint, nor the emotional intensity of a firefight, when it was either-or, when it was a zero-sum game, when it was won or lost.People are mortal. We all lost in advance, even at birth, each of us begins to prepare for our own end, no matter how close our eyes are, no matter how hard we try to delay the inevitable, everyone will find their destiny sooner or later anyway. And the only question is what is "early" and when will be "late" in each case.In his case, it was already too late - to be afraid and regret, love or hate, but how to measure what has not yet happened and how to compare with what has already happened. Not to worry about what is not yet lost - t
Corporation 71
Ma Shenbing turned around in surprise. How did they even get here? In his own body, far from the murmur of the storage devices, without a respirator mask and a lot of wires entangling it, he seemed to immediately return to that distant past, when he still did not feel, did not remember himself as a “canned food”. He must be wondering about all this.“But I always remembered him differently. In that sense, it only became closer to my visions.Visions? What does shadow mean?“That aurora in the sky,” a raised finger thoughtfully described a wide loop, as if the speaker was trying to remind himself of something, “should be purple.” On Krasnaya, it's called a "steve" or "proton arc," caused by its high-energy beams, which ionize hydrogen in the upper rarefied atmosphere, devoid of the cover of the geomagnetic field. Does this tell you anything?- Where will the proton aurora come from on Matushka?The shadow continued to stare at the green auroras above its head.“Really, it’s a mystery.
Corporation 72
The hexapod continued to dig into the crevice with an internal rumbling, not responding to commands.Here is the goat.Klaus glanced at the dial again, trying not to get angry. This piece of iron is not obliged to obey you. Say thank you for helping, you see, she had enough consideration that she couldn’t survive here alone, but if she were interested in something in the ruins, you couldn’t drag her out by the ears. If only she had ears.But something needs to be decided, the blue on the other side of the breach continued to thicken, for another quarter of an hour - and it will finally get dark, and in the darkness it is better not to rummage around the Megapolis if you want to live. Again, nitinol with a rapidly falling outboard temperature begins to lag, the hexapod stumbles on an icy ramp and remember your name. How is he then, without a hexapod.Klaus whistled, his ears stuffed from the effort. In response, the mechanoid obediently froze, stopping its erratic body movements, but d
Corporation 73
The echo pulse of the sonar obediently jerked the comb, the copter immediately shifted to the left, entering a safe route according to the directives of the navigation unit. The tactics of passing through the comb is always the same - do not poke your nose into someone else's question. It is better to fly around the fresh collapse sideways, the comb is large, wherever you are going, you will definitely find a workaround with good clearance and direct visibility. The main thing is not to rush. The hurry-ups did not drag it out here for a long time, sooner or later running into a short and evil revenge of the Megapolis to the one who, without asking, encroached on his icy insides."Thank you, lapul."It is curious that where people gave up, the Megapolis itself still survived. Hundreds of meters of snow blockages over the years have turned into ice tongues, clearly visible from a height. No, it was not the shock wave of the impact that knocked down the towers, it was the glaciological f