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2024-10-29 19:42:56
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OUTCAST 45
After all the troubles in Marchand, I still didn’t even want to play any shooting games or strategies. I flipped through the new toys and closed the app. Yes, and with all these thoughts about reality and virtuality, I wanted to deal with something material. Saved my ship. Nothing was broken, but I got into the service compartments - wipe the nodes with oil, tighten the screws, check the voltage and temperatures.Still, it was real iron, without any holograms there. It was hard or flexible, hot or cold, it responded with a tinkle or a hum to my touch, I felt my aggregates and wires with my hands. Even if it comes to that, and I myself am all virtual, then my spaceship is real. He has mass, speed, coordinates. He has an age - the date of manufacture and the registration certificate is genuine, and not glued together by hackers or rogues from the village ovir. So, if doubts about the reality of my existence crept in, then he has a real body ...He has not only a body, but also a mind -
OUTCAST 46
General Johnson Wallace was scolded by Maat. She dressed in a uniform-like suit with a tight, short skirt and a tight-fitting jacket. Playing with her calf muscles, standing up on her toes, she looked at the window of the bar on the floor of the hotel, where the general-co-chairman of the Military Intergalactic Commission spent the night. Then she sat down at the table next to him and, finally, hooked. The military liked the energetic, physically strong and sexy famous journalist - Wallace agreed to an hour or two of conversation on camera that evening.Maat played an enthusiastic girl currying favor with an influential military leader, smiled, and then told how horrified she was from everything she saw in the Choban Valley.- I am sure that if your dream came true, and our army would try to defend Choban, repel the invasion, you would be even more horrified. We can't shoot an entire nation, with children and old people. You know, my experience, and everything I've learned, is that we
OUTCAST 47
Hoth decided not to leave the image of a specialist builder for the time being, in the same outfit, with the same legend, he found transport in Largange to V Zera, to Man. As a normal tight-fisted hard worker, he was looking for something cheaper and found a cool option for 20 gold with an average flight price of 30. Some small office with a couple of dozen medium-sized boards drove this route once a month and the next flight was just two days later.The vessel was carrying 100 tons of cargo on two luggage decks and a hundred passengers on the "human" one. 20 gold is a minimum of amenities and a two-time ration of tubes. With Hoth's current budget, that was fine with him. After takeoff, feeling weightless, the experienced Jedi strapped himself to a sunbed in the cockpit for twenty of the same unpretentious couchettes, and prepared to endure a month. In flight, it was forbidden to use the Internet, Hoth flew to the library, where they gave out discs with movie recordings - watch them i
OUTCAST 48
Jackie, editor-in-chief of InterMedia, a huge intergalactic news holding, was mildly interested in Skype:- Are you completely opposed to your guys joining me on staff?- Yes, these are not "my" guys, they are on their own. Just talented and promising, do not want to have them spoiled there. Your editors are like asphalt rollers, they level everyone so that they don’t stick out ..."Filmmakers" thundered, that is necessary. Reporting from the Choban Valley and exclusive interviews from the intergalactic sessions broke records in views and citations. They were now known and wanted everywhere, it is a pity that the glory fell not on their real names, but on nicknames. Now it is necessary, perhaps, to live under these names. Before them opened an excellent road to start in journalism. I didn't even know if I had the right to prevent it. My personal sour journalistic experience is one thing, it is bitter for me. But should it be imposed on their lives? All of a sudden things will be diffe
OUTCAST 49
Co-Chairman of the Intergalactic Commission on Science and Culture Powell himself contacted the filmmakers by grabbing Volos in the lobby of the Galactic University during a break between sessions of the session. It seems that the Wagner brigade has become something like a helpline for high-ranking ecumenical officials, where it has become fashionable and “correct” to voice installation things and complex questions. Powell winked at Volos and said that the "nasty PhDs" also have something to discuss with the audience - not only Gilats and Wallace rule the global processes.They decided to shoot at the university department in the anatomy. Powell made sure that the frame would show, but not clearly, the corpses on the tables, the vessels with organs and mock-ups of the human body, posters and diagrams. Lilith and Maat put on the light, and Thor and Wagner, under their command, moved tables with bodies back and forth, medical devices for a good background. Volos, in order to start a con
OUTCAST 50
I'm slowly growing into Jedi, - Masa giggled, connecting Skype with the hologravimeter, so that it turned out as if Br was sitting at the table with them. I did not pervert and just brought Skype to the full screen of the plasma, and I myself lay down with a flask of beer on the bed, watching Hot and Wolverine sitting with cups of coffee. These two mostly talked, telling me what happened in Marchand, what is known about Grog, and what, presumably, his plans. Everything was very presumptuous, speculation and comparisons.I only added facts by telling Hot about what Galaxy did to Joy - this is still a real crime. Some kind of Jedi brotherhood does not exist, and Joy himself climbed where he shouldn't, but still "ours are being beaten." Moreover, Joy was digging specifically for this very program of theirs. Hot did not like Joy's story - he remembered that another Jedi, a couple of years older than us, named Deb, also disappeared under unclear circumstances. And according to rumors, he s
OUTCAST 51
Ravens are generally entertaining interlocutors. Jack and Nora, I was well received, especially when they found out that I did not claim their territory and food. On this sultry afternoon, they had a lot of things to do - drag branches and candy gold pieces to the nest, croak with neighbors, but they gladly took time for me to chat and play. Jack dragged nuts under the gate, and the three of us took stones below in their beaks, flew up to the gate and dropped them, trying to hit the nut with a stone and crack the shell. The nuts were delicious, and the game was fun and exciting - hitting a nut with a “stone dropped from a beak” from a height of 7 meters is not easy, it requires fine calculation and luck.We sat at the gates of the cemetery, shining with black plumage, laughing with sly eyes, discussing the passing living, the recently driven dead. The cemetery is not big and there were only two this week. Grandfather, who rather quickly went along the otherworldly route and did not pa
OUTCAST 52
Gilats had a surprisingly athletic and firm ass. Of course, the official of the universal scale did not shave her, but her hair was soft and even silky. Everything happened almost by itself. Still, he was one of the best diplomats in the galaxy. Wagner stayed with him in a country house not far from Manowakh, the capital of the East Bank, a powerful financial and industrial country that was part of the SGC. The two discussed PR strategies in some areas - Wagner was recommended by respected people as a gifted and open-minded specialist.In the evening, looking at the sunset, which painted the skyscrapers of the City with scarlet smudges, at the delicate pale blue sky and the huge golden disk of the full moon, they drank wine, casually chatting about this and that, without much delving into any political topics. The conversation was like a neat acquaintance. Gilats only touched on political issues, listened attentively to Wagner's first thoughts, gently turning the conversation to anoth
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Epilogue
We were again alone on the same sidewalk of a narrow street in a seaside town. Indistinct music was heard from the cafes along the coast, and there was a wall of cypresses and tall yellow grass all around. We ended up at that point and second at which we parted many, many lives ago, in that August, when the local sea is the hottest, and the nights are warm, like fresh milk, and the smell of flowers is dense, like a wall.It was us, but not us. She had visibly matured, it was no longer the same young girl with electric sparks in her black eyes. Wrinkles, bitterness and memories of many years and destinies were written on her face. I, too, felt like an old doll taken out of the closet, faded and dusty.- I love you, I've been looking for you all these years, I could not calm down, I've been looking for you century after century - in all galaxies. I can't live without you, I traded everything for this moment to bring you back. I can't be happy without you, let me come back to you.I spok
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85
“The diamond coffin that Seth lured Osiris into was cheaper than this box,” Daniel Fogg touched the luminous blue case of the medical capsule and freezer in one bottle with his finger.- Do you feel sorry for the money? Powell asked, solemn as before a prayer, in a strict black suit, with a neatly trimmed gray beard, standing at the control panel of this wonderful machine, a unique apparatus, his brainchild.- Too big risks. It has never been tested on humans, and immediately on such a patient. And the donor is doubtful.- She was checked from all sides, she fits exactly.- I'm not talking about medical indications. Psychologically, you may not be ready. The fact that she went through an initiation through Death does not mean that she will go through Love as well. Without verification, it is dangerous to immediately put into action.- Wagner passed, and they are from the same test.- OK let's see. Such stakes, and it all depends on one girl.- She loves him. Here, she’s already coming
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84
Turntables, ripping up the blue summer sky with smoky jets of NURSs, plowed a section of the track in an open area near the edge. Having gained a little height, they went to the circle, so that in a minute they would return and hit again. Ratmir with officers and guards in three jeeps noticed two black circles approaching from behind the clouds in time, turned off the asphalt into the forest, hiding under the crowns of trees. This saved them from the first blow. But the pilots of the Antean pair of fire support helicopters had already seen these three machines and bit the bit, imbued with hunting excitement. Their rumble over the forest began to grow again, now they will beat at random, covering the green sea under them, they will feel below with thermal imagers and metal detectors, look out with their eyes, reflections of the painted sides of the car or, maybe, dust from under the wheels. Abandoning the cars, the Ramirs scattered and a loose flock of saigas ran deep into the thicket,
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83
He sat smiling in his chair, looking around the cleanly tidied white with a matte tint interior of his ship, silvery walls, plasma with elegant Polina (he came up with a new outfit for her, having downloaded it from a fashion site). She said with her pleasant timbre that the flight was proceeding normally, five more days to the destination. For two weeks of the flight, I was in high spirits. It turned out that in such a state it was even more difficult to endure the flight and forced inaction in a confined space without communication with the outside world than if you were flying in melancholy and sadness.Sanya played chess as best he could, but this, of course, could not distract from worries about a future trip through time and, possibly, a meeting with Chernaya. Changing musical tracks, I turned in my hands a carved medieval golden key on a leather cord, looked at cast patterns on it and intricate hieroglyphs. I remembered day after day, evening after evening, moment after moment,
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82
Volos and Lilith rarely slept together that month. Although we finally managed to rent a normal, or rather, luxurious apartment in the City of Manowaha, everyone had too much work, traveling, and very rarely crossed paths for an hour or two. Today they decided to give themselves a holiday, postponing this Saturday evening all business until Monday morning, warning everyone they can not to be pulled even in the event of the Third Coming.They dined on a balcony overlooking the huge diamond of Manowach sparkling with fire, the black night sky, the leaden ocean behind the purple colors of the embankments, the moths of airplanes in the sky and ships in the ocean, enjoying the comfort of a home furnished in the latest fashion. Lilith was in seventh heaven from everything that happened to her during this month. After a poor childhood and student life, after space flights on cheap transport vehicles, after tents in Choban, medical wards in Alam and the stone jungle of Oralon... She found her
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81
Maat was flying in a glass-case-like mini-metro that connected the Bahdi spaceport to the Belau lake and oasis, located in an uncontaminated area. A hundred kilometers, sparkling like a bunch of candies in gold pieces, the train rushed by in 40 minutes, allowing soldiers, officers and civilian personnel of the base of intergalactic peacekeepers to leave the garrison in the evening or on weekends and relax near the water in the shade of palm trees, without protective equipment. Three new hotel buildings, restaurants, sports and massage parlors - everything was built to the glory, as in the best resorts in the universe.In the month and a half that the military settled here, the Bahdi Cosmodrome turned into a considerable city. About 100,000 inhabitants of Parta came here after finding work or humanitarian aid. For them, several neighborhoods of temporary housing were also rapidly erected. And these were not dull rows of tents and wagons to the horizon. Everything that Wallos and his fe
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80
- Where are you stuck? - severely met my appearance from behind a closet in the old Wolverine hotel, she got bored, sitting on a shabby sofa, watching TV news about the death of the Bounty.- Dropped by Wagner, he had an exam.- Passed? Masa asked quietly, becoming more serious.- Passed. Satisfied?- Of course. I believed in him. The Love Exam is difficult, for example, you are not ready for it. Bounty, over there, was not ready either. This chocolate loved only himself. From people he needed only their boundless love for him and admiration. He does not care that for this, he had to turn people into cattle. Don't laugh - I love people. For real. I do what they will hate me for, what they will kick me out and curse me for, everything that people need to be people and grow.What makes you think they need it? There is an easy way to find out. What people are willing to pay for is what they really need. Everything that is not in demand is just a wishlist. Your games of freedom are not in
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79
Gilats looked at Thomson, and saw Wagner hanging in a noose in the bathroom, his tongue hanging out, his face blue and his eyes bulging. He recalled how they sent him a video, how they removed the guy from the rope, put him on the bed in the hotel, saying that there were no signs of violence. Sources gave him the info, how it really happened. And Gilats, looking at the powerful hands of the general, imagined how this strong man in an expensive suit dragged the frail body of the boy along the floor, as he held it, while his fighters put on a rope.Now, looking into the square face of the CEO of Galaxy Sec, the co-chairman of the State Construction Commission with an effort made an indifferent and even benevolent look:- At least you know what kind of hematogen Powell is preparing there instead of Bounty?- He calls his project "Twix". I only know software. He wants to combine fiery software shells with what is left of the New Testament and cover from above with a united circuit with co
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78
A month after the nuclear war on the Great Continent, the situation began to more or less clear up. In Bormunt, a small town on the left bank of the Ramira, which became the capital of the self-proclaimed Anarchist Republic, covering all the uninfected territories of eastern Lavender, from the Gray Mountains in the west to the Swamps in the east, from the river in the north to the sands in the south, in total - a square of 500x500 km. , the Council of Commanders gathered to discuss the situation and plans.The Republic was governed by direct Internet democracy - all residents (indigenous and refugees), about a million people, had their own profile in the Republican Network and the right to vote on any issue of governing the country, without representatives. The code of laws was adopted by such a general vote for five years, without the possibility of change during this period. The Network Moderator, civilian ministers and territorial leaders were elected for a year without the possibi
