Бесплатный фрагмент - Collection of modern science fiction

TOOTHACHE

A toothache haunted flight engineer Kharin for several hours, and two teeth ached at once. He could have gone to the doctor at the Vasiliev station, but it was already late, and he simply did not want to distract the doctor at such an inopportune hour. Then he remembered his studies in Russian style and the system of somersaults on the bare floor, without mats. Somersaults weakened the actions of the signals of the cerebral cortex and activated the more ancient internal structures of the brain. Moreover, the blood flow improved throughout the psychobiomechanical system “MAN”. Overcoming the pain, Kharin slid down from the couch, it was about 23—00 Moscow time. The members of the spacecraft, free from watch and experiments, rested at this time. To consolidate the technique of somersaults, it was necessary to perform them about three thousand times, for three months. Then the somersault technique is remembered by the body as something natural. It should be noted that the somersault in the Russian system of self-defense is not the gymnastic somersault that we are taught in physical education classes. Upon contact with a hard floor, the soft tissues of the back are substituted, and the hard links are the arms, the shoulders seem to scroll. A somersault, if it left a mark on the human body, starts from the fingertips of the right hand, then the forearm scrolls and the shoulder fits into the hard floor due to some inertia. Then, as if on a children’s swing, the “trace” goes diagonally from the right shoulder through the spine, along the soft tissues, goes to the left side of the thigh. Rising up, the system of links “man” turns in the direction of movement towards the main course. This is repeated in the reverse movement forward. In this way, a person for two somersaults over his shoulder goes to the starting position. At the beginning of classes, Kharin felt nauseous — the underdevelopment of the cerebellum affected, but soon this passed, as happens with a trained person.

Having made only 4 somersaults through “I can’t”, the bioengineer noted a decrease in toothache — as expected, the brain activated its inner, deep part and the outflow of blood contributed to the removal of toothache. After making eight more somersaults on the floor of his cabin, Kharin noted with pleasure the disappearance of the toothache. This went on all night: as soon as his teeth started to hurt, Kharin slid off the couch and twisted somersaults, he also kept daily records of the amount of exercise performed. About half of the prescribed somersaults have already passed. After that, he recalled how these Russian somersaults were taught to him — this is a fusion of three exercises — “Twisting of the arms in the shoulder girdle” plus “a la birch” plus “crooked step” … twisting the arms was the easiest thing to do — you had to stand up and spread your arms while standing side as if you were suspended on a stretched cable through your index fingers. Twisting at the shoulders and tilting the head to one or the other side, twist the shoulder girdle. Then he remembered the second exercise — when he was still a flight school cadet, they lay down on the asphalt and, raising their legs, rolled from one side to the other, like a pendulum or a children’s swing. Here it was important to substitute the soft tissues of the hips and back. Watch that sharp pebbles on the pavement do not injure the spinal column. Well, the third exercise — “crooked step” was performed while sitting on the floor or any hard surface. So, bending the leg like a crooked auger, we transfer the center of gravity from one leg to the other, which we also bend inward.

This exercise required some flexibility in the knee joints and was called the “crooked step”. It should be noted that based on the scheme of setting the task (SITUATION -> PROBLEM -> GOAL-> TASK-> SOLUTION), Kharin made appropriate adjustments and he could study without an instructor. It should be noted that the somersault itself corresponded to a certain letter of the forty-nine-digit ancient Slavic alphabet, but which letter for Vladimir Kharin was still a mystery. It was already in the morning when Kharin defeated these two aching teeth and he took a nap. And then in the waking half, half-drowsy, he saw with his brain a violet rainbow field coming from his chest. It was his field — biofield. There was a glow from the hands. He observed such a picture for the first time — the load on the brain affected, the brain seemed to see the skin of the body.

Waking up, he wrote down his feelings in his diary and hurried with a report to the ship’s commander, Professor Arthur Stolz. Having gone all the same to Dr. Zaitseva, he spoke about his discovery and vision of the biofield by entering into some altered state of consciousness. Dr. Victoria Zaitseva carefully examined the gums and found some inflammation, prescribed a mouth rinse with medicine. Then she carefully watched a series of somersaults and remembered the film shown to her in childhood — this somersault had Volkhov roots. “But we are not sorcerers, not magicians, but scientists, and therefore there is an explanation for everything, both logical, scientific and religious theological. Since we, as the peak of God’s creation, have all God’s plans for animals, creations within ourselves… we are like God… perhaps the deep parts of the brain are involved and a person looks at everything around him with already developed abilities, temporarily dormant. On this, Victoria finished her inspection, and thanking Kharin for such an important discovery, she wrote in her diary about a scientific experiment, but already on Earth, in the brain tomography laboratory…

METEOR RAIN

Flight engineer Yuryev woke up from the sound of a siren — she warned of a stream of meteors. And then the sensors showed a power failure — in all likelihood, regular solar panels failed. Yuryev thought about it — he didn’t have more solar panels in stock. But! But there were still serviceable Soviet transistors P-214, with germanium crystals inside. There were 500 of them in the warehouse. Taking out one of them, he carefully sawed off the transistor cover with a hacksaw and brought the open p — n — p junction to the window. The light flux from the Sun excited the current in the germanium crystal of this transistor. Yuryev brought the voltmeter probes to the base and emitter, respectively — Hurrah! the voltage was small, only 0.3 volts, but it was there! After spending eight hours mounting 50 transistors on a 17-by-17-centimeter board, he brought them up to the sunny side of the station — and the result was 1.3 volts of voltage at a small, small current. The solution was worked out right away — to replace the solar panels pierced by meteorites with home-made P-214 transistors of the 1970 model. Everything worked and home-made solar batteries began to accumulate energy to recharge the station’s batteries for going on the air with the Earth, with the Mission Control Center!!!

VISION OF ANGELS

After listening to Kharin’s report, the professor of the research expedition, who is also the commander of the Pegasus ship Arthur Stolz, cheered up. Wow, the P-214 transistors, released back in the USSR in 1970, came in handy here in 2028! It’s been about 60 years — how strong was the stock of scientific thought in the USSR! Professor Stoltz was a little over fifty, and he still found the school of Soviet scientists who taught to think, to invent in non-standard ways, but all within the limits of logic! Yes, there were times, it was a time of discovery, when 70 percent of the inventions of all mankind fell on the seventies of the twentieth century. He sat down at the work table and began to fill in the logbook, the reserve of electricity allowed him to work with emergency lights, and in three days Kharin’s solar battery should be ready — despite all the laboriousness, this was the last hope! He filled out the journal, thought, pondered and looked out the window — the ship was leaving the shadow of the Earth, exposing its sides to the Sun.

And then he saw a group of people — they sang softly and walked with banners in a parallel course. Yes, yes, in space, in a parallel course. At sunny dawn, the picture seemed incredible! He looked closely and saw the wings of people — there were seven of them. “Yes, these are angels!” — Arthur exclaimed and hurried to film everything on a video camera, while calling his colleagues. The entire crew of the ship saw angels. It was the middle of March earthly time, the time of Great Lent, and everyone together, rejoicing at what they saw, began to sing songs of praise to God. Of course, not everyone on the ship was a Christian, but a small group of scientists, ossified atheists, suddenly began to make crosses from improvised means and hang them around their necks. The vision of the angels was about five minutes, and everything was filmed, even their chants were caught on film. Thus, the month of the ship’s stay in Earth’s orbit was coming to an end. There were many experiments ahead, but this very “cosmic” one, by the will of the Creator, remained forever in the memory of people!

TRAINING OF THE SMELL OF THOUGHTS.

When Professor Arthur Stolz was still a student, they liked to play the following game as students. While on the bus, they assumed the professions of people by their faces, clothes, demeanor, manner of speaking, and many other signs. It was easy to distinguish retired people from, say, students, but it was very difficult to distinguish a doctor from a teacher — after all, they are both knowledge workers, only if you talk to them, which was forbidden by the rules of the game. While on the bus, students, and there were a few of them no more than 3—4, made notes and, getting off at the right stop, they exchanged notes. There were many similarities. And the one with the most matches was considered the winner.

For example, the military and policemen were easily guessed — the imprint of spirituality on their strict stiff faces spoke about itself. Time passed and the future generation of physics students passed on this game to other students. In the 2000s, a computer, namely artificial intelligence, was connected to the game. In appearance, gait, artificial intelligence was looking for hooligans and terrorists among the passenger flow. The percentage of guessing reached 80 percent, and this is a large percentage. But most of all guessed in the symbiosis of a computer and a person. The man saw what the machine is not able to see — it is the imprint of spirituality on the face of a man. This was achieved by prayer practice, going to services in the Orthodox Church, observing the sacraments of the Church. And now, being in the fifth, final year of study, students already felt, as they say, all the passengers of the subway, buses, fellow travelers in the car… It is worth noting that the most spiritually advanced students used what is called penetration into the inner sensory world of a person in this way of “recognizing” information the monks own, professional military, judges.

But the world was developing, progress was and quickly went in computer technology. In 2010, the computer was already controlled without wires, by the tension of the operator’s thought. Although not all of these experiments were in the public domain, they were. And then the main question arose — can a high-power computer read the thoughts of people, for example, riding a bus? It turned out maybe, but in those days it was a cumbersome technique, but already in 2025 this technique was reduced to the size of a pack of cigarettes. Of course, as before, a great result in personal identification was given by the symbiosis of a person and a computer, or rather, a person and Artificial Intelligence. And here we come to the main scientific experiment of the research team on the Pegasus. That’s the point. While on the bus, a person with a computer, even the smallest one, should be in close proximity to the person being checked. What if it’s a terrorist? So, the idea arose to “feel”, to read the mental images of people at a distance — from space, for example.

An ultra-high frequency wave was fed through a powerful beam of rays; on Earth, this beam occupied a radius of five to half a meter in diameter, depending on the settings. The operator, via satellite, probed the crowd of people in order to search for people with negative, aggressive thoughts. And having identified them, they connected the whole complex of operational-search measures. There was also the other side of the medal in this experiment — the transfer of energy at a distance to a person who was injured, for example, a sick person, walking on the way. A certain frequency was transmitted by a beam from space from a satellite, naturally not heard by anyone, it then set the pace for the work of the human brain and, if necessary, could remove all the necessary characteristics from a wounded warrior. But this is the military side of the experiment. All theoretical calculations were in the twenties of the 21st century, and the year was already 2028. So everything, both the level of technical equipment of the ship and the scientific level of the researchers, was up to the mark. The composition of the team was international, for example, Vasily Kharin was Russian, from Perm, he was 42 years old and this was his second space expedition. Working as a flight engineer and part-time biologist, he knew almost everything about the ship and about the man. “Psychobiomechanical system — man” — as he liked to say.

The ship’s commander, Professor Arthur Stolz, was from Germany and his role was more in bringing together all the crew members and leading the project. He was also a full-time psychologist, he was trained in one of the monasteries in Switzerland.

The expedition doctor Svetlana Moiseevna was from Israel, her forte is the brain, blood composition, biowaves of both the brain and the person.

The intellectual system “Vagrius” was originally from the USA — the minimization of chips in this country came out on top back in the 90s of the twentieth century. Artificial Intelligence self-learned both in the program mode and in the field of erudition — in the game of chess it had no equal on Earth. For example, in the event of an accident, he could independently land the ship without human intervention.

Of course, there were other members of the expedition, robots and much more about which will be written below.

So, everything was ready for the experiment both in the field of energy transfer over a distance, and in reading mental images at a distance from the orbit. On the ground there was a group of volunteers also of a different internalist nature. Everything was ready. But this accident with the solar panel became a small hitch — a cargo repair ship was already flying from Earth, but for now everyone was resting and using a home-made solar battery from germanium transistors sawn off at the top of the seventies of the twentieth century.

BIOROBOT IN THE MONASTERY

After an operation on his hand, and a new forearm was sewn on Biomax 21 to replace the old one lost in a fight with a bear, a council of doctors decides to send him to a monastery, which is 30 kilometers from the scientific town. There, the tissues will heal, and the weight will return to normal, and thoughts about life will calm down. Boris Borisovich Aleikin, that was the name of Biomax on the 21st in his human life, agreed. He, a former military man, was already living the second life of a biorobot and wanted to see church life from the inside.

The Vorobiev Monastery, near the village of Sparrows, was small. 20 cows with calves, 2 tractors and 30—35 brothers. There were only 3 monks — the abbot himself, Father Philip, his assistant monk Andrei and monk Sergius, who was still a boy at the church and grew to the rank of monk. The brethren, the so-called workers, were mostly former alcoholics who lost their homes and jobs by the will of fate. There was also a group of drug addicts, people who had served time and were weaving their nets of evil here in the monastery.

Arrived at the place on a regular bus, having walked 2 kilometers to the monastery, Boris Borisych saw the church. Everything, as on the map of the aerial photograph — in the distance is the three-story house where the brothers lived, next to the barn… The garden and the bathhouse could be seen in the distance. Going into the icon shop, he saw monk Andrei there, who had previously been a researcher at the Research Institute of Electronics. “And why did he leave our research institute two years ago? What prompted him to do this — the monastic quiet?

It was quiet in the Temple, Andrey was shifting some papers and Boris (he is also a biorobot Biomax 21st) quietly asked: “I would like this here… to treat my arm after the operation and fix my nerves, where can I leave things and in general where do I Now?” “Oh, yes, you called yesterday,” said monk Andrei. “Leave your passport and cell phone to me, as well as cash — you will not need them here and follow me.” Boris left his passport, cell phone, although a second cell phone was built into his body, as well as a radio transmitter with a satellite phone. The Center could be contacted at any time, while doing any work and even talking to other people.

“Can I keep a flashlight with me?” asked Boris, the flashlight was a disguised battery, it was inserted into the network and charged, then the charge was transferred to the intelligent system of the biorobot. Since the brain and heart of the biorobot were human, and everything else, including muscles, internal organs and the skeleton, was artificial, all this required a charge of energy once every two or three days. From food, Boris could eat everything, but he could also remain without food for a long time. Much longer than the average person. He could eat only one wheat for a long time — it decomposed into nutrients in an artificial stomach.

“We have a very strict monastery, but since you will be a stoker and at the same time a night watchman, you can have a flashlight with you,” monk Andrey said this, closed the icon shop and took Boris to the fraternal house.

Boris was shown a large room for six people, the beds were in two tiers around the walls. They also showed a stoker in the basement, it was not necessary to heat it, it was necessary to bring some firewood and pieces of coal in reserve, tidy up, fix the sagging electrical wiring, stretch the cable for the internal monastery telephone and install an old-style telephone there. What Boris Borisovich did.

During the meal, Boris looked around and wrote down all the brothers in the memory of his artificial intelligence — yesterday’s alcoholics and drug addicts were neatly dressed and there was a blush on their faces. Everyone was awake and alert. Only one of them — Dmitry, as Boris later found out his name and surname from the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, having compared the photograph of his face taken, was gloomy. Dmitry was out of his mind; he, the leader of the organized crime group, made a nest here. He was supposed to bring a batch of heroin to the monastery tonight, for subsequent shipment to Europe. And then this new one. Appointed as a stoker and watchman. “No matter how he was a biorobot from the cops,” Dmitry thought. His gut for years of imprisonment and long “walkers” to the zone did not let him down. “Tonight, Rector Father Philip will leave on his own business in the city, in the Diocese. Monk Andrei will sleep, and Monk Sergius will pray for the whole world at night in the Temple. But this one with his sore hand was not included in my plans. there will be a day, there will be food,” thought Dmitry and began to drink tea.

Boris, meanwhile, went to the library, got some books. There were Theophan the Recluse with his “Invisible Scolding”, and John of the Ladder and much more. In the basement there was a trestle bed, assembled from boards, where Boris folded a stack of books. The operated arm hurt, the sutures had not yet been removed from the biotissue. According to the body sensors, everything was normal, recharging for 48 hours. Although he would have slept for a couple of hours, so as not to sleep at night, but to read and make rounds around the monastery.

It was getting dark… Boris managed to sleep for a couple of hours in his cell — no one bothered him, everyone was on obedience. It was time to go to the Temple for the obligatory common evening prayer and the fraternal rule. Which he did.

Boris stood a little ahead of everyone, crossed himself evenly, as befits a Christian, but keeping his eyes on himself from the outside. he seemed to see himself through the eyes of his brothers. He did not give out a biorobot in himself — he ate, and slept, and prayed like a man. He knew that the Higher Mind certainly exists, but dogmatically, as a human being, he still had little faith, did not feel His every second existence on Earth. His concern for him.

The evening rule came to an end, the brothers stood in a circle and, passing along it, asked for forgiveness from each other. Having left the Temple, Boris felt the ease of thinking. It was the first time in a long time. The intellectual system of the biorobot recorded the intense work of the brain at the moment of common fraternal prayer, and now the brain had a little rest, which served as some kind of joyful euphoria. It was not grace, that unknown feeling, for the sake of which Biomax 21st came to the monastery.

Arriving at the boiler room, he compared the aerial photograph from the satellite with the map of his movement around the monastery. The first communication session with the Center is scheduled for 2 am. It was necessary to additionally enlighten all the buildings of the monastery from the Cosmos 976 satellite for hidden rooms. It is possible that here in the Vorobiev Monastery a channel was established for the supply of drugs to Europe. Well, Boris Borisovich, aka the biorobot Biomax 21, did not believe in the accidental presence of a recidivist thief on the territory of the monastery. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was Zhuk Dmitry Lvovich, born in 1970. Ordinary operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs bypassed this monastery — the place is remote from the city, quiet, and who will give permission to conduct operational-search activities on the territory of the monastery. Yes, and the strength was not enough. It was necessary to be some kind of cop in order to infiltrate the monastery, where there is its own guard, a kind of state within a state.

It got dark… There were 3 hours left before the communication session. and Boris began to study the monastic works. And here is what he read. It turns out that in order to attract grace, Greek monks always repeat in a half-whisper “Jesus Christ… Jesus Christ.” So, always at work when they go somewhere. It was part of the Jesus Prayer, a gift that originated in ancient times. Possessing the gift of the Jesus Prayer, a person was transformed, became like God, acquired gifts. So the biorobot began to speak in a half-whisper, softly with pauses: “Jesus Christ… Jesus Christ.” so 2.5 hours passed.

Everyone was sleeping, only the dogs on duty lay lazily at the door of the fraternal house. Boris left the basement of the stoker, but then an unknown force stopped him. A man walked past him. The man did not notice Boris — if he had gone out a little earlier or later, they would have seen each other. The biorobot turned on infrared radiation and saw a parked jeep near the bushes. A bundle was handed out of the jeep, and it slowly and silently drove away. The man accepted the white bundle as quietly as a shadow, walked past Boris, who was standing in the basement of the stoker. In the meantime, Boris connected the electronic nose — “Heroin! Top quality!” — this is what was in the bundle.

The decision came instantly — without going on the air, which could be tapped, to escape from the monastery. And run immediately. Orienting by the stars, Boris left the monastery — about 25 kilometers ahead of him off-road, in the morning he would still get in touch with the Center. But he will already be far from the monastery.

He walked along a country road and repeated in a half-whisper “Jesus Christ… Jesus Christ…” And then on the left was a small swamp. All sensors of the biorobot worked normally. And then he heard clearly from the lilies, “What a happy man is walking past us… What a happy one! God Himself helped him!” and Boris clearly felt that indescribable, indescribable state, which is called grace!

BEAST PEOPLE

Biorobot Biomax 21 lay under a blockage of stones in a semi-conscious state for five days. More precisely, he could not determine due to the injuries inflicted by the beastmen. This war has been going on for two years now with varying successes for the belligerents. Biomax’s left arm was half torn off, it was hanging on biowires-veins and oil was leaking from it, small motors responsible for squeezing the hands continued to turn on and off spontaneously, consuming electricity.

The nutrition regime in the biosystem was set as terminator. This is not even an economical “extreme” or it is also called emergency, this is the mode in which the mobility of the structure is limited — the life of the biorobot is close to death and the task of this mode is to support memory cards until the arrival of the special forces rescue team from the base. The rebels — beastmen behaved very cunningly, they deftly disguised themselves in the animal world, easily trained, then gathered in groups, then acted alone. The Beastmen were sponsored by scientists who entered the scientific field in the ranks of crime, namely in the ranks of drug lords. It was on such a group, a product of a mutation from the rays of the Kharatron device, that Biomax 21st came across while patrolling the territory of the Krasnovishersky Reserve.

At first glance, they were ordinary bears — a she-bear with two cubs. Biomax 21, following instructions, came within firing range, but as soon as he cocked the sleeping pill, the she-bear swung the pendulum. Yes, yes, that same pendulum of the army counterintelligence school… showed a move to the right, went to the left and immediately approached about five meters. The biorobot was confused, — “So that the bears swing the pendulum?” and then a lingering pain appeared in the left side of the biorobot’s chest, the sensors recorded a lepton breakdown! Beastmen have only mastered contactless schools of magicians relatively recently. The biorobot collapsed like a wreck. The she-bear swayed by inertia to the right, then to the left, and already shortening the distance by leaps, as only animals do quickly, and tightly dug into the left elbow joint.

The use of non-contact did not go unnoticed for the she-bear, too, — a sharp transcendental release of all energies, focused on the heart area of the biorobot (and this series of biorobots has a human heart and brain, and bones and muscle tissue are mixed with human, and titanium, and organopod plastic based on perfluorane component) led to the fact that the she-bear Alice collapsed as if knocked down. This always happens when contactless is used — it took about 2 days to recover in a shelter. “Comrade major, comrade major,” the bear cubs, sergeants Zosima and Ephraim, rushed to her, “What’s wrong with you?” “This camp half-wit in a cave on Wolf Stone, fill up the entrance with stones, let him dry.” According to her calculation, the battery charge in thermal mode should be enough for a month of work, and then, having pulled out the memory and consciousness modules, it will be possible to reprogram Biomax-21. Already passed it, already hacked this series of biorobots. Well, and then either a biorobot-shahid, or undercover infiltration into the environment of people — a “return” to society, if the legend allows. The sergeants did just that — they dragged Biomax into a cave (it was an ancient human site) and blocked the entrance with stones. But! They did not flood this half-corpse with water! Afraid of the final shorting of all systems…

So Biomax lay in the dark and began to think, putting himself in the place of the enemy: “If they didn’t destroy it, they’ll reprogram it, you won’t remember yourself later. They’re already looking for me. So they’re going to make a martyr.” He tried to get in touch, but the radio signal was being absorbed, an antenna was needed, at least a small one, and the signal was short, but powerful — the battery would be charged! And then the hybrid mind (it dawned on both man and the intelligent machine!) 1) cut off the left hand, it is still not needed. And the details of the hand to use! 2) collect all the wiring together — the antenna circuit is ready! 3) water leaked from the roof of the cave and accumulated as a slurry in the corner. “Dig there!” — he dug a hole with his right hand about twenty centimeters. now having two plates of irregular shape — one of the outer metallized layer of the hand and the second vascular with small copper hairs — he buried them vertically with wires, leaving a distance of about 25 cm between them. Moisture leaked into this improvised battery pit from above. Two “plates”, steel and copper, from the remains of a hand, buried vertically in the ground, gave a potential difference! only 1.5 volts, but that was enough. The calculation was this — the beastmen knew the time for the batteries to completely discharge — about thirty days, plus or minus a day. After that, come and pick up the finished one. On the 29th-30th day, they will gather in a flock around the cave and start circling, thinking in advance if there is any trap from the beastmen. “So, — reasoned, Biomax 21st, — it is necessary to go on the air on an emergency wave, on about the 27th day from the moment I lost consciousness. Only SOS is on the air! 27 days for 24 hours is 648 hours, for this time I will charge the batteries to the required level! The body (the human component) will really lose in mass, but that is water. And lie, lie still, turn off all systems except thermal (memory cards, operating system in standby mode). Only five minutes of the session — then loss of consciousness, and then how God will manage — they will receive a signal at the base, they will arrive on an all-terrain vehicle, dig it out … — the memory card will be saved, and then recovery, hospital …”