Unexpected meeting. Chapter 11

Riek left the board building of the SPC with a gait, demonstrating the inevitable and swift departure of a government courier - not many people could have returned such ships. He decided not to go to the parking of his airborne through an underground greenhouse tunnel, but to walk through the park. A walk in the fresh air should have a beneficial effect on the state of Riek after exhausting hours of communication with government officials. On the approach to the parking lot, he was unexpectedly blocked by a strong man with a clear military bearing, radiating confident hospitality.





- Good day! Allow me to introduce myself - Dhabi, the reception office of the fleet commander. Do you have a meeting today? It so happened that I can throw.
')
“This is happiness that has fallen down,” thought Riek gloomily. - “Then to him hard by appointment, and then right escort. Or a convoy? ”Despite the magnificent ending of the SCM board meeting - Riek didn’t just justify failing, but more than doubled the financing of the new project compared to the already officially closed project - he was completely exhausted by many hours of debate and now he least wanted to continue . "Surely, the commander is already aware of the details of the meeting and wants to use my broken state with profit," Riek frowned at the representative from the management of the combat space fleet, trying to figure out how he could now safely postpone the appointment.

- Riek, if you want, you can move the meeting without any problems, - as if Dabii guessed his thoughts.

Riek looked at the man hopefully. "Yes, really?" - flashed through his head.

“Hmmm,” Riek mumbled, knowing what to say to this unexpected offer.

“In the commander’s schedule, in two weeks there are empty seats, we will only agree on the time,” said Dabius benevolently. “But if you go now, the commander will receive you immediately — I guarantee it!” But if a little later, as planned today, then you have to wait indefinitely - there are some overlays with Hypertech, again they are breaking deadlines on the new ship, ”the representative of the commander complained somewhat offended.

"Comedian", - Riek waved his hand - they say he persuaded, I agree. The car instantly flew up to the talking couple, opening doors on the go.

“Um, here is my aero ...” Riek began to speak, but was immediately interrupted.

- Let's bring back right here. Or wherever you want. If you want your transport, you can ...

“Don't,” Riek stopped the flow of good nature, “but the car itself can proceed.”

“You know, it’s better not to,” objected Dubius, “we still have a closed zone.”

- Actually, this is a car from the garage of the head of the NBS, - Riek began to put pressure on authority - what can we agree with the commander about if he cannot push his assistant?

“Well, just let him clearly repeat the maneuvers of the presenter,” Dabius agreed instantly and without regret, as if he was just waiting for at least some objection from his interlocutor.

- I do not have access to the car through the infoset, I need to get closer to it.

Daby made an inviting gesture and they got into the air car, which, without closing the door, flew up to the parking lot. Riek contacted his car and set it up to automatically pair as a slave. The car immediately reacted: there was a whistling starting sound of an energy converter, electromagnetic resonator engines came on with a characteristic click, the dampers and the car moved silently apart, and the soft roar of the spinning blades opened up gently. The leading air car closed the door and a couple of cars left the parking lot, immediately joining the stream of transports, occupying the highest and smallest air echelon in it.

***

Riak sat opposite the commander. Unlike last time, they were not sitting in the official office of the commander, but in a room, obviously a guest room, which created the informal nature of the meeting. Cups with oily gray liquid, which Riek was not even going to try, stood on a transparent bollard that served as a table. Opposite him sat a tall man, in an ordinary business suit, similar to the one that was on Rake today. The face of a man with shallow eyes was smooth and taut and didn’t stand out against the background of the SCM officials, ending in a thin nose. The impression was slightly spoiled by slightly bulged ears. Age was difficult to determine, but it was felt that he was very solid. "You meet this on the street," Riek thought, "an official as an official, and you cannot say that he has three major successful military campaigns behind his back."

- Riek, great performance on the board. I am impressed and amazed at the same time.

- And what is the defeat of the leadership of our fleet?

“Hehe,” the commander grinned, “you yourself know what it is.” Such warm support from the council and its boundless generosity leaves me with very little room for maneuver. Here it is time to think about defense, and not to go on the offensive.

“Sometimes an offensive is the best way to defend.”

- This is absolutely true, but only under one condition - if you assess the situation correctly. Which, I must pay tribute, you secured for yourself, changing the configuration of your permanent location immediately with lightning speed as soon as you returned from distant worlds. And suddenly, - the commander spread his hands, - the guaranteed defeat turned into a guaranteed victory.

The commander got up and went to the mini-bar, located in one corner of the room. He plunged his hand into one of the cabinets, which helpfully raised his decorative curtain up, as soon as he “understood” that a person pulls his hand towards him. A bottle with a battered label was removed from the opened refrigerated compartment inside the cabinet and the commander returned with a contented look back to his companion, grabbing a couple of glasses.

“So, Riek, you have done a great job.” And do more. Come on clean. When we met for the very first time, I didn’t notice you.

- The first time the audience ended when I didn’t have time to open my mouth. If frankly. - Riek could not restrain himself from verbal parry.

- Well, think for yourself - some kind of another contractor from the NBS, who promises a supertechnology of invincibility of our armies. At the same time, he does not need anything, except for very few of our resources. Nothing out of the ordinary - as always. But it's not about that. After that, we met three more times: two - as with the personal assistant to the head of the NBS and one - as the head of the sixth division of the NBS. Our last meeting was quite official.

- And how. Your as they could push through their demands.

- Yes, Riek, that's right. However, not all so simple. Fleet management is heterogeneous. In it, as in any civilian structure, there are also influential groups, common interests, common tendencies. And the overwhelming majority wanted to see the neurostop exactly as it was supposed to be in the framework of the “Warranty”. Personally, I, ”the commander raised his index finger,“ was not in awe of that already successfully failed implementation of the neurostop. Why? Because the neurostop would build a toggle switch in people, clicking which one could turn it into an ordinary robot. On the one hand, it is convenient. The security men probably did not sleep at night, dreaming of total control of everything and everyone. But from a military point of view ... such technologies have been around for a long time. And they are not at all interesting, since they are rather ineffective. It is not even necessary for a person to get into the head directly - one suggestion can make much more effective fanatics. Do you know what I mean?

“Not really,” Riek did not pretend to be an intellectual. He was interested to hear what the commander would say, since the style of this meeting was strikingly different from all previous ones.

- New neurostop implementation carries less global risks for humanity. But it is also capable of subjugating individual groups of people, or even the whole of society, single to one person or group of people. However, a person remains a person with complete free will, but the word given to him will already mean something. You can build an ideal structure that will not have modern flaws - treason, lies, betrayal.

The commander's chair rolled over and stopped next to Riak.

- Do not think that I am an avid idealist. Or that Arus begins to fall into insanity. However, I have already lived enough to understand that words of honor and dignity are not an empty sound. And they are needed both from a purely practical side, and for a philosophical understanding and understanding of their lives. Any construction needs bonding material, otherwise it will not last long. Once I caught a famous pirate on the periphery. I had to deal with them personally, since he very much gutted our communications. At that time, I commanded only part of a small fleet. The guy was not stupid, but still got into one of the traps. And what do you think? I let him go! Because his honor was incomparably greater than that of many of our officers. Although his freedom, of course, he worked. Even with interest.

The commander paused and picked up the bottle.

- I understood all the risks of neurostop. First of all - the loss of human influence of willpower on their own destiny. Even now, at times, - the commander made an indefinite wave of his hand, - has a very weak effect. But that would be a total loss of willpower. I would not want humanity to follow this path of development. However, I could do little. But now that the positions of the two groups in the fleet have weakened, I can breathe more freely. Some odious personalities who were betting on the neurostop soon — the commander sighed dramatically — to our great regret, they would leave our ranks. By your failure, you have strengthened my influence.

“Here is the old wolf,” Riek thought, “you didn't even miss your personal advantage here.” At the same time, he looked inquiringly at the commander. He caught his eye.

“Why am I telling you all this?” - The commander thoughtfully turned the bottle in his hands. “I followed you after our second meeting.” The fleet intelligence gathered you with a voluminous dossier. You impressed me. Purely human qualities. You always keep your word. I have never allowed myself, as is customary, the complete trampling of rivals, even when it could be done without detriment to themselves and they, frankly, completely deserved it. You have an impeccable business reputation, you always have your own point of view and you will never bend over another. Yes, in many respects your success is ensured by the invisible patronage of the head of the NBS. But you have not been spoiled by either significant power or big money. And this, Riek, is very rare. You stand out pretty much against the top of our society. And I think that such a person should be engaged in neurostop technology.

Riek was flattered, but did not even show the form. The words of this person could not be overestimated for the future project. Even if he was playing his game now, few could boast of such an arrangement of Commander Arous at least in words.

“Especially,” Arus grinned, “our hero of today's media has succeeded in what many, very many people have tried to do over the next couple of centuries. What are you so okhmur Dyad?

Riek did not immediately realize the background of the issue, but quickly found his way and decided to take advantage of the situation. The goals of the commander today were the same as everyone else - to establish contacts with the immediate representative, perhaps having enormous powers, the head of the NBS. Riek perked up, looked meaningfully at the commander and drew himself in a pathetic tone.

- No fortress can keep defense forever!

- Exactly! - Arus was delighted and looked at Riek with a sly one. - Well, and how is she, this fortress? How long is it taken? Will the garrison not revolt?

“Mmmm ... owning this fortress is a dream of any commander,” Riek tried to give an enthusiastic look to his face. - And the garrison has long surrendered. I now cherish him and cherish.

The interlocutors laughed. The commander looked at the glasses and they slid along the surface of the table, stopping a centimeter from its edge. The bottoms of the glasses were thickened, apparently containing some kind of device, Riek realized that the power supply control mechanism and coordination system was located in the glass curbstone. However, all things were transparent and visually nothing was visible. Appointment of the whole structure, apparently, was to impress the guests.

“This is it,” Arus unwrapped the bottle with a label to Riek, on which little could be disassembled, is a relic. Do you know how old she is? Once, in my youth, there was one brawl on the periphery. The union officially did not take any part, since these were typical showdowns of outsiders. Several worlds united in two alliances and decided to slightly change the limits of their influence. The forces of both sides were approximately equal, which was to ensure balance and mutual restraint, but for some reason a full-scale military conflict arose between the alliances. The problem was that one of our research centers was located nearby. Which could well take one of the parties to the conflict. Of course - purely by chance, exclusively through ignorance, and even then returned on demand. The command tasked to urgently evacuate the scientists and the results of their work. Typical such an operation performed by special units of the fleet. But this time they decided either to make secure, or, on the contrary, arrange an internship - they connected a young station wagon to the operation. At first everything was fine. While there did not arrive. The "Research Center" turned out to be a whole planet with a small, but already settled population. The only planet in that star system officially did not belong to anyone. Do you understand what a "draw" planet is habitable on the periphery at that time? - Arous thought about something. - And now, in other places, little has changed. The arriving group had a clear order and they immediately began to carry it out. But the wagon ... In general, there was a dilemma in front of him - to evacuate only our people and leave the planet or try to do something. And what will you do if you formally submit to the captain of almost any ship in the warrant? That's what you would do, Riek?

- I? I do not know the situation, resources, their capabilities.

- Yes, the question is simple - to carry out a formal order and get out or do something? No matter what.

“Well ...” Riak was confused. - I'm not a wagon. And I don’t know much about military tactics and strategies. Purely from a human point of view if?

- Yes it is. Come on.

- Apparently, the independence of the planet provided the Union? It all depends on political agreements. The SCM cannot compensate for the mistakes of the governments of each planet of the worlds loyal to us. Although it seems to be not the case. And ... in any case, to leave the world to the mercy, having previously promised him something, no matter what, independence and security is somehow ... unfair. Moreover, it wouldn’t have been worth bringing there just a couple of warships on duty for some time.

“Not fair,” repeated the commander, “by honor, right?” This world has been holding for more than one century literally on simple words about its connection with the central worlds. Outsiders, however, did not strongly favor the Union. And the farther from the center - the more hostility manifested itself. Do you understand what would happen to the population of this world? This world was collected from the nearest worlds by people sympathetic to the Union - not everyone was satisfied with the local order, when lawlessness was sometimes erected into law. In the same world, the SPS laws, although they were somewhat formal, but the conditions and quality of life were clearly higher, the rights of citizens meant something, and the government worked towards the balanced development of the whole world, and not just its own limited world. On the planet lived retirees with their families. The fleet used the space of this star to jump on expeditions to an unexplored part of space. It was in this world that meetings were held with the participation of the CMS officials and some issues were resolved in the whole sector.

Arus uncorked a bottle and carefully poured quite a bit of clear liquid into each of the glasses. He closed the bottle and put it back on the table.

- I don’t know what the political games started there, but the generalist didn’t like this approach. When the evacuation was completed, he expressed his opinion. But orders are not discussed and on the same day the group started back. At the moment of launch, no one noticed that a rescue capsule shot off from one ship towards the planet. The control system of the ship also did not notice anything - the wagon knew its business.

Arus leaned toward Riek and looked at him conspiratorially.

- And imagine. There is no fleet or army on the planet. The forces of law and order and then some flimsy. From the operational situation it is clear that one of the alliances will try to get this world in hand. Yes, there was nothing to try. It would seem that the fate of the world has already been decided. You can go against fate, you can take it, but it does not affect the final result.

Riek already understood that the commander told his story, which everyone knew and he wondered what Arus would tell beyond what Reku already knew.

“Well, in general, you have already understood everything,” Arus seemed to have read Riek’s thoughts. - Could I assume that I would be so wildly carried from the very beginning? It could well be assumed that the entire population would unite and class differences would be erased in the face of a common threat. I gathered all the military, the local elite gave their paramilitary units and equipment. At first there was no order; I had to personally convey to everyone that such a subordination in a rather trivial way. Yes, we could effectively repel the first assault group, which probably would have come to the planet as a resort. But with the second, with the advent of heavy machinery, we had no chance.Who could have imagined that there was a non-working attack aircraft with serviceable engines. That the pilot of the attack aircraft from the first ship arrived in the system, during landing, will kill the assault module and the landing party. What will happen from two attack aircraft to do one literally overnight, it will take off, even fly to orbit and dock with the ship. And a handful of people with a much better internal organization will manage to take control of the whole spacecraft without causing significant damage. A ship in outer space is already a universal element. But the luck continued and then. On the captured truck of weapons only weak EMFs were standing. What kind of battle can you win on such a ship? That's why I used it as a brander against one of the two new arrivals in the system. And the second we again captured, - grinned Arus. And this one,already a warship, for a long time became the flagship of the non-existent fleet, about the power of which we were broadcasting on hyperlinks in all directions.

Arus thought for a moment.

— . , . , – . , . . . , , , , , , , . , , , . . . , , – , , . , — , — . . .

Arous turned to Reek.

— , . , , , , , , . , , . . , . . , , . , , «», «». , , : « »? . , .

, , , . , , , – ? . , , – , . . .

— , . . – . – , , , -, , , . , . . . , , . . , . . . , — . — . , .

— ? — .

, , – . .

— , , , … ? . , – , . , – , .

.

— . , , . .

, , , . . . , , , ? . . . « – », — , , . , . - . . , . , .

— , — , , , — . .

. , , .

— .

— , — . — … - .

“Come on,” said Arus with a wave of his hand. - In the list of projects your work has one of the highest priorities. And I understand the volume, so you do not hurry. With funding and project support from the fleet, consider that you have no problems - not at all impudent. If you need a meeting, contact Dabia and he organizes everything.

***

The head of the sixth division successfully passed the identification and entered the elevator. On the elevator panel the number -24 was lit and the elevator imperceptibly began to move down. The neural network call of the personal AI disturbed Riek as soon as he started moving.

- Good evening, Riek. Welcome to the complex "Nipa-2". You have two local messages left.

- Give them, in order of receipt.

- The first message was received yesterday afternoon, the sender Birrent Xon: “Hello Riek. I understand that your business is more important now, but I have a small question about the architecture of the new neural network. If you can, please give me about five minutes, no more. Let me know how you can. I am all the time in the complex. The second message is received this afternoon, the sender Birrent Xon: “Hello Riek. No meeting required. We have ideas, I think in a few days to give you a preliminary report and discuss the really important issues. ”

Finding out the current location of his assistant, Riek gave the new command to the elevator and he stopped at -19. Coming out of the elevator, Riek walked along a wide and high corridor and turned into his first left branch.

“Received message marked urgent,” Rieka suddenly reported to the neural network.

Riek got acquainted with the message from Dyad Ivor. "Hello dear. The day after tomorrow we have to be at a party about opening a new something. There will be the right people, we will meet. Of course, we should be there together, I will think about the model of our behavior. Contact me tonight. ”

- . , , , . . . . , , . , , . , , . , , . , : , - . , . . .

Riek passed a third of the room, when silence was broken by an indignant voice from behind the distant partition.

- Yes, this can not be!

- Well, yes, of course, how many times did I hear that yesterday?

Riek stopped. His colleagues argued enthusiastically about something. One of the votes clearly belonged to Berent.

- I've already checked everything. Three times! I, like, have no errors.

- No or “like no”? - sarcastically repeated his opponent.

- Well, see for yourself. - There was a sound of a rolled chair. - That it works the same?

“It works,” agreed the man with the voice of Birente.

- Next comes the usual splitter. Not active. Not customizable. Symmetric. If there is a disturbance on his way out, then there are others, right?

- True, it is, of course, yes. Only ... It is weak.

“Yes, this is understandable,” the interlocutor interrupted him, “it doesn't matter.” It is important that at least something was.

- Well, okay, there are still further NUShki. But you didn’t think that somewhere there is not enough level to excite the input stage in the neural amplifier?

- Yeah, the rest is enough, but this is not enough?

- Well, maybe the channel is bad.

- Yes, not bad, we yesterday removed the transfer characteristics.

- Ah ... yes, exactly ...

- Here! - rejoiced his interlocutor. Individually it works. Together - no. I measured everything again today separately. Not lazy. All the same.

“Nonsense is again some kind,” Beenrenth said thoughtfully. - Listen, if you compare what you shot yesterday with today's data?

“I did already,” said a second voice sadly, “everything is the same.”

“Nuuuu ...” Birdent drawled. - So let's do it. The excitation is fed to the input circuit.

- Yes.

- Then it is transmitted to the nodes, something is done there and given out on the chain further. Here is the divider, followed by the amplifier and all this then goes to the transmitters. Eh! .. Well, return the scheme back. Taaaaa ... I don’t understand anything - is it possible to continue going straight ahead?

- There is still a repeater with a limiter, and then yes - right at the synapse.

- Taaaaa. How do we evaluate our experiments?

- I have implemented biomarkers for debugging. I am following a marker or chain. So I check everything separately. As the data sets, a statistical probabilistic map of the states of each node is constructed, depending on the state of the other nodes.

- Binary markers?

- Yes, where what. Overwhelmingly, yes - binary. But closer to the exit are already more difficult - with them you can assess the level of change in membrane potential. They must at least somehow work out - it cannot all go to zero!

- And how is it checked together?

- And together checked in the complex. Well I can not track long chains - the signal goes out without the support of the general potential. Therefore, everything is powered.

- So you can not measure the problem output without a long chain?

- Yes. , . , . .

. , , . – . , , . , , , .

— , , , , — .

— , . . - ? , , - ? , – , . … . ?

— , , .

- For a long time. It is necessary to create an environment. An object. Implement debugging. Then a few seconds of experience and the material is sent to the utilizer, and the data - to decrypt. In principle, I can automate, but there are questions of alignment of level markers - yes, I’m trying to describe what, where and when. There are standard solutions, but they do not work well with this object. I suggest another way.

- Which one?

- You can make a technological challenge and put an impulse on it, closer to the exit. But this time.

- Not a good idea. But for the evaluation will come down. How much time is needed?

- Day or two. To mess around for a long time. And you said that the boss had something there almost today.

- Do it. Still need to find out. Although the curve method - the configuration will change. But you can check the correctness of such a method - you simply check the operation of the system in all individual ways for which we have already accumulated data. It is necessary to achieve a match. If it matches, let the test signal to your technological input. Let's see what the results will be, and then we will think what to do next. I have already canceled the meeting with the head. In the end, he now is not at all up to us, and we don’t have to pull it for such a technical nonsense - we'll figure it out for ourselves. For these days I will tighten up my results, think over the overall picture, and then with the results and reflections let's go to the boss.

- Something I feel that in a day or two there will be little information. Here ... every step is hard and nothing is clear.

“Hehe,” Beervant's voice smiled good-naturedly. - I'm used to getting a standard auto test, and then sit down to look at the graphics? Their correlation with the already existing base, too, the calculator does almost automatically. You are required to evaluate the results in essence. But you - a real job. But you will learn something, experience will be a real development. - Berenth paused. - Calculate the parameters of additional input - show me in advance before you do something.

Riek did not wait for the end of the conversation and quietly left the room, returning to the elevator and going down to -24 floor. Passing through one of the closest doors, he found himself in his apartment. On the way to his office the jacket was dropped on the guest sofa. The study was a long room in which there was a table with a row of chairs, and sofas along the walls. There was no other furniture in the office, the long table was empty. Riek stood in the doorway, then walked inside. When the owner of the room came to life. On the walls, displays were indistinguishable from the off-wall walls. A hologram lit up in the center of the table, some areas of the table came to life with displays.

. . . ? ? . . , , , , , , , . ? , . . , – , . , . , -, . . , , . . - , , , . - , , . , ? Never!What then is the meaning of a sequence of characters, if the performing party does not even think about such things? Was the result really so important for the clergy? Maybe they were pressured too? Riek thought it was worthwhile to more fully gather information on people involved in the work of the Church. Yes - all these are important things that you have to do. And they definitely need to deal with. And this work is no more insignificant, and perhaps much more important than what Riek was doing in laboratories. But these two people could not be returned - an irreparable mistake was made.

. , , , , . . , , , , . . , , , . , . .
A minute later, Dyad entered the office again. Nothing changed. This is no good, she thought irritably.

- Riek?

- Yes.- Riek's chair described a half turn. “Sorry, I wanted to contact you after I got here, but ...” Riek hesitated a little, I wondered a little.

Riek rose from the table and somehow uncertainly went to meet Dyad.

- For these days I spun so that they merged into one long day. Hope this is not something urgent? I understood about the party - I will move my schedule.

-. . . , . , .

— , — .

, , , — .

“When you became the head of the division, I pointed out to you that you should pay attention to strengthening your own personal,” she highlighted this word, “security.” Did you develop your neural network? Got skills? Constant training is not necessary, but some things must be worked out at the level of automatism.

Dyad approached him and took her arm. Riek looked at her.

- What was it now ... what is this show? The panel is broken. What for?

- Leave the application and technicians will immediately replace your panel. - Dyad dragged Rikek, who did not understand, to the exit on the go, speaking continuously about everything. - Today and tomorrow you will not be here anyway. These days you really did a great job. Although on the advice you allowed yourself too much. I think the meeting with the commander was just as successful - then you will tell. Aruz you probably watered his many years of rubbish. Now you just need a rest. It is necessary to wean from continuous work for days on end, you are now required to systematically work on a fresh mind.

At the exit, Dyad glanced at the luminous wall panel with the images of Laer and Lex and ordered to extinguish it. “In the near future, he will not think about them. And then ... then it will be no time for them. "

---

Unexpected meeting.Chapter 11.
Text version: 1.0.3.
Date of first publication: 07/18/2017.
Last edited Date: Sep 28, 2017

---

The full table of contents is given in Chapter 1 .

Quick navigation:
Chapter 10 - previous chapter.
Chapter 11 is the current chapter.
Chapter 12 - the next chapter (in development).