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That night I felt like I was reborn. Not externally, but internally. It's hard to describe, someone has woken up inside of me who is watching all this. And for a long time he moved around the body, examining my wounds and stitches left after quartering. This process was indifferent, I did not feel anything for the severed arms and ribs, on which the skin hung down. Rough seams held the body together without letting it fall apart. The observer did not delve into the details, there was no assessment on his part, the mind was silent. Until someone came up and inserted the brain back into my head, covered it with a piece of skull, and a screen appeared in my mind, and with it the horror and fear of what was happening.
“Hush, hush,” Rob whispered in my ear. “It has already taken root, and soon it will be possible to modify the body.”
“What is it?” a voice screamed in my head.
“Don't worry, it's already done. There's no point in panicking, the worst is over.”
I tried to jump up and escape, but only tore off my hand tied, as it turned out, to the table.
“Here…I told you, don't be nervous," the young man muttered discontentedly and brought more ropes with which he tied my chest to the table more tightly, and then began to sew my arm back on.
I still tried to twitch, but to no avail. From the tension, I turned off and woke up already untethered on the couch next to the table.
The room looked like a mechanic's warehouse. Somewhere there was an electric light, and somewhere candles. Behind the sofa, the rattling metal could be heard.
“Where am I?” I called out in a voice I didn't recognize and looked at myself. The body was whole. The torn and sewn pieces disappeared. I looked at the smooth young skin on a completely unfamiliar torso and horror seized me from the thought that somewhere here, behind my back, or in the dimension above me is…
“Yes, that's right, worm," Rob nodded, appearing from a pile of junk behind the sofa.
I crawled onto the sofa and screamed.
“You monster, what have you done!?”
My hands ran over my stomach and legs, trying to peel off, clean myself of the dirt that stuck to me forever.
“I just wanted to die! I jumped into this shithole to die! I'm tired of living! I'm tired, I don't want to live without you anymore. I can't... live... without... her anymore…”
And then I remembered. I remembered why I jumped, I remembered the Angel being transported to our asteroid, I remembered the task of the Central Computator. I remembered your face. And goosebumps ran down my back.
"That's better,” Rob nodded.
I remembered and remembered, but it seemed that I was simply unable to remember the whole thing. Chunks of my past life were being loaded into my brain. Boring, meaningless life on the launcher without you. And how to find you now? Now that I've become a human-worm… This question took me all day and all evening. And only when the stars colored the sky, I went out to veranda on the roof, where a hand-drawn map lay on the table, held from the gusts of wind by figures of metal horses.
“Everything that could be found on the market.” Rob grinned from a knitted armchair, either referring to the figures on the table, or the rags I was wrapped in.
Beyond the veranda lay a city of red and yellow stone, interrupted in places by dilapidated metal skyscrapers. Houses sloped down the hill to the sparkling bay, where the battered ship of the Outs entered. It was made as if from the same remnants of their four-dimensional ship as Number 4.
“That's right. That's exactly what it is made of," Rob answered my thoughts, getting up and walking to the edge of the roof. Only now I noticed that he didn't open his mouth when he talked to me. And his voice is on a par with mine in my head.
"Moreover," he continued, "our city was founded by people from Number 4. The entire coast is covered by their settlements, the so-called Coast of the Bone. This," the young man waved his hand at the horizon, “is the Khanate of the Dial. It is ruled by the noble Gama the Twelfth, the ruler of the sky and water, the rival of the land.”
Rob walked over and picked up one of the horses on the map. Under it I saw the outlines of the city and the bay, albeit tiny, but recognizable.
“His nationalist policy turned many representatives of the Peoples of the Sea against the Khanate. And their Trade Federation, which is led by his distant relative Vhlang of Almurra Dravor the Fifth, also a native of Number 4, decided to strangle the Khanate by banning any federation ships from entering its ports. This was not enough. The Khanate of the Dial, in order to fill the trade deficit and open access to the southern seas, invaded neighboring Iria, and now suffers a crushing defeat there. But…”
I waved my hand, making it clear that his historical background was too much for me.
“Yes, yes, I'm sorry, boss,” the young man smiled, ”I'm so inspired by our unity that I'm getting ahead of myself.”
I nodded and sat down in a wicker chair, staring at the stars.
“Well?" Rob asked, coming over and offering me a glass of water, which my hands immediately grabbed.
“Well, what?” I said with difficulty and coughed from the liquid that got into the wrong throat.
“Do you feel the worm?” my interlocutor replied with a strong slap on my back. And through this slap I felt that my body has a continuation. Except not here. But somewhere else. Another plane of being, where I had previously felt the movements of the imprint, was now occupied by something else.
“Try to want something…”
Making my way through the palisade of headache, despair and distrust, I wanted them to pass. And my head instantly cleared and became as bright as day. Out of surprise, I dropped the glass of water, and it fell, breaking. But before my very eyes, it gathered back, and the liquid that had spread over the stone floor was inside of it again. The glass levitated in front of my face, then turned over and spilled water on me. Rob laughed, then the water ran off me back into the glass, and glass came back into my hand.
“You can do more than that now. Just wish and the moons will change their way across the firmament. Everything will obey you and even your... beloved…”
I shuddered and tucked my legs under me.
“How…How is this all possible…And what is the price?”
“Well ...” — my interlocutor drawled, “the worm must be fed.”
“With what?”
“It depends on him. But don't worry, it won't have anything to do with you. It's just that the worm's desire will always be attached to your desires. They will be implemented by themselves and will not affect yours in any way.”
“For example?”
“For example ...” Rob thought, and a frightened woman appeared on the floor in front of me. I recognized her instantly. It was Admiral Ivanova. She wanted to scream, but she didn't have a mouth, and she rushed around in mute terror, turning the table over. Next, she charged at me, and I fell back with the chair, trying to jump out of it. But the woman attacked and began to strangle me.
"Wish her to be gone," Rob's voice said in my head.
“A-a-a! Bitch!” I groaned, trying to throw off the attacker.
“Not bitch, wish her to disappear.”
And I wished. I wished her to be back in her metal coffin. The woman's eyes darkened with horror, and she disappeared as suddenly as she appeared. And I was left lying on the cold stone, gasping for air.
And then I noticed something moving behind me. It had more space now in that strange place that I could feel in a way that was inaccessible to me.
“That's the price. Like I said, it doesn't overlap with your goals in any way.”
I struggled to put this concept in my head while I was getting up and putting the chair vertically so that I could crawl into it again and hide from the coolness of the night. As soon as I did that, I immediately threw up.
“Yes, the worm's goals are not clear to us, but is it really important? After all, our goals are clear to us. You're looking for someone you've lost. And I…”
Rob returned to the table, placed it correctly with the power of the worm, returned the figurines and solemnly turned to me.
“As I have already said, the Khanate of the Dial is in a critical situation, and after its fall, all power will be concentrated in the hands of the Trade Federation of the Peoples of the Sea. This will lead to their so uncontrollable strengthening that even the worm's power will not be enough to change this story. And then…Then a lot of what I foresaw will not happen. Therefore, I propose that we bring order to these rebellious continents and subdue them to ourselves in order to direct the scientific and spiritual thought of these people to achieve a higher goal.
“And what is this higher goal?” I asked.
“Take control of this universe. Manage it like a God, a demiurge. We are already immortal, with the power of the worm with us. We just have to reach out.”
He held out his hand to me.
“Come on, brother. Great things are waiting for us.”
I looked at him and could not move, neither body nor mind. Inside I was shaking with disgust. And it would have lasted forever if the military personnel did not come up to the veranda and stopped waiting in front of the table.
“Yes, I completely forgot,” Rob grinned, “today we are entering the game.”
He beckoned me to follow him, and hurried after the soldiers. Reluctantly, I got up and went down after them.
The city was burning all around us. Residents fled in horror from our procession. We moved through the fire-engulfed neighborhoods and soon approached the huge gates. Their doors were knocked out. In the royal palace behind them, wherever my eyes fell, executions took place. I watched as several women and their children were beheaded at once. It was impossible to look at it and I threw up more than once. But I was silent. I was silent because of the fear that was binding me.
I stopped at the wall in a large corridor and for a long time could not understand what I was looking at. And only after a while I realized that it was my reflection. I had a strong youthful body. But something was watching me, watching me from the darkness of the mirror. It moved closer and I saw a worm behind my reflection. He seemed to be grinning, just like Rob. Enjoying the nightmare happening around. The worm crawled up and pushed me. I sensed that he wanted me to go into the reception hall.
There, on the throne sat the noble Gama the Twelfth, the ruler of the sky and water, the rival of the land. His head, torn from his torso, was in his own hands and seemed to be listening attentively to Rob, who was pacing in front of it, saying something and laughing at his own jokes. In the reflection of another mirror in the hall, I saw that a worm was moving behind his back. They were one. So was I with mine. Or did we have one for the two of us…
Two girls were brought into the room. They were the daughters of the Gama. I just knew it and that's it. And I wasn't even surprised that I knew. They were put on their knees in front of Rob. He closed his eyes, and the worm in the reflection bent over the unfortunate and began to chew something in their heads.
There were screams behind me and a puff of smoke. The palace caught fire too. It was impossible to stay here any longer and I ran out to the square in front of the destroyed gate. The whole city was already burning.
"You're crazy, Rob," I mouthed, "I'll never help you. I will destroy everything you create," I repeated in my head, clenching my fists, "and if you want to become a god here, then I will be your devil.
And I rushed to run away, away from this nightmare.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
