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We landed on the roof of the main building of the university, which rose in spires to the sky. The jewel in the crown of the Federation, the sons and daughters of every free land sought to get there. But now the building seemed dead, as did the whole city. The lights were on at rare signal posts, designed only to lure the enemy. The stars were not visible at all, they were covered by clouds and barrage balloons that reminded me of huge medusas. The only illuminated point of the huge city was the Ancestral Museum Square.
“It looks like a city under siege,” said May-e-oka, helping me to jump off the wing, “Come on, yes a healthy side, I'll catch you.”
I shook my head and jumped next to her, grimacing at the pain in my shoulder.
"You're not taking care of yourself, Great Worm.”
“As I can.”
At that moment, a siren wailed and searchlights ran across the sky from the sea. Behind them guns whistled, whose shells exploded in the air, illuminating a squadron of flying ships dropping bombs on the city. Many of them either immediately turned around or were shot down. The attack choked as quickly as it had begun.
"Like in ancient halofilms,” May-e-oka whispered.
“It seems that the city is giving a serious rebuff. It's amazing that we weren't shot down on approach.”
"I've turned on the special Dragon Gliding Light mode. We were not visible either on the radar or in the visible spectrum.”
"How did you find out about it?”
"I asked. And the system gave an answer. A convenient thing. Even a child can learn.”
“I have to go down to the city.”
“Go if you have to.”
“Stay here and be ready for takeoff. I'll take this thing," I pointed to the ship's control hoop, "we'll keep in touch.”
“Okay, just make sure it works as soon as you get a decent distance away.”
“Unexpected.”
“What?”
“To see how much you care about me.”
The girl lowered her eyes. I went over and put my hand on her cheek, turned her face to me, and we kissed.
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The streets were empty. Rare shadows flashed in the distance, trying not to attract too much attention to themselves. The stone pavements quieted down, waiting for something, grinding metal railway bridges thrown over them. The boilers that were usually working even at night were dead, and there was no smell of coal around them. The wind shook the chains with signs that creaked plaintively about their happiness lost somewhere in these alleys. Their wish to be a door or at least a window. And not to hang out in the wind, like this city thrown into the abyss of war.
“Haven't seen you for a while,” a voice sounded in my head, “where have you been? Did you manage to get out of the seabed?”
I immediately recognized the voice and realized that it was Rob.
"You wanted to get rid of me?" I answered angrily.
“What are you talking about,” my interlocutor grinned, “I was just conducting surface testing. If I wanted to drown you, believe me, I would have done it earlier.”
“I see you're not doing very well with the Federation either. It seems that military science is not about you.”
“We have already captured the entire east coast. The rest is a matter of time. We are ready, if the city does not surrender before dawn, I will destroy it. You've seen what Mushroobomb is capable of. The rest will surrender themselves.”
“Why do you need all this?”
"And that's a good question, my friend. But I will be able to answer only when you taste the drink that I have prepared. It will give you back your memory and personality.”
“Why do you need me, you're so powerful?”
“You're right, I'm not much of a strategist. I don't know how to destroy. And you have a natural talent… Oh, if you only knew how marvelously you can do it. A master of turning life into ashes. Have you noticed how everything around you turns to dust? People die as soon as you show up.”
Before my eyes flashed pictures of the inhabitants of the Pleya falling to the ground, turning into dust. But it wasn't me. I didn't make them die.
A man appeared around the corner, and our foreheads collided. Rubbing the bruised spot, I turned around, and we both made apologetic gestures to each other. His face seemed familiar to me. I saw him quite recently. But Rob distracted me.
“We must rule together. I create, you destroy. This is my main discovery about this world. Everything is balanced here. One is balanced by the other. We need to be together to achieve… However, you won't understand me until you drink my drink.”
“What will happen to me?”
“Nothing will happen to you; you will just remember who you really are.”
“What will happen to Bike?”
“Was there ever this Bike?”
I finally came out of the alley into the gaslit square. The Ancestral Museum towered in front of me. Huge, made in the form of a cathedral of the time of Agoltei. Decorated with statues of giants holding the arches of the main building. Rob's voice disappeared, and I felt that our connection was interrupted.
There were a lot of people on the square in front of the museum. They built barricades from any available means. Overturned carts, sacks and even a locomotive pipe and pairs of wheels served the cause of the defenders. I came closer, and I was met by strong men in robes with weapons in their hands.
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“I... I need to get to the museum.”
“It's forbidden," a broad-shouldered fellow said loudly, blocking my way with a needle gun at the ready.
"But I just need to..." I tried to object.
"You want trouble, kid?" he growled, twitching the shutter.
After assessing the situation, I thought it was better not to get involved in a confrontation. Even if I scatter the three who came up to me, I can't beat the rest. I was about to leave when I heard a familiar voice.
“What's going on here?”
A thin figure with long gray hair appeared from behind the backs of the big guys.
"Master Thiel?" I was surprised, and my hands lit up, remembering the blows of his pointer.
“Oh moons! Wait a minute. Bike?” the old man was surprised, “Is it really you?”
He came up to me and looked me up and down.
“Yes, you've been battered, my dear. There is no pink pig blush on your face anymore," he said, grabbing my cheek and pulling it left and right, and then turned to the men who surrounded me, "Come on, let him through, I have something to talk about with Master Bike.”
“Master? Sorry, we didn't know. You never know who walks here. The assault is coming soon.”
“Keep your mouth shut, muscle-brain," Master Thiel snapped and led me by the hand through the barricades to the entrance to the museum.
The old man walked quickly and only once looked back at me with what seemed a very frightened look. We entered through the main gate. They were ajar, and a lot of armed people were rushing in and out. There were even more hiding in the museum: women, children, the elderly, the crippled, frightened and crying, they sat wherever possible, occupying floor after floor of the central part of the building, climbing up to the huge pedestal where, as I remembered, there was a sacred DVD box.
"And you haven't seen the cellars yet," Master Thiel chuckled.
“Are there not enough bomb shelters?”
“What are you talking about, my dear? Although, it's better to keep quiet for now.”
The old man led me into a small room on the right wall, where we got into an elevator and went up to a spacious veranda with a balcony. There were a lot of people in uniform here, and I remembered one of them bending over a map. It was Master Akatsin. With a bushy mustache, in a general's uniform, I would not have recognized him if not for the huge nose that covered half of the master's face.
“Look who I brought.”
“What else happened Thiel, do you need to distract… Oh the moon…”
The people gathered around the table stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I looked back at them. Judging by the insignia, I was among the highest ranks of the Federation. To say the least. Before me was the Supreme Council.
"Where's Master Eleanor?" I asked in an uncertain voice.
The audience exchanged glances.
“Who are you, young man, exactly?” a heavyset man in oracle clothes asked me.
“For those who do not know, this is Master Bike, head of the department of the Search for the Ancestors of the free land of Plotania,” Master Thiel introduced me.
"Wonderfosterling of Eleanor..." a woman with a low voice drawled.
"Another one," grunted a thin, middle-aged man in a judge's uniform.
“Maybe it's a diversion?” The Oracle asked.
"Maybe," Master Thiel nodded.
"The curse of Minea is right in the middle of our council. He's going to kill us all. What have you done Andeanast...” the woman with a low voice boomed in fright and clutched at her heart.
The audience retreated from the table.
“Wait, stop the panic, my children,” Master Thiel tried to calm people, “and what if this is our chance?”
“How can you trust a demon in the flesh?” Master Akatsin frowned.
“Judging by his reaction, the guy doesn't really understand what's going on, right?” the old man turned to me.
“That's right,” I nodded and even put my foot to my foot, as I was taught when addressing teachers.
“What do you know about what is happening?” squinting, the Oracle asked me.
"We were attacked from the fifth moon. The glowing stars came down from the sky ...” I spread my hands, “We were bombed in Mineya. I left Master Eleanor there. He told me to sail to the Ops Islands to find technologies that could save us from the aliens. We barely escaped, the bombs caught up with us on the coast and at sea. Then there was a lot of contradictory information, and about the death of Master Eleanor, and the capture of the capital. But I see that the capital is fine. Which means that Master Grummays may be alive…”
“That's right, that's right, my dear," Master Thiel patted me on the shoulder.
"Master Eleanor warned me that the Supreme Council did not approve of his betting on my... abilities. I even met with your agent in the Ops Islands. His name was Kulagi. To my deep regret, he was killed by one of the sailors.”
“What do you know about the work that Kulagi did?” Master Akatsin asked, twitching his huge nose.
"I know he was watching another... 'demon' there,” I said, and immediately a cold sweat broke out on me. I began to remember where I had seen the face of the man I had run into on the street.
"What demon?" the Oracle was alarmed and looked back at Akatsin, “Have you been hiding something from us, Ludoek?”
“What did Kulagi tell you?” Master Akatsin almost growled, knocking me out of my memories.
At that moment, the phone rang and the Oracle grabbed the receiver lying on the table.
“Yes... no... what?" About the moon… They started. Ludoek, do you hear, he's started!
“Everyone to zone two!” the woman screamed.
Master Akatsin jumped up to me and, putting a pistol to my temple, led me by the arm along the balcony in the other direction from the elevator. Master Thiel ran ahead.
"What do you know about the other demon?" Master Akatsin hissed through his teeth.
"She's stronger than me," I mumbled, trying not to hit the statues next to which a big-nosed man was dragging me.
Together they led me into a small room with two doors and pushed me against the wall.
“Speak up," growled Master Akatsin, still holding me at gunpoint.
"You do realize that I can make you shoot yourself, don't you?" I asked angrily, rubbing my sore shoulder.
Frightened, the man jerked and put the gun away.
“Kulagi didn't have time to tell me anything. Except that he hates Immortals.”
"That's right, the cult of ancestors teaches us to cherish death, not cling to life, my child," Master Thiel chuckled.
The building shook and a crash was heard.
“It's started," Master Akatsin sighed heavily and looked at the ceiling.
“What's going on? I asked insistently, feeling the initiative on my side."
“Your beloved Master Eleanor has planned a coup. And right now he is storming this building together with the 10th Mechanized Division of Mausens.”
There was another explosion and the building shook again. There were screams.
"I need to get to the sacred DVD box,” I blurted out.
“It is impossible, there are believers there, they conduct a purification rite, in their opinion, it should…”
“If I don't get there, then we will all die in the Mushroobomb fire. You have no idea what kind of power Ro… has ... more precisely, the red moon…What do you call the invaders?”
“Children of the Stars,” Master Akatsin answered gloomily.
“Children of the stars. Good. They attacked us at sea. The power of this bomb is capable of wiping the entire city off the face of the land. The information I was looking for on the islands, its continuation is here, in the archives of the Outs. These are metal boxes that stand around the perimeter of the sacred DVD box. I have to get access to them and then I can save at least someone. If I can…”
“Wait, my dear,” said Master Thiel, and the building shook again, “do you mean to say that the Children of the Stars are going to destroy the city?”
Dust from the ceiling fell on our heads.
“Yes, they will destroy the city for the edification of others.”
"How do you know that?" Master Akatsin bellowed, raising his pistol, "Thiel, he's lying. This is a diversion. We're wasting time.”
“I'm not lying!” I shouted and pinned the Ludoek to the wall. The weapon flew to the door.
Both masters stared at me in horror. And the worm appeared behind the back of the defending man on the barricades, who was hit with fragments of the statue. When I regained consciousness, both masters looked at me in horror and fear.
“Listen to me, I'm not lying, I do not know why Master Eleanor wants to seize power. But, probably, he has a reason for that, since you are such incompetent rams.”
"My dear, be quiet," Master Thiel said in a gentle and trembling voice, "Come on, let's make a deal.”
"I need to get to the Sacred DVD Box,” I repeated.
“All right, Ludoek, I'll take him, and you go to the headquarters and command. Ok?”
It was hard for me to concentrate because there was a lot of death around me. I could only nod and let Master Akatsin go.
I remember the rest in flashes. The deaths of people intersected with the ritual, which was conducted by the Oracle and his assistants under the shelling of cannons. Many candles were burning. Or it was the screams of the dying. The broken glass of the Museum fell on the fleeing people. And the voices sang the liturgy on the sacred DVD box.
For some reason I remember picking it up. What a sacrilege. But the Oracle just looked at me in tears. The roaring crowd turned from anger to horror when a shell exploded right over their heads. A crowd of believers ran down the stairs, knocking each other down, and I saw this picture from many angles at once. Someone was crushed, someone stumbled and twisted his neck, someone was hit by a shard. And everywhere, everywhere, a worm was waiting for them.
I held the box in my hands and read the annotation, written in an ancient language that only vaguely resembled the language of the Outs. However, I understood it very well now. My training in the neuraldream was not in vain.
“Blade Runner meets Raven. Hyperstyle thriller. Visual feast. A magnificent blend of science fiction and crime drama. This is the winner! John Murdock (Rufus Seawell) wakes up alone in a strange hotel and discovers that he is wanted for a series of brutal murders. His memory has evaporated, and even his beautiful wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly) has become a stranger to him. And so begins the path of unraveling his past, a path that will lead him to a diabolical underground world where he will be continuously pursued by the police and a group of shadow-like creatures known as the Strangers, and where only the terrifying Dr. Schreber (Keifer Sutherland) is able to help him...”
I turned the box over and read the name. “Dark City". What nonsense. Have we been worshipping some second-rate fantasy book all these years? No, wait, it's a movie. I've seen these in the archive. It's like a halonet, only more primitive. DVD videos. A theater stuffed into a box with a kinescope screen. How strange. Why do I remember being handed this box. Antiquities Fair. I put away the air rifle, and the unfunny clown hands me the prize I won. May-e-oka laughs, for some reason she is again without her horns. She takes this very box with the movie from me and runs away into the crowd. I rush after her, stumble, fall. I remember the ceiling flying at me, it falls down like rain and breaks into many grains of sand, touching the floor. I feel the satiety that a worm feels after a long hunger. It overwhelms me. Mechanized armor enters the museum. My head is spinning with pleasure and I lose consciousness.
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