x
We descended from the ship onto a wide landing pad. As the ship's sensors showed, the air outside was clean and saturated with oxygen, which made me a little sleepy. All kinds of machines were scurrying around, creaking and squeaking in their incomprehensible language. A planet hung over us taking up a half of the sky, and no matter how I looked, I could not find a Sea of Whales, islands or at least some familiar relief.
"I want to tell you something else," May-e-oka said, taking my hand.
"I'm not ready, but come on," I shrugged.
“This time... ah, sharaman. I'm with you… As you said," the girl began with difficulty choosing her words, "I disconnected from the Great Mother. I felt, with you, that I can choose for myself. That I have my... you know? You don't understand anything. It's like stopping…I don't even know what to compare it with.”
She let go of my hand and walked away a few steps.
"I've never had an I. I didn't want anything. And then you show up, with your advice," she stamped her foot, "and now I want. And do you know how it hurts? I want us to survive. So that I can be with you… It's built into me. I'm still a program…”
May-e-oka closed her eyes.
"There are no tears," she said after a pause, “Do you understand? I can't cry.”
I went over and hugged her. At first, she jerked her shoulder, but then she went limp and leaned on my shoulder, shaking in sobs.
"I'm... crying... without tears," she said with difficulty, "what a shame…”
Calming down, she straightened up, turned and looked me straight in the eyes.
“If we survive, I want us to have a house on the mountain, and I need my own separate room, not a common barrack. Your black goo woman wants privacy. And if I blow up those horns, I'll do it for you. And not for the sake of some common good, about which your mother has eaten my whole head.”
“Okay,” I nodded, “if I drink a drink… And it won't be me anymore, blow it up. Agreed?”
“How will I understand this?”
“You'll understand.”
I hugged May-e-oka and kissed her hard.
"Two illusions are going to fight the villain from the moon," she laughed.
"There's nothing else we can do," I smiled.
One of the machines bumped into my leg, I turned around and saw a platform with seats approaching.
"I didn't mean to interrupt you," Rob's voice rang in my head, "but I can't wait to meet you in person."
I invited May-e-oka to the platform, and sat down next to her. It took us along the buildings of an amazing and pretentious shape, created in the fantasy of a creature addicted to the maximum efficiency of space. Each cylinder and cube, each conveyor took up exactly as much space as they needed. Everything was moving and glowing, collecting and assembling new details. There was almost no free space inside the block. But between the blocks, which occupied a space of 200-300 square meters, there were rather wide avenues, over which parts crawled from block to block on travelators. Machines scurrying around the car were inspecting something, removing defects, reprogramming various modules. And they whistled furiously, squeaked, creaked and rustled.
"You can go crazy here," I said aloud.
“Yes, it is not very familiar to the human ear. But I can't stop production now," Rob laughed.
I grinned too. May-e-oka looked at me with concern.
"He's talking to me," I said loudly.
“Yes," came a voice from a speaker that floated by, "forgive my impoliteness. Now I will address you both. And so…”
The platform turned, and we saw a tall building in the shape of a truncated ball, into which a huge door led. The avenue leading to it was even wider, platforms packed with finished, packaged products were moving on it. Ours settled into the tail of a column of five large ones, and we flew with a breeze to the main building.
As we got closer, we could see that the cargo platforms were turning right in front of the gate and disappearing into the tunnels. But ours stopped in front of the entrance and froze. Something rattled and creaked under the gate, and the doors began to open, intending to engulf us.
“I have prepared a little surprise for you,” Rob's voice sounded above us, “after all, you are my first guests. I put a lot of work into it. Please…”
The gate opened for a long time. And when the distance was sufficient, the platform squeezed between the doors, and we found ourselves in a hall that was a copy of the same truncated ball as the building itself, but much smaller. Rows of columns stretched along the edges, and above us hung a multi-layered chandelier made of thousands of small light sources that flickered like sunlight on water. Metal figures appeared from behind the columns and ran to the center of the hall, where the stone floor was so polished that it reflected it all, making the space larger and wider than it actually was. There were a lot of figures, and they began to climb on top of each other, creating a pyramidal structure to the beat of the music. I didn't even notice how it started playing, but now it was impossible to separate what was happening from the melody. And then Rob started singing.
“I'll come! I will come to your feet, to cling to your eyes. I will become the air of your hopes! I will dig up in my memory all the best silences of the minute to wait. In the arms of waiting for carelessness…”
The figures scattered from the pyramid, forming with their bodies the streams of the sea and the ship on which a lone captain stood and peered into the horizon. Soaring under the dome where the chandelier hung, they began to rotate around it and fly inside, ringing and sparkling.
“You're a bird of the sk-y-y-y-y-y!” Rob thundered.
"He's off-key," May-e-oka whispered in my ear.
"I haven't heard," I replied, completely mesmerized by the performance.
“I'm telling you; he doesn't reach half the notes.”
“Yes, I just heard it.”
The magic of what was happening began to slip away. The figures opened with flower buds, like birds descended from the ceiling, but the false voice now itched on the back wall of consciousness. Soon we lost interest in the performance. May-e-oka got up and, jumping off the platform, went towards the dancers. Anxiously, I followed her. Metal robots with primitive facial features moved jerkily and noisily up close. They surrounded us and began to rise on each other's shoulders, forming a cone that connected to the chandelier on the ceiling. The robot structure swayed, making me dizzy.
“I'll just knock on the door, you'll open it! I'll come back and everything will be as before. I'll be back ho-o-o-o-o-o-o…”
At that moment, one of the robots holding the entire structure stumbled and they all fell down, not counting those who caught on the chandelier. The rumble was such that we covered our ears.
Forcing myself to open my eyes, I saw how some robots were still trying to dance on the wreckage of their fellows. They pick up their broken arms and legs and spin around with them, stumbling over other details.
“Stupid cans. They can't take the planet or perform a dance...” Rob's voice croaked at us and the robot heads began to explode one by one, scattering fountains of their insides.
After getting out of the mountain of metal corpses, and dodging a couple of decapitated wretches who fell from the chandelier, I found that May-e-oka was absent.
“Don't worry, Master Bike,” Rob grinned, “your friend went for a walk by herself, I didn't touch her.”
“We met, as you probably wanted. What now?”
“Straight to the point. Excellent, young man, excellent!”
A luminous pulse passed along the wall on the opposite side of the hall, and it opened with new doors. However, one of the slides was half stuck.
“Yes," Rob sang out, "you see, that's what you have to deal with. That’s a world domination here.”
I proceeded to the new door. Behind it was another hall, the right half of which was a huge glass surface, in the center shone a large round screen. As soon as I got inside, I felt like I was taking off.
“Don't worry, dear guest, it's just weightlessness. Created solely for the convenience of observation.”
To the right and left of me, fluttering machines with mirror surface appeared, which with their rotating wings carried me closer to the glass. Beyond which the disc of the planet and the lower moons crossing it could be seen. The one that had recently formed was floating right next to the surface. I stared with all my eyes at the ocean, which it dissected with its gravity. Was it moving under or above me? My head refused to understand the state of things in space. But the most striking news was how the disk ended. Because from the shadow side of the planet there was a view of…
“Yes, my friend, that's her," Rob whispered in my head, "an anomaly.”
Something was crawling out from behind the disk, warping and deforming space. It was impossible to understand whether the planet was being destroyed and falling into the depths of this indescribable space, or vice versa. Speechless, I watched the fluid movement, as if an object was rotating in front of me, but the edges of which I could not see, and it itself was somewhere beyond my perception.
“I thought...”
“I also thought that she was somewhere near the planet,” Rob interrupted me, “but it turned out that she is a planet.”
The anomaly was opening up more and more, and even though the planet was not illuminated from its side, a glow emanated from the center, lighting up all layers of this indescribable structure. And like thunderclaps, luminous pulses pierced it from time to time.
“No matter how many ships I have sent, not a single one gets in touch.”
“A white hole?” I suggested, remembering the astronomy course from the neural dream.
“No, something else. The angel on the other side called her the Anomaly. Not a single multidimensional being was able to penetrate and return back. In all layers of the multiverse, it remains impassable in the opposite direction. No connection to those universes.”
“And here? How does the two-slit experiment work here? Does the multi-world interpretation work?”
“It's good that you have prepared, my friend, but I have to disappoint you, interference manifests itself in the same way as in the universe where we come from. But the mathematical basis is different. Why do you think your comrades from the Federation cannot sufficiently master the technology of Outs?”
“And why?”
“Because the Out devices stop working over time due to differences in fundamental mathematical properties. Not only are these properties still only being formed, but it seems that they are striving for beauty.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see, in the mathematics of the multiverse, the presence of beautiful solutions is not necessary. Complex, heaped constructions are a property of the multi–world perception of superreality. A beautiful solution eliminates the need in many worlds, but also cements the properties of reality. No dark matter for you, no singularity. That's why my work here is so difficult. I have the science of Outs, and I need to rework it for new physical laws. Who would have thought that this would be my obstacle.”
“For what?”
“What do you mean for what?” Rob was genuinely surprised, “To return home.”
"You don't like it here?"
“How can you like it in a world where you are the only god. An unwanted, eternally dissatisfied god. Tormented by not knowing what you should be, so that these geeks below will love you. I bring them progress, equality. And not feudal squabbles and slavery, in which they will get bogged down for many more centuries. Moreover, you remember the words of the Angel. No one came back from here. So, we have to be the first.”
“An angel?”
“You won't remember without a drink.”
“So, it turns out that the Federation knows about the anomaly?” I changed the subject.
“Why?”
“They have…" I began and stopped, not sure if Rob knew about the Irian tower on one of the moons.
“And you're talking about this frozen walking giant on the 7th moon. So, the connection works on it. Damn it. How tired I am that I have to check everything myself," with these words I noticed how several flying machines took off and moved to the neighboring moon, "the 7th is always turned to me with the same side. The poor devils, apparently, never looked down. Thanks for the tip.”
“You're welcome ...” I muttered in frustration.
“Don't get upset, Master Bike. Surprise for surprise.”
At these words, my consciousness sank into the Echo of the World. I was in the dark again, and a gigantic worm rushed past, tearing up space. I immediately realized what kind of sound I had heard here before. This worm, like a drill, punched through the echo space, with a roar and noise, from which I covered my ears, and found that I did not have them. I was a set of reflections again.
The same young man appeared next to me, who once flicked me on the forehead.
"Look," he said in Rob's voice and held out his hand to the worm. It froze instantly.
My viewing angle changed, and I was able to see the worm in its entirety. It consisted of rings of different colors, which then passed into each other with a gradient, then sharply narrowed and changed color. Like waves of time, imprinted on the host.
“I discovered this recently.” Rob said, standing next to me, “Everything it ate is recorded on it, from the very beginning of existence. Whether it's local or not, I don't know, but it was here before we arrived. It originated at the same point as everything that exists. Turned on as if on command. With only one purpose. Find and absorb the source.”
“You read it on it.”
“Yes, I had to work a lot. By the way.”
A very short worm appeared above Rob's long worm. And I realized that this one is mine.
“It says the same thing on your friend.”
"You've got a well-fed worm.”
“Yes, I didn't feed mine with moral hunger.”
“And what is this source that they are looking for?”
“I have no idea, but according to my assumptions, it is somewhere in the anomaly.”
Rob's worm raced back into the depths of its tunnels, and mine curled up and lay still. I was yanked out of the Echo World, and I was back in front of the planet in a giant observatory. Images of various geographical wonders appeared on the round screen.
“I continue to explore the surface, and I have found several intriguing places, but the most important goal is to dive into the anomaly itself. Even if we fail to step back into our world, we need to get information about the source in it.”
"And you need me for that."
“You're smart, Master Bike, but not completely. I don't need you. I need who you really are.”
"Why would he or I help you? After all, it is clearly suicide to plunge into this... something.”
"Your master cannot die, unlike you. And even if this body dies, through the worm I will know in whom it will be reborn. He has been dead already; I don't think it will be a burden for him.”
“I have completely different plans.”
“Which ones?” Rob chuckled, echoing through the hall from the loudspeakers.
“To live. I want to live. An ordinary life. Without your voice in my head, without a war, without a death-hungry worm.”
“Alas, this is impossible. You're already here. And you have no choice, my boy.”
I felt trapped. But confidence was already forming in my head, with which I turned around from the glass and, trying to find where Rob was watching me from, shouted.
“You're in for a surprise. You like surprises.”
"This one?"
At these words, several doors opened in the wall opposite and from there floated in my direction ... May-e-okas. There were hundreds of them. They smiled and held out their hands to me. I began to push away from them in horror. But they started pulling and hugging me from all sides, eventually completely immobilizing me. One of them floated to my face, holding a cup on a saucer in her hand.
I called for the help of wishes, but the worm was empty. I tried to turn away from the cup, but May-e-oka's hands grabbed me and turned me towards her, opening my mouth.
“Don't be afraid. It won't hurt," the one who brought me the cup said gently in a metallic voice.
My jaw was opened and a sweet liquid poured into my mouth. The girls' fingers began massaging my throat, it gave in and swallowed the drink.
ns 15.158.61.51da2
