Counter strike. Макс Глебов
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I think it was purely out of habit. We haven’t addressed this problem seriously yet, waiting for the professionals from the Solar System.
One of the cruiser’s medical staff suggested we try injecting the quargs before the procedure with various medications, that do not cloud the mind, but suppress individual reactions of the body to external stimuli. The idea seemed interesting to us, and we started with anxiolytics, substances that dispel anxiety and fear. It went better right away. The full range of measures, including the application of drugs, the refined legend and demonstrative successful «examinations» of several other quargs and the patient himself before the beginning of the real procedure, increased the survivability of removing the block to 60 percent. But the real breakthrough was the use of several neuroleptics, which were chosen with regard to the characteristics of the quarg organism.
These substances were originally intended to control psychosis and behavioral disorders such as increased aggressiveness and mania, but we used them to delay the patient’s death order from the brain block for at least a few seconds. As it turned out, this delay was enough to prevent such an order from being generated before the block disintegrated.
Survival rates have risen to almost 100 per cent, and memory damage has been greatly reduced, but it has not been completely avoided, and Lit-ta regretted that it was likely to be unavoidable in the future.
“That’sss it, Igorrr, I did what I promisssed,” said Lit-ta after another successful removal of block, “My ssstaff will ssstay here with you and work as long as it takesss, and I have to fly.”
“Aren’t you curious to know what the prisoners without the blocks will say?”
“It’sss interesssting, of courssse it’sss interesssting,” I was shown the tongue again, “but my lizzzarrrds will tell me. It’s time to go, Rrrearrr Admirrral.”
“It’ll take you half the time to get back there. We placed a chain of hyperbeacons between the endpoints, and our latest technologies allow us to do longer jumps with them. It’s gonna take less accelerations and less pauses.”
“Fine. I’m waiting forrr you to pay me a visit, Igorrr. I have sssomething to ssshow you in my sssystem. Rrrememberrr, you’rrre welcome to any lizzzarrrd now. Our sssuperior leaderrr has confirmed your ssstatusss.”
“That’s for certain, Lit-ta, at the very first opportunity. I have one last question. You gave a very impressive speech in your meeting with the Federation President. I liked the way you treated our relationship after the victory. I want a lasting peace, too, for personal reasons of late, as well,” I smiled. Lit-ta already quite understood why I’m making up faces and showing her my teeth, “and I want to offer you an idea that I think will help.”
“Lissstening with great interrressst,” Lit-ta tilted her head to the side, which meant increased attention to the words of the interlocutor.
“Our paths of development are too different. Technologies are very different, they are so different that it’s going to be very difficult for us to take them from each other. But that’s a good thing, it’ll make us work together and depend on each other. Isn’t it a unifying factor?”
“Sssoundsss rrreasssonable. What’sss next?”
“Next, I’d like to suggest to create a fleet of ships based on a mixture of our technologies. At first, of course, it’ll be rough stuff, but we need to learn to combine our technologies and get them to work together, and, very importantly, ships should have mixed crews. People will be responsible for their share of the equipment, and lizards for their own.”
“We can considerrr it,” Lit-ta nodded her head, “I’ll passss it on to the sssuperior leaderrr…”
“I guess I didn’t explain it very well,” said I, “it’s not an abstract idea for the future. I want to start right now. I need a perfect reconnaissance ship. I was very impressed with your engines. They’re weaker than our engines, but when they’re working they’re not lowering the ship’s camouflage, which is more than important to a recon ship. I want to prepare a ship with a hybrid propulsion system, more simply, with two engines, yours and ours. Why do you think I asked you to work with the quarg prisoners? I needed information. I wanted to know where the enemy was holding the captured humans and lizards and what they were doing to them. One way or another, I’m gonna get that information out of them, and then I’ll need a ship on which I can get to the right points in the quarg rear without being spotted, and find out everything in detail. Lit-ta, I do not know about you, but we, humans, have lost nearly ten billion prisoners in 20 years of war, if you count not only the soldiers, but also the civilian population of the conquered planets. If any of them are alive, I want them out of there.”
“You want to smuggle billionsss of people and about as many lizzzarrrdsss out of the quarrrg rrrear? But that’s impossible…”
“I know a general… I’ll introduce you someday. Now, he can do almost anything in terms of cargo and passenger transportation, as well as supplying troops with everything they need. You may not believe this, but I don’t know the problems in this area that this man can’t solve within a reasonable time frame.”
“I think I’ll ssstick around forrr a few more daysss,” said Lit-ta after a small pause, “Your people will benefit from my help in extracting the information we need from our captive enemies. And… my ship. I’ll leave it to you, Rrrearrr Admirrral, along with the crrrew and my ssspecialistsss who repaired your crrruiserrr. I’m sssurrre you’ll be able to give me comforrrt aboard yourrr ssship when I go home.”
The assistant entered the President’s office as always without a sound.
“Ignat, when will the full English report be ready?” asked Tobolsky.
“Work is still going on, Mr President,” replied the assistant in low voice, “Too much material fell into the hands of our operatives.”
“Tell them I’m not happy with the speed of the work.”
“There aren’t enough people with the right security clearance, Mr President, There’s a lot of information, and it’s never clear in advance what it’s level of secrecy is.”
“Anything important found yet?”
“Nothing to respond immediately. But… there’s information on Rear Admiral Lavroff. It’s very ambiguous.”
“More specifically?”
“It’s a report of an illegal investigation that spanned almost his entire life. Most of the data is obtained by illegal means, but we have to admit, this is the work of high quality, both operational and analytical.”
“Did something come up that we didn’t know before?”
“Yes and no, Mr President. The basic facts were known to us, but this report contains details that raise difficult questions. In addition, these materials contain the results of an analysis of Lavroff’s behaviour made by highly qualified psychoanalysts. Their conclusions sound fantastic, but they seem well founded.”
“What do they say?”
“You should see this document in person, Mr President,” said the assistant while sending the file to Tobolsky, “I am not an expert in this matter and I do not wish to distort the substance of the information that we have in our hands.”
For about ten minutes Tobolsky carefully examined the file, then looked up at the assistant.
“The information is classified by level A-O. Lavroff is not touched, I will decide what to do with it.”
“Mr President, don’t you think it’s dangerous to leave Rear Admiral Lavroff with the powers he has now?” The assistant was allowed to ask such questions, moreover, Tobolsky appreciated Ignat for the ability to ask them at the right moment.
“I don’t think so, Ignat. Even if Lavrov is not who we thought he was, he’s not the enemy. This man has already done so much for the Federation that it is foolish to suspect him of harboring any hostile agenda. Had it not been for his actions, I do not even know what the situation on the fronts would be.”
“Such