The Doll. Nickolay Popov
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his father Eugene knew almost nothing. In addition to name, he heard that his father worked at the Research Institute and studied biochemistry. Ghenya’s aunt when she was alive told little of his brother; she was ill and she had been lying for many years in bed. She said that in politics he was indifferent, but from purely economic considerations became a member of the neo-liberal party, because the Liberals subsidized his work at the institute. Then told as after the July revolt two foreign cars drove to their house. Brother moved off and did not return. Wife, having left her child, drove off abroad; soon the people in black suits came to the aunt and searched the house, broke everything upside down, but what they were looking for did not find.
Eugene asked for a reference collector browsing long lists of names, even once found his own name in them. But his father was not in the lists. Then Ghenya estimated his personal budget and seized the opportunity of Charged Hypertext. He succeeded in finding the extra information about his father: “… a well-known scientist, associate professor of Molecular Physics of the Stuchka Latvian State University, researched on nanotechnology. He worked in the laboratory of the Commissariat of Atomic Energy in Saclay. On his return continued to work in the field of molecular electronics. After the military coup in 19… for safety works had been suspended.” And the last thing what Eugene decided to use, although he knew that he had no right to do so. He was a kind of programmer in the law. Coding of computer programs long ago turned from a hobby into a profession. His personal computer almost did not know what it means to receive a signal from the outside: no access. However, any leakage of closed information about him could not go unnoticed. According to an official request to the Security Management Eugene’s father allegedly was in hiding in USA. Temptation turned out stronger than the instinct of self-preservation. The result was the following document: “Managing Security Service. Top secret. For high treason and failure to cooperate for the benefit of the country’s prosperity and security Romanovsky Hermes Baromeevich sentence to death. The sentence to enforce.
Director MSS Navat Nuritdimov.”
“…Do-wn! Do-wn! Do-wn! Down! Down with the ruling Liberal government! Down-n-n-n! Tomorrow belongs to us-s-s-s! Victory! Long live Vi-cto-ry!” (from the area are wafted bursts of machine-gun fire, gnashing of tank tracks, thunder four cannon shots, in the government office clink and scattered on the floor window panes, from the street a black infantry grenade flies, Hermes grabs it and throws out of the window, it explodes in the air, break to pieces two more windows).
“Father, get out of here! What do they want?” – “They don’t want to live, son. Leave alone. Nobody touch you.” – “Too late, my father!” (in the hallway heard sporadic shooting and shouting, trampling, the door swings wide open, armed men in camouflage uniforms burst into the office).
“Who are the provisionals here? Oh, Hermes! That’s a meeting! You are also with them, aren’t you?” – ““Navat, this is my father.” – “I know. I’ve come namely for him.” (he gives signs to the military, they come up to the minister, twist his arms behind his back). “Do not you dare!?” (Hermes rushes to his father, the rebels with machine-guns pressed him against the wall, the prisoner was led into the lobby, heard a short burst of fire, Hermes is trying to break free and gets a hit in the face with the butt of the gun). “All are free!” (Navat gives orders to the military, those are leaving the office, he leans to Hermes lying on the floor) “Don’t you hurt yourself, do you?” (helps him to stand up, makes sit down in a chair, takes out his handkerchief, pouring water from the carafe, gives to Hermes, the latter wipes the blood from his face) “You will answer for the murder of Prime Minister!” (Navat applies to his balding head the wet handkerchief, throws it on the floor) “This is not murder, but execution. Who is not with us is against us. And don’t forget about it, because I have not yet determined whom you are with” – “I hate you, you’re always jealous of me.” – “Yes. But now we have traded places. Now it’s your turn to envy me, now you, each and all are… (raises up his palm, doubles it into a fist) here!” – “I don’t care about your politics, I do science.” – “Politics and science – twin sisters. Young, budding scientist will work for the benefit of their homeland. Assemblers, replicators. Soon this will come in handy to us.” – “I’m not going to work for you.” – “You will. You cannot not to work. You need not money, you need a job. And now you have no money in any case. Who will give them to you? I will. Do you hear?” (Points to the broken window) “Shooting stopped, because no one else to fire back, because we are in a majority, because everyone wants to think the way I want, and you’ll think the same way.” (He stands up). “Soon I’ll come for you. There is no place for you to escape.” (Exit).
The video ended. Eugene was sitting near the monitor. Black screen reflected a desperate unblinking stare. Eugene again dialed the clip. The plot was not repeated; only in the upper right corner was still the number 17. After the second input the letter D accrued to the figures, all of the code moved to the center of the screen became dazzling white, adding the letter R. No doubt remained what to do next. Eugene reached for the keyboard.
He saw the familiar conference hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (he’d already seen this hall in the video of his computer); at the very room for months without leaving the screen, he’d been listening to the interesting lectures delivering by Tom MacMurfee. Now in the hall were not so many people, no TV cameras or people with dictaphones and notepads in their hands. On the podium was a man in glasses, a thick notebook in his hand, he waved it, apparently, continuing the speech that was by now begun before the break. He spoke of the space resource, about the coefficient of utilization of space, quoted figures by the example of Russia, where every citizen accounts for 30 square meters of industrial building, and in a city like Togliatti, this figure exceeds 80 m2!
“We have heard it in the first part of your speech.” said someone from the audience. “What do you propose instead of machine-tools and automated lines?”
“We offer a completely new shaping technology. Gentlemen, work in this direction is already underway in Europe, and we cannot know how far they have gone forward. Therefore I propose to combine our efforts and to create here,” the speaker tapped a finger on the podium “in the United States the Information Center for the exchange of experience and reliable control over all laboratories in the world, leading such work. This isn’t a reassurance, gentlemen, for the fruits of our research can bring to the whole world and to all of humanity both blessing and infinite evil against which the splitting of the atomic nucleus will seem a miserable laboratory crackling.”
“The case let,” demanded from the audience.
“All right. Let us listen to our institute graduate Tom Brexler. His phantom machines he called engines of creation, but with no less confidence we can call them engines of destruction, too.”
Eugene knew the scientist coming to the podium. So he turned to the audience waited for absolute silence and began to speak. He was listened in silence, without interrupting. Ghenya realized that this man was going to say something very important.
“… badly smelling and lumbering machines are already beginning to seem old-fashioned in the background of integrated circuits and molecular physics. We are proud of the technology that gave us life-saving drugs and desktop computers. However, our spaceships are still primitive, computers’re “stupid”, and medications do not always help to overcome a disease. From ancient times so as to make a product, people used one and only technique: rearrangement of volumes in one or another substance. Diamond and coal, gold and sand, living tissue and cancer – right along cheap out of precious, sick from healthy differed only by way of placing atoms. I’ve already talked about the achievements of genetic engineering, about the construction of DNA molecules. Our works are now in a crucial stage. But, as my colleague said here, we cannot know what stage similar works in European laboratories are