meN/Ace
Defunct. Epic battle of neuralink
All farms and industrial enterprises are private organizations of bankers, large traders and other nobles, which are closely monitored by the council of the wisest. The city is governed by the only Filzas order – something like a party, the ideology of the Osiris, which includes all the attributes of power, culture, knowledge and even a way of thinking. There are three councils in Filzas: the royal council, the council of the eldest and wisest, as well as the organization of mekrs and all private organizations. Filzas, was founded three hundred years ago, at about the same time as the city itself. The Osiris state system is rather atypical than wrong. The constructed hierarchy resembles imperfect capitalism mixed with anarchist democracy. All existing institutions, it turned out to be implemented in practice, only at the expense of a relatively small society, and then, most of them, rely solely on the belief in further prosperity.
Tunor walked slowly through the wide streets of the city. There were difficult negotiations yesterday. Making concessions to the authorities is getting harder and harder. They don’t want to hear about the creation of a new order. Today, he decided to take a day off and leave this damn room of the NDC to get some fresh air. Otherwise, you can forget what the sun looks like. The girls give him, apparently forty years old, but in fact, forty-one. Large, curly hair, swarthy, of medium height and strong build, he resembled a typical Osiris. On it hangs an old, worn-out sand-colored dress. People passing by cannot even recognize the great innovative engineer of the present time. People of all professions and nationalities have gathered in this place. What eccentrics you will not find here. Three-eyed Jack, riding a three-wheeled cart, five hundred kilogram fat Wadah, to a circus performance. Oh, and take a look here, in the Bironfer seafood shop. Some type, dressed up in a costume of a nasty octopus and its tentacles dragging along the ground, are trying to bite off the dogs. Poor fellow, I had to throw a big fish for them to get left behind. A strange woman, in a black, tight dress, without a lower jaw, with a hanging tongue, leads two tall giraffes, behind long chains, tied to their collars. The little girl, seeing her missing part of her face, hid behind an elderly woman, enthusiastically bargaining for watermelons, near the counter. A boy, about seven years old, in a white shirt tucked into black pants pulled up to the knee, slowly rolls on a scooter, wearing a bright hat with a visor in front, strongly reminiscent of a modern baseball cap. Here, they sold dyed camels with blue heads, and black and red stripes on the body, like a zebra, fooling people, for fabulous sums. A little further, you can see even more interesting donkeys and horses, which were sewn in long horns, built up feather, artificial tails, similar to peacocks, and drove to various dudes with a mark-up twice as expensive. Two-trunk elephants, a rare breed, were made an artificial, brightly thick mane, and they looked more like cartoon toys than living creatures. It seems that everyone is busy with their own business, but the world of bustle here is closely intertwined with vacationers, just sitting and not thinking about anything. These are not homeless people, but just elderly people. They sit carelessly on the sidelines and watch those around them. One of these was a strange, blind old man, in a burgundy robe with a burnt, disfigured face, and white eyes. He looked towards Tunor, as if he was watching him. Or maybe he just has a phobia. After all, Tunor, there was someone to hide from, and there was something to hide. A terrible grandfather was burned, probably during the great siege, fifty years ago. But, to the meeting, there was a young man, a little above average in height, dressed already more presentable. In a blue raincoat and a light protective corset. This is prince Haste, his own person. It is impossible not to notice him, even if he was dressed, as simply as his friend. Eccentric habits, gait and manner of communication immediately betray him. He is strange to the point of insanity. Distorted, deceptive facial expressions always convey not the feelings that he actually feels, but during an argument, his hands, constantly shaking in front of his head, try to drive away the thoughts or words of the interlocutor that are unwanted by him. Trying to ignore those around him, the young prince is clearly in a hurry. It’s very appearance in broad daylight in the city center is a phenomenon.
– Where are you going? – not having time to reach his comrade, asks the prince.
«To the mall,» Tunor replied with a smile.
– What is there to do? The young man raised his eyebrows in bewilderment.
– Just take a walk. Chat with merchants from distant lands, maybe what news they tell, treat you with sweets. I found that symbol on page eight. You’re looking for me for this, don’t you?
– Exactly, behind this, – Haste pressed his lips tightly. He took a small roll of parchment from his chest pocket. «Is this symbol here?» – Excitedly asking, he pokes him in the face.
«I don’t remember… Although,» he moved back and took the scrap in his hands. Complex hieroglyphs are carved there. It is not an Osirian language, nor is it a Jerichan. It had nothing to do with our spelling at all. Taking out a small silver pencil-like stick, he carved out another incomprehensible symbol. – In my opinion, it was so, – he returned the envelope to the prince, and was about to move on, but the prince stopped him, taking his hand and turning him back to face him. – What happened? Have you already figured out the sequence? Frowning, he snatched his hand away.
– Not. If you helped us, maybe they would. Neilie can’t do it alone.
«So help her,» Tunor replied, wrinkling his forehead. – Hiding the package in his pocket, Haste narrowed his eyes suspiciously, looking into his eyes: – Don’t make me follow you, Tunor. Yesterday, you were late at the meeting again. Perhaps you should not be replaced by someone else. Do not misunderstand, I trust everyone equally (the employees of the NDC), but when our only public figure, privately communicates with the authorities, who give us an ultimatum in favor of our own planned development, it makes me twitch more than usual. I know that the issues you are discussing will not lead to consensus. And, I do not know what else can be thought of to fool their brains, at least until the end of this year.
«I am not holding on to my position, my prince.» He smiled, and the nostrils of his crooked nose, covered in beads of sweat, widened. – You can put anyone in my place, but I will never betray our oath and our dream.
– I guess I look like a senile. You know how curious I am. Agree, the temptation is great. Moreover, we are not going to bend in front of them, which means that they will take action in the near future.
– It’s my fault, Haste. – Sadly Tunor lowered his eyes. «I promise I’ll do my best and figure out how to fool the advice.
– I will be very grateful to you, – the prince turned around, and with a quick step went to where he came from.
– We need something more than clay abacus, – a slightly plump man, in sandals and a white shirt, stands in the middle of the NDC control room. His name is Vaidah. An ingenious inventor, chemist, mathematician and just a dreamer. By nation, he is a purebred Nahmau. Both of his parents are from the Shelber Valley. They died, under mysterious circumstances, when he was still a child. He, along with other orphans, was taken to the Vayelon orphanage, at the request of the village elders. – Our electronic calculator, promises to be fast, multifunctional machines. It will take years to design the hardware and code it correctly. But, in no other way. Is the information in the book worth the effort? – he began to stomp around a square table running along the walls, on the blue, luminous floor.
– As far as I understand, we have solved all the symbols, but we are not able to read? – asked a young girl sitting at this gray, metal table, just opposite him.
– Right. We know the meaning of all sixteen thousand three hundred thirty-seven characters. But we cannot read them without knowing the sequence of reading. It is completely chaotic.
«Not chaotic,» corrected another man sitting next to the woman. This is Assam – one of Haste’s closest friends. Another classmate of his. – We found out that its content obeys the dependence of two to the power of x square minus one. But, in order to find out which character follows which, it is necessary to brute force them, as a single unbreakable chain.
– Exactly, – that plump eccentric approached them, tightly squeezing his hands into the castle. – Here, the only catch is that the combinations corresponding to the full search are only links, pointers to the true text. These symbols are words, numbers and geometrical values at the same time. Thus, this text encodes itself twice. Only with the help of a powerful calculating machine can the reading sequence be understood.
– Incredible. The one who encrypted this must be a real madman, – the woman was enthusiastically indignant, stroking the voluminous cover of a large, unnamed book lying in front of her. Then, she quickly flipped through the pages in order.
«Be careful, Neilie,» Haste approached her, grabbing the book and putting it aside. – Perhaps this book is not from our world.
– Come on, – the fat man in the white shirt laughed. – You wouldn’t believe it just because you found an hourglass next to her, going backwards? Perhaps this is one of Lafar’s books on programming methods {x, y}.
– It would be nice if so, – Before the prince floated a whole collection of different clocks, under glass, recessed in the stained-glass wall. There were also arrow stands, solar, mechanical, and, of course, classic sand. «Lafar was not crazy enough to encrypt his books this way. And besides, who cares? As far as I know, no one understood his books, except for a handful of his mentors. – Taking in his hands one of these large glass vessels, in a beautiful stone case, he approached his fellow inventors. This semi-mechanical old watch, he got from his grandfather, as a gift. Inside the container, there are round discs and thin gears. Blue, fine-grained sand, distributed between these discs, with a mesh bottom. Separate sections showed hours, minutes, days, years, full moons, and solar eclipses. Putting this decorative item on the table, he silently watched as sand poured from different sections at different speeds.
«This clock, made in Shelber,» he finally broke the silence. – To find out what time we live in, you don’t have to turn them over for years. When the minutes are up, the hours remain higher. When the days are up, there will be years, and then eclipses. But, sooner or later, they still have to be turned over. – In his other hand was a watch from the dungeon. He placed them next to his watch, watching the grains of sand rising in it. – If the sand fell first down and then up, they would work forever. I know that eternity inextricably connects us with the world around us. We must devote all our efforts to building an electronic computer, and read this devilish book next month.
– What?! – Vaidah was indignant, clutching his stubble. – It’s impossible. Why is there so little time?
«If this is the book mentioned in Svurt’s Law, Shelber’s governors will want to take it for themselves. Our find cannot remain a secret for long. Moreover, we all know that unknown diseases are spreading in the Nahmaut valleys, turning people into monsters. Perhaps this book, which they are so diligently searching for, is to blame. Having learned that for more than one century, it turns out, we were hiding from them, their main treasure, without a doubt, they will decide to crush Vayelon to the ground. If, fifty years ago, Rohvem did not need even a reason for the attack, then what can we say about our case. Damn the king who decided to bury this thing right below us. He set us up pretty well.
«Shelber and Vayelon have always been on good terms,» a young woman stood up from the table. «Let’s make some books and just give the original to the Supreme Governor,» she suggested, blinking her big brown eyes.
– There is no more supreme governor, – Haste spread his fingers on his hand and brought them to his chin. – Galbront imprisoned himself in an eternal prison, fearing the complications of the disease, uncontrollable strength and rage. The previous viceroy, Okkrat, jumped out of the window. And, the one that was even before him was killed by his own guards. In the Shelber Valley there has been no contact with the outside world for a long time. They are already dangerous to themselves. What kind of good relationship are you talking about? You better stay tuned, Neilie, otherwise why are you here?
«Actually, you yourself called me here,» indignantly, she straightened the long bangs of her short haircut. – I am the only person in the city who would have translated this book for you in two days.
«I don’t care about the translation,» he jumped wildly towards her, frightening the fragile woman. – Better tell me how to read it correctly?
– Fuck off, – she pushed him, with both hands and left the underground laboratory.
«Don’t get excited, my prince,» Assam put his hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. – Women love good manners. You should have learned from them, otherwise, you won’t be able to find a worthy wife. – Haste removed his hand from himself, and, grumbling something under his breath, put his watch back into the sideboard.
– Who would talk about a worthy wife, – Vaidah laughed at him, finally, sitting down at the table. – We all would not be disturbed by worthy women. Using the services of priestesses is no longer so interesting. I want a little more to be loved. Hey, what’s wrong with you, aren’t you listening? Assam ignored him. His stone face, completely emotionless, as if under hypnosis, and his eyes look at one point. Slowly turning his head, he looked around, as if someone had possessed him, or he had come here for the first time. He has never been seen like this before.
– Again these strange feelings, – the boy grabbed his face. – This is the first time this happens to me at such a time. Maybe it’s all the same controversy? Wake up, wake up, wake up, – he begins to lightly beat himself on the head. Noticing that something was wrong with him, Haste went up to his friend, helped him to sit at the table, and gave him a glass of coffee. – You said that this is innate in me, – he turns to the prince, – then why, I now feel it again. The attacks became sudden. Previously, they were cyclical, now, they are completely random.
«What is he talking about?» Dambi, the most outstanding employee in the field of applied mathematics, approached them. He is thirty-four years old and one of the leading minds of the NRC. Most of the ideas considered both in theory and in practice are offered by them. Its potential seems limitless. Haste himself, considers only two people to be stronger than himself in mathematics, these are Dambi and Vaidah. Outwardly, he is good, but leads a reclusive lifestyle. His father was Osiris, who abandoned them even before his birth, and his mother was Nahmau, who fled from Rohvem. Now he lives with her.
– And you still do not know that our friend has such an ability, or an illness, when he falls into a special state. New feelings are opening up in him, «» Vaidah explained to him.
«Interesting,» Assam feels his fingers. – It started ten years ago. I was fifteen or sixteen then. These strange sensations manifested themselves once a month, maximum two. They arose at a strictly defined time. Exclusively at the moment when I fall asleep, and when I wake up. This transition, from the state of sleep to the state of wakefulness, is always accompanied by a fall from the familiar reality. Literally for a couple of minutes, but during this time, I manage to understand the world more than in my entire previous life. I feel all objects around me, as if they are an inseparable part of my body. I also feel my body, unusual, as if it were an object, such as a table or a cup. In this state, I came up with ideas about representing the universe in minimal geometric units of dimension. It would be nice if I could manage it all. Change the physical condition and structure of the environment. But, alas, reality is not a children’s fairy tale. This is a challenging game.
– Very difficult, buddy, – Vaidah shook him by the shoulder.
«But we’ll pass it,» Dambi replied calmly, leaving to the other side of the room in search of his documentation. – Let’s pass with dignity or stay in it forever…
– The second option is more attractive, I have to admit – added Haste, getting ready to go to the test instruments department. Casting a glance at Assam, he jabbed a finger on his cheek. – We will find the cause and effect of your seizures as soon as we have free time. Plus, they are good for you. We all could use this feeling. Imagine if Dambi and Vaidah begin to feel the surrounding objects, as you do. They already see the world in too much detail, I’m afraid with your ability, they will become gods.
– It seems to me that these psychos were born in such a state, – laughs Assam, following the departing prince. – They are just silent, cunning.
«All nahmau are born like that,» Dambi heard him, tearing himself away from his wires and connecting ply plates with an ironic smile. – Just to be afraid to admit it. We, it turns out, are the apostles of Selim, half people, half gods, according to the Osirian priests. Do not forget, in Vayelon there is a law not to oppress all peoples and nationalities, therefore nahmau, it is forbidden to hold all managerial positions, especially in the council.
– Well, well, it’s time to introduce amendments to this law, – his interlocutor grinned. – The superiority of the Nahmau over others is too obvious, and the rest of the peoples are enraged, especially the Osiris, who make up eighty percent of the total population, Assam says, drinking coffee. – Envy or pity, two opposite feelings, equally leading to disgust. This is where the first signs of nationalism are born. The people have already staged demonstrations about the eviction of the Nahmau diaspora, who never work in regular jobs. All of them are either dependents, or on creative, incomprehensible employment. Sabars, Vutes and Sumerians are the best performers. Of course, I condemn this, but not just like that in the era of the last kings, the Nahmau took them into slavery. Osiris are good traders, organizers, and managers. Well, nahmau, by nature, are inventors, innovators and discoverers.
– Let’s close this topic before the committee of Osirian activists tumbled down here, – Dambi raised one eyebrow, lazily stretching in his chair. «You don’t want to go back to your extinct village. Laughing in response, Assam took his place of work, immersed in endless equations and numbers.
Assam life story.
He was an inconspicuous child. Calm and weak of character. Older brothers brought up humility in him, although he did not like to fulfill all their whims. Assam bore the surname Tehto when his family lived in the village of Zunk, Rohvem Valley. Father, his nahmau, priest in exile. He participated in unsuccessful uprisings against Fimirel, for which he was desecrated, and all his property was confiscated. Mother, from Vayelon, an agile Osirian, whom, at that time, still look for. She worked as a geologist, having traveled all over Mesopotamia. She knew well the geography of mineral deposits. On one of her expeditions, she stopped for the night in the village of Zunk, where she met her other half. Assam was the fourth of six children in the family. He was not matched as the elder, and he was not nursed as the younger. He was so inconspicuous, and unnecessary to anyone, that he was often forgotten everywhere. Either in the field, during the harvest, when a five-year-old kid had to dig a hole for himself at night so that the wolves would not eat it. The next morning, the parents still remembered him and took him home. He was forgotten at school, at a party, at holidays. The older brothers even laughed at him about this, giving him the nickname Prokhva, which in Nahmau means forgotten or erased, and in Osirian, the same word means lost. When Assam was twelve, he, along with his brothers and sisters, moved to live in Vayelon with their grandmother. By that time, his mother was missing. They say she wandered into the forest of the dead. Father, went on the run, and most likely was killed by savages. While continuing his studies at the Osiris school, at fifteen, he met a beautiful girl, whom he tried to look after. But, she did not reciprocate, especially since she is two years older than him, and she had a whole bunch of fans. Assam’s first love did not break his heart. Three years later, at the Institute of Technical Sciences, where he entered, at the request of his grandmother, he met another beauty, with whom everything worked out this time. It would seem that life is going on the right track and the happy couple already dreamed of getting married, but one day everything changed. It was the day that his most famous and weirdest classmate, Crown Prince Haste, called for help, with the refinement of vector diagrams, to create a rotor less alternator, in his laboratory. Well versed in the geometry and physics of particle fluxes, Assam drew not only vector and topographic diagrams, but also proposed to remake the generator device, which has now become a classic. Delotoy and Dambi, who at that time already worked in the same team, were pleased with the boy’s abilities, and invited him to join the NDC. To officially register as a workers’ organization, they needed people, preferably talented. Haste bribed the guy with his charisma, promising him a job with the highest income in the city. Having trusted him, the naive Assam left the institute, to which his girlfriend reacted very sharply. She wanted to be with him constantly together, and he was afraid to remain in poverty, looking at the example of his relatives. His grandmother died suddenly, and the brothers had nothing to live on. They sold the house and became miserable vagabonds, begging for handouts and crawling through the back streets. Two have already been stabbed. My sister got a job in a brothel to please the nobles and bankers. Such a life did not suit Assam. He really wanted to help his family, but he could not. He didn’t want to get a job. Everywhere they pay pennies, but you have to work from morning to night. And here, such an opportunity. The prince himself suggested. He will not deceive him. And, indeed, he did not deceive. Two years later, they were legalized, and the NDC received funding for the first time, at first even from the council of the wisest, but later, when the employees began to work only in their own interests, funding was only from the royal council. Plans to create a serious, independent organization collapsed, and now the NDC has become something of an entertainment for the whimsical son of wealthy parents. And everyone works here, one might say for the food. And the atmosphere is not the most comfortable. Only a common belief in their some incomprehensible ideas makes them continue to create the impossible over and over again. Assam no longer feels constrained as a child. Here, in the laboratory, he revealed himself as a person, from all sides. His character remained soft, but the employees, unlike his arrogant brothers, do not use it. He is not cruel, and not merciful, he is what he was taught to be. And they taught him to be extraordinary: cunning, but fair, prudent but not greedy, sensual, but reasonable, charming and athletic, always ready to stand up for himself and his comrade. To bend his line or to compromise, he is not so good at it. Anyway, everyone likes this guy. In a friendly company, like a child, he rejoices at every success. His mood deteriorates only when he thinks about the girl who abandoned him, who is already married and has two children. But he is not jealous. He is glad that she is happy, and does not blame fate for the fact that they were not destined to be together. Just a natural feeling of resentment, and injustice, sometimes wake up in him, temporarily catching up with the task.
Vaidah life story.
This guy was born in the village of Taupin, the legendary Shelber Valley. Father, Samiho Mirve-Tazakht was an outstanding shipbuilder. His designs include at least a dozen different vessels. From small, reed boats, to large, iron liners, on real motors. At one point, his career soared so high that he lived in the castle, side by side with the governors. Vaidah’s mother, Pakela, is an inconspicuous, modest woman, leading a peasant lifestyle, owning a decent farm. They got to know each other during the flood, when the fields with the crops were flooded with the river, after the flood. Samiho’s ships moved to the aid of the villagers to rescue the remaining supplies of the farmers. It was there that a desperate woman met a stately engineer. Her iron character and correct, judicious actions during an emergency did not leave him indifferent. The woman had nothing to lose, and he took her to his castle. There, they had three children, and all three died in childbirth. Deciding that it was the walls of the castle that put pressure on the woman’s fruits, she persuaded her to leave for the nearby village of Topin. But, there, she could not get pregnant at all, for more than two years, and the couple had already decided that they would be left without children, and then, for their happiness, they succeed. The long-awaited child was the only and beloved in the family. He got both affection and abuse. After his father was fired, due to a complete reshuffle of personnel in Shelber, he could not stand such a loss. Work was the meaning of his life, and his family only supplemented it. During a quarrel with his wife, they left the house somewhere and did not return. Little Vaidah sat under the covers in his bed all night, waiting for his parents. They were not there not in the morning, not for lunch, and even for dinner. He found himself to eat, and at the age of seven, he went to the castle, to the governors, to find out about his relatives. There, he was caught by the guards and, after listening to his story, sent him to the committee of abandoned children in a neighboring village. It is a charitable organization owned by the priests of the Selim Temple. There were few places in the rural shelter, and the abandoned children became more and more, therefore, at the age of nine, he, along with twenty-five other children, was sent in another batch to the Vayelon orphanage school, to study and permanent residence. The guy immediately revealed his gift in the exact sciences. He studied the material much faster than his classmates. The teachers paid attention to him and put him on a special, accelerated training program. Having entered the institute, already at the age of fourteen, the maturing child prodigy continued to amaze with his analytical abilities. Having studied all the material, he began to delve into the little-studied areas of mathematics, to satisfy his own curiosity. His innate talent, combined with inexorable perseverance, thirst for knowledge, allowed him to put forward the most unthinkable hypotheses. The older Vaidah became, the more he devoted himself to science, which became his whole life, already by the age of eighteen. Due to his full employment, the guy has never even been in a relationship. Only at the age of twenty, he first used the services of priestesses from brothels. His character is strange. He is always without emotional and no one knows what is in his head. He behaves too adequately and restrained, which reminds more of a computer than a person. His calm attitude to all situations in life is rather frightening. He is not a murderer or a pervert, however, if circumstances allowed, he could calmly watch as small children are drowned, or they are burned alive. Unlike Assam, there is very little human left in Vaidah, despite the fact that he tries not to be different from others, and to look natural, at least in the circle of his friends. His morals are atypical. He can enjoy the heavy cream for hours, at ease, spreading it around the edges. He can be funny when others are sad, and vice versa, depressed, when the general company is in a joyful mood. For the sake of achieving his goals, he is ready for anything. Vaidah is not a principled person, but a very strong-willed person. He makes decisions hundreds of steps ahead, like a robot, calculating all possible outcomes. He is able to compromise, and knows how to listen to all points of view. For him, there are no authorities, so the opinion of street rascals, for him, is no different from the opinion of the council of the wisest, or his comrades in the NDC. He subjects each judgment to a detailed analysis, comparing it with real facts, and his own vision of the world. Vaidah, does not lead a healthy lifestyle, which is already beginning to affect his condition. A full physique and diabetes mellitus significantly complicate a man’s life, despite the advice of his comrades, he is not going to change anything, stating that he is quite happy with everything. Pale, yellowing, not healthy skin on his face, a lack of vitamins and lack of physical activity, also provoke his first heart and blood pressure problems, in his, then, twenty-five years. Every time a man promises his friends that as soon as he meets a soul mate, he will immediately bring he is in shape. In recent years, after he became famous, several girls still tried to try something with him, but his requirements were too high. It turns out, Vaidah, give almost a goddess of beauty, a great mind, so that she can do everything, and be in time everywhere. But, he himself is the complete opposite. Not neat and not handsome. She washes once a week, shears her hair once every six months, shaves as needed, and barely changes her clothes. Its narrow nose with wide nostrils was pointed at the end like a bird’s beak. Brown eyes, wavy, always disheveled dark hair and black eyebrows fused into one. Plump lips, curled up in a bow, ears almost bent into a tube, and a characteristically protruding, unshaven second chin, make his mug look like a fabulous pig. His appearance was often laughed at, but he learned not to pay attention to it. Previously, like everyone else, Vaidah was a vulnerable person and very often cried over trifles. Now, it is not so easy to offend him. He’s ironic enough, and he’s still a troll. Can laugh at himself at any time, even when it seems inappropriate. It can be very difficult to separate his sarcasm from a serious statement. He loves to chat just like that, on a variety of topics, but he will never talk about his dreams or problems that do not leave his head every day. Vaidah is not one of those who like to be frank, he just does his job, gradually approaching his goals.