Gagarin is the mystery of the mission
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But I was not allowed to sleep. The computer suddenly spoke to me.
– You are fully loaded, level 6. Communication is constant.
– Who are you? – I asked worriedly.
– I'm your friend. I'm your assistant.
– A friend?
– Yeah. Your dad made me like this.
– Did he know he was going to die? – I asked worriedly.
– That's not important right now. I'm going to tell you a lot of things. First of all, remember this: you were raised in isolation because you are a special child. You're a product of genetic engineering. I am an artificial intelligence. Call me what you like, just know that it will be a program name, and you can't change it permanently.
– Rangit. I'm going to call you by your father's name," I blurted out, standing up abruptly, glancing at the computer screen as if I wanted to see someone's eyes… and I saw Dad's face.
I cried again. The computer now spoke in my father's voice.
– Son, you are listening to this speech, my voice, talking to me. I have transferred my intelligence into a computer, or rather, it runs on the basis of my intelligence. This is not a recording. I have to take a risk, to tell you a secret: the world is not as it is. I've figured out the lies of the supercomputer that runs everything. Time is different around here… and the state of the world is different. It shut me down. We all have a chip in our heads, but you don't. I've created the technology to read minds and communicate brain-computer without a chip. Even though I've equipped you with blockers, you have to lock your fangs together to hide your thoughts. Still, be careful, they can read your thoughts. I've created a special mutation of neurons and implanted the technology in you. Your neurons emit an extra amplified signal, and when it travels through your dendrites and axons, its emission can be read at a distance. There's a transmitter built into your tooth to broadcast that signal over a greater distance. I created you to fulfill a secret mission: to infiltrate the Russian Academy of Sciences. There, in the control core, switch the supercomputer to your commands, return and enter the password on the computer here. This is the only way to disable the Perimeter nuclear missile auto-launch system that the supercomputer has taken over. You must enter the academy using the mind displacement machines I invented. To prevent you from being exposed and destroyed, I have included you in a special super-secret program. The program runs on machines I invented and programmed. I've linked the emission code of your neurons to the resonant frequency of the machine. That's it, son, I'm shutting down. They're coming in now. Cry.
Chapter 2: Mom's message
Someone was shaking me. I opened my eyes. My father, or rather his body, was lying next to me. I was helped to stand up. I looked at the monitor. The dolphin on it winked at me. I wasn't thinking straight. Was it a dream?
Madame Magdalene, as Dad called her, with the real name Magda, led me from the room. I was still in a state of shock. My father's sudden death, the upheaval in my mind, the revelation of my virtual dad. The last one was the one that bothered me the most with its mystery. What was it?
Magda took me to the clerk's office, and there was Mom on the screen. She was crying.
– Son," she said, wiping away her tears. – How could this have happened? Was Daddy complaining about his health? Son, I miss you very much, I'll be there soon.
I cried again. I wanted to hug her. I felt so alone.
My mother worked in a joint program of our research center and a similar one in the USA. Already from my childhood I realized that the cooperation was secret and concealed more than the very purpose of this cooperation. Since my childhood years I heard about classified centers, about the secrecy of which, by the way, I learned as if just now, from the information that came to me. Before that, life itself, the work of the research institute, everything I had heard at my father's lectures was something to be hidden from the whole world, but the world itself seemed illusory to me. It was as if it didn't exist.
– I need to talk to the supervisor," Mom finally said very firmly.
It was addressed to Uncle Gostomysl, who approached, as usual, unnoticed and quietly. His demeanor, like his name, was mysterious. He nodded to Magda, and she stood up and hugged me, whispering in my ear:
– Come on, Butterscotch. Say goodbye to your mom. You'll talk to her alone soon. We should go out for a while.
Already on my way out, I heard from Gostomysl:
– You realize that's impossible. At least not yet.
***
We went back to the office. Mom was still on the screen, Uncle Gostomysl was sitting a little farther away. When I approached, my mother wiped her tears, moved closer to the screen and said:
– Come closer son, I want to kiss you… Let's kiss through the screen.
I came close, close and nestled into the screen, just like my mother.
– Look me in the eyes," she asked.
I tried to do it, but my eyes were blurry. What happened in the next second I didn't understand, much less explain to myself. A faint light flashed in my mother's gas, and a slight shiver ran through my nerves.
My mother broke away from the screen, I did too, more by reflex than consciously, and Uncle Gostomyslom jumped up and stared intently at the screen and into my eyes. Then he turned to the unknown observer with a question:
– What just happened?
But in that second, I was preoccupied with something else. Something that I feared like some kind of mental illness, but at the same time I was also glad. It was something scary, strange and joyful at the same time. I couldn't understand what was happening, but I couldn't exactly deny it.
Having dispelled my suspicions about my mental illness, I recognized reality: I had heard my father's voice. Yes, I did hear him; the instruction I had received earlier had worked a hundred percent, but I didn't let it show. I recognized Dad's voice clearly, and most amazingly, I heard it silently, inside my head, directly in my brain. It was a miracle, and only the warning of the computer speaking in Dad's voice brought me back to reality:
– Don't let it show, son. Mom reset the unlock code. I designed the system to be unbreakable. Don't worry, I'll try to explain it to you tonight.
Magda hugged me again and asked:
– Iris, are you okay?
– How can I be okay when my dad died and you won't let me see my mom!
– I understand, sweetie, just what can I do… I'm trying to help you.
– I'll come for you," Mom said firmly, then added: – If you can, go out into the world, it's no longer scary for you.
– Stop this at once! – shouted Gostomysl. – I told you to control yourself! This is impossible!
– Then why don't you let me see him! – His mother shouted angrily at him.
– Not yet! With all due respect, not yet!
– Son, don't believe them, run away from there! Run for your life! – Those were mom's last words.
Gostomysl has disconnected the connection. I stared at the blacked-out screen for a few seconds… then I ran. I didn't know where exactly to run, but my intuition told me that I should go to the installations that my father had shown me secretly. He tried to explain how they transport a person to a parallel world. Already on the run, hearing shouts behind me "catch him! block the exit!", I remembered my father's story about these installations. Dad told me that they transferred consciousness to another world and there they put it into a body similar to their own, or even into another body. I was not thinking about the magic of such a method, but was strengthening my hope and faith, which suddenly appeared in me: my father was not dead, his body was lying there, and his soul was in another world, in a parallel one.