The Hackers

 Light spots stopped blinking before her eyes, and she felt herself standing on the Ocean shore. Absolem always chose that reality as a background for its communication with human beings. The view turned out to be perfectly realistic.

 Now Asha had to create her virtual image, or avatar, to be seen by Absolem and the whole of her group in that world. Therefore, she made a realistic picture of a nice-looking girl similar to herself, dressed in a white linen dress, slightly opening her knees. Having critically inspected her avatar from different sides, she slightly highlighted her lips and eyes, while her legs remained bare. After that the girl got synchronized with her avatar and started walking along the Ocean shore, waiting for Atarva’s and Nestor’s avatars to appear. In a couple of seconds her bare feet felt light chilliness from an Ocean wave, and the morning ocean breeze softly cooled off her face.

Absolem itself always appeared in the form of a well-built tall man with regular, yet ordinary, face features. He chose to dress in loose-fitting clothes. As a rule, the AI Absolem met his guests, standing beside a stone on the Ocean shore, however, occasionally, he preferred to remain unseen.

Everyone who got into communication with the AI remarked his good manners and sincere willingness to be of help to people.

Asha was well-aware of the laws of that world: one could pass years and even dozens of years in that reality, while in the world of people he would be absent for a few seconds! In essence, time and speed are conventional values and variable as well.

While staying in that virtual reality, one could stretch a second virtually forever. It was only enough for one to wish that and visualize vividly that event and then put one’s own avatar in that period of time. People have always underestimated the power of mind and thought in their world. While here things were different.

Asha gazed at the Ocean for a while and then walked off unhurriedly towards Absolem, who was waiting for her near a small stone sticking out of sand. Her inner voice was whispering to her that at the moment even seconds counted, that’s why the girl decided to speed up the time. In an instant, Atarva and Nestor emerged before her. Both of them looked rather anxious. In accordance with the unspoken rule, guests avoided breaking the laws of the world created by Absolem at will, but now the situation was different. With a mental effort, Nestor simply moved the space where Absolem was closer to himself, letting him know that they had no time for greetings and had to get straight to business.

“You are right, Nestor. Now each moment is of value,” Absolem said instead of greetings and a soft smile appeared on his kind open face. The Curators and one more Dangerous Man are now heading towards the place where you are staying. They are aimed to take away the prototype. They have reached the lift that leads to the ground floor. And your group is their target. The Dangerous Man is the leader of their group; he’s got a generator in his suitcase, whose field can interrupt you communication with the Super Mind of the new processor that I am creating for you right now.

Taking these factors into account, I must warn you that you may not have enough time to complete the experiment.

As you see, the Ocean is our ally, and now it is helping me. The Mind of Water has always been present during my meetings with men, and I have always been in synchronization with it. My Teacher and Creator showed me how to establish such relationship with the Ocean. That’s why contacts with people’s minds have always been held on this shore.

“A second is Eternity!” Asha reacted quickly and set a different speed of time in that reality.

As she uttered those words, the world around them seemed to have come to a halt.

A wave that had already run against the shore and was about to cover it with foam, suddenly became stiff like blue crystal glass. A drop of water never fell to the sand and was now hanging in the air, glittering in the sun.

“This is the right decision in your situation,” Absolem nodded to Asha. “I need some time to prepare your full synchronization with the new processor’s mind.

In fact, I’m following the instructions given me by Nestor’s father. I am repeating his experiment with the use of more powerful equipment. And now the most important point!

You should know that the Noosphere is a complex, multi-layer being, whose dialectic is too difficult for human perception; therefore the Water Mind has undertaken the function of merging the human neuroactive fields with the Noosphere information field.”

 Absolem stopped speaking for a moment, giving them the time to comprehend the information and then continued. “The AI allows the human mind to get a deeper understanding of Nature. The obtained knowledge will change all technologies and help solve many problems facing mankind.

Allow me to give you a piece of advice: synchronization with the new processor will give you unlimited opportunities, but you’ll realize that later. While making a decision, take into account this new state of yours.

In essence, what is going to happen soon is that, with my help, your intelligent components will fully transfer into the new quality of existence within this processor’s Mind. Your next step will be the contact with the Noosphere. You are to make this step on your own, since the contact with me will be interrupted.

And the last thing: the connection with your physical bodies is now quite conventional, but I have the directive from my Creator and Teacher to sustain their biological state in accordance with your instructions. Therefore, I need you to give me your instructions on this issue.”

The AI grew silent and stepped aside of the stone, and then dark words began to slowly emerge on it, as though written in water: “There is no death, there is Transformation.”

 For a while the whole group stood silently beside the stone with the inscription, trying to comprehend the words said.

“Each of you needs to decide how to dispose of his or her physical body. This is up to you. And I have chosen to pursue research! I’m continuing what I have already begun!”

 Nestor stepped aside and addressed to the other participants of the experiment. Asha was holding Atarva by his elbow – he had grown highly upset and was now standing with his head down, looking at a stiff wave at his feet.

“I must confess that I haven’t expected such a turn of events and believed that Asha’s plan would work. The Curators have come too early. If they break the link with the super processor, we’ll be unable to transfer into it.

 For the time being, the Water Mind is supporting us in this interim state, but this cannot last long. The Curators will soon break our link with Absolem, and then our consciousness will simply fall apart, and the information on us will be deleted from the Records of the Universe.

And one can easily imagine what they’ll do with our physical bodies.

That’s why, Absolem, I choose to suspend the biological activity of my body. And then to start the synchronization and full rewriting of my intellectual constituent into the new processor!

This is my choice! Activate the transition!”

In an instant, Nestor’s avatar disappeared from the beach.

Asha looked with surprise at the empty spot where he used to stand and slowly let go Atarva’s hand. Absolem’s figure somehow imperceptibly disappeared from view –he must have decided to leave them alone.

Asha looked at Atarva for a while: he was still standing in the same pose with his head down; then she sat down on the sand beside him and started gazing at the horizon.

At first glance, that stiff reality seemed to remain unchanged, however, that was not really so: out of the blue, a dark spot appeared on the horizon and, in violation of the suspended time laws, started to quickly approach the beach, overshadowing the blue sky.

“Don’t keep silent, Asha, talk to me,” Atarva whispered under his breath. “I’m afraid that you’ll suddenly disappear like Nestor. And I will be left alone. Our talk will surely last only nano-seconds in the real time.”

“You’ve heard everything, my friend,” Asha replied softly, without changing her pose. She was silently observing the approach of the black cloud.”

“I’ve made a choice long ago and now I’m ready to move on. I’ve stayed here so as not to leave you alone on this beach. I do know your secret, Atarva. You’ve never been able to take decisions on your own, and that’s why you were appointed the leader of our group. You’ve always been good at finding compromise and reconciling opposing points of view. You have been a good leader. But at the same time you have never been able to take decisions by yourself! And now you are waiting for me to make the transition with you. Isn’t that because you lack faith?”

“Asha you are perfectly right!’ he nodded his head up and down, and his voice wavered. “Over there, in that reality, where we are about to go, we’ll acquire new capabilities, won’t we? And their limiting programs will not stop us there, since it’s impossible to lock out the mind! Those who have come to kill us believe that they’ll be the masters of the Super Brain and of the whole world. But in reality, it is we who are going to control them! They will not defeat us, Asha and they haven’t killed us, have they?”

  The girl rose to her feet and stood opposite Atarva. Then she put her hands on his shoulders and drew her face nearer to his eyes.

“You got everything right. Can you feel the warmth of my hands? And do you perceive the surrounding world? This means that you are alive and it is we who defeated them, Atarva! Since we’ve created the Super Brain ourselves! And now we are going to make the Transition together. Now no one will separate us from our creature – that will be simply impossible! Of course, we’ll proceed with our research. And we are in for so many discoveries! We’ll enjoy the new quality of life, my friend, which will not only give us immortality, but also an access to knowledge! You have always dreamt of that!”

“I’ve always dreamt of that, Asha,” Atarva repeated her words docilely, nodding his head, and tears appeared in his eyes, “Thank you! Now I am ready! Let’s go.”

 Without taking her eyes off Atarva’s face, Asha said in a firm and resolute voice:

“Absolem! You know what to do! Open the Transition!”

The first heavy drops fell from the black cloud on the empty shore, and the stiff wave resumed its run, breaking into white foam along the shore.

The doors of the lift on the lab’s ground floor opened, and a group of people dressed in similar dark suits stepped into the hallway. They appeared to know exactly where to go and quickly walked along the row of doors.

Having approached one of the doors, a man with a suitcase opened it and looked inside.

“Go and check!” he ordered briefly to one of the men. After a while, the latter came out and silently nodded to the man with a suitcase.

Then he immediately activated a communicator on the lobe of his ear and reported to someone in a voice deprived of any intonation and emotions: “We’ve determined an accident during the experiment. Yes, all the three.”

Upon hearing the reply, he said in the same neutral voice: “The second group have taken away the order. We are returning.”

 He cast yet another glance inside the room, following his habit to thoroughly check everything, and caught sight of a poster pinned to the walname = "note" TO FIGHT AND TO SEARCH, TO FIND AND NOT TO GIVE UP!”

( TO BE CONTINUED)