Dr. Nilson is so thin that even Svanteson is scared to look at him. Captain Longstocking ("Dr. Efraim, man, you don't need to use titles, since you are not a citizen of Atlantis" reassures. Nielson was one of the first experimenters, says Efraim, who conducted research on modifying human capabilities, and is the only one on whom the experiments were directly conducted. The kid does not specify what happened to subsequent experimenters. Man is the most perfect creature in the universe. If you close your eyes to a number of its shortcomings. Perfection is impossible?
Dr. Nilson grumbles, but presses a few buttons, and the Toddler is stuffed into a glass closet. Paranoia whispers that he was in the gas chamber, but Svante rejects this idea. He clearly remembers that the shell of the protective suit was pierced by the hard beaks of the cursed birds, and his left leg and both hands threatened to be frostbite. And he came to himself completely intact and even almost healthy. Spending resources on restoring a death row is stupid and pointless. No one will do this. Ephraim needs something, and until the Kid gives him this, he will live. True, the gas filling the chamber is quite eater and nibbles the skin, but the complaints of the Kid are unlikely to excite anyone.
"Sorry, but processing is required before you get into the saint of Atlantis," says Ephraim. - God forbid you with your unwashed hands infect our patient. And absolutely no one needs your infections in her cabin.
The baby is dressed in a sterile jumpsuit, even the mouth is forced to rinse with a disinfectant. Efraim seems ready to sterilize even the air in his lungs. Having finally got rid of the handcuffs, the Kid finds himself behind the thick cabin door with Ephraim's "surprise".
A cabin, a chamber, a chamber - all of these names are unacceptable for this room. Here it seems that wars are something inconsequential, occurring exclusively in action-packed books. This is just a room. Verney, the girl's room. It is spacious enough with a window - you cannot call this huge porthole otherwise. On the walls there is a floral wallpaper and bookshelves, fish look in a round window - yes, fish, bright clown fish, butterfly fish, dacsillas and other representatives of the underwater world, which, according to the reports of the world environmental association, have perished in the ecological cataclysm of war. They were replaced by more predatory, more resilient species. But here - not mutants, here are ordinary peaceful fish from the past. Only after a couple of minutes the Kid understands that the "window" is a huge holographic screen, made with all possible naturalism. The kid looks around, not focusing on the pencils scattered on the table. Ephraim was unlikely to bring him here to Svante admiring the fish or interior details.
On the bed, right on top of a blanket made of multi-colored square patches, the girl sleeps on the pillow.
"Girl and girl, what is it?" - Shrugs the Kid. But she has red hair, just like a captain's. The girl opens her eyes, raises her head and smiles joyfully.
- Hello. Are you new
"Well, you could say that," Tiny says cautiously. Now he understands even worse why he is here.
And the girl is talking about nonsense, and now the Kid already knows that her name is Pippi, he sits and listens to her reading the volume of Japanese fairy tales aloud to him, then they even drink strong coffee with milk, and all this makes the Kid feel that if he has not died yet and has not fallen into another world, in which he had never heard of the war, he is sleeping.
But when the light above the door begins to blink red, Pippi frowns, hugs the Kid tightly and says, pressing his chin to his shoulder: "Come again."
- Do I have to leave? - The kid does not want to leave the dream, it is so cozy in him.
"I can't be visited for a long time, I get tired," Pippi answers, and the Kid hears a lock click to unlock the locked door. A dream illuminated by a red light ends.
* * *
"Do you know all these snotty stories about how a boy has a mother who has a very rare and incurable disease, and he decides to become a great doctor to cure her?" - Efraima carries alcohol so hard in his office that the Kid, who is unaccustomed to alcohol, will even get drunk from the smell.
"Television loved to force them when it was still aimed at entertaining the human masses," Svante responds, recalling the programs that Hildur Bok liked to watch in his distant childhood.
"My sister was ill," the captain does not seem to need company, he needs a simple illusion of empathy.
There, outside the office door, he is the captain, king, supreme ruler of the floating complex. Only here is a person with weaknesses. The kid can partly understand this: in his city, to which he never came up with a name, he considered this formality superfluous, he was also the main one. In any case, not one of the mechanoids stationed in the city could ever violate the established order or dictate to him where to move the complex. Even in Antarctica, despite and the cold, no one objected - and if some mechanoid tried to object to an overly self-preserving instinct in the artificial intelligence system, Svante would quickly dissolve it on the capacitors, especially since the climate normalization systems worked at the highest level and all Carlson systems and others the mechanoids felt great.
- So, you know about hemophilia, Baby? - with a tart, almost tangible affection in his voice, Ephraim turns the old nickname Svante into an originally affectionate appeal to the child.
"You said your sister was ill." As far as I know, hemophilia is a disease linked to some male chromosomes - irritated by this condescending attitude, Swanteson growls, struggling with the temptation to take a glass and join the booze. Maybe then the captain "respects him".
- You see, you know biology at the school level? - mockingly interested in Efraim, pouring alcohol from the glass of the Kid into his own, depriving Svante of the opportunity to join the "party".
"I never really needed her." People are not mechanoids. To design humanoid fur, it is enough to make him human parts of the body. In general, it is not necessary to repeat the internal anatomy.
"Ninety-five percent of patients are truly men." At the same time, the remaining five percent are women with a rare form of hemophilia, which turns their lives into hell. All of them on the planet are known by name, all patients are not allowed to deliver, each is sterilized. It's funny, but the carriers of this piece of diseased DNA are men, and women get sick (2).
"Did your sister even live to defend your diploma?" - asks the Kid, who knew perfectly well the probabilities of the origin of happy ends in real life.
"Not ..." Ephraim shrugs. - And this despite the fact that I closed externally for two years. But, in general, with genetics, I planted a huge pig for my daughter.
"And how did you cure her?" - clarifies the Kid. The girl in the room did not look like a hemophilic.
"Pippi died two years after your Carlsons went into the first fight." No, do not jerk - not in the bombing, my girl died her death, in my arms. Your monsters owe me a wife.
"My mother is an angel," the Kid recalls Pippi's weightless, such a weak smile as she spoke of her parents. Then she called her father a Negro king. "And my mom is a mummy," the Kid almost blurted out then. It's good that I resisted.
"But then who is she?"
"Clone ..." Ephraim exhaled and drank the alcohol from the decanter. The possibilities of his liver and kidneys were amazing, Svante was afraid to even look at a glass, and the captain drank a one and a half liter decanter. Is biomodification really a matter?
"There are no clones." They are not viable in the conditions of modern "ecology", or rather, what we have made of it. The Kid remembers articles with a variety of cloning theories that Bettan read. He was not particularly interested, but the information remained somewhere in the subcortex. He generally values ?all the memories of the family.
- Actually, that is why the existence of a clone of my daughter is possible only in one cabin of Atlantis. The DNA of the clones is weaker than human, "Efraim says bitterly," they are artificial creatures, so far we have not succeeded in modifying the cloned people. Pippi, in her original form, was a very weak child, she was sick a lot, and this is in addition to the damned hemophilia. And since the clone receives all the "charms" of the donor organism, it also has hemophilia. And a very weak immunity. She can't even walk on the Atlantis and not faint from pressure drops that an ordinary person does not notice. If she breathes untreated air, she begins to age at an extraordinary rate. But she is a clone of my daughter. I attended to collecting biomaterial long before Pippi's death.
"And what do you expect from me?" - the Kid clarifies in surprise. He really does not understand. He sees only a glance full of hope in vain, but his knowledge of cloning is not even zero.
- I have DNA and a clone for cultivation. You are a legendary inventor and engineer. According to rumors, you are the only one who can create self-awareness capabilities in artificial intelligence.
- They lie. I had no reason for this, - the Kid shakes his head negatively. He was never preoccupied with AI issues outside of combat missions. And for the fulfillment of a combat mission, a self-developing intellect is even harmful: how will ethics and morality grow up and refuse to fight? Or is it even better - decides to destroy the creator? This, of course, would be a good step in relation to a person directly related to the destruction of the familiar planet, but then the Kid generally thought little about the world outside the culmination.
"Help me make Pippi stronger." Strengthen her.
"I don't understand anything about cloning," the Kid shakes his head once again.
"You don't need to," Efraim counters. - Everything related to biology, I will do it myself. Your task is to make it so that she can go outside the room. Make her strong, replace her weak bones with a steel skeleton, help program the brains so that they do not allow the body to age. Together we will create my daughter such a strong body that she will be the most perfect creation. You see how she is. Do you and I, who participated in the murder of the planet, have to live, but she, as if coming out of the door of a fairy tale, is not?
Svante, being in deep prostration, touches his forehead. He had not received such impossible tasks for a long time. And, it seems, he never received assignments so inspiring.
* * *
The next morning, Svante has a headache. Not because of a hangover, he didn't drink, he just rolls it. The doctor in the medical compartment sighs heavily, says something about the possible consequences of the injury and the need not only to take medications, but also to lead a healthier lifestyle, otherwise he is not a boy, and does not even want to have breakfast at the same time. Svante just brushes it off, drinks a potion smelling of melissa and St. John's wort, for the first time in his time on Atlantis, he included the culman, rejoicing that Efraim's subordinates had not taken it apart for parts. He sits right in the medical compartment, because no one thought to allocate a cabin to him, and tries not to pay attention to the doctor's bay.
On the screen of the kulman is a diagram of a mechopenguin and a long chain of chemical formulas. Svante looks at her for a long time, then decides: whatever it is, Efraim is interested in Malysh, and the Kid is interested in destroying zombies and helping the few surviving friends, which means that Efraim will have to come to terms with reciprocal requirements. The kid completes the formula with a pair of coefficients and goes to look for Ephraim.
The captain of Atlantis is at his workplace, he is shaved, dented and hangover. He listens to the Kid and loudly laughs:
"Baby, you are thirty-nine already, and you still believe that the world can bend under you?"
Svante shrugs:
- You can have fun as much as you like. Until I finish the project against the zombies and transfer it to England, I will not do anything for your girl.
"You understand that I have something to put pressure on you?" - Ephraim comes close to the Kid. Perhaps this should embarrass, crush, interfere - in any case, this is written in books on psychology, but Svante doesn't care.
"Come on," he shrugs. - Just keep in mind that the human brain is a delicate and fragile thing, still crazy, and who then will help you? And I still can't concentrate on the Pippi project if I think that every minute brings everything closer and closer to the death of my still living friends. Of course, you can hide as much as you like on Atlantis, your right. But why are you better than all those who brought the Earth to the brink of death?
Ephraim stops and suddenly laughs.
"And you aren't a miss," he says through laughter. - Okay, I'll even help you than I can, we'll arrange communication with whom. And after lunch come to my cabin, I'll tell you something else, it will suddenly help. But only after lunch, otherwise you are completely thinner, you can beat the snot.
Svante and Atlantis engineers spend the rest of the time before dinner trying to establish contact with London. Much of what was in the melee, but even more of those strange birds that attacked Svante, comes into play.
"I don't promise that the connection will be stable enough," the engineer with the pathos name Brignoles says gloomily after a few hours (for some reason, the combination of the traditionally Scandinavian name and dark, almost black skin amuses Baby), "but it's worth a try, it's still better for a couple of hours we do not bungle.
"The story is repeating," the Kid thinks, waiting for the signal to go through the network of repeaters, "the tragedy has already happened, and I really do not want everything to turn into a farce now." But a minute passes, another, fifth - and the Kid hears the voice of Christopher Robin.
"They told us on the radio that you were dead," the Englishman says. "I don't know who, it was some kind of strange interference on the air," Christopher says. "For now, hold on," he says, and in a distant voice, Svanteson hears doom, "but the zombies have advanced fifteen kilometers inland." I don't know about Scandinavia, there hasn't been any news from them for a long time, only Birk came from your Ministry a week ago, now we are mostly finding it in our office. But no more news. "I'll wait for the news," says Christopher Robin, and the Kid's heart is contracting painfully: he's not sure that the experiments will be successful, but he has already promised that he will send all possible developments.
The kid once again promises that he will send all available developments to England as soon as possible, return to the medical compartment, set the alarm for half-past three - at this time the daily meal ends at the Atlantis staffing table and is immersed in calculations. According to his estimates, he will be ready to transmit the first packet of information in the evening.
Ephraim's cabin is not the same as Pippi's. A pair of clumsy African masks on the walls and a slightly larger area are all that distinguishes the captain's cabin from a number of other rooms. The captain sits at a table and smokes a pipe with tart, strong tobacco.
"So listen," Efraim says gloomily, "I already told you about my work in Biosib." I had a boss there, Fedor Dmitri Ievich was called. And I think that you should know more about this person.
Efraim sharply cuts the air with his fist, as if beforehand having swept away all possible objections.
"You see, I recognized these jackdaws that attacked you," Ephraim continues, as if through strength. - These are Fedor's developments, still old; he came with them to Biosib and came once. Well, not exactly with such, but very similar. And then everything was also running around, saying that he would make at least five modifications of these birds. I worked with him side by side, so I can recognize his hand. In addition, we once discussed with Fedor what scum this modern ragnarek had arranged, and I'm afraid that the idea of ?devouring the sun, not the wolf, but people could be sitting in his head. So I can try to help you with something. At least so that you switch to Pippi faster.
The kid is silent, ponders new knowledge. He had never heard of any Fedor Dmitrievich, but to be honest, he generally knows little criminally about biotechnology and the developments of United Siberia. Perhaps Ephraim is right. In any case, the Kid will not lose anything if a biotechnologist joins his research. Moreover, the results of laboratory tests of zombie flesh are stored in the Kuhlmann. Moreover, the flesh of a zombie is so strikingly different from ordinary dead flesh that it is right to suspect that it was modified with something. Especially - the Kid is getting brighter - that there are zombie samples left in the city and it will be possible to persuade Ephraim to pick up the city from the Antarctic snow captivity. And again, walk along the narrow streets to the quiet buzz of the Carlsons, pondering, thinking, solving problems. "Of course, Ephraim will regard this proposal as an attempt to escape," the Kid thinks, "but it's worth a try!"
In addition, the Kid is not going to run. If the captain of Atlantis fulfills his promises and helps with the development of Svanteson himself, then Svante will fulfill his part of the transaction. Not to mention that the Pippi project really looks extremely interesting. But he feels bad without a city. Now he understands - in the city he tried to realize all his childhood memories of Vazastan, his cobbled streets, his low houses, the smell of bakeries, the morning wind and the dream of a miracle. There were never living people in his city - even the thought seemed blasphemous that completely different people, not those who could, would walk around the city of his childhood.
The next weeks, Ephraim and Svante (and, to be honest, all the other engineers and inventors of Atlantis) will not crawl out of the laboratories. The kid is finally given a separate cabin - but, in fact, he still lives in the same place where he works: he just does not see the point in wasting time on going to his room. Sometimes Ephraim swears loudly and makes the Baby eat, but much more often he himself forgets about the simplest needs.
Christopher Robin - who has already become a senior engineer at Kanga & Roux - to make communications with Atlantis more stable, throws through a network of repeaters - almost the same ones that provided London with the city of Swanteson. And he gratefully thanks Svante and Ephraim for all those drawings and designs that they send him. He says that even managed to squeeze out zombies almost to the coast. And, most unexpectedly, we managed to get a large grant from the Ministry for further work.
But what needs to be done is more than working hands on the Atlantis. In addition, there are practically no real engineers who understand mechanoids. Svante would write someone from Sweden to himself, but he understands that this is impossible. Not now.
* * *
He did not plan to ponder the Pippi project. Just once again I buried myself in Efraim's calculations, trying to figure out which side to take on, and fell asleep.
Implants. He dreamed about implants. One at the back of the head to interact with the brain. Efraim has enough experience in biomodifications to know which part of the brain needs activation to make the subject stronger. And how immunity is formed is also known. And in general, the human body is not so much an open book, but not the most difficult thing in the universe.
Next fourteen ceramic implants in the spine and bone reinforcement. The bones will become heavier, but then an implant amplifier is needed.
Leukocyte nanoimplants and other "chameleons" for tuning the immune system. This is more complicated than antigraving, but it is in a dream that the Kid sees that it is reproducible.
Then he emerges from a dream and tries to figure out how to implement it at all. He worked with nano-objects even when creating anti-graves, but he had never once imitated such a small object as a white blood cell. And biomodifiers for internal organs are the patrimony of Ephraim. If everything works out, the task will be solved.
Efraim in the morning turns the schemes in his hands, looks at the Kid and, obviously, hopes that he can at least explain his notion humanly. They both work blindly, Efraim does not distinguish a soldering iron from a wrench, and the Kid has to trust Efraim's biotechnological calculations. He is trying to explain, show, but rests on the categorical: "No, man, these" prototypes of your nanoimplant for the immune system "will definitely cause a hundred percent rejection in the body, I do not agree to ruin neither my daughter nor the experimental beast. "
The kid meticulously notes that it's not a daughter, but a daughter's clone, and gets in her nose so that stars fly in front of her eyes. Ephraim does not talk with him for a week, thus arranging an almost verbal blockade. The kid barely refrains from commenting on the "emotional days" of the captain, and then he learns that Pippi was transferred from the cabin to the hospital, and in general, was just pulled out of intensive care.
"This happens," the captain remarks, when the Kid apologizes to him, "come to her, she asked."
The kid does not argue. In general, he feels himself to be the last idiot, and to his shame, he scrapes in his soul a whole glass of humanity. It seemed that she was burned out by the fire of Vazastan, but no. And again, the sterilization chamber, caustic gas, after which the skin climbs to shreds, again a nasty solution for disinfecting the mouth, after which even dog shit seems like a delicacy.
Pippi's red hair was cut even shorter than he had seen then. His hands are covered with droplet marks, and hell knows what other procedures she had to undergo. And the girl smiles weakly, but does not speak. Tries, but the Kid just picks up the volume of Japanese fairy tales lying on the blanket and reads aloud, reads, reads until she falls asleep. However, even when she sleeps, he sits next to her for a while, cradling a weak, thin palm in his fingers. She does not need anything from him, but she is so glad to see him from time to time. At least there were only two. But still.
But how to help her, if in the conditions of "Atlantis" he was able to get only implants that are guaranteed to cause rejection? In the end, Atlantis is just a storehouse of goods stolen from different countries, it is very far from the workshop and laboratory of the Kid. Can I try to keep in touch with Atlantis, but think in my own city? Take Pippi there, place in a comfortable room in one of the houses ...
The kid looks into the pale face of the girl, exhausted by the persistent onslaught of the disease, and rejects this thought. Pippi will not transfer transportation to the city, even if you make it as sparing as possible. It will take time to deliver the implants from his laboratory, and she, a weak cloned girl, may simply not be there. Surely Efraim's biomaterial is enough for another (or more than one) clone, but the Kid does not agree to think of Pippi as a consumable. He must do something to save her, right now.
Sleepless nights again over calculations. Again, a twelve o'clock dream, because it is impossible to work with a stale head on high-precision equipment with not the most modern equipment. He already performs a miracle, but even this miracle is not enough for implant adaptability to grow by tens, but not by units.
"I need an assistant." Someone who would go to the same school as me. Someone who can really understand my notions and help translate them. You are good, "Svante looks grimly at Efraim," but, do not blame me, we have too different approaches. "
"I'll come up with something," Ephraim replies just as grimly, who, of course, doesn't feel like dragging anyone else on the Atlantis.
But a week passes, and the Kid, whom the doctor makes to go to the dining room ("You are simply criminal in your health! If you still don't have lunch, I'll write a report in the name of the captain!"), He sees a person familiar from Sweden.
"Well hello," Birk grins cheerfully. - And you are well settled, Baby.
Svante is glad to see Birk, but he cannot understand one thing: why neither Ephraim nor Christopher Robin warned him?
"I knew that you like surprises," Ephraim replies good-naturedly to questions.
Svante recalls the very last surprise that surprised him - zombies crawling out of the sea - and decides not to comment on this statement by the captain. After all, Birka is really glad to see.
Together with Birk, they continue to experiment. Once Svante asks Birk why he so joyfully agreed to participate in this adventure, and he hears the unexpected: "I have left a sample of Roni's DNA." And the partner's fingers squeeze a locket in which - Svante once saw - a lock of dark hair is stored. So Birk is promised a clone. Yes, indeed, the reward is equal to the smile of God, illuminating the impenetrable mob of heaven. With an assistant, work is better, in any case, you don't have to try to explain all the terminology to your partner.
Slowly they manage to find a modification option that will not be rejected by Pippi's body. The main problem is not to harm during the operation - it hurts too weak. Immersing the girl in a breeding ground in which her body will have to spend the next few days, Svante wants to curse: she has pale, almost transparent skin, thin hands. "However," Svante thinks, "the operation is not the worst thing. Then it will be worse when it will be necessary to observe the dynamics. "
By force of will, he forces himself to throw unnecessary thoughts out of his head and begin to improve the body.
* * *
"Repeat again, what do you want?" - Ephraim suspect flaxly quietly studying the cuff of his tunic. In general, the Kid was ready for any reaction, he knows how the captain relates to his daughter and how he can respond to the voiced proposal.
- To make implants of high quality and really highly effective, I have to work in my laboratory in my city. In the conditions of "Atlantis" I can do little else. She will live, but she is unlikely to ever be able to leave her room for a long time. And the problem remains with the replacement of implants. In your conditions, it is almost impossible.
- Then leave her alone, we have achieved a result - my girl can live in peace, was this not our goal? - snaps Ephraim.
- You do not understand, - The kid is trying not to yell. The truth is trying. But it's about life, and not someone's, but Pippi's life.
- Yes, I don't understand, explain, - Efraim is bulling, but he is clearly tuned in to listen.
- We made chips for the brain implant from slowly oxidizing polymetals. This is the best available from suitable materials. But in the long term, it can be toxic to her body. Too toxic, and nowhere to improve the liver.
"And I only find out about this now?" Ephraim hisses fiercely.
- Really?! - explodes Svante. "Do you really think that her condition a week ago was so good that the risk was not worth it?" I gave her and myself six months. I can upgrade chips, replace and strengthen the implants responsible for immunity. But not here. The city will not allow anyone but me. Even if I give the control key, even if someone else passes the initial test, the first word he spoken, the first touch on any surface - and you will get a beautifully charred corpse. Since Vazastan burned down, you know, I learned to defend my cities.
"Go away, I'll think about it," Ephraim says quietly.
Svante no longer starts talking about the city. He just continues to work, shrugs off Birk when he is trying to get Toddler to sleep and eat on a schedule, and does not go to Pippi. It just can't watch how the laughing redhead girl goes out day after day, goes out because of her "father", who rested his horn - although he should understand people and understand that Svante is interested in the Pippi project no less than him. Only sometimes Svante tells Birk about a flying city. About its streets and houses, about those who could live there, about smells, sounds, memory. Once he even says: "I would like to show the city of Pippi. I think she will like him. " After that, Birk is silent for several days and almost abandons the work in the laboratory.
"You could have taken refuge from your city," Birk says accusingly a week later, "you could have helped at least someone escape the zombie threat."
"Do you believe that I could arrange the move of five hundred people without the Ministry of Defense taking over the city?" Svante asks, laughing. "You're like my peer, but you talk like a teenager." As soon as I land the city and even in Stockholm - despite all the armament, the military would immediately take control of it. For people to rise there, one would have to turn off the protective field.
"You are right in your own way," Birk says after a pause, "but you have not saved anyone from Paris."
"There was no one to save," Svanteson cuts off. Birk did not see the absolutely dead streets of Paris filled with walking corpses, let him say that he wants to.
A week later, Ephraim Longstocking unceremoniously pulls Svante out of the laboratory. He demands that the inventor bring himself into a human form, sleep off, wash, shave ("And there is nothing to glance at me with your ice-eyes!" - the captain puffs), and then he went up to the upper deck of the Atlantis. Svante does not argue - he almost does not care. He did everything Pippi could do. He will continue to do everything he can to destroy the zombies. It's just that this time his capabilities are much more limited than during the evacuation to Bullerblu.