"Vanity! - said Ecclesiastes. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!”
What profit does a man get from all the labors he toils under the sun?
The race passes, and the race comes, and the earth abides forever.
...
No one remembers those who lived before, and those who will appear later will not be remembered by those who will live after them.
Ecclesiastes 1: 2
I didn't like the air on Charon at all. I took the first step and involuntarily winced. It smelled of ozone and an unnatural, cloying freshness, as worlds with unfinished terraforming always smell. Well, you know what I mean... I coughed and quickened my pace.
...
The Netflix employee greeted me very warmly. Smiling widely, he left the table and firmly shook my hand.
- Good morning! I am very glad to see you. We've already waited...
We exchanged the usual pleasantries.
“Peter,” I introduced myself.
– Max.
- Very nice!
Two cups of coffee appeared on the table, emitting a deliciously invigorating aroma. Exactly what is needed. Fabulous. I leaned back in the soft chair. Finally, I felt that my mood was gradually improving.
It seemed like Max had been waiting for this moment. With a large gulp he emptied his cup and pushed it to the middle of the table.
“So...” I looked expectantly at the corporation representative.
Max nodded and hesitated a little, searching for words:
– You see... Our company recently launched one small project... It doesn’t even have a name, though. According to the estimate, it passes as “Ch-42”. Well, the wits from our department immediately found a word - “purgatory”.
I wrinkled my forehead, remembering something:
– Purgatory? Is this from ancient mythology?
Max looked at me with respect:
- Well... almost... From the Christian... It doesn’t matter! In short, the essence is very simple. You understand what a struggle is now in the market for each user: Googlesoft is already on our heels, and Eplayda is not asleep. So we came up with an idea: we take temporal probes and begin to fill the client base. The probe scans the client a millisecond before death in his time. We are putting the client in order here. Well there: heal, patch up, make the body younger... Voila! And we have another subscriber, and the client is pleased. And what? You see, now the cost of attracting a new client is more than two hundred and fifty credits! And in our project: the body is fifty dollars, the adjustment is twenty, the administrative costs are still ten rubles... And the cost of scanning in mass production, as you understand, can generally be neglected - a couple of credits at most.
I nodded.
“I understand... I think I read somewhere about a similar project... But there was a different name... Cavalla or Alcava,” I snapped my fingers, deliberately driving away the hyper-hint helpfully slipped in by my assistant.
“Valhalla,” Max corrected with a sour smile. – This is a GoogleSoft project. But they also wrote about our project... a little... An article was recently published in AiF, and Dima Boltunov had a note on his blog. But... you see, such nonsense is of little interest to the general public. Give her something large-scale and amazing...
There was an awkward silence.
I decided to change the topic:
– What probes do you use?
Max perked up:
– We recently purchased a batch of Electronics-BF.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
Max noticed my confusion:
- Well, of course, Samsuvei is more reliable. But you understand, sanctions...
“I understand,” I confirmed once again.
– In general, excellent equipment. I now recommend it to everyone I know. Just perfect for creating a family chronicle! Would you like me to send you a corporate promo code?
- Let's…
We discussed the technical details and returned to the main issue.
- Well, this is how we revive blind people...
- Excuse me, who?
Max fidgeted embarrassedly:
- Well, this is our slang, you know...
This constant desire to be understood, evident in his every phrase, was very symptomatic. A typical subconscious conflict between Obama and Goloborodko.
– So, we revive them, enter them into the registry, connect them to our database, and that’s it! Then let the social department have a headache. But these bureaucrats... - Max cursed with relish. – They don’t want to work at all! They blamed us for the initial adaptation and warranty support. As if they themselves don’t need citizens!
I shook my head sympathetically. Finally, we are getting to the heart of the matter.
- Well, we formatted a dozen planets so that there would be somewhere to send the blind people. Most of them cannot really adapt to the virtual world. And so... we are moving in slowly. A villa on the seashore, or a house on the prairie - whatever you like. Conditional basic income, Baltika synthesizer No. 9, picabit Internet - and everyone is happy. At first there were no problems at all. But the deeper we go, the more difficulties there are...
– How do you find the right time interval and geolocation for scanning?
– Before reviving the zhmur, while all the information is corporate property, we analyze the mentogram, and from there we take the history of the deaths of his relatives and acquaintances. Well, and so on, and so on...” Max made an expressive gesture with his hand.
“Funny,” I chuckled. – I read somewhere that for the ancients one of the most terrible outcomes was to die alone and remain unburied. It turns out there was some rational grain in this?
Max spread his hands:
“Someday we’ll get to those.” The battle for the client is on! Although, of course, we are primarily interested in the mass segment... But that’s not the point... Our department has now reached the mid-twentieth century. A very promising period. Between you and me, GoogleSoft left it to us in exchange for the entire eighteenth century. It’s generally convenient to work with the forties: I chose the right location and loaded them with exabytes. But there are some specifics...
...
The door opened and a girl entered my office. Pretty, but nothing special. White dress with polka dots, patent leather round-toe shoes with low heels. Black hair. A little cosmetics. She was clearly taking care of herself. Well, that's a good sign. A beautiful, confident woman. Only a slight hump on her nose and thin black eyebrows gave her face a dangerous, even predatory expression. But still, looking at her, I would never have thought that she could commit so many successful suicides. Eighteen suicides. You could say this is a record in my practice.
The girl's name was Judith. I thought I would have to pull everything out of her with pliers, but, to my surprise, she was completely open and easily made contact. I put on a sympathetically understanding expression and nodded sadly, listening to her banal story.
–... Pretty girls were specially selected for my group. It is much easier for a beautiful woman to calm children down. Children were always very scared after being separated from their parents. I think they instinctively knew what awaited them, despite all our tricks and lies. In addition, the officers liked beautiful girls... And children... they were ready to see a mother in every woman...
– What was your relationship like with your mother?
- What?
- Well, your mother. Did you have a good relationship?
– I... no... I don’t know... She couldn’t forgive me for starting to date Friedrich. Before... Even before the war...
“I understand...” I made a note in my notebook. – Please continue, I’m listening to you.
– For some reason, trains with people always arrived at the same time. We were either idle for several days, or worked from morning to night. Large gatherings of people could not be allowed, and there were no barracks for temporary residence of people, only warehouses for things. Therefore, we worked until we completely freed all the cars. They helped the children take off their clothes and took them to the cells. The hardest ones to calm down were those who were five or six years old. The kids always trustingly climbed into our arms. They just had to be undressed and taken to the cell. I always told a story about Thumb Boy or sang a song, you know:
Rozhinkes mit mandlen,
Shlof-zhe, Yidele, shlof…
I tried to show a sincere smile:
- Yes Yes. Very nice…
“Many children even helped me fold their clothes.” We were always scolded if things weren't put in a neat pile. Although later they were simply dumped in a heap...
- And your father? Did he also like the house to be in order?
The girl shuddered and looked at me strangely:
- My father?
- Yes. Did he like order?
- I loved…
“Wonderful,” I made a note in my notebook. - Sorry for interrupting.
I was terribly tired of this conversation.
I listened carefully to her simple story and, when Judith was finally exhausted, I began to convince her:
- Understand that you have already fully atoned for all your sins. Although, to be honest, I don’t even see your fault here. You acted under threat of violence, even death. So why torture yourself? The whole world is at your feet. Live, be happy! I specifically clarified that from this place... What’s it called... Treya... Tre... - I clicked my fingers, remembering the name.
- Treblinka.
– Yes, yes, Treblinka... More than three hundred thousand people have already been revived, and several hundred of them performed the same duties as you. Besides, no one will know your real name or your life story. You have nothing to be ashamed of, and you simply have no one to be ashamed of. Although, I repeat, I do not see anything shameful in your actions. And any sane person won’t see it. Moreover... - I defiantly leafed through her file, - as I understand it, you were even able to take revenge on your main offender. Cross-analysis of the mentograms of one of the revived employees shows that a second before his death you...
“What?..” the girl interrupted my monologue. Her voice trembled. -Have you revived August Miethe?
- Well... of course...
Was Hitler revived too?
- Do not worry! Of course they revived it. Or they will be revived in the near future... If you want, you can check the database. But you can meet your boyfriend only if he agrees...
- With what guy?
- Well, you said it yourself: Friedrich Hitler. I understand that your mother was against your meetings, but...
-Have you revived Hitler? – Judith asked, looking intently at me.
Fury burned in her eyes. I realized that I said something wrong.
The girl’s gaze went out, she turned away and whispered:
- I want to die…
...
Returning home, I locked myself in my office, poured myself a glass of martini, and turned on “The Day Before.” I love old comedies, they always calm me down, and I just needed to come to my senses. I was on edge. So much effort and time wasted, and all in vain! Nothing helped. I applied both the Heiseng method and the Manovsky system, even appealed to elementary logic - it was useless. If a woman gets something into her head, nothing can knock it out. Finally, I recommended memory correction to Max, but the catch was that correction can only be used with the patient’s consent. But Judith only wanted to die. Incomprehensible stupidity!
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. My consciousness melted into magical images. How to live well.
Artist Valery Shamsutdinov
***
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Source: habr.com