Maryland, U.S., Greenbelt, Prince George’s County
The Goddard Space Flight Center
August 12, 2049, 12:20 AM (EDT, UTC-4)
The vast conference hall of the Global American Aerospace Corporation had been hastily turned into an HQ for an urgently assembled committee. This was unprecedented in modern history: representatives from the largest corporations and the wealthiest, most influential polises had gathered here. Both partners and the fiercest competitors – key personnel from organizations that currently – sat at the pinnacle of the world’s political structure. Perhaps the most unusual aspect was that the primary participants in this mostly political meeting were not directors or top managers but scientists – professors, heads of major laboratories, and leaders of research departments.
The hall was packed – every seat around the large holographic projection table was occupied. Even more participants had joined remotely, not wasting a minute on travel, appearing as observers on virtual screens surrounding the entire room.
image [https://i.imgur.com/vKZEVES.jpg]
Despite the late hour – 1 a.m. – it hadn’t occurred to any of the gathered to leave; a highly unusual situation that had apparently reached a critical level.
“Colleagues, I understand your concern! Even though we still have different opinions on how to interpret these charts, we must draw conclusions,” the head of the committee said, waving his hand at the holographic projection of Earth.
“We can’t interpret them in any other way, why can’t you see it?” said a French scientist who stood out like a sore thumb, wearing white beach shorts and a Hawaiian shirt depicting two naked Polynesian women wrapped in a kiss against the backdrop of a sunset at sea. This outfit seemed even more incongruous considering his worried, exhausted face. “We’re detecting many invisible supermassive objects around the entire planet! These phenomena have been acknowledged not only by my group!”
“Colleagues, it’s six o’clock in the morning here in Noordwijk.” The head of the Dutch research group walked up to the table as an avatar and switched the projection. Her hands were trembling either from anxiety or exhaustion, and she clearly didn’t know where to put them. “An hour ago, we enlisted the help of thirteen additional labs all across Europe, including the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre. We estimate that the gravitational mass of Alpha1 is approximately 520 thousand tons, Omega19’s: 350 thousand.”
“We procured different results, but only by a small margin,” said a white-haired Japanese professor behind a desk, making a hand gesture to have his projection be displayed on top of the currently shown one. “Unfortunately, I must admit that we failed to learn anything beyond that. Those unmanned and seemingly undetectable objects have a mass… That’s it. Perhaps it’s owing to pop culture stereotypes, but I have a very bad feeling about this. Because that’s exactly how an alien invasion would start in some of our anime movies and shows...”
Suddenly, a short siren blared, and the attending specialists’ attention was directed to the main display, the head of the research group was on it.
“Attention, I have an urgent announcement! We have been made contact with...”
----------------------------------------
Polis Kyiv, The Palace of Sports
Maksim Chernykh, August 12, 2049, 9:21 AM
The ceiling lamps shone bright, illuminating a small hangar. A huge diagnostic complex was in the center, a massive anthropomorphic battle robot strapped on it. No sound around aside from the soft buzzing of the mecha-complex assisting Max, who had courageously stuck his hand right into the “bowels” of the machine.
“Ouch! So damn cumbersome!” He accidentally scratched his palm on a sharp edge of the inner chassis. “Almost cut myself. Good thing the glove is sturdy!”
Trying not to drop the tool, he carefully twisted his hand and pulled it out of the robot’s innards.
“Alisa, you give it a go,” said the young man, putting the multitool away and taking a seat on a stool by the workbench. “Just put the internal protection back on, the connectors are already plugged in.”
“Sure. Why did you stick your hand in there in the first place?” Alisa asked, baffled. She kept standing motionless by the charging station as she assumed control over the complex. A versatile flexible trunk-arm swapped the tool and disappeared deep inside the battle machine.
“I dunno. Wanted to get a feel of it from the inside?”
“Are you okay, Big Brother? Didn’t get enough sleep?” Alisa asked, blinking a few times, and turning to face Maksim.
He froze and peered into her widely opened eyes that showed worry.
“At times like this, she appears so alive, it just breaks my heart. Six months ago, after getting a bonus pay for a complicated gig, I couldn’t resist and ordered a pair of bona fide cyber-biological eyes on the black market in Singapore, grown based on the real Alisa’s genetic code. I still can’t get used to it...
Too bad I can’t give her a completely human face. Bottom line, because that would draw unnecessary questions from the A.M.I. inspector during the next check, and I don’t want to attract extra attention. But, theoretically, it’s possible to grow full-fledged skin and hair. That would also help her experience more complex tactile sensations. I should probably make a mental note of the idea...”
“I dunno. Just have this weird feeling…” the young man replied, snapping out of his introspection.
“Performance anxiety?” The android girl disconnected the power cables and gracefully left the charging area.
“Yeah, I was just thinking about the results of the draw. My first opponent is a tough one, a bit too fast for us...”
“It’s funny that I drew a Spanish guy as my opponent. Emilio Ojeda from the Royal Robotics Institute of Madrid. Of course, Spanish cuisine for breakfast was just a coincidence, but it’s an interesting turn of events. By the way, I remember him from a conference in Berlin, back when I was still a freshman. A worthy opponent, and his gear is good.”
Realizing how nervous Maksim was, Alisa came up and gently hugged him from behind. Turning around, he hugged her back, stroking her head.
“It’s okay, Sis, it’s okay. I’m just a little tired. We’ll rest tomorrow...”
Meanwhile, the mechanical arm had finished working inside the battle machine and went back to its default position.
“That’s it, all done, you can put the armor back on, and we’re all set for battle.”
Max went to the operator’s chair for remotely controlling the robot. Hopping in, he ran his fingers over the safety straps that prevented the pilot from accidentally springing up in the heat of the moment, mistaking the virtual world for the real world.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
A virtual reality headset descended on his head. More of a decoration, really, and paying tribute to traditions, because Maksim was going to control the robot via the sub-brain and Deep-VR connection.
“So, fortune favors the diligent, eh?” The young man gave a chuckle and then, focusing, cleared his mind of any unnecessary thought. “T-minus ten minutes, here we go! Don’t forget, I still want to see your victory dance.”
“Then we got this for sure!” Alisa jumped up and then made several dance steps. Max nodded, put up a “Victory” sign and dove into the virtual world.
----------------------------------------
Polis Kyiv, Polytechnic Institute
Daria Vasilevskaya, August 12, 2049, 9:42 AM
The door to the “Artificial Intelligence and Applied Robotics” club opened, and Dasha showed up at the doorway, sporting a black T-shirt that said “Wicked Witch.” Her dark purple cargo pants’ pockets were stuffed with gadgets, cables, and other junk as usual. Her favorite pair of light sneakers were on her feet – worn but extremely comfortable.
“Azumi, shutters.”
“Certainly,” the soft voice of the assistant AI whispered in the head, and the thick shutters opened, letting light in. The room is large, forty-five square meters, with work desks lined up against the three walls and two assembly frames installed in the center. At the far end: the lounge, some closets, and the door leading to the storeroom.
Throwing her little backpack under the nearest desk, Dasha jumped into the chair. Fishing out her vape, she let out a cloud of vapor and felt around for a professional VR headset on the under-desk shelf.
“Moira, connection.”
% Moira.Guest: Authorization started...
% Moira.Guest: Thermogram scan, facial geometry scan, retinal and iris recognition: complete.
% Moira.Guest0024: Daria Vasilevskaya, waiting for access key.
% Moira.Guest0024: Access key received.
% Moira.Guest0024: Deciphering access key… success.
% Moira.Guest0024: Authorization… success.
% Moira.Superadmin: Welcome, Daria-san.
A VR workspace opened. The Ravens spread out to do their tasks. But one of them stayed behind and approached the girl, holding a parchment with a black seal in its claws.
“Hell of a way to start a day,” Dasha said in surprise and minimized the window she was about to use to watch Max’s battle live. “Seriously? ‘Black Swan?’ All right, there’s plenty of time before the competition starts, let’s see what’s up.”
A complicated 3D projection unfolded before her eyes, displaying a news feed compiled by the spiders of the ‘Black Swan’ AI circuit across the global extranet networks.
“So, where's the catch?” Dasha pondered, dragging the highlighted nodes into the analyzer's receiver.
“Brilliant, just brilliant! What a complex web! This is going to be a standout addition to my collection. Sure, it looks like I've got hours of work ahead of me... But that's okay, we'll manage,” she said.
Without removing her VR headset and without breaking the connection, the girl felt around for her vape. Actually, it’s a rare talent to be able to physically do anything in the real world while being completely immersed in VR, requiring a great deal of training and concentration. So naturally, a few years ago, Vasilevskaya demonstrated her incredible determination and learning speed once again… all for the sake of being able to vape while working.
“Moira, start the analysis complex!” She got into a more comfortable position, took a drag, and the thick clouds enveloped the desk. However, Dasha shortly put away her vape and dove headfirst into the investigation. Apparently, the found scheme had to do with a global intercorporate operation fighting information leaks.
To her surprise, it took much more resources to work it out than she anticipated. To reduce the load, she even had to temporarily disable all but two of the Ravens that were helping solve this cryptographic puzzle.
Over an hour passed before she finally managed to grasp the control threads of this intricate web.
“Praise Cthulhu that Moira’s power was enough! I was starting to think I’d have to drag Alisa into this and persuade her to let me use some of her threads.” Dasha gave a sigh of relief. “Looks like I’m done here...”
With the main work completed, programs took over, and there was no need for a full immersion anymore. She took off the headset and stayed in the augmented reality via her eye implants.
“Man, I feel naked without my Ravens!” The girl stood up, automatically grabbed her vape, but didn't even look at it. Her thoughts were still there, in the virtual world, alongside her programs.
“What are you hiding?” Dasha mused aloud. Then, she moved the equipment towards the wall, clearing space on the desk, and climbed onto it with her feet, still in her sneakers.
“With this level of international cooperation, you can’t suppress all the information noise, meaning I can find a loophole through ordinary social engineering! I just need to find a good starting point, so I don’t have to scour the whole surface – Moira alone wouldn’t be enough for that!”
The girl lay right atop the desk, putting her left hand behind her head, and began to pensively gnaw at the vape’s drip tip without even turning it back on.
“Hold the phone! Right! We got a lead! Awesome!” She sprang up suddenly after less than ten minutes had passed. “So, where’s the culprit of all this commotion at? The Goddard Space Flight Center? Holy shit!”
Suddenly, a mediaglyph popped up at the top of her vision that read “A ‘Black Swan’ event detected, priority 0: extremely urgent, utmost importance.” Dasha froze and felt as if an invisible hand of ice had gripped her heart for a second.
“Open!”
A window with a recorded livestream that got interrupted five seconds ago came on. The girl started to check the video’s authenticity, like she usually did with everything.
# Digital blockchain signature of source: DeepSpace4 Pro drone (expand)
# Live media content certification center: source is genuine
# Digital content authenticity center: content is not a deepfake
# Digital blockchain signature of hosting service: genuine
# GlobalTube, direct link to broadcast page (stopped, expand)
info# Location: Belt Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11228, USA (detailed coordinates, expand)
info# End time of broadcast: 03:57 (UTC-4)
The video showed footage from a sports convertiplane drone’s frontal camera. In a picture-in-picture at the bottom right corner was a corpulent biker-looking man with a bushy ginger beard and a bandana. At the top center of the screen was a donation bar and words “Skybound Raiders, phase 2!”
“We did it, fellas! Woo-hoo!” the man yelled joyfully, making his UAV descend and do a sharp turn above the empty beach.
All of a sudden, a bright flash of light enveloped the screen; the blogger squeezed his eyes shut and grasped his head. A second later, a loud bang resounded. The drone got violently blown away by an incredibly powerful wind gust, and the nimble machine barely managed to stabilize in the air. The light blast seemed to be very intense and painful: there were tears in the corners of the disoriented man’s closed eyes.
“What the fuck?!!”
The drone hovered in autopilot and turned toward the source of the flash. An enormous semi-transparent sphere came into view, resembling a huge hologram, but with a cloudy fluctuating surface that made it impossible to see through. It seemed to be corporeal, because it had swept the sand away, even leaving a large crater around. Despite being lodged deeply in, the object was nonetheless towering some twenty meters – if not higher – above the ground.
Suddenly, many shadows started flickering rapidly in the misty haze. Two streams of creatures began gushing out of the sphere. They looked like a hybrid of beetle and shrimp but as large as a small horse. Those things moved very fast, but it was still possible to make out some details: armored spindle-shaped body, eight limbs, the front pair armed with long serrated scythes, three pairs of legs. No eyes, no mouth, only a small indentation from which a pair of long whiskers was growing, bent backward along the length of the body.
The broadcast’s host seemed to have recovered a little, because he picked up the remote control and pulled his drone back.
“What the fuck are those shrimp things, people?” asked the dumbfounded man, turning the drone’s camera toward the rushing creatures.
Meanwhile, two pairs of enormous grasping limbs had torn through the cloudy veil five meters high. A titanic monster’s cephalothorax emerged; it was about fifteen meters tall. The creature quickly crawled out of the “portal,” revealing hard armor segments and many small tentacles around its huge mouth.
At that moment, there was a high-pitched rattle, and a dozen Coast Guard combat drones swooped down from the sky. They opened a barrage of fire from their miniguns right off the bat, but most of the rounds only got stuck in the thick armor, merely knocking tiny splinters out of it. Of course, some of them did reach the target, apparently either hitting thinner parts of the armor or the exposed areas on the creature’s body. But that didn’t stop it: despite being drenched in green blood, the creature continued to crawl forward stubbornly.
Suddenly, an orange flash shrouded the entire force sphere from the inside. A plasma “comet” zoomed out of it with a roar and then tumultuously exploded in the air.
Only the face of the shocked blogger remained onscreen, followed by a laconic ‘signal lost’ message.
# End of video.
“What the hell was that?!” Dasha froze by the desk in astoundment, her eyes were murky due to deep virtual immersion, her pupils were feverishly darting about. The girl’s left hand loosened, and the vape dropped onto the floor with a bright thud.
Complete silence lasted less than a second; Moira’s additional cooling fans came on loudly one after the other.