The Silence of Zegandaria by Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (book recommendations website txt) 📕

Ever since his arrival, the other members of the colony had looked at him with suspicion - it was dangerous to get close to him. They knew that a trained veteran like him could be extremely dangerous.

One night, as he slept in his cell, I had a strange dream. Clones didn't dream, but this time it seemed so real - it was just so funny to see himself so small, but surrounded by unearthly powers that wanted to help him.

When he woke he looked around - someone's hand had scratched into the rough rock "Angels travel through the universe by light - keep it in your hearts!"

He wished he could believe it, wish he could feel that divine energy and have it help him, but he wasn't sure if it could. It was entirely possible that even the Most High had forgotten him.

He hadn't received human treatment, as cadets in the army were rude to each other, and even sometimes there were real excesses - unacceptable to the ordinary civilian order. His earthly masters wanted him to be as obedient as a dog. It required iron discipline and tenacity not to perish as a newcomer to the unit.

The next day they were introduced to the agenda they were to adhere to, and that was the beginning of their baptism into the colony.

GH306 had managed to gather a group of the well-prepared and capable around them who were eager to be able to be moved to lighter work on the bright side of the moon.

Extraction of Helium-3 was somewhere preferable to extraction of rare elements, which on top of that were also radioactive.

The doomed colonists were given very rudimentary protection against the radiation - as much to keep them from dying immediately as to be of use to the colony for a while - massive lead plates were placed on their spacesuits that could absorb a certain amount of radiation. But that was just a formality to avoid Earth Federation regulations.

After working on the mines for a while, they realized they were very, very screwed.

- "How long on average do the new recruits last here?," called GH306, "I think we'll last six months at most, if we last that long. That's the maximum period in my opinion."

- "As it stands, we won't even make it to the Helium-3 mining mines," I confirmed. "This is the Earth Federation's way of showing us what our end will be, eh?," another XBL-4 clone, who was very close to GH306 - had even served under his command, grumbled indignantly.

Rare earths are going to be our hell, and mining them seems a bit pointless to me - not because there's no real use for them, but because there's no mention anywhere of how we'll be redistributed after our six-month tour of duty here ends," GH306 added again, "We just dig and dig, and a lot of the probes broke - it's unlikely the Earth Federation will lend us new parts for them. We have to fix ourselves and survive.

- "We could do a little thieving," XBL-4 revealed his idea, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

- "What's your plan?," asked GH306 quite seriously, "Where can we get the needed items. 'We need to keep them constantly accounted for," GH306 spoke grimly.

- "We'll steal one of the transport ships," XBL-4 betrayed his reverie, "that'll be our chance to deal with the problem."

It had gotten hellishly quiet around them. Maybe the darkness of the moon would assist them in getting away. And the communal lunar seas, which were basalt plains, would provide them with comfortable enough places to stash some things for their little expedition. The robots' watchful eye had not ceased around the clock, and they had let no one slip from their ferocious hands. Earth engineers had developed special software to mimic emotions associated with directed aggression towards the colonists.

It might have sounded crazy, but even here on the Moon, some of the clones had exhibited what they called social ostracism by expelling a robot assigned by the Earth Federation. After he had resisted, they had eliminated him in the most brutal fashion. The guilty were later shot, and one or two sent to one of the lunar seas where they would starve to death.

Here was the time to report that there were many seas on the moon with most picturesque names, such as the Sea of Cold, the Sea of Tranquility, and the Sea of Rains.

The lunar mining colony was located near the Sea of Rains, which had formed from the flooding of a large crater formed by the fall of a large meteorite or comet nucleus long, long ago.

Thus there was an opportunity for the colony to supply itself with water, which was only to its advantage[1].

GH306 would never forget the frantic face of one of the doomed clones who had been sent there with no possibility of ever returning. To wash their hands, they left him a single serving of high-calorie pilot food and a small ration of water - they had to keep him in good health for the next few hours, and then came the time of slow and painful death.

- "I will die a martyr, a martyr, a martyr," he ordered like a madman, not taking into account that it couldn't help him much anymore - his sentence had long been signed and confirmed by the Earth Federation.

After it was all over, my friend turned to me:

This one was completely unhinged, but don't worry at all, if we stall a little longer we'll go crazy too - even more so.

- "That's why we'll make it before it happens, though," I tried to wit.

[1] According to some NASA studies, there are 600 million metric tons of water ice on the Moon.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: THE CONDEMNED

The doomed clone had despaired. The Sea of Rains[1] was the saddest and perhaps the worst part of the moon. He knew the meager rations they had left him would soon run out. And then his end would come. He looked around. The sad picture was even sadder. In the distance he could make out receding figures.

The colonists were using ATVs to navigate the lunar surface.

This time GH307, which for some strange reason had ended up here with its illustrious predecessor, had hit bottom. There was nowhere more to go from this.

It was true that the clones had some specifics like greater strength, but they were also human.

The suit had special compartments where small portions of food and water could be stored.

Strider decided to leave his rations for later. He looked around - he was all alone.

He stood for some time, waiting for an agonizing death and wondering what else might happen.

But suddenly he saw the vague outline of something in the distance. He couldn't pinpoint what it was - but he assumed that maybe those people had changed their minds and were just coming to shoot him. He even mentally thanked the Most High. Yes, he'd read the Holy Scriptures, which nowhere spoke of clones, but he'd never thought to give thanks for his own death!

His spacesuit had a built-in bionic that helped him see into the distance - it was placed over both of his eyes.

The Earth Federation was performing the cruel manipulation because good vision was paramount in a place with limited illumination.

The Earth Federation had hesitated many times about bringing up a small artificial satellite to illuminate the colony, but the bionic eye idea was far more acceptable.

If Hermonal were here Beavors would have stated again in his inimitable style that "every annoying mistake must be corrected".

The pain that the clones were experiencing at the respective surgical manipulation was more than inhuman.

Fortunately, GH306, who had been sent here as a prominent political prisoner, had not suffered such an atrocity in his haste.

- "What are you hanging about for?," someone's voice over the radio airwaves urged him quietly but amiably, "So there wasn't much time. Come on, get on!"

GH307 thought he was dreaming - it couldn't be true. These demands were some kind of figment of someone's sick mind. Nima was coming to save his life! But the SUV was inexorably approaching! Soon GH306 and XBL-4 came down from it.

Our friends were trying to steal a communications ship that would easily get them to safety - such a destination was Mars, for example. There they could legitimize themselves and stay completely undisturbed for some time before naturally being discovered. But they could then travel to some planet beyond the Kuiper Belt - where the Earth Federation had little influence and had to comply with so-called Galactic Law.

- "The Earth Federation will no longer dispose of our souls," XBL-4 declared with conviction. "Never again!"

However, in order to succeed in taking a liaison ship to Mars, they needed to break through the Authentication defenses, and the robots were the only ones allowed to approach the ships.

Artificial intelligence, as we well know, was discovered by Earthlings long ago, but artificial "consciousness" was one step above it. Earth scientists still had a number of disputes about this, but they had come to a kind of consensus about the levels of consciousness and had divided them into C0, C1 and C2.

According to Earth science, the unconscious is created from the aggregate of millions of fleeting mental images of the world around us, but the robots couldn't be guided by such technology - they needed something significantly better. They did not function like the human mind, which worked selectively with one of these images and transmitted it to a higher level.

The robots of the future also possessed a specific C3 consciousness that was defined much later. This consciousness was an anticipation of the future and a regression to the past. When such an attitude was realized the robots could sense certain things.

For example, the clones were not just tracked by electronic chips, like the electronic chips used on Zegandaria, they had linked consciousnesses through their common donor. Special software was built into the robots to supplement their artificial consciousness - they could sense any emotional instability in their charges - even from a certain distance. Usually the robot overseers weren't too far from the mines.

To prevent them from sensing their escape, the brilliant GH306, who was not yet Earth classified as extremely intelligent and could easily rival the brilliant Jonathan Sacklin, decided to take advantage and confuse the robots' C3 level of consciousness. Thus, they would make erroneous predictions with definite delays while making regressions to the past with respect to that same future - that is, the present moment.

This was all happening extremely fast because quantum chips were controlling their "brains".

So they gained precious time to take the car. But there was something they missed.

The clones could sometimes express hidden animosity with each other - especially if they were from close series, and this was a little ruse that was caused by the sick brains of the Earth Federation in order to prevent them from working together as a team.

[1] It is also known as Mare Imbrium.