[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the generation-ship program meant no more than what it had always said: that
the time had come for the Borijan civilization to expand beyond the Kovar
System. Why all the hurry, then? the skeptics asked. To exploit their
competitive edge over their rivals, Farworlds' public relations flacks
replied. They were the biggest in the business and intended to stay that way.
To show that everything was business as usual, Farworlds was continuing its
regular Searcher launches as scheduled.
But Sarvik didn't think it could hold together for very much longer. From his
inside vantage point he was more certain than ever that Breakout could never
be made to work in the remaining time available.
Every day he saw evidence that others were ceasing to delude themselves, too.
Eventually the disillusionment would reach critical mass and set off a chain
reaction of dashed hopes, at which point the effort would collapse. After
that, there would be no more Searchers going out. All the pieces of his own
escape plan were in place. The time to move with it was now.
A blank screen in front of him came to life to show a pair of Borijan ears and
a question mark.
Sarvik shook aside his reflections. "It's all right. You can speak," he said.
"I just heard an interesting conversation between Lequasha and Othenitan,"
GENIUS informed him. It had turned out that Lequasha was among the inner group
who knew the real reason for Breakout.
Othenitan was another. The most sensitive records were still being held
off-line from the net, where
GENIUS couldn't get to them. However, it had found that by modifying the
diagnostics the maintenance programs used for remote-checking hardware, it
could surreptitiously activate the regular voice pickups on terminals in the
executive suites.
"Go on," Sarvik directed.
"The story that's being given out to the public is cracking," GENIUS said. "So
a whole new group of PR people are being brought into the secret to help hold
things together. In return, they get slots in the lifeboats."
"Which will mean deallocating someone else's," Sarvik concluded. There was no
surprise in his voice. He had been waiting for something like this for a
while.
"Do you want the conversation verbatim, or shall I summarize?" GENIUS asked.
"No. Just give me the gist."
"Essentially, you're out, along with the other slots they assigned you. They
figure that your usefulness was concentrated up front, with the conceptual
stages. The specs will be frozen on final encoding, which means that when the
ships fly, your job's over."
Sarvik stared through the screens, beyond the walls of the building. Although
he had been prepared for this, it still took him a moment to come to terms
with hearing it said in cold words.
Now, he told himself again. His preparations would never be more complete.
Further delay could only increase the risk of exposure or disaster through a
sudden cancellation of the Searcher program. The time was now.
After a while a cartoon depiction of fingers tapping impatiently appeared on
GENIUS's screen.
Page 72
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
response? it prompted.
Sarvik drew in a long, unsteady breath. Uploading a personality was a one-way
process once he was transformed into machine-resident code, there could be no
coming back. "We get our own show rolling," he finally pronounced. "Are the
archive allocation groupings still good?"
"No change."
"Reactivation sequence?"
"Implanted successfully and tested. Untraceable from system level."
Sarvik had identified Indrigon early on as having little real confidence in
the Breakout program, and had revealed to him his own scheme. He had needed
somebody in Indrigon's position to arrange unrestricted access to the Searcher
mission-control software. This had enabled Sarvik to engineer a whole region
of "invisible" storage space, undetectable by the regular test procedures,
inside the archives section of the Searcher database. There, he and the
companions he had selected to take with him would stow away indefinitely as
patterns of electronic molecular-bond encryptions able to survive virtually
indefinitely, even with a loss of power. They would reactivate in response to
a trigger code issued by the supervising processor when the right conditions
were met. Indrigon would be one of those going with
Sarvik, of course, along with two of his closer associates from Farworlds: a
female director named
Dorn, and Gulaw, one of the engineering chiefs. They had nothing to gain from
giving Sarvik's plan away and everything to lose if it was blocked.
"AMS status?" Sarvik checked.
"Final link structure fixed. Simulator returns all positive," GENIUS reported.
When the Searcher found a planet meeting all the environmental and other
conditions and the first general-purpose factory had been built, the
Supervisor would switch to an alternative manufacturing schedule of products
for it to make very different from the standard remote-manufacturing list. Key
among these would be the new bodies that Greel and Alifrenz's contacts at
Universal Robocon had designed for the machine-transported personalities to be
copied into. Two prototypes had been built at
UR and delivered to Replimaticon for trials. In return, a UR director called
Kalazin, along with two of his senior designers, a male named Creesh and
Meyad, a female, would be included in the deal. Greel and
Alifrenz had also organized the completion of the upgraded molecular-circuit
brain for the UR body, and its two designers at Replimaticon would also be
coming. Leradil and Palomec Jindriss had already earned their places, bringing
the total thus far to eleven.
"And the two prototypes have remained stable?" Sarvik said. "No indications of
regression or breakdown?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
the generation-ship program meant no more than what it had always said: that
the time had come for the Borijan civilization to expand beyond the Kovar
System. Why all the hurry, then? the skeptics asked. To exploit their
competitive edge over their rivals, Farworlds' public relations flacks
replied. They were the biggest in the business and intended to stay that way.
To show that everything was business as usual, Farworlds was continuing its
regular Searcher launches as scheduled.
But Sarvik didn't think it could hold together for very much longer. From his
inside vantage point he was more certain than ever that Breakout could never
be made to work in the remaining time available.
Every day he saw evidence that others were ceasing to delude themselves, too.
Eventually the disillusionment would reach critical mass and set off a chain
reaction of dashed hopes, at which point the effort would collapse. After
that, there would be no more Searchers going out. All the pieces of his own
escape plan were in place. The time to move with it was now.
A blank screen in front of him came to life to show a pair of Borijan ears and
a question mark.
Sarvik shook aside his reflections. "It's all right. You can speak," he said.
"I just heard an interesting conversation between Lequasha and Othenitan,"
GENIUS informed him. It had turned out that Lequasha was among the inner group
who knew the real reason for Breakout.
Othenitan was another. The most sensitive records were still being held
off-line from the net, where
GENIUS couldn't get to them. However, it had found that by modifying the
diagnostics the maintenance programs used for remote-checking hardware, it
could surreptitiously activate the regular voice pickups on terminals in the
executive suites.
"Go on," Sarvik directed.
"The story that's being given out to the public is cracking," GENIUS said. "So
a whole new group of PR people are being brought into the secret to help hold
things together. In return, they get slots in the lifeboats."
"Which will mean deallocating someone else's," Sarvik concluded. There was no
surprise in his voice. He had been waiting for something like this for a
while.
"Do you want the conversation verbatim, or shall I summarize?" GENIUS asked.
"No. Just give me the gist."
"Essentially, you're out, along with the other slots they assigned you. They
figure that your usefulness was concentrated up front, with the conceptual
stages. The specs will be frozen on final encoding, which means that when the
ships fly, your job's over."
Sarvik stared through the screens, beyond the walls of the building. Although
he had been prepared for this, it still took him a moment to come to terms
with hearing it said in cold words.
Now, he told himself again. His preparations would never be more complete.
Further delay could only increase the risk of exposure or disaster through a
sudden cancellation of the Searcher program. The time was now.
After a while a cartoon depiction of fingers tapping impatiently appeared on
GENIUS's screen.
Page 72
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
response? it prompted.
Sarvik drew in a long, unsteady breath. Uploading a personality was a one-way
process once he was transformed into machine-resident code, there could be no
coming back. "We get our own show rolling," he finally pronounced. "Are the
archive allocation groupings still good?"
"No change."
"Reactivation sequence?"
"Implanted successfully and tested. Untraceable from system level."
Sarvik had identified Indrigon early on as having little real confidence in
the Breakout program, and had revealed to him his own scheme. He had needed
somebody in Indrigon's position to arrange unrestricted access to the Searcher
mission-control software. This had enabled Sarvik to engineer a whole region
of "invisible" storage space, undetectable by the regular test procedures,
inside the archives section of the Searcher database. There, he and the
companions he had selected to take with him would stow away indefinitely as
patterns of electronic molecular-bond encryptions able to survive virtually
indefinitely, even with a loss of power. They would reactivate in response to
a trigger code issued by the supervising processor when the right conditions
were met. Indrigon would be one of those going with
Sarvik, of course, along with two of his closer associates from Farworlds: a
female director named
Dorn, and Gulaw, one of the engineering chiefs. They had nothing to gain from
giving Sarvik's plan away and everything to lose if it was blocked.
"AMS status?" Sarvik checked.
"Final link structure fixed. Simulator returns all positive," GENIUS reported.
When the Searcher found a planet meeting all the environmental and other
conditions and the first general-purpose factory had been built, the
Supervisor would switch to an alternative manufacturing schedule of products
for it to make very different from the standard remote-manufacturing list. Key
among these would be the new bodies that Greel and Alifrenz's contacts at
Universal Robocon had designed for the machine-transported personalities to be
copied into. Two prototypes had been built at
UR and delivered to Replimaticon for trials. In return, a UR director called
Kalazin, along with two of his senior designers, a male named Creesh and
Meyad, a female, would be included in the deal. Greel and
Alifrenz had also organized the completion of the upgraded molecular-circuit
brain for the UR body, and its two designers at Replimaticon would also be
coming. Leradil and Palomec Jindriss had already earned their places, bringing
the total thus far to eleven.
"And the two prototypes have remained stable?" Sarvik said. "No indications of
regression or breakdown?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]