The Children of Zegandaria, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov [first color ebook reader txt] 📗

CHAPTER EIGHTY: THE MEILOVICH HYPOTHESIS

At last they decided to test Von Meilovich's hypothesis and to convince themselves of its correctness. That whacked-out downloader might have finally, driven them right into the ground with the depth of his pEnetrations.

This hypothesis showed how certain alterations in the hypothalamus[58] of the cerebral chorus could cause a rather rare phenomenon known as parallel virtual reality. It was observed only in peculiar individuals who could control through the part of their brain in question all the more basic functions of the major organs of their body such as heart, stomach, lungs and so on.

The subtle revolutionary scientific point was that they didn't need to clear their minds before going from one level of virtual reality to another. To put it another way, even Om Gur Nal couldn't be sure who was peeking over his illegal money transfers and other dark doings.

The depth of this hypothesis lay between the relationship of these two phenomena. Few even among the scientific community dared to give publicity to the theoretical possibility of such a thing being applied anywhere.

Cowboy was driven into a dead end and fell into a deep depression. He indulged in alcohol and many women. In his isolated apartment, wonderful half-empty and completely empty western bottles of various shakes and so on rolled around.

It was too bad such a talent had failed.

But Ser Mac Zon gave him a hand and saw his potential. So he became part of the team of brilliant doctors headed by Ursula von der Lan and Jack Di Mons. Each complemented the weaknesses of the others - they were so driven to succeed and adept at the art of looking even under the ox-calf. They had an awful lot of work to do. And they realized that they wanted to live - here and now. Driven to be on top of the world. In an eternal blue spring.

It was an open secret that the use of cyber-drugs was not explicitly forbidden by statute as long as it led in enhancing the creativity of the user. Thus, nearly forty percent of the board was bucking like horses. It saved them from failing, but it also took away from their humanity.

They had no real idea how they would fare if they were just instantly and unexpectedly thrown out on the street without any warning. They lived in their own fictional world and gave orders for the basic problems concerning the population.

Ursula von der Lan, came from a very, very wealthy family and her relatives simply gave her medicine to study instead of wasting her time all day. She was in charge of secretarial work and technical documentation and her post was very responsible.

Jack Di Mons also had an aristocratic background and had a lot of money. He had the most patents in the whole team, but they were rather cunningly stopped by the brash Gad ‘Di Enn.

Ser Mac Zon knew that the team he had created was indeed the right one, but he still had some concerns.

Their mentor was even more interested in finding out from them exactly which people could switch their minds in this strange and original way, and if this 'anomaly' was innate.

Somewhere in there, he suspected, lurked a secret inexorably linked to Om Gur Nal, and perhaps that would provide the key to the right answer.

The Doctor had a special sympathy for Von Meilovich, who was pulling the whole team forward and making tremendous discovery progress.

Ser Mac Zon knew that one day there might be even greater social and racial equality than existed as it was now. He waited for it with all his heart. He suspected, however, that he would probably be killed by some malefactor well before he could see it.

Somewhere far ahead he was charting new horizons that could change people's destinies. He wanted the new morning to be better than the last.

Von Meilovich was an orphan and a passionate fighter. Uncharacteristic of his profession as a doctor, he boxed skillfully and was also proficient in wrestling and jiu-jitsu. He had spent time in the army where he was a hand-to-hand combat instructor. This happened naturally before his studies at the Academy, where Ser Mac Zon noticed him.

The young man had graduated from the Nal Rhys Moon Lyceum, where many things had come to a head. He had a real opportunity to show what he could do and do it well.

He immediately became his mentor's assistant. Ser Mac Zon of course was quick to tell him about Sacklin’s spell and explained that they should try to avoid possible problems of that nature.

- "So he's lost his mind, has he?," Von Maelovitch turned to him incredulously.

- "Apparently such a thing has happened after all," Ser Mac Zon answered him quite frankly.

Nal Rhys Moon was an extremely heavily guarded place and looked more like a military base than a hospital.

The students here were gods chosen - either they had powerful protections or they had parents with a lot of money, and not infrequently both.

The conversation took place in one of the well-insulated corridors of the East Campus.

Von Meilovich was younger then, with a clean face and bold intentions to prove how good a doctor he was.

- "They immediately classified it here and forbade talking about it at all," his mentor whispered to him confidentially. "I advise you to do the same, or we will both take it - and very hard."

He handed him a small electronic notepad. The young man glanced around its now slightly primitive form and was astonished to find that he had to go through a number of encrypted directories before stumbling upon the real part of the mad genius's discovery. Here's what it said:

"I am Jonathan Sacklin, younger brother of Jonathan Herns. He and I are both identical twins and have an emotional and mental connection typical of these cases. As we well know sometimes twins can read their minds. But not to be glib. I was quite unpleasantly surprised by my brutal discovery. Some more sensitive personalities like ourselves were able to switch our minds when passing from one level to another, but it turned out that there was a mortal danger in this. Somewhere deep within myself I lost self-respect, understanding what was actually happening in the procedure thus performed. I realized my curse of being a bad messenger. The problem is that consciousness gets split, upset, and unread and sooner or later is lost for good. Yes, you heard right - it is lost! Forever and irrevocably! But that is not the worst thing - you can easily lose your identity too. I feel this will happen to me soon too and I am even starting to have white spots in my memory as I write this. Tell my brother Jonathan I love him if I never see him again. That's enough for me. What a scientific breakthrough! Marked by my death..."

Von Meilovich was touched by the letter and fell into a depression. For some time he had lost all desire to see everyone, and even Ser Mac Zon had forgotten him. Since then, he began to work hard on his hypothesis and to develop the thousands of options that would prevent the so-called disintegration of consciousness in a virtual environment. He wanted to make an epochal discovery, but, alas, he had no strength left. Much later he stumbled upon something that helped him a lot and decided his fate later. And Von Meilovich was terribly grateful.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE: ARCHIBALD PEOS

Peos integrated circuits were a good way to make a step forward in science. They certainly gave great and wide possibilities, but they also hid a certain problem-the voltage in the the cerebral cortex could cause them to overheat and melt into the brains of their owners, and that would be extremely unpleasant. This usually happened with dilettantes who hadn't the slightest idea of virtual reality.

Of course brain-gifted people like the Herns brothers could get by without any integrated circuits or chips in their head, as even a simple program.

One of the basic requirements was that the IQ had to be no lower than one hundred and twenty for the first level of virtual reality input, one hundred and forty for the second level, one hundred and sixty for the third level, one hundred and eighty for the fourth level, and at least two hundred for the fifth level, which also required special permission from Om Gur Nal himself.

Naturally the Herns brothers were where-more gifted than that-their IQs ranged around three hundred and twenty. Even many scientists didn't believe that they had such developed brains.

It was even rumored that the younger brother's IQ was chasing three hundred and fifty. Considering the cyberpunk atmosphere they were developing in, that was a downright huge achievement.

The majority of researchers were yearning to see real life and dive deep into that reality. They wanted to see what was on the other side but couldn't.

Archibald Peos became incredibly rich from his discovery and felt in seventh Heaven at how important it actually became.

He was the son of a poor farmer who hadn't had the means to study a child with his gifts.

But one night he came across an unknown benefactor. A strange man walked in and asked to see his father on their family farm. They were more than grateful that such a distinguished visitor had graced them with his precious attention. And he had even ventured into a place like this.

They immediately offered him a seat. He coughed and fixed his gaze on Peos Ki Sor - that was his father's name.

- "Sir, while I do respect your convictions, you are in no position to provide this boy with a decent future let alone open the way up for him," and he looked indefinitely into one dark corner of their house.

The farmer was silent rather grimly.

- "Let's be honest, you just don't realise his potential. He is destined by fate to do great things," insisted the unknown guest.

The farmer slumped further and for some reason didn't look the stranger in the eye. A strange furrow of reflection appeared on his brow. A little later, however, their eyes met, and he said

- I won't move from here. He will become a farmer. And that was it. That was his true destiny. 'With all due respect to you and your rank, you're fooling me with some nonsense,' he retorted, trying to be polite, aware that the one across the way was very, very important.

They hadn't been able to harvest tonight and were trying to deal with the problem before the weather got worse. This was the so-called second harvest because the first one hadn't caught well enough. It had froze and brought a lot of trouble to many. Farmers were