Parallel worlds – one. Fire and flame

There was a scream in the hall, and everyone looked at the screen. There was the first explosion. It was high-altitude. On the map, a glow bloomed in the area that bordered the U.S. coastline. The image of a separate sector was coming from a satellite in video mode. It was a colorful and deadly spectacle. Hundreds of missiles and already separated warheads were streaming across U.S. and Russian airspace. They were shot off by defense air defense systems. Despite the tragedy of what was happening, the excitement of the game was involuntarily captured. Watching this from the height of space – incredibly mesmerizing spectacle. The noise in the hall stopped. Everyone silently watched the outcome of events. There were many questions that surprised. There were no strikes on the territory of other nuclear powers and allies on either side. Probably because there were no launches from their territory either. Which was also surprising. The flashes continued. The explosive spectacle of the flames of a macabre fakir swaddled the sky. The sky in reverse. The shockwave blew clouds and clouds apart like a giant fan. The image began to shimmer. It was radiation. Two or three minutes with rapid heartbeat, cold sweat, and shaky legs passed. It was a terrible, horrible, ridiculous and yet noble war. The defense system had worked perfectly. All the explosions were high-altitude. It actually made sense. There's no point in a war like this if the result is a Pyrrhic victory. Why contaminate territory when it could be useful? And anyway – why fight a war if there are no spoils. Therefore, the spoils, such as territory and everything on it, had to remain intact. In the modern world, it is enough to cut off the electricity – and he himself will surrender, even without a fight. This is exactly the effect the high-altitude explosions were designed for. But who won? This question, despite the gruesomeness of what had happened, was running through everyone's minds. As if reading it, or maybe really reading it, the Chief of General Staff came up and said:

– The whole world will go dark. Whoever can rebuild the fastest, whoever can keep the territory will win. The one who is smart enough not to divide and fight over it.

– Most likely-not without it," Ruthra answered him. – Those are the obvious implications. Power will be in cells within a radius of at most 50 kilometers. Imagine how many principalities will appear in Russia alone.

– Yes everywhere," the general answered him.

– Why the whole world? – Andrian asked.

– Irene continues to act. First, she did not launch missiles from submarines, which both pleased and surprised us. And now, as if looking at the first result, she has decided to shut down the rest of the countries as well.

– Look, it doesn't make sense. I mean, she's shutting herself down.

– What are you talking about, Rutra Tigrovic? You're obviously under stress.

Ruthra realized his mistake again. The holy of holies, the place where the supercomputer was installed, was the same here as in his world. And it was already a fact, for this bunker was functioning. In the new world of undergrounds there were now new cities, capitals, suburbs. And there, on the surface – something like before in space. It would be dangerous to go up there.

– Okay, okay, I hear you. A little bit really confused. Anyway, the first and inevitable stage has passed. Let's assemble the staff, get to work.

– Is that an order? – The chief security officer asked.

– Orders," Ruthra said firmly.

– Yes," the military reported.

The chief of staff left, and the chief of security approached Rutra and, taking his hand, gestured for him to step back. As they stepped back, he said to him almost in a whisper:

– We have some preliminary results from here.

He gestured to the hall below, where monitoring and analysis was constantly going on.

– You can request it through Irene, but there is a danger. So I will ask you to restrict certain functions a bit… and certainly, I assure you, I will have to disable the ability to customize that madam over there.

He pointed at one of the ladies.

– Unfold the details.

– The president didn't shut down communication between systems.

– And who is?

– Unknown caller.

– What do you mean?

– A new admin has been brought into the system.

– How and who?

– You were the one who originally nominated him. Remember, I refused to endorse.

Rutra, as they say, was on the edge of failure. Who did he suggest?

– Give me a full report, no riddles.

– That cock offered by the madam you call....

He didn't have time to finish, or Ruthra didn't hear over the shouting.

– Rutra, look! Tell them to do something! Please!
– Catherine shouted, followed by Julia.

She was pointing at the screen. Ruthra was at a loss to understand what was happening. One of the operators down the tier, realizing the cause of his concern, explained:

– That's the third stage falling. It's not a warhead.

Ruthra, looking closely, figured out what he was talking about, but didn't understand what they were talking about. IrAn, apparently realizing this, decided to clarify, warning him first which one was speaking.

– It's me," she said first; clearly a local wouldn't have started that way. – One of the missile fragments falls in the area of town where the girls are from. They have families there, small children.

Ruthra nodded reassuringly to the ladies, but not with a grimace of frantic fear, and decided to ask a leading question of the security chief, so that he would know indirectly who they were talking about and not give away the strangeness of his behavior.

Going over the last thing the supervisor had said in his head ("…the madam you call…"), he was a little surprised, and it prompted a question.

– Isn't that what you call her?

His answer, however, was workmanlike and, to Rutra's regret, did not solve the riddle.

– I prefer first name and middle name. Or better yet, last name.

– All right. Uh-huh. Give me the gist.

– She, with access, perhaps in collusion, perhaps out of friendly naivety, logged into the settings system and allowed him to put a similar algorithm into the program. He may have been in cahoots, or he may have been on a mission for the former president's clan.

Ruthra already knew it was a "he". But who? Andrian? Ruthra had been waiting for the security guard's next story to clarify the situation, but then the reality of the situation dawned on him. It took him a moment to realize what had happened. It took him a while to realize how real it was, just as we don't understand reality when we awaken suddenly from a sound sleep.

He was in the lab hall. "Can this be?" – He asked himself. He was answered, "If the end of the world were to come, it wouldn't come on schedule." Only who? It wasn't himself. It wasn't artificial intelligence. It was that voice.

***

…YatSan didn't realize where she was. Whether she was still in the installation, or awake in one of her many copies, or hanging somewhere in the interstellar void. She could see the stars, but not like she could from Earth. She saw the void, but not like an empty space. She hung in that void, and only the cold light of the distant stars told her of the reality of space. She had no body, or herself she could not see. When the pause lasted too long for inaction, YatSan tried to make reflexive movements. She tried to walk, to swim, to fly. No, it didn't work. She was hanging in the void. Twisting her virtual head she could, she could also just unfold her gaze. YatSan heard a sound, and something twinged in her soul. She couldn't mistake that sound for anything. It was the crying of an infant. She turned around. It was him. YatSan tried with incredible effort to imagine moving toward him. Nothing worked, as if she were in a vise. Something was holding her, the child was quietly "floating" towards her. She stretched out her virtual arms in her mind toward him. He was approaching her and had already begun to smile. And YatSan became joyful, smiling, anticipating the moment of a beautiful meeting.

Shots rang out.

– Run, run. Why are you sitting there?

YatSan turned around. She couldn't realize where she was or what was happening. Nightmarish things were happening around her. There was a rumble and an explosion. She was slightly concussed. Someone was pulling her by the arm. The earth, mixed with the stink of guts and blood, splattered her face. Someone yanked her sharply…

Chapter 5. Who lives in this body?

<