Nickolay Popov - The Doll

Here they are. Programmable assemblers.

The liquid seemed viscous in the light, milk-white. How many of them here? Each of them is certainly less than a bacterium, so liquid is white – they diffuse light. It’s best to examine them in natural lighting. Zhenya went to the window, passed the computer and suddenly stopped. It seemed to him that he saw someone’s face on the screen. Came back – no one. What nonsense? He came closer – white longitudinal stripes appeared on the screen. But it was impossible to read if it was any inscription. Then Eugene put the flask on the table and tried to operate on elements of the image with the mouse. He hardly managed to make out two words: drive and bulb! The idea worked like lightning – he grabbed the flask from the table and moved it to the drive slot.

Hermes Baromeevich looked at Zhenya from the screen. Aged, with a light stubble unshaven face. At first it was a picture. But then:

“Hello, son!”

Legs gave way. Eugene sat down on a chair. Recording continues:

“You’ve gone through my whole program. I know that this video would never appear on the screen since its appearance, as you already understood, is obliged to coincidence of many independent from each other, conditions.

When you were three years old, I had to leave you with your mother. I was hoping to come back, but fate decreed otherwise. For a long time I had been working abroad. Now you know very well what I’d spent the best years of my life on. But when I returned home, I realized that the fruits of my many years of work in the first place could be taken advantage of people, whose morality leaves much to be desired. I dreamed of a complete transformation of the world. With assemblers we could clean our planet from all the dirt that has accumulated on it over many long years: to decompose toxic substances into harmless, to break up carbon dioxide of atmosphere into oxygen and carbon, to seal up forever radioactive substances in self-sealing containers. The implementation of my research if successful could bring long life and abundance to all whom may concern.

Well, these bright prospects evoke thoughts of utopia. However, utopian ideas time and again revolutionized history, whether for better or worse, never mind. Dangerous dreams forced people to kill in the name of love and enslave their own kind in the name of brotherhood. Too often, dreams turned out to be impracticable, and attempt to implement them – disastrous. I came to this conclusion as soon as my first experiments began feeding hope. Forgive me, son. Over a lifetime, I have not found a moment to talk to you. First, not looking for, and then could not look as I could not move freely in my own country. I had to resolve the problem and dilemma at one time. The first was how to neutralize the monster that is now in the flask on your table. Complete neutralization would have taken some years, while every day I expected Pharaohs of the security service. As for the dilemma whether to hide a flask or trust to you – I thought the second option is the most secure.

In fateful coincidence at that time you studied in Moscow. But I found a way out. To let you in the business, I had to put in almost all the information on molecular electronics in a computer memory. Surely I was going and, perhaps forever to hide a flask from people. But I was tracked down by the police. I could not leave the house. At my disposal were a few hours. And then I came up with a trick of a globe. No one could solve this simple puzzle except you. Your aunt suspected of nothing. You had got a coded message at the appointed time.

My son, you have to do what I could not do. Since assemblers located in the flask for a long time remained without work, they have lost the ability for replication. Unfortunately, the algorithm of reproduction is at the Pharaohs , therefore after listening to this video recording you have to neutralize the contents of the flask. The flask was sealed, made of silicon carbide, is not exposed to the effect of assemblers. It’s very difficult to split it, but in the place indicated by the symbol Au, you can drill a hole with the help of any cutting tool. To exclude the possibility of cart-any mistakes, I refused to work with light elements and opted for heavy metals. The higher the specific weight of the initial and final substance, the fewer raw materials is required for the neutralization. Remember, son, pour only into a glass or chinaware, and then put there any metal object.

Goodbye and forgive me if you can.”

The liquid had no smell, gradually spread out on a porcelain plate and there’s been no trace of it in the flask. Zhenya brought out of the closet a heavy dumbbell, gently lowered it into the plate. At the same moment, the milk surface around the dumbbell covered with a network of microscopic bubbles. Some seconds passed – and the liquid in the dish was boiling, as if that chinaware was standing not on the cold floor but on a gas stove, while the black, covered with bitumen varnish, dumbbell suddenly started to change color from the bottom. It seemed that it was slowly sinking into the shiny new yellow cylinder. Easy click. The plate, unable to bear the precious gravity, split in two – fluid leaked onto the floor. As soon as the white tongue appeared from under the rubble of porcelain, like frost on the glass, fan-shaped golden patterns swung on the parquet. The viscous milky trickle, having mixed with droplets of blood on the floor, suddenly became fluid as quicksilver, and acquired a ruby colour. Stitches

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