– All right. (chuckles) Let's try that, too, and if it doesn't work, I'm sorry, I'll take it from here.

Soon Rutra went into a trance by meditation, or perhaps he fell asleep. Somewhere in the depths of nirvana he heard Parmen's voice whispering in his ear:

– Relax, I think it's working. We're going to take you to the tomograph and find out what's going on in your head, plus the chip data… we'll know exactly what frequency to manipulate.

– Am I okay? I'm in some strange state. It's like I don't own my own body," Ruthra asked in a whisper without opening his eyes.

– Yes. I confess we are fixing something," Parmen said just as quietly, warily, almost like an incantation.

Suddenly, the machine made an eerie sound, the optical unit glowed, and a shock ran through Rutra's body. Whether Rutra was losing consciousness, or whether the sound had affected him so… he did not know. The fact was that he was completely relaxed, detached, or perhaps paralyzed, almost unconscious, and at the moment when for a moment he had completely shut down, had entered a dreamlike state, had realized that he was losing control, he jerked and woke up. The reality he saw spoke of some kind of change… or he was hallucinating, seeing things, because when he opened his eyes, there was another reality in front of him.

***

It was only after Parmen had told him what was happening in parallel that he realized what was going on. At first he had been surprised, annoyed and indignant. It all concerned the attitude towards Parmen's methods. He had again conceived a cunning program, had lured Rutra into it, and had apparently decided to study his psychological state before the real experiment. In idea – he was right, of course. After all, if we go to an unknown place, country or territory, even if we know a lot of things, we will find ourselves in a completely different mental, spiritual and psychological environment. And what to say if we find ourselves in an unknown world. The scientist was not devoid of imagination, only in the scientific context, but in the design context – alas. The surroundings were squalid.

Ruthra, though he had been out for some time, was thinking clearly, but at the first moment of "waking up" he couldn't understand what was happening. The fact that the surroundings were different was more of a clue than a mystery. So he immediately realized that Parmen had again decided to play a trick on him, as if to create a situation for studying the reaction. He did that periodically, or rather, they did it together. They didn't enter virtual reality to study human behavior in different circumstances, but made such performances in reality. This way it was better to find out how the psyche reacts during the transition to a parallel reality and in it, in that world. It was very difficult to believe in the reality of transition from one world to another. However, it seemed like a dream to Rutra after he regained consciousness. "Parmen most likely used a new technology – altering the perception of reality and creating an illusion of reality," he pondered logically. This technology is used in making feature films – like computer graphics superimposed on real objects, environments, but here – directly through the chip, in the brain, on everything a person sees. Rutra decided that's why he sees things that way.

Ruthra tried to contact Rangit. There was no reply. All other communication was also absent. It was a poorly furnished and colored room. Gray and beige with incomprehensible trappings. Parmen didn't think much of it. And yet what was his purpose? He, or those who helped him, made a few mistakes. The first thing that caught Ruthra's eye was the holographic numbers "hanging" in space, a calendar. He couldn't understand why the year 2050 was marked on it, since it was 2022. He couldn't understand why he had chosen that date.

Ruthra tried to stand up, wanting to see what was going on. The special bed was massaging his body. He couldn't find the clasps he was fastened to it. The shaking made it hard to concentrate.

Ruthra shouted:

– How do you unhook them?

Suddenly he heard a voice directly in his head. The technology was familiar to him, but the voice was not.

A man spoke:

– Please don't yell Rutra Tigrovich, I'll explain it to you.

– Who's talking to me?

– I am an automated intelligent control system. One of my tasks is to manage the city of Moscow. In your memory, Moscow is still a city.

– What city? You mean it's not supposed to be a town?

– Moscow is a separate state, a protected zone observing neutrality. Among other things, it is in the status of an offshore zone, where the governing functions of the world government and the UN are concentrated.

– Enough, I don't believe it. The experiment didn't work.

– Please listen. Everyone doesn't believe it at first. Please listen.

– Rangit, is that you?

– No. Listen to me. I understand you don't believe it, but you're not the first. According to my records, you've been in a coma for 28 years.

– What the hell are you talking about? System glitch? Or is someone trying to play a joke on me?

– Please – evaluate the situations ts ию adequately. I have to inform you the following: there was a system failure during your experiment. The body you are in now, the body you consider to be yours, is not the real body of scientist Paskhov.

– You're out of your mind. Who's talking to me anyway? What's the big joke?

– I asked you to be reasonable. I'm an intelligent machine, I can't lie to you.

– What are you saying, you can't lie? That's very surprising.

– You did the experiments yourself. You made your own cloned body. You wanted to embed a digital copy of yourself in it. Didn't you?

– So… so what?

– There was a system failure during the experiment, your real body is stored in another facility. This body is a copy of yours. You can even feel it now. You've made it younger and uploaded your mind into it. To ensure your adequacy, I must conduct a test. I must question you. So, who are you?

– That's crazy. Who were you just talking to?

– Please answer the question adequately. Until you answer the question, I can't let you go.

Ruthra tried to stand up. He couldn't. Something invisible kept him chained to the cot.

– Release me at once!

– I told you, you have to take a test. It's not that hard, just answer the questions.

– What the hell kind of questions?

– Who are you?

– You know exactly who I am.

Ruthra was becoming increasingly irritated, angry.

– Please answer in the logic you yourself put into the thinking of an artificial intelligence. Who are you?

– What the hell. I'm sick of these Parmenides pranks. Who the hell are you?

– Please answer the question. Who are you?

– Fuck you.

Ruthra tried to stand up again. Again he failed. He cursed irritably, but nothing helped. The machine was inexorable.

– Please answer, who do you feel you are? Who are you?

Ruthra was silent for a moment, then decided to answer.

– I am a scientist, Ruthra Paschow. I invented the technique of body cloning.

– Tell me about the technology.

Ruthra took a deep breath, then exhaled. He decided not to be nervous.

– There's nothing particularly complicated about it, really. Human bodies can be cloned… just like regular animals, which are already being cloned on an industrial scale. Some of the difficulty is the ability to accelerate the growth of the body. However, this too is solved by the rapid growth technique used in animal breeding. The difficult part of this process is moving consciousness into the brain. It was a real challenge, but I managed it.

– What is consciousness?