***

…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…

Seeing the humdrum and grayness of life taking over him, Rutra decided to shake things up. And there is no means of shaking off the moping more violently than a fix. Having a lot of knowledge, which, however, Rutra received through his work in a top-secret organization whose main mission was to manage human society, he decided to use it in another mission. It was no secret that throughout human history, information and knowledge had been the most important weapon and value. They have been killed for, hidden, paid for, organized alliances and waged wars. The modern clans that run society have carefully concealed how they rule the masses of Earthlings. They disguised themselves, gave out false ideas, played the spectacle of friends and enemies, and hid new technologies. Despite the fact that to the average citizen it could seem that he was restricted in his freedom, he was controlled tacitly and invisibly – total control was needed first of all for the protection of this very citizen. After all, the "digital" war among themselves was waged not only by the special services, i.e. the clans of society management, but also by "dark" personalities united in hidden groups. In this world, the world of people, there were also other worlds, worlds hidden from the gaze of the average person. For example, looking at the beautiful terrestrial world, we do not see magma and the boiling core at the center of the earth; only an occasional reminder of it in volcanic eruptions. Here, too, we sometimes learn about the existence of the secret world indirectly through echoes and consequences that are difficult to conceal.

For years, that's what Rutra has been doing, collecting, systematizing, hiding information from the citizens, for their own good. Yes, yes. In order to preserve peace, society and human peace, it is necessary to control not only the technology of production of chemical, bacteriological and nuclear weapons, but also ordinary wiretapping of telephone conversations. For example, a sufficiently competent chemist can produce potent slow-acting poisons, scatter them in a room and a person will die in a few weeks or months. And the cause of death will be virtually impossible to establish. And there is much more, up to connection to your phone and hidden broadcasting of a special program that will secretly adjust you, program you for certain actions.

Rutra had a kind of hobby: he was interested in alternative science. It could be considered alternative only insofar as it was quite real, especially for the system in which he was operating. Accordingly, Rutra's social circle was made up of the same "scientific fantasists". The advanced technologies, hidden from the public, with which he was familiarized by duty, gave him the opportunity to become nothing less than a scientific talent. This transformation in him was a kind of prelude to the future, perhaps for all mankind. A chip in his brain, a direct connection with a supercomputer, a "second brain", powerful and informed, in the form of artificial intelligence, gave enormous possibilities. One only had to know how to control it and have a talent for extraordinary abstract thinking.

Knowing Rutra's predisposition in this regard and his high leadership status, he was once invited to a closed secret meeting at the very center. More precisely, it was an invitation to a friendly discussion. Knowing Rutra's progressive, cutting-edge views, the center's scientific community was no stranger to presenting fantastic ideas, no matter how implausible they seemed. For example, Rutra and one of them seriously discussed and planned an experiment to implant a cloned thymus gland into an elderly person to test the possibility of rejuvenating the body. Studying this method, they came to the conclusion that it is easier to clone an exact copy of a human being, and then to transfer the mind, consciousness, i.e. the human spirit, into the body. For those uninitiated into the secrets of the center's technologies it seemed absurd and fantastic, but everything was much simpler. Cloning was no longer a secret for anyone. Rapid growth of the organism was achieved with the help of technologies long used in animal breeding, and the transfer of consciousness, which although seemed incredible and miraculous transmigration of souls, was actually a technique of launching pre-scanned, recorded in a special program of chemical reactions of the brain for no more than a day. There was even a technology of instant scanning, recording and transfer from one brain to another, only in this case the accuracy of memories could be broken, or even completely lost some fragments, which, however, could happen in the disease of any person and without "pumping" consciousness. The scientific community, even with all the freedom of action that was given to them at the facility, did not dare to conduct such complex experiments without the support of the leadership. Still, this organization was created and served certain purposes, which were indicated by those who govern all other secret or explicit organizations that are authorities on the planet.

Rutra took advantage of being the golden mean in the command of this power hierarchy and treating the main persons of power of their group. These are not police and military organizations, as many might think. It is not financial and economic organizations; not even religious ones. It is her majesty science and the doers of science. The priests of the modern world.

Rutra was trusted, his progressive and strict principles suited both sides, so he could enjoy almost complete freedom. No one in their system could boast of complete freedom, by the way; everyone depended on each other, and all decisions were made collegially. When they met at a meeting, which, however, was not so rare, they periodically discussed ideas that they considered secret only because the public would be horrified if they learned about the idea to realize such a thing.