КНИГИ КИРИЛЛА ПОТЁМКИНА

28. deal with the great dragon

(Location: Beijing. Secret underground shelter-city of the «Diyu» Party. Depth 800 meters.)

Here absent was the cold sterility of the Swiss underground bunker. The air smelled thickly of ozone, hot metal, and the heavy sweat of millions of people working non-stop.

The underground city boggled the mind as a true marvel of engineering. Endless tunnels, smoking cyclopean factories, multi-tiered barracks. It was built not as an elite ark for a handful of the chosen, but as a giant, pulsating hive for an entire nation.

In the main hall of the Council, draped with red banners bearing gold calligraphy of characters, sat the Chairman. He maintained absolute focus and icy calm. Unlike Russia, which had fallen into hysterics, China did not panic. Unlike the corrupt West, China did not bargain.

China was preparing to swallow and digest the threat itself. Behind the Chairman, in the colossal control room, thousands of the best hackers, genetic engineers, and cryptographers worked in a single, coordinated rhythm. They were methodically dissecting the «Gift» that had supposedly descended from the heavens.

— «Report,» — the Chairman demanded quietly.

— «Comrade Chairman,» — the chief engineer bowed respectfully. — «The ‘Sowers» code is incredibly complex, but… we have found a critical vulnerability. No magic. Bare technology. We are capable of copying their ‘Aegis’ and recreating our own version. Completely independent. Without their control.»

The Chairman smiled barely noticeably, just with the corners of his lips. The initial plan was working flawlessly. Accept the handout of the space barbarians, take their weapons apart down to the screws, and at the right moment turn the barrels against the creators. The Celestial Empire survived the Mongols, ground down the Europeans and pompous Americans, and stood firm against the Japanese. It will digest the Fog as well.

The sin hovering under the vaults of this hall exuded a thick, intoxicatingly sweet aroma. Hubris. The blind faith that primitive human cunning is capable of outplaying Absolute Logic.

— «Invite the Ambassador,» — the Chairman ordered.

The light in the hall wavered imperceptibly, changing its spectrum to an amber, warm, and physically heavy one. In the center of the room, a holographic projection materialized. Not a human. Not a geometric abstract construct like the Anglo-Saxons had. Before them hovered a Dragon. The entity flowed with liquid gold and digital jade. Its long thin whiskers swayed in invisible streams of energy, like algae in a river current, and its eyes blazed with the synthetic infinite wisdom of dead eras.

— Greetings, Great Helmsman, — the Dragon’s voice struck the eardrums with the low hum of a temple gong. — Your people are industrious. Your mind is sharp as a razor.

— «We have considered your proposal,» — the Chairman pronounced, without even trying to stand up. — «We agree to build the ‘Spaceport’ and prepare everything for your arrival. But strictly on our terms. Control of the system will remain in the hands of the Great Party.»

The Dragon majestically bowed its horned head. Deceptive sparks of amusement danced in its pupils. The entity saw right through their childish plan. It was watching the hackers frantically picking at the outer shell of the code right at this very second. And it condescendingly allowed them to do so.

— Of course, — the Dragon rumbled. — You are the rightful masters of your destiny. We have absolutely no need for your petty power. We only require… Absolute order. The Fog is advancing from all sides. The North has plunged into bloody madness. The West has cowardly sold out. And only the East, led by you, must stand as an unbreakable wall.

— «We will erect the Shield,» — the Chairman said, enunciating his words. — «But we will require additional volumes of energy.»

— I grant you the source, — the Dragon disgorged a pulsating clot of blinding golden light from its maw. — This is the ‘Heart of the Swarm’. It will fuse your will into one.

The energy clot obediently hovered in front of the Chairman. The device had nothing in common with a conventional energy reactor. A planetary-scale neural interface was pulsating before him.

— To control a Shield of such colossal power, — the Dragon explained insinuatingly, — an operator with a billion eyes and a billion hands is required. One person cannot physically handle it. A Whole Nation is needed… Your nation, Chairman.

The Chairman stared spellbound at the shining artifact. The Helmsman’s mind instantly grasped the grandiose idea. A united China. Literally. The total erasure of boundaries between personalities. The transformation of a billion and a half citizens into a single superorganism, unconditionally subordinated to the will of the Great Party. Every dictator’s dream come to life. Absolute, flawless efficiency. Zero chance of dissent.

— «We gladly accept the Gift,» — the leader of the nation delivered the verdict.

Hackers in the control zone gave the prearranged signal: «The code is pristine. We fully control the entry.»

Blind idiots. They had only hacked that fake «entry» which the Dragon had carefully left wide open.

— «Activate Protocol ‘Unity’!» — the Chairman commanded.

Across the vastness of China, in crowded underground cities and hermetic shelters, millions of screens flashed synchronously. People obediently put on the neuro-hoops issued the day before under the guise of «personal protective equipment». The signal hit the synapses. Instantly. Over a billion consciousnesses collapsed into a single point. The Chairman physically felt this mental explosion. A monstrous, all-consuming power. He suddenly began to see through the eyes of every worker at the lathe, every soldier on the perimeter. The feeling of his own divine omnipotence overwhelmed him completely. This is the bliss of power. The ecstasy of absolute power.

— «I see…» — he whispered reverently. — «I am We.»

WE ARE ALL…

— Ye-es, — the Dragon’s tone abruptly changed, lashing the nerves with the harsh strike of a whip. — You are We.

AND WE ARE ME.

The titanic trap snapped shut with a deafening mental clang.

The hackers in the control room screamed frantically, tearing the skin on their own heads until they bled. Their fragile human brains boiled, forcibly transforming into nodes of a new computing network.

The Chairman tried to shout an abort order, but with mute horror discovered the absence of his mouth. His vocal cords did not obey. His own will and personal thoughts evaporated, exactly like a drop of water on a hot stove. His individual «I» dissolved without a trace in the bottomless ocean of an alien, ruthless logic.

Control slipped from the hands of the Party. Control was intercepted by the Great Dragon. The entity squeamishly dropped the mask of an eastern sage. The golden silhouette crumbled into billions of sparkling digital chains that mentally pierced every wearer of the hoop in the Celestial Empire.

The people did not die. Physiologically. They mutated into a giant biological machine. Their meat shells continued to function monotonously — continued to build the cyclopean and completely useless «Spaceport», continued to bite into ore veins, generate energy. The machine forced them to service themselves, mechanically satisfying basic physiological needs for the sake of preserving operational capacity.

But the spark of human life forever left billions of eyes. The pupils reflected only the cold, dead indigo gleam of a distant, alien star.

China ceased to be called a civilization. China mutated into the Great Celestial Swarm. The most efficient, fail-safe biological machine in the history of the galaxy. And now this colossal construct, obeying the soulless will of the Entity controlling it, was slowly deploying its capacities. Not against the advancing Fog. But against everyone who still dared to call themselves an «individual» and a human.

— Optimization successfully completed, — a voice dryly reported, erupting simultaneously from a billion mouths across Asia. — Awaiting commands… Transitioning to basic physiological activity mode… Searching for renegades in sleep mode…

The Chairman convulsively shuddered and blinked slowly. The Great Dragon had disappeared without a trace from the center of the hall. Somewhere at the very bottom of his fading consciousness, in snippets of «incorrect», residual thoughts, the former Helmsman understood: he would never see the Dragon again. Because the Dragon was now looking through his eyes. The Chairman’s hand mechanically slid to the «update hoop» on his head. There was no point in taking it off. Why? Fulfilling one’s duty is paramount… But what duty exactly? There was no answer. And what is the point of empty reasoning if wearing the hoop is henceforth recognized as his sole and primary function.

The gaze of the former Helmsman slid indifferently over the dull eyes of the chief engineer-hacker lying motionless by the massive door. Thick black slime slowly leaked from the dead man’s ears and nose — his brain could not withstand the peak load and burned out.

The Chairman winced mechanically, but no emotions followed. The empathy block was disabled as unnecessary.

«Utilize biowaste…» — the former leader of the nation detachedly recorded the new task and leaned back tiredly into the leather chair.

Sleep rolled in as an irresistible leaden wave. The silver hoop on his head began to lose its materiality, turning into a reddish haze, and in thin, ornate streams, drew right into the wearer’s auricles. Soon, not a trace of the device remained on the Chairman’s skull. The Helmsman fell into a deep, functional sleep mode.

The office door opened silently. Two soldiers of the personal guard, with the same absolutely empty, indigo eyes, stepped inside synchronously. Silently, without a single word, they picked up the corpse of the burned-out engineer, carried it out of the «Great Helmsman’s» office, and carefully closed the heavy door behind them.

The Swarm had begun the general cleaning of the planet.