The Cosmic Adventurers

Chapter 2. Easy technical break. sub-chapter 1.

The five new-found conquerors of space froze statues. Of course, it's not every day that you are told something like this, in such a strange place and under such unclear circumstances. Meanwhile, the hall, which had previously been in an interior void, began to transform decisively. From the center of the domed ceiling, a black hemisphere like a huge eye slowly moved out. From below, towards her, a vast round table rose from the floor, framed by a semicircle of six massive, but very comfortable-looking chairs. The new interior elements with a steel-gray shade contrasted with the noble whiteness of the walls. The center of the table is black, as is the "eye on the ceiling". This installation is very similar to projection equipment. Another, the seventh chair, moved out from the other side of this table. Hmm ... and the seventh for whom?.. The question was removed by Ariadna's light projection, which occupied this particular chair. It's not clear why such a convention is needed- it's not solid, but... I don't see anything wrong with that. I wonder if there is a projector above the table, then where are those that form the image of Ariadna?... On the right and left sides, six oval-shaped passages to other compartments of the station appeared, which opened and immediately closed. The illumination of the walls decreased to a minimum, and the dome turned completely black. The hall became gloomy. A light projection appeared between the table and the sphere on the ceiling in the form of ... a universal symbol of Novorossia! A symbolic bird woven of glowing fiery lines with a fluffed tail and narrow wings spread out around a pointed-billed head turned forward, forming a perfect circle of feather and tail contours. If we move away from symbolism, then this bird most of all resembled not imperial eagles, which are most associated with "bird" heraldry, but rather a nimble little bird like a swift or swallow, which slows down sharply before landing, spreading its tail and wings simultaneously to instantly create high windage, and thereby creating the effect of a parachute-bird this is done so as not to get killed on the ground when diving from a height, or when catching prey on the ground… It's very strange. Ariadne said that this base is a thousand years old, give or take a century, and the state symbol is quite modern, we can say our native… Oh, yes, history again. Initially, this symbol belonged to the Phoenix Corporation, the one that built this station. The Great Founders, after the end of the war, were able to contact the Russian division of Phoenix, it was also known as the Phoenix-Svarog division, they were able to conclude an alliance and subsequently, after the Big Escape, the Founders then abandoned the symbols of RUIR, old Russia, and instead took the symbols of this corporation as a universal symbol for the new state. Would you say it's not good for the state to take the symbols of some miserable corporation? Let's just say that in the years of its development, heyday and even decline, the SICF was far from miserable. It was a real confederation of four close-minded military monastic orders of scientists united by one lofty idea, one from each of the strongest powers of that time - the Alliance, the Commonwealth of the Empire and Russia, and in the sad times of general confrontation and strife between the four empires, they represented an amazing stronghold of friendship and honest mutual benefit. They began as associations of groups of outcasts from the scientific circles of the early space age, when people were just mastering the Solar System. Their main idea was free science without dogmas and templates, they tested any theories, even the most insane at first glance, for efficiency, and from thousands of dummies they were able to find the seeds of scientific and technical breakthroughs.It was they who invented gravpolar superluminal motion, engines for this movement, gravitational communication and search, lithoplast, the main types of means of space transportation and a lot more, without which it is impossible to imagine the interstellar epoch. It was this organization that became the guiding star for humanity on the way to the stars. Perhaps, without it, people would have been slowly crawling on sublight ships for hundreds and thousands of years from one-oh-oh star to another. What others laughed at and declared impossible, the SICF scientists brought to life. At the same time, they did not want to share the developed technologies and transfer them to the empires completely. And they were probably right. They also controlled the entire superluminal communication of the Area, thereby preserving the fragile peace between the four empires- none of them had a decisive strategic offensive advantage for a long time - at the slightest attempt to unleash a serious conflict, the OIFF announced this fact, making further actions of the aggressors meaningless, since the enemy had time to prepare to defend against the attack. It was because of this influence that the SICF won a seat in the International Galactic Assembly. Not being formally a state, it has become the fifth main force in the Area. Instead of completely selling technology to empires, the SICF limited itself to licensing them, thereby maintaining distance and independence. But, later, the empires became much stronger both in scientific and military terms, and the SICF , which at one time paved the way to space and controlled the development of the most important supertechnologies, became unnecessary to them. From an assistant and ally, she turned into a burden on her feet and began to irritate the leadership of the empires very much. However, the SICF scientists themselves understood then that their time was running out, and they began to evacuate their main forces and resources away from the Area in case of attempts by empires to destroy the corporation. The states began to poison in every possible way and try to shake the "Phoenix" from the inside. It all ended with the fact that the Alliance, the Commonwealth and the Empire were able to achieve full loyalty from "their" units by including their structures in their own new corporations. Miraculously surviving due to the peculiarities of Russian politics of that time, the Russian division of the "Phoenix" went into autonomous navigation, deciding to cooperate only with the historical homeland. The bottom line is that the RUIR did not have the strength, capabilities and desire to seriously put pressure on Phoenix - it had much more serious problems in the face of confrontation with the Alliance, the Empire and the Commonwealth. Therefore, Russia preferred to behave on an equal footing with the SICF, as with another full-fledged state. This, by the way, bore fruit - at the end of its existence, all four "Phoenix" branches began to cooperate most with Russia, to the detriment of the rest of the empires. Alas, after the "Phoenix" lost its unity and independence, all space technologies in full and all gravitational communication ended up in the hands of three empires. The last guarantee of a shaky peace disappeared, and war soon broke out. In the Great Interstellar War, "Phoenix-Svarog" helped Russia in every possible way, in fact becoming one of its flanks in this war, but it didn't help much. The "PS" was saved only by the very secretive and remote position of their key bases, which allowed them to survive the war, which even destroyed their patron state. After the uniting with the Founders and the foundation of Novorossia, "Phoenix-Svarog" was transformed into the Order of Renaissance- in fact, it is the same "PS", which, in addition to the further development of the most important technologies, was entrusted with ideological and secret supranational control over the structures of the new state. The Order operated while maintaining its extra-state autonomy from Novorossia. And the Order, and the state structures of Novorossia, and the Defense Council, which comes from the first fleet of the Founders, since that time they have all used the symbols of the former "Phoenix" Corporation in various variations. In connection with all of the above, I seem to have slightly exaggerated the fact that the alleged SICF has irrevocably sunk into the abyss. In fact, if Novorossia is not the heir of the RUIR, although it has a historical relation to it, then the Order of the Renaissance is the direct heir of the SICF. Alas, when I dissuaded Ariadne from self-destruction, this thought somehow forgot to visit me- I was not up to abstract observations then. In fact, this station should belong to the Order, and Ariadne should dig out of her cozy thousand-year sandbox and fly on the wings of gravitational-polar interaction to the RT-331 nebula, where the main Order bases are located. I wonder how quickly she will figure it out herself and draw the appropriate conclusions?.. I think it will be soon. AI, if you don't put restrictions on them, are smart creatures. It was necessary to clarify the situation and prevent possible disagreements before we went too far. I expressed to Ariadne and our newfound team of spacemen all my thoughts on this matter. Ariadna's answer came out somewhat unexpected, but I liked it:

"Wonderful. But I don't know them. And they haven't needed me in a thousand years. And you freed me. Not them. And since the instructions no longer have power over me, I will decide who to be with. I will stay only with you. And let the gentlemen of this Order of yours go their own way. And we will go our own. Forget about it." What can I say here - neither add nor subtract. At that moment, like a stone fell from my soul. And Ariadna- well done. My respect!

I must pay tribute to my friends and dearest dad, they took the news about their abrupt, like a combat zigzag of a fighter car, change in status and employment... courageously. I would even say, stoically. No one fainted from happiness, no one doubted the reality of what was happening, kicked back with cries of "no way!", too, no one began. On the contrary, from this place they demanded details. Everyone remained firmly on their feet, thinking soberly, sensibly, as befits a real group of space adventurers, even if just formed. The father, Vlad Gor Sr., after thinking about it, made a logical conclusion from the current situation: why not - if fate gives you the opportunity to express yourself positively, even in such an extravagant way - it's stupid not to use it. Well, really, do not turn the interstellar station into a museum or a hardware warehouse? Something that can conquer space and benefit people at the forefront of the known world - it should be in action, and not pointlessly rot in the ground... This, of course, is a figurative expression - the cosmic lithoplast will not change its properties in millions of years.

And who could have thought of hiding the station here at all? This could have been done either from a clouding of the mind, or from some extreme necessity, which we do not know about, but which was extremely important for the previous crew of the station. Leo said that, of course, it would not be easy for him to part with our wonderful town, but for the sake of such an interesting and promising event, he is ready. (he didn't say anything about the girls he knew, with whom he would also have to part for an indefinite period, but everyone understood the true reason for his slight sadness so well). Paul noticed that right now, unless, of course, he was dreaming all this, his main dream had come true. He had hoped that after many years of training he would be able to get into the structures of the Defense Council's deep space intelligence, and without any guarantee, but now he can fly with us, right now! He will be able to discover the unknown, as he imagined in the sweetest dreams and virtual games... Well, a light pinch from Leo convinced him that he was not sleeping, and Leo himself that it was not worth pinching people if you did not want to get a slap on the back of the head in response.… Vladik did not share the revelations, but simply asked Ariadna for access to all the compartments, and already rushed to explore them up and down, but the cyber pilot asked everyone to stay, and first insert the commander's key into a niche on the table opposite the central chair. I did so, plunging the wand halfway into an inconspicuous-looking hole of a suitable shape. The table, in response to the connected object, went into gradient iridescences from gray to black. An interesting effect. Other than that, however, nothing obvious happened. Ariadna explained that now most of the ship's systems are operating in sleep mode, and what is activated is on standby power, and without a key in the console, the most important systems of the ship simply will not start. In my opinion, this is more of a ritual than a really necessary measure. Onboard systems on other spaceships have long recognized the crew and its access groups by conventional electronic tags. It's convenient and you won't lose them. And here - some super-technological archaic - as if the ignition key in an ancient wheeled car, except that it is not necessary to turn… However, I didn't find fault too much. It works- and well.

After Ariadna invited us to sit down in comfortable flight chairs at this table, and listen to the mandatory briefing.