Владимир Андерсон – Abandoned World: The Awakening (страница 4)

For example, to do something that brings you income as a useful member of society – this people could consider from the position of personal satisfaction, and from the position of recognition by others, and just not to sit idle, dying of boredom, and to communicate with someone, including not on everyday issues. It turned out that not everyone and not everything people do as it seems at first glance, simply because we have long been accustomed to perceive it that way. And that opens up the next level of this cognition.

After all, since everyone perceives even basic things differently, therein lies the difference in results and approach. In this context, this conclusion becomes obvious, although initially it did not even come to mind. And all because we are used to perceiving people everywhere as we have

already decided to consider them. If we see, for example, someone diligent at work, we automatically think that he is a diligent person, forgetting that this is only the attitude that we see exclusively in relation to his work. And in this case the reason can only be that he finds comfort for himself in his work. And what is more, if he seeks this comfort from his personal life, then it is fair to assume that in this case in his personal life he will be the exact opposite of the way he behaves at work – he will be lazy and apathetic.

The problem is that we don't see a person from all sides of his life at the same time. And even if we see several different sides of him, we still consider him as the main one in some of them. Whether he is primarily our friend or our colleague. He can be both at the same time, but we will always perceive him only from one side. And if he is a friend, he will be a friend at work, not a colleague.

– Your coffee turns your brain on properly. – Natalie replied, really already thinking that the drink was exceptional. Whether from Morgan's ability to elicit specifics or from the fact that the questions added fuel to the fire of Natalie's already regular musings.

She was now sitting on the black leather sofa, a red mug clutched neatly in both hands. For all Morgan's obvious wealth, the interior was modestly furnished, and it was obvious that most of the things he'd made himself rather than ordering them from someone else. It created not only a certain coziness, but also a sense of self that wasn't present in other places, because it was obvious that someone had done it with a heart, not just for the sake of beauty.

The room was a guest room, with four doors leading to other rooms. There was a large black leather sofa in the middle, a low glass table in front of it, and a large armchair farther away, right in front of a panoramic window that was two meters long and one meter high – the most important indicator of wealth on the station. Such windows began to be put already after awakening, having developed alloys stronger than the cladding itself. And it turned out that the more vulnerable section appeared to be stronger, so it was put on the outside, which at the same time allowed to get a magnificent view of the surrounding area.

And these surroundings from his position turned out to be amazingly gorgeous, because from his side began the now dried up, and formerly existed Atlantic Ocean, going down to the bottom, allowing to observe a wider space. And although everything was covered with the same gray regolith, the sheer volume of the view was literally breathtaking.

– You wanted to talk about how logical everything was. – Morgan began, sitting not quite close but at arm's length from her. – Now, the first thing I'm going to show you is the view from my window. You see this expanse… We all know that this is the Atlantic Ocean, which dried up years ago… Isn't that what they tell us?

– Uh-huh. – Natalie carefully took another sip of coffee, remembering again her thoughts about people's different attitudes toward the same process. Truly today's discovery.

– So it's not the Atlantic Ocean… You've been candid with me today, and I'm just responding in the same way… This is all red-hot talk, of course, but it's not the Atlantic Ocean, and I don't just think that, I've proven it.

– Prove it how?

– I found maps of the seabed in quite a bit of detail. Accuracy up to 10, in some cases up to 50 meters. Then I took pictures of my view from different angles. Nobody's stopping me from doing that. Then I digitized it all into one technical unit, and compared my datum with what was stored as data on the Atlantic seabed, trying to find my location… And there was nothing. Just nothing…

Where we are now is not the Atlantic seabed.

– Maybe it just wasn't preserved the same way? Didn't you do some kind of comparison?

– Exactly. Parameters. I was sure I wouldn't find a 100% probability, that much is clear. But the results I got were less than one percent similar. 0.00002 percent. A 0.00002 percent location match means that the system just hit some points in the sky.

– And what versions do you have on all this? Are the maps wrong? Or what?

– I would have thought, of course, that they were wrong, outdated or something, but on this scale… It's only been millions of years. But if that were the case, there'd be nothing left of our station… But that's not all. I'm not just talking about the view from the window… When you observe everything so volumetrically every time, you start to compare many things.

– Like what else?

– For example, sunrise and sunset.....

He looked out at the horizon, and she thought at that moment that it looked like a somewhat romantic scene was about to begin. And the view was good for it-after all, the vastness of the view from his apartment was impressive. Something similar could be observed only in the dining room, but there the view was of the starry sky, not of the earthly expanse. And slowly doubts began to creep in that it was not only because of the high cost of production of such glass....

– You've probably noticed how many of the movies we're allowed to watch have the main characters get up at the crack of dawn, right?

– Of course you do. It was the main topic for romantic delights among girls. " Natalie smiled.

It was indeed a frequent topic of discussion and personal fantasies – waking up at dawn with your lover and going to bed with him at dusk. In the movies it was shown with incredible ease, while in the realities of the world dawn and dusk happened once every 14 days. There were 14 days for each daylight period, and the same number for each night. Hollywood portrayed everything as if all the most important events took place necessarily in those days when dawn or dusk occurred, apparently to make a more tangible impression on the audience. Why it was necessary to build the entire cinema in this way, was still quite unclear, but the traits of romance penetrated the girls when watching these films from an early age.

– Well, both sunrise and sunset in reality look very different from what is shown there. And they don't last the same amount of time that they do. There it happens literally in an hour, and what I see lasts for 24 hours. And I could believe that the ancient filmmakers waited two weeks each

time for the right day to shoot everything for the best commercial benefit. But to make a day into an hour, that's just silly.

– Good. – Natalie nodded and took another sip of coffee, remembering the interesting discovery about the multifaceted nature of perception. – What is your conclusion?

– I don't have a conclusion yet. But what I can tell you is that what we're being told is a blatant lie. And all these measures of handing over found materials to the elders first are just a way to keep the truth out.

– That's a very immodest thing to say for your position of authority. – Natalie was beginning to like what he was saying. Sure, it was the kind of talk her buddies like Taylor were talking about, but it was still a lot better than boring on about new kinds of electrification and testing. And after all, they're talking about all this while sitting on the couch in his apartment, not over blueprints in the lab.

– Yeah, I know… And who better than me to remember such things when my best friend designed Tosca. – Morgan got up and headed for the bar. – You want a drink?

– Oh, so much news at once! – Nathalie laughed, also because she was glad that things were taking a more intimate turn. Alcohol was available in very small quantities on the station, and it was given out in very limited quantities on and before holidays. There were rumors that some of the higher administration had unlimited access to booze, but it never got any further than talk.

Especially after an engineer from the mining section had been deprived of his alcohol vouchers for a year for making such a public statement.

As for the construction of Tosca, there were only rumors about this process. Those who returned kept their mouths shut, and if they answered anything, it was only that they had seen nothing but an aluminum box of a cell with one toilet, a sink and a bed. What was known, however, was that the prison itself was separate from the general structure of the station, and was taken there by overcars. Given the way Morgan had just spoken of Tosca, he obviously knew a lot more than the others.