How is Paul Rabil transforming professional lacrosse. What makes the Premier Lacrosse League unique. Why does Rabil believe only one pro league will survive. How does PLL compare to Major League Lacrosse in terms of player compensation and benefits. What are the key elements of PLL’s business model and strategy.
The Rise of Premier Lacrosse League: A New Era in Professional Lacrosse
Paul Rabil, a lacrosse superstar with 11 seasons of Major League Lacrosse (MLL) experience, has embarked on a groundbreaking venture to revolutionize professional lacrosse. Alongside his brother Mike, Rabil has founded the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), aiming to elevate the sport to new heights.
The creation of PLL comes at a time when lacrosse is experiencing significant growth, standing out as one of the fastest-growing team sports over the past 15 years. This trend is particularly noteworthy given the declining participation rates in other sports.
Why Did Paul Rabil Create the Premier Lacrosse League?
- To improve the “customer experience” for fans
- To increase player compensation
- To leverage social media and new distribution methods for league growth
Rabil’s vision extends beyond mere competition with MLL. He believes that the rivalry between PLL and MLL will ultimately benefit the sport, stating, “In the long term, there will only be one winner.” This competitive landscape is fostering important discussions about the professional game and the industry’s potential.
PLL’s Innovative Business Model: Reimagining Professional Lacrosse
The Premier Lacrosse League has introduced a unique tour-based model that sets it apart from traditional sports leagues. This innovative approach involves six teams traveling to the same cities each weekend across the country, running from June to September.
Key Features of PLL’s Business Model:
- Tour-based structure
- Season running from June to September
- Partnership with NBC Sports for television rights
- Backing from prominent investors like the Chernin Group, Creative Artists Agency, and Raine Group
Rabil draws inspiration from successful sports league transformations, such as David Stern’s work with the NBA in the 1980s and Dana White and the Fertitta brothers’ efforts with UFC in the 2000s. His goal is to unlock meaningful revenue, commercial viability, and viewership for lacrosse, elevating it to the level of other beloved core sports.
Player-Centric Approach: Elevating Athlete Compensation and Benefits
One of the cornerstones of PLL’s strategy is its focus on attracting top talent by offering significantly improved compensation and benefits packages. This approach marks a dramatic shift from the existing professional lacrosse landscape.
How Does PLL’s Player Compensation Compare to MLL?
- Average MLL player salary in 2018: $8,000
- Average PLL player salary in 2019: $35,000
Beyond the substantial increase in base salary, PLL players also receive health-care benefits and stock options in the league. This comprehensive package is unprecedented in professional sports and demonstrates PLL’s commitment to player welfare and long-term success.
The Dual Role of Paul Rabil: Athlete and Executive
As both a player for the Atlas team and co-founder of the league, Paul Rabil finds himself in a unique position. His days are filled with 16- to 18-hour work sessions, balancing his on-field responsibilities with his executive duties.
Rabil’s Executive Responsibilities:
- Developing the league’s business model
- Recruiting top players
- Negotiating partnerships, such as the NBC Sports television rights deal
Rabil sees significant overlap between the skills required for athletic and executive success. He attributes his ability to manage both roles to his curiosity, hunger, and strong work ethic – qualities he considers essential in the sports industry.
The Future of Professional Lacrosse: PLL’s Vision and Challenges
As the Premier Lacrosse League continues to evolve, it faces both opportunities and challenges in its quest to reshape professional lacrosse. Rabil’s ambitious vision for the sport’s future is clear, but the path to achieving it is complex and multifaceted.
What Are the Key Challenges Facing PLL?
- Competing with an established league (MLL)
- Building a sustainable fan base
- Securing long-term financial stability
- Expanding media coverage and visibility
Despite these challenges, Rabil remains optimistic about PLL’s potential to transform the lacrosse landscape. His belief that only one professional league will ultimately survive underscores the high stakes of this venture and the intense competition it has sparked within the sport.
The Impact of PLL on Lacrosse Equipment and Player Performance
The creation of the Premier Lacrosse League has not only affected the professional landscape but also influenced equipment choices and player performance. As the league attracts top talent and pushes the boundaries of the sport, players are increasingly focused on finding the right gear to maximize their abilities.
How Do Different Lacrosse Heads Suit Various Playing Styles?
- Wider offensive heads (e.g., Warrior Rabil 2) for midfielders who dodge and shoot on the run
- Tighter face shape heads (e.g., STX Surgeon 500) for attackmen who carry the ball one-handed
The Warrior Rabil 2, named after Paul Rabil himself, features a gradual pinch that creates a solid channel in the pocket, enhancing shot and pass accuracy. This design is particularly beneficial for midfielders who need versatility in their play.
For attackmen, heads like the STX Surgeon 500 offer a tighter face shape throughout, providing better ball security during quick, explosive movements. These nuanced design differences highlight the importance of matching equipment to individual playing styles and positions.
The Role of Innovation in PLL’s Growth Strategy
Innovation lies at the heart of the Premier Lacrosse League’s approach to growing the sport. From its unique tour-based model to its emphasis on digital media and fan engagement, PLL is leveraging modern technologies and strategies to expand lacrosse’s reach and appeal.
Key Areas of Innovation in PLL:
- Digital-first media strategy
- Enhanced in-game experiences for fans
- Data-driven performance analysis
- Collaborative partnerships with equipment manufacturers
By embracing innovation across multiple fronts, PLL aims to create a more dynamic and engaging product for both players and fans. This forward-thinking approach is crucial in attracting new audiences and securing lacrosse’s place in the competitive landscape of professional sports.
The Global Expansion of Lacrosse: PLL’s Role in Growing the Game
While lacrosse has traditionally been strongest in North America, the Premier Lacrosse League sees potential for significant global growth. As part of its long-term strategy, PLL is exploring ways to expand the sport’s international presence and appeal.
How Is PLL Contributing to Lacrosse’s Global Growth?
- International broadcasting partnerships
- Youth development programs in emerging lacrosse markets
- Collaboration with international lacrosse organizations
- Exhibition games and clinics in non-traditional lacrosse countries
By taking a proactive approach to international expansion, PLL is not only growing its own brand but also contributing to the overall development of lacrosse as a global sport. This strategy aligns with Paul Rabil’s vision of elevating lacrosse to the level of other major professional sports.
As the Premier Lacrosse League continues to evolve and expand, its impact on the sport extends far beyond the professional level. From influencing equipment design to shaping the future of global lacrosse, PLL’s innovative approach is setting new standards for what a professional sports league can achieve.
The journey of Paul Rabil and the Premier Lacrosse League is still in its early stages, but the potential for transformative change in the sport is clear. As PLL navigates the challenges of establishing itself in a competitive landscape, its success could serve as a model for other emerging sports seeking to build sustainable, player-centric professional leagues.
The coming years will be crucial in determining whether Rabil’s vision for a unified, thriving professional lacrosse landscape can be realized. Regardless of the outcome, the bold steps taken by PLL have already left an indelible mark on the sport, pushing it towards a future of greater visibility, player empowerment, and global relevance.
What Head Works For You?
When you are a growing offensive player, you tend to realize that certain Lacrosse heads work better for different styles of play. Whether you are a run and gun midfielder or a shifty attackmen, you are going to need a head that works best for you. Now no head in particular is a necessity for an offensive player, some even use a defensive head, but certain heads do work better than others.
Warrior Rabil 2
For the players that like to dodge hard and rip on the run, mostly middies, a wider offensive head is probably right for you. Take the new Warrior Rabil 2 for example. This head has a nice gradual pinch that helps a player get a solid channel in their pocket giving them more accuracy with their shots and passes. With a maximum amount of stringing holes the Rabil 2 can be strung up with any kind of pocket.
STX Surgeon 500
Generally attackmen like to carry the ball with their stick in one hand.
This kind of movement requires a head that can keep the ball secure when making short, explosive movements. A head like the STX Surgeon 500 is designed perfectly for any attackmen. Have a tight face shape through out the head lets the ball stay nice and secure. A lot of times you see attackmen playing with a lower pocket to also aid in their one handed movements, but there are also players that like a higher pocket so they can have a quicker release in their stick.
Both the Rabil 2 and the Surgeon 500 have both High School and College legal versions, so no matter what level you are at, you can still use these two awesome pieces of lax equipment right here at UniversalLacrosse.com
Whether you run the midfield or dominate on the attack line, choosing the right stick is really important. You need take notice of how you play and decide what works best for you. Generally speaking you can string any kind of pocket in any head you want as long as you know what you are doing, but choosing the right head for you just might make the decision all the more easier.
IT’S ALL U
Lacrosse star Paul Rabil says only one pro league will survive
After 11 seasons playing professionally for Major League Lacrosse, Paul Rabil said he thought there was a better way forward.
Lacrosse has become one of the fastest-growing team sports over the last 15 years, at a time when other sports are declining in participation.
Rabil, one of the biggest stars in lacrosse, was inspired to take action with his brother, Mike, a former football star at Dartmouth College, to create the Premier Lacrosse League. Mike now serves as the league’s CEO. Rabil wants to change the “customer experience” for fans, increase player pay and take advantage of social media and new distribution methods to help grow the league.
Rabil thinks PLL’s competition with Major League Lacrosse will make the sport better off.
“A lot of people are having conversations around the professional game and the upside of the industry,” he says. “In the long term, there will only be one winner.
“
Paul Rabil said he is busier than ever – pulling 16- and 18-hour days as he is both a player for the Atlas team, along with his duties as league co-founder. He has been working on creating the league’s business model, recruiting top players, even partnering with NBC Sports on valuable television rights.
“If we can do what David Stern in the NBA did in the 1980s or what Dana White and the Fertitta brothers did more recently to MMA with UFC in the 2000’s … then we can turn a traditionally bottom-up sport and unlock meaningful revenue, commercial viability and viewership, in line with a lot of the core sports we have grown to love,” said Rabil.
PLL has a tour-based model, with six teams all traveling to the same cities each weekend across the country. The league runs from June to September, starting off in Boston last weekend and New York City this weekend. Rabil secured funding from top-name investors including the Chernin Group, Creative Artists Agency and investment bank Raine Group.
One priority Rabil focused on was attracting top talent to the PLL. To do this, he had to convince investors to build a business model that increased player salaries from their competitor league. The average player salary in MLL was $8,000 last year. In PLL this year, it’s $35,000. In addition to the salary, players are offered health-care benefits and stock options in the league, which is a first for any pro sports league.
Atlas LC midfield Paul Rabil (99) during a Premier Lacrosse League game between Atlas LC and Redwoods LC on June 2, 2019, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Fred Kfoury | Getty Images
Being an athlete and an executive have a lot of crossover skills, Rabil said, and the roles have gone very well together so far.
“I’m curious, I’m hungry … we work really hard. You have to be in sports, it’s hypercompetitive,” he said.
Rabil also tries to leverage what he’s learned from various mentors, including Bill Belichick.
Fresh off playing the league’s first week at Gillette Stadium outside Boston, the head coach of the New England Patriots was on hand to check out the action.
Rabil said he looks to one of football’s winningest coaches as a mentor and friend.
“I think what I’ve learned from Bill is he has endless curiosity and that’s why he has such an amazing amalgam of relationships … he’s looking to see how he can pool and improve best practices, even from different industries, into the Patriots.”
Rabil said he plans to leverage a lot of what he’s learned from Belichick with his own league to improve their overall product.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent of NBCUniversal, which owns both NBC Sports and CNBC.
Lax legend Paul Rabil has small camera clamped on his head
Right field freaky – Hunter Pence of the Giants and Jayson Werth of the Nationals both played right field in Philadelphia and are both still playing at a high level, and the Phillies have pretty much nothing to show for it. “Sorry for your loss, Ruben.” Werth is a sullen freakazoid and he’s the only athlete in sports who gets on my nerves just looking at him.
How much hair is just too much hair? I look at Werth and I see the Last Supper painting hanging in Grand Mom Rose’s dining room. Pence was clean as a quail (spell check joke) when he left Philly; now he looks like a bad guy in a spaghetti western. I wonder if both of them are suffering from Post Traumatic Philly Syndrome.
Personal trainer – The fitter the trainer, the less likely a client can ever look like them. I was thinking of a personal training business where all the trainers are overweight (known in some circles as just really fat) with a body mass index of 40 and above. Some great coaches have crossed the Wawa make your own hoagie bridge, but it has zero effect on whether the athletes become great players. Who wants to follow perfection person to the quad extension machine then listen to them count to 10? I am joking, but there are some fat grams of truth to what I’m saying.
The beaten beach – Traveling off the beaten path used to mean blazing new territory, bushwhacking through the thicket.
Lewes and Rehoboth used to change dramatically after Labor Day but not so much anymore as shoulder seasons have become year-round, and why not? I know birdshot will be raining on my roof Sept. 1, the first day of quail season, and somehow the sound of shotguns on a September morning I find comforting like migrating Canada geese. But the routes to the Delaware beaches are programmed into a million smartphones; “we” have been discovered and for sports it’s mostly good as clinics, camps and tournaments come to us. Reminds me of the words of a local when I first came to Lewes in 1975, “We are 100 miles from everywhere – Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia – but no one ever goes anywhere. Heck, real locals don’t even go to the beach.”
Events management – Competitive sports from middle school through high school, college and professional ranks have started back up like a loyal lawn mower, cutting a wide swath through road races and triathlons. Fall is prime season for marathons and iron man competitions and ultra races, and those mud run events are still hanging around.
Two end-of-summer races this weekend: Saturday, Aug. 30, is the Seashore Striders Last Blast Prediction Run at Grove Park. Sunday, Aug. 31, is the Summer’s End Run at Jimmy’s Grille in Dewey. But the racing scene is all about “endless summer.” Sept. 6 is the 38th annual Bottle & Cork 10 Miler and 5K, which used to be 13 miles until everyone got ADD. The Dewey Beach Sprint Triathlon is Sept. 13 staged at Tower Road – a half-mile ocean swim, 16-mile bike and 3.5-mile run. It draws about 800 participants including relay teams. There are still spots available; check out packet pickup at the Rehoboth Y from 3 to 8:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 29.
Snippets – The best lacrosse player on the planet, Paul Rabil, was at Beacon Academy last week as part of the Sliders Youth Lacrosse Clinic for kids shy of middle school. Rabil is married to Kelly Berger, a three-time all-American at James Madison and member of the U.S. National Team. Kelly and her brother Stephen, a three-time all-American at Washington College, were lead camp clinicians.
Rabil, on crutches, was beastly fit; he looked like a genetically engineered midfielder. And he had this little camera and videoed everything that came at him and moved away. I had never seen a camera on the end of a stick before, but it makes sense in the selfie world that makes big camera sports guy obsolete.
Lynchburg College field hockey is at Wesley at 2 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 30. Lynchburg is deep with Henlopen Conference players including Karissa Lemaire from Cape; Taylor Quillen, Hannah Krause and Kayla Krause of Sussex Tech; Alyssa Mills of Milford; and Courtney Gilette of Caesar Rodney. Wesley will feature Devin Price, a former Cape player. If you travel to Dover on Saturday afternoon of Labor Day weekend to watch field hockey and are not related to any of the players, you are a real fan. Go on now, git!
Dave Cottle Talks Paul Rabil, Future Success of the Premier Lacrosse League
Dave Cottle Talks Paul Rabil, Future Success of the Premier Lacrosse League
Wed May 19 2021 | Matt Hamilton | Pro
PHOTO BY RON CHENOY/PRETTY INSTANT
Dave Cottle won four championships with the Bayhawks — two as a coach and two as a general manager.
Dave Cottle’s coaching career overlapped with the launch of Major League lacrosse in 2002. Cottle, the former Salisbury All-American and coach at Maryland, watched as some of the greatest players in the sport ushered in a new era.
Eight years later, he joined the Chesapeake Bayhawks as a consultant under owner Brendan Kelly. Eventually, he worked his way to becoming the head coach for the Bayhawks, leading them to MLL championships in 2012 and 2013. He added two more Stenfield Trophies in 2014 and 2017 as general manger.
Cottle has seen the professional lacrosse landscape change over the course of the past 20 years, but never more so than when the Premier Lacrosse League merged with Major League Lacrosse this offseason. The move left many questions for the future of the sport and left many wondering what direction the game would trend.
The MLL legend sat down with Paul Carcaterra on Season 4, Episode 13 of the “Overtime” podcast to share his thoughts on the future of professional lacrosse, which he believes in a bright one.
“The PLL is nothing more than the MLL in 2002-10 — everyone played in one league,” he told Carcaterra. “I think Paul Rabil’s ability to market a vision — the TV package they have, all that, is light years ahead of what the MLL did. None of it matters if you don’t get fans to the game. That is the biggest challenge that any pro league will have.”
The Bayhawks drew 12,000 fans in their final home game back in 2019 before ceasing operations after the merger. He said many of the fans at that game were new to lacrosse, a key to the sport’s growth.
“We have to market it better and get non-lacrosse fans interested in lacrosse,” he said. “Look at hockey. They are selling out, but there’s probably 80 percent of the people at the hockey games that have never skated before. The speed of the game and the size of the players, all that is headed in the right direction.”
Cottle was complimentary of the job Rabil, PLL co-founder and former MLL player, has done with the PLL.
The league launched late in 2018 and has since seen exponential growth on social media.
The league has also announced a partnership with DraftKings, which will allow fans to bet on professional lacrosse for the first time.
“If you have gambling lines on lacrosse, it matters to people,” Cottle said. “Them setting up a deal with, whether it was DraftKings or whoever they set it up with. There’s another interesting concept.”
Ultimately, Cottle is rooting for the success of the PLL, and for professional men’s lacrosse, in general. With Rabil at the helm, Cottle believes the sport is in good hands.
“With Paul in charge of this league, I believe that this will be the best opportunity that lacrosse has to establish itself as a professional sport,” he said. “They have the best chance of any league to get it done, and hopefully it will work out for all of us.”
The world’s top lacrosse player gives his recipe for athletes in business
You may not know the name Paul Rabil, but in the lacrosse world he is a god, worshiped by high school and college players across the country.
This weekend, Rabil, who plays for the New York Lizards, will appear in his ninth Major League Lacrosse All-Star Game in nine seasons; on the side, he has made seed investments in sports tech startups like Whistle Sports.
Paul Rabil, then with the Boston Cannons, walks through Harvard Stadium before a game against the Denver Outlaws in 2014. (Getty)
Here’s one example of Rabil’s influence outside of his own sport: Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, rarely gives media interviews apart from required NFL press conferences. But in May, he appeared on Suiting Up, Rabil’s new podcast, and spoke candidly about topics like cutting players.
Belichick is a passionate lacrosse fan who has called Rabil “the face of lacrosse.” But lest anyone think that’s the only reason Rabil was able to score the stern coach as a guest, his next two guests were Matt Hasselbeck and Venus Williams. Rabil describes the podcast as “exploring the duality of the modern professional athlete.
”
How the modern pro athlete can succeed in business
Rabil, 31, is a pretty compelling example of the modern pro athlete: the single biggest star in a very small pro sport, and the only one to have built a lucrative career off the back of his lacrosse stardom.
In addition to tech investments through Rabil Ventures, he launched Paul Rabil Experience, an over-the-top video subscription platform with lacrosse tutorials and other content. (For a quick lesson he gave to Yahoo Finance, see the video below.)
Last year, he sold Paul Rabil Experience to Denver-based TopYa (formerly called TalentKode). His corporate sponsors include New Balance, Red Bull and GoPro.
Story continues
So, what’s his advice for other pro athletes to earn off the field or court?
Leverage your existing fans using social media, bring new fans to the sport through good tech, and make investment decisions outside of sports based on your expertise.
That sounds almost simple.
“There’s more opportunity for players, while they’re still playing, to leverage an audience that they’ve built,” he says. (His own following is 374,000 across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.) Athletes also have the luxury, he adds, of “connectivity with a customer that brands want to pay for, and then being liquid enough to invest or operate.”
Rabil’s role models for athletes in business are Roger Staubach and Joe Montana—he calls them “the OGs”—but clarifies that the model has changed. In the past, athletes like Staubach and Montana (and Gary Player, George Foreman, Cal Ripken) mostly transitioned to business after they were firmly done with pro sports. These days, athletes like the Williams sisters, NBA star Jeremy Lin, and Golden State Warriors player Steph Curry are getting into startups while they’re still playing their sport—and doing a lot more than investing, often taking an active role in a new business in exchange for an equity stake.
Rabil points specifically to the Golden State Warriors as an example.
“What we’re seeing [in the Warriors] are business owners operating, and extending a hand to some of their players to help them bridge before retirement.”
How to grow pro lacrosse
Many sports fans have no idea that Major League Lacrosse exists, even though the sport is growing like a weed at the youth level. The season runs from April to August, and the players earn, on average, less than $15,000 per season in salary, so most have additional jobs. (“Nobody is making a killing at it, and it’s a grind for everybody,” pro laxer Mike Stone told Fortune in 2012.) MLL as a league is profitable, but the individual teams are not.
Rabil has a prescription for how MLL can grow more: start with the tech, and then the athletes need to drive fans to it themselves. MLL partnered up with Twitter this year to live-stream one game per week on Twitter—a step Rabil praises—and all MLL games go on Lax Sports Network, an OTT subscription service. But Rabil acknowledges that platform serves “the more niche, hardcore fan.
”
To reach mainstream sports fans, Rabil says MLL needs to “offer games where eyeballs already are, where the daily actives and monthly actives are—and to me that’s Facebook… and then creating meaningful, original content, and that’s up to players like myself.”
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Daniel Roberts is the sports business writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Sportsbook is our sports business video series.
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Paul Rabil of the Philadelphia Wings Becomes Lacrosse’s First Million Dollar Man | Bleacher Report
The million dollar face of lacrosse, Paul Rabil.Winslow Townson/Getty Images
The world of professional lacrosse is still a tiny little piece of the sports market, but there continue to be signs that it is growing.
The latest sign is the announcement that Paul Rabil, who currently plays for the Philadelphia Wings of the NLL and who spends his summers with the Boston Cannons of the MLL, has become lacrosse’s very first million dollar man.
By leveraging his relationships with friends and former Johns Hopkins University classmates, Rabil has built an endorsement empire that includes Red Bull, New Balance and Polk Audio, among others. The result is that this 27-year-old perennial all-star has broken the seven-figure income barrier.
In a sport where professional players typically need to hold down a full-time job in addition to their meagre lacrosse earnings, this is a big step.
Players in the National Lacrosse League earn $9,200 in their rookie season, which is then negotiable up to as much as $27,000 a year after that ($34,000 for a Franchise Player). If you play field lacrosse, Major League Lacrosse players can bring home between $10,000 and $25,000.
So, if you’re one of those rare star athletes who can excel in both brands of the sport, like Rabil, you could be looking at as much as $69,000 a year by playing indoor and outdoor.
A modest, but livable, wage to be sure, but hardly the kind of money typically associated with professional sports.
Through shrewd business maneuvering, Rabil has taken things to the next level.
When you add all his endorsements together, Rabil is looking at over a million dollars a year on top of that modest salary, which means there are real opportunities for an enterprising lacrosse player to find alternate sources of revenue above and beyond putting in time at a real job.
And in a sport where participation is growing by leaps and bounds, the potential for bringing in more and better endorsement deals is virtually boundless.
While Rabil is currently the face of the game, it shouldn’t be long before players like John Grant Jr., Garrett Billings, Mark Matthews and Brendan Mundorf start to follow in his footsteps and bring in the big bucks. And as television contracts slowly grow along with participation, the sport could turn into truly big business.
Follow me on Twitter @calgaryjimbo
90,000 Reading the story: Alastair Reynolds “Traumocapsule” | Books, Fantasy Stories
Terrestrial catastrophes and interstellar wars, today’s scientific breakthroughs and tomorrow’s high-tech obscurantism, the dream of immortality and the meeting with a dream, after which it remains only to die .
.. The universe of Alastair Reynolds seems to have absorbed all popular subgenres and themes of science fiction, and they are explored with insight and the grasp of a practicing scientist. No wonder he is called one of the main science fiction writers of our time, the “British Heinlein”.In the collection “Slow Bullets” the author of the famous “Space of Revelation” appears before us as a master of small and medium-sized forms – these stories and stories are in no way inferior in fascination to the grandiose cosmo operas that made him famous. Based on the works “Beyond the Eagle’s Fissure” and “The Blue Period of Winter”, perhaps the two best episodes of the acclaimed TV series “Love, Death and Robots”, produced by David Fincher, were filmed. Most of the works included in this book are published in Russian for the first time.We bring to your attention one of the stories included in the collection, which will soon be published by the Azbuka publishing house.
Consciousness returns to me in the compartment: it is like a shower cubicle laid on its side.
I am lying supine on a padded surface. Around, at arm’s length, there are snow-white walls. They fold over into a smooth ceiling with recesses and hatches. Tubes and cables snake from the holes. Pumps hum, ventilation hiss and hums. The eyes of a stereoscopic camera are staring directly above me from the ceiling.
I twitch: I want to raise my head and take a good look at myself. Protective equipment
was removed from me. I was wearing ex-armor, and now only a lightweight mesh suit, and it was completely tattered. I try to examine the limbs, but someone’s hands gently return me to a horizontal position. They protrude from the holes above my sternum, as if they were stretching from the outside.
Hands are perfectly normal, human, wearing green surgical gloves.
“Lie still, Sergeant Kane,” a woman’s voice says.- Don’t panic. Everything will be fine.
“What…” I begin.
– That’s great. You hear us and you understand. This is encouraging.
You can talk. This is also encouraging. But for now, let me speak. It looks like I was pumped up with something, because I don’t want to argue.
– Okay.
A screen extends from behind the panel. A woman’s face is on the screen. Green medical uniform, black hair tucked under a cap. The woman looks straight at me, her face is unpleasantly close, her lips move.
– Sergeant, you are injured.
I stretch my lips in a smile:
– Come on ?!
The incident is recalled not entirely, but in fits and starts. The deep-rooted intelligence operation did not go according to plan. Me and two more … Their names I will remember now. Patrol drones overhead.
Enemy ‘Mechs are too close. The reinforcements are too scattered and will not help us. The evacuation window has been declassified. The plan of the operation didn’t look like that.
A white flash of an impulse bomb, a blast wave ripping through the head.
– Doctor! Someone shouts.
Someone with a voice very similar to mine.
– You’re in luck. One of our robotic nurses made it to you in time. I activated the trauma capsule and brought you into it. Thus, you are in the capsule. It is armored, self-powered and capable of keeping you alive until
opens.
evacuation windows. The sanitary module has cleaned the area and created an excluded volume effect around your capsule.
My mouth is dry.Now I roughly understand where I am, but there is a feeling that something is wrong with my head.
– When … – I begin. – How long to wait for … evacuation?
– Updated information is about to arrive. The wait is probably six to twelve hours, but that’s plus or minus, depending on what happens to the theater.
At first I think it’s about the operating room – is it called a surgical theater? – and angrily wonder why it concerns me. Get me out of this hole, and then decide how to find the window for my operation.
Then it dawns on me that we are talking about another theater.
– Will I last that long?
– This is what we need to talk about. Your condition has stabilized, but the danger has not yet passed. The woman pauses. “I’m Dr. Annabelle V. Ryot. I get in touch from the advanced surgical center in Tatiana-Olga. My colleagues and I will be
is with you all the time you are in the capsule. After the evacuation, we will also supervise you. I understand, Sergeant Kane, now you feel like on a desert island, and this is quite natural.But know – you are not alone.
“Call me Mike,” I suggest.
– Agreed, – she nods. – And you, if you like, call me Annabelle. I’m here, Mike, just one screen away from you. Now, I can even touch you. You can feel my hands.
These are not her hands, and we both understand that.
Under surgical gloves – metal and plastic bones and tendons. These are remote-controlled robot arms, which, depending on the situation, can appear in any part of the capsule.Somewhere in Tatiana-Olga sits Annabelle in touch-sensitive gloves – the same as my mesh suit – providing full sensory interaction with the robot’s hands.
She feels every bruise, every swelling as if she were in the same capsule with me. I couldn’t even dream of better medical care.
But Annabelle is not with me, no matter what she tells me.
– You said that my condition has stabilized. Can you explain what the alignment is?
– Nothing irreparable.My right leg was badly damaged, and, alas, I had to amputate. But it is not difficult to build it up again. It’s not the leg that worries me more, but the cerebral hemorrhage. It should be dealt with soon.
So the capsule surgical systems have already dealt with me. While I was unconscious, my wounded leg was amputated, my stump was sewn up, and the stump was removed through the discharge window. I know how trauma capsules work – it’s really possible to build a new leg for them.
But brain surgery …
– You want to open my skull right in this thing?
– We are going to perform a minimally invasive intervention, Mike.The risk, of course, is present.
It is even more risky to hesitate and be inactive. If you don’t take action now, you could die.
– I was passed out, and you brought me to consciousness. The question is, what the hell?
– I wanted to discuss everything. Give the order and I’ll start the operation. If you prefer to take the risk and wait for the window to open, I will treat your decision with understanding.
Annabelle’s intonation and expression are very clear about how she assesses my chances of surviving if I refused surgery.Not much higher than if I was still bleeding to death on the battlefield. But I cannot agree without knowing if I have the opportunity to be saved.
– Show me what’s outside the capsule.
– It won’t help, Mike.
– Show me anyway. I was and still am a soldier. I want to know what’s going on outside.
Annabelle purses her lips.
– Well, if you insist …
I still have military lenses in my eyes, but I only realize this when, instead of the capsule ceiling, I see data from an external camera.
Nothing good awaits me outside, no doubt about it.
I take my time looking at the broken, contaminated area – panning as far as the camera allows. I am lying flat or almost flat on a plateau cut by craters, surrounded by the ruins of a commercial or an office center. Fifty meters away from me – an overturned car, perhaps even a school bus. A power line support or reference tower fell and hangs over the ground with the skeleton of a giant lizard. Overhead – mustard-colored clouds, heavy with poisonous gases.A dense chemical fog looms on the horizon.
Pulse bomb flashes flicker in the distance. Plasma streams shower the clouds. Mechs, humanoids, giants are pacing the apocalyptic landscape of the former city. I do my visual reconnaissance again, but I don’t see any human fighters.
There is nothing to be surprised at. In fact, robots are waging this war, and the cat cried for us, living soldiers. I wonder if the rest got out? Maybe someone is in the capsule, like me, awaiting evacuation.
Maybe everyone died.
What the hell is it that brought me here ?!
Oh yeah … Long-range reconnaissance group. Now the names of others come to mind. Rorvik, Lomax, and I are robotics specialists tasked with observing ‘Mechs, ours and the enemy’s, in real combat. What for? They didn’t explain to us. Only after all
rumors the earth is full of. They talked that some of our units were getting out of control. And the enemy too. Why – no one knew.
There were, however, hypotheses. We empower the Mechs so they don’t need human control.We stuff them with brains, and then we wonder why they do not do what they are told.
Though it doesn’t concern me now.
Looks like I’m safe for now. The sanitary module did its job – not only dragged my wounded body into the capsule, but also took care of the capsule itself. I am surrounded by a low wall of torn stone and battle scrap, hastily erected and serving as a screen. Not to bury me alive or complicate
evacuation – but to shield from enemy eyes, cameras and weapons.
I see a sanitary module. The four-meter robot circles around the capsule and does not allow anyone to approach it. Lenses fix the identification mark on the robot. Block KX-457, a headless mobile humanoid with an oval hole – a through-hole – in the hull. In muscular arms – guns, anti-missile jammers, specialized devices for military field surgery. Feet on titanium pistons feel frail, but in fact they are strong and impact-resistant, like an airplane landing gear strut. The humanoid looks frightening, but he is on my side, and this is the main thing.
What happened to me, what happened to Lomax and Roervik – I don’t remember. I am no longer responsible for them. “Doctor!” – I shouted, purely on the machine. I could not have screamed. My ex-armor, barely registering the wound – faster than the nervous system – must have summoned the nearest sanitary module. The protective gear must have provided first aid (nothing major, only temporary measures). KX-457 probably removed the capsule from the front lower compartment, lowered it to the ground, and after the initial examination placed me inside.
Under normal circumstances, the trauma capsule would have taken care of me, and the robot would have returned it to the compartment and jerked away from the combat zone. Today, this option was not considered: the risk that the robot would be intercepted and neutralized was too great. I am a particularly valuable frame – at least that’s what they say. It is better to leave the capsule in the theater under the protection of the robot until the evacuators disembark under dense air cover.
Meanwhile, the sanitary module does not weaken its vigilance: now and then it raises its hand and fires into the sky from the plasma cannon.Sometimes a drone falls from behind the clouds. Most of the ‘Mechs are ours, but occasionally I spot enemy Mechs as well. They are here.
Well, I’ve seen enough. Now it is clear: they don’t hang on my ears. To evacuate now would indeed be suicidal.
So if Dr. Annabelle W. Riot is right about the cerebral hemorrhage, I really need to go under the knife.
I zoom back into the capsule. The battlefield is erased. Instead, there are white walls again, the hiss and hum of a conscientious life support system.Disembodied hands reaching through the walls.
I give Annabelle consent. Proceed, eliminate the hemorrhage.
And then get me out of this hell.
I am regaining consciousness. The first thought comes that I am safe, I returned to Tatiana-Olga. I know this because I am no longer in the trauma capsule. No, actually, I’m still in the capsule, with the same white walls as the first one. This cannot be the first capsule: there would not be enough space in it.
I’m sure, because another body was squeezed into this capsule, another wounded soldier, which they could not have done in the first capsule.Obviously, while I was passed out, while I was operated on, KX-457 carried out an evacuation. I was placed in a larger capsule until a neurosurgeon’s window was found, or whoever they agreed with.
Smiles and greetings will begin soon: “Welcome home! You completed the task perfectly! ”
I wonder what happened to my capsule neighbor?
And then I suddenly realize that through the capsule isolation and the background hum of medical systems, the “voices” of pulse bombs and plasma cannons are periodically heard.Either the front line is much closer to Tatyana-Olga, or I’m not at home yet.
– Mike, can you hear me?
– Yes.
Annabelle swallows.
– The news is mostly good. We stopped the hemorrhage, which I am very happy about.
– I don’t like it “mostly”. Why is there another soldier here? Why did you move me to a larger capsule?
– You’re in the same capsule, Mike. We didn’t move you. You are in the same capsule where you were before I gave you general anesthesia.
Lying suddenly becomes uncomfortable, and I try to turn on my side. It doesn’t turn out very well, but it seems that my silent neighbor turned just like me – as if we were glued together.
– I’m telling you there is someone else here.
– I see … – Annabelle leaves for a second, whispers something to a colleague, then returns to me. “This is… quite expected. Mike, you have a damaged right fronto-parietal region of the brain. This is partly provoked by hemorrhage, partly by our intervention.I want to emphasize that we did not have any really feasible options. If it had not been for the operation, this conversation would not have taken place at all. Now you have a hallucination – a feeling of being out of the body caused by a deficiency of inhibitory systems that ensure the normal functioning of mirror neurons. In fact, you are alone in a capsule. Take my word for it.
– Just as he believed the assurances that the operation would go without complications?
– The result must be considered successful. You are still with us and in a stable condition.
I try to move again, but my head feels like a grip. Not to say that it hurts, but this feeling is definitely not pleasant.
– Can this be fixed or is it permanent?
– Almost anything can be fixed. By the way, you can try workarounds while you’re in the capsule. During the operation, I placed neural probes in strategically important areas. First, they give me a much better idea of what is going on compared to the fuzzy image that the capsule scanner itself transmits.Secondly, they allow for emergency intervention.
My astral projection still scares me. The neighboring body breathes with me, but it seems dead, like an appendage, which should dry up and fall off.
No, you cannot relax your attention!
– What are you talking about?
– There are some good maps of the neural circuit responsible for your out-of-body experiences. At the moment, the signals do not reach where they should be – due to hemorrhage. With the help of the probes I put in, we can get around this obstacle.Think of them as short circuits in your brain. If you wish, I will try to return you to the normal feeling of your body.
– The question is still the same: why bring me to consciousness if the operation is not completed?
– The answer is still the same: I need your consent. And yet – your subjective assessment of the result. I said that there are good maps of the neural circuit, but there are also individual characteristics, and one hundred percent certainty in the outcome of one or another
we have no interference.
– In other words, you will stir my brains with a stick and see what happens?
– In fact, everything is a little more scientific. The results of the intervention are completely reversible, and if it is possible to reduce the level of distress, a small risk seems quite acceptable.
– I have no distress.
– Your body claims the opposite. Stress hormones at critical levels. The galvanic skin reaction is off scale. The center of fear glows like a football stadium.But that’s understandable, Mike. You are in a combat zone, and with a serious injury.
You are alive, lying in a high-tech coffin, and war is raging around. Anyone in a situation like this would be nervous and scared.
Annabelle is right: I am nervous and scared, and I really don’t want to share a capsule with my astral body – but for a moment the fighting spirit overpowers all worries.
– Show me once again what’s going on outside.
– Mike, there is no need to worry about something that does not depend on you.
– Show me, Annabelle!
She swears softly, and I again find myself outside the capsule – I look, as if through a periscope, at the outside world through a retractable camera installed outside.
A turn of three hundred and sixty degrees – I look around. I am still where the sanitary module left me, still behind an impromptu cordon of torn stone and battle scrap. But it looks like I was passed out for not an hour or two. It’s already dark, the infrared illumination of the camera makes the world gray-green. Only flashes of explosions on the horizon and strobes in the clouds make it possible to assess the combat situation.
How long did the operation take? I am sure that it will take more than a few hours. For some reason, I did not feel the time at all.
– Annabelle, please answer honestly: how long have you operated on me?
– It doesn’t matter, Mike.
– Important to me.
– Good. Eight hours. Complications arose, but you survived. Isn’t that the most important thing?
– Eight hours? Are you still on duty? You said that the evacuation is expected in the next six to twelve hours.
– It may well still occur during this period of time. I wouldn’t leave you, Mike. We’ll get you out of here very soon.
– Don’t fool me! We both know that there will be no evacuation until at least dawn.
You can’t argue with that, and Annabelle doesn’t even try. The war zone is dangerous even in the best of times, and at night, when the ground cools down, with any movement you will be spotted and targeted.
I imagine my capsule flaring up: neither give nor take a neon burial ground.
It is clear that one cannot sit here with folded hands.
“Let me try to restore your normal body sensation,” Annabelle suggests.
Some string is breaking in my soul. Enough! It’s time to remember that I am a soldier!
– Give me a general panorama of the theater! I want to understand what’s really going on here.
– Mike, you probably shouldn’t …
– Give me a general panorama!
Annabelle has to meet me halfway. I am still a particularly valuable person, even though I am injured, and my current authority means that I have the right to dictate terms.
In front of me is an interactive map of a war zone within a radius of fifteen kilometers.In real time, I view a panorama compiled based on information gathered by mechs, drones, cameras, and even equipment of dead or immobilized fighters. Mostly it was collected by our side, but part of it was intercepted from the enemies. I’m sure they have something similar. The compiled data is fed to my lenses.
With the help of mental commands, I can decompose and detail the image as I want.
I study the map, realizing that I should have done this earlier, and not listened to Annabelle’s assurances that everything will be tip-top.
I’m in big trouble.
An enemy convoy is moving in my direction. While it is ten kilometers away, it is gradually approaching. The enemies may not know that I am here, but there is no guarantee. The medical module is one hundred percent proof that a wounded person is lying nearby, but will the enemy miss the chance to catch and destroy a valuable human frame? I determine the size of the approaching enemy and the composition of the convoy. I compare the strength of the enemy and my only ally, the sanitary humanoid.The KX-457 has serious weapons and countermeasures, but what is all this against more than a dozen enemy mechs and drones? Nothing. Do not trust that none of them will notice my refuge.
Then the fight-or-flight response is triggered.
The reaction was violent, acidic, as if fear had been injected into the body. I do not intend to sit still and hope for luck. You need to move, and immediately.
Of course, this is also risky, especially at night, so the evacuation is postponed.But in comparison with the chances of survival after the arrival of the enemy, escape suddenly seems much more attractive.
I zoom back into the capsule.
– Tell the humanoid to raise me. It’s time to leave here.
– Mike, I cannot give such an order.
– Can’t or don’t want to?
– We’re doing data modeling right now, and statistically, your chances of survival will be much higher if you stay put.
– How much higher?
– So much so that I urge you to think carefully about your plans.
If the benefits were so compelling, Annabelle would have laid it out straight. My head is still in a vice, but if I could shake it, I would shake it.
– Call a humanoid.
– Mike please!
– Call! If a person is sent to a war zone, then his common sense is trusted.
Annabelle concedes. I know about the approach of KX-457 without even looking at the camera; shifted boulders thunder, then the capsule tilts: the robot lifts it off the ground.They turn me ninety degrees, and finally the head is higher than the legs, or rather – I remind myself – the legs. A dull “boom” sounds soothing: the capsule fills the oval hole in the module body. The systems fit together – energy, regulatory, sensory. I am no longer wounded in a humming coffin: now I am a child in the womb of a killer robot, and this can be considered progress.
– What do you order? The robot asks.
Remembering the disposition of the enemy forces, I will first order KX-457 to carry me further west.Then I decide: there is something better than a passive trip. You don’t need to move to control the robot. The remnants of the mesh suit will easily guess my intentions,
The
will recognize the slightest neuromuscular stimulation and respond accordingly.
– Let me lead you!
“Mike,” Annabelle interjects, “you don’t need any extra workload.
If you insist, have the robot retrieve you from the capsule. But you definitely don’t need to lead it. In your current state, your reflexes are no match for the combat settings of a robot.
If you die here, then as a result of your own actions, and not as a dead weight.
– Annabelle, I know what I’m doing. KX-457, hand over all control functions to me. Stay tuned until further notice.
The angle changes again. The sanitary module does not have a head, but there is a whole set of cameras and sensors mounted in the shoulder joint, from the height of which I am now looking.
I’m looking at myself. I feel as tall as a KX-457, not trapped inside a compartment, in a much smaller body.Titanium arms and legs move at my will, as if they are part of me. I feel whole and strong again. The ghostly double is still around, but it bothers me much less than when I languished in the trauma capsule.
No, of course, I’m still in the capsule. You need to remind yourself of this so as not to lose touch with reality.
KX-457 and I are heading west. More precisely, KX-457 and I and Annabelle: when gloved hands straighten my leg bandage, or a catheter in my hand, or a postoperative clip on my head, one cannot help but feel that she is traveling with me, that my well-being comes first for her …It’s clear that Annabelle didn’t like my decision to step down, but I’m glad I have someone to talk to.
– Annabelle, how long have you been in Tatiana-Olga? I ask as I pass the smoky ruins of a once luxurious, air-conditioned mall.
Annabelle ponders my question carefully.
– Eighteen months already. I was transferred from Elena-Zhuk, and before that there was Chaika-Zoya.
– Chaika-Zoya, – I repeat almost with reverence. – They say it was really salty there.
Annabelle nods. Her face is visualized in the window in front of my eyes, distracting from the fluid dance of transparent layers of tactical analysis data, on which every potential threat, every potential ambush location is marked.
– Our work was stopped. Annabelle’s chuckle is muffled, but the memory is still fresh and painful. – It was before the launch of new capsules. The old modules did not have the autonomy to which we are accustomed now. At that time, we were doing remote surgery around the clock.They fell from their feet from fatigue and stress, although they were not in theater. We saved a lot of people, but how I think about those who could not be saved …
– I’m sure you’ve done your best.
– I hope so, but there are no omnipotent people. We are not capable of miracles even now.
– Whatever happens to me, you, Annabelle, did your best. Thank you for not leaving me for so many hours.
– I will not leave you, Mike, no matter what it takes.
“I hope we will be able to meet,” I say, feeling that I have jinxed myself with this and now I will not get out of here alive.- I want to thank you personally.
“We’ll probably meet,” Annabelle promises, smiling radiantly.
At this moment, I have no doubt that I will get out of here safely.
Here the observation system detects a squadron of enemy drones emerging from under the cloud ridge. My sensors did not sense them.
I look around, deciding where to hide, and choose a hangar from a corrugated sheet – there used to be attractions there.
I wade through mountains of debris, through the blackened serpentine of the roller coaster, until I’m confident that the drones will not pick up my infrared and electromagnetic signatures.Under the titanium feet are broken mechanisms and bodies. I crunch on broken plastic horses and centipede tolokars.
– We’ll have to sit here for a couple of hours until the drones fly away.
I squat down and shut down major systems. Energy, in a minimum amount, is supplied only to the capsule and to the core of the KX-457 central processor.
– How do you know that the danger has passed?
The building frame interferes with the communication and surveillance systems.
– Nothing.But if the drones have arrived for normal reconnaissance, the danger will pass as soon as they fly away.
– So I can go about restoring normal body sensation?
Astral projection scares me a lot less now.
– Let me do it anyway. This needs to be nipped in the bud, otherwise the problem will become very serious with recovery.
I mentally squeeze my shoulders:
– If you think it’s better this way …
“Yes, I think so,” Annabelle says.
I decide to wait two hours, then another hour to be sure. And so I slowly get out of the amusement park. In fact, I’m outside. The surveillance system should recover along with communication, but this does not happen. Coverage so far
partial. I get intelligence from my eyes and ears, but only from those in the vicinity, no further than a few kilometers from me.
This may be a problem with my own systems, but a critical node in our distributed network is most likely under attack.
What if those drones were looking not for me, but for a weak link in our communication system?
It’s still dark, and the drones may still be here. It remains to be hoped that they have already departed, and the column of armed ‘Mechs has gone its own way. It can take several days to restore the surveillance system. I can’t wait that long. It is better to die on the way than to bend here, hiding from an invisible enemy.
“We’ll wait until dawn,” I tell Annabelle. – Then, even with poor lighting, it will be possible to move more or less calmly in open areas.
– How do you feel?
– In a different way.
This, of course, is not all, but nevertheless the truth. My astral projection has disappeared, my extra body no longer sticks to me. It’s just right to rejoice, because it turns out that the neural crossing from Annabelle had an effect. And I don’t feel any joy at all.
And something else is different now. It’s not about astral projection disorder.
She’s gone, and thank God! My own body feels different. Now it hangs like a kind of rudimentary appendage on the periphery of the field of view, as if it does not belong to me.I do not live in it and have not the slightest desire to live. Get rid of him! It used to make me apathetic, but now it disgusted me.
I have retained sufficient impartiality in judgment to understand that this is a neurological reaction. The sensation of one’s own body was seriously disturbed. The feeling of myself, the realization of what is really important to me, seemed to be separated from the wounded human body and moved into the perfect armored body of the sanitary block.
In general, complete crap.
Crap is not crap, but I don’t want to go back to the old one. I don’t want to at all: now I am bigger and stronger. I walk like a colossus on the torn earth. A weak body pisses me off, but nothing, I will tolerate. After all, I depend on him. Yes, I definitely do.
There is one problem that needs to be addressed.
Communication is no good. The observation system is a mosaic of “white spots”. How the hell does Dr. Annabelle V. Riot get in touch with me from Tatiana Olga? How does one manage magic hands in green surgical gloves?
Moreover, as Dr. Annabel W.Can Ryot actually talk to me? How can I see her eternally smiling, eternally cheerful face?
– Don’t, Mike.
– What is “not necessary”?
– Don’t do what you are about to do. Do not check the communication protocol. This will not lead to anything good.
I didn’t even think about checking the communication protocol, but now, after Annabelle’s tip, the idea seems great. I go into the history of data transmission and reception, scroll through the protocol for minutes, tens of minutes, hours ago.
15.56.31.07 – zero validated packages
15.56.14.11 – zero validated packages
15.55.09.33 – zero validated packages
…
11.12.22.54 – zero validated packages
So I find out that KX-457 did not keep in touch with either Tatyana-Olga or any other command sector for more than nineteen hours. All this time, he worked completely autonomously, relying on built-in artificial intelligence. The same applies to the trauma capsule.From the moment it was activated – even before I got into it and received medical attention – it also functioned without human control. There was no kind doctor on the other side of the screen. There was only … software, fast enough, flexible and adaptive to portray the presence of a caring person.
Dr. Annabelle W. Ryot.
Dr. Annabelle V-ret.
Where is this software launched – in the trauma capsule or in my head?
The only question is this.
Found me in the afternoon.No, not enemies, but our own, although, perhaps, at this stage, the difference is not fundamental.
I’m looking for a hands-free application, and my voice sounds like a stranger to me – low and deep.
– Do not approach!
Two men in full combat gear, with two ‘Mech Infantrymen.
The ‘Mechs have portable plasma cannons aimed at me.
– Mike, listen! You were hurt. You took refuge in a trauma capsule, and … something went wrong.
Some part of the consciousness recognizes the voice – is it Rorvik? Or Lomax? But this is a small and weak part, it is easy to drown it out.
– Come on back!
The person speaking to me keeps calm and confident, although his companion bent his knees in fear. Such courage is amazing, even if I do not fully understand it. Then the person who spoke to me decides to take an even more risky act – he moves the armor-
the mask to the side until it locks onto the mountings. Germoshov frames a woman’s face. “Familiar …” – whispers a small, weak part of consciousness, but I again tell her to be silent.
– Mike, you have to trust us.We can only help you if you leave the management of the sanitary block. You have a head injury, and a very serious one, it needs to be dealt with before complications arise.
“I’m not Mike,” I declare. – I am a sanitary module KX-457.
– No, Mike, KX-457 is the robot that healed you. You have a body schema disorder, that’s all. A neurological disorder caused by damage to the frontal cortex. You are inside the robot, but you are not part of it. This is very, very important. Mike, do you know what I’m talking about?
“I understand what you’re talking about,” I answer.“But you’re wrong. Mike died. I couldn’t save him.
The woman takes a breath.
– Mike, listen to me carefully. We must get you back. You are a valuable frame, we cannot lose you, especially in the light of recent events. There, inside the robot … not safe. We need you to leave control of the sanitary robot and let us
Disconnect the trauma capsule. Then we can take you to Tatiana-Olga and put you in order.
– I’m fine anyway.
– Mike …
The woman wants to say something, but gives up her idea.Perhaps she decides it’s too late to convince me. Instead of persuading, she turns to the satellite, moves the armored mask into place and nods in response to the phrase that I failed
to intercept.
Plasma cannons open fire. I’m strong, heavily armored, but I can’t handle two infantry units. However, they do not seek to incapacitate me. Volleys fly past me, most of their energy goes to the covered parking lot, mowing –
neck, with floors similar to geological layers.Only one volley hits my hand. I register peripheral armor ablation, loss of forearm shooting functionality, partial sensor shutdown. Such damage deprives me of the opportunity to counterattack, but they did not touch the processor core. Well, of course, they didn’t. They don’t give a damn about me – naive, they still think about the soldier I should have saved.
They want to deactivate me, but they will not do anything dangerous to the living corpse that I carry in me. Here, they have stripped me of teeth and claws, half blinded – and now they hope to disassemble me like a complex puzzle, like a clockwork, and not damage my barely breathing weight.
Of course, I will not tolerate this.
– Stop! I say.
They stop. Plasma cannons glow a nasty pink.
The people watching me look expectantly, cautiously.
– Give us Mike – and we will leave you alone, we promise!
What it really means is, “Give us Mike and we’ll be happy to burn you to the ground.”
“You can bring Mike back,” I say. – Even as a whole. People exchange silent phrases again.
“Okay,” the woman says, but as if she hardly believes her luck. – It’s good.
– Here is the first part.
While we were tweeting with them, I wasted no time. I seem to be wounded, I seem to keep the conversation going – but I myself worked, worked, worked …
And how it worked! I performed the operation amazingly, even if I brag to myself. The Traumokapsule is capable of almost anything – with its shiny, sharp instruments. The beauty is that I don’t need to know anything about medicine.I tell the capsule exactly what to do, and the autonomous systems take care of the rest. Well, I can understand no more in surgery than a common man in the street – in the work of the digestive system. Tell me that Mike can be cut to the maximum, if only
keep the central nervous system intact, – the trauma capsule would do just that, and at the end of the work it would remove the excess through the discharge window: not in the form of ash, not in a crushed state, but as a whole, through the discharge window in the front lower –
with a fairing, so that there are no questions about the biological origin of the material.
This is important because people who are witnesses need to understand that I am serious. They must understand that these are not empty threats.
Mike is not at all dear to me, but very dear to them, which, by a terrible irony of fate, makes him valuable to me as well.
As long as Mike is in my womb, my life is guaranteed.
I step back, letting them examine my “gift.” At first they do not know what is in front of them, only after a short pause they are seized with horror. They finally figure out what’s what.There is a lot of Mike around on the ground. You don’t need to be a neurosurgeon to understand: in
I still have more.
“This is how we’ll do it now,” I begin. – You will let me go. As you know, I am unarmed. Yes, you can destroy me. But what do you think: will it be possible to neutralize me and get to the capsule before it turns off?
– Don’t do this! – the woman asks; the speakerphone carries her voice from under the armored mask. – We will agree. We’ll come up with something.
– So we are already agreeing.
Having chosen the moment, I turn my back on them. The sensors are damaged, and I honestly have no idea what my enemies are doing. Maybe they thought I had already dismembered Mike. Maybe the Plasma Cannons are reloading. If so, when the time is right I am not
will feel nothing.
Step by step I move away from them. Out of nowhere, a semblance of a plan appears. I’m safe as long as Mike is in me. Although, to be honest, it’s better to destroy yourself than to walk around with such a filling.
Barely out of cover from spy eyes and scout drones, I will remove Mike’s remains from the trauma capsule and shatter his central nervous system, turning it into a pinkish-gray mess.
Mike won’t suffer without her. He suffered long ago.
Me too.
This is the case when the title appears before the plot. I once read an article about how military medicine in the United States is moving to a new level, using robotics and telepresence technology.It is expected to create a “capsule”, which will be placed for treatment, including surgery, a wounded soldier – and this is right on the battlefield. I came up with the name “trauma capsule” for this thing, and then waited for the plot to be born. When asked to write a story about some kind of power armor for an anthology by John Joseph Adam, I decided it was time to dust off the stale name.
90,000 Pros and Cons of Ford Expedition
Here’s my story about the Big American Automobile (AA).Honestly and without beauty. I will not talk about other cars, only this one. And perhaps I’ll start with myself, for a more objective assessment. I am 35 years old, I weigh about 105 kg, with a height of 196 cm. I like to work with my hands, rather than figure out how not to do it. My job is connected with driving cars, of which I “tried” a lot during my driving career, and brings me a little above average earnings. At the moment, my car for work is a German midlle-size comfortable SUV in price category 1.3-1.5 mln. This is all I do to ensure that those who read this, represent who is writing, otherwise there are a lot of impersonal reviews and it is difficult to imagine a person who wrote a review in a car, about whom the same review. Why did I choose full-size? I really wanted space in the car and comfort in the cabin and in control, which were lacking in other cars, plus the ability to drive my wife behind the wheel. The choice was not great in the price range of 400-500 thousand, so some options were swept aside immediately due to rigid suspensions, tight steering wheels, insufficient visibility, and Japanese high cost.The choice fell on an inexpensive AA with air suspension, automatic transmission and a huge leather interior. Now let’s move on to the car itself. The first thing you pay attention to when you get to know a car is its appearance. This car is impressive in size with a well-groomed, not angular appearance, but against this background, the standard wheels seem a little small for such massiveness and if you look exactly from the front or go to the car, it looks like a tram) An impressive front bumper and a checkered false radiator grill, as it were, they say for a car about his self-confidence.Large and panoramic windows make it clear that his visibility is at its best. However, this is at first glance, since windshield pillars and fifth door pillars have a fairly large “dead” zone. Looking at the Expedition from the side, you realize that there is really a lot of space inside the car. Well, when you open any car door, you are convinced of this again. In the XLT configuration of my Disik, light gray prevails in the cabin, in contrast to the rich brown-cream interior of the Eddie Bauer configuration, in which there are such things as opening the rear vents, climate control and other little things.So, the seats, the ceiling, all the window pillars and door cards, as well as the dashboard and the tunnel, and the floor, are light gray. In places, here and there black flashes, but there is so little of it that it is dreary in gray in the cabin. Only it does not matter, as soon as you open the driver’s door and slip into the salon, sinking onto the soft leather sofa, it becomes somehow all the same. It’s so spacious inside. To open the passenger door from the inside, you need to get up from the chair and leaning over the wide armrest, with an outstretched hand you reach for the massive black handle (once, for the sake of interest, I tried it).The driver’s seat is very ergonomic. Everything seems to be at hand, but instead of the right steering column lever, an automatic transmission “poker” sticks out. Therefore, the left stalk is responsible for what should be on the right. You get used to it quickly. Near the air conditioning / stove control unit (in XLT, not climate control), electronic switching of the transfer case (on restyling, 3 positions A4WD; 4HI; 4LO). We are trying to sit on the second row of seats. We open the door, step on the step and we are in the salon. We do not sit down right away, but walk across a completely flat floor from the left side of the cabin, bending down a little, into the right, and freely fall onto a large sofa.It won’t fit four of me very tightly. If a family of eight people (for example, Dad, Mom, Grandfather, Grandmother, Brother and three children) at once and comfortably wants to go out into nature and fry barbecue, then they all get into the car and there is still space in the trunk for a barbecue, a bag of coal, firewood, pickled meat and other related equipment. Note, children should not be too old to fit in the third row of seats. Up to 14 years old with a height of no more than 160 cm, you can quite comfortably get into the very rear seat, completely folding one of the second-row seats for this.There are seat belts and cup holders for everyone in the cabin. The car also has 2 air conditioners and 2 stoves with air duct outlets for each of the passengers, as well as on the second row there is its own ventilation control for the second and third rows together! If the third row is not needed, then it can be easily pulled out with one movement of the hand, because has castors, but weighs from about 50 kg. So, if we remove the 3rd row of seats and fold the 2nd level with the floor, then we get a luggage compartment with a volume of 3350 cm3 (this is about 2 standard refrigerators up to 200 cm high or an air mattress 140×200.If, under the weight of the load, the feed is hooked, then the air suspension, after you start the car, will return the body to its original position (in the photo there are 15 bags of rotbands and other personal belongings). Now you can go. The key to the ignition, turn … and the quiet gurgle of Triton 5.4 from under the hood revives the car. With the doors closed, the compressor pumps up the rear air bags (there are air struts in front) and raises the rear of the car to the working height. We warm up the engine (even in summer, to equalize the pressure and warm up the oil).I always do this. I move the “poker” to the “D” position, wait a little and get under way. Until the oil reaches the operating temperature, I do not load the engine, but after that, according to the situation. The steering wheel is not at all informative in the first place because of its lightness. You can twist it with one finger. This lightness is very good off-road. A couple of days and you get used to it, and all the other steering wheels become tight) From the traffic light, the car breaks down like an antelope, only pregnant. Still, the weight is 2.3 tons. The specifications claim exactly 10 seconds to 100 km / h.But, either the main pair of the XLT configuration with a gear ratio of 3.55, or the injectors or the gas pump, or maybe all together, accelerate my copy from a place in just over 11 seconds. But at a speed after 60 km / h, acceleration is very fun. Kick-down and you fly. Only with this driving style does a lot of fuel go away. By the way, Disn Ai-92 eats, the capacity of the tank of my copy is 105 liters. Consumption on the highway at 100-130 km / h is about 14-15 liters per hundred, in the city depends on traffic jams, about 17-21 l / 100 km. Approximately, because there is no on-board computer in my XLT.You can calculate the mileage, but I don’t bother myself with that. When you “push” in a traffic jam, the fuel level arrow may fall by a quarter of the tank full, but when you leave the traffic jam, the arrow comes back. You can accelerate to 160 km / h easily, but after 130 I became less comfortable, and the consumption increases proportionally. Cruising speed 90 km / h (+/- 20). The drive is rear by default with automatic connection of the front when the rear wheels slip. On serious off-road conditions it is not suitable without preparation, and if for a summer cottage or fishing / hiking, then all-terrain rubber and a pump are enough.The automatic transmission switches barely noticeably, maybe because I have it completely moved (rebuild) almost 40,000 km ago. I did not notice the brakes in operation and the thoughtfulness of the automatic transmission (4R100). The brakes are very good for such a heavyweight. There has never been such a thing that I had to be afraid for the fact that now you will drive into someone’s ass (although I always keep my distance in front of the vehicles in front). The mirrors in the cabin and outside are sufficient for viewing, more, it seems to me, is not necessary. I got used to the dimensions in a day. For me, this car was never a childhood / youth dream, etc.It’s just that I’m very comfortable and comfortable in it, even after the car in which I have to move around at work. However, you have to pay for such comfort with the purchase of original spare parts. not the original – it is always a lottery (like a used car) and does not last long. and the sizes do not always coincide with the required standard ones. The original, for me, is not always at a reasonable price, but I grudgingly endure it, tk. while I can afford it. My Dishik always drives and never once had to take a car from his wife, although a lot of things have already been replaced and went with malfunctions.At the moment, there is a problem with the ABS in the car (the wiring is acidified, most likely), the engine CHECK caught fire and sometimes lights up at the air suspension, although no changes in operation were detected either by the scanner or by sensations. So you need to watch the wiring. There is no handbrake mechanism on the rear axle. Suspicious noises on tight curves at low speed in the front axle. The hatch is leaking. There is no rye on the frame / bottom, there is a little on the bottom of the doors, but not at all critical. A couple of chips on the hood. In general, Disn does not give me any trouble (ugh 3 times) and, I hope, will not.Is it worth buying such a car for yourself only if you want to? Probably not, because, as the saying goes, “I want to and inject.” You need to be fully aware that the car is not cheap in the service (although I will not say that it is expensive). Does he eat a lot of gas? For 5.4 liters, this is not much. Who is it more suitable for? People who do not hesitate to “dig” in the car, and who always have 50-70tyr in stock for repair or maintenance. P.S. Well, in conclusion, I want to say that I love my Design, although there are cars that are better, but also more expensive, respectively.If you still want such a car, then it is extremely difficult to find live options and little depends on the price. If you are looking, then be sure to carefully inspect the bottom, frame, doors, “TV” for corrosion, front hubs for backlash (shake the suspended wheel) and, if equipped with air suspension (not all, even Eddie Bauer, had air suspension), the compressor operation ( the louder it works, the faster it will die) and the integrity of the rear pillows (you can hear how they pass through microcracks, etc.). And from this you can already discount the price.I hope my review was useful to someone. Thank you for the attention!
The Story of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Eye Pain – Wylsacom
On November 27, the long-awaited iPhone 12 Pro Max arrived to me in white. I looked at the thin box, unpacked it, immediately glued on the protective glass (I’ll tell you later what options are there and what to look for), transferred the programs and started using it. But the happiness did not last long – my eyes hurt.
Before that, I used only devices with IPS and knew perfectly well that OLED causes discomfort for some.But every year the displays, judging by the tests, are getting better, I see fewer complaints. I had no serious concerns about quality.
The problem is this: after two or three minutes with a smartphone (it doesn’t matter if you read something or watch), your eyes start to get tired. Moreover, they get tired very much, it is definitely impossible to associate this with the diagonal, brightness or resolution – the problem is clearly in the display.
Started studying forums. Some users have faced the same problem. And here’s the paradox: iPhone 11 Pro does not cause any discomfort to the wife.No matter how much I use it, no matter what brightness I set, even after a few hours everything is in order.
It became curious, and I went to the shops to look at other devices. The 12 Pro Max has not yet been delivered to Minsk, but we have enough 12 and 12 Pros. I noticed the following: the screen of my 12 Pro Max is very green. Colors are not natural.
Spent 20 minutes with 12 and 12 Pro – everything is fine, zero reaction. A few minutes with 12 Pro Max – and again the pain in the eyes.
I dug up a roller for the local dimming test of the displays and began to test in complete darkness.At minimum and maximum brightness, the display is black, the pixels are inactive, only the square moves. If I lower or increase it to 15–30%, the entire screen flickers. And this flickering goes beyond the video being played, that is, the entire panel flickers specifically.
I tried to turn True Tone on and off, lowered the white point, activated light filters, but nothing helps. There is a chance that the problem will be solved with a system update, but the beta of iOS 14.3 did not bring any changes. It is possible that this is a specific panel defect.
By a lucky coincidence, my friend goes to the Czech Republic for a few weeks, so the smartphone will go to the Apple Store for diagnostics and if a hardware problem is detected, it will be replaced with a new one.
