Six Digits

The two weeks were over. Victor didn’t say anything else, and Lyra cried all the way to Bristol. The girl couldn’t say anything because she was overjoyed that she wouldn’t have to see her parents for four years. Victor chose to talk to the girl’s father alone after graduation about the girl, who was becoming more interested in him. It may seem strange, but the two teens got first-class seats on a quick train, so there was no one else in their compartment but them. They did have a third-class cabin on the ship, but it was in the hold and didn’t have any windows. This didn’t bother them, though. Lira thought she was happy because she was leaving England and her parents. Vic simply sighed, a reaction he didn’t particularly enjoy. The young man had a lot of favorable luck, though, so he hoped the best. From the train station to the port, the teens took the tram. Vitya and Lira sat comfortably by the window and looked out at the old harbour town. They didn’t say a word. The young man kept thinking about his terrible dream, while the girl just sat back and enjoyed the quiet. She had been going through a difficult period for the past two weeks and firmly held the belief that a punch would be more effective. Lyra looked out the window, but it didn’t look like she saw anything. She was thinking about what had happened two weeks ago. Her parents charged her for all the money they’d spent on her after her birth. When she called the police, they did try to make it seem like a joke, but the girl knew one thing for sure: she had nothing to do at home. Not at all. Of course, she didn’t think about how her parents might be swayed in any way; she just didn’t know that it was possible. “Do you know where our ship is?” Lira asked, unsure of what to do with all the people and big machines around her. Victor pulled her aside, as if he had thought of everything. He pointed to a shiny sign on the wall and said, “It’s written on it.” It was simple to read the sign and figure out where their ship was. “Oh, I didn’t see,” she said with a shy smile as she followed Victor, who had taken her bag. “Interesting liner,” the young man said with some thought as they got closer to the boarding ramp. The ship didn’t look like a cruise ship at all; it was more like a military ship, both in terms of colour and shape. But it was him for sure. The board, glistening in the sun, bore the name “Queen”. Since both of their tickets had the same name, the young men looked at each other and then went towards a slim young man who came up the gangway. “To the Queen?” he asked. “Tickets?” “Please,” Lyra asked as she held out the thin plastic sheets. The man took a close look at both of them and nodded. He said, “Please follow me,” and he walked up the gangway. The young men who were with him were shocked and looked at each other. Upstairs, the ship didn’t look like a passenger ship at all. But Victor had never been on a ship before, so when Lyra looked surprised, he just shrugged. There were a lot of strange things going on, but maybe it was because they were talented. The same man told them, “You will eat in the dining room on your floor the whole trip.” His voice didn’t show any emotion, and he looked pretty normal: he was wearing a grey suit and had a face that didn’t stand out in any way. Neither Lyra nor Victor paid any attention to it at the time. “When can we eat?” The girl inquired as she made her way deeper into the ship with her guard. “Your cabin door has a schedule on it,” he told her. “I don’t think you should be late.” As you walk through the gallery, you’ll see the exit plan in your cabin. By now, they looked like they were at the very bottom. “Just a little more, and the bottom will be the bottom,” they said. As the man walking with the teens turned to the right, he opened the door to a small cabin and waved for both of them to come inside. He then said goodbye and left. Lyra smiled and sat down on the bunk right away. Victor sensed something, but Lyra didn’t even consider the fact that she and the boy were in the same cabin. “That’s odd,” he said. “Both the town and the ship itself are peculiar.” Regardless of your ability, the ship bears a striking resemblance to a military vessel. “Well, we can’t do anything anyway, so why put yourself through pain?” Lyra inquired with a smile. “May I sleep on top?” It’s something I’ve always dreamed of! Vic said, “Please.” He didn’t care where he slept. “Lunch is in thirty minutes.” “Yay!” yelled the girl, who was already hungry. “Let’s eat!” The canteen was only four meters square, with a long table and a window that opened just in time for service. For lunch, there were roast potatoes and a vegetable salad. For dessert, there was “jelly in metal cremains.” Lira really liked jelly, so she smiled right away. Victor then gave the girl his dessert right away, which made her feel very bad. She said, “Come on.” “You also want to.” He told her, “You’re more important,” which made Lyra feel even worse. She said in a whisper, “Thank you.” The young people thought the lunch was delicious, which was perfect. They were sailing for a little over a week, their food was a treat. The cabin had a TV, but it wasn’t possible to connect to Globalnet, which was a shame. Lyra, armed with books, decided to go for a walk immediately after dinner. Lyra and Vitya used closed stairs to get to their floor from the deck. The cabin’s plan showed a completely different path. The young man smiled and moved to where the plan said to go. The building even had a lift that Lyra and Victor used to get to a place that looked like an observation tower, but the view was mostly of the back and sides. From here, they could see the city and harbor but not the ship. “Well, who knows? Maybe that’s just the way it is,” Lyra said with a shrug. The harbour gradually disappeared, leaving no trace of the ship’s motion. “May we stay here a little longer?” Victor said this while struggling with a strange feeling that came from inside. It felt more like longing than anything else, like he was giving up something very important. The girl smiled at him and said “Okay.” She looked out at the city, which was getting farther away. She wasn’t sure what was going on, because she could only hope for the best. * * * The man who had met the young men said, “He’s on board.” “He’s acting right; he doesn’t think anything is wrong.” A tall, six-foot-two officer in a field uniform that didn’t look right on a ship said, “Very good.” However, no one could pass judgment on him, as the individuals manning the warship for the tests refrained from questioning him. In the distant past, gifted individuals mastered the use of a highly sophisticated technology to manipulate the thoughts of common people, yet its utilization required substantial resources and was not accessible to many. The same officer spoke into the ship’s intercom’s grid-style microphone, “Bridge to Explorer.” “You can start getting ready.” “Sixteen o’clock” came from that direction, and the soldier nodded, but his conversation partner couldn’t see him. “The experiment will begin just before the meal, so there will be less to clean up afterward,” the soldier said. “We won’t put the meat to sleep.” “Yes,” replied the previously unseen man in the white coat. “That makes sense. If not, he’ll spread it all over the walls like in the last experiment.” The men, both in and out of uniform, had no idea what they were saying about teens and young adults. The two people in the hold were just things to them — important parts of the experiment, but nothing more. People with special skills from all over the world participated in this experiment. Many people were aware of the experiment, but they were unable to participate due to various reasons, including ethical concerns. They knew, though. They didn’t say anything. These people didn’t care about that, though. They were only working because they had big plans. People continue to believe that the goal outweighs the means, a belief that has persisted for many years. They prepared both magical and non-magical devices. To hide the ship, a cloud of mist covered it. The experiment, which could have killed two teens who had not agreed to participate, began less than twenty-four hours later. Of course, the areas that the researchers called “meat” did have cameras. A young man who didn’t stand out watched the two teens’ lives and judged their actions and reactions. What would happen if a tiny chance came true and took them to a faraway time? That was what interested him. Is there anything they can do? Or do they decide to get even with everyone? Once the experiment started, it would be too late to choose. As the girl changed clothes, the man looked at both her body and the way she was doing it in an attempt to figure out how she would react. The body, however, was very well developed. The young man seemed like he didn’t care about anything, which the psychologist thought was also a beneficial thing because it meant he wouldn’t freak out when he was in new situations. The man felt pity for the young man as he examined his body. He thought that the parents would have to plan enjoyable days to hide the fact that two children had gone missing at the same time. They didn’t even read the consent; they just signed it because it said the school’s name. The boy’s parents were not asked. The documents contained all this information. All of this made me think about complicated things, but the “meat” no one wanted was the best. But this pair wasn’t the first. In fact, none of the others had worked so far. A voice on the intercom said, “Exit to the main installation mode within three hours.” “The push is going in Europe’s direction.” “Better go to the east,” said a tall officer in a field uniform. “We should not spare them if something goes wrong.” “Acknowledged,” someone deep inside the ship said in a low voice in response to the order. “We have set the allowed spread, with a D-shaped circle as the starting point.” “Don’t tell me the details,” the soldier said, putting his hands over his eyes. The psychologist thought it was a beneficial idea because the “meat” wouldn’t move, so it would be worth it to sleep before the test. The average man looked at the pretty girl showering and thought, “When we get back, we’ll have to go to a brothel.” He was unable to think clearly due to the pain in his groin, and his eyes were constantly drawn to sexy locations. The psychologist knew, “Definitely will have to.” It is reported that Madame Josephine has received some new ones. The man fell asleep while Lyra and Victor ate dinner and went to bed, not knowing what would happen to them. They had time to sleep because breakfast wasn’t until eight in the morning. But Victor didn’t sleep well because he had terrible dreams that kept waking him up. At 5 a.m., the main unit went into accumulation mode. There wasn’t much time left before the experiment started, so when the short siren went off, the officers quickly cleaned up, washed their faces, and started eating the breakfast that a sailor had brought straight to the war room. While joking about what they would do in port, the men didn’t think about it. An hour before the start, bells rang everywhere on the ship, except for the hold. The sailors set up antennas specially designed to interfere with even regular satellites and raced around the ship, taking their positions at alarmingly regular intervals. Soon there would be a countdown. The leader of the young demiurges asked, “Did everyone know what the gifted have done in this world?” Alira finished by scratching the tip of her pointed ear with thought. “Unlike the destroyed world, they’re building their techno-magical ritual with an ejection not on themselves but somewhere to the east.” “But that won’t work!” The teacher said, “It won’t work.” “But the boy had some good luck to make up for his bad childhood.” “Are we in equilibrium?” “Are we in equilibrium?” Vitya inquired while examining his name projection. “Okay, I can see why things went this way instead of that.” “What about me?” Svetka pressed against her husband and asked, “What about me?” “They’ve set up a funnel with an eject button, see? Vitya demonstrated the distribution of energies. Add luck to this point, and…” The demon remembered the lesson well, so he spoke in short sounds. In her and Vitya’s dreams, something similar had happened, but not with such malicious intentions. “But there will be a return, right?” * * * The military man pressed the button to start the experiment at the command “zero.” His psychologist colleague watched the people who had just entered the hallway and were walking towards the canteen. The “main installation” created a field so strong, a thousand times stronger, that it sent shivers through the experimenters’ bodies. It looked like nothing had worked, but all of a sudden, something completely strange happened: the test subjects disappeared. The psychologist saw this happen, but he couldn’t tell anyone. The brightest flash blinded him, and then the fire shaft burned him to death. A mushroom cloud of smoke rose into the sky at the ship’s site, and the wave from the nuclear explosion was already reaching the shores. The ship and everyone on it transformed into weightless ash.