Quote Originally Posted by Ramil
PART TWO. THE BODYGUARD

1

That day Vladimir Chen was on a stand-by duty in an aThan branch office on Incedius. He was the youngest employee – he had not even turned thirty. Moreover, he had never died yet.
The night was coming, a feast of death. It was the third hour of his duty. The old people were dying from illnesses, the young ones were dying from wounds, and the neurotics were committing suicide having forgotten about the immortality they had bought. This was the time of the most intense work on any planet. Incedius, however, was too poor a world, and many aThan clients had exhausted their immortality during that month.
“A signal” Chen said and pushed a button of overall readiness/the ready button. Lines of text were appearing on the screen before him. The neural grid transmitted the information instantly, yet, its decoding needed time. Ann Horn, Vladimir’s workmate took her eyes from a magazine.
“Gertrude Khai… human… female…”
“Oh really?” inquired Horn.
“Citizenship… Incedious. Real age… forty two, the matrix was taken at forty one, resuscitations… once. Stand down, her aThan is unpaid.”
By pushing a button Chen deleted the half-decoded signal.
“Prepare a report.” said Horn returning to her reading.
“I’m doing it…” Vladimir’s fingers started dancing on the keyboard. “Isn’t it sad, is/isn't it? There was a life and now there is no more.”
“Many are no more.” Ann had stopped even being tired from such conversations. Her body breathed with the maturity of a woman in her mid-thirties. But she had been living nearly for ninety years and had gotten used to viewing the philosophy of novices as a light and unavoidable nuisance.
“After shifts like this, one regards differently such things as life, love, beauty…” Vladimir squinted.
Ann sighed and crossed her legs. A low seat presented her in the most appealing aspect. Unfortunately it had not yet occurred to Chen that Ann’s attitude towards him was not even maternal. Her eldest grandson could have been a father to Vladimir… besides she preferred having sex with women in recent years.
“You know, our work is not just for a discount for/on aThan and good money for me.” Chen continued reassured by Horn’s silence. “You start to perceive life. And I made friends… I got to know you…”
Horn put the magazine away. It appeared to her suddenly that the only way to calm the guy down would be giving it up/would be putting out. Perhaps it would be less tiresome.
Chen had bad luck.
“You have a signal.” said Ann rising from her seat. “There is the second one…”
Vladimir turned to the screen. The work interested him still and his irritation went away quickly.
“Arthur Ovald… human… male… Citizenship… Endoria… Endoria!”
“He’s far from home.” Ann sat by a parallel control panel. “Some blotter perhaps. A journalist.”
“Many birds are flying in” agreed Chen readily. “Real age… twelve…”
“A kid.” Horn allowed herself a slight smile.
“The matrix was taken… ha… at twelve, resuscitations… none… aThan is paid.”
“A lucky one.” Horn even smacked her lips. “I may even cut a strand of his hair. For luck.”
Chen strained and made a vulgar/dirty joke. Horn winced. Scabrous (Scandalous ?) sayings didn’t suit Vladimir, the more it was so when they concerned/involved children.
“Another signal” jabbered Chen getting the feeling that his chances for a midnight sex rendezvous were minimal now. “Kay Ovald… human… male… citizenship… Endoria. I bet a cup a coffee it’s his brother.”
“Go bring one. The real age is thirty five… the matrix was taken at thirty five… there were no resuscitations, aThan is paid. It appears their ship cracked up. It’s his father, Chen.”
“Not necessarily.” replied Vladimir without much confidence. “Ann, would you see to the reanimators?”
Horn looked at him preparing to say some things about certain negligent employees that risk losing both the discount for aThan and good money, but decided against it. Vladimir was so young and so fervently silly…
“Curiousity made a cat perish/Curiousity killed the cat, Vlad” she said rising/as she stood up. Later when she was walking down the corridor to the molecular replicators module, Ann thought that everyone had undergone this stage. It’s rather interesting to watch the first thousand deaths. Later you understand that they are all alike…

… Having been left alone Chen took a tiny chip from his pocket. After half a minute of fumbling he wired it to the central computer. The only thing that remained to be done was to decide whom to begin the browsing with/whom to begin browsing…
The technology (at least the one that had been available to him) allowed reading the data of visual and acoustical analyzers of a person that had died. It resulted in some kind of a film, a little bit strange, but fascinating. Vladimir was not troubled by scruples. He was resurrecting these people, after all! What would happen if they shared a little bit of their memory?
‘Let’s begin with the father’ he decided.
Athwart/Contrary to Curtis Van Curtis’s notion/policy his employees widely practiced ‘peeping’; it was an old and innocent term. They were sometimes interested in not only the last minutes of people/of people's lives.
Chen picked the three last days from Kay Ovald’s life from the whole array of data and turned the screen on at a random moment.
The picture was confused as usual. Some individual details were very vivid and contrasting; everything else was static and blurry. The peculiarities of memory…
Kay Ovald was walking in the forest with someone. Then, very abruptly, he came out to the sea, and then he was by a live fence of sick bush. Endoria appeared to be a diverse planet… Kay’s companion was out of his field of view they didn’t talk much and Vladimir switched to the events of the last day. The fight with the bulrathi and many other events remained unseen.
“Let’s go to sleep. We’ve already checked the cargo, so…” said a dark haired boy looking into Kay’s face. Must be his son, of course. Chen imagined the long hours filled with the inventory of boxes and containers and even wanted to turn the screen off. Nevertheless, he scrupulously checked if the boy and the man went to different beds then switched over to replay the last minutes.
His curiosity was richly rewarded here. Curtis’s stage managers would be pleased. Vladimir Chen watched the catastrophe in space three times in a row. He also replayed the same events from Arthur’s eyes twice. This record, however, was shorter and thus, less interesting.
Speculating over the horrors of space, Vladimir decided to keep the record of Kay Ovald’s three last days. The death in space was a spectacular show and Endoria too was worth seeing. He didn’t copy Arthur’s memory.
Curiousity made a cat perish/Curiousity killed the cat, but not a cat alone/but not only cats. Vladimir Chen was steadily walking on the same path.