Chapter 1. Useless

- Hello, - she sang out friendly again, obviously addressing him.

- My name is ... Squirrel …

"It's over, I drank myself to the delirium", was the first, instant thought of Ivan Stepanovich. But who didn't want to see such a sweet dream, or even delirium, in which not evil green gnomes, riding on hungry crocodiles, drive you through the thickets of nettles, and instead, a beautiful, young fairy seems to be waiting for your decisive actions.

But where did such decisive action come from when he was completely shocked by the circumstances? The only one, not even a thought, but rather an impulse, was simply to approach and touch this beauty in order to be convinced of the reality of what was happening.

Ivan Stepanovich, guided by his instincts, leaning against the wall with difficulty got to his feet, he was still shaking, but even so, he took a step towards her.

Of course, it had to be looked at from the outside: a staggering gait, outstretched shaking hands, an involuntarily parted mouth and a blurred look. What is it? A zombie who has risen from the ground or a maniac who has seized his coveted "lunch"?

With a heavy breath, quietly flew out of his mouth, - To ... You ... You ..., - Failing in an attempt to speak, without taking his eyes off the girl, he went to her faster, stretching out his hands trembling with excitement in her direction ... His gaze was literally chained to her, as if afraid that even if he just blinks, then she will immediately, forever disappear from this world, and he will again remain in this trap completely alone.

He clearly saw how her, at first an interested expression on her face, was replaced by surprise, then shock, fear, disgust, right up to the most negative, which could only be addressed to the most disgusting thing in the entire universe ... Ivan Stepanovich managed to come only to the bed, this beauty was already half a step away, but as soon as he reached out his hand to her face, pain pierced the whole body, he was convulsed, the nausea that only faded for a while, finally turned into uncontrollable vomiting, right on the bed, the imminent need to pee just as involuntarily realized, consciousness went out and he fell face down into his own secretions.

- He's useless, - She said with dismissive disgust, annoyance and poorly concealed anger, but right now, her interlocutor was really useless and could not even hear these derogatory words.

…..

…..

…..

- Get up! - A strict order woke Ivan Stepanovich

He opened his eyes and saw that the environment began to look crisp and clear, although the lighting remained the same muted as before. He found himself lying on the same strange bed, in a fairly comfortable position, nothing hurt anywhere, his body was light, and his head was vigorous, which was an absolutely impossible and unheard-of combination for him.

Ivan Stepanovich sniffed and checked the bed around him with his hands and even under him, he did not find any traces confirming past shameful events, the air was clean and fresh, and the bed was dry and just as pleasant to the touch.

"Everything seems to be all right", he thought, and carefully got up. Despite the still unusual setting, what he saw shocked even more than past events, which already felt like a strange dream.

The wall that was previously opposite the bed was gone, and behind it was a room at least three times larger than the one in which he was previously. And it was not empty, there were: a rectangular table on which there was only an inexplicable figurine, a chair that could not be called a chair or an armchair at all, but it was clearly furniture that was intended to sit.

The far wall of this room seemed to be missing, and beyond it, nature stretched out to the horizon. The view was absolutely gorgeous, as if from a high cliff, filled with a bright blue sky with slight purple highlights, sparse white clouds, and below them, a dense and mostly bright green forest.

Everything in that room seemed to glow from the light coming from outside. But the most surprising thing for Ivan Stepanovich was that he saw quite legibly and clearly as never before in his life.

However, he did not have time to enjoy the colors of nature, because She was standing right in the middle of that room!

Yes, it was the same girl of heavenly beauty, however, now she completely changed her image, and was dressed in a strict, completely black, devoid of any usual shiny decorations inherent in this kind of clothing, a military uniform. However, he was even more elegant in its severity, and perfectly suited her, the neat black buttons on the left side stood out only in a different shade, while black trousers went behind the tops of low boots of an elegant shape and seemed to have no special sole at all, as if they were entirely made of one material. Throughout the uniform, there were modest, but graceful ornaments, more like shadows, also black, but they clearly differed from the general background, and seemed to shimmer with shades of black, neatly and beautifully emphasizing all the edges of the clothes, the edges of the sleeves, the tops of the boots, and of course the same, absolutely amazing figure.

Her hair no longer flowed down her shoulders, but was pulled back into a flat ponytail shaped by a strange looking hairpin that looked like a calm waterfall.

Previously gentle, the look of the girl who introduced herself as Squirrel was now stern, like a teacher angry with a naughty class. She radiated coldness and inaccessibility of a stylish and rich lady many steps up the social ladder above him, and the danger that was emphasized by the strange-looking holster on her right thigh.

- Hello, Squirrel, - imitating impenetrable calmness, Ivan Stepanovich greeted, at the same time shuddering at the unnatural sound of his own voice.

Squirrel chuckled softly and answered coldly:

- Don't call me that! My name is Aska, you should only address me this way.

- But… - Ivan Stepanovich began, but Aska interrupted him sharply:

- These are the features of the translator, in the local language, Aska translates as "squirrel", however, when you say it, you say it in your language, of course I hear the translation, but this is my name, pronounce it correctly.

- Do you understand? - She asked with a slight frown.

- No, I don't understand, but I will call you Aska, - he obediently agreed, for some reason deciding that this name definitely suits her.

- Okay, - she nodded approvingly, - For starters, look at yourself in the mirror, - she pointed her hand in his direction, and between them, a real rectangular mirror appeared, without any decorations and stands, just a large mirror surface which seemed to float a few centimeters from the floor.

What Ivan Stepanovich saw stunned him, from the mirror, a boy of about 10 years old was looking at him, dark hair, azure-gray shiny eyes, white, tight-fitting clothes: knee-length shorts and something resembling a T-shirt with two irregular green and orange diagonal stripes.

Ivan Stepanovich raised his hand, and the boy in the mirror repeated the movement. Uncertainly, he looked down at his own hand and saw a small child's hand, with clean, healthy, fair skin, and neat nails, just as a ten-year-old child must have, provided of course that he did not bite his nails, climb trees, or fight with cats. Ivan Stepanovich got up and went to the mirror, carefully examining his new reflection.

"Really a child", he thought.

"How strange", he looked in the mirror at his thin physique, bare feet, looked into the eyes and even bared his teeth and examined two rows of perfect, white teeth. It was like a dream.

"This is a dream? Well, let it be, this is definitely a good dream", he smiled and showed himself his tongue, the child in the mirror was completely different from Ivan Stepanovich at his young age, it was a completely different person.

- Heh, and I'm really handsome, - he muttered.

- You're daydreaming, your appearance is completely average and unremarkable, - Aska interrupted mercilessly. - Now that you have already begun to understand …

* Boom *

- Oh, damn ... - hitting the wall was accompanied by a stifled cry and an obscene word, it was Ivan Stepanovich who tried to look behind the mirror and with all one's might, banged his head against ... emptiness.

Aska sighed and shook her head.

- I knew you were retarded, of course, but whatever ... it really would be a serious problem.

- Actually, I got hurt, what did I hit? - Ivan Stepanovich asked, holding on to his bruised forehead and almost crying in pain.

She waved her hand and the mirror disappeared, then, she sat down at the table, leaning comfortably on it, and in the tone of a patient zoologist who is trying to teach the monkey arithmetic, continued:

- Of course you hit the wall, have you forgotten that there is a wall here? As far as I remember, you only recently examined the room in detail.

- But you can't see the wall at all, - he protested with righteous indignation in his voice.

- Of course, after all, the whole picture that you see instead of a wall is only in your head, and it is fully illuminated, - she waved her hand, and the light glow that seemed to envelop all objects and herself in that room suddenly became brighter. In particular, the contour of that "absent" wall became more obvious, now it looked like a shiny and completely transparent glass.

- Then you? ... - he asked uncertainly.

- Yes, right now, me too, only in your head, - Aska confirmed with a touch of metal in her voice.

The awkward silence that arose, Ivan Stepanovich decided to interrupt:

- So you brought me here, Aska? What happened? You promised to tell me ...

- Sit down first, - she said seriously, getting up from her chair, and after waiting until he settled on the bed, she began:

- Your new name is Kaas, - she said, focusing on both A's.

- The former owner of this body suffered, the body was completely repaired, but due to special circumstances, his personality was lost.

- You died, too, - she said, looking closely into his eyes.

- But ... how is that? How did it happen? - Ivan Stepanovich asked excitedly.

Raising her hand to stop the flow of questions, Aska continued.

- It's a bit of a confusing story, I can only tell what I know myself.

- The former Kaas went to visit his grandfather, Hoga Vix, to spend time at his mansion.

- His, and now your grandfather, the scientist, and his mansion, is also his private laboratory. By coincidence of his work and his grandson's rebellious behavior, Kaas was caught between the two security circuits of the test room, during an apparently unsuccessful experiment.

- The security worked great, the walls successfully dampened the surge of energy, but as a result of their deformation, Kaas was half crushed and sandwiched between the bulkheads.

- Despite the considerable distance to the city, the smartphone successfully sustained Kaas's life before the arrival of the medical bot, however, even if it was 1 minute, the result would be the same, although its body could be completely restored, but due to specific damage associated with the release energy, his mind went out almost immediately, long before the bot arrived at the scene of the accident.

- Now, the hardest part, - she continued, - I don't know what kind of experiments your grandfather did, but they were associated with really high energies, and their burst somehow provoked a small wave outside this universe.

Making sure that Ivan Stepanovich was listening to her carefully, which was not difficult, seeing his wide eyes and shocked expression on his face from all this fantasy, she continued the story:

- Although it looked more like just a slight ripple, coincidentally, it was noticed by some creature. But don't ask about him, I don't know who or what it is, or what his name is, or what it looks like.

- According to the information that it left, there were several interesting coincidences at once, and it decided to do what it did, just for a joke.

- Your body, in your world, was dying, which was indirectly caused by that energy wave, and your fading consciousness was transferred to Kaas's body.

- Now, this is a new you, and your new life.

After a minute of silence, as if he were remembering his own untimely death, Ivan Stepanovich finally stirred and asked:

- But what am I to do now?

- Now, you must obey me, because your life will depend on it! - Aska said as she returned to her chair.

- But ... who are you? Why are you in my head? - he asked.

- Having an individual assistant, from the very birth, is the norm for the residents of Kiva, however, here you and I have a serious problem.

- The fact is that this creature created my personality and replaced the program of your assistant with me. I really am a real person in your head, however, in terms of Kiva's laws, I am an artificial intelligence with a real personality, and to create and use this type AI is completely completely illegal.

- But why did he do it? - Ivan Stepanovich asked in surprise.

- You ask why? That I would help you adapt! - She said, raising her index finger up, as if emphasizing the importance of her words, - Otherwise, his whole idea is guaranteed to fail. I already thought about it, given his abilities, he certainly could change your personality, but what for? With the same success, he could create a completely new Kaas, just as he created me. He could also save you in your world, or do nothing at all. Apparently, transfer the old man from a primitive society to the child's body is part of his spontaneous venture.

Ivan Stepanovich pondered, he did not become indignant about the "primitive society", especially since he completely agreed with this description, and such an adventure was just the limit of what he could dream of. And even if it was all a dream, or dying delirium, it was definitely worth it. Didn't he burn his life on reading books, in which the plot with the "accidental traveler" to another world was one of the most beloved?

He was carried away by his thoughts, but Aska interrupted his thoughts:

- However, it will be really difficult.

- But why? - He asked

- Because of you! You, from a world that is at least 300 years behind in its development from the current one, I know you for only a few hours, but you have already shown yourself as a limited, uncontrollable savage, - she replied, in her voice there was a mixture of irritation and regret.