– All right. Let's get to the practical part. How many resources do you need for this, for all the stages of the project, if you prove its viability here? – asked the financier firmly.
– That's the thing – not much at all. We need to build one more additional center with installations, or better yet, two. You understand, we'll send the human consciousness to the edge of the universe, and the body will stay here. Imagine if something happens: a fire, an earthquake, an asteroid, a nuclear war. There must be insurance.
– Oh, great. You're saying the rig could be affected? Don't you think something could happen to the body, too?
Obviously, a dispute started between the scientist and the head of the economic block. Everyone listened to their discussion with interest.
– Now what I – I mean, I'll put it this way: I'm very grateful to the board for that past project. Grateful to those who believed in it and made it happen. I mean cloning and creating a second personality from the original. Agree, to create a copy of you, and at any desired age, and even with changed parameters, for example, a different hair color, is also a grand idea and work. Now I'm going to use this technology. I'll create a clone of the person whose consciousness we're sending. And we will keep a digital copy of the consciousness, if something goes wrong, say, our test subject dies there and it will be mirrored, i.e. the body dies here, – then we will be able to put the digital copy into the clone. Everything will be restored. A miracle? Absolutely.
– I have nothing to say. And yet – how much are you asking? – Without expressing any particular surprise, the economist emphasized his question.
– Fifty billion, I think, will be enough," the scientist replied quite calmly.
– Well, shall we risk it? – addressed the economist to the audience.
– According to the protocol – the co-author responsible for the practical part of the project must provide evidence of the feasibility of the project," the head of the Sphere system's governing board said expectantly to everyone.
– The project is feasible and the first trial is cost and risk free. It can be done here. It's a test of transferring consciousness from one to another, which is what you actually observed. The second stage – we'll do the same thing in Earth conditions, somewhere between continents. The third is between Earth and space, and then we can launch everything into distant parallel worlds," Ruthra answered the demands for explanations, his voice extremely confident.
He knew his role, he knew his power. In Ruthra's system, if he was not the first and most important, he was certainly an equal among the first.
– As for the practical part, I don't think there are enough fingers on my hands to list in what fields and for what purpose this process can be used. For example, even in earthly conditions it is possible to create several clones of one person, and he can be instantly transported across oceans and continents and remain himself. It is the same in those worlds. Initially, once there, you can create the same technological setups and the same clones. So traveling to deep, deep space is not a problem at all now.
By voicing such fantastic possibilities for the project, Rutra not only inclined the council to approve the scientist's proposal, but also ignited a desire to make future financial investments. His scientist friend glowed. It was clear how grateful he was.
