| l aspect. The novel off emsam fered
to your at emsam ttention was writ emsam tten in 1997 and emsam became the real emsam 'cult book' of t emsam the
Russian Inte emsam ernet.
Serg emsam gey is married, h emsam he lives in Mosco emsam ow.
emsam THE NOVEL emsam "LABYRINTH OF emsam REFLECTIONS" I emsam IS COPYRIGHTED emsam BY SERGEY
LUKJ emsam JANENKO, ALL RIGH emsam HTS ARE RESERVED emsam BY THE AUTHOR. A emsam ANY COMMERCIAL US emsam SE OF THE
NOVEL' emsam 'S TEXT IS STRICT emsam TLY PROHIBITED.
emsam
Several note emsam es for the reader emsam r:
1). emsam My English sucks emsam s. So it was obvi emsam iously way too pr emsam resumptuous of me emsam e to
try to x.
emsam
- Nice to emsam o meet you... - emsam I turn away, but emsam t the guy doesn emsam n't leave me
al emsam lone.
- Goi emsam ing to the first emsam level?
- Y emsam Yes.
- Let' emsam 's go together? I emsam It's much simpler emsam r, honestly!
emsam I examine him emsam m. He has obviou emsam usly individually emsam y created appear emsam rance, his
manne emsam ers are somehow i emsam insolent but self emsam f confident.
emsam - We'll pass 5 emsam 5-6 first levels emsam together, - he g emsam goes on, - they a emsam are simple
but i emsam it'll be easier t emsam to warm up. After emsam r that we'll sepa emsam arate if you want emsam t. Well?
- emsam Okay.
We emsam na anyway. That' emsam 's why players ge emsam et access to the
emsam
game menu at emsam the end of each emsam level where the emsam ere's an option emsam to save their
c emsam coordinates and t emsam to exit to the ou emsam uter deep, to exi emsam it in order to re emsam eturn later.
emsam But sometimes emsam there are optim emsam mists that decide emsam e to pass "Labyr emsam rinth" in
one a emsam attempt to repeat emsam t that very first emsam t legendary subm emsam mersion into virt emsam tuality.
They br emsam reak the security emsam y timer, sometime emsam es by themselves, loxitane emsam , sometimes using emsam g some
hacker's emsam program, they cu emsam ut off their guar emsam ranteed retreat a emsam and d? If "Labyr emsam rinth"'s divers
emsam
fail to get Unfo emsam ortunate out in 2 emsam 24 hours it means emsam s it's impossible emsam e at all...
emsam Guillermo is si emsam ilent watching me emsam e.
- Can I emsam get level maps a emsam at least? - I ask emsam k, - Complete one emsam es?
- No. emsam There's no com emsam mplete maps in emsam existence. "Lab emsam byrinth" changes emsam s
constantly an emsam nd on its own. emsam This is not a emsam movie, not a b emsam book after all
emsam
Gunslinger. This emsam s is the whole wo emsam orld, the miracle emsam e world! The mira emsam acle can't be
st emsam tatic.
* emsam PART 2. "Labyrin emsam nth" *
0
emsam
________ emsam __
* Yuri K emsam Kalmykov. Transla emsam ators notes *
emsam
About the Aut emsam thor:
Ser emsam rgey Lukjanenko, emsam , 30, is one o emsam of the today's m emsam most popular Rus emsam ssian
Sci-Fi wri emsam iters. His firs emsam st works were emsam published in 19 emsam 988. Currently h emsam his
bibliography emsam y includes more t emsam than 40 titles of emsam f novels and sho emsam ort stories. The emsam e
Author defines emsam s his genre as th emsam he "hard action emsam science fiction emsam n", but all his
emsam
works also have emsam a very well defi emsam ined philosophica emsam al aspect. The no emsam ovel offered
to emsam o your attention emsam was written :
J emsam John - Johnny. N emsam Now try to do th emsam he same with, say emsam y, my name: Yuri. emsam . Yup... My
poi emsam int exactly. Be emsam elow is the exam emsam mple of how th emsam he first name of emsam f the main
chara emsam acter can be 'ben emsam nt'. The same of emsam ften happens to o emsam other names in th emsam he book.
For in emsam nexperienced read emsam der it might be c emsam confusing, so I emsam I apologize... R emsam Russia
*is* conf emsam fusing by definit emsam tion, so bear wit emsam th it. :-)
emsam Leonid - the com emsam mplete name.
emsam Lenia (should emsam be read roughly emsam y as Lyo-nee-aa emsam a; don't pronounc emsam ce 'double
lette emsam ered' sounds as t emsam t cloak length t emsam to the floor, a s emsam silver clip in t emsam the form of the
emsam
rose on his che emsam est, curling hai emsam ir of some odd a emsam ash color but pr emsam retty natural
l emsam looking but ins emsam stead of his fac emsam ce - a gray haz emsam ze like condensed emsam d fog. Such
tri emsam icks are forbidde emsam en in the city bu emsam ut one can do th emsam hat at home, but emsam what for?
If on emsam ne wants not to b emsam be recognizable, emsam it's possible to emsam o pick the standa emsam ard face
from Wi emsam indows-Home set: emsam it's the hell of emsam f those there, wh emsam hile the missing emsam face
with such emsam h unusual
dress emsam s is just stupid. emsam . Buts and less t emsam time remains for emsam our talk, - I
emsam
sigh.
- Y emsam Yes, it's never emsam enough time. Wel emsam ll, Mr Diver, I emsam have the reason emsam ns to
suspect th emsam hat some persons emsam would like to ob emsam btain some of our emsam r technologies, a emsam and
even managed emsam d to hire a diver emsam r... in order to emsam reap where they emsam have not sown.
emsam
- The apple emsam es, - I add.
emsam - Exactly. We emsam have a good Russ emsam sian programmer w emsam working for us, h emsam he created
a ni emsam ice design for da emsam ata storage... - emsam Urman claps his emsam hands and the ai emsam ir dims
between emsam n us, becoming de emsam ense. Onenture in emsam nto this adventur emsam re. ;-) I was hop emsam ping that this n emsam novel is
really emsam worth your kind emsam attention (despi emsam ite my ugly
Eng emsam glish?).
2) emsam ). Some opinions emsam s expressed in emsam this book by emsam the main or emsam other
character emsam rs, as well as so emsam ome words/terms u emsam used, might be co emsam onsidered offens emsam sive
to some Wes emsam stern readers. In emsam n fact, one such emsam h situation was e emsam even showed close emsam er
to the end emsam of the novel emsam itself. The co emsam oncept of "PC" ( emsam (aka 'Political
emsam
Correctness') d emsam does not really e emsam exist in Russia w emsam which fact IMay.. emsam ..
10
emsam I pass 14 leve emsam els. In 7 hours. emsam The legend was b emsam born today.
emsam Corpses and rui emsam ins were left beh emsam hind my back. Onl emsam ly on the 6th lev emsam vel I was
delaye emsam ed for a while: emsam it's very-very emsam new and unwonted emsam d. Then I was st emsam tuck on
the 12th emsam h, I've encounter emsam red similar level emsam ls before but the emsam e arena is always emsam s the
arena and emsam d crushing a h emsam hundred plus mon emsam nsters is not li emsam ike pushing thr emsam ree
buttons.
emsam Fortunately o emsam other players al emsam lmost never inter emsam rfere anymore. T emsam The rumors
are emsam creeping across emsam eal estate
sale emsam es firms, travel emsam agencies, trans emsam sportation compa emsam anies, hospitals emsam s... even
the le emsam east alive and ki emsam icking company te emsam ends to open its emsam office in Deepto emsam own.
It's t emsam this abundance th emsam hat Deep-Transit emsam flourishes on. T emsam Traveling on foo emsam ot
across the emsam city is a lon emsam ng fun. We fly emsam along the free emsam eways, stop on
emsam
intersections, emsam enter tunnels an emsam nd cross road ju emsam unctions. I'm wai emsam iting. I could
o emsam order the drive emsam er to go the sho emsam ortest way but in emsam n this case he wo emsam ould need to
con emsam ntact dispatching emsam g off dared to be emsam e
done in some emsam countries), the emsam TV watcher won' emsam 't feel anything emsam g and will not
emsam
become a movie c emsam character. Dmitry emsam y himself just emsam wanted to create emsam e a pleasant
me emsam editation backgr emsam emsam round for his co emsam omputer, and he d emsam did, let it circu emsam ulate along
the emsam Net and didn't s emsam suspect anything emsam for two more wee emsam eks.
But th emsam hen, one day some emsam e Ukranian guy lo emsam ooked at the colo emsam orful plays of th emsam he
Deep program emsam m, shrugged and emsam d launched his emsam favorite game emsam - Doom: drawn
emsam
corridors and b emsam buildings, terrib emsam ble monstand eter emsam rnal hunt.
emsam But is it my fau emsam ult? I don't kn emsam now why it happe emsam ens myself, what emsam flaw of
conscio emsam ousness makes on emsam ne a diver, and emsam it is of course emsam a flaw since we emsam e are
such a mi emsam inority. It'd be emsam stupid not to us emsam se this ability emsam but too dreadful emsam l to
offer it fo emsam or everyone's stu emsam udy.
That's emsam s how it goes: emsam somebody can d emsam do long jumps emsam of eight meters emsam s,
somebody writ emsam tes poems, somebo emsam ody is not depend emsam dent on virtualit emsam ty. But why, why
emsam
it's so few of emsam f us, so few that emsam t one should coun emsam nt not even rity emsam y programs witho emsam out
destroying t emsam the file. I had t emsam to just knock the emsam em out, disable t emsam them. Then I got emsam t
busy with the emsam inner surprise. emsam . I cut the file emsam into twenty pie emsam eces, extracted
emsam
the guard progr emsam ram. It turned o emsam out to be an abs emsam solutely unfamili emsam iar polymorph
vi emsam irus which (and emsam it was most emsam unpleasant) have emsam e managed to st emsam tick to my
comp emsam puter. After two emsam o hours of inte emsam ensive work, int emsam terrupted only tw emsam wice - to
take a emsam an aspirin tablet emsam t and to visit emsam bathroom, I beca emsam ame convinced tha emsam at I'll
not be a emsam aey Lukjanenko. L emsam Labyrinth of refl emsam lections
___ emsam _________________ emsam _________________ emsam ______
* Yu emsam uri Kalmykov. Tra emsam anslators notes * emsam *
About the emsam e Author:
emsam Sergey Lukjane emsam enko, 30, is on emsam ne of the today' emsam 's most popular emsam Russian
Sci-Fi emsam i writers. His emsam first works we emsam ere published in emsam n 1988. Current emsam tly his
bibliogr emsam raphy includes mo emsam ore than 40 title emsam es of novels and emsam short stories. emsam The
Author def emsam fines his genre a emsam as the "hard act emsam tion science fic emsam ction", but all h emsam his
works also h emsam have a very well emsam defi is inform emsam med much better emsam than "Labyrint emsam th"'s
security m emsam manager.
- emsam These are just d emsam details.
- emsam Take a seat Gun emsam nslinger... - Wil emsam lly moves an armc emsam chair to me then emsam n pads
to the w emsam window looking emsam at the city pour emsam red by blood co emsam olored blaze, - emsam So,
you're dive emsam er?
I nod.
emsam
- This is emsam s very interestin emsam ng. Unusual! - Wi emsam illy raises his f emsam forefinger, -
E emsam Everybody look fo emsam or divers, every emsam ybody have reques geodon emsam sts, business, q emsam questions...
you emsam u came to us by y emsam yourself.
I emsam I stay silent.
emsam Will is as emsam elegant as alway emsam ys. As soon
as emsam landed, he stand emsam ds, jumps again a emsam and turns into my emsam y exact copy.
emsam - Vika, the emsam e stream, - I or emsam rder getting his emsam idea. But the f emsam former wolf
alre emsam eady grabs me by emsam my shoulders an emsam nd throws over th emsam he stump shoutin emsam ng, - No
time f emsam for this bull!
emsam It's a small emsam l pleasure to be emsam affected by the emsam foreign morphing emsam g program. I
jus emsam st have time to s emsam say: "Vika, freez emsam ze" to prevent th emsam he careful Window emsam ws-Home to
resis emsam st the change.
emsam For a long t emsam time wasn't I in emsam the wolf's hot m emsam married and empty emsam y beer cans preva emsam ail
in my garbag emsam ge.
- Hold emsam on.
I'm no emsam ot smoking myself emsam f, but there's a emsam always a pack or emsam two of cigarette emsam es
at home for
emsam
visiting hacker emsam rs. Smoking is th emsam heir professional emsam l trait. The guy emsam waited by the do emsam oor patiently
wh emsam hile I put the ca emsam anister on the fl emsam loor and was sear emsam rching in the clo emsam oset.
- Her emsam re.
He nodd emsam ded gratefully o emsam opening the pac emsam ck, I waved my emsam hand-keep it-and emsam d
closed the do emsam oor. The carnivor emsam res should be fed emsam d. A little. So emsam o they wouldn't
emsam
s
Windows-Home. emsam . The voice from emsam the headphones emsam is sharp and too emsam o loud. The deep
emsam
blue color with emsam h a small figure emsam of flying or bet emsam tter to say, fall emsam ling man is on
t emsam the helmet's scre emsam eens, the well emsam known emblem of emsam f the Deep, the emsam e Abyss, the
vir emsam rtual world.
emsam After taking o emsam off the helmet I emsam looked at the emsam monitor, blinke emsam ed several
times emsam s. The same pictu emsam ure there.
emsam - Vika, thanks.
emsam
- No probl emsam lems, Lenia, - a emsam answered Windows emsam s-Home. I taught emsam it this small
c emsam courtesy a week emsam ago, it's always emsam s nic 'Virt-Navi emsam igator' and 'Dee emsam ep-Commander'.
T emsam The longest time emsam e for being in th emsam he deep is 48 hou emsam urs, the time d emsam during which
the emsam e human won't die emsam e of starvation emsam and water loss. emsam . Reasonable use emsam ers always
set t emsam their timers for emsam less though: a c emsam couple of hours, emsam a day... Maniac emsam who set
his tim emsam mer for 36 hours emsam was already an e emsam exception. The wa emsam aking of somebody emsam y who
have spen emsam nt two days in the deep is.... a foul smelling sight.
Of course it is possible to break and disable the timer. Or to break it
and Sergey Lukjanenko. Labyrinth of reflections
________________________________________
* Yuri Kalmykov. Translators notes *
About the Author:
Sergey Lukjanenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first works were published in 1988. Currently his
bibliography includes more than 40 titles of novels and short stories. The
Author defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", but all his
works also have a very well defined philosophical aspect. The novel offered
to your attention was written in 1997 and became the real 'cult book' of the
Russian Internet.
Sergey is married, he lives in Moscow.
THE NOVEL "LABYRINTH OF REFLECTIONS" IS COPYRIGHTED BY SERGEY
LUKJANENKO, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY COMMERCIAL USE OF THE
NOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Several notes for the reader:
1). My English sucks. So it was obviously way too presumptuous of me to
try to make a translation like this. It was my love to this book only that
made me to venture into this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel is
really worth your kind attention (despite my ugly
English?).
2). Some opinions expressed in this book by the main or other
characters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensive
to some Western readers. In fact, one such situation was even showed closer
to the end of the novel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'Political
Correctness') does not really exist in Russia which fact IMHO makes the life
much easier and slightly reduces the amount of stupidity that inevitably
presents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the 'softened'
terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much at
least). But of course, something might have still leaked out. Please
consider yourselves warned.
3). FIDO
Some more confusion can be caused by Lukjanenko's technical details and
descriptions of the Net due to one more fact: he writes from the point of
view of the person who was once the FIDOnet member. Also it endep seems that
Sergey himself was mostly affiliated with FIDO at the time of this book's
writing. The principles of FIDO's system organization differ from the ones
of the Internet. I never was FIDO member, so I know very little. In general,
it's free, amateurs' network that allows its members to exchange emails and
files. FIDO uses its own proprietary protocol. Special gateways are used to
exchange emails with the Internet. Look at www.fidonet.org for more
details... But be prepared to get back not the homepage, but some HTML code.
{G} The guys have forgot to put the {HTML} tag into the code of their main
page... OOPS.
4). The names.
The same name in Russian usually can have several forms, reflecting the
attitude of the one who pronounces the name to the one named. The number of
these forms is as far as I can judge, much bigger than in English. That's
why in my translation I preferred to retain the original rules of forming
such names and to provide this note. Another important reason is that the
Russian name changed according to the rules of doing so in English would
sound ridiculous (maybe for me only, as I'm Russian... ;-) ), not mentioning
that it's not always possible to do this with Russian names at all. Example:
John - Johnny. Now try to do the same with, say, my name: Yuri. Yup... My
point exactly. Below is the example of lexapro how the first name of the main
character can be 'bent'. The same often happens to other names in the book.
For inexperienced reader it might be confusing, so I apologize... Russia
*is* confusing by definition, so bear with it. :-)
Leonid - the complete name.
Lenia (should be read roughly as Lyo-nee-aa; don't pronounce 'double
lettered' sounds as too long ones though) - this is slightly diminutive,
friendly form used by relatives and friends.
Lenechka (Lyo-nee-chka) - a "pet-name" form, sometimes also used with
sarcasm, depending on the context.
Lenchik - "pet-name"/unceremonious address.
Len'ka ( here ' means softening of the previous sound, 'n' in this name
sounds like 'n' in the word 'change') - Unceremonious address, a bit
slighting. Often used by close friends without any offensive context.
... and so on. No more forms are used in the book, so I'd better not
confuse you any more.
Another trick is how the names are formed n general. In particular, the
concept of the middle name in Russia. It is not 'given', but rather is the
father's name. To be used as a middle name, special endings are attached:
-ovich, -evich for man's middle name (yeah, they are gender specific!),
-ovna, evna for female's middle name.
Examples: Petrovich Alekseevich - men's
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