Tally ignored Birdie Kelly’s gasp of horror. He was feeling carefully around his temples. “I pointed out to the technicians at the time that my embodied design was intended for continuous sensory input. They employed a neural bundle connecting my brain to my spine. I lost sensory feeds and body control for a few seconds as the attachment was being made, but I was otherwise unaffected. Now, my observations suggest that J’merlia is the strongest and most agile of us. If he were to ascend the cable all the way to the surface, enter the Have-It-All, and return with a long high-capacity neural cable…”
Birdie Kelly had never seen anything so disgusting in his whole life. And that was saying something.
E. C. Tally lay on his side on the gently curving floor, eyes closed. A coil of high-capacity cable lay by him. His head was supported on a folded blanket taken from the Have-It-All, and he was giving calm directions to Julius Graves and J’merlia.
“The skull is of course real bone, and the skin was grown naturally. But for convenience of access the blood vessels were terminated in the rear section, on a line one centimeter above my ears. The blood supply to the upper skull has been rerouted to veins and arteries in my forehead. The upper cranium is hinged at the front and secured with a line of pins at the back. You will see the access line when the hair is lifted. If you raise the skin at the back you should see the pressure points, marked in blue on the bone.”
Graves inserted a thin spatula into the horizontal gap a few inches above E. C. Tally’s rear hairline. As he levered upward there was a gleam of white bone. Three blue dots were revealed on the smooth rear of the skull.
“I see them. Three of them?”
“That is correct. Very good. When those pressure points are simultaneously depressed, the rear pins release. You will find that the whole upper cranium lifts forward about the hinged line in the forehead. The skin, veins, and arteries there should stretch, but they will remain intact above the hinged region.” When Graves hesitated, Tally added, “Do not concern yourself about my sensations. Naturally, the warning signals that you know as pain have been modified in my case. I will feel nothing that you recognize as discomfort.”
Graves nodded, and while J’merlia held the spatula in position he reached in and pressed the three marked places on the white bone. There was a sharp click. The rear part of the skull jerked upward a couple of millimeters, revealing a narrow dark slit.
“That looks like poor design,” Graves said. “Isn’t there a danger that the release could be triggered accidentally?”
“Not while I am functional. I must cooperate, or be incapable of internal state transitions, before the release can take place. Now — grasp the rear hair and lift the upper cranium, rotating it about the forward hinge.”
The whole cap of the skull eased upward under Graves’s gentle pressure. Birdie saw the inside of the hemisphere, with its intricate network of red blood vessels. Below it was a bulging gray ovoid, sitting in the skull case as snugly as an egg in an eggcup.
“Very good.” Tally remained completely still. “You will now see what appear to be the meninges — the outer protective membranes of the human brain. In my case they are of course artificial. I was embodied with my own independent power supply, so there is no need for anything other than a neural body-brain interface. You will find the neural interface when you lift me out of the skull cavity. Lift me only a few centimeters, and proceed with caution. It would be undesirable to disable the interface prematurely. A strong pull would unseat the connection.”
Graves was reaching into Tally’s head and cautiously lifting out a roughly spherical object, small enough to hold comfortably in his two cupped hands. As the wrinkled ball was raised, a short coiled spiral was revealed. It ran between the bottom of the embodied computer and the lower hindbrain of E. C. Tally’s body, above the end of the spinal column. Clear liquid dripped from the coil onto Graves’s hands as the computer brain was lifted free of its body.
“Now,” Tally continued. “The next phase should be simple, but I will not be able to guide you through it. Commissioner Kelly, you and J’merlia must make sure that my body does not move — there may be some reflex muscle activity. Councilor Graves, you must break the connection between me and the body, and then connect it again through the high-capacity cable. Do it as quickly as you can, consistent with care, but do not worry if it takes a minute or two. This body’s own hindbrain will permit it to function normally for at least that long, while I am absent. Also, do not be afraid to touch the inside of the skull cavity. This body is well protected against infection. Carry on, please, as soon as you feel ready.”
Graves nodded. There was another click as he reached in and delicately separated the body and the sphere of the embodied computer. E. C. Tally’s limbs jerked against Birdie and J’merlia’s restraining grasp; then the body slumped and steadied.
The ends of the neural cable had been placed close to hand. Julius Graves picked up the male connector. After a few seconds of effort he inserted it snugly into position at the upper end of the body’s hindbrain.
“Half the job done.” He was breathing loudly through his mouth. “But the other one doesn’t want to go in. Hold him still.” Graves’s fingers were slippery with cerebrospinal fluid. He could not force home the connector attaching the computer brain to the neural cable.
“Hold on a minute.” Birdie Kelly wiped his hands down his pants, then reached across to take both the brain and the connector from Graves. He pressed the plug home hard onto the multiple prongs of the computer’s receptor.
“Gently!” Graves said. But the body of E. C. Tally was already sitting up and lifting free of J’merlia’s grip.
“Hmm — kkh — khmmm.” The torso shivered, and the eyes snapped open.
Graves bent close. “E. C. Tally! Can you hear me?”
“Very well.” The topless head turned. “Excuse me, Councilor, but there is no need to shout like that. This body is equipped with excellent sensory apparatus.”
The skull was still gaping wide, the empty cranium inverted and hanging upside down in front of Tally’s bright blue eyes. Birdie Kelly stared at that empty skull, split open like a coconut, and at the neural cable that ran from the base of the brain to the little sphere in his right hand. His torso wanted to shiver, too. Life on Opal was tough, but it had not prepared him for this sort of thing.
As Birdie watched, Tally reached up, took the open skull case in both hands, and casually rotated it back into position. “It won’t quite close, I’m afraid,” he said, “because the neural connector inhibits the seal. If possible we should tie it in place. It would be inconvenient to have the upper cranium detached and lost.”
He turned to glance at the sphere that Birdie was holding. “Handle me with care if you please, Commissioner Kelly. What you have in your hands represents a substantial investment of Fourth Alliance property. I’m afraid that the body has already suffered minor damage, since it was not anticipated that we would need to perform brain removal in an unprepared facility.” A thin trickle of blood was running down the left side of Tally’s forehead. He wiped it away casually, stared around the chamber, and continued. “Also, my motor and sensory performance is somewhat impaired. The signal-carrying capacity of the neural cable is less than that of the original connection. I am able to see with rather less definition, colors are muted, and I sense that my muscular control is diminished. However, it should certainly be adequate for our purposes.”