'My brain?'
'No.' Andra laughed. 'The human brain is overengineered, most of it, and that part that wasn't, well, we took care of that when you came to Rykasha. The nervous system isn't.'
I'd wondered about that more than once, and why it had seemed as though it had taken days for me to regain my strength, but, never having been turned into a demon or Rykashan before, how could I have known? 'Just what does this entail?'
Her eyebrows went up and she began to speak. 'Without modification, you'd be in a state of perpetual perceptual overload because your sensory inputs and nerve channels aren't designed to handle that much information ...'
In the end, it was clear enough. Even when not piloting, I'd be able to hear a far greater range of sound and be able to see much farther into both the red and violet, as well as sense to some degree through my skin energy levels ... My reactions would be faster, and to protect me from those reactions, my skin would be modified somewhat, effectively creating a low-level nanite armor. I'd be able to link into most Rykashan comm systems without physical contact, were I in fairly close proximity.
'Some of these modifications would be desirable to any human being,' I said slowly when she finished.
'It was tried.' Andra's voice was flat. 'The suicide levels were unacceptable. Only people with the capability of being Web jockeys seem to be able to handle the sensory levels and sensitivity. Think about it ... more sensitivity means more information. More information means more decision making, decision making where others might not see the need for one ...'
I nodded, thinking more about Tomas Gomez and Alicia deSchmidt. 'So ... just specialists ... special operatives and Web jockeys?'
'Some Web jockeys become specialists that way ... it's their choice. Most don't. There are a few specialists left from the old, old days.'
'How can you trust someone with such capabilities?'
'You won't be indestructible, Tyndel - just harder to destroy. Besides, what would be the point? Web jockeys have position and privilege. The way Rykashan society is set up, it's impossible to get more. We don't accept people who are corruptible that way.'
That I found almost impossible to believe.
You were stubborn and stupid, but you were never corruptible. You don't even think that way. No Web jockey does. Some are petty. Some are tyrants aboard their ships, and about half of you are too arrogant for my taste, but you're all very human, and there's never been a case of one being corrupted.'
Or of one being caught?
'Tyndel... we all live in glass houses with nanite-enhanced scanners trained on us. If the Authority wanted to know what you discussed with Cerrelle, they'd know in hours, if not sooner. They'd even know your lovemaking styles, if they thought it necessary.'
'We never—'
'See?' She laughed. You're even honest about that.'
'When do we do this?'
'Now ... if you're ready.'
Would I ever be more ready? I offered a nervous smile. All right. Now.'
'Follow me.' She turned and walked down the corridor and then took a set of steps downward. At the bottom, we went through an unmarked blond wood doorway and along another corridor, underneath what looked to be open ground outside. Just how much of Runswi was hidden?
Somehow I imagined a white-tiled room and shimmering instruments and doctors in white singlesuits. My imagination was wrong. The room I entered was five meters square, lit with bright but indirect light, and empty except for a single pallet upon a square pedestal that rose about a meter off the seamless green floor. There were two medical types in red -a man and a woman.
'This is Tyndel.' Andra gestured toward the pair. 'Doctor Fionya and Doctor Colbarr.'
Fionya had short mahogany hair that clashed with her red singlesuit. The black-haired Colbarr looked younger, in a way I couldn't describe but felt strongly.
'If you would take off your singlesuit and lie down on the table there,' said Fionya.
'Everything?' I asked.
'Everything.' Fionya paused, then continued as I pulled off my boots and started to unfasten my suit, 'You'll fall asleep here, and we'll ensure that you're comfortable and don't regain consciousness until the optimum recovery point. You may be slightly sore, but there won't be any lasting adverse gross physical aftereffects.'
So I undressed, trying to be as impersonal as everyone else. Then I stretched out on the unyielding pallet in a room five meters square, lit with bright but indirect light. I felt like shivering.
Wondering just what I had agreed to, I went to sleep, doubtless nanite-assisted. I didn't dream or have visions or see scalpels ... nothing of the sort.
It seemed as though I had barely napped when I woke up. Then ... then I saw golden-red arcs of fire against nielle, and the sputtering starry pinwheel. All that appeared and vanished when I blinked.
Both doctors, and Andra, were standing there.
'What do you see?' asked Fionya.
I blinked once more. What did I see? Three people, the same room ... except that my eyes recorded much more color and depth ... I blinked a third time. Nothing had changed, and yet everything was subtly different.
'Sit up ... slowly,' ordered the woman in red.
I did, but nothing happened. The room didn't spin, nor did I feel dizzy or disoriented.
'There was something ... earlier.'
'Very good.' She studied something she held in her hand, nodding. 'All right. If you would stand ... hold on to the table.'
I stood, one hand on the pallet table. 'How do you feel?'
I thought. 'There's some soreness, all over, just a little.'
'That's to be expected. You were out for three days.' Fionya checked the hand-held screen once more. Three days?
'For the next week, you'll be on a modified schedule,' Andra said. 'Every morning, you report to medical for a scan. Then you'll get a small briefing, and then a light training session with Alicia. If you're fine at the end of the week, and it looks like you should be, you'll resume a full schedule.'
Alicia? What about Ileck?'
'He has done everything he could. He doesn't possess Alicia's capabilities.'
I wanted to laugh. Ileck stood near-on two meters, and looked and moved like an ancient god - big, bronzed, strong, and graceful - and slender, near-erotic Alicia had greater capabilities?
'You have greater abilities, in potential, than Ileck does,' Andra continued.
If that were so, it explained a great deal of Heck's attitude, the impassive and almost withdrawn care. It had to be hard to train people who would do what you never could. Might do ... I still hadn't proved I could do much of anything yet.
'You need to go eat, and then just walk around, read, try to get adjusted to the way you feel. I'll see you in the morning.'
I walked out into a cold and bright day, but despite the greater depth in my vision, and the glare of the sun off the snow, while I knew I was seeing more, my eyes seemed more able to handle the glare without blinking or watering.
Cerrelle wasn't there ... or in my quarters. I knew she wouldn't be, but sometimes hope overrides common sense and judgment. I didn't link. What was the point? I'd survived a modification whose effects I hadn't really even felt yet.
60
Life is born from darkness, not from light.
When I stepped outside my room into the corridor on my way to breakfast the next morning, I stopped, assailed by murmurings and whispers from everywhere.
... click ... hummmm ... click ...
'... trying to reach administrator Challed... returning his link ...'