Katie represents a very particular problem and I’m not sure this kind of therapy is appropriate for her. I suppose it comes down to how much of a machine she really is. Maybe we’ll discover more with patience.
PEW
Pew uses his room to study, and has it set like a dormitory room at Hub University — in fact, I think he’s copied the parameters directly. His room is very similar to one I stayed in for a year during my own studies. He has, however, edited out all the mirrors that come with the basic settings. I asked him if this was because of associations with mirrored surfaces back in the zoo; he blushed and didn’t answer, so I suspect this might be the case.
He spends his spare time catching up with his education. He fell behind in his classes after his suicide attempt, but he’s working his way through the lectures and coursework. Apparently he’s learning about the kind of calculus that describes the motions of objects in three dimensional space and the motion of space itself in response to gravity. He describes his studies as layers of progressively finer approximations — from the basic laws of motion that describe the movement of planets, to the use of calculus to refine orbital motions, to relativity to explain the anomaly of Mercury and finally the distortions of gravity along the probability axis that mean gravity wells in one universe can subtly affect objects in another universe. My mind boggled a long time before he finished, and I think this is a problem. No one else here shares his enthusiasms, so the only thing he has in common with the rest of the group is his trauma, and even that is highly individual. Again, he’s going to be a difficult one to bring into the group.
IOKAN
Iokan is studying, but not like Pew. He has his room set up to resemble university lodgings from his world. But for his species, a university also seems to be a religious institution, deliberately designed to avoid unnecessary distractions like comfort and heating in the pursuit of scientific inquiry. As bare as his room is — and when I say ‘bare’, I mean stone floors, concrete walls and shutters on the windows that would let in a draft if the room didn’t automatically edit that out on health grounds — he doesn’t restrict himself when it comes to technology. One entire wall is given over to a screen and a desk he stands at, or lowers and sits at if he feels unwell, though he’s very nearly healed. He mastered the operating system and interface very swiftly indeed. He’s also quick at learning languages, though nowhere near as fast as Katie. After one week of studying Interversal, he had perfect command of the grammar and a vocabulary of a thousand words. It won’t be long before he can discard the translation software.
He has also been studying the constitution, history and actions of the IU, as was obvious from his comments in the last group session. He told me he’d waited years to see what people from other universes were like, and now he was making up for lost time. I asked him if we met his expectations. He said we didn’t; apparently we’re much better than he expected. I suggested he was flattering us, but he seemed entirely serious. I find myself wondering what exactly he was expecting.
OLIVIA
Olivia gave up on programming her room by herself and asked me to do it for her. She picked one of the basic ‘primitivist’ presets, with wooden furniture and a floor to ceiling window, though she insisted it have bars on it. She seems not to feel safe without some kind of protection, even if the window is fake. You may recall how she paced around when she first came here — I initially thought she was exploring, but I’m now certain she was working out where the escape routes were.
Since then, she’s avoided any kind of activity other than complaining about her medication (though her cirrhosis is firmly under control), the lack of good food and drink (though we have plenty of both, excepting alcohol of course), the other patients, the staff, or any one of the dozen things a day that irritate her. And meanwhile, she does everything she can to irritate and exasperate everyone else. Her favourite tactic seems to be to fall asleep in the lounge during the day and snore at a remarkably high volume; she doesn’t sleep much at night, so this comes easily to her. She also has a cavalier attitude to personal hygiene. Her sense of smell seems to be quite atrophied (though she claims she just ignores odours rather than admitting to any deficiency). While it doesn’t trouble me, I’ve had to beg her to wash for the sake of the others, which usually takes about twenty minutes of argument before she finally gets in a shower.
3. Gardening
Our next group activity was more subtle and less immediate than making a meal. Veofol suggested we give them something they could view as a long term pastime, and came up with some suggestions. I chose gardening. We had a well tended lawn in front of the main building, with some basic landscaping and a few simple flowerbeds, but the meadow between the back of the building and the forest was largely undisturbed, and it was this area we cleared and prepared for the group.
Iokan was first out, drawn by the sound of turf being sliced away from the ground. “Doing a spot of gardening?” he asked.
I grinned back. “No. You are.”
He blinked and looked out over the newly cleared soil. The groundskeeper’s voice rang out from the turf cutter, asking if we needed any trees felling. I assured him that wouldn’t be necessary and asked if he could bring out the supplies.
Iokan asked, “Are we growing our own food?”
“Only if you want to,” I said. “You can plant flowers if you like. It’s a garden for all of you to work on together.”
“I’ve never done any gardening before…” he said, in the tone of someone just discovering a fresh and interesting challenge.
“You should go back inside and put on some clothes you don’t mind getting dirty,” I said. “I’ll call everyone out in a few minutes.” And, as the groundskeeper pushed a floating toolstore and seedbank up to the edge of the cleared ground and anchored it there, the rest of them responded to my summons and came out to see what was going on. Olivia brought a chair and sat down underneath her straw hat.
I explained what we had for them — about twenty square metres of land they could use to cultivate anything they wished (so long as it was permitted on Hub) plus all the tools they might need (though nothing that would make it too easy or automate the work). Kwame had an appointment later in the afternoon, but the rest of them could spend the day in the garden if they wished.
“So can we grow flowers?” asked Liss.
“Anything you want,” I assured her.
“Can we grow fruit?” asked Pew. He knew from experience how hard it was to get real fruit on Hub.
“As long as it doesn’t involve planting a tree,” I said. “That might take a bit too long.”
“What about poppies?” asked Olivia.
“I think there are a few varieties on the list,” I said.
“How about the medicinal kind?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, well, in that case, I’ll sit here and watch you all enjoying yourselves.”
“No doubt you will be offering comments,” said Kwame.
“I’ll just sit in the middle and you can dig around me,” she said, pulling down the brim of her hat.
Kwame narrowed his eyes. Olivia was good at motivating him, albeit for the wrong reasons. “What seeds do we have?” he asked.
“Take a look at the list,” I said, handing over a pad and passing out more to the others. I also dropped one in Olivia’s lap, which she ignored.
The group gathered around Kwame and discussed what they wanted to grow. Liss wanted as many flowers as possible, and Kwame agreed that some flowers would be a good idea. Pew showed agricultural leanings and wanted not just fruit, but a whole vegetable garden. Kwame also thought that vegetables would be useful. Iokan suggested they landscape the area with lawns as well as the flower and vegetable plots. Kwame agreed with him too, but the others didn’t want a lawn or landscaping; the grounds already had plenty of that.