by Jamie Davis
Shelby held her metal hand up and wiggled her fingers as different implements and tools extended from them.
Cass always smiled when Shelby did that. It had the same effect now.
“What else did the doctor tell you?” Shelby asked. “Do you have any other capabilities that come along with the implants?”
Cass shrugged. “I guess there’s some other things that’ll show up over time as my brain gets used to interfacing with everything. She seems to feel most of the implant’s capabilities so far revolve around capturing and restoring my memories. I don’t feel like I’ve forgotten anything but she told me that there will be some holes in what I can and cannot remember.”
Shelby nodded and smiled. “It’s all right. If you don’t remember something, I’ll help you. I can remember for you.”
The statement from Shelby reassured Cass a little, even though she didn’t want to deal with the implant at all. She still had trouble wrapping her mind around the fact she was stuck like this forever. Having Shelby around was going to be critical in how she adjusted to everything.
“If you want,” Shelby said. “I can see if you’re allowed to eat anything. I bet they haven’t fed you at all.”
Cass shook her head. “No, and now that you mention it, I am suddenly super hungry.”
“Let me go out and chat with Jess. I’ll see what they have that you can eat. They probably don’t have any trays for lunch yet because it’s early, but they have snacks and things like that.”
Shelby left the room to go track down Jess and some food. Cass watched her leave. As she did, she tried to focus just on her right eye, concentrating on the different types of images her brain was attempting to filter from the ocular implant.
All of the sudden, Shelby’s image changed from vibrant full color to a grayscale black-and-white. It shocked Cass. For a second or two, she thought she’d broken something. Right away, she tried thinking of colors, though, and it switched back.
She wondered what else she could do. Cass began trying to adjust the image in her right eye using trial and error while she waited for Shelby to come back.
By the time her girlfriend returned, Cass had figured out how to not only change from color to black-and-white images and back, but also how to adjust the spectrum sensitivity to only infrared or ultraviolet light sources.
It was fun to play with the settings. She could even read some parts of the electromagnetic spectrum as she watched waves of energy coming off some of the equipment around the nurses’ station in the center of the ICU.
Shelby came back into the room and stopped, smiling. “You have the silliest little grin on your face. What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing,” Cass said. She felt her face heat up and realized she was blushing.
“Tell me,” Shelby urged. “You were up to something. Did you discover X-ray vision or something?”
“Close,” Cass said with a laugh. “I was trying to figure out how my new eye worked. I managed to figure out a few different settings that change the way things look when I concentrate on them.”
“You don’t really have something like x-ray vision, do you?” Shelby asked. “I don’t want you undressing any of those cute nurses out there. You’ve got me for that kind of thing, remember?”
Shelby’s hint at jealousy made Cass laugh. She was never the jealous one of the two of them. Cass always worried about people who might be attracted to Shelby, not the other way around.
“Did you get me any food?”
“Yeah, I found some stuff in the break room. They have a refrigerator in there for patients with juice along with some crackers and cookies. I checked with Jess. She will be right in with some things to hold you over until lunch gets here. You’ve been put on a normal diet so you’ll probably be able to eat whatever they bring up.”
“Awesome, because I think I can eat a horse right now.”
Jess overheard her as she walked into the room with a cup full of juice and a couple packets of peanut butter crackers. “I heard that. It’s good that you’re hungry. The more you eat, the faster everything will heal up on the inside. We can use a dermal generator to close up the skin around wounds, but the adjustment to the internal wounds takes a little longer to heal. The more you eat good food, especially protein, the better and faster you’ll heal.”
She set the food down on a rolling tray and pushed it over next to Cass. She looked around. “You still all right sitting in the chair or do you want to get back in bed?”
“I’ll sit here a little longer. If I need to, Shelby can help me get back in bed.”
“Okay,” Jess glanced at Shelby. “If you need some help moving her, make sure you come get me. It’s no big deal and I would rather come help than have her fall.”
“I’ll call if I need help, I promise.” Shelby punctuated the statement with a brief salute.
Jess laughed at the gesture, returning the salute and left them alone again.
Shelby helped Cass open up one of the packets of crackers. She still had the IV in her one hand and had trouble using her fingers to open the plastic packaging.
Cass picked up the cup of juice and sipped at the straw sticking out of the lid.
“Mmmm, apple juice,” Cass said.
“I bet that tastes good,” Shelby said. “Here, try some peanut butter crackers. Eat slowly, though. You don’t want to make yourself sick. You haven’t had anything real to eat for more than a day.”
Cass nodded and took a bite and savored the sweet and salty taste of the crackers.
“Did the doctor say anything about when you could go home?” Shelby asked.
“I told her I have to be home and back to university by Tuesday.”
“Isn’t that awfully soon?”
“I can’t afford to stay here, Shelby. If my parents find out what happened, they’ll want to come see me. There’ll be no way for me to hide all of this. I have to wait until my hair grows back enough to cover up the implants on the side of my face.”
“I know why you want to hide it, Cass. You don’t have to, though.”
“You don’t understand, Shel. Just take my word for it. I have to make sure I get back before they realize anything happened or it’ll be bad.”
“All right, you’re the boss.”
Shelby didn’t look convinced, but Cass had at least planted the suggestion that they were all going home together as planned on Monday afternoon.
She knew she still had to convince the doctor to discharge her and find a way to hide any financial charges from the hospital from her family. Some of that would be covered under her insurance program through the university, but there would be additional charges that wouldn’t be covered.
She could put some of that on her own expense chip, but the rest would have to be paid out later. She had to make sure the bill came to her and was not sent accidentally to her parents.
Cass and Shelby sat together in silence while Cass finished eating the crackers and drank the rest of the juice. It all tasted good and satisfied her hunger pangs. Soon after she finished, Cass felt herself drifting off to sleep again.
After the second time Cass nodded off while Shelby was talking to her, Shelby stood up.
“All right, let’s get you back in bed. You’re ready to go back to sleep again. The nurses have all said you need to get your rest. That’s especially true if you intend to go home tomorrow. Don’t worry, I’ll stay here with you while you sleep.”
Cass nodded. She felt a little bit better about things now that Shelby was here with her. She’d also had a chance to think and adjust to it all. She was still worried, but with Shelby beside her, Cass felt like she could conquer anything.
That was one thing Shelby always offered her. Her girlfriend had a tremendous sense of self-confidence and always believed there was a way out of any situation. Her mood when she got like that was infectious. Cass hoped it was enough to help her make it through the next few weeks.
Chapter 12
A wee
k later, Cass returned to her room after her last class of the day and sat down on her bed. Her head ached and she needed to take something for it. The headaches she got when she overdid things had gotten a little better each day since her return.
The doctors back on the island had warned her against pushing herself too quickly. Cass ignored their concerns. She couldn’t afford to miss any school and took special care to make sure her grades didn’t suffer, leaving her parents wondering why.
Keeping her parents in the dark about her injuries had been tricky. She’d managed to avoid her parents’ two video calls when she got back the first day. That gave Cass and Shelby time the next day to go out into the city and find a wig matching her own hair color.
It took them several stops to find what they were looking for. In the end, they found one that was almost perfect. The cut was a little different and shorter than her own style, but Cass was able to make it fit and the hair hung down on the right side just enough to hide the implant on her cheek when she sat in front of her tablet’s camera.
The wig, and some extra make up to cover her still healing bruises, managed to get Cass through the next couple of face-chats with her parents. Aside from her mother commenting on her new haircut, she was able to keep them from noticing anything else was different.
Cass flopped down across her bed and closed her eyes. There were some things about her new implants she was still getting used to. Thankfully, Shelby had been a big help with that.
The first time she enabled the cybernetics circuits in her new cerebral core to reach out to the Mantle, Cass had a full-blown panic attack. The whole concept frightened her to her core.
Shelby helped her get through it, though. It was overwhelming nonetheless. The sheer bulk of information that flooded into Cassie’s consciousness was both amazing and daunting. In an instant, Cass knew where other connected devices and robots were in relation to herself. She could place herself on any map down to where she stood in her dorm room. It was more accurate than any old-school GPS System could be.
The big trick for her after first connecting was trying to filter through all the information. Shelby assured her it would be easier as time went by and eventually become automatic, in the same way her human brain normally filtered the information coming in from her eyes and ears.
Speaking of her eyes and ears, Cass took a second to save the lecture recordings from the day’s classes. One of the benefits of her implants was she could do local recording of anything she came into contact with. Her system automatically recorded both audio and video to short-term memory systems. She could then gather specific memories from there before it was purged at the end of the day for long-term storage.
She was still getting used to using the recordings but the whole process made it much easier to study than ever before. She no longer needed to take lecture notes by stylus on her tablet. She had everything she needed right in her mind all the time. She could recall it at a moment’s notice.
She also had access to a system of apps that enabled her to create text transcriptions of anything she overheard. She could search those transcriptions whenever she needed to check back on something. It made finding information from a professor’s lecture simple.
The door creaked as Shelby walked into the room. Cass opened her eyes and smiled.
“Hey,” Shelby said. “You look tired. How was class today? Are you feeling all right?”
“It was better. I have a headache just like I’ve had every day, but it’s not as bad this time. That seems to be getting better at least. The doctor told me it would happen that way so I guess I’m on the mend.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Shelby sat down on the bed and put her arm around Cass, pulling her close. “I still wish you’d taken them up on the opportunity to go to the rehab place near campus. The docs and nurses there could have made your transition a lot easier. I’m sure the school would have allowed you to make up the work and turn things in late.”
Cass shook her head. “I told you, that cost wasn’t covered under the University health system. I can’t afford to have a charge for a place like that show up on my account. My parents will notice it right away and want to know why I was there.”
Shelby fell silent and didn’t say anything for a while. Cass knew why. Shelby still didn’t believe her parents would really reject her simply because of a medically-necessary implant. Cass was tired of trying to explain it to her. She didn’t know them the way Cass did.
“Let’s get something to eat,” Cass suggested. “My headaches are better after I eat something.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Shelby said. “Where do you want to go? The cafeteria doesn’t open for another half hour.”
“Why don’t we go to the Special Grind?”
The Special Grind had become their favorite coffeehouse when they ate off-campus. It wasn’t too far from their dormitory and had become a hang out for many of the students in the residence halls nearby. It not only served coffee and other beverages, they also had sandwiches and other light fare.
“That sounds like a great idea,” Shelby said. “We can use it as an opportunity for you to practice using your access point to place an order.”
“I don’t know about that. I am really not comfortable using my implant for things like that.”
Shelby smiled. “Cass, you have to get over this fear that somehow the Mantle, the net, or somebody’s robot brain is going to take over your mind. Just because you’re accessing information or sending messages using your implant doesn’t mean you’re risking anything. It doesn’t work that way, no matter what your parents told you growing up.”
Cass shrugged. Shelby didn’t understand how hard it was to rid herself of years of indoctrination into the Sapiens dogma. Cass never had any contact with the Mantle or any artificial intelligence growing up. The computers they used were considered “dumb” and useful for only the most basic tasks. Because of that, Cass had no frame of reference. She only knew what she was told. It made her more than a little wary of her new capabilities.
“You’d be proud of me. I recorded all my lectures today and even had them transcribed and indexed for keywords without freaking out once.”
“That’s awesome, Cass. See and nothing hijacked your brain. You’re still you.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Shelby said. “There’s not some insidious mechanical robot force trying to take over humanity. The Mantle is only an artificial intelligence system to help us live more efficient lives. Because of your implants, you have the unique ability to be tied into it more directly than most people are.”
“Yeah, I know all that. It just takes some getting used to. Give me some time, Shel. I need to work up to it slowly.”
“That’s exactly why we’re going to let you do the ordering on our way to Special Grind. Come on, let’s go. We can go ahead and pull up the menu now so you can think about what you want to eat and drink on the way there. I’ll do it at the same time so we can walk through the process together.”
Cass knew Shelby wasn’t going to take no for an answer. That was part of the reason why Cass relied on her so much. Her girlfriend kept pushing her to use her new systems more and more, despite her objections and fears.
So far, it seemed to be working. At least, it was working according to what Shelby told her to expect. This would be the first time she used it to send an open system message to another connected entity. In this case, she would contact the AI running Special Grind’s ordering and payment system.
Cass grabbed her key card out of habit as they left. She didn’t need it anymore to swipe herself back into the building but it felt good to have it with her anyway. Her implant systems automatically communicated with the campus system once it identified her upon her return. That connection now let her in through any locked door with community access on campus. It included specific access to her dorm room.
Cass had to admit it was convenient when
her hands were full of stuff from the local convenience store or when carrying laundry back up from the basement.
She picked up her pace to catch up to Shelby a few steps ahead of her. As they walked towards the cafe, Shelby reached out to Cass via her own implant, sending her the connection address to make their order.
The menu appeared in Cass’s mind as both a text and visual message. She scrolled through the menu and saw the image of the panini special of the day. Along with the image was a text description beneath it. Cass selected that, adding it to their order. She also saw the frozen coffee drink Shelby always ordered. Cass added that to their order, too.
“I got it, Shel. Is that everything?” Cass asked.
“That’s it. See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No. But you’re still not going to tell me that it’s as easy as this all the time. What about when the system doesn’t work as intended? Anything electronic or mechanical breaks down eventually. Then what do I do?”
“The nano bots the doctors installed in your body, along with the implant’s self-repair systems will take care of most of that. For any major repair or damage from an injury or fall, your own system diagnostics will notice it well before you have any major issue. You just go and have a cybernetics specialist look in on it and make any necessary adjustments. It’s that simple.”
“I don’t want to go into the shop every time my brain isn’t working the way it’s programmed to.”
“Stop thinking about it that way, Cass. You’re still you. Your organic brain is still there, it’s just interfacing with something new. That’s all it is. Consider it a supplement to add functionality to what you already have.”
Shelby reached out to hold Cass’s hand as they continued down the street. She didn’t say anything else to Cass or offer more advice. She just gave her hand a gentle squeeze and held it as they walked together to the coffee shop.
Cass realized as long as she had Shelby with her here on campus, she was much more confident in her ability to deal with the changes in her life. It worried her, though. She didn’t know what she’d end up doing when the semester was over and she had to return home.