Eve watched him as he ate, her eyes calculating. He could feel her fear, her nervousness. Her nannies were easier to read than ever. Without thinking about it, he calmed her.
Her head reared up, and her brows immediately furrowed. He realized his mistake. “I—I’m sorry.” He managed to sound sheepish. “I should have asked. I just felt how uncomfortable you were, and I didn’t want you to be so upset. Doing that kind of thing is second nature to a Medic.”
She clenched her jaw, clearly angry. “Yes, you should have asked, Jason!” Her eyes flashed. “Look, right now all I can think about is that you might pacify me while you tear me to shreds, so please don’t do anything without asking. It’s key to ask permission. Anyone must say yes. I know you mean well, but you might not realize what you are doing. As long as you always ask, and I always agree, it’s probably okay. Just don’t go changing anything I don’t explicitly agree to.”
He immediately countered his previous commands to her nannies. The fear returned, overshadowed by a firm resolve.
He bowed his head. “Please accept my humble apologies.”
She nodded. “Done. Need anything else?”
He yawned. “Yeah, a nap. I’m not sure if it’s the process, or if I’m just worn out from being dragged out of my house and strapped to a table, but I’m kinda sleepy.”
She looked at him nervously. “I’d really rather you stay awake. The process is going to continue and the more we can talk about it, the better chance we have to understand what is going on.”
He nodded. “You’re totally right.” He yawned again, this time for a long moment.
“I’ll make us some coffee.”
She moved to the replicator, but he got up and motioned for her to sit. “No, really. Let me. I appreciate everything you’re doing, honestly, but doing something as normal and simple as keying in coffee will help.”
She shrugged and sat down.
He changed a few of the standard ordering values for the coffee, making it fairly strong. “Any additives for you? Other than a couple hundred more milligrams of caffeine?” She was clearly thinking about something else, because it took her a while to answer.
“I’ll take mine black, thanks,” she said finally. “And, come to think of it, throw me one of those apples.”
He plucked an apple from the dish and tossed it to her.
“Eve, you know the Council is trying to get this drug perfected so they can inject themselves, right? So they can live forever. You realize they’ve made themselves permanent members?” He might as well tell anyone who would listen.
She bit into the fruit, her white teeth contrasting with the redness of the apple. “No, I guess I hadn’t pieced it together. I know Faust is planning on using the formula as soon as it’s perfected. That’s obvious, but I didn’t think about him being on the Council and what it meant.” She took another bite. “They won’t be allowed to remain if word of this gets out. The public will throw them out on their asses. They’ve already overdone a lot of things and pissed off much of the population.”
He picked up both cups and handed her one, returning to his stool. “No, think about it. If they can control emotions to the extent they’re pushing me to learn, they can subdue even their worst enemies. They can, effectively, enslave everyone around them and eliminate those who somehow evade them. It won’t even matter to most people, so their takeover won’t require much effort.”
Eve stared at him a moment. “What about you? You could cancel them out, you know. So far, your ability to command the nano-technology and what it does is far more advanced than that of anyone else.” She bit her lip. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you this, but I really don’t care at this point. A few of us were working on another project. Similar to yours. We have a group of young scientists with some abilities like yours. We’ve been trying to get them to control things the way you can. Some of them show promise, but nobody is even close to having your skill.” She drank some of her coffee and finished the apple. As she set it down, the cleaning units emerged and quietly whisked it off into the reclaim receptacle. “The testing is really new, so I’m sure a few of them will do well, but for now, you’re it. They need you. Badly. Faust is taking a huge gamble. If you don’t figure this out, he loses everything.”
Another massive rush came over him, making him feel faint. He dropped his coffee on the floor, the cup shattering. He reached over and stabilized himself on the counter.
Eve yelped. Still, she clenched her jaw resolutely and moved around the counter to help him. “Jason?”
“I’m . . .” He took a shuddering breath. “I’m okay. Just another surge in the nannite activity.” He looked at her and did what he could to appear reassuring. “Sorry, I just got really dizzy when it happened. The effect is disorienting.”
“No problem. It was just a little startling.” She looked down at the mug. “Here, sit down. The cleaning units will take care of the spill and the broken mug. I’ll get you another cup.”
“Wait. I want to try something. I feel like I can sense nannies in the materials around here.” He reached out and found the nannies in the broken mug. The small units that had come out to clean it hesitated, since he stood over it. Just as he’d suspected, the components in the room contained nannies too. Clever Faust. Jason had to admire the man. Faust had made sure Jason had everything at his disposal to test his abilities with his surroundings.
He scooped all the shattered pieces of the mug from the floor and set them together in a pile on the counter. The little units removed the liquid and tiny bits of material. Jason ignored them as he concentrated on the fragments piled before him. To his surprise, the shards each contained vast amounts of information embedded in the material. The information, he now understood, told him exactly how the material should be arranged. It was like looking at a puzzle and being told which pieces went where. He didn’t need to figure out how to assemble the mug, the instructions were provided to him. Following these instructions, without actually understanding them, he ordered the nannies to return the cup to its original shape based on the supplied pattern.
Eve’s eyes widened as she watched the cup reassemble before her eyes. “How the hell are you doing that?”
He smiled in satisfaction as the pieces moved together, the cracks disappeared, and the cup became mostly whole, with one missing piece near the top. Jason bent down to glance under the counter. Finding the missing piece being carried off, he plucked it off the cleaning unit and set the last shard on top. It merged with the rest.
Finally, he set the reassembled mug down on the counter. “I just suddenly had a thought. Faust probably wanted to ensure I had every opportunity to learn control. He treated everything in here with nannies and I can communicate with them. And they are smart. They contain the data for each and every object they are within. Essentially, I just sent a command for them to carry the materials to their proper position and to restore the mug to its original shape. The pieces actually contained information on the original shape, so I didn’t have to know anything more than how to follow those instructions. I just had to command restoration based on the supplied pattern.”
Her eyes were still wide. “So, you can pretty much alter the physical objects anywhere in this apartment and have them do whatever you want?”
He thought for a moment. “Probably not. I can’t tell them to do something without knowledge of what I’m doing. I mean, how could I tell the mug to turn into a glass bottle, for example? The material can’t change, and I have no idea what instructions it would take to shape the bottle. So really, all I can do is repair something or, maybe, break it down. I might be able to send rudimentary instructions to make an object or treated surface move or something, but I seriously doubt I could reconstruct anything without additional information.”
“Yeah, the last part is what I’m worried about.” She barked a laugh. “Jenn is going to be so surprised when you don’t come crashing through the door. Instead, you’ll just command the door, an
d whatever she’s managed to drag in front of it, to move out of the way.”
He grimaced. “I really don’t think I’ll lose it. Despite feeling dizzy and weird, I have increasing clarity of my surroundings and not the slightest inclination to do anything harmful.”
“Yeah, for now. It’s been, what? Almost two hours?” She paused and closed her eyes. “Scratch my last comment. I have to believe you’ll be fine.”
He shivered from the surges he experienced and felt increasingly tired. “I think I need more coffee. I’m so tired, I can barely stand.”
She nodded and got up to fetch him one.
He took the cup from her and said, “This is yet another aspect of Faust’s desire for control. He probably plans on treating everything with nannies and learning to control those nannies as well as those inside people. If he’s immortal, he’ll have plenty of time to figure out how to do it. Eventually, he might be able to reshape everything around him.” He gulped down the coffee, burning his mouth. Before he could react to the pain, he felt nannies repair the tissue, adding some set of additional changes he couldn’t quite place.
Eve looked puzzled. “How in the hell would he be able to remember anything so complex? I mean, just changing the structure of one object would require a huge amount of memory, and the human brain, as complex as it is, can’t possibly retain any useful amount of necessary information.”
Jason thought about it, feeling more acutely aware of his intelligence. “He could probably augment his own mental abilities. I mean, we have the technology already and we enhance ourselves all the time. I’m capable of an enormous amount of data analysis and retention that is beyond my baseline organic mind. Greater augmentation is just a few steps further.”
Eve gasped. “The Techs! It’s the same technology they use to integrate.”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t think so. It takes some inborn ability, some incredibly rare trait for them to be integrated. I guess, given enough time, he could figure out what characteristics they have that make them so unique, but it’s more of a reach to control the emotions of humans. Realistically, this process we’re experimenting with boils down to the chemical and electrical modification of the human system. Those things are complex in and of themselves, but simple compared to reading all the vast data like a Tech and being able to comprehend and control it all. We haven’t even solved how to work with our bodies and keep them under control. Expanding that to all matter will take ages. It’s taking us a vast amount of resources and a lot of luck to get rudimentary control.”
“But what if he controls one of them to jump ahead? What then?”
“A Tech? How? They are completely beyond us to the point they’re almost another species. One of them shut me down with a simple thought. The moment Faust even tried, he’d be cut off from his own communications. I bet they could even reverse the immortality nannies by simply cancelling them out so they couldn’t complete repairs or work within the system. After all, they communicate with various electrical and chemical frequencies. Even with radio signals. The communication standards are part of how they function. Theirs is an absurdly complex total network nearly down to the molecule. The Techs are tapped into everything and would be aware of the changes long before Faust could issue the commands. He couldn’t even catch one off guard.”
“Yeah, but does he have to? If he has the power of the Council behind him, can’t he just order them to do what he wants?”
Jason thought about this before he replied. “I just don’t think they work in the way you describe. Look, nobody really knows this, but I’ve been close to one of them several times and I’ve learned a lot about them. At first, it occurred to me they might be vulnerable in some way, but the more I’ve been near the sector Tech here, Sector Seven, the more I realize I’m so completely pathetic in comparison, it’s almost laughable.” He suddenly felt a wave of grief wash over him as he realized he had become infatuated with Tarien and his infatuation was like a teenager having a crush on a movie star. There would never be a chance to get close to him. Depression hit him with the kind of strength that caused a warning bell to go off in his head. This wasn’t normal. He issued commands to override the sadness. In moments, he felt fine. Normal again.
The process must have been visible to Eve, who watched him with concern. “Jason?”
“Yeah, wow. I just thought about something and suddenly got really sad. A lot of emotion all at once. Not normal for me, but I figured out how to cancel it.”
She sipped her coffee, her eyes hopeful. “Well, that’s a good sign, right? If you can cancel things out, maybe you can keep yourself under control.”
He took another gulp of his scalding hot coffee. This time, the liquid didn’t burn his mouth. He set the cup down. “So, apparently, my body adapted to heat to the point I can’t burn my mouth anymore.”
“Huh?”
He quickly explained.
“Changes like that are to be expected, right? I mean, sure, it’s really fast, but pretty much in line with what our previous experiments have shown.”
“Yeah, really fast.” Jason was so tired, he could barely concentrate. He needed sleep badly. “And the caffeine doesn’t seem to be doing anything. I’m really trying, Eve, but I’m so tired I don’t know if I can possibly stay awake.”
“Got it. You’re probably breaking down the caffeine before it can do any good. So maybe we have to let you sleep. Um . . .” She tapped her finger on her lips. “Let’s do this. I’ll put a bed in your room and stay up for a while and watch you sleep. If anything looks weird, I’ll wake you.” She paused. “Gently, of course. I don’t want you wildly swinging at me and taking my head off.”
He smiled tiredly. “Thank you.” They left the mugs on the counter so the units could take care of them.
Another rush went through him. The urgency of sleep became almost an imperative. “Another of those instructional bursts,” he said, making sure to keep her informed.
She turned her head slightly and nodded as they walked down the hall to one of the bedrooms.
He washed his face and swished his teeth clean while Eve piled blankets and pillows from an adjacent room onto his floor. He looked at her quizzically and she explained. “I’m not dragging a whole bed in here, and I’m certainly not sleeping next to you, no offense. A bed on the floor is easiest.”
“Well, at least let me sleep on the floor.” Before she could protest, he said, “No, really. I doubt I’ll even notice.”
“Sounds okay to me. I love a good bed. As long as you don’t hold it against me,” she joked.
“Wake me up if I oversleep. I don’t know how long I’ll be out, so a good eight hours should be plenty.” He lay down on the blankets.
“Uh, your suit? I mean, I guess you can keep it on, but it’s probably going to be uncomfortable.”
He nodded sleepily and unzipped it, yanking it off, catching her expression of amazement.
Eve stared a moment. “Well, either you’re living at the gym or those things are really at work.” She turned away but not before he saw her blush.
He registered only vague awareness of her embarrassment at his nudity, too tired to care. He fell asleep the moment his head rested on the pillow.
Thirteen
THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT, JASON felt waves of hormones coursing through his body, causing emotions ranging from deep sadness to elation. His dreams ranged from nightmares of being hunted and slaughtered to dreams of power. Despite the realism of his dreams, he retained an awareness of dreaming. He both experienced the dream and acted as an analytical outsider, processing each scene. Although aware he was dreaming, he had no control over the scenarios playing out behind his closed eyes.
In one dream, Faust kidnapped him. Instead of the old, moderately decrepit Director, Faust had become young. With a laugh, Faust had Jason cut into pieces and, unable to die, Jason endured the pain like nothing he’d ever imagined. Jason’s body repaired itself and Faust laughed as he repeated the torment ov
er and over.
In another dream, he had become the epitome of masculine beauty, standing above a crowd of worshipful faces and lifting off an elevated throne and flying over the multitude of people. He felt absolute and corruptive power. Merely glancing at buildings caused them to crumble and fall, and he could command anyone to do his bidding. In his dream, he laughed at his complete control while at the same time feeling an empty hollowness, a horror at the monster he’d become.
Another dream became so highly erotic, even his detached mind could barely discern it wasn’t reality. Every kiss, touch, and feeling felt as if someone had climbed into bed with him. He writhed in his blankets and ejaculated into his sheets.
He awoke with an embarrassed start.
Self-conscious because Eve slept in the bed next to him, he quietly got up and pulled the soiled sheets from his bed on the floor. Mortified over his teenage-like bodily responses, he quietly sighed in relief at the sound of her steady breathing. So much for staying awake to observe me, he thought.
Jason could see the details of the room with unusual clarity. His eyes had been enhanced while he slept. Not wanting to wake Eve, he tiptoed out of his bedroom and down the long hall to the laundry room, where he pulled another set of sheets out of the closet. With some amusement, he noted the closed doors that Ephrom and Jenn were hiding behind. He put his soiled sheets into the automated laundry unit. It would clean and fold the sheets and return them to where they could be used again.
He went back and put the fresh sheets on his bed, then crept back out to use the shower. The bathrooms were large, with multiple mirrors and full bathtubs, along with showering spaces. Each shower was large enough for two and had a double set of nozzles. The shower felt wonderful and the memory of his dream made it erotic. He remained too turned on to return to his room, so he took care of things in the shower.
Still feeling tired and frustrated, he decided to go back to the shared room. He quietly climbed back into bed, settled into his blankets, and fell fast asleep.
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