Winger smiled sheepishly. “Not too bad. But that was some dream I had…right when I woke up, I had a dream…I was in a sleet storm, a driving blizzard only the sleet was all different. Different colors and shapes, much bigger than normal. It was weird.”
Doc Frost’s face now came fully into view. “That was no dream, Johnny.”
“It wasn’t?”
Frost shook his head. “It’s normal. I expected some leakage at first….it’ll take some getting used to. It’s your limbic system…picking up stray signals from the interface. There may be some…how best to say this--” Frost gazed off at the window for a moment, seeing the lights of other buildings across the campus, “…there may be some unusual emotions the next few days. Sometimes, the interface doesn’t completely convert all the signals…some of them spill over and trigger reactions elsewhere. We’re monitoring you all the time for the next few weeks…just to make sure.”
Winger eased himself into a sitting position. “If that wasn’t a dream, what was it?”
Frost smiled. “Actually, it was probably sensory data from ANAD. You’re coupled now…what ANAD sees, you also can see.”
“But the sleet—“
Frost put a reassuring hand on Winger’s head, rubbing the burr of his crew cut. “This is going to take some adjustment, Johnny. You’ll be in rehab and training for several months. The sleet wasn’t really sleet. You were directly sensing molecules and atoms the way ANAD sees them.”
Johnny Winger’s eyes widened. He sank back in the bed. “Jesus—“ he shook his head. “I’m familiar with the acoustic imager and how to perceive through that. But to actually be there…with ANAD….” He closed his eyes. “Man, that was weird. But the dream went away…how come I’m not seeing it now?”
Frost cleared his throat. “Johnny, the containment capsule has been implanted. And the quantum coupler too. They’re hooked up but there will be a training period, several months, where you’ll learn how to access ANAD directly, as well as through normal means. ANAD’s no longer in the capsule. He’s back in the TinyTown pod inside Containment.”
Winger was puzzled. ‘Then what about the dream?”
Frost explained. “We put ANAD into the capsule in your shoulder for about an hour, to calibrate the interface and the buffers, to see that the links worked. Then we extracted him. What you saw was a residual trace, left over.”
Johnny felt gingerly at the bandage over his left shoulder. “How long?”
Frost took a deep breath. “The bandage can come off in a week. Your containment capsule has a port for ANAD to enter and exit by, along with the interface chip and containment bath. Anytime ANAD’s inside the capsule, it’ll be just like he’s in containment inside TinyTown. The capsule’s designed to provide the right nutrients, the right conditions for him to survive. You’ve got a very small TinyTown embedded in your shoulder, Johnny. The physics and chemistry of the implant are pretty straightforward. What takes time is learning how to talk to ANAD when he’s contained in the capsule, through the interface. How to turn the link on and off, how to…I guess ‘interpret’ is the best word, what ANAD sends back and somehow integrate it into what your brain normally does. You and ANAD will be almost like a mother and child, in some ways. You’re going to have to learn how to talk to each other, how to understand each other, how to get along in this new way.”
Mary Duncan agreed. “That’s what will take time, Johnny. And to be truthful, since you’re the first to undergo the implant procedure, we really don’t know how that’s going to happen. You’ll have to help us understand what we can do to help you.”
“For now,” Frost said, gently pushing Winger back into the bed, “you rest. In another day or so, we’ll go over the details of rehab and recovery.”
Winger tried to relax but it wasn’t easy. In his mind’s eye, he could still see the sleet storm and feel the buffeting of wind gusts…or were they ocean waves? Hard to say for sure. He grinned up at the two of them.
“I guess it’s my first exposure to van der Waals forces and Brownian motion, huh?”
Mary Duncan nodded. “I’m afraid so, Johnny.”
“It’ll be like learning to walk and talk, all over again. Just like I’m a baby.”
“A very special baby, to be sure. Quantum Corps has spent a lot of money and time on you now.”
Winger’s head swam with the possibilities. He couldn’t suppress a grin. “Almost like being born, all over again. Like getting a second chance. I’ll have to re-learn all the basic ANAD operations…replication, rendezvous and docking, launch and capture, all the effectors and probes, navigation…” he shook his head, his mind thick with the magnitude of the work ahead. “I never dreamed…” but he caught himself, chuckling. “Well, I guess I did dream…in a way.”
“Rest now, Johnny,’ Doc Frost insisted. He took another cup from Mary Duncan and offered it to the atomgrabber. “This will help. Tomorrow, we’ll get started, sorting out all the new stuff.”
Winger sipped from the cup and tried to relax. But the image of the sleet storm kept coming back, that and a sobering realization:
When you were the size of a few atoms, you spent your whole life fighting forces and currents that bigger objects, like human beings, took for granted. When you were all of sixty nanometers tall, you couldn’t take anything for granted.
Johnny Winger closed his eyes, understanding now for the first time, just how much he had to learn from ANAD.
Rehab and recovery went on for two months, most of it at the Autonomous Systems Lab, later back at Table Top.
The first order of business was to make sure ANAD could be launched and captured properly into containment in the small capsule, then to make sure a comm link could be established through the interface. The shoulder capsule was a secure environment for the autonomous nanoscale assembler/ disassembler, able to provide proper conditions of pressure, pH, and temperature for ANAD to survive. It was essentially self-sustaining, as long as Johnny Winger didn’t do something foolish.
Doc Frost had already prepped the TinyTown pod in the Containment chamber for ANAD’s launch.
“Sit there, Johnny,” he said. There was a reclining seat nearby. Electron beam guns surrounded the seat, just in case. After he had made himself comfortable, Mary Duncan helped orient him so ANAD would have a clear path to be captured into containment in the implanted capsule.
“We tried it several times, during the surgery,” she explained. “We had you in every possible position…sitting upright, lying on your side, on your stomach—“
“Even propped you up like a mannequin,” Frost added. “Some positions were better than others.”
Winger gave that some thought. “I don’t remember any of it.”
“You were under deep anesthesia at the time, Johnny.”
Winger studied the setup. “Seems to me that I’m likely to be standing or running in most captures…especially in combat.”
“You’re probably right,” Frost said. He tinkered with the interface controls, getting ANAD ready. “But this is a test. We’ve got to make sure ANAD gets into the capsule without problem and that he can establish a comm link. Mary--?”
“He’s ready,” Duncan replied.
Frost scanned the IC panel and was satisfied. The containment chamber was secure at Level Four containment—negative air pressure, active seals, electron beams primed…just in case something went wrong. “ANAD reports ready in all respects. I’m enabling….I’m launching—“
A faint whoosh of air escaped from the exit valve atop the TinyTown pod.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. ANAD’s instructions were simple for the purposes of the test: replicate a few times—merely an exercise to flex his rep algorithm and effectors, then configure for capture and transit the capsule in Johnny’s shoulder.
A faint keening whine could be heard as the rep counter ticked over.
“�
��showing replications now—“ Frost announced, reading the display. “Just a few thousand, to make sure everything works…now, he’s reconfiguring, folding effectors, getting ready for insert—Johnny, any moment now—“
Mary Duncan put a calming hand on Johnny’s head, noting how tense the atomgrabber was.
“Just relax…it’s all very routine—“
And it was over before he knew it. One moment, the keening whine could be heard. The next moment, there was a brief sting of heat as the ANAD master fluffed off its replicated daughters and burrowed into the shoulder capsule.
The whine died off, the sting subsided and that was that.
Johnny Winger looked up expectantly. “That’s all there is?”
But before Frost could reply, a chirp sounded inside his head.
***hey…hey…it’s me, Johnny….can you hear me? I’m in the capsule….ANAD to Base, how do you read, over?...trying to make all the connections…get this state generator to work…ANAD to Base, anybody there…?***
A quizzical grin came over Johnny’s face. “ANAD…ANAD, you nut…I can hear you! Or at least, I think I’m hearing you—“
Frost nodded, expectantly. “A kind of interior voice--?”
“Like somebody’s inside my head….somebody else. I guess it’s ANAD. Man, this is too weird. He’s talking…or at least, I can hear something. But there’s no sound—“
Frost studied his IC panel. “I’m reading ANAD inside capsule containment, linked in. Comms are there…trying to be there, anyway. ANAD’s activated the quantum coupler…he’s trying to link in with your coupler.”
Johnny Winger shook his head. “Ouch…kind of a loud buzz, that was.” He grasped at something in the air, only there was nothing. “Is that a fly…a moth buzzing around?”
“No,’ Frost said. “The coupler’s polling every sensory channel, and your neural buffer’s trying to make sense out of it. Maybe the state generator needs adjusting—“
***ANAD to Base…this is tricky, like trying to nab a hydrogen molecule…can you hear me, Base? I’m going through all the buffer channels, trying to find out what does what…so many different connections--***
“I hear you, ANAD. What the hell are you doing in there…I keep seeing flashes of light, moths and bees flying around. It sounds like a symphony orchestra tuning up—“
***ANAD to Base…sorry about that, Boss. I’m not sure where my state signals are ending up…there’s an awful lot of wiring in here…***
‘Hey,” Winger said, rubbing his temples. “Take it easy, will you? That’s my brain you’re messing with.”
Slowly, in fits and starts, but with increasing assurance, the spurious sensations died off and a smooth flow of signals settled in. The whole process took half an hour. In that time, Johnny heard glass shattering, saw purple sunsets on strange landscapes, smelled his mother’s pancakes and plum syrup three times and developed a terrific headache.
Doc Frost finagled with the interface controls, fine-tuning ANAD’s quantum coupler to narrow the focus of its state generator. “Quantum entanglement states are a bitch to deal with,” he muttered, as his fingers raced over the keyboard. “I still don’t know how Red Hammer managed to make this work so easily. “It’s like trying to paint a small stripe of paint on door molding with a pressure washer. It all goes everywhere.”
***ANAD to Base…how’s that? I’ve got my linkset narrowed down…just a few more connections….I’m not sure what they’re for…but I’m learning how everything works***
“Me too, ANAD,” Winger muttered. “Doc, is it going to be like this every time? Is it going to take half an hour to get contained and set up comms?”
Frost shook his head. “I don’t think so. ANAD’s just learning…and I’m fine-tuning his program even more. Plus, your own neural net will adapt as well….it’s not everyday somebody has an assembler buzzing around inside his body, trying to plug in and talk with him.”
“I’ll say.” Winger lay back in the seat and let ANAD do what he had to do.
Hours later, the process seemed a lot smoother. Several times, he had practiced a full launch and recovery sequence. Each time, the linkup took less time. By the end of the first day, ANAD and Johnny Winger had honed the process down to just a few minutes.
“But we’ve got to better than that, ANAD,” he announced. “In combat, we won’t have even a few minutes. We’ve got to get this linkup down to less than a minute.”
Frost was skeptical. “I’m not sure that’s doable right now, Johnny. I may have to tinker with ANAD’s kernel again, see if I can optimize it, now that I know where the trouble spots are.”
Winger was adamant. “To be useful in combat, Doc, I’ve got to be able to get ANAD launched and recovered in a minute.”
***ANAD to Base…I’m doing my best, but there’s a lot of connections to make…and your side keeps changing what to connect***
Winger relayed ANAD’s concern and Doc Frost nodded in sympathy. “I’m afraid he’s right, Johnny. Since I can’t change the way you’re wired, I’ve got to change how ANAD goes about the linkup. Maybe I can combine some steps, eliminate others. Give me a night to think about it.”
“That’s fair,” Winger said.
‘It’s been a long day, Johnny,” said Mary Duncan. She handed him a cup of steaming hot tea.
“Glasseye?” he asked. He took the cup and sniffed it experimentally.
Duncan shook her head. “Only Burma Black, this time. Very soothing, if I do say so.”
Winger sipped at the scalding liquid. “Before you take ANAD back, Doc, I’d like to try something. ANAD--?”
***ANAD to Base…I’m here, Boss***
“I’m closing my eyes—“ Johnny Winger sank back into the confines of the recliner. “Show me what you see right now…inside that containment capsule. I want to see it the way you see it.”
***Base, are you sure you want to***
Frost was opposed. “Johnny, let’s don’t stretch things too much this first day—“
But Winger was adamant. “When we go into combat, Doc, we’ve got to be able to trust each other, implicitly. Understand each other…like brothers. If I can’t see the world the way ANAD sees it, and him the same with me, that trust’ll never develop.”
Frost’s eyes met Mary Duncan’s. Grudgingly, he relented. “Go ahead.”
Johnny Winger closed his eyes but he still saw imagery…only it wasn’t the containment chamber in which he sat. The Tinytown pod, the piping, the thick ganglia of wires and cables and the heavy hatch door…all of that faded to gray, then to black. At first, only faint crackles and squiggles of light danced in front of his eyes—though his eyes were closed.
Then, like riding in a boat across a fog-shrouded lake, the far shore became more and more distinct, gradually materializing out of the gloom.
The imagery was hard to discern at first, so alien was the view. He had seen acoustic impressions from ANAD’s sounding before, displayed in interface controls, but that was a poor cousin to the real thing.
Now, he had somehow fallen off the boat and submerged and was beating his way against fierce currents and water choked with debris…boxes and beams and lamp shades and things there were no words for, shapes so dizzying complex he couldn’t count the facets…huge diamonds and snakes and dumbbells floating by, scraping and shoving him along—
***ANAD to Base…ANAD to Johnny…don’t fight it…just relax…let things stream by…let go and just feel your way…feel that?...just feel your way….where it’s weaker, just kick…there! Like that, see?...you can slide and skate and sort of scoot through the gaps***
And that was how, over the next few hours, Johnny Winger learned how to maneuver through molecular Brownian motion and slingshot himself like a trapeze artist around pulsating fields of van der Waals forces.
It was nearly midnight and Winger was drenched in sweat when the surging, swirling river currents beg
an to fade to black and the riveted bulkhead of the containment chamber came into view. As he focused his eyes, he struggled upright and saw Doc Frost sprawled in his chair at the IC panel, snoring loudly, slumped over the keyboard. Mary Duncan had found herself a corner beneath some piping and curled up like a great white cat.
Winger startled himself fully awake and shook his head. “Jesus, ANAD, how long was I out?”
***I calculate you were in sleep mode for exactly two hours and thirty four minutes, Base. Doctor Frost and Doctor Duncan are currently still in sleep mode***
Winger winced and sat up, rubbing his shoulder and the back of his head. “Two and a half hours. I must have been exhausted. Say, ANAD, why do you call me Base, anyway?”
***Because that’s what you are…the base of operations. Headquarters. Central command. We’re a team now, you and me***
“I never thought of it like that.” Winger got up, careful not to disturb the others, and left the Containment chamber, aware of how strange it seemed to simply walk out without concern for barriers or decontamination. For as long as he had been with Quantum Corps and dealing with ANAD systems, maintaining containment had been directive number one.
Now ANAD was part of him. Literally.
He found a restroom and stared at his face in the mirror. On a whim, he pulled off his shirt and examined the bandaged area where the implanted capsule had been inserted. He knew he shouldn’t undress the bandage, but he couldn’t help it. He was curious. He wanted to see the results.
The skin was puffy and red, swollen around the implant but there was no mistaking that something new had been attached. Beneath the swelling, as he examined the incision, a tiny circular port and cover was barely visible, like a miniature missile silo from pictures he’d seen on History vids. There was no obvious hinge or way to open the port, but beneath the cap, a small capsule had been surgically placed and mounted to the back of his clavicle. He felt the port cap gingerly.
***Home sweet home, Base. It’s a coiled metal cap, since you’re wondering. It uncoils to release me. When I’m home and safe, it coils outward and holds pressure inside of containment that way***
Johnny Winger and the Amazon Vector Page 4