‘I need to get this done as soon as possible,’ she said, looking slightly green. ‘My abilities are going to be critically impaired otherwise.’ She glanced at Sol. ‘Has Chard sent the sub-quantal functions to Jiao?’
‘Yep. All ready to go.’
‘Are you sure you’re alright to immerse?’ Deira asked, worried by her haggard appearance.’
‘Have to be. It’s not going to get any better.’ Tao sat in an armchair and sighed. ‘Wish me luck. Jiao, I’m initiating the piggy-back procedure. Confirm you’re attached?
‘Negative,’ said Jiao. ‘The problem is that you still have Adam. I can’t piggy-back until he’s gone.’
‘Hell and damnation! I’d completely forgotten that. Okay, in that case I need to drop Adam off first, then come back for you. Copy?’
‘Copy that.’
Tao immersed.
Chapter 31
Tao entered alpha-normal and hunted around for Adam. His signature appeared when she called his name, and she automatically formed him a virtual body to facilitate communication.
‘It’s been a while,’ he said. ‘I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.’
‘I almost had – then I got a bit of a shock. Adam, I’m pregnant.’
‘Wow, that’s fabulous. Congratulations.’
He clearly hadn’t put two and two together, so Tao explained what this meant for him. His face fell when he learned he was going to have to return to sub-quantal space.
‘But not for very long – and it won’t be so bad this time because I’m going to get Josh to look after you. And, Adam? We’re making you a new body – mentalically – so you might even be back with us later today.’
‘Really? You can do that?’
‘I’m told we can by Deira and Sol, and I’ve no reason to doubt them.’
‘Then let’s go. I don’t want to be responsible for any problems with your pregnancy. How do we do this?’
‘Just like the last time when you piggy-backed onto me in sub-quantal space. Here, I’ll give you a hand.’
Once she had Adam firmly locked-on, she dived into the infra-low and through the hole into sub-quantal space. She was a little startled when Josh appeared almost instantly.
‘Hello, lover,’ he said, grinning wickedly.
‘Shit, you frightened me. Were you waiting for me or something?’
‘Nope. No need to. That automatic retrieval device at the hole in the infra-low sends out a signal when someone comes through. Almost like a doorbell.’
‘Well it’s good to know I can still ring your bell.’ Tao grinned too. ‘Look, Josh, I can’t stay long. I’ve got loads to do and the longer I’m down here the more time I’ll need to waste sleeping.’
Josh looked disappointed but took the hint. ‘So, what do you want me to do?’
Tao offloaded Adam and formed a hard photon body for him. ‘You know about Adam, don’t you?’
‘Mum’s partner from long ago. I take it this is him? Hi, Adam, I’m Josh.’
Adam solemnly shook hands, watching his hands in fascination as they physically interacted with Josh’s own.
‘I didn’t know you could do this down here,’ he said. ‘I wish I had – it would have made it so much easier the last time.’
Tao explained how she was going to leave Adam in Josh’s care while they explored the option of mentalically producing a new body for them both.
‘Sol’s already made a good start,’ she said. ‘I just need to check out the chain of consequences. Keep your fingers crossed. If everything works out, we could have you both out of here in twenty-four hours.’
‘That’s great news,’ Josh said, beaming. ‘You’d better get going then. I’ll show Adam our little log cabin.’
‘Log cabin?’ Adam looked perplexed.
‘Wait until you see it. You’ll be very comfortable while you wait. Just give me a second, now.’
Josh took Tao a little way away and they indulged in a long, tender kiss. Tao wondered whether she should tell him her news now or wait until he had his new body but, in the end, her excitement got the better of her.
‘Josh, I’ve some other good news for you.’
‘What? Better than me getting a new body?’
‘Depends, I suppose.’ She hesitated, then just came out with it. ‘Josh, I’m pregnant.’
The look on his face was certainly worth seeing. To begin with he seemed not to take it in, as if this was the last thing he’d been expecting, then a grin spread from ear to ear, he whooped loudly, and swept her up in a huge embrace.
‘What do you mean, “it depends”? This is the best news ever. I can’t believe it. I’m going to be a dad.’ He kissed her again, and this time it seemed to go on and on. When, they finally separated, Tao was glowing with pleasure.
‘It’s a boy,’ she said. ‘I haven’t told anyone else that yet.’
‘A boy!’ Josh turned towards Adam, who was smiling in their direction. ‘A boy!’ he shouted. ‘I’m going to have a son!’
It took a few minutes for Tao to calm him down and, truth to tell, she didn’t really want to. She was revelling in his reaction to her news and could have happily remained here with him. However, her sense of duty intruded, and she knew she had to leave before she ended up so tired she’d be out of it for hours.
Gently, she extracted herself from Josh’s embrace. He was unwilling to let her go.
‘I have to go,’ she whispered. ‘I want you back in the real world, and I need to oversee the construction of your body.’
‘Sure. Sorry. It’s just – I’m going to be a dad! ‘He started all over again, and Tao knew she was going to have to be hard-hearted.
‘Okay, love, got to go. Take good care of Adam. Hopefully, I’ll be back for him very soon’
‘Will do. See you.’
She headed back into the infra-low and up the levels, finally emerging into the light of the MacMahon sitting room. A weight appeared to have been lifted from her. Although she was feeling the effects of her little jaunt, and knew she’d have to get some sleep soon, she otherwise felt much better. No sickness. Nothing. She glanced around and noticed Deira sitting on the sofa, obviously waiting for her.
‘Mission accomplished?’ Deira asked.
‘All done, and I feel much better.’
‘How was Josh?’
‘He was great. I told him my news and he was like a kid in a candy shop. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so excited.’
‘And what about any consequences to the sub-quantal functions?
‘I couldn’t do that with Adam present. That’s my next job. Jiao, ready to piggy-back?’
‘Any time you are.’
‘Okay. Immersing now.’
Tao went straight back in and used her newly learned skill to piggy-back the AI. Then she dived straight down to the infra-low and waited while Jiao got started on the chains of consequence relating to the sub-quantal functions Sol had copied. Even for the AI it took a little time, but Jiao finally confirmed she’d followed all the consequence-chains and there didn’t seem to be anything stopping them creating a body.
‘Great news,’ Tao said.
She shot up the levels and emerged, disengaging Jiao in the process. She looked at Deira, who seemed slightly bemused by the speed of events.
‘Jiao assures me there are no consequences worth talking about. You’re clear to go, Deira.’
Deira sighed with relief. ‘That’s great. We’ll go for a body for Adam first, then move on to Josh.
‘Works for me. I’d like to see you get started, then I’ll get some sleep.’
‘Then let’s go.’
Deira led her into the dining room where the other three were sitting round the dining table discussing the forthcoming experiment. Sol was leading on it and explained to Tao what they were going to do.
‘When we were planning a body for Josh, we were going to overlay a small subset of sub-quantal functions on the DNA construct that Juliette’s stored in he
r alpha-normal. It’s just … He looked a little embarrassed. ‘… we don’t know how to get the construct from Juliette to me. Now, we’re going for a body for Adam, we’ll need to start from scratch with the DNA.’ He looked imploringly at Tao, and she knew what he was after.
‘I’m sure I can get that sorted before I get some sleep,’ she said. ‘Give me a minute’
Before either Sol or Deira could comment, she’d immersed again. Deira and Sol exchanged glances.
‘She doesn’t take any prisoners, does she?’ Sol said.
Deira raised her eyebrows and was about to reply when Tao emerged again.
‘All done,’ she said, yawning.
‘Already?’
‘No problem. I took a quick trip to Juliette’s alpha-normal and …’
‘You can do that?’ Deira said.
‘Yeah, it’s not too difficult. So, I picked up her construct for Josh, and manufactured a new one for Adam. Both have been sent via Jiao to Chard, who should have transferred them to Sol. He’s the one in charge of this, isn’t he?’
‘Yeah. I’ve got them’ said Sol, looking totally staggered by the speed of things.
Tao looked as if she could barely keep her eyes open. ‘So, shall we get this show on the road?’ she said.
That seemed to be a signal for everyone to stare expectantly at Sol. He gazed around, with his goofy look.
‘Okay – so no pressure, then,’ he said.
Deira nudged him in the ribs. ‘Just get on with it, you big oaf. Since when has an audience ever upset you?’
‘Oh, I guess – never.’ Sol gave a crooked grin. ‘Okay, immersing now.’
He only had to do a shallow immersion into alpha-normal. There, he took some stored sub-quantal functions that he and Gary had identified as being “initiators” and applied them to the DNA construct Tao had just completed. It was as simple as that, and things started happening immediately. When he emerged again, he found everyone watching what looked like a swirling dust-storm in the corner of the room – with something small and solid in its centre.’
‘Is that it?’ he asked. Somehow, he was expecting something a bit more dramatic.
‘Seems like it,’ Deira replied. ‘What do you think, Tao?’
Tao had immersed at first sight of the whirlwind and checked out the logic they were applying.
‘All looks good to me,’ she said. ‘Jiao’s already double-checked the functions you’re using, as well as the consequences, and we both think you’re on the right track.’
‘Great!’
Sol watched what he immediately named ‘The Dervish” with pride. Alright, so it didn’t look very impressive now, but it was all his. It hadn’t been so long ago that he’d been relatively restricted on the mentalic front, yet now here he was constructing a human body from nothing. It was exhilarating. It was also kind of scary.
They’d previously calculated that the whole process should take somewhere in the region of eight hours, so Tao elected to go to bed for the duration. The rest of them were to take turns monitoring the process. Chard had identified that there would be a requirement for additional sub-quantal functions to be added at varying times – a little like adding a virtual log to a mentalic fire – and since Sol was the one with the relevant functions in his head, he was obviously going to be the fire-feeder.
‘Just up my street,’ Sol said. ‘Very little skill needed to feed a fire.’
‘It’s still essential to prevent it going out,’ Deira said. ‘And you did get in going in the first place, after all.’
‘You’re right. It’s my fire, all the way from providing the firelighters to keeping the logs coming.’
An hour later, Chard announced the time had come to add another function, so Sol quickly immersed and tossed the relevant equation onto the ever-growing construct. Then, it was back to waiting again. There were another four of these fuel-adding interventions required over the following hours, and the whirling dust-storm got larger and more violent after each one.
In between feeding the mentalic fire, there were long periods of inactivity and it became quite a trial for Sol to maintain concentration during those episodes. He had to be alert for Chard’s signal that the next function needed to be added, and he needed to act immediately, because failure to carry out the action in good time would lead to the process stalling. This stop-start aspect of the procedure was exhausting, and as the hours wore on, Sol began to find it increasingly hard to stay awake. Luckily, Gary was on hand to prod him if necessary, and Juliette was providing a further layer of support.
Time wore on, and gradually, the structure in the centre of “The Dervish” increased in size and complexity. It initially appeared to be paralleling the development of an embryo in the womb, and then there was a fairly rapid growth phase. By seven hours, the process had passed through infancy, childhood and teenage, and had reached adulthood. It was clearly a young Adam standing there amidst the whirling particles, and by just over eight hours, the deed was done. They stood silently, gazing in awe at what they’d created.
Sol and Gary had taken considerable pains to select the functions that would result in the production of a body at almost exactly the age Adam had lost his original one. The result was stunning. To those who knew him – Deira and Sol – it looked exactly like Adam standing in the corner of their dining room. Or maybe not exactly, because this body hadn’t had the life experiences that Adam’s original had and hadn’t been exposed to the character-building effect of years of emotions. Consequently, the face was smooth, almost completely unlined, giving it the appearance of a dummy in a shop window. Also, and of great importance, there was no evidence of sentience. The body simply stood there, breathing gently, eyes unfocussed. As an empty canvas, it was perfect. Precisely what they wanted.
For Sol it was like a moment of atonement. He’d known for many years that he hadn’t been responsible for Adam’s death, but he’d never forgotten Deira’s reaction when he’d administered the knock-out blow to him back on Mars – the blow that Deira had initially blamed for Adam’s demise. He could still hear her accusing him of being a murderer, and no amount of logic could free him from that private torment. Now, he’d been given the chance to put things right – in his own mind if nothing else.
‘Better see if Tao’s awake,’ he said, feeling like he could do with a sleep himself.
Not yet,’ Deira’s eyes were sparkling with excitement.
‘But we need her to bring Adam back.’
‘There’s no hurry. Remember she’s only just getting over her previous trip to sub-quantal space. If she goes back again, she’ll need another period of rest – and another after we get Josh’s body ready.’
‘So, what are you suggesting? Let her sleep?’
‘Yes. Let her get all the sleep she needs. And while she does that, we’ll crack on with a body for Josh.’
‘Ah.’ Sol suddenly got it. ‘You mean, get both bodies ready, then she can kill two birds with one stone. Only one period of rest needed instead of two. Good thinking.’
‘I try,’ Deira said with mock modesty. ‘The thing is, have you got the energy to do it all again so soon? You look done in.’
‘I’m fine.’ Sol said doubtfully. ‘I know what’s expected now and I can get a little rest in between fire-feeding. Seriously, I can do this. After all, this is Josh we’re talking about. Let’s get to it.’
With mounting enthusiasm, Sol went through the identical initiation procedure he’d used for Adam, this time using the Josh DNA template. He was getting the hang of this now and they very soon had another “Dervish” in the opposite corner of the room to where the Adam body was standing.
Sol had devised a strategy this time round. He needed to, otherwise he’d never be able to stay awake for the process to complete. Because the procedure for the two bodies was identical, Chard now knew the exact time that another function would need to be added. That meant that he could wake Sol up in good time for each new addition, and Sol could gr
ab some much-needed sleep in between times. In practice, it worked a treat, and it also meant the others were free of monitoring duties, so could grab some sleep of their own.
Several hours went by in this manner, and Sol had just added the final function when the door opened, and Tao appeared, much refreshed from her own rest.
‘You’re getting on well,’ she said, gazing at the developing Josh body. Then she saw the Adam body in the corner and gasped. ‘Oh, it’s finished. I thought … Oh.’
Sol laughed. ‘Yeah, slight change of plan. It worked out so well we thought we’d move straight on to Josh’s body. Then you only need to go to sub-quantal space once.’
‘That’s great!’ Tao smiled. ‘We can get it all wrapped up and I’ll only need one more rest period. Fantastic.’
She sat with him for a while and watched eagerly as the Josh body took shape. Then they thought they ought to rouse the others. When the process drew to a close half-an-hour later, everyone was up and about, and when it finally stopped, they all gathered round the resulting body to admire it. Tao’s eyes were glittering.
‘Time to retrieve Josh, I think,’ she said with a voice of tightly constrained excitement.
‘Could you just check them both out first?’ Deira said. ‘I’m as keen as you to get Josh back – but not into a sub-standard body. And it wouldn’t be fair on Adam either. If you could carry out a brief inspection, it’d be good.’
‘Yes. Nothing I’d like better. I’m going to start with Josh though.’ Tao closed her eyes and went into alpha-normal entering the brain of the “new Josh”. She checked out its alpha-normal and then dived down to each of the other levels to ensure they were all normal. A swift entry to the infra-low was all she needed to confirm everything was alright down there too.
She moved rapidly on to new Adam, carrying out the same routine. She’d only got to alpha-normal, however, when she realised what should have been obvious from the start. There was no brainwave activity in the Adam brain, except for that related to normal bodily functions, breathing and the like. And, of course, that was what they were looking for. She swiftly emerged, gazing with horrified fascination at Josh 2.
Gods of Titan- The Cosmic Constants Page 25
