NanoSymbionts

by Joseph Philbrook

  Across the way there was a brunette of perhaps 25, who's only garment was a green pair of sweats. She was casually nursing a baby. There was a blond that looked about 25, with hair held in place by a black headband. She was wearing a black sleeveless one piece knee length dress with a short white apron. He watched her deftly set a tray with a sandwich and a wine glass full of some pinkish liquid on the table beside the woman with the baby. When she turned to walk away, Jake noticed that there was a white circle on the front of the headband that appeared to display a negative version of the same image as the one on the carrot top's armband.

  Jake liked looking at the beautiful women but he wanted to figure out which way Steve had gone. He didn't feel like asking any of these complete strangers for directions. So on a hunch, Jake tried the doorway straight across. It opened to a short hall that ended in a “T” shaped intersection. Where he turned right without hesitating. A little ways down ‘that’ hall he found a recessed elevator door on the left side. Steve was leaning against it.

  “Took you long enough,” he said with a grin.

  Then Steve shifted his weight off the elevator door, pushing off with his elbow on the call button beside the door. The elevator opened immediately. Steve gestured Jake in first. The inside looked a lot like a stainless steel hospital elevator. Big enough for two stretchers with a door in the back as well as the front. Next to each door there was a standard elevator control panel with buttons for 3 numbered floors and one marked ‘B’. Beside each of the elevator control panels, there was a keypad with buttons like a touch tone telephone dial and a four inch display screen. It also had a small speaker grill. After an awkward moment while Jake waited for Steve to push a button or two, Steve gestured towards the buttons near the door behind Jake.

  “We're going downstairs,” was all he said.

  After a slight pause Jake decided that instead of pushing one of the standard elevator control buttons he would just punch in a number at random on the keypad and see what happened. When he reached for the buttons he was suddenly quite sure that he wanted to dial ‘*000#03*’. The elevator seemed to quiver slightly, the door closed, then the elevator suddenly lurched downwards. After several seconds it came to a stop and the backdoor opened onto a rock walled entrance chamber. Which lead to a spherical chamber with a flat gridwork platform forming a small circular floor with a diameter of about one tenth that of the sphere. The platform was about halfway between the bottom and the center of the sphere. It could be reached by a single catwalk that extended from the entrance chamber.

  On the platform there were several large flat display screens held in various locations by multijointed support arms that were centrally mounted to the grid work about halfway between the outer edge and the center of the platform. Another such arm held a keyboard of some kind. It had about sixty keys with strange, yet somehow familiar, markings. Just above the top row of buttons there were 3 built in, thumb sized track balls. Just below the bottom row of marked buttons there were 3 sets of 3 unmarked round thumb sized buttons.

  “I noticed that you liked that waterfall display upstairs,” Steve said. “Why don't you see if you can call up a view of the real waterfall it portrays?”

  “How?” Jake demanded.

  “The same way you knew the keypad sequence to get here.” Steve said.

  “But I just took a wild assed guess at that!” Jake retorted. “I've never even seen this kind of keyboard before. It's not marked in any language I'm familiar with...” His voice trailed off as he became aware that the markings on this weird keyboard were starting to look very familiar.

  “But then it was almost like you remembered the number wasn't it?” Steve asked with a chuckle.

  “Except I couldn't have remembered something I never knew before!” Jake insisted.

  “True enough,” Steve said. “You didn't remember it, but your nanites did. Don't forget, they used to be some of mine. So they remember almost everything I currently knew just before they became yours. They will guide you to ‘remember’ what I know about how to use this control panel too. You just need to know what your looking for. If your looking for the original falls, you ‘will’ be able to call up the images. Try it and see.”

  This was crazy but Jake began to get a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. The idea that there might really be some kind of nanites interfacing with his brain frightened him but he didn't really believe the elevator sequence was pure chance. So he decided to play along with what he hoped was just a bad dream. He took a step toward the keyboard. The adjustable tray immediately moved, automatically positioning the keyboard to within his easy reach. He didn't even flinch. Somehow he had almost expected it would do something like that.

  He tried to randomly tap a few keys but found that his fingers kept hitting what he was sure were the right keys. It took only a few seconds to tap out a sequence of 117 keystrokes. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't actually counted the keystrokes. This meant he didn't know how he knew it was exactly 117 keystrokes nor why it had seemed right to stop. When he did however, one of the larger flat display screens produced an almost three dimensional image of a waterfall cascading down the side of a large rock face in front of some kind of village composed of an assortment of grass huts.

  He noticed that there were fifteen naked villagers scattered around the place. They looked human except that their skin was an unusual shade of deep blue and they were totally hairless... One female who appeared to be casually having sex with one of the males suddenly turned her head and seemed to look back through the view screen directly at them. Somehow Jake was sure that she knew they were watching. Then, when she smiled and winked in his direction, he got the distinct impression that she would like them to join with her in an exhibition of group sex. Then the male followed her gaze and looked their way. He didn't seam to be able to tell what she was looking at and suddenly ceased to care. The male villager's eyes glazed over as he began to empty himself deep within her.

  Suddenly Jake slapped at the keyboard. He wanted to stop the show. His fingers tapped on three keys and the flat panel display abruptly turned gray. As did the narrow border which, until then, had had a dim red glow. Jake fought to gain control over the almost painful swelling in his crotch. Suddenly he realized that he had no idea how long he had left Cindy cooling her heals at Dave's campground.

  “Why did you disconnect us like that?” Steve interrupted his train of thought. “The sub-memory, should have been strong enough for you to realize that closing down the portal's core processor while that destination was in focus was a bad idea. Now restoring that particular destination's resonance value will be a nontrivial and time consuming computation.”

  Jake looked at Steve without answering for a few seconds. He also noticed that Steve had just as obviously been affected by the sensual scene he had just disconnected. Jake looked Steve in the eyes.

  “Yeah I guess I did know,” he admitted. “I kinda figured there was another way to get that blue chick off the screen. But I also had the distinct impression that it was possible to find a way to go there. And I found myself tempted to figure out how. I had to make sure I had a minute or two to think... How long have I been here? Damn it all! I have to call my lady! Where can I find a phone?”

  Steve sighed, then answered the first question first.

  “The accident was about 3 hours ago,” he explained. “If by your ‘lady’ you mean one Cindy Kincade, we traced her to a nearby private camp via your cell phone. It's within range of our surveillance system so while you were still unconscious, I used it to check on her. Your phone was in one of the tents. She wasn't. But since I'd already hacked her drivers license photo it was a simple mater to feed it to some surveillance-drones who soon found her. You really should look at the images before you call.” Then with a slight gesture back towards the control panel. “You can do them both with that.”

  Jake wasn't even surprised that his fingers knew how to dial up the Cell phone with the keyboard th
at was once again under his hands. Nor that he didn't have any problem getting it to produce a headset for a more private conversation. Even as it started to ring, he figured out how to find the security log with Cindy's name on it. The outline of the big display started to glow with a faint blue light and Cindy appeared on the screen. Her head was thrown back. So that her hair cascaded down the rock she was almost laying on and brushed the water that swept around it. She was naked and writhing beneath the attentions of a large man who's face was buried in her crotch. He couldn't see the man's face but he recognized him all the same.

  This time, when he shut down the display he found something less severe than the total disconnection Steve had complained about a minute ago. Even as the deselected image faded the earpiece invited him to leave a message on his cell phone. Suddenly he wanted to know where Cindy was now. He didn't need any prodding from Steve to figure out how to find the insect sized surveillance-drone that was still monitoring Cindy. The screen came to life showing the inside of Dave's old camper where Cindy was sitting on Dave's lap...

  Jake deselected the view and took off the headset.

  “I don't know about you,” Steve said gently. “But I'm heading for the jacuzzi room. Where I'll likely find one or more of the girls you saw upstairs. Any of whom would most likely be glad to help us with our obvious problems.”

  It took Jake a couple of seconds to make up his mind.

  “I might as well join you,” he eventually said and followed Steve back upstairs.

  They went through the doorway to the right of the indoor falls. Jake didn't hesitate to hang his cloths on one of the hooks that lined the hallway. He couldn't help but notice as Steve did the same, that the man was very well hung. As they walked through the doorway into the shower area at the end of the hall a multitude of shower heads automatically sprayed the sweat off them from many angles.

  The jacuzzi in the next room was huge. It was nearly 4 ft deep in the central area, which contained both statues and fountains. The outer edges were lined with half a dozen booths. Each big enough for four people to sit intimately together in the gurgling waters. He saw that two of them were in use. In one to his left a girl was sitting in a guy's lap and in one on the right there were two girls talking.

  As they entered the conversing beauties stepped down into the deeper water in the middle and quickly waded over to them. The taller of the two was a dark skinned black haired beauty with brown eyes. The shorter girl, a fair skinned blond with green eyes who was wearing a white headband spoke first.

  “Hi, I'm Erika,” she said.

  Jake recognized her as the girl he had seen wearing a dress and an apron.

  “I'm Jake,” he replied.

  About then the taller girl introduced herself.

  “My name's Sandra,” she said. “By the way,” she pointed at the still occupied booth, “Since they appear much too busy to introduce themselves, that's Linda over there with my Jess.” Then she stepped closer and asked “Do you mind?”

  Jake had no trouble figuring out what she was asking if he minded about. Because even as she said it she reached out and sensually caressed his balls.

  “Why would I mind?” he asked as he suddenly realized that this hot blooded woman was the one who had been wearing a prim looking business suit.

  “I'm thinking that was a rhetorical question,” Sandra replied. “But seriously, we need to know which of us you'd like to do first?”

  At this point Steve interrupted the ladies.

  “I'm afraid I'm going to have to drag Jake out of here in about an hour girls,” he said. “So I think one of you will have to catch him another time”

  “Spoilsport!” Erika said.

  “Just so you know Jake,” Steve explained. “Sandra seams to be taking an unfair advantage here. Erika is a ‘house’ employee, as such she's allowed to ‘play’ if someone asks her to. But she is not allowed to actually suggest such things...”

  “It's a hard choice,” Jake admitted. “But I don't think I've ever made it with a green eyed girl. Would you like to play, Erika?”

  She answered by grabbing his rigid tool and began pulling him towards a booth.

  A heartbeat later Sandra was doing the same thing to Steve, calling out over her shoulder, “I want a rain check Jake.”

  Chapter 4 An Explanation of sorts

  Jake was sitting in a very comfortable chair across from the desk in Steve's expensive looking office. He was having a hard time accepting some of the things Steve was explaining to him. Even if he was beginning to believe that Steve was essentially telling him the truth, though he doubted it was the whole truth. As it was however, it was more than he wanted to know.

  “OK Jake,” Steve had started by saying. “I know you have some questions you'd like me to answer. There are also a few things you really need to know. So if you'll let me have my say for the next 20 minutes or so, I think you'll find many of your questions will be answered. Then if you like, I'll answer as much of what's left as I can... Shall I continue?”

  When Jake nodded, Steve leaned his chair back and swung his feet up onto the wooden desk. Then he looked Jake squarely in the eyes and started talking.

  “First I think I'd better start by explaining a bit about those ‘memories’ of mine stored in your nanites,” he said. “They can help you with useful scraps of information, such as passwords and control sequences. Such things they can already let trickle into your short term memory as you need them.

  They can also provide a nearly physical feedback to your whole body's nervous system with which they can quickly teach you every physical skill I currently have. For instance, it took me months of practice to master throwing darts until I could reliably pin a fly to the wall from across the room. You should be able to develop the same skill with less than a dozen practice throws.

  Soon your nanites should be able to offer you some kind of report, that correlates data from my memories with current data sources on any subject you ask. The form of that report will be tailored to what works best for you. They will work with you to develop a personal communication interface. In my case it's a lot like having another ear they can talk to. And a particular way that I subvocalize instructions to them. Some prefer something more like an internal television.

  They won't however be able to restore my actual experiences to your memory and it's a good thing they can't. That kind of memory is very complex and is actually stored in many small pieces scattered in various parts of the brain. Your brain would have made different associations with which to store away the memory. There would be so many little differences between the way my memory was stored and how your brain would retrieve it. That restoring them, as if they were your own, would eventually unbalance your mind. Thus your nanites simply won't do it.

  You see they liked your mind enough to bond with it. So now they actually depend on your personality being intact. They use an analysis of it along with your genetic code as part of an encryption key that will eventually let them network themselves into a secure artificial intelligence. They already feel your emotions. They like it best when you feel happy. They want your mind to remain healthy enough to make ‘happy’ possible.” Steve paused for a moment before he continued. “What I told you is true of my direct memories. Though you should be aware that if a properly prepared report was extracted from my memories. Then your nanites could safely import that.

  In time your nanites will be able to enhance your own memory with a form of total recall, that will go far beyond what might reasonably be expected from someone who claims to have a photographic memory. Even now it is already certain that you should never again have to look up the same piece of information twice.”

  Steve spent the next 10 minutes telling Jake several things he didn't feel much like listening to. Yet, Jake did sense that he was absorbing the details better than he had ever been able to learn anything before. Somehow he could sense that Steve was telling the truth as he saw it. He didn't like all of what he had heard.
He hoped Steve's description wasn't as accurate as Steve believed it was. Though he did like the idea that the nanites would most likely prevent most insects from ever actually biting or stinging him. Steve paused for a second after explaining that it could take Jake years to fully develop the ability to consciously control his nanites, but that in the mean time they would never stop trying to serve him.

  “You've just become a member of a very exclusive club you know Jake,” Steve was saying. “Those few lucky enough to even be augmented with our nanites tend to live very long healthy lives. And your nanites are far more capable of protecting you than any of the varieties used for mere augmentation. You now have the potential for a virtually ‘endless life’.”

  “Why is it only a lucky few then?” Jake asked. “I mean if these nanites are so good, why not share the wealth?”

  Steve thought a moment before he replied.

  “Well to start with it takes a truly sentient network to properly maintain and manage the nanites we use for augmentation,” he explained. “Our alpha class nano-nets are good but there are limits to how many of our friends, relations and other associates any one of us can keep fully augmented at any one time.

  Then of course there are some severe restrictions imposed by the nanites themselves about the qualifications for someone to become the host of a truly sentient nano-network. It's a very rare thing for them to find a mind that they think they can keep interested in bothering to live long enough. For the resulting nanosymbiont's life to last long enough to be worth it's having to pass away with us if we should someday tire of living.

  Another sad fact is that we can't even provide everyone with a long term supply of our medical nanite packs. The cost of doing so with even just our standard medical nanites would be so high that not even the guild has the resources for it. What's more we can't simply give away the technology for people to make their own nanites. In the wrong hands, the technology behind it is far too dangerous. It'd be like giving nuclear weapons to cavemen.