As he said this he pulled a bundle from his backpack pouch. From this package, Questor produced and unfolded a compact high-tech forearm mount powerbow with a quick release power winch. That given sufficient charge, could easily lift a man's weight.
“The bow is also a control system for these,” he said as he removed several large nano-morphic pellets that reformed into bolts that looked just the right size to fit the TechnoBow.
“You mean I can make these bolts do the kind of thing you did with the darts you shot with that stick of yours?” BillSong asked somewhat incredulously.
“You can learn to,” Questor explained with a smile. “Incidentally, one of the forms that ‘these’ nanomorphic pellets are preconfigured to become is a special high efficiency solar collector to recharge the power cells in the bow. As well as the ones in this special quiver. Which is also able to manufacture regular disposable hunting bolts, from some of the raw materials in certain local vines. Which might come in handy if you acquire a taste for FlingAt meat. And then there's this little beauty.”
As he spoke Questor picked up the package that he had taken the other items out of. Which began to morph into a standard looking bio-stove. Questor opened the hearth chamber where one would expect to place the wood intended to fuel the next burn cycle. He pointed at a part of the housing that looked unusually thick. Then he demonstrated how to open it to reveal a concealed self-contained hydroponic chamber. Next Questor pulled a small package out of his pocket that contained what looked like a small cluster of live asulrod.
“If you keep this unit charged,” Questor explained as he placed the asulrod in the hydroponic chamber. “It will automatically nurse this asulrod plant into sufficient growth as to supply an average of one bowl each a day, of both the relaxing blue and of the stimulating red leaves. As well as producing an occasional blossom of the black aphrodisiac flowers. That I suggest you use only with great care, if at all. All of which will be augmented with a dose of nano-meds almost as robust as my stash.
Though, once mine wears off you would need to dose yourself with these at least once a week to continue to safely digest unmodified local proteins. It has a sufficient store of concentrated nano-meds to lace about a thousand days worth of asulrod production. After which, even if I haven't reloaded it, it will still be able to construct a utility grade nano-med supplement. That would still help you digest local proteins and strengthen your immune systems with daily use. Of course, the utility grade stuff wouldn't be able to use itself up, healing broken bones and severed arteries, like the good stuff will. To keep all three nanotech devices properly charged on a hike like this. You only need to instruct one of the nanomorphic arrows to deploy a solar collector. Which will cling to the outer most layer of vines collecting solar energy. While you rest in the shade of one of your ‘hunter's nests’.”
BillSong was staring blankly at the gifts the strange guildsman was offering him. The nanotech resources in any one of them would be worth a large fortune on the open market.
“Do you mean that if you decide these Kindred of yours really were here, I'll get to keep this stuff?” he asked.
“Oh this stuff is yours already,” Questor said with a chuckle. “There wouldn't be much point in taking it back, the nano-control centers in the bow and the bio-stove are already bonded to your personal use. They won't work for anyone else. And besides, they are a gift.
I dislike false giving. So I'd be inclined to leave these with you even were I to decide that the whole thing was a hoax that you personally engineered. Though you can rest assured that if I thought that was likely I wouldn't be gifting you with them in the first place. But tell me, now that you see the relative ease with which we can get from one BranchCritter to another. Do you still feel we need to use the official TreeWay system to get to the site?”
BillSong thought about it a moment before he answered.
“Perhaps not,” he said as he pointed at Questors stick. “Can that thing show me a tactical overview of our position relative to the officially listed TreeWay System?”
“Of course it can,” began Questor. “As can the target scope on your bow if you ask it to.”
BillSong picked up his new TechnoBow and looked at it a little more closely.
“If you'll give me a crash course on using this stuff,” he said. “I think I can mostly stay off the official paths.”
Chapter 11 A New Strength
They were wearing their matching black tee shirts and jeans again, as they stepped up to the transit pod's access identi-screen. Cindy punched in a two and palmed the screen. Then Jake added his palm. When the door opened there were two transparent spheres sitting at the boarding platform. Which could have held up to four such pods. An upper section of each pod was swung open like a hinge. Inside each pod there was a single chair.
Jake gestured at the rear pod and climbed into the one in front. As soon as they were both seated, Jake pushed a button and both pods closed. They were enveloped in gentle restraining force fields. Then in quick succession the pods went hurtling through a long tubular tunnel. Thirty seconds later they arrived at their destination platform. They had been moving so quickly that even Jake almost missed noticing that there had been a few junctions with tunnels going someplace else. The existence of which didn't really surprise him however, because it explained why they actually had to input a destination code to use the transit pods.
“When we go back, can we maybe just take a jeep?” Cindy asked as they stepped out of the pods.
Jake chuckled.
The pod access door closed behind them. The panel with the identi-screen also had a couple of large slots. That Cindy thought resembled a cross between a canned soda dispenser and the envelope deposit slot at her bank's ATM.
“Welcome to Micronic Enterprises, Research and Development,” a mechanical voice said. “All visitors are required to wear their entry log pass while on premises. Log entry: Jake Peterson. Log entry: Cindy Kincade.” As the mechanical voice said each name a plastic badge dispensed into a slot. “Your scheduled destination has been encoded on your pass. The back of which will provide navigational instruction.”
Each ‘pass’ was a quarter inch thick plastic rectangle measuring two by three inches. Each was attached to a strong fabric clip by a spring loaded retracting cord. The passes had very good likenesses of their faces on the front. The backs were actually electronic display screens.
The screen's initial display read. ‘Hold pass horizontal to the floor, this side up.’ When Cindy held hers horizontally, the display changed to ‘Go through 2 doors. Then turn right.’ There was also an arrow pointing at the corridor access doors. Below this display there was the instruction, ‘To request spoken directions or other help, just squeeze a corner of the pass and ask for it.’
The inner door to the corridor access chamber opened and Cindy followed Jake inside. As soon as the inner door slid shut, the outer door opened.
“I think my feet can find the way,” Jake said. “But if I'm wrong, it's nice to know that these passes will tell us how to get there. Lets go!”
When Jake stopped at an elevator door, Cindy checked the back of her pass. The directions said to: ‘Take elevator to the 15th floor.’ Instead of a call button, this elevator had an identi-screen. Jake palmed it and the door opened. It closed again as soon as they were inside.
“Welcome, your programmed destination is on the 15th floor,” a mechanical voice said. “To override, select alternate floor with the elevator control buttons.”
As the voice was speaking, the elevator began to move. Cindy noticed that according to the control panel, there were 25 floors and 4 basement levels. Then she noticed that it was already going up before the lowest basement level button glowed briefly with an amber light as the elevator passed it on it's way to the 15th floor. Then the other three basement level's buttons did the same. As did the buttons for floors 1 through 14. Then the 15th floor's button glowed green as the elevator stopped and the door opened.
“I think it's this way,” Jake said as they stepped off the elevator.
Cindy followed him without comment.
“Welcome to my nightmare,” Sandra joked when her lab door admitted them. Then she continued in a more serious tone of voice. “I'm glad your here. Please have a seat.”
She gestured towards a round table with four chairs that was near the door. The only other furniture in the room was a desk with a computer terminal and a tall lab table. The main feature of the room was that one wall was covered with unusual looking doors.
“I hope your both ready for this,” Sandra said after they were all seated.
“I've got a special process all preprogrammed for you Jake,” she continued. “But I'll need to double check a few things before I initialize it. Then, while your so occupied, I've got some plans for Cindy.”
“What do you mean, ‘double check’?” Jake inquired.
“Well for starters, are you willing to endure a series of virtual reality sequences, while hooked up to some interactive biofeedback devices?” Sandra didn't wait for an answer before she continued. “I should warn you some of the VR sequences will briefly be unpleasant for you.”
“If that's what it takes,” Jake said with a shrug. “I just want to get this problem to stop.”
“Good!” Sandra said. “Now the way this works, I'm going to hook you up to the multi-sensual feedback system of one of my VR chambers. The first part of the sequence will be a short multi-scenario simulation to get some base line recordings. Then there will be a series of biofeedback calibrations where you will be subjected to some preprogrammed biofeedback impulses and asked to try to gently push back against a selection of them. Those will be followed by some more intense simulations. Then there will be some more biofeedback sequences, and so on. By the end of the session you should have better control over the effect your nanites have on others. And I should have enough data to design some effective special purpose filters to modify the effect of your nano-pheromones on some of us.”
“Only some of us?” Cindy inquired.
“Yes, only some of us,” Sandra explained. “Because they can only modify, not actually stop, the effects of Jake's nano-pheromones. That is to say, that the filters can't quite stop Jake from accidentally triggering an orgy. But they can ensure that a strongly heterosexual girl, such as myself, doesn't start getting the hots for girls in the process. I should be able to do something like that for you too Cindy. It won't block your natural attraction to Stephanie but should prevent Jake's preferences from causing you to get the hots for other women. On the other hand, neither Jess nor Stephanie need one. Because Jake's natural inclinations are not likely to mess with their personal preferences.”
“What about Sam?” Cindy asked. “I'm thinking he might be a special challenge.”
“Yes he just might be at that,” Sandra replied. “I noticed that you upgraded his security access yesterday Jake. I couldn't see why.”
“He was going to have to wait outside the transport pod room while Jess explained it to us,” Jake replied. “I was also testing my authority to make certain changes at Hillside. Is that a problem?”
“No, not really,” Sandra replied. “In Sam's case I don't see it as a problem. But do be careful, there are some good reasons we don't give such nuclear access to the whole staff.”
As she watched Sandra back out of the biofeedback-pod she had just tucked Jake into, Cindy wondered if she was ready for what Sandra had in store for her.
“You pose a bit of a quandary for me,” Sandra told her. “You know that don't you Cindy?” Then she continued without waiting for an answer. “The fact that this past week hasn't reduced you to absolute hysteria, tells me one of two things. Either you figure your just having a long bad dream so none of it really matters. Or your a stronger person than most.
I'm inclined to think your a strong woman. But I'm not so sure Jake has thought out what I'm going to have to do for you. You see Jake is on his way to becoming a ‘very’ powerful man. But with that power comes a danger. Some enemy might try to get to Jake through you. And I can't let that happen. So I'm going to have to make you nearly as powerful as you are strong. I can teach you to use special purpose nano-tools to do many of the things that Jake can.
I would advocate that you learn about the physical advantages Stephanie has via her category two nano-augmentation. And find out what Jess's category one does for him. Sooner or later, Jake will undoubtedly offer you a chance to be so augmented. But in the mean time, I'd like to teach you how to use some of my toys. And as it happens I've got a lot of that knowledge, packed in a sort of speed learning form of the biofeedback device I've hooked Jake up to.”
“Speed learning?” Cindy inquired. “Sort of?”
“Well it's actually a kind of memory transfer,” Sandra explained. “The biofeedback pod will implant a synthetic memory that you will then be able to draw upon.”
“But Jake said it wasn't safe to transfer someone else's memories!” Cindy exclaimed.
“That's direct implantation of someone else's memory,” Sandra replied. “But you see, a synthetic memory is a collection of non-personalized data, that the biofeedback pod will use your own mind to file away. The data retention rate isn't 100 percent this way, but it's very safe.”
Cindy didn't quite see but she had started to trust Sandra. So she just nodded.
“After a half dozen or so sessions,” Sandra continued. “You should know enough for us to discus what nano-toys you'd like to play with. Each session will last about 3 hours. And you will need to get some sleep between sessions if your going to retain what you got in the previous session. Now I'm sure you have some questions. I'll answer some of them first if you like. But really the first session will answer most of those better than I could. After that I'll be able to give you answers that make sense to you. Can the questions wait?”
“Yes, I suppose they can,” Cindy said after she thought about it for a couple seconds. “But I expect you to set aside the time to give me lots of answers right afterward.”
“Deal!” said Sandra as she opened the access door to an empty biofeedback pod. “Jake should be in there for at least another five hours Cindy. So we'll have at least two hours to talk about it. And if you should run out of questions, we can always talk about Jake's problems.”
Afterwards Cindy wasn't quite sure just what happened in the pod. It was somewhere between reading about mostly boring stuff and watching a documentary on the same stuff. Yet she felt like she'd had some hands on training with all the important parts. She didn't really have many questions left. She also had a better understanding of what had happened to Jake. Which led to her being curious about why Steve himself had bothered with a voice command system to interact with the house computer.
“I don't know if you know how it came about that Steve set me up with command trigger and closer keywords for the house computer Sandra,” Cindy began. “But the thing is, if I understand the stuff I just learned in that pod it doesn't make any sense to me that Steve would bother with using it's voice command system that way when his nanites should be just as capable of directly interfacing with it as Jess's category one augmentation is supposed to be able to. Can you explain that?”
“Well I can't really say why Steve chose to do it that way Cindy,” Sandra explained. “But I can tell you that having set himself up with that kind of access makes it easier for him to let someone, who doesn't know about his nanites, notice the interaction. And while it isn't likely to happen, there are a few things the guild doesn't advertise that could cause a nanosymbiont to go offline. In which case having a voice command account to the house computer could be very useful.”
Then they spent the better part of an hour talking about Jake and his problems. Eventually the talk got around to sexual issues and her impending date to get it on with Sam while Jake watched.
“You can expect Sam to find a way to ring your bell girl,” Sandra proclaimed. “But I'm not so sure i
t's going to be a good idea for Jake to watch that right after his biofeedback session.”
“Why's that?” Cindy inquired.
“Well I didn't know about that date when I programmed his session,” Sandra explained. “And there were certain details that I need to know in order to make Sam's filter work. To get them I had included some virtual reality sequences that Jake won't like at all. It isn't very likely that he will be in a mood to be anywhere near a naked bisexual who...”
She was interrupted by an alarm sound coming from the biofeedback pod Jake was in. The door had a series of flashing red and amber lights on it.
“Emergency alert!” a mechanical voice from the intercom said. “Biofeedback systems overload detected. Isolating pod systems from central computer. Danger! Pod containment systems failing. BZZzzK”
There were sparks and smoke coming from the control panel next to the pod door. The door itself suddenly tuned white hot and melted away. Then the lights went out. There was too much smoke pouring out of the pod for the emergency lighting to illuminate the lab very well. There was however a bright irregular glow coming from the inside of the smoke filled pod. That light flashed brightly as both the sidewalls on Jake's pod suddenly exploded sideways through the neighboring pods, all of which were reduced to piles of smoking junk at either end of the room.
In the now otherwise empty space between the two debris piles Cindy saw Jake, like she had never seen him before. He was standing, stark naked, in the center of the area that used to contain his pod. A shimmering glow of light enveloped his body. His facial expression was enough to tell Cindy that he was more angry than she had ever seen him before. He began screaming at Sandra. His words were at first replicated by a mechanical voice that came from the rooms intercom until it burned out from some kind of electrical overload.
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