Counting Up To Infinity

by Allen Fleishman

  David nodded, “The Kleins, like you, are very well compensated for the accident. As Martin implied, despite all of our safeguards, his heart attack caused the accident. However, the good news is that Corey and the baby are fine. We’ve since put in safeguards so that type of accident will never occur again.”

  “I am a professional, and I’m not a blackmailer. You don’t need to buy my silence.” Marie put her hand out to return the check.

  “Well you can look at it in two ways. You took round-the-clock, excellent care of Corey and Dee, for the last two months. If you were a plumber and put in 57 24-hour days, how much would the bill be? This is a valid paycheck for you. I also heard that you needed and deserved a helping hand from your church. No, this is for you to keep.”

  Marie fought back tears and left. She continued to hold her check as she left.

  ***

  Martin and Corey sat at the company cafeteria. They were holding hands. Dee was in a carrier to one side, peaking around. Martin let go and turned his and Corey’s earphone off. Their phones had working on-off switches. He intertwined his fingers with Corey’s again.

  “Do you believe that HE can’t eavesdrop on us?”

  “Oh, heaven’s no. At least he knows that it’s wrong when we deliberately turn it off. Can’t eavesdrop – certainly not. Won’t eavesdrop – likely.”

  They were looking deeply into each other’s eyes. “Well? Dee we, or Dee we not? That is the question.” Martin grinned.

  Corey glanced at the baby. “Her cranial bones are coming in fast. If we’re going to do it, we need to do it soon. Would you do it anyway, say when she was older, say at 16?”

  “Yes, I guess so. Professors Schwartzman and Fledger will have it commonplace by then.”

  “So, it’s now a question of not if, but when? Do we want her exceptional or just above average?”

  Martin shrugged, “Yes, it does come to that. Do we want her being the leader of the pack or just one of the many?”

  “You know, that isn’t a fair question to ask a mother. Perhaps the question should be: do I want her at the front with the big target on her? David and Phyllis were almost killed by those terrorists.”

  Martin nodded, “That too. But not because of being computer enhanced. And the computer enabled us to save them.”

  Corey frowned, “You know, I’ve always been bit scared of David. He knows everything. Especially everything I’ve done. So would Dee.” Corey looked to one side, “Hmmm, the first black female President?”

  “You know, you are as much a Black as you are a Chinese or a Cherokee or a Caucasian.”

  “Not in this culture. But, back to Dee. When David is unmasked and you’ve seen the projections, she’s going to be put under a microscope anyway. ‘Hung for a lion as for a lamb.’” Corey paused for a moment, and then said, “Let’s do it.”

  “Ha, ha, I was just waiting to see how long it would take you to cave-in. I knew you were going to do it all along. OK, I’ll call up Janet and Sid. They can get that new sheath from Josh and we can do it. We won’t embed it yet into her chest cavity, but wait until she’s older, like Josh. We can also re-install our own new computers.”

  ***

  Early November both Martin and Corey returned to Jamaica. The Jamaican surgeons practiced on a number of dogs. Sidney and Janet with the assistance of the other surgeons implanted Martin and Corey with a replacement computer. David discovered that their old memories were intact in the diamond within their old computers. He was able to download their old hard drive memory into their new computers.

  Later that month, the Jamaican surgeon did their first solo human implants on the Schwartzmans and the Fledgers. The Jamaican surgeons were supervised by the Kleins and Ryans.

  Year 22.3 I’m Dee’s Big Brother

  Dionne Elizabeth Klein’s operation was completed a week after Corey’s. Little Dionne soon was lost in her virtual world. David started his new proactive program. Dee was learning very fast, surprisingly so.

  ***

  David: Dad, do you have a minute free?

  Martin: A minute, sure.

  David: Dad, tell me what number you see?

  David presented a scene from a movie to his father. David flashed a number which only lasted a few frames. When the number was flashed for at least four thousandths of a second Martin was able to see it.

  David: Thanks Dad.

  David did the same thing with Corey, Janet, Phyllis and Joshua. The people who were treated with Panacea were able to see things much faster than the homo sapiens.

  When he next saw his father he asked, “Dad, could I play a silly game with you?” His father appeared to be in his late teens. The grey hairs all had brown roots and thick new hair had appearing on his upper forehead. His skin was also free of laugh lines.

  His father cocked his head, “What’s up?”

  David said, “An experiment.” David put his hands out palm up and said, “I’m going to try to slap your hands, if I win, I do it again, if you win, you get to slap my hands.”

  Martin raised his eyebrow and smiled, “OK”. Martin gently put his hand lightly over David’s hands. David twitched his fingers, moved them an eighth of an inch then tried to turn them over and slap his father’s hands. They weren’t there. Martin smiled, and put his hands flat palm up, when David touched them Martin had already slapped his hands. Martin grinned and put his hands back down. David lightly touched them. Martin tensed his fingertips and David jerked his hands up. Martin smiled and gestured for David to put them back. David complied. Martin slapped his hands again.

  Nursing his hand, David shook his head from side to side. “Dad, your reflexes are eight to twenty three times faster than mine. I’m pretty sure it’s the Panacea.” Looking down at his red hand, “and your fingertips are like steel whips.”

  ***

  David: Joshua, how’s it going?

  Joshua: Rough, I get these high compression squirts of input from Dee. I then slowed them down and tried to process it, when I’d get another squirt, and then a third. I can’t keep up.

  David: OK. I’ll take over. I did an experiment with Dad. I think Dee has a much faster brain than we do. I think up to twenty three times faster. That might explain the squirts.

  Joshua: Do you mean that Homo Mod 2 will be following Moore’s Law?

  David: Mod 2? Don’t be silly?

  Joshua: So, who’s joking?

  David: You’re working on a Mod 2 already? You’re not happy with Mod 1?

  Joshua: I’m happy, but it doesn’t have to be a wetware modification. … You know how the brain does most of its work in parallel. How we can walk, have a heart beat, breathe, chew gum, and catch a parabolic flying Frisbee all at the same time?

  David: Yeah.

  Joshua: I got the feeling that Dee is doing that with her conscious thoughts. I think she can think of more than one thing at a time.

  David: You might be right. What did you do today with her?

  Joshua: Just following the syllabus. I activated her visual field with different types of trees, with a hint of a breeze and the smell of fresh air and then said the specific name of the tree. The breeze and air were my touches. I then opened up the reference to that tree in her library making it available to her. She then deluged me with hundreds of different types of trees. She only got one wrong, a bush from China. She then slammed me with over 2,000 different types of bushes. Nevertheless, here’s the strange part.

  David: She’s a smart kid for a five month old.

  Joshua: But the strange part is that the bush part of her hard drive was not available to her.

  David: Huh? You never opened it up? It was still encrypted?

  Joshua: Do ya think she cracked your encryption?

  David: Nooo. That’s a 200 byte key encryption.

  Joshua: OK Mister Smarty Pants. How did she do it then? You think Co
rey just happened to show her pictures of the Peruvian Scarlet Bush, ‘Hamelia erecta’, then? Or do you think she’s cracked the lock on the inter-computer wireless connection too? I mean she knows how to send messages electronically to all of us. But it’s like a primitive man making the leap from turning on a light switch to inventing television.

  David: At this point, I’m not willing to put anything past her. I know she’s much smarter than me, as least she clearly demonstrates that potential. … Well, wish me luck, I’m going in now.

  David transmitted an image of a sunrise at nineteen times normal speed, rising above the New York City skyscrapers. The image faded. It was followed by a picture of a smiling David looking fondly over at Dee.

  A series of pictures assailed David’s attention. He put them into his memory and replayed them at a lower rate. The image showed David with a dark background. The image shrunk then bounced on the floor a few times to eventually bounce into a hole. An image of Joshua then appeared in the background. Dee appeared with arms outstretched. Joshua’s image rapidly entered the foreground and picked Dee up. The face of Dee turned from Josh to face David and looked sternly at him. Dee shook her head and said “NO”. A few more squirts were sent to David with roughly the same message: David should go away and bring back Joshua.

  Martin: Dionne Elizabeth Klein. You are to listen to David NOW. Joshua can’t play now.

  Dee: NO.

  Martin (to David): I’m sorry son, I’m at my wit’s end. I’m not sure what I can do. I can’t put her in time out. She’d just do some virtual activity. I can’t spank her, I mean she’d just block those input. I’m not sure what to do.

  Corey: Any ideas David?

  David: I can’t come up with anything either. I’ll try to be more patient.

  David went through a series of relaxation exercises on himself and then took a few cleansing breaths. Dee had been getting more and more forceful in wanting Joshua, only Joshua.

  David showed a picture of Joshua walking into his room and laying down on his bed. Then David presented a picture of himself walking into Dee’s room, picking her up, and playing patty-cakes.

  Dee repeated her previous message another six times. The squirts appeared right after one another. Then Dee sent an image of Joshua walking into the kitchen grabbing a juice. This image of Joshua looked real-time. The next image appeared of Josh putting the drink down and picking Dee up again. This squirt was replayed four times.

  David, looking though Joshua’s eyes, noticed that he actually was in the kitchen. The only camera available was either on Joshua’s body or on Hilda. Neither could have been the image that Dee had sent. In the first case, Dee’s image was actually looking at Joshua and there was no mirror in the kitchen, and Hilda’s view would have been looking up. The one Dee sent was roughly at Joshua’s eye level. There was no camera that could have picked Joshua up, but Dee had.

  David: Did you just send Dee an update of an image of you drinking juice?

  Joshua: Nope. You seeing strange impossible things too?

  David transmitted to Dee, he shook his head no, then quietly said “no … later”. The image was followed by David playing with Dee, a bunch of images being sent back and forth between David and Dee, then an image of Joshua walking toward Dee. A countdown timer was locked in place. It was counting down the minutes and seconds from two-hours.

  Dee shot back the timer counting down from one minute.

  David’s image of one hour and fifty-nine minutes and fifty-one seconds.

  Dee immediately sent back a one-hour timer.

  David sent back the image on one hour and fifty-nine minutes and forty-four seconds.

  An image of Dee, glaring pure anger and hatred, appeared followed by an image of David writhing in pain, and David heard “NO” repeated continuously. David gulped. Hell hath no fury, like a ‘five month old who wants her playmate’ scorned’. David inwardly reeled from this tantrum. ‘Time for a new plan.’ David sent Dee an image of David giving Dee a pretty flower, then picking her up to walk outside. He did this as he entered her room.

  The room was all in pastel greens and pinks. The walls were covered with wallpaper of gentle animals and the alphabet near the ceiling. It had a crib to one side. The crib’s gate had been lowered. When Dee was three months old, Martin had seen her standing and trying to get out. Corey and Martin lowered the gate and taught their daughter how to climb out safely. Dee quickly mastered climbing.

  David approached the crib. Dee was still glaring at him as she stood there. Although the girl was born a number of months premature and was chronologically only 5 months old, she physically looked like a year-old. Her hair fell down to her shoulders in a permanent cascade of shimmering loose brown ringlets. She was wearing a peach coverall. Her light brown eyes were still drawing daggers at David as they followed his approach. Her lower lip was gripped by her teeth. David said, “Would you like to walk outside?” He sent an image of them walking to a weeping willow tree outside in a wet corner of Martin’s half-acre lot.

  Dee nodded yes, although she was still scowling.

  When David started to reach down to her, Dee scampered over the railing and onto the floor. She ran to the rear door. David followed. He sent her a picture of the outside thermometer with the current temperature, then a picture of a coat. It was 57 degrees out. Dee shook her head “No”.

  David sent an image/feeling of a wet diaper. Dee responded with a dry diaper image/feeling. Then she sent a few squirts of David opening the back door. David sighed and opened the door. Hilda exited first, nuzzling Dee out of her way.

  Dee toddled - ran to the short staircase that went down from the wooden porch. She put her left hand up onto the railing. David reached down and held onto her other hand. Dee descended the stairs. David then picked her up and placed her back on the top/third step. He took both of her hands and, like a swing, let her jump down / swing to the bottom. David shouted “Whee”. For the first time that day, Dee smiled. Her shout of “More” was followed by the image of her being swung by David again. David complied. David repeated that four more times, then in one fluid motion, swung her on top of his shoulders. He let go as he sent an image of her to hold onto his head, which she had already done. David started running around the yard. Dee repeatedly squirted an image for him to do it even faster. David sent an image of him morphing into a huge bull with Dee transformed into a pair of peach horns on top of the bull. David charged, stopped short, and then charged again. On each charge, he sent Dee an image of Dee’s horns tossing a huge troll forty feet into the air. He finally came to a weeping willow at the back of Martin’s property. David regained his breath as he mentally transmitted, “Weeping Willow Tree”. He was huffing as he leaned against the tree for a rest. He opened the image of Dee’s library for the tree. He then showed a picture of a seed, the seed-image was placed into the ground as it grew to a sapling then to a full sized flowering weeping willow. David then swung Dee down to the floor of the low hanging branches. She was almost hidden by the canopy of leaves.

  Dee lowered her hands in mock imitation of the tree.

  David waited as two minutes passed. He finally sent her a “??”

  Dee flashed an image of her soaking up the warm sunlight onto her ‘green’ skin. David checked her temperature and her autonomic signs, but she wasn’t cold despite not having a coat. He smiled. He stood there waiting for her to get bored, while he passed the time attending to his office work. Ten minutes later Dee broke her rigid stance and searched the floor until she found a seed from the tree. She looked at it for a few moments then picked a second, and then a third. She carefully examined the three and re-selected the second. She turned to David. “Can you grow a tree?”

  “OK”

  David swung her onto his shoulders and raced toward the house. They butted three bears out of their virtual path. In the house, David found some potting s
oil, a small pot, and some newspaper. He put the pot on top of the paper on the floor of the kitchen. He then gave Dee a spoon to put the dirt into the pot. She dipped the spoon into the soil, with a little mental guidance from David, and put the dirt into the pot. David watched as she filled the pot three-quarters up. “Now put the seed in the middle and push it down a half inch.” This was followed by the image of what she was supposed to do. She put the seed into the dirt. “Now let’s add the water.” David got a glass of water that he half filled with tap water. Dee took the glass in both hands and added the water very carefully. “That was a very good job.” He looked down at the five-month-old toddler and beamed a warm happy image to her. She beamed back. David picked up the pot and placed it on the kitchen windowsill next to the other plants. He picked up a pen and wrote ‘Dee’s Tree’ as he said the same thing aloud. Dee nodded and said “Its name is Chee’our’i”. David wrote down ‘Cherry’.

  ***

  Martin: David I’m so sorry this happened.

  David: The doctor said it should be like new … in a few months. The complex fracture of the ulna and radius will need to have a cast on it for a while. Fortunately, I don’t need it to type or drive. Phyl will need to cut my food, that’s all. I’m more concerned with Dee.

  Martin: I saw what happened from your and Hilda’s prospective. I’m concerned too. Especially that shot of her smiling as she deliberately squeezed your forearm.

  David: Yeah, she knew what she was doing. She squeezed until she heard the crack, then gave it one more squeeze. I think we need to do something. If she uses that Homo Mod One strength on anyone who disagrees with her, then …

  Martin: I know, I know. I agree. But we can’t put her in time-out. She’d just bide her time with her virtual world, no real punishment there.

  David: I have an idea. During the middle ages, they couldn’t punish the princes and princesses, so what they did was punish their playmates, hence the term, whipping boy. We can’t punish her, but you can speak to her, play back the attack, and take away Cherry.

  Martin: She certainly is attached to that plant. But punish her by taking away her pet plant?