Fixer 13
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Jayne fanned the cards he had given her. They were identical to the cards he showed her. “They are called Zener Cards, named after the man who invented them—Karl Zener. They were originally used to measure psychic ability. They are rarely used for that specific purpose alone, but in conjunction with a connectome scan, they can be…” he paused, “informative. I will shuffle these cards, pick one from the pile and set it face down on this video scanner. I will not look at it. You will try to match my card by placing a card from your hand face up on the table. I will record your card and the video scanner will record the object card. I will not look at the object card. We will continue for 10 trials. Do you have any questions?”
“Yes. Will you tell me if I make correct guesses?” asked Jayne.
“Perhaps I will tell you later. I won’t know until after all the tests are over,” he said. He reached and put the skull cap on Jayne. He adjusted a few controls and the skull cap warmed on Jayne’s head. He pulled a cantilevered table over the chair so she could place her cards on it. “Ready?”
She wiggled to get comfortable and the chair reformed itself to her new position. She wiggled again and again the chair responded. She nodded.
The doctor took a card from his pile and placed it on the scanner. She smiled and grabbed the wiggly line picture from her pile and snapped it down on the table in front of her.
“My ‘wiggly lines’ beat your card, whatever it is,” she said with a giggle.
The doctor recorded this on his MED VID. He repeated his actions after a short shuffle.
Jayne responded with, “Gin, I win,” and another giggle as she snapped down the square on the table.
The doctor looked at her and said, “Gin?”
Jayne said, “It is a card game.”
He shrugged.
Jayne mumbled under her breath, “Don’t get out much, do you!”
The test continued for 10 trials. During and after each of Jayne’s guesses, the skull cap scanners buzzed about her head. Finally it was finished.
“Good,” said the doctor. “We have to do this three more times under three different conditions. There will be three different senders. Those are entities that will see or know the cards you are trying to match. First will be the MAIU (Medical Artificial Intelligence Unit), second will be my assistant, Millie, and third will be an unknown sender. Do you understand?”
Jayne nodded.
“I would like you to be a little more serious this time though. No more giggles.”
The doctor attended to his MED VID and the window video screen displayed the following:
Zener Test 2 —Computer Sender
ID—Wu F 302875106592253
Name—Wu, Jayne Esther
Class—Fixer
Touch to Start
“Are you ready?” he asked.
Jayne nodded.
He touched the screen and the MAIU responded orally, “I am sending the first card. Please choose one card from the five Zener Cards you have in front of you that you think matches the card I am sending.”
“Is that AIU going to say that whole line for each of the ten trials?” asked Jayne.
“The MAIU has the latest AI programming. It can pretty much answer that itself,” said the doctor.
“Jayne, if I understand the intent of your question, you feel it would get tedious for me to continue in formal testing mode and would rather I choose a colloquial format,” said the MAIU.
“Yes, I just don’t want to spend my life in here,” answered Jayne.
“Yes, time is important. Are you ready to continue or would you like me to choose a new first card to send?” the MAIU asked.
“No, the one you have is fine,” said Jayne, as she snapped the card with wiggly lines onto the table. The scanners on her head buzzed and roamed over the surface.
“Is that your final choice?” the MAIU asked.
“Yes, it is my final response,” snapped Jayne.
The doctor recorded her response.
The MAIU said, “Card two.”
Jayne immediately flipped over a square and began to tap her fingers on the table in front of her.
The doctor recorded the response.
The MAIU said, “Card three.”
Jayne chose the wiggly lines again.
The doctor interjected, “Ms. Wu, you must take this seriously. You are not even concentrating.”
The MAIU spoke up.
“Dr. Thermonson, I don’t think it is a matter of concentration. Please let us continue. Card four.”
Jayne flipped over her response. This continued at a fast pace and was soon complete. Ten cards were chosen by the MAIU and ten of Jayne’s responses were recorded by the doctor, followed by frenzied buzzing of the recording units on the skull cap on Jayne’s head. No one knew the accuracy of her responses at this time, except perhaps the MAIU. Jayne did not even ask.
The MAIU spoke. “The test is now complete. Goodbye.”
The video screen turned back into a window. A small blonde woman entered, carrying a chair. She set the chair in the corner of the room in front of a small table, looked at Jayne, smiled and said, “My name is Millie and I will send for the third part of the test.”
Jayne nodded.
“Do you need a drink of water or anything before we start?” asked Millie.
Jayne shook her head.
The woman turned and sat in the chair facing into the corner, took out a MED VID and a set of Zener Cards. “So as not to influence your choices, I cannot see your cards. They will be recorded by Dr. Thermonson and the cards I choose will be recorded by me into this MED VID. No one will know what you have chosen until all the tests are completed. If you are ready we will start.”
Jayne nodded, then said, “Yes, Millie, I am ready.” The buzzing of the skull cap scanners was becoming irritating.
“I am sending card one.”
Jayne flipped a card over almost before Millie finished the sentence. “Done,” she called out.
The cards were recorded. The process continued at a fast pace until they completed card seven.
Jayne raised her hand.
The doctor responded with, “Yes, Jayne.”
Jayne asked, “May I borrow that for a moment?” She pointed at the stylus that was in the breast pocket of his lab coat.
He shrugged and gave it to her.
Jayne quickly glanced at the five cards in her hand. She chose three of them, flipped them face down in front of her and wrote the numbers 8, 9 and 10 on the back of them. Her skull cap sensors were madly zooming over its surface as she did so. She looked up and said, “Please flip the card that corresponds to the question number Millie is going to send.”
“That is not how this test is run,” said the doctor. “Please concentrate and follow protocol.”
Jayne, feeling contrary, simply folded her arms and closed her eyes. The scanners on her skull cap slowed down and stopped. It was quiet in the room.
Dr. Thermonson sighed, shook his head and asked Millie to continue.
“I am sending card eight,” said Millie.
Dr. Thermonson flipped the card with an 8 on the back and recorded it.
Millie recorded her card and said, “I am sending card nine.”
The process continued until all cards were sent and recorded. The skull cap sensors remained quiet throughout the last three cards.
“Alright, Jayne,” said the doctor, “we have one more sequence. We will use the window video screen to inform you when the sender has started. You may choose your card after and you may not do again what you just did. Is that understood? You must respect the process.”
Jayne rolled her eyes and nodded.
He turned to Millie and said, “Get the sender ready.”
She exited just as the window video screen displayed the information as before.
“Who is the sender?” asked Jayne.
“Miss Wu, you will not be told that information. Please, let us finish the test,” the doctor said with an exasperated sigh.
The video screen displayed, ‘Sending card one.’
Jayne picked up the cards, fanned them out on the table and stared at them. She tapped her fingers impatiently. The skull cap scanners buzzed over her head. She looked up at the doctor. “Is this a trick?” she asked.
“No trick. Why do you ask?” queried the doctor.
“YOU really didn’t set this up?” she asked again. She thought of the dark-haired boy. Ranovich 91 was on the flier. This was something he would do. “Well, somebody thinks it is funny to… never mind. Let’s go.”
She flipped over the card with the ‘O’ symbol and sat back and stretched her hands out in front of her, inverting her intertwined fingers. Her knuckles cracked. The scanners stopped.
The video screen displayed, ‘Sending card two’. Jayne pointed at the ‘O’ symbol. The doctor recorded her answer.
“I know a way we could save a little time here.”
“How could we save some time, Miss Wu?” asked the doctor with an exasperated tone.
“Just put that symbol,” she pointed at the ‘O’ symbol face up on the table, “for all of the answers.”
“Miss Wu, please, please proceed through the process properly,” he sighed and shrugged and gestured with his hands.
“OK,” said Jayne. The video screen displayed, ‘Sending card three.’
Jayne pointed at ‘O’ symbol.
The video screen displayed, ‘Sending card four.’
Jayne pointed at ‘O’ symbol.
This continued for the remaining seven cards. According to Jayne, every card that was sent was an ‘O’ symbol. The scanners remained silent. When they were finished the doctor left the room and Millie came into the room and removed the skull cap and sensor apparatus from her head. Jayne got out of the chair and stretched.
The doctor returned and spoke to Millie. “I am sorry, Millie, but an additional test has be ordered. Would you please reconnect the skull cap?”
“But, Doctor, there have been no additional tests ordered for this subject,” she said, checking her MED VID.
“Just do what I say, Millie,” he ordered. The doctor turned to Jayne. “We have one more test. You will be given a set of cards and you will send to an unknown subject. The procedure will be the same for this subject as it was for you. Do you understand?” he asked.
Jayne nodded. “Who is it?” she asked.
“Who is it?” the doctor queried what she meant by her question.
“Who is the subject. To whom am I sending the card image?” asked Jayne formally. “I can’t send something to the ether. I need to know the receiver.”
“I am afraid you will just have to envision the card and not worry about the identity of the receiving subject,” stated the doctor flatly. “Here are the cards.” He handed her a set of Zener Cards. “The MAIU will tell you when to start and when to stop. I will not be in this room.”
The doctor walked out of the room and the MAIU started up.
“Millie,” the MAIU spoke softly, “would you please make some adjustments to the skull cap? I am not getting a recognition signal from scanner three.”
Millie adjusted the cap and connections on Jayne’s head.
“Thank you. I have a signal. Now, Jayne, would you please choose a card and concentrate,” said the MAIU, as Millie exited the room.
Jayne picked up one of the cards and looked at it.
“This won’t work unless I think about the person to whom I am sending this picture,” said Jayne flatly. “I am just going to choose someone.” She looked at the card with the star and thought of Ranovich 91, the boy from the bean bag game and the flier. She concentrated on the boy in the other room. She smiled, relaxed, squinted her eyes and concentrated harder on the picture. She imagined it as a solid object travelling through space, one point stretching out like an arrow and whizzing to the mind of Ranovich 91. She felt it land right where she aimed. She felt the scanners buzzing like maddened hornets on the skull cap. She heard a scream from outside her small room. The scream was followed by a series of moans and she heard the words ‘make it stop’ and ‘it is hurting me’ and someone crying with pain. There were footsteps running to the source of the crying. She stopped and sat up just as Millie ran into the room and quickly removed the skull cap from Jayne’s head.
The other room was silent. Jayne sat up just as the doctor entered the room, removing a scanner skull cap from his head. He looked at Jayne with fear in his eyes. “That’s all for today. You may return to your quarters in HUB…” he glanced down at his VID, “169.”
“What was all the screaming about?” asked Jayne. “It sounded like a torture chamber.”
“That is none of your concern. All testing is now over,” he stated sharply.
“So that’s it. No feedback on how I did with your guessing game,” Jayne taunted.
“Don’t be so arrogant. You know damn well how you did. You got them all correct. You were correct on the last 10. They were all the same. Not my idea by the way. We will set up another appointment after the scan data has been analyzed. Now go!” he ordered.
Jayne turned to leave and then turned back. “I can’t read minds, you know. It is just luck. I am lucky, really lucky. That is just the way it is. I just know what it will be—whatever it is—and I am usually right. I have kinda learned to trust my luck.”
The doctor said, “Be careful trusting luck. It is my experience that luck is not to be trusted. It is rather fickle.” He walked out of the room.
Millie escorted Jayne out of the room. Jayne turned and glanced over to where the dark-haired boy had been sitting. The chair was now empty.