Version Innocent

by Pete Molina

Chapter 7

  It was quiet and peaceful. She felt warm and comfortable. It was like she was floating on a cloud. She began to hear the whispering of the wind. At first there was no time, then the whispering began to take a form that she recognized as pattern and time sense began to return. The whispering became louder and she felt that she could almost understand it. That was funny, one couldn't understand the wind. She tried to ignore the wind and continue to float, contented. The wind however continued to become louder and even though she didn't want to hear it, she did. She wasn't thinking clearly yet, and she didn't care. The whispering continued for what seemed like hours, but she knew later that it was only a few minutes. Then all at once the whispering resolved in to words, intruding on her solitude.

  “Ms. Gates, Ms. Gates, can you hear me. Ms. Gates...I think she's starting to come around, Doctor. Ms. Gates, this is Wendy, your nurse, can you hear me?” Some one spoke.

  For a few more seconds she was confused, and then she realized where she was. She was in restoration, and was being awakened. She didn't remember much yet, but she tried to speak. “I hear you.” Terra said, but the words mingled together and it came out, “Learu” She was disappointed that she couldn't control her voice well enough yet to make it understandable.

  “Good, Ms. Gates, I heard you...don't worry if your speech is somewhat slurred. It will take a little time to adapt to your new body. Just be patient, please,” Nurse Wendy said cheerfully. Then she spoke to the doctor. “She's doing very well. She should make a full recovery in a few hours.

  The doctor responded with an “um hum”. Terra was glad that she was going to recover quickly.

  “Wahpend?” Terra spoke, as she did she tried to move.

  “Oh, please don't try to move yet, Ms. Gates, you’re still in fog suspension until the final motor controls are established. It shouldn't be long now, and then you'll get to talk with Dr. Warran who can answer any of your questions.

  Consciousness was sharpening quickly, her mind was pulling itself back together. She remembered now why she didn't get restored too often. It was never a totally pleasant experience, despite the benefits once it was complete. She tried to think of what she was doing just before she was backed up, but the memories were still incomprehensible. They would come back, she remembered; it just took a while. It was something to do with long and short-term memories. Long term returned first, then some short term, but the last ten or twenty minutes never came back, they were too new to be encoded into a physical structure yet. She continued to try anyway for a few minutes, but it couldn't be forced. It was then that she began to feel her body again.

  “Okay, Ms. Gates, my monitors say that the connections are complete. Can you please try to open your eyes? Don't worry, the lights have been dimmed, so it won't hurt much,” The nurse said. Terra obeyed. She opened her right eye first. The light was almost blinding. She grunted and closed the eye again.

  “Don't worry, it really is dimmed in here, Ms. Gates. It will just take a little time for your eyes to get used to light. After all, they've never been used before,” The nurse added. She was starting to get on Terra's nerves.

  She opened both her eyes this time, and quickly. It hurt, but she didn't close them. She could feel some tears start to run from her eyes back to her ears. Then after a minute of pain things began to come into focus. It became less brilliant as her iris contracted to handle the light level. She knew that as her iris contracted, the monitoring system also raised the illumination level in the room slowly to full brightness. It took ten minutes or so. It was painful, but it had been proven that if this wasn't done properly, your brain might reject the input from your eyes and you would be blind for a few days.

  Terra could see now. She was lying horizontally in fog field. The fog was holding her up, which is what had accounted for her floating feeling because she was floating in a way. The field was bordered by small outcroppings, which made a rectangular shape on the ceiling and on the floor about the size of a twin bed. The fog field was very similar to the fog in a lift tube; however, it only suspended and did not move you. The nurse was standing to the right side of the bed looking back and forth from the monitor on the wall behind her head. On the other side of the bed stood a man in a white coat, observing. He would be the shrink. It was his job to make sure she was stabilized mentally after the restoration before she could go. He would take over once she was able to move on her own.

  “Good job, Ms. Gates, you’re doing very well,” the nurse said.

  Just get on with it already, Terra thought.

  “Okay, now we'll start with your head. Can you please turn it left, then right, then nod, and then return to a resting position. Terra did. It took some effort at first but by the time she was nodding her head forward, it was getting easier. “One more time please.” She did. It was easy now.

  “Now, please lift up your right arm above your body pivot and bring it down straight with your shoulder line. She lifted her arm. It felt heavy. It took some work, but she managed. “Now do the same with the other arm.” She did; it was just as hard.

  “Now, Ms. Gates, if you could repeat that process, please.” Terra complied, lifting her right arm again. The second time it felt normal, not too heavy, and it wasn't difficult. The left arm was the same. “Very good, Ms. Gates. Now if you can please make a fist with each hand and then as I count from one to five extend each finger starting with your thumb.”

  “One...two...three…four…five. Now repeat. Good. How are your arms feeling?” the nurse asked.

  “Fine,” Terra replied. Her voice responded normally without any slurring.

  “Great, now for your legs and upper body.” Terra continued to follow the nurse’s instruction. The last exercise was to sit up. It always felt strange to sit up in a fog field, and it wasn't easy, but she managed it. And the repeat was easier, just as it had been for everything else.

  “Excellent. Please lay back down and close your eyes,” Nurse Wendy commanded. As soon as she lay flat again, the nurse continued, “Now, Ms. Gates, we are going to bring your neural implant companion on-line and go through the initial calibration. Is that okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I am sending the initiate code now,” said the nurse.

  Terra knew that somewhere inside her brain the nanoscopic machines that had performed the restoration of her brain were giving the activation code to her neural implants.

  “The implant is responding with excellent status. I am now going to download your files from the mainframe, if you will please open your right eye for identification purposes.” Terra opened her right eye. Above her, extended from the ceiling was a tube with an optical scanner. It scanned the iris of the eye and she felt the prick from a DNA sampler on her arm.

  “Excellent, your new iris pattern has been recorded and your DNA confirms your identity. Please verify vocally that you are not being coerced to have the modification to your implants,” the nurse spoke. She was all business now that Terra had regained most of her wits. It was standard procedure. Your iris pattern was a unique identifier. It was different with each body as it depended on the factors exactly surrounding its growth and formation. It could not be altered without leaving traces of the alteration. The DNA was a second check to confirm that she was in fact Terra Gates, and her vocal confirmation was monitored for any signs of stress or reluctance.

  “I confirm that I am Terra Gates and am not being coerced or forced in any way against my will against this neural implant modification.”

  “Identity confirmed, down load in progress,” said the nurse. “This will take just a minute.” Terra closed her eyes again. “Download is complete. I am now having the implant activated.”

  Terra saw a test pattern against the dark background of her closed eyelids. Once that disappeared, some horizontal and vertical lines appeared and shifted colors. This was all part of the start up pro
cess, the neural implant used the feedback from her brain to tune itself. The lines began to converge to a point and then formed a solid sphere that appeared grow and shrink. After a moment, it stopped and a text message appeared. NEURAL IMPLANT ADAPTATION COMPLETE, STATUS GOOD. LOADING COMPANION. The message disappeared after a moment. And then a familiar voice greeted her.

  Hello, Terra. It is good to be back on line again, I hope your restoration has been easy.

  Thanks, Plato, I'm glad to be back too.

  I am now linked to the restoration clinic datanet and I have found a discrepancy in my memory files. It seems I have lost a number of years of information. I am unsure as to how this has happened. I will begin searching for the lost files. Please let me know if I can be of assistance.

  Terra was disturbed; those files weren't supposed to be loseable. She felt a sinking in the pit of her stomach. She was beginning to remember why she had been backed up in the first place, but the nurse interrupted her.

  “Ms. Gates, is your companion on line?”

  “Yes, but it is missing a large number of files,” Terra said.

  “Yes, it would be. Ms. Gates, your physical restoration is now complete. Dr. Warran will be helping you for the remainder of your awakening and can help explain the loss of those files. But first we'll let you have a little privacy while you dress. I hope you find the clothing acceptable. In a few moments you should have to use the rest room. When you do, the remaining nanoscopic probes will be expelled. And welcome back, Ms. Gates 262.3.” The two left the room, leaving Terra alone.

  She sat up and then put her legs down on the floor. The field let her. It was programmed to help the person get on their feet. She could see that the layer of fog closest to her body was acting as a covering. It made her look like she was wearing a white full body leotard.

  She took a step forward and wavered a little, but the fog field helped to keep her from falling. After another step or two towards the end of the field she was feeling better. She stepped out of the field. As she did, she felt a cold breeze on her body from the air conditioning in the room. She was naked now that there was no fog cover her. There was a small table against the wall with some clothes neatly arranged on it and a full-length mirror against the wall.

  Everyone had to fill out a preferences form for restoration, and on that form one had to put down their preferred clothing, including make and model numbers. Of course you were charged for it, so most picked something plain, like jeans and T-shirts, but Terra preferred to look as business like as possible after a restoration. It suited her disposition and her station.

  Before she got dressed, she took a second to admire her figure in the mirror. The thing that most amazed you about restoration was that you were young again. She looked twenty again, and she liked what she saw. Her mother had been beautiful and she had inherited her mother's body, but not her face which was more plain than her mother’s. Terra rather liked that, though.

  It had been hard for people to look past her mothers beauty and it would have been very hard for Terra to rise as high as she had if she'd had her mother’s face. Not that she was ugly, just plain. She had been physically fifty-five when her backup was made; twenty was a nice change. Of course most people were fairly good looking, especially when they were young. It was an allowable cosmetic DNA mod that could be done before the restoration began so that the body could be more attractive. But the mod wasn't cheap either.

  Her body was athletically muscled, as per her request on her preference form. She tried to work out to maintain that after a restoration but Mars gravity was much less powerful, and she usually lost the muscles within a few months. Her hair was brown and short; it went down only to just below her ears. She had picked the style a long time ago and she had added it to her preference shee. She had tried long hair once, but it wasn't well suited to being in space or in a lesser gravity environment. It bounced funny. Terra had also tried other hair colors. It was an easy thing to have changed when you were restored, and it would stay the color of the change for the length of that body’s life. It was another one of those minor cosmetic DNA changes that didn't violate any law.

  She sorted through the clothes and picked out the underwear, socks, and a black long sleeve single piece silk shirt. The rest was a two piece pantsuit, that was charcoal gray with silver pinstripe. She put those on too. There was a pair of comfortable matching dress shoes by her favorite designer under the table. She sat down on the chair beside the table to put those on. Getting dressed was so automatic that it gave her a minute to think, something she'd been trying to do for the last hour, but the nurse had kept interrupting.

  Terra remembered now why she had backed up. It was a little strange come to think of it. She’d been having lunch with Sam Storm that day, and he had said he needed a backup and that if she hadn’t had one in a while she should too. Sam was a good guy. She had met him a few months earlier. He worked for the engineering division of the Martian Department of Industry. She was the head of the department in charge of all industrial development on Mars. She had thought it a little odd, but he was a Newbie. Not that she didn’t like Newbies but they usually had some strange behaviors…at least Newbies from Earth did; the Martian ones were a little more normal. But the conversation had gotten a little strange after that.

  Sam had told her that he had something to discuss with her after the backup, and that this might sound strange but to trust him. Then he said something even more strange. “If you ever get restored from the backup you’re about to make, remember this. I am going to offer you something that I know you will want very much, but it is probably not legal for you to help me in the way that I need to be helped. If you are ever restored from this backup, please know that it means that you will have consented to help me with a project, and that if successful I will owe you that thing you will want.”

  She had looked at him oddly. It wasn’t every day that a friend said something so wacko. Sam was a good guy and a good engineer. He’d been helping with some of the designs for the Phobos labs, and some design for a possible orbital tower. It was a little funny to think that now she was facing the restoration he had spoken of. What was it that he could have offered her to get her to do something illegal? She didn’t know.

  Plato, how out of date am I? And have you located any of the missing files?

  Sorry, I haven’t been able to locate any. And I don’t know how out of date you are, the restoration clinic datanet is refusing me access to the date and time. I am sure that your restoration Psychiatrist can help you with that question, her companion responded.

  It was strange that Plato couldn’t access the centers datanet for something as simple as the date. But the thought kept occurring to her that something was strange, the missing files, and the conversation with Sam right before this backup. The last thing he had told her was that if she was restored from this version, 262.3, she should go and meet his crèche mate, Stacy, while she was on Earth, and that she should drop by one week after she left the clinic. It was strange. She had given him look that told him so.

  He just smiled and held up his hands palm forward in defense. “Just trust me, will you? If you don’t like what I say, you can always have this version purged from the data base on your next backup.” It sounded all right. She had thought that maybe he wanted to know where to find some recreational drugs or something. She wouldn’t help him with that; it was illegal, and they were destructive. She liked Sam and had decided what the hey, it’d be worth it just to find out what he was talking about. She remembered them leaving the little cafe in Dome Two to head toward the restoration clinic. She remembered walking through the clinic doors and then her memory got hazy. Those short term memories after that weren’t retrievable. She’d probably lost a half-hour or so. But what Terra wanted to know was what had Sam said after the backup.

  Still puzzled, Terra was distracted by a building pressure in her bl
adder. The nanoscopic restoration machines must be ready to get out, their work done. Fortunately there was a door to a small bathroom right next to the chair she was sitting on. She did her business. She knew that any remaining machines would destruct if they weren’t recovered by the system. This peeved Terra. Damon Harding had made sure that none of those machines ever left the center intact with their software. It was how he, and through him, the United States had maintained control over all the other nations, including Mars. It was a debate she’d had with Damon Harding a number of times, and an opinion that she had made public on more than one occasion. Mars should at least have a restoration clinic, if not the technology itself. But she had always know that Damon Harding would never let the technology go. If he had a clinic established on Mars, then Mars would have too easy access to taking the technology by force, whereas here on Earth with the US firmly in control, there wasn’t a thing that Mars could do if it wanted access to the benefits of the technology.

  Consequently, backups could be made on Mars but they were transmitted to Earth for storage, and so when you needed to be restored, it happened on Earth. The clinic scientists had said that they needed to be on Earth in a one g environment for the clone to grow properly, but that was crap and Terra knew it. It was a continuous drain on Martian resources, because then you had to take a transport ship back to Mars, which was not an inexpensive proposition.

  She didn’t have to worry about the expense; she had plenty of money, but for the less wealthy Martians, it was a problem. For her it was the time involved, it still took a while to get to Mars, time she could have been using much more productively. But that was the way it was. She finished in the bathroom and walked towards the door. She didn’t bother to look around to see if she’d left anything.

  Dr. Warran was waiting for her when she came out of her restoration room. He smiled, but looked concerned. “Ms. Gates, it's a pleasure to meet you,” he said, extending his hand. She shook it firmly.

  “You, too. Dr. Warran, I hope that you'll be able to answer a few questions for me,” Terra said. She wanted some answers, this whole business of not being able to access the time was causing her concern. It was a low level function, there shouldn't have been any reason to keep her from it unless something was wrong. And she was bothered by the conversation she had had with Sam Storm before her backup what seemed like only a few hours ago.

  “Of course. I'd be happy too, but let's head back to my office,” he said indicating that she should follow. They started off together down a long hallway with many doors, that led to other restoration rooms. A number of nurses and doctors moved up and down through the hallway. Terra was quiet, taking it all in. The restoration center was like a hospital and a psychiatric ward. Before you could leave, they had to make sure you were stable and able to reenter society. If you weren't, they'd try to get you to consent to a second restoration from another version or just another try with the same version. It didn't happen very often.

  “What's your capacity, nowadays?” Terra asked, noticing that the ward she was in didn't look familiar.

  “Oh, I think we can handle about fifty-thousand every two weeks. This ward was only constructed a decade ago. One of the older buildings, building 12, was wearing out so they tore it down and built this one, building 22. It's state of the art,” he said proudly. The doctor was obviously happy to be doing this work. Most Primers were; most of them didn't have to work at all. The funny thing was, Terra had been at the restoration clinic only a few years before to meet one of her brothers at his awakening and she didn't think that there had been a building 22. That was strange.

  “Do you ever fill up?” She asked genuinely interested.

  “No, I don't think I've ever seen it at more than thirty thousand, but if we were behind, we could catch up pretty quickly. It's not like the backed up are going any where, they might just end up a few months...out of date,” Dr. Warran said, pausing before saying “out of date” like he had only just remembered that he needed to be careful about saying something and had caught him self in a slip up. First the building thing, now something about being out of date, it was starting to bother her. The only scenario that she'd come up with that could explain it was that she had helped Sam with whatever he wanted that was illegal, and then had dissoluted and arranged it so only this version would be restored, a version that was innocent because it knew nothing of any illegal activity. How out of date was she?

  “Dr. Warran, am I more out of date than usual?” she asked, starting to need some answers. She wasn't used to being at a disadvantage; she was usually the one with all the information, the one in control. This situation was becoming more unacceptable by the minute. Dr. Warran continued to walk silently for a moment, apparently considering his response.

  Finally he said, “Yes, you are out of date, more so than a normal case, and there are some strange circumstances surrounding your restoration. When we have some more privacy in my office, I'll explain everything to you.”

  More so than normal? She thought. How much more! Although inwardly she was coming to a boil, she concealed it and outwardly nodded and continued to follow him down the long hallway. After a few minutes they reached Dr. Warran's office.

  She took a seat on his couch and he sat across from her on a leather chair. The office had a large window on one side that took up almost the whole wall and overlooked the restoration facility. He raised his hand to his chin for a moment, considering how to begin. Terra was silent and then she said. “You know, if you just come out and tell me, things will go more smoothly here.” At her remark he smiled.

  “Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he said, sitting back, and then he took a deep breath and began. “You are out of date, Ms. Gates, by approximately eight years.” He saw that she was unpleasantly surprised and quickly continued. “You see, Ms. Gates, about two weeks ago a virus was introduced to the backup storage system which wiped out thirty-five million backups, three-thousand of which were non-corporeal, and it also initiated several restoration procedures. Yours was one of them, and you had progressed too far for us to stop, but it's just as well because all your more recent backups were wiped by the virus.”

  Terra was shocked, such a thing had never happened as far as she knew. A virus? There were supposed to be safeguards. She asked about them.

  “Unfortunately, a Newbie,” his voice was hard as he said the word, “named Sam Storm, duped our director Jeff Hughes into inserting the virus, in the guise of a legitimate backup cube...a Trojan horse if you will. Director Hughes has been exonerated of any wrong doing, but only two days ago he tendered his resignation just the same. He's a good man, even if he is a Newbie, and I always respected him.

  The mention of Sam, and the fact that he was implicated in this was too much for coincidence. If her restoration had been initiated by the virus, then she knew that Sam had gotten her to help him, even if she didn't know in what capacity. That was much more shocking to her than the eight years. She had taken a hiatus for a decade before and had recovered quite well, but she had never lost time like this. She had actually lived those eight years, or a large portion of them and done things that she would never know from a first hand perspective. She realized that Dr. Warran was looking at her concerned and had said something, but she had missed it.

  “Are you all right, Ms. Gates?” Dr. Warran asked, probably for the second time.

  “Yes, it's just a shock. But I am dealing with it. It is disconcerting to lose this much time without making a conscious choice at a hiatus or something.”

  “Of course, I can certainly understand that. But I should also tell you that the version of you that was lost had taken a hiatus about two years ago, not to be restored for a half century. So I must apologize on behalf of the institution that your wishes, or your other version’s wishes, could not be fulfilled.”

  It didn't sound like Terra. Sure she'd taken a decade long hiatus once befor
e, just to see what changed...nothing had. But a half a century was a long time. It was the kind of thing someone did when they were just sick of life and wanted a break from it, even though they couldn't feel the passage of time. Terra had always thought long breaks like that were silly because you didn't know you were resting, and when you were restored you wouldn't remember any of the non-corporeal time anyway. She couldn't understand what things might have happened in those six years that her other version had lived that would make her change her views on that...but maybe it had something to do with this virus. Just thinking about that made her shudder.

  Three-thousand non-corporeal lost. That was murder, and she couldn't believe that Sam Storm was capable of murder, and that she might have participated. Should she say anything about knowing Sam and the mysterious circumstances of her backup...no, that wouldn't be the right decision. She didn't want to be caught up in whatever was going on here. It was better if she just got out of the institution as soon as possible, and that meant convincing the shrink that she was well enough to go. Once he certified that she was all right, she was free of any further interference from the restoration center...then she could go and get some answers. Her world was spinning, but she managed to look composed.

  “Well, I guess I am better off this way. It doesn't sound like me to take a hiatus of that many years. I'd always thought it was silly. Something terrible must have happened in those six missing years, and frankly, Dr. Warran, I'm glad I don't know what it was.” She smiled. “And any way I'm sure there is work for me to do back home.”

  “Ms. Gates, I'm sure you mean what you are saying, but I wonder if you really have absorbed this. I'm hesitant to just let you leave so suddenly.” Terra's heart began to sink, it may not be as easy to leave as she thought. She tried another angle.

  “I know you’re right, Dr. Warran, I'm sure it will take me a while to come to terms with this, but I will recover. I feel well, I am a little sad to have lost that time, but on the other hand something obviously happened to change some of my core beliefs.” At least that was true. She wouldn't have helped Sam do something illegal...she didn't think so any way. “If you think I need to stay for a while, I can, but I'm sure you’re busy dealing with the repercussions of the Virus attack and don't need to be babysitting me. I promise that if it starts to become too much, I will either contact you or find another doctor or councilor who can help me through this.” Like hell I will, she thought, but Dr. Warran was now smiling and nodding, albeit grudgingly. It took another two hours of lying, and pretending to be all right for Dr. Warran before he agreed that she was all right and ready to go to out processing.

  “Ms. Gates, I think you will be all right, but if you need anything further from me, please don't hesitate to get in contact,” he said, standing up to shake her hand. She stood also. She was taller than he was, and it gave her a feeling of empowerment even if it was superficial. It was good not to feel completely helpless.

  “Thank you, Dr. Warran, you've really been a help to me,” Terra said. It almost made her want to puke to say it, but it would help grease the wheels and get her out of here.

  “You’re welcome, Ms. Gates. I'll walk you down to out processing and make sure they get you taken care of. You really are a very lucky woman. You could have been one of the three thousand lost, as it was your version was the only one left in the data stores.” Terra frowned, but managed to hide it quickly. She hadn't known that she was the only version left, just the most recent. Now she knew for certain she had been involved in helping Sam Storm. Somehow he had convinced her other version…but she wondered how he had accomplished that. Dr. Warran escorted her to out processing where she paid the bill, was legally pronounced fit to leave, and officially recognized as Terra Gates 262.3.

  Amazingly enough, the bill only amounted to the cost of her personal preferences and clothing. The rest of the bill was waived as her restoration had not been initiated at her request and the responsibility lay with the restoration division for not having better security. It was the first good news Terra had all day and it helped her leave the division with a smile on her face.