“CouldI change to a different room?”
“Weare closing in a few passes. But I can book one DC room for you tomorrow, ifthere is a need for it.”
Itook a moment before responding. “Yes, please, book the DC room for me atzero-eight-hundred.”
“Oneroom is booked. Thank you for your time, and we apologize for theinconvenience.”
“Ithank you,” I said and clicked off the E-hook behind my ear.
Iturned around. The door automatically opened and I joined a group of Senthiensleaving the DC Hall.
Iwalked into my apartment and the lights automatically switched on. I placed myhand on the panel to close the doors and walked into my living room, unzippedmy boots, and stripped off my clothes. Then I bent down to collect them andstopped, distracted by my thoughts.
Power outage?
Ihad never experienced a problem with the power. Anywhere.
Istepped toward the wall. “Wash bin.”
Asection of the wall opened outwards, and I dropped my clothes in the bin. Thewall closed.
Thepower failed just when I wanted to look further into APC chips?
Should I not have access to thisinformation?
Iuploaded all the information on APC chips that was available on my nanoprobes.
Theywere designed and synthetically manufactured by Loreans, and were ingrainedinto rosenquartz tiles, which were the building blocks of portation chambers. ButI had no information what the APC chips actually were. I never thought it wasof any importance. Until now.
Iclosed my eyes and let my nanoprobes recalculate.
TheAPC chips…
Thedelivery…
Thereplacements…
TheAPC chips…
Theyield…
The yield?
Iopened my eyes. Zamnan was worried about the yield. What kind of yield? Ihad no way of knowing. Booleans work with a variety of living materials fortheir research. Any one of them could have been the problem. But whatever itwas, it seemed very important. Place all ourremaining yield into the Mind, he’dsaid. And whatever they were missing, it was linked to the Mind. Then I thoughtof another sentence in the article: “…therewas no delay in APC chip delivery. The replacements continue on schedule.”But what if that wasn’t true? What if the APC chip replacements were actually not on schedule?
WasZamnan talking about a yield of APC chips?
No,this can’t be. Yield implies growth—growth of something living, notsomething that has been synthetically manufactured.
Ishook my head and exhaled loudly.
Thisseemed too large a concept to process in a conscious state. I hoped that allthe newly acquired data provided enough information for a revealing Vision.
Isat on the soft bench opposite the large beige wall.
“Wall:Senthia moons,” I said, and the wall dissolved into the night sky with twobright white globes, one of them smaller than the other with a slight purple hazein its white coloring. I slowly relaxed looking at the image on the screen.
Thiswas probably my favorite image in the library of the Descendant worlds. But theimages I would never be able to see, although they were the ones I would loveto see the most, were the images of Old Earth. The only ones I had ever seenwere in my history recap classes more than three hundred years ago, but there hadonly been a few, and they were unavailable in the image library.
Thiswasn’t surprising. The dead Earth was an all but forgotten memory of theembarrassing beginning of the Descendants’ history, and anything connectingDescendants to that past was scarce.
Ilooked at the top right of the image to check the time. It was past nineteen hundred,the scheduled time to take an evening meal. I didn’t feel hungry at all, but I waswell aware that too many missed meals would be noted.
Noneed to cause an alarm.
Icrossed the room and stopped next to the food processor. It was one of theolder types, but I had insisted it shouldn’t be replaced by a newer version.This one produced food that still had some taste.
Althoughthe meals it made looked like they consisted of different foods, it was allstill done out of the same basic paste, with a little bit of taste differencebased on the specific nutrient content. The density of the food was alsodifferent, which kept the digestion system, gums, and teeth functional, but inthe end, it all tasted similar.
Iscanned through the list of meals and decided on the VEV-3, a low-carb, high-proteinmeal. I tapped the production button and sat on the bench opposite the imagewall again, waiting for the synthesis to finish.
Ilooked at the moons again, my gaze unfocused.
Therewere too many open questions. Humans at the Boolean Institute; the problem withthe yield, which was somehow connected to the Mind; the APC chip delivery and replacements;the power problem in the DC room…
Iclosed my eyes for a moment, then a moment later, opened them.
My father. I need to contact my father.He will advise me.
Igot up, voice-opened the clothes wardrobe, and took a sleeveless eveningskinsuit. Then I walked to the holo station next to my sleeping area and dialedmy father.
Inhalf a pass, the image appeared, and I heard his voice. “Dora.”
“Father.”
Helooked the same as the last time I’d seen him: short dark gray hair, piercinggreen eyes, thin lips, and even younger skin than before.
“Howare you, my child?”
“Iam… fine.”
Hishead tilted just slightly. “Did you have any productive Visions?”
“No.Not recently.”
“Isee.”
“Andhow are you?” I said.
“Myrejuvenation cycle has finished recently.”
“Doyou still reject Interactive Coupling?”
“Yes,as always.”
“Itmust be difficult.”
“Itis. For the body. But my mind is free.”
“It’sbeen almost four hundred years, Dad.”
“Fourhundred years is just a fraction of time, but an eternity without your mother.”
Therewas a moment of silence between us.
“Dora,it was a privilege, you know this. But it was also a burden. You know this aswell.”
“Iunderstand, Father.”
“Whydid you call?”
“Apower outage.”
“Yes?”His eyes narrowed.
“Howoften does it happen?”
“Where?”
“Ina DC room. It happened while I was researching APC chips.”
Heinhaled sharply and stayed silent for a few moments.
“Dora,I usually take the VRA-08 meal,” he then said in a calm voice.
Iopened my eyes wider. My heart started to race. Then I deliberately relaxed my faceand regained a neutral expression.
“Yes,”I said.
“Thesearch is not important. I would recommend rejuvenation instead.”
Iswallowed, then said, “Thank you, Father. Will youport? Shall we see each other?”
“Istill take the same meal, Dora. Remember that. It’s important.”
Inodded.
“Perhapsa good idea for you,” he said, “would be to take a sabbatical, just like I did threehundred and ninety-three years ago.”
