“What? How can you remember that much?”
“I don’t know that either. Somehow, when it transmits the information into your head, you can concentrate on it, and it will be remembered. I could no more forget the contents of that file now than I could forget my mother’s name. Using a computer analogy, it’s as if you can tell the cyber phone to load the information into nonvolatile memory or regular memory.”
“Nonvolatile? Wait a minute, then couldn’t you load in too much? Isn’t there a danger of overfilling your brain with information? What happens then? Will you be walking around remembering things that you can’t ever forget, but be unable to learn anything new, like what time you're supposed to meet someone for lunch?”
“I don’t think that’s likely to happen. They say we never use more than ten percent of our brains, there should be plenty of storage space, but even if there isn’t, I get the impression that you could overwrite memories if you want to.”
It took a second for what Caitlin had said to sink in, but when it did, John felt a rush of nausea. Sweat broke out on his forehead as his paranoia flared into a feverish state.
“Overwrite memories? Good God, Caitlin. You mean someone could use this to erase your memory? We’ve got to destroy this.”
“No, not overwriting memories like that. You couldn’t ... well, maybe you could. I don’t know John, but I know it’s too valuable to destroy.”
“Yeah? Well so was the first nuclear weapon. Caitlin, just because it’s a technological breakthrough doesn’t mean it’s something we’re ready for.”
A male voice said, “Adaptation complete.”
John jerked his head toward the door. His hand automatically went to his gun. There was no one there. He turned toward the windows but still couldn’t see where the voice had come from.
He slipped the Colt from its holster and motioned for Caitlin to stay where she was. “John? What’s the matter?”
“Someone’s here. Stay low. It may be trouble.”
“You heard a voice say adaptation complete?”
“Of course I did. Didn’t you?” His gaze darted from window to door and back again.
“John, that was the cyber phone. It was just telling you that it had finished its programming.”
“No, I heard someone’s voice.”
“I know John. That’s what I heard when mine finished. Look at me.”
He turned to face her.
“You can put the gun away, John. There’s no one here but us.” Her words were clear, but her lips hadn’t moved when she spoke.
“Well, I’ll be hanged.” He holstered his gun. “The damn thing really works.”
“Take the helmet off. Then let’s figure out what these things can do together.”
John unfastened the helmet. The oval phone slipped easily from its slot. He passed the helmet to Caitlin and dropped the necklace over his head.
“Okay now what?” he thought toward her.
She grinned and responded the same way. “Isn’t it easy?”
“Yeah, but we could just as easily talk.”
Now that he was paying attention, he could detect the difference between what he heard her say and what she sent over the communicator. It didn’t really sound like sound at all, but almost like a memory of something she’d said. At first, he thought the words were set apart because he couldn’t hear the feeling that he did in her voice. It was almost as if she were speaking in a monotone. As he listened, he began to detect subtle differences in her words. There was emotional content there, but he was having trouble deciphering it. It was as if he had to learn to interpret words all over again.
“What kind of range does it have?” he asked.
“A mile or so, it’s just like any radio in that concern. With good conditions like over the water, it’d have a greater range.”
“A mile is good. If it’s working off radio frequencies, then it’d be simple to rig up a repeater to extend the range.”
“Or, you can use it like I did with the cell phone. If you have the code for a phone it’d be simple to place a call,” she said.
“I don’t know about that part. Linking to your computer is something I still don’t understand. There are protocols for digital communications. How does it convert voice to a computer signal?”
“It’s not really a voice signal, but the protocol is simple enough. The eggs were programmed with the basic IEEE protocol format when they were manufactured. The cell phone format was done at the same time.”
John hefted the cyber phone in his hand. “That seems like a lot of computing capability for something this small.”
“Yeah, that does puzzle me. I’d have thought that the designer would have built ungainly looking prototypes rather than these neat little things.”
“That’s what I meant earlier. These look too much like a marketable device. Where are the real prototypes?”
A wave of information washed over him. He staggered under the sudden reception of hundreds of pages of information.
“Whoa, slow down! What the hell are you doing?”
“I thought it’d be easier to just give it all to you rather than trying to explain bits and pieces.”
“I don’t know if I want all that.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m just uncomfortable with the idea of things being written into my memory.”
“Really John. That doesn’t sound like you at all. You were a doctoral student in computer science twelve years ago. Don’t you still have the desire to learn?”
As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. He did keep up with everything in the business. This was just a faster and more efficient way of learning. “Yes, imagine what it’ll do to schools. Why you could learn a semester’s worth of information in a week!”
“Yeah, but you know as well
