“DoraDana Dasnan. We acknowledge your presence on our premises. The distinguishedhead of our institute will join you in the library,” said the tall, thin,white-faced woman, welcoming me as I exited the porting chamber. Her slickblack hair was wrapped at the back of her neck. Like all Booleans, she had noeyebrows, and her eyes were completely black, with no white inside. This madeit very difficult to tell where she was looking.
Asalways, it made me feel uncomfortable.
Myface, however, stayed calm. Relaxing my facial muscles, I responded in awell-trained monotonous tone, “I acknowledge your hospitality.”
“Please,follow me,” she said and moved her arm toward the hallway door.
Imade a step forward, careful not to break the IP distance.
“Westrongly recommend that our visitors always stay with accompanying personneland never walk through any of our premises unattended.”
Istopped in front of the doors and looked at her. Then I looked at the platename on her white skinsuit and said, “TA-645.” I looked back to her black eyes.“I have been on your premises before. I am aware of your regulations.”
Herblack eyes stared at me for a few moments.
It seems that responding to an assertiveremark wasn’t integrated into her genotype.
“Weenforce this on every visit,” she said. “The communication of the regulation isobligatory.”
Iinhaled to answer back but then turned toward the door, stopping myself fromresponding further. Careful, Dora…
“Ofcourse, TA-645. Please, lead me to the library.”
TA-645turned toward the door too and pressed her palm on the small scanning plate nextto it. The door slid open and we stepped into a bright white hallway.
Itwas high, with sufficient width to take a group of six people withoutcompromising their IP space. On both sides of the corridor were many doors, allof them tightly sealed. The doors were scan-protected, and they all lookedalike, with no room number or shield plate next to the door. Just like everytime before, no one passed us.
AlthoughI was used to that, it made me feel uneasy, as if the genetically grown technicalassistant and I were the only ones in this institute. TA-645 did not talk, butfrom the corner of my eye I could see her head was strangely twisted in mydirection rather than facing the path.
Itried to ignore her.
Thewhiteness of the hallways was disturbing. It made me lose all sense of what wascloser and what was farther away. I closed my eyes to refocus and then openedthem again.
Aftera few turns, we stopped next to a door, and TA-645 pressed her finger on asmall panel and left it there for a moment. After a faintclicking sound, she removed her finger. Her identity was confirmed, and thedoors slid open.
Weentered the library. It was white, with white chairs and white desks, each withfour empty holographic screens. Three walls were completely covered in rows of tightlypacked chips stored in their slots. It vaguely reminded me of the old librariesI’d seen in the history recap classes, though these images were a lot morecolorful than this one here. I was sure all the information on the chips wasaccessible through the main computer, but the library, it seemed, had to look presentable.
“Dana,please have a seat. Dr. Zamnan Second will be with you shortly. Should you beinterested in light informational material, some articles are highlighted ingreen.” She tapped a finger on an empty white screen next to the door andseveral chips on the wall to my right lit up green.
“Iwish you a productive conversation during your stay at the Boolean Institute,” shesaid and stepped toward the door. She placed her palm on the scanning screenand the doors slid open.
Inthat moment, I saw a group of six women passing the corridor. The first one wasclearly Boolean, but the rest had beige-colored suits and much darker skin thanany of the Descendant races.
Humans?
Theirheads were hanging low, as if they couldn’t lift them up. And then, in oneshort moment, one of them looked sideways and saw me. Her eyes were wide open,her neck and jaw muscles tight. Having had only rare opportunities to observe Humanfacial expressions, I wasn’t sure what it meant, but my gut feeling told methat she was scared. Very scared.
TA-645looked back at me with her wide black eyes and then stepped out without sayinga word. The door closed, and there was a perfect silence. I exhaled loudly. Ineeded some kind of a sound to distract me.
Ilooked around the white room, then reached out, pulled a chair, and sat at thefirst holo screen. Rather than scrolling through some “light informationalmaterial” as TA-645 recommended, I decided to go over the Vision I recently had—theVision I wanted to share with Dr. Zamnan Second.
Dr. Zamnan stares at the holo screen data in front ofhim. He turns to TA-002 and says, “This will make our production unyielding. Dowe have any reserves?”
“No, distinguished Dr. Zamnan. We already used them.”
“We need to notify the High Priest. The seeding needsto be increased dramatically if we are to obtain the same level of production.Place all our remaining yield into the Mind.”
ThisVision was puzzling. I understood that the High Zlathar Priest should know aboutcurrent genetic experiments, particularly if one of those projects hadpresented the Booleans with problems or challenges. But what does the Mind have to do with all of this?
TheMind belonged to the Loreans. They engineered it, they maintained it, theyimproved it, and all of this information was strictly confidential. They hadthe absolute intellectual property, even over the Zlathars.
So what experiments are the Booleansdoing that has to do with the Mind?
Thesliding door silently opened and a tall, thin man with long dark hair strappedat the back of his neck walked in. He smiled in the typical Boolean way, hislips spreading only sideways instead of up. I never thought this expressionlooked happy—or comfortable, for that matter. I stood up to greet him.
“DoraDana Dasnan. I acknowledge your presence,” he said, his black eyes on me as hewalked toward me. He stopped outside the standard IP distance, but for somereason, I felt uncomfortable.
“Dr.Zamnan Second, it is an honor to be at your institute, as always.”
“Whatcan we help you with, Dana?”
“Thereis a
