“Oh,”I muttered as I finally exhaled, lowering my gaze.
Hewas wearing his shorts again and his chest was bare,the muscles underneath his skin tight from a hard day’s work.
Myserenity was gone as if it was never there to begin with. I closed my eyes foran instant and then opened them, focusing on his eyes, but his eyes were not onmine. Instead, he was looking at my lips.
Oh.
Myheart was beating frantically, and I started feeling dizzy again. I was afraidmy knees would let go.
Andthen he took a step backward, coughed once in his fist, and looked me in theeyes. “Are you ready? Shall we go?”
Inodded, not trusting my voice.
Hesmiled an awkward smile and then turned and walked over the bridge. I didn’tmove; my feet were glued to the floor. It took me a few moments to engage myautomotive brain centers and start walking. My knees were shaking, my heart waspounding, and my stomach felt queasy.
Heturned his head slightly and looked at me sideways. “So, did you have a good… afternoon?”
After the embarrassing episode thathappened earlier, you mean? “Yes.”
“Doanything special?”
“Ifiled and categorized the images and recordings of Earth’s flora that I havecollected so far.” I sighed in relief. It felt good to talk about something rational.I was calm, and my train of thoughts was once again organized and methodical. Back on track.
“Ah…yes… interesting,” he said.
“No.Not really. But it needs to be done to keep order in the storage space.”
“Storagespace? Of?”
“Nanoprobes,of course.”
“Ofcourse.”
Ifrowned. If it was clear to him, why did he ask in the first place? I shook myhead, dismissing the thought.
“Andnanoprobes are… ?” He raised his eyebrows in aquestion.
“Youdo not know?”
“No.At least not under that name.”
“Theyare inbuilt storage and data processing chips.”
“Okay,so I don’t know it… under any name,” he said under his breath. “And they are inbuilt—where?”
“Mostof them are in the brain. Some nanoprobes circulate the bloodstream, but theirrole is more related to health homeostasis. One of the most useful attributes ofthese devices is that the data are not modified in any way upon retrieval. Theyalways stay the same.”
“Asopposed to… ?”
“Realmemories. Every time we access a real memory saved in the brain, we change itat the same time.”
Jlooked at the floor, his face turning serious. He didn’t say anything.
Iglanced at him from the corner of my eye. DidI say something wrong?
Itried to rewind the conversation, wondering what had changed his mood all of asudden.
Thenhe lifted his head and took a deep breath. “So, I spoke to Tania today. Shesaid Stevanion is getting better.” He turned his head to me.
“Yes,I know. I went to the infirmary in the morning.” I didn’t mention theconversation I had with Stevanion, though. J didn’t need to hear Stevanion’sopinion of Humans.
Whenwe arrived at Mike’s hut, J opened the leaf curtain, but then he stood next toit, waiting for me to pass. There was less than a quarter of an IP between himand me. It made a very narrow gap.
Ilooked at the door and then back at him again. He’s not expecting me to walk past him so narrowly, is he?
Jtilted his head with a subtle smile on his lips. “The IP space, I know. But you’reon a new planet now. New rules. It’s slowly time to get used to it. After you,”he said and motioned with his head for me to go first.
Realizingthat he wouldn’t change his mind, I swallowed and quickly stepped forward. ThoughI was fast, I could see from the corner of my eye that he was looking at me. Ifelt his breath on my shoulders and my neck as I passed him by. And that had suchan effect on me that, once I was inside the hut, I sat on the closest chair Icould find, just as my knees gave in.
Mike’scottage seemed crowded. Everyone else was already here, standing in smallgroups, engaged in discussions. In an IP area suitable for four people, eightchairs were arranged in a circle. Several candles lit the room, giving it a warmfeel with soft shadows dancing on the wooden walls.
Miketook a seat opposite me and J sat on an empty chair just next to him. “Shall westart?” J asked.
Ina few moments, everybody found a seat and quieted down.
“Ithink everyone knows Dora by now,” Mike said to the others.
Everybodylooked at me and nodded their heads. I felt self-conscious but kept my trained calmSenthien pose.
“I’mnot sure you know everyone here, Dora, so let me quickly introduce them foryou. J and Peter you know already. Rick you’ve met, right?”
Inodded.
“Patrickand Simon were in the party that found you. And—Frank, I don’t think you’vemet yet.”
“Correct,”I said.
Frankwaved.
“Allright, let’s get started.”
Miketook out two parchments of paper: one that looked like a map, another that hada blueprint of a compound drawn on it.
“Jdrew the route of the trip during the previous expeditions,” Mike said, pointingto one piece of paper. “J?”
“Allright, so this is mainly for Dora, Frank and Rick, who weren’t with us on ourprevious scavenging trips. The route hasn’t changed much, so I don’t expect we’llfind anything out of the ordinary now. The path over the river,” J said as hetouched the map with the stick, “should still be accessible, so I don’t see aproblem there either.”
“Thanks,J. Patrick, you want to explain about the blueprint of the complex?”
“Sure,Mike,” Patrick said and turned to me. “Dora, before the cryo, I worked at SouthCape University of Technology. This is the place where we are going. I made a map of all the buildings at thetime. This building here was the IT department.” He pointed to a square in themiddle of the compound. “Servers, storage, and mainframe devices for the wholeinstitute, but also some groups doing IT research. I was in one of the researchgroups. I was working with Dr. Janfeld. He was the leading scientist on a—”
Mikecoughed.
“Ahem.Never mind,” said Patrick. “Anyhow, the first time we came there after we wokeup, this building was gone. Completely.”
“Whereare the computers, then?” I asked.
“Mybest guess is that they are here,” he said, pointing to another square near theoriginal IT building. “This building didn’t exist when I was working there.”
Inodded. “And was this the
