“Deceasedhusband,” said Patrick, joining the conversation.
Peterlooked at him. “Aye, deceased husband. He seemed to have worked in a reallyimportant place…”
And in a really important lab, I thought to myself. “Yes, that is correct.”
”Whateverwas made there must have been really important to name the whole galacticcommunity after it,” J said, raising his eyebrows. “So, what was it?”
Ihesitated for a moment. Simon looked back and also slowed down to join thegroup. I looked at all of them and then said, “The first Mind prototype wasbuilt there.”
“Really?”Simon shook his head in surprise. “I didn’t know we had that type of technologyin our time.”
“Theprototype was very simple back then,” I explained. “The computational power wasminimal. But the foundations were there.”
“Whatis the Mind again?” asked Rick.
“It’sjust a computer,” said Frank, waving his hand dismissively.
“Itis not just a computer,” I turned tohim, feeling the strong unexpected urge to defend the most unique artificialintelligence system ever created. “The Mind controls all the portations at anygiven moment, across a network that spans several hundred light years of space.It connects to all the AIs in the Uni at the same time. Its power isinconceivable for a Human brain.”
“Youmake it sound like God,” said Patrick, grinning.
“God?”I said, not understanding.
“Butunlike God,” J jumped in, “it still makes mistakes.” He tilted his head towardme and arched his eyebrows.
“Don’twe all?” laughed Peter.
“Wedo!” said J, pointing a finger at Peter as if to make a point. “But it can’t. It’s not aHuman, it’s a machine. It shouldn’t make anymistake. Or am I wrong?” He looked back at me, a mysterious smile on his face.
Ilooked at him without responding: I was completely distracted. Dark eyes, dark hair, bronze skin and… lips…
Hissmile broadened, and I completely lost my train of thought.
Idropped my gaze, and then after a few moments I said, still looking at theground, “I do not know. As I said, the proprietary details of the Mind areunknown to me.”
“Yourbunch is really good at keeping secrets,” said Patrick. “Back in our time,something so big would spread like a fire on a trail of gunpowder.”
“Butit did happen in our time, didn’t it?” J said, looking at Patrick. “At leastthe start of it…” Then he lowered his gaze and slowly shook his head, lookingpuzzled. “Still, I would think people would find out about something like that.”
Iremembered seeing the evacuated lab just before the explosion started. Someone hadmade sure it wasn’t revealed. Someonetook drastic measures to keep it a secret.
“Iguess the Mind was perfected on the new Uni planets?” asked Simon.
Itapped into my nanoprobes to access additional information on the topic. “The technologywas perfected on one of the Seedships. This is how all the different Seedshipshad instantaneous contact. It was crucial to establishing the network ofcolonies and a unified society.”
“Butwait a minute—didn’t you say that for all teleportations, you need achamber? Even if they set up a teleportation chamber on one Seedship, how didthey reach any other ship?” asked J.
“Eachof the Seedships had one portation chamber built before it left the Earth, sothat when porting technology became available, the Seedships had an automaticconnection to one another.”
“Wow,clever… but how could they build the chambers before they had the technologyready?” asked Patrick.
“Well,the theory was already there. They just needed to put it into practice.”
Jnodded and said, “I guess with the successful prototype they built here at the Universityof Neurotechnology and Innovation, they knew it was possible. It was just amatter of time, no?”
Ilooked at him and nodded. Then I looked at the rest. They all seemed crowdedaround me as we walked, deep in their thoughts. All of a sudden, I became awareof their close proximity, and my IP sensitivity kicked back in.
Ideliberately slowed down to drop to the back of the group. Realizing I neededspace, they all moved on ahead.
Chapter 14
Three men are walking.
Their step is light; they haven’t been walking forvery long.
They are talking, laughing at the jokes from theperson in the front.
They come to a fork in the path and must decide whichroad will get them to their destination faster.
The person in the front decides the right path isbetter. The left path, he explains, would take longer.
They take the path to the right.
Not long after, they are on steep terrain, walking ona rocky path, watchful of their steps, on the narrow, winding trail. They cometo a section where the path is only half an IP wide: a steep cliff on their left, a deep abyss on the right. One moment, all threeare silent, slowly moving forward. The next, a side of the hill breaks off and slidesdown into the abyss, taking the first two men with it. The last person scramblesto safety. After several moments, he turns around and retreats.
Isat up straight, gasping for air as if I’d been under water for too long. Myheart was pounding under my rib cage as I tried to inhale enough air into mylungs. With shaky hands, I wiped drops of sweat off my forehead.
A dreamVision.
Mythroat felt dry. I licked my lips and tried to swallow.
Ileaned my head on my hands, resting my elbows on my bent knees, my hairtouching the tent roof, thinking about what I just saw.
Simon was the second in the group,and J…
J was the first.
Iwanted to walk to J’s tent and tell him about my Vision. Tell him that heshouldn’t take the right path. He should take the left.
Andif he does, I will see him again.
ButI couldn’t.
Hewas still asleep.
Everyonewas.
Itwas still early morning. The air was fresh and the birds had just given theirfirst musical performance of the day.
Ihad to wait.
Patience,I discovered, had an interesting twist for me here on Earth.
Senthienswere never impatient. There was no need to want something done before it wasfeasibly possible. In Uni, that was never a problem for me. Here, however, Ifound that being patient was a lot harder.
Isimply had to wait.
And I didn’t like it.
Breakfastwas just getting started as J explained the detour he wanted to take. Simon andPatrick volunteered to go with him.
Iwas silent.
Ididn’t know how to bring it up.
Whatshould
