“Dora?”J was holding me, both of his hands on my shoulders. “Dora, are you all right?”
Ilooked at him.
“Youwere… you were zoned out. Did you hear me at all?”
“No.I didn’t.”
“Areyou—”
“Ihad a Vision. It’s somewhat similar to the deep sleep stage, so it is verydifficult to wake me up.”
“Ah,”J said in relief. “I was starting to get wor—”
“Ifmy interpretation of what I saw is right,” I interrupted, “then what you saidbefore is true.”
Jshook his head, confused. “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”
“TheScramble drug. It was made. It was made at the University of Neurotechnologyand Innovation. And the field trial was planned. They wanted to test it.”
Jlooked at the ground. “At the University of Neurotechnology and Innovation?Didn’t you say that was the place where the first prototype of the Mind wasmade?”
“Yes.And Tania’s husband—”
“Deceasedhusband.”
“Yes—deceasedhusband—worked on neural biochips there.”
Jlooked at me.
“It’sall connected, I am sure of it,” I said, looking at J’s eyes and hoping, somehow,it would suddenly become obvious to me.
Itdidn’t.
Iexhaled and lowered my gaze.
Twobeeps sounded on my E-band.
Ilooked at my forearm and nodded. “The solar cells are sufficiently charged. Itwill just take a moment for my E-band to siphon the energy. It won’t be fullycharged yet, but it should be enough to open the door.”
Chapter 22
Theheavy-looking doors moved sideways, peeling away the moss where they slid into thewall, as a gust of air escaped from the building.
“Hermeticallysealed,” said Patrick. “That’s a good sign.”
Jentered first, I walked behind him, and the rest followed. We climbed downthree metal stairs and found ourselves in a dark hallway, the only light comingfrom the entrance as well as from weak purple auxiliary lights on the ceiling.The hallway was shaped like a tube, and the floor was a metal grid runningalong the base. Our leathery shoes made no sound.
“It’sa new building,” said Patrick in a quiet voice. “I don’t really know where tolook first.”
“Youthink you’re gonna wake up the ghosts?” said Frank loudly.
Hisvoice echoed in the hallways and came back to us metallic and distorted. No onesaid anything for a few moments.
“Let’snot worry about ghosts,” said Peter. “Let’s find a computer that works.” Hislast words were so quiet it was as if he’d said them only to himself.
“Ghosts?”I asked J quietly.
“Somepeople believe that after the death, the spirit lives on and becomes a ghost.”
“Whywould the ghosts be here and not outside of these premises?”
“Goodpoint, because officially, ghosts can cross through walls. But much of this islinked to stories of haunted dungeons and castles.”
“Haunteddungeons and castles?”
“Oldstuff, wouldn’t even be in your memory data. It’s an—”
“Stopthat.” Peter turned to us. “Bust the ghosts stories and follow me. We need toget this working.”
Jwhispered in my ear, “You know, I don’t really believe in ghosts.”
Ismiled. “That’s sort of the impression I got.”
Hewinked at me and we continued walking.
Whenwe came to the first door on our left, Peter and Rick walked in first and the restof us followed. As the last person entered the room, the entry gate behind usslid closed, leaving us in the dim light of the purple light tubes on theceiling.
“Doesanybody see a control for the main light?” I asked and looked at the others.
“Youmean like a light swi—who-hoa!”Peter jumped back.
Theothers looked at me as well and stepped backward too.
“Freakinghell! What is that?” Frank shoutedout.
Theonly person who actually took a step toward me was J.
“Now,that is something else!” he said.
“What is something?” I was gettingannoyed.
Jraised his head to look at the purple-colored tubes. “UV,” he said, pointingwith a finger to the ceiling.
“Oh.”I looked up and understood: the auxiliary lights were in fact the UV lights andthey made my eyes fluorescent green.
Jcame to me, his face a few inches away from mine. He bent down and kissed me,his eyes open to look at mine.
“Verycool,” he whispered and smiled.
“Allright, the show is over! Let’s find the light switch, shall we?” said Peter andwent to the right edge of the wall, placing his hands on the surface and feelingaround for the way to activate the lights.
Thenext moment, bright lights flickered on, and we all shielded our eyes.
“Anythingelse I can do here?” Rick said proudly, dusting off his hands as if they weresandy.
“Welldone, boy!” Peter clapped Rick on the shoulder, causing him to almost fall forward.
Withall the room lit, I could now take in my surroundings.
Threegray concrete walls. Covering all three were large transparent screens—OLEDs—dimlyreflecting our silhouettes. In the middle of the room there was a desk made outof a smooth material. I stepped closer.
A Protosystem?
“Wow,”I whispered as the realization hit me.
“Wow,what?”
“That’s…that’s ancient.”
“Ah,thanks!” said Peter, rolling his eyes. “I almost feel for the dinosaurs.”
Iturned to them, realizing how it must have sounded.
“No,no, I’m sorry. It’s not that you areancient,” I said and turned back to point to the console. “It’s just that we donot use anything like this at Uni anymore—but this here is the same kindof computer system that was used during the voyage.” I turned again to facethem. “This is the mainframe used on the early Seedships.”
“Doyou know how to start it?” asked Patrick.
“No,I don’t,” I said and heard an intake of breath in the room. “But I have amanual,” I said, smiling, and lifted up my E-band.
Ichecked my E-band to see if by now it had connected to the local computersystem and I quickly zapped through several information displays until I foundwhat I was looking for. I tilted my head to the side.
Interesting.
Ilooked up from the small screen, lowered both of my hands, and then quicklyraised my arms upward, palms up.
“SYSTEMSTART. INITIALIZATION,” a metallic female voice announced.
“Whatwas that?” Rick asked.
“Gesturecommands.” I turned to him. “It’s unusual that they used it for the start ofthe system, though. I would assume the start would use touch controls—orvoice.”
Iwas almost talking to myself when I realized I had the attention of everybody.
“Doyou use voice control at Uni?” asked Rick.
“Yes,in a majority of the cases. In private
