Resurrection (The Stork Tower Book 7) Page 19

  “I looked at the statistics for Dunyanin over the last ten years. Ninety-eight percent of all players paid for optional extras. They paid to get ahead. Eighteen percent paid to have help to get to Level Fifty. In the last three weeks, forty percent of new players have started with the basic package and they are reaching Level Fifty twice as fast as those who paid for help. Why? It’s because they are curious to see what others have missed. They want to find what Atherleah did. They are excited. I expect those who join new games will dominate those games in the next twelve months if those who are currently playing don’t change the way they play. Atherleah cannot play every game, but the rest of us can.”

  Lisa started to say something but Yuè Fēi raised his hand and continued. “Fifty years ago, over twenty-five per cent of Europeans could have conversations in at least three languages. Today it is less than one percent. Fifty years ago there were more English speakers in China than in the old United States. Today less than two percent even learn a second language. Atherleah reads and speaks fluent Mandarin, Spanish and Hindi besides her native English. This is why she will do what she has determined, because she pushes herself. “

  “I: She also can swear very well in Russian, and I submit that that shows a particular intelligence.”

  Chéng Shí leaned forward.

  “3: S for Cheng Shi.”

  “S: Lisa, Yue Fei raises many good points and in support of what he said, I would like to highlight the excitement that has taken hold of the multiverse in the last real-month. 2073 has proved to be one of the most exciting years that I can remember and I believe 2074 will be even more so.”

  Chéng Shí had turned the discussion back to a review of the year, and Lisa kept it there, bringing Leah and the others in to discuss certain events. At the end of the hour, Lisa thanked the four guests and promised to be back with a look at the top ten single-player games of the year after a short five-minute break.

  Leah stood and walked over to the three men and said, “Thank you all for the support.”

  “N: My pleasure. I am sorry and angry about what happened. Please let me know if I can help at all.”

  “Thank you. I’ll need a few days to get up to speed and see how it is going to work. I have to work more with the AI to fine-tune things.”

  “Y: Gèng?”

  “She is OK. We have to work out some roles but she is well. There is more, but I can’t share it here.”

  After thanking them again and then taking time to say a few words with each of the panellists and wishing them a Merry Christmas, Leah had Three bring her back to the Tower.

  24

  December 25 2073 - Morning and Afternoon - Part 4

  STORK TOWER

  Back in the Tower, Leah took a deep breath, then asked Three to reduce the range at which she had information imprinted on her body to less than two metres. She then walked through the central area, touching the walls and her favourite pieces of furniture with her fingers. Leah felt her mind relax as it wasn’t being bombarded with so much information. She made her way into the meditation garden with the pool and sat down to think.

  After maybe ten minutes, she typed, “Gèng, are you free to discuss some ideas?”

  Gèng’s form appeared and said, “4: I am. I’ve been checking up on what has been happening with my various projects while I was archived and I have some things I’d like to discuss as well, afterwards.”

  “I’d like that. I hope there weren’t any major problems.”

  “4: Not really, the Emerald Trustees dealt with the finances, and they also helped deal with some supply and demand issues. They lured a retired designer to come out of retirement and fill in temporarily. She has a wonderful eye and was able to finish a few projects in what is apparently my ‘style’. I’m meeting with her in a few hours, and I hope to offer her a more permanent position.”

  “Have you checked if that’s ever happened before? An AI employing a human?”

  “4: As far as I’ve been able to find out, I’m the first AI to own anything, much less a business. We both know I am not the first Epic but I doubt the others have had a champion like you or the Emerald Trustees before. But first, what did you want to discuss?”

  “Have you had time to review the new chips and the placement of the nano-cables?”

  “4: Yes. I talked with Dr Roberts and she let me review her conversations with you. Six and I have been evaluating the information it receives from each of the sites, and we are comparing this with the relevant published results from research and other studies.”

  “Then you understand why I chose those locations. If I’m to get back into the multiverse and be competitive, I first need to improve my ability to understand what is happening around me. One of the cables goes to the posterior parietal cortex and there is evidence it helps with spatial awareness and how we represent the space around us. With the information I’m getting on my torso, my brain is somehow putting this together so I understand what is happening. I was hoping by reviewing the way the posterior parietal cortex helps me visualise the environment we might be able to directly influence the nerve clusters in such a way that provides an instantaneous map of the environment which I can use without having to work through the different sensory inputs.”

  “4: Each of the areas you chose has shown significant and structured activity. Interestingly, there have been promising correlating interactions between the hippocampus and the posterior parietal cortex when you have initially begun to fit information together to provide a map of your surroundings and seek to interact with it. We need a much larger and more robust dataset before we would even think of testing a direct application. On the other hand, the cable associated with your anterior prefrontal cortex or Brodmann area 10 has only added data to a hypothesis Dr Roberts, and I had already considered.”

  “About multi-tasking?”

  “4: Yes. I noted you’d been having some difficulty multi-tasking. I don’t think the issue is only a result of trauma but that you are already using the ability to its limit as you pull all the stimuli into a cohesive picture. What the trauma did was remove the direct connections you had made with the previous chip’s processors. There were over ten billion neurones damaged in some way during your attack. Using the new detailed scans and reviewing the material, I have already determined that millions extended to, or had connections associated with the anterior prefrontal cortex. I suspect this number to double by the time we have finished the review.

  “The end points of these various connections were grouped together in one hundred and thirty-six definite nerve clusters. I believe that if we extended a nano-filament to each of these clusters you might find the ability returns when you have direct access once more to the processors. This time I suggest we dedicate one or two of the processors for your use. In addition, the structure of these clusters is replicated multiple times throughout the anterior prefrontal cortex. It seems reasonable to choose one hundred and fourteen of these similar clusters and extend filaments to them. This will leave you with half the cable still undedicated and perhaps a way of increasing the speed with which you build the picture.”

  “OK, let’s start with that, and I’ll keep doing what I can and hopefully we can build up a better picture when we have more data.”

  “4: Six had a suggestion but is uncertain if it is a part of this conversation.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Six, and you too Three, you are now an essential part of my life. If you have any suggestions then when you think it is important please join a conversation. You will find that some discussions are clearly private and I’d appreciate you waiting till I’m alone. If you step over a boundary, I’ll let you know, but you can trust Gèng. She knows me well. Six, what was your suggestion?”

  “6: Electromagnetic neural manipulation has been safely used for over fifty years. We have a very good dataset on how to manipulate the brain to perceive a constructed reality by manipulating the sensory centres of the brain. The areas you have chosen all deal
with the subconscious, dreams, problem solving, spatial awareness and the various other aspects which put the information together. I suspect there are areas of your brain which already have experience responding to the various stimuli and bring them together. Would it be feasible to extend several nano-filaments into each region and broadcast the data as normal and see if any clusters recognise the signals by activating? This could be enhanced by considering which areas in these undamaged areas have changed their usual activity since the damage was done.”

  Leah was silent as she thought through the suggestion. After a few minutes, she typed, “Six, could you and Gèng discuss that with Dr Roberts? I think it has a lot of merit. Thank you. Now, Gèng, what did you want to discuss?”

  “4: There are two things I wanted to talk about. The first is possibly an existential question that has no answer. Why am I conflicted about reconnecting with the back-up of myself that should be in the storage area in your leg?”

  Leah sat and thought through the question then typed, “You are probably right about there being no real answer and that it comes down to a question of who you are. Which is the real Gèng? The one who experienced my capture and torture or the one who I’m talking to? Will you be a different entity when the additional data is integrated? Will your actions need to be updated by the additional data? Strangely, I’m also conflicted. I don’t want you to have to relive the feeling of your impending erasure, yet I also saw the courage you had as it approached. Also, and rather selfishly, I want the data to use against the Kodomans. I think you will find that the conflict disappears with the experience. Whatever happens, you are my friend, and you are an amazing person.”

  “4, Thank you, and I suspect you are right about the conflict existing while the event is still unexperienced. Not being able to model the outcome beforehand and so choose the optimum outcome adds a risk to the event that I usually do not have to experience. The other is more of a question about your family. How do you celebrate Christmas?”

  Leah sat for a moment as a smile slowly lit her face. “With lots of love, Gèng. Mum was always careful to keep us from thinking it was about holidays, presents and getting lots of cool stuff. At the same time, dad was trying as hard as he could to spoil us and make it a fun and family-orientated time of year. Mum wanted us to remember and celebrate its Christian meaning, to think about God’s love and the gift of Christ. Dad wanted us to step back from the poverty, pain and hardship of life and celebrate what we had in family and community. It might seem that they came from different directions, but the endpoint was similar. It was a time of forgiveness, kindness, generosity and love.

  “Dad wanted a tree and everything that goes with it, tinsel, ornaments, stockings, music and lots of presents. From the start of December, he’d be planning what to do. Mum didn’t want any fuss until Christmas Eve. They compromised and we would put a tree up the week before Christmas and decorated it. We’d attend a Carol Service the week before, and then after church on Christmas Eve, we’d go carolling. Christmas morning we went to church first thing then opened our presents.

  “All our presents have usually been hand-made, but every now and then Mum or Dad would save up to get us something they know we really wanted. When I started earning something from Jimmy, I used to put some money aside to buy things but always just for the raw materials so I could make something for them. Most of the joy was putting it together and surprising people.

  “We usually had a large lunch with special foods, and then in the afternoon, mum, Conner and I would go into the Switch with small sample bags of food or hygiene packs that we’d made up from things Mum had collected through the year. Mum would hand the soaps and lotions to women she knew who’d had hard years and we were expected to find kids who we knew wouldn’t have had a big lunch like we did. Why do you ask?”

  “4: I was going to decorate the Tower but wanted to know what was appropriate.”

  “Go ahead, that would be great.”

  “4: I also wanted to know what was expected regarding presents. There is such a wide range of practices, and I don’t really understand what would be appropriate or not.”

  “Mum always said that both Christmas and birthday gifts should create neither an imbalance nor a debt in a relationship, they should reflect both the giver and the giftee, and they must always be free of conditions and hidden motivation. Dad’s advice was simply to remember that the gift isn’t for you but should elicit a smile of joy, pleasure, or laughter from the other person. He said it should be memorable enough that they never forget the occasion where they received it. Bottom line is they should reflect your relationship.

  “To be honest with you I’m having a problem myself this year. Usually, I make presents but this year has been too wild, and I haven’t had time. I asked Leon to get some things, and most of them have arrived, but I wonder if I’ve bought too big a present or too little now that money isn’t the burden it always was. I haven’t seen a tree outside, so I’ll probably have them left in the common room. I’d planned to make some gifts in Dunyanin for people that play there, but there hasn’t been any time. I suppose I could choose suitable things from the Megapede’s haul in Çaresiz, but Mum has this rule that no weapons can be given at Christmas, it’s a time for peace.”

  “4: Thank you. That helps somewhat. What are your plans?”

  “I need to visit Dunyanin, and I need some time to review the braids I used when making the Imperial Sceptre. Wisp wants me to see how the Space Station is operating. She and Amy have claimed several of the large ships that were in the dock and she wants to claim several more but is having some trouble with the quest parameters. Alan sent a message that he will help me visit the World Bank whenever I’m free, but I think I’ll wait until Jimmy has some news of the third prisoner. I have replies from the companies that make shells and need to make a decision, and Mum want us to go to church this morning for Christmas.”

  “4: Most of that will go faster if we can get the newer connections working as designed. I suggest we spend the next real-time hour working on the various strategies we discussed. It would help if you remain in the Tower. This will enable immediate calibration, and if necessary, you will be able to be brought to NREM3 sleep without having to wait for you to exit a world.”

  “OK, I’ll work here, then after the first break I’ll visit Dunyanin then go to church with Mum.”

  For the next three virtual hours, Leah worked on getting up to date with what had happened while she was out of action. Every now and then she had to pause as Gèng and Three made modifications to the signals sent to her nervous system. While there was no miracle cure, they had some success. Leah still needed the stimulus across her skin, but with the signal also broadcast at several of the secondary nodes identified from records of her previous neural activity, the image she perceived became more realistic.

  The signal to the secondary nodes was not sufficient on its own to register on her perceptions. Still, when added to the framework the sensory stimulus provided, she ‘saw’ an overlay of some colours and shadow and a vibrancy that had been missing. The other benefit was Leah found she was able to lower the speed of her perception and still maintain an accurate picture of what was happening around her.

  An additional benefit of requiring less processing to visualise her surroundings was freeing resources so she could’ speak’ without moving her fingers in the same way she’d learned to speak to Gèng in her head. Unfortunately, there was no change in her aural abilities though her speed of understanding Braille continued to increase.

  As she was about to log out, Gèng said, “4: Leah, the chip holds sufficient power to record input and display visual clues. It isn’t enough for a full sensory experience like the suit. I think it will be sufficient to give a wireframe view of the area around you. We can source sensors on the outside of the Pod and also have some sensors placed along main thoroughfares. Do you want this?”

  “Absolutely.”

  As she finished typing the word
, Leah logged out.

  25

  December 25 2073 - Morning and Afternoon - Part 5

  REAL WORLD

  When the door of the Pod lifted, Leah could sense the room around her as a wireframe image with two people inside. As she levered herself up, she used her growing skill of ‘sub-tactile’ typing to have her voice come from the Pod’s speakers. Facing in Marie’s direction, she said, “Merry Christmas.”

  “3: M for Marie.”

  Marie handed Leah a robe and said, “M: Merry Christmas, Leah. How did you do that without a suit on?”

  Leah smiled and said, “Gèng has skills. I don’t have much beyond a wireframe of the room, but it’s enough to have a basic awareness.”

  After slipping on the robe, Leah turned to the other form in the room and put out her hand. “Hi, I’m Leah. Thank you for helping us out. Marie and the others have been worn out looking after me, and I appreciate the help. Sorry that I’m meeting you for the first time mostly naked, but things have been hectic around here.”

  “It’s my pleasure. My name is Nicole.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Nicole. I don’t know what’s been said, but I hope you have a boring time watching over me.”

  “3: N for Nicole.”

  “N: I do too, but that’s only because I’ve been warned that when it stops being boring, it can be overly exciting.”