CHAPTER 4-2
893 Words
Mara downshifted from a jog to a slow walk when she saw Dr. Canfield and Perry, the technician, outside the double doors leading to the monitoring lab. The doctor talked, jabbing with her thumb over her shoulder at the lab, while he looked down at the floor with a somber expression, nodding. Mara’s first impulse was not to approach until they finished, but the tension in their demeanors made her suspicious—something was awry in the repository. She was too worried to be coy.
The doctor looked reproachful as Mara neared them. “It’s not a good time, Mara.”
“If something’s happening with Sam, Ping and Abby, I have a right to know,” she said.
The doctor held up a finger to Perry and leaned into Mara. In a lowered voice, she said, “I assure you that we are doing everything in our power to make sure they are safe and healthy. We’re working through a few technical issues, and then I’ll be able to give you an update on their condition.”
“I’m not looking for an update, Doctor. Please take Sam and Ping out of stasis so I can return them to our realm. I will come back for Abby when I know they are safe. Our best chance to help the receptacle occupants is to remove her from the system, even if it is risky.”
The doctor glanced at the technician, and he shook his head, looking away.
“What? Why’s he shaking his head?” Mara asked.
“We’ve lost connectivity with the receptacles,” she said.
“Lost connectivity? What does that mean?”
“We have lost the ability to implement commands into the repository system. Not just here but worldwide. We cannot even retrieve logs or monitor the status of the occupants. We are sensor-blind, totally cut off from them. There is no way we can safely bring your friends out of stasis until we reestablish connectivity.”
“How long will that take?” Mara turned to Perry.
“We’re not even sure what is causing the problem. We’ve run diagnostics on all the systems, and there’s no rational explanation for this. Everything should be operating normally. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Just unplug the damn thing,” Mara said. “Those people are my family—and I want them out of there now.”
“Shutting down a receptacle while the occupant is in stasis would be fatal. The synaptic shock would overwhelm their nervous systems in a matter of seconds,” the doctor said.
Mara leaned into the doctor’s personal space. “I had another holographic interface with Ping, and he informs me that his dream realm is collapsing. That’s why your biological counterparts are having adrenaline spikes. They are afraid of dying. Now I can’t prove it, but I think Abby is behind all this, just like she was behind all the havoc with the shimmers. We need to get her disconnected, or I’m afraid of what might happen.”
“What do you mean, what might happen?”
“If the repository occupants are this stressed out now, what do you think will happen when their world collapses, when it ends?” Mara asked.
The doctor blanched. “Even if that is true, we cannot disconnect your friend without killing her. The neurological shock would damage her brain. Even transitioning her to a synthetic body—assuming we had one prepared—would be unsuccessful.”
Mara stared at the doctor, the muscles in her jaw flexed as she absorbed the information, let it roll around in her head for a moment. She had to get Abby out of that receptacle. Doing that would solve all this—Mara was sure of it.
“What if I go in after her?” Mara blurted out.
The doctor frowned. “Go in where after who?”
Mara turned to Perry. “What would happen if someone with a synthetic body went into a receptacle? Would it work?”
Dr. Canfield interrupted, “No, don’t answer that. It has never been done before, and, even if it had, I couldn’t let you enter the system when it is so unstable.”
“I’m doing it, unless Perry tells me a reason I shouldn’t,” Mara said. “You know you can’t stop me.”
Perry glanced at the doctor, and she nodded to him.
“Technically a synthetic person could step into a receptacle, and the synaptic interface would be compatible. It should work. The biological support functions would not work, but they wouldn’t be needed for your synthetic body anyway. However, also specifically for your case, the receptacle would have to be isolated from the repository system to prevent a syncing conflict between your biological and synthetic bodies. We wouldn’t be able to do that while the system is so unstable.”
“I’m not following that last point,” Mara said.
“Your biological body is already on the repository network. Your synthetic body would generate a redundancy and an error condition if it were connected at the same time,” Perry said.
Mara’s gaze shifted to the doctor. “But my biological body isn’t in the repository system. Right?”
The doctor looked confused at that for a moment. “That’s true. Your body is in the morgue, but this synthetic body of yours was synced with its original owner before it was damaged. Hold on. I’m accessing the records.” Her eyes shifted back and forth for a moment as she accessed the Sig-net. Then her gaze settled on Mara. “Ironic.”
“What?” Mara asked.
“We disconnected the signal processor on your biological counterpart’s receptacle so you, getting her original synthetic body, would not sync with it. It seems you shouldn’t have a conflict if you connected to the repository system.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do,” Mara said.
Dr. Canfield shook her head. “Absolutely not. I cannot allow—”
Mara disappeared from the hallway in a flash of light.
When the light receded, she found herself inside the transparent tube next to Abby’s. A wave of claustrophobia washed over her, and she drew in a deep breath to ease her fear. Seconds later, her eyelids fluttered. She felt like she was falling.
- Writer
