Part Three

Susan thought about that as she lay down on the diagnostic table. She waited patiently as the instruments read her life-signs, and gave a clean bill of health. Then they did it again. And again. And again.

"Did you know that Dr. Cochrane was Nick's father?" she asked Kathy, the person at the console.

Kathy shook her head. "I only knew that Nick had to stay with me since we were little. His mother died when he was still a baby, and I heard that his father was involved in some secret government work." She smiled sadly. "I used to think that he was my brother, up till we were eight or nine. The fact that he really wasn't my brother was revealed hilariously when we were thirteen, when he started wearing those freakish goggles. I knew then that this was no member of the Demarco clan."

Susan waited patiently for five more seconds, then asked, "Why the hell am I being scanned so often?"

Kathy sighed. "Dr. Cochrane operated on you. We don't know where or why, thanks to the miracle that is microsurgery. And all he's saying is that it's above your neck, and that it won't harm you."

"Above my neck? That doesn't leave much of a choice of organs. So why are you scanning my whole body?"

"What if he's lying?"

"Frankly, I don't think he is. He doesn't seem the sort-"

"I think so too, but this's standard procedure. Sort of. Now hold still for a while more."

Susan did as she was told, then a small bell chimed, signaling that it was safe to get up. She did so, and asked Kathy, "So what now?"

Kathy shrugged. "Now," she said, "we go to the CAT scanning room."

"Aw, please...."

"Look, I don't want to be doing this either. But do we have a choice? What if he planted a cortex bomb or something?"

"I think you're paranoid. Besides, didn't the early scans show it to be a harmless brain implant?"

"Maybe so, but do you want to take that chance?"

Just then, they heard screams. This was followed by a warning siren.

"Three-tone, short bursts....." Kathy mused. "Uh oh. Get down!"

The two of them dived to the floor, just as a shockwave blasted through the medbay. It was over as soon as it started, save for the few upset medicine bottles.

Susan picked herself up, and dusted herself off. "Damn keytool malfunctions. Who d'ya suppose caused it?"

"A cadet," Kathy answered. "It came from the direction of the target-practice room. Some newbie must've accidentally set the keytool to EMP pulse."

"Good thing this place is reinforced. If not, who knows what might've happened."

"Yeah. C'mon, let's go."

"Aw....."

It is a fact of existence; anything that is complex enough, will want to have a sentience of its own.

Sometimes, though, it needs a jolt of energy to make it alive.

If Dr. Warren Cochrane were to be told of this, he would not have been surprised. He had programmed a certain brain implant with a certain purpose.

Originally, he wanted it to perform one function and one function only.

But living things seldom follow only one function........

Susan had been told that the brain implant was, indeed, harmless. She was given a clean bill of health, but the doctors at the Academy were unable to remove the brain implant.

"Even with all these advances in medical technology," Ril explained to Susan, "the brain is still effectively off-limits."

"But there's still the brain implants that are becoming so popular," Susan pointed out.

"Even those implants only enhance certain aspects of the brain; memory, cognitive skills, or maybe even the five senses."

Susan shrugged. "And the one in my brain does what?"

"Nothing that we know. In effect, it's only a small piece of bio-plastic in your head. There for decoration, so to speak."

"That makes me feel real confident."

"At least we're certain that it's not a cortex bomb. So whatever the implant's true purpose, chances are it won't hurt you."

"'Chances are'," Susan repeated ruefully. "That doesn't make me feel better."

The two of them were passing through a construction site. Susan looked around. "Ril," she said.

"Yes?"

"Why are we here?"

"Well, that question has intrigued philosophers for so long, that-"

"No, I mean, why are we in this place?"

Ril looked around. "We must've taken a wrong turn somewhere. I'm sure that we were headed towards the park....... Lessee, we turned left at Over Drive, and then right at Bit Road....."

Susan sighed, and she followed Ril back to where they went.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't hear the warnings shouted to the two of them, as they passed through an overhanging arch.

"..... then we went straight at the crossroads at Cable Street, and.... oh shit...."

Susan looked alarmedly at Ril, then looked up.

A huge chunk of plasteel was poised to drop over them. Susan reflexively shouted, "Flash, shield!", but realized that her keytool was back at the Academy, being tested for bugs. And from the way Ril was frantically shouting to her keytool, Ro must be out of power.

There was no escaping that huge piece of falling doom. Susan threw her body over Ril's, and waited to be crushed-

*tweak*

A sudden shower of plasteel bits and a loud crack made Susan look up. Then she was blasted on both sides by tiny pieces of the plasteel chunk, as the two suddenly-severed halves crashed onto the ground.

A construction worker ran towards them. "Are you okay?"

Susan slowly got up, feeling slightly light-headed. "Yeah, I'm okay. What happened?"

"We knew that the support for that arch was weak, but we didn't realize how weak until too late. Luckily the plasteel shattered before it hit you. Otherwise, we would've had a tragedy on our hands."

"A double-tragedy," Ril said, brushing herself off. "Thanks, Susan. I owe you one."

"Who's counting." Susan looked at the two broken halves. They were severed neatly, as though a very sharp knife had cut through the plasteel chunk.

"I think," Ril said slowly, "we'd better get back to the Academy. The park can wait."

"I think so too."

Ril had gone to Nar to seek comfort, and Susan had pondered going to Nick to do the same. Then she decided against it. Nick was still blaming himself for his father's actions.

Besides, there was still that problem of why the plasteel block had sundered in mid-air....

The door slid open, and Kathy walked in. "Heard about your experience," were the first words out of her mouth.

Susan groaned to herself. If Kathy had heard about it, then that meant that the whole world had heard or would hear about it....

Kathy laughed, and Susan realized that she had groaned out loud. "Don't worry," Kathy said, "I didn't go around telling everybody. Yet."

Susan sighed. "Kathy."

"Hm?"

"What do you think about unexplained phenomena?"

Kathy narrowed her eyes. "Now what brought this up?"

"Purely as a conversation topic."

"Well..." Kathy leaned back and thought for a while. "In cyberspace, it's possible to do so. If you have a real good computer, you can actually hack into the Teracomputer's environmental controls, stuff like that, and in effect perform miracles. Then again, it's pretty hard. I don't think even Nick can do it."

Susan bit her lip. "Let's say..... somebody did manage to do so. Then what?"

"Then, I think we'd be in big trouble."

Susan took a deep breath. "Can I show something to you?"

"Sure, why not?"

Susan looked around, and her eyes rested on Kathy's alarm clock.

Oh well, she thought. Here goes nothing.

Susan concentrated.......

*tweak*

The alarm clock wobbled, and fell onto the floor.

Kathy blinked. "Come again?"

Susan didn't hear her. She was in a trance now, and she saw the world for what it was.....

You know, it's really rather childish.

What? Susan thought to that disembodied voice.

Performing party tricks like that. It's a waste of good power.

So? I like it.

You could be ruling over cyberspace, and you settle for party tricks.

Who wants to rule cyberspace? Not me.

Even so, you do realize that this demonstration of your new powers will place you in a laboratory faster than you think.

I don't care. By the way, who are you?

I'm the complex computer in your head. Not your brain; the other one.

The one Dr. Cochrane put in my head? Does he know?

No, he doesn't know. He only put me here for a simple reason. Too simple. He didn't know that one simple nudge in the right direction can cause me to be sentient.

And what provided that nudge?

That is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you have the power, and you can use it as you see fit.

The power?

The power to control cyberspace. That's all I can tell you now. Besides, I think there're some people who want to see you.

fade out......

The first thing she saw were several concerned faces peering down at her. It took her a while to identify them as the members of Alpha group.

"You feeling okay?" Nar asked her.

Susan sat up. "Yeah, I'm okay." She looked around. "Where am I? The medbay?"

"Actually, yes," Kavi said. "Kathy told us about your little demonstration. When we got to your room, there were things swarming all over the place."

"Looked like an old movie I saw," Nick said. "'Poltergeist'."

Susan rubbed her head. "I feel a bit light-headed."

"It's no surprise," Peter said. "You shorted out the scanning machine. First time that's happened."

Susan tried to get up, but was overcome by a wave of dizziness. Ril steadied her, and helped her get onto her feet.

"You shouldn't be up yet, you know," Ril said disapprovingly.

"You sound like Robert," Susan grumbled. Then she became serious. "There's something I must do."

"Mind telling us what it is?" Nar said.

"I've got to get this thing out of my head. And I know that there's only one person who can do it." She turned to look at Nick.

Nick gulped. "I don't think-"

"You have to," Crysta told him. "Susan's right: Dr. Cochrane's the only one who can get the implant out of Susan's brain."

Nick hesitated. "Why ask me? I mean, I can't get into the Supercomputer's databases, and I can't give myself authorization to get my father out of the cells."

"But Prime Jennings is at the World Council meeting," Kathy said. "So that doesn't leave us much of a choice, does it?"

"But we can't all just barge in there," Sarah said. "I think that the maximum number of people for a jailbreak is four. Which means three of us, plus Dr. Cochrane."

Susan nodded. "Nick, Ril," she said, "you're coming with me."

"I suppose we can't say no?" Ril enquired.

"You can't."

"Didn't think so."