Digital Venous (4 page)

Telesync

VIA A FLEET of twenty thousand space probes, the Service were surveying planets in the Milky Way, creating an ever-increasing demand for data processing space. In the year 2100 The Service claimed they had “unlocked” the mind. The brain, as was long suspected, turned out to be far more capable, in terms of processing and storage, than anything mechanical. Through Electrotelepathy, the Peoples’ Service had remote access to the Napean body.

As brains were linked, each Napean city in the world operated like one organism as every Napean brain in the city was switched on and open, for temporary data storage, in a process resembling an old technique called seeding. The Service called this “Telesync.”

Every night in each participating country, the brains of thousands of people processed information from deep space. The spaceships were surveying new worlds seeking a home for humanity, and all Telesync contributors were, for their trouble, guaranteed a place in the new world. Napeans had lived through the solar flare holocaust. They had seen how it had nearly finished the planet. Prior to this, pollution had damaged the Earth beyond repair. The combination of these factors meant that humans had to evolve and move on or die out. Napeans were now so transportable that the solution and indeed the common belief was that it was time to go.

There was little of the necessary protective magnetosphere left. The lack of plant life meant a lack of food and also a major O2 crisis. Despite the chemical processing of sea water to create oxygen and fresh water, Napeans were united in their drive to find the location of a new and better world. Telesync was how they would find it.

There was always at least one country performing a Telesync. Masses of data were sent back from the explorer ships. Spaceship planet fly-bys picked up geo-physical, electrical, biological, magnetic, mortific, photographic, chemical, gravitational, and radioactivity data for analysis. Every night, each brain was used as a temporary storage unit, seeding this information to allow the necessary scale for information processing. Once the data had been gathered in total, it was all relayed back to centralized locations.

Although so many facets of Napean life were dependent on something mechanically generated, many Napeans—and Mia was one of them—still liked to think that all the answers could be found “within,” either in the memory or the soul.

Shane undressed for bed and said jokingly, “Y’know, often when I wake up from Telesync I see round shapes floating in my brain, imprints from…”

“Round shapes?”

“All those planets that come through every night.” He closed his eyes and put his fingers up to his temples. “I can see them now, circles floating…”

“It’s either that or a throwback to doughnut days. You’re probably hungry,” said Mia playfully.

“Doughnut? What’s ‘doughnut’?”

“Round, sugar-coated food. I was reading about it yesterday. We used to eat a lot of sugar.”

“No, I don’t dream about food. Why would I dream about food? I don’t need food.”

“Weird how we used to eat,” reflected Mia.

“And drink,” he said. Shane liked how she got him thinking. “Do you remember it?” she asked.

“What, eating? No, a hundred years ago now. Seems strange putting live things in your mouth…”

“Yeah, or dead things!” She grimaced.

“That’s right. Cows and sheep! Back then, we didn’t know any better,” Shane recalled. “Yeah, it was fun, though. I remember picnics,” she went on. “We had picnics. Y’know,

you could pack a bag of your food, take it somewhere, and eat it there—like out in the open somewhere.”

“You mean like in a forest or a desert?” asked Shane.

“Probably not a desert, but... yeah, I remember doing that once. When I was a kid. We went to these special gardens in the middle of the old city—down on the plains, there were plants from all around the world—big trees, ponds, flowers, grass… and you shared the food and ate it together.”

“Wow! Wish I could remember stuff like that.”

“You probably could if you thought about it.”

“Nah, it’s all been wiped now,” said Shane. He gestured with his hand, sweeping it across the top of his head. Shane continued, “But I would’ve done all that, wouldn’t I? I’m sure I would have!” He tilted his head and he looked down at the floor, thinking. He said, “I might just have an implant—you know, just for old time’s sake.”

“Like I said,” replied Mia, “It’s in there. You’ve just lost access to it.”

“Nah. The sheer amount that goes in every night… you can’t physically hold all that information. You know I can’t remember anything about my childhood?”

“Well, that’s sad.”

“Yeah, well, you think you can. Half of that stuff probably never happened.”

“I think I’d remember my own parents.” It annoyed her that he wouldn’t acknowledge her memories.

“You would think so,” he said, and changed the subject. “Anyway, in we go again tonight. Good ol’ Telesync.”

“Yeah. They go in, rape our minds, and then leave.”

“Rape’s a bit strong—I don t think they leave anything behind; hope not, anyway.” His head hit the pillow with a loud thud.

“Well, it is rape.”

“Well, it’s not—you
allow
them to use your mind, and it’s for a good cause.”

“Oh, do I have any choice?” Her tone suddenly bordered on tearful.

“Well, not anymore, no…” Shane’s voice trailed off.

“It seemed like a good idea fifty years ago.” Mia lay down on the bed. “It’s brutal...”

“Oh well. When we’re having a picnic on the new planet and eating—what are they? Doughnuts?—under a friendly bush, I’ll remind you of the brutal regime that got you off this burnt-up rock we’re stuck on now.” Mia leant over and kissed her husband. His simple optimism was a comfort. “A friendly bush, huh? Goodnight, you.”

The pair inserted remote link earplugs. These emitted a sleep-inducing white noise. They were out in seconds.

One hour later, as they lay sleeping, two telewave beams from a satellite two hundred and fifty kilometers directly above them, flooded their synapses with enough information that, had it been electrical, their heads would have lit up like Christmas trees. Enough data to fill a house with books sparkled away in their brains, fizzled there for fifteen minutes, and then left as quietly as it had come.

Mia Wants a Baby

TO MIA, IT seemed like the greatest scam in history that Napean women had to endure the painful charade of the reproductive cycle without any of the benefits. It was relentless; every month, the same cramps and feelings of doom, followed by the bleeding. She didn’t understand why the Service couldn’t simply just work out a way to stop it.

“I can’t have a child!” she yelled from the bathroom to her husband. “Why do I still have to go through this?”

Shane rushed in with arms outstretched. “Darling! Keep it down! We’ve been through it before!” Then, in a hushed tone: “Yes, he’s a machine, but he has feelings.”

Mia sighed. “I know, sorry.”

“There’s nothing worse than a depressed robot. Just be careful—his ears are incredible.”

“I get it!” she snapped. “Sorry I’m irritable!” she snapped again. “It’s just this bloody

period! It’s pointless!”

“I guess it’s your right as a woman,” said Shane. “To what?”

“To, you know, menstruate...”

“That is like being able to catch trains but not being allowed to get off at your stop.”

“Mmmm… I’m not sure if it is like that...” Shane knew what she meant but couldn’t see

what was so bad about being on a train.

“The point is that I don’t have any rights as a woman.”

“You have plenty of rights as a woman and… you never know it might come in handy one day.”

“For what!”

“Like when we get out of here—then we can have as many children as we like,” said Shane.

“Oh yeah, and I have a little kid that looks just like the little kid next door and every other kid in the street? I run out to the park and yell, ‘Come in for dinner, little Tommy!’ and a dozen little clones all laugh and say, ‘But we wanna keep playing, Mummy!’”

“You know it won’t be like that. You’ve still got your own... what are they? Gametes. You still have your own DNA—your body’s just been fooled into thinking you’re someone else,” explained Shane, positively.

“Yeah, well, that’s exactly what I mean. Do I have my own DNA? How does anyone know what they’ve done to my body? To your body? We just go on day after day, playing these pointless games, believing that we’re all going to revert back to some ancient human way. You don’t even remember what a doughnut is.” She sniffed.

“Hey, come ‘ere. Don’t get so upset. You’re acting like it’s some kind of evil conspiracy...”

“You said it...”

“It is going to be okay. Everything else they said would happen has happened. We have a great life. We can do, experience, anything we want...”

“I want a baby,” said Mia.

Shane covered his face. “Oh, not this again.” He looked up and said to her quietly, “You have one. He adores you. Why won’t you let him in?”

“You know that’s not what I am talking about!”

Mia had heard about a hormone-blocking agent available through a Sub dealer. It was originally manufactured for the Subs by Napeans to control their rabid population problem. Napean women had used it to mask their hormonal activity, to protect themselves from nightly digital analysis—and hide pregnancy.

“Even if you did get pregnant and by some freak accident it escaped Service detection... what are you going to do? Keep it in the cupboard?”

Mia was silent. Shane continued with his argument: “Everything that Robbie sees, the Service can see… if they can be bothered looking.”

“I’ll keep Robbie in the cupboard for the next two years. See what he sees in there.” Mia did have a ruthless quality.

“You can’t abuse him.”

“He might have a little accident.”

“By the way, where is Robbie?” said Shane, trying to move off the topic of murdering their robotic son.

“He’s cleaning his room,” said Mia flatly. “Like we told him to about two hours ago. He’s so obedient it drives me insane!”

Robbie

TO MIA, IT seemed like the greatest scam in history that Napean women had to endure the painful charade of the reproductive cycle without any of the benefits. It was relentless; every month, the same cramps and feelings of doom; followed by the bleeding. She didn’t understand why The Service couldn’t simply just work out a way to stop it.

“I can’t have a child!” She yelled from the bathroom to her husband, “Why do I still have to go through this!”

Shane rushed in with arms outstretched. “Darling! Keep it down! We’ve been through it before!” Then in a hushed tone: “Yes he’s a machine but he has feelings.”

Mia sighed, “I know, sorry.”

“There’s nothing worse than a depressed robot—just be careful—his ears are incredible.”

“I get it!” she snapped.

“Sorry I’m irritable!” she snapped again. “It’s just this bloody period! It’s pointless!”

“I guess it’s your right as a woman,” said Shane.

“To what?”

“To, you know, menstruate...”

“That is like being able to catch trains but not being allowed to get off at your stop.”

“Mmmm… I’m not sure if it is like that...” Shane knew what she meant but couldn’t see what was so bad about being on a train.

“The point is that I don’t have any rights as a woman.”

“You have plenty of rights as a woman and… you never know it might come in handy one day.”

“For what!”

“Like when we get out of here—then we can have as many children as we like.” Said Shane.

“Oh yeah and I have a little kid that looks just like the little kid next door and every other kid in the street! I run out to the park and yell “come in for dinner little Tommy!” and a dozen little clones all laugh and say: “but we wanna keep playing mummy!”

“You know it won’t be like that. You’ve still got your own... what are they? Gametes. You still have your own DNA—your body’s just been fooled into thinking you’re someone else.” Explained Shane, positively.

“Yeah well that’s exactly what I mean... Do I have my own DNA? How does anyone know what they’ve done to my body, to your body? We just go on day after day, playing these pointless games, believing that we’re all going to revert back to some ancient human way. You don’t even remember what a doughnut is.” She sniffed.

“Hey come ‘ere. Don’t get so upset. You’re acting like it’s some kind of evil conspiracy...”

“You said it...”

“It is going to be OK. Everything else they said would happen has happened. We have a great life; can do... experience anything we want...”

“I want a baby.” Said Mia.

Shane covered his face. “Oh not this again.” He looked up and said to her quietly, “You have one. He adores you. Why won’t you let him in?”

“You know that’s not what I am talking about!”

Mia had heard about a hormone blocking agent available through a Sub dealer. It was originally manufactured for the Subs by Napeans to control their rabid population problem. Napean women had used it to mask their hormonal activity, to protect themselves from nightly digital analysis—and hide pregnancy.

“Even if you did get pregnant and by some freak accident it escaped Service detection... what are you going to do? Keep it in the cupboard?”

Mia was silent. Shane continued with his argument: “Everything Robbie sees, the Service can see, if they can be bothered looking.”

“I’ll keep Robbie in the cupboard for the next 2 years. See what he sees in there.” Mia did have a ruthless quality.

“You can’t abuse him.”

“He might have a little accident.”

“By the way where is Robbie?” said Shane trying to move off the topic of murdering their robotic son.

“He’s cleaning his room...” Said Mia flatly. “like we told him to…about two hours ago. He’s so obedient it drives me insane!”