Nuklear Age (67 page)

Should be docking with the Watchtower space station soon now
. She flipped through some files.
Shimura Yuriko, better known to the world as Psiko. Of all the titans I see every day, of all their god-like powers, for all their feats of strength, it is this eighteen-year old girl whom I envy.

Psiko. It’s short for Psychic Girl in her native Japanese, though it’s a bit misleading. She isn’t a true psychic, no precognizant abilities. Sidenote: to date, no true psychics have emerged. Explore possible ramifications concerning nature of time, quantum mechanics, free will, and fate.

Where was I? Ah, yes. No, Psiko's powers aren’t precognizant, but they could be said to be extracognizant. Her senses stretch far beyond the normal human range, beyond anything else found in nature. The police often brought her to crime scenes to find clues they might have missed or could have never detected in the first place. Apparently her senses don’t depend on their respective organs. Or rather, they have the capacity to exceed the limitations of them. My theory is that she is actually perceiving a hybrid of ordinary sensory input, the same as the rest of us, as well as raw KI. With the proper training, it is my belief that I could help her shed all reliance on her biological senses. After all, she is only falling back on them out of habit. From an evolutionary standpoint, she must shed her chains. Humans got out of the ocean, Psiko must accept that her skin is a cast off one.

The girl has no idea of the power she wields. Imagine it, the girl can actually perceive KI fields and retain her sanity. The poor girl has no idea, no understanding of them! Why was she given this ability? Why her? Why not me? Imagine. No more clumsy Kopelson Equations. No more Dodeca-Matrix Dilemma. Imagine, actually
seeing
the fields for what they are.

No, that’s using archaic terminology. The language of the flesh.
Knowing the fields, the universe. That’s what is at stake here. Locked away in her mind are the very blueprints of creation. And she has no idea.

But perhaps I can fashion a key of some kind.

Her powers are quite impressive. She can communicate telepathically, read surface thoughts, and even probe other minds for their deepest secrets, though it comes down to a battle of wills at that point. She can implant subconscious impulses and alter one’s emotions. But perhaps the most versatile and, for my purposes, useful application is her ability to, as I like to put it, walk among minds. While she’s talking to someone telepathically, she can perceive that person’s immediate surroundings as though she were seeing them through that person’s eyes. She can then connect to any other minds in the area and do the same to them, seeing through them, and so on and so on. So far she’s only gone seven minds deep before passing out from the strain. But potentially, the only limit to this particular power is whatever her sense of self and sanity can endure. If pushed to those limits and beyond, then there’s a chance of driving her to a kind of epiphany. Or, alternately, a complete ego obliteration. The latter would prove to be another obstacle in the final stage of her use, but one that is not necessarily insurmountable.

Sidenote: Conduct study of delusional psychotics and compare their observations with local KI data. Find correlations, inconsistencies, etc.

They called her Psiko because of the mind reading, but that was just the beginning. Growing up in Japan’s largest city, Mechapolis, it was only a matter of time before she applied her powers to a computer whether by design or by accident. Not only can she walk among minds through devices like live video feed or a simple telephone, but she can walk among the minds of computers as well. She’d be the world’s most dangerous information pirate if it weren’t for her strong sense of morals. She could potentially hack into any system and leave no trace of ever having been there.

And yet, as amazing as these feats may be, they are so base, so meaningless in the face of what she could be. My window into the world of Intrinsity.

Outside the Skyjumper, the blackness of space swept over the craft and the Earth’s thin atmosphere fell behind her. Soon they’d begin the docking procedure with Überdyne’s all-purpose orbital space station, the Watchtower. Please put chairs in the full upright and locked positions.

__________

Meanwhile, about thirty feet below ground and crawling…

A lone spaceship raced through a star system completely alien to its own. The pilot was a deadly mixture of brash ruggedness, daring bravery, and dashing skill. A rogue’s rogue. One pilot versus the hive-mind armada of the hideous Gorthzok Empire. It was a suicide mission. And he liked those odds.

But rogue’s rogue space fighter pilot suicide mission types don’t have time to play around with odds. They don’t even have time to unload a full charge of proton shearing Megablasters and still dodge the incoming volley of homing missiles.

But they do it anyway.

Atomik Lad was hunched over the Danger: Supercomputer. His body lunged and leaned in time with his joystick movements as though that somehow helped his on-screen avatar avoid the waves of incoming alien gunfire. “Geez, they weren’t kidding about girls taking for-freaking-
ever
to get ready.”

“I heard that!” Rachel yelled from the Danger: Bathroom.

“Well then you can also hear me kickin’ the hell out of Level Five.”

“Good work.”

“Good wo—It’s Level
Five!
I started when you went into the bathroom to get ready for class. We’re going to be late as it is and you’re still not done!”

“You want me to look my best, don’t you?”

“I’ve seen your best. I know it can’t take you this long to accomplish that.”

The Danger: Bathroom door opened with all the velocity, menace, and terrifying presence of a glacier. “What. Did. You. Say.”

He paused the game.
Oh shit. What
did
I say? Oh shit!
“Er, no wait. What I meant was. You see, because you’re so incredibly beautiful, I should imagine you’re
already
so darn close to the maximum expression of beauty that human genetics could possibly allow, therefore it shouldn’t take you long at all to reach your, what is simply heavenly, best.”

She gave him The Look.

“Eh heh. So it’s a simple case of misunderstanding you see. You took my innocent and complimentary words as an insult. I mean, why would I ever so much as suggest that you’re ugly?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you’re looking for an easy way off this mortal coil.”

“Um, no?” The Danger: Bathroom door closed. “Whew.”

“Whu
tish!”
Nuklear Man said from the Danger: Couch with a little air-whip motion as he and Katkat vegged out on the Danger: TV. “You just gonna let her walk all over you like that?”

“Nuke. Shut up. I’ve been with you for ten years and you’ve never even
been
on a date, so you’ve got no room to talk about it.”

“Heh. Apparently someone forgot all about a certain hush-hush heated affair I’ve been carrying on with Dr. Genius for the past few months.”

Atomik Lad blinked. “That’s Norman. Norman is going out with Ima.”

Nuklear Man gave a patronizing smile. “Oh, stupid, naïve, pathetic, weak, cowardly Atomik Lad. Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just
maybe
, that’s part of our cover to keep prying eyes from prying into our forbidden love?”

“Good God, no.”

“Well. It works pretty good then, don’t it.”

“Shut up.”

Rachel emerged, at last, from the Danger: Bathroom as the very incarnation of beauty. “Okay. Let’s go,” she said sweetly.

“All righty,” Atomik Lad responded.

“Whu
tish,”
Nuklear Man observed from the safety of his Danger: Couch.

“What was that?” Rachel growled while looming over the now craven and cowardly Hero.

“Um. Gulp, nothing?”

“That’s what I thought.” She turned to Atomik Lad. “Ready to go, hon?” she asked while on her way to the Danger: Launch Pad.

“Sure thing.” He stood up from the Danger: Supercomputer and entered his initials into the hi-scores screen. “Whutish, huh?”

“Shut up,” Nuklear Man mumbled, still in a fetal position.

“Uh-huh. Try not to hurt yourself while we’re gone.” Atomik Lad joined the lovely Ms. Rachel at the Danger: Launch Pad and carefully wrapped his dangerous Field around both of them. The Danger: Main Doors crept open high above them. Atomik Lad rocketed the two of them out of the Silo like a ballistic missile. It elicited a happily terrified scream from Rachel.

The huge doors boomed shut over Nuklear Man. “Lousy kids. More attention to cartoons is now.” Or so he would have if not for an incessant series of beeps, blasts, explosions, and groovin’ techno music coming from somewhere that was not Silly Sam’s gift to the world. “Erg. Stupid noises, why you pester Nukie like this! Me can smash you!” He punched his ears. “Ouch! Gosh, I didn’t know being so strong could be that painful. Oh well. Live and something. Anyway, that catchy techno music is gone.” The Hero of heroes went back to his cartoons. One mighty finger was tapping along with the bass. “This is a pretty cool song—
hey!
Lousy noise snuck back, eh? Cunning. Like the cunning owl as it um, cunnnnives to devour the mouse like a, er, cunnnnivore. I see now that I am left with no other choice.” He hit himself again, this time hard enough to rattle the Danger: Dishes in the Danger: Kitchen.

__________

The Watchtower was a primarily automated space station. It was built to be able to accommodate a crew of some two dozen engineers and scientists but their presence was not required for most of the station’s day to day operations. Other than technical upgrades and major repairs, the station was usually unoccupied.

Which made it the perfect place for Dr. Genius to hide Psiko. She had endured nearly a year within the space station. She hadn’t spoken to anyone real in months. Isolation was putting it mildly. She’d been waiting at the main airlock for an hour, watching the Skyjumper make its approach.

“Konnichiwa, Dr. Genius,” Psiko said pleasantly surprised that she hadn’t forgotten how to speak. Her hair stuck out impossibly thanks to the Watchtower’s low gravity.

“And good morning to you, Yuriko,” Dr. Genius said as she floated into the station. “I’ve been looking over your progress reports. You are making remarkable advancements in the fine tuning of your powers.”

Psiko gave a slight bow since the zero-g environment would’ve punished her for much more than that. “Thank you for the opportunity to hone my skills here. My only complaint is how lonely it can be at times.”

“Yes, and I do apologize for that, I really do. But it is a requirement for the optimization of your training. Unfortunate, but necessary.”

“I know.” She motioned toward one of the smaller port windows. “At least it’s the best view on or off the Earth. I lose track of how many sunrises and sunsets I get to watch every day.” A sunrise was just beginning outside. “Besides, once we’re done here I get to go back, so it’s no use complaining at this point.”

“True. Our session here will be your last. In orbit at any rate.”

“I can’t wait to get started.”

“Nor I. I can recalibrate the equipment now. It shouldn’t take long.”

“So soon?”

“I thought you wanted to get home.”

“Yes, but you just got here. I thought you might like to rest.”

“Science waits for no man. Or woman.”

__________

Nuklear Man loomed over the Danger: Supercomputer. It was the only thing in the Danger: Living Room that had yet to be pummeled in his mad search for the source of the beeping and techno music. His Plazma Aura flared and faded to the rhythm of his heavy breathing.

“All right you. I’ve done smashed everything else in here but the beepin’ ain’t gone yet. This leads me to believe that
you
are the demonic source of the noise. As such, now is the time to bash you.” He pulled back one massive fist. “This is gonna hurt you so much more than me it ain’t even funny. But I laugh anyway!” The game’s automated sequence of screens flipped to the list of hi-scores. “Hm, interesting.” The Hero’s fist dropped slightly. “Seems that Sparky’s pretty good at this here game. Not as good as I no doubt am, but good for someone who isn’t me. And to prove this point, I shall obliterate his name from the hi-scores with a score of my own that is so grotesquely huge that the mind can nary conceive of even the tiniest fraction of it! GWA HAHAHA!” He sat down, cracked his knuckles, and got to work. “This oughta take all of five minutes.”

__________

“All right, Yuriko.” Dr. Genius said. Her lab coat was floating behind her in slow motion. “Sit in your regular chair and put on the interface helm.”

Yuriko complied. She strapped herself into the chair and placed on her head what looked like a biker’s helmet that had been attacked by a gang of technology. Little lights blinked on it to prove that it was working properly.

“Now. What I have done is reconfigure the Watchtower’s computer network so that you have access to its environmental scanning operations instead of just the one computer you used as an emergency relay with Überdyne these past few months. Do you know what this means?”

“I’ll be able to see entire chunks of the planet in my mind, right?”

“Yes. California to be precise. Entertainment capitol of the world, you know.”

“But I thought we were trying to focus my powers so I could be more selective about how I use them. Isn’t such a wide sweep counterproductive?”

“Don’t worry. This is a test of that focus. The range and breadth of this exercise are for us to determine your ability to concentrate. And to show you that distance is a meaningless concept based on your weaker senses. All that does matter is your mind. Overcome the old way of seeing. That is what we are doing.”

Yuriko shifted in her chair. “Sounds a little frightening, to be honest.”

“I know. We are only human, we fear change. But, once we’ve completed the test, hopefully you’ll get past that.”

Yuriko nodded. “I’m ready.”