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."I've been on both ends of the knife really, I prefer theother." At the foot of the table, Lizzie said, "It can't always be that way,"and laughed.Using forceps, Charley dropped two coins of skin into a metal basin, wherethey began to shrivel.Two socket ends sat exposed on Diana's neck, denseround nests of small chrome spikes, clotted with bits of red flesh.Charley moved a cleaning appliance over the exposed sockets; for just a momentthere was the smell of burning meat."Neural fittings," he said, and two moreblack cables descended, both ending in cylinders.He carefully plugged one ofthe fittings into one of Diana's newly-cleaned sockets."Okay," Charley said."Let's see what we've got."Diana's eyes went blank as she looked into another world.Charley, Chow, Lizzie, and Gonzales sat in the large room that served as acommunal meeting place for the Interface Collective.Diana lay back in ametal-frame and stuffed canvas sling chair.Lizzie noticed her hand goingunconsciously to the bandaged, still-numb circles on the back of her neck.From the full screen at the end of the room, the Aleph-figure watched.Charley sat with his hands in his lap.He said, "We've got a problem:insufficient bandwidth in the socketing, which translates into a veryundernourished socket/neuron interface.Primitive junctions you've got there.That means ineffective involvement with complex brain functions, so you getswamped by information flow.It's worrisome." He took the cigarillo out of hismouth and looked at it as if he'd never seen one before.Chow said, "In the early years of this program, we took casualties.Some veryugly situations: serious neural dysfunctions, two suicides, induced insanitiesof various kinds.Until we finally learned how to pick candidates for fullinterface -- learned who could survive without damage and who could not.Now,things have got to be right -- psychophysical profile, age, neural maptopologies, neural transmitter distributions and densities.A few candidatesdon't work out, still, but they don't die or get driven insane."Diana said, "And I don't fit the profiles.""Almost no one does," the Aleph-figure said."But these concerns areirrelevant -- your case is different.You have prior full interfaceexperience, and you won't be required to perform the kinds ofmotor-integrative activities that cause neural disruption.""Telechir operations," Charley said."Such as assisting construction robots intasks outside."Diana looked toward the screen.She said, "I assumed these matters weresettled.""I see no problems," the Aleph-figure said."The situation is anomalous, but Iam aware of the dangers."Diana said, "Well, the situation between us was always anomalous.""Was it?" the Aleph-figure asked."We must discuss these matters at anothertime."Very cute, Doctor Heywood, Lizzie thought.Just a little hint or allusion, anindirect statement that you know that we know that something funny went on along time ago.ah yes, this could be fun."First," Charley said, "we must prepare Doctor Heywood.Tomorrow morningwe begin.""When will you need me?" Gonzales asked."If things go well, tomorrow," Charley said."I can't get ready that quickly," Gonzales said.Page 32 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlLizzie said, "Forget about all that shit you put yourself through.Aleph willsort you out okay once you're in the egg.Trust me.""Okay," Gonzales said."If I must."11.Your Buddha NatureThat afternoon, following instructions given her by the communicator at herwrist, Diana went to the Ring Highway and boarded a tram.About a hundred feetlong, made of polished aluminum, it had a streamlined nose and sleekgraffitied skirts -- the usual polite abstracts, red, yellow, and blue.Itsback-to-back seats faced to the side and ran the length of the car.Bicyclistsand pedestrians, the only other traffic on the highway, waved to thepassengers as the tram moved away above the flat ribbon of its maglev rail.She was reminded of rides at old amusement parks she had gone to when a girl.The mild breeze of the tram's progress blowing over her, Diana watched asHalo flowed past.First came shade, then bright rhododendrons in flower amongdeep green bushes.Hills climbed steeply off to both sides, with some housesvisible only in partial glimpses through the foliage.She knew that fromalmost the first moment when dirt was placed on Halo's shell, the planting hadbegun.She shivered just a little.Toshihiko Ito would be waiting for her.He hadcalled while she was out and left directions for her.Now, she thought, thingsbegin again.Passing under green canopies, the tram climbed a hill, then broke out of thevegetation and came suddenly out high above the city's floor, moving alongrails now suspended from the bracework for louvered mirrors that formed Halo'ssky.Far below, the highway had become a cart track flanked by walkways; onboth sides of the track, terraces worked their way up the city's shell.Perhaps twenty-five feet below the tram's rails, fish ponds made the topmostterrace, where spillways dumped water into rice paddies immediately below.She stayed on the tram through a segment where robot cranes were laying inagricultural terraces.Great insects spewing huge clouds of brown slurry, theymoved awkwardly across barren metal.The tram approached a small squarebordered by three-story groups of offices and living quarters, and thecommunicator told her to get off.A few feet from the primary roadway sat a nondescript building of whitenedlunar brick, its only distinctive feature a massive carved front door, showingJapanese characters in bas-relief.The door opened to her knock with just a whisper from its motor, and shestepped into a partially-enclosed, ambiguous space, almost a courtyard, opento the sky.Most of the space was filled with a flat expanse of sand thatshowed the long marks of careful raking.The rake marks in the sand carriedfrom one end to the other, straight and perfect, and were broken only by thepresence of two cones of shaped sand placed slightly-off center.At the farend stood closed doors of white paper panels and dark wood.The doors were so delicate that to knock on them seemed a kind of violence."Hello," she said.From inside came the faintest sound, then a door opened.An olderJapanese man stood there; he wore a loose robe and baggy pants of dark cotton.He stood perhaps five and a half feet tall, and his black hair was filled withgray.Diana said, "Toshi." He bowed deeply, and she said, "Oh man, it's good to seeyou." She reached out for him, and they came together in long, loving embrace-- little of sex in it, but lots of pure animal gratification, as she couldfeel Toshi's skin and muscle and bone and had knowledge at some levelbeneath thought that both he and she still existed.Toshi said, "Diana, to see you again makes me very happy.""Oh, me, too [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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."I've been on both ends of the knife really, I prefer theother." At the foot of the table, Lizzie said, "It can't always be that way,"and laughed.Using forceps, Charley dropped two coins of skin into a metal basin, wherethey began to shrivel.Two socket ends sat exposed on Diana's neck, denseround nests of small chrome spikes, clotted with bits of red flesh.Charley moved a cleaning appliance over the exposed sockets; for just a momentthere was the smell of burning meat."Neural fittings," he said, and two moreblack cables descended, both ending in cylinders.He carefully plugged one ofthe fittings into one of Diana's newly-cleaned sockets."Okay," Charley said."Let's see what we've got."Diana's eyes went blank as she looked into another world.Charley, Chow, Lizzie, and Gonzales sat in the large room that served as acommunal meeting place for the Interface Collective.Diana lay back in ametal-frame and stuffed canvas sling chair.Lizzie noticed her hand goingunconsciously to the bandaged, still-numb circles on the back of her neck.From the full screen at the end of the room, the Aleph-figure watched.Charley sat with his hands in his lap.He said, "We've got a problem:insufficient bandwidth in the socketing, which translates into a veryundernourished socket/neuron interface.Primitive junctions you've got there.That means ineffective involvement with complex brain functions, so you getswamped by information flow.It's worrisome." He took the cigarillo out of hismouth and looked at it as if he'd never seen one before.Chow said, "In the early years of this program, we took casualties.Some veryugly situations: serious neural dysfunctions, two suicides, induced insanitiesof various kinds.Until we finally learned how to pick candidates for fullinterface -- learned who could survive without damage and who could not.Now,things have got to be right -- psychophysical profile, age, neural maptopologies, neural transmitter distributions and densities.A few candidatesdon't work out, still, but they don't die or get driven insane."Diana said, "And I don't fit the profiles.""Almost no one does," the Aleph-figure said."But these concerns areirrelevant -- your case is different.You have prior full interfaceexperience, and you won't be required to perform the kinds ofmotor-integrative activities that cause neural disruption.""Telechir operations," Charley said."Such as assisting construction robots intasks outside."Diana looked toward the screen.She said, "I assumed these matters weresettled.""I see no problems," the Aleph-figure said."The situation is anomalous, but Iam aware of the dangers."Diana said, "Well, the situation between us was always anomalous.""Was it?" the Aleph-figure asked."We must discuss these matters at anothertime."Very cute, Doctor Heywood, Lizzie thought.Just a little hint or allusion, anindirect statement that you know that we know that something funny went on along time ago.ah yes, this could be fun."First," Charley said, "we must prepare Doctor Heywood.Tomorrow morningwe begin.""When will you need me?" Gonzales asked."If things go well, tomorrow," Charley said."I can't get ready that quickly," Gonzales said.Page 32 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlLizzie said, "Forget about all that shit you put yourself through.Aleph willsort you out okay once you're in the egg.Trust me.""Okay," Gonzales said."If I must."11.Your Buddha NatureThat afternoon, following instructions given her by the communicator at herwrist, Diana went to the Ring Highway and boarded a tram.About a hundred feetlong, made of polished aluminum, it had a streamlined nose and sleekgraffitied skirts -- the usual polite abstracts, red, yellow, and blue.Itsback-to-back seats faced to the side and ran the length of the car.Bicyclistsand pedestrians, the only other traffic on the highway, waved to thepassengers as the tram moved away above the flat ribbon of its maglev rail.She was reminded of rides at old amusement parks she had gone to when a girl.The mild breeze of the tram's progress blowing over her, Diana watched asHalo flowed past.First came shade, then bright rhododendrons in flower amongdeep green bushes.Hills climbed steeply off to both sides, with some housesvisible only in partial glimpses through the foliage.She knew that fromalmost the first moment when dirt was placed on Halo's shell, the planting hadbegun.She shivered just a little.Toshihiko Ito would be waiting for her.He hadcalled while she was out and left directions for her.Now, she thought, thingsbegin again.Passing under green canopies, the tram climbed a hill, then broke out of thevegetation and came suddenly out high above the city's floor, moving alongrails now suspended from the bracework for louvered mirrors that formed Halo'ssky.Far below, the highway had become a cart track flanked by walkways; onboth sides of the track, terraces worked their way up the city's shell.Perhaps twenty-five feet below the tram's rails, fish ponds made the topmostterrace, where spillways dumped water into rice paddies immediately below.She stayed on the tram through a segment where robot cranes were laying inagricultural terraces.Great insects spewing huge clouds of brown slurry, theymoved awkwardly across barren metal.The tram approached a small squarebordered by three-story groups of offices and living quarters, and thecommunicator told her to get off.A few feet from the primary roadway sat a nondescript building of whitenedlunar brick, its only distinctive feature a massive carved front door, showingJapanese characters in bas-relief.The door opened to her knock with just a whisper from its motor, and shestepped into a partially-enclosed, ambiguous space, almost a courtyard, opento the sky.Most of the space was filled with a flat expanse of sand thatshowed the long marks of careful raking.The rake marks in the sand carriedfrom one end to the other, straight and perfect, and were broken only by thepresence of two cones of shaped sand placed slightly-off center.At the farend stood closed doors of white paper panels and dark wood.The doors were so delicate that to knock on them seemed a kind of violence."Hello," she said.From inside came the faintest sound, then a door opened.An olderJapanese man stood there; he wore a loose robe and baggy pants of dark cotton.He stood perhaps five and a half feet tall, and his black hair was filled withgray.Diana said, "Toshi." He bowed deeply, and she said, "Oh man, it's good to seeyou." She reached out for him, and they came together in long, loving embrace-- little of sex in it, but lots of pure animal gratification, as she couldfeel Toshi's skin and muscle and bone and had knowledge at some levelbeneath thought that both he and she still existed.Toshi said, "Diana, to see you again makes me very happy.""Oh, me, too [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]