MULTIPLE TIMESTAMP ERRORS DETECTED
APPROXIMATELY -2.7.14 PRE-INCIDENT
Holograms and displays overlapped in the control room and in Emmett’s HUD. It had taken a few minutes to get used to images crossing from his brain to the real-world and back again, but now Emmett switched between them at a dizzying speed. Some things were just easier to look at on a screen. Others were more intuitive to look at in hologram. And others were easier visualized in his own head.
At the beginning, statistics and data were easier to keep on a monitor, but soon Emmett wouldn’t need to visualize things like that anymore. He wouldn’t need to see the chemical readout and strength of two materials side-by-side. He wouldn’t need to watch the simulation of stress tests to compare them.
Emmett tried not to think about it too deeply. He was developing an entirely new sense.
Proprioception was the name for the sense of where the human body was in space. It was the way that Emmett could touch his nose with his eyes closed, or know where his limbs were in the dark. It had taken some time after his accident on Champion street, but he’d extended the same sense to where his prosthetic limbs and whip were in space.
Soon, data and analysis would come intuitively to him—just like he could communicate thoughts back and forth with TINA. Soon, he’d been able to tell data apart as easily as his two hands in the dark.
Was that how Dr. Venture’s knack worked? Venture could process and make sense of data far faster than any human or super should be able to. It wasn’t that his brain was any faster than normal—he was processing things on a subconscious level.
An intuitive sense for data…
“You’re getting distracted again.”
TINA’s words brought Emmett back to the moment. A part of him reveled in developing this new sense, but that wasn’t his goal right now. Developing this new sense was a byproduct of his goal—not the goal itself.
“And yes. I believe that is how Dr. Venture’s knack works. To borrow the phrase, he has a sixth sense for data processing.”
“Is that your theory or his?”
“That is my theory. …Dr. Venture never examined his own power.”
Emmett almost asked why that was, but he felt a gentle nudge from TINA, like a parent trying to keep their child on task.
“Congratulations on developing another superpower.”
Emmett chuckled. “...Don’t tell McGuire.”
Emmett took a breath and returned to the task at hand.
The overlapping waltz of real and virtual displays started again. Among them were a new skeleton and new muscle fibers and ligaments. None of the designs were particularly complex. Most of the materials were from exosuit designs. Changing his bones and tissues wasn’t hard—nanites could do all that. The main issue was adapting the materials for use in the human body.
Adapting any one piece of the puzzle wasn’t difficult, but fitting them all together was… frustrating.
Emmett had already reinforced his bones with a metal lattice. Replacing them completely meant he needed to do something with his bone marrow. Blood cells were made in bone marrow. So, if he wanted to replace his bones, he had to completely replace his blood, too.
Again, that wasn’t particularly difficult, but the complexity just kept growing. Changing one thing caused a cascade of other problems down the line.
Now that Emmett could coat himself in nanites and use them as ablative armor, he effectively had Class 4 durability. He’d been able to tank direct punches from Lock, and the armor had only gotten stronger with additional testing. But that wasn’t enough.
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Emmett didn’t need Class 4 durability—
He needed Class 4 everything.
At first, Emmett was methodical about his research choices. He didn’t want to take away too much of TINA’s processing power, so he only asked for what he hoped were the most logical combinations of materials and transitions. But after a couple days, he devolved into trial-and-error guess work, and finally into methodically testing every combination.
Emmett wasn’t sure how long had passed, but his neck and shoulders ached. He leaned back in his chair and sighed.
“It would be easier to just go full cyborg.”
“You mean android?” TINA replied aloud.
“Fully synthetic,” Emmett corrected. “My brain’s already there. That was probably the riskiest part. But putting the rest of the puzzle pieces together sucks. It would be easier to go full synthetic. Basically start over instead of trying to do it piece by piece.”
“It is often easier to rebuild a system from the ground up than to keep building on a flawed base.”
Emmett chuckled. “TINA, that hurts.”
“The truth often does.”
He scoffed. “Fine. You’re saying that I should abandon my body? Just get rid of it?”
“I can’t make that choice for you, and it’s not a choice that should be made lightly. You’re already experiencing the consequences of time dilation and your connection with me. There will likely be other unforeseen consequences.”
TINA trailed off, her voice replaced by footsteps in the hall. A moment later, the control room door hissed open. Emmett turned and minimized his HUD.
Clara stood in the doorway, arms folded across her chest. Her nanite disguise shimmered overtop of her hoodie and sweats.
“Hey… Want to take a break? …The weather’s nice. It’s finally cold outside. We could go for a walk…”
Emmett glanced back at the holographic table. A new skeleton hovered in the air. He and TINA had made progress, but they still hadn’t figured out a way to make all the upgrades he wanted.
Emmett sighed. He almost said no—
But he felt another nudge from TINA. An urging to take Clara seriously and not push her off.
“Yeah,” Emmett replied, trying to smile in earnest. “I could use a break.”
~
Emmett and Clara walked out of the backup lab and through the abandoned block.
Emmett’s parents had always told him to steer clear of certain places. Boarded-up windows and shattered windows were like signposts saying ‘you shouldn’t be here.’ Now they felt oddly comforting. Faded street signs creaked in the wind. Rats scurried into the alleys. Weeds and grass pushed up through cracks in the pavement.
Both Emmett and Clara pulled the hoods of their sweatshirts up and walked hand in hand. There weren’t any drones or biomechs around, but they kept their disguise nanites engaged.
“The nanites are getting better,” Clara said quietly.
Emmett agreed. Clara looked like a ghost blending into the walls. The new nanites didn’t just obscure a person’s features—they went one step further. To Clara, Emmett probably blended into the street and the cloudy sky above them.
“TINA outdid herself this time,” Emmett replied. “These are the new cloaking nanites. This is the next step.”
“...The next step in what?”
“Us fighting back.”
Emmett’s words hung in the air until he couldn’t bear the silence any longer.
He asked, “Did I say something wrong? …Did something change?”
Clara squeezed his hand. “I’m worried about you. How far you’re going with your body. And how far you’re willing to go.”
Emmett searched the lifeless streets, trying to find the words. “Does it really matter what I’m made of?”
Clara started several times to say something, but trailed off. Finally, she stopped on the street and turned toward him. The ghost of her looked up at him.
“I can barely see you.”
Emmett concentrated, and for a moment, he was able to reveal both of their faces. It looked like Clara had been underwater and came to the surface for air. She smiled. They kept walking and Emmett let the nanites cover them completely again.
“You’re getting really good at that.”
“You sound jealous,” Emmett replied, but his joke fell flat.
“You have your powers. I have mine.”
“You’ve made a lot of progress too, you know.”
Clara sighed. “Not fast enough. Not fast enough for the Resistance. And not for what you and TINA are trying to do.”
Emmett steeled himself. “No matter what happens, we’re in this together. TINA’s not going anywhere, and neither am I.”
She laced her fingers through his again. Emmett squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back. Her hand felt so warm in his compared to the crisp fall air.
He held onto her again, this time like a lifeline in a churning sea…
Emmett just couldn’t remember when she’d let go of him. Or when he’d let go of her.
~ ~ ~