SynTech OS v.2.1.0.0067
IMPLANT_INTERFACE INITIALIZED
INTERCONNECT PROTOCOL INITIALIZED
The interface console springs back to life and I feel my connection to my millions of tiny bits of self restored. Even losing them for a few seconds like that to do a software update is unsettling. They’re such an essential part of me now. I pick up my processing appliance from the desk in what used to be Father’s operating room in the Butler Institute’s Research Center and pull out the cable. My huge, brown brother looks at me, his dark eyes full of anticipation under the dark curls of his hair.
From Evan: Hey Noah, are you seeing this?
The text from my brother comes in clear on the console embedded in my field of vision by the implant. It looks like the update with the last of Father’s promised upgrades worked.
“Yeah. I can see it. That’s awesome, Evan.”
“Sweet. Try sending something to me now,” he says, his grin growing.
To Evan: Testing, testing. Do we have telepathy?
“Yes! I got it!” He almost jumps with excitement. “I can see it. Happy birthday, brother. For your gift, I got you some techno-psychic powers. Am I doing this present thing right? We never did birthday presents here before.”
To Evan: Usually people wrap presents, but this is much better.
He reaches his giant arms around me and gives me a huge hug.
“Just promise we won’t go all Jeffy with it though,” I insist, feeling a pang of regret like I always do when I think of Jeff. He depended on the implant for everything, even moving himself around and chewing his food. Don’t be like Jeff is something I have to remind myself often, since it’s so easy to just let the bots do all the work. “We’ve got to make it a tool, not a crutch. We still need to talk like real people.”
“Of course.” He wraps up the interface cable and puts it back in the cabinet in Father’s lab. Our lab. “You mind finishing the clean-up here? I want to go tell Louise and Andrea.”
“Sure. Did they decide yet on whether we’re giving this out to everyone? And by everyone, I obviously mean Chad.”
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I was excited for this new system, but there were certain siblings that I’d rather not have putting thoughts straight into my console. Especially since the console is most of what passes for my memory these days.
“Yeah, I talked to Louise about it this morning. They want to use it on the Mekong trip with the new class we’re setting up. With them using it, we figured Chad will insist on getting it soon enough, so it’s better if we just give it to him. Plus this will shut him up next time he goes off about how he’s the only one of us getting anything done. So yeah, we’ll hook Chad up with the update next time we see him.”
“Fair enough.” I say, leaning back in my chair. “And with him across the planet most of the time, it’s not like he’s going to be in mesh network range very often. The last thing I want is him hearing what I might say over this thing.”
Evan shakes his head and gives me a sad look. “Did you forget our conversations about how the encryption works?”
“Did we have that talk in the last few hours?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “We talked about it yesterday. And last week. I thought that your system was supposed to catch stuff like that.”
Evan, Louise, and Andrea are the only ones that know how broken my mind is. Evan and Louise are usually pretty understanding, but I know it’s rough on them when I fail to compensate for it. I would have thought Andrea would have the most empathy, since she’s another victim of Father’s tech breaking normal brain function, but she’s still so mad over what I did to Jeff that she’ll barely even look at me.
“Yeah, sorry,” I say. “I don’t read back everything. I only get back what I prioritize for my daily read. That one should have gone in the index linked to you, but we’ve been talking so much today it probably got pushed back out of our recent conversations. I’ve got it in here, though. I’ll look it up, one sec.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Evan says, his voice somewhere between frustration and pity. “I’ll just tell you again for the third time. Make sure you get it somewhere you’ll see it this time, cause you’ll want to know how this works. Only the people you’re sending to can read your messages. The comms use the same signaling system that lets our implants recognize each other’s bots for the overlays. The bots publish the old beacon packets plus the new message data payloads. Public encryption keys get signaled out as part of the message data every few minutes. Once your bots have seen my key and my bots have seen your key, they encrypt the message payloads for the receiver using standard encryption algorithms. Only the right person will have the right private key to unlock the message. So no eavesdropping, even if Chad is connected on the bot mesh network system.”
I don’t know what I’d do without Evan these days. He’s been more patient with me than I have any right to expect from him.
“Thanks,” I tell him. “I’ll link this entry into my daily read so I don’t have to ask again. This really is the best birthday present I’ve ever had. I mean it.”
From Evan: You are welcome, brother. Now let’s go get dinner. I want to make sure you at least eat something before you try to work yourself to death again tonight.
I give him a resigned nod. There’s so much work to do, but I know I’m not going to win this one. He claps one giant hand on my shoulder and walks me out of the lab and toward the doors that lead to the cafeteria.