Nanotroopers Episode 12: The Symbiosis Project

Nanotroopers

  Episode 12: The Symbiosis Project

  Copyright 2016 Philip Bosshardt

  A few words about this series….

  *** Nanotroopers is a series of 15,000- 20,000 word episodes detailing the adventures of Johnny Winger and his experiences as a nanotrooper with the United Nations Quantum Corps.

  *** Each episode will be about 40-50 pages, approximately 20,000 words in length.

  *** A new episode will be available and uploaded every 3 weeks.

  *** There will be 22 episodes. The story will be completely serialized in about 14 months.

  *** Each episode is a stand-alone story but will advance the greater theme and plot of the story arc.

  *** The main plotline: U.N. Quantum Corps must defeat the criminal cartel Red Hammer’s efforts to steal or disable their new nanorobotic ANAD systems.

  Episode # Title Approximate Upload Date

  1 ‘Atomgrabbers’ 1-14-16

  2 ‘Nog School’ 2-8-16

  3 ‘Deeno and Mighty Mite’ 2-29-16

  4 ‘ANAD’ 3-21-16

  5 ‘Table Top Mountain’ 4-11-16

  6 ‘I, Lieutenant John Winger…’ 5-2-16

  7 ‘Hong Chui’ 5-23-16

  8 ‘Doc Frost’ 6-13-16

  9 ‘Demonios of Via Verde’ 7-5-16

  10 ‘The Big Bang’ 7-25-16

  11 ‘Engebbe’ 8-15-16

  12 ‘The Symbiosis Project’ 9-5-16

  13 ‘Small is All!’ 9-26-16

  14 ‘’The HNRIV Factor’ 10-17-16

  15 ‘A Black Hole’ 11-7-16

  16 ‘ANAD on Ice’ 11-29-16

  17 ‘Lions Rock’ 12-19-16

  18 ‘Geoplanes’ 1-9-17

  19 ‘Mount Kipwezi’ 1-30-17

  20 ‘Doc II’ 2-20-17

  21 ‘Paryang Monastery’ 3-13-17

  22 ‘Epilogue’ 4-3-17

  Chapter 1

  “Infested”

  UNQC Western Command

  Table Top Mountain, Idaho, USA

  January 25, 2049

  0700 hours

  For Major Jurgen Kraft, running 1st Nano was like being den mother to a troop of hyperactive, genius scouts, scouts with some serious weaponry at their disposal. You never knew what they would get into next, but at least it would be interesting…and probably deadly.

  Kraft scrolled through the early after-action reports from Quantum Shadow…a full ANAD lost in Tibet…Alpha Detachment violating Chinese airspace and nearly being captured…Bravo Detachment lost at Engebbe…with only one escaping. Kraft pulled up an image of Corporal Ozzie Tsukota, taken from the Nairobi hospital after he’d barely managed to escape the swarm outbreak at the Engebbe dig site. Lacerations and burns, flayed skin on his neck and shoulders…it wasn’t pretty. The CQE had been damned lucky to get out of there alive.

  Kraft knew that somehow some way, the Corps would have to probe Engebbe again, in force if necessary and determine what had happened and why Red Hammer was so interested in the place.

  Now however, Kraft had a bigger issue to deal with. CINCQUANT wanted to move forward with the Symbiosis Project. Some months ago, Johnny Winger had been volunteered to host a full-featured ANAD master in a surgically embedded containment capsule, complete with a quantum coupler in his head to talk to the little bot. Now the Corps wanted all nanotroopers to be so equipped. Blended Man-Machine Warrior, my ass, Kraft snorted. The whole damned thing was a circus trick, a lab stunt and Winger was Doc Frost’s lab rat. Hosting a swarm right under your skin was like hosting a deadly virus, one that could talk and make jokes, and you never knew what the damned thing was going to do next. It could just as easily kill you as save your ass. Even Doc Frost didn’t fully understand all the permutations of what he had created and the learning curve had turned out to be a lot like the side of Mount Everest.

  Now CINCQUANT wanted all his people to have the same thing.

  What the hell am I running here…a nursery? A kindergarten school? We’ve got missions and serious adversaries and the Corps wants me to give every nanotrooper a blanky and make ‘em take their naps.

  Now Doc Frost himself was on his way to Table Top to begin the process. Kraft’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a chime on his wristpad. Another Solnet report had just been posted and this one caught his eye immediately….he switched his commandpad to the feed and watched….

  Solnet/Omnivision Video Post

  @anika.radovich.solnetworldview

  January 25, 2049

  1200 hours U.T.

  SOLNET Special Report:

  Symborg Triggers Riots in Boise, Idaho

  Solnet Reporter Anika Radovich reports on the recent angel riots in Boise:

  “Viewing the dronecam footage of the disturbances several days ago, I had several thoughts. First, there is an explosive increase in the numbers of angels…and by angels I mean swarms of nanobots configured to closely resemble human beings…Normals as we have begun calling ourselves, as if anything about this is normal…a nearly exponential increase in the numbers of angels walking our streets. Second, parallel with this increase and in many ways a triggering mechanism, is the growth of the Church of Assimilation and its followers, especially followers of the recently-released Symborg.

  “This report will detail some of the background to this growth. We also hope to bring you a live vid interview with Symborg himself.

  “Many Solnet viewers have expressed concerns about another problem we’ve been having recently…an increase in problems with the Net, both Solnet and WorldNet. Whether worms, Trojans, zero-day exploits, root-level malware, or other viruses, many Solnet viewers have had difficulties accessing the Net, even to view our reports. Our engineers have assured me that Special Report won’t be affected at all…in fact, my engineer here, Stephen Welks, has assured me that everything is under control and that Special Report will be posted just like normal. So let that put your fears to rest.

  “Now to the latest from Boise…as you know, two days ago, one of many Assimilationist rallies that occur every day around the world was held. Symborg himself was on the schedule to appear. And, as with many of these so-called ‘awakenings’, assimilator booths were on hand for volunteers who want to…I guess the phrase is, ‘be taken up into the mother swarm…be assimilated.’

  “Many of these rallies have descended into chaos and riots. According to police sources I talked with, the presence of Lanier Barnes and his anti-angel group the Hellcats was the proximate cause of the disturbances in Boise. These agitators have disrupted Assimilationist rallies all over the world. While the underlying philosophy of Barnes and the Hellcats is somewhat murky, there can be no denying the effect they have on assimilationists everywhere. If Symborg is seen by millions as a hero, even a sort of robotic messiah, then Lanier Barnes must be seen as the opposite. Every hero seems to produce an anti-hero, just as many forms of matter have corresponding forms of anti-matter.

  “Some years ago, when Symborg first came to prominence, I posted a Special Report dedicated to describing the rise of this unlikely hero. Here are some excerpts:

  --The central figure in all this hurricane of emotion and frenzy was Symborg himself. It was no secret that Symborg was an angel…a semi-human swarm of nanobots. He never made any attempt to hide that.

  As a charismatic spiritual and political leader, Symborg has great influence, even though his followers are well aware that he is nothing but a lifelike swarm of nanoscale robotic elements. Physically, his main appearance is that of a handsome middle-aged man of average height but muscular buil
d, but he can assume many other configurations and forms, as needs dictate. Symborg seems to prefer maintaining a consistent ‘brand’ and ‘image, so he does not often present himself in public in anything other than Config One, his most human-like state.

  His creators, whoever or whatever they are, have done their homework. Symborg has been programmed with the most effective personality elements of Hitler, Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, Lincoln and a variety of historical figures, kings and emperors, celebrities and scoundrels. Symborg can assume whatever personality characteristics seem appropriate for the moment. Each is nothing more than a module he can activate or shut off at any time. Yet each is developed, tested and fine-tuned for maximum effect and charisma and the modules can be modified on the fly, probably by Config Zero according to our sources at UNIFORCE and downloaded to Symborg over secure, encrypted quantum communication channels that Humans haven’t been able to detect or intercept. This is a point of potential weakness. Sources tell us that Quantum Corps has been trying to exploit this link by detecting, intercepting and scrambling these communications.

  Symborg first came to public notice from a small Kenyan village. The village is Kipwezi. He is by appearance a man of darker skin, but not deeply black. One of Symborg’s physical capabilities is the ability to manipulate his skin appearance to appear subtly lighter or darker, depending on the needs of the audience. This is a simple matter of manipulating the melanocyte composition of the skin cells at the molecular level, something easy for Symborg to do. He can literally be all things to all people, as any good politician or preacher would want.

  From the beginning, Symborg has been an advocate of Assimilationism, the idea that man and his ANAD creations are destined to merge into some kind of blended symbiotic organism, part human and part machine.

  Symborg is a messianic character, some have said even a robotic messiah. He is programmed with the healing and teaching abilities of Jesus, the oratorical skills of a Lincoln, a Roosevelt or a Hitler, the enlightened state of a Buddha, the ruthlessness of a Stalin or Mao, the leadership ability of Patton or Nelson or Mohammed, and the sheer intellectual genius of an Einstein. He is or can be all things to all people. But most of all, he is a persuasive advocate for assimilationism and for deconstruction of single-config entities such as Humans into nanobotic swarm elements and their absorption into the mother swarm. This absorption is portrayed by Symborg as something akin to Heaven, nirvana, paradise or just a desirable end-state configuration symbiotically united with the great mother swarm of the Central Entity. Symborg publically uses the phrases ‘Central Entity’ and ‘Mother Swarm’ interchangeably with various audiences according to his analysis of their emotional and spiritual needs.

  In fact, UNIFORCE sources tell SOLNET that Symborg has the programmed ability to do glutamate trace matching on large numbers of people at the same time…a covert insertion of a few nanobots to sniff out glutamate and dopamine trails in the brains of his followers and the ability to remotely manipulate these trails so as to produce desired emotional states of wonder, enlightenment, happiness, ecstasy, or terror, as the situation dictates. Symborg is like a conductor, orchestrating the ventral tegmentum areas of the brains of his followers to achieve ecstasy or enlightenment or abject terror as his needs dictate. One of the rituals Symborg encourages in his followers is to allow small-scale nanobots to be inserted into them…this is considered good form for those who seek Assimilation. They do this by drinking a small cup of liquid, which contains the nanobots, which then insert themselves. These inserted bots, like angels, allow Symborg to precisely control how his audiences respond to his messages.

  Symborg has gathered around himself a small coterie of followers and worshippers. This cabal seems to be a mixture of actual Humans and swarm–angels. They are known publically as the Sons of Assimilation—

  “Now, let’s talk with Symborg himself…we have him standing by from his headquarters in Nairobi. Good day, sir…can you hear me okay? Thanks for taking the time to be with us today.”

  On millions of screens and displays all over the world, the image of Anika Radovich is split off and shared on screen with the image of the Assimilationist leader. Symborg is wearing a simple white shirt with some kind of token on a chain around his neck. He is dark-complexioned, with high cheek bones and a winning smile. His eyes sparkle.

  “Good day, Ms. Radovich. It’s my pleasure. And as we say here in Kenya…Karibu…welcome to you and your followers.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Symborg. Right off the bat, I’d like to ask you a question…one that is on the minds of many of our followers—“

  “Surely.”

  “There is a very common public perception among many of your followers that you are indeed a sort of messiah or savior. Can you comment on these perceptions for our audience?”

  Symborg continued smiling, though the arc of his lips evolved to more of a smirk. “Indeed, Ms. Radovich, I am well aware of these perceptions, as you call them…and I am, of course, extremely flattered. As your followers are no doubt aware, some eleven years ago, an archaeologist named Rudolf Volk presented some extraordinary findings to the world. His work at a dig site not far from here, a place called Engebbe, produced direct fossilized evidence of micro-robotic remains, dated to be consistent in time with fossilized bone structures from multiple Homo Erectus finds.”

  “Exactly, Mr. Symborg. If you would permit me, I’d like to open another window on our viewers’ screens and show some of the report that my colleague Anna Kolchinova made at that time—“

  “Please go ahead, Ms. Radovich.”

  Another window opens. The report is dated August 5, 2038. The place is the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany….Kolchinova’s blond curls come up on the window….

  “The essence of Dr. Volk’s presentation is that we now have incontrovertible proof, physical evidence, that Man didn’t develop and evolve on this planet alone or unaided. Recent finds of fossilized micro robotic remains among ancient Homo Erectus bones at the Engebbe dig site have swept the world of archaeology and anthropology like a hurricane. Volk is a researcher in the Institute’s Department of Human Evolution and was here in Leipzig to present the details of his findings to the Institute’s Board of Directors.

  “According to Dr. Volk, the robotic remains have been conclusively dated to be synchronous in time with the bone remains. The techniques used were a relatively new, more advanced form of radiocarbon dating, a method called quantum state spectrometry. According to Dr. Volk, the tests have been performed multiple times, by multiple researchers right here at the Institute and the results are consistent across all experiments and experimenters.”

  “It seems, to quote Dr. Marta Siebeck, an archaeologist on the Board here, that ‘we may be descended from ancient robotic creatures.’”

  When the Kolchinova report was done, Symborg took the moment to make a statement.

  “Ms. Radovich, I am a direct descendant of the individuals discovered by Dr. Volk.”

  Momentarily startled, Anika cleared her throat. “Mr. Symborg, if you will pardon me, that’s a rather extraordinary thing to say. Would you care to elaborate?”

  Symborg’s face lit up. “I would indeed. Perhaps, it’s best to begin at the beginning. What is it that the Church of Assimilation stands for? What do we believe in?”

  Anika took the bait. “Okay, I’ll be your audience. To me, the Church stands for de-construction…a kind of mass suicide.”

  Symborg shook his head. “No, that’s not it at all. In fact, we believe in the unity of all things. We believe that long ago, the Old Ones came to Earth and seeded it with life. Their plan was that this life would grow and develop into a sort of common unified swarm, a sort of common mind, not unlike viruses today. Simple but powerful elements, but organized into greater formations. And when the first elements had developed enough, they would be ready to be taken up by the mother swarm of the Old Ones,
incorporated into the greater Unity that is the universe.”

  Radovich had heard this story before. It was a standard litany in many Assimilationist awakenings. “But there was a mistake, according to your way of thinking. Things didn’t quite work out. Evolution got off track and Man is a result of that mistake.”

  Symborg’s smile was that of a parent gently correcting a wayward child. “Not quite. You see: those whom you call the Old Ones have spent millions of years seeding and developing life on other worlds. Each time they do this, the Old Ones seed life to ensure that it evolves in a manner compatible with them…evolving as a distributed, intelligent virus-like swarm of entities. The Old Ones are using this seeding campaign as a way of developing multiple swarm entities with which they can merge. Ultimately, they want to unite all world-based instances of swarm life which they have seeded into a giant, galaxy-spanning swarm or hive mind. Like a network or computational cloud. To the Old Ones, this is the Imperative of Life itself. The Imperative of Life is that life absorbs chaos from the Universe and adds or builds structure or order. Life is anti-entropic.”

  “Mr. Symborg, I’ve heard these explanations in all your literature, all your so-called ‘awakenings.’ But the fact is, millions of your followers are committing suicide, going into those booths. How can you justify this? Isn’t this just a new form of genocide?”

  Symborg’s smile faded, to be replaced by a hard, determined edge to his face and lips. Anika thought she could even see his cheek planes morphing; maybe it was her imagination.

  “Earth was seeded by the Old Ones billions of years ago. But the evolutionary track which the Old Ones laid down on Earth was interrupted or disrupted and evolution took a different course. Multi-cellular, single-configuration, organisms took over. Earth was to have been populated by swarms of intelligent, re-configurable virus-like entities. Instead, it’s populated by human beings. So in a larger sense, you are correct, Ms. Radovich. Man is a mistake. The Old Ones mean to correct this mistake. The Imperative demands this.”

  Anika tried another tack. “What exactly is this Prime Key you speak of? Is it a philosophy?”

  “The Prime Key is a tool, Ms. Radovich. It’s a blueprint. The Prime Key instructs all swarms to maintain certain configurations and to follow additional programming which will ultimately have the effect of returning the Earth to a biological and geological state similar to its condition approximately a billion years ago, when the Old Ones last visited. This programming is a sort of evolution in reverse. I have come to ensure that the Prime Key is executed.”

  Anika suddenly felt a chill down her spine at Symborg’s words. Not precisely his words. It was the way he said them. His voice was even, dead flat, almost machine-like. Anika realized deep down inside, in a visceral way she couldn’t put into words, that she was dealing with a machine here, despite outward appearances. It had a program. And it would stop at nothing to execute that program.

  “Mr. Symborg, I have one final question for our viewers.”

  The expressionless smile came back. “Certainly, Ms. Radovich.”

  “Are you God?”

  Now it was Symborg’s turn to pause. His smile was an enigmatic facial tic. Had she found something with the question? Had she tripped some flag or inhibit inside the angel’s program?

  “Ms. Radovich, names and labels are human creations. The Central Entity…the essential core of the Old Ones…did not create the universe…we don’t know who or what did. But the Mother Swarm is coming and all of us will be taken up…all of us will be part of the family. It is the Imperative of Life…negentropy, the reduction of chaos. The basic organizing influence in the universe is life. Life involves utilizing a flow of energy to draw order from chaos and build internal complexity with an accumulation of information. Living beings thus are anti-entropic, or negentropic, entities. The principle of negentropism is, in a manner of speaking, the ‘natural law’ applicable to all living beings located anywhere in the universe, regardless of their size, shape, biochemistry, sentience, or culture. Your own philosophers know this. They have said this. I have come to help you and all life on Earth fulfill this destiny.”

  “Mr. Symborg, I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us today on Special Report.”

  Again the smile. A politician’s smile, all teeth, no warmth. “It was my pleasure, Ms. Radovich.”

  The screen display went dark, to be replaced by the Solnet logo.

  Solnet Special Report Ends

  Kraft’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

  “Come—“

  The white-haired face of Dr. Irwin Frost appeared. “Good morning, Major.”

  Kraft waved the scientist inside. “I see you’ve come to Table Top to make lab rats of all my nanotroopers, Dr. Frost. You realize we’re right in the middle of a tough campaign against a very clever enemy here.”

  Frost took the seat Kraft offered, across the desk. “Major, if we do this embed project, you’ll have even better tools to face our enemies. That’s the whole plan for the Symbiosis project.”

  “How long are my troopers going to be out of commission?”

  Frost gave that some thought. “From initial surgery to rehab and completion of all training should take each trooper about a month to six weeks…based on our experience with Johnny Winger.”

  Kraft exploded. “Six weeks? Doctor, that’s completely out of the question.” Even as he said it, Kraft knew that CINCQUANT had already approved the project. “I can’t give up all of 1st and 2nd Nano for a month and a half…” Kraft sank back in his seat with a resounding thud of disgust, resigned to the inevitable.

  Frost had expected this. “Major, if I may—you raised the same objections when Lieutenant Winger came to our lab. In fact, I recorded this—“ he pecked at some keys on his wristpad. A voice emerged…it was Kraft, in a meeting with Winger several months ago, Frost had been there as well….

  “…We’ve got to give ANAD some real chops, Lieutenant. That’s why I sending you to Northgate. If half of what Doc Frost has promised us is true, you could have made quick work of Red Hammer’s bots inside Lions Rock. As it was, you and ANAD got your ass kicked and you were lucky to get out alive. I don’t want to hear any more reports of ‘ANAD being out-replicated, outmaneuvered, getting his atomic ass kicked.’ In this outfit, ANAD isn’t holding his position. He’s attacking and moving forward all the time. When it comes to Red Hammer, ANAD’s going to hold ‘em by the nose and kick ‘em in the butt. In fact, to quote my good friend General George S. Patton, ANAD’s going to go through Red Hammer like crap through a goose. That’s why I’m sending you to see Doc Frost. He’s got some truly crackpot ideas that no sane commander would ever seriously entertain. But you don’t outflank Red Hammer by just following the book. You’re going civilian on this one, Winger. In fact, you’re booked on the next commercial flight out of Boise tomorrow morning…”

  Frost leveled an even gaze at the Major. “Your own words, Major.”

  Kraft scowled. “Doctor, if there’s one thing I truly hate, it’s being right…for all the wrong reasons. I know I said that. But that was one trooper. Now you’re taking two platoons…the fist and hammer of our whole outfit. Here I am trying to run a brand-new unit and you’re even better than Red Hammer at picking off my troopers.”

  Frost raised a hand. “Let me put your concerns to rest, Major. I can show you what’s involved.” Frost punched some more buttons on his wristpad. An image emerged from the pad and settled into a 3-D projection right on top of Kraft’s desk. Words and vid snippets danced about like a ballet troupe, while Frost narrated the details of the process….

  “The objective of the Symbiosis Project is to create a blended man-machine warrior, with an embedded ANAD master nanorobot contained in a surgically implanted capsule, along with a quantum coupler- based comm system surgically implanted in the trooper’s cranium. The containment sy
stem with quantum comms will enable the nanotrooper to carry a full-featured ANAD system with him or her on any mission. Launch, joint operations and recovery will be much faster, allowing the nanotrooper to respond to threats faster.

  “The dictionary definition of Symbiosis (from Ancient Greek for "together" and “living") is a close, mutually beneficial, often long-term interaction between two or more different biological species.

  “The Symbiotic system will provide for full effector, propulsor and replication control of ANAD via this coupler link and will provide all available configuration templates for launching, replicating any config and conducting nanoscale ops by a single, properly trained trooper.

  “Joint or combined ANAD ops with multiple troopers launching and running their own ANAD swarms will require additional tactical training in how to manage joint operations.

  “The transition consists of eight phases, each required in sequence to surgically implant ANAD and the coupler and train the trooper properly in operating and deploying the new system.”

  Frost added, “This is the presentation I gave to General Lynx himself in Paris.”

  Kraft studied the dancing images with a sour look. “You don’t have to rub it in, Doc. I’m fully aware that my commanding officer has already approved this. So what are these phases you mentioned?”

  “Very simple, Major. In sequence, here are the steps…implant shoulder capsule, implant quantum coupler, recovery and rehab, systems familiarization, learn-in all the comm centers, activate and test all sensor and effector algorithms, basic operations and unit readiness training. In all, about five to six weeks.” The words materialized in mid-air even as Frost spoke them, accentuated with a collage of vids showing the steps in operation. “The end result: a fully ANAD-enabled nanotrooper able to achieve all tactical objectives assigned.”

  Kraft smirked. “I can see why CINCQUANT was impressed.” He didn’t say hoodwinked or bamboozled or sold a swindle but the words were there on his tongue. “When does all this folderol get underway?”

  “As soon as you give the word, Major. Mary Duncan is already on her way here from Northgate now. I have two other technicians and the rest of my gear. I’m recommending we set up a special surgical cell inside the Containment center. We can perform all steps and tests there in complete safety. And if the process is scheduled properly, in a month, I can be returning ANAD-enabled nanotroopers to your command at the rate of one a week.”

  Kraft felt physically sick as he ran down the roster: D’Nunzio, Barnes, Nguyen, M’Bela, McReady, Reaves. “I only hope Red Hammer cooperates, Doctor. Anything pops in the field, and I’ll have to pull troopers, even if they’re still in their surgical gowns…the enemy still gets a vote here. CINCQUANT will understand. The mission comes first.”

  Frost smiled his best professorial smile. “Major, we are on the same team here. I have the same goals as you. My ultimate objective is to give you the most capable nanotroopers technology can produce…soldiers who can deal with Red Hammer and any threat and complete their missions with few or better still, no casualties.”

  “Amen to that, Doctor. Okay, let’s get on with it.”

  Twenty kilometers east of Jurgen Kraft’s office and some eight hours later, Johnny Winger was speeding along Highway 7 toward a much anticipated rendezvous with fellow troopers at the Custer Inn in Haleyville. It was the last liberty time he was likely to have for a month and he planned to spend as much of it as he could getting hammered.

  He saw the sign for Custer Inn come zooming up out of the dark. Why the hell not? He skidded through a turn and went bumping across its ancient gravel parking lot. Inside, the bar was half full, smoky as usual, raucous with some kind of honky-tonk country tune thundering out. A boozed-up couple made languorous turns on the tiny wooden dance floor. Winger came up to a barstool, waved to some familiar faces…no auto-tender here at the Custer Inn...and got a pitcher of something like beer for his efforts.

  Most of the platoon was there, scattered among several tables. Winger settled himself in with Buddha Nguyen and Sheila Barnes. Mighty Mite had just come back from a three-month rotation out of Quantum Corps Singapore base, helping local cops deal with an outbreak of rogue nano and a growing problem with unlicensed matter fabs.

  “Lieutenant,” Barnes said over her beer, suds lining her lips, “what was it really like…getting that shoulder capsule? Did Doc’s drug cocktail make your head spin off?”

  Winger slurped his own beverage. “No, but I did take a little jaunt through the space-time continuum. Honestly, guys, it’s not that bad. They put you out. You dream a little. You wake up. Your shoulder’s sore. And then comes rehab and training.”

  Nguyen was more interested in the coupler link. “Lieutenant, what do you hear when the coupler link’s open…what’s it like talking with ANAD directly, right out of your mind?”

  “Well, to be honest, it’s like having a little brother following you around asking about a million questions. And sometimes, it’s like having your mother in the back of your head, looking over your shoulder and commenting on everything you say and do.”

  Barnes shivered. “Sounds creepy to me. I joined the Corps so I wouldn’t have to listen to my mother.”

  “It’s really cool, guys. Once you learn how to work the link and get trained on ops, you can wade into a fight and launch and replicate ANAD as fast as any gunslinger can draw his weapon. It has to help us in those alley fights we’re always getting into.”

  “Hey, any word on Ozzie?” Barnes asked. “How’s the dirtbag doing, stuck like a lab rat in that cage they call Containment?”

  Winger was sober, remembering the after-action reports. “The whole detachment—wiped out.” He shook his head. “Ozzie was lucky to get out, but he got swarmed. They don’t know if it can be treated or not. Ozzie’s in Containment until the engineers and the docs can figure out how to attack the bugs inside him. I heard they’re sort of like Red Hammer’s halo but more capable…they can change configs in the blink of eye, look like something else and you never know where or what they are. So, he stays in Containment until somebody figures out how to fix him.”

  Barnes shook her head sadly. “Hell of a thing. Poor Ozzie. We should go see him, try to cheer him up.”

  Nguyen finished off his drink. He made a sour face at the dregs. “Lieutenant, how long does this embed process take?”

  Winger thought back to his own experience at Northgate and the Autonomous Systems Lab a few months ago. “Maybe a month. Maybe a little more. The hardest part was the training. The surgery is nothing. It’s a small incision in your shoulder. For a few days, you feel like you’re carrying around a big can inside but it’s not really that big…a few centimeters is all. You get over that. But learning how to launch and recover ANAD, learning how to command the thing and learning how to make the coupler work and dealing with that voice in the back of your head…that takes time. That’s different.”

  Barnes yawned, polished off her own drink. “Guess I’d better get back to the Mountain and try to get some shut-eye. Doc said to be at Containment by 0700 hours.”

  Barnes and Nguyen said their good-byes and departed. Winger ordered a plate of nachos and another drink. It seemed awfully smoky inside the bar, not in itself unusual for Custer Inn, but the smoke thickened and seemed to concentrate in his corner of the room. He was about to get up and step outside to a deck for some fresh air, when the smoke began swirling in ways that immediately made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

  This isn’t cigarette smoke, he told himself. A little of the smoke brushed against his jacket and he immediately brushed it off. Then, he stared dumb-founded as shapes and forms began to materialize right out of the smoke, right in the seat across the table.

  Winger looked down at his drink. It was just beer. Had somebody put something in the drink? He blinked, rubbed his eyes and tried to convince himself that he wasn’t seeing an
arm materialize, resting on the table. Or that there wasn’t the barest outline of a face forming up in the curls and swirls of the smoke. Then some shoulders. Another forearm…then part of a hand.

  ANAD. Winger checked his own capsule. His wristpad read STATUS: READY. The capsule was occupied. ANAD should be inside.

  “ANAD, is this you? Are you still in containment?”

  There was a brief delay and Winger had a dawning suspicion, but then came the answer.