Tales of Chills and Thrills: The Mystery Thriller Horror Box Set (7 Mystery Thriller Horror Novels) (164 page)

“Sorry to call you without an appointment, Colonel.”

At least Barr wasn’t one of those who experienced disorientation from using VR glasses without the paraphernalia of a virtual conference room.

“No problem, Major. What can I do for you?”

“I’ve been doing some open source intelligence work, trying to pick up clues about the nanomachines they might not want to teach me. I was studying the history of Roundhouse. I found a book that seemed likely to be free of propaganda, the author held Oceania responsible for what happened there. He insinuated that the war crimes trials made Alexander sound like more of an independent entity than he was, and less like a composite of the people who made him up. He implied this was done because so many important people were involved in the war crimes, giving them all what they deserved would have started the war again.”

Barr looked as if he were about to speak, but Brett swallowed and continued. He was having trouble putting this into words, and if he stopped he wouldn’t know quite how to start again. “At first it seemed obviously true, given what I’ve learned about the nanomachines. Then I started to realize how much I’d grown into the habit of accepting what they told me. Now I feel like I’m going crazy, I’m not sure if I can trust my own brain or not. If anything’s been classified secret I’m sure there’s a damned good reason, but I just need to know this.”

The Colonel frowned, and wrinkled his brow. “There are some things I have specific orders not to discuss.”

Brett replied, “Sir, under the circumstances could you try and speak directly to Senator Peterson? I don’t see how this information could have military applications, even if they got it from my mind.”

“I – I do have specific orders from him. I’m sorry Brett.”

“I understand Colonel,” Brett told him coldly, and broke the link.

So now there were two possibilities. There was a good strategic reason why what the Federalist Worlds knew about Roundhouse should be kept secret – or Brett had been misled by his superiors to foster his suspicion of Oceanian technology.

The idea that his brain had been so tampered with that he saw no holes in the idea that now seemed obvious made him feel ill, as if there were alien things inside him. He hadn’t thought of the nannies that way for quite awhile. The idea that his experiences on Roundhouse had been used to manipulate him by his own government was almost as bad, but he needed to know, or at least talk to someone he could trust.

There was nobody he could trust available to talk to him, nobody except the Ambassador. Brett’s stomach was empty but the thought of food made him queasy. It was a little late, but Williams would probably still be in his office.

Brett closed the door to the VR conference room. He had no desire to talk to Williams, but it was better than being alone, he felt as if he were going crazy. He remembered his earlier visit this morning, so much more optimistic.

His current knock was much more subdued. After he had settled in the chair in front of Williams’ desk, he wasn’t sure how to start. He really didn’t want to talk to Williams, but there was no one else.

Brett swallowed. “They’ve done stuff to my brain. How much I don’t know.”

The Ambassador’s eyes widened. “How certain are you?”

“I was supposed to start learning how to use the nannies for verbal knowledge.”

“What happened?”

Brett shook his head. “It seemed great at first. They can’t just download information into your brain, but you read a lot faster, experience better comprehension, remember a lot more.”

“But?”

“I found myself believing a little too easily.”

Williams leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them. “What do you mean? You must have doubts about something, or you wouldn’t be so agitated.”

Brett sat for a few moments, collecting his thoughts and putting them in order. “I was reading about Alexander, and led to conclude that the supermind is pretty much the sum of the people who make it up, and imagining an independent being was controlling them makes little sense. It seemed to fit very well with what I was reading, and what I’ve learned about how the technology works.”

“So they have enough control over your mind to prevent you from seeing flaws in this conclusion, but not enough to prevent you from deciding you were being manipulated?”

“It sounds funny when you put it that way,” Brett admitted.

Brett slumped back again. “Why was I so easily convinced? It felt like I was reading a book, only faster, and with better retention and understanding. If related knowledge came to me, I knew whose opinion it was and where I could read more about it. So it seemed.”

There was silence for a few moments. Williams started to speak, but Brett interrupted. “What have I done to my brain?”

Williams replied, “Maybe nothing.”

Brett remained wound up. “In which case my job is to try and bully this world into appeasing our fears – in a way that may cost them millions of lives. Failing that I help conquer them.”

Williams picked up the obsidian knight from the chessboard on his desk, toying with it. “So you’re also worried that the nanomachines aren’t deluding you.”

Brett wouldn’t have put it that way, but found it hard to argue. “It’s not just the horrible things I saw on Roundhouse, and the fact that I’ve spent much of the last ten years trying to prove the hive mind is a threat. Senator Peterson and the upper echelons of the Space Force would have had to know I was barking up the wrong tree – and not merely declined to inform me, but used my misinformation for their own purposes.”

Williams hesitated. “How badly do you want to know? I would hate for you to feel I had entrapped you into violating security regulations.”

That sounded promising. “Very badly.”

Williams unclipped his belt computer. He told it, “Direct line to Joyce.”

A few moments later he said, “Joyce? Got a minute?”

Belt computers didn’t have the range to reach the ship directly. Williams had to have a booster nearby.

Quiet stretched, but Williams seemed expectant, so Brett waited patiently. The silence wasn’t awkward, Brett felt a bit calmer. After about five minutes Joyce’s voice seemed to originate somewhere behind Williams’ desk. “Always glad to talk to you, but this is a busy day. Can it wait?”

Williams replied, “Brett and I can call back if we absolutely have to.”

Joyce sounded more interested. “Barr talked to Brett this morning. He seemed unhappy he couldn’t be more helpful. I guess it’s a good thing ship to ground communications are recorded and monitored, so temptation wasn’t too strong, huh?”

Brett had forgotten about that. Had Barr told her Brett’s question?

“I guess so. You said you’re busy.”

“Right.”

“I remember you used to like going out in a vacuum suit and communing with infinity.”

“I still do. I’ll be directly overhead in about three hours. Maybe I’ll go outside and wave to you. I’ll have earned a break by then.”

Was Joyce going through the ship’s radio? She had to be, she probably didn’t have her own in her cabin. It was presumably monitored too, but it was a pity Williams didn’t try and glean some kind of hint from her.

Instead Williams wound up the conversation. “I’m sure you will. Talk to you some other time.”

Williams glanced down at the box in his hands. “Three hours. Plenty of time to set up the tight beam laser receiver.”

Brett blinked, than grinned. “Nobody appreciates a devious mind more than me. Setting this up in advance shows a lot of foresight on your part. So she puts on a spacesuit and takes a little spacewalk? I take it she carries a little laser transmitter. How does she aim it?”

“It has maneuvering jets. She just lets it float free. Computers are amazing. We can wait until then, but I feel like we already know the answer.”

Brett found he agreed. “Me too. I really appreciate this. Mind if I ask you something else?”

“Go ahead.”

“When we met, and the first few times we worked together, you seemed hostile to the military in general and me in particular.”

Williams nodded. “Sorry about that. It was just – I should have been delighted to be made Ambassador, but the Senator made such a big deal about not trusting me, and wanting me to clear things through you. Also, I was nervous about being on the ground and risking infection from the micromachines, although they took another look at my tests and said what they called my neurosis wouldn’t get in the way. I know Dr. Casey and he said he could help me, so it was kind of a shock discovering he was being shuttled back up.”

Brett remembered being told to guide Williams. He had never wondered what Williams had been told about him. Brett said slowly, “So one of the diplomats has a phobia about the planet he’s negotiating with, while the other is famous for his lack of diplomacy. You could almost wonder if someone wanted us to fail.”

Williams replied, “The thought had occurred to me. That would also explain why we weren’t told certain things that might have made you a tiny bit more flexible, and perhaps deliberately set at loggerheads.”

It fit perfectly. There was plenty not to like here, but Brett grinned again. “So let’s look on the bright side. Normally, if you want to screw your superiors, you have to stick your nose out and do something wrong. We can do it by just following orders and working together.”

Brett stood up and leaned across the rosewood desk. “Let’s start over. Normally I’m a surly type. I do everything I can for the Space Force, but specialize in puncturing group think, which gives me the occasional opportunity to take superiors down a notch while doing exactly what I’ve been told. I’m so contrary that on this occasion I’d like us to be friends.”

Brett extended a hand and Williams took it. His grip was unexpectedly firm. Brett reseated himself.

“So Ambassador, what important things would you have told me if I weren’t so full of myself, and so ready to dismiss your knowledge and experience?”

“The Oceanian government may fall.”

Brett blinked. War had already started, after all they had been through? A surprise invasion? Somehow the Ambassadors tone did not quite fit such a disaster. He asked Williams, “Oceania is a parliamentary democracy, right?”

The other nodded, “Exactly.”

Not a monumental catastrophe. The largest coalition of politicians had lost some support. A different party would lead. Hopefully that would be a good thing.

Brett grinned. “Sounds like it should really stir things up. I guess people have finally realized that their government has to negotiate more seriously if they want the blockade lifted.”

A moment after he spoke, Brett recalled what he had just learned. Were his own governments’ demands really so reasonable?

Williams spoke shortly. “People are angry at their government for not speaking with the Federalist Worlds firmly enough.”

This time Brett’s grin felt stretched and artificial. “No problem. We were already prepared to get one government to be more reasonable, so what’s one more? Between the two of us we’ll kick ass.”

Williams almost managed to smile. “You’re good at keeping up team spirit in a tight spot.”

Chapter 20

Dinner was done. Ariel’s cook had disposed of the dishes and left. A basket of sticky pastries remained on the table in front of them for desert.

Ariel bit into one. When she had finished chewing Brett pointed out, “There’s icing on your nose.”

Instead of picking up a napkin, she stuck out her tongue, and curved it as far upward towards her nose as possible. Her pink tongue stretched and wiggled, but got nowhere near the target. Brett was in no hurry, and he waited several minutes before pointing out, “That’s not going to work.”

She replied, “It may not clean my nose, but it does get your attention!”

Brett laughed and nibbled on a pastry before speaking. “Sorry about acting so strangely the other day.”

“I know you have a lot on your mind. Want to talk about it?”

Reluctantly Brett shook his head. “I can’t.”

Ariel smiled. “In that case, all I can do is distract you.”

She took his hand, but didn’t lead him to the bedroom as he had expected. It was the black and white room with the computers, cables, and couches.

He said, “I might take a break from learning today. Maybe we could get some exercise.”

Ariel smiled. “I like that idea, but let’s do a new kind of exercise. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be a woman?”

Brett leaned back and thought, then gave a serious answer to her silly question. “I seem to recall being more interested in how certain women felt about me.”

“So you never wondered exactly how it felt to be the woman you touched?”

Brett replied, “Now that you mention it I wouldn’t mind knowing. I’m still not sure the question means anything though. I can’t know how it feels to be someone else, because when I’m someone else the person who knows how it feels isn’t ‘I.’”

Ariel shook her head from side to side. “You do realize that makes no sense.”

He answered. “How could it? Your question didn’t make sense, and you know it. Quit trying to stall until it’s too dark to go outside and move your cute little behind. I’m going to start gaining a lot of weight after all this eating if we don’t at least go for a walk.”

Ariel’s smile was smaller now, but more mysterious. “I said a new kind of exercise, and I meant it. My question isn’t meaningless in principle. We could have a brain transplant.”

“Yeah, right. I do hope there won’t be complications when we cut the spinal cord. Anyway, that wouldn’t help. I wouldn’t know how your body felt to you, just how my brain reacted to the signals from your nervous system.”

“Perhaps the nanotechnology could intercept signals from my nervous system, and transmit them to your brain, while canceling out the signals from your body.”

This sounded like a peculiar idea to Brett, but Ariel would scarcely bring it up if she didn’t know how to do it. He asked, “And how does exercise fit into this?”

She said, “You wouldn’t really know what it was like unless you could move and explore, would you?”

Brett stared at the frosting still dotting the tip of her nose. “Wouldn’t that feel really strange for you, having your body controlled by someone else?”

She had an answer for that too. “I would be connected to your body in the same fashion.”

There had to be problems with this. He answered slowly, “Would that even work? I mean, are your nerves and spinal cord so similar to mine that our brains would even understand each other’s body?”

She put her hands on his shoulders, lightly touching his neck with one finger from either side. “Those are very analytical questions Brett. So OK, various parts of my brain will communicate directly with various parts of your brain. Yes there will be slight delays in feeling and moving, but our brains compensate for that sort of thing automatically, so you don’t really notice unless you try to move very fast.”

Ariel removed her hands and backed up, standing just out of reach. Then she continued, “Instead you should be asking about the potential for enriching our relationship and deepening our mutual understanding.”

Brett nodded. “So we wouldn’t just be practicing a rather odd kink for the fun of it. Alrighty, then. I’m surprised I’ve never heard about this wondrous technique. There must be scads written about it.”

“Well … it’s illegal.”

He grinned. “I don’t suppose there are any drawbacks you haven’t mentioned yet? I mean, there’s no good reason for that law, is there?”

She inhaled and sat on one of the couches. “Well, people are real careful about anything involving both sex and nannies. A long time ago people used them for direct stimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain – but that was hundreds of years ago when the technology was very new.”

“Nobody does that now?”

Ariel responded, “Your box and your cap both have safeguards against it – even if you could get someone to write illegal software to do it.”

Brett nodded. “So the body switching is less illegal?”

“You could put it that way. As much as I admire your respect for Oceanian law, I don’t think we’re perfect. If you really want to do everything my government says, please start with something more substantial.”

Before Brett could ask what she meant by that, she stood up and started walking. Brett noticed she hadn’t taken off her high heeled shoes, as she usually did when she got home. She moved gracefully, but walking on the thick carpet with them must have been difficult. It gave her hips a rather nice sway.

She said, “I think you’re just nervous about having to walk in high heeled shoes. Don’t worry, I would never ask a man to do that.”

She sat down again and started to pull off her shoes. Lifting her dress out of the way as she did so showed her thighs, but only a brief glimpse of her panties.

Then she said, “There, all gone. Nothing to be frightened of.”

Brett grinned. “I was just getting ready to change my mind, but I don’t want to make it too easy. Wouldn’t want to take all the challenge out of leading me around by the nose.”

Ariel pulled her dress down and sighed. “I always wanted to be able to lead you by the nose.”

Despite the flippant words, her disappointment seemed genuine. Brett said, “Tell you what. Explain straight out the other reasons this is illegal and I’ll probably go along.”

She leaned forward hopefully. “Mostly minor injuries. People losing their balance, then making it worse by trying to catch themselves wrong. But we’ll be careful, won’t we?”

Brett considered asking about the injuries that weren’t minor, or why the other people hadn’t bothered to be careful. On the other hand, balance was a lot in Judo, and here lay a challenge that not many practitioners could have faced. He asked, “Have you ever done this before?”

He regretted the question as soon as he asked it. He didn’t want to hear about Michael. She shook her head, and he asked no more questions. She had agreed to be careful, and he would help her.

“So how do we get started?”

He put on the cap he had removed before dinner. One by one, he disabled safeguards, after receiving warnings they should only be overridden for medical or maintenance purposes. Ariel told him, “For the first fifteen or twenty minutes, don’t move. No need to worry about forgetting, you won’t want to. You’ll know when it’s OK.

They each lay down on a couch. Brett asked, “Do you think this would be easier if we undressed first?”

“Maybe, but not as much fun. Lean back and close your eyes.”

Brett endured the dizziness and nausea. Behind his eyelids he saw impossible colors. He heard noises that smelled wrong, couldn’t reach itches with a strange flavor. Eventually the mere thought of thinking no longer confused him, and it seemed he was as well adjusted as he would ever be.

Still keeping his eyes shut, Brett carefully lifted an arm. It didn’t feel lighter than his old arm, perhaps because that one had more muscles to do the lifting as well. He carefully did some stretches. When he lifted Ariel’s legs, he felt the hem of her dress fall on her (his now?) midriff, leaving her legs exposed up to her panties. He resisted an impulse to explore that further just yet.

When he opened her eyes, everything looked a little different, though it was hard to describe. Colors were sharper and brighter, but shapes and edges not so sharply defined. Probably the difference lay in his and Ariel’s occipital lobes rather than their physical eyes. After taking a moment to get used to it he found he could see well enough. Then he turned Ariel’s head.

Looking at himself was an odd experience, and the fact that his image wasn’t reversed as in a mirror was the least of it. Ariel had managed to prop his body against the side of the couch. Hopefully he didn’t look that awkward when in his own body. Other than that, it wasn’t too bad. The legs on his trousers were bunched up. His grey eyes watched himself eagerly, or Ariel, whoever.

He carefully stood up, becoming accustomed to the different balance. He took his first steps slowly but surely, finding his center of balance. Soon he was moving automatically, which was actually easier because it permitted parts of Ariel’s brain to resume the work they always did. Even not tripping over the dress became almost natural. It was a good thing he (she, whoever) had removed the high heels.

At first Brett wanted to do a little strip tease for Ariel, but he soon discovered that removing a dress from the inside wasn’t as easy as he had assumed. Dancing was soon forgotten. Ariel must look a sight, with the bottom of her dress covering her head while Brett struggled to get it off. He was reminded again how different the balance of this body was from his usual one, and paused a few moments to regain his poise.

He heard a deep masculine voice, somehow soothing despite the surface mockery. “Take it off baby! Shake it!”

Brett fought off disorientation from the sudden realization he was hearing his own voice from outside of his head.

Then the dress was off. What about the bra? The straps connected directly behind her. What the heck was that for? Brett had undressed women, but never watched one undress herself. It took a few minutes to recall seeing an old girlfriend from long ago dress herself in his presence. He could do that in reverse. Before starting, Brett looked over at his body – his usual one.

Ariel had slumped his body in an awkward posture, half sitting, half leaning on an arm. She was watching him (herself?) intently, but hadn’t moved much, and was still completely dressed. Brett was darned if he was going to do all the work.

He walked Ariel’s half naked body back and forth. It felt wrong somehow, until he realized he strode like a man instead of gliding like a woman. He stood completely still and closed his eyes, trying to visualize how Ariel walked when she was herself. He wondered if he could do a pirouette. His responses didn’t seem to be lagged, but presumably the brain edited that out. He found himself very aware of the uneven feeling of the thick carpet against the undersides of Ariel’s stocking clad feet. He opened his eyes and tried again, stumbled, but managed to catch himself on one of the couches.

Ariel applauded, clumsily at first. “As soon as you learn to do that backwards in high heels you’ll really know how to dance.”

He walked over to where he was reclining and carefully leaned over himself, using Ariel’s arms to hold her weight above his body. He bit himself on the neck, uncertain if Ariel would enjoy the sensation as much from his point of view as she usually did when he bit her neck.

He felt a phantom tingling in Ariel’s neck and was puzzled for a moment, but the reason was obvious. He was still himself, and the nannies weren’t canceling out the signals from his own nerves to his brain perfectly.

Apparently Ariel enjoyed the sensation, because she reached out to grab him. She hadn’t adjusted yet, and ended up knocking Brett’s forearm into the shoulder of the body he had borrowed rather hard. Somehow the muttered apology didn’t sound quite right in the deep bass voice she was now using.

Before Ariel could try again, Brett backed away. He sat Ariel’s body down on a couch up against an adjoining wall. He tried to make Ariel’s voice as alluring as possible. “All you need is a little practice, and you’ll be grabbing me in no time. Just warm up a few minutes first.”

Instead she stood up immediately. She didn’t seem to have much trouble at first, perhaps because his brain knew how to process the instruction to stand up. Then she began to flail around. Only when Ariel realized the balance felt wrong did her own brain interfere. She (or Brett) pitched face forward into the wall.

Although he felt the dull ache of his bleeding nose beneath the artificial mask of Ariel’s transferred sensations, for a confused moment he felt sorry for Ariel. Then he lay carefully on Ariel’s back so there would be no more accidents, and used the emergency override.

The shock of transition wasn’t as disorienting as he had feared – parts of his brain had known he was here all along, lying on the floor with a bleeding nose. Ariel helped him onto the bed and got him a towel. He leaned his head way back to help the bleeding stop. He spoke carefully not to interfere with clotting, but some things had to be said.

“This wasn’t quite what it was cracked up to be.”