Section 002

[kim]

Section 002

What was most frustrating to Max, was just how easy the next part was. His mind focused on the words, and the images he'd been trained to conjure up with them. Pervader. Perversion. Emergency. Help.

On a hardware level, these higher concepts were nothing more than electrochemical gradients. But to the even more limited nanobots that had taken up residence in the less fashionable parts of his brain, these energy potential were like a back-beat signaling the next song.

Although he could never describe it in words, Max could feel the song start playing. His skin tingled as the communicator vaders joined in, enforcing the melody. Not that the song needed any amplification. The "tune" was a feature that had been built into the original lab strains. An emergency alert network had been one of the selling points for the whole system. Too bad the early evolutionary pressures had caused the pervaders to discard all the easy access aspects, leaving a tricky, but still functioning version accessible only to the gifted few, the Priests.

Most of them preferred the term Shamans. It was all religious mumble jumble to Max.

Out through the opened door that Mrs. Munro had disappeared through, the refrain spread. Beyond the hall, the building, the block. . . That was really all the further it need go if, as Max had long suspected, the public mail box on Randolph was a focal "sending" point. The lack of graffiti, or any real dirt, gave it away.

"Max" Panic, concern, basic mothering instinct. "How are you doing?" Jenny's face was pink, with purple spots. Pink was her concerned aura, purple spots meant she was trying to scan him. Trying, Jenny's control of the Pervaders was tenuous at best. Her abilities at passive use of the nanobot stemmed more from her natural empathy than the bugs directing her.

"S'Ok" Max grunted, and, with more careful diction than he usually bother with, added, "Tiny bug bite, give me a moment while I scratch it."

"But-" Max cut her off with his hand. He didn't have time downplay the significance of what just happened, while still conveying that she should leave him alone. Lucky for him, she was distracted by a blaring alarm and the room automatically sealing itself. Oh, and, old Munro making sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball.

Max easily ignored the chaos, he had five older sisters so it was easy, and got down to the question of what had happened. More important, what he was going to do about it.

A signal had been sent, in much the same way that Max had made the distress call, the results of which were probably the current lock-down. Only this one was from the cyborg bacteria inhabiting Munro's skin and insides, to any nearby bacteria ecosystem, ie the three other humans in the room. It was intended for some bit nano-tech hardware that a particular species, or possibly even strain, carried. And when it found that collection of atoms, it would have the effect of a computer virus. Hiding out in the genetic code, manufacturing bits of itself on the fly, gaining key points of control when no one was looking, until Bam! Old Munro's stomach hadn't just been filled with doggy bits.

Conservative estimate's claimed only one thousandth of one percent of the bacteria on a human were cyborgs. Which left a mere million bugs. The highest shaman's claimed perfect symbiosis with all their pervader. Max suspected there was a hack, but as he hadn't stuck around for the advance training, he was in no position to stopping whatever that "program" was out to do.

What Max could do was damage control. He needed to find that signal. He needed to have a "conversation" with a modified bacteria. Not that microscopic bags of complex chemical had much of a mind, but just as Max's consciousness rode high above a massive chemical feedback system, so did the infected bacteria create a sort of mind. Max thought of it as a ghost, clinging to his body, somewhat manipulatable, but mostly something he could listen into. When Murno's infection hit the bacteria, the ghost would have shifted.

Max knew his ghost. Knew it's responses and moods. Right now, it was oblivious to everything except Max's accelerated pulse, dry mouth, and profuse sweating. Not a good sign. He probed deeper, feeling out a dead spot. Cosmic joke, it was in his nostril. There was the potential for it to bugger his taste and smell, and play havoc with an extremely complex part of his neural net. Not good at all.

Still, perhaps he could sniff it out.

"You must be all right," Jenny huffed from across the room, "I could feel you make a horrible pun." She was punching buttons on the computer console. "Adlei is saying this is all your fault. The system is locked down so he can't get a video link. Wouldn't want to be in your shoes when he does."

Least of my problems just now. thought Max.

He took a deep breath though his nose, concentrating on the rooms aromas. The bacteria coating his nose-hairs also picked up on the various compounds in the air. Beyond the sterling cleaners, Jenny's perfume, and Munro's rotting teeth, there were various pheromone, and the complex chemical signals being dropped by the microbes. Most of the latter was just mindless buzzing, but there were enough cyborg buggies to be harnessed both by his and the other's ghosts. What was missing ... Max almost had it when he was interrupted.

"Max! What have you done to my institute?!" Adiel had gotten the PA's sound system working. "The entire building is under lockdown. Doors won't open, communications won't link, apparently even the toilets are refusing to flush. If something doesn't start responding soon, I swear, I'll start lysoling the place."

Max made a silent request to any compassionate deity to let this earache pass him by. And a moment later, wished he hadn't.

"Dude, chill already." there was an affectation to the drawl, an eagerness that spoiled the carefully practiced accent. Max gritted his teeth. Of all the Shamans in the northern hemisphere . . .

"What authorization do you have -" Adeil's hissy fit was cut short. He continued in a more controlled, more simmering voice. "Max, when this is over, we'll have a talk."

The next bit was not so much heard, as felt. You left the reservation for this bs?

"Just get over here in person, so you can fix this mess already." said Max.

"We haven't discovered time travel yet. I'll be on the next hispeed, couple of hours tops. But, apparently it's a lucky unlucky day for you. My assistant happens to be in town and she's hi tailing it over your way. Provided you're not out of your freaking gourd by then, little Lynn should be able to apply some serious damage control."

Oh, peaches and cream, thought Max. First, he only had to worry about the pervaders destroying his mind, now he got to spend his last hours of sanity with a disciple to a man who had dreadlocks extensions.

He felt a tap on his shoulder, it was Jenny. "Okay, mister hot shot. Two questions, who was that, and what did he mean by 'out of your freaking gourd'?"

"That," began Max, "was Jojo. Youngest high muck-a-muck in the Shaman inner council." He could have given her a more descriptive background, including how the two had entered training together and competed for high rankings, and, despite the competition, had been the best of friends until the little incident that had left Max disillusion and out to walk the world, and Jojo insufferable, and fast climbing the ranks. He could even have thrown in that colorful anecdote about the time they both got high on peyote, but Max suspected Jenny was more interested in the answer to her second question. Max took took a deep breath and began.

[kim]

I found the science part to be the most difficult when writing this section. I think there's a lot that we have to hammer out, but hopefully we'll be able to do it in the course of the actual writing of the story.

As you see Ray, I've given you an opening to explain what you think is going on. Keep in mind that the explanation is both for Jenny (although Max may not tell her the truth) and for me for when I write the section afterwards, so while cuteness and cleverness of writing will be entertaining, make sure to include what you think is actually going on. It should be an interesting challenge.