Part 27 (1/2)

Jara sat on her bedroom floor, Indian style, with her head cradled in her arms. She found a comfortable rocking motion between her haunches and the side of her knees, and tried to concentrate on that for a while. Every few minutes, she would open her eyes to peer at the window on the far wall, which was showing an exterior view of her building. But that was too depressing. With every glance, corporate office towers and tenements shrank more and more as their inhabitants left work or went to sleep. A succ.u.mbing to the blackness, visceral proof that the forces of Being were tottering on the brink of extinction.

Her old hive proctor had once told her that the universe was almost entirely comprised of empty s.p.a.ce. He brought Jara and her hivemates into a green field SeeNaRee and used peppercorns and chestnuts to approximate the position of the planets in the solar system, with the sun represented by a rubber ball. The students were astounded to discover themselves standing hundreds of meters apart near their chosen planet. So what's in the rest of the field? What fills up all that s.p.a.ce? Jara had asked. Nothing, the proctor had replied. Jara had been young and foolish enough to look upon that lacuna as a void to be filled by good deeds and great works. And the proctor had encouraged that pa.s.sion. He had fanned those flames and then sent her off to initiation believing she had been the aggressor in their relations.h.i.+p, that she could set the empty heavens ablaze.

She wondered what her proctor would have thought of Natch.

She wondered what advice her proctor would give her now.

A scant three weeks ago, Jara was bemoaning her fate and counting the days until she could free herself of the Natch Personal Programming Fiefcorp's fetters. And now, as if responding to her silent command, events had conspired to spring her from her prison ten months early. Natch had given the apprentices twenty-four hours to liquidate shares and part ways, or continue their contracts with the new Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp.

So why was she hesitating? Why was she huddled here on the floor of her apartment, rocking back and forth and staring at inanimate objects, instead of liquidating her shares? If she cashed out, she need never see Natch again. She could just dissolve her apprentices.h.i.+p and walk away right now, ink the final period in this chapter of her life and close the book on it.

She would have money. Jara fired a data agent at her Vault account and studied the number that returned. When she added the liquidated shares at current market value, she saw a nice round number with a small army of zeros marching off the end. Jara began to dream up things that these newfound credits could buy. A bigger apartment closer to Horvil's end of London, one with real windows and a garden that would put her meager daisy patch to shame. Stylish furniture to spruce up that apartment. Lavish dinners, expensive champagne, cosmetic bio/logic programs, weeks and weeks of decadent fun on the Sigh network. A trip to the neverending baccha.n.a.lia that was 49th Heaven. She could polish off her sister's tuition payment for that useless degree in metal sculpture she was pursuing in Sudafrica. Or she could simply stay put for a while, do nothing and decompress.

Then what?

Then she would have to look for work again. Perhaps a wise capitalman could stretch the money for five or six or even seven years, but her investment skills were moderate at best. No matter how prudently she acted, sooner or later she would find herself sitting across from some arrogant fiefcorp master answering questions about bio/logic a.n.a.lysis and trying to explain the gap in her curriculum vitae.

Jara could hear her mother's accusation across thousands of kilometers: Why do you have to stick with biollogics? Why not become a politician or a civil servant? Or maybe an artist like your sister?

No, Jara retorted silently. Bio/logics was all she knew, all she had ever cared about, and she was simply too old to start fresh somewhere else, to stumble through all the virginal mistakes you had to endure in any new industry.

If only she had gotten a chance to deliver that presentation. If only she had not been yanked away from her trial by fire before she had tasted the flame.

Suddenly, Jara felt the full force of Natch's insidious offer bear down upon her. Now she understood the feral smile that had taken possession of the fiefcorp master's face last night. If she left the fiefcorp now, she would have enough to be comfortable. Not rich, not poor, but comfortable. Natch was asking her a question.

Do you want to settle for comfortable?

Jara pounded her open palm against the floor until the cool tile stung her flesh. How could she not have seen? She should have known that Natch's apparent act of generosity would eventually turn out to be a referendum on him. He had offered her the choice of giving up, of resigning herself to mediocrity and comfort; or of staying with the fiefcorp, of driving ahead, of tilting against self-loathing and dissatisfaction until they yielded or she died trying. There was no third path. To continue in the fiefcorp world under a different corporate umbrella was to become Natch's compet.i.tor, and Natch had ably demonstrated he could vanquish any compet.i.tion. But to quit was to admit she had failed.

Why don't you reframe the question? asked an interior voice she recognized as Horvil. Poor, sweet Horvil, so untouched by the world's misery. Don't accept the question on his terms. Ask your own question.

But Natch had cannily eliminated all other questions during their years in business together. One touch at a time, he had broken down her defenses and seduced her into his ethos. Jara had become a slave to Natch's worldview-and what was worse, she had willingly held out her wrists for the cuffs.

I'm sorry, Horv, she thought, but I don't know how to reframe the question anymore.

I have no other answers to give.

Jara got up and straightened out her robe, as if wrinkles in the fabric were a sign of poor character. She slunk into the breakfast nook and ordered herself a pigeon's dinner: snap peas and steamed rice, raw cauliflower, and water, cold and sharp as the edge of a knife. And as the twenty-fourth hour crept by, unheralded, Jara sat and forked food into her mouth, desperately trying to convince herself she was hungry.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS.

For more comprehensive definitions and background articles on some terms, consult the website at .

TERM 49th Heaven aft Allahu Akbar Emirates Allowell a.n.a.lyst Andra Pradesh DEFINITION A decadent orbital colony, known for its loose morality; originally founded by one of the Three Jesuses as a religious retreat. One of the descriptive components of a program that help the Data Sea sort and catalog information. See also fore. A nation-state that once existed in what is now mostly Pharisee territory. ”Allahu Akbar” means ”G.o.d is great.” An orbital colony, saved from extinction by High Executive Tul Jabbor. One of the standard positions in a fiefcorp. Fiefcorp a.n.a.lysts typically focus on areas such as marketing, channeling, finance and product development. A center of culture on the Indian subcontinent. Home to Creed Surina and the Gandhi University. bio/logics black code bodhisattva capitalman carbonization economics ChaiQuoke channel channeler Cis...o...b..rs are categorized with the letters of the Roman alphabet (A to Z), and are largely indistinguishable to the naked eye. They interact with virtual code through holographic extensions which are only visible in Minds.p.a.ce. The science of using programming code to extend the capabilities of the human body and mind. Malicious or harmful programs, usually designed and launched by seditious organizations. The spiritual leader of a creed. Most creed organizations are spearheaded by one individual bodhisattva. Some creeds are run by an elected body of major and minor bodhisattvas. Individual who raises start-up money for fief- corps. Following long tradition, the term is gender-neutral. A colloquial term for a type of economy where fiefcorps form quickly to serve a specific purpose, and then dissipate to make room for new ideas. A popular tea-flavored beverage. The process of marketing and selling products, usually to groups rather than individuals. A businessperson responsible for driving sales to specific markets. A major population center, known in ancient times as San Francisco. bio/logics black code bodhisattva capitalman carbonization economics ChaiQuoke channel channeler Cis...o...b..rs are categorized with the letters of the Roman alphabet (A to Z), and are largely indistinguishable to the naked eye. They interact with virtual code through holographic extensions which are only visible in Minds.p.a.ce. The science of using programming code to extend the capabilities of the human body and mind. Malicious or harmful programs, usually designed and launched by seditious organizations. The spiritual leader of a creed. Most creed organizations are spearheaded by one individual bodhisattva. Some creeds are run by an elected body of major and minor bodhisattvas. Individual who raises start-up money for fief- corps. Following long tradition, the term is gender-neutral. A colloquial term for a type of economy where fiefcorps form quickly to serve a specific purpose, and then dissipate to make room for new ideas. A popular tea-flavored beverage. The process of marketing and selling products, usually to groups rather than individuals. A businessperson responsible for driving sales to specific markets. A major population center, known in ancient times as San Francisco.

APPENDIX B.

HISTORICAL TIMELINE.

The chronicling of modern history began with Sheldon Surina's publication of Towards the Science of BiolLogics and the New Direction for Humanity. Surina started the Reawakening, which ended the period of the Big Divide that began with the Autonomous Revolt. The publication of Surina's paper is considered to be the Zero Year of the Reawakening (YOR).

APPENDIX C.

ON THE SCIENCE.

OF B IO/LOGICS.

Although Sheldon Surina has been credited with founding the discipline of bio/logics, he was not the first to try to use computational power to enhance the human body. Indeed, the science of nanotechnology had grown quite sophisticated in the years immediately preceding the Autonomous Revolt. But the Revolt put an end to such experimentation. For many years, any attempt to explore the intersection of humans and machines was deemed an attempt to resurrect the Autonomous Minds. Dozens of promising scientists ended up dead or living in forced labor camps because of their ”radical” ideas.

Sheldon Surina's seminal paper Towards the Science of BiolLogics and a New Direction for Humanity changed all this.

It is difficult to explain why Surina's ideas found acceptance when so many other similar suggestions ended up in the dustbin of history. Most students of the period have concluded that Surina's bio/logics system was different from its predecessors in one crucial aspect: its humanocentric approach emphasized personal choice and responsibility.

A THREE-LEGGED SYSTEM.

Surina conceived of a system with equal roles for hardware, software and information. Like a three-legged stool, removal of any of the legs would cause the system to collapse.

The hardware in question would consist of microscopic machines placed in strategic locations throughout the human body. These nanotechnological machines would contain a variety of standard tools for maintenance of human tissue, everything from routine measurement to precise surgery.

But in Surina's system, the machines themselves would be incapable of independent action. Their every movement would be controlled by programmable software that could be strictly controlled by the patient. Furthermore, Surina envisioned a compet.i.tive software industry arising to provide ever-improving versions of this controlling software.

The third indispensable leg of Surina's bio/logics system consisted of an independent storehouse of medical information. Software would then have a trusted source to consult for information that would affect the directions given to the hardware.

Surina's vision was remarkably prescient, and the bio/logics system in place today still abides by those original principles. The nanotechnological machines that Surina envisioned were pioneered by his protege Henry Osterman and his OCHRE Corporation. Dr. Plugenpatch became the world's trusted repository of medical information. And of course, a highly compet.i.tive market for bio/logic software grew and continues to fuel the world economy to this day.

Of course, not all is as Surina envisioned it. In his paper Towards the Science of BiolLogics, Surina made free choice a prerequisite of a working system. He wanted users to be able to choose from a wide variety of nanotechnological systems, software programs and information warehouses. According to Surina, free compet.i.tion was crucial to encouraging innovation and preventing corruption. But Surina lived to see both the OCHRE Corporation and Dr. Plugenpatch achieve virtual monopolies in their respective fields, leaving only the software industry as a truly compet.i.tive field.

In addition, the strict separation of functions that Surina wanted has not always been maintained. The distinctions between the three legs of the system have begun to blur as the OCHRE Corporation's successors have imbued their bots with limited intelligence, and software programmers have embedded their own medical standards rather than rely on outside storehouses of information.

BIO/LOGIC PROGRAMMING.

While the techniques of creating bio/logic programs have changed radically over the years, the principles remain the same.

Bio/logic software is a series of instructions a user can transmit to his or her OCHRE machines to perform a specific function. In Surina's day, programming was performed through the manipulation of a series of machine ”languages,” software was stored on miniature ”chips” implanted within the body, and instructions were broadcast to the machines inside the body through radio waves.

Programming itself has evolved from a primitive linguistic model to today's more sophisticated visual model. This evolution enabled programmers to visualize logical structures instead of spelling them out. Advances in the science of holography allowed the invention of Minds.p.a.ce, which allowed programmers to interact with their programs through a three-dimensional interface. The capabilities of Minds.p.a.ce programming have been significantly expanded by the development of special tools for the medium, the bio/logic programming bars. A typical set of programming bars consists of twenty-six ent.i.ties (marked A to Z after the Roman alphabet), with each bar containing three to six separate functions. Most Minds.p.a.ce bubbles also recognize a common set of twelve hand gestures.

The data itself, once stored on plastic chips, is now stored in protected molecular chains scattered throughout the civilized world. Prengal Surina's Universal Law of Physics and Aloretus Monk's discovery of subaether transmission have made it practical for programmers to store information on an atomic level virtually anywhere in the world.