Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
And all of it was explained by a soothing neutral voice that seemed to know when I was confused and when I was understanding things, because this teaching-voice inside the machine would explain things over, and over, and over in every possible way, for as long as it took for me to finally get it.
It showed me diagrams of the human body—drawings that moved to make it easier to follow along. Words popped out of the drawings, highlighting key facts. The body would rotate, the heart was pumping blood on the screen, the brain opened up so I could see how all the little threads of nanofibers would integrate into the tissues. How they would become part of me and how, over the course of a week, they would grow so that eventually, these threads would replace my entire nervous system.
Nervous system. I’d never even heard those words before today and now look at me. I understand.
Everything about this day has been exhilarating.
But now that the lessons are over and I can appreciate what augmentation is and what it will do to me, I can’t help but feel… let down.
Not by the teaching-voice or the information, but by my own people.
If this screen-based teaching exists in the same dimension where I grew up—with all these ways to see and understand difficult but interesting concepts—why didn’t we learn this way?
I would’ve paid more attention, that’s for sure. Would have had bigger dreams than simply opening giant doors to sacrifice women.
Which, now that I think about it, is probably why they didn’t teach me anything interesting. I might get ‘ideas’ and decide not to do my job.
And this thought leads directly to the one I am desperate to not think about.
That night I sent Clara in.
And how she railed against me.
I will hate you ‘till the end of time.
Which leads to the unfortunate facts of the day.
Her man—her new man—he’s one of these augments. Some kind of super soldier from the way Xi tells it. Very experienced. Very lethal. Very capable of killing me.
He is her chosen one now. And why wouldn’t she want a man like him? One who didn’t bow to the needs of an invisible god. One who wouldn’t throw her away, because he wouldn’t have to.
He could fight for her.
No matter who the enemy was, he would fight for her.
Unlike me. Who gave up without even trying.
The soft clicking of shoes on a hard, polished floor draw my attention to the left. And when I look over, Xi is approaching. His smile is wide, like he’s pleased.
“How did you find it?” he asks, panning a hand to the screens still lit up with diagrams and information in front of me.
“It was absolutely riveting, to be perfectly honest. I… well…” I sigh. “Let’s just say that if I had this technology when I was growing up, I’d have really loved school. I can’t remember a day when I learned so much at one time. And none of it was boring. I would like to learn more, actually. I would like to know everything. I would like this to be my future. Better than running down a train line blowing up towers.”
Xi clasps his hands together in front of him, leaning back on his heels a bit, pleased with himself. Funny how he does this when he’s only made of light. It’s so convincing.
Tech. Who knew?
“But when I say this,” I clarify. “I don’t mean the soldiering stuff, Xi. I understand that’s what you’re offering, but what I’d really like to do for the rest of my life is learn.”
“But, my dear man, where do you think the information comes from?”
“What do you mean?”
“All of this—” He pans a hand to the room, to himself, to the screens. “It comes from the Omega Outlands.”
He must read my look as confusion—which it is—because he points to the biggest, central screen on the desk in front of me. “Look.” The screen changes from a diagram of the heart, to a map. “This is the factory world, insofar as it’s been explored and documented.” He points to a dot on the far right. “This is Alpha.” He points to a second dot, just to the left. “This is Beta.” Then points to more that are to the left of Beta. “This is Gamma and this is Delta. These are the Alpha cities. They work together.”
“OK?” I shrug. Not understanding what the point of this is.
“Just be patient with me. You’ll see.” Then he continues, pointing to a line that connects these cities. “This is the train line.”
Suddenly, it clicks. The whole picture makes sense.
“The Alphas work together,” Xi continues, “because they have a common cause. A purpose they all believe in.”
“Which is what?”
“They want to control this dimension—the Factory Dimension, 702.” Seeing that I’m about to interrupt him with another question, he puts up a hand. “Just listen.”