The Computer Connection Read online

  “Six.”

  “Weight?”

  “One-eighty.”

  “Age?”

  “Twenty-four.”

  “Condition?”

  I broke in. “I’ve seen him in the saddle. Hard and fast.”

  “Gung.” Borgia did some delicate loading of a syringe from M’bantu’s ampul. “Ready, Ed?”

  “Ready.”

  “Out, Fee.”

  “I will not out.”

  “Out.”

  “One good reason why.”

  It was a Battle of the Giants. Borgia softened. “This will be horrible to watch, kitten, especially since he’s your guy.”

  “I’m not a child anymore.”

  Borgia shrugged. “You’re going to be even less of a child after this is over.” She stepped to the Chief and gave him a slow, careful intravenous. “Clock it, Guig.”

  “Starting when?”

  “I’ll tell you when.”

  We waited, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly a ghastly scream was wrenched out of the Chief.

  “Now, Guig.”

  The scream was compounded by agonized thrashings. Every vent in Sequoya let go; bowels, urine, semen, saliva, sinuses, sweat glands. Fee was alongside me, clinging and gasping. I was breathing heavily myself.

  “Synapses breaking connections,” Borgia said in a professional monotone. “He’ll need a bath and clean clothes. Time?”

  “Ten seconds.”

  “If he lives, that is.” Abruptly, the Chief was still. “Time, Guig?”

  “Twenty.”

  Borgia got a stethoscope from her bag and examined the Chief. “Time?”

  “One minute.”

  She nodded. “So far so good. He’s dead.”

  “Dead!” Fee cried. “He’s dead?”

  “R. Everything’s come to a dead stop. Shut up. I told you to out. We have four minutes before any permanent damage sets in.”

  “You have to do something. You—”

  “I told you to shut up. His nervous system will make it on its own or else it won’t. Time?”

  “One thirty.”

  “Ed, promote another coverall and soap and water. He stinks. M’b, hold the door. Nobody in. Move it.” She examined the Chief again. “Nicely dead. Time?”

  “One forty-five.”

  “Can you move the frame, Fee?”

  “Y-yes.”

  “Give me the sterilizer temperature reading. Dial on the right.”

  “Three hundred.”

  “Turn it off. Switch on the left. Time?”

  “Two ten.”

  Another examination. Edison came hurtling in with a coverall, followed by his faithful slaves lugging a sitz bath of steaming water.

  “Strip him and clean him. Don’t move him any more than necessary. Time?”

  “Two thirty.”

  “If he doesn’t make it at least we’ll have a fresh, well-dressed corpse.”

  Borgia’s cool wasn’t fooling me; she was as tight as the rest of us. After we cleaned the Chief we started to dress him, but she stopped us. “I may have to go in. You bods, thanks. Get all the filth out of here. Fee, alcohol in my kit. Jet his chest down to the navel. Move it. Time?”

  “Three fifteen.”

  “Mask ready, Ed?”

  “Ready.”

  “It’s going to be close.” After an hour she asked, “Time?”

  “Three thirty.”

  The door irised open and Jacy pushed past M’b who didn’t dare try to stop him. “Guig! What are you doing to that poor man? For shame!”

  “Will you get the hell out of here, Jace. How’d you know, anyway?”

  “It’s all over the university that you’re torturing a man in here. It must stop.”

  “Go back to bed, Jacy,” Borgia said. “Your stigmata’s showing. Jet my hands, Fee, up to the elbows. Then back off. All of you back. Save the sermonizing, Jacy. We may need it later.” She glared down at Sequoya. “Come on, you sons of bitches, link up!” She gazed around in a fury. “Where the hell are the Rover Girls? I wanted everything to be familiar. Just when you need them—Time?”

  “Three fifty.”

  We waited. We waited. We waited. Fee-5 began a quiet howl. Borgia gave me a black look of despair, went to the sterilizer, and took out tools. She knelt alongside Sequoya and poised a scalpel for primary incision. Suddenly his chest rose to meet the point. It was the deepest, most beautiful breath I have ever seen taken in all my life. We began to bubble.

  “Quiet,” Borgia ordered. “Give him time. No fuss. Back off. Everything familiar when he wakes up. He’ll be weak, so no unnecessary strain.”

  The steady breathing was accompanied by tics, muscular contractions, twitches. “Linking up fine,” Borgia murmured to no one.

  The Chief’s eyes fluttered open and took in the scene. “—but cryology recycles ontogeny,” he said. He tried to get to his feet. Borgia motioned to Fee, who ran to him and helped him, steadying him while he rocked. He looked at himself, looked around, took us all in. Then he smiled. It must have been his first realsie and very painful, but it was a nice smile. Fee began to weep. “The old familiar faces,” he said. He swayed to me and slapped palms. “Thanks, dude. You’re ace. Fee, you’re my girl more than ever. Lucy Borgia, down tools.” She dropped them and he palmed her. “Edison. M’bantu. Gung to the fifth power. Jacy, you heard the lady, go back to bed. Where’s that tutta? Oh. The Rover Girls take a break every two hours to make room for the next shift, Borgia. We’d better get out of here before they’re back.”

  I stared at her. She smiled. “Told you he was aware of everything around him.”

  “Guig, the greatest thing you ever did was putting a hold on the cryocapsule. Fee, chop to JPL and call a stockholders’ meeting for one hour from now.”

  I gave Borgia another questioning look.

  “Everything.”

  “This is going to be tremendous,” the Chief said. “Those naked rats have opened up a Pandora’s box that—I have to eat something. Where?”

  “My place,” I said, “but don’t walk into the oven, the door doesn’t work.”

  Edison started to protest vehemently. Sequoya soothed him. “Never mind, Ed. I was impressed by your smoke screen at JPL. You’re brilliant. The whole Group is.”

  “He knows too much,” I muttered to Borgia, “and I’m scared.”

  “How many times must I ditt? He was aware of everything going on around him.”

  “Y, but I think he’s aware of things that didn’t go on around him. I think I’ve got a tiger by the tail.”

  “Then let go.”

  “I can’t now. I only hope we don’t return from the ride with me inside and the smile on the face of the tiger.”

  The Rover Girls came on again and we got the hell out while rotten Dan Baxter was selling the secret signals to Annapolis. We marched Jacy back into bed and then walked to my place where Scented Song and M’bantu faked a sort of Afro-Chinese dinner. It wasn’t bad and it reminded the Sachem of his wolves. He said he hoped some goon would try to rip his tepee so they could get a decent supper. While we were cross-legged on the dining room floor, Fee-5 came tearing in.

  “All set for four o’clock, Chief. What are you going to tell them?”

  “I don’t know yet.” He grunted. “It’s too damn big to simplify, and the U-Con heads aren’t very bright.”

  “Exactly what is the problem, doctor?” M’b asked.

  “Shifting gears, M’bantu. I had to make a lightning shift when I looked into the capsule and I feel like a damned fool for going into shock. Bless you all for saving me. My God, it was like a paleface ambush… .”

  “When you saw the naked rats?” I asked.

  “They aren’t rats.”

  “Aliens from outer space, maybe, taking over our world?”

  “Don’t Rover Girl me, Guig. You’ll find out in due time. I have to sort it out in my head first. I wish you could transplant an extra brain into my skull, Nemo.”<
br />
  “You don’t need it, lad.”

  “Thanks. Now let me think for a minute.”

  So we all ate in silence and waited. Even Fee was quiet. That was quite a quantum jump she made.

  “Here are the problems,” Sequoya began at last. “Explain to United Conglomerate what actually happened, and the overwhelming concept it opened up. I must give them some idea of the procedures involved in exploring the discovery. I must make them understand that the Pluto mission will have to be scrubbed.”

  “Scrubbed! After all that advance publicity?”

  “That’s what’s going to hurt, Guig, but the results of the cryo exploratory have wiped out the Pluto mission for our time, maybe for all time. But on the other hand it’s produced something so unexpected and challenging that I’ve got to persuade them to transfer the Pluto funding into it. I can handle the scientific palaver but I’m dumb as a honk when it come to selling a proposition.”

  “We’ll need the Greek Syndicate for advice on that,” I whispered to the princess. She nodded and slipped out.

  “The only reason I’m being so open with you is that I’ve learned to trust and respect your Group.”

  “How much do you know about the Group, Sachem?”

  “A little.”

  “Fee told you?”

  “I never said a word!” she protested.

  “You’ve been reading my diary. Yes, Fee?”

  “Yes.”

  “How the devil did you learn to decode my private terminal keyboard?”

  “I taught myself.”

  I threw up my hands. Go live with a genius girl. “How much did you pass on to your guy?”

  “Nothing,” Sequoya said with his mouth full. “What little I know is from induction, deduction, hints, clues, things overheard. I’m a scientist, you know, and I’ll tell you something else, I not only speak XX, I read body english. So why don’t we drop it? I’ve got a murderous scene ahead of me and I depend on your Group to help me. Wilco?”

  “Why should we?”

  “I could blow the whistle on your act.”

  “F.”

  “Good for you.” He realsie smiled again and it was very winning. “Because we all like each other and want to help each other.”

  “You Indian con. Wilco.”

  “Gung. I’ll need you and Edison. Fee too, of course. I’ll brief you in the chopper so you can ask the right leading questions at the status review. Let’s chop.”

  When we arrived at JPL I was so dazed by the enormity of Sequoya’s discovery and the frontiers it had opened that I wasn’t aware of anything around me. All I know is that I recovered consciousness in a large astrochem laboratory seated on a kinobench along with some fifty United Conglomerate majority stockholders. We were facing Hiawatha, who stood with his back to a work table cluttered with chemical apparatus. He was leaning against it and looked relaxed and pleased, as though he was about to hand the U-Con brass a surprise package. He sure was. The questions was, would they buy it? The entire review was conducted in Spang, of course, but I translate for my goddamn diary and Fee-snoop Grauman’s Chinese.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. You’ve been waiting anxiously for a status review so I won’t apologize for calling you together on such short notice at four in the morning. You all know me; I’m Dr. Guess, project scientist on the Pluto mission, and I have remarkable news for you. Some are expecting this to turn into a failure review, but—”

  “Never mind the guff talk,” I yelled. It had been agreed that I was to be the Bad Guy. “Just tell us why you failed and lost us ninety million.” Some of the stockholders glared at me, which was the purpose of my nasty behavior, to attract hostility from Guess to myself.

  “A fair question, sir, but we have not failed; we have had a tremendous unexpected success.”

  “By killing three cryonauts?”

  “We did not kill them.”

  “By losing them?”

  “They are not lost.”

  “No? I didn’t see them. Nobody saw them.”

  “You did see them, sir, in the cryocoffins.”

  “I saw nothing but things that looked like naked rats.”

  “They are the cryonauts.”

  I laughed sardonically. The stockholders rustled with interest and there were growls directed at me—”Gag, man. Let him do the talking.”

  I subsided and Edison took over. “Dr. Guess, this is an amazing statement, unheard of in the history of science. Will you explain yourself, please?” Ed was the Good Guy.

  “Ah! My old friend from the RCA plasma division. This will be of particular interest to you, Professor Crookes, because the electronic discharges which we call plasma may very well be involved.” Guess turned to the assembled. “Professor Crookes is not an intruder. He is one of several experts I invited to witness the put-down.”

  “Stop stalling and start the alibi,” I called.

  “Certainly, sir. Some of you may recall an historic theory developed in embryology centuries ago: ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. In other words, the development of the embryo within the womb duplicates the successive lost stages in the evolution of the species. I do hope you remember this classic.”

  “If they don’t, Dr. Guess, you’re making it abundantly clear,” Edison said pleasantly.

  I thought it time for another sneer. “And what are you paying your old friend for his loyal support? How big a cut of a hundred million is he getting?”

  A lot more growls at me. I gave thanks that Fee-5 had been in on the briefing or she would have been on me with claws. Sequoya ignored the rude man in the third row. “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, but”—here he paused—”but I believe we have discovered that cryology recycles ontogeny.”

  “Good God!” Edison exclaimed. “This will make history for JPL. Are you sure, Dr. Guess?”

  “As sure as any experimenter can ever be, professor. Those quote naked rats unquote are embryos, the embryos of the cryonauts. After ninety days in space they have been regressed to an early stage in fetal development.”

  “Any theory why?” This from a bright stockholder.

  “I must be honest; none. We never had a hint of this fantastic possibility in any of our cryogenic preparations, but all the experiments were conducted on Earth where they were protected by our heavy atmospheric insulation. We did orbit animal subjects, but only for short periods. Our three cryonauts were the first to be exposed to space for an extended period and I have no idea of what factors produced the phenomenon.”

  “Plasma?” Edison asked.

  “Indeed, yes. Protons and electrons in the Van Allen belts, the solar wind, neutrons, quasar radio bursts, hydrogen ion emissions, the entire electromagnetic spectrum—there are hundreds of possibilities. All must be explored.”

  Edison, enthusiastic: “I would be honored to be permitted to assist you in this tremendous project, Dr. Guess.” Then he added in XX, “And I mean it.”

  “I would be honored to have your help, Professor Crookes.”

  A Ms. stockholder asked in tearful tones, “But what about the poor, dear cryonauts? And their families? And—”

  “That’s the most pressing problem. Is it merely a reversal of ontogeny or is it a full recycling? Will they regress to the ovum stage and die? Have they already reached that stage and are developing again to maturity? What will they develop into, infants, grown men? How do we explore this? How do we continue the process?”

  General confusion. It was the cue for my next question, not too hostile this time. “I grant that you may be telling the truth, Guess.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “And I grant that this may be an astonishing discovery, but are you asking United Conglomerate to finance you in what appears to be pure research?”

  “Well, sir, in view of the fact that the Pluto mission must be postponed… .”

  Anguished cries from the deserving dividenders.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, please! The Pluto mission was based
on the belief that we could send cryonauts through space. We have discovered that we can’t, yet. Everything must be postponed until we learn exactly what happens to a cryonaut. Naturally I would expect United Conglomerate to transfer the JPL funding to this pure but essential research. It will be the only way of protecting your investment.”

  More cries from the stockholders. A powerful voice from the back of the laboratory cut through the confusion. “If not, we will finance it.”

  Guess was genuinely startled. “Who are you, sir?”

  The Greek Syndicate stood up; squatty, thick hair, thin mustache, elegant with an eyeglass. “I am Poulos Poulos, investment director of the independent, sovereign state of I. G. Farben Gesellschaft. My word is my honor and I give you my word that I. G. Farben will support your research to the limit. So far we have never reached our limit.”

  Sequoya looked at me.

  “Group,” I called in XX.

  The Chief smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Poulos. I will be happy to accept your offer if—”

  Angry shouts: “No! No! No! It’s ours. We paid so far. You have a contract. Ironbound. Results of research are ours. We haven’t said no yet. We have to know more. Then we’ll decide. Can’t stampede us. Twelve hours. Twenty-four. We don’t know where we are yet.”

  “You should know,” the Syndicate said contemptuously. “We know where we are. You people prove the truth of an ancient maxim: Never show a fool or a child a thing half-finished. We at I. G. Farben are neither foolish nor childish. Come to us, Dr. Guess. If these fools attempt legal action, we’ll know how to handle it.”

  Fee-5, who had been standing quietly behind the workbench with a careful ear cocked, said, “The stockholders are confused because you haven’t told them what results you expect from the research, Dr. Guess. That’s what they want to know.”

  “But I can’t tell them. This is an Emergent program.”

  “Ah!” Edison was genuinely with it. “Very true. You had better explain, Dr. Guess. Permit me.” He stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen, please listen to your project scientist. He will answer your crucial question.” They shut up. Authority.

  “A basic concept in research,” the Chief said carefully, “is the question of whether the constituents of the experiments will yield Resultant or Emergent finds. In essence this is like bringing two people together. Will they become friends, lovers, enemies? How do you predict it? You all know that it can’t be predicted.”