Kent sat in the waiting room.
Nurses bustling about.
A chorus of beeps from machines lay in the distance beyond a set of doors.
Above him an angry news anchor.
Complaining about something Kent didn't care about or listen to.
A chorus of low murmurs and coughs filled out the white noise
His eyes were heavy, and he held his head in his hands, resting them.
He found a ledge for his head to lean back - and drifted off to sleep.
He awoke suddenly to his name being called.
A nurse at the double doors looked at him expectantly
A yawn later he was up, and followed the nurse a few paces behind.
He looked at the clock they passed
Kent Barbado
'A few minutes of sleep was worse than none.'
But he had been here for hours already
Nurse
"You can see him, but he's not awake yet."
The nurse turned a corner
Kent Barbado
"How bad was it?"
Nurse
"He got skin grafts, on his right side...
His lungs are fine - minimal smoke damage.
A contusion on the back of his head...
And a broken finger: from when he fell.
He's stable but unconscious."
Kent nodded and the nurse stopped
They stood in front of a sliding glass door with curtains beyond
Kent Barbado
"When do you think he'll wake?"
The nurse slid open the door
Nurse
"He's not in a coma - just...
Asleep."
Kent Barbado
"What's the difference?"
Nurse
"Coma there's no rem cycle.
He's got rapid eye movement - means he's dreaming...
Means he should be able to wake up."
Kent walked in
Tom was wrapped in bandages, his head exposed.
His left hand in a small device to keep the fingers straight.
Wires connected him to a machine on his right.
They monitoring a heart rate and other things
Kent Barbado
"So he's stable?"
Nurse
"He's not going to die, not today at least."
Kent swallowed
Even with the bandages there Kent saw the black and red flesh beneath.
He reminded himself that it was covered in fake skin below that bandage.
And then his imagination ran wild with lizard skin imagery.
He suppressed a gag
Kent Barbado
"And the other one?"
Nurse
"We couldn't revive him.
He died in the ambulance."
Kent nodded, then looked back to Tom
Kent Barbado
"Hey Bozo: you ready to wake up?"
The reaction was immediate - the heart monitor rate spiked
Tom's eyes fluttered open.
The nurse went to his bedside when he started writhing in pain.
They pressed some buttons on the machine and a hiss escaped
Some liquid pumped into Tom's IV and Tom stopped struggling.
His heart rate decreasing.
Kent only watched
Tom Garland
"It's so warm."
Tom's voice was a little raspy
Kent Barbado
"You burned yourself pretty bad, what were you doing?"
Tom tried to sit up
Tried...
The drugs they pumped him with dulled the pain, partially
Tom Garland
"How did I get here...
What happened?"
His eyes were glassy now - not fully able to focus on Kent
Kent Barbado
"You were in that room.
With the tech - you lit the tapes on fire.
You covered the emergency sprinkler with your jacket
You nearly burned the station down."
Tom started scratching at his arm - where the IV was
He paused
Tom Garland
"No I didn't...
Why would I do that? That's crazy."
Kent Barbado
"I saw you do it, the whole station saw you do it.
I want to know why?"
Tom Garland
"I just brought you coffee - and now I'm here."
Tom moved his arm, the one connected to the IV, toward the nurse
Tom Garland
"Should this itch?"
The nurse shook her head
Tom Garland
"It really itches..."
Tom started wheezing
The beeping of the machine grew more frequent
The nurse pushed a button on the side
Nurse
"Sir, you're going to have to leave?"
Kent Barbado
"What's going on?"
Nurse
"Allergic reaction maybe - I just called the doctor."
And no sooner than she said it several people filled the room.
They carried other machinery.
Kent assumed one to be a crash cart.
The other's he didn't recognize
Tom's wheezing grew louder as the beeping grew more frequent.
Kent backed out of the room followed by the nurse before they shut the door
They then guided him to the waiting room, to wait...
Again
Kent sat back down in the chair he was in before
He listened to the drone of mumbles and whispers from the others in the room
He closed his eyes
And tried to relax to find sleep.
He could not.
His mind replayed the event over and over, not perfectly.
The charred black and red skin intermixed between the images.
He tried to filter those out but found he could not.
The last moment was the woman
Speaking that strange language
Kent Barbado
'Had she done this somehow?'
He struggled for a reason.
Any reason Tom might help the tech destroy those tapes.
Or why the tech ran and grabbed Martha's file
Kent Barbado
'It was as if he was hypnotized - but that was nonsense.'
Kent Barbado
'Hypnosis was not real - something for stage shows and bad TV.'
Neither of which he had seen personally.
But everyone loved to talk about bad TV
He repeatedly scratched at the back of his head.
His fingers going back over the bump
Kent Barbado
'Tom would be fine...'
Kent Barbado
'He was in a hospital...'
Kent Barbado
'And he had been stable...'
Kent Barbado
'And they knew exactly what they put into him, so they would be able to fix it...'
He told himself that - but the nurse's eyes.
The sudden concern in those eyes juxtaposed against that last thought.
He tried to focus on something, anything else...
And there wasn't a better distraction than his job.
He held his head in his hands, his arms braced against the chair
He was so tired, too much had happened in one day.
He replayed the events leading up to the fire.
He couldn't shake the thought
Kent Barbado
'Something in that tape they watched caused this.'
Something Martha had done.
And she was missing
Kent Barbado
'And those other people in the cell with her were...'
Also hypnotized he realized.
She had spoken the same indescribable language to them too
Kent Barbado
'She tried that on me...'
He realized
Kent Barbado
'And it failed...
Did it?
How would I even know one way or the other?'
He flexed his hands
He felt like he was in control.
Some small part of him couldn't help but doubt
His eyes twitched with a rapid double vision, he tried to focus them again
His sleep deprivation, maybe that was adding to his paranoia.
He couldn't explain what had happened.
But he knew Martha was at the center of it - somehow he knew that.
A deep sense of dread filled his gut as he realized he was out of his depth.
He ran these thoughts over and over in his head.
He did come to any new conclusions - but further solidifying one fact.
He had to find Martha.
Make her explain.
Make her answer for what she had done.
Though he was not even sure exactly of what she did
An hour or so later, he heard his name called again.
It was the same nurse: she wore the face of someone bearing tragic news
Kent lowered his head into his hands and tears rolled out against his wishes.
He got up - and followed her back through the double doors
%%%%
Martha held on to the dream as best she could
As she rinsed out her mouth at the sink
She got a good 4 hours later, Rossin nowhere to be found
Martha splashed her face - trying to drive the sleep away
She saw something on her elbow, a scab that looked fresh
She rubbed at it
Martha Crisp
'Was it...
From the dream?'
She wondered.
Bits more came back to her.
She recoiled at the thought of going back to sleep.
As tired as she was, she was worried she would have another nightmare
Martha Crisp
'What exactly happened?'
She remembered her nightmare, the ship.
And the book.
The image of that symbol flashed in her memory.
An undulating pattern that rotated in on itself.
It burned an afterimage of itself in her mind's eye
That pattern had been a language - one she could almost understand.
Not in words, not in feelings, but in something just beyond her grasp.
Every detail of that twisting pattern burned in her mind
She drank some water to try and help with the headache
Either it was lack of sleep or it was that image, she couldn't tell
She looked up at the mirror in front of her.
Rossin stood behind her, she whirled
Martha Crisp
"Where were you?"
Rossin
'Asleep it would seem.'
Rossin looked around the room
Rossin
'You have not been asleep all that long - apparently I still needed some.'
Martha turned back to the mirror, swallowing more water
Martha Crisp
"Any dreams?"
Rossin
'A dreamless sleep, you?'
Martha Crisp
"Nightmare...
Well."
Martha started
Martha Crisp
"Maybe something more..."
Rossin tilted his head
Martha Crisp
"I think...
I don't know if I was in the back of the mind, the link...
Whatever it is...
But there was a captain, in a storm.
And an Italian monastery with a romance novel that had some symbol on it."
Rossin interrupted
Martha shook her head
Martha Crisp
"It twists, undulates...
I can still see it."
Rossin tapped his fingers at his side
Rossin
'Well, this actually directs our first lesson...
I want to see that - which means you need to learn some basic syntax.
How to send and receive data through the link.'
Martha Crisp
"You're in my brain, can't you just...
See it?"
Rossin
'I may be in your brain, but I am not in your mind.
My mind sharing this brain with you, I did not see anything in any dream.
So you have to send it to me...
I can not read your mind, remember?'
Rossin walked off
Rossin
'I will be over here when ready.'
Rossin
'I assume you want to take a shower - you should.
You kind of look like shit...
Like you have been up all night and dramatized by a whole lot.
Go relax with some hot water.'
She did need a bath.
But she really hadn't considered what that would be like
Martha Crisp
'A sentient brain she could not just get rid of...'
He was in her head, so...
['Was he bathing with her?',
'Or was he in the other room...'
'Or by going to the other room was that a different part of her mind?']
Martha Crisp
"Fine, but stay in that room."
Rossin
'Will not look in, I am not interested in that, just be quick.'
Rossin walked out of the bathroom and she shut the door.
She turned on the faucet to the tub
For a moment she watched the water rushing out.
Swirling into the tub in chaotic waves
Martha Crisp
'Okay, but he is not actually in the room over there...
He is just...
What?
Gone?
Hiding?'
She watched the water swirl
She closed her eyes
Martha Crisp
'What did she need to do?'
['Find out if that dream was real',
'Find out about that symbol.',
'Train with Rossin.',
'Get Felix to take her to New York.',
'Fix those other people in the cell she was in.',
'Kill that thing in my brain.',
'Have a good fucking meal.',
'Fix the world.']
She paused.
The ordering of her thoughts startled her.
Clear as day despite how tired she still was.
Normally she had trouble focusing, but it was easy now.
Simply a list - one that she realized - would remain easily recallable
Martha Crisp
'That is handy - grocery shopping would be easy...'
She wondered how far she could stretch that?.
How would she test that?
When the water was half full she moved back to the room.
Rossin sat on the bed.
His head turned quizzically when she reached in the drawer beside her
There was a bible - even in a seedy motel
Rossin
'Some light bath reading?'
Martha Crisp
"Some testing, random phrases."
Rossin
'Ah...
So you discovered arrays?'
Martha paused, considering, arrays in math...
Yeah...
Close enough
Martha Crisp
"That's probably it..."
Rossin nodded
Rossin
'You have finite space, finite resources in your brain.
Do not fill it with junk.'
Martha nodded
Rossin
'Actually, just keep all the junk together, easier to overwrite.'
She Walked back into the restroom and closed the door
She wondered how to keep her lists 'close'
She turned off the water and disrobed, she hadn't any other clothes, so
Martha Crisp
'Eh, close enough.'
At least she could clean herself
Dipping in the bath she opened the bible to random pages
She glanced at a few passages.
Each stuck in her mind - added to a list
She did this for a few minutes and then closed the book - then her eyes.
Holding her nose she dipped below the water
When she was done - dried and clothed again, she recalled the list.
Each item was perfectly remembered - or so she thought
She moved out into the other room.
Martha grabbed a small pencil and notepad by the phone.
She wrote out passages - word for word
When she was done - she compared them to the book - all perfectly remembered
Martha Crisp
"So what, I have a perfect memory?"
Rossin
'Well, no.
Just about things you decide to remember - and not exactly perfectly...
Let us just say...
Resilient, not subject to your memory rewriting itself...
But not resistant to physical degradation.'
Martha Crisp
"Is that something you did?"
He paused, nodded
Rossin
'There are some...
Liberties I took...
Before getting that thing completely out.
A bit of house keeping.'
Martha waited and Rossin continued
Rossin
'Well, there were some...
Rewirings I did...
Things it would take years to learn, I carved out some room for to grow easily.
You would not need to train for years to prepare your mind.
You have a mind prepared to learn.'
Martha Crisp
"I see, what exactly did you do, to my brain?"
Rossin
'Well, I took a lot of the hooks, I got most all of them.
I wired in some senses to emotions.
I also freed a bit of space - sort of a sandbox for you to write into...'
Martha Crisp
"I got the first part, but...
What do you mean about senses to emotions?"
Rossin
'Okay, so a strong emotional reactions increased some other sense as well.
Anger is vision, loneliness is taste, joy is touch.
Fear is your perception of time - your thoughts run faster.
You do not move any faster but you can think way faster.
The other ones are more or less arbitrary.
But slowing down time when you are frightened is super useful.'
Martha stared at him, and he continued
Rossin
'Emotional training is something everyone at the school is taught.
How to manipulate your own emotions - master them.
So that you can use them to trigger various sense enhancements.'
Martha said blankly
Martha Crisp
"And the other thing?"
Rossin
'Ah, writing into your brain.
So you can learn the language.'
Martha Crisp
"Which language?"
Rossin
'The language!
The one behind all other languages.
The one we all think as an infant.
Before we learn what words are or the language our parents taught us.
The one you thought in before you learned how to speak.'
Martha Crisp
"So baby talk?"
Rossin
'Daft: babies think it, but can not speak it...'
Rossin paused
Rossin
'If they could...'
Martha just nodded, sure, why not at this point
Martha Crisp
"And how is space in my brain going to help me learn?"
Rossin gestured to the bed next to him
Rossin
'Here, sit down, and when you are ready, close your eyes.'
Martha moved to the bed and shut her eyes
Rossin
'Okay...
So: imagine your vision is in front of you...'
Martha Crisp
"It is in front of me."
Rossin
'I mean like a screen, imagine you are looking at a screen, right...'
Martha Crisp
"And it's in front of me?"
Rossin
'Aye, your field of vision.
Imagine you are a little dot - looking at that screen.
Right now it is black - that is all you can see.'
Rossin sighed
Rossin
'This is not easy to explain, you are going to look to your right.
Not with your vision, but at that point where you are looking at your vision.
Shift your focus to the right of your vision - it will be a blank wall.'
Martha tried to do that
Martha Crisp
"I just see darkness, I don't know."
She opened her eyes, and looked to the right: to where Rossin was
Martha Crisp
"How do I know when I've done it?"
Rossin gestured for her to close her eyes.
She did
Rossin
'It will be apparent - just relax and focus.
Your vision is just part of your brain.
Lighting up from some chemical signals from your eyes.
You are focused on that when you see.
Just - with your eyes close: focus to your right.
Pivot your attention away from where you see.'
Martha tried for a bit.
A few minutes passed.
She was pretty sure she was just trying to look right with her eyes.
No matter how she tried she wasn't able to just...
Turn her brain like that, was that the best phrase, she wondered
Martha Crisp
'Turn my brain....'
Eventually - with her eyes closed - she allowed her mind to wander.
She was in a motel room trying to look right and...
A flash of white appeared, and was gone.
Just a hair bit out of her vision.
It wasn't in front of her eyes but to the right side of her head.
And she could see it.
A blinking, white light, rectangular in shape, pulsing evenly
Martha Crisp
"I think I found something?"
Martha Crisp
"A blinking rectangle."
Words underneath the blinking rectangle, as the shape moved to the right.
It was a cursor.
It continued to the right, then shifted to a new line
"Hello Martha, say apple."
Martha Crisp
"It's telling me to say apple?"
Rossin
'I can write on it.
Martha - think of this as a message board.
We are both able to read it.'
Martha opened her eyes
Her consciousness shifted to the right in a sudden lurch.
She saw the motel room again.
The light hurt her eyes, how long had they been closed
She squinted
Rossin
'Alright, you are alright.'
Rossin reassured her, she realized she was shaking
Martha stilled herself
Rossin
'Next time look back where your vision is - less disorienting that way.'
A headache, sudden and painful, Martha held her head
Rossin
'It will pass, soon.'
And as suddenly as it had come, Martha was fine
Rossin
'You will better at moving your focus point internally.
And will be able to do that with your eyes open just fine.
For now though, keep your eyes closed - and the same way you turned, just...
Turn back the other way.'
For the next hour that's all Martha did.
She looked back and forth between her vision, and that text to her right
['Was look even the right word if she was not using her eyes?',
'Was there a right word?']
Martha Crisp
"Rossin, is there a...
Word for this - what I'm doing.
I'm not looking to my right.
I'm not using my eyes."
Rossin
'Inter-seeing, is the definition.
There are other places you can look.
There is not much there - and I would not go poking around...
You still have...
That thing inside you, what is remaining of it anyway...
Best not to accidentally look at it.'
Martha Crisp
"But the right is safe?"
Rossin
'The right is safe, I built that myself.
Fancy, no?'
Martha Crisp
"It's just text..."
Rossin waved dismissively
Rossin
'You have yet understand, it is in your language.
Access to your brain, in your own language.
Not the language brains use: yours...
That is fancy.'
Martha Crisp
"It's fancy - not colorful, decorative, or initially impressive...
But fancy I'll grant you."
Rossin grumbled
Rossin
'The fancy part you have not seen yet.'
Rossin
'Well, we need another human - and you are not ready for that yet...
But...'
He sighed
Rossin
'Might as well tell you now - you can write hooks on that board.
Execute them - and then your brain will just...
Do them for you, baby steps in actually learning how to speak hooks yourself...
Without the aid of that translator, this is a fancy translator...'
Martha Crisp
"So I can...
Just write anything."
Rossin
'Anything yes...
As long as you spell it out exactly you can write what you want down.
As long as it makes sense to you.
Is the correct instruction to give.
And it means exactly one thing...
No wiggle room...
The closer it is to what your brain wants: the less likely something is to...
Go wrong...
Or be misinterpreted.'
Martha Crisp
"Right.
That's...
Useful - and I think impressive - I don't really have a frame of reference..."
Rossin sighed
Rossin
'You know how Felix had that phone: flashing in front of the face of your neighbor?
That is how most of the Awakened use hooks.
They have a special image that hooks them into doing what they want.
He did not just say those hooks because he probably is unable to...
Not something they teach anymore.'
Martha looked at him
Martha Crisp
"And you're teaching me?"
Rossin
'Trying to at least...
I am not exactly designed to teach.'
Martha Crisp
"You're doing fine - it's probably not easy being in someone else's head."
Martha patted him on the back, surprised that he felt physical
Rossin
'You have not the slightest idea.'
Rossin stood up
Rossin
'We have been at this long enough, and we have places to be yet.'
Martha's stomach growled
She had been ignoring that - everything taking a higher priority
Martha Crisp
"I need to eat."
Rossin
'When was the...
Right - you have not eaten since I was here...
So...
Aye - good time to mention you are going to need more calories...
Your brain is using more calories than usual...
Will be using more calories overall...
You should get used to eating...
A fair bit more...'
Martha Crisp
"What's a fair bit more?"
Rossin
'An extra couple of meals a day...
Good big meals.'
Rossin walked to the door
Rossin
'After we get you fed we should go take care of those cellmates of yours, yes?'
Martha nodded
She hadn't forgotten - the list of things to do was always there.
Just off to the right of her mind.
Cataloged with others, like a rolodex - indexable
Martha Crisp
"But food first."
Rossin waited at the door