3G: the Glowing Green Goo

“Excuse me? Are you the nanite expert?” A voice called as Zax was leaving the building.

He turned around, and the origin of the voice nonplussed him.

It was common for lecturers to have someone call for them after their presentation. Meeting with old friends, an interested audience member, a job proposition… there were many reasons to reach for a specialist’s attention and time. It had never happened to Zax, but he was open to the idea.

That wasn’t the confusing part.

It was also common for the Families governing the Circles to send members in the dot. Cat and Dog’s situation notwithstanding, it had been a rarity. Some were sent as punishment far from their usual ‘comfort’, usually the low-level ones, less mutated. They were used for unskilled labour, the type where more hands were always better but machines were not adequate or not worth building. Others were sent ‘in secret’ for training in infiltration, negotiation and similar skills, normally higher-level people with subtle or hidden mutations. The Circle had to warn the Main Computer about their envoys of course, to prevent foul play. When they left, the computer would compile the ‘suspicious’ activities it had spotted for their performance to be evaluated by their own superiors. Any Resident caught without their presence known in advance or too close to the main computer itself was in for trouble, although Zax had never heard of it happening.

The dot’s policy was transparency, so it didn’t actually have secrets; and the Circles wouldn’t care about them anyways, which made it an adequate, neutral training and mixing ground. The dotters were not supposed to be aware of the secret envoys, but the wannabe spies were not all great at their job. Their presence and the main meeting places for each Families were open secrets at this point. The general order among dotters was to only tell them about their personal slip-ups, not the other’s. They wouldn’t improve otherwise.

On the other hand, there was no telling how many successfully stayed hidden. Quinn had been such an example, although her situation was probably more complicated. They weren’t supposed to stay long, the dot simply didn’t have the room for that.

In any case, Residents were either obvious and loud about it, or hard to spot without spending time with them.

That was the confusing part. This woman was… loudly hiding it?

Her mutation was adequately light, merely a horn on the side of her head and a few coloured splotches on her skin. Typical bovine mutation. The lone horn was interesting, but only for his hobby.

Mutations tended to keep the natural symmetries of life. Any new limb or organ would grow in a fitting place; no tentacles growing from the belly or eyes sprouting behind the knee. Single additions appeared on the central axis parallel with the spine, or at least grew from there, while everything else would come in mirrored pairs. There was the occasional inconsequential stray outgrowth against that rule, possibly precursor of something else coming, but the hobbyist had never heard of a complete piece doing so.

Zax stopped starring before it became awkward, but the frown told him the object of his attention didn’t appreciate it.

Her clothes were more unusual, but it took a retoucher’s eye to put it in words. It was the standard dot issue, but without a single alteration. Even the blandest of all dotters, someone who didn’t care at all for appearances, would have some personality bleeding in their outfit. Even if only with the top completely tucked in and everything perfectly ironed, or a loose collar and waistband, or scuffed elbows and worn edges. The woman in front of him wore it like an advertisement, the perfect picture as displayed on the dispensers. Seeing it on an actual person felt eerie.

It was also a tad too large for her.

The most revealing part was not what she wore, however. It was what she didn’t. No bracelet in sight. Even the clumsiest, laziest, most inept infiltrator wannabe knew to have a bracelet – and the forums had priceless pearls. It was the basis for any exchange in the dot.

In conclusion, she was… a Resident who didn’t know how to pass for a dotter, but tried to do so anyways? By improvising?

It didn’t make any sense.

Still, confusion and personal history were not excuses for rudeness, and he had already gazed long enough.

“Yes? May I help you? Fair warning, I’m waited somewhere so I can’t dawdle.”

“Of course.” She nodded. “I saw your presentation and I would like to talk with you. If it goes well, I have well placed friends that will want to meet you. Let’s go to a normal meeting place among friendly machines so I can tell you more. You won’t regret it.” Her voice had a strange lilt to it, but the programmer couldn’t quite place it.

“New fan of nanotechnology?” The programmer raised an eyebrow but didn’t lose his polite smile. “Seems unlikely, but I don’t mind talking more about it. Not now though, I really have to go. Just send me a mail and we can set a meeting. The event schedule they gave everyone has my address. Bye.”

He walked back to the road, leaving the woman behind.

“What- No, wait, it’s important!” She rushed to stay at his side. He didn’t slow down.

“You’re in luck, it’s a calm period for me professionally, so I’ll answer within a day. I can’t promise more than that though, I have projects that take most of my time. Have a nice day.”

The light road stop was a few steps in front of the facility’s entrance, so they were already there. Zax was hovering away before he could make her answer out.

I may have been a bit curt in the end here.

“That was surprisingly… cold from you.” Aran stated when he narrated this strange encounter.

Her crooked smile didn’t know whether to laugh or frown, but her tail betrayed her amusement again. Zax answered with a sigh:

“I know. I’ll have to apologise if she does follow through.”

“I could have waited a few minutes more.” SG added in a small voice.

“Call me crazy, but I don’t think that was his reason.” She didn’t run the entertainment centres anymore, but the social butterfly was still adept at reading people.

“I don’t think it would have lasted a few minutes either.” Zax added. “I’m not even sure she wanted to talk about nanotechnology. The way she talked; it reminded me of when I try to lie without saying anything false.”

“You do that?” SG was flabbergasted.

“Rarely, and I’m not very good at it.” Zax lamented. “The only way people don’t notice is if they don’t know me at all, or if they are distracted by something else. And even then, they notice quickly after.” His eyes rose as he though back to their encounters. “I didn’t do it with you, but I did it with Aran when we first met.”

“You did!?”

“Not exactly lying, but at least manipulate your image of me. You didn’t notice?”

“I… try not to think much about it.” The incredulous silence made the tailed girl reluctantly continue. “It was embarrassing.” She revealed, staring at the corner.

“What, the door thing? That wasn’t even on purpose. The gaslight was before.”

“No, not that.” She whispered, hiding her face behind her knees. “I was caught like a noob.”

The conversation died off, but SG wasn’t done.

“What do you think she was hiding?”

“Hm?” It took a few second for Zax’s brain to come back to the previous conversation. “Oh. Well, I think she did find me thanks to the presentation but that’s not what she cared about. I think they want me for something not related to nanites, and I wouldn’t put it past them to try and kidnap me. The last part is a stretch, but the way she said ‘normal meeting place among friendly machines’ felt like a trap. The way she said ‘well-placed friends’ and not ‘powerful friends’ made me think she didn’t want to threaten me. Or she didn’t want me to feel threatened.”

“And… you’re not worried at all? That sounds like something you should worry over.”

“Not really.” He shrugged. “She was very bad at it, I hid my path from the network before coming here, and I filled the Enforcer form about ‘suspicious encounters, but not enough to act on yet’ on the way.”

“That’s a thing?” Both girls were sceptical.

“It is. I learnt about it on advanced first aid lessons. It’s not the real name, but a query like that and you have the right form. Ah, but don’t look for it for fun, or it won’t have as much impact if you do end up needing one. You can go on their site and look among all the forms they have though.”

“First aid goes way deeper than I thought. So, what now?”

“Now, my injection software is finally up to date and I can start getting a new home to the smallest machine the dot has ever seen.” Zax was rubbing his hands without realising, too excited at the prospect.

What new possibilities will they open?

“We can move to your calibration when I’m done.” He added to SG. “You should be ready for testimony now.”

“Oh, we can all do the exercises together!” Aran jumped in excitement.

“Is there enough room for that here?” Zax didn’t think it was possible.

“Ah, no, sorry, I forgot.” She fell lower than before.

“Haha!” Two chuckles filled the room before Zax moved to his workshop, closing the door behind him. “Just give me a few minutes and you do it together. I’ll keep an eye on the scan.”

Infusing his brain would require several doses spread over time and constant watch until they were all in place, but he had already prepared everything he needed. He couldn’t have the nanites directly injected in his grey matter, but the second-best option, to put it directly in his blood stream, was easy enough. Advanced first aid had also taught him how to use a needle, but there was a common and less intrusive option. Suppositories bypassed the powerful digestive system and directly accessed the blood stream, it was ideal for any sensitive product, and didn’t need any special equipment. It also naturally kept the doses small and spread out, unless the patient was a masochist.

Why would our ancestors consider that taboo?

For all his respect, some parts of the ancient cultures would always baffle him.

In any case, he was quickly done, and the checks before and after showed nothing wrong. Most nanites would be in place in a few minutes, but he would wait a few hours before the second dose. The program to actually use them would launch once he was asleep, and would finish when enough were in place.

Back in the living room, the girls were ready too. Zax prepared his programs and gave the go.

SG tried to guide Aran through the easier version of her exercises, but she was not exactly… skilled at teaching. Lots of confusing advices such as “move it up” when the pupil couldn’t see her, and “You should feel a whoosh-waah”. Even Zax, familiar with most exercises, didn’t understand what she tried to get at. He helped her fix her posture, but mostly stayed focused on his holographic monitors.

At the end of the session, Aran was panting and in dire need of a shower, but high on endorphins and dopamine. SG was merely winded. She looked at her tailed friend like an amused but proud parent looking at their children. Zax had seen it in dramas. Once rested, Aran went to the water unit and he shared the good news:

“Your scans are good and calibrated enough to recreate your memories up to one month back.” And then some, but it was better to go too far than not enough. “Will that be enough for what you need?”

She nodded wordlessly. Her mirth had dissipated in an instant.

“Great. Now there are several ways we can do this. No matter what you choose, actively thinking about the events, trying to remember, or trying not to, will help. I know, the brain can be weird like that.”

Aran came back at that moment, clean and refreshed. Feeling the mood and knowing what it was about, she silently sat on the couch on the opposite side of her friend and took a wing in her hands for comfort.

“First, I can set the dates of when it happened, and the data will compile itself over time. No effort required from you, but it will take the longest time, as in very long, and the results will not be that good. It may lead to Enforcers still needing a ‘normal’ testimony, if you see what I mean.”

A wince confirmed how unpleasant the idea was for her.

“Second is to make an actual testimony. Talk about it, to us, on your own, you can also write it down, or draw it and delete the result before anyone can see it. It will stimulate your episodic memory, and the nanites will piggyback on that to access and build from your sensory memory. They will have the right parts faster and more accurately. It could even be done in one go.”

The pair reacted as one, displaying painful thoughts.

“Third is sort of a compromise: to reconstruct all your memories backwards starting from now, but I will still need dates to know when to stop. It will not take as long as looking directly for the right memories, but more than if you directly feed them the right ones. The Enforcers can then use your recent memories to determine how accurate the old ones will be.”

“You will give them the recent parts too?” Aran vocalised the question they both had.

“Of course. I will give them the recording immediately, after only checking the raw data’s stability and coherence. I won’t look at the actual content without consent, and I can’t split the old ones without looking. I won’t know if they will be clear enough for the Enforcers either. They could still need a normal testimony, but it’s not very likely.”

He let the options sink in, before concluding:

“In any case, the recording will only be of your senses. What you saw, heard, smelt, the state of your body, NOT what you thought or the emotions you felt. There will be hints of that though, your hesitations, shivers, cold sweat on your back, and so on.”

The dotters let SG stew a moment, but Aran couldn’t bear it any longer:

“Sorry to say it Zax, but there’s no good option here.”

“Can’t I just… stay here and forget about it?”

The winged girl’s downcast voice and bowed body tore at their hearts. Zax put a hand on her shoulder to make her look in his warm eyes, his voice soft as velvet.

“We will be happy to be your safe haven, but we can’t be your whole world. That’s no way to live.”

She briefly slumped a bit more, but nodded. She expected as much.

“Is it that hard to think about it?” Aran queried in a sympathetic voice.

“From what she said when we met, I don’t think that’s the reason.” Zax opposed.

“Hm?”

“That’s why I didn’t directly propose she tells us and I record her recall. At first, she didn’t trust anyone enough to risk sharing the information. She trusts us a bit more now. I hope. So I think, she wants to tell us, but she doesn’t know if she wants us to know.”

Aran had no idea what to say to that, and SG was shaken at how true it sounded in her ears. She hadn’t realised herself. But why? Where did that come from? After a long silence, an answer was whispered:

“I don’t want to scare you.”

Those were her words, but the dotters knew her enough to descry what was left unsaid.

I don’t want you to be scared of me.