In Heaven and Earth Read Online Free Page B

sight faster
than the Juniper’s computer. Amused, Reuben crossed to the wall, zooming in until
he was looking straight at the damaged patch in Vairya’s memory.
Little silver specks scuttled across the screen, but Reuben ignored
them for the moment. This was a much clearer image than the best
the ship’s scanners could do.
    He could now see that the
gleaming inside of Vairya’s skull was formed of countless tiny
scales, overlapping and gleaming. Light flickered across them in a
ceaseless rainbow ripple. In the damaged corner, a whole streak of
scales had gone dim, blackened in places. They had not been
entirely destroyed, though, so he touched each one on the screen,
highlighting them.
    “ Nanites,
repair selected cells,” he commanded and then took a careful breath
as he issued the truly dangerous command, “Replicate as necessary
to complete previous command.”
    The little silver dots
stilled for a moment, before they all converged on the damaged
area. Within seconds, the burnt cells had vanished below a roiling
spread of silver.
    If this was all that was
needed to heal a man, Reuben could understand why the scientists of
Old Earth had found this technology so seductive. Why was it that
every generation had to learn again that you shouldn’t trust
anything which seemed too good to be true?
    On the screen, the silver
dots were shifting away from the damaged area, like iron filings
repelled by a magnet. Reuben frowned as they revealed the same
damage, barely altered. A few of the cells were gleaming again, but
most were still dull. As Reuben watched, a thin line of light
appeared around them, gleaming with the same play of colours as the
lights that swirled across the rest of Vairya’s mind.
    One of the silver dots
crept back towards the damage, only to bounce off the shining
barrier.
    Interesting. Not so easy,
after all.
    Time to see if he was
completely alone in here. Imagining a com chip in his ear, he
asked, “Eskil, can you see what I’m visualising?”
    Eskil’s voice came back
with a slight echo of distance. “No, but I can hear you loud and
clear. You’re speaking out loud.”
    “ Get your scan
up and zoom in.”
    “ On it, but
give me a clue what… oh. That’s odd.”
    “ And not my
doing. Is he still completely out?”
    “ Yeah. Looks
like his brain is fighting back. Could be an inbuilt
defence.”
    “ Find out for
me. I’m going to try something different.” He turned his attention
back to the screen. “Nanites, form a spearhead and break through
that wall.”
    They rushed to obey, but
even their most concentrated attack merely recoiled from that
thread of light.
    “ Nothing I can
find anywhere about defence protocols,” Eskil said, “but no one
really knows much about the TC4s.”
    Reuben grinned up at the
screen, relishing a challenge. “I’ll have to be creative,
then.”
    Eskil cleared his throat,
and asked hesitantly, “Have you considered that it may be
psychological? If he’s suffering some form of traumatic amnesia, he
may well be subconsciously fighting the memory.”
    “ Do cyborgs
have a subconscious?” Reuben wondered.
    “ I think you’re
about to find out.”
    Reuben pondered
that, regarding his screen, and grimaced. This infirmary was just a
mental projection, albeit a comfortable one, but it was his imaginary landscape.
If Eskil was right, he needed to see what was in Vairya’s mind, not
his own.
    “ Nanites,” he
murmured. “Cease hostilities. Show me what Vairya is
dreaming.”
    Signal to signal, brain
to brain, imagination to imagination, he and Vairya were joined
right now. This was the place where science and magic became one,
and it both scared and fascinated him.
    The projection of
Vairya’s brain vanished from the screen. In its place, a new
picture appeared, like something out of an ancient painting or
fantasy vid. A walled city stood among green fields, its white
walls gleaming like pearl in the sunlight. Around it, an army had
gathered, knights in