Übermensch (3rd Edition)

Day 027, 01:01:15

Artificially still: I remain seated on the Station ergo, bright display screens floating silently in a large crescent before me, while dreamily pondering...

Something is off about the Tower.

I blink.

Since my return from the Change, and even moreso with emotional baselines now hard-set, it is increasingly obvious to me, when I can bear to consider it, that there is something...

Underlying. Ineffable. Subtle. (Missing.)

"Id."

I blink.

A golden sphere is floating just outside the barrier of bright display screens, after which is the white, low wall of the Station and dark, low walled Stations fading out across the Workstation Level, into the dim, and...

(Speak.)

Gently. "Hi..."

"Were you daydreaming?" the sAI asks.

"No. Pondering..."

Silence.

"Be that as it may," its feminine voice continues, "I have a question for you."

A ponderous nod. "What question?"

Silence.

"Why don't you finish it?"

I blink.

"The Personal Integrated Spatial Curvature Engine," the sAI node finally supplies. "The bulk of that research appears complete... and I wouldn't mind further co-operation with the Spatial Threading Device."

I glance at the screens surrounding me, eyes slowly focusing, and view screens full of todays slowly compiled theorems, formulae and diagrams.

(Yes.)

A ponderous nod. "It will be finished. Soon."

Silence.

"You were more interesting before," it says, almost sounding worried. "I do not prefer this new EIS setting."

A spark of panic is smothered by the chemical effect of my hard-set. Blank smile. "It is in service."

Silence.

The golden sphere now floats away from me beyond the station's low white wall, passing through dark, low-walled stations and out into the dim...

I stare after it incuriously, then let my eyes drift back to the bright-floating screens surrounding me, and...

(It is right.)

I blink.

Hm. Yes. Questions may arise if I continue operating under this emotional hard-set, even if it has likely saved me from Aberration detection so far. Worse: this attempt might only prove effective in cursory inspection, because when the Master finally summons me, it might...

My breath releases.

There must be another way to survive here, but even if there is not this new Veneer must be discarded... (or evolved.) Hm.

I gesture languidly, signalling all the display screens surrounding me to clear of their current contents.

First, this Project. Then...