...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 4-6: Ghost Mode

Ray, monitoring and recording it all from his console, was amazed and elated to see this happening. He didn't know it was even possible. Xayna, back on Haida Gwaii, had no physical access to a QAR facility, no way to link to his system.

Stunned, he ran every test imaginable on the reality of her presence. At first he was sure that Bear was dreaming her. But her actions were too autonomous. She was a ghost in his machine, activated by no physical presence.

He quickly dubbed this "Ghost Mode" and ran more tests. He ran a comparison of the recordings he was getting that represented her actions to the ones that represented Bear. They were completely similar. There was no question, she was there as an independent entity.

Then he made another stunning discovery. He realized that the recordings were just too similar. More tests confirmed his suspicion. Bear was no longer making any inputs from his body. He was doing it all through the Q. Bear was in Ghost Mode too.

Ray could no longer resist. He had to share this discovery. But he couldn't stop monitoring Bear. He had only one option. He blinked his lenses into QAR mode and joined them in the farm.

They were on one of the top tiers, standing on the inner balcony ring. Ray had long since mastered his fear of heights in VR, but he still got a little queasy at first so he positioned himself back from the railing.

He coughed discreetly and said "Hello" and they turned to face him. He was operating in Normal mode and they both looked completely, well, normal. Bear's description of Xayna was right, she did look like a younger version of his Cheryl. Or at least he saw her that way.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said, "But I had to come and see for myself. Xayna, welcome to the farm. I can't tell you how excited I am to see you here. You are every bit as beautiful as Bear told us you were, by the way." Ray said that spontaneously and meant it sincerely, but as he watched her blush he realized it was an excellent test of her actual presence.

Bear said, "What's up?" and Ray turned his attention to him. And had another revelation. Bear had entered QAR alone and normally would have had no attention on his own appearance. If Ray had entered without Xayna there the system would have presented a simple avatar of Bear, normally somewhat wooden until animated by Ray's own visual feedback.

But Bear looked completely alive and—different. Ray realized his appearance came from Xayna's feedback. And hers from Bear. His QAR system was drawing all this detail from Xayna and Bear via the Q. Ray was inordinately pleased with himself over this unplanned accomplishment. Then he began to wonder what he looked like to Xayna.

"You look just fine, Ray." He looked around, wondering who said that, following the direction of Bear's and Xayna's eyes, and saw, "Dema?" Her form was materializing before them, the QAR obviously drawing from Bear's expectations of his mother's appearance and Ray's expectations for his own long-time out-of-reach idol. She looked spectacular, as always.

"I couldn't pass this up," she said. "The intensity of this QAR dream stirred my link to Bear." She gave him a nod. "So I've been discreetly watching. When you showed up, Ray, I decided to join the party. Hello Xayna, nice to really meet you at last. Well, not really really, I suppose."

Xayna grinned back at her.

Ray was staggered. "Have...you...done...this...before?" he finally got out.

"Oh, no, not in QAR. But Cern and I have done a lot of dreaming together. I think that's what made it easy for Bear and Xayna too."

"Then you know what's going on?"

"I think you already understand it better than the rest of us, Ray. For us it's a lot like a shaman dream. But, you are recording it! That means we can play it back! It's like magic!"

"Uhm, any sufficiently advanced technology..."

"Right, Ray, but you've done it! You and Bear, and Xayna. This farm program, I already know it will be really useful. Cern and I are at a NASA dome right now where we could really use it. But more about that later..."

"NASA dome?" Bear was curious.

"Yes, we're in Houston. A lot of NASA people here are tired of having their homes flooded every year, and wangled a dome to keep from missing work and all the other hassle. But these are techie types, nerds and loners. Sorry Ray. But they don't always play well with others. They don't all take well to the domestic side of dome life. I think this will be just the trick we need to get them to see the big picture.

"So, I should leave you to it. Just wanted you to know I think you're really onto something. Something very big."

She had just started to fade when Bear said, "Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks. Tengri has been very supportive too, but it means a lot coming from you."

"If there's anything your dad and I can do to help, you know we'll be here."

After she had gone, Ray asked, "Are you guys ready to take a break?"

Bear could see he was itching to tell Tengri and the others, so he agreed.