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.And he liked her more than he wanted to admit, even if she was impossibly old.Carefully, he chanted the words of a simple spell under his breath and a ball of light appeared in his palm.A second set of words and the ball of light drifted up into the air, casting an eerie gleam over the entire room.The researcher stared and then pointed a strange metal tool at the ball of light.“Curious,” he said, finally.“Very curious indeed.”CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE“They made you talk,” Jorlem observed.“How did they make you talk?”“Magic,” Elyria said, sourly.The feeling of being utterly vulnerable had bothered her more than she wanted to admit, but it would all have to go in her voice.“Did they.did they do anything else to me?”“Nothing that we can detect,” the AIs said.“Our sensors are rather limited down here, but we believe that there will be no lasting effects.Brain scans revealed that you were subjected to something comparable to a very mild brain-stamping.Quite how it worked on your enhanced mind, however, remains a mystery.”“Magic,” Elyria said.Jorlem shot her a sharp glance, but she pushed on regardless.“I’m serious.They don’t really know what they’re doing; they just make demands on the magic and it does it for them.There was no need to program a brain-probe to stamp anything into my mind; they just did it.”“Which suggests some form of intelligence behind the magic,” the AIs said.“Maybe something comparable to the RIs that operate virtual realities for the uploaded.” There was a pause.“We do not believe that they gave you any additional.programming.”Elyria winced.Any level of technology could be abused – and the Confederation’s technology opened up all sorts of possibilities for sociopaths who wanted to prey on their fellow citizens.The worst nightmare was subversion implants, devices that turned people into puppets operated by their masters, or reprogramming them into becoming monsters.It was something that her implants should have countered, but her augmentation didn’t work right on Darius.And if they had been able to compel her to be truthful, they might have planted other suggestions inside her mind.“But you can’t be sure,” she said, reluctantly.And she couldn’t be sure either.Joshua was a nice lad, with a growing crush on her that she found somewhat embarrassing, but Master Faye was a devious despot.Why not try to plant a command in her mind? “What do you suggest we do?”“I will be assuming command of the operation on the ground,” Jorlem said.“The AIs have proposed a direct scan of your mind when you return to orbit.It would allow us to be sure that you were not under outside interference.”“Except you couldn’t be sure, because of the magic,” Elyria said, bitterly.“A full scan might reveal nothing.”“We know,” the AIs said.“We do not see any other choice.”There was a long pause.“We have been scanning Joshua ever since he entered the shuttle,” they added, changing the subject.“There are a number of oddities in his body, particularly a very faint tendency to disrupt advanced technology.Nanotech simply refuses to work inside his body, for example, and focused scans return thoroughly abnormal results.We have been forced to rely on less advanced technology.”Jorlem scowled.“Is he disrupting technology in purpose?”“We do not believe so,” the AIs said.“The level of disruption seems to coincide with his moods, which have swung backwards and forwards ever since he entered the shuttle.That is not surprising – he is almost certainly suffering from a variant of culture shock – but the link with the disruptions is alarming.The effect might damage a shuttle if we attempted to take him to orbit.“Physically, his body is rather strange,” they continued.“He is strong and healthy in appearance, but his heart is under some considerable strain and there are a multitude of other minor problems.A human who exercised regularly would build up the muscle and the supporting structures; Joshua appears to have only concentrated on his muscles.In many ways, he looks like a child who has managed to reprogram his supporting nanites to redesign his body.”Elyria winced.As fashions changed, the Confederation’s citizens redesigned their bodies to match [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.And he liked her more than he wanted to admit, even if she was impossibly old.Carefully, he chanted the words of a simple spell under his breath and a ball of light appeared in his palm.A second set of words and the ball of light drifted up into the air, casting an eerie gleam over the entire room.The researcher stared and then pointed a strange metal tool at the ball of light.“Curious,” he said, finally.“Very curious indeed.”CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE“They made you talk,” Jorlem observed.“How did they make you talk?”“Magic,” Elyria said, sourly.The feeling of being utterly vulnerable had bothered her more than she wanted to admit, but it would all have to go in her voice.“Did they.did they do anything else to me?”“Nothing that we can detect,” the AIs said.“Our sensors are rather limited down here, but we believe that there will be no lasting effects.Brain scans revealed that you were subjected to something comparable to a very mild brain-stamping.Quite how it worked on your enhanced mind, however, remains a mystery.”“Magic,” Elyria said.Jorlem shot her a sharp glance, but she pushed on regardless.“I’m serious.They don’t really know what they’re doing; they just make demands on the magic and it does it for them.There was no need to program a brain-probe to stamp anything into my mind; they just did it.”“Which suggests some form of intelligence behind the magic,” the AIs said.“Maybe something comparable to the RIs that operate virtual realities for the uploaded.” There was a pause.“We do not believe that they gave you any additional.programming.”Elyria winced.Any level of technology could be abused – and the Confederation’s technology opened up all sorts of possibilities for sociopaths who wanted to prey on their fellow citizens.The worst nightmare was subversion implants, devices that turned people into puppets operated by their masters, or reprogramming them into becoming monsters.It was something that her implants should have countered, but her augmentation didn’t work right on Darius.And if they had been able to compel her to be truthful, they might have planted other suggestions inside her mind.“But you can’t be sure,” she said, reluctantly.And she couldn’t be sure either.Joshua was a nice lad, with a growing crush on her that she found somewhat embarrassing, but Master Faye was a devious despot.Why not try to plant a command in her mind? “What do you suggest we do?”“I will be assuming command of the operation on the ground,” Jorlem said.“The AIs have proposed a direct scan of your mind when you return to orbit.It would allow us to be sure that you were not under outside interference.”“Except you couldn’t be sure, because of the magic,” Elyria said, bitterly.“A full scan might reveal nothing.”“We know,” the AIs said.“We do not see any other choice.”There was a long pause.“We have been scanning Joshua ever since he entered the shuttle,” they added, changing the subject.“There are a number of oddities in his body, particularly a very faint tendency to disrupt advanced technology.Nanotech simply refuses to work inside his body, for example, and focused scans return thoroughly abnormal results.We have been forced to rely on less advanced technology.”Jorlem scowled.“Is he disrupting technology in purpose?”“We do not believe so,” the AIs said.“The level of disruption seems to coincide with his moods, which have swung backwards and forwards ever since he entered the shuttle.That is not surprising – he is almost certainly suffering from a variant of culture shock – but the link with the disruptions is alarming.The effect might damage a shuttle if we attempted to take him to orbit.“Physically, his body is rather strange,” they continued.“He is strong and healthy in appearance, but his heart is under some considerable strain and there are a multitude of other minor problems.A human who exercised regularly would build up the muscle and the supporting structures; Joshua appears to have only concentrated on his muscles.In many ways, he looks like a child who has managed to reprogram his supporting nanites to redesign his body.”Elyria winced.As fashions changed, the Confederation’s citizens redesigned their bodies to match [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]