Factoring Humanity

“But,” she said, “don’t you see? Don’t you get it? It’s not just your mind, or my mind, that you could touch. It’s any mind — including, perhaps, those that are no longer active.” She reached over, took his hand, the fingers immobile. “Now, I haven’t tried this yet, but it may work. You might be able to touch Mary’s mind — the archive of it, the backed-up version.” She squeezed the hand, shaking it slightly looking for a response. “Perhaps you can make your peace with her. In a very real sense, perhaps you can.”

Kyle’s eyebrows went up.

“I know it’s not over yet,” said Heather. “But it may be. It may be soon. We may be able to put it all to rest — all the demons, all the bad times.”

“And what happens after that?” asked Kyle. “What happens next?”

Heather opened her mouth to reply, but soon closed it, realizing she had not the slightest idea.

34

As soon as they got to Heather’s office, the problem became obvious. Kyle was simply too big to get into the construct.

“Damn,” said Heather. “I’ve been meaning to do something about that.” She shrugged apologetically. “I’m afraid we’ll have to get a new one built.”

“How long will that take?”

“A few days. I’ll call Paul and — ”

“Paul? Who’s that?”

Heather paused. She could say that he was just this guy over in Mechanical Engineering, but -

But there was more. And there really was no point keeping it — or anything else — from Kyle anymore.

“You’ve met him,” said Heather tentatively. “You were both on the Gotlieb Centre committee.”

“I don’t remember him.”

“He remembers you.”

Kyle said nothing, but Heather knew from her contact with Kyle’s mind that he hated it when these situations came up. Kyle was distinctive looking: the red beard, the black hair, the Roman nose. People did remember him — and that just made him self-conscious about his appearance.

“Anyway,” said Heather, “he’s the engineer who helped me build the construct. But even he doesn’t know what it’s for yet. And…”

“Yes?”

She shrugged a bit. “We spent some time together. He was interested in me.”

Kyle stiffened. “And were you interested in him?”

Heather made a small nod. “What was it someone once said? After you connect with the overmind, you’ll find out that, yes, I lusted in my heart.” She looked at the floor for a time, then raised her eyes again. “I’ll tell you the truth, Kyle. I’ve been absolutely dreading this. We have been through hell together, you and I, and it almost destroyed our marriage.” She paused. “But I don’t know if we’re going to survive this. I don’t know what you’ll think of me after you’ve seen into my mind.”

Kyle’s face was impassive.

“Just remember that I love you,” Heather said. She took a deep breath. “Now, let’s go see Paul.”

It was a trivial matter to reprogram the manufacturing robot to make a new set of tiles one hundred and fifty percent the size of the old ones. Paul was totally perplexed as to why they were needed, though, especially when Kyle signed the requisition this time. But the new tiles were ready by Saturday.

Kyle, Heather, and Becky worked together assembling them; this construct was being built in Kyle’s lab, which had much more free space and much higher ceilings than did Heather’s office. It was such an awesome thing — to be building an alien device! — and yet all that Kyle kept thinking about was how wonderful it was for the three of them to be doing something together again.

“What are you doing?” asked Cheetah, his eyes watching them from the console.

“It’s a secret,” said Becky as she snapped two tiles together.

“I can keep a secret,” said Cheetah.

“He can, you know,” said Kyle, looking up from the pile of tiles in front of him.

Cheetah waited patiently, and finally Heather told him about the overmind and the Centauri tool for accessing it.

“Fascinating,” said Cheetah when she was done. “It does much to resolve the question once and for all of my humanity.”

“How so?” asked Heather.

“I am manufactured. I am separate from the human overmind.” He paused. “I am not human.”

“No, you’re not,” said Kyle. “You’re not an extension of a larger entity.”

“I am hooked up to the Internet,” said Cheetah defensively.

“Of course you are,” said Kyle. “Of course you are.”

Cheetah was quiet for a long time. “What’s it like being human, Dr. Graves?”

Kyle opened his mouth to reply, then closed it, giving the matter further thought. He looked first at his wife, then at his daughter. “It’s wonderful, Cheetah.” He shrugged a little. “Sometimes it’s so wonderful, it hurts.”

Cheetah considered this, then: “Do I understand,” said the computer, “that you, Professor Davis, have had absolute access to Dr. Graves’s mind?”

“That’s right.”

“And that you, Dr. Graves, are about to have the ability to gain similar access to Professor Davis’s mind?”

“So I’m told,” said Kyle.

“And that you, Becky, have also entered this psychospace realm?”

“Uh-huh.”

“In that case, may I have permission, Dr. Graves, to tell you and your family what I think?”