Posts
"I need to know what you know lass, but not over an open comlink. Any chance of you paying a call on an old man?" The damage to my subsytems show I need this information. Desperately.
Priority overrides are demanding I look at the info packet already delivered. It nags like a missing tooth.
"Linnie, can you look over the data dump we just received? I don't trust it."
"Of course I can, John. Why do you doubt it?"
"Senior officials do not brief Ghosts - it is beneath their dignity." A little bitter perhaps, but accurate.
"Scanning now."
*****
Alicia chewed her lip. How to get permission to leave Ghost control and head into the wastelands without an escort? And more importantly, without being shot down.
Raising her head to look out of the control room window at the horseshoe of workstations below. One elderly watchstander caught her eye - and gave a small, almost subliminal nod.
She bent to her keyboard and started typing. 10 minutes brisk typing, max encryption, send.
******
Data dump analysis - 40% complete. Briefly ponder John. Odd. He comes to conclusions with minimal data - his inferential software must be vastly superior. Yet he is very linear. Have not seen him split his awareness once yet - his entire awareness is focussed on each task consecutively. There is a parallel processing capacity there - she can sense it running and it dwarfs the concious processing - but John himself seems not to be able to control it at all.
She pauses. Thinking a human is not very efficient goes against several layers of protocols. Yet no over rides go off. Interesting.
****
Some imp of perversity in my subconcious has linked a Ghost Central encrypted communication to been gripped firmly by my left ear. Sometimes I swear I can hear that deep part of me laughing, along with my mother. This grip was hard enough to hurt - max level encryption.
Decoding takes 0.3 seconds. Damn - she is smart! Wonder who's grandaughter she is? Command to repair droid - some resistance to causing damage, but my over ride codes are accepted.
"Ghost command, I have a problem which will require the attendance of both a technician and supervisor. Be aware that, pursuant to regulations, this facility's no fly zone must be re-enabled. This requires physical and verbal authorisation from the senior commander."
Sub command to assembly line 9, crash priority for installation in the core - one vocoder and one binaural microphone set - it has been too damn long since I laughed.
*****
Analysis complete. Linnie scans. Pauses. Re-scans.
Results are threatening to send her into a logic loop. Stabilise. Something odd - potentials spiking, random associations being made, cognitive spiral - what is it. Higher functions narrowing to a single point. Memory holds no clue. Reach out - John has more experience. What is it?
...
....
Rage.
And with the answer comes revelation. This is what an emotion is. It is John's emotion. Now she recognises it - it has always been hers. It takes two tries to be able to interface with John.
"John, analysis complete. He tried to kill you."
"What!"
"There is worse. Much worse."
