See Part One for Disclaimers
Christina was humming. A lilting melody that seemed to reach into him and gently coax him to consciousness. He was vaguely aware of pain centred a little below his right ear spreading slowly to encompass his entire head the more awake he became. He wanted to fall back into the comforting arms of sleep but he was on the brink of consciousness and he couldn't go back.
"Seamus?" Her voice was soft and came to him as nothing but a whisper.
He heard someone else mumble something totally incomprehensible and realised it must have been him.
"Shh, don't try to move yet." She advised him. "You've been unconscious for quite a while, just give yourself some time to wake up, OK?"
Naturally he ignored her and a wave of intense nausea swept over him at the barest of movements. He felt her hands on his chest as she forced him to be still. He heard her mutter something like "Why do they never listen when I tell them that?" under her breath and hazily promised himself to do as she asked in future. She knew more about these things than he did.
He must have wandered off into a light doze somewhere in there, because when he struggled to open his eyes, she was sitting beside his bed sipping a hot drink and reading a book. He watched her without her knowing, his eyes trying to focus on the title of the book she held. When everything stopped swaying and shifting, he read 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'
He wanted to ask her what chapter she was on but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a parched wispy "Hey."
Christina put the book down. "Hey. How you feeling?"
He swallowed, wishing he had something cool to drink. "Better. . .I think."
"You ought too, you've been out of it for days."
"Huh?" was all the questioning he could give.
"You got a secondary infection in the menes. The fluid around your brain. We almost lost you a couple of times."
It was then that he became aware of the extra medical equipment around his bed, bleeping and flashing quietly. Several fluid lines fed into his veins on both arms and one ran under his nose.
"How. . .um, how long?"
"6 and a half days."
He licked his lips, "any chance of a drink?"
"Sure. Only little sips though or you'll be seeing it again." She went over to a pitcher of water on the bedside cabinet and poured out a small measure into a cup. She brought it over to him and tapped the bed control so that it lifted Harper's head a little. "Here, take it slow, OK?" And she held it to his lips.
Harper took a tiny sip and let it wash over his taste buds. It was quite possibly the best thing he'd ever tasted in his entire life. He took another, slightly bigger one this time and had to fight the urge to gulp the whole lot down in one go.
"That's enough for now." Christina decided and put the glass back down on the cabinet. "If you can keep that down OK, you can have some more in a minute."
Harper looked hungrily at the water. His mouth felt a little better for the liquid but he'd not had nearly enough to satisfy his thirst.
After about five minutes, Christina held the water out for him again. He didn't like being helped to drink like a baby and he frowned. "I can hold my own cup."
She looked at him dubiously.
"I think I can remember how to do it!"
She sighed, "only if you don't drink too much too fast."
"Yeah, whatever."
And he took the cup from her unresisting fingers and swallowed. It was only a fraction bigger than the tastes he'd had before but it churned his stomach and he had to press his lips together and swallow several times to avoid being sick.
"Slower this time." She chided, "I know you're thirsty but you'll just make yourself ill."
Harper tried to slow up but the need in his throat for great gulps of water screamed at him loudly. He took one sip too many.
"Oh crap!"
Christina swore and only just managed to get a bowl under Harper's chin before he vomited.
******
Harper was allowed to have a small meal the next morning. Just a bowl of soup and a piece of bread and butter but it tasted wonderful. And best of all, it stayed down.
At midday, Christina disappeared and returned an hour later with a doctor. He vaguely recognised him from the operating room.
"Seamus, this is Dr. Micheals."
Harper nodded in greeting as the doctor sat down on the chair beside Harper's bed. Micheals picked up the medical notes and read through them before taking a scanner from his pocket and running it around Harper's head.
"Has the discomfort gone?"
"Yeah. Skin feels kinda itchy though."
"That's normal. And you're balance is fine, is it?"
Harper shuddered at the memory of his few trips out of the bed. They hadn't been pleasant, but the implant was located so close to his ear canals that it would take a while before his brain could adjust to this new equilibrium. "It's getting better."
"Good." He murmured as he checked the dilation response of Harper's eyes. "And that's fine too." He tapped something onto the medical file. "No nausea? Dizziness?"
"Only when I'm tired." He paused, wanting to ask something more. Micheals read his expression and guessed what the boy wanted to know.
"I think we can activate the implant later today if you have no more periods of nausea. And don't just pretend you're fine when you're not because you're anxious to try it out. You'll end up regretting it."
Harper remembered the warnings about side effects. "The blackouts?"
"Yes. And possible neural damage if the area hasn't healed properly." Micheals replied as he got to his feet. "Hopefully I will see you in a few hours."
"Yeah, thanks, doc."
Harper watched his nurse lead the doctor out of the room. His hand lifted unconsciously to his neck and his fingers stroked the implant there. The metal was warm to the touch, heated through the contact with his skin. He liked the feel of it there. It was different. Special.
In a few hours. . .
It was going to happen. He was going to interface; he couldn't wait.
******
The room Christina led him to this time was less intimidating that the operating room, though no less sterile and brightly lit. The chair too was a normal size and Harper had no qualms about sitting in it. Micheals came in a moment later. He took up a position next to Harper's head.
"Are you alright, Mr Harper?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Now I'm just going to activate the implant and you'll probably experience a warm flush, OK?"
"OK."
The doctor waved a small device over Harper's neck port and then it beeped. At that little sound, Harper felt like his entire body had slipped into a hot bath. Not an unpleasant feeling, just odd.
"Still OK?" Micheals asked.
"Yeah."
"Do you want to try an interface?"
Was the world round? But he tried to sound cool and collected. "Sure."
The doctor picked up a lead and held it out for Harper to see. "This is the connector."
Harper stared in horror at the length of the metal jack.
"The skin around your port is still inflamed so it's probably going to hurt when it goes in. Would you prefer to do it yourself?"
He shuddered at the thought of something that long sliding into his brain. But if anyone was going to do it, it would be him. Besides, he had to get used to doing it.
Tilting his head to one side, he took the connector and took it to his neck. It scrapped against the port, pulling on the tender skin painfully but didn't go in.
"Try reaching over your head." Micheals advised, "it makes it easier."
Harper tried again, sticking his arms as far as they would go only to swear loudly when he bashed the port again, sending a bright stab of pain down his neck.
"Like this." The doctor said and carefully took the young man's arms and lifted them over his head. Then he guided the connector to the entrance of the jack. "It stings a bit going in."
Harper took a deep breath and moved his hand just a millimetre. The metal crept a tiny way into the jack. There was no pain so far. He tried a little more. And then a little more. . .
And then flinched at the unexpected scraping sensation across his nerves.
Pain he could've dealt with, this was. . .nasty.
"Do you want to continue?" Micheals asked when he saw the look of discomfort on Harper's face.
But as quick as the feeling came, it was gone. "Yeah, I'm OK. Just wasn't expecting it to feel like that."
Micheals nodded and checked that the lead was properly inserted. "That looks fine. You did well for your first time. Ok, now I'm going to switch the computer on. Usually it would already be up and running when you connect but for the first few times we'll do it this way so you can get used to the sensations. I don't want you to do anything until I tell you."
The doctor tapped at the computer and it came to life with a quick hum. As it did so, Harper was aware of it. In the same sense that he'd been aware of Christina's presence from the moment he'd met her. The same type of 'sense' he'd been aware of with all those he'd been close too. His mother and father, the other's in his family. . .in the warmth, in their similarities to him. And the other 'sense', like Ashling and other women he'd loved with his physical self. . .the heat, the sexuality, the need.
It was both senses and neither. It was something unique but the same.
And his sense of his own body was gone, it lay limp and lifeless in the chair.
But he wasn't satisfied with the sensations, he wanted more. Like a man on the brink of an orgasm, he couldn't stay where he was, he needed to move, to thrust himself into that presence and possess it; join with it.
"OK, good," Michael's voice came from very far away, relaying through the device itself as Harper had lost touch with the reality around him. "When you think you're ready, reach out."
Oh man, was he ever ready. . .Harper sailed towards the presence and felt it flood him. The caress of energy, the taste of data. . .
His mind began to make sense of the jumble of information around him, assimilating it into something like a room and he was at the very centre. Colours and writing and formulae moved in straight lines to form walls.
"What--what do I do?" Harper asked.
"Nothing yet. Now that we know the implant is functioning and that your brain is interpreting the data streams, we can begin uploading the knowledge you will need." Micheals voice came back to him, "do you think you can detach without help?"
"Yeah." Harper closed his virtual eyes and withdrew from the mainframe. It was harder than he'd thought and it took him several minutes and numerous attempts before he was aware of his own body again. His hand gingerly touched the lead in his jack and Harper winced as the sore flesh around it protested. He removed the connector as quickly as he could and was relieved to feel little more than a brief discomfort.
Christina smiled at him, "congratulations, you're a natural. Most people take a few goes before they can do that."
"I think that's enough for today, Mr Harper." Micheals said as he quickly checked Harper over. "Tomorrow we'll try an upload of the basic software and if that takes, you should be out of here in a couple of days."
******
The uploads were a trip, like waves crashing over him, but bringing knowledge on its tide instead of water. He knew things. Understood them. At first he had needed to link with a computer for the uploads, each interface as unique as the next, sometimes the sensations and awareness flooded his mind and sometimes it was as if they never existed. The only thing that didn't change was the pain, that nerve scrapping feeling whenever he jacked himself in. And he'd found it was worse when the computer was running and the connector was 'live.' When he'd first done that, his nerves had screamed in agony and it had left him panting for breath. At least now he knew what he was going to feel and could prepare himself.
But fortunately, after a wealth of uploads, he didn't need to interface if he didn't want too. He could simply chose a data rod and insert it into his port. At the moment, Harper was absorbing the encyclopaedia of stellar anatomy while he packed his few paltry possessions. Christina had promised to come by before he left to say goodbye. He wondered if he should ask her out to dinner somewhere. But he was probably just another patient to her. If they'd had fun together, that was her job.
Right?
"All ready to go?"
Harper turned to the door. Christina stood there smiling at him with another transparency in her hand.
"Just about."
"What you got going on up here?" She pointed behind her ear.
"Stellar anatomy. This implant is a blast. I'm gonna be a freakin' genius by, like, Thursday. Not that I wasn't already, but now I'm twice the genius!"
"If you sign this, you'll be a free genius." She held out the form. Harper took it and signed his release before handing it back.
Go on. . .ask her!
But his mouth refused to work.
She saw the way he was looking at her, "was there anything else."
"No, just. . .um, goodbye and all that."
"Goodbye Seamus."
And then she disappeared out of the door. Harper sighed and picked up his bag, tossed it over his shoulder and headed out.
******
Halfway to the airlock, he heard someone calling his name. He turned to see Christina running towards him, her hair flying behind her.
"Seamus!"
He stopped and let her catch him up. She was out of breath by the time she reached his side.
"You forgot something," she said breathlessly and held out a small stick with a red ball on the top.
It was a lollipop.
"Well, I did promise," she said shyly.
Harper broke into a smile as he took it. His fingers brushed hers as he plucked it from her hand. Was that a faint blush on her face or was she just flushed from running? He popped the lollipop into his mouth.
"Hey, strawberry!"
"You were lucky, that was the last one." She squared her shoulders. "So, seeing as you're not my patient anymore, aren't you going to ask me to lunch?"
end
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