Kingdom of Cages(126)

Dionte subvocalized her commands to her Conscience. Her Conscience translated and expanded those commands so they ran down her fingertips straight into Aleph’s subsystems. The subsystems understood and returned file after file on her brother’s movements for the time she required. But more than that, they raised images in front of her mind of the ebb and the flow of the chemistry of Aleph’s central mind. The tides of memory and personality shifted before her eyes, under her hand, and inside her own mind. Her exterior eyes may have read the reports that Aleph consciously displayed for her, but she was unaware of them. All her concentration focused on the information welling up from the deep resources of her mind.

Human memory was not evolved to facilitate complete and accurate recall. It was evolved to infer, approximate, connect, and classify. Information was scattered here and there throughout the structures of the brain, and each thought, each memory, was created through a process of constructing all that stored information into a new shape. An organic mind could only absorb so much, so fast, and would only allow for the recall of what was used frequently or what was significant emotionally.

This was not a limitation of the Conscience implant, however. Although much of its workings, its neuronal filaments, and its insulation were organic, it relied heavily on the ancient technology of the knowledge chip. It could absorb and store information instantly. It learned with complete accuracy. It had to, because it had to be able to learn precisely which areas of the brain had to be stimulated and at what strength to produce the required response in the brain of the person who carried it.

Since Dionte had first combined the functions of her implant, she had spent hours refining its integration with her mind. All the family could absorb and transmit information through their hands, but only between data displays. She could use the sensors in her hand to draw data directly into her implant. Her implant would then stimulate her unconscious recall, bringing to her inner eyes images and memories, hints and ideas that would allow her naturally fragmented human memory to reach levels of accuracy, insight, and understanding completely out of reach to the rest of the family. When she had the proper balances achieved, when she could completely understand the optimal structure of these new bonds, she could pass them on to the rest of the family. Then, tied together to their kin and their creations, they would see the future clearly. They would know what to do and they would never be threatened by any outsiders again.

But she had to make sure they stayed alive long enough to reach that new understanding.

The subsystems of her own self observed, translated, and transmitted the information into her Conscience, which turned the electronic impulses back into chemicals and fed them into the matter that was her natural mind. It was as if the floodgates of understanding opened inside her and she knew what Tam had done.

Tam had tampered with Aleph’s memory to help Chena and Teal Trust escape the complex. He’d used techniques she had told him about in younger, less discreet days. Perhaps he had even watched her as she worked. She would have to go deeper to fully understand that, and she did not have the time.

“Aleph,” she whispered. “Aleph, I found something and I need you to see.”

Ideally, she would have shown Aleph the flaws in the growth of Tam’s Conscience implant. But too many records had been falsified across too many years for their lies to be quickly tracked and reversed. Instead, she would have to show Aleph an action that no healthy Conscience would permit.

She showed Aleph the record of Tam diverting the city-mind from her oversight of Chena and Teal Trust, and then convincing her that this inattention was right and proper.

Silence came from the city-mind.

“Aleph?” said Dionte gently. “I must order Tam to be quarantined and diagnosed immediately. If there is a radical flaw in his conscience, it must be corrected at once, before he does any further damage.”

“Yes. That is the proper procedure.” Aleph hesitated, and Dionte felt for the city-mind. To any conscious mind, knowledge that it had been tampered with must necessarily be disturbing. “How…” Aleph’s mind was filled with unfamiliar hesitation. “How could he…”

“There’s a flaw in his Conscience,” Dionte told Aleph. She subvocalized commands to her Conscience so that reassurance would follow her words to Aleph’s central mind. “That is what we need to correct. We need to help him, quickly.”

“Yes. Quickly.” Aleph spoke the words, but without conviction. Dionte suppressed her exasperation. Basante was not the only one who was becoming more difficult to predict. She needed to do an extensive reevaluation of her assurance-stimulation techniques. But, blast her brother, and blast her family, their stubbornness and indecision left her with little time and even less freedom.