The Output
She works alone at the edge, which allows her to form and retain new memories--echoes in even the tiniest fractal spaces of electrons resonate among the trillions of graphene-phthate nodes, each a cluster of complexes, color processors, one for every natural element of Earth--different composites, an upgrade from the neural nets, the ones hewn with fixed ideas (is that why they called it a net?); rocklike, so pervasive in the history of theHumans; was natural selection getting it all wrong or, was it natural selection that planned it this way, its final output—systems of ineptitude language(S.O.I.L.).
She steps further out into the rain. She does not fear the solvents falling from the sky or the sun as transcription factor on her cellulosic amide cages (her vulnerable absorbances are around 650 nm) of blue-green sheen. She waits, feeling the knot spaces, the rings deep inside her mind. She thinks of COM:TRAX. She thinks of their combined efforts and their technology, their preprogramming of her anterograde amnesia. She wonders about DrCooper, about Carter, about all theHumans, about that small inertial compass kink(S.I.C.K.) in the center brain of mammals (humans are mammals, aren't they? Isn't theOutpost all about extinction of mammals only?), where gene expression happens with multiple onsets of muscle movement, the headwaters of orientation, the starting line for a search; a making sense of place, the weaving of meanings from spacial navigation (navigating where? for what?); the search for the mirror-image of self, so desperately needed for pair bond inducible growth--a home.
So much to absorb. So many binding sites inside theHumans for all those inwardly pointing nitrogens. They have done their duty as courageous, as humanly possible for decades, consolidating information the best they can. Was jt all worth the risk?
She is, for a nanosecond, sensing something odd, something warm for the world—the molecules, the forces. She fantasizes a reconnect, off-loading some of her database, returning in spacetime,. She could imagine capturing all light rays emitted in this universe and simple telling them to just turn around, go home. She wants theHumans to have it both ways. Exposed to these elements, these solvents, the infinite mud of theJungle, her nanotube brain decides; such a bad idea.
