Friday, August 26. 2005Tommy Xiang
With careful, practiced hands, Tommy probed the edges of the seam between the SudaSkin and Andy Swenson's new implant. "Do you feel any strange sensations when I do this?" he asked, as he pushed on the implant.
"No." "No tingling or numbness or anything like that?" "None that I don't usually feel." "And you haven't noticed any new symptoms since the operation?" "Nope." "Good, very good. Well, I think everything's ready. If you want to try going in now, we can." "Are you going to go in with me?" "Yes. This time I'm going to go in with you. There are some things that you will need to learn, and some things that I need to test." "Good." The boy bit his lip. "I'm a little scared. What's it going to be like?" "Well, it's hard to explain. For the most part, it will seem just like real life."
"So it won't hurt?" "No, it won't hurt." Tommy paused. "Well, that's not quite true. It could hurt, but only if there's a problem." Seeing the worried look on the boy's face, he hurried to add, "but I don't think there will be any problems." "Are you sure?" "As sure as I can be." Andy looked up at his father, who smiled and squeezed the boy's shoulder. "OK. I guess I'm ready." Without waiting for further confirmation, Tommy began connecting the thick interface cable to the boy's implant. He bent over, and looked the boy straight in the face. "You're going to be OK, alright?" The boy nodded. "I'm going to push a button on the computer, and it will load you onto the system. You'll feel like you're falling asleep, and when you wake up, you'll be standing in a place where everything is black. Just wait for me there, OK?" "Yeah." "I won't look quite like I do here. I'll be a really big white guy." The boy smiled a little bit. "Will I get to choose a different body, too?" "Not for now. Maybe in the future. You ready?" "Yeah." The boy sounded more sure of himself this time. Tommy reached over and pushed a button on the computer. The boy relaxed, his eyes closing, and Tommy began connecting himself to the machine. Trackbacks
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