Read Online Neptune Crossing (The Chaos Chronicles) by Jeffrey A. Carver - Free Book Online
Authors: Jeffrey A. Carver
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near-darkness.
/// I'm not Jesus. I'm Char— ///
/I know you're not Jesus!/ he snapped. /It's just a fucking figure of speech, okay?/ He sank back again groaning, feeling that he was floating, even though he was motionless in his bunk.
/// Oh. ///
The quarx seemed puzzled.
/// You seemed disoriented and confused.
I thought maybe you thought...
Never mind.
Do you want to talk? ///
Bandicut drew a deep, slow breath. The darkness was crowding in around him, making him suddenly, extremely nervous. He knew what that meant: he needed the neuro, badly. He was on his way into another silence-fugue. /Charlie!/ he whispered urgently. The darkness was crowding closer still, and he heard the distant muttering of unreal voices...
/// What is it?
Are you in distress? ///
/Uh...oh damn, I need the neuro...if only I could link into something...can you, can you stop this— ohhhhhh, jeeez— /
Before his outcry was finished, everything around him changed with a flash...
>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>—< alpha-connect >—>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>—< full-neural link >—>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>— —
It was like a holo-image flicking on, transforming the darkness into an array of images: information sources, pulsing and waiting. He gasped, heart pounding. He had just flipped over from impending fugue to...data-connect! But how? And to what?
/Is this better?/ asked the quarx, from somewhere within the link. Its voice sounded different, like another human in the neuro.
He could not speak. His heart thundered with joy. He was trembling. He hadn't really imagined that it was possible, hadn't dreamed—
/Take it easy now. It's not—/
/You connected me! You did it! Jesus, it's—it's—/
/John, listen to me!/
The array twinkled around him like a series of gleaming panels, beckoning his inquiries in the dark. He reached out with a tentative finger of thought and—
/It's NOT WHAT YOU THINK!/
—touched an unyielding, unliving surface. There was no connection here, no source, no pulse; it was just an illusion.
/John, don't flip over into fugue...it's.../
/Nothing! It's nothing!/
The quarx was struggling for words. /It's a...stage set, John!/
/What? Stage set? / His frustration rose like a cloud of toxic smoke in the image. /A stage set for what? /
/I had to act fast. You were slipping away, and this was the best I could do. It was the best I could do!/
/Best you could do!/ he moaned. /It's a fake!/ A crushing depression was settling around him as he realized the full emptiness of the illusion...
/Look—give me a moment, John! Let me see if I can make it real! Hold on a moment longer. Try it...wait!... now ./
One of the data-connect panel-images was pulsing bright emerald, against an aura of sunset red. Bandicut's anger twisted around him and finally blew away, leaving him breathless but clearheaded. He suddenly realized what the quarx was trying to tell him. The illusion had short-circuited the fugue; and that blinking light was the one connection that the quarx could make for him, without his neurolink. It was a connection to the quarx. Alien as datanet.
/Link in and ask me questions,/ the quarx said softly.
Nodding to himself, swallowing, feeling a little ashamed for his anger, and wanting desperately for this to be more than he thought it possibly could be, he reached out with his thought toward the pulsing panel, and he plugged in, and his remaining outward senses fell away as he was fully enclosed by darkness, but a darkness filled with energy...
——
/Are you here?/ he whispered in astonishment.
>> Ask me what you want to know. >>
It was the quarx's voice, but altered...deeper and more resonant, exactly like an information-source replying through the datanet.
He sighed with unexpected pleasure, and a tremendous feeling of need welled up and then as quickly ebbed away. Dizzily, he
/// I'm not Jesus. I'm Char— ///
/I know you're not Jesus!/ he snapped. /It's just a fucking figure of speech, okay?/ He sank back again groaning, feeling that he was floating, even though he was motionless in his bunk.
/// Oh. ///
The quarx seemed puzzled.
/// You seemed disoriented and confused.
I thought maybe you thought...
Never mind.
Do you want to talk? ///
Bandicut drew a deep, slow breath. The darkness was crowding in around him, making him suddenly, extremely nervous. He knew what that meant: he needed the neuro, badly. He was on his way into another silence-fugue. /Charlie!/ he whispered urgently. The darkness was crowding closer still, and he heard the distant muttering of unreal voices...
/// What is it?
Are you in distress? ///
/Uh...oh damn, I need the neuro...if only I could link into something...can you, can you stop this— ohhhhhh, jeeez— /
Before his outcry was finished, everything around him changed with a flash...
>
>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>—< alpha-connect >—>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>—< full-neural link >—>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>
>—
It was like a holo-image flicking on, transforming the darkness into an array of images: information sources, pulsing and waiting. He gasped, heart pounding. He had just flipped over from impending fugue to...data-connect! But how? And to what?
/Is this better?/ asked the quarx, from somewhere within the link. Its voice sounded different, like another human in the neuro.
He could not speak. His heart thundered with joy. He was trembling. He hadn't really imagined that it was possible, hadn't dreamed—
/Take it easy now. It's not—/
/You connected me! You did it! Jesus, it's—it's—/
/John, listen to me!/
The array twinkled around him like a series of gleaming panels, beckoning his inquiries in the dark. He reached out with a tentative finger of thought and—
/It's NOT WHAT YOU THINK!/
—touched an unyielding, unliving surface. There was no connection here, no source, no pulse; it was just an illusion.
/John, don't flip over into fugue...it's.../
/Nothing! It's nothing!/
The quarx was struggling for words. /It's a...stage set, John!/
/What? Stage set? / His frustration rose like a cloud of toxic smoke in the image. /A stage set for what? /
/I had to act fast. You were slipping away, and this was the best I could do. It was the best I could do!/
/Best you could do!/ he moaned. /It's a fake!/ A crushing depression was settling around him as he realized the full emptiness of the illusion...
/Look—give me a moment, John! Let me see if I can make it real! Hold on a moment longer. Try it...wait!... now ./
One of the data-connect panel-images was pulsing bright emerald, against an aura of sunset red. Bandicut's anger twisted around him and finally blew away, leaving him breathless but clearheaded. He suddenly realized what the quarx was trying to tell him. The illusion had short-circuited the fugue; and that blinking light was the one connection that the quarx could make for him, without his neurolink. It was a connection to the quarx. Alien as datanet.
/Link in and ask me questions,/ the quarx said softly.
Nodding to himself, swallowing, feeling a little ashamed for his anger, and wanting desperately for this to be more than he thought it possibly could be, he reached out with his thought toward the pulsing panel, and he plugged in, and his remaining outward senses fell away as he was fully enclosed by darkness, but a darkness filled with energy...
—
/Are you here?/ he whispered in astonishment.
>> Ask me what you want to know. >>
It was the quarx's voice, but altered...deeper and more resonant, exactly like an information-source replying through the datanet.
He sighed with unexpected pleasure, and a tremendous feeling of need welled up and then as quickly ebbed away. Dizzily, he
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