Read Online Parker Interstellar Travels 4: The Trilisk Hunt by Michael McCloskey - Free Book Online Page A

resembles Terran term:
ping-ponging. Subject supersedes one copy, sync back and forth in foreseeable future.”
    “Ah. So there’s always two, but
only one going at a time. And you sync back and forth. Cool,” Cilreth said.
    “Shiny. How did the Trilisks
coordinate this technology?” Magnus asked.
    “Unknown. Clues exist
indicating use of three bodies in standard procedure. Other evidence suggests
used only, exclusively, specifically for inter-species supersedure.”
    “Three? They usually used three
bodies. This is just getting more complicated,” Magnus said.
    “Terrans have made many
biological improvements to ourselves,” Telisa said. “We have much less disease
now, more energy; we’ve come a long ways.”
    “Affirmative, correct,
agreement,” Shiny said. “More improvements occur using Trilisk machines.”
    “It doesn’t sound so bad,”
Magnus said. “The original me sticks around for his natural lifespan. Longer,
really, since half the time I would be in stasis. Or whatever the Trilisk
columns use to put you on ice while you’re offline.”
    “Yes. Still confusing to have
two of all of us around, though,” Telisa said. “I doubt it will be fifty-fifty.
It would always be tempting to stick around using the superior copy.”
    “Only one at a time, and
syncing each transition, it will feel like only one of each of us,” Magnus
said. “How are we going to tell the others?”
    “We just tell them,” Telisa said
trivially.
    “Okay, you got the job,”
Cilreth said.
    “I’ll call a meeting.”
     
    ***
     
    Telisa stood before everyone in
a large meeting room on the Clacker . Imanol had come to the room with
his fellow recruits wondering what the meeting could be about. They had been
training for days, doing all sorts of things from combat to programming to
learning the ship, so what could the face to face be all about?
    This team likes real face-to-face
contact. It does probably work better for getting people to bond faster , Imanol
thought.
    Even though they would not be
able to tell any difference with their senses, just knowing it was real had
some effect. He thought about the rhenium bars.
    If any of this is real.
    “How’s your rhenium, Imanol?
Still heavy?” she asked. Imanol suddenly felt paranoid.
    Did she just read my mind?
    “Yeah…” Imanol replied
carefully.
    “Well, it’s time to consider
another technological marvel,” she said. “This one’s voluntary. And the rest of
us aren’t ahead of you four on it. We’ve opened up a new possibility.”
    The four recruits and Jamie
Arakaki watched Telisa intently, eager to hear the news. Telisa took a deep
breath.
    “We have the capability to put
ourselves into new bodies. The bodies are improved. At the least, they’re
strong, fast, and perhaps immortal. There may be more.”
    Everyone absorbed that in
stunned silence.
    “The thing is, the old you… your
body at least… stays in a sort of stasis when this happens. Inside a Trilisk
column. And you can go back to it.”
    “Trilisk? By the entities. I’m
beginning to see how you produced those toys for us. It’s all real,” Maxsym
said.
    It makes sense. The Trilisks
are… they were gods compared to us , Imanol thought.
    Siobhan looked skeptical
this time. “You said my old body would be in some Trilisk container? You mean,
except my brain?”
    “I’m pretty sure… in fact, I’m
sure,” Telisa said. “I experienced it. But I was in an alien body. I know, it’s
crazy. But my brain wouldn’t even fit inside… the critter I was in.”
    “So it’s not really going to be
me, it’s a copy,” Siobhan continued. “The real me, my real consciousness, it
has to be physically connected to my neural material. After all, you can give
me a drug and it affects my consciousness, you can kill me and it ends my
consciousness…”
    “Presumably,” Caden said.
    “Oh, all evidence points toward
yes,” Maxsym said. “Who you are at the core is linked to your