Peter Prellwitz - Shards Book One

"…worse when the government let go of its monopoly and the for-profit business industry got involved.

Public outcry was again huge, especially from those who felt a sense of moral outrage. Extremist groups began appearing, hoping to sabotage the efforts. They felt that it was far better to work outside the law effectively than labor inside it uselessly.? That sounded right. There were always those who felt that disagreement was justification for new law, enforced outside legal authority, with judgment and punishment based on their own convictions. I wondered if these fringe groups had seen the irony: They wanted to rewrite the law on rewriting minds. If law is not the mind of a society, it is at least its conscience and at most its soul.

I heard a stool scrape the floor as Dr. Barrett stood up and came to my side. For a man of his size, he had an incredibly light step, and again took my hands in his huge paws. My hands were average size, but seemed tiny in his. How he performed delicate operations on the brain was beyond me. He was talking again.

"…drifting in and out, judging by the readings. We'll pick up the conversation tomorrow. You may come out of Healer's Sleep sometime tonight. If so, just speak up. My quarters are less than twenty meters from here, and I'll be over in a flash. Don't try to stand up. You've been off your feet, or at least the real you has been, for a long time, and it's possible you've forgotten how to walk,? he chuckled.? Don't worry, though. It's a lot easier the second time around. There are a lot of things you'll have to relearn, but I rather think you'll enjoy most of it. What we gathered from your outbursts during mind restoration indicated an intelligent and quick-witted person. Well, good night.? He squeezed my hands one more time, then left. I didn't hear the door open or close, but the light must have been shut off, because it seemed darker. I was alone with my thoughts.

Alone with my thoughts. The sentence was so common, so bandied about, that I had never given real consideration to its meaning. This was apparently the first time my thoughts were my own in some years.

The good doctor had flat out told me that I hadn't even been me for a while. Who I had been and for how long, I couldn't guess. I didn't even have a feel, which was something I was normally good at. I felt like me, and always had. I tried to scrounge around in my poor abused brain, trying to dig up something that didn't seem

AIR TRAFFIC PATTERNS FOR THE ENTIRE EASTERN SEABOARD ARE BEING REROUTED TO AIRPORTS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI, BUT IT IS ESTIMATED AT LEAST 40% WILL BE UNABLE TO LAND SAFELY. CASUALTIES ARE ESTIMATED AT 14,500 DEAD AND 3,000 INJURED. BOTH NUMBERS ARE BETWEEN 5.1% TO 7.8% BELOW ANTICIPATED SCENARIO. USING AIRPORTS WITH MODERATE RADIATION IN WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND NORTHERN VIRGINIA WILL FURTHER REDUCE THE ESTIMATED CASUALTIES.

like me, but couldn't. For all I knew, Dr. Barrett could just be a fluent liar. Or he could be completely accurate, and I had been someone else. Maybe several someone elses if my first? rewrite? hadn't panned out. I wondered what the criteria were for a new wipe and rewrite. And why was I me again?

Dr. Barrett left me with the idea that it was impossible to restore memories. Then I realized he would have meant it was impossible at that time.

Which led to the question: How far in the future was I? The good doctor spoke as if these events were well into the past. By tone of voice, misquote of the? if at first? saying, and personal opinion stressed, I'd estimate at least three to five generations, which would put me about 100 years at least. One hundred years! Well, that meant I had been put in suspended animation. And undoubtedly as a mature to middle-aged man. Not a lot of point in preserving a withered shell who didn't know who he was and would probably not survive the suspension anyway. That made me feel a lot better. Though I had precious little to go on, I could count on being close to my original self when I awoke from this Healer's Sleep. I would be older, having lived some years as a different persona, but still have some years left, which is far better than living out life with the IQ of a zucchini. Mentally, I magnanimously gave up a chunk of my life to science as payment for restoring me. Since I couldn't do anything about it anyway, I might as well accept it. (Thus underscoring the value of Healer's Sleep. My mind and body were working separately to heal themselves simultaneously.)

I was satisfied with these estimates and suppositions. Remember, my career was coming up with realistic solutions to unrealistic ideas. This was a very similar exercise. I turned my thoughts to the other end of the question. If I was at least 100 years into my future, what was I at most? This was a tougher, and therefore more enjoyable, question. I had no direct indications from Dr. Barrett, but he still told me a lot.

First, I was able to easily understand him. Living languages evolve-just read the Canterbury Tales in middle English sometime and you'll see my point-but his speech seemed very close to mine. Of course, he could also be an accomplished linguist, which would make sense for his line of medicine and his type of patient. It didn't make a lot of sense to revive someone, lean close to their ear and say,? 6iekwUs vBerdiow r?? But even his being a linguist would indicate a limited time span. You can't have a medical specialist who is also good at 500 years worth of dialects. I work on unrealistic problems, but statistics and odds do, too, and I used them. So, greater than 100, but less than 500.

I continued for some time, eagerly using my mind and the available facts to settle myself into my new world. Somewhere along the line, about the time I had reduced the number to less than 300 years, I drifted off into normal sleep inside my Healer's Sleep.

I woke up twice in the night. The first time, it was because of another presence in the room. My visitor had a much lighter, feminine step, and she seemed to move about with the confidence of someone going about their duties. She picked up my wrist and took my pulse quietly, but didn't try not to wake me. Her hand was a decided improvement on Dr. Barrett's steam shovels. It was nice that science hadn't completely eliminated the human touch. Presently she took it again at my neck. Satisfied, she moved up closer to my head. I heard a soft voice say,? Increase nutrients by six point five percent and restoration fluid by fourteen percent, Doctor Philip Barrett authorization 4699NRF.? I felt a cool tingle in my left arm that spread quickly through my body then faded. I was in the same state, but seemed stronger somehow.

She moved away to another corner of the room and there came the sound of water running. I heard her walk back, rolling what had to be a table with the water. Warm, soft hands then pulled back the sheets and undid my hospital garb, and I was the recipient of the most glorious sponge bath since the invention of medicine. I was extremely glad my mind and body weren't connected. If I could have physically responded to mental impulses, she probably would have hit me with a bedpan, if they still existed. All too soon, she finished up, clothed me, pulled the covers back up, and left. Like Dr. Barrett, she made no noise when she departed, but I could feel that I was alone again, though much happier. I went back to sleep.

The second time I woke up, it was due to internal stimuli, rather than external. The increase in nutrients and fluids had had their effect. I still couldn't move, speak or see, but I could definitely go, to put it indelicately. And I went, hoping that the fictional bedpan that the nurse didn't hit me with had been replaced by something more functional and… automatic. The sensation of emptying one's bladder while in Healer's Sleep was another experience, one I won't go into great detail about here. The sensation was entirely internal, rather than the more familiar internal/external feeling I associated it with. But when I was done the sheets weren't any warmer, so I gave it no thought and went back to sleep.