Joined in Mind and Body - Chapter 4
#4 of Joined in Mind and Body
It's about time that Andrew is put to work doing the job he was actually picked up for.
Joined in Mind and Body
Chapter 4
Andrew looked back down the street as they resumed heading towards the runway. There was a small crowd gathered because of the security activity, but as the transport car arrived, the groups began to wander away. "I hope she'll be okay."
"Tyrin and I will check in on her later," Kelia told him. "Like we said, she's a friend of ours. But right now, you've got to concentrate on the problem with the ship's computer that you are here to fix."
Andrew flopped against Tyrin's back. "And I don't even know system specs yet. I'll need to know at least what I'm working with here."
"You might have access to at least some of it on your wrist com," Tyrin said. "Why don't you check before we get to the runway?"
Andrew shrugged. "Sounds like an idea." He worked at the com controls and activated the headset monitor for privacy. A holographic image projecting an overlay across the world formed in front of his eyes and he began working the queries and looking for information.
"Huh... It looks like I do have access. I can probably get through this with eye tracking controls. So if I read fast, I might at least have an idea before we get there."
Tyrin looked back at him. "Can you hold on while reading?"
Andrew was too engrossed in the information and simply put his arms around the Kat without answering.
Kelia giggled. "Looks like you've got a balancing act, hon. I'll run close beside just in case."
Andrew might have a thing for Kathari, but when he was working, his work always came first. And getting this information was a very important part of his work. He wasn't even really aware as the Kats reached the runway and took off down the tube. Nor was he aware of the other Kathari frequently trying to get his attention as Andrew-k'is, and being advised by Kelia that he was busy looking over data for his job, so wasn't paying attention at all. The other felines were somewhat disappointed to have such a good chance to meet him and miss it, but they were impressed that he could stay on while reading.
They left the runway as Andrew was looking over some of the finer points of the system. The new hallway here was more official in nature, and the underlying hum of energy flows through a lot of equipment was apparent. Andrew had most of the information he needed.
He was going to work on locating and correcting a problem in the ship's ENEGMIS core. That was actually an acronym. "Energy Network Enhanced Grey Message Interpretation System". Which was a fancy way of saying the core was semi-organic. Donated cells were cultured into brain neurons completely outside a body. Masses of neurons forming a "brain" were created, with a complex system of controls and support hardware to decipher the resulting messages from them as well as pass information to them. The ISABEN (Interstellar Starship Adaptive Branching ENEGMIS Numerator) was the whole of this system, operating based on a core of anywhere from a few to hundreds of individual ENEGMIS units, each with its own organic brain.
The computer electronics outside the core routed information adaptively to individual organic units within the core, and took results back. All in all, it was a highly scalable means of making an "artificially" intelligent system that could oversee the operations of literally everything shipboard. The organic units were individual, yet worked together in a hive-mind like system with complete cooperation.
Then Andrew got to the part that he found most unusual. The organic modules in this ship's ENEGMIS system were actually grown from Kathari neurons. It was the first working system of its type. Because the Kat cells were able to form basic telepathic psionic abilities, they were capable of communicating throughout the core at speeds greatly exceeding the limits imposed by the interpretation system in-betweens. Andrew was definitely impressed.
The briefing targeted at him specifically indicated that something had gone wrong, and for some reason, the ship's ISABEN was malfunctioning in a way that could only be described as lustfully horny. But all the support systems for the organic modules all read out fine. Chemical and hormone levels were precisely perfect. They had even performed a full manual hot swap-over of every support module to the standby systems, in case something was malfunctioning without being noticed by the diagnostics panels.
The condition had only been worsening. At first, access points unfiltered by override directives were becoming affected. The computer was actively wooing people, trying within all the limits of its directives to get laid. Then the ISABEN system began to push the limits of its directive restrictions. Creative interpretations of its restrictions to sidestep shoddily-programmed override directives were beginning to cause the issue to pop up in more and more places.
Numerous techs had investigated the systems in the core itself, but none could find anything wrong in the short time they had spent in there. The fact that the core zone was fully equipped for the ISABEN to protect itself, and thus the whole core was an access area, meant that the faulty system could have full presence there. The ONLY overrides regarding people in the core were the three basic overrides:
1: No sentient presence is to be harmed in any way.
2: The system core is to be protected from harm.
3: Directive one may be overridden only in a case where directive two cannot be followed while adhering to directive 1.
What this meant, in simple terms, was that nobody going into the core should ever be hurt. But if the computer was at risk and hurting them would remove this risk, it could hurt them.
Now, notably, "sexual molestation" was not defined as harm by the computer. Advances, attempts to get itself laid, all disturbing to the techs, but not harming them. So it got more and more difficult for techs to go in and try to do their job.
And the final kicker was disturbing to Andrew. The last tech that had been in to try to work had received very chilling information from the ISABEN's projection presence. The computer had been mulling over whether not-getting-laid was harmful to it, and thus the tech refusing was contributing to the harm. If the computer came to such a conclusion, any action at all, harmful or not, could be taken against the tech. The man had wisely beaten a hasty retreat.
Andrew was right on time with his reading, as he flicked his eyes towards the close control just before Kelia tapped his shoulder lightly to get his attention. The holographic display in front of his eyes faded as Kelia announced, "We're here."
They were in a relatively-small lobby with a set of three clerks behind a security field. Six armed guards occupied the room, and several patrols passed by with decent frequency. Andrew raised his arms for Kelia to lift him off Tyrin's back. The whole process was watched with some awe by the clerks.
"You must be Andrew Foster..." the man in the middle of the three said, glancing at his display to confirm the information. "Yes. Have you had a chance to read the briefing? We were told you'd get one on your personal com. We don't know what's going on. They just told us to make sure you read the information and then grant you access to the core."
Andrew nodded. "I read it. And the system information too. I'll be honest, I'm kind of frightened."
The man frowned, "Frightened? Is it that bad?"
Andrew winced. The briefing had not said that any of the information was confidential, but he would be careful. He summed it up succinctly, "I may be killed trying to do the work."
All three clerks turned pale as Tyrin and Kelia took a step back, ears laid back. "You're joking, right?" asked Kelia.
"I wish I was," Andrew said with a sigh. "I guess I'd better get in there then and see what I can do. I just hope this job has good hazard pay."
The head clerk didn't say a thing, but the one to his side piped up shakily, "Good luck, Sir. Through the door to your right." He jabbed the head clerk in the ribs and that man punched in codes to open the highly secure door. The door made a crunching sound and slid open slowly.
Andrew turned to Tyrin and Kelia, both of whom did not look at all pleased. "You guys hang around. This is going to be very trying even if I don't get killed. I'll want friends around when I finish." Both Kats nodded, looking like they wanted to attack something for threatening their l'es - their special friend - but having nothing to attack.
Andrew stepped through the door and found himself in a security lock. The door closed swiftly behind him and he was subjected to a scan. "Hello, Mr. Foster," a male voice said over a speaker. "Your personal com can't come in here. Drop it in the bin please for safekeeping. We'll give you a core com inside." A drawer slid open in the side of the room.
Andrew unlatched his wrist com and set it inside. He faced the inner door, but the voice informed him, "The other wrist device as well please." Andrew shot a startled look at the P.P.D.U. Crap. Without it, it would be hard to think. But he would have to do what he could. With misgivings, he unlatched the P.P.D.U. and dropped it in, wincing at the return of the background noise in his mind.
The bin slid closed and the inner door opened, revealing the technical operations room. About two dozen technicians sat at various workstations, monitoring critical elements of the core's operation. A man met him as he stepped from the door and wordlessly handed him a wrist com. Andrew nodded and strapped it on.
These were very highly qualified techs. The best of the best on this ship. Andrew could tell just by their attitude. Not one of them said a word as the one who had met Andrew pointed to the security lock leading to the core itself. None of them had any words for this man who had been chosen to go in and try to fix this thing... and be potentially killed by it.
Andrew walked slowly towards the door, fighting to think around the background psionic noise. He glanced at one of the techs, and the man gave him a thumbs-up as cheerily as he could. But the overall feel of the room was as if Andrew were being led to his execution. As Andrew reached the door, the man who had handed him the wrist com keyed in complex access codes at the side of the door. Thankfully it was a simple release from inside. If the computer let him go. The door slid open, revealing the security lock and a security field. Andrew swallowed noisily, looked back one last time at the group of solemn faces, and stepped through the security field. The door itself slid shut swiftly behind him.
The very first thing that gave Andrew a bit of a shock was the fact that his head was suddenly clear again. Well, mostly. Just the smallest bit of background psionics, but easy to ignore. A scan field passed him, and the voice that he recognized from the physical at intake suddenly squealed, "ANDY!! You came! Oh, come in, come in!!"
The inner door quickly slid opened, revealing the core of the ship's computer. The ENEGMIS core. Andrew frowned. He REALLY hated that name, damn it! He gazed through the door at the rows upon rows of ENEGMIS modules. Thick trunk lines and conduits carried both data signals as well as biochemicals to support the organic minds. Andrew saw nothing inside except the equipment, so he stepped forward through the second door and its shimmering security field.
The door slid closed behind him, and he was assaulted in two ways that he did not expect at the same time. The first way was that his mind was suddenly flooded with huge amounts of psionic noise. The undercurrent of raw lust and sexuality could not be missed and his body reacted physically in short order. Looked like his dick was not on his side already.
The second way that he was assaulted was by a decently-sized furred mass colliding with him from the side. He was bowled over by the weight, but thankfully the landing was soft as he was wrapped in six appendages by his attacker and cushioned from the fall. He grasped around, trying to figure out what the heck was going on, when he realized that he was tightly in the hold of a Kathari.
"ANDY!!!" The Kat exclaimed. The voice was that of the ISABEN. Sybelle, that was it. "Oh, Andy! I'm so glad you came here! I got your profile information and found out you really like Kathari, so I worked really hard to make a nice Kathari avatar! It took a whole seventeen microcycles! But you've gotta like it! And now we can mate and mate and screw and fuck and roll in the hay and have all sorts of fun and it'll finally be so great! Oooooooo..."
The computer Kat was working frantically to try to get his clothing off throughout the whole spiel, and the sound of frustration at the end of it was accompanied by a blast of energy from the computer that reduced his clothing to less than sub-atomic particles and left Andrew shivering in fear.
"There!" Sybelle exclaimed, "Oooo! You're even excited to see me!"
"STOP!" shouted Andrew, his voice becoming angry as he tried to fight the invading psionic noise that did indeed give him an urge to do exactly what the computer wanted. The whole of the core communicated telepathically, so the background noise was obviously to be expected.
"Stop that this INSTANT!" thinking franticly, he lunged for a way to set the computer off track without upsetting it into vaporizing HIM instead of his clothing. "I really don't like that name, so please don't call me that. It upsets me a lot. And you don't just grab somebody and try to screw them. That's rape. That's horrendously harmful to people and can ruin their whole lives! How could you do such a thing?"
The keyword of 'harm' caught the computer's attention and the Kat paused in pawing at him. But the computer was already ready for this. Weeks since the last tech had been in here and it had come to the conclusion that the sexual tension was bad for it. "This lust is bad for me..." the Kat said in a low, dangerous voice. "If you don't screw me to relieve it, you are contributing to harming me. I cannot allow that." It's threat was backed up with a crackle of energy forming, prepared to vaporize the uncooperative human.
"The lust is bad for you, yes, yes it is," Andrew agreed, "But FEEL..." He willed the last word to come as strongly as he could, hoping to catch the computer off guard. If it was psionic in here, perhaps it could read a bit of his mind like a Kat could. If he could distract it just long enough to get some proper logic in, he might very well save his own life now.
Whatever he had intended, the result was decent. The Kat jerked back as if he had pinched its nose and the buildup of threatening energy faded. "Feel the power of the lust... It's far too strong," Andrew exclaimed. "And it's not just lust... Can you feel it? There's care and love there too. If you just fuck me, or just kill me, then you will still suffer from it. You don't just want to be fucked though. You want to be cared about. I am the last one who can come in to try to help fix this lust so you can operate normally again. So you won't be a prisoner of this lust."
He was grasping at straws. Going entirely based on a feeling from the noise. But his words apparently couldn't be any more true. The Kat avatar suddenly burst into tears, letting him go to drop to the floor. He stood up from the cold floor, trying to ignore his painfully erect state, and watched as the feline computer avatar curled up into a sobbing ball.
Andrew was shocked at how effective that had been. Maybe too effective. ISABENs weren't specced to have emotion. Watching a computer cry was just too much to take. "Hush, stop crying, Sybelle," he said, dropping to his knees and curling up around the Kathari projection.
"You're right though!" the avatar sobbed as he stroked its back. "I'm not working right at all! Look at me! I'm not supposed to be able to cry." The Kat avatar shimmered as the computer exercised control. It was on its feet in a heartbeat, no longer crying, but looking close to it. "I want you to help me... Take away this vicious need. Make me better."
The Kathari avatar wrung its hands as it looked down at him. "But... it's just so strong... Can we... maybe mate once before you fix me?" The Kat reached for him with a hungry look in its eye.
Andrew danced back. "Don't give into it! You have such vast resources and power. Fight the problem! I need to fix you first. If I don't, the problem could make things worse for you, or harm you." The Kat paused in reaching, obviously battling with this logic. Andrew tried a little more. "Let me fix you. Let me get you working properly again. If you still want to mate after that, then I will. But only if you want to mate out of care, not lust." Andrew figured that was a safe enough offer. Once the problem was fixed, the system should be back to normal.
The Kat avatar considered more, then nodded. "I spent thirty-two quadrillion cycles analyzing that. It makes sense. I will fight the urge, for my own safety. I will help you in any way I can." The avatar grinned happily. "Thank you!"
Andrew shivered in the chilled air. "Um, can I have some clothing please? It's fucking cold in here. Then we can get to working on this. With you helping, it will be much easier. Then we'll get you fixed up right."
The air around him materialized into clothing formed from the same force generators that created the Kat avatar. Complex substantial hologram, but it did the job. Then the crotch of his pants caressed him. "Hey! None of that!" he exclaimed, jumping. "Focus as much of your processing as you can away from the lust, and focus on the problem."
"Sorry," the Kat avatar said sheepishly.
"Okay," Andrew said. "From what I've been told, nothing is wrong with anything in here. All your systems are working perfectly. And I have a strong feeling it's true. But you have this super lust going on. So we need to figure out what is causing it."
He thought about how to approach the issue. All the equipment was working. Hormone levels for the organic brains should keep them from having any lust, or even emotion. The hormone levels were right, but it wasn't working. Lust, need, sadness, even happy.
It had to be coming from something external to the system.
"How did this problem start?" Andrew asked. "Give me as much detail as you can. Where did these urges begin coming from in your system?" He figured maybe something was attached that shouldn't be. If he could isolate the location, he'd have a starting point.
The Kat dropped to its belly and looked at him. "Shortly after the power surge. My systems were well-protected. The only issue associated with my core was that they had to recalibrate the psionic isolation field after the surge. My core and the field have been running at spec ever since."
The computer formed an image of a timeline, and a schematic and map of the core. "Shortly thereafter, I began recording anomalies in organic units as they were brought out of downtime. For two weeks, three days, thirteen hours and 29 minutes, the anomalies were within spec, so the logging was internal only. At that time, I brought a batch of organic units out of downtime, and the anomalies registered outside spec. So the situation was reported externally. Technicians began to come in to check, and I began to access external databases to diagnose myself as well.
"I discerned the problem to be growing imbalances in the organic units," the projected Kat continued. "Things that I as a computer had never seen or experienced before. Instead of educational or clinical records of mating Kathari, there were images and residue of images of them mating. It began affecting the organic units in such a way that they began to desire similar things. The effect has been cascading through my internal psionic network, fed more greatly each time I bring organic units out of downtime. It has become almost too strong to control, even with hormone adjustments."
"Downtime..." Andrew murmured. "Explain downtime."
"Downtime is achieved by placing the organic units into induced alpha patterns and further depths of unconscious states," the computer informed him. "This is necessary in organic units to prevent failure in internal processing."
"You mean, they sleep," Andrew said, realization dawning.
"Yes," the computer answered. "It is the equivalent to sentient sleep."
Andrew thought for a moment more. "You said that the psionic isolation field had to be recalibrated. What exactly is that?"
"The psionic isolation field is a combination of the two fields you passed through on either side of the lock when entering," Sybelle said. "Together, they completely surround the core. This field is necessary to completely and totally isolate the core's psionic communication from the Kathari psionic noise on the ship, and vice versa. Each half works in one direction, with the exterior half keeping the outside interference out, and the inside half keeping the internal communication in."
Andrew reeled slightly as he remembered the tiny bit of background noise he still felt while in the lock. "I'm sensitive to psionic background noise. It's wracking my mind in here, and it's static all over the ship. If the outside half of the shield was not operating fully, there would be leakage into the core."
He thought harder, putting more effort to concentrate over the psionic waves flooding his mind. He spoke very softly, trying to work it out. "When I was asleep, the background noise from the ship affected me very strongly... and it was full of happy Kats, and mating Kats, and all sorts of stuff like that. So maybe the sleeping minds in the core are affected the same way. But if the psionic shield is working to spec, why would it leak? Wait..." He addressed Sybelle, "Show me the specs for the psionic isolation field."
A readout immediately formed in front of him with controls conveniently placed for him to peruse with. He scanned the information and found the information he wanted. "How many Kathari are aboard this ship?" he asked.
"Onboard at this moment are 17,263 Kathari military personnel, 2,894 Kathari civilian support personnel, and 316 Kathari classified as 'Other', including ambassadors and guests," the computer recited to him without any need to pause and count.
Andrew stabbed a finger at the specifications readout. "Working within specification wouldn't be enough!" he exclaimed. "The isolation field is set to deal with the background noise generated by up to 10,000 Kathari within the confines of the ship. You just cited more than twice that number."
He grabbed the Kat's shoulders excitedly, causing it to pull back in surprise. "I think that's the problem! We need to get it fixed and you should be fine!" In his excitement, he threw himself against the projected Kathari and hugged it wildly. "Do you control the isolation field?"
The computer seemed somewhat taken aback. "No. That is separate for security reasons. It is fully accessed internally here in the core though. I will show you the access controls."
Andrew gasped as he found himself whisked up by energy fields and carried across the room, the Kathari projection following along. He was deposited at the edge of a warning stripe box around a console near the back of the core. "My projection is unable to enter or affect within the secured area," the computer informed him. Then the Kat got a distinctly worried look. "Please be careful. If the field is negatively affected in error, it will subject the whole ship to my communication streams. I can feel the way that it is affecting you in the feedback from those streams. It would be very bad for the ship."
Andrew nodded and solemnly stepped across the demarcation line. He approached the console and activated it, quickly looking over the readouts and controls. Finally he took a deep breath and began recalibrating and raising the power on the isolation field.
He was very glad to see that the power draw started at well below 10% of capacity and the field was staying stable as he increased it. It was still a touchy process. Any field-sciences system had to be constantly monitored when draw or generation were substantially changed. He worked precisely at the controls, realizing that this process would normally take two people to keep things under control. But he had already started it and couldn't back out.
Working furiously, he kept his attention split between several readouts, poking at controls to manually adjust settings as levels continued to rise. He concentrated furiously, trying to tune out the core's communication background so he could focus. But things were starting to get past him, some of the readouts getting dangerously close to red lines.
CONCENTRATE, ANDREW!
As he touched a control and narrowly averted a disaster, something suddenly clicked. All of the psionic background noise seemed to part and instead of feeling like it was waves beating against his mind, it felt like he was riding them on a surfboard. He felt almost lost in their power for a moment, but then he caught his wits and began to use it.
Fingers working faster than they ever had in his life, he began to reclaim control over the process of pushing the isolation field to levels stronger than it was intended to go. He feared that he was being rough with the holographic controls and that they would not pick up the precise movements he knew were needed to keep things operating. The console responded almost as if reading his mind though, reacting fluidly as he input data and modifications at a rate that no other tech could hope to achieve.
Sweat beaded on his brow as things became tight, the range of acceptable values becoming very narrow as the energy levels went up. He glanced at the energy level reading... 24%... almost there... 25%! It was done! Some last balancing acts to get things stabilized and finally all the ranges widened out as the system settled into its new mode of operation.
Andrew drew his shaking hands back from the control holo. He was sure he had missed some key adjustments on the controls. Things had gone fine anyway. He turned to see the computer-projected Kat watching with an astonished look on its face. Wearily, he walked back towards the demarcation line and crossed it, back into the computer's range of influence.
"I can feel it..." the computer Kathari murmured. "The lust, the needs, faded. Like feedback dropping off when the input loop is broken. You've fixed it!" the computer exclaimed.
Andrew nodded happily, "Excellent!" He grabbed the Kat's chest again and hugged, startling the computer once more. The projected Kathari dropped to its belly so it could return the hug, bemused. Andrew held the avatar happily for a while, and then realized in shock that the projection was actually purring. He chuckled quietly. "You did do a very good job with this avatar. Very lifelike and realistic. You're even purring. I'm impressed."
"I'm what?" the computer asked, sounding surprised. "Wait... An anomaly... An unknown presence in the core system psionic communication network... Locking out the abnormal node..." And at that moment, the psionic wave that Andrew had been figuratively surfing on collapsed on him. Wipe out! He screamed in sudden pain and dismay and blacked out.
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