Nyssa Glass and the House of Mirrors by H. L. Burke

Author:H. L. Burke [Burke, H. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-03-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Hart's examination of the memory wheel took much longer than the promised minute. Nyssa had nearly drifted off to sleep when he finally said, “I’ve got through all the viable data.”

She sat up, stood, and stretched her legs. The light through the high windows was fainter now, suggesting the day was drawing to an end. Her stomach gnawed at itself.

I wish I’d thought to ask Albriet for some provisions. Can’t really eat lockpicks.

“What did you find?” she asked, holding the RAM up.

“I found out a bit about the conversion process. It’s extremely complex, the linking of organic and electronic components. The idea is to combine the best aspects of both—the self-healing and adaptive capabilities of the human body and the resilience and speed of electronics—to create a longer lasting, more capable hybrid.” The lights zipped back and forth across the screen like anxious fireflies. “The potential applications are staggering: a man loses his arm, integrate a mechanical limb that responds as his own. You could give a human the ability to make calculations with the speed of a computer while still maintaining the creativity and unpredictability of imagination. It’s like the perfect marriage of science and nature.”

“Tell that to Yancy.” Nyssa scowled. She stuck the RAM back into her belt.

“Yes, well, the application here is obviously being used for much darker purposes. Also, it isn't working as intended. The conversion killed Yancy, not immediately, but within a few days, and during those days he was in extreme anguish, both mentally and physically. When he perished, certain organic components were electronically bolstered to continue. The memory wheels recorded his vital signs, and his brainwaves ceased several weeks before heart and lung function. Whatever the professor was trying to do—make robots more human or humans more robotic—it failed. Considering the maid, I’m not sure he ever succeeded in creating a working hybrid. He managed to keep the heart going for much longer than with Yancy, but not the brain.”

Nyssa faced the knight. Removing the screws from her pocket, she fastened the breastplate back in place, hiding the bones.

It’s not exactly a good Christian burial, but at least he’s not on display like a lab specimen.

“I can’t imagine … trapped inside here, knowing what you once were, what you should be? How could you bear it?”

“By thinking about what you have to live for, at least that’s what Yancy tried to do.”

Nyssa rubbed her arms.

“He thought about Mary, his wife, a lot. Some of that was quite intimate. I did my best to skim over without gawking, but also, surprisingly, there’s a lot about both the professor and this Ellis character. Seems like he’d worked for them so long, they were sort of his family.” The quiet hum from the RAM rose in pitch until it sounded almost like a sigh. “Imagine being betrayed by someone you trusted that way.”

“And Ellis?” Nyssa forced her voice steady.

“I guess he was only about fifteen. He was badly injured some time before Yancy’s conversion, in the accident that killed the professor’s wife.

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