11

Rei walked to her home at a brisk pace. Her steps made light impressions in the sheets of water standing on the sidewalks. Her feet were the only thing that the water could contact since she had generated what was known as a stay-dri water shed around her. Before the holonosphere, most ways to stay dry involved material being water-resistant. The basic idea was to keep the water out. With the ability to create more abstract things with the emergence of the holonosphere, that thinking was reversed. Rather than keep the water out, the principle the stay-dri used was to actually let the water in. The difference, though, was that once it got in it was instantly evaporated, just as it would be on a hot summer day. The mechanism exploited to accomplish this was relatively simple. Phase changes in liquid were caused by sufficient energy. The sun typically supplied this energy, and on hot summer days, water molecules moved enough to turn to vapor. In winter they were sluggish enough to turn to ice. The only thing necessary for these changes to happen was sufficient energy.

The holonosphere could not break the laws of Thermodynamics, but it could bend them significantly. The say-dri borrowed energy from a zero-point vacuum long enough and often enough to excite the motion of the rain entering the field. On average, the stay-dri did not exist from a classical law of physics point of view. The energy of a vacuum was only zero on average, but instantaneously it was whatever it needed to be. The stay-dri exploited this principle to create evaporation from energy that only existed momentarily.

There had been some debate at first that the energy of evaporation had created free energy in the form of latent heat, but then it was realized that actually there was nothing fundamentally new or different in that what HAD been evaporated WOULD have been evaporated eventually anyway, and it could not now be evaporated since it was already in the air. The only thing that had been bent was the time that it would have taken for the water to evaporate. The system remained in equilibrium, however.

To Rei, the mechanisms of the stay-dri were banal. She had more pressing things on her mind. She could not quite shake the contents of the message she had opened. Once some information touches a mind, it is almost as though that information unlocks some hidden passage. Did the passage exist first, or had the information created it? When the probing of the mind's neural net first began, this was a central question. Consensus arrived in the form of researchers collectively throwing up their hands. What they knew was that the brain was a particular kind of hologram and that very often the network of holographic information that the brain was composed of was often entangled and connected in complex, unexpected ways.

Rei reviewed the contents of the message in her mind.

Attention High Priestess Rei Carlotta:

It is time. You know what needs to be done. Do not confuse yourself as to your purpose, as this will only waste time. In case your skepticism needs to be allayed, I already know you do not believe in the Shapers as deities, yet you respect their teachings. I also know you do not feel your job in the Conservatorium is important. Consider your dissatisfaction and non-belief as assets that pull you toward your actual purpose and awareness of the nature of who you are, and consequently the the nature of what this universe is. Visit the restricted section in the Conservatorium tomorrow. You will be permitted access. Seek the ancient text entitled the Tao Te Ching. It will be a book you will only find in physical form. Read it, and await my further correspondence. Be watching and aware of your surroundings.

Sincerely,

Reipawn

Rei did not understand the message, but yet she had been certain of its contents nearly before she opened it. She also knew that if she did not open it, it just would have found a different way to her. What was the High Priestess business? Whoever this was might know a lot of details about her that most people didn't, but apparently, it had missed that she was an atheist which was about as far from high priestess as serial killer was from saint. This one detail perhaps annoyed her more than anything else in the letter. She was not fond of being told what to do, but she had to admit the information in this letter was strangely accurate, and if she did not follow up on what it suggested she would be more annoyed with the lack of clarity that would ensue.

The arrogance in this letter was high to assume she would be able to enter the restricted area of the Conservatorium. Rei had glanced at that area many times over the years and had never seen it not under heavy security. There were no fewer than five enforcers standing there at all times, and to make matters more complicated even IF she managed to get past those guys, she would still have to get past Cerberus.

Cerberus was named after the dog in Greek myth who had three heads and acted as a guardian. His existence was only a holonospheric one, but that made him no less fierce. In many ways, Cerberus was more dangerous than anything that would have been regarded as real in the Old World.

One story had circulated about an overly zealous scholar who had demanded to see the restricted section. Although it was strictly illegal, he had generated a neural stunner from the holonosphere and through a little bit of luck had managed to subdue some of the enforcers with it. He had caught the first enforcer in a drowsy state and he stunned him and took his uniform which was roughly his size. The second enforcer figured the man was his companion in uniform and did not have any reason to suspect an attack, and so became stunned because of his lack of alarm. The last three were hoodwinked by the cleverness of the scholar. He had managed to generate a more or less accurate holonospheric representation of the restricted section on a given normal, uneventful day. He then layered this deception over the restricted section where he intended to try to infiltrate. The only problem with his deception was that he could not hide himself within it. His actions would be visible, but so long as they were within the parameters of what an enforcer might do on a given day, or appeared to be, he should not draw any attention. The most dangerous part would be when he would physically take the book or books from the shelf as that would be highly unusual for an enforcer to do. The scholar speculated ahead of time this would be the point at which his planning could not adequately be relied upon. He was also aware of Cerberus, but supposed that his deception would probably work on what he regarded as a holonospheric artificial intelligence.

The scholar was taken by surprise when, after the two guards had been stunned, Cerberus appeared galloping and snarling out of the holonosphere. The scholar shook as the immense beast circled him.

"Impudent fool," Cerberus had growled in a deep, snarling voice. "Did you think you could deceive me with such juvenile chicanery? I was before you were born. I will be long after you are gone. You will not be permitted access to touch these books. You will not be permitted because you are unworthy. You seek knowledge, but you lack courage. Look now how you shake in your shoes. You try to substitute cleverness for courage because of your cowardice."

"You," stammered the scholar, "You are just an AI! An artificial intelligence--just a computer program!"

Cerberus let loose a horrible peal of laughter. Then he composed himself. "You, mortal, think you have things divided into neat categories. These categories comfort your mind. Before the emergence of the holonosphere, people had neat categories that were shattered in seconds. Men since ancient times have had categories that helped them explain the world, only to find that those neat categories dissolved like mist in the light of the sun. The essence of spirit assumes whatever form it desires. The wise cultivate the discernment necessary to realize it however and whenever it appears in front of them."

The scholar found Cerberus's speech strangely hypnotic partly because when Cerberus spoke he spoke for awhile from one head, then he would switch to another. Then finally he would switch to the last and start all over again. Nonetheless, the scholar with an insouciant boldness, bolstered his mind that whether Cerberus admitted it or not, he was a computer program and subject to the laws of computer programs.

"Cerberus, you have spoken well, but as a computer program, you are subject to obeying me if I change your code, and with this device, I endeavor to do just that." The scholar held up a digital code injector or digi C for short. "I intend to reprogram you to let me in, and you will do nothing to stop me. Already I have found the subroutine directing you to say such things."

"Foolish mortal. I shall enjoy tearing the limbs from your body."

"I think not, Cerberus!" With these words, the scholar made the program modification and watched Cerberus closely. There was no flicker. No distortion indicating that the code change had taken effect. Cerberus sat quietly and stared silently.

After five minutes had elapsed, which felt like an eternity, the scholar supposed perhaps he had introduced something that had caused Cerberus to glitch. With this final obstacle surmounted, and the remaining guards still fooled by the looping imagery, the scholar elected to remove a book from the shelf. An astute observer would have noticed the quiver of his hand as it reached for the book. If they had been extremely observant, they would have interpreted this tremor of the hand not to be excitement, but trepidation. The body often betrays what a person knows, even if they have deluded themselves into thinking they know otherwise. As soon as his fingers had touched the spine of the book, Cerberus let loose an unearthly howl.

"I have told you mortal that I would not allow you to take a book from this shelf, and yet you refuse to heed my warning. I now intend to make good on my promise of tearing you limb from limb. Have you anything to say before I send you to your end?"

"I..", the scholar paled, "I...don't understand. I changed your code. You shouldn't be able to do this. How are you doing this?"

"I warned you of your pride and understanding of things, mortal, but yet you did not listen. To see the code is one thing, to control the code is another. Your scientists see genetic code, but yet they do not control it. they tweak it. They play with it, but it is not a language that they control, they only peak and tweak. My existence is not determined by the code, it is merely reflected in the code. I now advise you to make peace with your deities."

The shrieks of the scholar got the attention of the remaining guards. When they got there, they only found a bloody stump of what was once the man. Not one of the guards saw Cerberus.

Rei had heard this story a thousand times because people loved to speculate about what had happened to the man. Since there was so much dialog involved, and since the only man who heard it was dead, she assumed that people had made up much of it. Probably the man had run across a holographic security device and became fatally wounded. Perhaps that holographic security device had the name Cerberus.

Rei had believed these explanations when the situation had seemed less personal. Now that she was being asked to go to the restricted area, she was not so confident that her explanation was correct. Whatever this Cerberus was could hypothetically kill her.

Rei glanced up from her ruminations to get her bearings and noticed a Palcan shooting to its destination. She was near her home. What caught her attention was that there was a digital sign near the Palcan that was an advertisement. The ad was for some consulting agency for businesses and had a picture of three people in an intimate business setting. One person wore a suit and gestured with his hand to a chart to the other two. The caption to the picture was what had caught her attention the most. "Security Solutions," it said. "Because sometimes three heads are better than one."

Rei laughed a little nervous laughter to herself. All this Cerberus matter was taking up more space in her mind than necessary. She took a turn up the familiar path that led to her apartment. One thing that hadn't changed much since the emergence of the holonosphere was apartment buildings. The only good thing that had happened was that the holonosphere allowed for sound dampening and more precise climate control so a person did not have to worry about the neighbors waking him up or the lack of maintenance on the air conditioner. Rei checked her mail in the lobby before she went upstairs. The postal service had run a successful campaign when the holonosphere emerged suggesting that it could just as easily disappear. The result was that mail was still in us, but mostly by businesses. It was independent of the holonosphere as a sort of backup system in case things became chaotic. It was for this reason bills were sent mostly this way as businesses were more concerned about customers reliably getting their bills than they were about speed or convenience. What was different, though, was that instead of a mailbox one simply picked up a digital pad out of a cradle that was designated with a certain number on it. One could take this pad with them, and all that was required to get the mail was to take this pad and place it in the appropriate cradle (or back in it in Rei's case). Postmen to pick up and deliver the mail were no longer necessary. One only needed a pad and a cradle, and one was set.

Rei looked through her pad. As expected, she had the normal bounty of bills. As she was sorting through some of the junk mail, though, she noticed an advertisement that had the word "Cerberus" written on it in bold letters. She paused again. Was she losing her mind, or did it seem like her reality was becoming more and more about her silly message? It was probably that her mind was particularly sensitive to information where Cerberus was involved, so she was seeing it more readily. Or, at the very least, that's what she told herself.

Rei had proven this to herself when she had to decide to try to really want a particular thing she had no desire for to see whether or not she saw it, in reality, more readily. She decided that she would set her mind on a particular design of watch, with small interlocking loops. They were not extremely popular at the moment, and she could not recall seeing anyone with one on. As soon as she made it a point to become aware of this kind of watch, she noticed three advertisements and no fewer than six people wearing it. Clearly, these things would have been there before, but her mind would have blocked it out. At least, that's what made sense.

Rei glanced more closely at the Cerberus advertisement. It was apparently an invitation for a band. The picture emphasized the wildness of the event with some lead signer apparently adorned with chrome and studs photographed at a diagonal to give the shot more dynamism. The text of it again caught her attention. "You are invited! Get ready to party HARD!" Rei smiled again as she thought of how much she must be kidding herself. When she flipped past the band invite to the next piece of junk mail, her smile disappeared. It was apparently for a literary event for a local author who would be reading his work. The caption is all she saw, "Leave your own books at home, we've got that covered."

She thought back to her message. "Be watchful and aware of your surroundings."

Either Rei was heading for a mental breakdown or something beyond her ability to understand was happening. Either way, she wished she hadn't opened that damn message.