Distraction - Bruce Sterling [123]
Oscar twisted his wrist and examined the translucent strap. They’d made the tooth and buckle out of some kind of mouse bone. “This is quite a technical feat, isn’t it?”
“And you can’t let it get cold, or it dies. But listen: if you want to reset it, you just flip up that patch in the back and expose it to sunlight. We put retinal cells there. When retinal cells see sunlight, they release glutamate. Which binds to receptors. Which produce nitric oxide. Which activates enzymes. Which add phosphate to a nuclear protein. The protein sends a genetic message, and the genes reset the neurons in the clock!”
“So, is there, uh, documentation with this product?”
She hesitated. “Well, never mind all that. You’re just a layman. You don’t really have to understand how a watch works.”
Oscar looked at the eerie device. It was clinging to his wrist like raw liver. “It’s a homemade birthday watch,” he said. “In the middle of all this trouble, you’ve gone and made me a watch. With your own hands.”
“I’m so glad you’re pleased with it.”
“ ‘Pleased’? This is the finest birthday gift I’ve ever had.”
Her eyebrows twitched just a bit. “You don’t think it’s creepy, do you?”
“Creepy? Heavens no! It’s just a step or two beyond the current cutting edge, that’s all. I could foresee big consumer demand for an item like this.”
She laughed delightedly. “Ha! Exactly. That’s just what I told my lab krewe, when we were putting it together. We’ve finally come up with a mass consumer product that has real market demand!”
Oscar was touched. “They’ve been harassing you for years about your ‘pure science,’ haven’t they. As if they had the right to control your imagination, just because they pay your bills. Well, I’ll tell you a secret, Greta. There’s no such thing as ‘pure science.’ ‘Pure science’ is an evil lie, it’s a killer fraud, like ‘pure justice’ or ‘pure liberty.’ Desire is never pure, and the desire for knowledge is just another kind of desire. There’s never been a branch of knowledge so pure and abstract that it can’t get down and dirty. If the human mind can comprehend it, then the human mind can desire it.”
She sighed. “I never know what to make of you when you start talking like that.… I wish I could tell you everything I’ve been thinking lately.”
“Try me.”
“It’s that … you want something, but you know it’s bad for you. So you deny it, and want it, and deny it, and want it—but it’s just too seductive. So you give in, and then it just happens. But when it happens, it’s not as bad as you thought. It’s not half bad. In fact, it’s good. It’s really good. It’s wonderful. It makes you better. You’re a better human being. You’re stronger. You understand yourself. You’re in touch with yourself. You’re not in denial. You’re not remote and pure. You’re alive and you’re part of the real world. You know what you want.”
Oscar felt a soaring sense of absolute masculine triumph. It lasted three seconds, crested, and left him tingling with premonitory dread.
“A love affair isn’t always peaches and cream,” he said.
She stared at him in utter astonishment. “Oscar, sweetie, I’m not talking about the sex. That’s all very nice, and I’m happy about it, but you and I could have all the sex in the world, and it wouldn’t change a thing. I mean that you gave me a real and lasting gift, Oscar, because you put me in power. And now, I really know what power means. For the first time in my life, I can speak to people. When they’re all there in front of me, a big crowd of my own people, I can tell them the truth. I can persuade them. I can lead them. I’ve become their leader. I’ve found my own voice. I have real power. I think I always wanted power, but I always resisted it, because I thought it was bad for me—but it isn’t! Now I know what power is, and my God, it’s really good. It’s changing me completely. I just want more and more.”
To end her second week