Ishtar Rising Book 1 - Michael A. Martin [20]
Chapter
6
Soloman squared his shoulders and walked forward toward the pair of Bynars. He had spent most of the night reflecting on his discussion with Dr. Lense. He was determined to find a way to make the situation work, and he would not allow himself to get the worse end of the bargain.
As the two Bynars stared at him through baleful eyes, he spoke. “Reflecting on the events of yesterday’s trial, it occurs to me that if we create a three-way datalink, we might be able to sift through the data more quickly and accurately.”
“You want us to—”
“—allow you to—”
“—link with us?” The looks on their faces had now switched from contempt to incredulity.
“We think that’s a great idea.” A voice from behind Soloman forced all three Bynars to look to the side. It was Fabian Stevens, with a pair of the regular Ishtar Station scientists. “Several of us discussed that option earlier, and we believe that Soloman may be on to something.”
“It is possible for the three of you to link, isn’t it?” asked a sallow-skinned female scientist.
“It is—”
“—theoretically possible—”
“—but hardly an—”
“—optimal situation.”
“What is optimal in our situation?” the woman asked with a smile. “Why don’t you guys try it for this simulation and see if it works?”
Soloman looked over at his fellow Bynars, and saw them opening and closing their mouths like fish stranded on a beach. Finally, 1011 said, “We will attempt it—”
“—this once, but we—”
“—do not expect it to—
“—be a success.”
Minutes later, the holodeck simulation began again, with most of the same scientists, technicians, and engineers in the same places they had occupied the previous day. Soloman and the two Bynars synchronized the signals to the interfaces on the sides of their heads and the data buffers they carried on their belts.
The high-speed multiplex language of the Bynars suddenly filled his senses in every fashion, jolting Soloman into a reality from which he had been removed for far too long. The code-language used by 1011 and 1110 began as a low-pitched whine, and Soloman began to speak back to them.
As they talked, numbers scrolled on viewscreens in front of them. Not only were they keeping track of the columns directly in their sight, but the linked-mind synchronization meant that a residual sense of the columns being studied by the other two Bynars maintained a palpable presence in the consciousness of each.
Soloman had not spoken like this—had not shared data in this fashion—since before 111 had died. The act had never seemed so intimate before, but perhaps that was because as an adult, he had never linked with anyone other than his bond-mate. Now, the linkage seemed not only intimate, but also euphoric. The information poured in a torrent from the computer screens to their eyes to their brains to each other to their mouths to their ears to their brains…
He had not noticed the higher pitch that 1011’s and 1110’s chatter had reached until he felt the connections being severed. One by one, faster and faster, he was being blocked. His mind raced to find an entrance, but like a dam constructed midstream in a river, the paired Bynars were now methodically—and quickly—obstructing him. The revulsion they felt at his presence in their link was so strong it almost appeared as a color; not a vibrant bright or dark, but a swirling, muddy, grayed tone.
Soloman spoke to them in their language, trying to impress upon them the need to cooperate, but it was too late. He felt his ejection from the link like a physical blow. Indeed, his body reacted as if it had been shoved, and Soloman fell backward, his arms pin-wheeling as he fell to the deck.
His mind still reeling from his expulsion, Soloman became aware that the holodeck simulation had been halted once again. And Dr. Saadya did not look happy as his gaze settled on all three Bynars.
* * *
Domenica Corsi was no happier about the da Vinci crew’s involvement in the terraforming project now than she had