Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [90]
'What is it? What do I have to do?'
'Just let me touch you. One second is all it takes.' Kolker smiled. 'But only if you want to.'
Barry took one look at Tabitha's obvious joy and excitement. 'Do whatever you have to do.' Kolker touched him and tweaked and then Barry was gasping in wonder as well. 'It's like you blew my mind!' He turned to face Tabitha. 'Is that you? I can sense you… not reading your mind, but you!
Tabitha nodded vigorously. 'And Kolker, too. We're here.'
Not wanting to be left out, three more of the human engineers insisted on trying it for themselves, and Kolker happily obliged. One man remained sceptical, though. 'Pretty much like brainwashing, isn't it? That's how it looks to me.'
'Nothing like that at all, T.J.' Barry's eyes were shining. 'I feel like Kolker just increased my IQ by about a million points. Imagine an old, sputtering fusion drive that suddenly got an overhaul and a major upgrade.' He laughed aloud. 'That's me.'
Though content, Kolker tried to reassure T.J. 'This is not a trick. And if you change your mind, I can always reverse it.'
'Not on your life.' Tabitha was already poring over her wide tablescreen, her fingers flying as she adjusted the assignments of work crews and fiddled with small details in the process flow. Within moments, she straightened, very satisfied. 'Hmm, I never saw those bottlenecks before.'
Sullivan Gold returned to all the excited chatter and saw the breathless expressions, the wide eyes. 'What's going on here?'
'Kolker just showed us a genuine revelation! He can do something with his treeling, or with that medallion.'
Tabitha barely took her attention away from the work parameters. 'I can't describe it, Sullivan. Try it!'
The green priest extended a hand. 'I wanted to show you first. Allow me--'
But Sullivan stepped back. 'Wait just a minute.'
T.J. drew strength from the manager's reluctance. 'You're not going to force us, are you?'
'Of course not. This is only for those who wish it. But it's wonderful, Sullivan. It's essential. You'll think more clearly, you'll understand all the interconnections, you'll see things in every one of us that you never saw before. Trust me.'
'I do trust you, Kolker, but it kinda sounds to me like you're converting people to a new religion.'
Kolker had not considered that aspect. 'It is like that in a way… but not like that at all.'
Sullivan kept holding his hands up. 'I've got my own religion, thank you. I can't imagine what Lydia would say if she'd heard I went chasing after some sort of cosmic head rush.'
Kolker could feel the older manager's reluctance, so he decided to give him time. 'I'm always here if you change your mind. Talk with Tabitha and the others. Watch them, and see what this has done for them.' He picked up his treeling.
'This is the most important thing ever,' Barry said.
Though wonder shone clearly on her face, Tabitha maintained her sense of purpose. 'All right, let's put this to work. We've still got a lot of ships to rebuild out there. Ha! With this new mindset we'll be a thousand times more efficient than before. We can tap into the Ildirans and communicate with each other. We can see… everything.' She couldn't stop grinning, and the changed crewmembers seemed to be sharing her thoughts, communicating with only the slightest flicker of expression.
Kolker felt deeply satisfied as he went to find a shuttle to take him back to Ildira. The possibilities seemed as endless as the universe he now viewed.
Fifty-three
Patrick Fitzpatrick III
After his long search, Patrick arrived at Golgen, a gas giant with canary skies, endless atmospheric storms, and clan Kellum's massive ekti-harvesting operations. As he flew