You gently and nervously press the cracked center of the little egg-thing in your hands, and with an unpleasantly wet little crunch, its surface warps and reconfigures into something...kind of familiar.
You blink a few times as a childhood obsession rushes back to you. You're pretty sure you know precisely what you're looking at. It even makes the same sounds.
GYNNIE:
Now, thish ish a fairly low-rishk one I wash going to take care of over lunch, sho don't worry if you make a mishtake or two. I trusht you sshould have shome level of familiarity with shomething at leasht shimilar?
Now, thish ish a fairly low-rishk one I wash going to take care of over lunch, sho don't worry if you make a mishtake or two. I trusht you sshould have shome level of familiarity with shomething at leasht shimilar?
FERN:
Actually, yes, Gynnie, I AM familiar with something like this, at least the way I'm seeing it.
I mean, I know we all might perceive stuff differently, right? I THINK I know how this works, but you should definitely make sure we're on the same page here, just to be safe.
Actually, yes, Gynnie, I AM familiar with something like this, at least the way I'm seeing it.
I mean, I know we all might perceive stuff differently, right? I THINK I know how this works, but you should definitely make sure we're on the same page here, just to be safe.
GYNNIE:
Abssholutely! I'm SHO relieved to hear our technology isn't too foreign to your pershceptual canon...otherwisshe I'd have to ssshushpect it wasssh another retroactive disshtortion brought about by our, ah, predicament!
*Ahem,* sho, as you sshurely know, a
ish defined by itssh immature conscheptual core, even more fragile than that of grey-zshone beingsssh! Perscheptual shift from zone to zone can be quite hazardoussh to , ssho whenever possshible, we treat our little patientsssh remotely, via EGGLET!
Abssholutely! I'm SHO relieved to hear our technology isn't too foreign to your pershceptual canon...otherwisshe I'd have to ssshushpect it wasssh another retroactive disshtortion brought about by our, ah, predicament!
*Ahem,* sho, as you sshurely know, a
ish defined by itssh immature conscheptual core, even more fragile than that of grey-zshone beingsssh! Perscheptual shift from zone to zone can be quite hazardoussh to , ssho whenever possshible, we treat our little patientsssh remotely, via EGGLET!
FERN:
...So what I'm holding here is...
...So what I'm holding here is...
GYNNIE:
Represhentative of a ssshafe and ssshound in itssh native zone! The EGGLET eshtablishesh a controlled, ssshynthetic manifeshtation branch between the two, allowing ussh to monitor and treat the fragile little one by treating the EGGLET itsshelf!
It'sh a ssshyshtem sssho shimple, we've been able to outssshource care to the grey zone during epidemicsh of exsheptional schale!
Represhentative of a
ssshafe and ssshound in itssh native zone! The EGGLET eshtablishesh a controlled, ssshynthetic manifeshtation branch between the two, allowing ussh to monitor and treat the fragile little one by treating the EGGLET itsshelf!
It'sh a ssshyshtem sssho shimple, we've been able to outssshource care to the grey zone during epidemicsh of exsheptional schale!
FERN:
Oh.........Oh..........
...Ssssoooo....remind me again what happens if "egglet," um..."dies?"
Oh.........Oh..........
...Ssssoooo....remind me again what happens if "egglet," um..."dies?"
That childhood obsession...all twenty or thirty of them...would still be gathering dust in granddad's attic, long out of battery power.
GYNNIE:
No worriessh, of coursshe! Sshould anything go awry on our end, the connection issh shevered before it transhlatesh back to the real, then EGGLET will reboot, if possshible, and re-essshtablish the link until we get it right!
Following either ssshuccesshful treatment or repeated failure, EGGLET will permanently lose connectivity to any real patient. Foolproof, really!
Exshept...well...you know....
No worriessh, of coursshe! Sshould anything go awry on our end, the connection issh shevered before it transhlatesh back to the real
, then EGGLET will reboot, if possshible, and re-essshtablish the link until we get it right!
Following either ssshuccesshful treatment or repeated failure, EGGLET will permanently lose connectivity to any real patient. Foolproof, really!
Exshept...well...you know....
FERN:
........Do I? You, er, said yourself we couldn't be sure what we know...
........Do I? You, er, said yourself we couldn't be sure what we know...
GYNNIE:
*Cough*...well...that issh...the problematic cases....
...Really not neschessshary to get into right now, obvioushly. Heh.
*Cough*...well...that issh...the problematic cases....
...Really not neschessshary to get into right now, obvioushly. Heh.
FERN:
Actually, Gynnie, that kind of sounds like it might be fairly important to "get into" right now.
These are people's babies you're messing around with, after all.
Actually, Gynnie, that kind of sounds like it might be fairly important to "get into" right now.
These are people's babies you're messing around with, after all.
GYNNIE:
Ehheh, right...yessh...you are quite the ssherious professional, and I appreschiate that, really.
I'm sshure you know how RARE it issh for to react abnormally to Hoshpital exposshure, eshpecially through our sshynthetic connections...that's what the shyshtem is there for, after all...and sshuccshesshful treatments FAR outweigh the risshksh, obviousshly, but...you should know that, from your training and all.
Ehheh, right...yessh...you are quite the ssherious professional, and I appreschiate that, really.
I'm sshure you know how RARE it issh for
to react abnormally to Hoshpital exposshure, eshpecially through our sshynthetic connections...that's what the shyshtem is there for, after all...and sshuccshesshful treatments FAR outweigh the risshksh, obviousshly, but...you should know that, from your training and all.
FERN:
I might. Can't be sure. Remember?
I might. Can't be sure. Remember?
GYNNIE:
Well we...shtill don't know exshactly what triggers shuch an abnormal developmental sshurge in a shmall - VERY VERY SHMALL - perschentage of our little patients...we believe it may be an as-yet unidentified conscheptual pathogen or parashitic psheudocore, not unlike a reverberator, but it's all jusht hypothesshis.
All we can generally do is sschecure and contain "problems" until we can ssshuccshesshfully reverssshe their condition.
Well we...shtill don't know exshactly what triggers shuch an abnormal developmental sshurge in a shmall - VERY VERY SHMALL - perschentage of our little patients...we believe it may be an as-yet unidentified conscheptual pathogen or parashitic psheudocore, not unlike a reverberator, but it's all jusht hypothesshis.
All we can generally do is sschecure and contain "problems" until we can ssshuccshesshfully reverssshe their condition.
FERN:
...But you can reverse it?
...But you can reverse it?
GYNNIE:
Oh! Of courssshe! In...in theory! We're, ah, working on it!
Oh! Of courssshe! In...in theory! We're, ah, working on it!
FERN:
...And their parents?
...And their parents?
GYNNIE:
Well, every case ish shpecial, you know...every "problem" developsh in itsh own unique way...ssshome can be shafely schroeded, sshome merely need to be quarantined from their native zone, shome are even virtually harmlessh.....but we have to be on the shafe shide, so they all need to be evaluated for containment, and so do any closhely related enough cores they may have contaminated.
Well, every case ish shpecial, you know...every "problem" developsh in itsh own unique way...ssshome can be shafely schroeded, sshome merely need to be quarantined from their native zone, shome are even virtually harmlessh.....but we have to be on the shafe shide, so they all need to be evaluated for containment, and so do any closhely related enough cores they may have contaminated.
FERN:
...So you lock them up, or "schrode" them into limbo, or whatever it takes to just keep them under control...and you still haven't "cured" any of them.
...So you lock them up, or "schrode" them into limbo, or whatever it takes to just keep them under control...and you still haven't "cured" any of them.
GYNNIE:
Basshically. Yesh. Good to know our realitiessh coinschide, however unpleassshant it may be to dwell on ...shome shubjects...
Basshically. Yesh. Good to know our realitiessh coinschide, however unpleassshant it may be to dwell on ...shome shubjects...
FERN:
Gynnie...do you know anything about something that might call itself "the parliament" or "old flesh" or anything like that?
Gynnie...do you know anything about something that might call itself "the parliament" or "old flesh" or anything like that?
GYNNIE:
Do I...eh? Huh? A...a what?
...I don't...don't know those noises...
I don't know...
Things...?
Do I...eh? Huh? A...a what?
...I don't...don't know those noises...
I don't know...
Things...?
Gynnie's voice sounds very different. Smaller, younger, and very very alarmed.
FERN:
I'm sorry! It's nothing! Never mind!
I'm sorry! It's nothing! Never mind!
GYNNIE:
Weh-?
....What wasssh nothing?
We sssshould really get on with your little walky-through, shouldn't we?
Weh-?
....What wasssh nothing?
We sssshould really get on with your little walky-through, shouldn't we?
FERN:
Yes. Definitely.
Yes. Definitely.
