My Library

14. One Easy Lesson Time: 3:40 A.M. … awake, alert, rested, relaxed … unhooked easily from the physical, slid out of the second immediately, and waited for a signal. There was none, so I let go and let the total self take over. There was the usual blur of movement, not too extensive, and I had the ident of BB close by me. My percept of him was totally different. He was tightly closed. And dulled. The thin outer haze of the Intermediate Area made him even less distinguishable. I tried to smooth casually. (Hey, old buddy, what’s up?) BB opened slightly. (Oh, hello, RAM.) (I had it you would be pulling skips back to KT-95.) He dulled. (Sure.) I smoothed very gently. (Anything I can do for you?) (No … no.) He started to close. (I’m just hanging around.) He had the set of someone who had lost his best friend, which was exactly the case from his perspective, and partially so from another— partially in that the same AA, when he finally emerged, would be the fundamental, with the unique variegation learned from the in-human experience permanently interwoven and overlaid throughout the being that he had become. It could be construed as a loss if BB did not accept the change or expected only the stasis of KT-95 that had been AA. I tried another approach. (Well, you just can’t stand here forever.) BB blanked. (Forever? What’s that?) I flickered. (It’s, uh … human expression.) He vibrated. (I want nothing to do with that human action!) I put it to him hard and straight. (You’re going to have to get some kind of rote about human. If you don’t, you won’t know your friend AA when he comes out. You won’t have any ident on him whatsoever.)