Chapter 52

 

Fred stirred from a narcotic-induced sleep. Most of the pain he had experienced the previous night was gone. He looked at his arm; the intravenous hookup had been removed. 

“How are you feeling?” It was a soft male voice from above his bed.

Fred looked up expecting to see the unpleasant face of Dr. Factor. Instead it was Dr. Cunningham, the person who had administered the marathon of psychological tests the previous week. 

“I guess I’m okay.”

“Good, then we’ll begin the operational testing.”

“Isn’t it too soon?”

“Not at all, Dr. Factor told me that you’re progressing ahead of schedule. He also told me you had picked up some of his thoughts. Congratulations.” 

“Oh, yeah, something about his being late for a meeting with his wife. I thought he had mentioned it out loud.”

“Not at all; you really surprised the good doctor.”

“Wouldn’t he have expected it? I mean that is what the operation was supposed to be about.”

“The doctor was given a road map of where to implant the device and how to make the necessary connections. He worked on your hardware; he had only a general idea of the details of the software contained within.”

“I see. Now what kind of tests are you going to give me?”

“Not the written type, I assure you. We’re all over that. I’m just going to determine how well the device works. I don’t expect too much from you early on. It’s just like when a patient starts to walk after an artificial knee replacement; your mental processes will have to slowly start making the adaptation to the new piece of hardware and be conditioned to deal with the unique capability you have been provided with.”

“Okay,” Fred said testily. “Get on with it.”

“Fred, I’m thinking of something; I just want you to describe what you see. Give me your best articulated picture of what’s in my mind.”

The stunning image came to Fred immediately. It was a purple eagle with its razor sharp talons extended; it was viciously devouring a small yellow rabbit with forest green eyes. The eagle’s eyes looked like a raging fire escaping from the gates of hell.

“Good Lord!” Fred exclaimed.

“What did you see?”

Fred told him what he was viewing, including the bizarre colors of the animals. 

“Why did you have to make the scene so damn graphic? I could feel the appalling viciousness of the eagle and the absolute fear from the rabbit as well.” 

“The test actually had degrees associated with it. You might have not obtained an image at all, or you might have obtained the image of an eagle and a rabbit without the colors. However, you picked up the distinctive colors on each of the animals. So you did quite well. In fact you did as well as possible. To a degree, what you were experiencing was clairempathy.” 

“What the hell is that?”

“Fred, that’s a type of telepathy to sense or feel within one’s self, the attitude, emotion or ailment of another person or entity. I’m sure that Maureen knows all about that.” 

“I don’t recall having that capability in the past at all.”

“Well, you had better get prepared, Fred. You will start to experience a rush of new abilities created by that marvelous chip we inserted in you. 

“However, the test I just gave you was in one sense relatively easy. I provided you with a mental picture that was saturated with emotion; and that should be the easiest type for you to decode. In the future we’ll be asking you to pick up on signals with a more placid, subtle subject area that will be exponentially more difficult for you. I want to warn you. Even though your ESP improvement is positive news, as is your healing progress, we still have to worry about you with respect to your emotions.”

“I don’t get you.”

“Remember we operated on your cerebrum; unfortunately some nerves had to be cut in the process. We don’t believe this will happen, in fact the possibility is—”

“Get on with it. What could happen?”

“We’re not entirely sure. You could become somewhat more—more emotional.”

Fred watched Dr. Cunningham closely. His eyes were directed downward, avoiding Fred’s face. Fred sensed something was not right.

“You’re covering up something—tell me straight.”

“The area of the brain we’re most concerned about is the seat of your emotions. To put it bluntly, you could display uncontrolled hatred, even toward your loved ones. That could happen, if for some reason the control segment of your brain was impacted. You might be comparable to a severe stroke victim where the control of your emotions is, for all practical purposes, gone. In the case of a stroke victim, that might mean he will swear a lot and it could occur during inappropriate times. But in your case, you also have unparalleled mental powers which could be unknowingly unleashed with disastrous results. 

“I’m sure that won’t happen; but remember, there has been a major disruption of the circuits of your brain. Part of that disruption is caused by cutting parts of your brain; but generally the normal healing process will take care of that. The brain is highly adaptive, and we know that other parts of the brain can take over if one segment is damaged. If the damage is not major, the time frame will be short; if major, it can take considerably more time. Frankly, I’m not worried very much about that issue. Our neurosurgeons have had decades to map the brain and a lot of experience with brain operations. I don’t see that as much of a potential problem.”

Fred said, “But I understand the brain operations they normally conduct is nothing similar to the one I had. What other problems could occur?” 

“Please realize that the implanted unit does not function independently from the rest of your brain. It’s integrated and, most importantly, it’s adaptive. It interacts and responds. There is a constant encoding and decoding process going on. There is a part of the unit that goes through a learning process, and by doing so there is a physiological alteration of the software component.” 

Fred was getting nervous from all the medical terminology that was being thrown around. He just wanted the discussion to end. 

“Fred, we will just have to wait and see. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

Fred was no longer feeling optimistic about the operation. What the hell have I gotten myself into, he thought?