MindLink

MindLink

Raymond E. Dyer

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2010 by Raymond E. Duchemin

Cover design Copyright © 2010 by Michelle Duchemin

Editing and additional writing by Michelle Duchemin

All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing of the copyright holder, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedicated with love to:

My parents for teaching me the value of reading, my wife Michelle for the countless hours she spent editing, and my son Benjamin for being a sounding board when I needed one.

****

PROLOGUE

This couldn’t be happening. Ryan sat in disbelief as the brakes of his car locked, and the vehicle slid uncontrollably on the wet pavement. Filling his vision through the rain-streaked windshield was a large fuel truck, growing larger and larger with each second as his car slid closer to it. Traffic on this stretch of the city’s streets had been placed under control of a master computer system. There had not been a single accident since it was installed. So how on earth was this possible? Ryan had even worked on the communications system that connected the computers to the vehicles, and he was certain that the entire system was completely reliable. Yet, here he was, on his way home from dinner, brakes locked, and heading for what appeared to be the first traffic accident in this area in a year, and probably his own demise.

It was almost surreal how calm he felt and how time seemed to be standing still. Although he was only about fifty feet from the tanker and moving at about forty miles per hour, it felt as though the car was barely moving and that he had all the time in the world. Enough time to think about how much he hated the computers that had now failed him, and even time to contemplate the horror that awaited him.

But time wasn’t moving slowly, and in an instant his car collided with the rear end of the tanker. The air bags deployed and held him firmly in his seat. Flying glass from the windshield quickly shredded the front air bag, and some fragments found their way to his face.

Just as suddenly as the whole thing had begun, it was over. He was amazed to find that he was still alive, and except for some pain in his face and something wet running down his cheeks, he thought he was fine.

Ryan sat there taking a mental inventory of his condition when he heard a sound like that of a running faucet. Slowly he realized that what he was hearing was fuel leaking from the damaged tanker onto the crushed hood of his car. He began to struggle frantically to free himself.

He grasped the door handle and pushed, but the door only moved a few inches. Summoning all of his strength, he leaned away and then thrust himself into the door with as much as force as he could muster. With a loud groan, the door opened several more inches. As he began to squeeze through the opening, the heat of the car’s engine ignited the tanker fuel, and his vehicle erupted into flames. As Ryan struggled to exit, he could feel the flames at his feet begin to spread up his trousers.

With the last of his strength, Ryan escaped the car and crawled several feet away from it. Fire was spreading up his clothing and he realized that the liquid he had felt on his face wasn’t the blood that he’d thought it was, but was fuel from the tanker. He frantically began to wipe it away with his sleeves while at rolling on the road to try and extinguish the flames now covering the lower half of his body and causing excruciating pain.

His efforts proved futile and the fire spread, bringing searing pain to his face as the flesh began to burn. As pain intensified over his entire body, the last of the air rushed from his lungs and forced a horrific scream from his throat, a scream so loud that it could be heard two blocks away, so loud that it forced him from his sleep and brought a merciful end to his nightmare.

Ryan sat up in his bed, soaked with sweat and trembling, just like he had so many times before, and like those previous times, he knew without looking at the clock that it would be 2:30am. And, like those other times, even though he knew it was a nightmare, he got out of bed and went to the mirror convinced that he would see the horror of a melted face looking back at him.

As he stood in front of the mirror, his still handsome face reflecting back, he knew that he would have to see the doctor again. He would have to suffer the doctor’s probing and seemingly pointless questions. It would be all for nothing because he knew he would be told that it was only a nightmare, and probably based on an incident that had happened when he was a child. Ryan, on the other hand, was convinced that there was something more to his recurring dream.

****

ONE

Rphillips 292GTXCK22 Open computer link, Ryan thought as he unlocked the door to his office. Instantly the MindLink chip implanted in his neck relayed his command to the island’s transceiver, which then relayed it on to the central computer system, opening a direct link between his brain and the network.

It was eight in the morning when Ryan arrived, and the temperature was already eighty degrees with clouds forming to the west over the Gulf of Mexico. Ryan’s one bedroom apartment was only five blocks from his office and he always enjoyed the short walk to work in the mornings.

At 42, Ryan Phillips had been an electronics engineer for twenty years during which time he had developed a modest reputation in the electronics communications field. Prior to his current position, he had worked as lead communications engineer on the country’s first test stretch of computer controlled highway. Lured away from that job by a higher salary and the bonus of being able to live on a peaceful, tropical island just two miles off the west coast of Florida, Ryan was now content working for CommTek Corporation.

He enjoyed the older look and feel of the small island, which CommTek had renamed ‘CommTek Island’ after acquiring it. Most of the homes and businesses on the island were built back in the forties and fifties and, while they had been updated over the years to better withstand the harsh hurricane seasons in the Gulf of Mexico, they still maintained their old charm. In fact, what he called his apartment was really a small one-bedroom bungalow like all of the other houses on his street. Every weekday, weather permitting, Ryan would walk the five blocks from his apartment on Waters Way, to Driftwood Street and the old Island Breeze Motel.

This old motel was the only one on the island, and it had been converted, in large part, for use as office space. It now provided all the space the company required to house its development and quality assurance teams. The motel’s restaurant was now a cafeteria for the employees, and its swimming pool was just another perk for anyone who worked there. A small part of the motel still contained a number of rooms used as guest suites. These were available to company visitors, and to friends and family visiting employees on the island.

Over the four years Ryan had been with the company he frequently thought about how surprised and delighted he was when CommTek had offered him this job. It was a great job with a higher salary than he had ever expected to earn. And best of all, it was here that he’d met Marie.

Walking to his desk, he summoned a list of his new emails with a thought, and within his mind he heard the list of senders and subjects. The list contained the usual collection of emails from co-workers and department heads wanting to meet about various problems that were encountered as the work continued on version 5 of CommTek’s computer interface implant, the MindLink.

Ryan sat at his desk thinking about the work that was ongoing for this latest version. The development work was, as usual, behind schedule. Making matters worse was the press conference that George Osterman, founder and CEO of CommTek, had given to announce the new features that would be included in the version 5 release. The publicity would mean that the pressure to complete the project would be ratcheted up another notch.

Only the lawyers were ahead of schedule. Their work securing lease agreements with the owners/operators of every cellular phone tower across the United States had been progressing without issues. Use of these towers was critical to the company’s upcoming release because one of its new features will allow MindLink users to connect to computer networks and the internet from anywhere in the country through these cell towers, just like cell phones do.

Version 4 of the MindLink, currently in use everywhere except here on CommTek Island, was simply a tool that allowed a user to link to their own PC or laptop, and to control it, hands-free, using thought commands. Access to other computer networks or the internet was still accomplished through the computer’s existing connectivity. So, version 4 of the MindLink was not online and accessible unless it was linked to a user’s computer.

Version 5 of the MindLink, which they were developing, running, and testing here on the island, frees the MindLink from the need to be linked to a user’s computer to access the net. Instead, version 5 can connect through any local transceiver like those on cellular towers, or the one CommTek installed on the island once its residents were upgraded to a pre-release of version 5 for ongoing, always-on, live testing.

Ryan was tired which wasn’t surprising since his sleep had been so disturbed by the nightmare. With some effort he forced himself to begin concentrating on his tasks for the day. The first thing he did was mentally send an email to Dr. Rogers, the island’s psychiatrist, to let her know that he had experienced the nightmare again. He knew that before the day was over he would have a reply and another appointment. He didn’t look forward to another session with her, but knew he shouldn’t avoid it.

With that one personal issue out of the way he began to review his latest emails, determining which was the most important and prioritizing them for responses. One was from Marie Davis, the company’s lead neurobiologist, and the love of his life.

When Ryan first met Marie, he was immediately taken by how physically attractive she was. At 5’2" she was a full 9 inches shorter than Ryan. She had a near perfect figure, but her face was what really caught his attention. She had the most unusual eyes he’d ever seen. They were amber in color and seemed as though they could see right through a person. Her nose was small and cute, and she had the most sensuous and infectious smile. He had always thought of her face as a work of art, perfectly framed by her shoulder length, silky brown hair.

As he’d spent more and more time working with her, he’d quickly discovered that while she was tough and independent, she also had an incredible tenderness about her. In many ways she reminded him of his own mother. She possessed a kindness and warmth that he had always associated with people much older than her forty years.

Despite the email from Marie, he chose to start with the message from Brad Johnson, their lead software engineer. At 27, Brad was certainly the youngest member of the technical team, but he was also one of the top software engineers in the country.

Ryan knew the company had gone to great lengths to bring Brad on board. They had to compete with many of the commercial software development companies that were also desperate to hire him. But, as usual, if Osterman decided he wanted something or someone, he always managed to get it.

Brad was not only a great software engineer, he was also a geek’s geek. Unfortunately, he was also prone to conspiracy theories and paranoia. It was for this reason that Ryan always tried to deal with Brad’s issues before moving on to anyone else’s, so he opened the email from Brad.

Hey Ryan, you need to stop by my office this morning to see the new visualization feature demo. It’s just the black and white version, and it’s not perfected, but it does work, and man, is it freaky to use! I think this will blow your mind! Brad

Ryan was impressed by how quickly Brad had gotten this other new version 5 feature working, given all the problems he had encountered since the project began. He sent a quick reply telling Brad that he would stop by in a few minutes.

Ryan was curious about the prototype. He’d always had a hard time imagining what that experience would be like; having computer images broadcasted directly into the vision center of the mind. While he wasn’t sure yet whether it would be something he’d enjoy, he was looking forward to the experience.

When Ryan got to Brad’s office, Brad was dressed in his stereotypical jeans and t-shirt, and wearing sandals. His shoulder-length brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He looked the classic image of a young software engineer.

Hi Brad.

Ryan, hi. I just got your reply that you were coming for the demo. I really think you’re going to find this stuff fascinating. I have everything ready for you to test the new feature. All you have to do is say when.

Ryan hesitated. Before we go ahead, I’d like you to tell me something about the experience. You did say it was kind of freaky, and I’d like to know more about what I’m getting myself into. Is there any way you can describe it to me?

"Well, the way it works is that the transmitted images come to the brain by stimulating the same areas that work as receptors for the optic nerves. The result is that the images seem to be coming from your eyes.

This is why the program needs to know if the user’s eyes are open or not. The specification said that the incoming visual data stream must be suspended anytime the eyes open to avoid overlapping visual data with actual vision.

So, when you close your eyes you see the computer output within your mind like it would look if your eyes were open and you were facing a large monitor.

What’s really freaky is that your brain becomes convinced that your eyes are open because the imagery is so real. I actually found myself turning my head to concentrate on what was on the right side of this ‘virtual’ screen, but of course the image didn’t move nor did my point of view.

It’s kind of like some research I heard about where they found that people with normal blood sugar levels who drank diet soda had their sugar levels drop. The brain knew that the tongue had tasted something sweet, so it signaled the pancreas to release extra insulin.

In this case, the brain is ‘seeing’ imagery, so it’s assuming that the imagery is coming from the eyes, so if your eyes move or you turn your head, the brain expects to see a variation in the image. Trust me, it’s a weird experience to move and have your point of view remain the same."

That makes sense, Ryan said, but we see images in our dreams, and we don’t have any problem with that. I assume those images aren’t sent through the optic nerves.

No, and I don’t know how dream images are ‘seen’ by the brain. Either Marie doesn’t know how to stimulate that type of input, or the ethics guys won’t let us use those areas to implement the feature. Anyway, I don’t think there’s a real problem here. It’s like the thought input problem some of us had when we first started using the MindLink. You know how, in the beginning, you wanted to speak commands out loud until you got accustomed to the idea that all you had to do was think them? It’s the same thing here. After you use it for a while, it will seem almost a normal way to view computer output.

All right, I understand all that, I think. So, what would it be like if you did allow the computer output to be ‘seen’ while a person’s eyes were open? Would it be the ultimate case of double vision?

"That’s a pretty fair description of it. I actually tried it on myself. I modified the code to allow for a special password that would let me enable and disable the requirement that the eyes be closed. I then ran that version, disabled the requirement, and opened my eyes.

The initial problem is that both the actual input from the eyes and the computer input are arriving with the same strength and therefore equal visual intensity, so it’s very bright and hard to decipher what you’re seeing. The other problem is that the position of the computer input is fixed, as I said before, but the image from the eyes changes as the eyes move. It’s very disconcerting.

With a whole lot of practice I was eventually able to change my mind’s focal point between the live visual image and the computer generated image, and I actually reached the point where I could focus on the real imagery or on the computer-generated image. But, I had to stop playing with that after a while because I thought I was going to throw up."

Ryan was fascinated. As he’d listened while Brad described his experience, he found himself eager to try it. So what do I have to download to my chip in order to try your prototype?

"Remember, the only time we download code to a chip is when it’s first activated, or on those rare occasions when we need to fix a bug, or add new features that will access parts of the brain we’ve never touched before.

We’re still using the base code that’s always been in the chip for the new visualization feature. You certified that the chip could produce all the signals I needed, and direct them to each of the coordinates required to stimulate the vision center. So, all the new programming resides in the central computers the link is networked to. I just put it in a special test-only location so that the only people who can run it are those that I give the location to."

I guess I just keep forgetting how little the chip itself actually does. So, how do I access your prototype programs?

Brad gave him the location on the server where the new code could be found, then walked him through the necessary steps to run it.

Ryan, feeling a little awkward said, When the code is released, can I assume you will simply move the finished version to the same location where the current production code is, and the users will automatically have access to the new features?

"Bingo! That’s one of the great advantages to having all of the version 5 application code on central computers. The user never has to do anything to get a new feature. We just have to let them know it’s available, and supply instructions on how to use it.

Speaking of which, to use the new visual features in this prototype, you will have to add the command ‘visual input’ before one of the old commands. All of the applications are configured so that if you don’t issue that command first, you will simply get the original audio responses."

With that, Ryan decided that his first test would be to run the email application. He requested a list of his email messages, but rather than seeing it, he got the usual result and heard the list being spoken.

Remembering that Brad had just explained that the software was currently configured to use the old delivery method by default, Ryan issued the ‘visual input’ command, and then requested the email messages.

This time nothing at all happened. There must be something wrong here. I added the ‘visual input’ command and now when I ask for my email, I don’t hear it or see it.

I assume you forgot that the visual feature won’t work unless you close your eyes.

So, Ryan closed his eyes and, when he did, he literally jumped.

His mind was assaulted when he suddenly saw the email message as though he were looking at a large bright monitor. The sudden appearance of the image shocked him, and he quickly opened his eyes to get away from it.

Wow! You were right when you said it was freaky. It’s a real jolt when that image just suddenly appears when you close your eyes. This will take some getting used to. Do you think you could make the image sort of fade into view when the eyes close rather than just suddenly be there?

Already on my to-do list, Brad replied. I had the same reaction you did and immediately knew I’d have to soften the effect. I figure I’ll add the slightest delay after the eyes close, and then have the image fade in, slowly bringing it up to full strength. But, you should find the effect less dramatic the next time you close your eyes, now that you’ve already experienced it. Try it again.

Brad was right. This time when Ryan closed his eyes, the sudden appearance of the image was expected. He kept his eyes closed and read the message. As he was reading it he noticed something incredible. The image seemed sharper and brighter than any he’d seen before.

When Ryan mentioned this, Brad explained, Well, since the signal is being sent directly to the optic nerve reception points in the vision center, it never passes through the eyes so the image isn’t affected by any shortcomings or imperfections in the eyes. It’s the equivalent of absolutely perfect vision, which no real human being actually has.

Now that I’ve looked at a text message, I’m curious what graphics and photos will look like, Ryan said. Does the visual feature work with any of the graphics applications yet?

The feature should work with any of the standard applications we have. Just remember to add the words ‘visual input’ in front of the command that you use to launch a program.

Ryan didn’t hesitate to launch his scrapbook program, something that until now, he could only access with the aid of a computer monitor. As soon as the program started, he referenced the entry that contained his favorite picture of Marie, and then closed his eyes. What he saw, or more to the point, what he didn’t see surprised him.

Brad, I think we have a problem here. I tried to bring up a picture from my scrapbook program and all I see is total blackness. It looks like there might be a bug in your code.

Could be, Brad answered. But, this is prototype code, and that scrapbook application isn’t one of our standard programs. I warned Osterman that we might have problems getting this thing to work with any non-standard, two-bit, graphics programs. I did test it with one of the Adobe graphics applications last night, and the imagery was beautiful. I’ll take a copy of your scrapbook program and do some testing with it later to see why it’s not working. In the meantime, bring up the Adobe photo application and take a look at an image with that. It will at least give you a chance to view an image.

Ryan brought up Photoshop and browsed through some stock images. It was staggering just how good they looked, even in black and white. He had never seen graphics on a monitor that looked this clear, bright and sharp. There was no doubt that once this new version of the MindLink was released, word would spread about its stunning graphics capabilities and anyone who didn’t already have the product would be lining up to buy it. He had to smile as he remembered how his father had cautioned him that the stock options CommTek offered as part of his employment package would never have any value. It looked like, for once, his father was dead wrong!

Finally, Ryan turned to Brad. You’ve done some amazing work here. And, this is only in black and white! I can only imagine how incredible the images will look when you add the programming in for color.

Well, Brad replied. I just got the go ahead to implement the color data, and I plan to start working on it as soon as we’re done here.

So, how long do you estimate until the color version is ready to go into beta testing? It would be helpful if I could give Osterman an update on our progress with the full color version of the visual feature the next time I give him a status.

You know, it’s not that easy a question to answer, and I’ll tell you why. I can have my code cleaned up and ready for beta testing in less than two weeks, but that’s not how it’s supposed to proceed. I was told that when my code is ready, I have to send it over to the R&D Group and let them play around with it. They’ll be the ones that make the decision to release it as a beta to the QA Group. And frankly, I’ve been given no indication of how long R&D is going to keep it.

Who did those instructions come from? Ryan asked.

Brad hesitated as though he wasn’t sure he should be answering the question, but then he said, The memo came from Barbara Sherman, head of the R&D Group, and George Osterman, himself, countersigned it. That’s why I never questioned it. It’s his company and he can run it any way he wants, but it is frustrating that I wasn’t given any reason, or any timeframe.

I’m always wondering what the heck goes on in the R&D Group, myself, Ryan said. "It seems like nobody else has a clue what they’re up to either, and I don’t know anyone who’s even been inside