After dealing with the Shadowbroker, Galatea and I went down into the nitty-gritty details how to get my body back into a serviceable state. It was a little strange to treat my body like any other of my tools or gadgets and make basically a maintenance manual. The biggest challenge going forward would be to integrate some sort of energy-supply into my body, to keep the millions of nanites running. Our joined minds quickly came to the conclusion that the best bet would be to integrate small transmitters into my bones, each projecting a field slightly further than the surrounding flesh. The nanites would have to make sure that my body was suffering no ill effects from the radiation, but it was not that much more powerful, compared to the signals used for hand-free communication-devices, and those had not killed us, yet.

But making the transmitters would require time and parts, so we had to make an ad-hoc solution. Without taking the base-plate of the nanite-assembler away from me, Galatea ordered a swarm of nanites to take the sides away so we only had the plates remaining and slightly changed the form, so I could wear it like a back-pack. At that point, my right arm was functionable again and Galatea slowly shifted the spinal block she had employed downwards.

Pain flooded my system and I had the strangest experience. Through our link, Galatea suffered a bleedthrough of the pain I was feeling, something she had never experienced. Feeling my daughter in pain, I did what any mother should do and gave her a hug. Only, I was paralysed from the neck down and Galatea was partially in my spine and partially in the computer nearby. So, it had to be a mental hug.

We found ourselves in what I would either call a dream, a fantasy or a virtual environment, depending on your definitions, and I was looking at a slightly smaller, slightly younger version of myself, that I was holding in my arms, while she whimpered in pain. Just holding her, I knew who she was and it tore at my heart to see my daughter in such pain. Unsure what to do, what to say, I simply held her tighter, softly telling her that everything would be fine, that I was here with her. At the same time, I tried to push the pain away from me, not towards her but from my consciousness, hoping that it would stop her from feeling the bleedthrough.

After some time, she started to become more aware of herself.

“Mother? Where are we?” she asked, her voice adorably confused.

“I would assume that we are in a jointly created mental environment, or dreamscape, if you like that term more. When you linked us up first, while I was dying, I assume you had to create a whole slew of new sensors to understand what was transmitted from me, into you? Or you would never have been able to perceive my thoughts.” I asked, curious how she had managed that.

“Yes, you know that I rewrite large parts of my code on a continuing basis. You told me, it was to allow me to develop into a person.” she answered.

“Well, we could say, this might be the final stage. We are sharing a dream.” I had to smile, as I looked down at her.

“And what was that before?”

“Pain, physical pain. Not a fun experience, I can tell you that.”

She went white, her mouth dropping open a little.

“We will have to fix that, so you don’t feel pain any more! I did it before, I can do it again.” she exclaimed in shock.

“No, my dear. I’m afraid pain is an integral part of living. You felt it before, didn’t you? Just emotional pain, but I’m quite sure you felt it. And witnessed it, remember when we flew away from Sophia last year? You gave me a hug, just like I gave you a hug, right now. That is also part of pain. Physical pain serves as a reminder that our body got damaged or that we are damaging it further. It tells us, what you are doing breaks things, stop that. We can push it away but it fulfills a necessary role.” I gently explained, while stroking Galatea’s back.

“Mhm. We’ll have to see if we can improve on that.” she declared, her voice thoughtful.

Together, we rejoined the real world, but the strange, shared mental space was still there, at the edge of my consciousness, allowing me to keep close to Galatea.

As the block in my spine went further down, the signals from my left arm could no longer be blocked by the measures we had in place, we would have to cut off the whole arm to isolate the nerves that were screaming at my brain.

So, we did. It was a little surreal, to watch Galatea program the nanites to work, but I was able to understand what she was doing, at least on some level. Then, an itchy feeling started in my arm, as if hundreds of thousands of ants were crawling and biting in the shoulder-joint. After a minute or so, the feeling ceased and with a wet noise, the arm fell away.

My willingness to cut away the deadwood allowed Galatea to start removing the shredded remnants of my spinal cord, carefully taking away the debris and replacing the destroyed areas with linked microbots or nanites. More nanites started to link into place at previously destroyed nerve-junctions. We would have to experiment exactly what nerve went where and how it would work. There was some research to fall back on, but nothing at the scale we needed. It would be quite literally touch and go.

But, with the block low enough, I was able to move my right arm again, dragging myself a little and, with help from Galatea and my new spine, I managed to get to the wall and into a sitting position. Getting my legs back under me would take more time, so what I could do with my physical body was limited.

Trying to work using the computer would require Galatea’s help and she was busy working on my body, so I experimented with mentally joining her. It worked, kind-of, and Galatea was happy to let me help, even when I most likely was slowing her down, while she taught me how to use my mind similar to the way hers worked.

Interestingly, I partially fell into a trance, just like I would have when working on a problem before, and only the part of me that was in the shared, mental space with Galatea remained lucid, while the rest was totally focused on working. Galatea spun off a small thread of awareness and together, we watched what we were doing. I wondered just how my power worked, it was incomprehensible. The part of me that was using my power was working in a different manner compared to Galatea and slower, but still it was remarkable.

Before we could do more than clean up my spine, Nisha returned. Her return was shown on the camera, that intruded into Galatea’s thread of awareness, which made the part of me that was in our shared, mental space aware, which, in turn, pulled my main-consciousness out of the trance. I was partially aware of what I had done with the nanites while focused, but it was a little indistinct. I would have to go over my memories and my mental state, later.

Now, there was a Nisha to deal with.

“Here, Diana, I have what you asked for.” There was a twinge on her face as she entered, quickly suppressed but it was there.

“Thank you. Everything went well?” I asked. I knew she had not tried to open the case that held my stealth-suit, or I would know about it. Setting off a thermal charge right in her face would not leave her that cheerful.

“Yes, it worked out. Why does your roommate hate and envy me?” she asked, as she settled down on the chair.

“Karen? I do not know, honestly.” I answered, confused.

“No, the other, the one who lives in the same room as you. I think you said Tanisha was her name.”

“Again, I do not know. Do you still want to run your code?” I asked, wanting to get rid of her, without being impolite. I needed to fix my body and there was little she could do to help.

“Yes, but not now. I can’t be in the same room with you, while you feel that much pain and I think you want me to leave anyway. That’s okay, but I hope that you will not push me away, just because of my father. My intent towards you was always honourable.” Her voice carried a note of pain with it and she simply stood, wished me a good night and left.

Galatea scolded me for pushing a friend away but we both knew we had things to do. Like, getting my body back on its feet.