Chapter 63

With the decision made, Ivey took charge. “Daniel, I’m going to get Alex to put you in stasis for the next bit. This is important, so don’t fight.”

Why?

He wrote on his board instantly.

Ivey sighed. “This room is too small. To give all the healers the access they need, we’ll have to move you. While your cocoon works,” she shook her head. “I’m worried that if we carry you in it your wounds will open up.”

Alex walked into his vision. He must have already been present, but staying out of the conversation.

Ivey patted his shoulder. “Remember, don’t fight it. He’s going to use the non-emergency version, so instead of instant it will take almost a minute to cast.”

Strange energy built up in Alex’s hands. It was hard to describe what was happening. There was no colour in what he was doing, nothing technically in the visual spectrum, but Daniel could see the energy focusing and gathering. It was like the intricate weaves of energy were all visible. The complexity of the patterns forming under Alex’s control was breathtaking.

None of it made sense.

Alex had gone up a level, and now suddenly he could create this? Daniel wondered if this insight he was experiencing was unique or if he was slow to grasp something everyone else already knew. It was possible that being separated from the easy knowledge files might be a benefit rather than an impediment. He, unlike them, was forced to examine some of the more fundamental rules of this new world and this complexity Alex was forming changed everything.

Whatever that science event was, the collision that had generated the Alpha Physics particle, one of the primary outcomes was that it had created lots of the material that he had his chest. That the ferals possessed and humans had in the form of the interface grains. It was all the same stuff, and he had known that for days. In animals, they called them cores, but it was better to think of them as biological computational engines. Not brains. They were closer to computers through a speck of dust would outperform a super computer so the possibility of artificial intelligence existed and from Ivey’s coded comments it was probably more certain than that.

They were critical and one component of the event. The other was the chaos unleashed in those first few seconds. The conversion to the new physics had created some sort of energy whirlpool that sucked in things from elsewhere. At the macro level that was monsters, then the interfaces filled the next level down appearing to set up sapients for the changed world and to stop them all from turning into ferals. But what was unspoken was that there was more than that.

That vortex of energies also contained snippets of code. Instructions on how to achieve outcomes with the new physics. It was not believable that a human mind learnt how to create earth armour in those few seconds. It was impossible that multiple humans on various floors had discovered the same spell. The only explanation was that it had been seeded. The computational calculations that they had incorporated in their core to give them that ability had come from elsewhere. It was not just humans the same applied to the explosion of different magical abilities that all the mutated earth creatures possessed. His plant abilities, all that complicated code that he used when he changed the world were not the result of his biological brain achieving an extraordinary outcome in those first few seconds that far exceeded the parameters of what it had been designed for. It was not that. Rather, he and everything else had seized knowledge from elsewhere.

It was the same story with the speed ferals.

That speed up switch was not something ferals had created from scratch. Which was why there were different versions of the code to create the macro level effect of going faster. Distinct ways to accomplish the same outcome and all of them worked because the methods had been evolved and completed before it reached earth. Convergent evolution or something like that. All those snippets were floating around and if you captured them and combined them right, you found magic. Your brain could direct complexity that, in a void would have taken lifetimes of research and development to establish.

That’s what the lightning bugs did, the spiders and magpies. They had snatched stuff from the ether and moulded it to do what they wanted.

It’s what he had done with plants.

The computational engines were not the only change to reality. There were the fundamental alterations that allowed magic to exist. Yes, the computational engines were needed to master the complexity of casting magic, but the existence of these new building blocks was what those spell weaves took advantage of.

Daniel understood that.

The interfaces were different and till this moment he had not realised it. People had been talking about upgrading abilities and it had gone over his head about what that meant. The upgrades were new patterns to do the same as the previous ones, but better.

Daniel repeated that realisation in his head. The interfaces could have given the humans the superior calculation at the start. The delay in earning the better spells was artificial. He could understand raw power might take longer to be expressed and that people would need to grow with the system but a better computational pattern to do the same thing as what they were already doing. That made no sense especially since Daniel suspected that a low level fireball, with its inherent inefficiencies might actually take more resources to control than the more efficient versions above it.

There was more to it than that and Daniel vowed to uncover the truth, but that was a problem for later.

As he lay there watching what Alex was constructing part of that understanding clicked into place. The man’s new ability to put it simply was complicated beyond belief, and he had not snatched these patterns from nowhere when he levelled up. They had already been sitting within Alex’s interface. They had been there, lying dormant, stored away in the vast memory storage space represented by each grain of the computational engine. It had been ready to use and then, when Alex had levelled up, he had gained access to it.

No, Daniel told himself, that wording was too clumsy. The power was the same, but the level up had granted him access to the complicated patterns required to cast this spell. Theoretically, he had always been able to do the spell, but the interface had been stopping him.

Experience, level ups it was all artificial the realisation jolted through him. It was why he was so powerful he was not bound by those strange restrictions. Dave and the other mutated humans were free as well.

It was exploitable… maybe.

The sphere shot at him, and for a moment Daniel refused to grant it entry. Instead, he passively pulled out those structures and recorded them. He was only seeing the end result rather than the steps that must have been used to get to this point, but if the eventual spell structure was captured, he was confident they could be back engineered.

What he pinched from Alex’s spell was the code for the stasis field, and he was not as helpless as he thought. While he had a limited number of abilities, apparently in that chaotic first moment, he had snatched up sections of code dictionaries or at least something to let him translate metadata in the spell, if that was possible. He could directly decipher the weave of energy to a description of its function.

While he held the magic at bay, he catalogued the stasis ability. Here was a bit that kept cells alive by suspending movement, this section protected the skin from outside shocks, it was a little like earth armour, that bit recorded the current nerve pulses to reinstate when the effect finished and then that last fragment was a check to make sure the whole body was frozen because if only part of it was then you died….

Oh, Daniel relaxed all of his energy, and the complicated construct sunk down within him.

Then it rushed over him unrestricted.

Then…

He opened his eyes.

No relative time had passed, but his surrounding had shifted.

Alex was smiling above him. “Don’t panic, Daniel, we’ve got you.” His cocoon stopped him from moving, so all he could do was move his eyes from side to side. He was lying at about chest level for everyone else, possibly on a mattress on a table. The room was large with cheap polish, high ceilings, and he guessed it was probably one of the conference rooms that he had known about from the signs in the lobby. The space near him was crowded with people, and all of them had a determined look on their faces.

Daniel had not forgotten his epiphany… if he could copy spells… then what were his limitations. He could be better than anyone with an interface.

Ivey moved into his line of sight. “Daniel, we’re going to tip you on your back. Some others wanted to do it while you were in stasis, but I convinced them not to because I figured if you woke looking down you might panic and do a lot of damage in the resultant struggle.” He was not attached to anything to write words with, so he said nothing. “I know you can’t talk, but Alex will put you in stasis again, and then we’ll flip you safely. Yes, I know it’s inefficient, but we didn’t warn you the first time, and Alex has the mana. Don’t resist.” She smiled encouragingly at him. “See you in a moment.”

The energy Alex was building in his hands was nowhere near as complicated as the previous weaves that he had used. When it sunk into him, Daniel discovered that this was only an external freezing of the body. Cells, nerves, blood continued unimpeded.

Hands grabbed his cocoon, and he was spun around and then what had to be a root landed with surprising weight on his arm.

Motion returned to his body. Not that he could do anything with it.

“Can you feel your conduit?” Ivey asked

Daniel sunk his sense into it and then a short time later discovered the flower board.

Online.

“Good,” Ivey said smoothly. “I need you to prepare your spell and when you’re ready to start, then tell us. We’re here to keep you alive.”

Understood.

His mind went down the conduit and pulled the intelligence up to his level. The tiny calculation specs did not physically move in the plant, or at least the ones downstairs did not move. Instead, the programming was shifted up and initially rested within him. His mind sought the tiny specs of processors in the nearby plants and then he transferred the intelligence.

It took a couple of minutes to do.

First Step Complete.

He reported as his mind moved to the next stage, which was physically preparing the plant. Slowly, he gathered the processing specs into the vegetation near his wound. The cocoon rolled back to give himself access to the surgery.

He heard gasps and sucking in of breaths around him as the glass sticking into his back was revealed. Daniel felt some stinging pain and knew that the release of the tension of the cocoon had reopened the wounds. Healing washed over him, striking him and sinking in so fast that he didn’t have a chance to learn the pattern. He would do that later by getting Ivey to cast the spell a thousand times upon him, if that is what it took.

Once he was healed, and the survivors saved.

Healing and Tamara’s lightning spell to augment his own would be his fist targets. There was lots on his list, but that was a problem for later. For now, healing his body was the only priority and then maybe lessons from anyone who knew telekinesis because with a couple of pointers he was confident that he could master his current untapped ability.

Mentally, he smiled and pulled his mind away from the future.

For now, he needed to repeat what he had done with the animals downstairs.

He got ready.

The latest version of the Intelligence was there for him to use. Tiny explorative tendrils built up a three-dimensional image of his wound. The wounds created for the experiments had been accurate. A large part of the glass was exposed to the air, but there was a section with scarred skin tissue over the top of it.

“Is he trussed as well as the animals downstairs?” Someone asked suddenly.

Daniel paused and realised that the man’s point was not a stupid one. Once he started the process, the pain would make him react like the experimental beasts. Daniel was a firm believer in mind over matter, but that only went so far. With a surge of energy, vines exploded over him and strung him up tight. He could feel a slight tearing in the wound.

“Easy,” Ivey warned, but there was no need. He was not moving any further. It was done, and he was wrapped up tight. It was almost but not quite as good as the stasis that Alex had put on him

Secured, Daniel carefully went through the pre-surgery routine.

He felt sick that he was trying this, but it had worked with the animals downstairs, so he had to trust that he was ready. That or give up on fixing his body and live his life vicariously through his plants. Mind you, that might not even be an option. He had not eaten since the injury. Yes, they had dribbled water down his throat, but only that. In his current condition, if he was to eat, he would probably need to get healed between every bite.

If he stayed like this, it would be liquid slurry for every meal. It was better to take the risk than live the rest of his life like that.

All the probes were in place and all that was left to hope that the testing he had done was sufficient. Had he done enough? He wished there was time for more. It all felt too premature on an emotional level to take this leap of trust that what he had created would work as intended.

Daniel knew the facts. Extra testing wouldn’t help. The animals were too different and he couldn’t wait because the need to eat would only grow stronger. He had to do this… but the doubts crowded in.

Are you sure this will work?

There was an awkward silence from everyone around him.

“We’re sure.” Cindy said finally. “I’ll be able to keep you alive pretty much no matter what you do.”

But Ivey said if I pull out my heart…

A babble of sound erupted when those around read those words.

“Quiet,” Ivey said angrily. “I’ve just been honest.”

“She’s right.” Cindy admitted after a long pause. “I don’t think I can regrow a heart. Maybe I could, but what I’m confident of is that if it comes out we can push it back in and heal you then. My power is remarkable. The only thing I struggle with is bones.”

“That’s impressive,” Ivey said. “And if Cindy can do everything, she just promised then I withdraw my comment. You don’t need to worry. If we get the fragments in sort of the right spot with Cindy’s healing and my control, I can ensure it grows back properly.”

How?

Ivey laughed. “Not something you should be asking.”

Daniel remembered his previous epiphany. That complexity that Alex produced had been extraordinary. Realigning a few blood vessels was nothing compared to that, and he got the impression that Ivey’s interface was more senior than most and so had a greater level of flexibility.

“You’ll get through this I promise.” Ivey said evenly.

Going to start shortly.

“We’re ready,” Ivey told him.

Daniel triggered the mass of vegetation in his back and it felt like ants were biting into his skin.

Pause, bite, pause. In waves, they launched their assault. They wriggled inside of him, making relentless progress. Horror filled him.

His body tried to thrash to get away from the pressure and it took all of Daniel’s concentration to his consciousness from putting an end to the attack. It would only take a single thought and his magic could stop it, but he couldn’t do that. All of his focus was on stopping his magic from coming to bear. He had no energy to stop his body that attempted to break the restraints binding him. Daniel realised with surprise that he was stronger than the monsters that had been collected downstairs. There was a snapping sound as one vine gave away, and then his arm could move a few millimetres. Given time that extra leeway would let him burst clear fully.

Daniel focused on the intellectual problem of constricting his own body. The vines hardened and became more wood like.

The ants advanced.

He bit his tongue, and copper filled his mouth.

There were continuous waves of healing hitting him. He forced his consciousness down to the atrium to see if distance could help him resist what was happening.

Pain flared on his back, and he ricocheted straight back to his body. This was not something he could avoid and evade, but rather something to be endured. His muscles strained as he tried futilely to break the constraints holding him down. Daniel let them. Everything he had was focused on stopping his magic skills from being triggered. Lightning could fry the plant away. If he engaged strength, he could rip himself free and any of his plant options would stop the assault instantly.

Daniel persevered.

Fifty percent

Ninety

Ninety-seven

Ninety-eight

Ninety-nine.

And.

It felt like his insides were being assaulted by a thousand dentist drills, and he knew the last step had been triggered. He felt like a monster far larger than the huntsman had hooked him inside and pulled him out.

There was a jerk, a pop, the sound of glass shattering, and he was lifted fully off the bed for a moment before he collapsed down upon it.

“Heal,” he heard Ivey screaming.

There were gasps of pain all around him and a ridiculous amount of healing was flowing in.

“Stop.” Ivey ordered.

“But?” Cindy asked. “There’s more healing to do?”

“No,” Ivey told her. “Stop.”

The healing ceased.

“Why?” Cindy demanded.

“The healing is creating as much scar tissue as it’s removing.”

“I saw that too,” Carly said perplexed. “How does that work?”

Ivey tsked. “Something to do with him being injured for almost a full day.” There was a pause. “Everyone stay around. The danger is past, but I don’t think we’re done. We’ve saved his life, but we can do better.”

“What are you thinking?” Cindy asked.

“Now that massive chunk of glass is gone we do surgery properly.”

What?

Ivey ignored him and continued to talk. “Especially here.” She pressed on his back. “We’ll need to re-break at least one rib because it has set so poorly.”

“The heart is still damaged. You’re not considering open heart surgery are you?” Carly asked.

“No,” Ivey answered immediately. “The heart is stable. I think give me a day or two and I can carve all the scar tissue away and leave it as good as new with only causing Daniel minor discomfort. The rest of the scar tissue, I think we should do now.”

Do I get a say?

“No,” Ivey said and then laughed. “Of course you do. But if you don’t address the scar tissue in your back and the rib misaligned, you’re going to feel it whenever you fight.”

Can I check it out?

“Sure. You’re sort of healed. You can even talk.”

The cocoon he was in fell away and for the first time since he had thrown the lightning at the giant huntsman Daniel rolled off the bed wearing only his underpants. He didn’t even care about the fur everyone had seen it after all.

The stinging pain that had been accompanying even the slightest of his movements didn’t occur, but he could instantly feel what was wrong. Whenever he moved, he felt like bits of his back were stapled together.

Ivey nodded at his grimace. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“And my heart? Can I fight with that?”

Ivey bit her lip hesitantly. “I think if it beats too heavily, then there might be some small tears and require healing.”

“The healing needed won’t be that much.” Carly said quietly. “Providing a healer accompanies him he’ll be fine.”

“Maybe,” Ivey did not sound convinced. “I think we can fix the back now and the heart I’m confident will be fine. But some stress testing makes sense. Particularly if he uses his strength and speed buffs.”

Daniel snorted and winced as his back pulled. He remembered how hard his heart was left labouring after he pushed those skills too far. “If I survive using them, I’ll be fine.”

“I agree,” Ivey said. “Now, if you want to lie down and reinstate your bindings, we can finish this and then you can spend the last few hours of the afternoon saving some lives.”

“You serious?”

She smiled, and he could see her eyes twinkling. “I always wanted to be a surgeon.”

He tried to raise his right arm and couldn’t. He needed to get it fixed.

“And the surgery will work.”

Her eyes went unfocused and then Ivey nodded. “Yes, I guarantee it.”

“Great. We can do it.”

“And you don’t mind if I use your knife.”

“What?” he looked, and he saw the weapon she was holding. It was what he had got from the chest and possessed sharpening enhancements. A combat knife designed for gutting animals not operating on people.

“It’s not like we’ve got access to scalpels.” She grinned at him and realised she was trying to lighten the mood.

“I guess. Are you really going to use it?”

“It’s the sharpest available. We tested while you were unconscious.”

“Oh,” Daniel suddenly understood what she was saying. He was about to be operated on by a nurse using a dagger that was always as long as his forearm. It did not scream precise, accurate surgery. “Maybe this is not a good idea.”

“Don’t be silly,” Ivey said dismissively. “I’ve got an ability to help me do this.”

He was a hundred percent sure she was lying. When he looked around at the massive crowd around him, more than a few of them were amused with a small number looking sympathetic. “And you’re confident this will work.”

Ivey put her arm straight up above her head. “Do this.”

Daniel went to and his skin caught and he winced when his arm rotated to the horizontal position, which was a full ninety degrees from straight up.

She nodded at his restricted movement. “I’m not promising anything, but we should be able to improve that.”

“This is crazy.”

She shrugged. “This is Selim.” An Indian man moved forward. He had a paper thin moustache and was in his mid-forties. She handed the combat knife to him. “He’ll be assisting me.”

“You’re not doing the surgery?”

“I am Selim, is support. He used to be a dentist and when we were discussing the best people to remove the glass, the two of us were the consensus.”

“Dentist isn’t a doctor.”

Ivey grinned. “And nor is a nurse a surgeon, but I figure better than nothing.” She held out her hand, and Dave placed his twin knife in her hand. The mutated human gave Daniel a sympathetic look, followed by claws up and toothy grin.

“Screw you to Dave.” He snapped and Dave resorted to his barking laugh.

Daniel looked around at everyone who had gathered. There were over a hundred people here, and they were here to keep him alive. He remembered trying to lift his arm, to justify their faith he needed to fight properly and there was only one way that was going to happen.

“I guess we’re doing this.”

He jumped back onto the mattress on the table, and his previous cocoon instantly encased him. It would be painful, but afterwards he could experience being outdoors once more.

He missed his farm.