A slow, gently talkative evening on the beach has managed to leave me pretty relaxed at last. I guess I really have been thinking too much about why I’m here and not enough about what I’m here for. After a day of gentle introduction, now is the time for me to try and begin to make sense of the problem.

To that end, I’m down in the lab before almost anybody else is even in the building. Naturally, I have the place to myself and it gives me the perfect opportunity to have a little practice with the interface to the Link.

“Aidan, Call from Jordan”

<Accept the call, Nexima>

“Morning Aidan. You’re in early today. Are you keen to get going?”

“Yes, let’s call it that.”

“And really?”

“I started learning to surf yesterday and I’m so bruised that I couldn’t sleep.”

“I didn’t know that people surfed on Sevrin. It’s a bit too cold and the sea too unpredictable round here.”

“Well, I didn’t know that it was something as common as it appears here. There’s no problem with the water temperature in the city, but we never had the big waves like they do here.”

“You’ll have to vision share it with me when you get good enough,” he tells me.

“I doubt I’ll ever get that far.”

“Yes, you will. You just need lots of practice. Once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature, just like any other learned skill.”

“I suppose. Anyway, what are we doing today?”

“I thought we’d take a closer look at the actual hardware. Just bear with us for a moment.”

“Argus, start a virtual session in the lab with Aidan please.”

<Yes Jordan. Just one moment.>

There is suddenly a blinking spot in my vision, a little off-centre on the left. Within a few moments, a figure begins to materialize in the spot, revealing a young man with blonde hair who is about 15cm shorter than I am. He smiles at me and motions me towards the vast block of machinery in the centre of the lab.

“Jordan?”

“Yes, who else. Should I have warned you about the technology?”

“No, I just wasn’t expecting it to be so convincing. The quality of your avatar is stunning.”

“Well, when you do group virtual stuff on your normal implant, there’s only so much bandwidth to go round. The processing systems are shared out across the population as a whole.”

“Yes, I see. Argus is doing this for us, isn’t he?”

“He sure is. He has processing horsepower to spare and we have designed the labs to be identical at each end. Argus has access to the full array of cameras and sensors in each lab. I’m seeing you just as clearly as you are seeing me. Pleased to meet you.”

“I’d shake hands, but obviously that won’t work. I seem to have too many new things to get used to at the moment. This is just another one, I guess. Do you have any more surprises for me today, Jordan?”

“No, I don’t think so. Come over here and I’ll show you what parts of the apparatus do what. It will help you to see what all those controls we studied yesterday actually affect.”

Jordan leads the way over to the centre of the lab where we can get a clear view deep into the heart of the dense equipment racks. He tries to point out what each block of hardware is doing and how the parameters of that part of the equipment can control the singularity.

Up close I can see that he has sapphire-blue eyes and a pleasant smile that lights up a face that I’m struggling to not call pretty. The virtual version of him is incredibly convincing. It almost feels as if I’m right beside him, almost as if I can feel his warmth. If he was really here with me, I’d be afraid that I was getting a little heated by his presence. It must be the energy coming from the link.

“I still get caught out by just how tall you all are,” he tells me when we step back into the more open space by the desks and terminals. “Here, I’m one of the tallest amongst my friends.”

“Sorry, gravity’s a pleasure,” I tell him with a smile. “I’m pretty average at about two metres. Peter’s daughter, Cassie is only about 170cm though.”

“Well, that makes sense. Peter is about the same height as me. You’d be snapped up as a basketball or volleyball player here on earth.”

“I’d be exhausted in thirty minutes though.”

“Maybe. You could train up for that quickly enough. It’s not as if you’re going to suddenly get shorter if you have a slight change in gravity.”

“No, but it works both ways. If you were here on Sevrin, you’d be able to run faster and jump higher than I can. You look like you carry your weight well. You’re definitely more muscular to my wiriness.”

Jordan looks at me very intently, just the slightest hint of a smirk on his lips.

“Okay, Jordan, what were you just thinking? You’ve got a look on your face like a thirteen-year-old who’s just seen someone naked.”

“No, sorry, it was nothing.”

“Jordan?”

“I really am sorry. I’m being incredibly rude and unprofessional.”

“Well, now you have to explain yourself. What were you thinking about?”

“Well, the though occurred to me because we were talking about the tallness of humans on Sevrin. I couldn’t help wondering if other anatomical parts were similarly elongated.”

“Fuck’s sake! You really are a thirteen-year-old, aren’t you?”

“Aidan, I’ve already apologised.”

“Hmm… Okay, it’s almost a reasonable thought from a scientific point of view, even if it’s a weird one. I can’t help. I’ve no point of comparative reference.”

“Look, I’m a scientist and this was purely scientific curiosity.”

“No, it was just you being a bit of a pervert.”

“That as well.”

“Next, you’ll be asking me if the girls have bigger breasts because they should be easier to support in the smaller gravitational field. Before you ask, again I have no point of comparison.”

“No, actually not interested in breasts at all.”

“What happened to this conversation?”

“It degenerated into childish teenage discussions about sex, just like all conversations between males do eventually.”

“No, Jordan, they don’t”

“Oh, well they do when I’m taking part in the conversation. I thought it was universal.”

“Sorry to shatter your well thought out theory, but it appears that this is all down to you and you alone, Jordan.”

“Looks that way. And I thought I had a really good scientific research project ready for when we finish this one.”

“That’s not something I think we are going to do any time soon.”

“So, you have been thinking about the link, then?”

“Of course, Jordan. I just don’t quite see anything that we can even investigate as a solution just yet. Everything I’ve thought of as a possible solution needs some technology or theory that we just don’t have any answer for right now.”

“Well, even if that’s the case, Aidan, don’t dismiss them all on that basis alone. What if the only solution to the problem needs us to come up with a new theory about something. At least then we know what we need to do. And we might have the added bonus of the spin-off helping in other fields as well.”

“Yes, you’re right, of course. I’m only just beginning to put thoughts together in any serious way. I think it’s time for me to go and spend some time thinking in my office. That and get something to eat. I skipped breakfast this morning.”

“Yes, that’s probably a good idea for both of us. Even though we’re at the start of a daytime clock cycle, I’m already falling behind. Shall we reconvene tomorrow and have a brainstorming session then?”

“Yes, Jordan. I’ll see you tomorrow morning again.”