E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

Just as we were ready to head down the path, leading us out of the village, Niko chased us down and said: “My dad want to speak with you.” He ran up to my dad and catching his breath repeated: “My dad wants to speak to you.” We stood and we stared at each other for a while. Maybe it was the begging look in Niko’s eyes but my dad set the cart down and turned to walk back toward the village. We set down our bags and walked behind him. Niko ran past us to go get his dad.

His dad must have walked out to meet us, because we saw him only 300 feet back on the path. He took my dad’s shoulder as he spoke. “You defied me. That is not OK. I have no idea what that Nano did with your daughter and what to expect from whatever it is standing back there.” – he pointed at me – “But I am a dad, too. I can understand why you did what you did. Besides, if that Nano wanted to harm us, he would likely have done it already. That’s what my son argued anyways. My son, he is too wise for his years. But I am wise too. I listen when I hear insight, even when it comes from lips of a child. He is right, you know, my son that is.

You have set out on the long journey, yet it is night outside. With no where to go, and no time to pack, you will surely perish, or be embittered against us. We have taken you in as one of our own and have been better off for it.

So, I have a dilemma. I don’t want you to go, my friend. And it is my son, not you who should be punished for bringing a Nano so close to our village. Yet, that thing behind you” – he pointed at me again – “she could not be your daughter. Your daughter was too badly wounded to recover so quickly.

I will tell you what I will do. Keep her in your yard, without leaving her home. Keep her from any of the people in the village. I will arrange for someone to come and take her to the Nanos. But you, you come back to your home. Where else will you go with two weeks till winter?”

My dad was about to scoff at this offer, but he caught a glimpse in my mother’s eyes, and he loved her too much to put her in danger of mountainous winter. After all, like chieftain said, it was already May, beginning of winter in southern hemisphere.

I could not understand the damage he was talking about, but before I could say anything or say goodbye, I found myself alone in the valley, less than a mile from my house. It all seemed but a dream. The note, floating next to me, was the only reminder of what happened.

“Dear girl, you may feel disoriented, but unfortunately, I will not be able to escort you back to the village. I cannot risk disconnecting again. Thus head up the stream for about a mile and you will see your village. You should know the way. I have interfered in your life too much. For that I am sorry. Sincerely, Dr. R. Rostkoff, Professor of Topioulogy.”

My body felt like it has never been better. It was only upon walking back to the village that I understood the tragedy of my plight. The cart that my dad used to get wood from the valley was filled with the many boxes from his workshop. He was handing out everything other than tools and books to the few villagers that braved the chieftain’s wrath to see him off. Mattresses and blankets covered the cart. The house looked abandoned. With no light. And only my mother, hugging everyone goodbye was busying herself outside.

When I came out of the bushes, my mom dropped and broke one of her pans. She looked and than ran toward me, stopped, looked with disbelief, than stepped toward me again. We hugged. We cried. The whole thing looked like the parting scene in one of my dad’s books: “Fiddler on the Roof.” Except, only my family was leaving.

I asked how was it than that he went to the village. His reply made me feel grateful, again for him saving my life and for risking his. He said that in order to get past the shield he left all nano devices behind and had disconnected himself from the Web for a while. He said that it was dangerous, since the rate of obsolescence is nearly instant, allowing others to capture him and nano-viruses to penetrate him. He left his shielded space; took the risk for me, a complete stranger. This made me feel special. It made me feel safe knowing that among all-powerful Nanos, there are people like that.

Getting all the patches up to date, was the other reason he had to get to base and stay in its safety for the night. The wireless net even in remote places is fast enough to keep up with the updates and traffic, but not when you fall a whole 40 minutes behind and trying to download medical files that have been obsolete since before singularity at the same time.

He must have seen me confused, so he added, “Yes, at times we live in a very difficult world.” But after last night’s counsel, one that I had about the best course of action after you drifted to sleep with some of my comrades, I have decided that I need to send you back to the village just as you are, and be as it may. I already intervened way more than appropriate and regardless of the the next action, the damage is done.”

I could not possibly sleep, my imagination was ignited. Yet, surprisingly enough, the second my feet went up on to the couch where I was reclining, my mind quickly transitioned in to deep sleep.

It took the bright sun of the next day to wake me up. The sun was glistening over the water. I saw myself on the mattress that was floating and rocking calmly on the crystal clear, beautiful shade of light blue water that was cool to touch. My body felt more rested than I have ever experienced up to that point in my life. But the whole thing was just too weird.

I looked around and saw a small, idyllic hut with a beautiful kebabs on the grill just outside it. The sea breeze mixing with the smell of perfectly cooked, wine soaked lamb was positively delicious. I thought back to last night and thought I was dreaming. Having concluded that I am in a dream, I decided to walk on water, to the shore. Not the wisest decision, mind you, if you have never learned how to swim. It was a rude awakening to realize that the water was in fact real, well as real as real as anything in the world of Nanos. I panicked. But when the panic subsided, I realized that the water was only knee deep and standing up was all that was required to avoid drowning. By the grill, the Nano from last night started laughing than caught himself when I gave him an angry stare. Surprisingly, by the time I reached shore, my close were dry. Nevertheless, I felt upset and powerless. Never mind that he saved my life last night. What are we doing by the sea, when he should be taking me back to my village? “Can you take me to my home now?” – said sharply. He asked if I wanted to go before or after eating the kebabs and without wiping the angry look of my face I extended my hand to grab a kebab.

By the time I finished the meet on the kebab stick, I saw our valley, but having had scenery change at will before, I asked him if it was really real. He said, that while he could easily create many duplicate worlds, or just rewrite my mind, he had no evil intentions and hoped that I would have learned that by now.

I had to ask him about other scenes and he explained, yes they were real Topious, recorded spaces, that he has shot in the past. They work by creating bubbles around individuals and rotating to supply the needed sensory information as each person moves. That way two people can be right next to each other yet experience being worlds apart, or the other way around. In fact, that was the reason he was in our valley, when he heard about me.

He said that the valley is between the shields, part of the refuge, but accessible to the Nanos who had a legitimate reason to be there, unlike the village, which was off limits.

Next thing I remember, was flying through space and a feeling of weightlessness. As soon as we flew past the woods, I experienced a complete release from pain. I could still feel some aching and my body parts rapidly coming in to alignment, but the excruciating pain was gone. I could not tell how much time has passed, because I was coming in and out of consciousness, but I did catch a glimpse of a gigantic honeycomb, which we approached rapidly. We merged right in to one of the openings. When I looked up at the Nano, he said that since I was Unenhanced and needed a lot of fixing, he had to download the right programming for his nano-robotics and was not willing to wait for over the air transmission speeds. We passed right through a wall, I remember being really amazed that the wall simply disintegrated before us and reintegrated behind us. Of course, now I know that in a world where each atom can be directly controlled by the programming, this is the norm, but being a girl from a Refuseniks village, this was beyond magic. Yet, I decided to not be surprised at all, and act like nothing happened. Even though, once inside, I saw a beautiful scene that looked just like the valley below our village I expressed no surprise at all. I did not know this was a projection and that the other spaces in the honeycomb were still there.

In front of me a table appeared and rapidly filled itself with beautiful, perfect fruit and flowers. But what really shocked me, was that when I reached for it, my body did exactly what a healthy body should do. I set up and clapped with amazement. Never mind not showing my surprise.

Here I was, sitting in a perfect setting, on the most comfortable seat, I have ever experienced, smelling beautiful aroma, and I started to cry. The beautiful young Nano, who I only later found out was 130 years old, did not say anything at all. He waited. I apologized for crying and said that I wished I knew more about the Nano world and that I would not have to go home ride away. To which he said that he would not let me go home today anyways, since he wanted me to fully rest up and allow my body to get used to itself again. But he would return me to my village early in the morning, after I had a good night’s rest. I was a bit surprised by his statement, but even more by what happened next: the whole scene around us transitioned in to dusk and then the late evening in about 30 seconds. He said, “This is what time it really is. You have been out for some time while your body was being repaired. I was just using daytime imagery because it seemed to fit the mood.”