The Way Back (Champions of the Crystal Book 4)

Chapter 14.7

"We developed a genetic template for repairing Scotty's body," Tirqwin began. "We had to use more Wayfarer material than we hoped. I am afraid when we are finished, his physiology will be only about thirty percent human. But there are advantages to that."

Sabrina could tell Tirqwin had chosen to begin with the easy news, so she tried to accept this calmly, preparing for whatever horrors would follow. "Scotty with your strength and endurance? He'll be unstoppable. Just tell me he won't have your mental abilities."

"No," Tirqwin said. "He will not have those. The brain is, of course, the trickiest part of the reconstruction. I am not sure how much you know about human neurology, Sabrina."

He was sliding into his professorial mode, trying to get comfortable there and distance himself from the information, she thought. "Next to nothing," she replied. This was no time to worry about exposing her ignorance. "Nobody on our world seems to understand the way our brains really work."

"There is a reason for that," Tirqwin said, a faint glimmer of humor flickering across his gray eyes. "It is complex, but in a way that is quite different from how my own brain works, for example. At first, we hoped we could simply remove his brain intact and store it until his body was ready for it again. This procedure is frequently done in the creation of Wayships and would be reasonably routine. However, on closer examination, we found that Scotty's brain is too badly damaged by the radiation to be viable for very long, even given a healthy body."

Sabrina blinked. She only realized she had begun to shiver violently when Ford put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close enough to lean against him. She tried to say, "There must be something you can do," but no sound came through her moving lips.

"There are still options, Sabrina. There is still a chance," Tirqwin said hastily.

Ford said, "Go on, Father."

"Normally, when a brain is removed to a Wayship, it is first scanned and the data stored in a specially built matrix. Then, if some mishap occurs, it can be reloaded into the brain if necessary. However, given the nature of the human brain, we are not sure how successful this procedure would be for Scotty, especially since when we are finished, his brain will no longer function as a human's. The memory patterns might not make sense to his new brain. Even if they do, I fear the radiation may have disrupted his memories, and the scanning and reloading procedures may scramble them even more. It might produce a worse effect than simply retraining him."

It was a moment before Sabrina could speak. "But a person is the sum of his memories, Tirqwin. Without them, he won't be Scotty. And just telling him who he is and what he's done won't produce the same effect."

"You are correct," Tirqwin said. "It will not. But it might be better than driving him insane with a lifetime's worth of fragmented memories."

Sabrina hugged herself, shivering. Ford's hand moved up and down her back in an attempt to comfort her, but she barely felt it. "What do you suggest, Tirqwin?" she said at last, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice. "What's the best chance for him?"

"I think we should proceed with the scan, get as much of his mind as possible safely stored and hope it isn't already too damaged. Then, when his new physiology is stabilized, we can try to determine what the chances are of a reloading being successful. I...I think I should mention that there is still a significant chance of error in the genetic reconstruction, too, Sabrina. But that should all be repairable, mostly a question of trial and error. His mind is another matter; if we decide to try to copy his stored memory into his new brain and it fails, we cannot undo it."

"Couldn't you just load a few memories, see how it goes?" Sabrina asked.

Tirqwin shook his head. "Human minds do not work that way, Sabrina. Memories are not stored in specific places; they are all interconnected. You do not remove memories by cutting out specific cells, for instance. There is no way for us to isolate any specific memory and load it into Scotty's brain in any way that will make sense to him. And that is another thing. Even if the memories are successfully copied into his new brain, the specific electrochemical sequences used to trigger or retrieve those memories may no longer work due to his altered biochemistry."