Chapter 16
Activation
Bianca stood before the operational sphere. It was of a dull grey metal with two hinged doors. They stood, open, and inside were a small, bare couch, contoured to a person's form. The arm rests and foot rests had grips on them, and there were straps across the base and head rest. Crystals grew from the inner surface of the sphere with their translucent white tips pointing inwards, like daggers.
After a pause, she gingerly stepped over the threshold, directly onto the couch. She had removed all her clothing, but for a short, thin under tunic, all her jewelry and any trace of magic implant or spell. The only magic she kept was the shield on her soul.
She turned, squatted on the couch, and eased her legs into the rests, pulling back against the grip with the top of her foot. She leaned forward, and fixed two straps across her calves, and two across her thighs. Her pelvis eased back and she fixed a wide strap around her hip and another across her chest. With a little concentration and magical energy, the remaining straps tied themselves holding her arms, shoulders, and head in place.
A crystal to her right flickered and Lilly's face appeared. “Strapped in?” she asked. Bianca nodded. “Step 13 complete. Moving on to step 14.” The doors swing silently shut and the sphere became completely dark.
Lilly counted down the checklist, and Bianca responded as needed. It had been designed with as little input as necessary from the operator. It had been designed for an operator that was a 15 year old girl. Bianca was nearly ten years beyond that and had her stoic composure to keep her focused. It was no wonder Lilly had been an emotionless shell when they found her. It was probably the only way to operate an Ævatar and stay sane.
Bianca felt the sphere lift, and the machinery levitated it up and into the tank with the Ævatar. After a while there was a buoyant rocking, as it floated on the artificial amniotic fluid. “Step 38, flooding the chamber,” said Lilly, and then stopped. “Are you ready for this, Bianca?” Bianca took a deep breath and nodded.
There was the sound of movement and a pressure change. Things got a little warmer but that was all for a while. Then she felt wetness on her heels. This raised up to her ankles, and then over her feet. It was, roughly, body temperature, which felt warm at first, but quickly became neutral. The liquid crawled its way up her legs, then her body, finally reaching her neck.
She knew what came next. She had done this twice before. It was the hardest part of the process. The fluid rose up her chin and over her face. With a tremendous fight against every natural urge, she exhaled, blowing bubbles as it rose past her head and inhaled the fluid. Despite her efforts she still thrashed and resisted. But there was no way to release the straps and she had no choice but to succumb in the end. She wrestled her mind back into control and willed her heart rate down and focused on breathing in and out the thick fluid until she no longer felt it.
“Are you OK?” asked Lilly. “Shall we move on?” Lilly sounded cold. But Bianca knew she had just retreated into her own childhood nightmare, but this time as the operator.
“Good to go,” said Bianca. Her voice sounded odd. The acoustics were considerably different when immersed. But Lilly understood, nodded, and moved down the checklist.
Several steps later and she was adsorbed into the Ævatar. It was more than Lilly's recited steps. More than several other diagrams appearing on the crystals of the inner surface. Something felt qualitatively different. It was like an enormous presence was standing behind her, watching her intently, and she couldn't turn to look. She became conscious, once more, of her breathing. As it sounded in her ears she felt as if the noise of it masked another breathing that started and stopped when she started and stopped.
Lilly moved on relentlessly. Magic poured into the system. Crystals glowed as more and more systems were energized. The sensation of paranoia eased as other distractions arose. Some systems had problems. They had to triage those and work on which ones were important, and which could be skipped. They weren't taking the Ævatar into battle. Not today. Sub-optimal conditions from long storage were not blockers right now. Lilly took meticulous notes on what they did and did not do.
“Primary preparation complete,” said Lilly. “We can proceed to activation.” She rolled up the scroll she had been reading and picked up another. “Are you sure you want to do this Bianca?”
“Yes,” said Bianca. “But slowly.”
“All right,” said Lilly. “Preparing to bring activation level to one part in twenty.”
A surge of magical energy suffused Bianca. It felt as if the pressure was increasing around her. She curbed her increased breathing. Her hands tingled on the armrest grips. She flexed them, but it almost felt as if they were magnetically drawn to them. Similarly she no longer felt the restraining straps. They had merged into a single compressive force uniformly distributed over her body.
“Steady at one part in twenty,” said Lilly. “Are you in discomfort?”
“Yes” said Bianca, uncharastically peevish. “I'm strapped down underwater being irradiated by magic.”
“Are you in any spiritual discomfort?” clarified Lilly.
Bianca closed her eyes caught some of the magical energy that was coursing past her. She sought inside her essence and felt the small hard lump of her soul shield. “Shield intact. No stresses,” she reported.
“I concur,” said Lilly. “No undue pressure on your Soul detected. Will and Animus synchronized at one part in twenty.”
“Bring it up to one part in ten,” said Bianca.
Lilly made notes on her wax tablet. “One part in ten,” she echoed.
Magelight crawled over her body and the crystal interior of the sphere. Everything glowed a little brighter. The tingle increased, but with it she felt elation. She felt no pressure. Her Soul was intact. This was the highest level she had been at before, briefly. It was then they detected the Ævatar forcibly ripping her Soul from her through the protections they had erected like spider web. But she felt none of that now. Instead she felt empowered, as if her muscles were magically enforced. She gripped the restraints tightly, although she felt, if she wanted, she could rip them to shreds.
“Steady at one part in ten,” said Lilly. “All readings nominal.”
“I concur,” said Bianca. “The shield is working.”
“No deflection detected. Not even slight,” said Lilly.
“One part in five,” said Bianca.
“One part in five,” echoed Lilly.
Bianca explored her feelings. She tensed and relaxed various muscles. The echoed breathing had returned, but instead permeated her whole body. When she contracted, she felt it contract in turn. It was like being in a dream, or slightly drunk. It was a feeling of immortality. Of omnipotence. She felt the power of the Ævatar. She knew what she could do with it.
“Steady at one part in five,” said Lilly.
“I feel the synchronization,” said Bianca.
“Yes,” said Lilly. “Monitoring is confirming. Let’s try a basic test.”
“Are we ready for that?” asked Bianca.
“One in five activation is enough for basic motion,” said Lilly. “Try to touch your finger to your nose.”
Bianca glanced down at her hand. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“Concentrate,” said Lilly. “The restraints are there to help you. If you could just do it, you would. You need to focus your Will; project your Animus.”
Bianca closed her eyes. She understood this in principle. The Ævatar was a blank slate. It was a constructed being with no metaphysical properties. It could do nothing on its own. It took the Will of the operator to give it meaning, desires, and motives. The magically enhanced Animus of the operator then was projected into the being and acted as its own proxy Animus. A mage such as herself was more in tune with her metaphysical limbs, but nowhere near as facile as with her physical ones.
She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then she moved her limbs against the restraints. She t
ried not to mind that her limbs did not actually move. She assumed they did and brought her imaginary hand to her nose. Then she opened her eyes.
“That's a good start,” said Lilly. She was looking from monitor to monitor. “We got some motion from the Ævatar. That's very good for a first time. Let’s try it again.”
Bianca sighed and tried it again. There was an odd discontinuity. Before, the phantom limb effect had followed her own motion. This time, since she didn't in fact move at all, it appeared to precede it. After a few more times, she could disconnect from her own feelings, and judge precisely where her phantom limb was. She smiled and opened her eyes.
“Very good,” said Lilly, drenched to the skin.
Bianca started, “What happened?”
“You need to build a little more control in. It's getting a little wet out here.”
Involuntarily Bianca move to sit up. Another wave of amber liquid splashed over Lilly. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. “Bring the activation rate back down,” said Bianca. “I think we've done enough for today.”
“OK,” said Lilly. “Reducing to one in ten.” She made motions to controls on the console. A frown crossed her face. “Something's wrong.”
“Something's wrong?” asked Bianca. “Clarify. Please.” She felt her heart rate increase.
“It's...” started Lilly. “Activation rate climbing! One in four.”
Bianca willed herself steady. She checked the soul shield, but it appeared intact. “Turn it down Lilly. Deactivate it.”
“I can't,” said Lilly. “The controls are frozen. There's a... red force... covering them. I don't know what it is. One in two now.”
“Pull the plug. Disconnect it from the strategic mana reserve!” said Bianca, panic slowly rising.
“I have,” said Lilly frantically. “I don't know where the power is coming from. There's a... smell. Activation rate three in four now.”
“That makes no sense,” said Bianca. She dared not move, or even think of moving. She had the power to defeat the gods, but no control. This was making no sense. What could be powering it?
“Five in six now,” said Lilly, helplessly. “Seven in eight.”
“No,” said Bianca. She started to exert her Will. Willing it to stop. To be still. To withdraw. But it was like trying to pick up a fish. Something struggled there, but she could not grip it.
“One in one,” said Lilly, swallowing hard. “Full activation.” She banged her fists on the console. “Nothing. Nothing. It's all red.” A look of confusion crossed her face. “It smells of roses...”
The operational sphere went dark. Bianca felt as if a hole had opened in the world and that she was suddenly being poured down it.