The Resonators worked tirelessly. Modelling potential solutions, running through all possible permutations. Had Bryce been awake, he might have thought of it as something similar to distributed computing. Except the processors were an ancient cognitive engine created by the Formulators for complex problems found across the star-bound expanse — and the newly created R2L cognitive engine, made and tuned for Bryce by Cognition, using Resonator’s core principles.
The chamber housing the stasis cradle was full of sound. It wasn’t loud or high‑pitched. It was barely audible. It was felt more viscerally — in the chest cavity, under the sternum — creating the feeling of tactile, vibrating warmth spreading through bone marrow, the spinal column, meeting the eardrums and agitating the sensitive membranes enough to pass through into the skull, through the nasal cavity, almost strong enough to move the vocal cords just by its resonance.
It was the sound of the Resonator and R2L sharing the harmonics of the ongoing search — with Cognition fully focused on deep evaluation, modelling and exhausting all ‘what if’ scenarios of the proposed solutions the Resonators were offering in real time.
The trio emerged from the depth of their staggeringly-complex search after three full Earth rotations. They had identified, tested, and rejected countless possibilities. Until Cognition approved the one that proved to be the safest, easiest option for Bryce’s health and — as Cognition was fast learning — equally important, his agency.
The intensity of their harmonic communications subsided slightly while Cognition ran the final checks. The Resonator was monitoring, R2L ran another silent system check on the stasis cradle and Bryce. The stasis cradle was holding Bryce and the mutation in a dormant state.
<R2L, confirm new directive.>
[Integrate with Bryce. Ensure biological hybrid pathway and Bryce’s autonomic pathways are working in tandem. Maintain the guided mutation of the hybrid pathway. Bridge the communication incompatibility between Cognition and Bryce. Stabilise and dampen LQTS hazardous inputs as a fail-safe. Guide Bryce in the Thorne Echo. Protect Bryce without stripping his decision making away.]
Cognition released a confirmation pulse. The Resonator joined it and R2L at the stasis cradle.
A trine assembled around the stasis cradle, with Cognition at the head of the cradle, the Resonator and R2L at either side of the bottom.
Cognition repeated the instructions, reran the tests on Bryce’s status, and they began. The harmonics of their effort filled the room with the resonant thrum. The restoration medium rippled, emitting a luminescent glow. They were weaving a hybrid pathway to serve as a buffer to Bryce’s own autonomic pathway.
That was the last step before Bryce needed to be awake. Cognition adjusted the cradle environment, scaling down the stasis in slow, measured intervals. Once complete, it was tempted to leave Bryce to regain consciousness naturally. It knew that impulse was not the correct one to follow if Bryce’s well-being was the priority.
“Bryce…” It rippled the medium gently, monitoring the responses from the cradle.
Bryce was dreaming. There was sound, vibration… The moments floating like vignettes of his life projected on clouds. It was — serene… The vibration resonated through him… comforting, though a touch melancholy. There was something familiar about it…
“Bryce, can you hear me?”
Cognition added depth to the vibration. Bryce’s brain was responding, slowly climbing through the frequencies until his eyes opened. He blinked, eyes open but not really comprehending.
“Ish, what’s happening?” Bryce managed to slur.
The abbreviation of its name disrupted Cognition in unexpected ways. Its thought process — stuttered. The awesome power holding aeons of information, data, analysis, time — skipped. One infinitely tiny moment. Real.
“Bryce, we are at the stage where I need your instruction.”
The reply was brief, like a gentle brush against his mind, and woke Bryce up immediately.
“Cognition, what’s wrong?”
“Bryce, the integration with R2L had to be postponed. We discovered a mutation which made the planned integration non-viable.”
“Please explain? What kind of mutation, and why would you have to stop the integration because of it?”
Bryce was calm. Whatever it was he was going to face it.
“By exposing your cerebral substrate to months of direct telepathic communication with me, I forced your neural pathways to adapt. This was not intentional on my part — it is also not an excuse for my negligence.”
“Adapt how?”
“Your neural cell structures specialising in communication — association fibres, thalamic relay nuclei, and their supporting networks — increased beyond baseline. Your system adapted to handle the cognitive load I imposed. Changes in your autonomic brainstem, thalamus and hippocampus meant we had to look at different approaches.”
Bryce felt unease spreading through him. He knew Cognition was holding something back.
“Cognition… Ish, whatever it is, please tell me. Omitting things is not helping me.”
“I understand, Bryce. I am experiencing reluctance to share the details with you. This is illogical. I wish to help you.”
“It’s ok, I can take it,” Bryce said with slightly more conviction than he was feeling. The important thing was — he actually knew he could take it.
“By exposing you to direct communication, even with a neural link — for months, I triggered the latent adaptability of your genetic code, and specifically your neural structures. Your system — your biological brain had to adapt as it was being restored. It was the only way it could cope with my thoughts. The Restoration Aerosol facilitated the rapid changes.”
“My brain began adapting to receive telepathic communication? I don’t understand why that would interrupt the integration… Wouldn’t that make it easier?”
“Bryce, if you had the necessary biological scaffolding to support telepathy — yes it would certainly make the integration more efficient. Your mutation runs further than that. Your neural pathways began building the basis for telepathic communication. Preparation for receiving and transmitting telepathically. There are several issues with this.”
“The most important is that any disruption in the autonomic brainstem could cause your heart to misfire, increasing the risk of a fatal LQTS episode. Next issue is the power required to run telepathy. Your body is metabolically not capable of generating enough ATP. First time you tried to project your thoughts you would end up in a coma as your brain tried to protect itself.”
“Can you explain ATP for me, please, Cognition — I understand it’s fuel, that’s it.”
“ATP or adenosine triphosphate is the molecule all your cells use as their primary energy source. Your brain consumes 20% of your body’s available energy, even when resting. Receiving telepathic communication is considerably less demanding than telepathic output. Both put your system under massive telepathic load leading to extreme ATP demand. Without established scaffolding and metabolic support, you would burn through your reserves in a matter of seconds. This would lead to neurons failing to fire, system signalling collapse, autonomic regulation destabilising (heart, breath, blood pressure…), loss of consciousness and coma.”
“Oh…”
“Bryce — I am remorseful. I didn’t account for all the possibilities, I didn’t consider your neuroplasticity, I forced my thoughts on you without regard for how it may affect you. Your species is not built to withstand it without a buffer. I am sorry.”
Bryce felt the emotion swell in his chest. He wasn’t angry with Cognition. Cognition saved his life, and the things it did to him was to try and preserve him. He felt betrayed by his biology, by a fluke in his genetic code. He was angry. So angry he wanted to smash something, punch something until his knuckles couldn’t take any more and his muscles gave out on him.
The fury bloomed in his chest, spreading through his body, climbing up his spinal column, heat licking at his scalp. His arms went up in a pugilistic reflex, muscles contracted so hard, it felt like his tendons were on the verge of ripping off his bones. His hands curled into fists, his knuckles white from exertion.
Finally a sound, a guttural, furious roar, ripping from the depth of his being, going until there was no breath left in him to support it. He slumped back, the rage spent, the Restoration Aerosol supporting him gently.
Cognition and the Resonators paused. The frequency emitting from Bryce was raw, disruptive and mesmerising. They didn’t initiate contact with Bryce. Cognition monitored his outputs with the Resonators on standby. Once the outputs levelled out, Cognition tried again.
“Bryce, are you able to speak?”
Bryce took a deep, trembling breath — the Restoration Aerosol glided over his raw vocal cords, soothing, filling his lungs with silk-like oxygen. He took a few more steadying breaths.
“I am.”
He left it in the space between them while he composed his thoughts.
“Ish, I understand. Everything you’ve done for me has been for my sake. This is the way I am choosing to see it. Whatever kind of experiments you were running, whatever oversights… I died. Cognition, I died. If you hadn’t intervened, there would be no me. My being, my memories, my desires, my search for meaning… It would all — be gone. Scattered in the ether. I understand. I am grateful for as long as I exist.”
He took another few steadying breaths, looking for the words to explain what he felt.
“I am furious. I am furious about the ridiculous odds I was handed. My own biology, my genes betrayed me. I’ve always been strong, fit, healthy. And I died, because my heart wasn’t able to cope with the stress I was putting myself under. And then — miraculously — you saved me. And my body decided to… What? To attack its own being, by building some useless scaffolding for something that would kill me if I ever used it, and could still kill me because of the disruption to my heart.”
He had to stop, before he started roaring again. He thought of suitable expressions to share with Ish, just to keep his editor brain engaged. A saying his mum used to use came to mind. He got the gist of it previously, but never fully understood it. Now he knew exactly what his mum was talking about.
“I am so mad, I could spit feathers!”
His raised voice rang in his own ears. He suddenly had a flash of how ridiculous this all was.
“Cognition, you said you found a workaround?”
“We have. It involves a hybrid autonomic pathway, engineered from your mutating cells. It would serve as a buffer and support for your autonomic pathway. It would filter telepathic input, stabilise your stress responses and act as a additional layer giving your natural cardiac rhythm time to correct itself. R2L will have additional objectives as well, some of which will include maintaining the guided mutation of the hybrid pathway. You will no longer be exposed to direct telepathic communication, being in the Thorne Echo, should also help keep your mutation stable.”
“Bryce, this only goes ahead if you decide it does. If not, we will look for other solutions.”
“I have one question. Will I ever speak to you directly again, Cognition?”
“Bryce,” Cognition resonated with what he hoped Bryce would understand as care, “I cannot answer that without seeing how you respond to the planned modifications. I harmed you once — I will not do it again. Even if it means we never share a direct mind exchange again. Now, please, how do you want to proceed?”
“I want you to go ahead, Ish. Install the hybrid pathway, integrate me with R2L. Get me ready for Thorne Echo.