The Nexus

[TheWomanWhistlingTunesPianos]

Miller pushes up her glasses and dramatically pulls the covering off of the object she intends to display. Beneath it is a small chamber filled with a clear gelatinous substance. In the "gelform" floats a nude Kusari girl, her blue nerves partly visible beneath her, curiously, unscarred skin. Her hands are bound behind her back and she has a breathing mask strapped to her face.

"This", Dr. Miller points to the girl, "is the second subject of my research into exogenic nerve integration." Miller steps aside, letting the various Consortium members and researchers present view the subject. She presses a switch, turning on the speaker connected to the subject's breathing mask at a low volume. The girl's low, rhythmic breathing can be barely heard. "As a result of its nerve replacement, the subject is hypersensitive to all external stimuli. It's for this reason that it's been placed in a state of sensory deprivation. It can usually hear people speaking just outside of its containment but not much farther and it certainly can't see or smell anything outside the gelform containment."

"Sensory deprivation", Miller explains to the audience in her heavy Bretonian accent, "causes most exposed to it to believe they've died after mere days and hyper responsive to stimuli. They will cling to the first person they can reach after being released from it. Subject II's sensitivity is only heightened further by the deprivation however make no mistake believing that it's cruel to keep it deprived. It would be in constant pain from the shrill sounds around her, the bright lights, and anything to make direct skin contact would range from slightly painful to unbearable. This gelform is for the subject's own protection. This also brings up the reason why its hands are bound, which many of you may have been wondering. A few weeks into its containment, the subject apparently developed an intense desire to self terminate and attempted to drown itself in the gelform by removing its breathing tube. As a result, its hands have been bound and its breathing mask made so that it won't come off. At most it can manage to force itself to fall unconscious."

"Observe." Miller uses the back of her hand held note pad to give the container a hard knock. The girl in the tank squirms in the gel and her soft whimpering comes through the speakers briefly. "It's quite an unpleasant sound. The gel dissipates the vibrations almost immediately."

Miller taps on her note pad, presumably bringing up new points to go over. "Now for the positive aspects of the nerve replacement. I must start with the subject's background. Subject II was, prior to this, a student at the University of New Tokyo attempting to obtain her second PhD at only age 24. I found her researching broad area data transmissions here in Kusari. In her reports, she has recordings of transmissions from nearly every major organization in Kusari space. She had even made a recording of a few, presumably low priority, transmissions from this Consortium. She had been fascinated with prospect of a collective consciousness. It was at this point that I encountered the subject in an escape pod in Hokkaido clinging to a handheld containing an, as of yet, unbreakable transmission. I still have her research but I felt the subject to be a perfect specimen for my experiment given her high intelligence."

"Subject II very well may have the fastest processing, still human, brain in the Sirius sector as a result of the nerve replacement to compliment its natural intellect. On top of that, Subject II will often fixate on whatever outside stimulus I provide to it. Sometimes even ones that cause it physical pain. Most of all, Subject II is hyper responsive to anything that brings it information. While it was not integrated into the hive mind of the exogens, I have infrequently allowed it access to closed data banks. The speed at which Subject II processes information is astounding. At least fifteen times the rate at which the human brain should be capable of processing."

Miller turns off the speaker and shows a figure displaying the amount of money it costs per week to maintain Subject II. "As you can see, this subject's needs have exceeded my limited budget and I lack the necessary equipment to conduct any further experiments on it. I would like to present Subject II as a gift to the Consortium to ensure our continued cooperation in research. You may use it for whatever purposes you see fit. Thank you; any questions?" She looks around at the audience.

---

Miyo - Exposing the truth no matter what!

Margery - I... have calculated the exact value of Pi.

Mel - Mel will take out the garbage, now~

Ayu - Everything happens on my patrol, doesn't it? :igh::

Amarantha - This won't hurt so much, mon ami.