New Manaus lay glowing across the water, dome heaped upon luminous dome, like a foam of blue and green bubbles washed to shore. It sat within and upon the abandoned city of Manaus, and the silhouettes of crumbing rectangular structures only showcased the elegant lightness of its appearance. Lilijoy sat entranced, the only sound the gentle lapping of small waves from the lake upon the shore. After several minutes she turned to Anda.

“People live there? How many? Are we going there? Can we go there?”

The questions came out in a rush, and Anda smiled as he said, “Yes. About one hundred thousand, not yet and yes we can go there. Eventually. I have arranged to stay in a safe place in the old city. No one will even know you are here, which I think best for the time being. The owner is away, so we should be safe from any unwanted attention, as long as we can get there unnoticed.”

Lilijoy, still gazing across the water at the magical sight, simply said “Uh huh.” She was a little disappointed not to see more of New Manaus, but also a little glad. She felt like she was full to the brim of wonders and new experiences, and was more than content to have a chance to quietly digest.

They drove along the far side of the lake, tracing its shore. She could see lights from other hovercraft and boats moving out on the waters, but they were all closer to the glowing city. Anda kept the lights off on their craft as full dark came, but he had no trouble as he was using augsight to navigate. They came to shore more than a mile down from the new city, after passing under a huge crumbling bridge and began to make their way through abandoned streets and burned out areas. Several times Lilijoy’s sensitive eyes picked out some kind of creature scurrying off the road as they approached.

“Cats.” Anda explained when asked. “They eat the rats, who eat the roaches. It’s what passes for biodiversity these days.”

Lilijoy didn’t know what biodiversity was, but she wasn’t in the mood for another lecture, so she let it pass. Soon they came to a fielded area and several large rectangular buildings that had stood the test of time. As they approached one of the buildings, a huge segmented door began to open, rising up just enough to allow entry for the hovercraft. They drove in and the door rolled back down behind them.

“We’re here,” Anda said.

‘Here’ turned out to be something called an ‘abandoned military supply depot.’ The hovercraft came to a rest, and they disembarked. Lilijoy looked around the cavernous, nearly empty space, lit by faint red lights. The floor was flat and hard, with huge cracks running every which way. The walls were an odd rippling metal that stretched up to rusty cross pieces framing tubes and ducts on the ceiling above.

Anda pulled a cord out of a box from the wall, and the sounds he made as he walked to attach it to the hovercraft bounced around the room brittlely. They walked in silence to a door in the far wall, somehow not wanting to fill the space with their voices.

After passing into the small room behind the door, Anda said, “The place we’ll be staying is a bit separate from the garage. Have no fear, it’s much nicer than what you see here,” referring to the mounds of moldering paper and broken furniture filling the room. He navigated around the piles of junk carefully, with Lilijoy following. There had obviously been no effort made to make the trip from the garage easy.

Soon they were in a hallway, then turning through heavy double doors to a set of descending stairs. At the base of the stairs were still more heavy doors. Andy glanced over at Lilijoy as the doors made a sharp buzzing noise and clicked open.

“The area down here was built as a refuge from weapons dropped from the sky. The entire city could be flattened, but anyone past these doors would most likely survive. Or so they thought anyway. Happily for them, this city was one of the few in the entire remaining world that did not experience military conflict. Sometimes it is good to be isolated.”

As the doors shut behind them, lights came up, revealing a large open space.

“There used to be more protective measures, but the current owner remodeled,” Anda said in a wry tone.

The floor was soft and fuzzy, and felt amazing on Lilijoy’s battered feet. There were several seating areas, black couches and chairs that looked puffy and swollen to Lilijoy. Past the seating areas was a very large table with chairs all around it, and against the far wall were six large oval pods. Lilijoy just wanted to throw herself into one of the cushy chairs, curl up and go to sleep.

So she did.

***

She awoke to Anda changing the bandages on her injured arm. A hissing sound and an astringent smell were accompanied by a tugging sensation on her shoulder, and she realized he had moved her arm out from her body to spray it with one of those canisters that she had found in the hovercraft, or something just like it. She made a small sound of greeting and he looked over at her. Seeing she was awake, he winked, and then began to wrap her arm in a fresh set of bandages.

“I hate to say, but I am worried about your arm,” he told her. “Somehow, it is not infected, but the tissue damage is extensive, and if I had to guess, would require surgery to repair. This is not the kind of thing med bugs are good at, even if we had any.” He thought for a moment. “My understanding is that your bugs blocked your ability to move the arm, as well as the pain. Is this correct?”

“Yes,” she said. “The voice told me ‘All motor nerves and sensory systems to the affected area have been blocked.’” She imitated the flat tone of the voice, which brought a smile to Anda’s face.

“Do you know how to regain movement?” he asked.

“No, but usually you just need to think at them really hard three times.”

“Do you need to click your heels together too?” He had a teasing look in his eyes. “Pay no attention to the man behind your bandages!” He ducked his head behind the roll. “Don’t worry, Lilijoy, that will make you laugh someday!” he said as she smiled tentatively at him with with confusion. “Can you try it now for me? Say it aloud too, so I can hear the command you use.”

She said, “Let me move my arm,” three times. When that failed, she tried “Unblock my arm.” Anda suggested “Unblock left brachial motor nerves,” and “Stop blocking left brachial motor nerves.”

After ever more frustrating attempts, Anda sighed.

“The fundamental problem seems to be that the auditory interface is limited. While you were enjoying the scenery on our drive down here, I was thinking about the best way to help you, and this has really enforced my conclusion. Lilijoy, how would you like to learn to read?”

She looked doubtful. “Do you think I can? I don’t even know all the letters, just the ones I pointed at for Marcus.”

“There may be a quicker way, but even if there isn’t I think you would pick it up very fast. You are a very bright young woman, my dear.”

She searched his face for any sign of teasing, and then gave a quick nod. “What is the quick way?”

“We are faced with what is sometimes called a ‘catch 22’,” he explained. “You see, one of the very best things the bugs can do for us is help us to learn quickly. They can remember things for us, and it can be very hard to tell the difference between our memory and the bugs’ memory. Sometimes it takes a moment or two to retrieve information, but then, our own memory isn’t actually instant either; sometimes it can take me days to remember something! Some kinds of bugs can reinforce learning by enhancing our sense of reward when we make connections. There are bugs that help our nerves grow and fire faster, and there are bugs that show us how to do things and help us to identify correct results. Some can do all of these things, and more.”

He continued as he wrapped her arm.

“The odds are very good that your bugs have at least some of these abilities. In addition, we know your bugs already have some understanding of language and writing. Whether they can truly understand, or just recognize words from a list in their memory, they should be able to do the same for you. I believe if you could talk to your bugs, you could be able to read almost immediately, at least words that they already know, which are by definition the words you will need to read!"

Lilijoy felt a spinning sensation as she tried to follow Anda’s argument. “So you are saying, if I could talk to my bugs, then I could read, but I can’t read so I can’t talk to my bugs?”

“That’s just about it. But sometimes a paradox is only a question of perspective. I’m guessing that there’s a way out of this one.”

“What’s a paradox?” she asked.

After some sleep, she was now in the mood for a lecture. She was growing to love the sensation of filling her mind with new ideas. Except it wasn’t really ‘filling’. New ideas made new spaces, and the more she put in, the emptier it was.

“Oh good!” His eyes became excited. “One of my favorite subjects. Let me give you an example. Listen carefully to my next two sentences.” He paused to make sure she was ready.

“My next sentence is false. The previous sentence is true.”

Lilijoy was not impressed. Why would someone say such things in the first place? Talking about talking seemed a good way to waste a lot of time! But it seemed important to Anda, so she gave it some thought. So the false sentence is true, and the true sentence is false. But that just makes them switch again. Then they’re back where they started. Out loud she said, “The sentences are spinning around each other.”

“Isn’t it great! The two opposites move around each other. There is no meaning but the motion caused by the relationship. Wiser minds than mine have felt that reality itself is nothing more and nothing less than the spinning movement of opposites that define each other.” He pulled out a small tablet they had found sitting on the table. It was much like the one Marcus had used to show her letters. There was a picture on the screen.

“This is the taijitu. You can imagine each color is one of the sentences and the shape shows the movement. Black is called yin and is where the first sentence starts, with negation. White is called yang and is where the second sentence starts, with affirmation. Now try this one.” Again he paused just a bit for clarity.

“This sentence is false.”

He raised his eyebrows and waited a moment for her to process. “What do you think that is in our picture?”

Lilijoy considered the sentence. It too spun, all by itself. It was one thing that contained the same motion as the previous two things.

“That is the whole circle!” she announced with excitement.

Anda looked at her. “..for too much knowledge is a curse,” he said, almost to himself. Then he shook his head a little and said, “Lilijoy, never feel bad about what you don’t know. Remember this time in your life, for you see the world more clearly than anyone living in that city.”

He gestured broadly toward one of the walls.

“Now, how does this help us with our reading problem?”

Lilijoy thought and thought. She needed to read so she could learn to read. Not reading and reading spun around each other, but the spin was uneven.

It’s not a real paradox, she decided. If the bugs could read and talk, then they could read out loud and she could follow along. She just had to figure out if they would do it for her. She thought back to her first session with Marcus and knew what to do.

“Interface mode. Interface mode. Interface mode.” There was a silence, and Lilijoy began to resolve herself to learning the long way. Then the voice spoke.

“You are currently on auditory interface with minimal icons. Would you like to change the interface mode?”

“Yes, yes, yes!”

She would have been repeating herself even if she didn’t need too.

“Please choose from the following list. Speak or think the number of the selection three times to select.

One: Standard interface, visual output, visual slash mental slash vocal input.

Two: Visual output with audible in context, visual slash mental slash vocal input.

Three: Visual output, kinesthetic slash mental input

Four: Kinesthetic output, kinesthetic slash mental input

Five: Custom sensory interface.

To repeat these choices, please think or state ‘repeat’ three times. To cancel this process, please think ‘cancel’ three times or do nothing.”

She knew it was in there somewhere! She had it repeat the options, and this time she echoed them out loud for Anda to hear. He was nodding and shaking his head as she spoke the various possibilities.

“I’ve never heard of some of this,” he said. “How would a kinesthetic, a movement based, output system even work? I would love to know what the possibilities are in the custom interface too. We may need to go there, but I am betting the second one will do what you need. Audible in context probably means the system detects when you can not give your attention to the visual field. Let’s see if it will do what you need.”

“Two, two, two,” she said.

There were her old friends, a single line of the ‘scratches’! Except now her mind easily recognized the shapes as familiar and unfamiliar letters in clear word groups. Without the panic of her earlier ignorance, she could take the time to calmly assess what she was seeing. The voice did not speak, so she tried looking around the room, past the text.

Immediately, the text became nearly transparent and she could see without interference. She wondered briefly why it just didn’t do that in the first place. It could have spared her so much anxiety! The voice however, remained silent. Perhaps it assumed she had already read the message before it faded.

Still, it was progress!

Maybe she could trick it by looking around while using a command she already knew? She thought ‘repeat’ three times, and began jogging around the room, watching where she was going. The voice started talking!

“Current interface mode: Visual output with audible in context, visual slash mental slash vocal input.”

She followed the near transparent text with her eyes as the voice spoke, and could feel connections emerging, as if she had always known what the words looked like. And apparently, slash was not a word, but a symbol, a slanted line. This was amazing!

Without warning, she felt an impact and fell to the floor. She had run into a couch! She looked over at Anda sheepishly, but with a grin from ear to ear.

“It’s working!” she announced. “But I probably should figure out a better way than running around.”