“So, what is really going on?” Tanisha asked me when I got back to my dorm-room, after dropping Sophia off.

“What do you mean?” I asked, just managing to suppress a yawn, it had been a long, emotionally exhausting day, the talk with Sophia just being the latest bout. After my story, neither of us had felt a need to disturb the comforting sounds of the forest, the rustling leaves, the creaking trees and the occasional sounds of a bird, flying by, instead simply prefering to sit there, digesting the emotions talk of past events had stirred in both of us. But, while neither of us felt a need to speak, both of us felt a need to hold onto the others hand, not squeezing as if it was the only thing that kept us from drowning, like we might have done in the past, but simply holding it, taking comfort from the fact that we were not alone.

Shaking off the memories, I focused back on Tanisha, who looked at me questioningly.

“I am sorry, what did you say? I was lost in my own mind.” I asked, and Galatea, who apparently had paid attention, unlike myself, repeated Tanisha’s question, just as Tanisha did.

“I asked, what is going on with that Sophia.” Galatea echoed her but the actual Tanisha continued on. “I don’t believe for a second that she’s just a friend you knew in the past, or something like that, I might not know you that well, but I never saw you so…” for a moment, she struggled for words, “...so comfortable and relaxed.”

I had to smile at that, not quite sure that I wanted to explain my relationship with Sophia and even less sure what words to use if I did.

“Does it matter? The truth is, we know each other before I got to Accord Island, and I am incredibly happy that Sophia is now nearby. We can leave it, or rather, I will leave it at that and ask you to do the same.” I kept to the truth but left out large amounts of it, maybe I would tell parts of it at some point, but not now.

Tanisha looked like she wanted to ask more but shrugged and went back to the textbook she had been reading before. I, on the other hand, grabbed a shirt to sleep in and soft pants, getting into the shower before going to bed. While it was incredibly early, especially for me, I felt drained and wanted to sleep.

My decision to go to sleep as early as I did avenged itself when I woke shortly after three a.m. having slept longer than I normally did. But that did not change that it was the middle of the night and I could hardly go and wake Sophia to join me for breakfast, even if I wanted to. Instead, I went into the mental space I shared with Galatea, planning to get an early start on some school work. My plans changed when I found a message from Technica, not marked important or critical or anything like that, but simply a request to meet.

I considered why she might send something like that and remembered that she had suggested to the personal at the hospital that I might have something that could help them work. The nanites were the first thing that came to my mind in that regard, opening up treatment options that were so far outside the realm of the current state of the art that they would be on a different planet. Sure, micro-surgery had made quite a few impressive leaps in the past decades but still, there was a limit to the current tools. The nanites undercut those limits by an order of magnitudes, allowing for essentially non-invasive surgery, no matter where in the body. With them, cutting out a brain-tumor, buried deep in the patient's brain was little more taxing on the patient than, say, cut out a small mole or equally simple procedures.

Sadly, while the idea to be revered as the Technical Saint of Healing, abolisher of human ailment and founder of our glorious lady of perpetual exemption would be an awe-inspiring title, it came with drawbacks almost as severe as those I would face when publishing the fusion-reactor.

With the fusion-reactor, there were whole countries in addition to multi-billion corporations that had a vested interest in keeping the status quo, all of whom would have buried me and my fusion-reactor in the deepest hole they could dig. And given that some of those companies were oil-companies, they had access to quite a lot deep and dark holes. On the other hand, while I had no doubt that a lot of people wanted the cheaper electricity provided by a fusion-reactor, I was just as certain that none of them wanted to risk angering the powerful energy-companies by betting on a new but also unknown and unproven technology. But that was neither here nor there, I had no desire to light the fuse of a few political powderkegs by radically changing the geopolitical landscape.

Using the nanites to cure diseases was similarly problematic, just in different ways. One problem with them was that I would have to keep strict control, there were far too many ways that someone could abuse the nanites, at least if I improved them some. In their current state, they were essentially bound to an energy-source, for me that source were the energy-crystals I had in my arm, with long chains of nanites stretching throughout my body. That was a inefficient and rather clumsy solution and I planned to exchange most of those nanite-chains by using small microwave-emitters, but I had yet to do so.

And keeping them powered was only half the battle, the other, much harder, problem was that the nanites only worked thanks to Galatea and her unique ability to program and control them on the fly. Anything but an artificial intelligence had no chance to control them in real-time. Sure, I could write a program that let them work in a perfectly controlled environment, making them into an awesome 3D-printer with nano-scale resolution but that was far from what was needed for medicine.

But would people believe that, would they care? That, I doubted. There had been people doubting the ethicacy of modern medicine as long as modern medicine existed, claiming all sorts of conspiracy theories and I had no doubt that if I kept strict control of a possible nanite-treatment, which would essentially be a panacea, I would quickly be on the most-wanted list for everyone on the planet. It would be almost as disrupting as the treatment-idea I had for old age, back in New Brunsburg, and that idea I had buried as soon as I had it, not wanting to risk the upheaval it would cause.

That meant the nanites and their potential would remain a closely guarded secret but at the same time, I wanted to show Technica something she could take to the hospital, something that would show the staff there and the Guild in general that I was a worthy apprentice to their Councillor. I doubted that the fact that I looked like a younger copy of her would remain a secret forever, even with me changing my face in subtle ways, and when that happened I wanted to avoid questions about the legitimacy of the apprenticeship.

“And you want to make Grandmother proud, just admit it, Mother.” Galatea added, having manifested her own avatar in our shared mental space. She still made it look like me, only that now, she had affected a complete silver sheen, just like my nanite-arm looked without the glove.

Part of me wanted to instantly deny her words, that while I had craved approval from a parental figure when I had been a child, I had long since grown out of it. But I had learned a lesson when it came to Galatea, the lesson being that her unique perspective on my emotions and memories allowed her to see them a lot more clearly than I did.

“You really think so?” I asked, knowing the answer, but stalling for time, which Galatea would know. Her smile told me that she knew I was stalling and that I knew, she knew. Trying to argue with an intelligent being that knew your thoughts was slightly annoying.

“Maybe I do, but does it matter? If Technica is proud, I will have created something to be proud of. That will have to be enough for me and that will be what I will strive for.” I decided, pushing away the question of my motivation. I would complete my self-assigned task before worrying about the motivation for doing so.