THE  SCIENCE  OF  LOVE

PART THREE:

Sid looked at the Maximus computer once again. He'd smashed it after his return from the island, so angry he'd been with all that had gone awry with his plans. Millions upon millions spent for nothing. No matter. He had no further use for Maximus, not at the moment anyway.  What he needed would be found on the tiny chip in Brianna's head.

Leaving the control room, he headed down the central corridor of his inner compound. No one was there but him. He'd made sure they were all out of it, had changed the access. No one would...or could...disturb him. Stopping by the med section, he pocketed a scalpel and a bit of gauze. No need to worry about infection. Not now. In a moment he had entered the white room again and stood looking down at her face. How human she was, even in death.  He would fix that. With a grim smile, he pressed a concealed button and the clear coffin top lifted and folded back.

His hands hesitated. He had not touched her in a while and when he finally permitted his fingertips the lightest contact with her cheek, he cringed at the blank solidness of her flesh. When life left, it took with it everything that was light and sparkling.  Pressing his lips together, he turned her head, making a small incision then using the scalpel to slide the chip free and onto his left palm. How very tiny it was and yet it contained...ah, yes, that was the question. Just how much did it contain? Would it be enough?

Withdrawing a little case from a pocket, he slipped the chip inside, closing it securely. It would be enough. It had to be.

Turning her head back again, he rested his palm on her chest. She was a solid lump, heavy with the absence of life. He didn't like it so, stepping back, he closed the lid and quickly left the room. He needed to think, needed to plan the steps he would take. It had to be right. Everything had to be right. Reanimating her flesh was not what he wanted, not now.  He would never go back to being human again. Not ever. And he needed a female counterpart who would match him, be close in her being to what he was. Close, but not...quite...equal.

After he'd placed the case in a wall vault, he went to his office, sitting in his chair, swiveling slightly back and forth as he thought. It was this new self-awareness he had now, this ability of each of his parts to "know" as though an entity on its own, that would enable him to do what he wanted.  Closing his eyes, he sat silently, his focus turned inwards.  Every so-called "cell" of his communed directly with his brain, all their patterning, all their composition immediately available, completely understood.

He thought back to the "creator" that he had killed in Virtuosity. What pitiful creatures the nanotech scientists had been. They had designed his programming, had then given him form and substance outside the computer. His mind traveled then outside his compound to where other, non-celluloid men toiled at their microscopes and computers. Pathetic, all of them. Nothing, less than nothing compared to him. It would never even enter into their thoughts what he had become, what he was capable of.  Looking in a blank computer screen he saw his own reflection.  He had been perfect before. Now he was more than that. He had surpassed perfection itself. He had gone where the mind of man could not follow. He liked that. It was, after all, only right, only proper that it should be so.

Yet...why...could he not get past smiling blue eyes looking up at him, eyes filled with invitation, with wanting? The Maximus chip had damned him to a wanting. Perfect and more he might be, yet still he...wanted.  But there was no 'other' for him, no one to respond to his wanting with wanting of her own. Nor would there be, not...unless...he made it.

Cocking his head, he peered at his reflection. He knew...he simply, entirely knew how every part of him was put together to achieve the result that was...Sid. All he needed to do was to duplicate it, only modified into female form.  Perfect female form. Brianna. And then the chip. It should work. It would work! He would make it so.

Rising, he went down the hall to his main laboratory, taking stock of supplies. He had most of what he would need already on hand. A few other items could be got from the science center of NanoCorp. That would be easy enough. Another could only be found in a secret Russian laboratory deep beneath the Urals. Also no problem.  The rest he would have to invent himself.

Thanks to Terry, he had gone beyond the need for warp technology.  Ever since the blissfully unaware K&R agent had broken the DVD, thrusting Sid into nothingness, his ability to travel had been entirely...simplified. He knew this without having tried it again because he knew everything about himself now. NanoCorp had shut down for the night, everyone gone except  Biebe making one last check and the several guards posted here and there about the buildings and grounds.  The only reason Sid was being cautious was that he did not wish his presence known by anyone.  Let them all think he was trapped, immobile, back in Redemption.  They would be less annoying that way.

He thought himself into the NanoCorp central science laboratory. It was as uncomplicated as that. He moved from where he was, passing instantaneously through nothing, and into the lab. Pausing, he scanned the large area. He had designed it himself a few years ago and except for a few obvious, recent modifications, it was basically as he knew it. Gathering what he wanted, he returned in the same manner to his own lab.

It took him...even him...a full month  to gather  or create  everything he  needed to  make his counterpart. The technology of it was nothing less than astounding. And still there were so many unknowns. He had become what he was not only by careful calculation on his part, but also by accident and by attack.  What he was  now  creating would  be entirely the result of his calculations.  Yet he worked in a constant state of anticipatory excitement.  And as the tubes and wires and microchips and everything else, a seemingly endless myriad of microparts, began to take shape under his hands, began to look...human...the intensity of his excitement mounted.
Never pausing, he worked around the clock day in day out, his lips pressed together but curving in a slight smile. New ideas kept coming to him and he made constant modifications.  He even modified himself in minute ways, improving upon perfection.

At last he paused, standing beside the large table upon which his creation lay, an unclothed, perfect female. He let his hand run down her neck, hover lightly over her collarbone, then cup

a breast. Yes. Soft, supple, giving under his touch just as Brianna's had done.  With a fingertip he traced down her torso and goosebumps rose along the line of his movement.  She was not flesh, no, she was better than flesh.  His gaze moved back up to her face, Brianna's face in every way, every slight freckle, every eyelash.  He dressed her then in the soft, draping white in which he loved to see her, with gold-colored sandals on her feet. Leaning close, he let her breath, soft and warm, caress his cheek, and then he kissed her, his tongue tracing her lower lip before he pulled his head back. He wanted her. Already his body ached for hers, but she was still simply the form of a woman. She looked like Brianna but was not yet Brianna, possessing neither her mind nor memories.

"Soon," he whispered. "Soon my sleeping beauty will awake."  He touched her hair, his eyes very serious, and went into his main computer room. Slowly he opened the vault and took out the small container with the precious chip. Sitting down in his swivel chair, he held it in his palm a while, just staring at it. The final thing. The most important of all. The one thing without which all the rest was empty. He closed his fingers, one by one, over it and lifted his fist to his mouth, pressing his knuckles against his lips.

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