THE  SCIENCE  OF  LOVE

PART TWO:

Standing in his control room, Sid ran his fingers over the smashed-in front of the computer panel that had contained the programming he'd sent into the Maximus chip.  The General, unknown to himself, had had tiny chips inserted on either side of his head just above his ears. Sid had created a virtual world where he could send Maximus at will, a world so real that it seemed as though he were really there. The program had been arranged so that the General would have to face various situations and the information from his thoughts, emotions, memories and deeds would be relayed back to the computer. It had all been stored on the one "Maximus chip" that, after a time, came to contain the essence of the man the General was. Why? So that Sid could download it into his programming, could, in fact, merge who he was with who Maximus was, thereby creating the one perfect being.  It was to be the reuniting of the very Ying and Yang of  humankind.  Not that Sid was human, not...actually.

But there had been no way, none at all, to test the effect of the chip on Sid's systems. Still, he went ahead with it, obsessed with the wanting of it. As he stood there beside the ruined computer, he remembered vividly the moment he had downloaded the chip into himself, the wrenching agony of it as it invaded him in a way so utterly beyond all expectation.  He had thought it would be just one more program added to the hundreds already in him. He was wrong. Though the other, original programs remained, the Maximus programming took over, dominating everything, and gradually making Sid...human...not just in thought and emotion,

but in physical form.

(The story of this is told in The Prisoners in the Palace and in Desperate Measures.)

Sid had known Brianna for many years, mostly as the agent of his enemy and rival in nano-technology, Mikol Grovensky.  He had encountered her from time to time as she attempted to disrupt or preempt some mission he had devised.  Once she had even shot him with a arrow, expert with a bow as she was. But it was not until they were both within the film Gladiator that he had spent any real time with her. He smiled slightly, remembering how he had sold her into slavery in Zucchabar only to have her reappear in Rome. (See Lost in the Empire)

At the very moment Mikol had kidnapped Cort, taking him to his remote headquarters in the Czech Republik, (see My Heart In Stone) Sid had taken Maximus from the tunnel under the gladiator compound, warping with him and Brianna and the others of his team back to his own headquarters at NanoCorp. He had brought Brianna along for use merely as a pawn in his plans to deceive the General, to make him think he was still in Rome, a prisoner in some inner recess of Commodus' palace.

How could he have known that as he watched her do his bidding, as he observed Maximus developing feelings for her, that his own feelings would come into being? Always he had rather admired her. She was different from most women he knew, strong, competent, fiercely independent. He controlled her by threatening to reveal to Maximus that she was his employee now, that she knew well and good they were not in Rome, that she had set out under his orders to make Maximus fall in love with her.

He knew she already had feelings for the General and that he was intrigued by what he had seen of her in Rome. It was, he thought, a good basis upon which to build his scheme.  He just didn't know the degree to which her feelings had developed, nor that by his very kindness to her, Maximus would have her entirely in love with him before Sid could bat an eyelash.

He had implanted a single chip into Brianna's head as well so that she could accompany the General into the virtual world Sid would send him to. It was as he watched them, watched their becoming a couple, that he had gotten...involved.  Never had he wanted a woman as he wanted Brianna. And when Maximus took her, soiled, into the warm bath house pool, bathed her gently, swam with her, and...then. He closed his eyes, still not able to bear the memory of them naked together. It was then he had stormed into the room, making sure Maximus knew she was lying

to him, had only, ever lied to him. Sid had revealed to the astonished General that he was
so far from Rome as to be unbelievable, far not only in distance, but era. And then, without further ado, he had warped them both to a South Pacific island in the year 1248.

That Maximus was appalled would be putting it mildly. He had as little as possible to do with Brianna on the island, finding his own separate shelter, keeping himself apart from her. That had left it open for Sid to come, bringing supplies for her, slowly trying to win her over. He had downloaded the Maximus chip's programming into himself before he came. He just was, then, still unaware of the results of it. It was taking him over, more every day, until finally he had ceased to be nanotech entirely and was human, capable of growing hair, of sweating, of the

needs for both food and sleep. The final transformation nearly killed him and Brianna had

taken care of him, very wary at first, but gradually, irresistibly drawn to the Maximusness he now possessed. With the General's continued stubborn separation from her, she had responded to Sid's new humanity, his very ineptness at things human winning her smiles and then her heart.

They had been happy, truly happy, and when she found herself with child by him, he thought

to bring  her back  to modern  times to keep her and the baby safe.  He had  been  utterly enthralled at the prospect of  fatherhood, at the simple fact that he now had true seed that could reproduce, kind after kind. It meant...everything...to him.

But Brianna could not leave Maximus behind, alone, on the island without one last attempt at farewell. She'd found him, deathly ill in his cave at the end of the rocky headland, had tended to him for hours...for far too long. When she tried to return, the tide was in and she was dashed to death on the rocks as she attempted to make her way back to the beach.  Sid had come to the shore just before she lost her footing, had seen the huge wave take her, pushing her body deep into the water then cast her again and again against the jagged side of the headland.

As she lay dying in his arms, with her last breath she'd made him promise not to leave Maximus alone in the cave, but to send him back to modern times where he could get care.  He could still feel the knife that had slipped into his heart that this was what she was thinking, that this was what was important to her as she died. But he kept his promise, sent the General off into the modern countryside some 200 miles out from NanoCorp, not really caring where, not caring what would become of him. Only later did he discover that Caroline Wood had found him sitting against one of her trees and taken him into her home. (See In the Time of Fog)

Sid, when he himself had returned to NanoCorp, had brought Brianna with him, had the special room constructed so that he could preserve what remained of her. Maximus loved again, loved another, but Sid...all Sid wanted was his Brianna. He had gone through the process of removing the Maximus programming, an ordeal so infinitely worse than the downloading of it as to be indescribable in the horror of its pain. He had become fully nanotech again, but changed. Better. He himself had no real idea of all that had happened, of just why it had happened, but as he became again what he'd been created to be, it seemed to come with an...upgrade. He had new abilities, new strengths, new mental capacities and he used them to fine tune himself, to make himself even more perfect. Then the virus had been injected into his back, stopping his systems, changing them again in the process. The journey back through places that did not exist, added to it.

He stood there, alone, in his control room, the only one of his kind.  Perhaps he still remembered too well  what  it felt  like to love  and be loved?   Perhaps it was seeing the absolute fierce commitment that couples like Rachel and Cort, like Maximus and Caroline, had for each other ...the lengths they would go to for the other's safety and well-being, the sacrifices willingly made, the reward of being looked at by eyes shining with love? Perhaps it was all that combined, but Sid wished an...other. He wanted no new other, he wanted Brianna.

He had the ability, the know-how, now he did, to be able to create nanolife.  He could "build" himself Brianna, a nanotech that would look exactly like her.  But it would not...be...her.  He needed that, absolutely required that.  And there was one thing that might just give it to him.  Her chip. The one still embedded in her head. If it had not been smashed on the rocks, he could yet retrieve it and feed its information into his creation.  

He rubbed his hand across his smooth chin. Yes, it just might...work.

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