Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 161
exam for now. He just wasn’t psychologically strong enough
to take an objective look at how much intelligence, memory
and will he had lost with 3340. He could treat his body
dispassionately, however, so he started with that.
His resources were painfully low. The gossamer
nanotech that made up his real body had unfurled from its
usual position at the spine, and spread throughout this human
form, right to its extremities. Nearly all his energy was
devoted to shoring up the body’s ravaged immune system. He
had manufactured nano to move in and repair the dead cells of
his own corpse, and until a day or so ago he had been warm
and breathing only because the nano had replaced normal cell
processes with their own harsh metabolism. Now the nano
were easing out of revived cells and were being reabsorbed into
his filamentary body. His strength was growing, but very
slowly. At this rate it would be many months before he
recovered fully.
He regretted having been so profligate with his power
when he arrived. To think he had detached parts of his own
gossamer and implanted them in humans, just to use them as
remote eyes and ears...
Armiger opened his eyes. He had completely forgotten
about the remotes. It wasn’t surprising, with everything that
had happened; they had always been a minor part of his plans,
the mental equivalent of posting picket sentries around a camp.
They did contain valuable nano, however. He could
considerably speed up his recovery if he recovered some of
that.
If it hadn’t been too badly damaged by the catastrophe,
he should still have links to each remote. They operated on
superluminal resonances, undetectable on the electromagnetic
spectrum; he had set up the links this way to prevent the Winds