SiSU: - Accelerando

Accelerando
project, thinking, Is that really me? Is that what I look like to her?
as the cladistic graph slowly rotates before him, denuded branches
spread wide, waiting to be filled with the nodes of the alien interstellar
network just as soon as he can convince Aineko to stake
him the price of the depth-first tour of darkness.
* * * 2431
Manfred used to be a flock of pigeons - literally, his exocortex dis- 2432
persed among a passel of bird brains, pecking at brightly colored
facts, shitting semidigested conclusions. Being human again feels
inexplicably odd, even without the added distractions of his sex
drive, which he has switched off until he gets used to being unitary
again. Not only does he get shooting pains in his neck whenever he
tries to look over his left shoulder with his right eye, but he's lost the
habit of spawning exocortical agents to go interrogate a database
or bush robot or something, then report back to him. Instead he
keeps trying to fly off in all directions at once, which usually ends
with him falling over.
But at present, that's not a problem. He's sitting comfortably at a 2433
weathered wooden table in a beer garden behind a hall lifted from
somewhere like Frankfurt, a liter glass of straw-colored liquid at his
elbow and a comforting multiple whispering of knowledge streams
tickling the back of his head. Most of his attention is focused on
Annette, who frowns at him with mingled concern and affection.
They may have lived separate lives for almost a third of a century,
since she declined to upload with him, but he's still deeply attuned
to her.
“You are going to have to do something about that boy,” she says 2434
sympathetically. “He is close enough to upset Amber. And without
Amber, there will be a problem.”
“I'm going to have to do something about Amber, too,” Manfred 2435
retorts. “What was the idea, not warning her I was coming?”
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