Aurora in Four Voices Read Online Free PDF Page A

Symphony Hall. "That building must have public consoles."
    He could imagine what she would think of a grown man who could barely log into the web of a city where he had lived for years. He paused for a long time before he finally said, "Can't use them."
    "It has no console room?"
    "It has one."
    "Can't you link to your personal console from here?"
    His shoulders were so tense, he felt his sweater pulled tight across them. "No personal console."
    She blinked. "You don't have a personal console?"
    "No."
    "Where do you work?"
    "Library."
    "We can probably link into the library system from here." She watched his face as if trying to decipher his mood. "I can set it up for you."
    So. He had run out of excuses. After another of their awkward pauses, he said, "All right."
    He took her to an alcove in Symphony Hall. Blue light filled the room and blue rugs carpeted the floor. The sculpted white shapes of the public consoles made a pleasing design around the perimeter of the room.
    Soz sat on a cushioned stool in front of the nearest console. "Open guest account."
    When a wash of blue appeared the screen, Jato almost laughed. Only Dreamers would color-coordinate a room's decor with its web console.
    "Welcome to Nightingale," the console said. "What can I do for you?"
    "Library access," she said. "Establish a root directory here, standard branch structure and holographics, maximum allowed memory, full paths to available public nodes, and all allowed anonymous transferral options."
    "Specify preferred nodes," the console said.
    "One to produce a music simulation, given a representation of the score and a mapping algorithm."
    A new voice spoke in mellow tones. "Treble here. Please position score and define algorithm."
    Soz glanced at Jato. "You can take it from here."
    He just looked at her. It had sounded like she was speaking another language. He hadn't even known the computers she spoke to existed. "Take it where?"
    She stood up and moved aside. "Tell Treble how to access your files."
    "I don't have an account."
    "Everyone has an account."
    He had to make a conscious effort to keep from gritting his teeth. "I guess I'm no one."
    Soz winced. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way." She started to say more, then stopped. Glancing around the alcove, she said, "This room must be easy to monitor."
    "Probably." Did she think the Dreamers were watching them? "The drones keep track of me."
    She nodded. Any questions or comments she had intended to make about his lack of computer accounts remained unsaid. Instead she indicated a horizontal screen on the console. "If you put the statue there and give Treble the mapping for the fugue, it will make a hologram of the bird, digitize it, transform the map, and apply the transform to the digitized data."
    Jato wished he were somewhere else. This was worse than the business with the door at the Inn. At least then he had been revealing his ignorance to an inanimate object. "I've no idea what you just said."
    Incredibly, she flushed, as if she were the one making an idiot out of herself rather than him. "Jato, I'm terrible at this. Ask me to calculate engine efficiency, plot a course, plan strategy — I'm a whiz, like you with your art. Put me in front of a handsome man and I'm as clumsy with words as a pole in a pot."
    He stared at her. A whiz . . . like you with your art . She thought he was a "whiz." A handsome whiz, at that.
    Jato smiled. "You're fine." He motioned at the console. "So I put the statue there?"
    Her face relaxed. "That's right. Then tell Treble how to figure out the notes."
    He set down the bird, and two laser beams played over it, making the glitter sparkle. When they stopped, he said, "Treble?"
    "Attending," the console answered.
    "The angle a facet makes with the base of the bird specifies a note. It varies linearly: facets parallel to the base are three octaves below middle C and those perpendicular are three octaves above." He touched the statue, his fingertips on its wings. "Each