Post-Human 05 - Inhuman Read Online Free PDF

flickering on and off as though it were on an old filmstrip. “What the—is that…gravitational lensing?” He turned to James. “Are you bending space-time?” he asked.
    “I’m using the mass effect for propulsion,” James confirmed.
    Old-timer was silent in his astonishment as his neck craned, following the outline of the lensing that was even larger in space than Europa.
    James smiled. “Let’s admit it,” he replied, “it’s still pretty damn impressive.”

7

    “Okay,” Old-timer said, “so explain to me how you’re not a god.”
    “Gladly,” James replied. “Have I ever explained to you how I was able to calculate as accurately as a computer in my mind, even when I was a child?”
    “No,” Old-timer replied. “I always assumed it was because you were the world’s foremost genius.” He shrugged. “I guess I took it for granted and didn’t think about it any further.”
    “Genius is relative,” James answered. “What is genius? We could debate a definition forever, just like we debate a definition for consciousness. What I can tell you for sure, though—what we learned from the brain scans I gave to the governing council—is that I have a unique and very fortunate form of synesthesia.”
    “Synesthesia?” Old-timer reacted, his eyes narrowing slightly as his memory collected a definition. “Isn’t that when people’s senses get confused? When they see music for example in the form of colors?”
    “That’s right,” James replied. “In my case, however, I can see numbers as colors and shapes.”
    “Seriously?” Old-timer asked, surprised to learn this new information about a person he considered to be one of his closest friends.
    “Yep. Here, look behind you,” James said as he and Old-timer shifted their positions so that they were partially facing the surface of Europa behind them. “One of the reasons I love this moon so much is because I can see a beauty in the topography that other people can’t see. It took me a while to figure out that other people couldn’t see it, mind you; I thought everyone saw the world the way I did when I was a kid, but then, when I asked them…” he shook his head as he remembered the silliness of the moment, “…they thought I was nuts.”
    “What did you ask?”
    “I was looking at a tree during a break at school, examining the bark, and asked one of my classmates, a little girl, if she thought the number sevens were as beautiful as I did.”
    “Uh…what?”
    “Yeah, that’s how she reacted too,” James replied. “That’s when I realized that the hallucinatory world I saw overlaid on top of what you and everyone else sees was something that I alone saw. You see,” he continued as he pointed at a cluster of lines and circles on the surface of the moon, “those lineae and lenticulae down there, when you see them, you see a series of random shapes, whereas I see math .”
    “Math?”
    “Yep. Math.”
    Old-timer scratched his scalp near his brow. “And what does the math look like?”
    “For me,” James replied, “it’s a gorgeous, awe-inspiring, synesthetic landscape.”
    Old-timer exhaled, even though he wasn’t really breathing—his new body didn’t need to. “You’re losing the bet, James. You’re supposed to be smart enough to convince me that this isn’t supernatural and godlike.”
    “I’m not even worried,” James replied, confidently. “I’ll win. You know what my favorite synesthetic landscape is?”
    “No,” Old-timer shrugged. “I still don’t even know what the heck a synesthetic landscape is.”
    “My favorite synesthetic landscape,” James pressed on, completely undeterred, “is pi.” He gestured to the curvature of Europa, moving his arm in a flourish to trace the shape with his finger to further emphasize the point.
    “Pi? I’m assuming you don’t mean cherry…”
    “I mean 3.1415926535897932384264338327950—”
    “Okay!” Old-timer exclaimed with a laugh, holding his hand up to