Fixer 13

  Chapter 17: Tests and Scans

  Education is critical in a fixer’s world. It meant freedom and choices. Without it, you are assigned the most menial of jobs, usually fixer cleaner if you are male or older female. Everyone had to work. There was no choice. Work was deemed critical to the survival of the species. If you chose not to work—and there were some who did—you were exiled to the Wilderlands and received none of the societal benefits. If you changed your mind, you would always be welcomed back as long as you were willing to become a functioning member of the fixer society.

  Education is always available if you could prove yourself able. Sometimes the requirements were difficult. Tech was very difficult and Biome Tech was the most difficult of all.

  Jayne and 91 exited the flier without so much as an acknowledgment of each other’s existence. They were individually directed to specific testing rooms in the neuroscience facility. Jayne, once alone, relaxed and waited. Her clothes were draped over a chair. She was dressed in a hospital gown. It was far from flattering. She was lying on her side, propped up on one elbow on the examining table while she waited for someone to arrive. A young man entered with a MED VID in his hands.

  He looked at her, looked at his VID and looked back at her and spoke. “Who are you?”

  Before Jayne could answer, he spoke again. “Are you Ranovich 91?” He looked up at Jayne. “No, I suppose not. It says male. You’re not male, are you? No,” he said, answering his own question. He swept the surface of his MED VID a few times and then he studied the screen. He looked up again and stared at her. He spoke, “You must be…” he paused and looked down again, “yes, you must be. What are you doing here? Get dressed. I will be back in two minutes.” He turned and left the room.

  Jayne got up and quickly put her clothes on, all the while keeping an eye on the door. Once dressed, she sat on the bed and waited. “Ranovich 91,” she thought, “that must be his name; the dark-haired boy’s name was Ranovich.”

  A few minutes later a woman came into the room. “Why are you still dressed? Didn’t they tell you to put on the gown?” She gestured to the gown now on the back of the chair. “Well, never mind. Roll up your sleeve. I need to take your vitals and some blood and you need to fill this.” She took an empty vial out of her pocket and waved it in front of Jayne. “Now let’s make sure you are who you are supposed to be. Look here,” she commanded and she held up a hand held retinal scanner.

  Jayne looked into it. There was a flash of light. The woman looked at the scanner and nodded. She took Jayne’s vital signs and a few vials of blood. A few minutes later Jayne was alone again, lying on the bed, propped up on her elbow—waiting.

  The young man came back and spoke, “Wu 13?”

  Jayne nodded.

  “Come with me. I am sorry for the mix-up. Did you get your vitals taken?”

  Jayne nodded again.

  “Good, follow me.” He strode out of the room and down a hall to a larger room with a number of smaller windowed rooms around its perimeter. The dark-haired boy, Ranovich 91, was sitting in one of the rooms. Jayne could see him through the window as she passed. He was craning his neck out from his sitting position in a chair, trying to see out the door of the room. He looked silly.

  The man took Jayne to one of the rooms and sat her in a large but comfortable medical chair that tilted and rotated in any direction. As soon as Jayne sat, the chair formed around her. If she shifted, the chair seemed to compensate for the changes in position. Jayne also noticed a section of the arm that probably held concealed restraints. She did not put her arms down on the armrests. She placed her arms in her lap and waited. The window into the room was mirrored on the inside so she could not see out but anyone could see in. She now realized why 91 was craning to see out the door. She relaxed and became ‘nondescript’. It was a good way to be if you couldn’t hide and you did not want to be noticed. At this moment in time, Jayne really did not want to be noticed.

  That was not to be. An older man entered the room. He was trying to be personable. He smiled. “Jayne, I am Dr. Thermonson. We are going to spend the afternoon together running a few tests. There is nothing stressful about any of them. In fact, they can be kind of fun. Some of the tests will have someone in the room with you and some will not. Sometimes, we will let you handle some small props and other times we will require you to look at images on the screen in front of you. The screen can be a mirror or a window or a video. Right now it is a mirror, as you can see.” He gestured to the mirror in front of Jayne.

  “A one-sided mirror,” stated Jayne.

  “Yes,” said the doctor. He frowned and asked, “Does that bother you?”

  “A little,” said Jayne. “It would be better if it was either a window or a mirror on both sides. Are there any cameras in this room?”

  “Yes. Do they bother you?” asked the doctor.

  “Yes,” answered Jayne.

  “You don’t like being watched?” he asked.

  “I don’t mind being watched as long as I can see the watcher,” answered Jayne.

  “Fair enough. I cannot shut off the cameras for recordings are required but I can make the viewport a window. When we need the viewport as a video screen, I will invite any observers to come into the room. Are you OK with that arrangement?” he asked.

  Jayne was surprised by this. In her experience, people in positions of authority did whatever they wanted and never considered her needs, wants or feelings. She nodded.

  “I have to set this scanner array on your head,” he said, as he picked up something from the small table behind her chair. He held it out in front of her. It looked like a gray skull cap. “It has a series of scanners that move over its surface during each test. It measures, records and transmits specific brain activities.”

  Jayne nodded again and said, “Like the connectome scan that Professor Greenway gave me a few months ago. He used a scanner that was different than that. It was smaller and was not attached to a skull cap like this one.”

  “Who?” asked the doctor.

  “Professor Greenway. He gave me what he called a connectome scan,” she answered.

  “You must be mistaken. The only place you could ever have received a connectome scan is here. We are one of two facilities on this continent that have the ability to record and read a true connectome scan. I have never heard of a Professor Greenway,” he said with an increasing level of irritation.

  “Well…” said Jayne about to argue. She paused. She thought better than to threaten this positive relationship with Dr. Thermonson. She continued, “I probably heard wrong.” And then to further distract she asked, “Does it hurt?”

  Dr. Thermonson smiled and spoke. “Not in the slightest. Shall we get started?” It was not a question. It was simply a statement of what was to happen next.

  He spoke into his MED VID, “Subject—Wu F 302875106592253 aka Jayne Wu; Test 1—Zener cards—No sender.” He turned to Jayne and handed her five cards with one symbol on each. He held an identical set of cards in his hand. “The cards look like this,” he said as he displayed the cards in his hand.