The discomfort increased. ‘Yes, well, as I said we had been developing various technical approaches to communicating with your race, and one research group had gone further and were working on a method to open a link between parallel worlds so that they could transfer physical objects. I think that they had picked up some aspects of human science and melded them with their own knowledge: your wireless broadband internet links have been a great boon to us, incidentally, as they have made vast quantities of material accessible. One other thing these researchers seem to have acquired was a most un-saurian degree of impatience. They decided to test their theories, not in some remote place, but by dramatically contacting a member of the human race.’
‘I take it that I was the lucky one. Why me?’
‘They had become aware of you through your broadcasts and web articles, and it was clear that you had both scientific understanding and the skill of communication. They felt that you would make a good intermediary.’
‘So what went wrong? I nearly died.’
The embarrassment became palpable. ‘Yes. Well. What they discovered, the hard way, was that there is some kind of energy difference between our parallel worlds, or perhaps energy is released at the receiving end by the act of opening a physical link; exactly what happened is not yet completely understood. When they opened the link, that energy release caused the explosion and fire in your home. In fact, the energy flow continued for as long as the link was open.’
I digested this for a moment. ‘So how did I come to survive?’
‘One of their team saw that you had been fatally injured and had the presence of mind to slap a repair patch on your body before the link was closed.’
‘Repair patch?’
‘It is our standard first-aid measure in the event of accidental injury more serious than our in-built repair mechanisms can cope with. It consists of a kind of plaster or adhesive bandage which is rapidly absorbed into the body. It is impregnated with a broad spectrum of substances to reduce shock, fight infection, stimulate the formation of a protective seal over wounds and carry out repairs; both short-term and long-term, including the reinforcement of genetic material. We developed this to be pan-species so we could use it on animals, but didn’t know if it would work on you. It seemed worth a try, though.’
‘Genetic material.’
‘Yes. The repair patch is very powerful; it carries out a kind of scan of the body, identifies any injuries and deficiencies and does what is needed to put them right. Given time, it can even stimulate the regrowth of missing limbs. It seems that while the repairs were going on, your system absorbed some of the genes carrying saurian characteristics and this led to the changes in your body, and also in your mind. This does not happen with our native mammals, but your body clearly reacted differently. Again, we don’t understand why and our geneticists are most keen to discover what happened.’
‘I see. That explains a lot. Just one thing, though; if you ever develop a repair patch for humanity, please add some anaesthetic!’
‘I’m sorry, our inbuilt systems control pain automatically, so we didn’t bother to provide that.’
I sensed a residual degree of discomfort about something still unsaid. ‘What else?’
‘The experimenters also had time to take a small genetic sample from you, we hope you don’t mind. We now have a complete picture of your genetic makeup before the changes which affected you. We now urgently want details of the genetic changes you have experienced, so we can discover exactly what happened and why.’
I thought about this for a moment. ‘Why did you take so long to contact me? You could have told me all this months ago, and it might have saved a lot of trouble.’
Primo’s mood became apologetic. ‘There was an intense debate here over what to do about you. We were conscious that revealing our identity would immediately cause a Stage 3 change to your world, and many thought that such interference would be fundamentally wrong. However, more pressing concerns eventually overrode this.’
My head suddenly started aching and Primo instantly made his apologies and withdrew. ‘I’ll contact you again when I’ve recovered,’ I said. I slowly took off the headnet and sat waiting as the headache receded. I had, to say the least, a very great deal to think about.
I ran through the “conversation” in my mind. I gradually became aware of something which the novelty of the mind-link had initially concealed: the saurians’ minds were different from human. Their thinking was slower, calmer, more deliberate, moving with a glacial kind of logical inevitability. Their minds felt as strange as their voices sounded. I suddenly remembered something that Luke had said:
‘You are different, you know, apart from the obvious. You were always very excitable and talked so quickly it was hard to keep up, but now you’re much calmer and more deliberate, and you seem – not colder, exactly, I think that “dispassionate” is the word I’m looking for.’
I also remembered how calmly I had accepted a transformation which should have seen me screaming over the edge. I felt a chill running down my spine. The repair patch had done more than just change my body and add some abilities; the rewiring of my brain had changed my personality. I had always assumed that the changes were superficial, but was now forced to admit to myself that I was no longer entirely human in any sense; I was a hybrid of human and saurian.
That evening Freya returned, her air of excitement preceding her into the house.
‘Great news!’ She announced cheerfully. ‘You’ve been invited to address the General Assembly of the United Nations – they’ve just started their regular annual session!’
My response was muted, my mind full of the link with the saurians.
‘Aren’t you pleased?’ She was clearly deflated.
‘Yes of course,’ I answered automatically. Then the potential use of this opportunity struck home. ‘In fact, I’m delighted; I have a lot to say to them.’
‘Good! You’ll be provided with help to write your speech, of course.’
I could imagine the sort of speech which the UN officials would like me to make, and smiled inwardly. ‘That won’t be necessary, thanks; I know what I want to say.’
She radiated a degree of concern. ‘It is usual for such speeches to be vetted first by the Secretary General’s office.’
‘Not this time. I have some surprises in store, but I can assure you that no-one will be disappointed in what I have to say.’
‘Right’ she said dubiously. She brightened up again. ‘Anyway, we have to get you some more suitable clothes. You can’t address the General Assembly in jogging kit. I’ve arranged for a tailor to visit tomorrow.’
The next few days were a blur of activity. I woke early each morning – I needed little sleep anyway – and spent hours mind-linking with the saurians, my head under the bedclothes to conceal the headnet. One very useful trick they taught me was how to tune my mind to block out the raucous background noise typical of a major city while still remaining receptive to people close to me. They also showed me how to shield parts of my mind from the mind-link, or to block contact altogether, to preserve my privacy if I wished.
The tailor duly arrived to take measurements while Freya looked on critically. ‘You look heavier than you did when you arrived.’
‘More food, less running and more balanced exercise. I’m just getting back to the shape I used to be.’ I had to confess to myself an atavistic satisfaction in my physical power, particularly since my rather unathletic youth had given way to an early and paunchy middle age.