Chapter 3: Jason is Back

Jason was lying in his praying mantis form, with his head on his forelegs. He was on a modified bed that had him partially restrained. He had regained consciousness about an hour previously, and had drifted back into a light sleep state. Now he was slowly coming around, but looked as though he was struggling a little. Only Philippa, Linda and Andrea were in the room with him from his group, but there were excited bustling nurses and an infrequent doctor who looked in on him briefly.

A brash bottle blond nurse with ruby red lips presented herself in front of them showing a too tight uniform, with white stockings and white sensible flat shoes. The front of her uniform was partly unbuttoned and her unfettered breasts threatened to fall out as she fussed over Jason.

“It takes some time for the person to re-orientate themselves to their new body and brain and it is quite a struggle.” She told them authoritatively. “The patient has to relearn what they once knew about movement and senses as from a grub, but are usually able to communicate reasonably quickly by telepathy, usually after a few days. Speech takes a little longer as does movement. His current presentation is not unusual,” the nurse said and then covered her ears instinctively as they suddenly heard his voice broadcasting to them very loudly as did much of Charassa, leading to a broadcast on the news announcing his recovery to the Collective.

“That was a hell of an experience. I could feel myself fading fast. I feel like I have been beaten up by Lucia and a hundred huge Marines while they were wearing armor and driving tanks. I can’t talk and I can’t move a damn thing. This is one uncomfortable state. It also feels like there are fireflies stinging my back. It’s becoming less painful but it is still burning. Yes, Ladies, gentlemen bugs and others I have triumphantly returned!“ Jason said telepathically.

“We are so pleased to have you back Jason,” said Linda tearfully. “How long have you been aware of what is going on?”

“My mind is so different and I can receive thoughts with ease. I can smell so intensely. So many minds, I can feel so many on this planet. Greetings, and salutations, to all of you wonderful people on Charassa,” said Jason. “I am sending so loudly. I had better tone myself down a bit. I am so excited to be back even though I am so weak I can not do a thing for myself! “

“Jason you are broadcasting incredibly powerfully,” Andrea said holding her head.

“Right, I have turned the broadcast switch down. My telepathy is a hell of a lot stronger. The bugs have been meddling again, I guess. They can’t resist optimization!

“My loves that was a long two weeks. I know how a baby feels now! I can feel but I cannot move a damn thing yet!

“I suspect that I have been partly aware for a couple of days but I couldn’t communicate. I have a reasonable idea from what has been said around me what’s been going on. I would still like the full explanation. This is not the way I would have liked to have returned to Charassa. When I am here, I am a cocoon tourist! I have yet to visit the sights.

“How are you all?” Jason asked

“We are well other than worrying about you. Cassius has been having a great time!” Andrea said. “We love you and are happy you have come through. You are lucky to have survived and fortunate to receive great medical care.”

“ I am delighted to be here, and I expect that had I not been brought here that the nasty poison which was sprayed on me, would have been the end of me. Those cockroaches are a nasty lot, and that new poison of theirs is a bit of a shock to ye olde bodde! I look forward to a visit to the city and my favorite Ouma Chatzke, when I get out of bed after a week of rehabilitation that will feel like a hundred years. I love you all, too!

“Perhaps you can all tell me how you are, and give me a quick overview as to what has happened since I went incommunicado. I can feel that Cassius is almost here and I’m pleased that he came along with us. I felt him a few days ago.

“Hi, Cassius! I am fine and looking forward to seeing you, too. I know you have been having a great time while I have been asleep. Yes, it is great to be a bug!

“At least I know he has been detoxified and will be his true self. I see he has done the full gene augmentation and they are talking about a brain and crystal upgrade! That was courageous of him. He has just finished a simulation and is on his way here. I can’t really see well yet. I can see colors and I can recognize that I must be in the praying mantis form. Hearing is also odd so I would suggest that until all of this gets sorted that you communicate telepathically. Please do it quietly as my head feels busy and my telepathy seems very sensitive. Please get someone to scratch my back, the itch there is driving me nuts,” Jason continued.

“That is so much better, nurse. Thank you.

I must tune out lots of thoughts and ideas from around here. I see I am still loud for you I will tone down the whole city broadcast. Greetings Ouma Chatzke and my loves. The doctor is coming and is just about at the door.“

The doctor entered the room dressed in a formal colorful Empire business suit that had been demonstrated by the emperor on TV. It was a direct copy of one that the Emperor had worn himself and was enormously popular throughout the Collective. The doctor also wore his hair in the current slicked down fashion of the Empire and had blue and white shoes. Jason could see him clearly through images that the others saw and found it quite hilarious. He really liked these bugs. The doctor began to speak telepathically.

“Yes, Jason, we very much like you, too.” said directly at Jason.

“Welcome all of you back to the hospital, and to you Jason. The poison that you had, Jason, was a more virulent version of the previous cockroach poison that we know well. It is not entirely unexpected that they have evolved their toxins as have we. Jason we rebuilt you completely from your DNA template and reloaded all your memories from backups from the learning system on the ship. That system as you know is keyed entirely to you and does daily backups of your entire brain. I understand that your crystals do that as well, which is an excellent feature that we will investigate further over time. Your body is in the mantis form because we could optimize you more easily in that state. That goes for your brain as well. Because our brains have evolved in a hodgepodge way, adding in extra features at random as we evolved further, massive inefficiencies were introduced.

“Your brain, as had been previously, is doubly redundant; but, we have also added an AI brain internally. You have the equivalent of Gamma internally, along with a new generation learning system. It therefore means that you can be educated during times you are asleep, wherever you are, or even when you’re just relaxing. It will take you some time to adapt to your new brain capabilities. We have built exercises into the learning system to help you develop. We have improved and integrated your crystals functions and replaced them with a single super-crystal. We do know that the crystals do have many of the same functions as the AI brain, but act more like an organic brain.

“You will find all I am telling you and more in the manual on yourself, which we have placed into the learning system.

“The AI will find ways of cooperating with your brain and the new improved crystals. Together you will learn to work so your brain function is most effectively working on whatever issue is before you. The AI will also be able to observe and study the function of the crystals and give us critical information to be able to use the crystals which we are now building ourselves in another dimension. The crystals were brilliantly designed, but we understand many of the concepts, and have progressed them further. Most of your previous ones were millions of years old and even though sophisticated, they are slow. We extracted the functions contained in the crystals and have given it all back to you and more.

“As you go through your rehabilitation we will explain all the features of your new abilities as you learn to use them. From our preliminary testing you will be back to exactly as you were from a personality, philosophy of life and attitude point of view. You have more brain, trans-dim and physical power. You will be able to be almost impervious to the most powerful telepathic attacks. You will be physically even stronger than in your previous augmented state. You will be able to change from human to praying mantis in seconds. You will be much more dangerous than the most dangerous praying mantis in the Collective. Everything has been improved. In the praying mantis form your body armor is as good as marine armor. You will even be able to survive in space in a vacuum for close to ten minutes. We could not do that for you in your human form, unfortunately. Perhaps that is for the future, but we have not had enough time to be able to work on human biology. Every single system of yours has multiple levels of redundancy. I have told the others of most of the things that I could recall of the top of my head that we have done.

“As you learn along the way we will explain more. If you are bored let the learning machine teach you about yourself and your enhancements. We did do a lot more than we said we were going to do at the start. As scientists from throughout the Collective contributed ideas, much effort was directed to understanding you and improving mammalian function. We had a competition for the ultimate advancements for you, only using completed concepts. There were ten million competitors in eight thousand institutions, as part of seventy-six thousand teams over one day.

“Jason, my boy, I am pleased you are back and have attracted the most beautiful nurses and doctors in the hospital,” Cassius said as he entered the room and greeted everyone effusively. He felt energetic and healthy, to Jason.

“Doctor, I am sorry I was late to Jason’s resurrection. Jason, I am pleased you are recovering. I heard you from the Military Institute as did everyone on the planet and their spouses and children. I promise to be brief and to let you rest and do your rehabilitation. I wanted to be sure you were alive and ready to start kicking ass, yourself. No one in Charassa has any doubt you are ‘Jason the Magnificent’.

“I will talk to you daily. Now I must call your aunt and tell her the good news. Communications from here are great. I talk to the Kings every few days, and nothing much is going on.

“Alana is on a rampage to improve Palace security, and is busy investigating the Kargo Estate and Companies. She has insisted that our garrison is on alert and we have tanks and gunships on the grounds.

“She said she spoke to Norwald Yang who asked where the vizier was as they were to catch up. She told him we will be away for another month and his cronies went with us. She said she was pleased to leave him very puzzled.

“She said she asked him pointed questions about your great grandfather but he simply said the doctors have indicated he is not well enough for visitors. She did not pursue it further.

They chatted for a minute or two privately before deferring back to the doctor and Cassius left.

“You will start the process of rehabilitation in five minutes. It is our estimate that it will take a week, but as there are so many features that you have it may take as long as ten days. You are aware that that we use time condensation. For you Jason this is going to be quite a long and initially a very hard process. It is done in short intensive periods with rests. The more you push and do in this first difficult phase the sooner it all will be over.

“We will notify all your people of your required sleep periods, but they can visit during your other rest times. Jason by the time you return to your fleet, your personnel will be at a new level of operation and competence.

“Many more of your ships have been upgraded to fly here, and have been participating in training. Nearly all your medical people and hospital pods and controllers have been brought here for upgrades and updates, and the doctors trained. We are very much enjoying the interaction and teaching a new group of very different people,” concluded the doctor.

“Jason, you have no idea what you have triggered,” said Philippa. “Your friend Robert the chef and recently Marie his assistant have been on the holo-transmitter station daily. There is enormous experimentation in homes throughout the Collective. Workplaces have shifted people’s work, so as to not interfere with the programs. The people can watch them live. Even the AIs watch it all with interest. Robert and Marie have been so popular that no one wants to have anyone else know something ahead of them. In the bug form insects have attempted to cook their food, some successfully and some less successfully.

“In the human form, people have been learning to cook, but are having problems with ingredients. There are formulas for replicator equivalents, but people are demanding the original ingredients and Robert has nothing positive to say about replicator food. The Collective is fascinated by food and cooking and insist they do it properly.

“Jason, there is no way that you are going to be able to escape this planet without speaking to the bugs of the Collective.

“The Emperor has been fantastic. He has promised that he will supply every type of animal and plant from throughout the Empire for us to grow here, so that we may enjoy a variety of food and cooking. He says he will be happy to supply us with food from the Empire and is happy to talk to our merchants. He said he is in partnership with you and Robert. He said Earth food will be available from Porquenta and Mars. He is arranging for cooking machines to be made available as well. He has promised to train thousands of chefs and give them access to holo-cooking programs. He is connecting us as we speak to the Empire Holo-broadcast networks.

“Robert has told me when he visited here that he thinks we can get some food from Earth grown on Porquenta and Mars, but he has suggested we find a way to trade using your family on Earth as he cannot supply the volumes we require. I am so excited about all of these new activities and interests. Bugs have tried to substitute for the ingredients, but the results are underwhelming. We need the real thing.

“Finally we will introduce you to two heroes of the Collective who have had the experience of whole body reconstruction. The first had his three hundred thousand years ago which is shortly after we developed this process. He contacted us from one of our distant planets where he has been living. He felt it would be helpful for you to be able to speak to somebody and to have someone around as you go through your rehabilitation process. We had a war with the cockroaches at that time. He was with special forces and was attempting to capture a general, and if he could not capture him, to assassinate him. He managed to get quite close to his quarry. They then were ambushed by a larger force. He fought valiantly and managed to get to the general with one of his remaining staff Sergeant’s. The two of them fought a pitched battle with the troops guarding the general. As he killed the general his armor was damaged and he was sprayed with poison by his deputy, who was then killed by the staff Sergeant. The poison made its way through his damaged armor. The sergeant acted quickly and used the capture cube, much as you used the ring in the Emperor’s palace. He hoped that it would have the same positive effect as stasis. As it happens that method is even more successful than stasis as the action of the poison ceases in the dimension of incarceration. They did a double measures with you, the stasis and the dimensional move, but your poison was faster and worse.

“It took the sergeant nearly two days to return to our troops. The cube was kept energized until he returned to this hospital. We had been working on this technique for a long time largely for insects that had been catastrophically injured. Fortunately we had all the necessary ingredients for the rebuild though he did lose a few days of memories. He was the first cockroach poison rebuild. He was also augmented during that time. He continued in military service and has the rank of Major General. He was awarded the highest medal of the Collective.

“The second person was involved in a skirmish thirty-five thousand years ago. She was part of a heavily armed boarding party who were to capture a new version of a cockroach cruiser. Most of those cruisers carry up to a thousand marines to defend against boarding operations. She led the attack near a planet while the cruiser waited for the fleet to join them. They approached the cruiser with a series of heavily cloaked boarding ships and were able to commence boarding undetected. She heroically led her troops through one defended position after another and although wounded managed to finally be in position capture the ship. During the last cockroach defense there were clouds of poison sprayed by the defenders and some penetrated her severely damaged suit and then into one of her wounds. She was similarly placed in a capture cube. That has become standard operating procedure. She was returned to this hospital and rebuilt, but her enhancements were very much more substantial. She was also highly decorated and is now a Marine General. She also insists on meeting you and would like to assist you through the rehabilitation. She says that it is a very rigorous process and she would have benefited from support during the process. I will now call them to come in and they can meet the people who are here. They will then talk to you briefly before the rehabilitation commences. Please be brief as your rehab team is waiting for you. The first session is five minutes, so you will have at least an hour to talk to them after that and before your next rehab session.”

Philippa went to the door and led in the two heroes. Philippa introduced Meglith who was dressed as was the doctor and Chitrath who was dressed in a mauve flowing pantsuit like outfit with a matching leather bag, exactly like one that had been worn by one of the princesses at the palace. She had gold bangles and earrings that were similar to those worn by one of Jason’s earliest girlfriends. They were very charming people and easy to communicate with. Jason could sense that they were both very powerful telepaths. They were very deferential to Philippa bowing stiffly as they would have seen at the Palace.

Jason’s crew left leaving him with Meglith and Chitrath. Chitrath deferred to Meglith who first communicated to Jason.

“Jason, firstly I’m delighted to make your acquaintance. You have made an amazing impact on this Collective. We in the military are well aware of the issues that are not public. We shall communicate about this later. As you know I was one of the earlier insects, or bugs as I prefer, to have gone through the same process. Rehabilitation is the same hell that we went through. It is in fact years long. Chitrath, and I would like to have the honor of supporting you through this process. We do know of others who have not completed it thoroughly, but we believe that you are a bug of strong will. You will need every bit of will and perseverance to go through it in anything like a reasonable time.

We can only recommend that you work at it harder than you have ever worked at anything in your life. It will pay massive dividends. Both of us approached it that way for reasons of our own backgrounds. We both believe it paid massive dividends. Perhaps more so for Chitrath, who was more augmented and had more features than did I, but perhaps I had to work harder as I had less with which to work. She and I will alternate spending half days with you. We will switch at lunchtime. Different approaches and ideas are helpful. Do not feel that you have to speak. There will be times that you will be very tired,” said Meglith, “use your rest period for the break.”

“Welcome, Jason to the process of rebuild,” said Chitrath. “I think of it as one of the best things that ever happened to me. After it, I am better, stronger, and can think more clearly. Like you I also have an integrated AI. It has been enormously useful. In fact everything that was done was enormously useful. There were times along the way however that I felt that I would rather die than continue with the process. The earliest parts are the hardest. The brain doesn’t work properly, the body doesn’t work properly and everything is a force of will. We are both here for you. Meglith will now leave and I will remain with you for the rest of today.”

The nurse came in and placed a cocoon shell over Jason that integrated to the bed. Jason found himself in the most luxurious rehabilitation facility he had ever seen. He saw a variety of nurses and others who he discovered were technical rehabilitation specialists, the equivalents of occupational and physiotherapists of the future.

“Some of your muscle stimulation will happen while you are asleep, but there is no substitute for you needing to be conscious and relearning to operate your muscles and to speak again. The initial phases of learning to operate your brain requires you to be conscious. That is the hardest and most complex part of the rehabilitation process and will appear to go slowly and be very frustrating,” said ‘Louis the fly’ who had returned to plan and run his rehabilitation team. He was bright and cheerful and of tremendous help.

That first session felt as if it went on forever and ever. By the end of it Jason did not think that despite being trained to access his senses that he could notice much in the way of change in the quality of his vision or hearing. He could not in any way intentionally operate any muscles. He drifted off to sleep, as he felt his muscles being stimulated all over his body.

The pod was lifted off the bed and placed on a hover trolley. Jason’s muscles felt sore and tired, but he was told that it was necessary. His brain felt as if he had gone through a mangle, but he was not feeling sleepy. He was very happy to see Chitrath sitting on a chair next to his bed apparently reading some sort of holo-pad.

“Welcome back, Jason. That is probably the most singularly frustrating session that you will ever have. It will be incredibly slow in the beginning. The first five sessions pass without much of a sense of achievement. You will usually have ten sessions a day with half-hour breaks. During your meals you will need to eat an enormous amount particularly when you later get into more direct physical activity,” said Chitrath leaning over him.

Jason learned an enormous amount about Chitrath and Meglith over the next two weeks, and he could not imagine meeting two finer beings. They were both wonderful at keeping him motivated and from becoming despondent.

Indeed, the process took longer than expected due to integration issues between the crystals and the AI. Also as Jason had been much more enhanced than anyone previously he ended up having to undertake a further rehabilitation in his human state. Equipment had to be custom made for him to do his full rehabilitation.

By this time, he greatly appreciated the help of Meglith and Chitrath. They had become great friends of his and would remain friends with him for the rest of his life. They had come to assist someone that they did not know. They had both traveled very great distances and had left busy jobs to spend time helping him through his rehabilitation.

Within three or four days Jason was able to walk somewhat unsteadily on his six legs. He was able change to his human form, but felt so weak that he switched back to the security of six legs. Meglith and Chitrath had spent time with most of Jason’s closer friends, colleagues, and lovers, the group he considered his inner circle. They liked each other and enjoyed each others’ company. They took the opportunity of joining his group in morning exercise and in refreshing themselves with some of the simulations, particularly when mammals were also involved. They also participated in a number of the high level intelligence briefings.

Ouma Chatzke briefly visited every few days. After some discussion with Ouma Chatzke Meglith and Chitrath decided they would join Jason’s team. Cassius also formed a friendship with Meglith. Meglith had come from a very illustrious old family and was an Archduke. His family had substantial holdings extending over ten planets, and were predominantly shipbuilders. Two of the planets were dedicated to military production, largely for the Navy but also armor for the military.

Chitrath’s family owned an impressive vertically integrated corporation that operated food production on nearly sixty planets. Her family was involved in industries that spanned nearly every planet in the cooperative. Chitrath was very interested in speaking to Jason about food production on Earth. Her family had contacted Robert who had deferred all negotiation to Jason. Chitrath’s father had wanted to purchase as much of the farming stock as the chef was prepared to supply, but he was otherwise committed attempting to establish his own businesses on Porquenta and Mars in partnership with several of the horticulturalists.

Jason began to feel increasingly homesick for Earth as his discussions about Earth food continued. He found that he missed his children and grandchildren enormously, and very much missed his grandparents and extended family.

Andrea and Linda kept in regular contact with Lauren, Chuck and Chloe. Cassius and Alana also began to talk regularly to Lauren. Morgan James had become a hero to young Chuck. Lauren had been desperately worried about Jason and only calmed after he was able to talk to her after a week of rehabilitation.

“Jason, I believe you have a new fiancee,” Lauren said, “Cassius, tells me Philippa told him she is your fiancee. When were you going to tell me?” Lauren asked.

“I would have told you had I known,” said Jason, “it probably occurred when I was unconscious. Lauren one more fiancee won’t make a difference to you will it?” Jason asked.

“Dad, you are impossible. You are even worse than you used to be.

“I have been speaking to Philippa and I like her a lot. Chloe and Chuck both like her very much. I approve!” Lauren said laughing.

“In that case it will all be fine and dandy. Luckily I don’t even have to adopt her and she is financially independent. The child will be a prince or a king in the future, so it is easy. Marriage here seems pretty much a non event. It is strange. There is no real ceremony that I have heard about. Marriages also form and break up in ways that I don’t understand. I am just going with the flow. If Ouma Chatzke wants me to marry her I will do it.

On the fourth day when Robert was due to visit while Chitrath was with him, Jason had an idea.

“Chitrath, no doubt your father has some large cargo carriers? I am only asking that rhetorically, as I know he probably has thousands of them. I desperately miss Earth, my son, my daughter and my family there. I hardly realized how much I missed them all as I have been so busy for so long without an opportunity to take a breath.

“During the rehabilitation, I have had ample time to think. I’m going to discuss this with the others and with the Emperor, but what I propose, is that we go to Earth secretly, as the battleship did when it came to pick me up. There is a very low chance that we will be detected if you park near one of the gas giants. Your father can bring some people he thinks would like to assist Earth in secret, and they can do it as part payment. We will talk more when Robert arrives.

“We cannot easily import new technology to Earth, but we can slowly help the planet develop. The people are not prepared for this future, but I do think they are at risk while they are so behind and live with awful illness and are not aware of how to produce clean power.

“I would suggest that your father employs some of the best cyber-attack people that he can. What I would propose that he do, is that he hacks into the systems of groups of people that we consider to be thieves and villains. “I know that you have had experience with those kinds of people in your distant past and I understand that very sophisticated criminals exist and are still able to skate ‘beneath the radar,’ even here.

“On Earth, your father acquires their money while leaving half disguised trails to their enemies, setting them to fighting against each other. He will be doing the planet a very good deed, while that money can be used in part for your purchases. I can contact Lauren my daughter ahead of time. I do maintain contact with her, though I have neglected to do so as much as I should.

“Put in your orders, and Lauren and my family will deliver. Your father will need to have very high level horticulture, animal, and insect husbandry people on the ships. Robert will advise you what needs to be done.