Chapter 8: Equal Rights

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Tonto's voice rolled the 'A' sound in Ladies and the 'N' in Gentlemen, just like an old time circus pitch man. "I am honored to present Doctor Horace Hamilton, veterinary surgeon and the newest member of the extended Tufts Family. He will be out of the med-tube in 20 minutes and we should all be on hand to greet him. He is now fully incorporated in the intelligence you so kindly refer to as Tonto."

Sandra asked aloud, "Is he OK?"

"Yes, Sandra," Tonto replied, your dad is a lot better than OK. He is hale and healthy and his mind is refreshed and working at a phenomenal speed."

"Tonto," Rob asked, "What has been the effect of adding his brain power to you? Is the increase as dramatic as in the latest additions?"

Tonto responded, "My computational abilities were only slightly increased, when compared to the addition of Sara; but my connectivity has gone up by an unknown magnitude. Let's move to the medical section to welcome the good doctor while I explain."

The group filed down the corridor with Sandra in the lead, her eagerness to see and hold her father showing plainly in her body language. Tonto continued his explanation on two levels, which was a new talent. Prior to the latest addition he could speak with some family members aloud and others sub-vocally at the same time but he did not possess the ability to speak to each person both aloud and sub-vocally simultaneously. What was more, as long as he was careful not to overload the human's perceptivity he could hold a different conversation aloud and sub-vocally with each individual. With seven human brains providing power, Tonto could hold 14 conversations within the group at once. So effective was his communication skills he could do all of that while still monitoring and controlling all of his external links to the ships, the computer systems, the communication networks and the artificial intelligences created by the Darjee.

"I believe," Tonto added, speaking to the entire group on the same subject, "That seven brain units in a cluster is going to be a highly effective number. When we reach 14 it appears we can split and actually have two independent OLN based intelligences, each able to operate with their own group of humans but also to be in perfect communications with all other groups all of the time."

Rob spoke up just as they entered the medical section, "That would solve the problem of crewing the Behemoth Bounty once we move beyond human occupied space. We know the Darjee are unwilling to allow humanity, other than this family, to learn of the location or nature of the escape system we will use to take us outside of this sector of the Galaxy and well beyond the reach of the Sa'arm. We can supply a second Tonto family to the Behemoth Bounty and although they will travel at a slower pace than the Kedah we will still be just as if we were a single family. I like it!"

"Daddy!" Sandra shouted as the med-tube like hissed open, "are you OK? Tonto said you were..."

There was an audible gasp from Sandra as her father, now a 28-year-old dashing young man sat up and began climbing out of the tube. The softness of age had been washed away and replaced by chiseled features and a youthful elegance. "Sweet-cakes," he said, "I am better now than when I was actually 28-years-old. I want to run, jump and play just like a day-old fawn or kid goat." And, as he was saying the words aloud he was also instructing Tonto to transmit the image of a kid goat and white-tail fawn gamboling through a green meadow. He was opening a new facet of Tonto's amazing communication skills.

Val asked the question that no one else had thought of, "Tonto, with your new mental 'horse power' do you now have the ability to read minds? Some of the things you said about both Sara and Horace would lead me to believe that you do and now finding the good doctor's images visible within my mind increases that thought."

"No, Val, I cannot read minds," Tonto replied. My abilities are improved but still limited. Before you had to intentionally sub-vocalize a communication for me to pick it up, now that there is bandwidth in the connection I can pick up on any thoughts you are mentally putting in the form of words. If you are having a mental conversation, perhaps arguing with yourself, I can hear both sides of your conversation; but you have to be putting your thoughts into words just as if you were speaking. I can also see images that you 'project' toward me just as Horace Hamilton-Tufts did earlier. I can also transmit those mental words and images but I don't see dreams or your non-language-type thoughts."