They talked for a few more minutes. Ivan tried to savor every moment. He had to treat each call as his last, because it was entirely possible that one of them would turn out to be just that.

He hated lying to Judy, but it was possible that the call was either being monitored or recorded. Once they arrived at Lagrange Four, he would be under the government’s thumb. Admitting to some of the things going on in his head would pretty much guarantee the very eventuality he feared. The moment the government felt justified in categorizing him as an alien risk, all the protections guaranteed him by the New Liberation would be stripped away. And Ivan would very probably disappear.

There had to be a point to this. Whatever had created the booby trap had to have a purpose, a plan. Common sense dictated that he find out what that was, and whether it was a danger to his family and to humanity in general. Caution dictated that he not let anything get loose, even if that ‘anything’ was him.

He would have to navigate a delicate balancing act, not giving the government enough reason to end him, but still giving them enough reason to keep him locked up and under study. At least until he knew enough to make further plans.

And eventually, whoever or whatever had done this to him would make a move, or give a sign, or something.

28.Taking Courses

28.Taking Courses

Ivan sat back with a sigh. He’d just powered through his astronomy course in six straight hours. At this rate, he would need to restock his course load in less than a week. It seemed that being a metal man came with a few perks, anyway. No eye strain, no stiff back, no fatigue. Well, that last made sense. He no longer needed sleep, so obviously recuperation wasn’t an issue. But sleep had benefits for memory and general brain function as well. Somehow, the conversion was providing for the requirements without the actual act.

Ivan added that factoid to a growing list of oddities and anomalies. On one level at least, this was an I.T. problem. And the change in behavior indicated that his brain hadn’t just been replaced neuron by neuron, otherwise his brain would continue to function identically—except perhaps faster. Or slower, depending on the technology, although that seemed unlikely.

Thinking about his situation as just another tech problem was probably helping to keep him sane. At minimum, it helped to break the self-reinforcing spiral of worry about his family and dread about his future. And, if he was being honest, it was kind of interesting, although he’d have preferred to be studying it from the outside.