Free Technobabel by Stephen Kenson Page A

who want to protect those secrets. That is how our tribe prospers; by entering the world of light and bringing back knowledge that is of value to the people, like shamans and sorcerers gain knowledge when they travel into their spirit realms.
    "You showed considerable talent in entering and working in the Matrix. You knew something of computers and learned quickly how to use what we have here and what I have to teach. I decided you were ready to attempt the Resonance. It is an experience, an initiation. It shows you the deep secrets of the Matrix, secrets even I am not privy to." He paused for a moment, his eyes wistful. "If only I were years younger ... but it is not my destiny to experience the Resonance, only to guide those who can. Such as I guided you. You are the oldest youth I have seen who had the potential for the Resonance, so I prepared you and brought you to experience the initiation. Now we need to see if you were successful. Tell me what you can remember of the time before we found you."
    I don’t know how, but I know what he says is true. I think I can trust this strange old man. Even if I can’t, I have much to gain and nothing to lose, so I sit in his circle of hardware and tell him as much as I can remember, from the moment I first became aware in the alley to my escape from the Tamanous to finally collapsing from exhaustion where the other members of the tribe found me. I don’t mention the dream at first, but Papa Lo asks if I recall any dreams, so I tell him what I can and he gives a kind of satisfied nod.
    "You have been fortunate beyond what most people will ever know," he said. "The Matrix has favored you and you have succeeded in the Resonance. You are more than any other mere traveler in the world of light, you are a follower of the way of the machine. An initiate. A technoshaman."
    "What does that mean?" I ask.
    "I will show you soon," he says, "but first I need to check your condition and make sure you’re all right. The Resonance is a difficult experience and it sounds like you’ve had a harder time than most."
    He lifts a slim cable ending in a chrome jack toward my temple. I grab his wrist and he looks at me with hard, dark eyes for a moment. "This is for your own good, my son. You must trust me."
    I realize that if Papa Lo or any of his people wanted to kill me they would have done it already, or simply left me in the alley to die, so I take the cable from his hand and slot it into the jack behind my ear like I’ve done it a thousand times before. It slides home with a faint click that shudders through my being, and I feel a sense of completeness I haven’t since I was disconnected by the body-snatchers. I know I never feel so complete as when I’m jacked in, the connection between me and the machine fills my spirit and makes me feel whole again.
    When Papa Lo powers the diagnostic deck, I can feel the trickle of power flowing along the cable and into my jack, pulses of light and energy dancing along the fibers like a kind of music filling my mind, like the rhythmic beat of a drum or a living heart. Listening to the steady beat of the electrons, I slip into a kind of trance and time does strange things as Papa Lo works the keys and command surfaces of the deck. He’s quiet and composed, carrying out his work like an artist who seeks to achieve a perfect and peaceful state of Zen as he works his art.
    We sit there in silence I don’t know how long as the energy trickles through my system, probing and sifting like millions of invisible fingers. I can feel them all, probing into all parts of my mind, but I relax and don’t resist their gentle brush against my mind. I know they can do me no harm and I feel somewhere inside me that I could stop them if I really wanted to.
    When Papa Lo powers down the deck, I start a bit, not realizing he is finished.
    "Your hardware is online," he says with his serene smile. "The memory is wiped, but that has happened before. I thought there might be