The small truck pulled into the courtyard with a lazy sputter. The driver 
began applying the brakes a good twenty meters away from her intended 
parking spot, and let the truck coast to an easy stop. A reassuring bump from 
her seat let her know that the parking break was going to hold up one more 
time, after all. Almost immediately, a small bag containing a good number of 
chips flew through the window and rebounded off the windshield, landing 
neatly beside the driver.
	"Thank you, my boy!"
	"I'm a girl."
	"Whatever. And if you ever overcome your karma, my number is at the 
bottom of the bag."
	"Yee-ah. Right."
	The man now standing at the foot of the apartment complex was infinitely 
pleased to be out and about. It had been a few years since he was last away from 
his laboratory. He would have left it in a moment, had there been any need; 
none had arisen. His "need to leave the laboratory" and most people's "healthy 
social activity" would have been rather in conflict, it should be kept in mind. For, 
despite his keen curiosity, superior intellect, bodily health and strong sense of 
self-worth, the traveler was insane. It wasn't obvious from his attire, the sensors 
that took the place of eyes on his face, or even his amused facial expression. In 
activities such as casual conversation, though, it tended to become rather 
glaringly obvious.
	The second man, who was coming out of the building to greet him, was 
unaware of this. "Professor Desty Nova, I believe?"
	"Yes, yes. And you are Dr. Ido? I hope I did not awaken you, I was eager 
to get an early start. So much to accomplish in one lifetime."
	"I can understand. We'll be meeting the patient a little later today."
	"Wonderful. Tell me, Dr. Ido," and at this his voice changed to a more 
foreword place on his tongue, and his choice of inflections varied, <Would you 
be Tipharean?>
	<Aye.> The two men looked and sounded quite alike--both 
approximately two meters tall, light blond hair, and violet marks on their 
foreheads. <Organismal Biology and Electrical Engineering, University of the 
Sky. CMD, Celephais University.>
	<Ah me, a fellow CU graduate! It was there where I received my 
undergraduate degrees. But, enough about the past, and maybe best forgotten. 
Tell me of the case.>
	<Certainly. Would you care join me for some breakfast?> The two began 
to walk side by side into the building. They made their way up two stairways 
towards an elevator. <His name is Hugo. Occupation is repairing and 
maintaining power generators. Some time past, this boy came into contact with a 
gem that he could not identify. He wore it on a pendant. Since, his chest has been 
inflamed like so.> Ido handed his companion the original photograph of Hugo's 
chest as the elevator delivered them to the top floor.
	<Hm...how very, very odd.> Nova returned the photo. Ido held it in his 
hand as he opened the door to the apartment, and followed his guest inside. 
<And yet you tell me that the boy is not a cyborg, am I right?>
	<Yes, and that's what Dr. Chiren asked me.>
	<Ah, Junia Chiren! How long it is since she last came to mind!> Nova 
positively cackled at the thought. <You know, she used to curse your name at 
night. I heard her as she slept.> Ido began to dislike Professor Desty Nova. His 
thoughts were interrupted as Gonzu joined them, bearing three plates, each with 
an appetizing omelet on them.
	"Here you are, Professor...<Enjoy the feast!>" Gonzu said, doing his best 
to imitate the Tipharean accent.
	<You do that well, my friend!> said Nova. <I may presume that Ido is 
responsible for this?>
	<Aye. He thought that he would lose his touch with the 
language.>"Frankly, it was something to kill time for me." Gonzu was already 
disliking Nova. Capriciousness grated on his nerves. He soon excused himself, 
and the two Tiphareans sat down to breakfast together.
	After they had been eating a while, Ido broke their silence. <You act as 
though you have a vague idea of the malady...Would you, pray, enlighten me?>
	<I only have a small hypothesis,> Nova replied. <It's this--I think that 
'nanotechnology' was introduced somehow into his body. There are a few 
machines that might fit down inside a human sweat gland. From there, it would 
be simple to move to his blood. Either their activity, or else their composition, 
might explain the rash.>
	<Professor, do you really think?>
	Nova nodded his head, and took the photograph from Ido again. He 
studied it carefully. <The 'gem' might well have been a matrix of some kind, 
perhaps to activate the things, perhaps just to contain--analogous to 
'buckyballs'[4]. The robots made their way inside his chest, and then the gem 
disintegrated...>
	<...which would explain why Hugo couldn't find it when he woke!> Ido 
finished the thought. <But then, if this is so, what purpose is it for? What's to 
happen to poor Hugo?>
	<I cannot say. Perhaps if blood were sampled from him, a single robot 
could be found. I have the capability to analyze its program in my lab. But first,> 
he sighed, pushing an empty plate away from him, <this Hugo must be found.>
	<Oh, I wouldn't worry, I know where he lives. He'll be here later on 
today. Now, if you will pardon me, I have a patient to look after.> Ido stood 
from the table.
	<Might I join you?>
	<Er, yes...but do not ask him questions. I will talk for you, if need.>

	Mr. Frenner was awake when the two entered the room. He looked up 
from a small screen propped in front of him and greeted them. "Good morning, 
Dr. Ido. Who's this with you?"
	"This is Professor Nova. He's a colleague of mine who's here for a quick 
visit." He pulled up a chair in front of Frenner's head. "How are you feeling this 
morning? Enjoying Dickens?"
	"Yeah, it's OK. I wasn't sleeping well."
	"Did you have a bad night?"
	"No, a great one." The screen slumped down of its own accord, and 
Frenner faced Ido. "I was dreaming...I was in my old body, the one I had before I 
got stomach cancer. I remembered what it was like to feel the strain on my 
tendons when I bent my fingers backwards, and how my hands got so dry and 
chapped sometimes. Just little things like those. I could even feel the hair on my 
arms, and when I walked I felt an old scar on the back of my leg. It was so _real_. 
Then I saw my parents in front of me, but they must have been sixty meters tall 
each. I held up my arms to them, hoping they would lift me up, and we would 
be together...but then I woke up. Here. A fucking head on a table." His voice 
began to strain. "Doctor, just for a moment, I felt so good, I...I was thinking, why 
did it have to end? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to dream forever, and not have 
to come back?"
	"Oh, Mr. Frenner, everyone wants to dream and never wake up." Ido saw 
Nova start to open his mouth, then shut it quickly. "But there are people here 
who need you. They want you to stay in this world. Your friends, your co-
workers...I'd be surprised if some people didn't come by today just to see if you 
were feeling better. Besides, you're a good worker. Your boss told me last night 
to remind you that your job's as safe as can be. All you need to do is rest and try 
to relax."
	"Yeah, but...it just seemed so wonderful..."
	"We'll have you a body in no time at all, just you wait and see. If you can 
just hang in there a few days, we'll have you a backbone. After that, you're as 
good as up and running about." The telephone in the next room rang. Ido stood. 
"That will probably be for me...will you excuse me? If you want anything at all, 
Gonzu's right down the hallway."
	"Uh-huh."
	The two men walked into the adjoining parlor. Ido moved to answer the 
phone, but Nova held his hand. <Dr. Ido...if you would have no qualms...your 
patient does not have his spine, am I correct?>
	<Aye,> Ido replied, tersely. In the kitchen, Gonzu lifted the receiver. 
<What of it?>
	<If I gave him a pair of arms, would you see that they were attached to 
him? It's for my research, you would only need to tell me what he does with 
them.>
	It was the last thing in the world that Ido had been expecting. <Of course I 
can. I don't see any real need, however.>
	"Alita, kid, try to calm down...take a deep breath..."
	<It's for my studies. Your Mr. Frenner seems so normal...>
	Gonzu lumbered into the room. "Hate to break up the tea party, but 
Alita's calling for you, Ido. It doesn't sound too good."
	"I'll take it in here, Gonzu." He walked over to his desk and turned on the 
speakerphone. Instantly, the sound of frantic hyperventilation burst from the 
machine. Ido's heart quivered. "Alita, is that you?"
	"Ido? Hugo's in trouble! We were talking and then he started 
hallucinating! I don't know what to do, he just started seeing things!"
	In the back of his mind, Ido marveled at how, even though she was so 
clearly distraught, Alita was able to put together a complete thought. "Now, 
Alita, don't get upset. It's almost certainly not serious. Can you tell me the 
symptoms?"
	"Um...his skin was flushed...he had some pain, he was grabbing at his 
head...Oh, Ido, it was awful, he was screaming..."
	"What..." Ido looked down at the piece of paper Nova had handed him. 
"Wh-what's his condition at the moment?"
	"He's asleep. I gave him a tranquilizer...the ones you said to use if I ever 
got in an emergency with someone."
	"...I didn't mean _that_ kind of an emergency," Ido said, struggling 
valiantly to control himself. I meant if some guy starts getting fresh with you in a 
bar, he thought. Shit, now I've got a Quaalude junkie on my hands...maybe she 
only gave him one capsule. "Well, I'll send a taxi over there now. Anything else I 
should know?"
	"Uh...no. Just hurry, Ido!"
	"There's something you're not telling me. What is it, Alita?"
	"It's just a phrase he said, it's only minor. He said, 'I've got Akira', or 
something like that."
	Ido's jaw dropped. Nova swore in Tipharean. They looked at each other, 
then Ido said quickly, "I'm sending the cab now," and hung up. He didn't move 
for a moment, then the two slumped into chairs in unison. <Nova? Do you 
suppose...he really _does_ have...it?>
	<I couldn't say for sure...but then, I do not know how he would 
know...that name...> Nova's mind was churning. For almost the whole of his 
adult life, Desty Nova had studied karma--what it was, how it worked, if it could 
be dealt with. But all his experiments, no matter how they ended, had always 
begun according to a plan--an insane, esoteric system that identified what a 
person's deepest desires were and then fulfilled them. Once a person had what 
they most wanted, were they free? Did they shackle themselves again? In what 
manner? These were the meat of Desty Nova's studies. Even to his mind, 
however, it seemed impossible that someone could _desire_ Akira--especially the 
sort of person who had never been exposed to its mysticism. Nova himself knew 
only a little. Still, he reasoned, his first encounter with the boy would decide his 
course of action. If the boy's karma _wasn't_ Akira, then every attempt must be 
made to abort the experiment. If it _was_...

	Alita paced back and forth in front of Hugo's house, glancing every few 
seconds at the figure curled up on the doorstep. He was sleeping now, but Alita 
didn't like the rather disturbing smile that was perched on his face. She hoped 
that the taxi would come soon. Ido would be able to cure Hugo, she knew it. 
And that specialist would be there to work with him. Hugo would be fine. Hugo 
would be just fine. She kept pacing.
	She was interrupted as her ears focused on footsteps approaching, about 
half a block away and closing. She turned and saw three boys approaching. Two 
of them were dark-skinned, clearly brothers, very close to Hugo's age. The third, 
a rather lanky kid perhaps two years older than Hugo, was walking alongside 
them. As she looked at the group, this third one called out to her.
	"Hey! What're you doing with Hugo?"
	"You know him?" Alita asked. She went on, "Hugo's sick. I'm here to get 
him over to Dr. Ido's office."
	"Ido? You must be Alita, then." One of the brothers extended a hand. 
"Hugo mentioned..."
	"Sh, he's asleep." His brother was pointing to Hugo's form.
	"Oh. I'm Danji. This is my brother, Tanji."
	"I'm Van." She shook the older boy's hand. "We know Hugo from work, 
we just came by to see how he was feeling."
	"Oh, that's nice of you guys. He kind of had a rough night, I'm not sure..."
	"Hey, no problem, we've got to get off to work anyway. But give him 
this, will you?" Tanji handed her an envelope with a card inside, then the small 
group went their separate ways.
	From his perch on a nearby rooftop, Zapan stopped his video recording 
to take a final bite of his baguette. With luck, and a player with a stop-action 
button, he would soon know the identities of Hugo's compatriots. And after 
that...he allowed himself a small laugh at the thought.
	Although he had no reason to believe Alita suspected his presence, Zapan 
waited until the taxi had taken its cargo away before he let down his guard. He 
stood, brushed a few crumbs off his person, and ambled off into the maze of 
buildings. He knew that there were many hours before nightfall, and that his 
prey would be simple enough to track.

	Two thoughts raged inside Ido's mind, each worthy of his full attention, 
each receiving only a portion of it at any one time. First there was Akira. Akira 
was one of the subjects that people knew something about, but never discussed 
openly, in Tiphares. It wasn't like perversion or death or depression, because 
these impulses (he hadn't been told, but he had been brought up to know) 
happened  to weak people. Akira was different, or so it seemed to the few 
people Ido had ever heard speak of it.
	Akira consisted of a lab report that surfaced from time to time and a lot of 
hearsay, akin to playground gossip. Ido himself had seen a copy of the lab report 
once. By itself, it was rather unremarkable. It merely announced the termination 
of an experiment, ostensibly with human subjects, that had been conducted for 
the military at about the time the War in the Sky began. However, going 
through the records revealed some peculiar things. None of the scientists 
involved with the project had ever published anything more. According to the 
data, about 12% of the subjects had died during the experimentation. There were 
also some financial irregularities: the budget for drugs and therapists had been 
immense, and about one third of the total budget had been listed as 
"Miscellaneous expenses."
	The gossip went quite a bit further. If it was to be believed, the majority of 
the scientists involved with the project had been killed, not covered up. The idea 
had been to make a human being into a weapon, even more powerful than 
cyborgs or mecha or atom bombs. This weapon involved the very force of life. 
Ido didn't know how it would work--he was a scientist, and he didn't see any 'life 
force' in the people around him. But still, the idea unnerved him. He had thought 
of asking Professor Nova about it...then, he considered the type of person Nova 
was, and decided not to.
	This is what his mind should have been focused on. Instead, Ido's mind 
kept wandering to a single remark that Nova had made. He had simply asked, 
"Who was the girl on the phone?" Ido had told him about finding Alita's head in 
the scrap, how he had rebuilt her body, and how she had become a hunter-
warrior like himself. Nova had seemed intrigued by the story, and peppered him 
with all sorts of questions. Some, such as those about the founding of Tiphares 
and specific battles in the Interstellar War, seemed completely irrelevant to Ido. 
He thought them merely the products of an unhinged mind.
	It was the question that had provoked them that Ido thought upon. "Who 
was the girl on the phone?" Who _was_ the girl on the phone, Ido thought. I've 
always loved her...we've lived under the same roof now for about a year...but 
I've never told her how I love her. I've always treated you as though you were 
my daughter, Alita, but I've never told you...why not? Is it fear of what might 
happen to the two of us if we do start to live our lives together in such a 
manner? Hope, that we could yet redefine our relationship? No...for I want to 
live with you as my child, and nothing more, nothing less. Every night before we 
hunt, I pray to the gods I was raised to worship that your life is spared; every 
night my wish is granted. How strange...I have the strength in me to humbly 
beg the gods to die in your place, but not the strength to adopt you...

	Alita had been in constant motion since her return home. First it had been 
pacing, then repeatedly standing up and sitting down, then wringing her hands, 
and now it had settled down to mere fidgeting. Ido had been at work on Hugo 
for almost an hour now, and Alita knew she shouldn't go in and see him. As a 
deterrent, Ido had barred the door. It was a foolish gesture, since Alita could 
have opened the door with a single punch; but it was still a gesture.
	There was also the matter of her company. Gonzu was at work, and the 
specialist, "Professor Nova" as he had been introduced, had spent almost the 
entire time making himself flan. When asked why he was, he replied flatly that it 
helped him think. Only courtesy had kept Alita from shouting out a better way 
for him to think, one that involved parts of the body not generally associated 
with cognition. "If he's supposed to be so good, why isn't he helping Ido?" she 
thought.
	"Miss Alita?" Alita started out of her thoughts to find Nova hovering over 
her, offering a rather large helping of flan. Alita glared at him. Nova waited a 
moment for a verbal refusal, then, receiving none, he took the bowl of flan for 
himself and sat down opposite from his companion. He slurped a few spoonfuls 
down before he spoke again. "Allow me a guess...you're furious at me because 
I'm not showing off and helping Ido, yes?"
	"..."
	"Or something like that. Now, I ask you, my dear--there are two of us and 
only one Hugo, how many doctors do we need working on him at a time?"
	"If you're such a good doctor, why aren't you in there instead of Ido?"
	"That's a fair question. It was Dr. Ido's suggestion, in truth. He wondered 
what would happen if Hugo came 'round and there was a doctor he'd never 
seen before giving him an examination!" Nova chuckled. "Tell me, to your 
knowledge, has Hugo ever lusted after power?"
	"???"
	"Perhaps complete domination over other people?'
	"Certainly not!" Alita was beginning to get angry with the professor, but 
at least it was providing an outlet for her frustration. "If you must know, for 
whatever reason, Hugo wants to go to Zalem! And he's going, too. His boss, Mr. 
Vector, will..." She was cut off by a loud snort from the other side of the table as 
Nova gagged on his flan. He was desperately trying to control a fit of laughter.
	When he had calmed down, he gasped "I apologize, your remark rather 
caught me off guard. Well...you've answered my question." He leaned foreword 
and looked at her evenly. "Alita, I can promise you now, I will do everything in 
my power to help your friend."
	His sudden sincerity unnerved the girl. She stammered a "Thank you," 
and then resumed her former silence as Nova continued to devour his flan.
	It was a little while before she spoke again. "Professor Nova, what's 
'Akira'?"
	"Hm?" Nova looked up from the bowl.
	"When Hugo was hallucinating, one of the things he said was, 'I've got 
Akira'. I told Ido, and he seemed...well, I don't know, it sounded like he thought 
it was something important. Do you know anything about it?"
	"As a matter of fact, yes." Nova put down his bowl. Hardly a trace of the 
dessert was left inside. "Has Ido ever told you about his life when he was 
growing up?"
	"N-no."
	"I see...I suppose I had best not spoil it, then...How about religion? Has he 
ever talked to you about theology? Karma? Tao?"
	"Uh-uh."
	"Fine. Let me explain it this way." Nova rose, and began pacing in laps 
around the table. "A person--a man, a woman--does all manner of things in his 
or her life time. People design factories, build motorcycles, plan trips...but all that 
thinking--or rather, brain activity--takes energy, doesn't it?" He turned and faced 
Alita, hands behind his back, his mouth in a smile. "Have you ever thought about 
where that energy comes from?"
	Alita shook her head blankly.
	"I'm not surprised...I would be amazed of a half a dozen people in the 
whole of the Scrapyard had ever thought about it. Now, keep that in mind--I'm 
going to shift the subject slightly..." He resumed his pacing. "You know some 
biology? Evolution?"
	"Yeah, a little."
	"Consider evolution as a ladder...it's an incorrect model, but it should 
serve our purpose. Start at the bottom. An amoeba. An amoeba does two 
things--it eats, and it reproduces. That cannot take a lot of the energy we were 
talking about, can it? No. Now, let's move a little higher. Say, a sponge. A 
sponge is really just a bunch of single cells--if you cut up a sponge, it can grow 
back--but they're arranged in such a way so that every single cell gets as much 
food as it can without disturbing the feeding of its companions. The cells also 
secrete a matrix to protect themselves, emit flagella to improve their feeding; a 
sponge does ever so much more than an amoeba. This, too, requires energy. It's 
hard to imagine how much energy a jellyfish takes to live--then a sea star--then a 
squid--a dog--a bird--a human life! I cannot comprehend the energy that this--" 
he put his hands on his chest "--this creature is using even at this moment! NOW-
-" He moved uncomfortably close to Alita, and gazed at her through the two 
holes in the sensors on his face. "Supposing you gave an amoeba the energy a 
human had?"
	Alita said nothing. She tried to appreciate what Nova had told her. Then 
she began to comprehend, and she marveled.
	"You understand, don't you, Alita? At least a little. Frankly, 'a little' is 
about all I know." He moved towards the window and looked out upon the 
Scrapyard. "Once upon a time, there were men who tried to find out. Their lab 
was where the Scrapyard, and Zalem, are today. The purpose of their 
experiments was to give to humanity power like what humanity was to an 
amoeba. They called that 'Akira'. And, if what I've been told is true, they 
succeeded."
	"So what happened?"
	Nova turned toward her. The bright light from outside cast a shadow on 
his front; all Alita could see of his face was the face plate of his sensors, glinting at 
her. "I don't know. The man I talked to about this isn't alive anymore...and I'll 
never know how he found out. You know, I asked him the same question, and 
I'll tell you only what he told me. He asked me, 'Have you ever wondered why 
we're in a great depression in the crust?'"

	The MRI scan confirmed Ido's worst fears. The size of Hugo's penal gland 
had almost doubled. Proteins were being produced all along the base of the 
brain at an amazing rate. An EEG revealed periodic theta wave bursts of extreme 
intensity when alpha waves should have dominated.
	When Hugo awoke, and permission was obtained, a blood sample was 
taken and analyzed. Under an oil-immersion light viewing, a few nanobots could 
be seen amid the blood cells. The five of them gathered around a monitor as 
Nova made a preliminary diagnosis.
	"Odd, they seem rather simple...irregularily polyhedral, probably silicon-
based...I'll need to take a closer look," he said, stepping back from the group, 
"but my first diagnosis is that they're not actually operating on your body, 
Hugo."
	"No?"
	"No. They're catalyzing a reaction."