Jackson blinked. What happened?
He’d been thinking a stream when suddenly thought stopped. Fingers twitched, icons appearing in his eyes. The impulse was automatic, unthinking. Images came, flickered fast then gone, then more images. An outage. War footing? Jackson sighed, feeling nothing.
Paused, he sat. No thoughts occurred, no movement was required. A luminous icon hovered in both eyes, a sunny meadow with a lake. Jackson submerged, passive and calm, in that meadow and lake. Comforting, relaxing. A stray word floated up from somewhere, “time”. Briefly he wondered, but couldn’t remember.
Suddenly, thought reappeared. Jackson sat up straight, remembered what he had been doing. This data realign needed drop by 15 0. Fingers twitched. A timer enlarged at the edge of his vision. 14 46. No time.
Fingers blurred as icons merged and separated. Seamless rivers of light flowed across the surfaces of his retinas, although such a description would never have occurred to him. Thoughts raced now, forming ideas and the text to put to those ideas. Impulsively Jackson triggered i-Boost and his thoughts raced even faster. Source poured through him. Exciting and immense knowledge. He felt alive! Jackson felt a brief feeling, like an appreciation for… something? He couldn’t remember.
Boosted, Jackson finished thinking just in time to meet drop at 14 58. He sat back. Thoughts slowed and his mind gently occluded. An image of the moon, hanging beautifully over dark mountains and trees. Jackson relaxed and stared into that moon. Massive… no more thoughts occurred. A vague feeling of unease, however, coincided with his relaxation. This feeling registered somewhere just below real awareness and it did not occur to Jackson to wonder about it.
He couldn’t have said how much time passed if someone asked him. His eyes lit up. New task: process, data stream, reconfig spec with drop 17 for bonus per T-54 regulations: 80U. Jackson sat up straighter. Thought now: 80U wasn’t bad! Impulsively he made a mental gesture and the lower range of his vision expanded. Glowing numbers came into focus. A thought appeared, “80U puts you over quota with additional time guaranteed.” An subtle feeling of stress entered Jackson’s mind but he hardly noticed, nor did it occur to him to wonder about it. New thoughts were already flowing.
As Jackson worked, he realized this assignment had something to do with wartime planning. Immediately warnings began to appear in his mind, blazing and loud icons. Sweating, Jackson gestured a hard divert and immediately was thinking instead about coordination aspects, cost per unit reductions and new logistical setups; reallocation, cross-ordering in complex rhythms and preformed heuristics according to Sver’s Principles. Jackson knew he was good at this kind of work yet it didn’t occur to him to wonder why.
Sweating and tired, Jackson made the drop. New calculations scrolled indicating performance metrics. High efficiency score. 80U transferred to his body. This triggered a subreaction and caused him to begin thinking about time, now feeling an appreciation. The U-warmth gently relaxed and reassured him. Additional thoughts were already appearing in his mind and swept away all other thinking. Jackson saw pleasurable and enticing icons, new Scenarios available for purchase! Wonderful! Jackson reclined in eagerness. It never occurred to him to question these feelings or to wonder what he’d just been doing.
Time passed and Jackson had no recollection. He felt calm. Thought ceased. The lingering after-feeling of pleasant sensations was a slight tickle at the edges of his mind, but he didn’t notice. The image of a baby sheep sleeping on a bed of soft straw transcended his vision. Jackson sighed, reclining back. Eyes closed, the image remained. The inner warmth of extra U still exerted a comforting influence upon him.
Time ceased when thought ceased. Jackson slept. When he might wake up again he couldn’t have said, nor would it have occurred to him to wonder about it.