Page 38 of Leviathan

"Maria," I asked. "Do you know the average synaptic latency for your species?"

"The what?" she asked, pausing in her work to look over at me.

She was so soft, so delicate, with flat teeth and no claws. There was nothing about her that suggested that her species came from a planet with extreme predation. She looked as if her species evolved with minimal threats, but even so, that word ours kept tumbling around.

"For species that have more difficult survival environments when evolving, they can develop neurological bypasses in moments that require fast reaction times to avoid danger," I said.

"I know that for humans, when we feel in danger, our bodies release adrenaline, which causes extreme selective attention," she said. "It forces the brain to filter out background noise and allows us to use our entire neural bandwidth to deal with the situation. It also increases the efficiency of the neuromuscular junction, where nerve meets muscle, and makes our physical reactions faster and more forceful. We also record memories at a higher density in that state, leading to a perceptual speed, an illusion that we have more time to make a decision even if our physical reactions are only a little bit faster."

What she was describing was shocking, something only found in warrior races that came from, and concern washed through me.

"Maria," I said. "I know it is a lot to ask, but can I run some tests on you?"

She took a deep breath.

"I trust you," she said. "You may."

It took some time to finish up, and while she was resting, I set up the tests. They were simple things, non-invasive, just to test the speed of her reflexes and how they changed over time. Though she was nervous at first, once we got through them all, she was smiling.

"That was fun," she said, her tone light and happy. "That was more like playing a bunch of different video games than a test."

My emotions were more mixed. On one hand, that hunch had led to a conclusion that would help us. On the other hand, the test results were problematic. Her species looked so soft and gentle that it wasn't surprising the scientists hadn't considered testing the speed of her reflexes. At some point, someone would think to do that. Maria couldn't be the only test subject out there.

Eventually, the Calicium would find out.

I didn't want to frighten her with something I couldn't control, but at the same time, holding information like that from her would be a serious breach of trust, especially after all we'd been through together.

"Maria," I said. "If the Calicium learn about your species' superior synaptic latency, your planets will be targeted for invasion."

"Maybe that is why the information packet on my species doesn't include the location of my homeworld?" she pointed out. Her mind jumped to the obvious conclusion right away. "Whatever the case, we can't do anything about it while we're hiding here. We need to get into a safe space and find out what is going on. We've spent too much time here. How soon will you be ready to go? How many sections do we have left?"

"None," I told her.

"Then let's go," she said.

FIFTEEN

MARIA

"This is freaking me out a little bit," I said, my heart pounding in my chest as I stared out at the ice walls of the asteroid we were encased within. I glanced all around, seeing my feet floating down below me as I hovered in the center of nothing. "I know it is just a projection, but it is a little bit scary as well."

"Does this make it better?" Lyrian asked, his voice coming out of the empty space around me.

A woven basket of filaments appeared around me, with large enough spaces in between them that they didn't obstruct my view. Straps of filaments appeared around my body, matching the physical sensation of the ones I was actually encased in. They arranged in the form of a seat, as if I were buckled down in the driver's seat of a giant mesh hamster ball.

"Yes," I said, surprised as my terror finally tipped over the edge into full wonder. "That helps a lot, actually."

"You said your planet has vehicles. Can you describe the controls for the one you have the most experience with controlling?" he asked.

I explained the basic pedal-and-steering-wheel system of a car, and a wheel appeared in front of me, with two pedals and a floor emerging from under my feet. The part of the round basket in front of me spread wider, forming a windshield and mirrors where I was used to, even though I could just turn and look out any side of the mesh ball without obstruction.

"But you said I'm not going to actually be steering," I said, reaching out to grip the fake steering wheel. "You said that you're going to be handling everything. This is just to let me see what is happening, right?"

"Yes and no," he said. "You're not going to be controlling, but you are going to be reacting. It's why I have the projections set up so that everything is relative to you as if you were my full size."

"I don't understand," I said. "Reacting?"

"First off, you don't have to do this," he said. "I want to be clear that I can and will handle this whole thing. If you want to spend the whole escape strapped down like the birds, you can."