A.I. Evolution: The Fall of Lucien

Chapter 6

The Royal Quarters are situated down the hall from the Pope's own quarters and when I enter them I feel a familiarity to them that brings me back to the random memories of my Father and Mother when they stayed here briefly before Father died, and Mother fled to America. Henri and Will roll in our bags as Smit leaves to see how things are going with the Guards.

I move to the window that looks down on Saint Peter's Square to see people milling about as you would expect at such a famous European Square. The focus of the crowd out in front of the clinic, comes back to me, and I cringe under the intensity of it. The combined attention was almost more than I could handle all at once. Again, the ability to remember every small detail of an event threatens to wash over my consciousness.

Will steps up beside me and places his hand on my shoulder. "Sorry you had to go through that, Lucien, are you OK?"

I look up to him. "Who was that girl?"

"I don't know. Could it be that you sent your senses out ahead of us and you made a connection with the residents of the clinic, bringing order to their troubled minds?"

"I can't tell. I know my abilities are getting stronger all the time, but I don't seem to be able to control them, fully." I turn back to look out the window. "I feel strange and afraid right now," I add, before I turn back to him. "I am afraid of what I might be turning into."

He moves forward and takes me in his strong arms. "Don't worry. If it becomes more than you can handle, then you just let me know and we will leave this place right away, and get back to The Castle, where you will be safe."

I pull away from him and look him in the eyes, as mine start to tear up. "Thank You."

Henri, who had been listening to the last part of our conversation after putting our bags in the bedrooms, comes over to us. "Do you feel any danger around us now?"

"No, everybody is concentrating on something else. It is only when they focus their attention on me that I get overwhelmed."

Henri sits down on the chair by the table under the window. "Your father would speak to crowds that numbered in the thousands. I know that you have some of his memories. Is there anything you can remember that he did to tone it all down?"

"I don't know," Lucien adds before moving to the room that will be his bedroom while they are at the Vatican.

Will sits down on the chair across from him at the table. "It's possible that the natural barrier that older people have will eventually protect him, but until he reaches that age, it all comes at him at once, and could be more than he can process."

Henri leans forward. "So, at what age does this barrier form?"

"If I remember my psychology from university, it is around seven years of age, give or take about six months. The Nanos that Lucien has are designed to allow information to pass through the barrier in an older person, and I can only imagine what they must be doing to a young mind without the wall in place."

Henri leans back and shakes his head. "I don't want to sound stupid but what is this barrier or wall that you are talking about?"

Will thinks for a moment before responding. "Well it is more of a veil than a barrier, because it allows some information to pass through it to the conscious part of our brains."

"What information?"

Will ponders the question as he thinks about the best way to describe the effect. "OK, we all have those times when we know something, but it does not come to us right away. Then, when we least expect it, suddenly it comes to us. That is the information coming from the other side of the veil or the subconscious mind."

Henri looks long and hard at Will. "So, does the subconscious have all the answers locked away and we just have to pull them through this veil you keep talking about?"

Will smiles. "Your close, but it is the subconscious supplying our conscious minds with the answers."

"So why the barrier then? If all the answers are in there, then why don't we simply access the full thing?" asks Henri.

"Ah, that is the problem. There is simply too much for us to handle consciously. You have heard the saying, 'The line between genius and insanity is very slim'?"

"Yes,"

"Well geniuses can draw on that knowledge much easier than a normal person, making them very smart. But stepping too far over the line drives a person insane, because the conscious mind can't process all the information at once, because it would be like a thousand voices speaking all at once."

Henri thinks about it. "That is what happened to Wong when he received the first batch of Nanos in China. They took down the veil and it drove him crazy, which is why he had to find Saint Christopher and his healing Nanos."

Will smiles at his grasp of the theory. "Yes. Now for Lucien here. The barrier has not developed yet and will not for another three and a half to four years. Therefore, when too many people concentrate on him all at once it overwhelms his conscious mind."

Henri looks up and smiles. "So that is why Lucien is so good at remembering things and can play the piano the way he does."

"Yes, and I suspect that when he does develop his veil, the Nanos will allow for that and keep open the direct lines to his subconscious. Of course, we have no way of proving that till he reaches that age, because he is the first of his kind."

I had come back into the room about half-way through the explanation and have been leaning on the door-frame to my room as I listened to them talk.

Henri chuckles at me. "See how special you are, Lucien. When you reach this magical age, you will become a leader of nations."

I cringe some as I remember the outpouring of attention outside of the clinic after the word spread that I had healed the in-firmed of their mental affliction by just being in their presence. "I hope it comes quickly, because all that attention could drive me insane."

Will looks up at me seriously from the chair at the table. "If you feel yourself getting close to that level again, let us know right away and we will take you away from the situation."

I look to them both. "I will. Do you mind if I go get some rest in the bedroom where it is quiet for a couple of hours?"

"No," responds Henri. "I will keep everybody out of these quarters while you sleep. Guards will be posted outside the door to make sure of that." He gets up. "I will go find Smit and make those arrangements if he has not already done so."

"I will stay and watch over him from here in the Royal Quarters. I have some papers I need to go over anyway," adds Will, as he gets up. "Oh, and impress upon Commander Smit that our charge is sensitive to large crowds of people, and he needs to keep it quiet that we are here in the City."

Henri shrugs his shoulders. "I will tell him, but the word is already out. I suspect we are in for another swarm of believers filling Saint Peters Square."

"Well, ask him to do his best. Our meeting with Pope Pius is first thing in the morning and then we can leave right after that for the airport."