The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge 23 - Angus [3]

[Avatar]

We rejoin Angus here before Angus himself does. In one of the most interesting, if not terrifying, scenes in the early books, we're taken through the process of "welding" Angus into the loveable cyborg he'll be for the rest of the series.

Arriving from Com-Mine cryogenically frozen, having served his purpose in generating the fear and outrage necessary to pass the so-called "Pre-Empt Act", Angus is delivered into the less than tender hands of the Data Acquisition division surgeons.

Unlike the more benign "wedding" between willing volunteers and their cybernetic enhancements or prostheses, we know that welding is carried out without the consent of the...recipient.

However, what's interesting here is that while we know that this sort of surgery already exists (like the bio-retributive surgeries on Thanatos Minor), it may be that this is the first time it has been done on such a scale, given Hashi's somewhat acerbic comment to Frik;

He will be tested, of course, but no difficulty will be encountered. I state that categorically. We have been ready to do such work for some time.

The context is ambiguous, but it seems to suggest that while they have been ready to do it, they hadn't actually done so yet. But we rush ahead of ourselves...

At first mercifully unconscious, then only conscious in fits and starts too brief or too traumatic to register, Angus goes through extensive surgical procedures, reinforcing his bone structure, embedding lasers into his forearms, replacing his eyes and linking everything up to an on-board computer (and data-core), and installing not one, but several zone implants.

And I find the following a telling quote indeed:

In their own way, the surgeons worked to transform him as profoundly as an Amnion mutagen.

Now physically transformed, the next step profoundly harder task of getting Angus (or Joshua as he has been designated) to activate the link by thinking his new name/access code.

(Joshua, of course, was one of the 12 spies that Moses dispatched into Canaan, in preparation for the Israelites invasion of that land...uh...I mean...before God gave it to them. ) (Which makes me wonder...does that make Thanatos Minor and the fringe it represents an enemy to be spied on? Or the Promised Land? Or both? )

Now of course, it is horrifying enough that somebody, even a criminal somebody, could be so totally enslaved that obedience is not even necessary, simply compulsion. That their agency could be so completely removed. Made not just into a slave, but into a literal tool without any will of their own. But that is far from the limit of the horror contained in this chapter.


Here, (for the first time?) we learn about the true horror of Angus' own childhood. (If not for the first time, certainly the first time in such detail.) Of the systemic and brutal abuse he suffered from infancy at the hands of a clearly mentally ill mother, that left a host of indelible marks on his soul.

Indeed, in his memories of his mother, we can see a clear echo of his treatment of Morn...like his mother did to him, he hurts her and loves her until he can no longer tell where one leaves off and the other begins. As he was broken, so too does he break, only to be broken again in turn.

But Angus has always been strong in the most broken of places, and at first he resists, resists unbelievably, instinctively opposing anybodies coercion against him.

Still, eventually, drugged, manipulated, lost, he thinks his code name, and his computer comes online.

Training, therapy, and most of all, interrogation follow. And even wholly owned by the doctors and their zone implants, monitored at unprecedented levels, he manages to keep some secrets. And most of all, the secret of his ability to edit datacores. Something so impossible that it seems nobody else can even conceive of it.

Finally ready though, Hashi, followed by Min and Godsen Frik come on the scene, and while Hashi puts Joshua through his paces, they discuss the situation, the threat that Morn is under, and the strong likelihood that Holt will not permit Joshua to rescue her. She is, in fact surplus to requirements as far as the UMC is concerned.

Hashi also reveals, the general horror, the fact that Milos will be Joshua's handler, sent along in order to help modify his programming on the fly, in the face of unforeseen circumstances which could otherwise imbue him with a modicum of free will.

Min and Frik, in opposition to the suggestion, storm off to supposedly attempt to have this decision over-ruled.

And incredibly Angus, still locked in place by his zone implants, sees something in the situation that gives him a faint sliver of hope.

[Cord Hurn]

We rejoin Angus here before Angus himself does. In one of the most interesting, if not terrifying, scenes in the early books, we're taken through the process of "welding" Angus into the loveable cyborg he'll be for the rest of the series.

Arriving from Com-Mine cryogenically frozen, having served his purpose in generating the fear and outrage necessary to pass the so-called "Pre-Empt Act", Angus is delivered into the less than tender hands of the Data Acquisition division surgeons.

Unlike the more benign "wedding" between willing volunteers and their cybernetic enhancements or prostheses, we know that welding is carried out without the consent of the...recipient.

However, what's interesting here is that while we know that this sort of surgery already exists (like the bio-retributive surgeries on Thanatos Minor), it may be that this is the first time it has been done on such a scale, given Hashi's somewhat acerbic comment to Frik;

He will be tested, of course, but no difficulty will be encountered. I state that categorically. We have been ready to do such work for some time.

The context is ambiguous, but it seems to suggest that while they have been ready to do it, they hadn't actually done so yet. But we rush ahead of ourselves...

That is the way that I have always read that passage as well, Avatar--that what is done to Angus is highly experimental.

[Cord Hurn]

Considering all the torment that he inflicted upon Morn in the first Gap book, I was inclined to feel smug satisfaction at Angus being controlled by zone implants and forced to become a tool of the police. But the revelation of his being tortured as an infant steers me towards feeling an unwilling sympathy for him.

When he regained enough consciousness to thrash against his restraints and scream, they began teaching him who he was.

You have been changed.

You are Joshua.

That is your name.

It is also your access code.

All the answers you will ever need are available to you. Your name gives you access to them. Find the new place in your mind, the place that feels like a window, the place that feels like a gap between who you are and what you remember. Go to that place and say your name. Joshua. Say it to yourself. Joshua. The window will open. The gap will open. All the answers you need will come to you.

Joshua.

Say it.

Joshua.

Angus screamed once more. If weeks of surgery hadn't left him so weak, he might have been able to burst his restraints. But he couldn't, so he curled into a fetal ball and did his best to turn himself into a null-wave transmitter. The link between his brain and his temporary computer remained inactive. If he thought anything, if he ever let himself think again, he would remember the nightmare-- remember that they'd dismantled his ship; remember the large, sterile room full of equipment for cryogenic encapsulation; remember the crib--and then the abyss from which he'd fled all his life would open under his feet.

Nevertheless he was already cooperating with his doctors. Every internally generated whimper and twitch provided them with exactly the data they required--the neural feedback which allowed them to verify their assumptions and calibrate their instruments.

When they were satisfied with what they'd gained this time, they let him sleep again.

The next time, they pushed him harder toward consciousness.

You have been changed.

You are Joshua.

That is your name.

It is also your access code.

All the answers you will ever need are available to you. All you have to do is say your name. Think it to yourself. Accept it.

Joshua.

Say it.

Joshua.

No.

Say it.

I won't.

Say it!

With a savage twist, Angus pulled his right arm out of the restraints. Punching wildly, he knocked away one of the doctors, smashed a monitor, ripped down all his IVs. He might have succeeded at injuring himself if someone hadn't hit the buttons on his zone implant control, switched him off.

The link between his brain and the computer remained inactive.

Goddamn it, a doctor muttered. How can he fight? He isn't awake enough. He ought to be as suggestable as a kid.

But Angus didn't need to be awake to fear his nightmare. In the end, all the various and violent fears of his life were one fear, one great rift of terror which reached from his perceptual surface to his metaphysical core. He'd never hesitated to fight anything, destroy anything, which threatened to open that abyss--

sprawled in his crib

--anything except Morn Hyland. But that was because, by the insidious logic of rape and abuse, she'd come to belong to him. Like Bright Beauty, she'd become necessary, even though that necessity made her infinitely more threatening--

with his scrawny wrists and ankles tied to the slats

--but they'd dismantled his ship. With Morn it was different. They'd taken her away. Now, like his horror, she was somewhere where he couldn't control her, she might be anywhere--

while his mother filled him with pain

--she was everywhere, hunting him with his doom in her hands, stalking him to open under his feet--

jamming hard things up his anus, down his throat, prying open his penis with needles

--so that he would begin the long plunge into terror and never be able to climb out again, never be able to escape the complete helpless agony which lurked for him at the center of his being--

and laughing

and afterward she used to comfort him as if it were him she loved, and not the sight of his red and swollen anguish or the strangled sound of his cries.

Because he had nowhere else to go, Angus Thermopyle fled into himself to escape himself.

There is certainly some significance to the United Mining Companies Police choosing Angus to have the new name of Joshua. Joshua in the Bible is probably most famous for his involvement in bringing down the walls of the city of Jericho.

I get the feeling from that choice of name that Angus is being prepared to bring something crashing down.

[Cord Hurn]

It was hard for me to know quite what to think of Hashi Lebwohl when I first read of him. He sounded like a comic version of a scientist, a so-called "mad scientist", but his power over others and his perverse sense of humor marked him as a serious character whose decisions could have meaningful consequences.

[quote="In the third chapter that is entitled "Angus" in Forbidden Knowledge was"]Because he was safe, the traffic through his quarters increased as more and more people came to take a look at him: technicians in related fields, motivated by professional curiosity; doctors and other experts who wanted to observe him for themselves; random personnel interested in nothing more than a glance at Hashi Lebwohl's pet illegal. To all appearances, Angus ignored them. The old malice of his gaze was turned inward. As much as possible, he dismissed everything that wasn't an instruction or a question with coercion or pressure behind it.

Nevertheless he noticed immediately when Hashi Lebwohl himself, DA director, UMCP, began visiting him.

Of course, he'd never seen Lebwohl before. And the rumors he'd heard didn't discuss Lebwohl's appearance; they didn't go beyond the insistence that the DA director was crazy--and lethal. Yet he found this visitor instantly recognizable.

In contrast to the clean doctors and immaculate technicians, Lebwohl wore a disreputable lab coat and mismatched clothes over his scrawny frame like a signature. His old-fashioned shoes refused to stay tied. Glasses with scratched and smeared lenses sagged down his thin nose; above them, his eyes were the theoretical blue of unpolluted skies. His eyebrows twisted in all directions as if they were charged with static. And yet, despite his air of having wandered in from a classroom where he hectored Earth's slum kids, everyone else deferred to him. When people passed by him, they gave him a wide berth, as if the charge in him was strong enough to repel them.

Angus knew intuitively that this man was responsible for what had been done to him--and for worse to come.

Hashi Lebwohl visited several times without speaking to him. He conversed with the doctors and techs in an asthmatic wheeze, sometimes asking questions, sometimes making suggestions, which revealed his intimacy with their work. But he didn't say a word to Angus until the evening after the physical therapists had declared him fit for whatever the UMCPDA had in mind.

The time was station night. Angus knew that because his computer had begun to answer simple, functional questions when it wasn't otherwise occupied; also because the techs had just told him to take off his daysuit, put on lab pajamas, and get into bed. Two of them were still in the room, apparently running a last check on his equipment before putting him to sleep. When Hashi Lebwohl entered, however, one of the techs immediately handed him the remote which served as a zone implant control. Then both men left.

At the same time the status lights on all the monitors winked off.

Hashi peered at Angus over his glasses. Smiling benignly, he tapped buttons on the remote with his long fingers.

Involuntarily Angus got off the bed and stood in front of Lebwohl with his arms extended on either side as if he were being crucified.

Lebwohl tapped more buttons: Angus urinated into his pajamas.

As warm salt spread down Angus' legs, Hashi sighed happily.

"Ah, Joshua," he wheezed, "I think I am in love."

Angus wanted to take off his pajamas and ram them down the DA director's throat. However, he wasn't given that option. He was simply required to stand still with his arms outstretched, hoping that his reinforced body could bear the strain.[/quote]

By this point in the story, we know what a brutal creep Angus can be. But it doesn't make Hashi look kindly to use the zone implants to humiliate Angus--rather, Hashi seems to be someone who also likes to manipulate others because he can--at least, in this scene.

[Cord Hurn]

One of my favorite Hashi quotes is in the following passage: While Hashi has Angus hold still with his arms in the air, Min Donner and Godsen Frik visit, and they talk about the possibility of using Angus to retrieve Morn, and Hashi states he thinks Angus won't be given that assignment. And the three of them refer to a "he" who is giving them orders for a purpose they can't understand.

[quote="In the third chapter entitled "Angus" in Forbidden Knowledge was"]He? Angus thought. He? Were they talking about Warden Dios? The UMCP director?

Who else could give these three people orders?

Did the most powerful man in human space force them to let Morn go with Succorso?

Godsen Frik's voice had a petulant, almost defensive tone as he retorted, "I can go over his head."

Both Hashi Lebwohl and Min Donner looked away from the PR director as if they were shocked--or shamed. Studying the floor, Min said softly, "The way you did the immunity drug."

Dangerous red flushed across Godsen's face; but he didn't respond.

Still addressing the floor, Donner muttered, "I don't like playing this dirty."

Now Frik spoke back. "Oh, don't go all virtuous on us. You've got as much blood on your conscience as any one else. Probably more. Why else do they call you his executioner?

"You brought Joshua here, didn't you?"

"I obey orders," she replied as if to herself. "I trust him. I have to. But we're supposed to be cops. What good are we if we aren't honest?"

Hashi shrugged delicately. "What is honest? We define a goal. Then we devise a means to achieve it. Is this not honest?"

Some of the blood on Min's conscience showed in her eyes as she glared at Lebwohl. "I'm getting nauseous," she growled.[/quote]

What is honest? We define a goal. Then we devise a means to achieve it. Is this not honest? Interesting. While his job, and likely his personal outlook, have influenced Hashi to take great stock in facts, his relationship with truth and conscience is shown to be more slippery and unreliable, with this quote.

[Cord Hurn]

I think that Hashi Lebwohl is the most interesting Gap character that we've met so far, so I enjoy putting the spotlight on him in reviewing this chapter. Something about the way that he's written makes it so easy for me to see him in my mind. Even in this first scene in the Gap Cycle that we have with Hashi, we can see that he places a high value on his own reasoning ability, to the point that he cannot see flaws in his plans.

"Don't drag it out, Hashi," said Godsen. "Who is he?"

Hashi Lebwohl beamed.

"Why, none other than our trusted ally and colleague, Milos Taverner."

Somewhere in the back of Angus' mind, a small hope flickered to life.

"Taverner?" Frik spat. "Are you out of your mind? You're going to trust this entire operation to a man like Taverner? He has the scruples of a trash recycler. He's already sold out Com-Mine Security. All we had to do was pay him enough. He's probably selling us, too. If he isn't he'll do it as soon as he's offered enough credit."

"I think not." Lebwohl was unruffled. "We have several safeguards.

"First, of course, a datacore is unalterable. Our Milos cannot effectively issue instructions which run directly counter to Joshua's Programming. And every instruction he gives--indeed, every word he utters in Joshua's presence--will be permanently recorded. Our Milos will be unable to conceal what he has done.

"In addition, his unreliability is known. We have all the evidence we require. If our Milos seeks to betray us, he will be destroyed. We have left him no doubt of this."

Hashi smiled benevolently, then continued.

"In any case, whatever your objections, you must consider the question of credibility. Joshua's partner must appear to be Angus Thermopyle's subordinate. The Captain Thermopyle who is known upon Thanatos Minor would never serve under another--and would never accept as a subordinate any man who was not demonstrably illegal. His programming will allow him to expose his partner's treacheries, to explain--and thereby protect--him. That will leave Milos helpless to do anything other than serve us."

Frik wasn't satisfied, but Min didn't give him another chance to protest.

"No, Hashi." She sounded almost calm. "It's untenable. You can't do it. I wondered why we took Taverner away from Com-Mine, but I assumed it was to cover all of us if he got caught. I never thought you wanted him for something like this.

"He's an impossible choice. You can't give a known traitor control over a weapon like Thermopyle. One of my people is at stake here. I'm going to fight you on this."

And delay the operation? Angus argued in his paralyzed silence. No, don't do it, you don't want that.

Hashi faced Donner squarely. "It has been decided," he asserted. "The director approved the order weeks ago." He paused, then added happily, "I am proud to say that the suggestion was mine. I consider our Milos the perfect choice."

Min bunched her fists, raised them in front of her. But she didn't have anyone to strike. Through her teeth, she snarled, "Lebwohl, you're a shit."

Hashi's eyes narrowed. In a prim wheeze, he retorted, "It will not surprise you, I think, to hear that I hold you in similar esteem."

"Come on, Min." An apoplectic flush covered Godsen's face. "I'm going to talk to the director. I want you with me."

Min flashed a scathing glare at him, turned away roughly, and strode out of the room.

"And when the director refuses to alter his decision," Lebwohl said to Godsen, "you will again attempt to 'go over his head.' This time, you will not succeed. The game is deeper than you understand, and you will drown in it."

Sputtering, the PR director hurried after Min.

When Donner and Frik were gone, Hashi spent some time playing with Angus before putting him back to bed.

We know enough about Milos Taverner at this point to know that something will likely go wrong with Milos being part of the planned operation using Angus. Angus knows it, too, and hopes it will work to his advantage. Another thing I noted from this scene is how Hashi uses a measured, careful way to insult Min and Godsen. Hashi's mode of speech is as polished as his appearance is unpolished. This doesn't negate that he has both a condescending and mean side to him, though--at least, from what I can see in this chapter.

[Cord Hurn]

Finally ready though, Hashi, followed by Min and Godsen Frik come on the scene, and while Hashi puts Joshua through his paces, they discuss the situation, the threat that Morn is under, and the strong likelihood that Holt will not permit Joshua to rescue her. She is, in fact surplus to requirements as far as the UMC is concerned.

While we have read allegations of UMCP corruption from the likes of Vector Shaheed, this chapter gives us readers the first indication of there being division in the UMCP ranks concerning standards of ethics. Here, we have Frik and Lebwohl approving of deception in framing Angus to get the Preempt Act passed. Min Donner seems to be the most straight-laced, honest person among these three UMCP directors, by far.

"If word gets out, if people hear about this--" Frik sounded genuinely distressed. "One of our people, with gap-sickness and a zone implant, wandering around loose--under the control of a known pirate. People are going to ask why we let that happen. We've got to get her back."

"I agree," Donner rasped. "We've got to get her back." She turned on Lebwohl again. "That's why I'm in a hurry. I don't like any of this--and I'm liking it less by the minute." The passion in her voice blazed higher as she spoke. "I want him ready and on his way. He's my only chance to rescue her. If she isn't past hope already."

This time Hashi looked a little nonplussed. "My dear Min," he said as if he were breathing sand, "I am not certain that his programming can accomodate your wishes."

She poised herself as if she were about to draw her gun. "What do you mean?"

"Forgive me. I spoke imprecisely. I mean, I am not certain that his programming will be allowed to accomodate your wishes."

"That's outrageous," snorted Godsen. "Of course he's got to rescue her. You aren't listening. I tell you, we've got a disaster on our hands. The only way we can salvage the situation is by rescuing her."

"I understand your concern," Hashi replied placatingly. "However, you must understand that our postion is not so simple. I mean, the position of those of us in this room. Let me explain with a question. When our Joshua was arrested by Com-Mine Security, your Morn Hyland fled with Captain Succorso. Why did we permit that to occur?'

"We weren't there," Frik said. "We couldn't stop it."

But Min had a different answer. "Orders," she snapped.

"Naturally," said Lebwoh. "Of course. But that is not an answer. Why were those orders given? What reasoning lies behind them?"

The ED director grew more bitter by the moment. "I don't know. He's keeping it to himself."

Hashi agreed with a nod. "So we must speculate.

"Consider the hypothesis that Morn Hyland was a condition for Captain Succorso's cooperation. He wanted her, and we want him. Therefore we had no choice but to let him have her.

"This is plausible. But unsatisfactory.

"It is certain that Com-Mine Station could not be allowed to keep her. If they did, they would inevitably have learned the truth--that our Joshua was innocent of the charge against him. Indeed, that the charge was invented by Captain Succorso and our valued ally, Deputy Chief of Security Milos Taverner. Then we would have been exposed. The Preempt Act would have failed, and our director of Protocol would have been faced with a disaster of"--his eyes gleamed--"astronomical proportions.

"However, to relieve the dilemma by allowing Captain Succorso to take her is altogether questionable. Personally I would have preferred to terminate her. She is a random element--and Captain Succorso himself is a rogue. Together they will cause more difficulties than they resolve.

"I cannot persuade myself that we have placed ourselves in this position merely to satisfy Captain Succorso's wishes."

"In other words," Donner said angrily, "you think there's something else going on here. You think Joshua won't be programmed to rescue her for the same reason we let her get away with Succorso--and we won't be told what that reason is."

"In essence," Hashi said, "yes."

Angus' arms had begun to burn with strain, but he didn't have the choice of letting them drop.

"We'll see about that," Godsen proclaimed. "Protocol isn't going to take this lying down. Sure, I'm all in favor of Joshua here. I hope he nukes Thanatos Minor to slag. And Captain Succorso with it. You're right--Succorso's a rogue. Having an agent like him isn't worth the risk.

"Some risks I'm willing to take. You know that. Using illegals like Succorso and traitors like Taverner to help us pass the Preempt Act and give us Joshua--that was worth the danger. In fact, it was my idea. If word got out, we were all cooked. But I don't think we could have passed the Act any other way.

"This is another matter. We have nothing to gain by taking the chance that Succorso and Hyland might go critical on us. We should have blasted them to powder as soon as they left Com-Mine. But we didn't, so now we've got to accept the consequences.

"I'm going to fight this one." He faced Donner as if he expected applause--or at least gratitude. "You can count on my support. If we don't at least try to rescue your Morn Hyland, we're too vulnerable."

Min wasn't grateful.

Min Donner really seems to care about the people under her command, and learning all the suffering that Morn has gone through only increases her desire to have Morn rescued. With Hashi Lebwohl and Godsen Frik, however, it's more a question of what is expedient to not make themselves look bad, and both make statements showing they would have little reservation in issuing orders that would get Morn killed.

No wonder Min doesn't feel like displaying any gratitude to Godsen for his support. She doesn't feel that Godsen's heart is in the right place, doesn't feel that he's doing the right thing for the right reasons.