Chapter ten:  Loose ends in a spider web
      There is more going on than you think. There is more going on than you handle, actually:   Melody’s observations
    Melody ghosted in from the  door the CyBorg's had just left from while I was desperately trying to get Mindy back to something that would run right. In full Zombie mode, which meant there was no noise of any kind around here.
    Not even any alarms. I didn't have time to wonder about that. Henry came over to watch, but he didn't say anything.
     Normalizing Mindy  was a lot beyond me. It looked like it was a lot beyond anything Henry could do too. Mindy was a mess. Helping her stay alive was the best I could do.
    Melody stood and watched me for a couple seconds. “You're still living the dream, Tracker.” was the only whisper I heard from her. “But staying out of the passion-pit. That's good.”
   “But there's more to this than you know.” She glanced over at Henry and nodded. “Let me in.”
    “I can't stop you.” Henry grumped out. “And I won't if I could.”
     Melody nodded and laid a finger on one of Mindy's pickups. And poof, she was with us in the Borg link, poking around, lifting systems I didn't dare touch and and reviewing the whole collection of odds and ends that was Mindy at the moment.
 She did take a couple seconds to look into the bio-gestalt program. Mindy and her shared a smile I got left out of .
 “We can help, but not here.” Was all she said to us. “And Brother John approves. Let me get her ready.”  Mindy nodded, and even asked for her help. Melody looked obscurely pleased.
   Melody's magic bag of herbs and spices came out. It looked like she was  flavoring Mindy for the oven.
   “Here, read this to the Hive.” was all she said to me, and she said that in real-time, not in the link. I hadn't even noticed her leaving.  “In full link. After I'm gone.”
   “How long?” was all I had to ask. Mindy getting stuffed into a zombie farm for a while was more than I expected. Zombies did take to take their time with things, and I wanted to know how long Mindy would be gone.
   “Till it's finished.” Was all she said. Then a couple of bots unjacked Mindy and took her out the same back door everyone but  the officials had been using today. “There's more out there than you know, Tracker.  Think of electronic fields. Now add in some sort of DNA at the wave-icle level. Now add in rogue AIs.”
  “And mushrooms.” She added as I sat there and wondered about I looked over the chip  Melody had given me and groaned. More reading material. Bots were getting to be a pain.
   “Just link in whenever you're ready.” Henry yawned as his bots tried turning his lab back into whatever it was before Harvey had made it into a field triage hospital.  “And don't worry about Melody and Mindy. She'll be back.”
    Melody was gone already. The bots carried Mindy out, moving fast.
   “Read.” Henry commanded me. “There's still a lot to do here and you can't sit there and sulk. Deacon.”
************
   “The way is open and you shall not be denied.”
   The full hive link wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. The place was so big and busy I went almost unnoticed in the traffic.
   Not exactly good for the ego, as I was supposed to be an important person here,  but I was grateful for it anyway. If the hive wanted to pepper me with questions and analysis, there's be a lot more than I could handle here, instantly.
    The full force of the hive would be a mind-breaker and without even trying.
   “Matter is energy is music is perfect communication is love.  Know that you too are loved.”
     I unjacked from the hive before they could start anything and looked over at Brother John. He'd come out of hiding for this little exercise.
   “Who'd you steal that from?” I grumped out, taking the deacon goggles off. Brother John, all four foot teddy of him, grinned and took the deacon goggles from my hands. “And will it keep everyone happy?”
   “Oh, it was divine inspiration. Profit-mode, if you will.  Will it keep the hive happy? No. Interested? Yes.” Brother John did something to the goggles and handed them back to me.  “There. You're only an honorary Deacon now, Tracker. No power to speak of, just some hive-links and whatnot. A gift from a grateful teddy-world for favors received. The way it was supposed to be in the first place, according to the press release.”
   “Angel OK with this?” I asked carefully.  ”And do the gangas know?”
   “Yes to both. Officially, Teddy got my suggestions wrong  and I cleared them up as soon as I got back.” Brother John grinned at me. “You can even go back to collecting runaway teddys if you want. Without these goggles you're of no interest to anyone.”
   “Perfect.”
    “WHAT DID YOU DO? I don't want these... these melons on me!”
     I could hear Mindy scream over the link She'd gotten in on today's little lecture too. 
     It seemed like she was in perfect health at the moment, thou both Henry and the zombies said she need a lot more rest time. Melody had offered to keep her locked up till Mindy was fully healed, if necessary.
  “They've got to be the size of watermelons!” came from the link.  I started getting interested in whatever had happened.
  “We're disguising her too. “  Henry looked a little guilty. I think whatever they'd given Mindy was his idea. “She won't look like a CyBorg when the zombies are finished with her.”
    I listened to Mindy protest and grinned. 
   “I think I'll be thanking you for this, whatever it is.” I told him. “What'd you do?”
   “Gave her a nice set of boobs.” Henry grinned. ”Add-ons that really work. Really nice rack, too.”
    “Oh-boy, oh-boy, oh boy.” I sat and thought about it for a couple seconds.
    “when does she get out again?”
“When she's healed, boy.” Henry slapped me on the shoulder and pointed towards the door. “When she's healed.”
   “Now go home. You've earned it.”
                                                         END