Jag läste den här historien någon gång mellan 1989 och 1991 i ett SF & F-tidningsblad (Asimovs Science Fiction? The Magazine of Fantasy och Science Fiction? Fantastiska berättelser?)
"Bakom barriären" , en kortfattad historia av Stephen Kraus . Såvitt ISFDB vet att det aldrig återtryckts, men bara visas på sid. 141-159 av The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , december 1990 , som finns på Internetarkiv .
Det sker i framtiden. En neurokirurg använder MRI-skanningar för att kartlägga en persons neurala karta. När han hittar cancer eller blodproppar, programmerar han nanobotter för att komma in i kroppen och städa upp sjukdomen.
It glided again down the alley, to the dark far end. Another cell. The receptor probed, feeling . . . there, the self-protein again, twisting around and . . .YES!! The antigen molecule!
The receptor fired: a blinding rush of pure white hate. A web of protein fibers extended, drew the target closer. Gross, misshapen cellular morphology—a cancer cell, thrashing in the T cell's fatal embrace. Enzymes streamed out.
Conrad leaned forward in his chair, his hand clenched inside the glove. "Die," he whispered. "Die."
The cancer cell heaved, then turned inside out, protoplasm spattering. Conrad exhaled, wiping sweat from his face. He pulled his hand out of the glove. The simulator display froze. The T cell was smeared with slime, triumphant, its receptor thrust brutally forward.
Greta was going to live.
Conrad blinked off the monitor, took a deep breath. The rest was routine—just some molecular assembler programming.
Hans ex-fru, som han fortfarande älskar, kommer till behandling.
Ex-lover, inte ex-fru:
"Your mother died of leukemia," he said, astonished.
They'd been lovers—however briefly—and she had never told him.
När hon lämnar experimenterar han med att visa sitt fotografi på den simulerade näthinnan och finner var det lyser upp i simuleringen. När han ser en blockerad neuron, programmerar han nanobotten för att förstöra hennes cancer och återupprätta kontakten med det här klustret genom att återansluta blocket.
She stared at him with huge, accusing eyes.
He looked down. "I sent a machine into your central nervous system. One machine the size of a virus. That's all.
She moved to a safe distance. "Go on."
"That's all, really. Your cancer was so simple. I had hours left over before you came back. So I showed your simulation a picture of me. It was just an experiment. I followed the impulses. I found the recognition center right away—I'd made a strong impression on you, whether you realized it or not. There was a path that led away from it straight into your thalamus: affection, pleasure—something strong. But there was a clump of inhibitor neurons wrapped around the center, firing full-time."
She looked ill. But she was listening.
"That was abnormal," he said. "Don't you see? It was pathological. Those inhibitors prevented you from feeling anything, prevented you from responding. They've been there for years—maybe since your mother died—I don't know. The repair was so easy. My machine bound up the transmitter they were secreting, turned off the inhibition. One machine, that's all."
Efter sin operation blir hon kär i honom, men efter ett tag upptäcker han manipuleringen och lämnar honom.
Conrad pratar med Greta om sin dag på jobbet:
Conrad stopped. He was talking too fast. And saying far too much.
Greta's face changed, the intrigued look turning inward. "You can change someone's brain?"
"Well, of course I can," he said, flustered. "I can change anything. I have all the data. All I have to do is edit it."
Her eyes were enormous and vacant. "You can change someone's brain?"
The warm flush that had started on her face when she first saw him drained to a chalky white.
"Greta, are you all right?"
She stood up, suddenly as unsteady as on the day she had first walked into his office. "Is that what happened to me?"
Denna utbyte leder till Conrads bekännelse i föregående citat. Hon lämnar honom.
För att glömma henne, skannar han sina egna neuroner, hittar hennes kluster och programmerar nanobotter för att klippa upp anslutningarna,
He spent hours tracing the tangled paths. Greta had seeped into every dendrite and synapse. He began to understand the visceral reaction she evoked in him—his response to her reached deep into his hindbrain and his motor neurons.
The moon rose over the city, arced across the sky, and evaporated in the sunrise. He kept tracing, cataloging, following signals as they dipped into the neural background. The paths grew ephemeral in places; he worked by instinct, taking chances.
By noon he had an approximate map of his response. From within, it was intimidating -- an impenetrable knot of connections. A kelp forest. But when he stepped back, a pattern began to emerge, and with it a strategy for programming his machines.
He was going to forget that Greta ever existed.
med den olyckliga konsekvensen av att också avbryta neurala vägar till andning, hjärtreglering, etc.
Yep. Den sista raden:
Then he forgot how to breathe.