5:30 am

The hissing static from the alarm gave off a somewhat melodic rhythm. Its volume was somewhere in that margin between barely audible and not quite jolting. It was the first of four stages that would eventually bring Laura Wynn awake. Some people found it odd that Memorites didn’t wake up in an instant, fully alert, but decades of testing had shown that while some people could take that kind of regimen, more often than not it contributed to a higher propensity to seizures. Laura had tested marginally for possible seizure activity, and while this marked a more active brain, it also was a danger flag. So the Memorite doctors had set her wake-up regimen for eight minutes.

The second stage was marked with a slightly higher volume and a more defined melodic rhythm. It had been a long time since she had learned to translate the musical hissing of a Memorite data stream. Now she gave it no thought at all. The data was calculated to be of moderate interest, nothing that would pull the person awake too soon. Today was a treatise on the comparison of aviary and human courtship rituals.

The third stage always gave the illusion of full wakefulness. At this point, Laura seemed to be fully aware of her surroundings, but EEGs had shown that her brain was still partially asleep. The volume was higher and the background white noise was almost gone. The treatise took on a more colorful aspect; all designed to usher the mind carefully into the next level.

By the fourth stage, Laura was indeed fully awake. This stage was designed to allow those last few cobwebs of sleep to be swept away. She found it relaxing that, although fully awake, she could enjoy those two additional minutes of mental rest, and to a Memorite a minute is an eternity.

The alarm stopped with a pronounced click, exactly eight minutes after it started. Laura pulled the covers away, slid out of bed, and walked gracefully to the bathroom. On her way, she grabbed her TacCom and strapped it into place on her forearm. The oversized jersey she slept in fell loose from her arms and shoulders and was pulled to the left, almost off her shoulder. Her long, dark hair cascaded down her back and across her shoulders. She felt the tingle from the TacCom as it activated and the flow of information began immediately. Now, not bound by the one-dimensional limits of the audio Memorite date stream, the gentle blunt pins of the TacCom transmitted information twenty times faster. By the time she emerged from the bathroom, she was halfway through the first of twelve daily newspapers she received each morning. She quietly walked into an open area in her living room and began her morning Tai Chi.

She was not quite petite at five-foot-five, but she worked hard at maintaining enough femininity in her posture and body language to make most people think of her as small and delicate. She had more than enough self-confidence to overcome any assumptions that might be generated in the minds of other people. Her face continued the effect, with a smallish nose, somewhat full lips, and a scattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Still wearing the jersey, she moved through the Tai Chi barefoot, on the hardwood floor of her living room.

By the end of the Brush Knee form, she had finished the first paper. Laura was ‘reading’ the papers with full attention. There were several levels in which a Memorite could receive data. Since the Tai Chi took little thought, Laura could process the data and sort it into functional links. She would then be able to recall any specific data via those links. Were she occupied with a task that needed some attention, she would process only those links she’d trained herself to handle with little thought, the rest of the data she would process later. If she needed more focus, Laura’s training allowed her to receive the data and store it as quickly as it was sent. There was, of course, the fourth option of turning the TacCom off. So far in the seven years, Laura had worn a TacCom, she’d never needed to do that—other than to sleep, like all Memorites. The Memorite Society had long since discovered that while the data stream transmitted to a sleeping Memorite was retained, it interfered with the much-needed sleep patterns—not to mention other, even worse consequences.

Close to the end of her Tai Chi was a very strenuous form. When she came to it Laura held the position, both arms out straight, palms out, and one leg perpendicular to her body. She’d not been able to exercise like she was accustomed to for the past few weeks, and she wished to make up for it. At the end of a ten count, she continued with the forms and repeated the ten-second wait on the reverse of the form. It felt good to be home.