“I can’t really tell how much of her skill is natural, and what is the result training, however so far she has demonstrated what she can do. And yes, her synch rate is the highest natural rate in this team, at least as far as I know.” Joe replied, slightly insecure, as he can’t really judge how good someone is, all he could do is compare two people doing the exact same thing.

“I see… So, how did you all come to this, might I ask? I’m just curious.” James smiled, “I mean, I’m going to help patch you up from now on if something goes wrong! I might as well get to know you guys a little more than the preliminary things, right?”

“I can’t speak for the others, I may forget important details of their story. However, I am here as punishment for something stupid I did. It involved a punch breaking my hand, and my father’s memory.”

“...Oh…” For obvious reasons, she now seemed mildly suspicious. “Erm… are you…?”

“Am I what exactly? And no, no need to be too suspicious, it happened in a fit of extreme rage, I doubt you are capable of reawakening the beast.”

“So you admit you have an anger problem? Well, there’s that… What I meant was, y’know. You aren’t like…”, she turned a bit more sheepish, “A real criminal or something, right? Did you... murder somebody?”

“Depends on the definition of murder. If robbing someone of the ability to make any new memory is called murder, then yes; otherwise, no.” Joe laughed awkwardly, attempting to lighten up the mood.

James laughed along, apparently appreciating the attempt. “Well, in any case… are you sure you didn’t have anything wrong with you? That NaN and Infinity thing with your plug… I’ve never seen that personally before.” She elaborated a little, “I’ve heard about it, but never seen it with my own eyes until now. Although, with the fact that everything still seems to work fine, I’m really not sure what it could be.”

 “If there is something wrong with me, I am not aware of it. And what exactly did you hear about it?”

“Well, apparently a few years ago one archeological team or another dug records up at an NC facility of some sort. They were records related to some sort of … y’know, experimental plugs? And nets themselves too, the NC side of the whole system. The systems described were really icky, even for me. Basically sealing the pilot inside a special cockpit with an amniotic fluid like liquid. Their bodies dissolved as their nervous system fused with the craft completely!”

She seemed to shiver, “God, nobody needs or deserves [i]that[/i]... In any case, the failed, and successful examples in the records had similar happenings occasionally. Maybe your plug was connected [b]too[/b] well?”

“I don’t know what would make someone knowingly sign up for that, but I do see why it might be needed by some. After all, a pure nervous system can be connected much better and in much more places, than the average plug. In addition, it does not require as much ‘maintenance’. Excuse the technical term, but a nervous system by itself doesn’t have all the needs of a human.”

James rolled her eyes, “Man, you really did your homework. Maybe you aren’t so bad as you seemed! And yeah, you really have some points there. About the ‘maintenance’ and more points to connect. Heh, where’d you learn that stuff anyway? I’m just well travelled myself, you don’t seem to be that type. Love your local library or something?”

“Nah, my father was an NC mechanic, before...the incident that got me here. The rest is just extrapolating my knowledge onto the new hypothetical situation.”

“Ahhhh, riiight.”