Joelle And Eric

Poul Anderson, The Avatar, XXIII.

To link, Joelle and Eric each relax in a reclining lounger, don a head-enclosing helmet, put wrists through contact loops and check settings on a control plate. She phases him in with her and is able to scan his mind.

When he activates, first he remembers a childhood experience, then both are fully aware of their immediate environment. A small part of him "...calculate[s] the value of an elliptical integral to a thousand decimal places." (p. 198) He begins to calculate the stability of Jovian vortices but Joelle calls him to follow her. They merge as their neuron webs adapt "...to each other's synapse patterns..." (ibid.) and their forebrains mesh. Their imperfect communication, via the computers, includes random numbers, flashes and noises. His enhanced logical ability reconstructs what she might be thinking at each moment but they also continue to converse orally.

In The Genetics Laboratory
Joelle is often asked to conduct the most difficult of the experimental operations, to invent new tasks or to interpret results and can at any time access the current, automatically running, work on the sub-molecular level of life. She links both to the instruments, sensors and effectors and to the sum total of biological/chemical knowledge and understanding. Following, Eric not only receives the numerical knowledge but also senses a living cell from its membrane to its nucleus, then enters and ascends a double helix which Joelle partly reshapes.