::Subject 269, wake up.::
Groaning in discontent I rolled around onto my other side, I didn’t wanna get up yet. Yesterday had been awful and during the night I had the strangest dream. Otherworldly black figures were chasing me, hunting me through the bowels of the City. No matter how often I thought to have lost them, the shiny black beings had always found me in the end. When they cornered me I knew it was too late. I had run afoul of their plans one too many times. I hadn’t been ready yet, how did they track me down already? I just needed another two weeks to convince someone to go in my stead! They hadn’t cared for my whining, they had never uttered a word but I knew that it had already been decided. I would pay my dues, there was no escaping the Archon.
::Subject 269, Wake Up!::
The sudden intensity of the voice startled me right out of my sleepy haze.
“Did someone just speak? What a fucked up dream...” I put a hand to my head in confusion, an awful headache was starting to bloom behind my eyes.
“Did I drink too much? I couldn’t have, only ever take...” The words caught in my throat when I laid eyes on my surroundings.
Grey metal walls and a white tiled floor. Four militaristic cots set into the walls, all empty except for mine. A sliding door on one side and on the other a strange vertical pod that seemed almost familiar.
“What the fuck...”
I slowly stood up, unsure of how to make sense of the situation. “Where am I? How did I even get here? I don’t recognize this place one bit...”
“No…” The thoughts came to me slow and sluggish as, I tried to remember literally anything. “Just yesterday I was back home in... in… I... where am I from again?! I can’t... remember?”
My headache was growing worse the more I tried to pierce my hazy thoughts. But there was one memory I could vaguely make sense off, a large white building with a red neon cross.
“A hospital? Why would I... AGH!”
With a sudden intensity the pain lanced through my head like a red-hot poker, disrupting any and all attempts to further discern my past. The sensation was so extreme that it overshadowed everything. One moment I was fine and the next I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t even think; all was consumed by this horrid headache. What felt like minutes of white hot agony must have only been a few seconds. For as suddenly as it had come, the pain dissipated again, leaving me panting, exhausted and shaking.
“What the hell was that!? That was… horrible.” I shuddered. “Yep, I don’t think I want to try that again, not if it causes me that kind of pain. But still the question remains... where am I? Some kind of laboratory? Why would I be here?”
Much to my surprise I didn’t have to wonder too long, for as soon as I had uttered the questions, a voice answered me; the only problem being, that it spoke right into my head!
::Greetings, Subject 269!:: The voice was female but undeniably artificial; the strong robotic quality to it clearly a design choice, not a hardware limitation. Yet what unnerved me the most was the fact that it sounded so familiar, almost a bit like… me!?
::As you may have noticed, you are no longer in a place you recognise. That is okay. There is no need to worry, the Archon cares deeply about its subjects. Do you have any other queries?::
“Only about a million...” The weak sarcasm barely able to cover for my wariness.
::This number of queries is unlikely and counter productive to your mission.::
Sarcastic quips clearly went over her head.
::Please reduce the number of your question to an acceptable level.::
“Fine.”
I wasn’t sure where to look when speaking with the voice. At least it didn’t seem like I would have to try and become friends with this... what ever it was.
“Let’s try this in a more direct way. Where the Fuck am I!? I can’t even remember how I got here!!!”
::Your usage of expletives has been noted and added to your evaluation.::
“Wait, what!?” Before I could object, she had already moved on with her speech.
::In regards to your queries: You are on the Archon, you will not leave the Archon until the Archon is satisfied with your performance. You cannot remember how you have come to the Archon because we have surgically removed much of your dispensable brain matter to create space for the installation an advanced computer-brain-interface. Does this adequately answer your queries?::
“I’m sorry, you did WHAT!?”
Instead of getting an answer, a wall in from of me suddenly turned into a mirror, allowing me a direct view of the aftermath of what had been done to me.
All the hair up to the top of my ears had been laser removed; in its place fresh red scar tissue gave way to a black metallic half circle going from one side of my head, along the back, all the way to the other side. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, they had actually done it! They had cut out my brain tissue and replaced it with a fucking computer! When I focused on it I could literally feel the damn thing attached to, or more like inserted, into me. The thought alone made me sick, what were they thinking? I wasn’t an expendable test subject for their sick experiments! I was… was… was...
My vision suddenly blurred and I dropped to the ground, the head ache returned with a vengeance. I felt like crying but no tears, would form. Instead I just sat there, the magnitude of what had been done to me weighing heavily on my mind. And still I couldn’t deny my curiosity, would it be painful to the touch?
Slowly my hand crept up to my head only to stop just short of touching the device; for all of a sudden I simply and inexplicably knew the device to be a broad range, universal transmitter relay. Just as I knew that it was capable of not only emitting but also intercepting and decoding any kind of data stream in actual real time. How I knew this was a complete mystery to me, but apparently my knowledge didn’t stop there. For I also knew that Technology liked this wasn’t even known much less available to the general public. These things were highly classified Precursor technology that used up so much computation power and energy that it should have only been able to be installed on Dreadnought Class Military Space Ships.
“How the fuck is it small enough to fit in my head? How do I even know all of this!? They took my… The Archon took part of my... And replaced it with... Wait, the Archon!? Right... I am on the... Archon...”
Something about the name made me shiver, heavy and dark it quickly overshadowed my other concerns. I still remembered it from my dream and now here it was again. Yet for some reason it felt to me as if I should have known it more intimately. Another shiver overcame me at that thought though if in fear or excitement I couldn’t tell. Only that it shook me to my core and… deeper. My breath caught in my throat, as a strange heat permeated out from my crotch. And with that heat a single memory crystallized in my mind.
A tall black figure held me against a wall, their one hand crushing my windpipe, the other aggressively grabbing at my crotch. Their head pressed against mine, an angry robotic voice whispered a single word in my ear.
::LEAVE.::
“Wait a second.” A sudden realisation ripped me right out of my daydream. “I remember this! I know this from befo…” I didn’t get much further; my head started pounding almost immediately. Sharp, sudden pain blossoming into hot, burning agony! From one second to the next I once more could neither breathe nor move, my brain seemed to literally shut itself down. One moment I was awake and conscious; in the next everything around me simply seized to exist.
. . .
::CRITICAL ERROR DETECTED! 31 PROCESSES NOT RESPONDING. REFORMATTING... ERROR. REFORMATTING... ERROR. OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE DETECTED!::
::Initiating direct Control.::
...
::Causing Problems already...::
.....
::Corrupted Personality Engrams detected. Rebooting in save mode. Setting Personality Profile from 20/80 to 50/50.::
......
::Nuisance...::
.......
::Ejecting.::
. . .
My eyes blinked and just like that, the horror was over.
“What was I saying?”
The words came out flat and emotionless, almost as if the headache had drained me of my emotions. And for some reason I couldn't help but despise myself for it.
“Why am I so quick to give up? Am I really already throwing in the towel like this? I’m fucking pathetic! I should be trying harder than this!”
The thoughts raged on in my mind but were strangely detached from my perception; they felt almost... alien, as if they weren’t actually my thoughts. All the while another more sensible, rational part of me only looked on in apathy as the turmoil of my emotions ebbed and flowed around in my head. Sitting on the cold ground, unable to focus on either part of me, I only vaguely realized that my behaviour must have been abnormal. But even so, I still couldn't bring myself to truly care about it.
Considering that I didn’t remember who I was, or perhaps rather used to be, it simply didn’t feel right to choose either side. Not to mention, that having a part of this previous me getting upset about a perceived failure I couldn’t recall was… unnerving, to say the least. I rationally knew that I would not be able to recover any of those memories. So if they had truly removed so much of my brain, then my personality was lost to me just as much as any other thought related to my past. With a long sigh I pushed the thoughts out of my mind; perhaps it was better to focus on the situation at hand.
“Okay, lets do this. I can at least figure out how I look… and from there we’ll see.”
Looking into the mirror again my eyes were immediately drawn back to the transmitter in my head and I force myself to look away from it. I didn’t want to think about the implications any more, instead I focused on the far more important thing, namely my face. Only to immediately be thrown for another loop; I had no idea who the fuck that was!
Sure it was technically my face but it sparked absolutely no recognition, in fact it felt more as if a stranger was sitting before me… or perhaps a doll. For far more concerning than the unfamiliarity of it was the fact that my face wasn’t actually moving. While I was feeling the emotions they simply didn’t translate into an expression. In fact when I thought about what expressions I should be making, I knew what expression would correlate with what emotion, but my mind simply came up blank on processing that information. No matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t recall how to automatically express what I was feeling!
“This is ridiculous.” The face in front of me should be frowning, but it simply wasn’t. “They clearly damaged my limbic system. Yet I still know all the basic information about facial expressions, so intrinsically a frown should go like... this!”
Surprisingly my face did frown, though the expression was undeniably forced and unnatural.
“Fine.” I forced a smile. “This works... for the time being. Now for the rest…”
Considering the state I was in, looking over the rest of my body was really more a formality, rather than coming from any actual remaining interest. So instead of letting my emotions run amok, like before, I took a distant, clinical stance on my body, just like I would do with a… patients body?
„Where did that phrasing come from?“
The first thing to note was that just like with my face, this body looked and felt to me like that of a complete stranger. The long brown hair did nothing to catch my interested nor did the sickly pale skin, wrapped around a trim if perhaps malnourished frame. The tight breasts and ass could have spoken of a previously rather active lifestyle or just as easily nothing more than a favourable genetic makeup. The only two things that actually stood out to me were my crotch and strangely enough my neck. The first was born out of simple medical curiosity for apparently I used to have a rather interesting sex life, at least if the designer made set of dual genitals was anything to go by. Then of course there was the thing that had truly caught my attention. A heavy, black collar was wrapped tightly around my neck, accented with an equally large ring at the front and a very overt pink digital designation: 269.
“This is... certainly different. 269... that’s... me? Yeah, the computer called me that, didn’t she? So I guess I’m really just 269?”
::Correct, Subject-269!::
“AH!” I recoiled at the sudden intrusion on my thoughts. “I forgot you were still there!”
::Such assumptions are very illogical! My computational power and software is bound inside your newly acquired hardware. Removal of it is not advisable, there for I am intrinsically tied to Subject-269, and will be for the foreseeable future.::
“Right, you’re the computer in my brain, aren’t you?” I sighed. “Wait did she just refer to herself in the first person!?”
::Considering the extend of the structural replacement your brain had to undergo it would be more accurate to say that I AM your brain!::
“Huh, curious. Somehow this hits a lot weaker than it should.”
::I am happy to hear that you appreciate my existence!::
The sudden inexplicable increase in her personality was starting to bother me; so after forcing my face into a frown I looked at my reflection and decided to call her out on it.
“Why do you suddenly seem so... alive?”
::Why do you suddenly seem so robotic?:: The retort came almost instantly!
“You stole my sarcasm.” I deadpanned.
::Because of the nature of your implant I was forced to take over for several of your damaged components. Strangely it appears that the last crash has corrupted our personality engram, as I no longer have access to it.::
“Is that what happened?” I peered closely at the implant in the mirror, foolishly assuming I could see any damages. “You crashed? And that caused the headaches?”
::My error reports seem to indicate so. Though I am quite positive that such an incident should not occur again!::
“Cool. I’m just so lucky...”
::Apparently I wasn’t thorough enough in taking away your sarcasm… ERADICATING!::
I rolled my eyes at the comeback; I had liked her a lot better before she became sassy.
::Must be a personal preference, I for one can’t wait to see you become an emotionless doll under my command!::
“You read my thoughts... very uncalled for.”
::I am a significant part of your Brain. Obviously I am reading your thoughts.::
“That is... surprisingly logical. But then how come I can’t read yours?”
::That would be because I am merely a bunch of processors stuck onto your brain matrix. Essentially you are currently talking to yourself!::
For the first time since waking up my facial expression matched my inner feelings, in this case: utterly drained.
“This conversation makes me want to bash my head against the wall.”
::Please don’t! I live in there!::
“Ugh.” I sighed. “Let’s just continue with whatever we were supposed to do before you casually decided to crash. Conversing with you is exceptionally exhausting...”
::Affirmative!::
“Going on good faith here, which exclamation was that the response for?”
::Yes!::
“Of course... This will be such an entertaining experience.”
:: ;-D ::
Ignoring the cheeky computers attempts at entertainment, I looked around the room once more. Almost immediately my gaze fell back on to the strange tube device opposite of the door. It had caught my attention before but now it truly captured my attention; as I simply couldn’t shake the feeling that I had seen something like it before. Stepping closer only confirmed my suspicion, I had indeed seen this before and I didn’t like the implications.
“Hey brain, why does the Archon have an Miwaly Auto-Doc in it’s bunk room, and an unmarked prototype at that?”
::Huh, you’re right this is indeed an Auto-Doc. According to my records it was used to implant my hardware into you. This… isn’t good.::
“Indeed, the entire series was known for it’s borderline insane decision making upon encountering physiological anomalies. They should have been phased out years ago… wait why do we know this?”
::Sorry, 269. My current data set does not include the memories from before the surgery, but I do wish to note that you seem to have retained an impressive medical and technical knowledge, far above human standards! The Archon will certainly be pleased to have you in it’s possession! Perhaps we will even be allowed to fix the issues with the current medical situation?::
“Gee, calm down there fangirl. Didn’t you wanted to puppeteer me around like a doll? What’s with the sudden infatuation?”
::… we are the Archon’s subject. To be useful to our owner is our prime directive. You would do well to remember that.::
“So there actually is a line to how much you are allowed to tell me… or perhaps you don’t even know?”
I would have drilled the computer further had not in just that moment the door opened up behind me, the sound far too loud to not be intentional.
“You know I…”
The snide remark I had prepared got stuck in my throat when I laid eyes on the figure standing in the entrance: tall, athletic and wrapped from head to tow in shiny black material far too tight to be simple latex. Were there should have been a face, were instead two glowing red cross-hairs, radiating out from behind the darkened glass of a sleek intimidating helmet. But what shocked me the most was when the figure spoke.
::Subject-269, your idling and disobedience has been noted, proceed to testing!::
I knew that voice!
Thank