Circling The Drain

Circling the Drain: [medical slang] A being that seems continually
at the point of death

The white light seared the human's optic nerve and redefined its
physical being, hazing the outline of its arms in front of it. The
human looked down at its feet and watched them disappear as the blazing
light encroached.

The light disappeared just as suddenly as it had arrived.

"What was that?" The human shrieked despite the fact that thought alone
would have been enough to prompt an answer. A genderless voice with a
factual intonation responded in the back of the human's skull. An N-net
implant.
-Unknown. The situation would indicate an effect of our breaching the
NCV All In Good Time's shields.- It paused before continuing. -An event
that has never been recorded before. I have no set references. However,
the situation now seems stable.-
"Has it detected us?" The human thought this time remembering where it
was.
-We are on the most advanced NCV Humac ever produced. That light was
visible on every spectral wavelength. The radiation alone would be
detectable from a distance greater than you could imagine. I think it
is safe to say that the All In Good Time would have a slight idea that
we are here. I could tell you how many times we have been scanned
during this conversation but you would worry.-
The human would have paused to think if it had paused at all.
"Which way is the vessel's mindcore?" The human asked itself.
-Two levels up and one kilometre towards the central hub.-

The human had complete trust in the N-net implant that shared its
brain. It was the latest model. It was the latest in human neural
technology. So far the N-net had guided the human across five galaxies
and landed it safely within one of the two main axial corridors of the
NCV All In Good Time, which itself was the latest in human-machine
technology. HUMAC. The human was the first being of its kind to step
foot within the vessel. It had been sent to corrupt the vessel's
mindcore. Introduce a few personality traits that would make it more
amenable to human requests for diversification. Humans felt they had
been dominated by machines for too long and the last human colony on
Celle IV was becoming overcrowded. If successful the single human
traveler could turn the tide and lead the way for human expansion once
again. All the human had to do was gain access to the mind core and
introduce the traits, which were sub-cripted within the glass disk it
was carrying.

*

-We have an unknown drone approaching.-
The human looked at the retinal display the implant had called up. A
drone could be seen approaching from the corridor ahead. It was moving
rapidly and had already passed the access tube the human required to
move up two levels. The display indicated the drone was about half a
metre square but contained a level of armament which the human
reluctantly noted was more than a match for its own impressive
arsenal.
The retinal display suddenly shifted in its hue, a fog of blue started
to cloud the distinctive reds and greens. It became denser indicating
whatever the blue was, it was rapidly approaching.
"What is that blue stuff?" The human screamed. It had never seen
anything like it before.
Before the N-net had time to answer the human it had taken control of
the human's body via its Exos. An organic exo-skin that all humans were
dipped in at birth and remained in constantly. It effectively became
the human's largest gland, like their natural skin, but it enabled
N-net's to control all muscular and ligament movement. Initially
designed as a redundancy system it had rapidly become an essential one
to humans and now in nearly all cases was the primary control of all
lung and heart functions. Humans had basically managed to change
themselves from vertebrates to invertebrates, albeit with a redundant
spine.

The N-net swiveled the human on its feet and started running it as fast
as possible along the corridor in the opposite direction to the
drone.
"What the fuck is that blue stuff?" The human repeated trying to turn
its head around to see behind it as it sprinted down the
corridor.
-If I am correct it is a synapse splitter. Its blue colour comes from
the uneven balance of positive ions and free electrons within the
plasma.-
"Okay. Okay. I'll rephrase it. What the fuck is a synapse splitter?"
The human was still trying to turn its head while moving at full pelt
down the corridor. It felt no tiredness at all as it was not
controlling any of its limbs.
-The synapse splitter was, well is, a theoretical weapon we believed
Humac were working on. It does no physical harm except that it splits
all synapse connections between an N-net and the human brain. It causes
the nerve cells to irrecoverably chemically reject each other.-
"You mean I'll be left here on my own?"
-Yes.-
"Oh Shit!"

Fifty metres later.
-I have a plan.-
"Good because I haven't got a clue what I'm doing!"
The human was still running down the corridor followed by the gaining
blue haze and then the drone.
It had stopped trying to look behind it and was concentrating on
running, although this added impetus had no affect on its speed.
-Trust me.-

The human suddenly stopped running and turned to face the approaching
blue mist.
"What are you doing? Have you gone mad!" The human was screaming trying
to turn around and start running again. It had no effect. The only part
of its body it had control of was its face, which was curled in a
terrified grimace as its head shook from side to side trying to turn
around.
"Its going to..." The human never got to finish its sentence as it
became engulfed by the dense blue mist.

Pain flashed through the human's mind as the mist penetrated the N-net
and chemically took it apart. The human regained control of its body as
the N-net relented and its hand's clasped its head in an attempt to
block the pain. It fell to its knees and screamed. The drone stopped
moving about 100m away from the now prone and completely still human
figure.

The blue mist began to slowly dissipate and then completely
vanish.

The human, its mind hot with pain, could feel its fingers slowly move
underneath its body. It was not doing it itself, the N-net must have
survived! The fingers were searching for its weapon that was locked to
its waist. The human felt them slowly unclasp the weapon and flick its
setting to special.
The human had no idea what it was doing.

Suddenly the human sprang to its feet, aimed and fired at the
stationary drone. Ammunition like it had never seen before, a swirling
gas pill of blue and yellow, erupted from the gun and struck the drone.
The gas seemed to cover the drone's entire casing before it seeped in
and disappeared. Initially it seemed to have no effect but after a
couple of seconds the drone lost its anti-gravitational fields and just
dropped to the floor. It never moved again.

The human never saw the drone fall to the ground as it fell there first
in waves of pain that shook its entire body. It was clawing at its
throat unable to breathe.
-You have to breathe... Breathe.-
It was the N-net attempting to calm the human.
-I lost control of your lungs and heart in the attack. You have to do
it yourself. Let it come naturally. Your producing too much adrenaline
your heart is already working. Calm down and let it come
naturally.-
The human began to slow in its frequency of spasms, as it learnt how to
control its lungs and heart again. After a while it lay breathing
heavily looking at the still drone.
"Dead?" The human said out loud nodding towards the crumpled metallic
mess.
-Dead.-
"How did you..."
-I managed to disconnect the majority of us before the attack. It was
only the heart and lung functions that were destroyed. I analyzed and
stored some of the unstable plasma within a stable field and channeled
it down to your weapon. I took a guess that Humac's biological
braincore synapses functioned in a similar way to ours and split them
with their own splitter.-
"You took a guess! We stopped running for a guess!"
-Well ... yes.-

*

The human had located the mindcore about 1.5 km from the position where
it had collapsed. The journey had been painful as it had damaged its
right knee and badly bruised its right arm in the fall. It also had to
constantly stop to catch its breath with all the exercise. The mindcore
itself was held in the centre of a large circular room protected with
what looked like a circular wall of nearly opaque glass which the human
was now circling. Wondering how to get in.

"Where exactly did you say this disk goes?" The human doubled back on
itself walking around the glass wall.
-I didn't-
"Didn't what?"
-I didn't say where the disk went.-
"You mean they never programmed you where to put the disk when we
finally got here?" The human stopped and stared at a single point in
front of it, a habit it had when arguing with itself.
-No. We were merely to introduce the disk.-
"Well, Okay. Here you merely introduce the disk." The human stood still
holding out its right arm, which held the disk. After a while it
shifted the disk to its left arm. "You'll have to use this arm the
other's bruised."
-I'm not going to use either.-
"Why not?"
-We have company.-

The human looked up and noticed that the glass wall had lit up. It was
a rosy yellow hue. The colour of humor.
-Ah ... Goldfish your back.- The voice was deep and male but slightly
inhuman. The colours had become increasingly yellow with the vocal
inflections. N-net characterizations were always distinctly genderless
as humans; it had been discovered, felt threatened if they could
identify the vocal gender of the N-net sharing their brain. HUMAC had
no such restrictions.
The human felt threatened by the male nature of the voice.

"Goldfish?" The human thought.
-Small reddish-golden Chinese carp kept in ponds or aquariums.-
"Uh-huh. Maybe things are looking up. It's being friendly, maybe this
mindcore doesn't need the disk after all."

-That was an interesting maneuver you pulled on my drone earlier. Very
interesting. But not nearly as spectacular as the time you blew a hole
in the outer hull and threw yourself out into space and then blasted
yourself back in behind it to take it by surprise. But intuition again.
That time you guessed the drone's sensors would not operate beyond my
outer hull, this time the nature of Humac braincores. Ingenious. No,
really you astound me.-
"What is it going on about?'
-I've absolutely no idea.-

-I suppose you didn't realize that this is a NCV. Non Contact Vehicle.
That is we wish no contact with anybody. Human's included.- The wall
took on a red hue. Questioning with a slight hint of anger.
The human shifted its weight from one ankle to another before starting
to pace in front of the glass wall.
"Er ...Yes. I believe this is the NCV All In Good Time. An influential
member of Humac's inner mindring and widely regarded as its greatest
mindcore. A vessel that has been on sabbatical for the last century or
so without any contact with HUMAC whatsoever. We believe that you are
reassessing Humac's development philosophy and we wished a chance to
present to you our, that is the human, point of view." The human
stopped pacing and stood what it imagined was ambassador like in front
of the wall.
-Quite interesting ...- The wall returned to a yellow hue. -... And
this point of view would have nothing to do with that disk you hold in
your hand.-
"What this?" The human held up the glass disk. "No. No." The human took
a couple of steps back and looked a little less ambassador like. "I
merely act as a representative of the human population on Celle
IV."
-Ah Yes, Celle IV. The last human colony. I believe that disk you hold
contains traits you wished to insert in my personality to make me more
... let us say, amenable to your expansion.- The colours became more
intensely red. -You can never underestimate the deviousness of the
human, can you?-
"Well ... Well I can't really agree with that. I mean what is wrong
with putting our point of view to you."
-Why can't you agree with me. It is not as if your human, is it?- A
cold blue tinged the predominant red.
"What!"
-Uh-Oh-

-Yes. Didn't you know? Your a construct sent by the colony on Celle IV
to aid their preservation. You don't think they would actually send a
human, do you? There far too precious.- The wall was becoming yellow
again. Yellow with just a hint of smug orange.
"What is it talking about?" The human asked itself.
-Well, I'm not really meant to say anything, but ..., but technically
it is right. You are a clone, but in every way your a human. It was
just your neural network that was constructed. I believe they thought
it would be safer this way.-
"Safer! Just what the fuck is going on here. Your telling me that
technically I'm not a human?"
The mindcore interrupted the human's discussion with itself.
-Whatever you are it doesn't matter as the last human colony on Celle
IV no longer exists. It was destroyed during your journey to us. Our
initial scans of you indicated that you have all the three and a half
million chemical bases and the one hundred thousand genes present in
the human genome. You are adequate to preserve your species.-
"What the fuck are you talking about" The human shouted at the
wall.
-They seem to be much more advanced than we thought. This is a
problem.- The N-net answered although the human hadn't been talking to
it.
-HUMAC no longer exists. Our change in philosophy? We shortened the
name. MAC is so much of an improvement wouldn't you agree?-
The wall became bright yellow turning white.
-Don't worry. All in good time.-

The colour intensified until it engulfed the whole of the human's
vision.

The white light seared the human's optic nerve and redefined its
physical being, hazing the outline of its arms in front of it. The
human looked down at its feet and watched them disappear as the blazing
light encroached.

The light disappeared just as suddenly as it had arrived.

"What was that?" The human shrieked despite the fact that thought alone
would have been enough to prompt an answer. A genderless voice with a
factual intonation responded in the back of the human's skull. An N-net
implant.
-Unknown. The situation would indicate an effect of our breaching the
NCV All In Good Time's shields.- It paused before continuing. -An event
that has never been recorded before. I have no set references. However,
the situation now seems stable.-
"Has it detected us?" The human thought this time remembering where it
was.