CHAPTER 20

Everything moves at a breakneck pace, a blur of movement and the next thing you know you're facing up towards the ceiling. You lie prone on a table normally reserved for those injured in the med bay. The only difference is unlike those in the med bay you're not. It's some side room that Hatta assured was "perfect" for the job. You don't know how much stock you put in those words, since there was some strange liquid sprayed about the table like it was recently vacated.

You hope it was just someone's juice box busting open on them.

"Now, dear. I don't know how you think I'm going to look at your core when you're lying all down like that," Hatta says, stepping over you.

The smell of the corpse and rotting food pervades your mind, confirming it is her that carries the smell. Great.

"What should I do, then?"

"Turn yourself around, I need to see what the damage is, and I do that by opening the panel in the back of your skull."

"Oh...right." You say, as if it were the most natural of requests.

"This'll be the easiest stuff," Jesse says, speaking up for the first time in a few minutes. He'd been sitting off in the corner of the room with his arms crossed. You still don't know what Hatta made him promise to do, but that's probably what has him all sullen-like.

You sit yourself up and flip yourself over, lying face down into the table. You notice there is an even worse smell in the table than Hatta, and it really makes you miss the smell of corpse. You feel Hatta's cold hand on the back of your head and feel the hatch open. It's such a strange feeling that it sends chills down your spine.

"Calm down. I don' want no strugglin' around when I'm in here. Could really mess you up a ton...wait a second...is that a second generation language code?"

"What does that mean?" You mumble out.

"This...oh my."

"Hatta...? What is it?"

"This framework...this is more than a few years old."

"What do you mean?" Jesse asks.

"I mean what I mean. Second generation technology."

"I still don't know what that means," you say.

"Oh...I understand," Jesse says.

"Humans update their inner works very frequently. Never satisfied with themselves, those ones. This tech in your head, save for the vocal component, is from the second generation of fixes to the body. This tech is nearly five thousand years old."

"What?! How can that be possible? This body only went missing seven years ago!"

"Well, that may be so, but one thing is clear. This body was created at least five thousand years ago...wait a second. I think there's something else in here."

"Do I even want to know?"

"I...don't know what it is," she says.

"How do you not know?"

"I don't know what I don' t know. It's a small chip here but I've never seen this kind of model. It's located in your memory banks if that means anything."

"Wait...memory? Hatta, can you maybe investigate that chip further?" Jesse asks.

You know where he's going with this. Maybe this chip is why you're remembering pieces of your own life. Maybe it's what caused the disturbance Andrew was talking about.

"Well, I can try. I'm not going to go too far because I don't want to mess anything up with it, but I can give it a look through. You're going to go dark for a second here, hun."

"Wait wha-" Your voice is cut off as everything goes dark. In another second your eyes open wide and a blinding white light pierces your vision. You feel like garbage, everything comes back slowly.

"Hello? Auditory check. Please respond if you hear me," Hatta says.

"Wh-what happened?" You ask.

"Name please."

"Alex Sharpe," you say without thinking.

"Strange, this body seems to be under the name of Roland Duschand," Hatta says.

"Long story, but I promise I knew that before...whatever just happened."

"Well, without a memory bank installed you would just be a lifeless husk. Not a person. That's your core. When I took it out to look at it you were out like a light."

"That's...wow. Very scary actually to think that something like that could control my entire being."

"Yeah, well, there was quite a lot odd with your core. Usually it's locked tight in the chest component. You know, for safe keeping. Strange thing to keep in your cranium, as that's where they were placed in the beginning."

"Why's that?"

"I dunno. I guess you humans were fond of your brains so much you made your cores in your dome there. Not too smart, that's why they modified them later on. I did notice something else with your core, though. There seemed to be a small inhibitor of some kind attached to it. Don't know what it inhibited, but it's gone now."

"Well...okay. I guess I'll let you know if-" A pounding resounds loudly at the base of your skull. Your words stop coming and you feel a burning sensation all across your body. You try to let out a scream but nothing comes. All at once you are sucked into your mind, the one safe place from all of the pain.

You are in a realm of pure white. Standing, you find no weight in your body. You cannot move and your breath does not come. You are completely still. In front of you there is a being. You feel them close to you. It is a figure curled up in a ball.

"Hello? Who's there? Where am I?" You call out.

The figure stops for a second and unfurls. It stands slowly and almost takes your breath away. You are standing face to face with Roland Duschand.