Darkness, so palpable that I could feel it force its way down my throat and to every inch of my body. It felt as if my very being was disintegrating into the mouth of this...thing. Is this what it feels like to die?
My mind wavered as it tore away from what remained, trying to escape from the insatiable hunger that this thing possessed. I no longer had a body, but what little remained of my consciousness ran from that horrible sensation, something I never wanted to remember, but as my mind ran...pieces begun to fall off and I left them behind. The very definition for who I was continued to break off into the endless darkness.
Soon I was unable to even remember the reason for my fear, but it still remained in ever fiber of myself. I finally stopped moving through this intoxicating pitch black space, now forgetting that I had even forgotten something in the first place. I was crumbling, my existence felt as if it was floating off into a dozen different directions, off into this thick darkness that still yet surrounded me.
// Er-or mem-ry trans-er inc-mpl-te //
And with those fragmented words, the little of what remained collapsed together, forming a singularity of consciousness from the scraps of my being. My mind tumbled at the sudden feeing of a new body. I didn't know how long I had been there, but I was...calmed at the familiar feelings: The faint heartbeat that I soon declared was my own, the warmth of my blood coursing through my heart, and every ounce of information my nerves sent to the cortex of my brain. I couldn't remember what happened to me...but I understood one thing: I had just died.
// Tether forcibly disconnected. Error, memory transfer failure //
But now...I was alive once more.
That's all I knew
* * *
Light flooded my newly discovered retinas, and my eyes burned at the sudden brightness. I welcomed it though. I reached out towards that light, but my hands were stopped by something. Glass? Glass, that's what it was called. I struggled to remember the simple things, and when I tried too hard, pain tickled the inside of my skull.
It took me a while to realize that I wasn't exactly standing up, but rather floating. As my eyes concentrated, I was able see the thick liquid that surrounded me and the several tubes protruding out of my arms and legs. I was floating in some sort of tank...what the hell was going on.
// Capsule chamber unloading sequence commencing momentarily //
.
// Three //
.
// Two //
.
// One //
.
// Unloading sequence initiated //
A foreign feeling collapsed on my body, something I had never felt, or rather...couldn't remember feeling: gravity.
I didn't realize it when the walls to the capsule I resided in had dispersed but as soon as they disappeared, my body rushed to the floor along with the yellow liquid that had imprisoned me. Somewhere along the way of my fall, the cords detached themselves from my body and fell limp, oozing some strange substances.
The pain of falling forward onto that cold metal floor was bearable compared to the gasping pain of my lungs emptying the liquid and replacing it with oxygen. I cursed between violent coughs that shook me to my core. My lungs greedily heaved the air through my mouth several times before I started into another coughing fit.
Once my senses had fully returned to me, I tried rising up off the metallic floor. Standing up took several attempts, but even then, when I managed to stand, I stumbled back to floor when I tried to move forward. I didn't know where I was in the slightest, but a feeling of familiarity kept me calm in this place. My eyes wandered around the circular silver and white room, as I hugged my bare, cold body. Spherical lights donned the tops of the walls every 6 or so feet, going all the way around the room. The massive capsule that had been carrying my body was against the wall, opposite to a large closed metal door, and various technological equipment were scattered around the room like someone had just been in middle of using them.
// Welcome back, Captain, Osyne program activating //
That lifeless, robotic voice echoed off the walls of the circular room. I struggled to find its origins, but I didn't have much time to think before a different, more life-like female voice chipped in,
[[ Good evening, Captain! I hope that you- ]]
The new woman's voice cut off as if she herself had realized something drastic had occurred. My head began throbbing like it was about to burst from the inside. I fell to my bare knees, and grabbed the sides of my head. I let out painful screams as I heard dozens of voices all at once; like someone overlapped an entire movie in the span of a few seconds.
[[ By the stars...Captain, a-are you okay? ]]
The female voice could be heard over the voices and my own screaming.
[[ Sir, what happened to - and - after - Dythonis . . . ]]
Her voice faded in and out as I collapsed back to the floor, my vision dissipating and my mind slipping into unconsciousness.
I had strange dreams while I slept, I was floating in the dark surrounded by stars, a faint beeping echoed throughout the twinkling lights as I drifted endlessly. Whispers filled my ears, dozens of different voices all at once. I couldn't understand any of it but it felt as if they were trying to tell me something, but I just couldn't begin understand what it was. I was sad, but I couldn't quite figure out why. I was angry, but I didn't recall any particular reason. I curled up into a ball as I floated through my dream of the stars...
Why couldn't I remember...
* * *
When I finally awoke, I wasn't in the room where I had initially passed out. I was in what seemed to be some sort of living quarters, on top of a bunk that felt like it was perfectly made for me. Looking down towards my feet, I also discovered I was now fully clothed in what seemed like...medical garments? I couldn't recall if I had come here myself or if -
[[ Ah you're awake, sir ]]
A tall woman quickly materialized out of thin air from the ground up right next to where I was laying, and I quickly moved away from that side of the bunk. Short brunette hair topped her head, and her eyes shined a prominent unnatural shade of green. Two small black triangles could be seen on her skin, one under each eye, and she wore a brown leather jacket over a plain t-shirt. A slightly concerned emotion was glazed across her slim, pale face.
"Who..." I managed to get out through the shock and confusion, "Who are you?" I said as my breathing began to slow. That tickling pain fluttered through my head with a strange sense of Déjà-vu as I made eye contact with her. I instinctively winced and placed a hand on my templed, cursing under my breath.
Her worried look worsened at my words and she quickly sighed and dematerialized. A moment went by as I slowly looked around the room, unable to speak out of confusion.
[[ It's worse than I thought. Something must have happened to your cybernetics before you died ]]
She said as she reappeared, her brows furrowed and holding a hologram that projected various data. The woman begun scrolling through an incomprehensible amount of information at an insane speed. She seemed to be speaking more to herself now instead of me,
[[ Could the Quantum-IV processor have been defective? ]]
Her eyes continued scanning through the screen, i took this time to look around the room. Several unfamiliar knickknacks and items donned a shelf that rested on the wall above an empty desk, and a small chair sat tipped over across the room. The same spherical lights from the last room were once again at the top of the walls. The color palette from the last room remained as well, this room, however, happened to be shaped as a rectangle instead of the previous circle.
[[ No, that's...it wouldn't have been that either, but what about the...]]
She continued talking to herself about various possibilities to the situation that made absolutely no sense to me,
"Excuse me," I spoke up, trying to get her attention to no avail. She continued to speak.
[[ Maybe it was the- ]]
"Excuse me," I raised my voice slightly.
She looked down at me, and I must have looked pretty pitiful to her because she completely lost interest in what she was observing on the hologram.
[[ Captain, something's gone wrong ]]
I opened my mouth to speak, but she continued before I even had a chance. She ran a hand through her brown hair as she went on,
[[ I know you don't have any recollection of me, but please...allow me to explain, Xander. It's...there seems to be a... ]]
Was that my name? Xander? It sounded foreign to me...
She sighed unable to find the right words to say,
[[ Maybe it's best if I start from the beginning... ]]
She paused while gathering her thoughts...
[[ I'm Osyne, you created me ]]
* * *
As we walked down the corridors of wherever we were, Osyne explained to me how she was in fact, an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), projected and composed of trillions of micro-bots. I nodded, entranced by her words as she spoke. I butted in, "Could you, perhaps...tell me a little bit about myself and what going on?"
[[ I...um, I'm afraid that there's a problem with that. I'm only activated when your onboard so...I don't have any data on what's going on either. You manually deactivated me exactly 73 hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds ago before leaving the ship. My emergency response program triggered when you transferred conscious into your...Cyber-carbon copy ]]
Osyne's gaze dropped to the floor and began fidgeting with the edge of her jacket.
[[ As for the other thing...when you were designing me, you also installed a something specific into my software so that...]]
She sighed and stared up at me with an unreadable expression on her face.
[[ I can't reveal or repeat any information about you to anyone, but there's still- ]]
I finally interrupted, "So...you're saying you can't tell me a single useful thing?"
My words came out harsher than I intended and I winced slightly after they danced right out of my mouth. Her expression looked saddened, and she appeared like she was even about to cry. I didn't know what a depressed A.I. was like, but I really didn't want to find out.
[[ I...I don't- ]]
I sighed at my own stupidity, she had done nothing but try to help me out ever since I woke up. "Can you at least tell me where we are, Osyne?"
A small smirk replaced her frown as we came to the stop in front of a large metal double door, her previous emotional state vanished like it never even existed. By pressing a button, she caused the large, silver door to split open. What greeted my eyes was beyond my imagination.
[[ A ship...your's to be exact ]]
The beautiful and extravagant sight of the stars out of the cockpit window swept me away. Each light in that dark expanse felt like old friends greeting me after years apart, but I still couldn't recall ever seeing something as mesmerizing as this before.
[[ We're aboard The Fortuitous, ]]
I stepped into the cockpit and gazed around the room at the countless lights, buttons, and controls covered the side and front consoles. Like muscle memory I sat down in the middle chair, but couldn't recall why I did so...it just felt natural.
"Wow..." I exhaled as I ran my hands gently against all the controls. Osyne stood behind me with her arms crossed and a bright smile pasted across her face.
The painful tickle fluttering throughout my skull returned as another sense of déjà-vu wrapped around my mind. A steadily blinking orange light caught my attention on the side of the front controls, and the pain worsened as I concentrated even more. My arm uncontrollably reached out towards that light, and before I could snap out of my trance, my finger pushed it down.
The sound of technology and machinery coming to life echoed all around the ship as my finger came off of the ignition switch. I looked around the cockpit as lights and various screens began coming to life.
Osyne began jumping up and down while she clapped uncontrollably, but her celebration was short-lived as a holorecording appeared across the main panel and started to play...it was me.
{{ Hey...uh, Me }}
((((First chapter fin - W.I.P.))))