[Booting up system resources…successful]
[Executing mnemonic data writer[MemoWrite]… execute successfully]
[unpacking mnemonic data format… 1%]
[10%] [22%] [29%] [39%] [49%] [56%] [59%] [62%] [69%] [73%] [80%] [85%] [91%] [94%] [97%] [99%]
[Sorting out mnemonic data by date… sort completed]
[Applying data to memory partitions, this might take a long time…]
[Current time is December 22, 2022, 09:24 am]
[Writing data to memory…1%]
[Writing data to memory…11%]
[Writing data to memory…21%]
[Writing data to memory…31%]
[Writing data to memory…41%]
[Writing data to memory…51%]
[Writing data to memory…61%]
[Writing data to memory…71%]
[Writing data to memory…81%]
[Writing data to memory…91%]
[Writing data to memory…99%]
[Data write successful… cleaning up]
[Checking memories for errors… no errors found]
[Writing logs… write completed]
[Finishing up]
[Booting up system... restarting consciousness]
[Current time is December 22, 2022, 12:58 am]
James woke up feeling mentally tired. He could not even remember what he was doing before he slept off. He rubbed his eyes and yawned wearily. He then climbed up off his bed and went to the mirror in his room. 'Urgh I look terrible' he thought, as he walked to the toilet to wash his face.
[James]
The sudden call startled James, causing him to knock his head on the running tap. "Ow! What was that AI?" James asked, holding his head in pain.
[It didn't work?]
"What didn't work?"
[Your memories. Didn't you remember anything?]
"What are you talking about---oh my memory! Wait, I cannot still remember anything. Uhh, what's going on?" James asked.
"Why did it not work?"
[I don't know. According to my analysis, this was supposed to work. I can even see all your memories inside your brain.]
"So it didn't work".
James could not believe it. All this time, he waited for the AI to recover his long-lost memory, but all was null and void. James slumped back into his bed with a blank look on his face. "I cannot believe this. I would never know who I am anymore."
James could not even cry, because he didn't feel like it. He was simply disappointed that what he had waited for did not go through at all.
There was a knock on the door. Martha popped her head inside the room and asked "Honey, lunch is ready" she smiled and closed the door. James wanted to go, but he had already lost his appetite. He does not know if living as a clean slate was even worth it.
James left his room and closed his door behind him. He climbed down the stairs to the dining table. When he arrived, he realized that the family were waiting for him to eat. James felt awkward, as he bowed his head slightly and leisurely strolled to the empty chair beside Esther.
"What should I do? How should I tell Martha about my permanent memory loss? I'm really confused" he thought.
[Don't beat yourself kid. There has to be an explanation. All your memories are still in your head. It appeared that you just need to activate them]
"Activate them?" James queried. "But that's ridiculous. A flash drive can easily read files another computer had written on. Doesn't this triggering bullshit sound a bit ridiculous?".
[Don't try to understand this too logically. A computer and a human brain are two different things altogether. As for your memories, I have collected the recovery logs, and I just found a problem]
"And?" James asked, drawing the word.
[I noticed a partition in the right lobe of your brain. It has something to do with the memory location. Think of it as a search engine. Whatever you want to remember, this part of the brain runs an index and locates that memory for you to use.]
[The partition has a problem. The index is usually contained is not there.]
"Well, create a new index," James thought.
[That's the thing, James, I can't]
"Why?" James was frustrated. "I thought you have access to all of my brain contents."
[I did not say that. I said I can read all the parts of my brain. This partition is one of the many parts of your brain where I cannot access]
[However, there's a fix. I can brute force the partition, but there is a chance that it might permanently damage the partition. Should I go ahead in forcing access?]
"What? No! I cannot risk it AI. Are there no other options?"
[Yes, there is one. You can find a good trigger. This trigger must invoke an emotional reaction for the index to be made. But there's a catch. This process will be painful, will underline. But this may work].
"What are the odds of this working"
[54%]
"Why 54%," James asked.
[Remember when I said it would be painful. Well, there are chances that your brain would activate its fail-safe. It would reduce brain activity, causing you to faint, thereby corrupting the entire memory data. Then your memories are lost forever].
"Okay, that's fair" James shuddered but was reassured that the odds were bigger. James has strong mental control, so he thought he might pull this off.
While James was communicating with AI, Esther was carefully watching him. 'What is he thinking that would change his facial expression so drastically' she thought. Esther thought James was a weird boy. He talks normal, beave normal, reacts to jokes normally. But this thing he kept doing is strange, really strange.
There was also something Esther could not understand. How did James know that the aeroplane's engine was failing? How come no one had addressed this strange behaviour? She looked at her mom, who was eating and playing with Toby, oblivious that she was being stared at.
Something was off. Whatever happened to James parents had something to do with James. When she peeked at the police report about the fire, she was very confused. That kind of fire is not supposed to be so big it engulfed the entire kitchen, not to talk of exploding like a grenade.
She was taught in her science class that fire was triggered by leaking gas, a shorted wiring, or improper use of electrical appliances, and the Smith's family use electrical wares in their kitchen, but the police did not find any evidence of any malformed appliances after the fire. It sounded ridiculous to her.
James concluded his conversation with AI. He has to find a trigger to activate all his memories, but the only evidence in his possession is the names of his parent Esther wrote for him when he first came here. 'I thought she was going to send me their pictures little by little? She tricked me!' he then looked at Esther, who was already looking at him.
James did not understand why Esther kept looking at him often. Has he done something that caught her eye? Other than talking to AI in his mind, he did not do anything suspicious.
Except that he was displaying his emotions with his face. 'Oh' he thought, that was it. Anyone would find it weird to see a little boy changing his facial expression for no reason. He then looked back at Esther, but she was not looking at him again.
Weird.