[Infra-red sensors online]
The whole brig was in dark mode to simulate the night for a time of rest. The guards sat around the little round desk station engaged in chatting, judging by their facial expression under the faint luminescent lights on the ceiling above them.
I could hear Trey's loud snoring. He was fast asleep again.
All the better for me, while my droid detached from my palate and crawled forward to the back of my partially open lips.
The guards and their spy cam monitored closely each cell in the brig. My optical implants did a sweep of the area as a precaution before releasing the droid.
[Sweeping area for bugs]
[Detection: Two on left and right adjacent walls, auditory and visual data frequency detected]
I turned to my side discreetly and covered myself with an issued ordinary blanket. On the side, there was a small gap between the top bunk bed and Trey's lower. My droid should be able to squeeze past.
The blind spot was a gap where the builders fixed beds on the walls.
I coughed out the droid under the blanket as its spindly legs took it scurrying quickly to the gap. It dived into the gap and now I needed to monitor its mission.
I wouldn't be able to do an in-depth scan of Trey's cybernetic implants, but the droid would allow me to get a rough idea of how Iktomin cybernetic technology worked.
After a while, the droid sent a report to my neural link for my optical implants to visualise its progress.
[Detecting key neurocortical signal site]
[Attaching to subject's under ear]
[Bypassing nervation cortex]
[Isolating pain neural synaptic impulses]
[Simulating decrease in temperature]
The droid released a series of targeted localised electrical currents to numb the many nerve endings on a patch of Trey's skin to attach itself undetected.
The electrical currents disrupted the axonal pulses, which transmitted sensations received from the nerve endings under the skin to the brain.
"Argghhh," Trey called out in his sleep yet again as I heard the soft rustling of his blanket.
*SMACK*
My eyes snapped open at the loudness.
Did he just smack my droid like a bug?
Much to my relief, a slew of annoying red command lines appeared in my vision, updating me on the progress and the functions of his nervous system.
[Subject: Cybernetics neural link - detected]
[Subject: core implants detected]
[Optical innervation present]
[Auditory innervation present]
[Olfactory innervation present]
[Limbic system connected to neural core link]
[Limbic system: core chip not present]
[Limbic structure: no signs of alteration, white and grey matter intact]
The most powerful biological computer is the brain, yet the confusing networks of nerves and even the functions of each complex region of the brain made cybernetics one of the hardest subjects to master.
A core chip would act as a secondary back up to the brain functions if the biological one suffered an injury.
Trey had no such backup.
No core chip meant Trey couldn't use the full functions of his implants, even if he wanted to.
A core link meant the Iktomins remotely controlled what Trey saw, heard, and even tasted through his key nerves and limbic system, as opposed to having an independent core chip.
The Iktomins instructed his subconscious via the neural core link on what to eat, what to see, how to act, when and how to move without him feeling forced to do something. And even what to think.
I saw no scarring in the key areas of his limbic system to indicate any surgical tampering of his long term memory stored in the brain. The Iktomins left his previous memories alone.
Trey existed as a puppet at their leisure. No better than an android.
[Technology Origin: comparable to Iktomin]
[Detecting encrypted communication frequency waves]
[Band blocked by area]
I glanced at the faint intermittent glow on the structure. That's the cybernetic communication receiver which transmits instructions from the Iktomins to Trey. The transmission used a secured frequency wave.
If the Iktomins can't establish a connection, they couldn't control him.
There must be a controller or devices to control within a certain distance. No wonder Trey couldn't see his dashboard because no controllers were present in the vicinity.
I can use him to find any Iktomin controller easily with a few modifications if we both got out of this mess.
Maybe even blow up the Iktomin's control network for the fun of it. That would create mass chaos when the puppets, freed from their control, started acting independently.
Serves them right for sending a spider bot to spy on me in Eden.
[Commencing neural mapping]
The outline of Trey's brain took shape in my vision, collected by the droid by sending pulses through his nervous system. A biological body is like an electronic machine, only with much more complexities.
The appearing anatomical and functional structure of his brain resembled a primate species. Thin reddish and bluish glows lined the folds of his brain, belonged to the neural transmitting networks.
The Iktomin attached those networks to the natural nerve clusters in a few spots of Trey's body.
In the center of his brain where the limbic system sat, I spotted the rectangular glow of Trey's neural core link embedded deep within the middle region.
[Magnifying nerve clusters]
Whitish membranes, a myelin sheath, encased the nerve cells of animals and even sapient spacefaring species, like mine.
An intact myelin sheath allows the brain to transmit electrical impulses efficiently along the pathway of nerve cells to initiate an action.
The Iktomins attached the neural core link in Trey's brain to the neural transmitters via messy bundles of connected neural clamps along the myelin sheath of the nerve cells in the nervous system.
They made clumsy work of the clamps on the myelin sheath, which made me cringe. What I saw reminded me of a tangled up puppet. How Trey didn't fuck up his missions was a miracle.
That's the most basic form of neural link cybernetics. All it takes to kill Trey is blindly severing a bunch of their poorly attached clamps, easily achievable by hitting him in the right spots.
Maybe they treat him as disposable, which didn't surprise me.
No one ever heard of an elderly retired Iktomin entertainer.
Maybe the Iktomins shared the same policy as the Kamuy. Retirement to military class Kamuy meant dying in some glorious bullshit space battle.
No such thing as a retired elderly military class Kamuy, too.
So far, the Iktomins disappointed me in their cybernetic progress.
They only barely scratched the Kamuy's beginner level of cybernetic application.
A lot of what I'd seen so far might explain why the Iktomins brainwashed Trey and communicate with him via the neural core link in the form of a dashboard.
The rudimentary set up of the Iktomin cybernetic implants fell short of even my level of knowledge.
Too bad for them. Good for me.
The Kamuy military made the advanced knowledge of cybernetics compulsory for all of us.
I even knew how to alter the brain's white and grey matter, myelin sheath and even add parallel bio-organic nerve clusters as a back up.
In fact, no two Kamuy shared the same neural map depending on the level of cybernetic implantation. Not even twins. Our cybernetic implants grew with us.
[Withdrawing attachment]
I immediately activated the screen with my neural link.
[New instructions: Halt withdrawal]
[Attachment secured]
[New instructions: Insert tracking back door]
Better for me to keep a track of his cybernetic functions as a back up. If needed, I can shut him down permanently.
[Warning: area may swell due to initial rejection phase]
[New instruction: Proceed]
[Infiltrating neural transmitters: Clear]
What?
My droid infiltrated the Iktomin's handiwork so fast because there was no security around the neural transmitters.
[Proceeding to recode…]
The Iktomins either made a major fuck up or refused to secure the neural transmitters intentionally for some purpose, simply because Trey was expendable.
A new entertainer can replace Trey any time.