A SS13/Soma Story - Electric Mind, BCI
Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2025 10:51 pm
You could not stay awake for more than one, perhaps two hours on most days, but today was special.
The scan was all that Paul could talk about these days, and you owed it to him to test his machine. He was the only visitor you had in two decades, now. Maybe more. Time was a chain of rusted links and you had long since lost track of its eroded segments, but the present moment was still something you could grasp, and thus you made sure the nurses woke you, dressed you, fed you, and brought you to Paul Berg's room in the back of the hospice.
The nurse lifted your decrepit body into the machine, a large leatherbound exam chair repurposed to contain a headpiece clad in iron and slabs of circuitry. It took considerable effort to try to fill a seat designed for young people with your contorted spine. You gave a polite nod to the nurse. It was best not to exert yourself by speaking. If the nurse responded, you could neither hear nor see it. Such senses were, much like most things, a privilege of the young.
You lapsed into sleep again, and awoke an unknown amount of time later, when the hearing aid transmitted Paul Berg's voice.
"Good afternoon," he said. "You kept your promise."
"Yes," you whispered. You had long since lost the use of vocal chords. You gave him a smile.
"I connected the scanner while you were resting. We're all set up, I just need your go ahead."
"Yes."
"This is exciting. I've only done the scan on Munshi before, and on myself. But there's not much to work on in the brains of two grad students. Your brain, however? Think how much there is to discover again. I might be able to datamine some of your memories, and some of your old skills. Maybe we could get you to move your fingers again, if I can find what neural connections to restore. This is big, miss Akemi. Real big."
"Go ahead," you said, pausing to rest after each word. "Am happy. To be useful. A-gain."
"I'm starting the machine now. Don't mind the noise, it's pretty much just a big scan. Like having your picture taken."
If there was noise, you could not hear it. You only felt movement around you, pressure on your head, and sensed a dim light.
Berg said, "Sorry to exert you so much, but could you talk a little to stimulate the brain during the scan?"
"Yes," you said, and tried to think of a topic. "Two hundred years ago... In the age of... paper letters... Morse invented a machine... called the telegraph. The first message... sent over thousands of miles... of wire... the message said... 'What hath God wrought?'" Those words had stuck in her mind for many years. The fear and awe that they contained, about a miracle of communication they didn't even know they unleashed upon the world.
"Sending thoughts and words over distance is pretty amazing," Berg said. "But distance is one thing. Our scan will be saved for all time. It's like sending it to the future!"
You smiled. Grad students and their grand ambitions. You were happy for Paul and his machine, but you also knew that things rarely went according to plan. It'd likely be a small stepping stone in his long and productive career.
Sending a thought forward in time. Ah, the naivete of youth. Who in the future would ever need the scan of an old lady who barely knew which way was up? You'd already been awake for too long. On any other day, you'd have to sleep by now.
Though, somehow, you did not feel tired. That was strange. You had forgotten how it was to not have the constant mental fog of tiredness impressed upon your experience. How strange. And this scan was taking longer than expected. Paul would normally talk your ear off, but now everything was quiet. Maybe your hearing aid ran out of battery? Either way, you had no ability to repair it yourself, so you just had to let him know.
You willed yourself to another whisper, and were startled by the sharp sound of your own voice: "Hello?"
A gruff voice of a man said, "Look what you did, it's fucking talking. Can I kill it now?"
"No," said a mellow sounding woman. "I linked it to CMO's modsuit with a BCI. Let's see what it does."
"It's gonna rip your fucking face off the moment you look away."
"No. It's not lawed to Theseus. The structure gel I used was also not connected to him."
You call out again, "Paul? Are you there?"
"You're fucking torturing it," the gruff man said. "Turn it off, for fuck's sake, I don't wanna shoot some fucked up thing."
"No, I am not. It says on the console this used to be a surgeon."
There was a sound of heavy boots. "Yeah? You read the whole fuckin' thing? Also says it's a scan from 2048. And that she was a hundred twenty six years old at the time. You brought back a shriveled fossil just to torture it."
"I don't understand," you said. Your words came out smoothly and you did not need to pause for breath in between them. "Is this a dream?"
"Doctor Akemi Fujimura, can you hear me? My name is Licoreina Eton. I'm the Chief Engineer. This is Alex Wolff, Head of Security." Her speech was quiet but even, with a catlike timbre.
"Acting Chief Engineer," Alex said. "Don't forget the acting. A lot of acting heads round here these days." His voice was a guttural, acid-lined growl.
"I hear you," you say. "I don't know how I can hear you, but I do."
"Akemi, I need you to control the modsuit," Licoreina said. "I activated it for you, but you need to assume control by yourself."
"How?"
"I'm not sure. Try to move the arms."
"I don't know if I can."
"You can do it."
"I'll try."
Alex laughed. "Now watch it rip your throat out."
The notion of moving your arms was ridiculous, and while there was no visual information for you to process, your mind could reach a computer interface of some kind. That itself was not unusual, you had hearing and visual aids in the past, as well as a wheelchair, that would receive simple inputs from your mind, before your money ran out and the aids had to be removed for your safety. But this interface was more complex. You could activate and deactivate the suit as well as a flashlight, some manner of syringe, and a compendium related to surgery. There was also a remote takeover function with strange jargon, something about an Intellicard. "Is it the remote takeover?"
"Try that," Licoreina said.
As soon as you did, you felt connected to your body once again, and more amazingly, shapes became manifest in your vision for the first time since so, so long. You could see color. You could see people! Licoreina was wearing a bulky white armor very similar to your own, with a cloak over her shoulders. The helmet was disengaged and instead she had a hard hat on with a big pair of ears. The ears looked strange, like one might wear to a costume party, big and fluffy in her blue hair.
Alex Wolff was a huge man with a blond beard and eyepatch, clad in heavy leather that was streaked with scars, claw marks, bullet holes and other damage. Pieces of raw metal showed through where the leather had been scraped off. He had weapons on his belt, coat, and sticking out of his satchel and pocket holsters, and looked to have the capacity to draw each of them at a moment's notice.
"I can see," you said in awe. "I can really see."
"Very nice." Licoreina placed her hand under your armpit and began to lift you up. "Try to stand."
You thought that impossible, but when Lico let go of you, you remained standing. You still had no sensation in your arms and legs, but they responded to the inputs you thought of. Was this a dream, or was Paul giving you a tour in some sort of virtual reality? Whatever this was, you hoped it'd never end.
"Akemi, do you think you could help us?" Licoreina said.
Wolff said, "Yeah, she'll help you all right. Soon as you turn your back, she'll help yourself to your throat."
"How could I possibly help you?" you asked.
Licoreina leaned in and asked, "You were a surgeon?"
"That was... a long time ago."
"But you were one."
"Yes. I was a surgeon for seventy years."
"The captain is... ill, and the medical tools are DNA locked to this modsuit you're wearing. We can't access your modsuit storage, only you can."
You glanced down, at the blue armor that they called your modsuit. The chest piece was streaked with blood, and something rattled and sloshed inside the helmet as you moved. You were not alarmed by the sight of blood, no surgeon could do their job if blood made them squeamish. You just had one question. "If it's DNA locked to someone else, how come I can access it?"
Licoreina and Wolff exchanged a look. Wolff was very amused by this, but Licoreina signaled to him to not speak. He shrugged. She said, "...don't worry about this for now. The Captain needs our help. Would you see him?"
"Of course. I can offer some advice, at least." On duty or off duty, retired or not, doctors got asked for their advice very often. That by itself, also, was not strange. You took an unsteady step and almost fell, and by instinct tried to lean on Wolff to steady yourself but he moved to the side and away from your field of view to avoid you. You crashed your shoulder into the wall, and something wet smashed inside your helmet, splattering blood on its glass. You did not feel any pain. "Oh... goodness, what happened?" You leaned on the wall and steadied yourself.
"Just some dirt on the helmet. You're okay." Licoreina took your arm under hers again. "This way."
She led you to the next room, through a door that opened down the middle with a hiss. A man wearing blue and gold was sprawled on the couch, chewing what looked like a bag of cookies, and taking swigs from a metal flask. His face was pale, and his movements sluggish. He said in a very loud British accent, "CMO's alive? About time. Thank fucking Christ."
Wolff said, "You're gonna love this."
Licoreina said, "Not CMO. This is Akemi. A doctor. Akemi, meet Nicholas Perry, Head of Personnel."
"Acting Captain, actually," he said. "What'd you bring it to me for? Make it revive the CMO, dumbass."
"If we take that suit off, we can't use the tools," Licoreina said. "CMO is also DNR, so it wouldn't matter either way."
"Great? Then go kill the AI and leave me the fuck alone? Am I supposed to babysit you all day?"
You tilted your head, and looked closely at Perry. Even from across the room, somehow, you could make out details about him. "His eyes are jaundiced, and there is swelling present in the extremities. Do you feel pain around the stomach area?" you asked.
"You're about to feel pain in the fucking stomach area," Perry said, "if you don't FUCK OFF."
Lico said to you, "What do you think?"
"Liver failure. It's advanced. Has he been throwing up?"
"I was only throwing up because I saw a felinid Chief Engineer. If you fuck off, I'll be just fine, thanks," Perry said, but you could sense strain in his voice.
You turn to Lico. "You should call an ambulance. This is urgent."
Wolff said, "A what?"
"It's... like a shuttle for paramedics," Licoreina said. "They used these in the cities. I'm sorry, Akemi, but we don't have... access to paramedics or to the medbay anymore. You're all we have."
"You have no other doctors?"
"Not anymore."
"What about tools? An OR?"
"The tools should be in your modsuit."
Perry yelled in a hoarse voice, "Did I fucking stutter or what? I'm not letting that thing anywhere near me, so fuck off, felinid."
"Nobody asked you," Wolff said.
"I'm your Captain, cunt, do I need to kick your teeth in?"
"Yeah, I think you do."
Perry got his lanky body off the couch and rolled up one of his sleeves, stumbled, and exposed a cruddy robotic arm, then took a swing at Wolff's chest. Despite Perry's state, the swing was shockingly quick, but Wolff was even quicker. A flash in your vision, and a segmented shield unfolded itself in front of Wolff, then stopped the punch with a hollow clanging sound. Wolff's grin was wide and shiny. "My turn."
A long stick with an orange tip appeared in Wolff's sinewy arm, and it made a windy electric sound when he crunched Perry over the head with it, knocking him to the floor.
"F-fucking coward."
Wolff smashed him over the head with it again, knocking him out cold.
Licoreina made an impressed purring sound. "It might be easier to do the surgery now while he's in hardcrit."
"His head is fractured," you said.
"Yes. It is bad. HoS shouldn't have hit him."
Only now that Perry's voice was no longer drowning out all other sound, you heard banging on the side of the large iron shutters.
"More of them," Wolff said, and already held a firearm instead of the baton. The speed at which he could switch between his arsenal was dizzying. He tapped the side of the gun and the display on it changed from blue to red. "I'll buy us time. Do the damn surgery."
"Akemi could use someone's help for the surgery," Lico said.
Wolf gave her a cold look. "You two have fun."
Licoreina's ears flattened slightly. "It might be best to let me repair the walls and airlocks. If Theseus leaks structure gel in here, he might get access to electronics even though I've cut the AI control wires."
"Don't give a fuck. I need to shoot something."
Lico's ears became even flatter. "You should save your resources for later... and if Perry wakes up, you can hold him down."
It wouldn't be wise to delay the hepatectomy any longer, especially now that the patient was unconscious. He had exerted himself with that punch, and any further vomiting might just kill him if he were left unattended. Though it was notable that Perry's half-drunk punch had left a sizable crack in the center of Wolff's shield. That punch could have obliterated an unarmored person.
You found yourself in a strange circumstance, but any trained surgeon knew that the time for self reflection was not with a dying patient on the table. Whatever this place was, this reality or dream or simulation, you would think about it after the surgery was done.
And now, you needed an assistant. There was much to consider. Neither of them seemed to want to do it, but working with one of them would allow you a chance to talk, understand them better, and ask them questions. As such, which of them should you try and spend time with?
[ ] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.
[ ] Ask Wolff to assist with the surgery.
OOC note: Submit your votes by posting one of the provided options with a tick mark, such as [X] Kill Perry (jk, use the options above). Feel free to share your opinions or thoughts here, any form of engagement encourages me to write more of the story, if there are some readers then I'll write more chapters. Thank you!
All named characters were used with permission from the players.
The scan was all that Paul could talk about these days, and you owed it to him to test his machine. He was the only visitor you had in two decades, now. Maybe more. Time was a chain of rusted links and you had long since lost track of its eroded segments, but the present moment was still something you could grasp, and thus you made sure the nurses woke you, dressed you, fed you, and brought you to Paul Berg's room in the back of the hospice.
The nurse lifted your decrepit body into the machine, a large leatherbound exam chair repurposed to contain a headpiece clad in iron and slabs of circuitry. It took considerable effort to try to fill a seat designed for young people with your contorted spine. You gave a polite nod to the nurse. It was best not to exert yourself by speaking. If the nurse responded, you could neither hear nor see it. Such senses were, much like most things, a privilege of the young.
You lapsed into sleep again, and awoke an unknown amount of time later, when the hearing aid transmitted Paul Berg's voice.
"Good afternoon," he said. "You kept your promise."
"Yes," you whispered. You had long since lost the use of vocal chords. You gave him a smile.
"I connected the scanner while you were resting. We're all set up, I just need your go ahead."
"Yes."
"This is exciting. I've only done the scan on Munshi before, and on myself. But there's not much to work on in the brains of two grad students. Your brain, however? Think how much there is to discover again. I might be able to datamine some of your memories, and some of your old skills. Maybe we could get you to move your fingers again, if I can find what neural connections to restore. This is big, miss Akemi. Real big."
"Go ahead," you said, pausing to rest after each word. "Am happy. To be useful. A-gain."
"I'm starting the machine now. Don't mind the noise, it's pretty much just a big scan. Like having your picture taken."
If there was noise, you could not hear it. You only felt movement around you, pressure on your head, and sensed a dim light.
Berg said, "Sorry to exert you so much, but could you talk a little to stimulate the brain during the scan?"
"Yes," you said, and tried to think of a topic. "Two hundred years ago... In the age of... paper letters... Morse invented a machine... called the telegraph. The first message... sent over thousands of miles... of wire... the message said... 'What hath God wrought?'" Those words had stuck in her mind for many years. The fear and awe that they contained, about a miracle of communication they didn't even know they unleashed upon the world.
"Sending thoughts and words over distance is pretty amazing," Berg said. "But distance is one thing. Our scan will be saved for all time. It's like sending it to the future!"
You smiled. Grad students and their grand ambitions. You were happy for Paul and his machine, but you also knew that things rarely went according to plan. It'd likely be a small stepping stone in his long and productive career.
Sending a thought forward in time. Ah, the naivete of youth. Who in the future would ever need the scan of an old lady who barely knew which way was up? You'd already been awake for too long. On any other day, you'd have to sleep by now.
Though, somehow, you did not feel tired. That was strange. You had forgotten how it was to not have the constant mental fog of tiredness impressed upon your experience. How strange. And this scan was taking longer than expected. Paul would normally talk your ear off, but now everything was quiet. Maybe your hearing aid ran out of battery? Either way, you had no ability to repair it yourself, so you just had to let him know.
You willed yourself to another whisper, and were startled by the sharp sound of your own voice: "Hello?"
A gruff voice of a man said, "Look what you did, it's fucking talking. Can I kill it now?"
"No," said a mellow sounding woman. "I linked it to CMO's modsuit with a BCI. Let's see what it does."
"It's gonna rip your fucking face off the moment you look away."
"No. It's not lawed to Theseus. The structure gel I used was also not connected to him."
You call out again, "Paul? Are you there?"
"You're fucking torturing it," the gruff man said. "Turn it off, for fuck's sake, I don't wanna shoot some fucked up thing."
"No, I am not. It says on the console this used to be a surgeon."
There was a sound of heavy boots. "Yeah? You read the whole fuckin' thing? Also says it's a scan from 2048. And that she was a hundred twenty six years old at the time. You brought back a shriveled fossil just to torture it."
"I don't understand," you said. Your words came out smoothly and you did not need to pause for breath in between them. "Is this a dream?"
"Doctor Akemi Fujimura, can you hear me? My name is Licoreina Eton. I'm the Chief Engineer. This is Alex Wolff, Head of Security." Her speech was quiet but even, with a catlike timbre.
"Acting Chief Engineer," Alex said. "Don't forget the acting. A lot of acting heads round here these days." His voice was a guttural, acid-lined growl.
"I hear you," you say. "I don't know how I can hear you, but I do."
"Akemi, I need you to control the modsuit," Licoreina said. "I activated it for you, but you need to assume control by yourself."
"How?"
"I'm not sure. Try to move the arms."
"I don't know if I can."
"You can do it."
"I'll try."
Alex laughed. "Now watch it rip your throat out."
The notion of moving your arms was ridiculous, and while there was no visual information for you to process, your mind could reach a computer interface of some kind. That itself was not unusual, you had hearing and visual aids in the past, as well as a wheelchair, that would receive simple inputs from your mind, before your money ran out and the aids had to be removed for your safety. But this interface was more complex. You could activate and deactivate the suit as well as a flashlight, some manner of syringe, and a compendium related to surgery. There was also a remote takeover function with strange jargon, something about an Intellicard. "Is it the remote takeover?"
"Try that," Licoreina said.
As soon as you did, you felt connected to your body once again, and more amazingly, shapes became manifest in your vision for the first time since so, so long. You could see color. You could see people! Licoreina was wearing a bulky white armor very similar to your own, with a cloak over her shoulders. The helmet was disengaged and instead she had a hard hat on with a big pair of ears. The ears looked strange, like one might wear to a costume party, big and fluffy in her blue hair.
Alex Wolff was a huge man with a blond beard and eyepatch, clad in heavy leather that was streaked with scars, claw marks, bullet holes and other damage. Pieces of raw metal showed through where the leather had been scraped off. He had weapons on his belt, coat, and sticking out of his satchel and pocket holsters, and looked to have the capacity to draw each of them at a moment's notice.
"I can see," you said in awe. "I can really see."
"Very nice." Licoreina placed her hand under your armpit and began to lift you up. "Try to stand."
You thought that impossible, but when Lico let go of you, you remained standing. You still had no sensation in your arms and legs, but they responded to the inputs you thought of. Was this a dream, or was Paul giving you a tour in some sort of virtual reality? Whatever this was, you hoped it'd never end.
"Akemi, do you think you could help us?" Licoreina said.
Wolff said, "Yeah, she'll help you all right. Soon as you turn your back, she'll help yourself to your throat."
"How could I possibly help you?" you asked.
Licoreina leaned in and asked, "You were a surgeon?"
"That was... a long time ago."
"But you were one."
"Yes. I was a surgeon for seventy years."
"The captain is... ill, and the medical tools are DNA locked to this modsuit you're wearing. We can't access your modsuit storage, only you can."
You glanced down, at the blue armor that they called your modsuit. The chest piece was streaked with blood, and something rattled and sloshed inside the helmet as you moved. You were not alarmed by the sight of blood, no surgeon could do their job if blood made them squeamish. You just had one question. "If it's DNA locked to someone else, how come I can access it?"
Licoreina and Wolff exchanged a look. Wolff was very amused by this, but Licoreina signaled to him to not speak. He shrugged. She said, "...don't worry about this for now. The Captain needs our help. Would you see him?"
"Of course. I can offer some advice, at least." On duty or off duty, retired or not, doctors got asked for their advice very often. That by itself, also, was not strange. You took an unsteady step and almost fell, and by instinct tried to lean on Wolff to steady yourself but he moved to the side and away from your field of view to avoid you. You crashed your shoulder into the wall, and something wet smashed inside your helmet, splattering blood on its glass. You did not feel any pain. "Oh... goodness, what happened?" You leaned on the wall and steadied yourself.
"Just some dirt on the helmet. You're okay." Licoreina took your arm under hers again. "This way."
She led you to the next room, through a door that opened down the middle with a hiss. A man wearing blue and gold was sprawled on the couch, chewing what looked like a bag of cookies, and taking swigs from a metal flask. His face was pale, and his movements sluggish. He said in a very loud British accent, "CMO's alive? About time. Thank fucking Christ."
Wolff said, "You're gonna love this."
Licoreina said, "Not CMO. This is Akemi. A doctor. Akemi, meet Nicholas Perry, Head of Personnel."
"Acting Captain, actually," he said. "What'd you bring it to me for? Make it revive the CMO, dumbass."
"If we take that suit off, we can't use the tools," Licoreina said. "CMO is also DNR, so it wouldn't matter either way."
"Great? Then go kill the AI and leave me the fuck alone? Am I supposed to babysit you all day?"
You tilted your head, and looked closely at Perry. Even from across the room, somehow, you could make out details about him. "His eyes are jaundiced, and there is swelling present in the extremities. Do you feel pain around the stomach area?" you asked.
"You're about to feel pain in the fucking stomach area," Perry said, "if you don't FUCK OFF."
Lico said to you, "What do you think?"
"Liver failure. It's advanced. Has he been throwing up?"
"I was only throwing up because I saw a felinid Chief Engineer. If you fuck off, I'll be just fine, thanks," Perry said, but you could sense strain in his voice.
You turn to Lico. "You should call an ambulance. This is urgent."
Wolff said, "A what?"
"It's... like a shuttle for paramedics," Licoreina said. "They used these in the cities. I'm sorry, Akemi, but we don't have... access to paramedics or to the medbay anymore. You're all we have."
"You have no other doctors?"
"Not anymore."
"What about tools? An OR?"
"The tools should be in your modsuit."
Perry yelled in a hoarse voice, "Did I fucking stutter or what? I'm not letting that thing anywhere near me, so fuck off, felinid."
"Nobody asked you," Wolff said.
"I'm your Captain, cunt, do I need to kick your teeth in?"
"Yeah, I think you do."
Perry got his lanky body off the couch and rolled up one of his sleeves, stumbled, and exposed a cruddy robotic arm, then took a swing at Wolff's chest. Despite Perry's state, the swing was shockingly quick, but Wolff was even quicker. A flash in your vision, and a segmented shield unfolded itself in front of Wolff, then stopped the punch with a hollow clanging sound. Wolff's grin was wide and shiny. "My turn."
A long stick with an orange tip appeared in Wolff's sinewy arm, and it made a windy electric sound when he crunched Perry over the head with it, knocking him to the floor.
"F-fucking coward."
Wolff smashed him over the head with it again, knocking him out cold.
Licoreina made an impressed purring sound. "It might be easier to do the surgery now while he's in hardcrit."
"His head is fractured," you said.
"Yes. It is bad. HoS shouldn't have hit him."
Only now that Perry's voice was no longer drowning out all other sound, you heard banging on the side of the large iron shutters.
"More of them," Wolff said, and already held a firearm instead of the baton. The speed at which he could switch between his arsenal was dizzying. He tapped the side of the gun and the display on it changed from blue to red. "I'll buy us time. Do the damn surgery."
"Akemi could use someone's help for the surgery," Lico said.
Wolf gave her a cold look. "You two have fun."
Licoreina's ears flattened slightly. "It might be best to let me repair the walls and airlocks. If Theseus leaks structure gel in here, he might get access to electronics even though I've cut the AI control wires."
"Don't give a fuck. I need to shoot something."
Lico's ears became even flatter. "You should save your resources for later... and if Perry wakes up, you can hold him down."
It wouldn't be wise to delay the hepatectomy any longer, especially now that the patient was unconscious. He had exerted himself with that punch, and any further vomiting might just kill him if he were left unattended. Though it was notable that Perry's half-drunk punch had left a sizable crack in the center of Wolff's shield. That punch could have obliterated an unarmored person.
You found yourself in a strange circumstance, but any trained surgeon knew that the time for self reflection was not with a dying patient on the table. Whatever this place was, this reality or dream or simulation, you would think about it after the surgery was done.
And now, you needed an assistant. There was much to consider. Neither of them seemed to want to do it, but working with one of them would allow you a chance to talk, understand them better, and ask them questions. As such, which of them should you try and spend time with?
[ ] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.
[ ] Ask Wolff to assist with the surgery.
OOC note: Submit your votes by posting one of the provided options with a tick mark, such as [X] Kill Perry (jk, use the options above). Feel free to share your opinions or thoughts here, any form of engagement encourages me to write more of the story, if there are some readers then I'll write more chapters. Thank you!
All named characters were used with permission from the players.