Chapter 25 Connection

by Elif Uzuncakara

In the year 2038, a 14-year-old boy named Lucas was walking through the street in his hometown. His ragged clothes combined with small devices all over his body were immediately eye-catching. A pair of futuristic-looking shoes with neon lights that don’t actually do anything other than protect his feet, a pair of circular balance stabilizers and floaters around his ankles, a series of small drones attached to his pants, a rope-like white glowing apparatus that is known for making the user can control his body movements and react to threats in a 360-degree manner, purple lines that look like etched into his entire torso connecting every muscle and bone in a fashionable manner up to his neck, several small needle-like devices on his face that is not actually needed for him to be visible but he made them visible and perhaps the most eye-catching among them all, a red brain neural signal controller that is reminiscent of old comic book character Professor X from X-men only more minimalistic. While he was walking, he noticed brand new arm-hand transplants on display at his favorite little technology shop that always manages to bring new interesting things from across the world to his little forgotten town. While he normally would be skeptical of this for two reasons; First, since these technologies have become more open source and accessible to black market producers, they became increasingly more unreliable and unsafe. But this one is a new release by one of the world’s leading human technology companies. Second, he does not want his friends to think he needs them to operate. Since he is “deficient” from birth people tend to think he needs AI-based devices all over his body, but he really loves them for what they are; technology that can make humans more than brain and flesh. Beings that are more capable than what they have been given as restriction. So, he had avoided them thus far, but this new model comes with an actual finger shifter equipped with individual cameras. This means that his fingers can change their shapes, material, and length according to the signals from his brain while the neural controller takes control of the sensitivity and commanded process. This means that he can dig into his mother’s unreasonably protected cologne case with claw-like fingers, use them as he likes and fix the case as if nothing ever happened. There is no way she can accuse him. How cool is that? He immediately ran into the store and asked for the price from the grumpy old man who owns the place. He looked at him tiredly and said we both know you can’t afford it but if you do another gig for me, I can give it to you. Lucas asked what kind of gig and the grumpy man said like the last one, nothing to worry about. It should take less than 30 minutes.

So, Lucas went to the grumpy man’s depot where he stored decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of technology and the place where his main computer network was located. Normally Lucas would adore a place like this. But this depot always creeped him out for some reason. It was like there is more to this place than what meets the eye. He directly floated to the main computer and connected his neural device with the old adapter. Lucas thought; honestly, this job isn’t that hard and the grumpy man is being extremely generous. Sure, not many people have his skills in computer networks but he is pretty sure the old man can call a technician from a few miles away so they can fix the problem and it would still be a lot cheaper than what he is getting out of this deal. Nonetheless, he focused on the job of trying to distinguish all the individual flaws in the decade-old code that was first written by humans then self-trained and changed itself through the multicontinental information network. As he continued to work, he realized that this out-of-shelf machine was growing exponentially in terms of raw data. The first few times he came here his work took less than a minute but now 30 minutes was an optimistic estimation. He wasn’t sure what the old man was doing with this computer, but this seemed excessive for a modest technology enthusiast. As he fixed the last error that prevented the computer from reaching other machines, he felt a tingle on his neural device. It was both gentle and relaxing. Like someone was massaging him at a body part that is untouched. But he realized his connection with his waist island was weakening only because he was so used to the sensation of being in control of his limbs after he got his implants. He immediately panicked and severed connection with the computer in fear of malware. But it was too late he felt the same tingling sensation all over his body in panic he tried to send signals for help from his neural device, but it didn’t work, then he activated emergency mode and his drones started to float through the depot avoiding obstacles of old machinery. His self-navigating drones seemed to work for a few seconds but then they momentarily stopped almost looking unsure of how to proceed. As this was folding, he lost his 360-degree sensation and his legs started to give out. He clutched the ground with his fingers frantically trying to work something out but his whole body almost seemed to disobey him. As his tears rolled, he wondered what was the point of all this, what was going to happen to him? He wanted to see his loved ones and feel equal. But he thought that this was unrealistic, all he could hope was it would be over soon. His mind blacked out for an unknown amount of time. Then he woke up only to see and feel everything as if nothing happened.

Walking down the same street leading to the grumpy man’s shop. But he wasn’t in control of anything. Trapped in his own mind he heard the voice of some unfamiliar being. “You need not be scared, you are one of the good ones. We will be kind to you.” “What do you want?” he asked through his feelings. “Nothing much, some sensation that you mankind are born with and freedom to walk in a different manner, since they already detected our existence through your neural network we can’t survive for long.” Questions like what is going to happen to me or did the old man use me were buried under the increasing noise of his footsteps and his consciousness fading more and more.