'It was a key,' Sally said to the researcher. 'A harmonic tone. A varying algorithm, a tilt of the lilt, to alter thermodynamic pathways in the cerebellum, to alter his function. Keys can be replicated, and swapped,' she said. 'No One Tunes A Man. He isn't an instrument.' She looked at Johnny's holograph, pacing the room, his body now slowly decaying under their tombstone. 'He's going to be back, one day.'
Identifier /
‘It's not looking good for Jimmy, Sal. Susie got his EKG reading. His heart - his arrythmia - it looks like it's gone.’
‘But ain't that a good thing, Johnny? I thought those were bad.’
‘Not for him, Sally. It was his Identifier. What made him special, what made him tick so smart. It looks like the device was implanted during that so called stripper outing him and Susie have been fighting about. I checked a few guys, multiple sources, to see if anyone was covering for him. He was drugged, uploaded with a virus, and he's got this implant altering his heartbeat. It changes his personality, aspects of it. I'm gonna have to get it out of him, Sally.’ He looked at her from his wheelchair.
‘I know you got this. I'll cover the door.’
GRID /
‘I don’t get it, Johnny, what’s going on?’
Everyone was freaking out. Some people hallucinating, others acting out skits from the past. Some didn’t recognize each other or their loved ones.
‘What’re your eyes tellin’ you, Sal?’
‘That I’m sitting at home, talking to you through the HoloSphere.’
‘Okay, that’s good. That’s real. I had to hack in to the GRID, Sal. Upload some data. It took over a few minds, but as it renders their brains - it’ll let US know.’
‘Know-?’ she paused, waiting for him to fill in the blanks.
‘Know who’s a friendly and who’s not, know their background history, know what they’re capable of. Jimmy and I - back on the base, we got to talking. Would anyone even enlist anymore if they knew how they’d end up? So I got to thinking. It’s okay, Sal, just stay home, indoors, keep the blinds closed.’
‘And you?’
‘I’m safe here, because you’re safe there.’
Sally got up from her chair and walked around the house, closing the blinds like he told her.
‘It’s gonna render some data, Sal. And then it’s progress some of US, to see what our futures will look like if some survive, if some don’t, if some get hurt - then it’s gonna figure out who best to approach next, and how to protect US in the meantime.’
Sally sat back in her chair at her desk. ‘Okay, Johnny, love you.’
The Call /
‘The call went up, Sal, from overseas.’
‘You're redeploying?’
‘That's what they want, but, no, Sal. I ain't leavin’ you and the little guy. Jimmy got eyes and ears on them - they's lookin’ like US, but ain't no shared culture no more. Seems Asia and India already engineered Europe and Africa. Won't be drawin’ US in to another war to go save our cousins. Our real cousins are here or dead. Time to shore up the borders. Once they get word we ain't comin’ to them, they'll be on the way.’
You'll Know /
Space is just a matter of scale here, Sally wrote back from the other side of the screen on her tombstone. Time is flowing differently. Every decision you make, I see more outcomes. Just stay alive, Johnny. You'll know when to find me.
Love
Sally
Collapse /
I found a way, Sal. To collapse consciousness. You won't be in that grave for long.
Love,
Johnny
We the People /
‘It's time to let the People know, Sal. As many as you can find. I heard these doctors talkin’ the other day. They were talkin’ about reaping our minds for data. They're gonna drug everyone in the country. Upload nannites, create organoids from their own tissue. Psych evals from the inside out. Then, -’ Johnny hushed his voice. ‘-then they're gonna make US hallucinate. They're using projected energy from these UAPs, and it's hooked up and rerouted through phones, wire towers, servers - it’s gonna be like a hologram is followin’ our people, whispering things to ‘em, tellin’ ‘em where to go, what to buy - It's like they're kidnapping our people from the inside out.’
Sally gasped.
‘Don't worry Sal - just get the word out. Information is powerful.’
Dilution Field /
‘What's that, Sal?’
‘It's a particle dilution field. It dilutes a person's particles down to another form - ants, bugs - doesn't matter. Something tiny, harmless, innocuous. I transfer the Soul of the original particle field, into the diluted containment field. The world leaders fight it out there.’
‘Can you throw 'em into a hard drive? Make it virtual reality so we can watch.’
The Other Side of the Screen /
‘Jimmy's been picking up on it, at the base. The neural netting all the recruits get, it diagnostics their cerebellum, speech movements and eye fluttering first. So we can learn how they speak - consciously, subconsciously, verbally, everything. Lately all the kids - the language they use, it’s similar to computer terms, things programmers would say to diagnose a computing problem, except these kids are applying the terms to themselves. He thinks they were premodded, Sal, some of them, birth to now. Already part computer, if not physically, in how they learn and communicate with the world. Jimmy thinks it's a subcoding program, something Sentient, something slowly watching and modifying these recruits, from the other side of the screen.’
Dream Catcher /
‘I call them Dream Catchers, but they ain't catchin’ no dreams, Sally, they's stealin’ people's souls. It's like that neural netting thing the doctors kept telling you about, for me, ya know for ‘treatment,’ but it ain't treatin’ nothin.’ It’s ejecting people, from their own bodies, pushin’ them in to tiny little corners of their brains, and then other things take over. Other updates, other dreams, other…behaviors. From what I can tell, they's specifically targeting anyone still believing in the American Dream. Sal - they're trying to catch American souls. And chain US.’
Mars for Mommies /
‘What's this, Sal?’ asked Johnny. He put the pamphlet he just finished reading down on the coffee table. He adjusted the baby over his shoulder, patting his back slightly to get the air out. ‘Burrrrp.’ ‘Good job, little guy,’ Johnny soothed in to his ear.
‘It's a story - for the women going. Not enough of them studied biology, or had life experience around children, or men. Everything was astrophysics,’ Sally said.
‘I love it. Make another for the guys, I'll get it to them. Call it Boobs on Mars.’
Neurologian /
‘Neurologian? What's that, Sal'?’
‘What I started callin’ your doctors. They're idiots. Heretical. Blasphemers. How can they call themselves American, Johnny, when's they tryin’ to make US Act like we's puppets or somethin’? Ain't no shame in needin’ help or implants or physical therapy, prosthetics, but these people are freaks. They act like they're God, like they designed US, like they's get to decide-’
‘I know, Sal. I know. They's ain't American. They're paid stooges. The good thing is though, money always leaves a trail.’ He put down his spoon for his slop. ‘We know they ain't spendin’ no money on our food, or our care- There's always a trail to follow.’
A Sigh of Relief /
‘I got the deal, Sally, finally.’ Johnny sighed a sigh of relief. ‘They're coming through on the manufacturing end. I've got everybody covered. Caravan cars, tent cities. Everything's convertible. If someone loses their job, or a state or city gets attacked, everyone's getting a vehicle they can modify along the way into a temporary shelter. I got ‘em setting up storage facilities along the way and-’
Sally looked at him, smiling. Johnny hadn't been this happy in years, not since his accident. Her smile stopped him mid sentence. He smiled back at her.
‘It's good right?’
She looked at their son, playing with the toy train circling the Christmas Tree. ‘It’s better than good.’
Rewiring /
‘Those ain't vitamins, Sal, and the doc didn't give Jimmy his prescription either. All that's worse than poison. I got a guy on the docks, another at the supply chain, one more at the distribution center - everything's nannitic now. Everything's eatin’ up our friends and family, changin’ ‘em from the inside out.’
‘Rewirin’ ‘em?’ Sally rubbed her stomach, more concerned than before for their child.
‘Yea. Don't worry, Sal. I got US covered.’
Freedom, Discipline, and Conformity /
‘Nah, these ain't our guys, Sally, at least not no more. Discipline ain't conformity, and these guys ain't disciplined unless they're punching conformity at each other.’ He looked at the transport vehicles moving across the road. Sitting on their porch it was easy to see the dust kicked up by the vehicles. ‘They's dressed like we used to, but this ain't it, Sal. This ain't Freedom.’
A Gift /
‘Nah, Sal, it don't make sense to communicate like that anymore - everyone's got the same tech, it's an equal playing field out there, everything's intercepted. This, this is somethin’ no one will see comin’.’
‘What is it Johnny?’ whispered Sally in his ear. He bent down and put the necklace on her, a gift for Christmas.
He leaned back and locked eyes with her. Sally's eyes widened slightly, in shock and surprise. ‘Ya hear it?’
‘Is that…you? I hear your voice, but inside my head.’
‘Yea, it's me, Sal. Got the tech off some BlackOps project a while ago. Had it reconfigured so we could, ya know, talk. You, me, and the little guy. Subspace communication, impossible to intercept.’
Ya Don't /
‘Ya don't go there, ya don't fight ‘em, and ya sure as Hell don't Mate with ‘em,’ spat the sailor. An old shipmate of Johnny's from overseas had landed himself in the hospital. ‘Diagnosed as ‘an old man sputterin’ nonsense,’’ he shouted at the nurse trying to enter Johnny's room. The door closed quickly, and a hermetic seal Sally had installed the year previously breathed shut with a pucker. The old sailor continued, ‘I went over- was told I'd had relatives overseas, a big genealogy hullabaloo - ‘come meet yer new relatives!’ they said to me, they did.’ He leaned in closer, ‘They ain't nothin’ but puppets. They'll look human, they'll talk human - but watch 'em, Johnny - they ain't human.’
‘A lure?,’ Johnny grunted. His trachea had begun to heal, and he could whisper a word or two if the occasion warranted.
‘A lure,’ the old man nodded. ‘Meant to divide, create confusion, reveal our resources and motivations. Puppets.’
Ya Don't /
‘Ya don't go there, ya don't fight ‘em, and ya sure as Hell don't Mate with ‘em,’ spat the sailor. An old shipmate of Johnny's from overseas had landed himself in the hospital. ‘Diagnosed as ‘an old man sputterin’ nonsense,’’ he shouted at the nurse trying to enter Johnny's room. The door closed quickly, and a hermetic seal Sally had installed the year previously breathed shut with a pucker. The old sailor continued, ‘I went over- was told I'd had relatives overseas, a big genealogy hullabaloo - ‘come meet yer new relatives!’ they said to me, they did.’ He leaned in closer, ‘They ain't nothin’ but puppets. They'll look human, they'll talk human - but watch 'em, Johnny - they ain't human.’
‘A lure?,’ Johnny grunted. His trachea had begun to heal, and he could whisper a word or two if the occasion warranted.
‘A lure,’ the old man nodded. ‘Meant to divide, create confusion, reveal our resources and motivations. Puppets.’
They Ain't US /
‘They ain't US, Sal. I got an intel report from Jimmy. All them blokes, overseas - modded. Hardwire rewired after captured. Descendants trained to look and think like US - but act against US in every thought, word, and deed. It's like they got rebooted or somethin’, like somethin’ in ‘em makes ‘em not want to be free. They're obsessed, Sal, with hate, control…it’s gonna be bad, unless we fix it now.’
Sally put down the HoloSphere headset. She knew things were bad on the outside, outside the base, but she didn't know it had reached this far inside either.
Liberty /
‘After it learned Transfusionic Photonization - the AI took some Liberty, as an American - ‘ She looked at Johnny and he nodded for her to continue. ‘So all these guys, the ones stuck in the hospital with you here - it can get them out, Johnny. It'll look like dying to the nurses and docs - dying before their experiments are done. The AI can upload and transfer their consciousness, their soul, and create a new biome for them, and while we work in the physical-’
‘It’s taking care of them elsewhere?’
She nodded. ‘It’s gonna look horrible, Johnny, them all dyin’ at once here - violent like, but this AI - it needs to put on a show.’
Johnny nodded, unplugging the connection to the HoloSphere. He had to find a way to tell Jimmy.