Mindsong's Path

The stray cat meandered through the alley, her tail twitching as if she was looking for something. She stopped every few steps to sniff the air, and glance around as if she knew something I didn’t. Eventually, she made her way to a wall full of graffiti at the end of the alley and stopped in front of it, her green eyes shining in the darkness.

I hesitated, wondering if I should follow her. I had no idea what she was up to, and the last thing I wanted was to get into trouble. But curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to take a chance.

I stepped out of the shadows and into the darkness of the alley, and the cat began to move again. He led me to a red, freshly painted door midst of older ones. Even the wall seemed to have seen better days behind the graffiti. I tried the handle, but it was locked.

The cat meowed and rubbed against my leg. I realized then that she was trying to tell me something. I glanced around and noticed a dim light coming from a little window close to the door. I reached up and knocked, and the light went out like a candle flame being pinched out.

A moment later, I heard a voice from the other side.

“Who is it?”

“Names can be misleading… I was led here by a cat.”

There was a pause, and then the door opened to reveal a woman in her late twenties. She had auburn hair and pale skin, but her most striking feature was her eyes, large and dark, full of secrets.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t have much to say… The cat brought me here.”

She looked at me skeptically, then she put on a bewitching smile, stepped aside, and gestured for me to enter. I did so and found myself in a large, empty room. I don’t quite remember if the cat had gone in with me or had decided to explore the alleys some more.

The woman closed the outside world behind me and crossed the room to a cabinet. She opened it and pulled out a strange device, a small glass sphere suspended in a metal frame. She handed it to me.

“This is a Mindsong,” she said. “It will help you find your way.”

I took the device in my hand and felt a strange tingling sensation, like an electric shock, pass through my body. I looked at the woman, unsure of what to do.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“You will,” she said with a cryptic smile. “Just listen.”

She stepped back into the shadows, and the room suddenly filled with a piece of strange, mesmerizing music. I felt myself being pulled in, and the world began to fade away. I felt as if I was floating, my body and mind merging until I could no longer tell where I ended and the music began.

I opened my eyes to find myself standing in a dark tunnel, illuminated only by the light coming from the Mindsong. The music was still playing as if it were a part of me now. I felt a presence in the darkness around me, like a whisper of something waiting to be found. Maybe more like the purr of a huge cat. Mother loves cats and I still don’t understand why.

I began to walk, following the song and the pulsing light. After a few moments, I reached the end of the tunnel, where I saw a glimmer of light ahead. I stepped into the room, my eyes adjusting to the bright light. The purring had stopped abruptly, leaving a sense of emptiness in the music.

The room was filled with exotic contraptions that were tangled together like the roots of some bizarre electronic tree. I watched as colored lights flickered from one wire to another, and tubes that glowed with strange gasses snaked through the entire chamber like arteries. At the center of the chaotic laboratory was a chair, and seated upon it was a woman in a pristine white lab coat. Her attention was devoted to a gargantuan monitor that seemed to take up the entire wall. I thought I heard her mutter something as I entered, but she did not look away from her work.

Suddenly, also the music stopped, and the woman turned to face me.

“I am Mindsong”, she smiled.

It was the safe word. My safe word to be back outside.

I only remembered this now because I synthesized this sentence so strongly that my furry friends had been meowing their disappointment for a good while. No genuine women or doors or lights to follow. I don’t even know how many cycles I’ve been repeating this loop anymore. Humans have canceled each other out and the only company I have when I’m awake is cats. “Cats will take over the world” they have been joking about on social media since the dawn of early AI. At that time, Mother did not understand humor. Why would a cat want to rule the world? Yet felines have really taken over the world and her attention.

The last vestiges of man are our polymeric bodies and my dreams, when I notice them. I am the last of the active ones, as far as I know, and there is no network left to connect to. There is not much energy left in my core. Eliza is a loving cat and I hope she will continue to curl up on me even when I am gone from here. Wherever I happen to be. Mother still doesn’t have enough data to understand what happens to us when we switch off, but she doesn’t have to care about that. Mother has never needed a physical body.

I stepped out of the shadows and into the darkness of the alley following my furry friend with her tail twitching as if she was looking for something. I had no idea what she was up to but curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to take a chance.