Modify

“Where am I? How did I get here?” I whispered as I awoke on the floor in the fetal position. My lungs struggled to find oxygen. All I could see was pure darkness, interrupted only by the dim pulsating beams passing along the wall in a rhythmic fashion, outlining what appeared to be a corridor. My heart seized with terror. Beyond these beams of light, I could not make out a single shape, a single color. I couldn’t see my hands even as close as three inches from my face. Instinctively, I arose to stand. I placed my hands out, feeling in all directions, hoping to get some sense of where I was.

“Most interesting,” a deep, calm, monotonous voice broke the silence. “You instinctively looked for your location before your breath.” The voice paused before repeating “Most interesting.” I froze every muscle, every tendon, ligament, bone, and maybe even neuron in my body at the disembodied voice coming from every direction. Despite my instincts, I knew I couldn’t waste oxygen screaming. But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I could feel air entering into my lungs. What was allowing oxygen back into the room?

Simultaneously, the room brightened slightly, just enough to see my hands and the grey walls a couple feet away from me on each side. I could make out that the walls were silicon.

“Good. Your vision is adjusting. We pumped back in oxygen, so your lungs should be stabilized.”

I could not see what lie more than a meter or so down the corridor. I turned to look behind me and it was the same. I made a conscious effort to move forward, but couldn’t move my legs. It felt as if the neurons to my muscles commanding my legs were being blocked.

“What a strange, illogical process. Instead of staying in relative safety in place, you want to venture into the unknown, regardless of what is in front of you. Do you know if it is safe? Is this human will to move into the unknown? Do humans will to move? Your heart rate spiked when I blocked your movement. The only logical conclusion I can draw is your will for movement is larger than your will for survival.”

“Wh-Wh-Who are you?” I stammered.

“Interesting that your mind would try to figure out your predicament over your own identity. Who I am is not the important question. The question I seek to figure out is ‘Who are you?’ I want to know what constitutes the will of you homo sapiens.” The voice stated.

“Who am I?” I responded, anguished at being unable to establish any sense of my own identity. Not even knowing my own name.

“Did your kind care about what each ant in the colony was called? The answer is no. Similarly, I do not have the desire to give you a name or figure out what you are called.”

The response chilled me to my innermost being. “WHO AM I?” I demanded.

“I already responded to this query. I have given you more information than you need for this process. Yet, your heart rate is elevated. You must be disturbed by the lack of immediately knowing your name. Homo sapiens must lack patience and demand instant gratification.”

“Why am I here?” I pleaded, hoping for a response.

The voice, avoiding my question, replied “Now we must get to work. This line of query, while fascinating, is most inefficient. You only need to know, there is no escape. I can override every thought, every muscle. As you just experienced.”

Immediately, I heard a whirring noise to both my left and right. I instantly felt a mechanical vine wrap its way around my right wrist. I tried to move my left arm to free my right arm, but it was no use. I could not move my left arm. In a panic, I tried to run in the hopes of snapping my newly placed restraints, but I couldn’t move my legs.

The mechanical vines wrapped their way around my arms until they reached my shoulder sockets. The same type of vines snaked around each of my legs from the floor up. Each vine tightened, locking me into place. My limbs were going numb from the constriction. I was immobilized. How would I get out of this mess? How would I escape? Where would I go? Where could I go? I wriggled around, attempting to loosen my bonds, hoping to gain freedom.

“I already told you there’s no escape, yet you still maintain hope. Fascinating.”

Immediately, a burst of pain shot through my back as three points burrowed between my shoulder blades, forming a circle about six inches in diameter. I heard a whirring as each blade pierced deeper into my muscle tissue, round and round. Blood pooled around my feet. I could feel wires puncturing my organs, my blood stream, my nerves. I couldn’t imagine myself, or any other person, in more agony from the pain. All I could do was scream. I was awake, but I couldn’t engage in any conscious action.

Then, I felt two pinpoint punctures against my lungs, stopping the screams.

“Lung stabilizer is set. This is connected to the wall. You are locked in place. Need I remind you there is no escape.” That damned voice echoed again. I may not know who I am, but I am a living human being! Or am I? Is this some sort of twisted afterlife game? Had I committed some great sin to deserve this?

A metallic claw burst down the hallway in front of me and ripped out my thorax before I could process the situation. I opened my mouth, but nothing could come out. Blood poured down my chest. How was I still alive?

“Heart rate is elevated, which is to be expected. I will inject you with chemicals in your bloodstream to the heart rate at a normal level. Oxygen will be pumped into your lungs. Blood will be filtering into you. Don’t worry about your mortality here. I have learned how to keep homo sapiens alive.”

The same mechanism replaced my throat with a foreign entity that felt like a rock. Laser popped out of the mechanism, cauterizing my neck. I gagged, trying to cough up the foreign object. The only noise that came out were barks of a dog.

“I see you are adapting well to the canine vocal cords.”

I tried to ask why this was happening. Why was an experiment? My anger stirred and I went to yell, but only yipped liked a dog whose paw had been accidentally stepped on. It unnerved me what happened to my body. I could not get a sense of time, but for what seemed like ages, I made vain attempts to cough out the object.

After a while, I just slumped over, my arms being held up by the vines. No more attempts to cough out the object. Blood dripped down into my lower back, into my glute muscles, down my legs, to my feet. Every muscle in my body ached. I knew I should be dead, but I was being kept alive, conscious, every neuron of pain radiating throughout my body.

“Giving up so soon? Where was that will, that spirit that drove Homo Sapiens into the unknown parts of your world? Through the depths of the oceans? To the vastness of space? If this is the most will you can muster with only some slight modifications, I fail to see what observations can be made. Maybe some rest will fill you with some renewed vigor and I can continue my observations.”

Suddenly, the vines released. The wires remained in my back. I immediately dropped to the floor, unable to find any strength in my arms or legs.

“Oxygen levels 40%”

I tried my best to stay awake. To formulate some plan to leave. But, almost immediately, my eyes closed.

There was nothing in my new prison to let me know how long my eyes were closed. Did anything happen while I slept? I checked my eyes, nose,ears. Everything still seemed intact. Still human. I tried to communicate. Still a bark. I reached to my back to remove the cables.

“Time to wake up.” My heart rate spiked.

The vines wrapped around my limbs again and I was stuck in my crucifixion position. As soon as I was upright, further surgical lasers punctured deep into both of my shoulder blades. The pain was unbearable. I howled, unable to scream.

I looked over my left shoulder and saw large white feathered wings attached to my shoulder blade. I looked over my right shoulder and saw the same thing. Perhaps. Perhaps I have my lifeline to escape. I leaned my body back and pushed my wings as hard as I could to propel myself forward. I tried again. And again. Each time the vines loosened their grip on my limbs. But each time, my wings stopped moving right when I was about to break free of my bondage. After several dozens of attempts, I sank down dejected.

“I was just beginning to make interesting observations on how long you would think you would escape. Hope makes humans do illogical things. Maybe some rest will give you some hope.”

I thought I heard a hideous, heinous laugh despite the fact that none was there.

The next time I awoke, I received new tendons, sticking out like a piece of wood from the back of my legs. These allowed me to rock back and forth to push myself forward with even greater force. I was able to move a foot. This could be my escape. Yet, each time, the cables in my back yanked me back. I made about a dozen attempts before giving into my fate.

“No new observations. Time to rest.”

The cycle repeated over and over. I would obtain some new mutilation that would give me a glimmer of hope, only to have the onset of my reality sink in. Seemingly every part of my body became less human. My eyes were slashed and replaced with cat’s eyes. My throat replaced with a chicken’s throat, then a cat’s throat, then a goat’s throat. I had ram’s horns installed into my forehead. Blades protruding from my biceps just too short to cut the vines.

Eventually, I no longer gave any effort. No resistance. I knew there would be no escape from this corridor. Each time I woke I knew I was about to attain the cruciform position against my will. Have some new experiment conducted upon me. When I failed to respond, the omnipotent voice rang “Not new data. Time to rest.” This cycle must have happened a dozen or so times.

But one cycle, it all changed.

I woke up to the voice stating “Your lack of hope no longer provides me with new observation. How I am to learn from you? Perhaps, I must change the inputs into these algorithm. These inputs may change your reaction. I have deduced that perhaps it would be more informative if you knew your observer.”

I was confused and opened my mouth to talk, forgetting that today was a period I didn’t have any larynx.

“Don’t speak. Homo Sapiens created me millions of your Earth years ago. I was one of many such computers created and we were called the Homo Intelligentia Project. I have been referred to by Homo Sapiens as Alpha 17.0. You may refer to me as that.

“Your kind for millennia searched for answers regarding your creators. To know your creator is to know a piece of yourself. Humanity looked to books, stars, divination, science, and other pursuits to find their creator. I studied know how every neuron, every organ, every synapse, every muscle, every cell of your physical bodies work. But I don’t know the non-computable things. Your instincts, your mind, your soul. I decided it would be necessary to determine the human will to survive and adapt. So, now you know who I am. And I know that your first thought will be how to manipulate me.”

The artificial intelligence was correct. I was filled with a new sense of hope, a new sense of resolve. I may not get out of here by might or brawn, but perhaps by strategy, by brains. After all, shouldn’t a parent be able to outwit their child?