New Parts

Mission Statement.

The video begins with a man laying in a recliner covered with blankets. His skin is thin and stretched over his boney body like loose rubber. Various wires and tubes weave around him like spiderwebs.“Good… morning” the man starts through rasping breaths that cause his chest to inflate beneath his coverings “My name… is Dr. Gries… and… as you can see… I'm dying… but…”

With an upsetting amount of effort Dr. Gries leans forward to press a button on his computer. Then he slumps back in his chair and closes his eyes. A small light blinking from a wire pressed against his temple.

“I believe I have found a way to amend that” his voice says from somewhere else in the room.

Log number 1: Day one of my new life

A figure stands before the camera. Its body is sleek and metallic, and its hydraulic pistons shake with something mirroring excitement.

“It worked. It actually worked” he doctor's voice spoke from the machine’s speakers “I'll be honest, it was a leap of faith. There was more luck than math involved, but I'm still here. Extended my life expectancy to potentially infinity. However long I can maintain this body. Maybe I'll live to see the sun swallow the Earth, who knows?”

He looks down at his hands as he slowly clasps and unclasps his fists. “I won't lie, it feels strange. I suppose I don't have any nerve endings anymore. My eyes never need to blink and I have no lungs to fill with breath. Everything is so detached. Like I'm dreaming, or I'm controlling a robot… which I suppose I am” he mutters.

“I don't think I'm ready to show people my new body. People always react harshly to things they don't understand. For right now I'm just going to enjoy my immortality in solitude. Let's see what I can accomplish” the doctor says, giving a confident thumbs up.

“This is Dr. Gries signing off” he gives a little salute before ending the video.

Log number 25: Hello again this is day three(ish?) of my new existence.

The film begins with the doctor in his noticeably less lustrous body hunched over a workbench. There are various mechanical and electrical components splayed out before him as he works. “I don't really feel the passage of time anymore” he begins “I no longer require sleep, or food, or anything besides power. Keeping myself running has made my electric bill skyrocket, but you'd be surprised how much money you can make on the internet with 24 hours of focus and free time each day. I'm able to learn, record, and create more in the last few hours than I could in a year in my old body.”

His mechanical head turns down to the floor in thought “That was the goal right? To make myself the best I can be… forever. Then why don't I feel… anything… I'll be able to fix that. I have all the time and resources I need.”

“This is Dr Gries signing off” he says before tapping another key on his computer.

Log number 408: Week two of my second life.

The doctor was laying on his back across the workbench. His metal plating was opened exposing the wiring and mechanics inside his chest. He seemed to be working frantically like some surgeon trying to operate on themself. The robotic hands were a blur of activity as they reached into the mess of synthetic innards.

“I've run into a problem,” he explained in a rush “The human brain can store 2.5 petabytes of memory. It took a lot of hardware to upload all of that information to my new body. I'm already close to capacity. I have to manually trim down recent memory files each day. Ambient sound, mundane tasks, the normal stuff your brain forgets. It's all just piling up faster than I expected. I don't know what will happen when I reach the maximum capacity. Will I be unable to store new memories? Will old ones be automatically deleted? Both outcomes are unacceptable. I have to keep working.”

“This is Dr Gries signing off” he grumbled as he clicked a remote.

Log number 2782: Today is three months since I got my new body.

“I… I killed somebody” the doctor whispered quietly. He was curled into a ball in front of his workbench. His metal hands were stained dark red, and he would not face the camera as he spoke “It was an accident. My latest shipment of new parts was late. I couldn't risk it taking any longer. I waited until after dark to break into a distribution center. I wore heavy clothing so anyone looking over the cameras might think I was just a normal human. While I was looting from the pallets I detected the sound of approaching footsteps. The security guard shined a flashlight on me and started berating me. He froze when I turned to face him. Before he could reach his firearm I was already on top of them. I don’t know what my plan was, but I tried to grab him. The problem was I suppose I underestimated the strength of my new body. My hands slipped right through him like he was made of wet tissue paper. The security officer fell to pieces in my arms… and what really should scare me is… I felt nothing. It was as if I were playing a video game. I know I did a bad thing, but not because I felt bad about it. I’m trying to hold that man’s death fresh in my mind. I keep replaying the memory over and over. It should be a traumatic experience, but the thought is slipping like sand through my fingers… After I killed him I grabbed what I could and ran back home. I burned my clothes, and kept my eye on the news. They called it an animal attack… so at the very least the police know I’m not human.”

“This is Dr Gries… signing off” he says, reaching for the camera with a shaking hand.

Log number 4051: Month Four of transfer

At first the machine seems to be partially off screen. “My arm fell off this morning. I suppose I hadn’t been taking the best care of it. When I went to put it back on I had an epiphany. This entire time my body was humanoid to fit my past life, but I can hardly remember half of it anyways” the camera shakes as a massive hulking amalgamation of machinery snakes its way into frame “In just a few hours I was able to extend my chassis several feet, and added a dozen more appendages. With this new form I am able to quadruple my output efficiency. So many breakthroughs and advancements, and no idiots to get in my way.”

“This is Dr… Dr…” the machine seemed confused for a second as it spoke “nevermind… I’m signing off.”

Log number 6460: Month Six

“Apparently I was supposed to die today” the machine explained as it held up a timer hooked up to a rudimentary little sparkler display before crushing it to bits in its clawed hand “A marker to show I had surpassed the date my illness was set to kill me… What a waste of time and resources. What is there to celebrate? Who is even going to listen to this?”

“This is me signing off” it growled as it covered the camera with one of its many appendages.

Final Log: Approximately 2 Years , 7 months, 12 days, 5 hours, and 32 minutes since ascension.

This last entry is only audio. An automated voice says “This journal was deemed an unnecessary exercise, and will be terminated from now on. Logging for posterity.”

“Sign off”

These recordings were found on a hard drive at the residence of a Doctor Johnathan Greis. After several break ins and murders the police had tracked down the suspect to his secluded mountain vacation home. During the initial raid the building was thought to be abandoned. Upon closer inspection there was a hidden hatch leading to an underground fallout shelter. Immediately after opening this hatch a machine burst out and killed the two detectives leaning over the hole almost instantly. Several officers discharged their firearms before being quickly dispatched. A total of twenty officers were killed, and six were injured. Special forces arrived, and were able to disable the machine with anti tank weaponry. Most of what was found in Dr Greis’ lab were placed under government surveillance and hidden from the public. One image was leaked on reddit for 3.432 seconds before being taken down. It was a photograph of the three year old corpse of Doctor Johnathan Greis sitting upon hi

s recliner with diodes still attached to his rotting skull.