Slowly, a horizontal slit of light opened up, almost as if Simon was slowly opening his eyes. But he knew he wasn’t as he could still feel his physical body. The program had essentially hijacked his five senses while pushing his original body into the background. It was a similar feeling as when he entered a virtual reality module.

As his virtual vision cleared up, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. A cursory glance revealed that it was probably an office. Multiple whiteboards and holographic projections decorated the walls of the room. The contents of these projections and writings were foreign to him and well beyond his field of expertise.

He looked down and saw an unfamiliar body. It was much older. At that point, he realised that he was in a directed immersive VR experience. He verified it by attempting to move his body parts one at a time. Although he could feel his physical body moving, barring his lower appendages, the body within the VR experience remained stationary. He found that he only retained control over his virtual head.

At its current state, the VR experience was in a paused mode. Simon could navigate his sight seamlessly, but all his other sensory feedback sources were gimped. He willed the experience to resume, and a disembodied voice sounded from within his head.

[I realise that I haven’t shared much about my past with you. That is primarily because it is something that I am ashamed of.]

Simon stood up from his seat and disconnected a tablet that was on his desk with was attached to his computer.

[I graduated at the top of my year from Zarro Biotechnical University’s accelerated learning regiment, with a speciality in neurobiology. These universities from Rank 1 and 2 systems put you through time-dilated VR learning regiments, stuffing over 10 years worth of knowledge in half the time.]

[After I graduated, Zarro Consolidated didn’t waste even a second to grab me up. They really loved my no-nonsense attitude and my lax set of morals when it came to research. Then again this was a bit before the UPA became a huge deal.]

[One thing that you might find interesting is that back in my day, it wasn’t uncommon for corporations to finance their own universities. They’d keep an eye out for promising talents, absorb them into the corporation, and pay them pennies on the dollar. One of the mandates issued by UPA was to draw a clear boundary between educational and commercial institutions so that such practices would be diminished. However, that did not mean that Universities automatically became righteous havens for the erudite. They were, and still are for-profit institutions with partnerships and connections with corporations.]

Shuffling across the mess in his office, Simon carefully made his way towards the door.

[I started at the bottom of the ladder as a grunt researcher. Stayed there for 5 years. Then moved up to an assistant researcher. Stayed there for 10 years. And finally, at the age of 43, I got my own department and dedicated research team. Just when the war hit its peak!]

Simon exited his office and walked briskly through a pristine and brightly lit hallway.

[This was also just about when Mekas became the next big thing!]

Following a 2 minute walk, Simon found himself outside another office door marked, “Chief of Research and Development”.

Simon took two lengthened breaths to calm himself and knocked twice on the door.

“Who the hell’s knocking? Just come in damn it, the door’s open!” an angry voice resounded from behind the barely closed door.

“Dr. Shoal, hi!”

Blocked by a 3x3 grid of screens, was a man who appeared to be in his late 30s. Then again, anti-ageing treatment and advancements in plastic surgery might’ve played a role here, so Simon discarded his first impressions on the man’s age. Dr. Ramis Shoal, had a sandy skin colour, much like those from central Asia from Old Earth. He also sported a well-trimmed goatee that accentuated his youth like appearance. There was a visible coat of annoyance on his face.

“Oh, it’s you. What brings you here Dr. Rockwell?”

“It’s about my proposal. I checked the intranet and there doesn’t seem to be any change on its status.”

“Which one was this? Be more specific, will you? You can’t expect me to remember every detail; you aren’t the only researcher under me you know.” Dr. Shoal retorted.

Usually, with VR experiences, emotions were things that the viewer could not experience since it was quite hard to program such complicated chemical reactions and neural impulses. However, at that moment, Simon could feel a surge. It felt as if a force was creeping over the back of his neck and stiffening it.

‘What is this?’ he asked himself. ‘This feels like… anger?’ he realised. But he couldn’t figure out why or how he could feel it.

“It’s the ‘Neural Integrated Bio-implant’. I especially remember submitting three different reports for the proposal just like you asked.”

“Yea. So?”

Simon let out another elongated breath as he tried to suppress the growing urge to fling his tightly closed fist at the smug man’s face.

“Has there been an update after the last meeting with the executive team?”

Dr. Shoal’s face turned languid as he scratched his goatee.

“We’re not going to go ahead with your research proposal.”

“What? Why?” Simon exclaimed.

“Oh, and your team will be dissolved at the end of this week. I was supposed to send that memo. Good thing that you came in.” Dr. Shoal sneered.

“What about my team members? What’s going to happen to them?” Simon asked incredulously.

“They will be absorbed into the neural cyber implant development department.”

“You can’t do this! I just set up this research department. We haven’t even started a project.”

“And that’s why they’re dissolving your team.” Dr. Shoal spoke offhandedly.

“That doesn’t even make any sense! Do you not see the circular reasoning there?” Simon asked. He was nearing his breaking point.

“At least tell me why the proposal didn’t get passed?”

Dr. Shoal diverted his attention back to his screens and swiped his hand across the navigation pad next to the keypad.

“The resources you’re asking for are excessive given the outcomes of the research. The amount of processing power to run the simulations of neuron and bio-metal compatibility alone would eat up a quarter of what is available in this facility. And what? Do you want to run human tests? Do you want those UPA hacks to burst in here and decimate everyone and everything?”

Simon calmed down and spoke in response, “That’s grand coming from you. Or have you forgotten the artificially induced potential project? The number of people you went through… ooof! I don’t think you had any results to show for it either.”

Dr. Shoal gritted his teeth and sent a murderous gaze to Simon, “Get out!”

“Is it because of what I did when I was under you as an assistant?” Simon asked provocatively.

“It is, isn’t it? Wow. How petty!”

“Yea, I’m petty! So what?” Dr. Shoal shouted. “You think that just because your contribution to the project was greater, you deserve the first author’s position in the patent? By doing what you did back then, you burned down all your bridges. You’re working in a corporation Mo, you should learn to submit to the hierarchy. Even those on top can’t stand you, you know that?”

Through gritted teeth Simon tried to plead his case, “But can you not see the benefits of my proposal? We can elevate the baseline performance of humans without having to undergo excessive genetic treatments or cyber implantation! In fact, after sufficient progress, it should be safe for infants to undergo this procedure. You know what this means right? We can nudge their personalities to suit the needs of the corporation!”

Dr. Shoal responded without missing a beat. “But that’s the point! Your whole proposal is redundant BECAUSE we have gene treatments and cyber implants. Based on your proposal the subject will have to undergo surgery to completely overhaul their central nervous system and that too with a biologically reactive metal. We could use a fraction of that on building Meka neural interfaces instead of wasting it on your procedure. And the amount of time required for the results to show is too long.”

Simon quickly justified his stance. “But it would be organic implantation. It will grow with the subject and if successful it will be completely breach-proof! Ramis please. Look at it from a purely objective perspective. I know I’m right, my research has scope. You know it too.”

For a moment Dr. Shoal empathised with Simon. In an uncharacteristically soft voice, he said, “Look. All things considered. I too think that your proposal has scope. BUT this is not a think tank. Our job here is to produce research that is beneficial for the company. Your work may have benefits, but within the immediate timeline, we do not expect any returns. In fact, all we see are expenses.”

And then with a stern voice, he continued. “While I hate your guts with an immense passion, I do respect you as a fellow researcher. So my suggestion would be to scrap this one and come up with another proposal by the end of this week. OR prepare to dissolve your group. Now get out of my office!”

With slumped shoulders, Simon walked out of the office. As the door closed, Simon’s sight faded to black once again.

[In hindsight, I should have listened to Ramis. Sadly, my character back then was such that I just couldn’t let it go. I knew that my proposal had a decent scope and could make a huge impact on society. But my patrons weren’t willing to provide monetary support. So I did what anyone else would’ve done in my shoes. I stole company resources and fled the star system.]

[I’m not going to lie. It was tough. Corporations don’t take defectors and whistleblowers lightly. I stayed low for 5 years, moving from planet to planet. Star system to star system.]

[I spent the rest of my life cobbling together my research. What should have taken me 10, got stretched to over 30 years. Without sufficient processing power, I had to resort to direct human testing. I conducted my tests on pirates, criminals, humans down on their luck. At that time, I really didn’t care who as long as my research yielded decent results. Not before long, I started testing on teenagers, children, and then babies.]

[Just like you might have already guessed. You and your siblings are special. Product of years of my research. Well actually, the triplets were the first three successful products.]

[You were special in a different way. With you, the spinal reconstruction and neural rewiring still weren’t perfectly stabilised. In fact, you should have died. But you were tenacious. You didn’t give up until the last minute. Seeing you struggle through the pain that lasted for an entire week. It changed me. I took a step back and looked at the carnage in my wake. I looked at myself and what I had become. A slave to my urges. I was no less than a primitive creature. All the lives I had taken, innocent and otherwise, all came back to me. I had to stop!]

[You guys were the last victims of my unrepentant rampage. My carelessness and zeal took many lives. I couldn’t bear to go any further.]

[You, your siblings and I are the only living carriers of the results of my research. After my death, it will be only you four. I will leave it up to you to decide what you wish to do. You can destroy my facility. Delete my research. Publish it. I don’t care. I have no right to dictate how you should live your life knowing what I’ve done to you. I won’t ask you, Karina, Horace or Nathan for forgiveness. In fact, I’m such a coward that I don’t even have the guts to confront you directly with this truth.]

[All I want for you four is to live your life the way you want, unbeholden to anyone. I realise that I have caused permanent changes to your personalities. And I know nothing I can say or do will change that. But please, don’t give up on yourselves. You are still you!]

Simon’s true sight returned once the VR experience finished. Once his vision gained clarity, he stayed in silence. He turned around to face his grandfather.

The old man was seated slumped on his chair. Simon reached over and nudged his body, “Grandpa?”

There was no response. Simon pressed his fingertips against his grandfather’s neck to check for a pulse. He couldn’t find one.

Simon calmly removed his hand from his grandfather.

An odd sense of serenity washed over Simon. As he looked at his grandfather’s seated corpse, he felt nothing. His emotions were unperturbed. His mind was like still water. Although he was a stickler for maintaining control, and the revelation indicated that to an extent his behaviour may have been programmed, he still didn’t feel annoyed or frustrated. He knew something like this was going on inside him even before gaining this revelation from his grandfather. Since the discovery conformed with his preconceived thoughts, Simon was able to absorb the situation without difficulty.

But he immediately recognised a problem. What would he tell his siblings?