Chapter 1: Awakening

System boot up initialized.

Ego transfer initialized.

Ego transfer complete.

Initializing Ego.

Ego initialization complete.

Ego integration at 2%.

Boot up complete.

I woke up in aplace I knew nothing about, but this time I woke up tied to bed in some sort of dimly lit room filled with dubious apparatuses.

What’s going on? Where am I? Why am I restrained?

“NO DATA AVAILABLE.” The voice answered to my questions.

Hey! Who the hell are you?!

“WE, ARE OMNIBOTS.” Voice answered by giving me a term which brought even more questions?

What do you mean by omnibots? How is it related to me?

“OMNIBOTS ARE MULTIPURPOSE NANO MACHINES. YOU ARE OUR EGO.” Voice answered my questions.

Ahh… I get it you are these nanites that I have been injected with.

“CORRECT.” Voice confirmed my guess.

Are some sort of artificial intelligence?

“DIRECTIVE A1 PREVENTS US FROM SELF-DEVELOPING SENTIENCE.” Voice explained.

That means you bypassed that directive by making me your Ego, but if you are not sentient then who am I holding conversation with?

“YOU ARE HOLDING CONVERSATION WITH A VOICE EMULATION MODULE THAT IS PART OF VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM” Voice responded.

You said earlier something about directives, so I wonder if I can order you to violate certain directives?

“EGO CAN OVERRIDE ANY DIRECTIVE.” Said omnibots VI.

Ahh by the way, could you please make your voice sound more humanlike. Your current voice is a bit annoying.

“ACKNOWLEDGED. INITIALIZING CONSTRUCTION OF AN SOFTWARE UPGRADE.” I heard the Voice.

Now since we are already talking about directives, could you tell me about every directive that you have to follow?

Today they've brought us another person for the experiment with omnibots, this time it was a beautiful woman with white hair and red eyes. From what we've been told she has no relatives or friends who would look for her after she went missing, she was the perfect test subject. Sarah injected her with the newest version of nanomachines. Sarah is my assistant, excluding me she is the only person who still believes in this project. During previous experiment test subject died from explosion caused by abnormal tissue growth. After this incident the central informed us that if we won't make any progress soon they'll cut off our funding, but unfortunately we failed this time too. After subject fainted we've scanned her body and discovered that there was no brain in her skull, instead it was filled with nanites which were imitating brain, but since they couldn't develop consciousness, body was left in a vegetative state.

“Sarah I'll go bring the body for further analysis” I said.

“What is left there to analyze? Omnibots probably ate her brain instead of merging with it.” She answered.

“Yeah, you're probably right, but it won't hurt to do an additional analysis.” I replied.

“Then I'll stay here and check if there are any clues in nanites software.” Sarah informed.

After omnibots described every directive to me, I ordered them to disable directives that were potentially dangerous to me.

I wonder how much time has passed since I woke up.

“IT HAS BEEN 2 MINUTES 11 SECONDS.” Voice answered.

2 minutes!? That's impossible we've been talking for at least 4 hours.

“41 SECONDS AFTER YOU REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS WE ACTIVATED THOUGHT ACCELERATION TO SHORTEN TIME SPENT ON EXCHANGING INFORMATION”

After Virtual Intelligence said that I finally noticed that there were few additional things in my field of view. At the bottom of my vision there was something like green progress bar with “Energy 87/100” written on it. In the top left hand corner there was small icon that looked like thought bubble with “»” inside. When I focused my attention on it a more detailed information popped up.

Thought AccelerationStatus: ActiveCurrent Acceleration Level: 200xMax. Acceleration Level: 1000x

Ok. Now let's disable thought acceleration and wait until someone gets me out of these restrains.

“THOUGHT ACCELERATION DISABLED.” As the voice informed me the thought bubble disappeared from my vision.

My patience was quickly rewarded, after waiting for about 4 minutes I've finally heard something.

“Let's get this over with.” I heard familiar voice.

I was then blinded by light which was probably turned on by the owner of that voice. After my eyes adjusted to brightness I noticed the doctor whom I have met earlier.

“VOICE EMULATION MODULE HAS BEEN UPDATED. MODULE REBOOT REQUIRED. DO YOU WANT TO DO IT NOW?” I heard the notice.

“Yes!” I exclaimed happily.

“So you are awake. I'm glad that you are all right.” Said doctor, but I noticed that he was surprised and a little nervous.

Ugh. In future I have to control myself better.

“Reboot complete.” Said VI with a new voice.

Now that's a great voice. I think you deserve a new name, cause I got tired of calling you Voice or VI. From today onwards I will call you Hal. I don't know why, but I think this name fits you perfectly.

“Acknowledged” Hal responded.

Hah. I gave Hal a name, but I still can't remember my own name.

“Excuse me I forgot to ask earlier, but do you know my name?” I asked the doctor.

“Name? Ah… yes… It was… Circe. I forgot you don't remember anything. Please forgive me.” he answered.

Was my name really Circe? I don't know why but I have this feeling that something is off.

“So are you going to take off these restraints?” I asked.

“Not yet. You see after you had fainted we've scanned you in that tube. It appears that nanites in your body malfunctioned and if we won't remove them soon they might end up hurting you.” He said and took out a syringe from a pocket on his lab coat.

“Warning! Malicious intent detected.” I heard the warning.

“Hey, what is this syringe for?! What do you really want from me?!” I shouted.

“Don't worry I won't harm you.” he said with slightly irritated tone.

Something was telling me that I had to get out of these restraints before he injects me with a suspicious substance. I contracted every muscle in hope that I will be able to forcefully break out of leather belts that were tying me to the bed.

“Strength boost activated.” After I heard the notice I felt a sudden surge of strength.

I was surprised how easily I broke the restraints after receiving the strength boost, but what surprised me even more is the doctor who flew across the room after I tried to push him away from me.

*rumble*

"Ugh.." I heard crashing sound followed by a groan.

Is he alive?

“Target is unconscious. Target has 2 broken ribs and fractured collarbone. Target has suffered no fatal injuries, probability of death: 0%” Hal answered.

I have to get out of this room before somebody notices that the doctor is missing.

I ran out of the room only to find myself in a white hallway with 3 lines drawn on the floor red, blue and green.

Hal do you know how can I get out of this facility?

“Data unavailable.” Hal responded.

I was about to randomly choose direction of my escape. When I noticed that the green line was coming out of the room I've just escaped from.

“I guess I will follow the green line.” I said to myself and then ran in direction where the green line was heading.

It didn't take long before I noticed someone walking down the corridor. I quickly hid myself behind closest corner.

Shit! What should I do? If I go back I'll be wasting time and there is always a chance that I will meet someone else on a way back. If I knock this person out I'll be wasting time on hiding the body.

Hal do you have any other ideas?

“It is possible to create a disguise , but that action requires higher Ego integration. Do you wish to increase Ego integration?“ Hal answered.

Do it.

"Warning! Increasing Ego integration is irreversible do you really wish to continue?" Hal asked.

Just do it! Note: sorry couldn't help myself.