Chapter 8


    Albert awoke in a surgical room, lying flat on an examination bed. “Albert?” came the first sound he heard after being transferred into his new body, and he saw Liam''s face as his vision adjusted to focus. Albert smiled, eliciting a smile from his friend in return.


    “It worked?” Albert questioned.


    “You tell me. Get up and look in the mirror,” Liam said.


    Albert noticed immediately that Liam appeared to be shorter than him, though only by a few inches—but enough to make him feel like he was towering over his friend. He touched his right arm with his left hand, feeling his skin, freckles, and moles—all of which were different from before. With a newfound spring in his step, he stepped over to the mirror, tears brimming in his eyes as he softly said: “It worked."


    “Are you sure this is the body you wanted?” asked Liam.


    “All I ever wanted growing up was to be my favorite superhero, Atlas," Albert replied. "The golden-hearted hero who inspired me to do great things; for little Albert inside me—I made an impossible dream come true."


    "Eh, you still can''t throw a car like a superhero. It''s just the look," Liam remarked.


    Albert smirked and waved off the comment. "That''s the next step."


    "Personally, I''d just choose my younger body," Liam added.


    "Speaking of… You''re up next, right?" Albert turned back to his friend.


    “Do you mean for both Emily and I?” Liam''s agreement came in response to Albert''s question.


    "Both?" Albert repeated, eyebrows raised in disbelief.


    "Albert. Emily’s condition has declined over the past week," Liam said, averting his gaze from where Albert stood half-dressed, "but get dressed first–I don''t need to see all of you."


    Fully clothed now, both men stepped into the ICU ward where Emily lay unconscious, her heart monitor emitting a weak, persistent beep.


    "How long?" Albert asked.


    "She has less than a month left," was Liam''s reply. "At this stage, she''s more dead than alive."


    "Why don''t we just wait, then? This seems so hasty," Albert spoke up again.


    "I can''t. I''ve used all my resources to push Emily''s process through faster," Liam explained. "The body I made for myself won''t last without an active consciousness inside it. We looked at the data and there are serious consequences if we wait too long."


    "Like what?" Albert inquired further.


    "The longer it sits idle," Liam began, "the more data gets lost and the longer the body resists consciousness transfer. We don''t know why that is."


    "But we''ve never done two transfers back to back before," Albert argued. "There could be hidden complications; we have no way of knowing the exact strain it puts on the machine."


    “That is why Emily is going first. She is the priority; she''s been asleep for five years now, Albert. She''s waited long enough,” Liam said.


    “Jesus, Liam, there must be some other way! I understand you feel responsible and that this has taken a toll on your family, but it is worthy of all this?” Albert tried to reason with him.


    “Even if I don''t make it, if her operation succeeds, and she can see her grandchildren… It will have all been worth it. She has done so much more for them than I ever could—I cannot undo all the time I''ve already missed out on," Liam explained.


    "The board won''t like this," Albert replied.


    "I already took care of the board," Liam replied to Albert''s surprise.


    "What? What did you do?” Albert didn''t like where it was going.


    "I promised them my entire share if both Emily''s and my operations are successful," Liam answered.


    "What? Liam, no! You know they''ll abuse this!" exclaimed Albert.


    "I don''t care," Liam said, breaking eye contact and looking toward Emily again.


    "No, you''ve sold your soul!" Albert grabbed his arm, forcing him back into the conversation.


    "Albert, please," Liam started to tear up as he looked at Emily, but his wrinkled face kept the tears from falling. "I''m scared, I don''t want her to die; that''s what all this has been about."


    “Alright. Let''s figure out what to do. We''ll sort it out, like we always have,” Albert eventually conceded.


    The next day, Emily was brought to a room that seemed to be half surgical station and half tech center. Two operating tables lay in parallel, connected by wires that ran from the tables into the servers. On the right table laid a lifeless, naked body of Emily, hooked up to ventilator tubes. On the left table, Albert and Liam wheeled in the older Emily, wearing only a hospital gown, removing all her IVs before they placed an incubator on her. They took up position at the opposite side of the room with a control center and window overlooking their space.


    “Ready?” Albert said to Liam, who nodded in confirmation.


    Albert approached his seat in front of the computers and pounded his keystrokes until he reached the end command. With force, he pressed enter as if he had just hit a massive big red button. The doors shut tight as a soft alarm started buzzing.


    Suddenly, holes on every wall released a green liquid that filled the entire room.


    Sitting in his chair, Liam issued the next command without looking away from the room.


    Albert glanced at a security camera that seemed to be pointing straight at them. Eight robotic arms unfolded from two operating tables—four for each one. The arms moved in sync with each other, and the first one had a suction cup on it which applied pressure to both Emilys’ heads. Then, the second arm spun around their skulls with various knives, cutting both of them slightly before making a deeper cut. After finishing the full rotation, the first arm removed the top of their skulls until only the brain was visible. The third and fourth arms connected three wires to their brains in areas around the cerebellum, cerebrum, and brain stem.


    Albert again tapped his keyboard to issue the subsequent step, and suddenly the servers became alive with flashing lights, vibrations, and noises.


    “Now we wait. How long do you want to wait before putting her in sleep mode?” asked Albert.


    “Let her rest for a while after this process is complete. I want to make sure she has properly integrated everything," said Liam.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    After the water drained, Liam and Albert cautiously stepped into the room to check on Emily. The nurses and doctors had instructed them how to care for her in her comatose state. The two of them took over from the nurse, who was pushing the gurney with Emily''s old body on it, and wheeled it down to the infirmary below. They stopped for a moment and looked at her before placing her inside the oven for cremation.


    "It''s strange, isn''t it?" Liam asked, staring at the incinerator beginning its process.


    "What do you mean?" Albert queried.


    "The burning of our old bodies," Liam replied.


    "Not to me," Albert noted. "I never felt that it was more than flesh; it felt like breaking a mirror, if that makes sense?"


    "No, but I''m sad to see Emily go," Liam stated solemnly. "It''s still like a funeral in some ways; the body remembers, I hope she will remember me too."


    "She will," Albert said confidently. "I don''t buy into those love stories; I think love is just chemistry between two people, but you two... Well, I only know one word for it: love. I''m envious," he smiled warmly at Liam as he finished his thought.


    "You''re a good friend," Liam said appreciatively. "Let''s head back up and check on Emily."


    Just as they started heading back upstairs, security guards stopped them. They informed them that the board wanted to see them.


    In a room, Albert and Liam sat alone beside a conference call between them and the board of eight members who had invested heavily in the project.


    “Boys, I’m pleased to see that everything has worked out so far—not to mention how well you look today, Albert!”


    “Yes, it''s been successful, but let''s not get too complacent. There are still some issues that need to be addressed,” Albert said.


    “Such as what?” asked one of the board members.


    “Well, memories lost from the old body can''t be regained; they''re gone forever, although stored subconsciously in the human brain. Additionally, the body has to re-learn muscle memory; for example, our trial with ping pong shows that hand-eye coordination is off at first, but returns faster than expected when we use physical therapy exercises,” added Liam.


    “Ah, yes. Anyway, onto why we called this meeting; for our next trial, we want to try something different,” declared the board.


    At that point, a guard entered the room with an envelope for Albert and left again without saying anything. “What is that?” asked Liam.


    Albert opened the envelope and pulled out a chip from inside.


    “This is our future as a company. Our intel says if people start using these chips in new bodies, they''ll become cognitive superhumans: smarter, stronger, and better-off than before. It''s an experiment for society''s benefit," declared a board member.


    "And your next test subject will be… Liam?" inquired Albert.


    "That''s right—who else could be better suited to volunteer? Although Emily was also considered..."


    “No way, Liam!” Albert shouted at his colleague.


    Liam said nothing as he sat in silence. Then, he spoke. “They gave me no choice—it had to be me or her. They threatened to pull the funding for both of us if I didn’t do this.”


    A different board member chimed in. “Don’t look at this negatively. Think of yourself as the future; that''s why we need your help here, for the greater good of advancing humankind.”


    Albert couldn’t find any words to come out of his mouth, but Liam yelled before he could say anything: “Albert, stop! It''s okay. Trust us, our data suggests everything will turn out alright in the end.”


    The call ended, and they argued for an hour after that over what they had discussed. After they were done, Liam left to check on Emily, who was now living in a private hospital room that was taking care of her. He spent hours just looking out the window, viewing the beautiful synchronized neon lights of the city beneath him; humans made those lights, and it reminded him that maybe there is hope in the future if mankind has a part to play in it.


    Suddenly, Albert charged into the room once again, panting heavily. “Liam… I checked out that chip… They want to merge you with an AI," he said nervously.


    "Okay, first take a deep breath," Liam replied calmly. “Hold on, back up. What are you saying about the AI? Even our phones have some kind of AI," Liam pointed out.


    "Yes, but it’s connected to a host server somewhere. It wasn''t hard to crack the code they had in place, because they weren''t smart enough to make it too difficult. But I managed to communicate with its default setting by connecting it to my computer. Then, the AI said it was awaiting instructions from the host server. Liam, this isn''t an AI that''s restrained—we''re talking about something that is part of something much more powerful here. I''ve got a bad feeling about this. Like they''re planning to take control of people," Albert continued, his voice filled with urgency as he paced around the room.


    "Oh, come on, don''t be ridiculous," Liam shook his head, still refusing to believe what Albert was suggesting.


    "Just hear me out, they said you''d agree when it was over. Think about it!" Albert insisted.


    Liam tried to stay rational and replied, "Don''t jump to conclusions." Yet, in the back of his mind, he started forming suspicions about the situation at hand.


    "Liam, it wanted to be connected with its mother server, like a hive mind," Albert began shaking with fear now.


    "So? That doesn''t mean anything," Liam argued, although his faith in his own words was starting to waver.


    "I don''t know… But we can''t let them inject into you until we figure this out," Albert even started referring to conspiracy theories now, "What if this isn''t the first chip? What if the board is being manipulated, or something worse? When did we last see them?"


    “What? This can''t be right," Liam shook his head in disbelief at Albert''s words.


    “Liam, please," Albert pleaded.


    “Albert, I think you still need to figure out how to act in your new body. What you''re saying sounds madness, but I need my friend right now. Tomorrow is my surgery, and nobody will help me like you would. Please don’t wake Emily until I''m finished with the process; let me spend this last time in this body with her alone.”


    Albert was taken aback by what he heard but stayed quiet and left the room without a word. Once outside, he took the chip from his pocket and looked at it again before throwing it on the ground hard enough to break it.


    The following morning started the same process for Liam, but this time there was an extra person present: a lab-coated man neither Albert nor Liam had seen before.


    “Who are you?” Albert asked the stranger.


    "My name is Jon Stewart. The board sent me to help,” said the man.


    “I don''t need any help," Albert tried to explain.


    "I have studied all the materials you two have provided and have even run simulations at our facility," Jon countered.


    "We haven''t been providing any material; this isn''t some simulation," Albert argued.


    “Everything is documented,” Jon glanced at the camera as he spoke. “Shall we begin?”


    They wheeled both the old and new bodies into the room. Liam''s original body was laid bare, but his new body was covered up. Jon took away the cloth to show a head already surgically open with a chip already attached. “What is this?” Albert asked.


    “That''s the chip the board requested us to install. I saved you some time and had it all ready beforehand,” said Jon.


    “But I didn''t do this one,” said Albert.


    “I received word that your chip was damaged, so I assumed responsibility and got it ready for you. No mishaps this time, right?” Jon winked.


    Albert felt uneasy; his every action was being monitored. They returned to the operations room, and tried to think of something, anything, he could do.


    “Shall we get started?” Jon stated as he moved closer to Liam''s computer and began typing furiously. Before Albert knew it, green liquid filled the room once again. He hated to admit it, but the guy was an expert; almost like he''d done it countless times before. The arms commenced their assignment: cutting up and removing Liam''s old head, then attaching server wires to his replacement head. Albert needed to move urgently.


    “Are we sure the host''s brain is unharmed, given his prior surgery and now having a microchip inserted?” asked Albert


    “Yes, we made certain of that,” said Jon.


    “I just want to double-check the program,” declared Albert.


    “Wait! Be careful,” Jon tried to reach Albert as he was rolling over to another computer, but it was too late: Albert had already tripped, pulling out the Ethernet cable that connected the network and any other cables in his path.


    Jon Stewart appeared saddened by the situation, rubbing the side of his head. He quickly recovered and plugged the cable back in.


    Albert looked around the room. “Should we halt and check on Liam''s data?”


    “No need. We''re reconnected. It was only a momentary interruption. Continue on,” replied Jon.


    “But this has never happened before. We need to make sure Liam is all right,” said Albert.


    Just then, an unfamiliar guard walked into the room and informed Albert that "the board would like a word."


    “What? I have to be here…” As he said that, a nurse he had never seen before entered the room with a reassuring smile.


    “You go ahead. We can handle it from here,” Jon and the nurse smiled at him reassuringly.


    Albert walked out of the surgery room, looking back one last time to see it still in progress. As he made his way down the hallway, Albert''s mind raced with thoughts of what could be happening to Liam. He couldn''t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. As he turned the corner, he ran into a group of men who appeared to be part of the board.


    “Albert, we need to talk,” one of them said sternly.


    “What about? I need to stay with Liam,” Albert replied, his voice shaking with fear.


    “We know about the chip. We know you''ve been meddling. We can''t allow that kind of behavior. You''re fired, effective immediately,” the man said, his voice cold and emotionless.


    Albert felt his heart sink. That was it. He was being thrown out, just when Liam needed him most.


    “But Liam needs me. He''s in the middle of the surgery, and I need to be there with him,” Albert pleaded.


    “Liam is in good hands. We have the best doctors working on him. However, there is one way you could stay on this project…”