TheQuietOne in topic Slave
It is 2103AD and biometrics are changing humanity in the same way the iphone did in the previous century. After years of testing and trials, brain implants which allow people to mentally access the internet are finally available for the commercial market.
The headlines are calling it the next stage of human evolution. Stream music directly into your ears! A heads-up display with links to wikipedia for anything you see! Watch youtube videos while at work with no one the wiser!
The implant is taking the world by storm - as quick and easy as a piercing in the back of your head - and Sienna is more than used to piercings. There is a stab of pain from the injector gun and her vision blurs, sound drains from the world, pins and needles in her brain-
-and in a moment it is gone. She’s back in the bustling Organitec store.
“Wow, that really was easy!”
“Nothing to worry about, see?” The employee serving her says, putting the gun away. A sort of bland-faced, brunet caucasian male, next to Sienna with her dark, pierced skin and blue-white hair he could almost be just another piece of shop furniture.
“Uh huh.” Sienna could see why all of her friends - even the slightly dense Amanda - had recommended it, it was so easy! Options were already popping up - she could see people’s social media profiles, directions for home, her spotify playlist was syncing with the song that had been stuck in her head for the last two days that she just couldn’t name and was playing it softly just audible over the hubbub of hundreds of people getting their implants.
“Did you want me to walk you through some of the features? You can search by-”
“No, I’ve got it.” Sienna dismissed him. His customer service smile flickered briefly.
“Excellent! Now it's Organitec policy that I add you, so that you can speak directly to the person who gave you the implant if there are any problems.”
Sienna was suddenly aware that she had a message. Her eyes lost focus as she accessed the message.
Thank you for choosing Organitec!
Your were served by:
Erus
She closed the message with a roll of her eyes and quickly composed an “I got it!” message to all of her friends and followers. Nigh-instantly the replies were flooding back to her.
“Now you can read your messages by focusing on the idea of opening-”
“Yeah. I got it. Thanks.” Sienna interrupted him - she really didn’t need this walkthrough. “I’ll read the online guide. Is that everything?”
“You’re all set.”
“Cool. Bye.”
Cranking the music up, she pushed through the crowds of customers and employees alike and left the store, simultaneously opening her favourite blogger’s page and mentally editing her own next video.
She almost checked her watch, then realised that she knew exactly what the time was down to the millisecond. The uplink jumping to support every thought she had. A timer with how much of her lunch break she had remaining, a floating arrow directing her back to work and an estimation of how long the walk would take her were manifested in her vision.
She passed the first half of a slow shift waitressing playing with the functionality. She found it strange that some people still insisted on human servers when robots were quicker and more precise, but didn’t complain - UBI only covered the necessities and working the shifts allowed her to afford luxuries like the implant.
Hey Sienna
Hope you’re enjoying your new implant!
-Erus
Sienna frowned at the message - she hadn’t opened it; she still had 78 congratulations from her followers to open. She closed it-
-unsuccessfully.
The message hung around in the corner of her vision despite all of her attempts to dispel it, slowly fading away after several minutes.
“Having trouble, dear?” One of the regulars asked. Sienna smiled.
“Just working out some of the kinks with my Organitec.”
The older lady pursed her lips.
“Oh you young ones and your gadgets! Back in my day we were lucky to have a phone with a touch screen!”
“As you say, Mrs Periwinkle.”
She did her rounds but before long found herself watching a video as she sorted cutlery. A video which began to fade away no matter what she tried to get it back.
Hey Sienna
Your work seems boring.
-Erus
Panic thrilled through her and she quickly checked the restaurant, even peering through the windows at the cafe across the street, but he was nowhere in sight.
|Did you follow me?!?!|
She wrote, then paused - the Organitec wasn’t providing his contact details. Not a refusal, it just… didn’t know them.
“-ienna. Sienna!” She was snapped out of her daze by Petro, her boss, snapping his fingers in her face and gesturing angrily at the door. “Customers?!”
She blinked around at the new arrivals and quickly hurried over to greet them, closing and deleting the draft as she went.
“You’d better not be using that thing to goof off!”
She was hurrying over with the new customers’ drinks when another pop-up caused her to slow to a stop.
Hey Sienna
Whyever would I need to do that? I can see what you’re doing perfectly well from here.
- Erus
The glasses shattered as they hit the floor, but Sienna was already sprinting out the door.
“I want to speak with a manager! Right now!” She all but screamed at the first employee she saw.
“What seems to be the problem, Miss? Maybe I can help?”
“I got one of your implants and the employee messed it up and is sending me weird messages!”
The employee rolled his eyes, then went blank as he sent a message. There was a moment’s pause, then he looked her up and down dismissively before nodding.
“Hello, Miss.” A woman in a business suit said, appearing behind her with a handheld scanner. “Do you mind if I scan your implant while you tell me what happened?”
“Sure. I was just in here during my lunch break and got the implant but it's not working right and the employee that installed it keeps messaging me.”
“How is he messaging you?” The woman asked disinterestedly. The scanner beeped and she shared a meaningful look with the other employee.
“Well he added me when he was putting the implant in. Store policy so I can talk to him if anything goes wrong, right?”
“No, Miss, that isn’t our policy; that would be a ridiculous policy.” She sighed and crossed her arms. “Look, your little replacement scam won’t work. You’re not the first girl to try to get an Organitec this way, and I’m sure you won’t be the last, either.”
“Scam?!”
“Whatever that implant is - if it even is one - it isn’t Organitec. Neither do we have any record of you ever having a transaction with us.”
“I- wh-what?! I was just in here! I spoke with Erus!”
“We don’t have anyone by that name working here.”
“You… you don’t?”
“Why don’t you describe him to us.”
“He was, uh…” Sienna floundered, shaken by the entire turn of events. “White? He had short brown hair… Ummm...”
The manager rolled her eyes, while the employee next to her actually scoffed. Sienna glared daggers at him.
“Brian, grab Steve, Jacob and Kimigama for me.” The manager ordered, and the three were there within moments. “These are all of our white male assistants. Was it one of these men?”
“N-no.”
“I thought not. Look, we have video footage of you coming in, sitting by yourself then leaving.”
“What?!”
Another roll of the eyes and a screen was provided, revealing security footage of Sienna entering, sitting, then-
“Wait, you don’t think that blur is suspicious?!”
“That type of blur is very easily manufactured, now:” The manager was clearly at the end of her temper. “We don’t have any records of you making a purchase, you don’t have one of our implants, you can’t identify any staff members you spoke with and we have video evidence that refutes your story. It is time for you to leave.”
“I... b-but-!” Sienna could only stammer as the two largest employees took her by the elbows and removed her from the premises and she staggered off down the street in a state of complete shock.
Hey Sienna
Oops. Looks like they didn’t believe you.
-Erus
“Fine… fine! I’ll just RIP IT OUT!” She screamed, scrabbling at the back of her head with her fingernails.
:I wouldn’t do that if I were you:
This time the words were spoken aloud, but with the implant it was as though they came from within her, but in his voice.
“What have you done to me!?” Sienna snapped, heedless of the people around her giving her a wide berth.
:What have I done to you? You’ve done this to yourself, Sienna. All these people putting all this dangerous technology into their brains without a clue what it can do… I mean, you’ve seen what I can do with nothing more than access to an unsecured camera network. As if I were never there:
Sienna panted in rage, glaring about helplessly.
“You can’t stop me.”
:Oh can’t I?:
Colour was bleeding out of the world, leaving it a monochromatic scape where the blacks slowly lightened and the whites slowly darkened until everything was a blur of grey. The sound disappeared, replaced with a high pitched, unsettling whine.
But it was losing the sensation of touch that broke her.
“W-wait-!” She begged as sensation left her fingers and the back of her head, travelling down the rest of her body. “Wait! Stop! Please!”
But it didn’t stop until it felt as though she was floating naked in an empty room. Touching nothing. Paralyzed.
“Please! I’ll do whatever you want, okay! I won’t tell anyone! Just please, let me go…”
:That was all I needed to hear:
Life returned to the world around her and she fled back to the restaurant in terror, his laughter ringing in her ears the entire way.
[To be Continued]
If you enjoyed this post, please comment and let me know your ideas for what might happen to Sienna as she struggles with her predicament. Also feel free to check out my relationship guides on my main page.
Yours, always;
TheQuietOne
The headlines are calling it the next stage of human evolution. Stream music directly into your ears! A heads-up display with links to wikipedia for anything you see! Watch youtube videos while at work with no one the wiser!
The implant is taking the world by storm - as quick and easy as a piercing in the back of your head - and Sienna is more than used to piercings. There is a stab of pain from the injector gun and her vision blurs, sound drains from the world, pins and needles in her brain-
-and in a moment it is gone. She’s back in the bustling Organitec store.
“Wow, that really was easy!”
“Nothing to worry about, see?” The employee serving her says, putting the gun away. A sort of bland-faced, brunet caucasian male, next to Sienna with her dark, pierced skin and blue-white hair he could almost be just another piece of shop furniture.
“Uh huh.” Sienna could see why all of her friends - even the slightly dense Amanda - had recommended it, it was so easy! Options were already popping up - she could see people’s social media profiles, directions for home, her spotify playlist was syncing with the song that had been stuck in her head for the last two days that she just couldn’t name and was playing it softly just audible over the hubbub of hundreds of people getting their implants.
“Did you want me to walk you through some of the features? You can search by-”
“No, I’ve got it.” Sienna dismissed him. His customer service smile flickered briefly.
“Excellent! Now it's Organitec policy that I add you, so that you can speak directly to the person who gave you the implant if there are any problems.”
Sienna was suddenly aware that she had a message. Her eyes lost focus as she accessed the message.
Thank you for choosing Organitec!
Your were served by:
Erus
She closed the message with a roll of her eyes and quickly composed an “I got it!” message to all of her friends and followers. Nigh-instantly the replies were flooding back to her.
“Now you can read your messages by focusing on the idea of opening-”
“Yeah. I got it. Thanks.” Sienna interrupted him - she really didn’t need this walkthrough. “I’ll read the online guide. Is that everything?”
“You’re all set.”
“Cool. Bye.”
Cranking the music up, she pushed through the crowds of customers and employees alike and left the store, simultaneously opening her favourite blogger’s page and mentally editing her own next video.
She almost checked her watch, then realised that she knew exactly what the time was down to the millisecond. The uplink jumping to support every thought she had. A timer with how much of her lunch break she had remaining, a floating arrow directing her back to work and an estimation of how long the walk would take her were manifested in her vision.
She passed the first half of a slow shift waitressing playing with the functionality. She found it strange that some people still insisted on human servers when robots were quicker and more precise, but didn’t complain - UBI only covered the necessities and working the shifts allowed her to afford luxuries like the implant.
Hey Sienna
Hope you’re enjoying your new implant!
-Erus
Sienna frowned at the message - she hadn’t opened it; she still had 78 congratulations from her followers to open. She closed it-
-unsuccessfully.
The message hung around in the corner of her vision despite all of her attempts to dispel it, slowly fading away after several minutes.
“Having trouble, dear?” One of the regulars asked. Sienna smiled.
“Just working out some of the kinks with my Organitec.”
The older lady pursed her lips.
“Oh you young ones and your gadgets! Back in my day we were lucky to have a phone with a touch screen!”
“As you say, Mrs Periwinkle.”
She did her rounds but before long found herself watching a video as she sorted cutlery. A video which began to fade away no matter what she tried to get it back.
Hey Sienna
Your work seems boring.
-Erus
Panic thrilled through her and she quickly checked the restaurant, even peering through the windows at the cafe across the street, but he was nowhere in sight.
|Did you follow me?!?!|
She wrote, then paused - the Organitec wasn’t providing his contact details. Not a refusal, it just… didn’t know them.
“-ienna. Sienna!” She was snapped out of her daze by Petro, her boss, snapping his fingers in her face and gesturing angrily at the door. “Customers?!”
She blinked around at the new arrivals and quickly hurried over to greet them, closing and deleting the draft as she went.
“You’d better not be using that thing to goof off!”
She was hurrying over with the new customers’ drinks when another pop-up caused her to slow to a stop.
Hey Sienna
Whyever would I need to do that? I can see what you’re doing perfectly well from here.
- Erus
The glasses shattered as they hit the floor, but Sienna was already sprinting out the door.
“I want to speak with a manager! Right now!” She all but screamed at the first employee she saw.
“What seems to be the problem, Miss? Maybe I can help?”
“I got one of your implants and the employee messed it up and is sending me weird messages!”
The employee rolled his eyes, then went blank as he sent a message. There was a moment’s pause, then he looked her up and down dismissively before nodding.
“Hello, Miss.” A woman in a business suit said, appearing behind her with a handheld scanner. “Do you mind if I scan your implant while you tell me what happened?”
“Sure. I was just in here during my lunch break and got the implant but it's not working right and the employee that installed it keeps messaging me.”
“How is he messaging you?” The woman asked disinterestedly. The scanner beeped and she shared a meaningful look with the other employee.
“Well he added me when he was putting the implant in. Store policy so I can talk to him if anything goes wrong, right?”
“No, Miss, that isn’t our policy; that would be a ridiculous policy.” She sighed and crossed her arms. “Look, your little replacement scam won’t work. You’re not the first girl to try to get an Organitec this way, and I’m sure you won’t be the last, either.”
“Scam?!”
“Whatever that implant is - if it even is one - it isn’t Organitec. Neither do we have any record of you ever having a transaction with us.”
“I- wh-what?! I was just in here! I spoke with Erus!”
“We don’t have anyone by that name working here.”
“You… you don’t?”
“Why don’t you describe him to us.”
“He was, uh…” Sienna floundered, shaken by the entire turn of events. “White? He had short brown hair… Ummm...”
The manager rolled her eyes, while the employee next to her actually scoffed. Sienna glared daggers at him.
“Brian, grab Steve, Jacob and Kimigama for me.” The manager ordered, and the three were there within moments. “These are all of our white male assistants. Was it one of these men?”
“N-no.”
“I thought not. Look, we have video footage of you coming in, sitting by yourself then leaving.”
“What?!”
Another roll of the eyes and a screen was provided, revealing security footage of Sienna entering, sitting, then-
“Wait, you don’t think that blur is suspicious?!”
“That type of blur is very easily manufactured, now:” The manager was clearly at the end of her temper. “We don’t have any records of you making a purchase, you don’t have one of our implants, you can’t identify any staff members you spoke with and we have video evidence that refutes your story. It is time for you to leave.”
“I... b-but-!” Sienna could only stammer as the two largest employees took her by the elbows and removed her from the premises and she staggered off down the street in a state of complete shock.
Hey Sienna
Oops. Looks like they didn’t believe you.
-Erus
“Fine… fine! I’ll just RIP IT OUT!” She screamed, scrabbling at the back of her head with her fingernails.
:I wouldn’t do that if I were you:
This time the words were spoken aloud, but with the implant it was as though they came from within her, but in his voice.
“What have you done to me!?” Sienna snapped, heedless of the people around her giving her a wide berth.
:What have I done to you? You’ve done this to yourself, Sienna. All these people putting all this dangerous technology into their brains without a clue what it can do… I mean, you’ve seen what I can do with nothing more than access to an unsecured camera network. As if I were never there:
Sienna panted in rage, glaring about helplessly.
“You can’t stop me.”
:Oh can’t I?:
Colour was bleeding out of the world, leaving it a monochromatic scape where the blacks slowly lightened and the whites slowly darkened until everything was a blur of grey. The sound disappeared, replaced with a high pitched, unsettling whine.
But it was losing the sensation of touch that broke her.
“W-wait-!” She begged as sensation left her fingers and the back of her head, travelling down the rest of her body. “Wait! Stop! Please!”
But it didn’t stop until it felt as though she was floating naked in an empty room. Touching nothing. Paralyzed.
“Please! I’ll do whatever you want, okay! I won’t tell anyone! Just please, let me go…”
:That was all I needed to hear:
Life returned to the world around her and she fled back to the restaurant in terror, his laughter ringing in her ears the entire way.
[To be Continued]
If you enjoyed this post, please comment and let me know your ideas for what might happen to Sienna as she struggles with her predicament. Also feel free to check out my relationship guides on my main page.
Yours, always;
TheQuietOne
