"Jerry Davis - Strong Metallic Arm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

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Strong Metallic Arm

┬й 1990 by Jerry J. Davis

Previously Published in Boundaries of Sanity Magazine

Two red lights blinked on in the bedroom. There was a tiny
but audible "beep" and a countdown began deep in the basement of
the stone mansion. In the bedroom a white-haired white-skinned
woman stirred in her sleep.
She was having a nightmare.
The countdown in the basement arrived at zero. The two red
lights winked green. A signal was sent to the interface in woman's
head and an electro-chemical switch was shut off. The nightmare
disappeared and the woman's body went limp.
Another signal was sent, another microscopic switch thrown.
The implanted interface began a systematic stimulation of her
brain. Information poured out, sharp and clear images, memories,
attitudes, transmitted from the interface to the basement. A copy
of everything that made this woman "Erin Lind" was stripped away
and put into a box for safe-keeping.
The process finished, and Erin resumed normal sleep.
The nightmare, which had been a reoccurring one for the last
few weeks, began again.
Hours later her bedroom curtains pulled themselves aside to
let in sharp morning sunlight, and light Poonjaz music began
drifting out of the walls. TIM, Erin's executive AI, sent a signal
through her interface and she woke up. Erin opened her eyes and
looked around the white room. The dream was still lingering in her
mind, vivid, and she shuddered and sat up in the web. It lowered
her so that her feet touched the ground, and after a moment she
stepped out of it.
When she was out in the hall, heading toward the bathroom,
her husband's voice drifted up to her from downstairs. "Oh, you're
up!"
"Yes," she said.
"How are you feeling this morning?"
"Sick."
"Sick?!"
"Yes." She rushed into the bathroom and closed and locked
the door behind her. She sat heavily on the commode, holding her
hands to her face.
She deliberated for a long while, trying to become rational.
She just couldn't do it, she needed help. She needed the guidence
of the Oricle. TIM, she thought, connect me.
TIM asked,
a thought-voice in her head.
Yes, she told him. Cut us off when we reach four thousand.

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