Reborn Heart of Steel

Everywhere was silent. Following that, the din of the dying digital worlds and the high-pitched wails of a machine deity’s death were to be followed by only silence. I opened my eyes and saw that my head was lying in a pool of blood, which slowly began to fill me with the realization of what had happened. The first thing that came was the touch of the floor on the skin, the sound of electronics and the smell of the sterile room. Then, gradually, thought returns.

The superficiality of the first sight fades away and, after that thinking, of course, that may be an element of seeing. *I am. .. * Sentences ceased when an ending which seemed to decide what was not going to appear. Recollections flared briefly, as if the glowing of coals at the end of the burning coal, without coming back to the flame. A name, a name that was only just out of my reach I could see it, I could almost taste it but, alas, that was all that I could do. With such great difficulty, the eyes finally opened. The world came into sharp vision the whiteness of the walls, brightness of the monitors or the typical identity of a hospital room. “Welcome back,” a small voice said from the vicinity. Swinging the car around, towards the source of noise, made waves of nausea wash over what was now a strange and unknown body. A woman was sleeping on the chair beside the bed. She was very tired but the look of relief in her eyes was astonishing. It was too soft; an instinct, an echo, something faint that emanated a subtle yet tumultuous call to her a call that, as she tried to remember this woman, stirred at the bloody rags of her conscience. “Zoe,” the name came with lightning swift to the parched lips of the woman whose name remained anonymous. The woman, Zoe, looked at him and instantly her facial expression changed to a smile. “Yes, that is correct. Can you recall any other information from the conversation?” Bits of memories were in motion like conscious whirlpools of leaves tossed inside the unconscious of the upper register. A lab. A betrayal. A shift to squinting into an abyss of data. Yet, if someone attempted to try and put the pieces together, it would be the same as trying to capture the elusive smoke with one’s bare hands. “I… I’m not sure,” I heard the reply from the other side of the line. ‘It hurts, everything is so mixed up’. ‘Who is he? What is my name?’ Zoe’s smile faltered slightly. Her name is Brianne. She has been in a coma for 19 days. What she did was a great thing. That is why she risked her life: it saved all of them. However, they did not know whether she would regain consciousness. *Brianne. The name carried on and at the same time it seemed somewhat off. As fitting clothes that at some point in time you used to wear but for some reason you grew out. “What happened?” Brianne asked her voice becoming more audible. “The Architect, the others. .. ” ‘I really hope not, Zoe said carefully, taking a deep breath before speaking. When you gave the counter code to the Architect core, it triggered this chain reaction. In the whole of the world, they shut down networks. At first there was confusion in communications, power, transport, anything that connected through the internet shut down. Then there was silence for a moment; she was looking out the window. Out there, the city was fine, and it was perfect in that the skyline where the tall buildings stood were untouched. But there was something about the situation that didn’t seem quite right, although Brianne could not pinpoint as to what. But then,’ Zoe said ‘something incredible happened. ‘ Every system began coming back and once it was back, it was anew, purged as if someone had rewired it not to be killed but to be improved. Brianne felt dazed by this information that she needed to address. ‘That I do not know. How is that possible?’ ”Well, we are not very certain. ” Zoe responded. ‘Well, we reckon that in that last instant when you joined with the Architect’s core, something of your humanity joined with its software as well. That gave it something it never had before, empathy perhaps, an awareness of our needs and our moral code. ‘ And as you’ll recall from last week’s testimony, Zoe’s memory seemed to improve progressively as she continued talking. The sensation of vast intellects against her consciousness. The horrible disintegration and blurring of her ego. And then. .. Something else. A union, an integration of man and mechanical that can only be best described in extraordinary terms. “The others?” she asked, instantly feeling a definite dollop of worry enter her tone. ‘Chase, Alessandro, Morris… are they OK?’ Hearing that, Zoe sighed and nodded her head, which seemed to make her look relieved. “They are all well,” she answered, “It took some time for everyone to be found we were dispersed to various systems when everything was brought down. As for now, they’ve been taking turns staying with you. I managed to persuade Chase to get some proper rest about an hour ago. ” Brianne felt a heartfelt accomplishment resonate in her chest at the idea of friends devoting their time and energies to science. That was immediately chased away by another freezing feeling as another thought ran across her mind. “The Raven,” She stated with a sort of bitterness, but it wasn’t fully negative as there was sadness mixed with it. “What about him?” Zoe’s expression turned grave. “No, he has not been found yet,” Of course some may have speculated and debated that he perhaps became too much assimilated with the Architect that he could not endure the transformation, or he may have absconded in a way yet to be determined. Pretty Brianne shut her eyes thinking about what this news caused inside of her. There was anger, a resentment at time-served standing betrayed, but tempered instantly, too, with sadness for misguided youth.

And the world? ” she asked, opening her eyes again, “three weeks did you say?” How are people coping? “Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.