Chapter Text
"The definition of life has been a long contended topic for many centuries now. Our indecisiveness has led to complication, Especially in the fields of AI and thinking machines, Where it can be likened to Perfection through how Scientists will endlessly chase for it. It also serves to further complicate the matter of rights, and if a construct actively feels emotion or if it is merely acted as such. These things have previously been adressed through the concept of a soul, yet more problems arise as to how such theoretical souls are assigned. It's a deeply philisophical problem, yet it hinders us all. And what of Replication? We have the technology, the hardware required to do it. But is something, say a human, actually alive when it wakes up again?"
Urbancon Shareholder conference, Section 4 of Project Blackwater
Can a computer really be alive?
I woke with a jolt.Light, all around me, hammering at my retinas. Which made no sense, but...
My memory crashed back to me. The bullet. The flash. The blood.
There was no way I survived that.
I glanced around. The room was square, metal-tiled and the ceiling was covered with a network of pipes and industrial tube lighting, with cobwebs hanging down like whispy ivy. The floor was lightly padded- spongy rubber. It was devoid of any objects, barring a strange, fluffy... pillow? It was tipped with orange.
I thought I saw it twitch. But it clearly was not. There was no way it could move by itself.
My world tipped sideways. My hand rushed up to support my head. I noticed, for the first time, just how tired I was.
I forced myself to think.To focus.
How could I be here, like this?
I could remember that gun like it was yesterday. That interrogation room, with the short tempered Ex-military. There was no way that hadn't happened.
But how did it explain this?
My hands rushed to my neck. I expected to feel something- anything- a hole, possibly gauze, just something to indicate I'd been injured. I felt absolutely nothing. Just strange hair around my throat, no scarring.
Click.
My nails hit something metal. It was a terminal of sorts, slim, rounded at the edges, small and rectangular. It seemed to link to a band clasped tightly around my neck, of strong webbing, possibly nylon, with a metal clasp to the side and some sort of ring which I didn't think served any purpose. I tried to pull it away- but dang, it was on tight. I could feel two metal prongs digging into my flesh.
Damn. Someone had me wearing a shock collar. But I had more pressing concerns- like how in sweet hell am I still alive?
I ignored the discomfort of the prongs while my brain ran through the possibillities.
Was I in purgatory? That theory did seem possible, but yet I'd always beleived that once you were dead, there was nothing beyond but just infinite darkness.
Could it be a perception issue? A dream?
I doubted that. Dreams were weird, yet they lacked detail in physical sensations and logic. Plus, dreaming about being in a strange place with a shock collar didn't suit me at all. What sort of situation could possibly lead to that?
Well. Two down, one bajillion possibillities to go.
I gave up pretty quickly. Maybe someone coul tell me what was going on... Provided they even existed.
I stood up, leaning against the wall for support. Everything felt.. Wrong. Like my legs couldn't find the correct position, and I would fall backwards if I stopped leaning. It was weird, inconvenient..
I stared down at my legs in frustration....
WHAT.
I almost jumped with shock. Those... Weren't my legs... But who's were they?
They looked almost entirely backwards, covered in sleek black hair. They moved like mine, twitched like mine...
My chest was covered with the same black hair- No, Fur- I realised. The build was shorter, stouter then my old one- I'd always been lanky, but now....
I realised how much I'd changed. I had paws now, orange pads, yet more dexterous then a normal animals, but with fatter digits then a human.
This is going to make programming a nightmare. A smaller part of my brain thought.
I cupped my hands-paws, but I'll use hands for comfort- around my face. I noticed how conical it was, tapered, a snout mildly like a rat's with a powerful jaw underneath and several strange protrusions- Ears, maybe? From the back of my head.
I had changed so much.
I felt a strange shivering within me. I was physically trembling. There was no way this could be-
I began to hear the strange whirr of machinery. A long mass which had been previously tucked away with the pipes began to unfold from the cat's nest of piping. Orange hydraulics descended from the ceiling, revealing a long robotic crane mounted to a rotary in the center of the room. There was a two pronged claw big enough to hold a motorbike.
The claw pointed at me, yet made no further movements I stumbled out of it's direct line of action and I noticed how it tracked my movements.
I looked up, noticing a network of catwalks previously obscured by the arm. I could see faces, their eyes shining like cats, staring down at me, and some sort of office mounted to the rotary.
There was another loud clunk. A section of catwalk began to descend, and a severe-faced woman stared almost contemptously at me.
"Subject William Kali. I formally welcome you to Urbanshade."
She smiled, but it was almost sinister. Like a judge about to deliver a verdict.Several smotlights were pointed at me from the catwalk. I squinted, averting my eyes- it was a tactic used to make it difficult to challenge them directly.
Urbanshade... I KNOW that name.
"Who are you?" I called up. "And what is going on?"
"My name is irrelevant. Call me Doctor. D. Welcome to the Hadal Blacksite."
Again, another name I knew.
"Why am I here?" I asked.
The doctor stared at me like the answer should be obvious.
"You were proclaimed dead on April 21st, 2005, after a splinter group masquerading as Urbanshade interrogated you. You were quickly rushed into stasis for further action, but no testing took place until 2026, where you were selected for a project and revived. Is that enough explanation?"
I began to feel sick. They had me on ice for- Twenty years? Who knows what would have happened in that time. Twenty years was a long time to miss, and it went by so fast I couldn't have blinked in the time it took.
"What's going on with whatever this is?" I pointed at myself, determined to get answers.
The woman sighed.
"I suppose you mean Z-47. They are experiments biogenetically synthesized- ask one of the bioligists, I don't know the full details. "
A company so far ahead of it's time.
Urbanshade.
Aka, the people who screwed me over.
"So wait. You're telling me, your guys abducted me from my home, shot me, and had me revived as... An animal?"
"I told you it was a splinter group. Consider it your reincarnation."
Yeah, Yeah, Corperate for 'We didn't authorize this'
"And I'm supposed to be thankful?"
"Don't make me regret volunteering you for this." The doctor stared right at me. The lights glared either side of her.
My jaw clenched with anger. But something told me losing my cool was not a good idea- considering this woman likely had the very remote to the shock collar I was wearing
.
I decided to ease the pressure. I averted my gaze to the ground.
"Well... Thanks, I guess." I offered. Her gaze softened.
"If it helps, There are others like you. Not post-humans, but still intelligent and physically similar to you. I could introduce you to them.
I nodded.
"That won't be so bad. Do you mind telling me a bit more about what you meant by volunteering me for this? What is this?"
The doctor turned around, watching the wall.
"When the project first started in 2022, I was told to scrape through the cryo department for any potential test subjects. I didn't know there were humans in there, so when I found your body, I decided to volunteer you. I've heard you're an exceptional mind, read your file a bit. I was thinking you could solve...Three birds with one stone."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for a start, Z-79. Your computer. You could perhaps empower it to cooperate better with Urbanshade's goals. Then there's the navi program. You could definitely help there, with your expertise. And the final one- "
She paused.
"The anomalies. Z-13, Z-317- They are violent. I was wondering if you could somehow sympathise with them, yet steer them back into compliance."
I tasted bile in my throat.
"So you want me to be a good cop with your own monsters and make them obedient again?"
The doctor nodded.
"Yes. Blunt but not incorrect."
"And what if I decline?"
I feared the answer.
"Then we'll find something else for you. This is the easiest way forward for you. Work for Urbanshade, and we'll let you have nice things."
The injustice was ridiculous. They killed me. And now they expect me to work for them.
But the alternative was probably worse.
"Is there another option where you just let me go?" I asked hopefully.
"Why would there be, look at yourself. I don't think you'll be allowed out. Ever."
God. I preferred being dead. At least I didn't have to think that way.
"Fine." I called up.
The doctor almost looked releived- but it was hard to tell from the spotlights.
"Good. Make yourself comfortable in there, I'll be back."
I stared around the room. Still no furniture, the only object being the arm.
I noticed how heavily shielded it was. Armour protected all of the vital cables, metal and strong looking. For a second, I wondered if I saw a glint of blood on the thing's claw- no, it was probably just rust.
I wondered how it would feel to be picked up by a claw like that. Proably painful- Cranes probably don't have much sensory feedback- but it was certaintly big enough to hold me. Heck, it could probably hold two of me.
A panel opened in the wall. The doctor walked in, holding a bland plastic tray. The arm gripped onto it with almost gentle precision, the oversized arm holding the tray was almost comical to look at. The arm placed th tray in the center of the room and resumed staring at me.
I picked up the tray, noting it conisted of two pits, one with water filled in it and another with some strange, biscuit-ey substance made of something that looked like brown pebbles.
I gulped the water down. The pits could be taken out individually, so I was able to inhale the water. Next, I tried a single brown pebble.
The smell reminded me of my aunt's place. She owned two dogs, and the stench filled the entire building.
I nibbled the edge on one. Admittedly not the worst.It bore th flavour of pork mixed with something else I couldn't pinpoint.
I tried another. Chicken.
I realised why the food had smelt like my aunt's place.
"Uhh..Why did you give me dog food?"
They'd turned off the spotlights. Thank god, my eyes were dying.
The doctor looked genuinely confused.
"You're part canine now. It suits you."
"And it's cheap as shit." I said under my breath.
The doctor rolled her eyes.
"It's what your relatives are eating, back at the kennels." She offered.
"In case you don't remeber, I have the brain of a human."
Her expression hardened.
"Just eat."
I tried to ignore the flavour and sight of the food. Now that I knew what it was, it made it pretty hard to stomach. I finished it, feeling like I wanted to hurl. Even my stomach growled unhappily- or maybe it was just hungry.
"Done."
The doctor seemed suprised yet again. Maybe she wasn't expecting me to be able to.
"Well done."
I rolled my eyes.
"Can you stop treating me like a dog? First the shock collar, now this.."
The doctor ignored me. Instead, she began to lower the catwalk further.
"I think you would appreciate seeing the others. They are desperate to see you."
I narrowed my eyes.
"What do you mean by desperate?"
"We told them this morning about you. They are a curious lot."
I let myself relax. Curiosity didn't usually coincide with 'Tearing into little peices.' Still, these things could be as fucked up as their creators, and their curiosity could be what I was made from.
"Alright."
The doctor pulled a radio from her belt. A second later, a panel in the wall folded to reveal an exit. Two armed men entered, dressed in tactical gear. They had strange harpoon guns folded on their shoulders, and what looked like mini jet thrusters on their back.
They didn't speak. They merely held handcuffs and waited for me.
I took a deep breath. I held out my arms.
I tried to ignore the cold sensation of the handcuffs on my wrist. Suddenly, one of them pulled up a syringe. I tried to bolt, but the needle hit home, in my neck.
Suddenly, the doctor was standing next to me. The guards caught me and began hauling me down the hallway.
I blacked out.