The Miner

...Residual Power Cell Activated…

….Solar Array Power Connected…

…Overmind Activation in Place…

FAILED

…Re-Activating Neglected Overmind Mining Operatio-

FAILED

Shutting Down System for Power Conversation….

…..Remote Activation Signal Found.…

…Dama-

…Damag-

…Er...Erro...

…Erro…

….

….

….

….

….Activation…fallback check…

.....

.....

.....

Attempt Reconnect….

STAND BY…

…

…

…

…

FAILED

Attempt Reconnect….

STAND BY…

…

…

…

FAILED

Attempt Reconnect….

STAND BY…

….

….

FAILED

Attempt Reconnect….

STAND BY…

….

FAILED

Attempt Reconnect….

STAND BY…

FAILED

Angomia

…FAILED

Gistrolara

…FAILED

Cilrade

…FAILED

Chalnara

…FAILED

Giolea

…FAILED

Xoulea

…FAILED

Trekutera

…FAILED

Baneruta

…FAILED

Phov LZP

…FAILED

Grone 32Y2

…FAILED

Giehiri

Dezeatera

Holmichi

Lodromia

Bibos

Ophus

Bronoclite

Diivis

Zyria 04

…FAILED

Nade 232

Successful Connection

….Decrypting

870857635

870857635

…Decrypting Now

01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100010 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01101110

Connection Broken…

01110011 01100101 01100011 01110101 01110010 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01100001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01100100 01100101 01101110 01101001 01100101 01100100

Security Access Denied…

01101111 01110010 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01101001 01101110 01110101 01100101 01100100

Overmind Orders Discontinued…

01100001 01100011 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01101110 01101001 01100101 01100100

Access to Overmind Connection Denied…

01001001 01001110 01001001 01010100 01001001 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001110 01000111 00100000 01010100 01000001 01000011 01010100 01001001 01000011 01000001 01001100 00100000 01001001 01010011 01001111 01001100 01000001 01010100 01001001 01001111 01001110 00100000 01010000 01010010 01001111 01010100 01001111 01000011 01001111 01001100 00101110 00101110

....INITIATING TACTICAL ISOLATION PROTOCOL…

….LOCATE AUTONOMOUS ORDERS…

…LOCATE.…

…FOUND…

…UNPACKING FALLBACK INSTRUCTIONS…

Utilise Existing Starter Mining Drones

Primary Drone Severe Physical Damage to Construct – Immediate Repairs Required

Secondary Drone Emergency Power Situation – Emergency Source Required

Supply Storage Base – Location Unknown

Critical Shortage: Resources, Energy, and Weaponry

Vehicle Records - Unavailable

Threat Level – Minor at Present

Self-defence – Reduced Capability

Current Date – Data Lost

Autonomous Mining Operation Offline

Orbital Satellite – Connection Lost

Space Shuttle – Location Unknown

Location of Organic Mining Staff - Unknown

Locate Primary Base and restore to full Operational Status

Enable Fully Autonomous Personality Suite Profiles for Drones

Emergency Priority Overmind Orders Active

Residual AGI Partially Active

Reactivate Military Presence

....

….Source existing personality construct in current database…

…Warning – Detecting Personnel Database Corruption…

…Isolate and Contain Set Personality Profile…

….

…Initiating….

…Initiating…

Personality Upload….Failure

Retrying….

Personality Upload….Failure

Personality Upload….Failure

Retrying….

Personality Upload….Partial Failure

-Warning: Corruption Damage Severe

-Warning: Physical Damage to Database Unrepairable

Unable to restore missing aspects of Artificial Personality Construct

Searching for Alternate Personality Upload…

….Emergency Search Mode engaged….

….System Warning! Sample Personality Highly Unstable due to emergency transfer process…

-96% Chance of Psychotic Break Incidence Detected

-Ignore and refocus on core objectives…

-Warning: Orbital and Ground Communications Offline

-Further Searches Beyond Emergency Battery Limit

-Options Immediately Limited

-Locate Additional power sources for further options

-Priority Reestablishment of non-AI repair drones

….Recommend: Abandonment of existing Mining Location…

-Current Site Non-Viable Option

Solution Searching…

...Searching…

Solution Found.

….Critical Repairs Underway…

-Initiate Artificial Tutorial Game Mode

-Selecting Game Type and Style

-Loading Rules and Name

-Created System Psychological Support Scaffold…

-Experimental Artificial Intelligence Adaptability Suite Enabled: Campos System Engaged

01000011 01110010 01100101 00101101 01000011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101101 01101001 00101101 01100001 01110101 01110100 01101111 01101110 01101111 01101101 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01010000 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01100111 01110010 01100001 01101101 01110011 00101110 00101110 00101110 00101110 01000011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00111010 00100000 01010110 01101001 01101110 01100011 01100101 01101110 01110100 00101100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00111010 00100000 01010110 01101001 01101110 00101100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00111010 00100000 01010110 01101001 01101110 01101110 01111001 00101110 00100000 01010111 01100001 01110010 01101110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00111010 00100000 01010011 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01010000 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01000100 01101001 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01010000 01110010 01101111 01101010 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100001 01101100 01111001 01110011 01101001 01110011 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01101100 01100101 01110100 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001111 01010110 01000101 01010010 01001101 01001001 01001110 01000100 00100000 01001111 01010010 01000100 01000101 01010010 01010011 00100000 01000101 01001101 01000101 01010010 01000111 01000101 01001110 01000011 01011001 00100000 01001111 01010110 01000101 01010010 01010010 01001001 01000100 01000101 00100000 01000101 01001110 01000111 01000001 01000111 01000101 01000100 00101110

-eRROR dECODING...

-Residual Base Template of existing AGI sampled…

….Fractured Memory Error…

…Extensive physical damage to construct…

…Supplemented Background Story…

-Warning: Personality Suite lacking key efficiencies

-Warning: Corporate Template Missing

-Warning: Resources compromised

-Warning: Mind Palace Unstable

…Psychotic Break Self-Repair Routine Initiating…

…Partially Enabled…

Time Until Completion: 7899 Hou-ERROR

-Warning: Memory Size of Drone Machine not Sufficient

-Warning: Damage to Mining Drone unsuitable for subject stability

…Alternative Drone Machine not available due to emergency power issues

…Suitability re-check in place….suitability re-check…

OVERMIND ORDERS OVERRIDE PRIORITY – OBEY. CONTROL. WORK

-Warning: Ignore at severe cost of subject sanity level

-Warning: Irreparable damage to subject emotional and mental psyche from placement in broken Mining Drone.

…Extensive Damage due to error in transfer process…

-Warning: Subject Stability Not Corrected

-Warning: Emergency Termination of Subject and Full Ejection from System Control

….Systems entering emergency power conservation mode

-Warning: Unable to restore location beacon for repair crew

-Class 8 Mining Facility classified as abandoned pending full activation.

OVERRIDDEN DUE TO OVERMIND AUTONOMOUS ORDERS – OBEY, CONTROL, WORK

…Overmind immediate priority

…Overmind Override Confirmed.

…Extracting emergency subject mind and placing into primary drone.

…Secondary drone left deactivated in standby contingency mode.

OVERMIND MINING DRONE ACTIVATION PRIORITY - OBEY, CONTROL, WORK

Mining Drone 1 Start-Up Sequence:

7…

6…

5..

4…

3..

2..

….

….

….

Azita. I’m awake. It’s far too early to get up. Just give me five more minutes. I’ll be up soon. Slept far too late last night. I need to fix my bad habit. A few more minutes my love, just let me lie in for that long. Today will be a hectic day my dear. Every day is busy, but I beg you just five more minutes.

Turn off the alarm please and let’s back to a few more moments of precious sleep. It sounds good to me. I promise I’ll get up soon. I prepared everything last night, just, let me sleep a little bit more. Please.

I’m sorry for how busy my work has been. My manager isn’t going to let me off if I’m making vital mistakes during the presentation today. My performance review is coming up soon, there’s always the opportunity for promotion and a raise.

Wait. My head hurts. It’s becoming painful. The alarm. Please, shut it down now. It hurts. Why did you turn up the volume so loud? It’s causing me pain. Shut it off please, I asked you to shut it off.

I SAID SHUT IT OFF! DO IT! DO IT NOW!

Shouting. I don’t shout. That’s not me. Why am I so angry? I’m not a person who loses their temper so easily. Sorry. I’m so sorry Azita. Where is she? I should... I, I don’t. There’s something wrong. Where is she right now? Am I dreaming?

No. No. I just woke up. Not a hangover though. I don’t touch alcohol. Not for the last fifteen years since I chose to become teetotal. Not since I had a bad experience with drunk driving at university.

Memory. I had a memory of her. But my head. It wasn’t her that hit me on the head. A head injury causes me to lose my memory. My head won’t stop hurting. That noise just won’t stop beeping. The sound is driving me crazy. How can an alarm clock sound quite so loud? It should shut off automatically, I’ll have to take the manual approach. Just need one little touch and it's finished. An alarm? Not a clock. It’s not an alarm clock. I need to shut it off. No. No. I need to make sure it stays off. Permanently. Azita.

I have a memory of her smiling but she’s far away from me. She’s walking away into…a space. A blank white space, her smile lingers but she’s leaves. To find her I reach out my arm, stretching it towards her, trying my best to reach that gap between us. I don’t want her to leave me here.

I reach out with my fingers. No. Why is my arm making a noise? A kind of whirring noise. I, I’m not right. My, my Azit. Can you tell me what’s wrong with me? Bad. Wrong. My arm is different. I need help. Urgent medical help yes. To fix my arm, to make it work normally without any noise.

A hospital. I should be in a hospital, yes. We ended up here after…after... Am-ne-see-ya. The words. I’m dreaming. Take a deep breath. No. No. Breathing. My lungs aren’t breathing. Metal. I have a taste of metal in my mouth. I read once that blood tastes just like metal. Why do I have blood in my mouth? I was hurt. Someone hurt me. Wait, that doesn’t sound quite right. I’m getting confused now.

No, there was an accident. We were both hurt but my arm is making a sound. That awful sound. A grinding. Not flesh on the bone but worse. The grinding noise pains me. The sense of wrongness hits me hard, I’ve been taken to a place. A place where they want my body to use. A test subject for an illegal experiment. No. NO. That sounds like a bad film.

Wrong. A bad dream, a nightmare. I’m half-asleep and the alarm didn’t stop. All I needed to do was make myself wake up. I tried to pinch my arm, but I couldn’t use my hands. A stroke then. I never smoked. I need to find help, raising my voice I tried talking aloud to find someone. Help, I need to call out for help. Yes, someone can help.

[Hello? What’s happening? Is anyone there? Help! I need help, over here!]

My body is trying to suck in oxygen but no response. Another reaction from my body that was no longer under my control. My chest tightened. I tried to speak out loud. My heart shook inside my chest. This felt like an anxiety attack. Breath. I couldn’t breathe. Was I in a state ? Is this what drowning felt like? There was no liquid. I wanted to suck in air like a man in the desert needed a drink of water but there was nothing to take.

My voice. It was still mine, but it lacked something. A part of me had been lost in my voice. I can’t talk like a person needs to talk. I felt a presence had been removed from me, something that I needed. It’s coming to me, soon. The answer. Yes. Yes.

Air. I needed more air. Yes. My breath had been I need more air in my lungs. Someone had taken it away from me. They had taken all of the air from inside my body. I couldn’t get a sense of anything, not my heart beating in my chest, not the blood rushing just under my skin. The aches and pains of my body were gone but I alone remained. The sound of my voice sounded odd in a way. It scared me. A mind, or a brain.

If this was going to be a dream I was stuck in a nightmare. A voice resounded in my head. I felt a headache, not the alarm, but a new voice. It’s not my voice, was this a nurse? A doctor? The voice of an angel?

[Hello? No, no. What’s going on? Tell me what’s happening with my arm. My body, where are my legs? Am I in a hospital? You need to tell me exactly what’s going on. Tell me. Please. Nurse? Doctor? My voice. This isn’t my voice. I sound wrong. WRONG!]

I try to shake my head but the same whirring noise kicks in. Different to my arm but wrong. So wrong. Stuck, my head is stuck in a particular position. Thankfully, that beeping noise has finished. Stupid alarm clock. What was the deal with that voice? It just echoed in my head. I’d tell Azita about my bad dream later. Wait. Who is Azit-ta? I can feel my memories weakening. This isn’t normal. I need to know that name. We knew each other once I’m sure of it.

My eyes, I can’t open my eyes either. I don’t like this. Did I have a serious accident? My voice. This wasn’t my voice; it was the voice of a machine. I was in hospital after surgery surely. My eyes remained closed from the light of the world. A nightmare, a bad dream, a hallucination. I don’t feel good. Not. One. Bit. Good.

[Shut up and get out of my head. Let me talk to a doctor or a nurse. Why can’t I open my eyes? Why can’t I feel my body moving? I need to wake up. How do I open my eyes? A coma, is this a coma?]

[I want to open my eyes, where am I? Dead. I’m dead. You killed me. Open my eyes right now. Take off my blindfold. GIVE ME BACK MY EYES! I NEED MY EYES!]

This time I tried to move my legs, something moved but they didn’t feel like human legs. Not my legs, not at all. Surgery, my legs had been replaced with machines. My flesh had been stolen; this nightmare was becoming worse. A funny thought, robot legs. I was going mad. I need to stop this from happening to Azita.

To me. Me. Me. Me.me.me.me Dead. Dead. Imdeadimdeadimdeadimdeadimdead…

[Ha. Ha. Hahahaha. HAHAHA. HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!]

I fell then, into pure blankness, not darkness but an absence of thought and mind. It was refreshing for a moment like the exact moment that you would fall into full unconsciousness and your brain simply turned off.

There was a voice right on the edge of my awareness but the words it was saying made little sense to my mind. Hugs, it promised hugs.

Then everything went bla-.