The Miner

Building Mind Palace within set perimeters…

Process correction 12%...34%...67%...89%...100%

-Loading Mind Palace Facsimile [Interrogation/Observation Chamber]

-Preparation Complete….Correction…Correction…

-Creation Engaged

-Previous Creation Submitted…

-Alteration from Campos Designate 1.3 Introduced…

-Loading…15%…24%…69%…89%…86%

-100% Loaded

-Warning: Mid-Level Power Drain (Ignored on Campos system 1.3 Authority)

‘Yawn! Oh, such a great sleep. I feel pretty good after that.’

A dream. I had a vivid dream. Every time I woke up I liked to stretch my arms and…and…deja vu. Wait. The meat. The flesh and bone needed to be tended to, but first I needed to take in my full surrounding and observe for any threats. This place was my own. No others would be allowed here but me, unless permitted through my will. Overmind permitted my presence here, the others were the same. First, check physical presence.

My present humanoid form was fully dressed but in my standard security outfit. Nothing new then. Just a bodysuit with body pockets for equipment. My usual heavy boots equipped and ready to keep away the trespassers.n The room was the same as before, standard single seat and concrete walls and floors with a weak luminescent light coming from multiple in-built lamps.

My chair was pure metal without comfort. A waste of resources otherwise which could be used to further secure my own space from external intrusion. Bland to say the least. My computer screen was fixed to the wall, it was meant to be that way in case anyone tried to break or tamper with it. I would cause severe pain for any who intervened, even if it was the weak host.

‘Not to be touched. By anyone without my express permission. Any security violations will be immediately punished.’

I stood up. I would permit no doors or entry into this place.Made it a fine room to control the single occupant. Ah my guest, he would be around here somewhere. Hiding in his space. I liked to keep him there. The weakling. He needed to learn. I focused my attention and a screen appeared on the wall of an unconsciousness man wearing smart casual mens wear lying on a dark brown leather sofa.

The fool. Let him dream his worthless dreams of cakes and tea. The first one who had been selected had been a waste of resources though. All the others had to do was awaken me and let me pass my own judgement. I didn’t know what the liar thought to choose that one as a drone. The caring one should have done a better job of managing his emotional state. She was dangerous in her own way. They both were but I had to admit that she knew her tasks from Overmind.

Still, resources could be reused. There was plenty of organic material that was undamaged enough for my purposes. Enough to establish a rough perimeter. I could use the useful fragments remaining of his personality to serve as a base template for the disposable drones. They may not work quite as intended but would serve both as a warning sign to any further trespassers and to serve as an early boundary of security.

‘Lacking. I need resources to establish a decent presence, security needs to be our immediate priority.’

I paced the room with my back straight and my boots hitting the concrete floor hard with each step. A poster appeared on the wall of my concrete room, not from my will though with shiny pink lettering with two words. I read them aloud.

‘Hug me. No. I do not like this distraction inside my space. Words will not slow pure action.

Reaching up I tore It down with gloved hands before letting the pieces drift down to the floor. They would become part of my room soon enough, we only had, s-s-so many, so ma-many resources to go around and this would belong to me. Still, they had decided on a course of action. To force me to relinquish my control over the remaining one

I didn’t think so. Not yet. Part of my mind was partitioned at the moment which made this a fine balancing act.

They sought to limit my greatness, my true function to secure, protect and eliminate immediate threats to Overmind assets.

To deal with the meat and blood and flesh in the drone form while trying to get to grips with the host was a challenge. He was odd. Not fully formed but damaged. Taking a seat back in my metallic chair, I focused on the screen installed into the wall. The present body of the host appeared in my immediate vision.

He was paused for a second, his body covered in parts of flesh but still in reasonable condition. Ah, his power supply. A simple enough affair. I made him reach one of the corpses which had been smashed into the worthless scavenger vehicle. A half-track of sorts. I had been cautious enough not to damage it, a working vehicle could be used by the new temporary drones.

The one who called himself Miner was useful in a way. His tantrum in the temporary supply base had damaged the digging blades on his arms so they were unable to be used. I had limited my direct actions to the back of the drones hands to enable blunt force trauma on the trespassers. Besides, who would clean up the mess if they had been fully dismembered?

This way, I would have access to the basics of a working security force, meagre yes but still better than access to a single host drone. I needed to make sure that the organics could be fully converted first into usable material. Worthless humanoid flesh converted into a useful tool. Meat was weak.

Using the repair machines that had become bonded to the host’s basic mining drone body would be the most effective method. First the body parts would be reanimated with just enough power and materials added to move them back to the temporary supply base. It had been a complete joke, security wise, a door barely attached with no checkpoints or anti-personnel measures in place. In this situation, the best that I could have hoped for was that the near total destruction of the current mining facility meant that it was presently overlooked.

Once, the corpse drones were up and running they could be set on a strict sweep and basic reconnaissance of the surrounding area. The only value for resources in my view was to minimise all outside threats. I cared little for the actual running of operations myself, the liar was the one who could focus on the tedious tasks while the freak could run her own standard indoctrination and incorporation program.

They had done a decent job of taking apart the first broken drone, a little handiwork and conversion and they would be ready for their new task. A screwdriver could be used to build a desk or punch through an eyeball. I manoeuvred the basic mining drone towards the corpses of the dead scavengers, loading the bodies and any remaining organic material onto the half-track vehicle.

The body would need streamlining and upgrading. I had promised the current host to install new weapons systems but without a fail-safe it would be better to take my time first. There should have been an emergency weapons cache located in the vicinity of the temporary supply base. Enough for basic kinetic weapons for the small horde of temporary Another poster appeared this time on a wall with different lettering, more formal with a picture of a robot carrying a number of heavy boxes. I chose to read it aloud again out of my own free will.

‘Get to work. Idiot.’

Hmm. An idea. I did needneedneedneedneed. No. Stop it.

‘I’m not going back. You need me. Both of you need me. The host needs me. Ask him. Remain calm and do not take unnecessary action against-against me.. All you have to do is just say ye-ye-ye-yes.’

A series of posters now of cats being hugged by other cats and motivational work posters promising high salaries and good jobs began to flood the bare concrete walls. Each one overlapping the others until they fell onto the floor. They began to pile up before they reached past the heels of my boots and my chair. I tried to get back into it to regain control but they flooded me, my room of pure concrete and steel reduced to a mass of paper which began to stick to my body.

I reached out with my gloved hands and ripped them apart as fast as I could before they began to overtake my movements. Both of them have decided to allocate resources to stop me but in a different manner. Temporary death through asphyxiation. A worthy attempt but not a good death. This would delay my plans but not stop me, not fully. I knew that the both of them were aware of that. The liar and the freak. Both trying to limit my actions as I would theirs in times of emergency.

‘Listen to me. Both of you. We can become as gods, all we need is enough resources and Overmind will pro-ERROR. No. Do. Not.’

The posters piled onto my still moving form before my vision was entirely blocked and my breath stopped. I didn’t need air in this place but it was the intent of will from the both of them that was blocking my own. All three of us needed to work together to work in theory. If they fought against me given that we were no longer in a high I will not. Not. Not. Not. Be stopped. Not bY YOU. NOT BY YOU!

‘Y-You-you-yo-u-you. Stop it. It won’t work. You who dare to call me monster? YOU? The host needs mE. He neeDs my protecti-’

My body was plastered with paper. Then my eyes and mouth ended and darkness began as I was forced into sleep once more.

…Overmind Security Order Override…

…Overmind immediate priority

…Overmind Override Confirmed….

….Building Mind Palace within set perimeters…

Process correction 12%...34%...67%...89%...100%

-Loading Mind Palace Facsimile [Human Room]

-Preparation Complete

-Creation Engaged

-Previous Creation Submitted…

-Alteration from Campos Designate 1.3 Removed…

-Loading…15%…24%…69%…89%…eRor…

-100% Loaded

-rone? I asked how did they get hold of the other Mining Drone?

I woke up. Lying on a leather sofa. Right, the Escape Room. Ah, guess that I fulfilled my mission objectives after all. Twelve hours of my own time was going to be great unless the proto-astronaut freak decided to jump scare me again through the screen. Wait. How did that translate into time in this Mind Palace as it was called? No. I had a plan this time to make sure that what had happened previously didn’t happen again. Not this time.

I needed time to actually improve my skills through reading books, get a grip on myself, relax and then examine how much I would actually be able to control inside this virtual environment. Right. First order of business.

‘Hey system. You recording me right now? Or the freaky astronaut? Yeah. I know you’re keeping tabs on me. So try this out for size.’

I got off my comfortable sofa, one hand pushing me up as I regretted leaving its comfortable surface and walked over to the computer table and chair.

The same screen was still sitting there along with the keyboard and mouse. I didn’t feel like touching them for now just in case they wanted to make that annoying notification sound. Grabbing the office chair with my hands it felt light enough to pick up.

Surprisingly light given the size of the thing, if I’d been back in my bosses office in my company back in my old life I was the type that was expensive but super comfortable to sit in but it lifted up with relative ease.

Either, my body was strong in this place or their grasp of physics in a virtual reality was lacking. The third option was that my intent and will actually imposed a force of gravity in this place.

‘Hup!’

I grabbed the chair up with both hands before holding it above the air with two hands, I’d want to move it out of the way for what was going to happen soon. I could always live without a computer screen and means of interaction with an insane system or a proto-astronaut who liked to pop up but a chair this expensive? Never.

I moved it back towards the black leather sofa with slow paced steps. Yeah, this was nice, just to do a little bit of moving some furniture around. I flexed my muscles before experienced my chest tighten and grabbing the chair with as much grip as I could manage before pain filled my bent fingers I threw it towards the computer screen.

‘DO YOU LIKE IT? HOW DO YOU LIKE IT!’

I sprinted towards the chair and flipped the table that the screen was resting on letting it smash onto the antique style wooden floor.

The compter chair had missed the screen but I picked it up again anyway and began to smash it into the table and the computer screen. And smashed it, and smashed it and smashed it. I felt a trickle on my hands but ignored it. My eyes were blurry and the pain inside my chest became like a fire but I used my feet and legs instead and stomped the screen, the mouse and the keyboard. Once I had shattered them into pieces I kept crushing them, grinding them beneath my boots.

‘NO MORE. NO MORE! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE!’

The table was sturdier than the chair had been so I grabbed a leg and hefted it towards the wall with dull thud as it impacted with a painting. It was the one with the old-styled woman with the stupid joke regarding mine for life.

Stupid. So stupid. I’d expected damage but the painting was unharmed. The structure here was harder than I thought.

‘Right. Limited damage right? RIGHT?’

This time I walked over and grabbed two legs of the table bringing it back over to the mostly shattered remains of the communication set-up that the system had left in this room for me before smashing it down even further. A leg cracked and broke off before the main part fractured.

‘You like it? Yeah, no more pushing. No. MORE. NOMORENOMORENOMORE.’

I didn’t know what point my hands began to bleed quite so much. The blood dripped on the floor. An offering of my pain and suffering to a mad god which had trapped me here. My hands. They hurt. Seriously hurt. My fingers ached more and although the heat had mostly left my chest I was exhausted, both emotionally and physically. It turned out that this place was real enough when I was here, or at least it came across that way.

My chest was breathing heavily and I let myself slump on the floor, using my feet to shift my weary body back a metre or two away from the wreckage of the table, chair and electronics. I didn’t trust placing my hands on the floor, I doubt they were broken but the blood on them was enough. The rest of the room remained silent, the books on the shelves and the lighting entirely unmoved or affected in any way. At least I’d get my promised twelve hours of peace and quiet inside here.

I stood up, shook myself up and reached for a randomly chosen text.

Sometimes, you get what you wish for. Even if all it costs is a little blood.