Utopian Uprising: Prisoner of the Mind

by Brian Craft

  He receives Fray like a delivered package. Then Sline locks eyes with Orion but quickly looks away.

  Plummer jabs Orion to keep moving. As he turns the corner he steals a glance at back at Fray and Sline, who disappear into the elevator before Orion loses sight of them.

  Entering Exam One, Orion stops short when he realizes that Burroughs is waiting for him in front of the exam chair. Images surround Burroughs on the curved video wall, where he stands, staring back at Orion.

  “Chair #1,” Burroughs begins.

  Orion steps tentatively into the room right before Mina slips in behind him. She blows on his neck as she passes. Burroughs remains anchored to his spot as Mina finds a perch across the room.

  Orion orbits the chair, not sure what they expect next. “What do you want today?” he finally ventures.

  “Mm, it’s my secret,” Burroughs replies.

  Orion glances at the chair, it’s a good opportunity to have the neuro-helmet link him to the building right now. Only him, without the uncertainty of his companion’s minds in the mix. He can try and kill it.

  “Oh, no session for you today, Chair #1,” Burroughs interjects. “That might be a little too, risky.” Then he lights up with a tempting idea. “Or would it be deviant of me? Orion.”

  “Let’s try it and see,” he replies.

  “No,” the doctor states as he moves aside, revealing the video playback of Orion and Iris there in Exam One. The image of Orion’s neuro-web fatefully flaring a second before Iris smashes the controls. Then it blanks out. “I suspect something happened there. Do you want to whisper it in Nurse Mina’s ear?”

  Orion’s focus blurs a little as the stress of this moment weakens his single-mindedness and foreign memories bubble up. But he reminds himself that he’s in the game. This is Burroughs’s game, and he needs to be careful what he says.

  Burroughs steps into Orion’s orbit, and they round the chair opposite each other. “Science, Chair #1,” remarks Burroughs. “You cannot overcome the power of what I have created. Icarus is your next, and last, stop.”

  “You’ve lost your mind,” Orion replies as he circles the room.

  “Why settle for just the one?” Burroughs replies.

  Orion notices the images on the wall, a city full of people that will all be subject to the horror of what Burroughs has planned. The images play like the memories Orion contains in his head now. Millions of free people that have no idea what’s looming over them.

  Then he notices a few images, in particular, the ones that flipped during Burroughs earlier control. Orion has only a second to look at them, but they appear to be Iris running through the city, and another that briefly showed his own face standing in front of a flashing red billboard at street level.

  “Control your mind, Orion. Or someone else will,” Burroughs states.

  That statement snaps Orion’s attention back to the doctor.

  Burroughs considers Orion for a long moment, inching closer and closer so he can inspect his eyes. “I wanted to see how far you got. And make certain you didn’t ruin my mind.”

  Burroughs heads to the door, then stops. Without looking back, he utters, “See you on the other side.” He exits, and Mina follows before Plummer enters to secure Orion.

  Nurse Mina hurries to catch Burroughs as he marches up the corridor. She says, “It could be a mistake not testing him.”

  “No,” he stops short and turns to her. “Exam One is vulnerable. But Icarus…Icarus is perfect.”

  “And what if he manages to control that?” she pushes back.

  “I have my fingers right on the tip his shiny little key,” he replies. “I control everything.”

  …

  Orion flops onto his bunk. Alone again, he tries to sort through what’s going on. He’s changed, or maybe he’s changing and whatever is truly going to happen is still to come. His life before this seemed so dull, but in this moment, he has a small longing for the routine safety of it.

  He lived in a world of aloneness among millions, with his mind blanked and used to help them every day without anyone knowing or him knowing anyone. Hivemind and its duty are a different kind of protection to society, ensuring that everything worked and people lived, no matter how mundane their lives.

  Walking the halls of Mind Mastery with the haunting ghosts of those many lives, he's confronted by the idea that he might be the only hope they have now. If Burroughs succeeds, all the people in the city will go from mundane to living hell.

  A small knock on the glass snaps his thought spiral. He moves over near Iris’s cell, and it clears. They stare at each other for a long moment.

  “It’s almost time,” he says.

  “I’m struggling,” she replies. “I can’t remember things. It scares me.”

  “I understand,” he says. “Pretty soon it won’t matter,”

  “He’s going to put us back in Icarus, right?” she asks, and in a strange way, she hopes the answer won’t be what she already knows.

  “Yes,” he says. “Probably the next time these cells open. Do you think you’re ready?”

  "I hope so," she says and leans against the wall between them considering his question. She presses her fist into the glass, pressing harder and harder as her forearms strain. "I do know I'll resist until my last breath."

  Orion presses his hand against the glass, and Iris responds by opening her first, and mirroring his open palm. His mind is clear, and he thinks for a long time while Iris studies his face. “Burroughs believes the machine can control us, but I think it actually gives us the opportunity. It’s providing the link where we will all be working together.”

  “Can you control it?” she asks.

  He lets that question echo in his head. “Remember what we saw in the memory of Hive? The ghosts above everyone? That’s the day I self-animated. I woke when I shouldn’t have been able to.”

  “What does that mean to you?” Iris prompts him.

  “I want to know why,” he says. “And what were those ghosts? I can’t put that together.”

  Scryberg pushes his two fists against the glass wall of his cell and a window clears between them so he can see Terrence. Then he releases and Terrence does the same by spreading his fingers as wide as he can and touching the same spot.

  Behind Terrence, GL looks on from her own little window. “Now try the other thing.”

  The two men concentrate intensely on each other until Scryberg sits back, a little surprised, and cracks a mischievous smile. “You have a sick mind,” he says to Terrence.

  Terrence laughs sheepishly. “I like breasts.”

  Scryberg laughs with him.

  Orion squares to Iris and puts his other hand on the glass. Iris mirrors with hers. "When the machine takes you, you have to stay alert. We'll only get one chance at this," he says. "If we fail, we'll be trapped in his world forever."

  “He’s been pushing me hard. I don’t know what he knows now,” she says. “What if he already—“

  “You have to concentrate. Find something small, that no one knows about,” he insists. “It wouldn’t seem important but it is. Something Burroughs will overlook, something that can tell you what’s real.”

  “You didn’t tell me yours,” she says.

  A tiny moment of paranoia knocks on his skull, but he puts that away, he needs to go out on a limb. “A little yellow flower. I found it on my rooftop one night.” He smiles at the memory. It’s a tiny bit of longing for something from his past. “This little delicate thing, thirty stories up and pushing through concrete to live. That’s mine. That’s my memory.”

  “Nature finds a way,” Iris replies. It gives her hope, as does Orion.

  “You have something?” he asks.

  “I’ll find one,” she replies. She can’t help but drop her eyes, uncertain if she has the strength for this.

  He waves his finger in front of her and a little piece of her hair moves to let her emerald eyes peer back at him.

  She flops it back
in front. “Do it again.” She smiles.

  “When there’s nothing separating us,” he smiles back at her.

  She lays back to rest, and he lets the little window shrink until it’s all black again.

  …

  The hours stretch into what seems like an eternity as Orion waits for the door to open. He knows that one way or another he’s never coming back to his cell.

  Lying on his side, he exhales to fog the glass, revealing ‘FREE’ ghosted there. He smears his hand across it, wiping it away.

  The edges of his cell door suddenly glow bright green for a second then fade to black again. Orion realizes it can only mean one thing, one of his companions received a Code Green.

  He jumps up and clears a window into the cellblock.

  Nothing except the stillness of the empty chamber.

  He sits back in the darkness. The rest of this night is going to last forever.

  CHAPTER 21

  A little drone carrying a magnetic tile floats the last few meters to the top of Mind Mastery. It waits momentarily as a half-dozen other drone companions link their little tiles with the main body. One by one the hexagonal tiles zip up the final hole in the skyscraper’s façade.

  A pinhole of light slices into the near darkness of the cavernous building interior, until the last of millions of little tiles is fitted, sealing the insides in blackness.

  From below, the glow of the central elevator appears. It rises quickly from the main floor toward Icarus.

  As Orion and his companions enter the torus-shaped chamber, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that this is the moment of truth.

  “Seeing green?” GL murmurs to Orion.

  “Know who you are?” he replies.

  She shows him fresh scratches on her hands. “You?”

  “I’m struggling,” he says. “But it’s quieter up here away from the everything.”

  “If this beast works,” she motions toward Icarus. “You’re gonna get a few million minds stuffed in that noodle of yours,” she warns him and motions like his head will explode.

  Maybe blanking out like Hive is not such a bad thing, he thinks.

  Iris stands between chair #6 and Orion.

  “Did you find something?” he asks Iris.

  “Yeah,” she smiles. “I’ll look for you inside.” She pushes the hair out of her eyes.

  The team is loaded into their respective chairs, mag-cuffs locked and the pulsing hum of Icarus increases. Then Burroughs appears for a surprise visit to the room, his presence disturbs the space like a master vampire there to impress his power upon the minions. He strolls in, eyes locked on Orion as he stops at chair #1.

  “Anarchy comes in many forms, Chair #1,” Burroughs says. “A man to the system, systems within systems. Even a mind against himself.”

  Mina’s voice echoes from the control room mic when she reports, “Doctor, everything’s ready.”

  Orion breathes steadily, trying to relax as the liquidy white light rolls from the central pillar like a tongue and extends to swallow him for the trip of his life. Burroughs leans close and whispers, “I wonder, Orion. Did you touch the edge? But who will follow?”

  Pace enters the master control room with Governor Roman, who is still sporting the small bruise on his cheek. “I have to tell you, Governor,” Pace says, “I have a serious doubt about this.”

  Roman remains composed, careful to keep his cards hidden until he needs them. Pace is angling for control, but in truth, he has none. Societal Services is an appointed position, and after today, it will probably be antiquated anyway. Burned-out by progress.

  Burroughs enters and says nothing as he sets Icarus in motion. “And the chorus sings,” he admires.

  Focus, Orion’s forces the thought outward. Control your minds.

  Iris centers as tightly as she can, determined to resist the pull of the machine, while at the same time walk the slippery slope of allowing it to connect her to the others. It’s a slim window of opportunity that will only open for the duration of a single thought. If they succeed, their six minds can work as one long enough to break their physical bonds. The entire plan is like leaping from an airplane because it’s the only way to test your parachute.

  The little silver spheres are injected into the chamber and instantly orbit the team; the telemetry is working as more and more spheres are added. Soon hundreds of them flock around the chamber, organizing in patterns and pathways. All orchestrated by Burroughs and enabled by the force of Icarus and the channelers.

  Orion sees spheres the blur past. The spectacle is dizzying, and the pull of Icarus is becoming irresistible. He closes his eyes to concentrate, their moment is at hand.

  Orion searches his mind for his companion’s voices, his senses flowing outward to touch the room, the spheres, and the building. It’s completely the opposite of Hivemind, an ultra-connected web of emotion and energy energizing everything down to this last atom. It coaxes him forward, intoxicating and brilliant. Seamlessly connected to the infinite around him. Inside of this space, Orion is even more aware, and more alive, than he could have possibly imagined. What would it be like surrendering to this bliss?

  “Mr. Scryberg,” Burroughs speaks. “Choose your path.”

  Scryberg’s body slumps into total relaxation as if he just died, and his hands begin to twitch. The phenomenon spreads one by one across the team.

  Orion remains unaffected. He peels open his eyes to witness the spheres decelerate and pass in slow motion. A silvery trail streaks behind each, the tails vibrating until they become fractal bits and disappear.

  Roman strains to track the spectacle of spheres whirring around the chamber. “What’s happening?” he asks bluntly.

  “Control is mine,” Burroughs responds. “Now the real leap.”

  I can’t hear you… Orion forces the directive forward. ‘Control your minds.’

  The chamber door slides open, and Sline guides Fray into the room. The sublevel jailor is horrified to see what’s happening and runs from the room, leaving Fray to stand in a whirlwind of little silver, spherical projectiles.

  Fray is totally calm, his face expressionless.

  Burroughs scrutinizes the brain models. Delight brightens his expression at the sight of six holograms all flashing the same information. Synchronized.

  “I control his body and bones and his mind and thoughts. I’m in total control of this man,” Burroughs informs them, referring to Fray. He engages a control panel displaying a wireframe human body. “So you know there’s no tricky business. You can…direct him,” he says to Roman.

  The governor slides over, considers Fray standing there, and then flips his finger to move the arms of the human wireframe. The digital human raises its arm at Roman’s prompt. In the Icarus room, Fray’s arm lifts with it. “Is that real?” Roman asks.

  “A flick of your finger, a flicker in his mind,” Burroughs replies. He prompts the digital display, and Fray walks around the chamber, the spheres breaking in waves around him, and converging on his other side. The sight is almost magical.

  Orion witnesses a drastically different reality as his mind sees Fray’s essence move erratically. Fray fights for control of himself like a man inside a man suit. The abomination of what Orion sees is the precursor for all. His one and only chance is beginning to slip away. It’s a war for their minds and Orion is losing. His eyelids sag gently shut.

  “Broadcast telemetry,” Burroughs gloats as they follow Fray walk around smoothly and smile. “This man has been incarcerated for a deviant act,” he states, then points at Roman’s bruise, “Perhaps similar to your experience. But now he’s moving smoothly and happily.”

  Controller Pau enters behind them. “Man and resources harmonized.” He stands next to Pace. “My ride over from the island was slowed by a car wreck, or protest, or some nonsense.”

  Burroughs whispers to himself, and maybe Orion, “Welcome to the other side.”

  Orion forces his eyes open a slit. His heart monitor
spikes, and he wrenches himself forcefully, one limb at a time out of his chair. Fray collapses instantly as the liquidy light stutters and winks out. Plummer runs in and plows into Orion. Chaos unleashes as Orion’s team of channelers breaks out of their chairs and techs run in. Within seconds, Orion forces his way out the door, but before he can help the others, he’s forced to run. He runs down a hall and bursts through a door into an empty room. He exits through a different door into another room. The building is like a maze! He races into another room and crashes into Iris coming the other way. She throws her arms around him.

  ‘How did you get out?’ he asks.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she replies.

  ‘The others?’ he asks.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she answers. ‘We have to get out of here.’

  Flashing red light fills the halls as Orion leads Iris hand in hand toward an elevator at the end of the hallway. They enter, and he swipes the panel to descend as GL rounds the corner and races to catch up with them. The doors stay open long enough for her to dive in. The elevator doors open at the ground level facing a long empty corridor and only one door to exit at the far end. They run to the door and Orion pulls it open. Blueish-white sunlight floods the passage and they climb to freedom.

  Outside, they sprint across a courtyard to the street. It’s packed with people who move orderly and quiet. A transport glides past and GL points in its direction.

  ‘We should leave the boundary of the city,’ GL prompts. ‘Get out where we can be free. Follow me.’

  They run until they pass the last of the buildings and approach at a border, in the distance beautiful mountains and uniform green trees invite them to come. Buried in the ground in full view, a Hivebeam glows separating city, from whatever is beyond.

  Citizens all around stop to watch them.

  ‘You should go first,’ GL prompts again. ‘You deserve the world.’

  ‘Why is no one chasing us?’ Iris alerts them as she looks back at their path.