Zooey, Scene Two
05 Sep 2023Ryuko Ntsikana
Audio Portion at bottom, for listening convenience.
"Disclaimer: The narrative you're about to dive into is rich in complex relationships, intricate world-building, and technical jargon. This style aims to offer a layered and immersive experience for those who relish depth and nuance. While the story is rewarding for those who engage fully, it may present challenges for readers who are less familiar with this level of detail. If you're new to such complex narratives, we encourage you to take your time and savor the world we've created. Enjoy!"
Zooey, Scene II
Formidine Cartographic. Deep Space Port.
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The spaceport provided a range of indulgences suitable for a remote outpost in deep space. Pleasures and vices of every kind could be found on its lower levels, carved into the moon's surface. However, Zooey chose to confine herself to the safer and more family-friendly upper levels, where she engaged in activities that triggered fleeting memory flashes.
These flashes, though difficult to decipher, held no lasting meaning for her, evading her attempts to contextualize them. The hope was that exposing her to the wider universe would aid in reconstructing certain neural pathways.
The primary solution of choice lay light-years away in the central systems, the bustling heart of human civilization. There, advanced cybernetic enhancements awaited, similar to those utilized by her former employer and surrogate mother figure, Xochitl.
Xochitl, a cybernetic human leader of a nomadic clan, held the key to making sense of these fragmented recollections. A neural processor similar to hers would serve as a repository for these scattered sparks of memory.
Much of what the entity had learned from previous hosts didn't apply to Zooey's current state. The knowledge and experiences it brought to fill the gaps often proved more burdensome than helpful for her biological form. Although it had repaired the physical damage inflicted, much remained lost from the incident that had transformed Zooey's once-mature mind into that of a child.
The hybridized union posed an evident and immediate danger. The mind of a child coupled with overwhelming intelligence akin to a hyperactive neutron star created a delicate balance. Managing desires became crucial, as uncontrolled impulses could lead to catastrophic consequences. Basic wants, even as simple as a sweet treat, required careful governance to prevent unleashing a destructive torrent in pursuit of satisfaction.
Apart from the host, the entity contemplated silently. The combination of a child's mind with the manufactured and self-evolved power of a minor deity blurred the lines between light and dark, right and wrong. This union was more than mere symbiosis, exceeding any previous interactions it had experienced. It was a profound merging, just shy of generating an entirely new life form. Healing and training were necessary steps for them to eventually become a harmonious whole.
Strong emotions posed a risk, capable of overriding the entity's controls and yielding to the most primal desires. To ensure everyone's safety, it maintained a cautious distance from the threats it had faced earlier.
Luckily, the prior incident had been handled appropriately, conveying a message that was understood while averting a full-fledged crisis.
Meanwhile, its influence extended across various systems, subtly shaping the stimuli they encountered. It also discreetly integrated its desires into the security services, securing the cooperation of its personnel. Two guards discreetly trailed Zooey, ensuring their safety without drawing attention.
The conventional route back to the larger and more densely populated regions of inhabited space would take several months using their current ship. Several large and long-range capital ships would offset the cost of extensive voyages by allowing smaller ships to berth onboard for a nominal fee. Those who were looking for fares purchased advertisements that would be showcased on the numerous viewing screens around the facility. One such vessel would be in the same system within the next couple of days, requiring a brief stay at the port.
Nonspecific images were triggered in Zooey's mind by an assortment of disjointed sights, sounds, smells, and tactile stimuli. All information that could be obtained on brain injuries, psychological texts, and neurological studies was downloaded and stored in an ever-growing repository of synthetic DNA strands.
Additional neurological pathways were created between those with similar traits, yielding various results. More than a few required correction as they caused discomfort or manifested unforeseen difficulties in other biological functions. These had unspecified origins that the entity could not find viable answers to. Centuries of medical and technological advancements still contained a myriad of unknowns that even the most learned experts had not been able to solve.
Aside from the neurological processor, there was an alternative, similar to the previous prisoner who had served as a storage medium for the entity. Another such individual could be used to store random information from Zooey's mind. However, this would pose an additional risk. The entity had become more deeply ingrained into its current host than in any previous ones. There was a statistical possibility that fragments from Zooey could carry over, like a bad integer from one program to the next.
The first negative experience of the union occurred with a random vendor selling a genetically manufactured, designer floral plant that caught Zooey's eye. The sight, smell, and touch were all overwhelmingly pleasant, but they triggered an unforeseen desire to obtain it. This sparked random, disjointed memories that were difficult to correlate with the emotion she felt.
Attempts to manage her perception were countered by an overriding possessive desire. Zooey's voice had a clear pitch and tone that the entity had not initiated. Unknown faces and places, none of which the entity had seen before or encountered while researching her past, flashed through her mind in a confusing blur. Not a single image was of the object physically in front of her, causing additional confusion and concern.
No host had been able to override the entity's control when it felt the need to assert itself. However, the entity had never been this deeply ingrained into a host, let alone one so previously damaged. The question now on its mind was whether it could reassert itself to keep her from harm as it had in the restaurant at the pilot's lounge?