CHAPTER 6
1018 Words
“Beep….beep…beep…”
The alarm blared loudly, thereby waking up a sleeping Mike as he reluctantly got down from his bed with a wide yawn plastered on his face and was about doing his morning stretches, when suddenly he froze.
“What the hell?!” He exclaimed and rushed back to his bed so he could sit, for he didn’t trust standing…not just yet.
Mike stretched out his hands gingerly and raised in feet up in shock, wondering what was happening, for he could still remember what had happened to him at the Bio-tech group, when he went to lay a complaint. He was being beaten up mercilessly and his limbs, broken with no one stopping to help him. He rushed to his phone to check the date and was shocked yet again to see that the encounter had happened two days ago.
He had been asleep for two days.
Now, what is happening? How did he get here? He looked at his pajamas and his skin, healed of all bruises and wondered if this was sorcery….
Then suddenly….a robotic voice sounded at the back of his head, as a screen materialized in his vision, displaying the characters…
[Vitals…………..100%]
[Strength…………90%]
[Speed……………20%]
[Heart rate………normal]
[Blood flow……..normal]
He froze momentarily, staring at the characters being displayed in front of him, as if it was being connected to his eye balls, for they moved with his eyes, and when he was able to find his tongue again, he croaked;
“Who is there?”
And got no answer. So be sat still for a while, wondering if he had hallucinated earlier, for the screen and and robotic voice vanished quickly as they came.
Tired of sitting on one position, he decided on being a man and grab the bull by the horn, to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, so he shook himself up and got down from the bed to go wash up when he heard the voice again and saw the screen once more, freezing him abruptly on his tracks, but this time he stood his ground and whispered gingerly;
“Hello?”
And to his surprise, a female robotic voice answered faintly, as if from miles away.
[Host trying to reach out……]
Then suddenly the voice became sharper and clearer over the humming of machines, which subsided immediately.
[Hello Micheal Robinson…]
[Welcome to the Austra System….you have been selected to be part of the group..]
Mike stared at the screen in shock as he tried to take it all in. Growing up, he had been told stories… bed time stories about the head system, called Austra, the AI system that controlled the universe and influences the decisions of mankind, but it was always passed around as a fable, with no serious thought placed on it.
So why and how is an AI system appearing to him, claiming to be Austra?
“Austra?” He croaked, “the universe itself?”
[Yes…if that is what you mortals call us], the robotic voice answered.
Mike walked gingerly to his bathroom mirror to see his reflection and noticed his skin and body, devoid of all injuries, looking good as new and with a shaky voice, he asked tentatively;
“But why me? Why did you pick me? Or are you inbuilt in all of us? Is this a worldwide thing?”
[No Micheal…you and two others were chosen to be the carriers of the system..]
“Chosen? Why?” Mike asked, for he couldn’t understand it all, “…but the system is an ethereal being.”
[In other to still be the ruling body of the universe, the system has to have a host, for its heavenly container has become too small and fragile for its containment, therefore it needed three host to flex its strings in all dimensions…]
But Mike wasn’t completely convinced and seeing that his question hasn’t been answered, he repeated the question again, “But why me?”
A buzzing noise was heard faintly as the screen remained statics momentarily, then the voice reappeared with the characters saying;
[Because you are 60% pure than most of your kind. All your kind know, is violence and destruction, therefore it won’t be a good idea to place a system as powerful as this under their care…but you seem different…]
Mike paused for a while and thought about what the system had just said, for he had no doubt about it being real, not after this big miracle he had just witnessed…but he needed to be clear on one thing.
“So….basically, I’m like a host and you are a parasite?” He whispered softly.
[Yes Micheal…you and two others, are the host and I am the system…] the female voice replied mechanically.
“Two others? There are more like me?” Mike asked, as he continued to stare at his reflection in shock.
[Yes Micheal…there are two others like you, which you might encounter sooner or later..]
“But what’s in it for us?” Mike spluttered, “I mean..please forgive me for I wasn’t trying to sound ungrateful for you saving my life, but if we are to share our bodies and mind with an entity that we haven’t had any idea of before, there should be something in for us right?”
Almost immediately, the mechanical voice answered sounding calmly like it began earlier;
[With the system in in your body, you have been automatically given a new life…but it will need your permission for it to be activated.]
“A new life?” Mike asked with trepidation, for he wants to end it all, to end his suffering and this madness once and of all, but he couldn’t bring himself to forget about the suffering he had passed through in the hands of Mr Stewart, his daughter and his friends. He wants them to pay…he wants his revenge.
So he asked aloud, with his voice stern and serious, “I don’t want a new life, Austra…I just want to be very rich and powerful.”
And the system replied mechanically;
[System activated…].
- Writer
