Babylon Lost

Chapter 1

Jiro knew something was wrong.

Everything was black. He couldn't see.

It shouldn't be like this. There should be something on the display - time of day, duration of session, connection strength and about half a dozen more indicators. Even if the headset display was off, there should be a faint red dot near the top right corner, showing that the unit was disabled.

But instead, there was nothing.

He reached up to pull the connection line but he couldn't feel it. Tracing his hand back around his head he felt for the ear clips, they were not there. Then he felt his way further back for the plug but it wasn't there also.

Then he came to a startling realizing, he couldn't feel anything.

No, that wasn't true. He could feel the places he'd just touched, but not in the way he ought to have. It wasn't right, it was different in a way he'd never experienced before. Something was wrong.

Panic began to set in, yet even that wasn't coursing through his body like it should of. It was different to, terrifyingly different. The panic made him more panicked.

Was he blind? Had the neuro connection irreversibly damaged his brain? Would he be like this forever. He had to get help, but he lived alone, how would anyone find him in his apartment. He would die here.

He tried to yell but nothing came out.

He reached for his face where his mouth and lips should be but there was nothing.

He tried to stand from his chair but he was already standing. How could that be? Was he even still in his apartment? Had something happened? Maybe some kind of accident that had left him paralyzed?

Worse yet had he been caught? Was he in trouble?

Doubt about that, he was too good.

In a frenzy he shot his hands out in both directions, knocking something over in the process. He didn't know what it was because he still couldn't see but it sounded flimsy. Not like anything that should be near him in his room.

He reached back to find a wall directly behind him, that too shouldn't be the case, he should be in his chair. He tried to listen for the hum of his computer or the rain that should be trickling down the lone window at the far side of his room. He could hear none of it.

He tried to step forward but it all went terribly wrong, he didn't move like he should. Walking, one foot in front of the other, it didn't work like normal and next he found himself on the ground. On what he assumed was the ground anyways. He could tell he was vertical but like everything else it all felt alien.

Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Suddenly there was light. The blackness faded away and imagery appeared in front of him like he had just switched on a monitor.

For a moment Jiro had hope. He must still be staring into the jack-set, had to be. But what was he looking at it? Whatever was in front of him stretched off in any direction. He tried to blink it into focus but couldn't blink.

Then he remembered he was on the floor. That's what he was looking at.

Why did he have to remember that? The thoughts weren't coming to him like normal, no, it was different. Why couldn't he think like he normally should. Why was moving and feeling so strange?

He pushed the notion aside and surveyed his surroundings, he had to find out what was going on.

Righting his head up he could see that he was for sure not in his apartment anymore. He didn't know what he was looking at. There was a door in front of him and what looked to be a work bench to his right. The floor was wooden which meant he was probably somewhere old and the whole area looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while.

The room was dark to. Not the kind of pitch black he'd just been staring into, but the lights were off yet he could still see clearly. Why?

Night vision? Optics? He had to be jacked in, but this did not feel like any link he'd ever been hooked up to.

Suddenly the 'display' came alive, numbers began flashing in front of him. No, not just numbers, letters to, words maybe? The headset was booting up it seemed. But the code looked so archaic, nothing like Jiro had seen in years.

Movement became easier, he felt a sense of strength come to his limbs, his arms, his neck, his legs, they slowly became easier to move.

With this newfound sense of movement Jiro's first order of business was to examine why he was on the floor. He craned his head back so he could see his legs, except they weren't his legs.

The legs he was looking at were not human. They were robotic, yet Jiro could feel them like they were his own.

A very ominous thought began to wash over him – his headset wasn't coming online, he was.

He cast the thought out immediately. That was impossible. Human to android uplink was a pipe dream, still a hundred years away from happening. Maybe more. Still the stuff of science fiction.

Besides, it didn't make any sense anyways. How would he have gotten from his apartment into an android anyways?

He tried to remember the events before waking up here. He was home locked into his jackport, what was he doing? Some job he'd found on the Blackout. What was it again?

He couldn't remember. Remembering was still strange.

No, I should know this, Jiro thought I was literally just there. But he couldn't recall. Then he tried to remember the day. It was Friday, wasn't it?

This had to be a dream, it couldn't be real. Yet every 'sense' in his body told him it was.

If he was here then there had to be some logical reason for it.

Uplink maybe? He was controlling this android remote?

It was the only reason he could think of but nothing about it made sense. He should still be able to feel his body. Should be able to rip the headset right off and look around his apartment. He should still be able to remember things like normal.

More than anything though he should be able to recall actually linking up with this thing but there was a huge gap in his memory.

He took another quick look around the room for anything that would tell him why he was here but could find nothing.

Then the stream of letters and numbers on his HUD stopped, replaced by the words coming online.

Suddenly Jiro could sense something else in here with him. Not in the room, but in here with him. In the android itself.

"Foreign program, please identify yourself" it spoke, not out loud, but internally like a thought. Jiro had no idea what to say.

He lay on the floor supported by his forearms wondering what he should do. He didn't know how to identify himself because he really didn't know what he currently was. He needed some time to figure that out.

"Foreign program" the voice started up again "please identify yourself or you will be deleted."

It didn't sound like he was going to be afford the luxury of time.