The T-152 Taurus City

'Wake yourself up, Wilton'

'Where am I?' I inquire while breathing heavily.

I attempt to look around but for some reason, I can't move my head―or my eyes. Why are my eyes fixated on this woman across the table I've never seen before?

"Calm down Wilton, this paralysis is only temporary. We need to examine you for any damages to your brain because of the accident" she consoles.

Oh yes, the accident! What was happening to me? Why couldn't I control myself? And... and what was that primitive human talking about? I start to get even more anxious before I feel a needle pierced through the injection port on the back of my head.

'I was hoping we don't come to this but I guess you needed a dose. How are you feeling now?'

'Better, but I still can't help wondering about all this'

'Do you know where you are?'

'Yes, I'm in the third quadrant of T-152 Taurus City orbiting Europa, or at least I was before you brought me here―wherever this place is.'

'You're at the Control Center on the first quadrant now. Can you remember the exact date of your accident?'

'9 March 2998. What did you mean by "the date of the accident"? How long have I been unconscious?'

'Not more than a few hours. Now, can you tell me from the beginning what happened? How you ended up in the Waste Recycling Unit?'

I take a deep breath laying my head down trying to remember what happened. I guess she has de-paralyzed my eyes and my head. I still can't move the rest of the body though.

'I turned off my VR console because it was 7 a.m. and received a notification that I'm restricted from using my copters for the day. So I had to get out early in order to get to the class in time. This facility is where you keep the Hivemind Supercomputer, aka the brain of the city, right? How does the Hivemind Supercomputer decide who should be allowed to fly on a given day and who has to use their wheels instead? I mean I'm aware that not everyone can be allowed to fly every day because that would overwhelm the pathways but I think the system grants access to their copters to some people more often than others. My wheels, for instance, are notably more worn-off than most people I meet, isn't that against our fundamental egalitarian ideology?'

Why am I talking so much? I'm not normally like this... never mind―it must be one of the drugs they gave me.

'Anyway, I got out and started wheeling towards my college thinking about the lecture I had prepared for today―how far we've come in just a thousand years. Humans, just a few centuries ago, used to be such soft and fragile creatures, no different from their contemporary animals. I think they started to evolve into us when they realized that mechanical limbs and organs can be way more functional than organic ones. The real breakthrough happened when they learned to produce offspring brains in the lab because, before that, we were still dependent on primitive humans to reproduce. I mean they had to get into those huge mechanical "cars" just to―'

'Can I interrupt you for a second?' she interrupted 'I don't mind this; I understand this is just a side effect of the drugs we gave you to ensure that you don't lie to us, but I'd prefer if you just told me what happened'

'Oh, right! So I was wheeling my way to the college when I felt myself accelerating involuntarily. I tried to stop but it was like I had no control over my own wheels. So I figured I need to get somewhere away from the population and run in circles till my battery runs out. I thought the Waste Recycling Unit might be a good place for this so I headed there. I got there and started going in circles but then... then I think I saw... I saw a....... a primitive.... human! She had pale skin, just like in the textbooks but with more wrinkles, and it looked like she was observing me, hiding behind a pile of waste, with the same awe that I was her. I couldn't keep my focus and crashed into something. Next, I was laying half-conscious when she came up to me and asked me to help her get back to Earth. I tried to tell her that Earth is no longer inhabitable for organic life but she kept crying. I remember her exact words; she was saying "This world isn't real! You aren't real! The real you is asleep somewhere and we need to wake you and everyone else up and leave this prison!" I must've fallen unconscious soon after that cause the next thing I remember is waking up here.'

'Just what we feared' she said after heaving a sigh. 'I can explain everything but you will never be able to leave this facility when I have. You will forgo your past life and work here for the rest of your life. Do you still want to know?'

'Do I really have a choice?' I asked skeptically.

'Well if we let you go, the Hivemind Supercomputer is sure that you'll keep wondering about what she said and tell others what you saw, threatening the integrity of our entire system so no, you don't'

'Well then, I agree to the terms'

'Very well, come with me' She did something on her wrist tablet and I felt myself in control of my body again. She got up and walked out the door with me following her.

When we got to the corridor, I almost couldn't believe my eyes. Both sides of the corridor were transparent and through them, I could see thousands of primitive humans asleep with helmets on their heads, each one inside their own separate cell. She stopped when we got to the center and looked back at me with a slight smile.

'Wha... what is this?' I asked with a seeming confusion.

'This is us.' She replied.

Upon finding me just as confused, she continued. 'Do you know how we learned to grow brains in the lab? We didn't. We still reproduce entire human beings by transferring sperm cells from male humans to female humans. We don't put human brains inside your mechanical bodies; your bodies are controlled remotely by your brains that dwell here in the Control Center. The woman that you found escaped a week ago after giving birth. We try to keep the pregnant women unconscious when we extract them from their cells when it's time to operate the offspring out but there must've been some imbalance of neurochemicals that we injected into her which also explains her paranoia when she met you.'

She paused for a second and then said 'I know this is a lot to process so whenever you're ready, we'll add your brain to the collective consciousness of the Hivemind'