“So?”
I shook my head and waited for his inspiration. He struck another irritatingly thoughtful pose.
“Stress and anxiety are deeply rooted problems in society,” he replied calmly, “while they respond to drugs, these don’t correct the underlying issues. Medical science has found ways to fix most major diseases, but the mind is a tricky thing.”
“I agree, so what are you saying?”
I was about to lose it. How in the hell did this guy get his medical degree? I just wanted to get on with my day and he was launching into some discussion on metaphysics. He adjusted himself in his seat, clearly miffed I hadn’t let him dive off onto whatever tangent he was about to wander off on.
“There is a new synthetic reality system that we’ve been testing with select clients,” he began, raising his hands to fend off my objections, “before you say anything, there are no implants, not really anyway. You’ve already used the delivery nanobots, and this is just one step further.”
I wagged my head slightly. “Okay...”
“All you do is swallow a pill with a glass of water. Nanoscale devices called ‘smarticles’ in the pill diffuse through your body and attach themselves to your neural system. They’re able to modify signals flowing through your neurons…”
“Look, I don’t need the details,” I interrupted, shaking my head again. I hated technical mumbo-jumbo.
He stopped and looked at me before continuing, “Okay, but if you ever decide you don’t like or want it anymore, a simple verbal command deactivates the whole thing and it washes back out of your system and is excreted. It’s as simple as that.”
Excrement. Several ideas linking the good doctor to excrement sprang immediately to mind. He smiled, but now I smiled back. I was excited. I’d suddenly realized what it was he was describing.
“And this has been tested?” I asked.
This must be the new Atopian Cognix system we were pitching at the office. It wasn’t on the market yet, but I knew they were doing highly restricted trials. I brightened up. It looked like someone on top had given me the nod. Maybe I would win the account after all.
“The system has been in clinical trials for years now and is fairly well understood. I can’t give you the brand name, but that shouldn’t make any difference. Does it?”
I was sure he knew I knew what he was talking about, but he had to go through the motions anyway. I played along, knowing that all this would be reviewed by someone at Cognix as soon as I gave my consent.
“No, not really, but if you say it’ll help,” I replied, trying to conceal my glee. I wondered if he would be feeding me any of my own marketing spiel.
“One of the major modern causes of stress and anxiety is advertising.” He paused, knowing I was an advertising executive. “My recommendation is that you should use this system to remove advertising from your environment for a time, see how you feel.”
“Sure, that sounds like a good idea,” I agreed.
He seemed unsure whether I was being sarcastic or not, but could sense my mood lightening. He shrugged slightly.
“Anyway, I’d recommend that you try it out. Should I fill in a prescription for its usage?”
Absolutely you will. “So I’ll have complete control over it?”
“Of course.”
There was a pause while we looked at each other.
“Are you ready?”
“What, now?”
“Yes, now, if you’re ready...”
Another pause, and then I slowly nodded.
He stood, holding a small package in one hand, and then turned to pick up a paper cup that he filled from a small sink behind his desk. Walking around his desk he stood in front of me and leaned back on his desk, handing me the paper cup and a small white tablet.
“Just swallow this. It includes a sedative to help keep you immobile during the initial data gathering session. This isn’t required to activate the system. It’s simply a part of the trial program.”
I took the pill and paper cup from him. He looked me directly in the eye.
“Olympia, do you give your consent to give your personal data to the program?”
Of course I did. I nodded again.
“This includes background personal data, you understand?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“As a beta system, we won’t be able to activate it today. You’ll have to come back later in the week, but we can install it now,” said the doctor.
I took the cup and pill from him and studied them briefly, then popped the pill into my mouth and washed it down.
“Okay so now what?” I demanded, handing the empty cup back to him.
“Follow me,” he replied.
He stood up and led me out of his office and into a smaller room with a human-shaped pod in it. It looked like one of those old tanning beds.
“Now you need to completely undress,” he said.
I quickly and lazily complied. The sedative was already taking hold and my brain had started swimming peacefully. I laid down into the pod and the slightly gooey gel inside it conformed around my body.
“Now just relax.” He lowered the top of the enclosure.
I felt it suction onto me, completely enveloping my body. In a semi-lucid dream state I could remember feeling tiny fingers probing and tickling me, lights and patterns flashing in my eyes and sounds like some kind of hearing test. My muscles twitched as small electric shocks seemed to race back and forth across my body. Sweet and salty liquids washed through my mouth as my nostrils filled with acrid smoke, and the whole thing cycled hot to cold and back again.
I quickly fell asleep, and dreamt of flying above fields of golden daisies, with sunshine filling a perfect golden sky. I dreamt of babies with blue eyes, alive but never living, their blue eyes filling blue seas with blue pain.
4
“Olympia…”
“Olympia,” came the voice again.
I was floating, peacefully alone, and some pestering thing had broken the tranquility. My brain tried to ignore it, but then there it was once more, “Olympia?”
I reluctantly opened my eyes to see an angel hovering above me, an angel that strangely reminded me of my cat, Mr. Tweedles. No wait, not an angel, it was a nurse. That’s right. I was back at the doctor’s office getting that thing activated, and they’d sedated me again. I closed my eyes, bringing up a hand to rub them, and then opened them again and sighed heavily.
“Yes?” I responded groggily. Irritably.
“Seems like someone needed a little more sleepy time,” laughed the nurse. “Come on, I’ll get you up and dressed.”
I propped myself up on my elbows and frowned at her. “How long was I out?”
“Hmm...” she considered, “about two hours I’d say. Everything seems to be working perfectly. In fact we’ve just activated the system. Your proxxi will explain everything to you once you get home. I would have woken you sooner but you just seemed so peaceful.”
“Yeah, well, thanks for that,” I said, swinging my legs off the side of the pod as I sat up, pushing off her attempts to handle me. Shrugging, she handed me my clothes.
“I can take it from here, thank you very much,” I stated flatly and aggressively, waving her away.
She took a look at me and narrowed her eyes slightly, but then her smile returned and she shrugged again and began to walk out.
“I’m going to bring you in to speak to the doctor before you leave okay? He needs to have a final word,” she said as she went through the door.
I finished getting dressed and walked out into the hallway. The nurse was watching me carefully from a distance, studying me. Silly cow. I stopped at the doctor’s office and half hung my head inside, making sure he could sense my need to get a move on.