“The accelerated rates at which the BAT procedure has been performed, allowed for three billion humans to enter virtual space. The list of sick people is finally getting through and soon we may witness a world devoid of humans. As robots fueled by powerful A.I. starts to replace most of the jobs, it’s expected that by the end of th-”.
“Let’s go Anna, time for you to get your procedure,” the mom, Kathleen, is taking her cancer sick daughter to do the BAT procedure. “Mommy will follow some time later, so you’ll have to manage on your own, okay?”.
“Yes mom,” Anna, five years old at the time, will become the youngest human to undergo the BAT procedure. “Will daddy be in there?”.
“No honey, we talked about it. Your dad couldn’t get in time, so you’ll have to sit a bit alone in there, okay?”. Her father has died of a similar blood cancer she has, and didn’t make it in time, as the sick list of people was still a long time away.
The two of them made their way through thousands of cars going in the same place. When they arrived, tens of thousands of people were waiting. Their due date was a month from their arrival. Since the procedure is being done so fast, some people may get ahead, and since they don’t keep count of their assigned dates they gave people, it meant that the next person in line had to be there. If not, they had to reschedule, which might take anywhere from a few months, to a few years, especially for someone who is sick.
When Anna and Katherine arrived, there were tents and even small houses built around the clinic, which was built with all sorts of access roads to it. This was in order to make it as widely available as possible, while also maintaining the efficiency. Hundreds of procedures were done each hour, and from all of them, around 0.1% were unsuccessful. This was usually due to equipment being overused, as well as the mind of the one undergoing the procedure being too hard for the computer to decode, which could result in failure, and ultimately the mind is lost in the middle of it all.
Trucks, filled with the empty bodies of people, were leaving in four and five groups. Anna could catch a glimpse of their limbs hanging loosely from the inside. Once closer to the clinic, people were seen as dirty, miserable and exhausted. Some were waiting for weeks, some for months, all for the chance to be uploaded into the digital world.
Anna was having second thoughts about undergoing the procedure, but was reassured by Katherine, who knew a few of their relatives who underwent the procedure just fine. Katherine took out a tent of their own, and stationed closer. Some people warned her that it may be dangerous at night where she stood, but she felt like those people were just trying to get her where cops weren’t looking, so they could mug her or something. Food was being supplied from the clinic and trucks would arrive periodically. Katherine has prepared some food and water, but was sure that the supplies which would come should help them get through the month without issue. However, people were taking more food than it was allocated, and by the time it reached the clinic, near where they were, most of the food was gone, only bits and scraps left from the bags being ripped open.
The first week went by relatively fast, compared to the rest of the month. By the end of it, both of them felt exhausted and ready to go home, but for Anna, there was no going back. Once she stood there for more than a week, her treatment would be rendered useless, and if she tried to get some more, the cancer had the risk of getting stronger against it. This was their chance to get her better, and if Katherine couldn’t get her inside the virtual world, she would die.
Another week went by, and Anna started to show the signs of her medication being missing. Weakness, fatigue, she was getting bruised easier and bleeding all of a sudden from parts of her body. Katherine was disturbed by the way her daughter looked, but had faith that it would be alright once they were inside. Anna was still lively and enjoyed from time to time to play with some other people from around. Her mother has warned her not to wander too far when she was asleep, since that became more and more often, but Anna still did as she wanted, and at one point, injured her arm. The bleeding hardly stopped, and she had to stay in the bed for the next week, as infections started to appear faster.
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The fourth week was the hardest for both of them. Anna was suffering on a daily basis, and she had constant fevers. Katherine had to stay awake most of the time, so that Anna may not scratch herself or such, resulting in bleeding and infections.
Then, at long last, one day before their date being due, they were called inside the clinic. There, all sorts of medication and supplies were present. Katherine could even see some that were specifically for blood cancer. When she asked the reasons as to why there was all that medication, yet providing none for the people, all she got was a cold shoulder. Anna has been put on medication the moment she was brought in, hoping that they could prolong her life and ease her suffering. Katherine didn’t understand why they weren’t just doing the procedure, until one of the doctors told her that in order for this to be free, they had to make use of any body parts that were still useful. And since she had blood cancer, most of her body was deemed useless. The most they could use were her muscles and some parts of her organs.
Katherine was horrified, but it was the price they had to pay in order to preserve her, and ultimately her mind. Slowly, they went through corridors, the lights spreading a sterile look to the place, while the smell was one you would expect from a hospital. In a corner, as they were going into the central corridor, Katherine could see buckets of blood filled to the brim. She was starting to get second thoughts as well, even though she tried to prepare herself for it. The doctors told her not to worry, as that was the blood from people who got their organs removed, and sometimes there would be some mess around. Not everybody had the time to have their blood drained, so they had to be cut open on the spot.
Going further in the central corridor, she could see dark rooms, where thick cables were coming out of, doctors and nurses moving all around. Some were wearing goggles to protect their eyes, while others were noting things in their pads. There were people that weren’t doctors, those who made the machineries. They were working on them as the procedures were still going, and changing bits and pieces. This worried her, but was assured that the machinery which Anna would be connected to, wasn’t like the others, it was a perfectly functional, automated one. The quantum computer attached to it, was also one of the newest ones. This, however, didn’t manage to calm her down, as it could mean that the computer or some other part of the machine, being newer and less tested, could result in unforeseen consequences and such.
The doctors kept assuring her, while she was continuing to doubt her decision. The doctors reminded her that her daughter’s life was already at risk of being lost, since her treatment was interrupted and the cancer was spreading really fast. Katherine was thinking that if she signed the death of her daughter, she could at least have the decency of burying her body still whole. However, she had no more time to think, as they were inside the operation room. A large machine, with a large monitor, some smaller ones at the sides for the doctors to see, cables leading up and metal plates placed in random places, stood above the table on which Anna was going to be placed.
To the left of the room, there was a smaller room with windows. There, the doctors and those which made the machine stood at. Katherine was advised to stay there, but she could also stay by the side of Anna if she so wanted. The lights coming from the inside of the machine might prove a little much for her eyes, but she was willing to take the risk, as that was the last time she might see her daughter how she was, before entering the virtual world.
The doors closed behind, and the machine started to go down slowly. Katherine and Anna exchanged some words before Anna was fully enveloped by it. Every connection, every neuron and memory attached to them, were all virtualized and moved through electrical patterns and impulses into the computer. The procedure didn’t take long, and Katherine could see it from the screen at the front, while the light inside pierced through and blinded her for a few moments. The mind was being moved, in order to perform it though, the machine had to translate her neurons into her own special patterns and designs. And in order to trick the mind that it was being moved, the neurons were being burnt once it was confirmed that they were moved. Since Anna could see inside the machine once enough neuronal patterns were moved, once they started to burn her actual neurons, it felt as if all was being moved away from her body. This, in turn, meant that if the procedure failed, then a second attempt would not be possible, as she wouldn’t have the biological structure for it.
Her mom could watch on a smaller monitor to the right how far the progress went, and to her left, how her body was being remade in the virtual world. The machine went fast, from twenty, to forty, then sixty and incrementally to ninety. When it hit ninety though, the doctors and other men inside the room rushed out and tried to stop the machine. Katherine panicked, thinking they must’ve failed to do it, but it was all just in order to preserve the body, as the machine, if it stood for too long, would radiate and render the body useless. Once more, Katherine was speechless, but they then handed her a tablet, where they could talk with her daughter, who was inside the space. She wasn’t aware of it, and thought those virtualized had to stay inside the space, but she could talk with her via a remote connection. This was thanks to the new advancements, allowing those that underwent through the machine which Anna did to remotely, and intimately, share a connection with their relatives.
Katherine took the tablet and left happy, as her daughter had the same vibrance and life she did before cancer. Katherine died in the real world one year later as she was driving to the clinic, people starting to kill each other in an attempt to speed up their own BAT procedure.