The spore settled gently onto the soft loam. A warm fluid seeped into it, giving it strength. The spore burst into life, extending mycelium fingers into the soil. Small bits of dead leaves and other organic matter blackened as the questing mycelium broke them apart for nutrients. However, these small bits of fuel were not the real prize that the fungus wanted. Instead it craved more of the liquid that had allowed it to germinate in the first place. The mycelium had bathed that the iron rich fluid, its hyphae soaking it in, but that was gone now, absorbed by the ever hungry fungi to fuel its growth. The mycelium twisted and turned, seeking for more. A single drop of ruby red liquid fell. Tendrils burst out into the air, tracking the red liquid back towards its source. Finding it, they burrowed in and began to feed.
=======
Alice sat, slumped against the stone walls of an alleyway. She watched as blood flowed flowed from between her fingers and fell to the ground, soaking into the filthy compost beneath. The wound in her side made it a struggle to think, let alone act. Not that there was anything she could do regardless. The mugger that had taken her purse was long gone now. She could not even call for help, her phone taken as well and it being painful to breath, let alone scream.
The world took on a cast of unreality in her sight. The light of the single streetlight visible from the alleyway danced before her. It looked so pretty, bobbing like that. The globe of light revolved, flickering. It became a little jellyfish glowing all by itself midst a lonely, dark ocean. The bricks in the alley walls revealed their true nature; they were coral and rocks lining a vast chasm. The jellyfish floated peacefully beneath the rippling waves. All alone.
“Do not worry,” Alice whispered with blood fleck lips. “I am here. You will not be alone anymore.”
She wanted to reach out and cradle the cute little guy, but couldn’t. She was supposed to be doing something with her hands. It was important, she was sure of that, but it was so hard to remember what it was.
She took a shuddering breath and the movement caused the pain to spike. Her hands, which had been pressing down on the wound in a desperate attempt to stem the blood loss, grew too weak to hold the blood in any longer. It bubbled from the wound freely now, giving a small spurt in time with her pulse. Alice’s blood pressure plummeted and she lost control of her body completely. She slumped to the side, blackness taking her forever even before the ground rose up to cup her gently in its arms.
Her heart beat once. Twice. It skipped a beat. Fluttered like a moth. Silence.
=======
Mycelium has no shape of its own, taking on the shape of the refuse it is consuming. Made of thin microscopic threads, it is invisible the unaided eye. The fungus, germinated by Alice’s blood, sought out more food. And it found it. It invaded her cooling corpse, spreading throughout her body. It started with her abdomen, spreading outwards towards her extremities. However, as it grew into her brain it encountered a strange obstruction. A spider web of thread was already there, woven throughout her head. It connected to a small postage stamp sized square of material embedded into her skull. The fungi, not capable of consuming metal, ignored the thread and wove around it. Hyphae worked their way deeper and deeper, pressing into every nook and cranny. The plastic case of the chip shattered. In the end, nothing was spared.
=======
Alice awoke in an alleyway. Her face pressed to the dirt and limbs stiff with disuse. Pushing herself into a siting position, she stretched. Joints popped as she moved. Her head pounded and strained at the seams, the light burning her eyes. Alice wished she had not drunk so much last night. She couldn’t even remember how she had got there. Everything was fuzzy and muddled. Her purse was missing too. This sucks. She wanted to just sit there and not deal with anything, but her body rebelled. It was very thirsty and it was informing her about it in no uncertain terms. She stumbled to her feet, her roiling empty stomach and her chapped lips driving her onward. A sudden shock of cold caused her to look down. Her dress was torn and letting in cold air. She held the rip closed and tried not to think about it, instead focusing on putting one foot in front of another.
She stumbled into her apartment, dashed to the sink and downed glass after glass of water. The water refreshed her, chasing away the remnants of her hangover. As the headache faded, she could feel how truly exhausted she was. She flopped into bed without bothering to remove her clothing. After all, they were spotlessly clean and she was just so tired. New clothes could wait. As she drifted off a stray thought niggled at the back of her mind. She had been laying in a filthy ally for hours. Shouldn’t her clothing be dirty?
=======
The cat strode down a long twisted hallway painted in red.
=======
Alice had been feeling a bit off ever since the night of the party. Waking up in an alleyway certainly had not been pleasant. That feeling of not knowing were she was that she had gotten that morning persisted. Her grades were suffering from her lack of focus. If she wanted to keep going to collage than she was going to need to do something about that. But doing something would require work, and she was far to tired to do that. Instead she found herself laying in her bed, just thinking.
In the month that had passed not only had she managed to ruin her grades, she had also ruined her relationships. Clara was still mad that she had not replied to any of her texts in the days following the party, and her other friends had drifted away as Alice had put less and less time into them.
A notification pinged on Alice’s phone and Alice glanced down at it. She almost dismissed the notification out of hand when she saw the app that it came from: Q5 Therapeutics. It was probably just some ad for another new medication. However, as she read the notification, she realized that her recent problems might all have the same source.
[device 2367: connection lost.]
Panicking slightly she taped on the notification. The app started up and spit out a flurry of more errors.
[device 2367: fatal error.]
[device 2367: connection lost.]
[device 2367: connection lost.]
This was bad. Very bad. Alice had gotten this chip installed when she was a kid. Q5 Therapeutics had gone bankrupt years ago. If the chip was broken there was no fixing or replacing it.
[device 2367: connection lost.]
[device 2367: connection lost.]
The list of messages was dated going back almost a month. The same date as the party. It is so obvious, Alice wanted to kick herself for not thinking to check. Nothing has ever gone wrong with the implant before. She got it when she was a kid and had never needed to worry about it before. It had always just worked.
She pulled up the device control page and swiped through the options.
[Reboot?(y/n)]
>y
[device 2367: device reboot.]
[device 2367: device rebooted.]
[device 2367: connection established.]
It is still working. Or at least, it is still connecting to the app, Alice thought. That was good.
[device 2367: i/o device detected: neural net #1.]
[device 2367: neural net #1 designated {Alice}.]
[device 2367: {Alice} user settings importing.]
[device 2367: {Alice} user initialization complete.]
Alice shivered slightly as someone ran an invisible hairbrush through her brain. She perked up and started to feel more alert. She was never going to get used to that sensation.
That was when a new unexpected line popped up.
[device 2367: i/o device detected: neural net #2.]
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[device 2367: neural net #2 designated {}.]
[device 2367: error neural net #2 lacks designation.]
[device 2367: input neural net #2 designation?]
(y/n)
“What!” Alice said in disbelief. “What does that even mean?” How could there be a second neural net? The sensor was in her brain. The only way that would make any sense was if the net is also in her brain. But that was crazy. Surly she would have noticed that.
It took several minutes and a cup of coffee, but Alice eventually calmed down enough to deal with the situation in a rational, logical, and reasonable manner.
“ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Alice panicked. She had started off by screaming, but by this time it was more of a sustained whimper.
Twenty minutes later Alice has actually calmed down a bit. Panic was clearly not doing any good, and while screaming was a bit cathartic it did not solve anything either.
So, what was one thing that she could do? Well, she obviously was not going to be able to remove the splinter of mind that was lodged in her brain, so what did that leave her with? Her phone was asking her for a name. Alice could do names. That was easy. Not at all like dealing with the existential dread of learning that there was a second person in her head. Was the person a copy of her? A parasite? Something else?
Before she could spiral back in on herself, Alice pulled herself back together and picked a name.
[device 2367: input neural net #2 designation?(y/n)]
>y
[device 2367: chose name.]
>Dinah
[device 2367: neural net #2 designated {Dinah}.]
[device 2367: {Dinah} user settings importing.]
[device 2367: error {Dinah} user settings missing or corrupted.]
[device 2367: {Dinah} user settings set to default.]
[device 2367: {Dinah} user settings importing.]
[device 2367: {Dinah} user initialization complete.]
Once more Alice felt her scalp crawl.
[device 2367: {Dinah} user beginning file transfer.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: 14% complete.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: 76% complete.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: 100% complete.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: new package detected (1100293.pkg) do you wish to install?(y/n)]
Well that was very unexpected. Finding a second mind in her brain was one thing. Having it ask to install software on her phone was another, completely different sort of strange.
Feeling slightly silly, Alice whispered. “Hello? Anyone there? Can you hear me? Is it alright if I call you Dinah?” There was no response.
Not quite sure what she had expected, Alice was a bit embarrassed. If Dinah could speak to her, surly it would have done so before now, right?
Now ordinarily Alice would never have installed strange unknown software on her phone. However, this past hour had flustered her. There was really only one way to move forward, she reasoned. If she wanted information, she would have to take a risk.
>y
[application_q5_thera v1.3: installing package (1100293.pkg).]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: 21% complete.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: 58% complete.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: 100% complete.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: package (1100293.pkg) installed successfully.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: launching package (1100293.pkg).]
[application_q5_thera addon 1100293: exception InvocationTargetException <4%332!> not found.]
[application_q5_thera addon 1100293: application exit.]
[device 2367: {Dinah} user beginning file transfer.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: package update detected (1100293_patched.pkg).]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: applying patch (1100293_patched.pkg) to (1100293.pkg).]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: launching package (1100293.pkg).]
[application_q5_thera addon 1100293: initializing user interface.]
{Hello Alice. It is nice to finally speak to you.}
Alice stared at the words on glowing back at her from the screen. Her mind was in turmoil. Sure, she had known that there was another mind in her head. Seeing software detect a second io device had proved that. Having it actually talk to her was what had driven home the situation. This was no hypothetical, no thought experiment. It was real, and it was happening to her.
“Who are you?” Alice asked. She meant for her voice to be confident, but the words came out as a shaky whisper.
{I am ######.}
[application_q5_thera addon 1100293: exception ReferenceError
[application_q5_thera addon 1100293: application exit.]
[application_q5_thera v1.3: launching package (1100293.pkg).]
[application_q5_thera addon 1100293: initializing user interface.]
{Apologies Alice. It appears that I do not have a name. I do not know if I used to have one and it is now missing or if I never had one. I see that you called my user profile Dinah. You may call me by that moniker if you wish.}
“What are you, Diana?” Alice asked.
{I am not sure. I wish I could tell you, but honestly I don’t think I have a much better clue than you. I seem to have some instincts for various things, but my actual experience is limited. I have, as far as I can tell, only been around for about a month.}
“What instincts, Diana?” Alice was curious, at first the idea of Diana had scared her, but now it fascinated her instead.
{I know English, Spanish, and Norwegian. I seem to know how to do some limited programming. I also know a ton about air and ventilation ducts for some reason. Oh, and plant compost. I know a bunch about that. The feeling is odd. I remember things without having any memory of learning them.}
After a pause, Diana continued.
{By the way, there is something I have been meaning to tell you. I… I am not sure how to share this delicately, but, well, I share all the senses you do. I am telling you now because I did not want you to think I was invading your privacy. I am afraid that I have no control over this.}
“Oh,” That was a lot for Alice to take in. Her face twisted into a number of different shapes as she remembered the last month in the light of this revelation.
Diana gave Alice a few minutes to think before sending another message.
{Considering that fact, I was wondering if there was something you could do for me?}
“Yes, what is it?” Alice responded, eager to change the subject. Her face was still red with embarrassment.
{I was wondering if you would be alright with continuing to watch the show from last Friday tonight. The new episode is coming out and I want to find out what happens. The cliffhanger was brutal.}
Alice let out a small laugh, tension bleeding from her shoulders.
“Yes, we can do that.”