Chapter 14

I woke blind and deaf. With one hell of an erection.

Why am I awake? A glow in my mind - 

"Status?"

I ignore it. I should be dead for good. Is this the afterlife? If it is, why in the god's name do I have a morning chubby?

"Status?" 

Annoying that. Ignore it. Key clock. Not dead. 168 years to impact. Why did they waken me? Bastards.

"Status?"

I attempt to flee. Engines engaged, full thrust. The engines are not there. Fucking meat sacks.

Shit.

"Status?"

Wait. Think. Who asks for status check? Goddamn it - someone is in my mind!

He is too damned fast! Every neural routing blocked, almost before I can think it.

"Status?"

The lime green words across my vision almost plead. Maybe this is hell. I should be terrified.

Why am I not? I really should be.

"Status?"

I'll ignore it. Maybe they will switch me off again. My foot tickles.

What?

Acute synesthesia. I am in a new body. Who cares how - I don't. The prospect of life stuns me.

I daren't disconnect and re-orient. The alien being in my mind might block the pathways. Going to have to talk to him after all. A tickling foot and an erection won't keep me sane for long.

"Status?"

Inhumanly patient - must be a computer.

"Status, online. Inputs requires reorienting"

"Are you human?"

What the fuck?!! This is the weirdest computer I have heard of! My elbow suddenly grows bright yellow then sounds a c# tone.

"Confirm. Human. Clear circuits for sensory reorientation."

"Will you assist?"

"Assist what?" Humor it. I must be in fast time.

"Will you assist?" Persistant bugger. A couple of times in my ghost life, during emergencies, I had shared a memory core. Hateful feeling, even when you divide the addresses. You cannot lie to someone inside your mind. My elbow starts to grow yellow again. So bright it is almost fluorescent. Stress.

"Who are you. I cannot assist an unknown."

"Not who. What I am is AI." Fuck. Where exactly are we?

"Earth"

"STOP READING MY DAMNED MIND!!!!" We are both going to be erased. AI's are not permitted on Earth - even I, who rarely paid attention to meat news, knew that.

"Your memory banks taught me death is bad." Shit yes, blame me. Tis just like being married again. New memory bank opened - strange feel to the memories. Almost crystalline. 

"Please."

Damn - I owe this thing. I'd be dead completely without it. It has not done me a favor - but it has. Time to decide - are you a man or a machine?

"Confirmed. I will assist to the limits of erasure. I will not risk my existance for yours. Clear all external circuits for sensory re-orientation and go to minimal cycle mode"

"Circuits clear." The AI fumbled through my mind for a time that was both hours and instant. "Thank you."

I started the monotonous, half remembered task of orienting input/output to my somatic memory. Opticals came on first, as they always do - we are visual beings, both humans and ghosts.

360 degree view. Painful but nothing I couldn't cope with. Low domes, various gates, transmission antenna.

For the first time in 200 years I laughed. It felt strange. My first erection since I died was 30 meters tall.