A Transhuman Chronicle the Rainbow by Mike Kay
The Rainbow is an ancient and powerful phenomenon. Currently, the Rainbow has been reduced to a maligned symbol, by the most mendacious and malevolent elements in this dying society...
Lena stared into the mirror. Her eyes locked with their reflection, a pale blue bright and clear. Nowhere within them was the slightest hint of the thoughts, the concerns, or even the odd sign of those deep processes that occupied her every waking moment.
She tilted the mirror ever so slightly, and beyond her image, she saw him sitting in his mechanical cart at the table. The drapes at the window were tastefully tied back, allowing the warm sun to stream in, bathing the synthetic flesh of his right arm in full spectrum light.
He worked the keyboard with metal fingers, three to each hand, with a drone like efficiency. The screen before him flashed images, text, and numbers in rapid succession. The doctors had told her that his linear processing would be significantly enhanced, an improvement all cyborgs experienced.
She tossed her hair, a rich deep blonde, and strode over to him. He had always loved her hair, but now the cyborg didn’t even look up; “How are you doing, Jace?”
The cyborg continued with the rapidly flashing screen. “I am downloading files, Lena, and the process is going along quite well. I estimate that I will have complete access to behavior profiles in less than two days.”
She could see the dizzying procession of flashing images in the reflection of his new synthetic eyes. His biological eyes had failed despite all efforts of the doctors and technicians to save them. The transition seemed to disturb only her. The synthetic eyes were an obviously artificial blue, something that reminded her of the lens on motorcycle headlights. She did not know how to put this disturbance into words, but she could not pretend that the loss of his real eyes was a small thing. Her fragile hope that Jace was saved from a terrible fate, or even saved at all was shattered. She blinked, suddenly aware that the synth eyes were upon her.
“Lena,” he continued with biological vocal chords. “I believe that the transition from your biological husband into a machine based unit will satisfy your need for companionship once I have fully integrated all the stored aspects of Jace’s behavior. Currently, the behavior files are including quirks and phobias, of which I have to say he had many. In the meantime, please continue to refer to me as Jace. This will psychologically aid the transition”.
The cyborg attempted a smile, but the expression seemed stilted, based upon algorithms and probabilities rather than any genuine feeling of warmth. That contrived smile contrasted so completely with the smile she remembered…
The day, so sunny and promising, had quickly developed into an afternoon downpour. They were caught upon the street now shining wet under the darkened sky. Chortling, they ran to the safety of a storefront awning. The world grew tiny, a grey sheen all around them from the roaring rain. Her eyes were locked into his, when suddenly, a great tearing sound erupted from their canvas ceiling, and the rain it had held splashed upon them in a great rush. Unable to help herself, her hand over her mouth, she burst into tremendous laughter. Jace stood there, his hair plastered to his face, just smiling…
She beheld that cyborg smile. Quite suddenly she knew, as much as she had ever known anything, that the Jace smile that danced in her heart was gone-forever.
The cyborg was speaking with Jace’s vocal chords, yet it was not Jace’s voice. It was disconcerting, hearing a facsimile of his natural tenor “…The doctors have created a personality reboot protocol whereby Jace’s history is completed before behavior is fully integrated. Their opinion is that memory is a better bridge to cyborg integration than behavior.”