FICTION: Cyborg Sleeps: Part 5

Part 4

First up - I keep posting these segments of the story as it develops, but so far I haven't had any feedback. Come on, guys - let me know if you're interested, if you want more, what you want to happen or think might happen, what does or doesn't work well in your opinions. I'm enjoying writing this, but it would really make a difference if I knew people were actually reading along and hoping for the next instalment, you know?

Anyway, this part reveals the basics of Asira's creation story. We also learn why she got so angry with Priestess Wainwright (who has a first name, but that will be revealed much further down the line).

When I first imagined Director Gattell, I pictured him as a Black man (I haven't given much of a description of him yet, but I am sure the moment will come for that), which is why he has memories of racial discrimination from his own past to compare with Asira's experiences. Although I don't expect it to come up in the course of the story, it might be that he was given the post as Director of the cyborg facility because the powers that be expected it to be a huge failure. Its success while he's been in charge has probably earned him a respect that most others of his skin colour would not receive otherwise.

Text notes done with, let's continue the story:

Part 5

Samuel Gattell reviewed once more the extensive file for Agent Asira Y. He knew her to be an immensely professional operator, whose skills were second-to-none, which made her behaviour in the waking room and in the lobby seem out of place. As director of a controversial programme on which already a number of important organisations were beginning to depend in crises, he did not like it when integral parts of that programme seemed out of sync with the rest. Asira's menacing of Priestess Wainwright was certainly a point of friction that needed to be examined, and dealt with in a more permanent and effective way than merely warning off the cyborg agent.

Although he made a point of examining intimately the details of every one of his team's files, and refreshing that knowledge regularly, it always paid to have the documents in front of him when something like this cropped up. He started, once again, at the beginning.

Asira's parents were immigrants from Indonesia while they were still young, and had been naturalised citizens by the time she was born. A highly accomplished scholar in high school, she had surprised many by eschewing the proffered scholarships to university and instead enlisting with the army at the age of 18. Gattell remembered his own struggles in higher education due to racial prejudice, and wondered if the young Asira had faced similar troubles. The ethos of the army as a unified force where all men of equal rank were treated equally, must have seemed very attractive to her.

The file told the story of her disillusionment in the ranks. All men might be treated equally, but an Asian woman who, according to the details of her training scores, frequently showed up the inadequacies of her fellow intake, was most certainly not equal. It was this report that had led Gattell six years ago to recruit Asira to the newly-formed cyborg development project, as the programme had then been known. For two years, she had toughed it out and been determined to prove that she deserved a place in the army on an even footing with everyone else – little realising that her ever-greater efforts were a part of what made everyone else so determined to drag her down and drive her out. Sam thought back to his first interview with her, and remembered realising that unless something changed in her life, she was probably on the verge of suicide. It was her strength that made him want her. It was, unfortunately, her willingness to self-destruct that had made her an ideal candidate for the earliest conversions, when it was still not sure how well anything would work out.

A year of intensive surgery and deep magic had followed for the twenty-year-old woman, much of both involving a great deal of suffering. But at the end, she had emerged as Agent Asira Y, cyborg. Her obvious intelligence and her acquired skills in the military arts had enabled her to master her new body and powers far more quickly than anyone in the programme had dared to anticipate, and as she did so her confidence and self-image had expanded accordingly. Each successful assignment had brought her greater respect and greater ability.

The Director steepled his fingers and considered this. Had Priestess Wainwright's apparent lapse in concentration triggered a memory of those earlier times, when Pvt Asira had been close to killing herself? Seeing her as she was now, and comparing it to her willingness to die if the experiment had gone wrong, he wondered whether now that she had survived those dark times she was that much more protective of her ability to shape her own destiny. It could not be easy to surrender one's soul to the suspended animation system, and leave one's body vulnerable like that. And he did, indeed, know that cyborgs feared above all else the possibility of being caught in between. Nobody knew or could say what it would be like, but all were agreed that the psyche would be torn to shreds as the spirit world and the physical world each clung on to what it could get. The worst madness of the waking mind could surely be but a shadow of that torment.

Asira's fear was completely unfounded. Everyone knew that there was no chance of a Wakening being disturbed. Both magical and technological protections mitigated against it. But the dread was still real. He had already explained carefully to the new Priestess exactly why her conduct had been inappropriate and why Asira had been angry. The Priestess had explained that she had not been in the magical trance state of spellcasting but merely meditating in the calm and quiet of the Wakening Room to clear her mind after being a conduit for the memories of so many other people as they passed into Asira's head. The Director had considered telling this to the cyborg, but he knew that she would neither have accepted such an explanation, nor the assurance that Wainwright would know better next time. Besides, if she had a grievance with anyone, she knew that she had to discuss it with him first and not try to take matters into her own hands like this.

So, what now? He sighed, considering the possibilities. He could let things run their course and see what developed over the next few days. He could try bringing Asira and Wainwright together in a formal grievance proceeding (although that in itself would be tricky since the paperwork would require that Wainwright be described as the one bringing the grievance, since Asira hadn't reported it to him but acted on her own). He could try to engineer a meeting between the two in controlled circumstances, either with or without their prior knowledge.

The Director thought about the relationship between Asira and Priest Jacobs. He knew there was tension there, but that the two of them respected one another's professionalism. Both Asira and Wainwright were highly accomplished professionals in their field, Wainwright being one of the youngest clinical magicians ever to make it to Priestess grade. He could allow this one to play out on its own for a little while at least, he thought.

Then he looked again at some of the requisition requests coming in from the team in conference room D, and reconsidered.