CHAPTER VI 06-4 — The Death of O’Neill
Space: Alien site within the Nazca Lines. Inside the starship.
Time: 01.08.22. 08:00:01 UTC–5.
Setting: External-to-internal contact, SAI recording.
>Niajin: symbionic link inactive.
Direct neural interface: offline.
Peripheral photonic feather: activation detected.
Symbionic communication channel: now open.
> symbion.link: engaged
> sensory_field: merged
> identity_coherence: stable
> symbionic_state: now active
“I am listening. You are the human entity I am programmed to serve. I am Quetzal, a starship for hyperspace flight.”
“The WO has sent a commander. He is ready to take position at the command station.”
“As you command, I will activate the station. If I may, there is something you should know…”
“Unfortunately, I cannot act on this. These are orders from the WO.”
“I understand that you cannot act on this, but the commander is at risk of serious harm during the neural contact between him and me. Only the human entity Eugene, and you, were chosen to come into contact with the Founders. The Founders built me: my programming does not include the participation of human beings in the command of hyperspace travel. This could lead to serious consequences.”
“How is it that you and I are in contact, and yet I do not seem to suffer any serious consequences? Am I not also a human being?”
“Your physiology is compatible with mine. Moreover, you have had the proper interface to communicate with me since you were a child. You have been trained to interact between your mind and a biomechanical organism. You were chosen for these reasons, and for others that I cannot reveal at this moment. A direct contact between the new commander’s mind and my bionic neural networks may trigger neural activity levels a human brain cannot withstand. Human beings are far beneath the mental capacities of the Founders.
You have been in symbiosis with a cerebral interface, called an implant, for your entire life. The adaptation process has been slow, progressive, and balanced. You can do it; human beings cannot. As for the command station, in symbiotic communication the conditions are very different: a defective and limited encephalon may produce severe side effects, up to lethal cerebral damage.”
“I fear their orders will not be revoked in light of what you say.”
“I am programmed to obey your orders, therefore I will do as you wish. I will attempt to establish a primitive neural connection with the new commander. My system will do what it can to avoid lesions, but I fear it will not be enough: much will depend on the characteristics of the receiving organism. Many functions already established with you might be compromised. This could lead to mission failure.”
“There is nothing at all I can do. I do not think they are capable of understanding what you are telling me: to them I am an ordinary indigenous girl, slightly more developed than average. They know nothing about me and are not interested. They think that a trained pilot is far superior to my abilities.”
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“You have not yet understood the full extent of your abilities. One day you will.”
“There is nothing at all I can do. Soon you will have to establish the connection with Commander O’Neill.”
“All this makes no sense to me.”
“Nor to me, but these are the orders. Otherwise, the WO threatens to break the agreement.”
John O’Neill, a young scion of the GWO with an impressive record of space missions despite his age, was genuinely proud: he had been chosen as commander of the alien starship. He had been summoned for the first test in the ship’s command room and could not wait to connect mentally to the system. Two officers accompanied him.
The connection process began. In the first phase, the command station took shape: a system of luminous threads emerged from the floor of the room and wrapped around the new commander. The receiving organism was lifted from the ground and almost embraced by the sensors. At the level of the hands, numerous terminations resembling the dendrites of large neurons were arranged for manual inputs. At the nape, his head connected to the SAI system through his hair, allowing direct communication through thought. Once the neural connection was complete, the starship was under the commander’s directives.
The system activation had already been prepared on Niajin’s indication, as she communicated with the starship in a fully symbiotic way, being herself the mind of the vessel.
The station lit up with the same iridescent glow as the photonic feathers. The commander’s mind received one impulse, then another, and another again. A bundle of optical fibres enveloped him, surrounding him with sensors that connected to his brain and his arms. The system interacted with him through the holographic surface of a supercomputer, which allowed him to modify every setting of the starship, with the assistance of the crew officers. The system, however, was extremely powerful, and during the contact John felt a growing discomfort due to the enormous flow of information pouring into his encephalon.
The connection was established.
A violent impulse crossed the commander’s body, and he collapsed. A technician bent over him. No response. His heart was beating, but his brain activity was disturbed and chaotic.
> merge_density: excessive
> cognitive_overlap: unstable
> host_integrity: at risk
> symbionic_state: critical
“Cut the link!”
A grimace of pain appeared on his face. Immediately after, the commander lost consciousness, and the man–machine link shut down. It went dark within seconds, but it was already too late.
> interface_stability: failing
> neural_alignment: incomplete
> host_response: non-coherent
> symbionic_state: aborting
The connections and fibres detached from the now inert body of John O’Neill. His human mind had not endured the trauma of the implant.
> vital_signs: altered
> cardiac_output: non-perfusive (fibrillation)
> brain_activity: 0
> status: brain_death
Two hours later, in the medical bay, the report confirmed: Commander O’Neill was in a vegetative state. His brain waves were irreversibly compromised. He had suffered systemic encephalic damage. No possibility of recovery.
The command room remained empty. No one wanted to enter it anymore.
Commander John O’Neill was dead, due to irreversible brain damage caused by the connection. His flawed human mind had been unable to withstand it.
In the following days, the autopsy established nothing more than instantaneous cerebral death, caused by the connection with an advanced alien device. This was the only explanation the physicians could provide.
And now no one wanted to become commander of the starship anymore. No one except Eugene, of course. If previously a position of great prestige had been available, now a sacrificial test subject was required, knowing that he had been built for this very purpose. And the GWO found itself forced to make a decision it had never wanted to make: to entrust the mission command to a stereogenic product like Eugene — someone they were not certain they could fully control, yet clearly the only person in the world capable of performing that task.
