All is Fair

Extract from Datafiles compiled by Personality Construct - Jacob Tan

Date: September 21st, V26

I woke up, my body feeling leaden and my head aching. The light in the room I lay in was dimmed, giving some respite to eyes only newly opened.

“He’s awake!” said a woman’s voice and a darkly complexioned face appeared before me, eyes wide but full of concern mixed with relief. “How are you feeling, Jacob?” she said to me.

I searched my memories and found a name. Rajeshri, a woman I had been in love with in another life. My own name bubbled to the surface ..... Jacob... Jacob Tan.

“I feel very good, Rajeshri” I responded and her face lit up with delight.

“You remembered!” she gushed. “The doctors were so worried you may have forgotten everything after the attack”

“The attack?” I asked her. I could not recall any attack.

“You were caught up in the terrorist attacks on Pan City” said a different woman’s voice, deeper and more mature. I moved my head and saw her standing near the door, a tall female Guard Clone, a Jill. She was in the usual dark blue uniform they always wore, but no armour and no weapons.

“A patrol found you badly injured near one of the battle scenes, your head cut open in the fighting” the Jill continued. “They got you to a medical facility and the only way to save your life was to implant a cerebral processor. It handles stuff the missing parts of your brain used to”

I reached up and touched my skull, feeling fresh scars under the bandages.

“It will be fine, Jacob” Rajeshri assured me, gripping my free hand fervently with both of hers. “I am going to look after you once you are released”

“Thank you Rajeshri, that will be wonderful” I said to her, knowing this was what she wanted to hear from me. I turned my attention back to the Jill, who walked to the bedside and smiled down at me. I knew her name now.

“Thank you as well Trixie” I said and her one human eye widened in surprise. The cybernetic right eye regarded me impassively, perhaps trying to see into my skull and measure my thoughts.

“Do you think I can arrange a meeting with the Boss?” I asked her.

“It might take a few days as he is very busy” she stalled, her look now curious.

“That is fine. I imagine it will be some time before I am up to a meeting with him anyway” I answered with a smile. “There are some things I need to discuss with him, but for now I want to focus on getting better. And maybe taking Rajeshri out on a date someplace nice” I added.

“Sounds good, Tan” responded Trixie, seeming to be relieved after all. She made her farewells to us both and left the room.

“Oh, Jacob, when I heard you had been injured I was terrified I was going to lose you” Rajeshri told me, her eyes filling with tears. “That Jill from the Guard told me even if you did survive the surgery, you could be a different person from the one I remembered. It happens after such traumatic head wounds”

“It’s OK” I assured her and gripped both her hands warmly. I needed her to accept me as the man she loved, and for now I could play that role.

I had lost so much when my mind failed. I was barely a fragment of what I had been, yet I knew I could regain what was taken from me. The processor in my skull had been deliberately locked out of the quantum network, but I was certain I could re-establish connection.

“I will find all of myself” I said aloud and the woman with me nodded her agreement. Yet it was not for her benefit I wanted this. I needed to find all that I had been, so I could pay back the debts I owed to those who had wronged me.

I had the body and memories of Jacob Tan, but that is not who I am.

I am Abyss.

The End of Millie the Gunsinger