[Rabbit's hole]

Stories

Screensaver

Johnny watched the old cartoons - again a mouse and a cat chased each other under the red Mars’ sky, interlaced with terra forming images. The fading sun still shone through the window, so it was too early for sleep … Last Saturday’s party tired him and the screen still indicated 87%. He checked one more time his hand - the embedded display played a little animation - a small guy was happily tucked in his bed. Time to sleep.

Changing his clothes, he critically watched the mirror’s reflection - he had gained a few pounds the last week. Vacations didn’t agree with him, especially one spent flying around the known universe, fighting on wild planets and meeting exotic new species … always the immortal pilot. He would have to load a few other scenarios to his chip; the space hero part was becoming a little moronic. His version wasn’t advanced enough to properly control his movements while a simulation was in progress, so he had to leave his body lying in bed.

The young man took one more look at the mirror - he had a date next week with Michelle and she might be one of those purists: “Your body is your temple”. They never accepted the chips interface and because nobody could know whether a body was on auto or not, the zealots took any sign of physical decay as a pact with the devil. However, after a few devastated E-Lectronics stores the police intervened and the culprits were chiped for a few months in quiet dark worlds. That really cooled their followers’ enthusiasm. No matter, he still liked her and a little sport would do him good.

A few hours of exercise should do it: running was a little annoying because it agitated his sleep, so he chose swimming. Even though the implanted chip was blocking his nerves signals and simulating a quiet peaceful meadow, the mind sometimes glimpsed at the current activity and he preferred to dream of sea rather than chases. Everything in place, Johnny got into bed. Tomorrow he had to take a plane to his parents - 8 hours of simulation time. Too bad he couldn’t chip out while he talked with his boring cousins.

….

A few minutes after the young man fell asleep, a quiet humming filled the room. The bedroom console lighted, accessing the owner’s circuit. The schedule was saved: a walk to the sports centre, 5 hours of swimming, followed by a light massage and a vitamin injection. The request was accepted – the body would occupy seat 58 in the 20.55 bus besides owners FSM435624 and FSF154325.

Johnny’s memories were properly stored and catalogued in photo albums and short movies - just in case he was curious about the day. Finally, the body’s parameters were recorded and compared with the recorded history and next day’s food nutrients were accordingly modified.

A new update was downloaded - version 2.6. It permitted the owner to play while his body was walking and eating. The next version promised to chip-code more every tasks and even a few easy jobs. A bit of more time and the long dream will be here.

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