Life

Life

He woke up with a start. Rays of sunlight had punched their way into the room through cracks and crevices in the wall. He had metamorphosed into - air.

It felt strange, as he sat up - as if there wasn't any strength needed. There was something weird in his head – it felt so light and yet so much in it he could not comprehend.

He tried to remember what happened before. He was driving a car. It was supposed to be a fun weekend with the family after a long time. Then suddenly there was the truck from the opposite side.

He remembered a surge of pain in the head. There was a scream - was it his wife or the kids? There was the screech of the tyres, a huge thud, metal colliding metals - the pressure was unbearable.

Then it was a sudden blank.

He tried to see the room. It looked like something carved out from the ancient caves. It was very poorly lit. The long dark ceiling was particularly out of vision. Some narrow rays of sunlight coming from few gaps in the wall were not enough for the entire room.  Some computer screens flashed in different directions, in the middle, there were these strange looking plastic cubicles. There was a metal door at the end of the room.

What was he doing here? Where are his kids and wife? Their thoughts flooded his mind. He tried to move his legs – he could not feel them. Are they dead? What are inside those cubicles? Why are these strange characters dancing in his eyes? Why can’t he feel his own body? – is he dead?

“How long do we need to complete the process? “- He startled back from his thoughts as he heard a voice coming from the end of the room. The door had opened and two bearded men in white walked into the room. A few lights flashed into life. “We cannot be sure- it depends on the subject. Any attempt to speed up the process can lead to an incomplete extraction of data” – one of the men commented.

“Ok”, the older man said. “How about the other two?” “She went straight into a coma when she came here. Our process has never been tried on subjects at that stage. The surviving kid may make it though”. The younger one spoke.

The old man was looking into a screen. He ran his fingers on the keyboard. The screen blinked. “Keep the nitrogen level steady. We cannot lose the doctor”.

Wait – what was going on? Do they also have his wife – she is in a coma? Why only one kid? Is one of his babies already dead?

He tried to run – but he could not move. As if he was seeing everything from a fixed point. He tried to shout – no sound came from his mouth. His vision was having some strange lines on it – dancing and appearing in random with strange signs on it.  He tried to cry – there was no tear.

He tried to remember his name- he could not. It was possibly starting with an A. A short name – Amit? Ajay? Arun? He could not recall. His wife’s face – it was so cute. He tried very hard – but it was only glimpses – as if the data was coming off in bits and pieces.

Yes – He was a doctor. He remembered. He was famous. He was working on some project for last few years. The project was a success. A few human trials and it would have changed the world.

What was happening to him? Was it just a dream? - Because he could not move his muscles but could see the people working. Is he dead? No that could not be – because he was definitely thinking. Was he a mere ghost? - NO that was stupid, ghosts did not exist, or did they?

“The doctor’s brain is working- he is already thinking,” the younger of the two men said. The older man left his screen and wheeled towards the screen the younger man looked into. “Thank God, it means the process is possibly not incompatible with humans – something he was so anxious of” he said.

“I have already informed the transfer team, they will be here in any minute.” smiled the younger one.

The door at the end of the hall opened. Four people came in with several boxes in their hands. They were younger and were wearing green. One of them was a woman.

“Sir, is the doctor awake?” She asked the first two men. “Oh yes. There have been some activities in the neural box. The transfer is near complete”. “We called you a little early so that we don’t lose time saving him”, the younger man said.

“Thank you, doctors. We were anyway considering coming and checking on his status when you called us. Removing the electrodes will be critical, we have to be hundred percent sure about the completion of data transfer and we must not lose any time”. The lady sounded tense, but she seemed steady.

Ashish Malhotra – he remembered his name. He was a neuroscientist. His project – the animal trials were successful. They were looking for human trials.

His vision seemed to zoom on to the cubicle the people stood around. They were looking at the screens while one of them removed the curtains. There was a bed – and a body on it. But it seemed strangely distorted. A number of electrodes left its brain and went into the machines. There were pipes as well from the torso into something that looked like was circulating the blood. There was a metal ring around the forehead with wires on it.

“You sure about the neural link? We will lose his brain when we open it.” The lady looked anxious. She waved something to a colleague who put a machine on to the head of the body. Ashish tried to zoom in further. He could not see the face of the person lying on the bed. But something looked oddly familiar.

“Ma’am, we are good to go.” Said the man with the machine. “Sir, we should start the process”, Said the lady to the older men in white. “We owe it to Doctor Malhotra”.

Ashish looked onto the face of the body. It looked familiar, but it was badly deformed. He looked onto the table beside the body. There was a photograph on it, and he with his wife looked back at him. 

  

“Doctor Malhotra, can you hear me?” – A sound echoed from distance. There was light. He could not open his eyes. Someone was calling his name. It was getting clearer. 

“Doctor Malhotra, can you open your eyes?” – The voice was soft. It sounded like his wife. 

“He is waking up” a man’s voice declared. “His lips are moving.” He said. “Doctor Malhotra please look at us” – his voice was even softer.

The vision was blurry as a narrow slit of image reached his brain through feeble openings of his eyes. A few people were looking at him. None of them looked familiar. There was this strange feeling in his head. Something felt extremely unusual.  He tried to make a sound – something strange came out of his mouth. There was a distant cheer.

“He is awake” the man sounded delightful, “he needs to rest.” 

Light was falling on his face. He was sleeping. “Must be the warmth on the beach” he thought, “What a horrible dream it was”. He moved his hands for his wife – a soft hand met his palms.

He opened his eyes, a lady was smiling at him.

Sunlight was coming from the glass walls, it was a bright day but the city outside seemed strangely unfamiliar.

“Where am I? What happened?” He tried to talk, an unfamiliar sound came out of his mouth.

“You are home, sir”, the lady spoke, and “You have been sleeping for some time. Welcome to life.”

“W- Where is my wife? Is she ok? Was she in a coma? My kids – how are they?” His voice trembled as questions burst in his head.

The smile on her face faded a bit, she looked at the corner of the room, and a man was standing there.

“A lot of things have changed while you were asleep, sir”, the man’s voice was kind. “We will be discussing everything with you, but first please tell me how do you feel now”.

He was feeling alright – a little uneasy - as if he was sleeping for a really long time.

“I am fine, it’s just like I have been sleeping really long” – he said to the man.

The man looked at the lady, who nodded and left the room.

“The technology you developed has saved a lot more lives than you can imagine. Everything around you in this room and in this building is because of that technology”.  

“It intrigues me how you know that your wife was in a coma. The technology you had designed, was for a healthy brain. Your colleagues tried their best to map her neurolinks while she was in a coma, but the technology to map a brain in a coma would take another four years to develop. That night, she passed away before they could get her basic neural structure.”

“Your daughter is alive, I just asked Meera to fetch her”, the man said.

“How old is she? “, Ashish felt water trickle down from his eyes. “Who are you? Whose body is this I’m in? “

“Sangita is thirty-five now. She heads the NeuroAI division of Life. This is your body. We could not save your original body- it was damaged beyond repair. There have been multiple attempts to install your neural networks on to people with dead brains. But all of them have been failures. Your digital neural data was preserved in our neuro bank for more than twenty-two years. We have been working on the biosimilar human bodies for last ten years. The breakthrough came only four years back. But for you, we wanted to be extra careful.

The man paused and then spoke again, “I am Arjun. I am also Sangita’s husband.”

A tiny screen popped up with a chime on Arjun’s right palm. “Your daughter is coming. She can’t wait to see you. Let me bring her for you” – he smiled and left the room. 

Ashish sat up on the bed. Rays of sunlight were falling on his face through the windows in the wall. He had metamorphosed- this time, into a new life.