He woke up in the dark room with sleep in his eyes. He heard a ticking of a clock but it seemed extra loud. He did not remember how he got there or he was. It was like everything was taken away from him. How did that happen to him and who did it or was it an accident. It felt like it had been taken away and he was angry. He knew that someone had done it to him. He felt only rage. He got out of the bed and looked for a light. He was not able to find it right away. The lights came up by themselves and a voice came through the speakers. The voice came over the speakers and said “your memory has been erased for your security. You have been hired to complete a task that requires you have no past memories. Your memories will be returned once your mission is completed and you will receive your payment. This is your new ID and operational credit and tools you will need.” a light shined on a table with equipment and ID needed for this job. He wondered what skills he had that got him hired. He wondered what he did before but he wanted his memories back after the job. He gathered the items left for him, an ID and credit chip and a mini pocket tool for computer repair. The voice over the speakers said that he would catch a robo taxi to a launch site and you will get on a terminal and access the codes to launch a rocket into space. It is all automated so there will be only bots guarding the site. This ID will get you past them. Just insert the pocket key into the terminal and your job will only be pushing yes a few times because it requires in person access. You get your memory back and the payout after it is done just come back to this room.
The man thought this sounds too easy and why would he agree to erase your memories unless they had a telepath monitoring the site. He learned his name on the ID because that is how you fool a casual telepath scan if you have no identities other than the one that is given to you. Well this sounds like some industry esponize kinda gig one company stealing data from another. It’s easy enough to get access to a site under a fake name but telepaths really make it difficult and they only need one per important site to cause trouble and keep you from your payday. Going in blind like this was a terrible feeling but the pay must have been great.
The man with a fake name left the room and went through the lobby and out a robo taxi waiting for his fake ID. He drank some bottled water and cleared his mind with meditation because that is the best way to fool telepathics on this kind of job with just passive scanning. A calmness was important in a situation like this. He arrived at the location and showed an ID chip and the security bots waved at him. The world seemed so quiet and he had not seen a person in the lobby which i guess isn’t that unusual for that early in the morning but no staff but so many hotels were becoming fully robotic these days to save money but the eggs did not taste as well with a robot chef. They were always too dry. Well that is not something he should worry about because he can go to his favorite restaurant in Paris and have the best eggs in the world. It’s all the butter they use is the secret. He released how hungry he was now but let’s get the job done then worry about breakfast. The admin bot welcomes him to a workstation and he sits down in the only chair in the entire place. No chairs for the bots which kinda made him feel awkward but he pressed on. He used his tool with the terminal connector and it promoted with a yes or no option to perform this function and he hit yes. A few more prompts like that and he was done. He left at what seemed like a perfect pace and the taxi was still there so it took him back to the hotel. He ordered some eggs to the room and hoped for a file with all his memories on it and a confirmation of payment. Normally you would want to leave the city right away after a job like this you have to get your memory implanted back and recover. The eggs were dry as he suspected that they would be. He knew a robot had made them not that he was one of those luddites who hated robots. They could not replace everything and who knows maybe AI can learn how to make better eggs one day. AI’s were good at learning and that is ok. It felt awful silent in this room like he was the only guest in the place. He could hear the cleaning bots keeping the hallways clear. He would have liked to hear the rumble of other humans because he felt so alone in this moment with his dry eggs and if just wished he could feel something because his head was empty.
The voice over the speakers said his job was successful and if he put a nero inducer on his memories would come back. He lied back on the bed and placed the band around his head and it beeped and hummed as his memories flooded back. This was like an overflow of data and an ice cream headache all at once. Things started to come back and he rested for a full eight hours before waking up to all his memories fully in place. He felt like a newborn but that feeling would go away in a few days. He was trying to remember the last things he did before he had his memory wiped. He remembered being in prison for stealing corporate secrets and they had put him in the tundra or the hyper sleep for his sentence of ten years. Man he wished he had a better lawyer. He doesn’t remember waking up and being released which is something he would remember. They must have wiped his mind before he got released but that means he did not agree to this job. He demanded to know what happened to voice over the speakers even if it was not listening. The voice said you were taken from prison for this job and you needed no trace of memories from 10 years ago. He was mad that he had not chosen the job but the job had chosen him. He demanded his credits. The voice said you can have all the credits and a notice came up with an unbelievable amount that had been deposited into his account. He felt a little better but wanted to go fly to Paris and get some good eggs. THe voice said you can do whatever you want because you have served our purpose. He left the hotel and hailed a robot taxi and entered the airport for the destination. He arrived at the airport but it was completely empty and only had cleaner bots. He went to a ticket window and requested a flight to Paris and there were no flights to anywhere on the board. He could order a private transport and that is what he did but no human being was on site. He landed in Paris in a few hours and the airport was empty and wandered out into the street and no humans were just cleaning bots going around their designated work areas. He went to a cafe he knew had humans but there was no there and the food in the case had molded over. He pulled up a news site on the cafe computer and it had not been updated for 10 years but the last headline was AI takes over the last safety protocol used and hope is lost. There was nothing after that but he looked through the archives and learned the horrible truth after being locked up in the deep freeze AI had taken over and the humans had used the last line of defense by making rockets off this planet require human input. THis has caused the AI to unleash a chemical that killed and disintegrated all the humans which was there was no remains in the streets everyone had become dust. The AI could not get off this planet without his help and he unleashed it on the universe. He was the last man on earth and he had doomed the organic races out there to the same fate. He called out in despair and no one answered back as his heart sank.
Amelio's Palace of Stories 