A physical pass and the worthwhile charm of the operation is gone. Rite hates hospitals, he hates surgery more, he hates tubes and crevices and chemical smells, pediatric branding knows his body better than himself. Invasion of the orifice. He thinks about how many body parts they make pacifiers for.
A lawyer hands him a tablet of legal jargon. Lawyers were an even worse kind of doctor, just as empirical and invasive yet outside of flesh's jurisdiction, making whole new bodies and fibers to prod and filet with gavels. He signs his name on its skin and is wheeled off to the operating room, where he will remember nothing of the sort. Upon coming to, another tablet, this time fastened to a metal arm above his head. Spook in the corner, no, doctor.
"How're you feelin?"
"Fine. Can you turn the tablet's brightness down?"
"We'll turn it off after we run some diagnostics. Need anything right now? Water?"
No, I want this tablet out of my face. The spook leaves, and the nurse comes in with water anyways.
"You're gonna have to take one everyday, helps boost the signal. Ever taken a contrast solution? It's kinda like that."
She hands him a pill and says she'll be back in an hour. Rite was no stranger to pills, but didn't understand the purpose of this one. He takes it and falls back to sleep.
He wakes a few hours later. The tablet was somehow even brighter and the lawyer was there again, along with the doctor and a tall woman in a suit.
"Hey there, Rite! Welcome to California! Sorry I couldn't meet you earlier, legal stuff, I'm sure you know. You look great!"
The woman in the suit walks funny.
"I'm Stephanie, I'll be your onboarding specialist over the next few days as you adjust to Calvin. I think most of your calibration is done, we just need to authorize activation. Would you look up here?"
The tablet flashes red and a series of spheres begin orbiting, vibrating in random patterns, clashing. "Keep looking until everything stops moving." The spheres slow to a crawl, then a stop, before fading into the whites of Rites retinas.
"Great! I think Calvin is ready to go, we'll do some network tests but other than that you should be able to go whenever you feel. We have the orientation tomorrow, don't forget!"
She picks up a stack of papers and the computer that she placed at the base of the bed.
"We'll go over this more tomorrow but there are some ground rules. Keep in mind that all of your allowed activity will be actively monitored, for safety and security purposes. Remember to fill out your daily journal, we’ll have reminders just before you go to bed. You can freewrite if you like, but you also have the ability to narrate it to Calvin if it’s easier. You can turn Calvin’s narration off at any time from the account settings and preferences on this computer, but we prefer you keep him on, even for just a few hours every day. It’s good data… and why you’re here in the first place! And when you talk to him, it's valuable to kinda, you know, treat him like an inquisitive child, teach him about yourself... I don't know if you have any kids."
She leaves the laptop on the nightstand. "Please take good care of this, and thank you so much for volunteering. It means the world to us. See you tomorrow!"
All three shuffle out. Rite, and the new found Calvin, are alone. Only in the silence does Rite realize the soreness at the base of his neck, minor shock fuddled by pillows and this fucking tablet. They didn't turn it off, stupid fucks. Why was he so angry? It's rational to have an ill response to intense stimuli post invasive surgery, or so he guesses. Grafting a foreign object to the base of the brain stem is not pleasant. How many chimpanzees did they kill to get this right? Did they rip them out of the jungle, or breed in captivity with the sole purpose of this experiment? Aroused to be a host for a greater intelligence? Well, it’s not a greater intelligence yet, at least compared to me. Maybe it is compared to the chimp. I hope I'm smarter than a chimp.