Ian Leicht: Roshi-4

When Tom woke up it was to the realization that he was strapped down to a table. Restraints were tightly pressing his head, ankles, torso, and arms to the steel frame. He squinted at one the lenses pointed at him and saw a distorted faint reflection of himself on its surface. Tom’s voice raised to a squeal as he attempted to thrash about.

Tom did not hear the buzzing tone until it was within a couple feet of him. He stopped his screams and listened intently trying to determine the location, distance, and nature of the sound. He heard it coming closer and then he saw a robotic appendage position itself above his head. The last four inches of the limb swiveled perpendicular to its body to face him. The armed lowered so that the tip of the appendage was a fraction of an inch above his mouth. He struggled as much as he could but he knew the straps and devices clamping his head to the machinery would render any escape attempts futile. The outer casting of the tip opened up exposing a writhing mass of smaller worm like prosthetics. These descended downwards forcing themselves into his oral cavity. He tasted bile in his throat as some of the prosthetics squirmed down his throat. [Feels/knows it going to brain] Each of smaller projections opened its maw and pierced the nearest flesh; injecting him with foul tasting chemical His attempts to scream were muffled by the silver machinery protruding from his mouth.

Within seconds he felt his perceptions violently skewed. A man in a white lab coat leaned over him and looked down upon him. Tom could see the revulsion in the man’s eyes as he looked at the shaft rammed down his throat. The man placed a pair of goggles over Tom’s eyes. The goggles blocked out all light and were apparently opaque. With his vision deprived, Tom tried to pretend this was just a bad dream.

"Stage three. Power it up...."

The blackness was suddenly illuminated by a variety of geometric patterns flashing in his field of vision.

[Ideas: taken to point of death, final visions, dies and is ‘reborn’ returns "enlightened"?]

Tom opened his eyes and refocused them on his surroundings. He was still lying strapped to the bed. It occurred to him to wonder how much time had passed. 23 hours and 15 minutes; the answer came effortlessly. Tom noticed a number of sensors were attached to his body monitoring him for signs of consciousness. He quickly adjusted his metabolic rate and mental state so that it would appear he was still unconscious.

His hand squeezed itself into a parody of a mouth and then the voice asked, "Tom, what did you see with your new eyes Tom?"

"Emptiness. Just emptiness."