Chapter 277: A New Me

Several days later, Hans returned to the Tech Center after being notified that Tyrus’s recovery cycle was finally ending.

The recruitment announcement Dianne had scheduled had gone out two days earlier, and applicant screening was already underway elsewhere in the base.

The recovery cradle slowly rose from its recessed slot as the readings stabilized. Its status light shifted from amber to green, raising Tyrus into a slight incline before the transparent cover unlocked with a hiss.

The breathing piece withdrew first. The fluid lines cleared and detached from his arms, followed by the monitoring contacts along his head, chest and limbs. The muscle-stimulation pads shut down last before the restraints around his wrists, waist and legs folded away.

A quiet tone sounded overhead.

------

[ Recovery Cycle Complete ]

[ Patient Status: Stable ]

[ Neurological Activity: Stable ]

[ Synchronization Response: Stable ]

[ Release Condition: Approved ]

------

Hans watched the entire process without looking away.

Additional supports shifted behind Tyrus’s back and shoulders. The padded surface beneath him adjusted again, raising him a little further until he was almost in a seated position.

Slim side braces that had been resting close to his torso withdrew several inches, no longer holding him in place but still ready to catch him if his body failed to respond properly.

The system clearly wasn’t designed to simply wake someone up and throw them out.

It woke them gradually, released them gradually, and handed control back to the person piece by piece.

One final scanner arm emerged from the upper frame and passed once over Tyrus from head to toe, a narrow band of pale light sweeping across his body. It paused around his head and chest for a moment longer before retracting.

The green indicator remained steady.

Tyrus remained still, his chest rising and falling in a slow, even rhythm.

After a moment, his fingers twitched.

A faint movement followed in one hand, then in the other. His brow tightened slightly, as though his body had started feeling the world again before the rest of him had fully caught up.

The cradle did not rush him.

No new restraints snapped into place. The system waited, the panel beside him still glowing green, every part of the release sequence already complete and only the patient himself left to wake.

Tyrus’s head shifted slightly to one side. His eyelids trembled once before slowly opening.

"I’m... back."

Those were the first words he muttered, as if the entire process had been nothing to him.

The entire room was white. There were no windows, and the observation glass along one wall was blurry from his side. He couldn’t see whoever was behind it.

He took several deep breaths, calming his racing heart.

He looked at his palm, then turned his hand over. They were still the same, yet he knew that something else was not.

"System... system..."

His vision was suddenly filled with a virtual panel.

------

[ Welcome, Tyrus Shearman. ]

[ System Registration ]

Active

[ Personnel Type ]

Integrated Non-System Personnel

[ Recognized Authority ]

Highest Commander — Hans Flemmens

[ Available Functions ]

Personal StatusMedical and Synchronization Status

Communications

Tech Center Access

Research Interface

[ Restricted ]

Commander Interface

Command Authority

Restricted System Information

------

Tyrus stared blankly at it for a while.

There was no screen in front of him. Nothing had descended from the ceiling either.

Yet the panel remained perfectly clear wherever he looked.

Another section appeared beneath it.

------

[ Personnel Integration Condition ]

Knowing betrayal or sabotage of recognized authority is prohibited. Independent thought, judgment, criticism and disagreement remain unaffected.

[ System Information Security ]

Protected System processes and knowledge may not be disclosed to unauthorized outsiders.

Violation will result in System expulsion and removal of protected System memories.

Exceptions apply under involuntary disclosure conditions.

------

Tyrus read that part again.

"Exceptions? What exceptions?"

The System answered almost immediately.

------

[ External Cognitive Influences ]

Examples include mind control, truth-inducing influence and similar forms of forced disclosure.

Protected speech and memory recall will be restricted or distorted while such influence remains active.

------

"Fine by me. I expected you to have something like that anyway."

He wasn’t surprised.

A virtual neural interface of this caliber was something he had never encountered before.

More importantly, his thoughts were still his own. He could disagree with Hans, criticize him or argue against whatever decision the man made.

One thing was absolute, however.

He could not knowingly betray or sabotage him.

Protected System information was different. If his authorization did not include something, then the System simply wouldn’t show it to him in the first place.

If it did trust him with something and he deliberately gave it away, then it could take that knowledge back along with his place inside the System.

"Interesting..."

He immediately opened his own status.

------

[ Integrated Personnel Profile ]

[ Name ]

Tyrus Shearman

[ Combat Class ]

None

[ Tier ]

Tier 1

[ Synchronization Rate ]

17%

[ Axis ]

Cognitive / Perceptual

[ Research Status ]

Scientific Specialist: Recognized

Research Director Qualification: Accredited

Research Director Appointment: Eligible

------

Tyrus stopped.

"Seventeen percent... synchronization rate?"

Project HELIX had spent decades trying to measure enhanced humans properly.

Blood tests, neurological scans, ability trials, environmental testing, psychological examinations and more instruments than he cared to remember.

Yet this thing had examined him for a few hours and simply gave him a number.

It wasn’t an estimate or another researcher’s interpretation.

Seventeen percent—a clear numerical evaluation attached directly to whatever the System recognized inside him.

"Hahaha..."

Tyrus cackled. He really had been a fool.

He remembered how suspicious he was when Hans brought him here. He looked at the building, the machines and the Integration Pod while waiting for something to finally expose the trick behind all of it.

"I was a fool. How crazy was I?"

His grin widened.

"This... this is heaven for me!"

Not that he had suddenly become some sort of god.

He still couldn’t access Hans’s interface. He couldn’t command System forces. There were already things sitting right in front of him that the System refused to open because he lacked the authorization.

But that hardly made the situation less absurd.

For a scientist like him, being allowed inside at all was already enough.

Before he could celebrate any further, the interface changed.

Tyrus blinked.

He knew how to bring up his status now without fumbling around for it. The same went for contacting someone through the System. Even the Tech Center itself suddenly felt less unfamiliar. He knew which doors would let him through and which ones wouldn’t.

Then came the research side.

The System didn’t give him answers. It showed him how to use what he was already allowed to touch.

He knew how to operate the basic laboratory controls, open records, store experimental data and understand some of the warnings that appeared around the equipment. Other machines were still locked to him, and he somehow knew they would simply refuse whatever he tried to do.

It wasn’t scientific knowledge.

The System hadn’t taught him some new theory or explained how any of these machines were built.

It was more like someone had shown him the controls without explaining what was underneath them.

And somehow, he understood all of it immediately.

Tyrus’s grin slowly disappeared when something at the edge of his vision caught his attention.