We were a team of
programmers working on
psyche to machine interfaces for a
top secret government contractor .I was their
best. I was working late into the night at my
console when I felt something invade the
interface. I felt it take my mind between its cold
hands and
twist and
squeeze and
crush me until I was a
mangled pulp.
They found me the next morning, bleeding where I had broken my nose from banging my head against the plexiglass screen. I was mumbling incoherently, trying the same command over and over.
They carried me to sick bay.
I slept.
I slowly got better.
I tried again, meeting the machine. But the pathways in my brain had become twisted, darkened, ruined. I could not meet it, there, on the empty plain. Again, I became incoherent and confused. They were there this time, watching over me, and cut the connection before I could hurt myself.
I woke up in my bed, knowing I had failed. Knowing I was ruined. I could never touch the machine again.