chapter 4

"Err hello?" peeped Claire, unsure at exactly what would happen next.

"Good morning Miss Connors, how are you feeling today?" replied a polite, if not slightly robotic voice.

What scared Claire almost out of her chair was the fact that the voice came from inside her own head.

"Argh! What the fuck?!" screamed Claire as she frantically looked around the room, as if to try and locate the source of the voice.

Doctor James found the outburst rather comical and had no qualms about openly laughing at Claire's obvious distress.

"My apologies Miss Connors, I didn't intend to startle you, I can see your heart rate has jumped dramatically, perhaps I should remain silent until you call on me again" spoke the voice inside her head.

"Doctor, what on earth is going on?!" asked Claire, her eyes still darting around the room.



"Oh, relax Connors, you've just made first contact with the AI that lives inside your head now, you should be happy, you're making history as we speak."

"AI in my head?! I didn't agree to that James!" shouted Claire, clearly agitated now

"Oh contraire Miss Connors, you'll find this is all above board and in compliance with the informed consent documents that you read and signed."

"No-one reads those things!" shrieked Claire in response.

"That is a shame, but you were asked several times if you had read the documents and agreed every time."



Claire was annoyed, she felt cheated but she really should have read the documents carefully she thought to herself, after all she had them in her possession for well over a month.

"Really, Connors. You should have expected some form of AI to be in play here, how did you think the weapons and armour that you're going to be testing would attach itself to your persona? Fairy dust?"

Claire could only scowl at the Doctor as he tapped away at his PC.

"I've decided to allow you the rest of the day to get acquainted with Vega-11, Connors" he said without even turning to acknowledge her. "Be sure to get any trepidation out of your system as the initial round of testing will start at 07:00 hours."