Implant
Written by: Stephen Brown; Mansfield Grey
As Q started to remove the chip from the back of Stick’s neck, my mind drifted off to a time when we were all together in training. How the Colonel kept telling us we were the elite force that would change the world. As a group, we all thought it would be for the better, not the worse. It makes me question everything I have ever done. It also makes me wonder if all my memories of my life are real or were they just implanted memories put there by a corporation. I didn’t know what was real and what was implanted.
“Manny! You need to pay attention to this procedure. I don’t know what will happen when the implanted microchip is severed from the vagus nerve. See this string of fibers? Looks like a little jelly fish? They are made up of a silicone gel and a peptide bond that connects to the microchip. The microchip is made of minerals and a purified gel that’s like water, just thicker and more conductive. It’s encased in a gold and crystalline shell that conducts current to the brain to be controlled through frequency and pitch. You need to cut the fibers at the top here, before the bottom ones. You also have to cut them at the same time or…”
“Or what Q?” Sticks broke in, with a sarcastic laugh. “What will happen then Q? Will I be a slobbering mess like Bronco when his corvette got totaled, and he couldn’t eat for hours?”
The whole gang started to laugh, and remembered old, happier times. It was the perfect distraction to let me watch and observe the procedure so I could perform what Q was doing to Sticks, on Q, so to speak.
“The most important thing is to cut all four upper fibers at the same time, then the bottom ones. Remove the implant and throw it out the window. You have four seconds,” Q instructed, as he launched the small implant out the cabin window.
It exploded with a small bang, like a firecracker.
“Holy shit man, really?” I replied. “Sticks man, how you feel? You ok?”
“I’m okay, Manny. I just feel…ah…ah…oh, oh!” he yelled.
Then sticks started to go into convulsions. He started flopping on the floor like a fish out of water. It was horrible. It lasted for 10 seconds but it seemed like hours. Poor Sticks.
Then Sticks started to laugh, ” AAAHHH ha, ha, ha, ha…You shoulda seen your faces! You all looked as if you had seen the end! Ha, ha, ha! Man, I got this, guys, I’m okay. So seriously, it feels like a sharp sting of a giant bee. Yea, it fuckin’ hurts man, but I have felt worse. You little weaklings might have a problem, but the Sticks-man is A-okay!” He lit up another joint as he walked out the cabin door, and yelled, “Next!”
Bronco, Axe, and Pogo looked at each other and simultaneously chased Sticks out the door asking, “Hey Bro, can we get some of that?”
I knew that now the first implant was out of one of us, and exploded, we probably didn’t have much time before they started to put it all together. We had to get all the implants out of our heads and move to the cave Bronco had told us about. We were supposed to arrive at Roswell in four hours and we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Axe?” I yelled. “You’re up!”
“Yes, Captain!” Axe smiled with a healthy stoner face.” Let’s get on with it.”
“I’ll do Axe, then I will assist you to do Pogo and Bronco. Then I will do you. Then you do me. Agreed?” Q confirmed.
“Agreed.” I said. “Let’s do it.”