(Granitz lab)
After receiving a call from his mom, Karl Feta rushed to the Granitz lab with quick steps. It was nearly a day off, but the call from his mom must have come with something important. She said she had found a solution. What his mom said was too vague, but he was very sure it must be about the death of the cadet.
That cadet was not ordinary; he was part of an elite program that aimed for super soldiers. His base physical strength was close to that of a well-trained soldier. With a week of training, the cadet might have already matched him. To imagine that a cadet would die in that way, Karl could not believe it and ordered a full investigation.
Although Karl did not rule out suicide from intensive training or from his overly aggressive mental personality, it was just something governing his mind. Ten years ago, in a similar case, two elite soldiers died during a mission on the mainland; the two were found dead during an unspoken action. It was as if they were fighting against each other before performing the action, a contrasting action. Something fishy—he thought.
When he tried to investigate more from all the footage he had collected so far, he found nothing obvious. It was true that all footage was neatly manipulated; the army's most advanced tech could not even revert it. If this were 50 years ago, he might have believed in ghost haunting, but this was the modern era, and such a thing was hard to believe.
There must be something—he murmured.
The retrieved memories from the cadet's brain were mostly damaged because of brain cell death. The translated signals were of very poor quality.
No wonder the one who killed the cadet must be very skillful and an expert in computer science as well as biotechnology. That said, on this island, he could only think of two persons: his mother and
"Pierre Therma"—he murmured.
With his admiral rank and honor, he could easily detain that man, if only without letting the officials on the mainland know. Hence, solid proof was required. But without further clues or evidence, he had hit a dead end.
While lost in his thoughts and struggling, he was in front of the Granitz lab door. His mom had not arrived yet. Not too long after, his mom arrived. "Let's get inside, sweetheart," her voice filled with excitement, her breath quickened, heavy.
"Can you explain more? I still don't get it. What have you found?" Karl asked his mom while following her into the lab. The same doctor was waiting there; his mom might have called him as well—he thought. But it looked like Freja did not hear or did not want to explain. She spoke to the doctor in a hurry.
"Did you read the report I sent?"
"Yes, ma'am, I have brought the preserved cadet's brain and body." The body of the dead cadet and its brain were stored inside the cold chambers; its face had been sewn but showed no more sign of a human face. The doctor continued, "I'm afraid we cannot follow the protocol since we've used the old preservation protocol."
"I know, doctor, but we are not going to revive the brain; we are rebuilding!" Freja spoke upon checking the status of the two samples.
"Ma'am…" the doctor tried to speak to her, "Ma'am… Miss Freja," with no response from Freja. She was now typing several lines of code at extreme speed on her laptop. Karl needed to strengthen his voice to draw her focus.
"Mom!!!"
It worked since Freja stopped typing and turned to her son and the doctor. The two stood behind her, waiting for her explanation.
"Alright, sorry, I was so excited," Freja then started to explain, starting from what Elena had discovered and a way to refunction the damaged brain cells. Karl tried to catch up, though he understood only that Elena could now revive any cold human.
"You're saying Elena can wake a human up from a long, deep sleep." Freja nodded, "More or less."
She then explained further that Pierre had written an algorithm that could upload a small amount of data to a small part of the brain.
"But we don't have the code, Miss Freja; there is no source file in the report," the doctor said.
"The code must be based on the retrieval code." "Once we've understood the idea behind any creation, we can recreate it," Freja said with confidence, "besides, it's Pierre's code. If he can do it, I can do it as well." Freja's voice was firm and confident, as if it were a secret competition between Freja and Pierre.
"But our samples will be severely damaged upon rewarming, Miss Freja." Freja sighed and exhaled.
"You've got too many questions, doctor," Freja continued. "As I said, we won't bring life back; we will rebuild it," Freja added.
"The dead are the dead; we don't need to care what we will upload to their brain. The part that once controlled vision might now control hearing, or speaking might become sensing."
"With the dead brain, we can rebuild or reanimate a new human." Freja ended her explanation with pride. The doctor expressed his concerns through his face. Karl was delighted after hearing his mother's idea.
"B..but what about ethics an…" Without finishing his sentence, the doctor's head was crushed onto the lab floor.
"No one cares about the dead," Karl groaned.
Blood splashed, spilling on Freja's jeans and Karl's trousers.
"Sweetheart, I like these jeans," Freja scolded her son.
"Sorry, mom, that doctor was annoying."
Freja finished writing her code. Karl stood behind her, observing her actions.
"Anything I can help with?"
Freja told her son what she wanted and guided him. Despite being an admiral, Karl followed his mom's lead strictly.
With the help from her son, the brain was placed back into the open skull. The body and brain were attached with so many patches that would stimulate the brain and muscle memories.
"Alright, the rest is to give this guy a boost."
Freja turned to her laptop, initiated the command, rewarmed, and then the retrieved data and other data were uploaded.
Upon reaching the terminal temperature, the dead body started to move as if it had come back to life.
"It's moving, mom!" Karl was thrilled with success.
"It's like Frankenstein," Karl recalled from the classic novel. Then he praised his mom.
"You are the best!"
"Thank you, sweetheart."
"We still have a lot of data to upload; it looks like the movement part was not damaged."
"It will take two days before finishing the upload."
"I have injected it with a tranquilizer; it will not move for the time being."
"For now, we wait."
----
(Two days later)
(Granitz lab)
In an empty lab, with no one inside, only a glass chamber stood; inside was the body of the dead cadet, faceless, skull opened, brain visible and sewn to its remaining head's skin, surrounded by a nutrition matrix. On the chamber was a label: F01. Several patches and wires linked the body to a laptop.
On the laptop screen:
Uploading progress… 99%
Uploading progress… 100%
Completed.
Suddenly, the fluid that surrounded F01 bubbled as it exhaled underwater. Its muscles, biceps, and triceps, pumped up. Then, the thick glass chamber broke down easily with F01's punch. The fluid splashed over the lab floor. Two guards heard the noise and then came into the observer room. They were frightened by what they saw. The faceless figure broke the chamber and stood still. One of the guards tried to report the situation via his phone.
"F01 has awoken."
"Repeat, F01 has awoken."
F01 changed its stance as if it understood what the guards in the soundproof room said. Its muscles pumped up again. This time, it headed straight for the observer room's wall. The double concrete with extra strengthened steel was easily destroyed. One guard was caught in the hit, instantly dead. Another tried to pull his gun; F01 kicked the guard's head out of position. Then it rushed out of the Granitz lab. The army officer reported that F01 headed to NRE.