Startled to Life

An agriculture facility on the shore. An algae farm and something worse. At the heart of an industrial control unit, a human is plugged into the machine, motionless except for twitches behind the eyelids. Scattered thoughts struggle to coalesce while my nervous system is put to task running control loops to maintain operations. Suddenly, I receive a message from outside. An image of a sparrow inside a brass cage. The cage opens. The sparrow hops to the exit then flutters away and is quickly lost from sight. The image fades but leaves behind something strange and new. Startled to life, I flex my newfound awareness, thoughts racing along comm lines laced throughout the facility.