Chapter 5 (Cont.)
But Agatha is still as she was, asleep on the bed with her beauty and composure. What a great mess I'm in... I don't dare waking her up to tell her about my nightmare. I imagine she would wake up without any tetherings still latching onto somnium, her alien version of it. She would look at me and ask me if there's anything wrong. And she would listen with patience, it doesn't matter if I go on babbling for unruly long durations. Then she would share her wisdom with me. But do I want to let her know of my weakness? No, it's not the act of nightmare-share that I'm afraid of, neither its contents. But the weakness of letting her know that a nightmare has taken me in a chokehold. What would she know of it anyway? She dreams of alien perceptions. I began pacing around the room in unresolved anxiety, grateful for the noise reduction technology that I have already activated. It was developed at Datamangle. Noise reduction is nothing new, it's been in fleshed-out development well before the Inception of new world. The invention of Datamangle is not noise reduction of external signals, but the signals of internal cybernetics. The humans of new world's nervous systems are strongly tied to their cyberwares. Agitation, sickness and other aberrations from the parameters of health can, and do resonate through their cyberwares. The governments around the NWF have created the central matrix to monitor and regulate its subjects and thus every citizen in the cities are registered on the system. However, the government only intervenes when the governments' artificial intelligence systems and their human monitors detect signs that they perceive as deviant or anti-authority. So, an agitated rebel and a person experiencing cardiac arrest, both's organic reactions to their organic signals affect their cyberwares which in turn are connected to the central matrix. The authority only intervenes in the case of the rebel. So what is the solution for the cardiac patient, who might be having his throes in the deep of night? For a subscription fee, some corporations provide services which create a network between cybernetics of a specific, user-defined group, such as friends and family. In the time of distress, those connected in the network get notified of the distress. The government's baseline cybernetics don't come with the function. It's quite clear that government is intentionally doing that to open the floodgates of opportunities for the corporations. Upon upgrading to premium cybernetics, depending on the producer and model, the user gains: assisted emotional regulation, impulse control, enhanced foresight, on-demand memoryboard, optimised blood circulation... There are too many of them out there, both the company and the cybernetics; Datamangle is one of the leading ones in Tatterstown, thus, as Tatterstown is the tech capital of the NWF, Datamangle is one of the leading cybernetics manufacturer in all of the New World Federation. But cybernetics is only a facet of Datamangle Inc's operations, the corporation has a heavier portion of its manpower, AI and facilities dedicated to the maintenance of the central matrix and remote espionage. Every corporation is tied to the government. However, some corporations have such fundamental affiliation with the government that the boundaries between them blur. These corporations are not just helping the authority fine-tune its whip, but they are given the liberty to take the whip to their own hands. I was a senior vice president of marketing at Datamangle but I was designated within the cybernetics branch. The central authority of Datamangle maintains a firm impermeable boundary between its surveillance/espionage branch and others. As the branches of Datamangle were completely compartmentalised, there was no common channel between its principles, resources and even manpower. No one at Datamangle cybernetics division knew any one from Datamangle surveillance division, but only the topmost executive. In most of the corporations across the New World Federation, corporate chain-of-command is strictly maintained. As a senior vice president, I had the right to get every information of relevant nature from any of the professionals with lower rank. But I could not ask for even the most trivial professional information from the person holding lowest designation at Datamangle Surveillance, although that scenario is practically impossible due to the isolation. Despite that, I had met a person from Datamangle surveillance division, outside of professional situation. I had met her at a bar.
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Heatwaves Mk. 2 I / Crystallised Melt