Machine Man
By Sofur

What be it that crawls in the night, that man fears and to which the wicked pay homage?  Be it the fairytales of our childhood, the ramblings of the man, insane, on the street corner; perhaps, it may be that man fears himself the most.
Here is a tale wherein man sees his greatest error.  In thus, he realizes his fears, perhaps in time to save his self from, explicitly, himself.  We shall begin where it always begins, with a look at the demented soul trapped in the focus of our story.
-
Be it an imbalance of the mind or horrific memories that plague him, Eli Miranda remains a mystery to medical science.  No combination of chemicals or therapy affects his mentality in the slightest.  He was found not before displaying what he was capable of.
On May 23rd, 2010, police reports in an undisclosed county of Midwest USA count nine cases of manslaughter, eighteen cases of mutilation, and seven counts of disembowelment.  Various instruments were used, and after the remains were assembled, only half were positively identified.  More would have been confirmed if more limbs had been recovered.  It had been found, however, that for all the acts committed, there were a mere seven corpses recovered, many showing signs of rehabilitation, revival, and dependency on twisted forms of life support.
Miranda himself was found in a perverse tea party, serving his own blood in elegant china to demented Frankenstein monsters, many of which were still alive, despite their horrific modifications.  One middle aged man had his heart replaced with a water pump run by a hydrogen fuel cell.  This was embedded in his chest cavity in place of his left lung.  Scar tissue revealed this altercation to be at least five years old.  Filters and compressors extracted hydrogen from the air the man breathed, and exhaust water was fed into his blood stream.  This cruel replacement was horrifyingly efficient.
This man was not the least of the atrocities; most had some or all of their bodily functions replaced with machines, or not at all.
We now find Eli Miranda, ‘The Machine Man’ as he fancies himself, in the top mental adjustment facility for the criminally insane.  The facility it’s self is not known to the public, kept secret by the government to prevent yuppie organizations from protesting.  Let us join him now in session with his psychiatrist, known to us as Joe Blow.
-
From behind the glass, Eli ignores the banter from the other side.  He is concentrating on how much better use Joe’s body could be if divided up and harvested.  Maybe he’ll have a use for the acid in Joe’s stomach, or for all of the hot air he spews forth.  But then, Joe Blow says something that catches Eli’s attention:
“…and on your current track, your parole may come up quick…”
At last!  Eli has missed his experiments oh so much.  Playing the doctor’s game was an annoyance, one he cared for only to meet his own ends.  The facilities here in this prison called rehab would suit Eli’s needs quite nicely.  He could not wait to play in the blood and gore that would spill forth from his knives.
-
Several months later, the facility’s communications with the outside world, scarce as they may be, ceased entirely.  It was suspected they were on lockdown, and no office of the government wanted to be the one to release it.  This shall bring us to the last day in October, All Hallow’s Eve, the day the dead rise to the land whence they were banished.
-
The day was as no other for Eli, making rounds on his patients, adjusting balances, and of course, picking a healthy candidate for experimentation.
Today was the day, he knew it.  Today he would be successful in replacing the most complex organ, the brain.  Oh, yes, he had succeeded in several areas, successfully substituting bits and pieces of the brain with machinery and electronics, but the whole brain was always a problem, sometimes tricking Eli into thinking that the transfer was successful, but turning out to be merely copies of a now deceased man’s memories.
As he walked along the cell block, Eli talked to himself.  “Hmm, this one seems a bit too stressed.  Ugh, that one will have to soon be recycled.  Uh, oh, this one looks to need a tune up; I should make a note of that.  Ah, here we go.  Nice specimen, female, no irregularities, yes, multiple personalities?  That will do nicely.  Come now, let’s get you prepared!”
Eli pulled an interesting device out of his pocket, one that allowed him total control over his puppets of meat and metal.  This little device communicated with the several hundred bombs implanted in each of his patients.  If they did anything to displease him, he ended their simple existence.  He had many others to use, and he had no use for those who would not listen.
“Come, dearie, let us get up, I require your body.”
The girl looked up, hatred openly displayed on her dirty face.  The spare bit of clothing she was allowed clung damply to her skin, slipping below the bit of metal fused to her upper arm.  The small effort to cover it did not go unnoticed.
“Ah, still not used to that, eh?  Believe me, dearie, it’s much easier looking at a number than having to remember so many names.  Especially since it’s not a number you can change! Ha!”  The retort of Eli’s burst of laughter echoed down the dingy hallways.
Immediately, a change came over the girl.  “Oh, please, she d-didn’t mean anything by it!  I-I swear!”  The girl’s demeanor now looked like a feeble, tortured forest animal from a Disney film, far different than her other personality.
“Oh, dearie, never to fear, for today you may be rid of her for ever!” Eli cackled as he pulled out a vial of morphine and a needle.
“Shhh!”  She looked from side to side.  “D-don’t let her hear that!” she whispered.
“Not to worry, dear, not to worry.  Come.”  Eli opened the door between them, needle of morphine and detonator at the ready.
In an instant, the girl became violent, lunging at Eli.
“NOO!  I WON’T LET YOU TAKE HER FROM ME!”
Eli dodged easily, dropping the detonator to grab her arm and twist it around.  In the same motion he jammed the needle of morphine into her neck and emptied it.
“Now, now, dearie, no need to get uppity.”
-
Getting the female patient No.1423 down to the lab was easy enough for Eli, having fitted himself with the more discreet augmentations.
He wasted no time strapping 1423 into the harnesses necessary to keep her from moving during the surgery.  He needed her awake for brain surgery after all.
Eli prepared his tools as the morphine in 1423 wore off.  Time still remained, so he checked on the replacement system meant for her.  The body was nearly perfect.  It incorporated every tool that Eli would ever need for implementing his experiments, in and out of the lab.  The plan was perfect, to extract the harmless entity within 1423 and place it in this new body, his ‘surgical assistant,’ the ideal lab toady.  The more aggressive part of 1423 would remain in the weak biological body, suppressed by a slew of unpleasant chemicals.
“Please, Mr. Miranda, let me go!”
Eli walked back over to the operating table, where 1423 was quite awake and straining against her bonds.  “You know, you are a much worse actor than your other half.”
1423’s eyes hardened.  “Fuck you!  Taking advantage of a little girl for your own twisted desires!  She will never be able to grow up!  She will never be able to experience womanhood!  You are abusing her!  She will be a hollow existence!”
“Yes, I have quite taken account of these things, don’t you worry.  Did you know that some of our most base desires are genetic memory?  Funny how they are so easily erased.”  Eli said with a sly grin.
“YOU’RE A DEAD MAN, YOU BASTARD!”
Eli laughed evilly as he said his last few words to the fuming face of patient 1423, “Good night, dearie!”  He flicked a switch on a complex machine that pumped the suppressants into 1423’s body, relaxing it and bringing out her meeker self.
“What, why am I here?”  The face that was a moment ago nearly burning with rage was now on the edge of tears.
“Don’t worry, dearie, it won’t hurt.  Too much.”
The sad bambi face, unable to move, begged for Eli to let her go.  For a moment he felt her pain, her confusion.
‘NO!  Shut out emotion, go away, no… please mommy, why do you hit me?  w-why is daddy not moving?  Where are you? Help. please… HELP!’
The moment passed, his mind cleared, Eli was already at the table, tools in hand.
“Ok, dearie, the anesthetic should last you, but if it doesn’t, just scream real loud.”
1423 didn’t even make a sound, tears flowing down her face.
“Well, then, let’s begin.”
Eli took scalpel in hand and pulled back her hair.  Carefully cutting a perfect circle around her crown, he stemmed the flow of blood and placed her scalp in a bio-stasis pod attached to the table.  No wasted material after all, as that would be inefficient.  Besides, 1423’s counterpart will need it later.
Next he took up his skull-drill, a modified power drill fit with a micrometer to prevent drilling into grey matter, and his ever-useful bone-saw, again a modified power drill.  He did have to make do with what he had, after all.
Drilling and cutting the skull was easy enough, Eli has done it countless times.  What came next was still no area of expertise of his, and he knew it.
With the download console at hand, Eli made quick work of 1423’s cranial membrane, and began to attach nodes to her brain.  Several had to go between her left and right hemispheres, and many into the folds and creases of her brain.  Eli carefully placed each one, asking how 1423 felt constantly.  If things took a turn for the worse, her body would react immediately.
Often through this procedure, she would start at the sick sliding noises that the probes made, issue a weak sob, and finally remain still.
With the most difficult procedures over, Eli made quick work of the surface contacts, and had 1423’s brain look like an over-used pin cushion.  Well, a grey, wet, mushy percussion he laughed to himself.
Now came the risky part.
“Dearie, I need you to describe everything that happens to you.  Everything, you understand?”
A meek consent issued.
“Good, with your proper help, everyone should survive today, yes?”
Another murmur from 1423 was all he heard.
“You will have to be a bit louder than that, dearie.”  Eli turned the console on and checked the positioning of his probes.  All were where they should be.
“Let us begin, then!”  He typed in the code to activate the program, and hit the ‘Enter’ button.  Power surged into the artificial body on the other side of the room, readying it for programming.  A faint burning smell emanated from 1423’s skull.
“I-I can’t see out of my eye!”  1423 shrieked.
“Which eye, dearie?”
“M-my left eye!”
“Ah, a good sign.  Anything else, dearie?”  Eli looked at the console, which was reading out what part of 1423’s brain was being downloaded.  “Oh, pooh, her language sector’s gone.”
As soon as Eli muttered those words, horrible, nail-on-chalkboard screaming came from the girl, her body twisted in what little room it had to move.  The burning smell was growing stronger.
“Oh, my, this is a bit of a problem.”
Eli looked at code readout from the console.  Apparently he had mistakenly told the computer to fry every node once it had been downloaded.  Soon 1423’s brain will be so damaged as to be unusable in its entirety.  “So much for two 1423s,” muttered Eli.
The process, however, could not be stopped, and nor was it long.  An hour of screaming did take its toll on Eli, however.
The end of the download found Eli on the floor in the fetal position, almost regretting the things he had done.  The cheery ding of the process ending quickly brought him out of it.
“Let us see how she, or rather it, is doing in the new body, yes?”
Eli strode across the lab floor to his Surgical Assistance unit, his child in essence.  Turning SA Unit One on was the last mistake he would ever make.
Immediately, there was life in the robotic construct.  Motors whizzed and pumps whined, electricity could be heard throughout its body.
SAU1 opened its eyes, it’s only biological part, and looked around the room.
Eli always loved the eyes; it was the single one of God’s great marvels that he would never attempt to replicate.  SAU1 had the most beautiful set of crystalline bright blue eyes, which at the moment were locked with Eli’s.
“Ah, yes, marvelous, you are beautiful, aren’t you?  How about a name?  I don’t often let my creations name themselves, you know.  Come, now, what be it?”
“My name,” came a startlingly familiar voice, “is Maydin.  You failed you twisted bastard.  You wanted me and my sister apart, and you failed.”
Realizing his mistake, all too late, Eli reached for his detonator.  “A-alright, Maydin, where is your sister, then?  She can’t have come with you!  I made sure only one…!”
Eli was cut short by a horrendous mechanical scream from SAU1.
“MY SISTER’S NAME IS KARIE!”  SAU1 strained at its upload bay, bending the couplings unreleased.  “And don’t think that your little controller can blow anything up.  I’ve already jammed its signal.”  Maydin’s tone became near demonic.  “What?  Thought we were in here for schizophrenia?  Nah, try malicious hacking, I was the fingers, she was the brains.”
SAU1 began to emanate heat as it worked its servos.
“And now you have taken from us our humanity.”
“You are nothing but my own creation!” Eli yelled desperately.  He was loosing, fast.  “I have given you immortality, power, and you scorn me!  How dare you! I-”
“YOU? You have no power over us anymore.  You have given us immortality, but as a curse.  Such is it that we shall curse you with the same!”
With a squelch and a snap, SAU1 broke free of its restraints and plowed into Eli, who, even with all of his self-modification, was instantly rendered unconscious as blood poured profusely from gaping wounds.
-
Time does not pass quite as it should when unconsciousness is achieved through an unnatural means.  Thus, Eli knew not where or when he awoke, or why he started to walk.

This place seems familiar…

Over there, is that something I remember? No? Oh well…

Eli’s wonderings eventually brought him back to the remains of an old lab in a decrepit building built like a cell block.  He wondered if he was there once.  Should he remember this?  Yes?
Eli stepped towards a flat table.  Only, it wasn’t flat.  Yes, it was, but there was something on it.

The body of a girl.

She was dressed in midsummer clothes with the initials M and K embroidered within a heart on the breast.  Eli looked at her face.

Stillness.

He remembers.  Yes.

But he does not feel.

He tortured this girl, took away from her what was most precious.  But he does not, can not, care.
Eli could not even find a reason to exist.  He cared not about anything.  He felt no emotion at all.  At last, he was free from the memories of his youth, the horrible things done to and by him.

What memories?

A glance to the next table told him where he was.  This table contained his body.  Beaten, bloody, and bare, his skull missing its crown and his brain removed.  A crow landed on the table.  It pecked at Eli’s empty cranium, picking out the last few scraps of grey matter.

Now he remembered.

But he didn’t care.

Without a thought, Eli walked off.

-

Eternal are His metal footsteps upon the ground where mortal man dares not tread.  For fear of a fate unto His own shall keep us true.
-Machinist’s Creed #1423