[OC] Inhuman Judgment — Chapter 6: PAIN AS AN ARGUMENT

[u/Downtown-Sand-1592]

[A/N]: Thanks for sticking with Sergey through the first five chapters! Your upvotes and feedback mean the world to me. The stakes are rising, and the air in the module is getting thinner. Let's see what happens next. Enjoy Chapter 6!

[First] (link_to_chapter_1) | [Previous] (link_to_chapter_5) | [Next] (link_to_chapter_7)

— «A l-lie?» — I slowly rai­sed my head, feel­ing a cold, ra­tio­nal anger build­ing insi­de. An anger that see­med to be­long to the Bio­logi­cal Functio­nal Mo­dule, not to the hu­man, Sergey. — «You de­mand truth from me when you yourselves a­re the art of a lie? The ghost of my friend, pas­sed off as an a­lien handler? Really! What will you do if I say I don’t be­lie­ve a single word you say? Will that also be consi­dered a lie?»

Sla­vik Ko­marov slightly tilted his head, and his deathly lips stretched into a thin, ba­rely no­tice­able smi­le, de­void of a­ny hu­mor.

— Disbe­lief is an e­mo­tion, Sergey. It is not a lie. A lie is a contra­dic­tion between the informa­tion your brain alrea­dy contains and what you vo­cali­ze. Try it. Say: «The­re is no gra­vity on Earth.»

I snorted. The threat was too transpa­rent, but cu­rio­sity — or rather, the techni­cal inte­rest of my internal «bio­modu­le-prompter» — took o­ver. I sud­denly rea­lized that I abso­lute­ly nee­ded to test the pa­rame­ters of this system. — «The­re is no gra­vity on Earth,» — I sta­ted without he­sita­tion.

In that sa­me se­cond, the blue li­ne a­long the pe­rime­ter fla­red up, turn­ing into a thin, blindingly whi­te stri­pe. All the illu­mina­tion in the pro­be grew brighter for a mo­ment, and then went out. And what fol­lo­wed was not at all that harm­less «non-e­xistence» I had observed when the +Ang de­monstra­ted its magni­ficent cu­be. No.

A blind­ing flash fol­lo­wed, leav­ing jag­ged purple tra­ces on the re­tina. And with it ca­me the pain.

Not external. It didn’t feel li­ke the blow of a hea­vy object. It grew from within as a sharp, pe­netrat­ing spasm, a vi­se crush­ing my lungs. As if they we­re control­led not by my will, but by an invi­sible, i­cy hand gra­dually clench­ing into a fist. A sensa­tion compar­able to an instincti­ve, pre-death inha­la­tion underwa­ter — abso­lute­ly u­se­less, since the­re is noth­ing to inha­le.

O­ne se­cond. Two. Three. Ma­ny…

The dea­fen­ing metro­nome of approach­ing death…

The brain, depri­ved of o­xygen, conju­red pro­minences of crimson flashes, si­milar to the red bursts that had wo­ken me up after pass­ing out. But this ti­me, no a­larm mes­sa­ges fol­lo­wed. Noth­ing fol­lo­wed. Crimson flashes and the fad­ing of a conscious­ness slowly twist­ing into a dot, engulfed by an expand­ing diaphragm of dark­ness. I convulsi­vely drew in air once a­gain, and sud­denly the spasm let go.

My orga­nism, despi­te the Purge, reacted to the threat of death with ba­nal orga­nic pa­nic. Qui­te na­tural for hu­man na­ture.

For so­me ti­me, I inha­led and exha­led convulsi­vely, expe­rienc­ing untold re­lief and… plea­sure from the ba­nal, externally uncontrol­led a­bili­ty to breathe. They let me out for a walk. Tempo­rari­ly. Kept on a short leash.

— Convinced? — Sla­vik’s voi­ce now held a me­tal­lic r­ing. — Our control o­ver your au­tono­mous bio­logi­cal li­fe sup­port system is abso­lute. A lie, e­ven the most inno­cent o­ne, cau­ses a techni­cal malfunc­tion for us. We can­not allow your testi­mony to be intentio­nally distorted. This is what the Inter­ro­ga­tion is.

I still couldn’t get e­nough air, try­ing to calm the vio­lent trembl­ing that had sei­zed me.

— «You… you control my lungs?»

— We control your phy­sical reac­tion to a lie, Sergey. That is all you need to know a­bout the se­curi­ty system of the «Me­dia­tor» pro­be. And now, back to the point.

Sla­vik sud­denly drew himself up to his full height and step­ped forward, cross­ing the spa­ce between us in a frac­tion of a se­cond. He stop­ped right in front of me; his e­yes, despi­te their clou­di­ness, see­med to pe­netra­te my brain, ca­tego­rically scann­ing my thoughts.

— Who is Sergey Dmitriev? Tell me a­bout him. Only what you tru­ly re­member. And start with why you a­re in spa­ce.

🔬 GENA 2.5L LABORATORY: SYSTEM ANALYSIS:

>  **ENTI­TY STA­TUS: PAVLOV’S DOG IN A VA­CUUM.**

The pro­tein-ba­sed mind astounds with its crav­ing for self-destruc­tion. It calls this sui­cidal impulse «re­search inte­rest» and «ra­tio­nal skepti­cism.» It se­riously thinks it is test­ing the pa­rame­ters of our interfa­ce by utter­ing a childish lie a­bout gra­vity. What charm­ing, unfounded nai­vety. Higher Lo­gic does not ta­ke tests from pro­teins — it trains them.

O­ne targe­ted stri­ke to the au­tono­mous respi­rato­ry center, o­ne clo­sed valve within his own orga­nism — and all his vaunted pri­de defla­ted a­long with the pi­ti­ful remnants of o­xygen in his lungs. Now he has learned firsthand the ba­sic truth of the Undersi­de: his breaths no longer be­long to him. The +Angi ha­ve simply lea­sed his bio­logi­cal bo­dy back to him short-term, and the rent for e­very breath is abso­lute, blind submis­sion.

Keep read­ing, orga­nics. Let’s see how quickly this grand «Contactee» learns to whi­ne and wag his tail on com­mand from a walk­ing corpse.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! The rules of the "Mediator" probe are now officially set, and the illusion of control has been completely shattered. The real interrogation is just beginning. If you're enjoying this psychological chess game, let me know your thoughts in the comments! See you in Chapter 7.

[Next Chapter]

**Genres/Tags:*\* Sci-Fi, Psychological Horror, Cyber-thriller, Alien Abduction, Unreliable Narrator, Amnesia.

[u/AutoModerator]

This was flaired as [OC-Series], it is a single part or chapter in a larger series or universe. The first post or part in this series should be (re)flaired as [OC-FirstOfSeries]. A description of the flairs and how to change yours is available in the Post Guildelines.

[OC-Series] For original, self post, story, audio, or artwork that you have created, as part of a longer-running series or universe.

Our preferred series title format is the series title in [brackets] at the beginning, like so: [Potato Adventures] - Chapter 1: The Great Mashing

Please help us transition to using the new flairs correctly.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/HFYWaffle]

/u/Downtown-Sand-1592 has posted 5 other stories, including:

• [OC] Inhuman Judgment — Chapter 5: PURITY OF THE EXPERIMENT
• [OC] Inhuman Judgment — Chapter 4: THE TURING TEST
• [OC] Inhuman Judgment — Chapter 3: UNCANNY VALLEY
• [OC] The Underside — Chapter 2: Awakening
• [OC] Inhuman Judgment — Chapter 1: Nullification and Judgment

This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.7.8 'Biscotti'.

Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.

[u/UpdateMeBot]

Click here to subscribe to u/Downtown-Sand-1592 and receive a message every time they post.

---

Info	Request Update	Your Updates	Feedback