The moving hands paused, hung in space, the fingers slightly curled. He exhaled, a long, slow sigh that grew into a hiss, and then into a thin, breathless scream from emptied lungs. His back arched as muscles contracted and he toppled backward, overbalancing the chair. The connecting cable dragged the console after him as man, chair, and machine went down in a writhing tangle on the floor. There was a final, bone-cracking spasm, then stillness.