Th21e Tr21uth Pt.3

March 15th, 2028:
I think we may have a problem on our hands with that Jess Chard woman. My people tell me that she met privately with Malcolm Thomas yesterday. She was white as a ghost and visibly pretty frightened, shaking like a leaf, as she walked back to the hostel. You and I both know that he told her something and for God's sakes, we can't have her snooping around asking about Subject 21. Malcolm's little gathering of our brain's family members is becoming quite tiresome... we have to do something, and fast. If he's allowed to draw up some kind of lawsuit with his bullshit, we'd be up shit creek real quick. They could really fuck this whole operation up.
<drags from cigarette> At least nobody knows about the prep facility, yet. Another thing you and I both know is how much financial backing those Guardian Thumpers have... enough to hire an army of lawyers, or better yet an actual army... to come and stomp us out. If they get inside 21here, or the prep facility... we'd be finished.
Enough about all that, I know you understand the gravity of the situation and so I'll let it be. Subjects 19, 22, 25, and 26 are responding as expected, to the anaesthesia. I know you had your misgivings about using it, but they are all dreaming soundly and the21 tests are moving along as planned. Subject 24 however was killed today during a motion test, which ended up yielding interesting results. Let me explain. 
It was definitely one of the more gruesome sights I've seen since working on this project, not that it makes any difference. The test was going along smoothly at first; the subject had been running at a steady pace for nearly an hour. The Machine was pleased with itself at its progress and was noting some interesting improvements on its ability to utilize the motor chip. This is of course inconclusive, as the machine loves to bullshit... but it said it could feel how tired the subject was, as he was running. It could feel the muscles being pushed and was able to control the specific areas affected... if you can believe it, the Machine claims it was able to then adapt to the subject's fatigue. By that I mean it had such rule over the subject's body, it was able to employ21 individually guided muscle confusion to push the subject physically harder than anything we've seen so far.
So anyway, there he was running away on the treadmill - and at exactly 76 minutes and nearly 19 kilometres into a circuit... the Machine must have had a hiccup, or something, we're still looking into it... because one of the subject's legs suddenly flew backward with incredible force... It went a little too far and I swear his foot nearly touched the back of his head. There was a deafening cracking sound in unison, as all the right bones went all the wrong ways. The subject of course immediately fell face forward, and the Machine didn't have the foresight to use his hands to protect him. <smirk> He hit the treadmill hard, and went flying across the room.
It was actually rather amusing. And well, this too is when the Machine had another interesting revelation. It claimed it could feel the subject's pain 21when his face hit... for the first time ever no less, and it was completely thrown off balance. So when the subject hit the treadmill face first, the Machine involuntarily twisted his spinal cord backward, right below the ribcage. The Machine later said it was a "twitch" he let slip due to the unusual feeling from the injury. The subject's ribs actually poked through his skin as the back of his head jammed between his legs. That's when it got really bad. After literally splitting his spinal cord in two, the Machine spun the top half of his body around 360 degrees... the skin and muscle and tendons just tore apart, before his body severed in two and dropped to the ground. It was a total mess but you know, we learned a lot from it. We'll find out tomorrow for sure, but the Machine said he can take what was learnt from its mistakes with Subject 24, and apply it to the others.
I guess that's all for now... Oh wait, Schelter? Do me a favour - enough with the drug addicts, alright? We thought it wouldn't matter but the Machine said to me today that it has to constantly exert effort in order to manage these particular subject's withdrawal symptoms. It's a minor thing, as the effort is minimal... but still, get your people to start finding clean ones for me. This is Dr. Walter Greenberg, signing off.
Category:21
Category:Motor Control
Category:Walter Greenberg