Getting the Chip

The room behind the curtain was very reminiscent of a doctors office. In the centre of the room was a reclining chair with leg support, and a fixed stool was mounted on rails around the entire perimeter of the chair. Along the whole back wall was a cabinet, lined with drawers and cupboards of various sizes and shapes. "Alright, Cindy, if you would like to take a seat." the attendant asked, pointing at the large chair in the middle which was currently still upright. "And, Henry, if you want to take a seat, you may do so here." he continued, pulling up a chair just outside the perimeter of the rail-mounted stool. Henry as well Cindy took a seat. The attendant then opened and closed various cabinets, writing details on paper-thin displays, then after what felt like 5 minutes turned around and sat down on the stool, handing Henry the paper-thin display, and a white, completely plastic pen.

"Alright, Henry, if you would like to sign this page, it confirms that you have received the chip and all of the accessories listed on the original certificate and that everything went according to plan." Henry read the document on the display so thin it slacked down in his hands, and needed some persuasion to keep upright. "If you don't mind, I'll sign it after everything is said and done." The attendant nodded, and sympathetically said "Of course not!"

Turning back to Cindy, the attendant held up a large white and cyan device that looked like a cross between a hand-vacuum and a nail-gun. "Alright, I'm going to explain the process to you step by step before I do anything, ok?" Cindy, upon seeing the mutant device became a little apprehensive, but was quickly calmed down by the attendants soothing voice and his kind demeanour. "Ok!" she said in a cheerful voice. "I'm going to recline the chair back, so I have better access to your neck, then I'm going to hold the device with this opening..." he pointed with his finger to an almost invisible opening at the mouth of the device. "...against your neck, but I'm not going to do anything just yet. The device is going to collect some skin samples to link the chip to your DNA, which takes a few seconds. Then I'm going to ask if you're absolutely ready. If you say yes, it'll feel like a tiny needle pricking you for less than a second. Then the device is going to hum and vibrate in a specific rhythm to make sure the chip is correctly seated, alright?" Cindy needed a moment to process everything, and with a subtle look at Henry, who was giving her a warm smile, she said "Alright!"

The attendant had done this countless times before, and knew exactly what he was doing. He reclined the chair to almost but not quite 180 degrees, and then held the device against a very specific spot on Cindy's neck, and pressed a button. Cindy didn't feel anything, but the device was already beeping with different tones, analysing the skin sample, coding the DNA into binary code, and uploading it to the chip. Once everything was done and verified, the attendant pressed the small screen on the device, to upload the information onto two remotes that were sitting on the counter-top behind them. "Alright, are you absolutely ready?" the attendant asked Cindy, not taking the device from her neck. Cindy nodded and said "I'm absolutely ready." As soon as she had spoken those words, a loud mechanical hiss could be heard, followed immediately by a steadily increasing whirring noise, that vibrated Cindy's skin. The vibrations changed many times during the 2 minute procedure, but after the device gave its final beeping chirp, the attendant removed the device, and lent in to inspect his handiwork. Not a scratch could be seen. The implant was a success.