More weirdness

“Command system data download complete.” The voice was mechanical and emotionless and the words flashed across his vision. In the corners of his field of view a couple of icons blinked at him rhythmically. The nausea and headache faded. “Partial access granted. Creator **** registered (14.9) years ago. The king is dead protocol active. Welcome new user. Upper structure commands locked.” One of the icons greyed itself out. “Tasks completed to unlock (6)”

Adam panicked. He shot to his feet looking around wildly. It was getting late and more than a few people had clocked out for the day. He was mostly alone, save for a few people at the other end of the cubicle farm, but nobody else had reacted to the robotic voice. “Who are you?!?” Adam reacted as quietly as possible, trying to keep it together, but his frantic tone told a different story.

“I am the Autonomous Nanite Neural administrator. You may call me Anna for short.” His eyes widened, and darted back and forth. “Why can I hear you in my head?” His breathing quickened. “I am not in your head. I have dispatched some Nanites to fuse themselves to the small bones of your inner ear. There they can vibrate to simulate sounds that only you can hear. Does this answer your question? <Y/N> “ Appeared in the center of his vision. “Y-yeah.” He said shakily.

“Command host telemetry shows an increased amount of adrenaline in system. Reducing adrenaline and norepinephrine levels now. Increasing oxytocin and serotonin now. Working. Working. Working. Working. Changes completed.” Adam practically collapsed into his shitty office chair. He felt… calm. He tried to think rationally.

Everyone knew about the nanotechnology that had infected every person on earth. Adam hadn’t ever heard about the nanites talking to anybody though, everyone had tried cracking their programming but nobody had been successful. Hell, everyone knew that who ever cracked it would suddenly gain a whole lot of leverage over the entire human race… and given that the last guy to have access got a bullet to the head Adam needed to think about this rationally. Somehow the access code for the whole system had been dropped into his lap. If anyone found out about this he would have the worlds biggest target on his back.

“Okay. Okay.” He thought about it. “Wait. What are the upper structure commands?” He asked. “Upper structure commands are used to apply planet-wide changes to all humans. Tasks remaining to unlock (6). Adrenaline spike detected. Automatically-“

“Stop! I’m fine. It’s fine. Stop making changes.” He took a breath. “That’s… fuck. That’s a really big deal.” He wasn’t really asking so Anna remained silent.

“Okay what are the tasks?” He asked hesitantly.
Task one: run diagnostics. (1)
Task two: Automatic Host Enhancement. (1)
Task three: single target test. (2)
Task four: local area test. (1)
Task five: Hub connection. (1) (locked)
Task six: upper command structure host test. (1) (locked)

The list scrolled across his vision as Anna read off each item. Before shrinking and moving to the top left edge of his vision. “Uhm run diagnostic?” A prompt appears in his vision. “Run diagnostic <Y/N>” Adam blinked. “It can’t be that easy, right? Yes.”

The prompt blinked again and disappeared. A buffering icon spun for about five seconds before being replaced with an explanation point. Anna’s neutral robotic voice filled his ear. “Diagnostic complete. No issues found. Task complete. Tasks remaining (5).”

Adam stood back up and looked around. The place was practically deserted now. He had a thought. He shouldn’t be doing this here. He ripped out the page with the command code and shoved it in his pocket. Combing through the box he didn’t find anything else that seemed useful so he just pushed it under the desk. He packed his shit as fast as he could and made a beeline towards the elevator. Adam stepped out into the below ground parking garage and hopped in his car, a crappy lime green beater that he bought a few years back.

He collapsed into the drivers seat. Taking a deep breath he asked, “What is host enhancement?” Anna explained. “Structural augmentation to host body. Enhancement to health, function and ability. Process will be completed in (6) hours. It is recommended that the host is somewhere comfortable. The host will be made **** during their enhancement.” He sighed. Home it is.

He arrived back home. He had asked a few questions on the drive learning about the function of the Nanites as a gift to all humankind. If the process had been allowed to finish they would have eradicated all disease, be able to stabilize injuries, and reverse genetic conditions. But the commands were locked out when their creator died.

Adam stepped into his bedroom, stripped down and lay in his bed. “Run Host enhancement.” Anna responded. “Host enhancement initiated."