Chapter 1

The lights were off when Sidney walked into the laboratory; Akira had clearly not shown up yet. He stood just inside, closing the door behind him and taking a moment to marvel at the light show of monitors and machinery blinking in the dark. After a minute or so, Sidney flicked on the overheads and proceeded to the small cove in the corner that held his desk and computer. As he walked, he threw a glance over to the tables in the center of the room. Sidney sighed slightly at the beating hearts, breathing lungs, and characteristically-unmoving livers suspended in tanks upon them, suspecting with understandable precedent that he would be packaging the lot alone. More than anyone, virtual reality hurts the friends of its addicts.

Sidney set his bag by the desk and leaned back in his chair with a yawn. Early mornings and later nights were killing him, but thus is the life of a young scientist. Straightening back up he looked towards the Hydra Corporation logo bouncing across his computer screen and, with a practiced flurry of keystrokes, signed in.

A few minutes later Sidney had taken care of his emails and was preparing for the day's work. Having had his suspicions confirmed in a message from Akira, he now had to cover his friend's ass for 'just this one last time, I swear!' Another sigh. Sidney pulled on his lab coat and headed back out into the hallway to start gathering coolers and ice, making sure to check the monitor by the huge, tinted-glass cylinder in the wall as he went. Still a few more hours.

Out in the hall Sidney passed a few of the Organ and Tissue Research labs, each of which he gazed into longingly. Now Sidney had a good job, [Organ and Tissue Manufacturing is one of the central branches (or ‘heads’ as the questionably witty say) of the Hydra Corporation and vital to modern medicine] but he hated the stationary methods of the work, with every technique set in stone and unquestionable. He dreamed of going into OTR, where, even here at Hydra’s Robotics Headquarters, scientists were pioneering into bold new territories of the field. He dreamed of publishing and accreditation, a bit of immortality, but his current job was stable and respected and he had loans to pay off. Research was a competitive field, and Sidney lacked the necessary aggressiveness.

Sidney reached the OT Sector supply room and spent the next few minutes retrieving transplant boxes and bags of ice.

Prologue

“In the beginning, there was nothing. Then God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was still nothing, but you could see it.”
- Groucho Marx



-beep- ffsssssssh
…
-beep- ffsssssssh
…
-beep- ffsssssssh
…
[This is the life of a robot. Automatic and unquestioning. A corresponding ‘ffsssssssh’ for every propositioning –beep-. To be more specific, though, this is the life of our robot, different from any other automaton only for the task that it performs.]
-beep- ffsssssssh
…
[Except for the occasional outward flash of tiny red light, these –beep­-­‘s and ffsssssssh’s are the only time our robot shows any signs of life. The rest of the time the machine is dormant, though constantly (and unconsciously) primed and ready to follow the next –beep- with a ffsssssssh whenever it arrives.]
-beep- ffsssssssh
…
[Sometimes the pause between the activating –beep-‘s can last almost an entire day. The robot is not aware of this. It does not know time. All it knows is –beep-ffsssssssh.]
-beep- ffsssssssh
…
[This is how it has always been.]
-buzz-

Hello!

This is a blog site for a short science-fiction novel I am writing for my Advanced Topics class. For the time being let's call it Hydra. It's about a future marked by advancements in regenerative biology and robotics and is written in a style inspired by Douglas Adams. I hope to post the novel in bits and pieces as I feel comfortable with them and I would really enjoy any opinions or criticisms people may have. I hope I do not disappoint anyone.