Siamese

Investigation into the death of Dr. Mia Navarro

1st Interview: Agent John Macnamara

Three officials sit behind a glass wall, faces dimly lit, silhouettes more than people.

A woman’s voice, calm, asks, “Agent Macnamara, can you recount what happened in Laboratory 23C on the night of Dr. Mia Navarro’s death.”

My mind feels like half frozen water. Gelid.

Deep sigh. “I went to see her, Dr. Navarro. I had discovered she was in the lab that night...”

~ The room is half dark, half trashed. Broken monitor screens glitch and malfunction. “Dr. Navarro!” I call out.

No response.

There’s a recording playing in the background. Louder and louder the further I walk.

“It was part of me. Inside me. Desiring things. Causing things. The more I fed it the stronger it became. The more aggressive it became. Sneaky. Manipulating my thoughts and emotions. Changing who I was at a fundamental level. I was unrecognizable—even unto myself.

(Distortion) “What is control? And who possess it—holds it in their palm with all five fingers? Is it you, doctor? Is it me? Or is it something that’s hidden? Something that neither of us knows to call by name.”

Then I see her. Dr. Navarro. Standing at the far end of the lab, surrounded by hazy blue light. A voice inside screams for me to turn back, proceed no further. My steps begin to feel weighted.

“Jake—is that you?”

Her voice sounds labored. Like she’s trying to hide pain. Or emotion.

“There’s no need to be afraid.”

“I’m not,” I lie. “I just—just need answers.”

The overhead lights hum and shift in brightness. I stare at my own reflection in one of the cracked screens. My own eyes glassed and dilated. Unfamiliar. I blink, and for a moment, I swear I see something else staring out.

“Tell me what you did to me,” I demand. “What this thing is.”

Dr. Navarro takes a step forward, careful, slow. “I didn’t do this to you, Jake. You volunteered.”

Her words clash in my skull and reverberate. She’s lying, my mind says. She wants to hurt you. Keep you from talking.

“When you came to me, you were so young. I wanted to turn you away—tell you to go down a different path. Choose a different life. But you were hungry for purpose. However forged. Nothing I said was going to change your mind.”

She moves in closer, palms open.

“You were in an accident. Paralyzed. When the program began, took us ten hours to even get you to the facility. You developed a phobia for any speed above slow."

Her laugh is dry.

“I wanted to help you, give you a second chance.”

She only wanted to help herself, my mind says. She doesn’t possess a conscience.

“I know you must have a ton of questions about the anxiety, contrary thoughts and complex emotions.”

She looks off briefly, then steps within inches of me.

“Let me help you, Jake. Both of you.”

Both?

Before I can even ask, the world bends. The light is stabbing. A migraine hits me like a speeding train. I clutch my head and the room dives—white walls, a hum, shooting memories. I nearly fall, catching myself on a table, sending a drawer of tools clattering to the floor.

Dr. Navarro rushes me and reaches for my gun. “Stay back!” I shout.

The pain makes standing against her charge surprisingly difficult.

We tumble to the ground.

The gun goes off.

My head is pounding so severely my vision blurs. But I can still see my hands are covered in blood.

2nd Interview: Agent Vincent Holden

“Agent Holden,” says a woman’s voice—unstable, wavering in tone. She’s human.

This room smells like antiseptic and old circuitry. The design is supposed to be relaxing but it creates an unsettling calm. Too much white—too much order.

“Could you please give us the truth to the best of your ability regarding the events that resulted in the death of Dr. Mia Navarro.”

They think I did it.

They think I pulled the trigger.

Maybe I did.

“She was compromised,” I answer. “Navarro wasn’t just a researcher. She was embedded.”

“Embedded where?”

“In here,” I say, knocking on my skull...

~ The room is a trap. A staged scene. Trashed intentionally. She’s been waiting for me. Expecting.

“Dr. Navarro!” I call out.

There’s a recording playing in the background.

I recognize it.

It’s from one of the early test subjects of the program.

“It was talking to me—speaking to me.

Not at random. Intuitively.

When I needed it most.”

Then I see her. Dr. Navarro. Standing at the far end of the lab, surrounded by hazy blue light. I walk slowly toward her. I don’t want to spook her, and I don’t want any surprises either.

“Jake—is that you?”

Her voice sounds exaggerated. Placating. Like she’s trying to hide an agenda.

“There’s no need to be afraid.”

“I’m not. I just—just need answers.” I try to speak calmly. Disarming.

I want to get in close but slowly. I think the doctor wants out, and plans to use me as her scapegoat.

On one of the cracked monitors, I see a strange message. The monitor is angled in such a way, that when you’re facing it, the streaked letters on the screen line up perfectly with the “Exit” sign across the room. It reads:

I ExiSt INside YOU.

She’s sending me a message. This is all meant to be a performance.

“Tell me what you did to me,” I demand. “What this thing is.”

Dr. Navarro takes a step forward. “I didn’t do this to you, Jake. You volunteered.”

She’s lying. I was recruited, covertly. Profiled and shadowed.

“When you came to me, you were so young. I wanted to turn you away—tell you to go down a different path. Choose a different life. But you were hungry for purpose. However forged. Nothing I said was going to change your mind.”

She moves in closer, palms open.

“You were in an accident. Paralyzed. When the program began, took us ten hours to even get you to the facility. You developed a phobia for any speed above slow.”

I don’t remember that. But I have always stayed away from anything with an engine. Never really knew why.

I think she’s trying to figure out which one of us she’s speaking to.

“I wanted to help you, give you a second chance.”

Give me a fucking break, a voice in my mind says.

“I know you must have a ton of questions about the anxiety, contrary thoughts and complex emotions.”

She looks over to a table with a long syringe on top, then steps within inches of me.

“Let me help you, Jake. Both of you.”

She wants me to take us both out and make it seem as though I went mad.

Before I can even object, the world tips over. The light is blinding. A migraine hits me like a speeding bullet. I clutch my head and the room dives—white walls, a hum, shooting memories. I fall toward the table to knock the syringe out of her reach.

Dr. Navarro rushes me and reaches for my gun. “Stay back!” I shout.

We tumble to the ground. I hear a voice telling me to do it, pull the trigger.

The gun goes off.

REPORT

SUBJECTS: Macnamara, J. & Holden, V. (Case 353-B “Dual Cognitive Residue”)

INCIDENT: Termination of Dr. M. Navarro, 2308 hrs.

FINDINGS:

— Subjects exhibit persistent dissociative overlap.

— Distinction between primary and secondary cognition unstable.

— Both entities claim authorship of the same motor acts

— Each testimony diverges in sensory and motive detail, suggesting independent perceptual filtering.

— Further testing required.

— Pending decision: memory partition or full erasure.

3rd Interview / Jeneane Hallsworth - The technician

“Ms. Hallsworth would you please give us your full knowledge of program codename: God’s Helmet.”

“The technology of cohabitation takes the conscious awareness of two separate individuals and places them in one synthetic body. It was originally a part of a life preservation initiative designed to function as a consciousness ark. In the event of a widescale catastrophe, the technology could be used to preserve the essence of conscious awareness even in its individuation with no need to save millions of bodies.

“Cohabitation as an offshoot, became an effective way for us to simulate the conditions of life as a human on Earth. Being that we ourselves are of synthetic origin, our people are not acclimated to living in such a way. The human mind is a host for multiple conscious entities, even capable of birthing higher forms of consciousness. Much in the same way a planet is a host for conscious beings and a universe a host for planetary bodies. Yes?

“Being human makes processing information an act of great discernment as there becomes an ever-increasing need to balance waves of thoughts and emotions before they are distilled into action. It’s like walking a fine line. A healthy structure, a healthy ‘north star’ is essential as many adverse traumas and disorders have been discovered in our study of humanity. It’s really quite extraordinary, yet...tragic.”

Silence.

Ticking.

“You’ve accessed Dr. Navarro’s stream for analysis of her final thoughts and motives, correct?”

“That is correct, yes.”

“What did you discover?”

“We discovered that while sterile (containing no other conscious entity) Dr. Navarro’s stream was corrupted by a chemical compound we have yet to identify. We did however manage to recover traces and video evidence that suggest it was in fact her who destroyed Lab 23C.

“It seems she embedded a copy of her consciousness in subject 227.”

“Jake Sullivan.”

“Correct, yes.”

“So, Jake was not made up of two conscious entities but rather, three?”

“More.”

“More?”

“Dr. Navarro had been gathering phenomenal research by employing this method though it was a violation of code and ethics. She was able to hone in on the push and pull of the psyche. How the emotions created by one entity caused another to second guess, or concede. How a phobia in one could transfer to another who possessed no meaningful knowledge of its origin. Some entities seemed to harmonize in purpose while others preferred discord.

“It’s difficult to determine how or when, but at some point, her copied consciousness began to diverge, copying itself over, and over, and over inside Jake’s mind.

“The doctor had lost control. To cover-up what she had done, she began destroying files and research. She wanted out. But her army of copies wanted her out. They wanted to live.

“So, on the night of her staged escape, she was outmaneuvered. The video feed shows that as she moves in to incapacitate Jake, he throws a perfectly timed obstacle in her path. She trips, falls, gun goes off.”

“So, in your opinion, who is responsible for the death of Dr. Navarro?”

Jeneane pauses momentarily. “Her copies.”

Silence.

Ticking.

“The video also appears to show Dr. Navarro slipping something into Jake’s pocket before she leaves the lab. Her stream corroborates this and seems to identify it as a keycard of some sort.”

The interviewer stiffens, then gets up quickly and checks a different display.

He points a directive frantically at his security team when he sees Holden’s chair is empty and the door to his room is wide open.