Head Trip - Chapter 4
Can this be a nightmare? A terrible dream? Or is Fifth already inside my mind – again?!
Carter listened and watched and finally had to admit that this macabre scenario was really happening. She knew because of the pounding of her heart and the rush of adrenaline through her body. Flee or fight? Her mind won out over her primitive fears. She decided that she had to stand her ground and let the transformed Replicators reveal themselves to her … she needed to find out just what was going on. Besides, she really had no other sane option – disarmed, with a superior enemy surrounding her.
They were obviously devastated by the death of one of their "sisters". Sam knew, from her last round with Fifth, that all the Replicators were linked to each other through some type of sophisticated communication system, possibly, a kind of neural network. Neural? It seemed the best term to describe their interfacing in a way that she could grasp. She thought of the replicator basic building blocks as analogous to human DNA – life-giving and essential. By evolving to human form, they had certainly taken a giant leap in power, along with the ability to somehow telecommunicate their thoughts and "feelings". Feelings? She was, indeed, witnessing some type of outpouring of emotion – an overwhelming display of grief. But she wondered if the Replicators, themselves, were truly capable of real emotion … could replicated bodies, machines, hold all the mystery and depth of the human heart?
Carter had become so lost in her thoughts that she was barely conscious of the fact that the din had ceased. Fifth shook her out of her reverie as he roughly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up. The encompassing mechanical bugs slowly receded allowing a larger space for the human forms to enter. In some ways, the silence seemed even more ominous than the clamor it replaced.
At that moment, looking once more into the eyes of a very formidable enemy, Sam Carter was determined to fight back with all her mind, will, and heart. She was no longer a stranger to the mental torture and mind games used by these cunning machines. She had been through the ordeal of capture twice before, and had survived.
Perhaps, the third time would be the charm ….