Chapter 7: Less Human on a Higher Level

The sunrise on a screen filled the room with light when Roland woke up. His blurred vision struggled to clear, along with his mind. He sat up and coughed, the taste of sweet mucus in the back of his throat.
He worked it up and spit on the floor, then realized he was barefoot, then naked. Why did they strip us?
He looked over to see Crystal was still asleep.
For whatever reason, the network didn’t play the phony birdsong that matched the fake sunrise.
Grateful for the silence, and to still his racing thoughts, he gazed at the illusion rising in the alleged east and felt for the slot in his neck. He didn’t feel it, and wondered if they’d covered it up.
Recalling the one grain of his high school’s foreign language class, he conjured the phrase I’d like some breakfast but didn’t say it out loud. He didn’t mean to, anyway, but it began to come out of him not just in the language he thought of, but at least nine others he knew he’d never studied.
The facility and rapidity of it scared him in its effortlessness, as if he’d been a native speaker all his life.
We came out of this less human than we went in. What have we done?
Crystal stirred, a noise somewhere between a growl and yawn escaping her. The brightening light of the sunrise screen had cut her night veil’s lingering threads as she turned her open eyes away, shielding them with a tilted hand and closed fingers.
“Good morning, Roland.”
Two drones arrived with steaming trays of breakfast.
Roland silently cursed himself as Crystal stretched, yawned, took her tray, and ate like a starving refugee.
“Good morning.” And against his will, another wave of polyglot for ‘Good morning’ came out of him.
She looked up in surprise
“It works” he said, “but it translates your thoughts.” He expected another rush, but none came. “I suppose it’s something we’ll have to learn to master on our own terms.”
To keep himself from saying anything else he began eating, turning sideways to keep the increasing light out of his eyes and from seeing it outline Crystal’s form in her hospital gown.

Less human, but not that much less.