Arriving at the Ministry of Transhumanity early in the morning on New Years Day, Primo Foglet was surprised to see his therapist waiting for the same lift.
“Dr Fury! Couldn’t sleep?”
“Oh...Happy New Year, Primo! Sad, isn’t it? Us two here on a night like this”.
“I guess so. Would you like to talk about it?”
“Ha! Then you would have one over me...”
“Couldn’t be any worse than what you have on me”, Primo relied wistfully.
“Don’t bet on it. When are we booked in next?”
Primo closed his eyes for a split second and scanned his databanks.
“Next Wednesday, 3pm. Isn’t it in your....”
“Yes it is”, she replied coyly. “But why waste electricity thinking about it when others will do it for you!”
Dr Jacqueline Fury was blonde, tall, elegant and terrifying. Primo supposed that even if she wasn’t one of the country’s top psychiatrists, with a reputation for taking no shit and getting the job done, he would still be in some kind of awe of her. To listen to what she must listen to, he thought, day in, day out, and stay sane (or at least successfully pretend to) was almost incomprehensible.
They stepped into the lift.
“Primo, why don’t we do a session now – unless you have something urgent on. I’ve got nothing pressing... and I’m in the mood to hear about your love life!”
“I wish you wouldn’t say that,” he squirmed. He thought for a moment. Primo liked his sessions with Dr Fury. She was beautiful, charming and, it seemed to Primo, hyper-intelligent. He had no idea of the extent to which she had been augmented – or “augged” – but he suspected it was significant. And above all – he needed to be able to sleep!
“OK. Let’s do it,” Primo affirmed. Dr Fury smiled and they both stepped out at her floor.
After the usual preparations and small talk, Jacqueline Fury settled into being serious and professional.
“Primo, when we left it last week you were saying that your experiences with the Bios have changed you in ways you don’t understand. That something has happened to you, and you want to understand what it is.”
“Yes. I do. I need to understand”.
She was looking through her notes as she spoke. “We have been talking about the girl, the young female that you met, Laura.”
“Yes”. Primo shifted in his seat.
“You described,among other things, experiencing a shortness of breath and an intense feeling of excitement when you spoke with her, and afterwards.”
“Yes”
You described a loss of appetite and inability to sleep when you returned to Sydney two weeks ago. And, I would assume from the fact that we are here now, you still can’t eat or sleep, and you’re still excited...”
A long pause.
“Yes. Except...it’s getting worse”.
“Primo, how much do you know about the human brain?”
“A lot”, he replied simply. Dr Fury did not doubt it.
“Well then, you will know what pheromones, dopamine, noreoinephrine and serotonin can do to it?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Those just happen to be the chemicals released by the human brain when the owner of that brain is in love. And some of the side-effects are precisely the ones you’re describing. You’re in love, Primo! What’s so bad about that? Why don’t you want to admit it?”
“Doctor, I don’t quite know how to say this to you but...this is just not supposed to happen to me.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because...I don’t have a human brain”.
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