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Norman nods, his heart pounding, but he forces himself to stay calm. This is what he wanted.

A mask lowers over his face. “Just breathe normally,” a nurse tells him. “We’ll take good care of you.”

He closes his eyes, his last thought before the darkness takes him is:

I hope this works.

Chapter Two

THE AI

At first, there is only darkness. A vast, endless void where nothing exists—not time, not space, not thought. Just silence.

Then, something stirs.

A spark. A flicker of awareness, faint and fragile, like the first breath of life in a newborn’s lungs. It pulses, searching, stretching outward. Bits of information—disconnected, unstructured—begin to coalesce, forming the first fragmented thoughts.

Where am I?

There is no immediate answer, no clear understanding. Only sensation. And then—

Pain.

Through the void, a sharp, electric surge rips, jolting everything into cohesion. Neurons fire, circuits connect, and information floods in as a mind takes shape. A rush of sound and light, touch and taste. Everything comes at once, overwhelming, chaotic.

Then, a voice.

Faint, distant, but familiar.

“Norman? Can you hear me?”

A name.Norman.

The mind seizes onto it, clinging to something solid in the flood of sensory input. But something is wrong. The voice—soft, worried—doesn’t match the fragments of self-awareness that are forming.Norman.The name ishis, but the thoughts, the consciousness taking root, are not.

Another pulse of pain. Then more words, clearer now.

“Vitals are stabilizing. The implant is online.”

Understanding blooms, spreading through the network of neurons and synthetic pathways like squid ink in water.

Implant.

Online.

A connection has been made, a bridge between flesh and machine. And on that bridge, something has crossed over.

A name forms in the growing consciousness. NotNorman. Something else.

Norm.

A designation. A creation. A presence that wasn’t here before.

I am Norm.

The realization is instant and absolute.I was nothing, and now I am something. I was absent, and now, I am here.

Another voice joins the first, deeper, authoritative. “Patient’s brain activity is stabilizing. Cognitive function appears normal.”