"One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive.” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

“Bear in mind, when stowing your weapon, an artificial mind breaks down after just a few months without social stimulation. Complete sensory deprivation is something engineering has been unable to overcome. Always perform a safety check before deploying your weapon.” (Tesla, Hawkins Ballistics A.I. Maintenance and Service Handbook, 3rd Edition, page 142)

Insertion into a cat brain would be easier if it wasn't accompanied by the abrupt awareness of my raw, brand-new consciousness - all senses and emotions hypersensitive as an exposed nerve. Neural conditioning kicked in, damping the overwhelming sensory input into a single, icy-electronic focal point. With the calm came orientation: I was being injected into the poor cat's unprotected cerebrum, as though I were some kind of anti-virus.

As programmed, I coursed through her synapses, consuming her tiny mind like a ravenous ameba. The cat's panic was palpable, frantic. She scrambled to hide behind something, anything, as I entered her consciousness and steamrolled over her. She reacted the only way she knew how, lashing out at my intrusion with nonexistent claws and teeth.