Tattiana floats towards the middle of the media chamber. I try to read her face and search for clues about the reality of my visions the previous day, including her role during the re-entry stage. Our intimacy had felt real.
She remains as stoic as ever and conjures up a photograph.
"Konrad Lorenz investigated imprinting in geese, noticing how newborns attached themselves to any moving object like their own mother, a human, and even a ping-pong ball. The gosling nervous system didn’t discriminate. At the moment of imprint, they attached themselves neurally to any nearby object in motion regardless of what it was. This is a biochemical imprint not a behavior learned through training or conditioning. Imprinting is an all or none affair. Stronger than any learned behavior because it is automatic at the neuro-biological level."
"We’re not geese," I tell her as I run on the floating treadmill. Micro-gravity hasn't done any wonders for my bone density.
"We're not all that different from simpler systems, Mr. Crick. You, out of all people, should know that."
Mr. Crick.
"What imprints are you following without even knowing it? Biosurvival, emotional attitude, intellectual approach- what about socio-sexual parameters? You have a thing for mature redheads. For luxury leather and cheap wine. It makes sense given that your first sexual experience was in the backseat of Ms. Wheeler's Bentley. I'm surprised you didn't imprint school stationery as well."
"How do you know about that? I haven't told anyone." I stop running and look at her.
Her gaze is fixed and does not waver.
"The experiences that you've had in the past few months aboard this station were aimed to suspend your imprints. To help you become familiar with the posthumous state.”
“You mean you wanted to brainwash me?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. We find the metaphor rather crude because the brain is not a rag but a complex bio-computer. We prefer the term meta-programming. Besides, you were in control of the script the whole time, which is usually not the case when someone is being 'brainwashed' against their will. We merely guided you, like a movie producer, if you will, but it all was under your control.”
“Well, guess what? It looks like your little stunt didn’t work."
"What do you mean?"
"I still like redheads.”
She flinches in an almost human way.
"All humans carry ingrained death imprints," she continues, "based on a reflexive and primitive fear. Reflexive in the sense that you automatically react to death’s perceived inevitability. Primitive because you see no other solution."
"But death is inevitable!” I say raising my voice. “Everyone dies! The hallucinations that I experienced under the influence of your drugs won't change any of that!"
She floats closer towards me until her face is menacingly close to mine. There is no question who is in charge here. “The neuro-chemicals you took showed you the reality of your consciousness. The state in which imprints dissolve and a new reality can be imprinted. Any reality you wish. It showed you what it’s like when your brain no longer receives coordinated signals from the body and from itself. This the psychological underpinnings of the dying experience- the suspension of all imprints. Synaptic chaos that manifests itself as the phantasms of the collective experience. You have learned to navigate this realm of sensory confusion, and now, you’re ready for the next phase.”
“Which is...?”
“Immortality.”
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