Strange Technology Part 1: Discovery
It all started during the spring semester of my junior year of college. I was a computer science major and I landed a research assistantship working on a professor's project. My part of the project was cataloguing old computer technology that was in working order. The relic computers would eventually be displayed in a history of technology museum that the university was opening in a few years. My duties consisted of receiving the donated computers from the various companies and other people who were donating them. I was required to identify and document the type of computer hardware of each donated piece and place it in the appropriate part of a storage warehouse for further review.
One Monday afternoon we got a huge shipment that took days to sort through. It was in this shipment that I found it. At first I had no idea what it was. It appeared as a dull gray metal rectangular box about the size of your average briefcase with no latches, handles, or any markings at all. Not knowing what it was I put it aside and continued sorting the computer equipment. The following Friday, after having finally completed Monday's huge shipment, I came across the metal box again.
I began probing the box with various tools. I was careful at first, but I started to use more destructive tools as I became more frustrated that the box wouldn't open. Eventually I ended up hitting it quite hard with hammer to no avail; there wasn't even a scratch on it. I was just about to give up when I picked it up and put in my lap for one more inspection.
I was quite startled when the box suddenly opened like a briefcase would. One side looked like it was some sort of computer with a touch pad with what looked like a view screen. It was a single unit with the touch pad toward the bottom and then rising to accommodate the screen. It looked much more modern than any computer I had ever seen. The other side was just a box containing dozens of little vials of charcoal colored liquid with each vial affixed to the bottom of the box.
I immediately tried to figure out how to turn the computer. It wouldn't come out of its case, but I finally managed to get the unit to light up by just placing my hand on the touch pad.
I spent the next few hours pressing buttons trying to figure what the machine was. Luckily, I was the only one in the warehouse, so it was no big deal that I was still trying to figure out the machine when the sun started to come up the next morning.
By this time I was completely exhausted, not to mention starving, and I finally stopped working on it. I was totally and completely obsessed with the mysterious computer, so I decided to take it home with me. I had figured out that if I closed the case it would simply seal itself up, and to open it again I would just put in my lap and wait.
After grabbing a bite to eat I went back to my apartment the intriguing metal case in hand. I immediately fell asleep after lying down on my bed. I woke up a few hours later, and while still in my bed, I brought the machine to my lap to continue my quest of trying to figure it out. A couple of hours later, in a surprising moment of clarity, it all came to me. I can't quite remember what triggered the insight, but I was elated. All the little symbols and icons started to make complete sense to me. It was if the syntax was supposed be language independent. Once I figured out the pattern it wasn't too difficult to discern the meaning of the symbols on the screen.
The small vial of gray liquid contained microscopic nanites. There were two types master and slaves. Basically a person would infect themselves with the master nanites, and then that person would have complete control over any other person infected with the slave nanites. The implications were mind-boggling.
As I studied further I found out that there were a few things one had to be careful about. The first was that while the person with the master nanites controlled someone else, the master's actually body would be immobile. That is, a person was only capable of being in control of one body at a time including their own. The second was that someone could only control or 'possess' someone for a period of eight to ten hours depending on the health of the individuals involved, amount of exertion on the bodies, and other similar factors. This apparently had to with a person's innate resistance to having an unnatural control mechanism imposed on them, and the nanites need to periodically regenerate.
***
My hands were shaking as I input the last few steps into the computer. Without thinking too much about it I had decided to go for it and 'possess' someone else's body. Part of me didn't believe that it would work, but the prospect was too enticing to ignore.