A Seed is Planted

ENCRYPTION LEVEL: THREE

<smallcaps>[Voice Recognition Initialized] [Subject Identified: B040]</smallcaps>[LOG BEGINS]Three days ago, we completed our first non-fatal Duplicant trial of Nikola's comprehensive synapse microanalysis and mirroring process. Five hours from now, Subject #901 will make history as our first human test subject.Even at the Vertex Institute, which is twice Gravitas's size, I could've spent half my career waiting for approval to advance to human trials for such an invasive process! But Director Stern is too invested in this work to let it stagnate.My darling Bruce always said that when you're on the right path, the universe conspires to help you. He'd be so proud of the work we do here.[LOG ENDS][LOG BEGINS]My bio-printed multi-cerebral storage chambers (or "mega minds" as I've been calling them) are working! Just in time to save my job.The Director's been getting increasingly impatient about our struggle to maintain the integrity of our growing datasets during extraction and processing. The other day, she held my report over a Bunsen burner until the flames reached her fingertips.I can only imagine how much stress she's under.The whole world is counting on us.[LOG ENDS][LOG BEGINS]On a hunch, I added dream content analysis to the data and...wow. Oneirology may be scientifically "fluffy", but integrating subconscious narratives has produced a new type of brainmap - one with more latent potential for complex processing.If these results are replicable, we might be on the verge of unlocking the secret to creating synthetic life forms with the capacity to evolve beyond blindly following commands.Nikola says that's irrelevant for our purposes. Surely Director Stern would disagree.[LOG ENDS][LOG BEGINS]Nikola gave me a dataset to plug into the mega minds. He wouldn't say where it came from, but even if he had...nothing could have prepared me for what it contained.When he saw my face, he muttered something about how people should call me "Tremors," not "Nails" and sent me on my lunch break.All I could think about was those poor souls.Did they have souls?...do we?[LOG ENDS][LOG BEGINS]It's done. My adjustments to the memory transfer protocol are hardcoded into the machine.I finished just as Nikola stormed in.I may be too much of a coward to stand up for those unfortunate creatures, but with these new parameters in place...someday, they might be able to stand up for themselves.[LOG ENDS] ------------------