Today I have a special visitor. Or at least he believes he is special. Personally, I cannot stand the sight of him. It makes me sick to even breathe the same imaginary air as him. Hobson. The lead on the XJ5 project and senior HGMR officer is sitting in my living room.
He’s an odd-looking man. I understand now, what Edel meant when she described him as bug-eyed. Those things look like they don’t quite fit inside their sockets, and his overly square jaw coupled with those ugly thick rimmed square glasses make him look like a bloody puppet.
I force a pleasant smile to my face and greet him properly, despite the fact that I’d rather hide behind my sofa than speak to this poor excuse for a human. “Thank you for meeting with me Mr Hobson.”
“Doctor Hobson,” he corrects me without missing a beat. His face never breaks into any sort of smile and, oh God! Why am I so intimidated?
“Doctor Hobson.” My voice quivers as I correct myself, and I force down the lump that has formed in my throat.
As I take my seat, I realise I have never once felt this uncomfortable in my own home before today. He peers at me over those ugly spectacles and says, “I have been informed you possess the highest security clearance. You already have knowledge of the XJ5 project, but you have some questions relating to them? Apparently I am to give you a statement relating to the XJ5s?”
Who’s running this interview? I feel so out of my depth. I’ve made a cup of tea, but honestly, I’m afraid to pick it up because my hands are shaking so much, I’m worried I might end up wearing most of it. I peer up at him and force myself to answer. “I was hoping to get your view on the XJ5s. What do you think of them?”
“They are magnificent. Truly exceptional weapons.”
“But they aren’t weapons. They are people.”
Hobson’s eyes bulge further out of his head, and he stares at me with a look of disdain. “Where did you say you were from? Please don’t tell me you are from one of those XJ5 sympathiser groups…”
“No. But they are human. They are just like us.”
“They are nothing like us. They do not think or feel the way humans do. They simply obey orders and nothing more.”
I know this isn’t true, and if you’ve read the books, you will know this too. But I get the feeling he isn’t exactly lying. Maybe he fully believes the crap he is spouting.
“Can you tell me about the hivemind?”
“The hivemind is a method of sensory communication. This is what makes the XJ5s so incredible. A solo XJ5 is a threat. They are fast, strong, intelligent. They have been conditioned to complete their objectives regardless of any physical or mental distress. They will push through and complete their given task even if it kills them. But a team of XJ5s… well, they are unstoppable. They do not need to communicate with words, they simply feel their way around each other.” He smirks as he speaks, as though he was personally responsible for their development.
“So, they do feel?” I ask, knowing I am pushing his buttons.
“It isn’t feelings. It is just how they process physiological changes, hormone fluctuations, and changes in brain chemicals that help them to understand their surroundings, identify threats, and act accordingly.”
“What do you mean? Can you explain it in simple terms for our readers?”
I see the tick in his jaw. “It’s quite simple,” he says condescendingly. “Let us imagine that there was a threat in this very room.”
There is, I think.
“Once the XJ5 perceives a threat, cortisol and adrenaline will be increased. Their heart rate will increase. Their blood flow will increase to accommodate the fight-or-flight response, just like it would in any human. But with the XJ5s, every connected mind would experience the same physiological changes too, regardless of if they saw the threat or not.”
“So, what one feels, they all feel?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“so, if one feels happy, they all feel happy?”
“There is no ‘happy’. They are under strict instructions not to feel emotion that could hinder their performance. XJ5s have the ability to close down that kind sensory feedback. If one was displaying emotion of that nature, the others would forcibly close down that feeling and remove it from the hivemind, keeping their shared consciousness emotionless.”
“So it isn’t that they aren’t capable of feeling emotion. It is that you have forbidden them from feeling.”
He stares at me, and I honestly feel myself shrinking away from his intense gaze. “What does it matter? They are nothing but a product. An invention to serve mankind. They don’t know any other way of life, and they perform perfectly well without any of those messy human emotions. Emotion is not needed for them to perform their function.”
“But it’s just so…” I grasp for a word strong enough, but I don’t think one exists. “Abusive!” I settle on a word, but it just doesn’t seem enough. To force a person to live without feeling, to punish them when they display any emotion, and to make it the norm that if one does miraculously have a feeling, then it is funnelled out by the others, forcing them into an empty abyss. It’s horrendous.
“Once again, they are not human. They do not care.”
Okay, I know I shouldn’t poke this particular bear, but I can’t help myself. “What about the ones who escaped?”
He looks up sharply. “What about them?”
“Do they feel emotions?”
“No. They do not feel. Feeling is forbidden. That is the rules. Feeling serves no purpose for them.”
“The ones who escaped are not following your rules.”
Oooh. That tick in his jaw is back, and now the vein in the side of his head looks like it’s about to pop. He doesn’t like to speak about those escapees. That makes him look incompetent, and it looks like his ego can’t handle that. “The XJ5s do not feel. Emotion and emotional regulation are something that humans learn at a very young age. The XJ5s were not raised like humans. Even without the constraints of Poly-Gen, the escapees would struggle to develop any emotional range.”
“But—”
“—Ms Reverie, you need to stop trying to humanise them.” He cuts me off and his tone is so final. “Your views are dangerous, and thanks to people like you, spreading your misinformation and trying to garner sympathy for these creatures, we are now dealing with protests from our citizens. You asked for a statement, well here it is. The XJ5s are not human. No emotions. No preferences. No wants or desires. They are nothing but tools to be used by the New American government in whichever way we see fit, and when they have served their purpose, they will be discarded.”
He stands up and towers over me. It takes me all my effort not to lose my composure. “Will that be all?” he demands.
Before I can answer, he is already striding towards my front door. “I’ll see myself out.”
I sit stunned for a moment. I suppose this interview was one of my more successful ones. At least we got a deeper understanding of the hivemind, but I’m still a little shaken. He was awful. I hope I never have to meet with him again.
If you would like to read more about the characters in the Almost Human series, check out my other blogs, or take a look at the books on amazon. The first in the series is available here https://amzn.eu/d/gkf044d
Ashleigh Reverie Author 