Evidently, the assembler hadn't whirred to life shortly after Linda arrived by pure coincidence. Someone had been put through it, quite recently, judging by the pristine jarred brain waiting at the end of the line. The brain was a little smaller and shaped differently than the one Linda had found outside, the fluid in the jar a little more blue and bubbly, and the base of the new jar had more a few ports and buttons that the one outside lacked, but it was clearly just as alive.
"You! Otter! Quick, pick me up!" Came this new jar's speakers, the synthesized voice very definitely female and probably both early middle aged and upper middle class.
"You can see me?" Linda asked, jumping back a little in surprise.
"Well if you were trying to go unseen, you did a terrible job. Now hurry up and grab me! We need to get downstairs ASAP!" The new jar snapped back.
"Well, this one didn't sound like it could see me, only hear me." Linda said, holding her jar out to the new one.
"Jaime's tank was an older model. We didn't have the camera system worked out yet. I fixed that. Now hurry up and take me downstairs! We need to get to my body before it's fed into the disassembler.
Jaime. So that was this brain's name. Good to know. Now all Linda needed to know was "Why should I trust you? Who are you? What if I do what you say and end up in a jar too? I like my brain where it is, in my skull!"
Either the new jar had some sort of advanced self-censoring feature, or else the jar was about to self destruct, because a ten second long BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! erupted from its speakers, loud enough for even Jaime to start complaining, his speakers giving off disgruntled and distorted feedback. When the beep stopped, the new jar did not explode as Linda was half expecting. Instead, there was a few seconds of silence, then with a curt and collected tone the jar explained "I'm Doctor Ara. I used to work here, before the place blew up and my employers tried to bury all evidence of its existence. I've been secretly coming back to this site to continue my cybernetics research for many months. I worked so hard I fell asleep at my computer, then you came in, startled me, and I fell backwards into the operating chair while accidentally hitting the button to activate the machine. Yes, that is a massive design flaw in this machine, and no, OSHA didn't come around a lot. Once my brain got pulled out, my body got dumped through the trapdoor below the operating chair Sweeney Todd style, and now it's on its way to a machine called 'The Disassembler'. I don't think I have to tell you that that would be bad for me. So, please, pretty please, PICK UP MY **BEEP** JAR AND TAKE ME DOWNSTAIRS PRONTO YOU STUPID **BEEP** BEEP**!!!"
Linda didn't like being yelled at, but she also didn't feel like letting someone's body get fed into a device called 'the disassembler' was an appropriate response to name calling. So, reluctantly, Linda picked up Dr Ara's jar, stacked it on top of Jaime's jar, and stumbled out of the room. "This is really heavy!" Linda complained, staggering beneath the weight of both jars balanced precariously on top of one another.
"Down the hall to your left, second door on the right!" Was Dr Ara's only response. Linda obeyed, and continued to follow the doctor's directions as she guided her deeper into the facility. It was clear that whatever had exploded, it had been on the lower levels, the walls caked in soot and the air thick with ashy dust that left Linda coughing and bleary eyed. When she tried to stop and catch her breath, maybe rub her eyes a little, Dr Ara shouted "Nearly there! Keep going! No stopping!"
Groaning, Linda pressed on, shoving her way through the remains of a wooden door that had been reduced to charred splinters in a rough door shape. Blinking some of the tears away, Linda saw that much like the assembler, this disassembler was not so much a single machine but a small factory, albeit a much larger small factory than the previous machine, with room for many people to move around and operate several terminals. Scanning the various parts of the line, Linda saw...
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