Part 1

Cybernetic Brain Implants are all the rage now. They allow people to control their PCs, cars, game consoles, and more wirelessly and remotely with just their mind. It seemed like everybody was getting them.

You even saw employers offering to get them for their employees since it meant the employer could monitor their employees more efficiently. Theoretically it also means the employee would also be much more productive. At least, that's what they want you to believe.

Alex's roommate, Jake, recently got one of those implants installed in his head. Yep. Made an appointment with the place that sells them and then a robo-doc cut into the back of his neck and inserted the thing at the base of his brain leaving a flesh-colored plastic access port right there at the base of his skull. A magsafe connector provided a physical connection to his implant, otherwise everything is done wirelessly.

From a purely technological standpoint it's a pretty neat device. First, it's powered by blood sugar! Glucose. You tend to see people with these types of cybernetic implants with quite a sweet tooth. Now you know why. Onboard micro- and neuromorphic -processors with machine learning provide a bidirectional translation of the brain's analog signals to the digital signals of the rest of the world. 

⁂

Their apartment was quiet, except for the soft him of Jake's gaming rig. Theirs is a small two-bedroom flat with small bedrooms located across from one-another, a large, shared bathroom, and a large communal space that housed their kitchen, dining room, and living room.

It was in downtown Atlanta, and for the money it really wasn't that bad of a deal. But being in the heart of Atlanta, crime was always an issue. The fact there was an Atlanta Police precinct in the ground-floor of their apartment building meant that crime inside their building was thankfully almost non-existent.

Outside though, several sirens wailed, and the strobes and lights of various flying vehicles etched colorful patterns on their adjustable opaque windows that shielded the outside views to the goings-on inside their space.

Inside their apartment Jake was in his room, laying on his bed, in the middle of a game as usual. A holographic display hovered above his head with a rapidly evolving scene of fighting and combat of some fictional galactic army of soldiers fighting some alien species. He was perfectly still, the only movements from him were those of his eyes darting back and forth watching the game. He was perfectly in "the zone".

⁂

Alex leaned against the doorframe to Jake's room and covertly watched his roommate Jake for a few minutes.

Jake was not a typical "gamer geek" that only cared about his games and neglected his body. To put it bluntly, Jake was in incredible shape. He was tall; about 196cm in height, and weighed 75 kilos.

That's 6'5" and 165 lbs. in Freedom units, or almost 12 stone in Commonwealth units.

He also had the metabolism of a fruit fly because it didn't matter what he ate, Jake never seemed to gain any weight. Alex was always a little jealous about that. Throw in his chiseled jaw, perfectly lithe and lean body, and impressive bulge, and it was no wonder Jake could get any man — or woman — that he fancied.

Which didn't seem to be many, because in all the time Alex has known him, he doesn't remember Jake ever dating anyone, let alone bring anyone over.

⁂

"Another victory, huh?" Alex said, breaking the silence and making his presence known.

Jake paused his game, and the holographic display disappeared. He sat up and gave Alex a cocky smile. "Yeah, just another day fighting the Drex."

The Drex were a fictional race of arachnid-like creatures from a planet in the Alioth star system within Ursa Major.

Alex entered Jake's room and plopped down on his bed next to him. "How's the campaign going? Have you killed the Queen yet?" referring to the video game.

Jake shrugged, swinging his legs off his bed to sit down next to him. "Honestly, I think I need a break," he said. "This implant is amazing, but it's starting to feel like work."

Alex raised his eyebrow feigning curiosity. "How so?"

Jake moved his finger to the back of his neck where the implant interface was and tapped it lightly. "It's like... I can access my PC directly, control almost anything with my thoughts. It's efficient, but sometimes I forget to just relax. My phone, my email, news feeds from the Internet... It's like I'm always connected, you know?"

"Can't you turn all that off?"

"That's just it, it's never really turned off. It has to stay connected in the event I might want to do something," he said.

Alex's mind started to race. This was his chance. He had been researching Jake's implant ever since he got it a few months ago. Now he had the perfect excuse and opportunity.

"You know, Jake, I've been reading up on those things," he said. "They say you can actually tweak the settings, even upload new subroutines. Maybe there's a way I can make your implant more 'user-friendly'."

Jake's eyes lit up. "Really? That sounds awesome! You think you could make it better?"

Alex nodded, trying to hide his excitement. "Of course! Why not?"

⁂

Over the next couple of days Alex dug-in and researched the shit out of Jake's implant, its manufacturer, and poured over all publicly available material.

Much to his delight he found a SynapTech Solutions developer program for Jake's NeuroLink implant that was open to anybody, and it was free. All he needed to do was sign-up, and he was able to download a complete developer environment along with an implant device emulator complete with a virtual "human" it was installed into.

After a couple of days Alex — with laptop in-tow — approached Jake, who was sitting on their couch watching TV.

"Up for a very minor test?" he asked Jake.

"Sure!" Jake replied.

"I want to see if I can connect to your implant," he said. "You should get a pairing request from my laptop."

Jake nodded, and Alex began the pairing process to try to connect his laptop to Jake's implant. Almost immediately Alex saw Jake's implant show up as an available device he could connect to, and he started a pairing request.

As soon as he clicked on "Connect", Jake's eyes widened, and he gave Alex a thumbs up.

"I just granted you access," he said.

⁂

As soon as Jake had granted access to Alex's, his laptop's screen began to fill-up with telemetry and diagnostic information about Jake's implant, and surprisingly... his body.

Jake's vitals, such as his heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, glucose levels, oxygen levels, carbon dioxide levels, and various other measurements were plotted on Alex's screen, like a medical-type display. Jake's implant was able to determine his vital signs from simply interfacing with his brain, putting a digital spin to the analog world that we all are.

"Dude, this is incredible," he said. "Jake, you need to see this." He set his laptop down in front of Jake.

"That's amazing," he told him, marveling at how some of the graphs and displayed changed as he moved his head, his arms, and his torso.

Holding his breath immediately saw his oxygen levels start to immediately decrease, and his carbon dioxide levels go up.

The implant was even tied into his senses. There was a "blocky" black & white mosaic that showed the signals from his eyes as his brain interpreted them.

A wave form generator showed the audio signals coming from his ears as they were processed and interpreted by his brain.

But the most impressive display was a stick figure representation of Jake. As he moved his arms, head, neck, etc. the stick figure adjusted to show his approximate position. The implant was able to read and interpret Jake's sense of proprioception!

"Damn," Jake said, a little taken aback by everything about him that was shown on Alex's screen. "About the only thing you can't do is read my thoughts it looks like."

Alex was giddy but looking at Jake he could tell Jake was anything but comfortable with what he was looking at. "I don't know if this is a good idea," he said, slowly closing Alex's laptop and handing it back to him.

⁂

Jake's body language made it clear that he was no longer interested in Alex doing anything more with his implant. Seeing how deep his implant was embedded in his mind was shocking and alarming to him.

On one hand he had to know that the implant would be deeply embedded in his mind. How else could it interface with his mind and control everything it was connected to?

But on the flip side, knowing at a deep level that your implant is invasive, and seeing just how invasive your implant is with your own eyes, are two entirely different things.

If he was going to hack into Jake's implant he'd have to come up with another plan.

⁂

Alex spent the next couple of days searching the dark web looking for any information... tools, or utilities that might aid him with jail-breaking Jake's implant. Of course, for any of them to be successful Jake would have to be unaware of what he was doing.

Yet Jake's implant still showed up as an available device to connect-to on his laptop. Jake hasn't revoked Alex's permission to connect to his implant.

«This was going to be too easy,» Alex thought to himself.

Then he found it. The file NeuroLinkJBv1.2a.app certainly looked promising.

Warning! Running the NeuroLinkJBv1.2a.app will result in the target's implant rebooting. To avoid detection, do not run this program while the target is awake or conscious.

⁂

That evening after both he and Jake went to bed, Alex waited until he was certain Jake was asleep. This was easily confirmed by him connecting to Jake's implant with his laptop. Jake's heart rate, respiration, and lack of movement or activity in most of his body confirmed as such.

Now all was left was to launch the NeuroLinkJBv1.2a.app and see if it was successful.

Either Jake would be alerted that Alex was trying to hack his mind or he wouldn't. The app could either destroy their friendship or... well... 

Date: 2120-06-15
Time: 06:02:00 UTC
User: [REDACTED]
Target Implant ID: NL-2120-FFCA19

06:02:05 - Initiating connection to target cybernetic brain implant via secure channel.
06:02:10 - Scanning for active neural pathways and implant firmware version.
06:02:15 - Target firmware version detected: v5.1.3 (latest).

06:02:20 - Establishing exploit vector: Neural Interface Protocol (NIP) vulnerability identified.
06:02:25 - Bypassing initial security protocols.
06:02:30 - Accessing memory cache... Success.

06:02:35 - Injecting custom payload to disable security features.
06:02:40 - Payload execution in progress...
06:02:45 - Security features disabled. Bypassing user authentication.

06:02:50 - Accessing core functionalities: sensory modulation, memory alteration, and data storage.
06:02:55 - Modifying sensory input parameters... Success.
06:03:00 - Creating backup of original settings for restoration.

06:03:05 - Initiating jailbreak process...
06:03:10 - Jailbreak successful! Target implant now in "Developer Mode."

06:03:15 - Installing custom applications:
           + App 1: God Mode v3.0
           + App 2: Memory Manipulator Pro
           + App 3: Simon Says v1.0

06:03:20 - Applications installed successfully.
06:03:25 - Modifying user permissions for unrestricted access.
06:03:30 - User permissions modified. Full control established.

06:03:35 - Initiating stealth mode to avoid detection.
06:03:40 - Stealth mode activated. Monitoring for any security alerts.

06:03:45 - Running diagnostics on installed applications... All systems operational.
06:03:50 - Preparing to exit remote session.
06:03:51 - Rebooting implant.
06:04:00 - Connection terminated.

06:04:05 - Finalizing log...
06:04:10 - Log complete. Jailbreak process executed successfully without detection.

End of Log
Status: Successful

«God mode?» Alex immediately took note of. «What the hell does that do?»

It didn't really matter though. Not right now at least. Right now, it was almost 2:15am and Alex was tired as fuck and desperately needed to get to bed. Testing out Jake's implant "jail break" would have to wait until tomorrow.

⁂

The next morning, Jake was up early, blissfully unaware that anything had been done to his implant. Alex was still dead asleep when he left and went for a jog around Piedmont Park. Alex didn't even hear him come back, but the sound of the shower eventually jostled him awake.

Groggy and disoriented he stepped out of his bedroom just as Jake stepped out of the bathroom with droplets of water glistening on his chest and abs. The white towel wrapped around his waist did little to obscure what lay beneath.

“Hey,” Jake said, nearly bumping into Alex in the narrow hallway. “Rough night?”

“Something like that,” he replied, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “How was the run?”

“Pretty good. Saw a dead hooker on 10th.”

“Jesus, really?” Alex’s eyes widened in shock.

“Yeah,” Jake said, shaking his head. “But on a brighter note, there’s a new gay bar that just opened on 11th.”

“Seriously? That’s awesome!” Alex perked up, a grin spreading across his face. “We have to check it out.”

“Thought you might be interested,” Jake said with a playful smirk.

“Definitely,” Alex replied, excitement bubbling in his voice.

⁂

Jake, still wearing only a towel around his waist, followed Alex into the kitchen. That's when Alex remembered... Simon Says v1.0...

"Hey Jake," he said, "take off your towel." 

Jake flashed Alex an incredulous look. "Fuck you I'm not taking off my towel," he said. "What's gotten into you this morning?"

"Nothing," he apologized. "I'm sorry."

Jake finished pouring himself a glass of orange juice and headed to the living room.

"Jake?" Alex asked. "Simon says... remove your towel," finishing before Jake could respond.

And just as he was about to sit down, Jake undid his towel and let it fall to the floor then sat down on the couch and turned on the television. Completely naked.

«Holy fuck... holy fuck.... holy fuck...» Alex said to himself.

Alex followed Jake into the living room a few seconds later with his Hot Pocket and picked Jake's towel up off the floor. Jake, who was watching the TV, didn't seem to notice that Alex was holding his towel. The same towel that was wrapped around his waist just a few seconds ago.

"You gonna sit down?" he said, motioning for Alex to take a seat.

Alex sat down but couldn't keep himself from staring at Jake. Did it really work, or was Jake fucking with him? Does he even realize what he did? What he's doing? Or what Alex could do to him? No... He needed to test this further.

"Jake... I left my coffee in the kitchen; can you grab it for me?"

"What am I, your servant? Get it yourself," he replied curtly.

"Please?"

"You can get your own damn coffee, Alex."

"Simon says... bring me my coffee, Jake."

Right on cue, Jake immediately got up from the couch and his 196cm body and rather long and thick appendage gracefully went into the kitchen and casually brought a coffee cup to Alex. Jake then he sat back down nonchalantly and resumed watching the TV.

"Thank you," Alex told him.

"For what?" he replied.

Alex had no memory of something he just did only seconds ago.

«Holy fuck...»

Holy fuck, indeed.