//I was given this report to broadcast by the pilot of SLUG DES Feedback. Shortly thereafter, she killed herself. This is, unfortunately, not an unusual occurrence.//
Human beings are functionally blind. We can only see a fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum -- there are so many wavelengths that we cannot see, so much that is invisible and intangible to us. Things that we must take on faith.
I was never religious. Before the Fall of the Tower, I was an agnostic and after, well, I tried believing, but I just couldn't. When I learned about the EMFs, about what they did, I couldn't believe in a God that would create these things, these monstrosities.
Little did I know, I was only looking at them with my limited vision, my human sight. It wouldn't be until further tragedy that I was able to truly see them. To see them for what they really are.
I have osteosarcoma. Bone cancer. There's swelling and pain and sometimes the pain gets so bad I want to end it and sometimes the pain goes away. I was in the hospital, surrounded by that antiseptic smell, when they arrived and asked if I wanted to be a part of this project, if I wanted to pilot something called a "SLUG." I asked why me. They said there was a risk of death and usually people who were already terminal didn't care about that risk.
"Sign me up," I said.
Training was tough. Some days I couldn't even stand up, but they would wheel me to the Gear Chamber and I would take these ten minute lessons on how to use it. My SLUG was called "Feedback." They told me I would be fighting something they code-named "Melpomene."
"This is Central Command. We have confirmation of EMF activity. Code Melpomene."
My heart would leap out of my chest every time I heard that. I would walk or limp to my Gear Chamber and silently await for the green light.
"SLUG DES Feedback is in play. The Gears are turning. Please enter the Gear Chamber. Good luck."
I would open the door, take a deep breath, and then enter. When I first piloted Feedback, it was the most amazing experience I had ever had. Not because I was controlling a big robot, no; it was because Feedback came with special capabilities.
The HUD comes on and I twist the controls. The view surrounds me, a complete 360 degree panorama of everything that Feedback sees. I twist the controls again and the panorama changes -- and now I can see something else, something no human has seen before.
I can see the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Everything is laid out before me in colors my mind could not have comprehended before, but somehow the Gear Chamber is letting it comprehend, is letting me see. I can't describe the colors -- they are somewhere between and beyond regular colors and some colors are clustered together and other colors are spread apart and everything is bathed in these magnificent impossibilities.
Feedback has been placed in the center of a shopping area. I don't know how they got it in there, but they did. Nobody else is around, so they must have already evacuated everyone.
And then I see them: the Melpomene, the small distortions on the spectrum that grow larger. This is why Feedback has this special sight -- so it can see them. They are normally invisible to the naked eye, manipulating sound and light. They are creatures that live in hidden frequencies.
I flip a switch and the active noise cancellation speakers come on. I see the color and I try to match it with the Melpomene -- once my noise is the complete opposite of theirs, I can wipe them out.
They know what I'm doing. They twist and let out a sound that would surely burst my eardrums if Feedback had transmitted it to me. I continue to twist the knob, trying to find the correct frequency to cancel these creatures out.
And then I find it. They realize it, too, and I see them change their own frequency, the color turning from one impossibility to another. They move through the spectrum like a fish swims through water.
I try to find their frequency again, but they're changing again and again until they are a color similar to white, but not white. It's a color that pulses and I can feel it even from a hundred miles away. What is this frequency?
My leg throbs in pain and then suddenly it stops. I can't feel the pain anymore, it's gone. And I realize: this is the frequency of healing. If they can hurt with a sound, surely they can heal. They have healed me. I look through the HUD again and the color of them makes my eyes water.
The twenty minute warning goes off. I need to leave the Chamber soon. But I can't take my eyes away. I want to be fully healed. I want to be like them, free to see the spectrum and beyond all the time, free to move through it. (My therapist warned me something like this might happen, that it was just them messing with my head, but I couldn't hear any voices, nothing felt wrong.) I ignored the warning and kept staring at them until the ten minute warning blared and my leg arced with pain.
I emerged from the Chamber into a squad of medics. They gave me painkillers, told me that I should get chemo, but I refused. The Melpomene had taken it away and then given it back. Why? Just to show they could?
I had failed in my mission. I had a talk with my superior and with my therapist. There's surveillance of me in some sort of trance. I told them the truth, but they didn't believe me, didn't believe I had been healed.
I wasn't let back into the Gear Chamber. I heard they are looking for a new pilot. That's okay. I'm not sure I would be able to do anything if I encountered the Melpomene again. When I saw them in that not-white light, they looked...radiant. And I knew: to them, we were the monsters with our ugly physical bodies and ugly voices. All they wanted was to show us something new, but we are blind to them.
I don't think I want to live in a world where I am blind like that. I cannot live in a world with such drab colors, such empty lights.
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