John stared proudly at his invention. For as long as he could remember, he'd had no luck making friends, building relationships, or even meeting girls. Social interactions were strained, painful.
His parents had always told him, "Don't worry, son, you just haven't come into your own yet."
Only he never came into his own. His parents died when he was young, in his fifteenth year, so they never saw him grow up to be the loner that he was. Some people learn to appreciate the isolation. He'd been told that it had certain advantages, that without attachments he was free to pursue his goals unhindered.
The problem was that the only goad he could focus on was ending his isolation.
John was fuelled by his solitude, driven to find a way to break through the shell that surrounded himself and into the world of love and laughter that everybody else seemed to experience. Self-help books hadn't helped, neither had group therapy. John had turned to the only thing he knew best:
Technology.
The idea was simple, really. If John could somehow gain insight into those around him, he would be able to connect with them. Part of the reason he was so alone was that he didn't understand his peers, what made them tick, what motivated him. He needed empathy. John had poured himself into the work. Picking up other people's empathic brain waves remotely had turned out to be easier than he had thought, it was transmitting them into his brain that had been tricky. The only way he was able to pick up the signal with any strength, John figured, was by an implantable chip, one that would be embedded at the base of his neck, wired into his spinal chord. The nanotechnology he'd fine-tuned would wire in the chip, an auto-injector would plant the chip.
The injection, though, would be a one-way trip. Once it was implanted, there would be no way back.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," John said with a smile, holding the injector to the base of his neck. He winced as the chip hit his spine, cried out in pain as the nanobots wired it in.
Sarah Trask, a lab tech from down the hall, happened to be passing by and heard John cry out.
"Everything okay in here?" she said, poking her head into John's lab.
Then the world changed.
