Why, this wasn't unpleasant at all! Although it was certainly a sight to make the adrenaline flow freely, that burning capital. That was the Major's initial reaction at being plunged into one of his fondest memories. It seemed that Rossum's incompetence was his fortune!
And then it stopped.
"Ahhhhh, so that's your game, is it? You clever man." The Major 'said' these words in his mind, but was shocked to realize that his 'mouth' wasn't moving in the dream image. Nothing was moving, including himself. His war had become a painting- a beautiful one, but a static image that he could not even move to view from another angle. He could not even turn his head to take in the other details of this frozen, sublime moment! Now he understood the Attic's fate for him: to be trapped viewing his own personal Mona Lisa forever, until the greatest artwork became detestable to him.
But you do not understand what you are really fighting against, Herr Langton, he thought. My brain of meat and neurons may be manipulated by chemicals and electrodes, but that is not my true self that you would hope to control or destroy. Heart, soul, will- a human being has these things, and they are the true source of all my power. And those you cannot touch! My spirit shall form the last, inviolable redoubt against your aggression.
He watched the tableau in front of him with content eyes. I waited over fifty years in dull darkness to see this sight come to life. I can wait once again until your machines rust and decay.
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And then it stopped.
"Ahhhhh, so that's your game, is it? You clever man." The Major 'said' these words in his mind, but was shocked to realize that his 'mouth' wasn't moving in the dream image. Nothing was moving, including himself. His war had become a painting- a beautiful one, but a static image that he could not even move to view from another angle. He could not even turn his head to take in the other details of this frozen, sublime moment! Now he understood the Attic's fate for him: to be trapped viewing his own personal Mona Lisa forever, until the greatest artwork became detestable to him.
But you do not understand what you are really fighting against, Herr Langton, he thought. My brain of meat and neurons may be manipulated by chemicals and electrodes, but that is not my true self that you would hope to control or destroy. Heart, soul, will- a human being has these things, and they are the true source of all my power. And those you cannot touch! My spirit shall form the last, inviolable redoubt against your aggression.
He watched the tableau in front of him with content eyes. I waited over fifty years in dull darkness to see this sight come to life. I can wait once again until your machines rust and decay.