NLI-10 by Lee Isserow

please be so kind as to join the orderlies at the door, we've got a busy morning ahead of us before you can lay your heads down to rest.” She forced a non-smile to them all and strutted out of the room, orderlies opening and closing the door for her without making eye contact.
The group was too tired to be paranoid. They slovenly rose to their feet and followed her out.
    Sat once again in the deep leather seats in the dark room, Whark stood in front of them, her voice emanating out of the black.
    “Are you all comfortable?” she asked, insincerely.
    They grumbled in the affirmative.
    “Very good. Now I want you to picture the grid.” she said, waiting for them to do so. “Are you all seeing it?”
They were.
    “Now in the top right there is a small box, do you see it?”
They concentrated on the grid, trying to make out its lines and sections in the darkness, one by one seeing the box they were being directed to.
    “It is currently...” a light glowed out in the darkness as she brought her wrist up to view her watch, illuminating the angles on her face like she was about to tell them a ghost story. “Ten thirteen a.m.” the light dissipated as she dropped her arm back into the darkness.
The group felt a tingling in the back of their heads, as if some background thought process was running and set off a physical sensation. Metaphysical gears wrestling themselves to life, wheels starting to turn.
    “I want you to place that time in the box.” said Whark.
    “What do you mean, 'place it in the box '?” asked Leah, but she didn't have to wait for an answer. 
    The gears continued to turn, the sensation in the back of their brains increasing. Tingling turning to light thumping, a heartbeat in their heads, the time blinking into the box in the top right of the grid.
    “Did I do that?” they all asked, simultaneously. The thumping in their heads subsiding, gears returning to a slumber. The time continued to tick forward to ten fourteen of its own accord.
    “That wasn't so difficult, was it?” said Whark, pleased with herself.
    “What is this?” asked Farah.
    “Some kind of memetic operating system, right?” said Micah.
Whark didn't say a word.
    “The tones have been installing it in our subconscious, the flashes building the user interface, the sessions this week optimizing it for our brains, uncompressing the data, propagating the OS with peripheral apps, like the clock. We haven't seen the time or date for weeks and as soon as we have the time presented to us, in a lizard-brain state, it activated the app and...” the time ticked over to ten fifteen “... it's keeping track of the time.”
    “Well said, Mr Gorely.” said Whark. In his soliloquy, she had stepped over to the light switch and started bringing up the lights slowly.
The group were expecting the grid to fade as the room became illuminated, but it stayed in their vision, the time continuing to tick away.
    “Look around.” said Whark. “Look at your fellow subjects.”
They followed her instructions, and as Sarah looked at Alex to her right, dots appeared on Alex's face, tracking her features, a pop-up appearing in her vision giving her name, age, race, occupation, and personal notes she had subconsciously made. Alex was staring right back at her having the same experience. They all were.
    “This is insane.” said Micah, turning from Farah to Rob.
Sarah looked back over to Leah, FacialRecog bringing up the same headings they had for Alex, but with information missing. Whark could tell from Sarah's expression that she was missing data
    “Missing information can be filled in with supposition, or asking your fellow subjects to fill in the blanks.” she said.
Sarah looked at Leah, and decided to start off light, filling in the occupation heading.
    “Do you have a job?” she asked.
Leah shook her head. Sarah felt the tingling in the back of her mind as the operating system updated the information, the occupation category filled