Madison Montgomery sat at the sleep lab's control and monitoring station. On the desk in front of her was a keyboard and mouse, and mounted on the wall across the desk was a bank of six monitor screens. Two of the screens displayed night-vision views of a room that looked much like an average hotel room, with a queen-size bed, two night stands, a chair, and a small dresser. One of the screens displayed the interface to the sleep lab's control system. Madison logged in and pulled up the protocol for the patient she was expecting.
There was a knock on the door behind her but before she could get up to open it, Madison's boss, Dr. Ari Koma, entered the room with a petite, well-dressed woman.
"Hi Madison," Dr. Koma said. "You remember Gabriella Reynolds? As I mentioned to you earlier, she's here for what I think will be her last in-lab session.
Madison stood up and said "Yes. Hello Ms. Reynolds. Everything is set for you in the room. If you want to go in and get yourself ready for bed, I'll come in in a few minutes and get you hooked up."
Gabriella Reynolds exuded confidence and sophistication. In any other setting she would have completely intimidated Madison. But the sleep lab was Madison's domain, and in the time she had spent there she found that even the most regal characters became somewhat plain after she had watched them sleep several times.
Gabriella reached out her hand and greeted Madison earnestly "Hello Madison, nice to see you again. I am sleepy tonight, so I'll go get ready. I hope everything goes well again. Last time was wonderful."
Dr. Koma gently guided Gabriella toward the door of the sleep room with his hand placed lightly on the small of her back. The gesture struck Madison as a little unusual, a little too familiar; but then Dr. Koma had always been polite and friendly. Maybe it was just that. After Gabriella stepped into the sleep room and the door closed behind her Dr. Koma turned to Madison and said "I noticed you haven't uploaded the data from your past few sleeps at home, Madison. Has everything been working okay?"
"Yes it has," Madison replied. "But the Internet at my apartment has been up and down a lot lately, so I guess the nightly data downloads haven't gone through. I do have the data with me on a flash drive; I was thinking maybe I could get it onto the server directly tonight while Ms. Reynolds is sleeping."
"You know I prefer not accessing the system directly... but this time it'll be fine, I guess. I have to check something on the server before I leave today anyway. I'll update the access database so your badge will get you into the server room tonight. Please don't forget Madison. You know the AI needs to train on the data, the efficacy of the process depends critically on that."
"I know, Dr. Koma, I'll be sure to do it tonight," Madison relied. Dr. Koma maintained eye contact with Madison long enough to make her feel a little uncomfortable, then he walked past her, down the length of the control room and unlocked the server room door with his badge.
Madison saw on the monitors that Gabriella was getting comfortable in bed. Madison's phone pinged. She picked it up to see a message from David Planchette, the sleep lab's IT guy, and Madison's on-and-off again "boyfriend".
Dave: you in the lab tonight?
Presently, Madison and Dave were in "off" status, because of a disagreement about her use of the sleep process. But she replied right away anyhow.
Madison: Yeah, that rich chick Gabriella I told you about is sleeping here tonight. Dr. K is here too.
Dave: you'll be able to get those files we talked about?
Madison: yes, Dave, if there's time. I still don't know why you're so secretive about this, but I'll do it if I can. Dr. K is going to let me get to the console. I'll get back to you later.
Madison put down her phone and walked to the sleep room door. She knocked and entered cautiously saying "Are you all set Ms. Reynolds?"
"All set, Madison. Come in and hook me up."
From one of the bedside nightstands Madison lifted out a white knit cap that held an array of several dozen small transducers and a tight bundle of wires. She placed the tight-fitting cap on Ms. Reynolds' head and arranged the bundle of wires neatly across the headboard. "How does that feel?" she asked.
Gabreilla tucked a few locks of hair under the cap and adjusted its fit slightly then said "Feels fine... you use the at-home system, don't you? How does that setup compare to this one?"
"Yes, I've been using the process at home for a few months. The cap is about the same as this one, although it's a little lighter and more comfortable. The best thing is you don't have to contend with the bundle of wires. The newer transducers connect wirelessly to the bedside station. All you have to do is press the sleep button on the control station after you put on the cap at night, and make sure to put the cap on the charging phantom during the day. It's been working great for me."
"Well hopefully Ari will transition me to the at-home system after tonight's sleep. Not that I mind your assistance, Madison, but, you know, we all enjoy our privacy."
"Oh I definitely understand, Ms. Reynolds. But I have to tell you that Dr. Koma will be a sticker for getting your nightly data, though. I'm sure your setup will work fine. My Internet glitches from time to time, and he starts hounding me for the data right away. Anyway, if there's nothing else, I'll head into the control room. Let me know when you're ready to sleep."
"Sounds good, I'll see you in a few hours," Gabriella replied, reaching to the nightstand to switch off the lamp.
Back at the control station Madison watched the monitors while Ms. Reynolds got comfortable in bed. Through the speaker Madison heard "Alright, I'm all set." Madison switched off the dimmed sleep room lights, pressed the intercom button and replied "Goodnight Ms. Reynolds, don't hesitate to call if you need anything."
Madison began the process with a click of the mouse. She watched the numerous graph traces that started rolling across the three status monitors. Two of the monitors were labeled SENSE and a third was labeled TRANSMIT. She didn't know the details, but Dr. Koma had explained to her that the sleep process was at its heart a machine-mediated biofeedback system. The computer monitored inputs from the transducers and generated outputs which were sent back to the transducers to coax a patient's brain through a complete night's sleep in as little as three hours.
Her own research had shown that users could use the sleep process without limit, free from accumulating fatigue that came with the use of stimulants and other sleep aids. And users who got a night of restful, restorative sleep in three to four hours remained ambitious and productive for the remaining twenty or so hours of the day. Madison's personal experience with the process had only been positive, save for a headache now and then.
In order for the process to remain effective in the long run, Dr. Koma had explained many times, the AI that managed the process feedback loop needed to continually train on each user's nightly input sensor dataset. This required more raw processing power than could be packaged in a bed-side system, so the at-home units interfaced with Dr. Koma's servers during the day to set up for each night's use.
Dr. Koma came out of the server room and walked over and stood behind Madison. "The traces look good," he said, "how long ago did you start the process?"
Without turning around Madison replied "She has been asleep for about ten minutes now. Looks like she's solidly in her first REM period. Do you think she'll be ready for an at-home system after tonight?"
"Yes, I think so. I was just looking at the performance and log data for her last few sleeps, and the AI seems to be well trained on her. She is well adapted to the process. Tonight, I expect she'll be awake after a little over three hours."
"Do you know who she is?" Dr. Koma asked as he sat down in the second control-station chair and swiveled to face Madison.
"I Googled her," Madison replied. "She's the head of some venture capital firm, and married to Senator Wixom. Power couple."
"That's right, Ms. Reynolds heads up Cornucopia Capital." He leaned back in the chair and went on "I've been meaning to tell you something... I am planning to move the lab from the university, to take it private. I feel I've gone about as far as I can here, and it seems that Cornucopia Capital is willing to provide funding. That's one reason why Ms. Reynolds is here: she's trying the process herself to assess the investment potential first hand. Of course, like most everyone else, she will benefit enormously from having several more wakeful hours each day. I'm sure she'll be impressed, with both the process and the potential market. And we haven't even talked about the behavior modification aspects.
"The move isn't certain yet, Madison. I should know more in a few weeks. But when I move the lab, I'd like you to transition too. We can work out the details of how you can complete your degree, I'm sure about that. I would like to have you with me, in any case. And I would be able to pay you a whole lot more than the small research stipend the university allows."
"That's big news, Dr. K.," Madison said, a bit at a loss for words. "But you know I don't really want to work on the b-mod stuff; I need to finish my dissertation and take some time to think about what I want to do next."
Dr. Koma stood up and placed his hand on Madison's shoulder. "Well think it over Madison. Think about the ways we can help people when we bring the process to market. In addition to helping people sleep and find more productive time in their days, think about how we might be able to help people with addictions or other behavioral issues if that capability were to pan out. Sleep on it.
"Anyway, for tonight, let me know if anything looks unusual with Ms. Reynolds' sleep. I set the door to the server room to open once for you, don't forget to upload your data."
"Well thanks for telling me the news, Dr. Koma. I will think it over. See you in a few hours, if you come down to see Ms. Reynolds when she wakes up."
Just as Dr. Koma walked out of the control room Madison's phone pinged again. She checked the status screens to see that everything looked okay then checked her messages.
Dave: BTW I got a call from the chair of the reseach ethics committee, asking questions about Koma's behavior modification proposal. I know you don't believe me but things are getting more than a little strange.
Madison: Well guess what, he just told me he's taking the lab private... big G and her firm are going to fund. He talked like it's not a sure thing, but there is some odd energy between those two.
Dave: Not surprised.
Madison used to be irked by Dave's worry about Dr. Koma and the sleep process. She wasn't experiencing any side effects, and it had freed up time for her to make progress on her dissertation research and to have time with Dave, when they were in "on" status. Even Dave had used the process for a while; it only went bad for him when he decided to stop. For a week he had terrible headaches and couldn't sleep at all.
And while some students told nightmare stories about their thesis advisor, Madison always found Dr. Koma to be supportive and nurturing. So much so that once, in the heat of an argument, she told Dave that she wished he would be as attentive to her as Dr. Koma was. This made Dave flip them to an "off" state for a few weeks. Madison thought it was a jealous reaction, but when they later talked things over, he made her realize that Dr. Koma did attend to her with unusual diligence. That, combined with her unease about the behavior modification experiments that were in the works, made Madison conclude it would be best to complete her degree and move on. The sooner, the better.
Madison checked the monitors again then messaged Dr. Koma.
Madison: She's into her second REM period now. Everything is on profile.
Koma: Sounds good, thank you for the update. I'm going to head off campus for a bit, I'll be back before she wakes up. Would you like a coffee or anything?
Madison: No thanks, Dr. K, I'm all set. Message me when you get back and I'll let you know where she's at.
Then to Dave she sent:
Madison: I can get to the server now. Call in five minutes.
Madison badged into the server room and was greeted by a rush of cold air and the whirring sound of numerous cooling fans. Just as she sat at the server console, her phone rang.
"Hey Dave, I'm at the console now. Step me through what you want me to."
"Okay, log in with your credentials and then open a terminal window."
"Done. What's this going to do again?"
"All it's going to do is copy some files from a part of the filesystem that I can't access remotely. That's it. At the command prompt type S U space D P L A N T." Dave spelled out what Madison was to type. "And then enter my password, it's the first four letters of your first name, first letter capital, followed by your birthdate, two digits for month, day, then year."
Madison rolled her eyes and typed the command and entered the password. "Okay, looks like I'm logged in as you now."
"Good. Insert the flash drive I gave you into the USB port and let me know when it mounts. We'll hang up and I'll text you the command I want you to enter at the command prompt."
Madison saw an icon for the flash drive appear on the desktop. "Okay all set. Send me what you want me to type and I'll message you when it's done. I have to upload some of my sleep data, should I do that before or after I run your command?"
"I wish you wouldn't upload anymore data, but if you're going to, you can do it after. In any case, be sure to type exactly what I send. Everything is logged, but I can clean up the logs remotely. I'll talk to you in a bit."
Madison disconnected from the call. Her phone pinged with the message from Dave: a long command which looked more or less like gibberish. She knew enough about the system, however, to recognize the command would do nothing more than copy some files. She typed it in carefully, pressed enter, and a window popped up with a progress bar that slowly advanced from 0% to 100%.
Back at the sleep lab control station Madison checked the status of Gabriella's sleep and messaged Dave.
Madison: I got your files.
Dave: Okay, sounds good. When can we get together?
Madison: I'll be done here in a couple hours and would like to get some sleep, so how about tomorrow?
Dave: I'd rather not wait. Can you come over right after you're done?
Madison didn't reply right away. At first she thought Dave was just angling to get her to his apartment. But then lately he had been acting even more strange about Dr. Koma and the sleep process, which is why she had agreed to access the server for him. She messaged Dave.
Madison: Okay I'll let you know when I'm done.
Gabriella Reynolds woke up just three hours and fifteen minutes after she went to sleep. Madison turned on the lights in the sleep room dimly and said into the intercom "Good morning, Ms. Reynolds. You can remove the cap and get yourself out of bed whenever you're ready. It's a little after midnight. You did well." Then she messaged Dr. Koma, who a short time later arrived at the sleep lab just as Gabriella was dressed and coming out of the room.
"I brought you a cup of green tea, with a little honey. I hope you like it that way," Dr. Koma said, handing Gabriella the cup.
"It's exactly how I like it, Ari. Thank you," she replied with a generous smile.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"Wow! Just wow," Gabriella replied after taking a deep breath. "I feel totally rested, as if after the best night's sleep. Did everything look okay on your end Madison?"
"Sure did Ms. Reynolds. I'd say you are an ideal candidate for the process," Madison replied.
Dr. Koma said "Gabriella, why don't you accompany me to my office. We'll talk about the next steps for you and I, and I can show you a setup like the one you'll have at home." And as the two stepped toward the door, he said to Madison "Will you please check with the hardware team to see if Ms. Reynolds' setup is ready? And also, tell Dave to make the initial image of the drive to go with it, including the data from tonight after it's processed, please."
"Sure thing, Dr. Koma. It was nice seeing you again, Ms. Reynolds. Good luck with the process at home."
It was about two in the morning when Madison got to Dave's apartment. She was tired because she hadn't slept for nearly twenty four hours, but she would be back at her place in an hour or two and using the sleep process she could easily be back at the lab by nine. Dave, on the other hand, looked tired and disheveled when he opened the door to his apartment. He did not wear his lack of sleep nearly as well as Madison wore hers.
"Hey Madi, thanks for coming tonight. You have the flash drive?" Dave asked.
"Yeah, I have it. Let's look at it and get this over with, we both need some sleep. You look like crap," Madison said.
Dave didn't react. He just held out his hand for the flash drive. After Madison gave it to him, they went to his workstation and looked at its contents.
"What is all this," Madison asked?
"A while ago I noticed that Koma's software saved a bunch of video files to a special partition of the server's filesystem." Dave clicked on a folder named MM. "See? All mpeg files. These seem to be yours. Why would there be video files associated with sleep process users?" Dave double clicked one of Madison's video files, opening a video viewer, which he dragged to the second monitor of his setup, and enlarged to full screen. Then he clicked play.
A grainy black and white scene, a male face laying on a pillow, sleeping. Eyes slowly open and then a smile. A slender hand strokes the stubbled cheek...
"Oh my god," Madison gasped.
"What the fuck? Madi, what is this, a dream?"
"No Dave, not a dream... it's a memory. Remember the first time you spent the night at my place? This is that. I remember it so vividly!"
Madison looked at the other screen, at the list of video files in her directory. There were hundreds.