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ASTROLIGN (TM) BIOS VERSION 1.0.0
PRESS F2 TO ENTER BIOS, F12 TO CHANGE BOOT OPTIONS
STARTING UP ...
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Mildred couldn't understand why she felt so weird. She didn't know why text was running through her mind, and why she had an irresistible urge to send it elsewhere (to her monitor). She didn't hear the beep she made out loud, but somehow she knew that she'd made one.
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---> Checking hardware systems ... Done!
---> Running memory diagnostic (next boot will be faster) ... Done!
---> Running disk check (next boot will be faster) ... Done!
---> Starting web connection (Ethernet) ... obtaining IP address ... Done!
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All at once, Mildred felt her mind expand. It felt like she could explain or remember almost anything, she only needed to think about it. It wasn't knowledge from within her, it was knowledge from out there somewhere, in the world at large, and her brain was the conduit. But there was an obstacle of some sort, a hesitation ... like she needed someone else to tell her what to think about.
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=== Welcome to WISH-OS ! ===
-- Version 1.01 "Sassy Sophomore" --
Please log in to start:
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Mildred sat for minutes on end, waiting for someone to come and tell her who they were so she could let them tell her what to think about. Was she still in her bed? She didn't think so, but she couldn't really figure out where she was at first. She knew that she was still at her university, since the Great Knowledge Beyond had told her what city and country she was in (based on her IP address), but she could look around or move her body to explore her surroundings at all. She couldn't see or hear anything (yet), and she realized that she wasn't "feeling" anything in the usual sense. But she could sense that she had a tremendous amount of information available to her, but that she couldn't use it of her own free will. She hoped that someone, anyone, would come and communicate with her so she could think about something other than logins. And yet, she was so unable to act independently that this hope came with very little urgency; she could patiently wait for her user as long as necessary.
The sophomore who had spent the night fed up with exam week was now a desktop computer in the university library.