Self Portrait

A young cyberneticist takes a position at an elite research institute and is assigned to develop artificial limbs while hoping to join a secret MS division. He observes the informal, collegiate culture and clashes between scientific ambition and institutional roles as leadership emphasizes team specialization. Encounters with an old colleague involved with the classified work lead to a security investigation, and the protagonist's testimony implicates that colleague for discussing restricted topics. The story explores themes of secrecy, professional loyalty and ethics, the mechanical replication of nervous processes, and the personal cost of scientific prestige within a tightly controlled research bureaucracy.