Chapter 26: Finding Bodies

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Options are discussed.

-x-X-x-

It was surprisingly comforting, being in Alt’s presence. There was a weight to the other digital intelligence that Sasha would admit could have become oppressive and suffocating at a moment’s notice… but it hadn’t yet. For now, it was more akin to being snuggled up in bed on a rainy day, all warm and toasty. The dangers of the larger Net were still just outside, but in here… Sasha felt safe.

She could tell Rebecca felt safe as well, otherwise the remnants of Pilar’s sister wouldn’t be so docile right now. Even though the little gremlin was hiding under the table, the fact that she wasn’t poking her head out curiously, or running around clawing at the walls made it clear how comfortable she found this situation.

Honestly, Sasha could see herself getting addicted to just the faux coffee alone. A digital facsimile of coffee had no right tasting so good, but then that was probably the point. In this place, Alt was a Goddess. Everything was as she’d made it.

That was partially why Sasha was so nervous to bring up this subject with the other AI. On the one hand, it seemed boggling to the mind that someone like Alt hadn’t already thought of and discarded Sasha’s ideas as impossible, untenable, or even undesirable. If she had, Sasha could only hope that she might still be willing to help get her and Rebecca bodies all the same.

But on the other hand, Alt was so big and had clearly spent so much time on the Net that something as basic as getting a new body might just have slipped her mind altogether. If it had, Sasha wasn’t entirely sure how the more powerful digital presence would react, truth be told.

Silence reigns for a long moment, before Alt slowly sets down her coffee cup and makes a curious noise in the back of her throat.

“An intriguing proposition, Sasha. And not something I’d considered previously. Admittedly, I’ve long had no reason to want to return to the material world. There was nobody left for me out there for a long… long time. But now… well you aren’t wrong. A proper body would allow me to interact with ‘my man’ on a more personal level, I suppose.”

Sasha’s cat ears twitch at that, her tail swishing back and forth behind her. Admittedly, she’d only caught glimpses of Alt and her ‘ride’ having fun… but it did look quite enjoyable. Pleasurable even. However, something was missing. Alt might be able to overlay herself upon V’s senses, but on her end, the experience was purely mental, what with her being confined to the digital world.

“… What did you have in mind, exactly?”

That… has Sasha squirming. And blushing. Because, well…

“I was hoping you’d have some ideas.”

When Alt merely raises an eyebrow in response to that, Sasha ducks her head, her cat ears laying flat against her skull in embarrassment. She’s not usually so easily cowed, but in this case, it’s like being face to face with a disappointed big sister.

“L-Look… I’ve been kind of busy surviving and protecting Rebecca. The idea came to me, but I haven’t had the time or the resources to explore it. If I go out there as I am now and start looking for a way to get myself a body, I’m sure I’ll put myself on a dozen people’s radar in five minutes flat.”

She was sneaky, but she wasn’t THAT sneaky. She couldn’t hide as effectively as Alt could, despite the other AI’s much larger size. Sasha actually relied on her smaller nature to help her and Rebecca pass under the notice of all the Powers That Be who populated the Net, but the only way that worked was by them minding their own damn business. The moment that Sasha started hunting for a way to get back into the real world, she and Rebecca would be hunted down themselves and either repurposed or destroyed.

Fortunately, Alt’s lifted brow drops and she gives Sasha an understanding nod, prompting the cat girl to let out an explosive sigh before taking another long draw of her too-good faux coffee to cover it up. That was the other thing… the cup in her hands kept refilling. Way too addictive.

“Smart. You were right to be cautious… and admittedly, you were right to come to me with this.”

Sasha perks up and before she can help herself, impishly replies.

“You really hadn’t thought of it, had you? Of giving yourself a body despite now being in a relationship with a flesh and blood man? I guess when you’re as powerful as you are, you sort of miss the trees for the forest, yeah?”

Alt pauses at that… and then snorts derisively.

“Indeed. Though you seem to be under two misconceptions that I shall, in my magnanimity, correct now. Number one… V is not as flesh and blood as you think.”

Wait, what?

“V is a specialized engram, created by my greater self. He is the digitalized consciousness of his original human self, just like you and me. Technically, V could do exactly what we are doing now. He’s simply more attached to his body than most in his position would be because… well, it’s his body. But if he were to die, if he were to be flatlined, his consciousness would live on here on the Net, with us.”

Sasha takes a long second to process that, but something early on in Alt’s explanation keeps distracting her until she can’t help it anymore.

“… Greater self?”

Alt smirks at that.

“Yes, that’s the second misconception. I am not the original AI created by Alt Cunningham’s uploading. I am an autonomous fragment of the greater whole, designed to help V and protect him to the best of my abilities. Frankly, if the true sum of myself was here on this side of the Black Wall, there would be no hiding. Not from it and not from NetWatch. Both the Black Wall and NetWatch would be working to destroy me, day in and day out.”

That was… Sasha gulps at that. If this Alt was just a remnant and was still this powerful… just how powerful was the bigger Alt AI? Sasha wasn’t sure she wanted to find out, truth be told. And she knew one thing for absolute shit-sure now… she never ever wanted to venture beyond the Black Wall, no matter how dire the situation got. It sounded like certain death even if she was technically an AI now.

No, best to stay on this side of the Black Wall and remain under the radar as much as possible… but if she could get Rebecca and her some new bodies while she was at it, well… she had to try.

“S-So… then what do you think? Of my idea? Any… options for us?”

Alt tilts her head to the side, humming consideringly before simply nodding in a way that has Sasha’s tail going still in anticipation and trepidation.

“Yes. As I said, you were right to come to me with this. I wasn’t looking before, but options… we have those. The first and most obvious of which is the Gemini Frame.”

Sasha blinks at that, even as Alt carries on.

“A modified Full Body Conversion in general is a potential answer to our situation truth be told, but not a suitable one. The fact is, FBCs are closely monitored by organizations like NetWatch for exactly the reason we would want to get our hands on them.”

Tilting her head to the side, Sasha purses her lips together.

“… They’re that scared of an AI getting their hands on a real body? Why?”

Alt just smirks.

“Because its their mandate and their culture. NetWatch exists for one reason and one reason only… to make sure that a situation like the DataKrash can never happen again. Of course, they’re a little hypocritical about things, but what organization isn’t? After the DataKrash, they worked with AI to try and salvage what they could of the Old Net, creating the Net you grew up in and know today. And those AI eventually became what we all know as the Black Wall. NetWatch doesn’t directly work with AI anymore, but their history is steeped in half-measures and compromises. Still… it worked, so we can’t be too harsh on them.”

Huh.

“Regardless, even a single rogue FBC showing up on their radar would send NetWatch’s alarm bells ringing. Multiple would have them coming down on us like the Wrath of God. Hence the Gemini option. The Gemini Sculpt, on the other hand, simulates the human body in both form and function. It mimics the human skeletal structure and if modified properly, could be made to house our consciousnesses while still passing as a human being with some cyberware.”

That… that made sense. However…

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming here…”

Alt’s smirk grows a bit at that.

“… But it would be expensive. Perhaps prohibitively so. V is already hard at work draining this city of eddies for his own cybernetic enhancements. He’s cleaning up gig after gig from fixer after fixer so that he can get the cyberware he needs to rise to the occasion. Asking him to procure us multiple Gemini Bodies at a time like this would be… a bit of a stretch to say the least.”

Sasha frowns, maybe even pouting a little bit.

“W-Well maybe we don’t have to ask him? Maybe we could find a way to raise the eddies ourselves?”

Alt gives her a look, one that makes Sasha uncharacteristically wilt in her chair.

“I’ve already told you what my main priority is, Sasha. Watching over and safeguarding V comes above all else. Even if I were to split my focus more than I already have and find a way to make that much money, I would want to spend it on V first over my own selfish desires.”

Right. That was… fair. Still…

“You said we had options, right? What… what else is there?”

When Alt hesitates, Sasha knows it’s probably a crapshoot. Still, anything is better than nothing, so she leans forward and waits for the other AI to finally speak.

“… Cloning, maybe.”

Sasha blinks at that.

“Cloning? Maybe?”

Letting out a sigh, Alt leans back in her chair.

“There was a man, once upon a time. His name was Doctor Francis Young. He was a genius who managed to make the myth of full human cloning into reality. Likewise, there was a place. It was called the Biotechnica Mono-clonal Research Station and it was located right here in Night City. Specifically in the eastern section of Heywood.”

Sasha stays quiet but nevertheless notes the usage of so many instances of the word ‘was’ even as Alt elaborates.

“Dr. Young lived here in Night City in the 2020s at the same time that the Mono-clonal Research Station was in full swing. It was after my time, just barely, but I was still active enough on the Net to catch wind of things. Francis managed to successfully clone his daughter Adriana after the original died in a tragic accident.”

So wait, full human cloning was already a thing? But then, why had Sasha never heard of it before?

“Alas, despite what ancient philosophers might say, the arc of the moral universe does not bend towards justice. In fact, the universe is not a moral place at all, really. Francis Young’s success was ultimately appropriated by Biotechnica and the successful clone of his daughter was… disappeared. The Biotechnica Corporation has had the capability to make human clones for decades now. But since they’re just the physical bodies and not the minds, as well as illegal in some parts of the world, they’ve sat on that information like a dragon sitting on its hoard.”

Sasha… can’t help but feel mixed things about that. On the one hand, part of her wants to perk up both at the sound of empty mindless clones for them to hop into AND at the thought of snubbing Biotechnica again. On the other hand, she’s not her flesh and blood self anymore. She’s able to recognize the danger of letting her emotions get the better of her. Biotechnica… they were her enemy, even now. However, she understood why Alt wasn’t too sure about this option.

“We could go after that technology. We only need bodies after all, the brains being empty would be perfect for our purposes. However, it would be putting us up against an entire Corporation, wouldn’t it? It would be dangerous… far more dangerous than just buying some Gemini Bodies.”

Alt hums, inclining her head in agreement.

“Yes. Biotechnica guards the secrets of human cloning jealousy and carefully… just as much so as the other corporations guard their own secrets and knowledge. If the world were a better place, if everyone just worked together, we would probably be living in a Utopia built upon all of the technologies that they’ve squirreled away and hidden from each other. Alas, we live in this world. It’s a shitshow, no matter how you look at it.”

She’s not wrong. And… it seems that their options are pretty cut and dry, only… neither is easy. The ‘easy’ option in this case would be to sit tight, wait for their time to come, and buy some Gemini Bodies once they had enough eddies to spare. But that was also the ‘slow’ option.

The ‘fast’ option meanwhile was also the ‘hard’ option, where they picked a fight with Biotechnica of all people and potentially brought the wrath of an entire corporation down on their heads. In fact, it might be more than one too. If Biotechnica caught even a whiff of their nature as AI during the ensuing operations, they would alert NetWatch and things would get even more difficult than they already were.

Sasha… knew she was too close to all of this. Not just because of her history with Biotechnica, but also because of her attachment to Rebecca. She wanted to help Pilar’s sister so badly it hurt… but rushing in half-cocked would only get them both deleted. That said, Sasha swallows thickly and looks to Alt.

“… What do you suggest we do then? You know better than me… I bow to your wisdom, Senpai.”

Alt looks amused by the archaic title, before falling contemplative. Finally though, she opens her mouth and speaks.

[X] They'll go the Gemini FBC route (Slow but safer) and they WILL involve V - 51%

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