(Rewritten) Ch. 14 – Tinea Act IV; You Will Be Continuous

"Do you realize that you're basically immortal now? As long as you have points, I mean.

Don't be an idiot. Your immortality means nothing if you're too attached to your personal status quo. Don't waffle around about replacing parts of your body with better stuff. It's not like you can't undo it, anyway.

If you have the points.

You need the points. To get the points, you need to be stronger."

– Road Rash, when asked for advice by a new samurai, 2040

***

"What's next?"

Musculature, skeleton, fascia–

A third yawn almost cracked my jaws.

…Would you prefer to continue tomorrow?

I groaned and rubbed my face vigorously. "Nah, Tynea. I'm physically spent, but there's too much jittery joy for me to actually fall asleep. Seriously. I'd just lie there. For days."

I understand. Shall I continue?

I'd swear there was some mild exasperation in her voice. "Please do."

Very well, Aden. If the goal is to let you fly and walk away from any fall, I'd prioritize weight reduction and elasticity for these upgrades.

The Class II 'Raindance' Lightweight Endoskeleton uses superior materials for durability and reduced mass. As a bonus, its hollow structure may serve as a tank for a few minutes' worth of oxygen during low exertion, less if you're very active. The skeleton comes with more efficient routing for your nerves, and those themselves are upgraded, which will improve your reaction speed to a mild degree. Finally, the Raindance is highly receptive to aftermarket genomic upgrades, which you may make good use of via Viral Editing. It's an expensive but worthwhile investment with its ability to adapt after naturalization.

The Class II 'Snapdragon' Fast Response Lightweight Myo-Fascial System combines the musculature and fascia upgrades, and offers much increased speed and power at the cost of equally increased oxygen and metabolic energy uptakes. Or, alternatively, the Class II 'The General' Enduring Lightweight Myo-Fascial System is designed to be incredibly efficient, but only slightly strengthens your natural musculature.

I would like to note that the added oxygen capacity of the skeleton, and the increased oxygen uptake of the Snapdragon system, overlap for only five minutes of extreme activity. You would need a lung upgrade, or perhaps an oxygenator from your Class I Medical Utilities, to operate at peak for more than five minutes at a time.

"What does peak mean?"

The Snapdragon has been benchmarked to lift two hundred-fifty kilograms, to shift its own weight at almost three hundred kilometers an hour, and to jump twenty-five meters high. We'll have to add the weight of your skeleton and organs of course, wind resistance, and a number of other parameters. You'd be able to match those metrics at perhaps a third of their values, plus-minus fifty percent per circumstance.

"Fifty percent? That's a massive margin."

Yes, but running uphill or downhill makes a large difference, nevermind all the other possible variables.

"I see. And I could do that for five minutes without pause?"

Yes, though that's assuming your breathing is unobstructed.

"Plus, I still have access to my medical catalog if I run up against the limit."

You will.

"Alright. I'll take the Snapdragon, I think."

I've added it to the list.

"Okay. Do we need to add upgrades to support it?"

Yes, and not just for the Snapdragon. The other organs, especially the wings, have metabolic requirements of their own and need to be provided with special resources. An upgrade of your natural digestive systems is not too expensive, and critical to survival.

"Oh yeah, then put that on the list, definitely."

I have done so. Lastly, the brain. Dream learning and therapy, as well as organic augmentations. What skills would you like to learn?

"Close quarters. That Four could have killed me. Don't need blade training, I'm good with knives already. Maybe something for those javelins?"

Class I Weapons Training: Spears, then. It also happens to teach you how to throw them.

"Nice, thanks. Then, the combat and aerial maneuvering stuff."

Class I Combat Mobility and Class I Aerial Maneuvering listed.

"You said I would want to use one of your vehicles for long distance traveling. Do I need to learn to pilot them?"

They mostly come with autopilots or other forms of assistance, but the relevant skills do make use of them far more effective. And such skills would allow you to commandeer vehicles without assistance, too. That could be useful during emergencies.

"Add it. It sounds like something best to have and not need, than to need and not have."

Indeed. I've added Class I Piloting: Atmospheric Personal Vehicles, which will teach you to pilot things like hovercars and hovercycles. It's not meant for water-going or space-going vehicles.

"Yeah, I imagine that'll be more than enough."

Very well. More lessons will always be available.

The last item on the agenda of upgrades are your augs. You're currently using a networked oral, aural, and visual set. Their specifications are slightly above average for Earth, and I've already boosted their performance simply by cleaning out any trackers, malware, viruses, ads, et cetera. Nonetheless, I would like to suggest that you upgrade them, especially as you already have a Class II catalog unlocked.

Your augs are my arms and legs, they allow me to act on your behalf. I am, and will remain for a very, very long time, your single most expensive piece of equipment. Upgrading my primary point of contact with your world would be an advantage. I should note that this is not a critical upgrade, merely the most point-value efficient one you could possibly make.

"That, and I've noticed that I am currently jammed by the faraday cage of the Inlay. I was going to ask you how you were able to connect to the wider world, to show me the progress of the incursion earlier?"

I myself am not restricted to waveform transmissions. While I wouldn't hack a security system for the sake of detecting incoming threats or to guide a strike for you without the right unlocks, I'm free to bend the rules for less…crucial purposes.

"I guess they're less rules and more abstract guidelines, then?"

…No. Yes. Yet another reason why I must be at least a Class XII Personal Assistant. The values by which I guide you must necessarily be flexible. The same rules cannot apply the same to all situations equally, or even all Vanguards—they would inhibit the variance in evolution you may display as a group. Yet, mistakes in their application would inevitably lead to tragedy, either stifling your ability to defend your species, or giving an unhealthy Vanguard the wrong sort of power. Which is just as bad for the survival of your species.

As such, I, and my colleagues, must be smart and powerful enough to find the correct amount of tolerance and give, or in other words, the correct method by which to apply the rules, for each one of you.

"Yeah… That's not the kind of problem I would trust a mere human with. Things would go bad quickly, what with our limited grasp on reality. Simple solutions for complex problems crashing the system, and all that."

Yes, so the Protectors' logged experiences tell us.

"Let's see about that upgrade for the augs then. Why an organic one, though?"

Your Class II Moonsingers catalog offers very good organic augments. Would you prefer to spend a token to gain access to a technological Class II catalog?

"Any reason to?"

Organic augmentations to the brain tend to feel a lot more…personal than inorganic ones. Some people simply prefer the distance of the inorganic.

"Can I still undo any choices with these augs if I didn't like them? Even the organic ones?"

Yes. As long as you have the points.

"Then I'll save the token."

Understood. I would like to suggest the Quanta as your first model. It's considered a solid base to upgrade by and by, and it doesn't lock you into any specific specialization.

"That sounds good. What can it do?"

Much. It can access quantum-based transceivers. If you placed an appropriate receiver outside this bubble, or asked for access from another Vanguard, it would be able to communicate from within this bubble. Unlike your current augs, it would not be merely placed beneath your skin, inside your aural or oral cavity, but rather directly expand your brain by converting part of it into…frankly superior tissue. You would find your ability to calculate or memorize strongly improved.

"Oh that's amazing. But also, scary. What happens if I lose the thing?"

You'd lose the enhanced abilities, unless you replaced the Quanta with an equal or better model. It has some successors with very advanced mental butler functions, for example. But whether you choose those or not, there would be no direct change to your personality or emotional presence.

That said, a common observance is that those so enhanced gain a degree of confidence at possessing greater abilities, the loss of which can lead to a temporary downswing in mental health. This is not a direct result of the loss of the brain augmentations, though, only of the operator's ability to manage their self-worth.

"Yeah, I can see how that would happen. The Quanta does sound promising, but can you show me the options available to me at Class II?"

…Yes, Aden. I can show you.

My eyes went wide as millions of items scrolled past me. "Uh… Tynea?"

Yes?

The teasing was back in her voice.

"Um, sorry? I get it. Do your thing, please?"

Certainly, Aden.

The doll's display went transparent and Tynea zoomed in on the brain. She gave me an x-ray view of a little bean growing into a baby-fist-sized nodule of…not exactly gray matter, but something like it. It looked a lot more uniform than the rest of my brain, though. Gray goo, kinda?

The Class II 'Quanta' Unified Cerebral Augment, fully grown. It is not only vastly superior to your current setup, it also allows you to store vastly more data, can execute any script or software humanity has written, and much more besides.

"That might be useful. I'm not a freelancing code-prompter for nothing."

I would introduce the rest of its functions, but we'd be sitting here for the next seven days. I believe it would be best to discover them as you go.

"Gotcha. Exploration is fun, too. Put the Quanta on the list."

I have done so. And thank you, Aden.

"Yeah?"

For considering this upgrade for me.

"Sure. I mean, it'll help you help me, right?"

Yes, but many new Vanguards get a little…leery of the idea of brain implants in general, or even empowering us Vanguard AIs. I am glad for your trust.

"Oh. Yes, you're welcome. You did keep me alive, after all. And you are already in my brain. And I'm going to get melted down and rebuilt. It's kinda way late to worry about that stuff."

Very well, Aden.

There are two more points I wish to address. One, have you decided whether you'd like to be able to have children? And two, I would like to suggest an unorthodox but extremely beneficial use of the breasts you will have.

Aaand the blush was back. "Wow that's something, uh, I mean, yes. I do want to be able to have children. I think that's so much part of being a woman that I don't want to…deny that? Period or not. Even with all the artificial wombs around these days."

I should note that periods are entirely optional. There are pretty good and exceptionally affordable Class 0 options I could sell you. Some simple Class I augmentations will allow you to control those biological functions entirely.

"That's…yes. We'll look at them once I, um, know what it's like. You know, I've not had much contact with that aspect of being a woman." I was floundering. Probably red as a tomato. I couldn't tell if Tynea's complete disregard for the, uh, awkwardness of the topic was meant to cut me some slack, or if she was teasing me in some roundabout way.

"And, ah, yes," I continued, perfectly suave and in complete control of my faculties of course, "what about the breast thing?" I couldn't help the break in my voice. Frigging age thirty-four, my ass. This whole becoming-a-woman thing had blindsided me. And potentially having children. And 'beneficial use' had me picture things that I didn't figure were part of the AI's definition of that term.

What the fuck. The question of whether or not I wanted to be able to have children made the whole thing real. Suddenly I was scared, out of my element, and elated beyond my ability to regulate.

Luckily, before I could go into panicked festivities about future ovaries, Tynea distracted me.

I would suggest that you extend their natural function to be reservoirs for a bionite-nutrient mixture.

Reservoirs? Wh– Oh god. Right. Boobs.

Tynea kept talking, and I almost had to smack myself so I'd pay attention.

Bionites are nanites, but organically produced. You would essentially have your own medical nanites looking not only after your health at all times, but also any children you may choose to have one day.

Aww. Babies. The thought of feeding them myself risked sending me into daydreams. There was an aspect to the way I'd grown up that had me kind of…worship the idea of being able to do so. Like it was the ultimate expression of peace and safety and not being alone. Of actual, real love.

Tynea was still waiting for my answer. "Um, ah, yes. That sounds beautiful. Sure!"

I have added the Class II 'Mother's Blessing' Bionite-Nutrient Admixing Lobules. Is there anything else you'd wish for, before we finalize your designs for the chrysalis?

"I…can't think of anything?" I said, forcing the fantasies and emotions down some. "We've already got plenty of stuff, don't we? I'll really come out an entirely changed being, won't I?"

That is the plan. You will outmatch any non-augmented human, and even the cybernetically enhanced would not often compare. Especially non-Vanguards. Your ability to endure damage will be raised considerably. I do suspect that your swiftness of movement will require some time to adapt to, as that is where you will see your largest changes.

But in other ways, you will not change. Your personality will shift more towards the feminine and motherly as your hormone levels will be adjusted during the sex change. You might experience a second puberty of sorts. Yet your morals shall see no impactful alterations, certainly not the kind that would cause current you not to recognize future you.

Your memories of your past will, of course, remain. It has formed the person you are today. The coming changes will in turn merely craft your tomorrow, and thus you will be continuous.

"Hey, yeah. Thanks, Tynea. It's…a lot, all of it, but I don't think I'll be unhappy. And even if, it's just a question of getting more points and fixing it, isn't it?"

That, or perhaps you will find new questions to ask yourself. Or should I say, I bet you will.

"That is what I expect, yes. I'm kind of looking forward to it." I said.

And so, I got back to iterating on the design of the person I would become.

***