Bryce

“Thea, my hair can wait,” I said. “You need to eat or the nanites are going to make you sick.”

We were at the Paragon Bistro on the 18th floor of the building where Dr. Navarro’s office was located. The food was expensive, but tasted just good enough that the price wasn’t worth complaining about.

“You need to stop fidgeting with your ear or it won’t heal properly,” Thea said. “Besides, if I don’t get these braids done, then the doctor is going to want to shave your head, and I refuse to accept that.”

“He wouldn’t shave my head.”

Thea slapped my hand away from my ear again. The piercings had been painful, but worse by far, was the healing. They had to use some sort of chemical that prevented my nanites from closing the holes, which slowed down the healing and made them itchy.

I never would have done something like this on my own, but the piercings looked really cute. I would never admit that to Thea.

“I won’t risk it,” Thea said. “If I get sick, then you’ll just have to nurse me back to health.”

“Are you going to make me wear a nurse’s outfit, too?” I asked. “Since you’re apparently making all of my fashion decisions for me now.”

Thea stopped braiding my hair for a moment, and I felt a chill run down my spine. It’s possible that I was going to regret that comment.

“Softie, do you know where I could find a nurse’s outfit in Bryce’s size?”

“There was a lingerie store across the street from where we got the piercings done,” Sora said. “They had a few options on display that seemed like they would fit the captain.”

Yeah, I was already regretting that comment. I needed to change the subject, and fast.

“We should head back to Dr. Navarro’s office soon,” I tried.

“Oh, we still have another hour,” Samira was smiling sweetly. “Plenty of time to pick up something for the captain.”

“Traitors, every one of you.” I grumbled.

“We’re just looking out for you, captain,” Sora said, but then seemed to remember something and frowned before reluctantly asking. “Speaking of looking out for each other, how much did everything end up costing?”

I hesitated, not wanting to make Sora feel guilty over something that they desperately needed. But, the prices were public knowledge, and it’s not like they couldn’t look them up on their own. Besides, there was something I wanted to talk about.

“The nanite swarms retailed for 55,000 credits each and the implants were 85,000,” I said. “But Lysc’s recommendation came with a pretty hefty discount, along with the rush order.”

Samira looked at Sora with a horrified expression, and I could see the unspoken question in her eyes.

“You don’t need to pay me back for any of it.”

“Bryce, that’s-” Sora started.

“The minimum I felt comfortable investing to keep my crew operational,” I interrupted. “Shifting with your implants could have literally killed you, Sora, and Samira’s was causing her brain damage.”

“You could have at least gotten us something cheaper,” Samira said.

“These aren’t the type of things you can cheap out on,” I argued. “Besides the obvious health risks, it’s worth the investment to spend a little more now. The ones I picked for us should easily last us a few centuries.”

“If you’re not willing to take our money,” Sora said. “Then the only thing left is our gratitude. Thank you, Bryce.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Samira said. “We’re not really used to other people taking care of us.”

“Well, get used to it,” I said. “While you’re a part of this crew, I’m not going to stop.”

Sora smiled warmly, and Samira laughed. “I’m sorry Captain, it’s just hard to take you seriously while Thea is playing with your hair and you keep messing with your ear like that.”

I blushed slightly at Samira’s comment before slowly lowering my hand from my ear. Thea kissed the top of my head before sitting in the chair beside me.

“I’m done anyway,” Thea said. “And if I may, princess, you are looking damn fine.”

~~~~

“You should see it come online now,” Dr. Navarro said.

“Um… I’m not see-ah, there it is.” An augmented reality display sprung into life in my vision. Icons appeared in the top right, providing a link to a media feed and basic information such as the local time, date, and my location.

Focusing on objects in the room caused identifying information to appear. When I looked toward Thea she was outlined in white, with a text box near her head revealing her feed ID. I sent her a contact request, and she stopped looking around the room long enough to ask how to accept it.

“Just focus on the ‘accept’ icon,” I said. “But be careful with what you accept. You don’t want malicious software getting access to your implants.”

“That sounds scary,” she said. “What kind of malicious software?”

“You mostly just have to worry about spyware. You’re pretty enough that people would want to steal vids of you bathing or sleeping with the Captain.” Samira said.

She and Sora were busy playing a card game while they waited for their nanites to absorb their old implants. Which needed to be done before the doctor could install new ones.

“Aw, you think I’m pretty?” Thea asked. “Also, what’s that about recording videos of Bryce? How do I do that?”

“You are very pretty, and I’m sure you could make a lot of perverts extremely happy,” I said. “But if I find out that you’ve been recording vids of me naked, I’ll remove your implants, and I won’t be nearly as gentle as Dr. Navarro.”

“I completely understand,” Thea said before she turned towards the doctor. “Doc, I can hide video files on this thing, right?”

The doctor laughed. “You can. I’ll provide you with a few tutorial programs to help you get used to the interface.”

“Can you exclude video recordings from the tutorials?” I pleaded.

“I’m afraid that as a patron of the goddess of knowledge, I would be remiss to deny Miss Salinthea access to educational material that could be important to her growth,” Navarro said. “But, if you would like, I could recommend a few programs on cinematography, for purely educational purposes.”

“Please do!” Thea said. She was maybe a bit too excited. “Because of science reasons. I mean, if it’s what Tess would want, then we shouldn’t go against the will of a goddess, right, Bryce?”

I sighed. There was probably no stopping Thea. Besides, if making videos was something that she would actually enjoy, then I wanted to encourage her. I just didn’t want to become a pornstar in order to do it.

“Fine,” I conceded. “But you have to let people know when you’re recording them and you can’t release any videos without consent.”

Thea jumped down from her chair and rushed over to kiss me. “Thank you Bryce,” she said.

“You didn’t need my permission,” I said. “Besides, I meant what I said about videos of me naked. I’ll pull your implants out through your nose.”

Thea laughed at my mostly empty threat.

“I know I didn’t need your permission, but I still appreciate your support. Also, thank you for indulging me with the hair and the piercings and everything else,” she said. “I promise you won’t find any of the dirty videos.”

“I won’t find any, because there won’t be any, right?” I asked.

“Exactly, because there won’t be any dirty videos of you,” she deliberately winked at me before moving back to her own exam chair. “… that you can find. Doc, how do these tutorial thingies work?”

“The model of implant that Captain Virra picked out for you has the capability for direct neural upload,” Dr. Navarro explained. “It will allow you to upload knowledge directly into your brain.”

“That seems super useful,” Thea said.

“It can be, but it’s not a replacement for experience,” I said. “It’s just textbook knowledge. How you apply that knowledge is still up to you and it won’t provide the reflex memory that you can only get from practice.”

“It can also be very dangerous,” Dr. Navarro said. “There are safeguards in place and it’s just knowledge without any emotions attached, but bad people can be clever, so make sure you really trust a program before you use it.”

“That seems like a theme with these things,” Thea said.

“It’s an unfortunate truth. There are few things as precious as your own mind, and implants like these can provide direct access.” Dr. Navarro held his scanner to the back of Thea’s head. “These are the tutorial programs created by the manufacturer. I’ll send you a link to a store I trust in Drassun’s local feed where you can buy similar programs.”

Another hour passed before the doctor could install Sora and Samira’s implants.

After the cost of everything, and the pack discount, the invoice total was just shy of 650,000 credits. Which was a lot, but not an unexpected amount. I still had nearly a million and a half credits left, but I wanted to purchase a few things before the assault on the syndicate stronghold.