Chapter 3

I awoke to the sounds of machinery, not heavy duty equipment but the rhythmic pump of medical equipment. I opened my eyes and for a minute everything was in shades of red and orange, it reminded me of looking through a thermal imager. After blinking a few times my eyesight returned to normal and I could see I was in a med cocoon with tubes and monitors attached. I felt fine physically not one ache or pain. I must have been here for a long time I thought.

Suddenly a very attractive blond woman showed up and began to check various monitors and equipment, finally she stopped and looked down at me. “I am glad to see you are acclimatizing,” she said with a smile.

“Me too,” I replied and then asked, “Acclimatizing to what exactly, and where is my Ai Noa?” The blonde girl looked down at me and smiled then pointed at my body.

“To your new body, and as for Noa, here I am.”

I stared for a moment to let it sink in, I did not want to open my mouth and come off like an idiot not in front of a pretty girl. “Noa is an Ai, not a pretty blond woman, and I don’t know about you but body transfers umm, they are not possible.” Damn it, I still sounded fairly idiotic, having a pretty blond leaning over me was enough to distract my thoughts, hey I am a young man, I notice things like full breasts and a nice booty.

Getting back on track, I began to listen as she spoke, “Captain Duke, a lot has happened while you have been out. What do you remember?”

She was calling me Captain Duke something Noa did when it was important, I took another look down at my body and realized something, it was a little off from what I remember of my body but it was close. Shaking my head, I said, “I recall making it to the sickbay and passing out on one of the tables, nothing else. If you are Noa, then tell me what the hell has happened, something does not feel right here, I feel different.”

“I am Noa and you are Duke, believe that. Your body was badly damaged from the crash and then walking into this base pushed it over the limit. Your life readings were almost flatlining so I had to put you into stasis while I computed the options. During that time, I took over the computer systems and found this base was much more than a mining asteroid. Placing my Ai into the computer network was simple after all, the technology is over two hundred years old.”

“Once I had full access to the base I discovered that this was a stealth Soviet military base with facilities that far exceeded that of a mere mining base. The Soviets had equipped this base for cyborg troops, and while the base was never used all the equipment was still intact. The first thing I did was update and modify the transfer process, as it had advanced since the base was built, then I began to work on our bodies, with the certain upgrades to the original designs.”

I interrupted Noa at this point, “Wait, I thought that Cyborgs were outlawed about a hundred years ago, too dangerous and powerful, wasn’t there a whole movement that opposed the creation of cyborgs. No more, more than a man it was called.” The earth governments were afraid that the cyborgs were too powerful and could become fully independent.”

Noa smiled, “Yes you are correct, that had happened and officially cyborgs were outlawed. However, government research and upgrades continued for another fifty years before the programs were finally shut down. It has been speculated that there are still cyborg programs, used by governments but other than the occasional video of men and women doing the impossible captured and released on the Allyoucansee network there has been no documentation.”

I thought for a moment and then asked, “So where does that leave me, I don’t want to get to Mars and then end up in prison. Won’t the scanners pick up on the fact that I have a machine for a body, and how the hell did you transfer my brain over, I assume I am in now operating as a computer program? Also, why does this body seem like mine but something is different?”

“Those are excellent questions Duke and I will attempt to answer them, first answer is it will be impossible to differentiate between your new body and your old body, if you are cut you will bleed, if you break a bone it will be broken. You are still a living organism. The image of a cyborg you have is archaic, machines that replaced human limbs and organs have not been made for over a hundred years.

Also, it is worth noting that your new body is synthetic and as such, it is not limited as was your old body, you are now stronger, faster and will heal much quicker. You still need to sleep but at a one to three ratio, every hour you sleep is the equivalent of three hours for a normal human. You can go non-stop for about three days but then you will pass out till your energy level restores itself.”

“You will need to eat and drink, but not as much, in addition, your energy levels will slowly build up on their own but taking in calories will speed the process. Your brain activity and thought patterns have been transferred to a neurological bioware network comprising both hardware and software. The bright side is you will never forget anything anymore, and will never need to use a calculator again.”

I noted that Noa was almost making a joke which I appreciated, I was not having that much trouble accepting what was happening, after all, it was very similar to entering a Vr room and interfacing with the game. “Noa,” I began, “What about this sense of discontinuity that I am feeling, it feels like something is not quite in phase with my body?”

Noa quickly looked at the monitors and then stared at me for a moment before saying, “It sometimes takes some time for the acclimatization to fully integrate. I will do a basic physiological test and measure your reaction which will give us a baseline to work with.”

I nodded, I was all for making sure my new body was functioning fully. “All right I am ready,” I said, expecting to get a needle or a hammer to the knee. Instead, I stared in stunned amazement as Noa peeled off her clothing. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her naked flesh, her skin was white and here breasts were large, with not sag. Her nipples were a red pink color and as I stared at them they began to harden. She had little blue veins running through her breasts and she was a true blond.

She smiled at me and then reached down and grabbed me, then turning to look at me she said, “Your body seems to be reacting in the normal range that a human male of your age would be at.”

I noticed that her face looked a little flushed and her breathing was more pronounced. I looked at her and asked, “Do you feel that you have fully acclimatized to your new body?” I watched as she swallowed and then spoke.

“I am finding that I am feeling things that I have never felt before, new sensations and emotions, however, I have nothing with which to compare what I am experiencing.”

I noticed her hand had not left my body and in fact, she was gently touching me in an intimate fashion. I slowly reached up and pulled her down and kissed her, holding her tight against me. I whispered, “How do you feel now?” Only to hear her gasp. I quickly picked her up and then she was straddling me. We spent the rest of the night acclimatizing to our new bodies, Noa experiencing for the first time intense sensations of physical pleasure. It was unfuckingbelievable.

When we finally decided to get up I knew that our relationship had changed. I was still the Captain, but we were now more than an Ai bonded to her Captain. The time spent in the lifeboat had opened the doorway to a real relationship developing and with her gaining a body and the ability to feel emotions and sensations, I was not surprised that we ended up having sex. I don’t think I would call it making love, but there was definitely an emotional overlay to what had happened.

Once we showered and changed Noa became all business, she toured the whole facility with me, during which I discovered that there was a hangar with three small ships. A one-man scouting Skiff, a two-man Cutlass and a ten man pocket Destroyer. Those Russians had been prepared for some action. In addition, the asteroid had hidden rockets, rail guns, and lasers all around it, with all the weapons controlled be a battle Ai.

After noting all these facts and having Noa give me complete control of the asteroid and all the systems a voice sounded in my mind and I heard that I had leveled up, twice. For having taken control of the abaondoned miltary base and also for the achievement, being more than a man. Turns out I was the first to discover this hidden quest.

Opening up my stats window I noted the changes at level 13

Intelligence

950/1100

Willpower

1200/1200

Strength

1550/1550

Agility

1600/1600

Charm

900/1100

Engineering

500/1100

Software

500/1100

Library

25/3000

I turned to Noa and asked her why some things had stayed the same but several had changed. She explained how strength and agility were maxed out because of my synthetic body, while charm was a trait that had nothing to do with physicality. Also, certain skills were encoded into my neural network, things like basic engineering and software knowledge. I also now had 25 learning modules that had come with the station, things like hydroponics and basic life support systems.

I realized that having a new body has given me an advantage, and that I needed to capitalize on that, especially if I wanted the get that bastard Bai Ong. Thinking about him I realized I had to put him on the backburner for now, getting off the asteroid was the first order of business. “Noa, can we communicate with Mars and let them know we are alive. I suppose that the next step is to get to Mars and then start to search for Bai Ong. It will be difficult; I have no money and will be staying at my uncle’s place. Shit, I am not sure how I am going to explain you, but regardless, you are staying with me.”

Noa smiled at that and then said, “Money should not be an issue, I have been in contact with Mars and both the salvage claim and the insurance claim went through, even though the ship was destroyed, it was under your salvage and the insurance claim stands, once you sign off on the legal forms you are now worth, 55 million credits. You do not need to worry about staying at your uncles, and in fact once this asteroids salvage claim goes through I would expect that the Russians will offer you a huge amount of credits to return ownership to them. Although that might not be a good idea.”

I thought for a moment and then frowned as I realized what would happen if the Russians or anyone else found out about the Cyborg facility buried in this asteroid. “Do you think I should retain ownership, once the claim is legalized?” I asked.

“Yes, for a number of reasons, one this is a very secure base with great facilities, two it would keep the fact that you are a cyborg away from public knowledge. Three if you or I ever need repairs or replacements we can do that here.” I nodded in full agreement with Noa, I would not be selling this piece of rock back to the Russians or anything else.

“All right, then what is on the agenda?” I asked.

“The first thing is to get the hydroponics up and running and then work on the park dome, we have genetically modified trees and plants to get into the ground and start growing. Once that is up and running it will help both emotional and mental stability being around plants and water.”

I listened as Noa continued to speak, knowing that I would remember everything she said, total recall was part of a cyborgs memory abilities. I started paying attention when she talked about weapons and physical training in the gym located at sublevel 7. It turned out that these cyborg bodies had been hardwired to be combat capable. Once I heard that a window opened up and I read several descriptions of skill pathways and leveling trees. I finished listening to Noa and then we grabbed some shovels and seeds and went to work, but I what I really wanted to do was take Noa into the shower and wash her down. Rest time will come when it comes I thought as I stared at Noa walking ahead of me. I am sure I had a goofy smile on my face by the time we reached the park.