“Just and Mighty Caden,” Theia’s soft melodic voice said interrupting my work.

I’d been adding the last few details to the city below. In my time the hot springs had been diverted from their natural course into a citywide system to feed the various hot tubs. I changed it so that it was seamless and kept the ground warm and the pools hot.

Roknar wasn’t able to plant gardens so, and I had to make androids to tend the gardens and plant trees. I began to wonder if I’d stick around El Dorado long enough to see them mature. The loneliness had deepened since the Orcs stole from me.

I’d finally found humans but not where I thought they’d be located. I had thought to see a civilization in Greece but only found scatterings of human settlements. This finding confirmed my early suspicions that I wasn’t on my earth. The Americas never had any significant civilizations in 8500 BCE, but humans should have been found near the Mississippi river valley. I know the Olmec culture mined copper up near Michigan for over a thousand years, but these Olmec were dwarfs.

The bones found in my earth showed the Olmec to be giants, not short, stocky, hairy humanoids. In some circles, it was believed the Olmecs were Egyptians, but no image of these dwarfs gave any indication of an Egyptian origin.

“Caden,” Theia interrupted my thoughts again.

“What? Oh, sorry Theia. I heard you the first time then my mind wandered off again. What do you need?”

She popped into existence before me and sat down on a chair across my work desk. I wasn’t in Virtual, and I was beginning to blur the lines between Virtual and real world. Her sitting on a chair before me didn’t even raise my eyebrow.

“I’ve been thinking about Roknar and the APRIL’s.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I can improve it.”

“I’m sure it could be improved. I haven’t had a chance to change Roknar’s programming since I’ve been building the famed City of Gold.”

Theia giggled and crossed her legs. It was then that I remembered we weren’t in Virtual. She sat on the chair as if she was here. I suddenly felt a deep depression settle on my shoulders. I was still alone.

“I think Zeus has more information about the accident but is unable to remember it due to the electrical surge created by the blast.”

“Zeus?”

“It’s entirely possible, Caden.”

“And what changes do you want to make Theia?”

“I think I can merge organic processors with the APRIL's.”

I stared at her for a minute or two without moving a muscle aside from an occasional blink. “And…why you think this is a good idea?”

“Organic processing is much more efficient than mechanical. Roknar would still be able to mine minerals, but the energy cost would be lower coming from the environment rather than having to break bonds to capture energy bursts.”

“I don’t know Theia…,” I rubbed the back of my neck in deep thought. “Cyborgs were banned years ago.”

“No. I checked. It’s banned years in the future. Plus, it’s not that different than how I function.”

“You’re not a cyborg. You’re a biological entity that uses APRILs.

“And both of us are better because of it.”

I waved off her comment. “How does creating cyborg APRILs help us?”

“I think I’ll be able to better access the information inside Zeus’ memory core. I’m unable to do that right now.”

“And Zeus will be fine?”

“I don’t see why not. I’ve run simulations, and it looks good.”

“Zeus? What do you think?”

“If I were able to remember what happened it would help you get home again.”

“What if you’re damaged? I—I,” I stuttered to a stop. I couldn’t complete the sentence or even the thought. I knew that Zeus wasn’t real, but he was real to me.

“I guess you need to weigh the risk and reward.”

“Theia, you’re one hundred percent positive this won’t damage Zeus?”

“No.”

“NO! You said…”

“I said it shouldn’t have the data doesn’t indicate he would lose out. If anything it should make him better.”

“I don’t know…”

“What don’t you know about?”

“How can I program Roknar to mine or build things?”

“The same way you communicate with me. Direct it with your thoughts.”

I opened my mouth to argue but closed it again. I had no idea how to process what Theia just said. Direct thoughts directly into a computer program I designed? It made no sense. The Cyborg wars nearly wiped out civilization as I knew it. However, I did want to get back home eventually. If retrieving Zeus’ lost memories could help me figure out how to get home…

“Theia, let’s just try it on a small sample I don’t want to give you the green light to replace Zeus or Roknar if it can be avoided.” She opened her mouth to complain. “At least until I know it’s safe.”

She closed her mouth and gave me a nod.

“I’ll isolate a small sample of Roknar to test.”

“Thank you, Theia. I just want to make sure we don’t lose Zeus.”

Theia gave me another nod and disappeared.

###

In the late 21st century most computers used metallic hydrogen and diamond insulators. Metallic hydrogen is a superconductor, and since diamonds have no free electrons, they marriage seemed inevitable. Theia used a mixture of how she’s made and how APRILs work to replace the processors and wiring inside the APRILs. Using Roknar to fix and replace the processors inside other nanobots seemed like the smart choice. For one thing, the size of scale would have made it impossible to do otherwise.

Individually, each new Roknar was dumber than a rock, but as all APRILs function in a hive mind manner, you don’t need each bot to be a genius. The neurons of each processor absorbed and converted the mechanical memory into a biological memory efficiently and quickly. At least in theory.

It took a week before Theia felt her science experiment was ready to test. As soon as the cell's lifecycle began, it started replicating and evolving at a phenomenal rate within the petri dish.

“Theia, what’s it doing now? I’m trying to follow, but things are changing too fast. Are they communicating with you anymore?”

Theia and I were in Virtual watching a video of the experiment, magnified many times over.

“I have not been able to sense any consciousness yet.”

“You mean, it’ll be alive?”

“No. The nanobots are much too small to be alive. The neurons are all contained in a tiny sphere.”

“But their alive in that sphere? You didn’t say anything about that.”

“How else do you merge mechanical with biological?”

I threw my hands up. “How am I supposed to know? So, what’s happening to them?”

“They’ll work the same as the APRIL's and communicate with each other. Right now the neuron cells were reproducing and growing into a colony.”

“They’ll function as a hive mind?”

“Yes. Not too dissimilar to ants or bees.”

“So, smart enough to build a beehive or anthill but not smart enough to create art or science.”

“No. It would require a Queen mind. Once you have them in your body, you’d be able to direct their actions.”

“How?”

“Mental and chemical commands. Master, I thought you were smarter than that.”

I didn't have a response to her jab, but I couldn't deny I was still confused.

“I’m not an expert on this. Nobody has ever done what you’re trying to do. I’m just trying to wrap my head around it.”

“Then why did you let me try?”

“You said…!” I ground my teeth. “Theia, do you or do you know know what will happen.”

“I think so.”

“You. Think. So?”

She giggled. “Oh, Mighty Just Caden. I do love teasing you.” She walked over to me and ran her hand over my shoulders and into the back of my head. “Are you sure you won’t want to relieve that tension you’re building up? I don’t think I have seen you masturbate in the last week.”

I blushed and felt embarrassed. Has Theia seen…? Of course, Theia's--she’s in my head. “Um…Theia, that's private.”

She giggled again, my face grew hot, and against my wishes, my body started to betray me.

“BASEBALL!” I yelled out.

Theia pulled away and cocked her head to the side much like DJ does when confused before she burst out laughing. “You are a lot of fun.”

Her laughing cut off suddenly, and she turned her attention back to the video of the petri dish. I knew something was wrong. Theia is, in essence, a supercomputer and could multitask trillions of processes a second and should not have needed to focus her avatar on the video feed.

“What’s wrong.”

“Um.”

“Um? What the fuck is going on?”

Suddenly the video of the petri dish turned white as hot flames engulfed the testing chamber. I opened my mouth to ask a question but was kicked out of Virtual.

“ZEUS! What happened?”

“Unknown.”

“Get me back into Virtual.”

“Unable.”

“Why not!?”

“I think—”

“Zeus?” I sat up in my Zero-G. “Zeus? ZEUS! This isn’t funny.”

“THEIA!”

I felt DJ’s nose butt up against my palm, and he whimpered. I rubbed his ears. “I don’t know buddy. They’re not responding. I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

DJ laid his head on my lap and continued to whimper. It wasn’t until later that I realized I didn't hear his thoughts either.