The next three days were amusing in one respect, if irritating in another. As we boarded a container freighter to Iceland, I soon discovered that Eveline suffered from cabin fever and a strange form of seasickness. I was certain it couldn't have been as a result of any imbalance issues with her inner ears, as my nanocloud (and by extension, I imagined most other people's) corrected any such defects as needed. If I'd had to guess, her dietary problems were anxiety-based, possibly the lack of free roaming space coupled with the inability to escape each others' company if we needed to. I was certain I'd go stir-crazy if it were me, so I sympathised with her plight.

We arrived in Seyðisfjörður in the middle of the third night, and while the ship took time to dock at the local harbour to offload its' cargo, we disembarked onto land, deciding it was not worth the time to find a hostel or inn to stay at, while also being slightly too early to set off on the next leg of our journey.

It meant we ended up burning moonlight by sitting in a late-night cafe. I spent much of it planning our next steps, while Eveline spent most of her time buried in her backpack. It gave me the time I needed to my own tasks, so I didn't complain.

The journey to Reykjavik was 10 days if we maintained a steady eight kilometre an hour pace for eight hours each day, while the trip to Mary's Harbour in Newfoundland would take another three days. Providing we made the shipping terminal in time to get the next one out, we could be in Canada in two weeks.

Once there, I would have to make a call to Laurent to find out exactly where this contact Amélie spoke of would be. I knew whoever it was, it was in the Quebec region, and with the aid of my nanocloud, I'd been able to ascertain that with a carefully-maintained, steady pace, I could make it there in just over three weeks. It would end up taking longer than a direct ferry to New York City would have, even accounting for a three week departure delay, but I had no choice now that I had Quebec on my list of destinations I needed to visit.

For the moment, we would need to visit the marketplace. Apart from anything else, we were now in Iceland, the weather here, while not always Arctic, was certainly a great deal colder than I'd even experienced while in England. Cold weather gear would be essential at this point, and I was sure that somewhere around this port, there would be a vendor who would be able to provide what we needed.

I was right. There was an all-weather clothing vendor nearby, so when it opened, I'd taken the time to stock up on high Tog value clothing to keep the cold at bay, even knowing my nanocloud could work to keep the cold from doing me any real harm. I also traded in my current backpack for a much larger one that included stowage space for much thicker sleeping gear and a portable sleeping bed that was self-inflating using nanocloud-controllable micro-valves that would either draw air in to inflate, or release air to deflate, depending on need.

This was one of my first experiences with an inanimate item that could be directly affected by a nanocloud, and one of the first times I'd come across a sleeping mattress that was so sophisticated.

Without any hesitation, I bought two of each, intending for the other set to be so Eveline could travel with better gear. Surely, she wouldn't complain about that, would she?

While I was acquiring better travel gear, I also bought four new flasks, much larger than the previous set we had, and very well made. Like the old set, they were vacuum flasks. Unlike the old set, these were reminiscent of the old vacuum flasks that had screw-on cups for convenience. I also picked up some signal flares, though it was unlikely we wouldn't need them, and some fire starting provisions.

Once done, I headed to a food vendor and picked up some dried food provisions for the road, along with a few cartons of cranberry fruit juices, astonished and pleased that such items were available. Getting water for two of the four flasks I carried was no problem, so all I had to do now, was meet up with Eveline after her hunt, and get us both set to travel on the road to Reykjavik.

Almost an hour later, Eveline found me, still negotiating for more dried provisions. She stood back to let me do my work, the vendors around us ignoring her completely and going about their business. Once I'd finished, I joined her at the edge of the marketplace.

"What's all this?" She asked, gesturing to the extra travel gear I now held in my possession, my original pack still slung over my shoulder, along with the two new packs and associated travel gear now at my feet. "We already have travel gear."

"And it's not going to be good enough for much of our journey through the northern latitudes," I told her. "It might seem pretty warm here right now, but we're going to be walking across a lot of tundra over the next ten days, and that can get very cold, even in warmer parts of the year."

Eveline let out an almost petulant sigh, rolling her eyes like a teenager being asked to clean her room before her friends were allowed to visit. "Fine," she then said, her capitulation stunning me for a moment. "What did you get us?"

So, I told her. Since the kit was identical, we split it equally between us. I explained about the self-inflating sleeping beds, and her response was as unenthusiastic as I expected it to be, though she didn't complain. She also didn't complain when I told her I'd picked up some cranberry juice for our water flasks.

"That was surprisingly insightful of you," she said in what sounded like surprise, though I caught a humorous twinkle in her eye. "It's not every day you come up with a good idea, is it?"

I shrugged, playing along. "You know me, hairless ape and all." Eveline let out an exasperated groan that bordered on a growl, stalking off. "Hey, come on! I was just kidding!"

She stopped, her shoulders sagging, letting out a sigh. After a brief moment, she turned around and walked back over to me. "I can't tell with you," she muttered. "Maybe that's something for me to work on, though."

That comment floored me. I didn't know how to respond to it for a moment. For her to admit she needed to examine how she responded to me was a first, and I wasn't really quite sure what to do with it. Still, it was true. She had some issues to work out.

But then again, didn't I as well?

"Well, it's not like I don't have my own issues to work on," I admitted, extending an olive branch.

"Yeah," she quipped. "A therapist could make a career out of your issues," and to my immense astonishment, she let out a giggle, her eyes lighting up with mirth, her smile absolutely fucking slaying me, reminding me all over again why I had made so much effort with Eveline, despite telling Laurent that the moment she caused me trouble, I'd be sending her home. I couldn't help myself, as I felt a rush of desire flood through me all over again, no doubt causing glands to trigger the release of chemicals into the local environment; chemicals I would not have been consciously aware of, but no doubt were a regular part of normal human functioning ever since the species had existed.

However, my inability to form coherent speech, coupled with my sudden desire to be more than just a travelling companion, had broken the moment. I had no doubt that my sudden output of pheromones combined with my lack of response had prompted the change, and Eveline stopped laughing, her expression becoming closed off again, as she restored her usual poker-faced visage.

Fuck.

"Anyway, we have a long journey, don't we?" She asked, her tone somewhat flat, though surprisingly not anywhere near as frosty as it would have been a few weeks ago. I was grateful that this kind of change had happened.

"We do," I said quietly. "Sorry."

"Oh, be quiet, will you?" She said, her tone exasperated and slightly heated, as she turned toward the street. "And let's get going, already!"

That first morning was exhausting, and not because the terrain was difficult, and certainly not through any fault of Eveline. For once, it was just plain old lack of sleep. It barely affected my ability to handle the terrain, and it certainly didn't affect my nanocloud's ability to perform its' tasks, but it did mean I would need to call it quits early today so we could catch up on our sleep.

We didn't speak during much of our onward progress. I was fine with this. Eveline probably wasn't happy I'd flooded the area with a chemical combination caused by my sudden sexual desire for her, and I realised that there were some things she just needed to deal with in her own way, so I didn't try to talk with her about this. Instead, I let her walk on ahead while I engaged in work with my nanocloud.

At some point during the walk, as I tried and struggled to free up enough function space that I could expand on the nanocloud imprint project, I received an alert from my nanocloud.

Nanocloud AI Level 2 has been reached.

Applying new changes to nanocloud through in-place nanite update.

Additional degree of self-guided learning and associative memory capability.

Nanocloud now has the ability to simulate organic learning processes.

Baseline capabilities now possible with only 50% nanocloud resources.

Additional features will become available in line with in-place hardware upgrades.

Changes applied. Task complete.

I had no idea exactly what this meant, except that I suddenly had a huge increase in available nanocloud computational resources reported to me. It meant that I had a lot more room for either picking up and activating new functions or modules, or I could use that space for additional complex coding for my module build project.

I could also do both.

For another hour, as I walked along less treacherous terrain and onto a better-maintained road toward Reykjavik, I was able to put more focus onto the imprint control project, and less onto what my feet were doing. I had managed to complete the nanocloud's analysis of the data that Amélie, Philippe and Eveline had furnished. My nanocloud compared this with data collected from myself, someone who did not exhibit imprinting behaviours, and foundnd common regions of the brain that could be isolated for this purpose. I had the nanocloud set up a simulation region within its spare capacity to perform tests, see what the effects of making subtle changes to those regions would do, and compile a summary report.

All of this made for some very dry analysis, and if I were to sit in front of a computer and do this, I would have gotten up and taken frequent coffee breaks just to get away from it all. However, my nanocloud did an excellent job of taking a lot of the menial effort of reading code, figures and symbols out of the equation, instead furnishing my mind directly with the data to interpret.

It helped me to see how the code translated into synaptic activity. Knowing this, I was soon able to build an interface that would allow me to intuitively write further code and test its results. By the time the hour was up, I had managed to learn how the common areas of the brain worked, how they stored memories, specifically those relating to imprinting, and how to predict the effects that removing those memories or the imprint data relating to them would cause a person to react.

I also took a look at some additional notifications that had popped up over the course of the following hour.

1 New module available.

3 new blueprints available.

New Information Storage upgrade available.

New nanocloud unit upgrade available.

This was a significant boost, and one that I could definitely use. I had my nanocloud open my interface so I could see what I now had access to, starting with the blueprints.

Nanocloud chassis upgrade Carbon nanotubes are substituted for previous aluminium and bioplastic polymer in nanocloud unit provisioning and construction. Baseline Superstructure is made of carbon nanotube lattice, to provide structural integrity improvements.

This was an interesting development, and one that I'm sure would lead on to other potential abilitiy upgrade paths further down the line. However, I learned my lesson from last time. Upgrading nanocloud hardware took time, and it was possible my nanocloud would go offline for the whole time, leaving me vulnerable.

Will this disable nanocloud enhancements for me during the application of the upgrade to the units in my body?

Negative. Nanocloud upgrade will occur in-place.

Each unit will be coded to upgrade in series.

The rest of the network will function normally.

Estimated time to completion is 72 hours.

Further upgrades cannot be applied during this time.

Three days for the upgrade. At least my nanocloud will continue to function. I decided to hold off for now, so I could check out what else I had available.

Nanocloud tooling upgrades Various nanocloud tooling upgrades available to the host. No pathway set, no level requirements. Tooling dependant on nanocloud base structure. Direct manipulator arm tools(Level 1) Each upgrade of these tools increases the speed and flexibility of the manipulator arms and grips for different tasks, allowing for higher rate construction and regeneration tasks in the body. Carbon nanotube manipulators with quint-digit opposable fingers can work far more quickly than tri-pincer manipulators made from bioplastics. Power Generator Core (Level 2) Initial power generator core requires a constant supply of blood sugar to operate. Increased upgrade levels allow operation using other elements including Deuterium. Combined with matter-energy fabrication, allows a steady stream of any matter to be converted to an inexhaustible fuel source.

This was interesting, I thought to myself. My nanocloud had been dependant on blood sugars to keep operating, meaning that it was operating at reduced power levels during my cryosleep because I was also unable to provide the fuel it needed from my own reserves. The upgrade discussed here would alleviate that requirement by first, giving my nanites their own power cores, and second, using Deuterium. While no creature in existence I've ever heard of was able to produce Deuterium in any way, the description mentioned matter-energy fabrication. If I was right about the possibilities, then such a fabricator could provide a constant supply of Deuterium by converting other sources of matter in my body.

I set that one aside for now, because the idea was interesting, but I had some safety questions I wanted to ask later.

What about the module I'd been alerted about?

Trauma Assist Module Dedicated trauma assist module for dealing with severe injuries in the field. Level 1 Ten-fold increase in healing rate. Directs nanocloud units to injury sites to effect emergency repairs in the field. Nanocloud reverts to directive-driven programming once danger of loss of life has been mitigated out-of-combat. Level 2 Twenty-five fold increased healing rate in-combat. While in-combat, trauma medicine protocols come into effect to repair damage and seal any bleed-out sites. Once immediate threat is resolved, prioritisation given to repairing any life-changing or life-threatening injuries until they are repaired. Out-of-combat repair rate determined by additional external factors, including the concentration and upgrade levels of the nanocloud.

I didn't even need to think about this one. I instructed my nanocloud to activate it immediately, and I received an alert that the module was now active, running and primed to provide me medical assistane in the field. It's just possible that this was going to be a life-saver for me in combat situations, so it made no sense whatsoever not to get started with it immediately.

Trauma Assist Module upgraded to Level 2.

It was a good thing it applied instantly, but given it was function code, I'd expected it to be quick.

Finally, I wanted a look at that upgrade for my Information Storage, and the implications.

Information Storage Host storage provisioning for nanocloud utilisation. Type of storage not limited except by capacity. Level 2 Interface lattice now connected to local synapses via dedicated nano-nodes. Storage in silicon as solid-state 3D layered. Density increase. Capacity is 10GiB/mm2 per layer. Layer count dependant on bone density in affected regions (carbon nanofibre can increase layering by 20 layers and retain the same impact resistance and tensile strength properties as calcium bone).

Data retention policy is in place.

Memory reserved for: Module Builder

If host wishes to proceed, the upgrade will be applied segment-by-segment.

Is this acceptable?

Yes, please proceed.

Acknowledged. Provisioning an initial storage region of 2 Terabytes.

Total provisioning of 512 Terabytes of storage.

Operation will be completed upon transfer of data to initial upgraded storage.

Initial Storage Transfer estimate is 6 hours.

Final provisioning estimate is 170 Hours and 40 minutes.

So, 7 days, I thought to myself. Hopefully I could still work on my nanocloud module project in the meantime, and I could bring the imprinting module to a state ready for testing.

I then received an alert from my nanocloud.

Analysis complete: Nanocloud compromised during previous month, as suspected by host.

Collective memory engrams belonging to nanocloud have been recovered.

Active tampering was detected and the results deleted from nanocloud functional space.

Reconstruction suggests that several memory regions belonging to host were copied.

Recommend implementing security algorithms to prevent intrusion of this nature in future.

Shit. So that's how Lena found out about the people I needed to see.

So really, I never revealed anything intentionally?

Confirmed. Data was obtained by covert means during sessions of intimate contact.

Wait, I felt several shocks during moments when we were having sex. Was that what you were referring to?

The probablility of correlation between your sensations and the tampering occurring is 99.8% likely, given current data.

Shit.

I would have to find some way of ensuring that nanocloud interaction from other people was made impossible during touch in the future. I had no intention of taking anyone into my bed who I didn't completely trust, but there was no way to be sure, and that still didn't eliminate the possibility of intrusion by people who were willing to touch on even a casual basis.

Wait a minute.

Is there a possibility that a passive function can be built that will allow me to carry out a synaptic scan of someone's frontal cortices for the purposes of increasing the reliability of the imprint algorithms I'm working on?

Affirmative. The most likely method of gaining access to host nanocloud was stored as part of the assessment.

Understood. Is it possible to communicate directly with the nanocloud of another host, negotiate and authenticate an authorised session in order to carry out these tasks without the host knowing about it?

The success or failure of the attempt will depend on the foreign nanocloud's cooperation.

That put a stop to my immediate plans. I was hoping that I could get Eveline's nanocloud to cooperate on the issue of carrying out an in-depth scan of her imprinting centres so I could carry out a more accurate simulation in order to test the changes, but if it needed her nanocloud's cooperation, and her nanocloud was as dedicated to her well-being as my nanocloud was dedicated to mine, then there was no way I could do that without her knowing about it.

And I didn't want her to know about the project until I could be confident it would work.

I sighed to myself, deciding there was nothing for it, and that I had to keep working with what I had.

"What's your problem?" Eveline asked me, her tone flat.

"Nanocloud project," I told her, not wishing to get any further into it, and fully intending to resume the work I was doing on the module code I last worked on.

As my attention wavered and I dove back into the work I was doing, I failed to notice when Eveline snuck up behind me, carefully unfastened one of my flasks, and detached it from my backpack. The sudden change in the weight of my backpack alerted me, and I looked about me, just as she sprinted ahead some ten metres, before holding the flask up in the air in a victory stance.

"Hey!" I called out in astonishment. "That's my flask-"

"It's mine, now!" She crowed, apparently very pleased with herself. "If you want, you can keep a hold of it for a while?"

There was something very amusing, if frustrating, about this side to Eveline. I'd never seen her even slightly playful before today, and yet, she was running around with my flask, like a kitten running off with its' favourite toy.

"Yes please," I asked in a cajoling tone, smiling. It was refreshing to see this side to her.

So, she walked back over with my flask, hopping, skipping, twirling around, and occasionally, throwing my flask up tumbling in the air, then catching it again. Her smirk was both irritating and endearing.

Once she was within reaching distance, she held it out towards me, and I went to take it back from her, only for her to thrust it up in the air at the last moment, sending it flying over my shoulder just as she took off in a sprint that had her behind me before I'd even had a chance to turn around. When I did, I let out an annoyed growl, as she stood there, tossing the flask in the air, a grin on her face. "Come on, aren't you going to take it?"

Oh ho, I thought to myself! "Game on!"

For the next five or so minutes, I found myself in a bizarre game of chase, that had Eveline running strips around me, throwing my flask around like a baton in a relay race, catching it, throwing it again, then catching it once more. I'd hoped my enhanced physiology and nanocloud assistance would give me an edge here, but despite the fact that I was fast enough to out-compete most people from the old world, I stood no chance whatsoever against Eveline's speed, strength, reflexes and grace. She was so fast and so quick on her feet, that I could barely make out more than a blur with my natural eyes, despite the nanocloud processing my visual data much faster than my visual cortex had been able to. My only chance to keep anywhere near pace with Eveline, was to enter combat mode.

I wasn't about to do that. She wasn't an enemy combatant, and this was just a silly game, so in the end, I stood up, brushed myself down, and held my hand out for Eveline to give me back the flask.

"No," she said, her tone playful. "You get this back, when you can take it from me, not before, alright?" And then, she tossed it into the air again, catching it gracefully before walking back by my side. "I'm a cat, and we cats like to possess shiny things."

Well... I guess the flask was shiny. "I'll get it back eventually," I told her, determined that I'll become faster and stronger, so I could keep that promise.

For some reason, that seemed to please her, and a slight smile came to her lips before she walked on ahead of me.