There was nothing more I needed to do at Styx Base immediately, so we might as well fly back to Vancouver Island. I made a last round of the base and checked if everything was secured against an unexpected storm, then we took off in the Variocopter with very little luggage.
The most important item was a charger for Arina. I had yet to analyze her old energy source, so I could not integrate it into her new body. For now her sustenance would come out of a power socket. The charger blueprint had been affordable enough at 100 points.
On the flight, she did not say much but she snuggled up to me. I did not say much either, I just basked in the company of my new friend.
Back in Victoria, I called B.S.O.D and arranged a meeting for the following Monday. Getting her to agree to an unnamed visitor was a bit difficult, and the announcement that said visitor might set off alerts because of mechanical body parts made her even more suspicious. Ultimately she accepted, but announced that I would get an extra escort in the building and my visitor better be interesting.
In the meantime, we would spend the rest of the weekend at my place, the old shelter I had my workshop and apartment in. I had left my van at the shelter, so we took a bus from the airport. On the way Arina snuggled up to me again, and I laid an arm around her. Somehow it did not matter to me that she was not organic anymore. But there was another question I wanted to ask. First I addressed my trusty AI. I subvocalized “Elya, could you spare enough memory to hold a copy of Arina’s consciousness?”
Easily, but the ethical aspect may be problematic. Would you keep her as a virtual pet?
“Not without Alina’s consent of course.”
Good. As far as an AI can feel uncomfortable, I would not like to be a mind trafficker.
So my AI had ethics of her own? Interesting. But now I had to ask Arina herself. “Arina, there is a kind of digital immortality I can offer you. Now that your mind is digital, it is possible to copy it and restore it into a new body. Not immediately, because I would have to acquire hardware for the brain substitute first, but eventually you could come back from being killed.”
Arina was quiet for a few minutes, and I could see shifting emotions in her face. First joy, and I was not sure what exactly it meant. Perhaps she was just happy that I cared?
Then anguish and insecurity.
Finally, a more determined expression and a decision. “Please don’t. I would feel like a thing to be manufactured and traded. I just regained a degree of independence and dignity, don’t take that away!”
I gave her a hug and said “Never. But if I had not made the offer and something bad would happen to you, I would regret it forever.”
We spent the rest of the weekend watching movies on an old-fashioned 2D screen, taking a walk around Esquimalt Lagoon and other things humans might do on a free weekend.
Monday, August 31th, 2048
In the morning, we made our way to SHOCKS, this time with my van. Two MGs I did not know yet greeted us at the entrance and escorted us to B.S.O.D.’s office.
We had to wait for a few minutes, with our escorts staying and watching. Then B.S.O.D. joined us. When she saw Arina, she went pale and almost dropped her coffee.
“Sunrise? How did you get back? Are you even Sunrise?”
Arina replied “Caitlin saved me. I mean she saved my mind. My body is entirely mechanical now.” She quietly started to sob.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
B.S.O.D. turned to me, stone faced. “Explain!”
“I have a captured Type 21 sitting near Styx base, and I figured out how to divert single units from an ongoing emergence to that Twenty-One. So during the emergence four days ago I set out to capture more Macks, either as new minions if I managed to hack them, or for recycling as raw material.
“After catching several of the more common types, a Type 42 showed up. She immediately attacked, but my own Fours overwhelmed her. After taking her apart, I interviewed the separated head.
“At first it gave me a rant about the approaching doom of mankind, but thanks to Little Aug I could figure out that the software it was running was a kludge made from an uploaded human consciousness and a sort of overseer software that controlled what she did. I managed to disable and delete the overseer software though, Arina is free now.”
B.S.O.D. went even more pale and said to one of our MG escorts: “Get Palace! Immediately!”. Then she came around her desk and gave Arina a hug.
Half a minute later the escort was back with Palace Athena, the commander of SHOCKS. B.S.O.D. asked me to repeat what I just said to her. When I did so, Palace Athena looked at me with cold fury. I could only hope it was not directed at me.
Palace ordered one of the MGs: “Get Moonglow and Starlight in here. They should be in the gym right now.”
Three tense minutes later, she was back with two sweaty and disheveled girls in tow. When they saw Arina, they were flabbergasted.
One of them, a tall and athletic blonde stammered “Arina? How did you survive?” The other one did not talk at all, she just kneeled at Arina’s chair and held her gently. I noticed that she had nice auburn hair, pretty close to mine. It was weird how such trivialities would sometimes occupy my mind.
Palace gave them a moment, then she asked Moonglow, Starlight and me to leave the office with her. Outside she said “If this is really Sunrise, I am as happy as you. But we need to check. Moonglow and Starlight, you talk to her and fish for little things only a close acquaintance would know. Funny moments, little secrets, private activities.”
“And you,” she turned to me, “will tell me in detail how you accomplished getting Sunrise back.”
She guided me to a meeting room, told me to stay put and went to fetch Benjamin, the computer expert I had met on the expedition to the (then still unnamed) Styx Base.
In an intense ten minute interrogation, they squeezed the whole story out of me. The style was perhaps a bit rude, but I could not fault Palace for putting the security of her command first. She would have been a bad commander if that was not a high priority for her.
Then Benjamin asked a question I had expected much earlier:
“If Sunrise does not have a Mack body any more, what does she have now?”
“A Protector design called a full body prosthesis. It is used for people who have lost most of their body. The options go from support for a living head with a miniature life support system to full mind uploads. Obviously, Sunrise has the latter.”
“And why is her mind still in the Mack computer, instead of a Protector equivalent?”
“The Mack brain is working perfectly well after I removed the overseer software. Also, my fabricator might be hitting its limitations here. To be honest, I have yet to check if I can build an artificial brain that fits into a human-sized head.”
Palace and Benjamin did not pursue the topic further for the moment, mostly because Palace seemed to become impatient with discussing technical minutiae.
When we came back to B.S.O.D.’s office, Moon and Star looked like they had cried quite a bit. With Arina it was not as obvious, because she had no tear ducts anymore.
B.S.O.D. appeared harrowed too, but more composed. She announced “Sunrise will stay with us for a while and work with our therapists. There are also a lot of questions we still need to ask her about the Macks.”
I replied “I understand that you need the intel, but please be gentle about it. When I asked Arina about some Mack tech, she answered my questions but was obviously uncomfortable with it.”
Next I pulled out an USB stick. “This contains the blueprints for Arina’s new body and a few notes about how to replace parts of it for repair. Sorry Arina, but where other people need a doctor sometimes, you might need a mechanic.”
I could tell from the mood in the room that it was time to conclude the meeting. So I stepped up to Arina, gave her a kiss on the cheek and said ”Take care, and unless they ban me from SHOCKS, I will visit frequently.”
Arina kissed me back. Not quite as chastely, but it was still a goodbye kiss.