Most of the day I was hard at work in the lab, while Anna lounged in her guest room or took small excursions outside. I could only hope she would not be too bored. I certainly wasn’t. Between examining some residual shield nanites I found in Arina’s old body, the knowledge from the Lorekeeper textbooks and some hints Elya had given me a few weeks before, I managed to figure out the basic principles of the orange shield. I even succeeded in jury-rigging Arina’s old body to create the specialized nanites for the shield and actually project it.

Of course, the experimental setup burned itself out on the first try. Fortunately, I had examined all of the tech in great detail before and kept the records. This would only be a temporary setback.

Elya interrupted my musings with a status report.

The Explorer is ready, except for the lift thrusters and their nacelles. If you pull it out of the fabricator now and start printing those you can be done by tonight.

Ah yes. The “big” fabricator was still not quite big enough for making the Explorer in one go. While it could do a decently sized car, the fully assembled Explorer was over three meters wide and needed some assembly. So I made my way to the hangar and started moving things around. Elya could have done that by herself, but she probably wanted to get me out of the lab for a bit. And she was right, a break was good for me. Afterwards I did not go back to wrestle with Mack technology, but went to talk with Anna.

“Hi, I’m getting close to completing our new ride. If you’d like, you can fly beck to Victoria with me tomorrow and get to know some of my friends. Including Miss I-have-a-new-body-now!”

“Sure!”

Decision made, we spent the evening chatting and I updated Anna on events in Haven after her capture by the Macks. Eventually, the new Explorer was ready. I queued up some more fabrication jobs to process in our absence, then we took off for Victoria. Late in the evening, we arrived at the Colwood shelter. As I ushered Anna in, I was suddenly caught in a crushing bear hug. As expected, it was Arina.

“Oof! Don’t break me!!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!” Looking at Anna, she added “And who is that? Another rescued Magical Mack-Girl?”

“This is Anna, and she is indeed a former Mack MG. Anna, this is Arina. My girlfriend and the former owner of the headless Mack MG body you saw at Styx Base.”

Now Anna caught Arina in a hug. “I’m so glad to see you’re OK!”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

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“When I saw your old headless and mutilated body I expected the worst!”

“Hey, don’t insult Caitlin! She is much too nice for what you suggest!”

At that point, I felt the need to intercede. “No offense taken, I think it is a good sign that Anna cares so much about other people.”

The final minor squabble of the evening came when I announced that I needed some sleep and Anna innocently suggested that she would like to rest in my room as well. In her words “You have that nice couch. Perhaps I could use that and...”

Arina promptly vetoed that idea. “No way, Caitlin sleeps in my bed tonight! If she shares a room with anyone, it is me!”

At Anna’s embarrassed look, she grabbed me around the waist again and proclaimed “Mine!”

Monday, January 18th, 2050

As I woke up the next morning, Arina was gone from the bed and I heard excited chatter from the kitchen. It was mostly Arina speaking, trying to entice Anna into switching bodies by listing the perks of the SecondLife body replacement system. As I arrived in the kitchen, they were on the topic of being able to enjoy little snacks, and Arina had a small espresso in front of her. With an expression of the greatest delight, she took a sip of the strong coffee and nibbled at a cookie.

It seemed effective, as Anna indeed had a wistful look on her face. But she was not quite persuaded yet. “My current body has its advantages too. Strong and tough, it even comes with some built-in weapons and jets for a few seconds of flight!”

“Ooh, there is a lot more you are missing out on. For instance sex!” Arina stepped behind Anna and gave Anna’s metal breasts a squeeze. “Wouldn’t you like these to be soft and sensitive?”

“Uh...”

“And downstairs! Even more important!”

Anna was completely flustered by now.

I chose to tease her some more and play the Advocatus Diaboli. “I’m sure we could program an emulation for that. Press some button or flick some mental switch, and it will feel like a nice massage. Call it a virtual vibrator.”

“Oh god, please kill me now!”

Arina tried a more pragmatic approach. “We wouldn’t have to throw away your current Mack body. Let’s put it in storage and if you don’t like the new shell, we can transfer you back!”

“If you put it like that...“

“Sure I do! Caitlin, start up the CAD suite for us. I already have a design in mind!”

Soon the two were working on a design with a few sci-fi and fantasy elements. Metallic blue hair, slightly pointed ears and some very nice curves. Slightly larger than normal eyes gave the girl on the screen a hint of anime without being obtrusive. I could not help being impressed.

Arina looked at me with big puppy-dog eyes and asked ”We put in some non-standard features, could you still print it that way? Pretty please!”

Elya piped up over the speakers of the entertainment system.

Certainly. The customization would cost a few extra points though.

Before things spiraled out of control, I inquired about said costs and my current balance.

You currently have 12586 points and one token. The customization would cost one hundred points.

Under the hopeful looks of Arina and Anna I relented. “Fine. Elya, purchase approved!”