I spent the next half hour giving instructions to my new ambassador, and Evelyn seemed to be in an exceptional mood around the brown haired woman, who was half a head shorter than myself. Jennifer seemed to soak all of it in, and even requested the four men she was here with to become bodyguards. I agreed, and said that I would cover the cost for two of them, once Bilby gave me the fair amount to pay for a guard.
Lilly got off the table, and flew to me, constantly changing the colors of her wings as she did so. she sat down, and I could hear the light whisper from her letting me know that she was ready whenever I was. I asked Bilby to give Jennifer directions to where I was staying, so that she could visit me if there were problems, he nodded and said that he would. And Lilly took us home after that.
Once back in the workshop, I immediately added the diodes to the top of the wiring harness, in their correct directions, to prevent residual EMP radiation from going into a new motherboard, once the shield was made. it was easier to do this now, than to wait until later, and modify it. I told Lilly that I could make the changes to her, but only if she wanted it, she stated that she would do it herself at a later time, and wanted to see how my new body would turn out, even though it was just a larger version of what she was using.
I printed off the new motherboard I had originally designed for Lilly's body and hooked the jumper Angie made for me into it as I plugged it into the new frame. the facial servos actuated as I felt myself move my face around, I twisted and arched my back to verify its movement, bent over to check balance, and then wondered how I would get myself into this new body. as I was pondering the question to myself, I felt my spirit move toward it.
<
"Yes." I said out loud and the jumper ejected itself from the back of the head of my new body, I had successfully moved into it.
I was now about the same size as Angie, using the measurements of my old world I would be 168 centimeters, or about five and a half feet tall. the new armor plating allowed for slightly more flexibility than I expected, and I felt awkward standing while still attached to the stand, Lilly pulled the pin for me, and I took my first step in a completely new body, just as I had stepped off the stand, Angie had come back in from grabbing a quick bite, and got a grin on her face, that nearly mimicked my own.
"Lets go get you in some clothes!" Angie nearly squealed, as she grabbed my arm and pulled me after her at nearly a jog.
I wasn't used to the amount of mobility that I had now, so I tripped over my own feet, and fell face first through the door. I felt disappointed in myself, and embarrassed, but I just put my hands under my body, and pushed myself back up, and then stood.
"Let me get used to this body before we do that again." I said to her, and she nodded and walked in front of me backwards toward her room. once there I grabbed a racer-back tank-top, and a pair of pants made out of a jersey type material and put them on, then slipped my new feet into a pair of sandals.
"Now you look like yourself." Angie said to me, I smiled at her comment, and she gave me a hug, then we went downstairs to see Jody.
Stephanie was in his study when we got there, arguing with him about something. I stepped into the room and Stephanie was startled to see my grey and white body enter the room, I smiled at her.
"Its good to see you again Stephanie, how have you been since we parted ways last?" I asked, purposely being formal.
"Is that Ayla?" she asked, surprise evident on her face. "That body looks amazing!"
"Thank you, Angela and I just finished it today, There are a few tweaks I need to make to it, but the majority of the components are correct." I told her, and Jody just smiled. "Jody, you may take my old body to your students at the university, I no longer have a use for it, and it would be useful for your students to see the condition of that body, I will remove the generator itself from the body and you can have the remainder."
"Th... Th... Thank you, Ayla, you do realize how valuable your old body will become, don't you?" he asked.
I waved my hand as though it was unimportant. "Jody, its a small price compared to the hospitality you have shown me since finding me, and aside from my new ambassador at the city, the one who has shown the least hostility toward me. even Carol, and Stephanie here, have struggled to hide their feelings, and fear. consider it as a thank you." I told him, he nodded, and then I left his office to get back with whatever Stephanie and he were arguing about.
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it was getting late, so I went to the room next to Angela's laid down in the bed, and put myself to sleep. I knew I would need it tonight, my operating system had an entirely new body to recode itself to. hopefully it would work a bit smoother tomorrow, it felt kind of jerky. we will see.
I woke up the next day, and asked Lilly to take me to see Bilby, and she took me to the strange grey place like we had traveled before, and in a few minutes, I was at the north gate with Bilby and Jennifer.
When I appeared in front of them, Jennifer jumped back in surprise, but I could tell that Bilby knew we were there.
"Hello, Jennifer, Bilby. I thought here would be the best place to show my new body publicly. what do you think?" I asked the two of them, while smiling, and held my arms out and turned in a 360 circle to show off my handy work, well aside what was being hidden by Angela's clothes.
"Princess Andronis?" Jennifer asked.
"Jennifer, when we are alone, Ayla is fine, in public, please just call me Princess Ayla. we will leave the family name for formal announcements okay?" she nodded
"This is the new body you said you were working on yesterday?" Bilby asked.
"Yep. I hope I do it justice, it took a while to get the wires ran, and we found some structural issues with it while we were building it, so they were fixed, now, I am planning on making different eyes, these cameras are fixed position, I need something that moves a bit more, and has a wider angle, these feel like tunnel vision, but I wanted to have mobility before I fixed those issues."
"You seem to be thinking about quite a bit while doing this." Jennifer said.
"Well, I plan on seeing more of this world than just the two cities I've been in, and nobody would react favorably to my old body, this one should be a little more personable, as well as obvious as to who I am."
"That it is." Bilby said. "May I ask to touch your spirit, just to make sure it really is you? I mean it feels like you are here, I just want to make sure."
"Go ahead." I said adding a cheerful giggle to my response. "Oh! how will I be able to access my money while I am away. so far you guys have managed that aspect for me."
Bilby touched my shoulder and then smiled. "I'll be right back." he flew out of the room.
"How is your first day going?" I asked Jennifer.
"Its already more exhausting than I thought it would be. Ambassador Raleigh will be a huge help, and has already been teaching me quite a bit."
"He is good peoples." I said using slang from my last life. Jennifer seemed to understand the sentiment, and giggled while nodding at my statement. he came back in, and motioned for me to hold up my arm, so I did, and he put a bracelet around my wrist.
"This will give you access to your account that we set up for you, as well as prevent fraud. I'm sure that your systems have already updated you as to what this is, and how to use it?" I could tell he was asking, and not telling me, so I simply confirmed that the lines of code letting me know that this was equivalent to a debit card, had passed by my vision, as well as how it is used, then he continued. "This particular model will only allow you to utilize a quarter million credits in a twenty four hour period without having to contact the bank, and then to get a temporary lift on that restriction, you will have to have one of us twelve present as you inter the bank." I didn't need to ask who he meant by 'us twelve' I knew which Fair he meant.
"Thanks Bilby!" I gave him a smile. "While I am here, do you need me for anything?" both started shaking their heads. "If that changes, Angie made an earphone yesterday while I was here," I handed the large one to Jennifer, and the small one to Bilby, "These will let you communicate with me from anywhere that can receive the local news stations, but please be careful with them, there is no security with them yet."
I showed them how to turn them on, and off, as well as mute the microphone in case they needed to talk to someone else and didn't want to confuse me.