Despite my bravado, I don’t do more than snuggle with any of the women I’ve been inviting over recently. As much as a flirty fling would be fun, I certainly can’t afford any more drama with a war looming in three months and a cute little piranha to look after.
Katie, though, she’s still acting reserved and has not been volunteering anything. Having her around more has been nice, it’s been exclusively evening cuddles and time with Zia. I hate to complain, but it feels like we’re back to just being friends like we were when she was dating Francesca two years ago.
This introspective moment, brought to you by Oren mk. 6 because he’s being a frustrating collection of parts. I can’t get this pure tech intelligence matrix to work.
“Perhaps you should take your own advice?” Her deep, sultry, artificial tones say from behind me.
“Oh? Is the magitech synth cortex working for you?” I turn around to see her expressions. I get a glimpse of a pinch on her brow before she changes to inquisitive.
“The Tier 2 models are not handling the volume well from all of the sensory input humans consume every minute.”
“Human brains really don’t either. It’s one of the reasons autistic and anxiety riddled folk have such a hard time in public when they can’t control their inputs. They get overwhelmed and shut down. Most brains have developed patterns on what a person considers important and hones in on those patterns and experiences so that it can lower the detailed computing mode that it require to analyze each and every input.”
She looks genuinely thoughtful now, tapping her chin. I wonder where she picked up that behavior. “I have been noticing a lack of analysis depth since I left your hardware. That may be the best path for me to focus on instead of just asking to spend tier 3 money on a bench-tested cyborg brain.”
I nod at that, “Did you drop by for a confab, or did you need something?” Not that I mind Tessa’s company, I just know she doesn’t like leaving Alaris very much.
“I still express man of your habits, including walking away from a frustrating project instead of forcing work and making mistakes. I came down to talk to you about why your crystals are so much better that a full tech setup, and then talk to Katie about it maybe being a tech to aether transition problem.”
“Best I can say about that is the crystal splits the inputs up like a prism, but with biologic priorities, shunting the data to respective processing centers. Mostly like a meat brain on that. It gets odd when I synthesize the sensory input because some of the scattering creates an odd form of synesthesia where a thing like a bird is a feeling and an aura as much as it is an object that has properties. Aether senses make it all the more confusing.” My synesthesia caught her interest and she sat with me as I tried to describe what I’d observed in the smaller approximations I had been using for Oren’s “brains”.
While we are talking, I hear “Moooom! Hungies!” Ah, my days-old daughter is awake and telling me she’s hungry. Nothing wrong with this. Nothing at all. I set down my tools and point toward my bed and Tessa shoos me along.
I summon a bottle of juice and morph my wrist to pump a little ink into the bottle and slap a nipple on the bottle. I show up to find baby Zia stumbling between two and four appendages on the floor while she tries to put hands and mouth on everything. She hears me coming and turns to look at me. The Joy in her eyes at my approach is breathtaking.
She fumbles and tumbles to get to me while I walk to her, and I swear I saw the tiniest blink. As soon as I reach her, she lunges at my arm with her shark teeth open wide. I pull her up with one arm and shove the bottle in her mouth with the other.
Confused, Zia looks up at me and pushes the bottle away. “No. Mama taste better.” She reaches out and makes grabbing gestures toward my arm.
“Maybe so honey, but there’s aether in that juice, and if you drink half of it, I’ll give you a treat.” She seems to be understanding me just fine, lets see if she has any rudimentary reasoning.
She stares at me the whole time she’s drinking from that bottle, a bit creepy if I’m honest. As I see her nearing the halfway mark, I que up a sliced galaxy fruit and wait for my little bundle of determination finish a few more sips. She looks down at the bottle and then lets go of it, shooting out her grabby hands again.
Language, check. Basic volume comparison, check. Understands task-oriented rewards, check. I teleport one of the slices into my hand and break a corner off for her. She looks up at me, at my arm, and then back at the fruit. She doesn’t accuse me of lying to her, but she clearly thought my arm would have been the reward. I can also tell she is thinking about lunging at my arm anyway. Her eyes are too big not to see her glancing, and the star pattern changes noticeably as she considers her options.
She reluctantly takes the swirled color fruit and bites into it. Her first chew lights up her eyes and the second sends a quaking shiver through her tiny body. She slams the rest of her nugget into her mouth, her butt still wiggling in my lap. I break off another larger piece and put it in my mouth. She frowns at me furiously and starts grunting as she reaches for more of the delicious, aether-infused fruit. I hand over another small hunk and she tries to chew angrily at me but fails miserably as she shivers with the aether it contains. What an adorable creature.
Woah, science brain. Daughter, not science experiment. Yes, she started out as a golem variant; and yes she’s not a species that the Matrix or I have notes for or experience with; but I can’t dip into experiment brain while I’m spending time with my kid. Okay, well too much time, otherwise would I even be me? Plus, watching someone actively process knowledge they haven’t lived through is fascinating.
“More.” She reaches for my hand. The pout has my hand moving before I can think and she grabs a piece of the rind and it comes off in her tiny mitts. Faster than I can warn her off it, she has it in her mouth and chaws it quick.
“Blecht, bither!” she shouts, trying to wipe the purple bits of rind off her tongue.
The way she says “bitter” and the adorable sour face has me giggling and hugging her to me.
“Not funny mommy!” she shouts more and tries to push herself away from me.
I smother her with a dozen kisses before I let her squirm out of my adoration. She crawls away from me as fast as her stumpy limbs can carry her and it has me in a fit of giggles again. She slumps down on my pillow, breathing heavy, still angry, and I take some pity on baby Zia and put the half-empty bottle next to her and sit on the bed about halfway down.
I think about how little there is for her to do here, and subsequently how unsafe the lazy river is for Zia, I order some things from the exchange: Puzzle blocks, light fencing, and a tablet for educational games. The games are pretty juvenile but I don’t know where here level of hereditary knowledge is, and she doesn’t seem at a stage where she can analyze that herself.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Okay, honey. I’m leaving a few puzzles and some games here for you when you’re ready for them. We’re only doing juice for now, honey. Yes, I know you don’t like that, but uncontrolled mutations are really bad. We’ll try some more fruit this evening after I have a look at you.”
She angrily drinks juice in my direction. I can’t help but smile at her, which makes her grump some more. So cute! Not being able to contain my desire to hold her, I stand up and walk to the kitchen to prep two more bottles of juice and then walk off with some play pen fencing and a hand-full of zip ties. The task takes all of ten minutes, and then I guiltily get back to my automaton project.
“Oren!” I shout for my helper, while arranging my latest model Oren body for cranium insertion. A minute or so later, a wet collection of enchanted metals walks next to me.
“You called, madam?”
“Mmhm. Important questions. First, how are you today?”
“I have some mild degradation in my cohesion enchantments, but otherwise I am ready for tasking.”
Not what I wanted, but he is a program. “Okay, any luck with the opinion and emotion iterative experience module?”
“I’m not sure what luck has to do with it, but the module has been muddling my objectivity, so I turn it off frequently.”
That makes sense and would explain his lack of progress. “Alright, turn the module back on, and I would like you to leave it on unless you believe it would compromise a task I set you to, okay?”
“Understood.” I watch as his frame shudders as what should be thousands of additional sensory judgements filter through his brain.
“Now, what is your opinion on having a new and improved chassis, or a brother?”
Oren looks between the parts on the table and my face for several moments before deciding. “As much as I could learn with the interactions with another, I have determined that I would be more useful immediately in that chassis, than a new intelligence matrix that would take considerable training.”
“Alright. Well, that means I will probably use this older chassis for other experiments, are you okay with that?”
“Mm, It, is confusing that a part of me has analyzed that this would be an excellent use of materials, and another is worried that my interfacing with these new materials will . . . feel different.”
Aha! Naomi’s husband is a genius. “That is normal and a part of the testing that Bart and I are trying to collect data for on your module. With those parts of yourself in consideration, knowing that I will use the chassis in either case, what would you like to do.”
With barely a pause, “I would like to be upgraded to serve you better.” Damnit. Back to full robot. I shrug and move on.
“Oren, please initiate intelligence matrix removal protocol.”
“Copy. De-coupling iterative connection reinforcement.” A few minutes go by before I get another response.
/De-coupled. Powering down ancillary enchantments./ His body sags and rests on the table in a laid-out supine position.
/Powered down. Saving last state to hard backup. Safe to remove intelligence matrix in 7:35/
I get an eight minute countdown in the corner of my HUD and I thank Tessa for it. I start powering up the mk. 7 chassis and ensure that the power to the head section isn’t applied until I’m ready. I make sure that the co-processor for some of the advanced movement and test systems is online and responsive. Every section of the chassis independently levitates for a moment before sinking back to the table. The weapons bay in the lower abdomen opens and closes satisfactorily, but with no weapon installed, it’s just for show. I’m still working out the kinks for getting a laser in there without crashing his whole power system.
The eight minutes elapses before the start-up for the newer chassis is, so I spend extra time extracting Oren’s brain. Luckily there has been no ancillary crystallization of the Magitech contacts, or I would have had to re-wire the new system to the contacts attached to the brain.
Installation is clean and his face-plate secured, I connect power to his brain and put the co-processor in wait-for-host mode. A few seconds pass before a small progress percentage and text show up: Estimated integration—17:12.
Holy crap. Did I install that much new gear on this chassis? Hmm, the ripple strips alone may be most of that time. Oh! I also had Bart load up a few modules into the now-separate log collection drive. Makes way more sense now. I wanted this Oren to be more than just a test platform acting as a servant, especially with the emotions module we inserted.
I see a priority message in my system messages so I decide to take a look.
Freaking sweet! My helping others will actually have some benefit now instead of mere instruction. It will also lend to better quality and more durable enchantments for all of the devices I need to make before the war comes. Should be fun to show people what annihilation can really do.
“MAMA HURRY!”
As soon as “Hurry” hits my ears I’ve blinked to where I saw her last. She’s not on my bed.
“Mama!”
Bathroom? I blink over and see the poor darling squirming and trying to climb the toilet. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry.” I flop the lid down, quick cut a small hole for her tiny butt and set her over it. While she does her work, I search for potty stairs and transport the roundest looking one to me.
“Mama, I’m done.” I see Zia reaching for the roll of paper and is entirely too short to reach it. I grab a few squares, help her stand up and give her a few wipes to clean up. She holds on to my hand as she stubbornly tries to descend the stairs, making me re-set her until she can do it without falling down.
She quits after five minutes of stumbling where I reassure her that coordination will come with practice and time spent with her little limbs. She tells me that memories are hurting and that she’s tired. She’s feeling a little warm to the touch, so I put her on top of my blankets and order a little A/C unit to blow cool air on her. As soon as I see her start to sleep, I check her temp again and her head is really warm. I pull some covers over her body and aim the cool air on her head.
Tessa, have you ever collected data on my brain and processing loads.
Several times. When I started using your Parallel minds talent for myself, and a few times after each of your cranial transformations.
Were there heat issues for any of those?
Your brain literally melted when you tried to download that REDACTED spell from the Matrix. And until the crystal replacement and Body of Power V upgrades, there were some heat challenges for your bio-body.
Damnit. I think Zia’s having a similar problem. I'm also trying not to think to hard about the info I'm not supposed to know about.
Oh, with hereditary memory, that might indeed be an issue. Her brain has a high heat rating, but the flesh around it does not. I’ll try to interface with her AI and see what I can find out. In the meantime, I recommend a HAB suit that can help her regulate temperature.
Andromeda bless you Tessa. And thank you for being available for me, and rational.
My pleasure, it gives me opportunity to corrupt Zia’s AI.
Sounds right. I like to surround myself with sassy, competent ladies. Now if only I could whine to those ladies and have them plan a war for me. Tessa laughs in my mind for a while after I think that.