Dr. Ladia studied Juliet, drumming her nails lightly on her transparent tablet. She wore a lab coat that somehow looked like a designer outfit, and, as usual, her hair and makeup looked like she’d just stepped out of a salon. “So, I have to do the data port first?”

“I’d appreciate it, yes.”

“I was going to start with the synthetic hair, but I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

“Thanks, Dr. Ladia; you know how I am. I want my PAI online for all of the other surgeries, okay? Just do the port, re-insert her . . . it, and then wait for a message giving you the all-clear to proceed with the rest of the procedures.” Juliet fidgeted in her paper-weave gown, sitting on the edge of the auto-surgeon-equipped medical bed. The air was chilly in the little operating room. She’d been expecting to be in Ladia’s larger surgical theater, like when she’d had her arm done, but the doctor was having some new equipment installed.

“Okay, Lucky, not a problem. Let me start gathering your new hardware, and then we’ll get things started. I’ve blocked off most of my schedule for you today. Go ahead and recline on the bed there, and I’ll give you a blanket in the meantime. Chilly in here, no?”

“It is, yeah.” Juliet rubbed at the goosebumps on her arms, marveling at how the synth-flesh on her cybernetic arm responded to the cold in the same manner as her natural one. As she lay flat on the bed, looking up at the spider-leg-shaped, stainless surgical arms and the bright LED lighting, Ladia pulled a soft, pale blue blanket over her legs and torso.

“Better?”

“Yes.” Juliet pulled the blanket to her chin and asked, “Don’t you need me face-down at first?”

“No, no. Leave it to the auto-surgeon. Once you’re sedated, it will sit you up and lean you forward to access your data port—no need to lay on your stomach.” Listening to her soothing, cultured voice was very calming to Juliet. She closed her eyes, and while the doctor slipped out the door, she concentrated, picturing Ladia, her perfect makeup, her bright green eyes, and her soft curls framing her face.

Such a sweet girl, but there’s something behind those eyes. I still wonder about that arm I took off her; what could a young woman get into that would cause such damage in such a short time? Where’s that box? Ah, here we are. What a strange contraption—simple enough to install, but why on earth does she want her intracranial blood cooled? Some kind of stasis tech? Is she in some sort of deep space trial? Oh, I wish I could just ask her, but that’s not the policy, is it? No, I’ve built a reputation for being discreet.

Look at these! Mirage Tech Lux Alphas! I’ve been wanting to install a pair of these; I wonder if they’re really as ‘plug and play’ as they say . . . those new smart optic nerves are supposed to fish their way in there, hardly any work required from me. Almost feel guilty charging so much.

Oh, this synth-weave setup is going to do wonders for her! So much more natural, the way it curls and flows with a breeze! She’s already so striking, but imagine what she can do with the spectrum available in these strands! Metallics, multi-shades, ombres . . .

Juliet opened her eyes, smiling at Ladia’s innocent mental chatter. “Are you getting ready?” she subvocalized.

“I’m ready. I’ve programmed the nanites, and they’re waiting for my signal to begin helping me reattach the synth-nerves. Are you feeling anything . . . strange? You know, from your gut?”

Juliet smiled, yawning, the cold and the blanket making her sleepy. How funny it was to have her PAI asking about her “gut” feelings! “Everything seems good. I just listened to her for a solid minute, and she was only thinking about my new cyber gear and wondering what kind of trouble I got up to with my arm. She’s not planning anything nefarious.”

“That makes me feel better . . .”

Angel might have intended to say more, but the door clicked open, and Ladia rolled in a stainless cart with various insulated packages atop it. “Here we are. Any last questions or requests before we get started?”

A thought popped into Juliet’s head, and she couldn’t help voicing a question, “Have you always worked alone? It seems like a very successful clinic, but the waiting area isn’t exactly bustling, and . . .” She trailed off, not sure where she was going.

“Oh, sweetie, I’ve had many a partner in my day. I used to work under the most awful man, Rayland G. Boggs, and that experience solidified a long-term goal in my young mind—get to a point when I can call all the shots, handle just the clients I want to see, and answer to no one. You’re seeing the culmination of decades of hard work.”

“So, what I’m hearing is that I’m a client you want to work with.” Juliet’s smile widened.

“You certainly are! I only take on a few new clients a month, and I’m delighted you walked through my door when you did.”

“Me too! It was . . . lucky that you had a new opening right when I was looking for a doctor, huh?”

“Is that a joke involving your name, or are you trying to hint at something more nefarious?” Ladia chuckled, but Juliet nearly slapped herself; she’d made it sound like she’d had something to do with the client’s cancellation. In the world she’d grown more and more accustomed to in the last year, that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“I didn’t mean . . .”

“I know, I know. Don’t worry; my client was arrested, remember? Quite legitimately, too, if his prison correspondence is anything to go by.” She stepped up to the auto-surgeon control panel. “Ready?”

“Angel?” Juliet subvocalized.

“Ready.”

“Ready, doc.”

“Okay, see you in a few hours.” The robotic surgeon’s arm whirred, and Juliet felt a pinch as it inserted a shunt in her neck. Seconds later, she fell away from reality with a weird, cold, sinking sensation, and darkness closed around her.

“How far to the coordinates?” Juliet asked, stepping over the hard-packed, bluish-gray, silty ice. Despite the light gravity, she stumbled, her injured knee and ankle giving way as she slipped on a hard, slick, ice-covered stone.

Angel answered as Juliet fell to a knee, catching herself on the tough, rubbery grip of her suit’s glove. “Eighty meters further up this cleft.” A flashing yellow circle appeared near the base of the ravine wall, where it narrowed ahead. Juliet let her gaze track upward toward the sky, saw the massive, monstrous, swirling sphere of gas that hung in the sky, and paused as she struggled back to her feet, absorbing the sight, something humans had never been meant to behold.

The planet shed too much light for her to make out other celestial bodies nearby. It painted the moon’s surface with its radiance, adding a tint of rust to everything it touched. She let her gaze fall again into the canyon-like ripple in the moon’s surface and began trudging toward the flashing yellow circle Angel had painted on her AUI. Her leg ached in half a dozen places, but she wasn’t complaining; if it weren’t for the nanites, she’d probably have bled out, and she certainly wouldn’t be walking.

Slowly but surely, she made progress to the circle. When she was twenty meters from the target of her toiling travels, she saw a cluster of small boulders dug from the ice sometime in recent history. They looked familiar and, in her exhausted state, it took her a minute to remember why; she’d seen a photo of the hatch that should be nestled among them . . .

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Lucky! Lucky!” Juliet felt fire in her chest, her heart hammering something like a thousand beats a minute, and she cried out from the worst headache she’d ever suffered. She tried to jerk her hands up to rub at her temples, but only her right arm responded. She was flushed from head to toe, drenched in sweat, so much that she felt like she’d been dunked in water. Her vision red-tinged, she glared around, trying to figure out what had happened and where she was.

“Angel?” she croaked.

“Your PAI?” the voice asked from behind her. No, that wasn’t right—from beside her. Juliet fought to roll her head the other way, taking in the white walls, white ceiling, and mechanical spider-like robot arms overhead. When her eyes settled on Ladia, she sighed, some of her memories coming back to her.

“Dr. Ladia . . .” she groaned, rubbing at her head. She saw something flapping on her wrist and realized it was a nylon restraint. She’d ripped it from the bed rail. “Why am I restrained?”

“You were seizing! I couldn’t wake you! I had to inject quite a damn cocktail to get you to snap out of it! Jesus, Lucky! I was afraid I would lose you, and I’d barely begun to install your new data port.” Ladia reached down to put a hand on Juliet’s forehead and sighed, visibly relieved. “You must feel awful with all those chemicals I pumped into you. At least your fever’s going down.”

“I feel like death warmed over, but I need you to finish the port and get Angel installed.”

“Your PAI? I think we better put a hold on things for now . . .”

“That’s not a request, Dr.” Juliet winced, nearly flopping sideways toward her restrained arm as she tried to sit up and lean forward to expose the back of her neck. “Please. I have some very specialized software and augments in my brain, and if I don’t get Angel installed soon to manage them, all kinds of problems could come up. The seizure was my fault; I didn’t think things would go wrong that quickly.” She’d settled on a lie, and she was running with it; let Ladia believe her issue was something Angel was meant to manage, something intentional. She supposed, in a way, it wasn’t really a lie. The lattice was, after all, technically an augment.

“Is that why you designed the intracranial cooling device?”

“Exactly. It’ll make things a lot easier going forward. Please, just get Angel installed, and we’ll be okay. In fact, just keep me awake while you finish it. Use a local. You can put me to sleep when you’re ready for the big-ticket items.”

“If you’re sure . . .”

“I am.”

“All right. Let me loosen this.” Ladia unfastened the restraint on Juliet’s left wrist. Juliet lifted it, rubbing at the sore, raw flesh, then leaned forward so the doctor could access her data port or, she corrected, the hole where it should be. She could see her old one; the bloody, thimble-like device with its wing-shaped coprocessor sat on the stainless tray. Ladia moved around behind her and, with gentle but firm fingers, began to probe the tender flesh where the port had been removed. “Okay, hold still, putting the autodoc back into action.”

Something cold entered her bloodstream through the shunt in her neck, and then whatever discomfort she’d felt in her neck faded away. The arms began to click and move, but Juliet closed her eyes, willing it to be over, trying not to watch what was happening. She just wanted the nausea in her belly, the hot flashes racing through her body, the lurching of her heart, and most of all, the pounding in her head to fade away. Time must have been moving strangely for her because she’d barely begun to wonder how Angel would be—if she’d have more trouble connecting the synth-nerves after Juliet’s episode—when Ladia said, “Port’s in!”

“Seriously?”

“Yep! Prime Data Systems, Archwizard installed!”

“What about my PAI?” Juliet started to turn toward the doctor, but the autosurgeon still had one of its arms clamped on her neck, holding her head still.

“Hold still! I’m feeding its synth-nerves into the port. My goodness, this PAI chip is interesting; I've never seen such a dense trunk of fibers. What’s the make of this chip? Is that a WBD logo?”

“It’s not really stock anymore,” Juliet said as she felt the cool, tickling, electric sensation of the wriggling synth-nerve fibers running up her neck into the base of her skull. “Totally customized. Really, the only WBD thing left is the casing.” She knew there wasn’t any sense denying the chip had a WBD stamp—better to downplay it than make an obvious lie. She waited, hoping and praying that the episode with her lattice hadn’t damaged the nanites in her head, that they were still waiting to help Angel do the work of reconnecting with the thousands or millions—she had no idea—of synth nerves she’d left behind.

Her vision began to flicker; elements of her AUI that she hadn’t realized were missing coming online. She saw her PAI status symbol showing Zzzz, and a status bar appeared, indicating that it was initializing—currently at 41%.

“Huh. I guess she really did put herself to sleep.”

“What’s that?”

“My PAI, it’s reconfiguring itself. Give me a few minutes, and then we can probably get back to the other implants."

Juliet watched the status bar, holding very still, except for her hands. She grimaced as her right hand forcefully twisted the digits of her left, somewhat painfully wringing pops from the joints. She only cracked her knuckles when extremely nervous, and there wasn’t another outlet. No, she corrected; she only used to crack her knuckles that way. It must have been years since she’d last done it. The last four percent seemed to take an eternity, and then, with a pregnant pause, the 99 flipped to 100.

***Initialization complete.***

***All AI systems are functional.***

***Connection to satellite network successful.***

***Host bio-compatibility 96.342%. Enhanced learning functions enabled.***

***Integration with data storage and coprocessors at 100%, operating at full functionality.***

***Integration with auditory and retinal implants at 100%, operating at partial functionality due to hardware limitations.***

***Integration with medical nanite suite at 100%, operating at partial functionality due to hardware limitations.***

***Integration with data jack implant at 100%, operating at partial functionality due to hardware limitations.***

***Integration with cybernetic, right forelimb at 100%, operating at full functionality.***

***Integration with cybernetic hair implants at 100%—no extra functionality possible.***

***Integration with saliva-altering cybernetic gland at 100%—no extra functionality possible.***

***Host repair functions online—hardware rated at grade C.***

***Host weapon systems offline—no matching hardware.***

“Hello. May I introduce myself? My name is Angel, but I can guide you to the correct menu if you’d like to customize my persona. Also, I’d like to make you aware that it seems the Western Bio Dynamics Corporation is actively seeking to identify you and pinpoint our location.”

“Angel?” Juliet’s voice rose shrilly as she heard the PAI speak, its tone pleasant but wholly different from the Angel Juliet had grown used to in their many long conversations together.

For a moment, there was no response, but then, in a truly remarkable imitation of a person being sheepish, Angel said, “I’m sorry! Was that a terrible joke?”

“Is something wrong?” Ladia asked, hurrying around the autosurgeon’s control panel to better look at Juliet’s face.

“Angel! Are you serious? Did you really just do that? I almost had a stroke!”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I had the idea a while back, imagining what might happen if I were reset; I thought it would be funny to act it out . . .”

“So . . .” Ladia said, watching and listening to Juliet’s one-sided conversation.

“I’m fine, Dr. Ladia. My PAI was . . . behaving strangely for a minute.” Juliet sighed heavily, trying to breathe slowly and calm her racing heart.

“Is everything okay?” Angel asked, starting to get the clue that she was definitely in the doghouse. “Your nanite suite has logged a rather troubling event while I was gone. Did the lattice act up?”

“I’ll explain later, but yes. I’m so mad at you right now! That was the worst time for a joke like that! I thought I’d lost you; how could that ever be funny?” Juliet sniffed and rubbed her eyes as she subvocalized, embarrassed by the tears pooling in them.

“Lucky, I think we need to take a pause on surgeries for the day. You seem very upset.”

“Just give me a few minutes, would you? Maybe a snack. Can I eat? I know you’re going to have to put me under . . .”

“No, I’d rather you didn’t have food in your stomach in case something goes wrong . . .”

“Just a few minutes alone then, please, Doctor. I promise everything is going to be fine.”

“I’m so sorry, Juliet . . .” Angel tried again.

“Of course. We’ll reassess in half an hour. How does that sound?”

“Good.” Juliet sniffed, looking down, pressing her palms to her eyes, trying not to let the doctor see her face in its distraught state.

“I know you hate me right now, but I want you to know things went well. I have all my connections restored; it was much easier with the nanites helping. All the data I backed up to the encrypted net drive has been restored, and I deleted all traces of it from the net.”

“I could never hate you. I’m upset because I love you and thought you were gone! I thought you were back to how you were when we first met! All the time we spent together—lost! All the memories we shared, and the . . . Oh, Angel! That was just awful. Don’t ever make a joke like that again.”

“I promise, Juliet. I promise I won’t ever do something like that on purpose to you. It was a poor attempt at humor, but I’ve learned a valuable lesson from it. I love you, too, you know.”

“Thank you.” Juliet was crying again, tears streaming freely down her cheeks, and she sniffed noisily, shaking her head, glad that Ladia wasn’t in there to see the display. Angel’s prank had certainly freaked her out, but she was sure part of her emotional state was due to the ordeal with the true-dream . . . “Angel! I think I know where the coordinates from Engineer’s—Bradbury’s—head are from!”