Fraya only had two options, run away fast or use the pod. Trying to sell it would lead to her death, probably a long and painful one to.

Fraya could use the pod and it was another invention that came from the war that allowed her the option. When China set off a nuke in space to take out the American satellites, American retaliated and did the same, leaving no functional satellites in orbit. This caused both groups to scramble for a solution.

They both had been developing quantum communication, horribly slow and cumbersome, but it worked. Still it was not till after the invention of the nanos, and a way to manufacture superconductors, that quantum communication became the norm. It still required the device to be absolutely stable and would not work without expansive stabilizing platforms in vehicles, aircrafts, and ships which was why radio still dominated overall.

Still Fraya could use the pod and not worry about her position being triangulated. If there was a radio signal sent, the tons of dirt, cement, and metal, would block it. Coming to a decision Fraya went back to the truck and took off her sniper rifle, placing it on the drivers seat, then took off the NBC suit. Folding it up she put it next to her gun. Taking out a small flashlight she turned the trucks light off.

Returning to the pod, she lifted the led revealing a pure white interior. Sighing Fraya knelt down and took off her boots, not wanting to get mud and blood in the pod, through Fraya had a feeling the nanos would clean them.

Finally ready, Fraya turned off the light, plunging her into complete darkness. Placing the flashlight on her chest, she reached up and pulled the cover closed.

Lying back Fraya blinked as the pod started up and soft blue light filled the pod. In the next blink Fraya was somewhere else. This was her first time using the immersive reality function of the pods.

Fraya found herself in a white expanse. There were no walls, ceiling, or roof, just a softly glowing unending white plane. A form slowly faded into being in front of her and when it fully formed Fraya was looking at herself.

Blinking at the apparition it started talking in her voice.

“Greeting user, I am AI controller for Experimental Immersion Pod 009. How may I help you today?”

Fraya took several seconds to decide how to respond and asked her biggest worry.

“AI can this pod be tracked or in any way taken over from the outside?”

The AI cocked her head, it was surreal to converse with an image of herself, watching herself moving and talking, it made her feel as if she looked into a mirror and the mirror image moved on its own.

“There are safe guards to prevent tampering, outside hacking, and tracking. This pod is made to be completely secure.”

Fraya nodded at that. It made complete sense. If you built in backdoors and trackers then other people had a way to track and hack into your secured pod. It was a double edge sword that was more a danger to you then the enemy. It was literally safer to just allow the pod to be stolen.

“What is this pods purpose?” That was the second thing Fraya desperately wanted to know.

“This medical immersive pod is designed to study the human body, nanites, and the interaction between the two, and design, than execute, a compressive upgrade and merging of the two.”

Fraya blinked, then blinked again, trying to comprehend just what the AI meant.

“AI to clarify, you were built to perform changes to the human body, to upgrade nano machines to be more effective, and to allow the nanos to work in a human body outside the pod?”

That would be a major discovery if possible. The energy needed to power the nanites, and the computing power needed to run the AI controller, would not fit into a human body, otherwise, you were talking about instilling a fusion reactor and a large quantum computer within the human body.

“That is correct.” The AI derailed Fraya’s current thoughts.

“How?” Was Fraya’s only thought, just how could the AI and pod manage that?

“This pod is equipped with new crystalline structured nanos that are piezoelectric which can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and the opposite, electrical energy into mechanical energy, and the crystalline atomic structure can store electrical energy.

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Then crystal radio, which has been used for over a hundred years, allows the use of low powered radio waves to command and communicate with the nanos while also powering the nanos and filling the nanos with electrical energy. The piezoelectric effect allows the nanos to also convert the electric energy to mechanical energy to move the nano actuators and use the nano sensors.

This means that the physical body of the nanos, is its self, all one unit. Instead of having separate parts, a separate radio, a separate battery, a separate mechanical actuator, a separate sensor. It is all replaced by the nanos physical crystalline structure.

These new nanos are more durable, contain more energy, and are smaller than current nanos. With these new nanos it is possible to develop new quantum chips that are drastically smaller than current quantum chips and that can be implanted inside a human body. It is theorized that making changes to the human body’s metabolism will generate enough thermal energy to be converted into electrical energy for power the nanos and quantum chips need.”

Fraya was stunned. The revelation that they now had nanos that were superior to the current nanos was a major jump in technology that would shift the balance of power in the world enormously. Without needing to produce cheap, damaging pods, humans could have a new pod that could cure the damage taken from the old style nanos. If the nanos where stronger then manufacturing with nanos would also become cheaper, and more readily available. Then the last part of what the AI said hit her.

“You are taking about changing the human body, are you also taking about changing the DNA to?”

Fraya was not stupid, she had been enrolled in preschool, then regular school, when the war broke out when she was five. School had been accelerated because of the war and she had almost finished high school, expecting to go to college and then get drifted into the war at sixteen. The murder of her parents when America collapsed into civil war when she was twelve, two years after China collapsed and world war III ended, was a hard blow. Now thirteen she was surviving on her own in this brutal world.

“That is correct. The current task is to map the users DNA and optimize it to allow the user to become more powerful then baseline humans. With the inclusion of nanos the user will become superior to baseline humans.”

Fraya just gaped at the AI. What the AI meant, what the pod was built for.

“This is a super soldiers program!”

This made to much sense. The original pods were first used to treat soldiers, then when immersive virtual worlds were invented they were used to train soldiers. This seemed a logical, through extreme, extension of the idea.

“That is one propose to this pod, another is to make sure humans survive the devastation human wars have worked on the Earth.”

Fraya nodded. The global climate change brought on by the war had changed the world drastically. The middle east was uninhabitable do to heat over 150 degrees year round, flooding killed hundreds of millions, and without nanos filtering sea water there would be mass droughts and water shortages, and without nano made food there would be mass starvation and death.

“How long will this process take?” It seemed such drastic changes would take time.

“Unknown. Many factors determine a successful outcome.”

Fraya nodded at that. The question was if Fraya wanted to go through with it.

“How would this work?”

“The user would play games in the immersive worlds and after collecting enough data, running simulations, I would start the changes. It is probable unanticipated effect would occur and I would then need to make further changes. With your age and development, factoring in several changes to improve both the nanos and yourself it could take five to ten years to prefect.”

Fraya was shocked at the time frame. “So I will be in games for ten years?”

“That is incorrect. Time dilation would make your subjective time thirty years.”

Fraya was shocked again. Fraya started pacing. On one hand this was an extreme amount of time, but on the other Fraya did not have anywhere to be. Running, hiding, shooting gang members, hunting rats for protein, it was not much of a life. Another thought hit her.

“Is there schools I can attend? Also how safe is the pod?”

The AI cocked her head and seemed to be deep in thought. “The new nanos do not cause micro tears because they do not break apart so they do not cause damage to the brain and body. They are harder and more durable so can repair extreme damage taken without scaring. I have also used the pods scanners and detect no life signs, further I do not hear any heartbeats within two hundred feet, and detect no ground vibrations. This unit is between two vehicles that well protect it in case of building collapse. The pod itself is very durable and will protect you even if the building collapses on it. As for schooling there are many current options to continue education, form private AI’s, to open colleges.”

This was better than Fraya had hoped. She was deep underground, protected by steel doors, had an AI that would notify her if any enemies approached, and could live in safety studying and playing games. Even if the building collapsed she would still survive. That also brought another question to mind.

“Just how long can the pod support me?”

“This pod has an improved micro fusion reactor, special nanos, and is fully stocked. All biological materials will be 87% recycled and surrounding biologicals can be scavenged. It is estimated, without any further effecting factors, that the pod can support you for a hundred and twenty years.”

“What!”

That was almost ten times as long as Fraya had been alive. The thought that she would live anther hundred years was shocking, more so when she realized that with the subjective time it would seem to be over three time that.

“That is correct. The pod can keep you fully heathy, without any of the prior heath issues form older pods, for the full hundred and twenty years, barring the expected changes having a drastically negative effect.”

“What a nice way of saying that I can live for another hundred years unless you kill me.” Fraya said sarcastically. Her mirror image just blink at her.

Fraya took a deep breath and let it slowly. “Okay let’s do this!”