The following morning, after we awoke, made love and engaged in our usual morning small-talk, Eveline and I joined Dani and Rosalie for breakfast. Amélie, Caitlynne and Philippe found their own accommodation the previous night, and would join us at headquarters later.
As recommended by my nanocloud, I ate a hearty breakfast and ensured my body had the fuel it would need to power the upgrades. The raw material would also have to come from constant replenishment through eating, but we’d manage that. Ontario was a province that didn’t lack food or supplies, so I knew I’d be able to obtain what I needed, so it was only a matter of finding the time to eat what I needed.
Soon, Rosalie, Eveline and I were back at our impromptu base at Quebec City’s airport. No doubt a permanent base of operations was being worked upon, but for now, we would work from here. As soon as we arrived at the terminal where we would work, Rosalie had us join her in a conference room where she received reports from staff already working there. After a brief consultation with them that Eveline and I were not a part of, Rosalie called us to join her.
“We’ve had news of a few breeding facilities coming to our attention here in North America. The nearest is in Arizona, so I’d like you two to look into it. You up for this as your first mission?”
I looked to Eveline, who narrowed her eyes as she looked back at Rosalie. “Why us for this one?”
“No particular reason,” Rosalie said casually. “For this, I’d like to get a lay of the land. Instead of a direct infiltration and rescue, I’d like an advance scouting mission to scope the inside of the place and then get out as quickly as possible. Should only need one of you, and the other can be a handler on the outside. Rick can be the one to go in.”
“Because I’m a hybrid, I’d be unbelievable as someone wanting to get access to the cubs for buying and selling?” Eveline said in a questioning tone, and I could feel through our bond the irritation she had at that knowledge.
Rosalie nodded. “You’re more useful watching his back right now. The Harvesters want to make hybrids as a slave race and as shock troops, and I feel safe saying that even with the limited contact we’ve had with their agents. It stands to reason they’re not willing to trust those that they want to exploit.”
I could see that, I supposed. “Right. So what would be our mission?” Eveline asked, taking the lead. I relaxed, relieved that she was taking it well.
“Get in, scope the place out without arousing any suspicion if possible, then get out and report back here,” Rosalie told us both. “You’ll need to go in blind on this one, and no comms. Can’t risk them discovering anything on your person when you are on the inside. Do you have recording capability?”
I nodded, knowing my nanocloud can intercept audiovisual data direct from the synapses in my brain, and had the ability to store it in the storage zone I’d had it set up. “Should be undetectable as well,” I told them.
“Let’s hope so,” Rosalie said in a cautioning tone. “But best to come up with a contingency in case they do detect anything. What’s your current state of combat readiness?”
Eveline and I were working on part of that equation. Our daily combat exercises and drills had resumed once we left New Salem, and had not ceased since. I still needed work, apparently, which somewhat irritated me despite the logic of being as inexperienced as I was, especially as my nanocloud was supposed to help muscle memory along quite a bit.
“Right now, I’m relying on combat blades and unarmed fighting,” I told Rosalie. “Last time, they took away all of our weapons, so I can’t count on being able to keep my blades the next time I go in anywhere, so I’ll need to think of another solution.”
“What about embedded systems?” Rosalie asked, looking briefly at Eveline. “Eveline has retractable claws.”
“They’re part of my physiology,” she reminded us.
“Yeah,” Rosalie acknowledged. “But the nanocloud you both possess can make changes. Rick, do you think it’s possible to build in some sub-dermal weaponry of any kind?”
“I’m working on something like that,” I admitted, recalling the changes I had already put into effect. “Might take time for that to bear any fruit, though.”
Rosalie nodded. “We’ll discuss the specifics before your deployment. For now, let’s look at ways of getting inside the facility. When you’re in a position to implement proper internal weapon upgrades for self-defence, you can fill me in on what you’ve gone with, and we can work our plans around your choices. Sound good?” I nodded. “Alrighty. For now, let’s talk about how you’re going to get the intel back here.”
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Eveline and I went outside to begin a sparring session not long after firming up the details of our mission with Rosalie. While I had come a long way since the first time I’d asked Eveline to teach me to fight with my signature blades, I was still woefully lacking in combat skills compared to her. We sought to close the gap somewhat, even if because of her continued efforts at self-improvement, she would always be far more effective a fighter than I was.
“Alright,” Eveline wasted no time in getting to the point; she never did. “Combat stance, let’s go.”
I did as asked, and she walked around me, giving me a thorough appraisal, correcting my stance in a couple of places. “Watch that elbow,” she muttered, and I could feel a touch of irritation through our bond, though it was almost imperceptible. “You’re still standing with your feet too close together,” she added softly, and I knew from her comment and through our bond that she felt only a slight adjustment was needed. “Better. Now, you know the drill.”
I did. Eveline had a pair of practice blades sheathed to a belt around her waist, and she took the whole thing off, handing it to me. I grabbed the blades from the belt, then handed it back to her. She put it to one side, leaping backwards a few yards as I adjusted my grip on each one before settling back into my combat stance.
“Now,” she barked.
Immediately, I leapt forward in a feint that I knew she would anticipate. She leapt up as if to avoid a low swipe of my blades, and I leapt off of the ground to meet her in the air, my blades extended to catch a part of her in mid-air.
She anticipated it almost immediately, her tail intercepting the blade in my left hand and swatting it off course, while her left hand knocked my right hand wide. Her right hand was swinging down toward me from overhead, but I’d anticipated this might happen when I leapt, and my legs were swinging up as I leaned back, so I curled my body tight, increasing my spin, extending both feet toward her arm and kicking the clawed hand backward. Her expression was one of brief surprise as I knocked her swipe off course and I tucked my body back into a roll before extending my legs once again toward the ground. The kick had put a small amount of distance between us, and both of us landed on the ground, ready to pounce. Eveline was a hair faster than I was, and leapt at me in an obvious feint that was intended to make me think she was headed for a wide arc at my face, expecting me to duck. I didn’t, and instead leapt to the right, where she was currently sweeping her left hand toward me in an arc to intercept. I’d pushed forcefully on my landing to propel myself into the air again, intending to somersault over her head, but she had surprised me with a double-feint as her tail curled around my leg and pulled me off course just enough that I landed hard on the ground. Before I’d managed to gain purchase on the ground to lift myself up again, I felt the hot sting of four claws slash across my back, as Eveline struck at me with her talons.
As always, she held back, nicking only the surface of my skin, completely avoiding any serious injury. The sting of her cuts always conveyed the lesson effectively, and my nanocloud made no attempt to dull the shock, either. I had no need to question why, knowing my nanocloud was very capable and exceptionally intelligent. It would know when I needed to learn through shock and pain, and when I need to remain functional in spite of critical injuries.
Eveline leapt off of my back and was twenty metres away from me by the time I looked up again, her stance one of readiness for combat again, her face a mask of concentration. I pushed myself off of the ground and brushed myself down, stretching my back and arms as I did, feeling nothing of the injury I’d had a moment ago; my nanocloud had already finished repairing it.
“Again,” Eveline barked, this time leaping into an immediate attack toward me, probably hoping to catch me off-guard.
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“How’s the arm?” Eveline asked me after we wrapped up our sparring session.
“Fine,” I told her, flexing my right forearm as the last of the injured muscle had finished healing. “Though that last strike of yours cut pretty deep.”
I felt embarrassment and contrition through our bond as she replied. “I got too carried away that last time,” she admitted, ducking her head and rubbing the back of her mane-covered neck. “You’re far better than you started out to be, and caught me being complacent. I guess I was too into it.”
“I still have a long way to go before I’m as good as you are right now,” I admitted.
“Still slouch like a sack of shit, though,” Eveline muttered, though I picked up a thread of amusement through our bond.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
We were heading back to our new headquarters to get ready for our first formal mission, and the anticipation was beginning to raise my anxiety levels. My nanocloud was smoothing them out, as it did with most of my emotions these days, ensuring I didn’t end up compromised by panic, grief, apathy or any other negative emotion that might otherwise cause a person to freeze or flee a situation that they needed to be decisive about..
I’d gotten used to my nanocloud intervening like this, ever since I’d woken up in the cryogenic capsule back in the south west of England months ago. That, along with the physical changes to my body such as an entire lifetime of rejuvenation, resulted in my transformation from an ageing cancer-stricken and overweight late fifties man into a man who had a 25-year-old’s body that surpassed the standard of peak physical fitness by many orders of magnitude. My mind and body were almost superhuman by comparison.
Everyone who had survived the Outbreak had developed similarly, though to varying degrees of improvement. Not everyone looked as young as twenty-five, although most did. Occasionally, I’d met people who looked as old as their forties. It lent credence to the idea that not everyone had a nanocloud as well-developed or as dense as my own. I also suspected that if my nanocloud was flushed completely from my body, I’d start to age again.
Not to the same degree as before I was introduced.
I hadn’t expected that interjection by my nanocloud into my thoughts, though I was only mildly surprised. My nanocloud had a tendency to volunteer information often.
Why not?
Your DNA has been modified since my introduction. The telomeres are now far longer and robust than before. Cell division is less likely to cause telomeric breakage, so the cells will divide in a healthier state for far longer.
A series of formulas passed into my brain at that moment, as my nanocloud provided me with the information needed to make an accurate guess as to my predicted lifespan with these changes, all contingent on the idea that I no longer possessed a nanocloud capable of carrying out cellular repairs continuously. It predicted a lifespan of over two hundred years from any point that nanocloud intervention ceased, with at least a hundred and fifty of those years in what might have previously been considered the prime years of a human’s life.
It would have been a vast improvement, and one that the nanocloud might have originally been designed to provide prior to the Outbreak. The cynical part of me couldn’t help but think that the use of such treatments in the pre-Outbreak world would have been made available only to the wealthy elite, and at an exorbitant price tag. The rest of us would have to make do with cheap knock-off versions that might only repair a small fraction of the genetic issues that DNA possessed in any given species, and even though the exact same mechanical processes the nanocloud employed could be used for every change facilitated in a given host, the capitalists of the world would make sure they profited off of it in ways that made every change a chargeable item.
It would have been pure profit for them.
No wonder others had tried to conduct industrial espionage. It was like a gold rush situation.
Suddenly, I received a nudge against my left shoulder, coupled with a shaft of irritation through my bond with Eveline. I glanced in her direction, and her expression was marred by a slight frown.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I was about to ask you that,” she said, her tone almost comically irritated. “You seem lost in thought over there.”
“A little,” I admitted. “I’m still unclear on how the world got to the way it is today. Just going over the changes in my head… Again.”
As there were other people around us, Eveline did not show any affection or empathy, but I could feel it anyway. She understood that while she grew up in the post-Outbreak world, she knew very little about the world before or during. The little she understood from those times was based on the memories that Dani had once shared with her.
“When we’re alone, we can talk about it?” Her tone was uncertain.
I smiled. “I love you,” I said softly.
She scoffed. “Oh, be quiet!” Her tone was almost waspish, but I caught a deep flush of her ears and a blazing warmth of appreciation and reciprocal love through our bond. “You’ll frighten all the birds away and I want to go hunting!”
I laughed gently. Eveline did love her morning hunts.
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While Eveline was out hunting, I visited Rosalie in our new HQ. She had already begun the process of gathering our supplies for the mission, including medical provisions and food supplies. A whole section of the entry-facing wall was stacked with crates of various supplies, and from what I could see, that included bottled water, canned vegetables and meal bars, all of which were superfluous in our nanocloud era, but nonetheless provided the raw material my own nanocloud could convert into the exact molecular compounds my body would need to function when I consumed them.
I examined each of the crates carefully, grabbing a new backpack that was a similar design to my old one, with quick-release straps that I could tug to drop the weight if I got into another fight, with attachments to clip it to a padded utility vest that I also spotted nearby. The backpack had compartments for clothing, foodstuffs, a bedroll, straps for any tent I could carry, and a special slot for the radio transmitter that Rosalie had given me when I visited her and my sister earlier this year. It also had a few compartments for spare tools and weapons, and a clip-slot for a pair of holsters where I could store combat knives.
Next to it was a smaller backpack, intended for more covert operations, with the same compartments for food and water, shelter and bedding, but without the utility vest attachments or the weapons storage. I suspected this was here so I could use it if I needed to get into another breeding facility, given that a backpack custom-designed for all of my weapons and various implements would give away the fact that I was now working for a well-organised and highly-equipped operation, something we needed to avoid for a while.
Just as the question entered my mind of whether I could take both of them along, my nanocloud gave me a visual indication in outline-form of where I could store a folded-up version of the stealth backpack underneath the better-equipped one, meaning I would be able to carry both with me at all times until I needed to go incognito. That answered the question for me quicker than I expected.
Quickly, I made some decisions about what I would take on my first official mission for the Cuisset Foundation, grabbing both backpacks, folding one up and attaching it to the other, and then grabbing food and water for a week on foot. I would need to resupply several times en route, but I’d intended to supply myself with food from the environment and keep the meal bars as an emergency source if I found myself in a barren desert or wasteland.
I decided against taking the combat blades that were provided here, as my own were more than adequate, and I had a little inspiration regarding them at that precise moment that I would discuss with my nanocloud after I finished here. However, I did grab a small utility knife and an army cooking set that would store more easily. Then I thought about the blades.
Is there any way I can have you supply nanites to modify my combat blades?
As I asked the question, I visualised the changes I wanted to make. The blades were fashioned so that they did maximum damage when plunged into something organic. The serrated edge at the back of the blade would shred anything it came into contact with when enough force was applied, and the sharp edges at the front could slice open skin with minimal pressure, but I wanted to strengthen the blades so that they would be unbreakable even when coming into contact with steel. This would make them utterly lethal, if much heavier. I also imagined an even sharper edge that wouldn’t need honing again, and wondered if this would even be possible.
What you have requested would require the following components:
20kgs solid steel (or equivalent-density material) per blade.
Conversion of approx 1 million nanites to fully carbon-nanotube and graphene components.
Nanite configuration size increase to 1 micron width for blade construction.
Nanite configuration addition of nano-forge.
Provision of specified nanites to blade maintenance following modification.
Power supply: Micro-solar collectors along the hilt and blades.
Power storage: Solid-state energy cell.
I was surprised by these requirements. My nanocloud anticipated my questions, however.
These requirements are explained as follows:
The steel or equally-dense material is needed so I can convert it into a properly-dense carbon nanotube lattice for the core of the blade, plus layers of graphene as a surface material. The blade will contain micro-channels for the nanites to operate when needed. The nanites themselves are needed for the initial blade construction, and will also be needed to maintain the blade’s abilities and integrity against wear-and-tear. The nano-forge is required to convert the steel into carbon nano tubing for macro-scale use, as opposed to micro-scale operations or internal re-calibration as is the case with you and my internal nano-machinery. The micro-solar collectors will gather energy from photovoltaic conversion of sunlight, while the solid-state energy-cell will store sufficient power to keep the nanites operational for extended periods of time.
As an alternative, power will be gathered from direct contact between you and the weapons themselves.
Interesting, I thought to myself. I wondered what other capabilities these blades would have?
The Graphene sheath is capable of channeling energy. This ability is bidirectional. You can use it to channel a burst of high-intensity energy to create an electro-magnetic pulse, you can use it to absorb energy from the environment in various ways, either as heat or electrical, and you can also heat the surface of the blade for various tasks if required.
A small internal compartment near the serrated edge of the blade can be used to store a small source of material that is readily-configurable for various purposes, including a readily-deployed toxic coating for the edges themselves when in combat.
Alright, so do I need to wait until the current upgrade task is completed?
Affirmative.
Understood.
That was that, I thought, nonetheless excited by the prospect of having such versatile weapons. I grabbed my gear and headed back outside.