The Colonel speaks through a speaker somewhere in the room. "We're going to open the containment vessel now Lieutenant, I want you to try to exit the box and approach the window." I watch as the doctor pushes a button on a large LCD panel embedded in the wall, and the box popped open with a hiss as all four panels fell to the ground. I try to visualize myself taking a step forward but as my foot touches the ground and my weight shifts, my entire body collapses back into a swirling black puddle. "Are you all right Lieutenant!?" Exclaims the Colonel, but I can't answer so I begin to reform the image of my body within my mind. "Imagine you were commanding an entire army to do one thing." The woman says as she whispers in my mind. "You must present the entire group of nanites with the task you want fulfilled, otherwise they will be disorganized and unstable."

I take her advice and once I'm standing upright once more, I mentally picture an entire army moving in the shape of a leg with every single soldier interlocked to support the weight of the army above. This time, instead of collapsing, when I take a step I can feel the nanites stretching under my weight but still holding strong.

After completing the first step, the next come easier, with the nanites seemingly registering exactly what I'm asking them to do and carrying out the command on their own. I continue to step downwards, and out of the box as In the direction of the viewing window until I'm standing only a couple feet away.

"All right Lieutenant, we're going to run a few tests and have you do some exercises." Spoke the Colonel. "Are you able to speak? You can nod yes or no if you can't." I shake my head no. "Okay then. How about you start by walking around the box in a circle as best you can." I comply and begin circling the box as a crawl, not being entirely confident in the nanites, until the Colonel tells me to stop and calls me back over to the window. "Next we're going to have you try to hold something." When the Colonel finishes speaking a small slot underneath the window opens and a small object the size of a tennis ball rolls out. "The goal is to hold it in your hands without the nanites consuming the ball." Said the Colonel.

I slowly bend over to try picking up the ball but my hand completely passes through it, frustrating me. I try a few more times with the same result until finally the woman offers some advice. "Remember, until the nanites fully synchronize with you, you'll have to be very specific about what you're wanting them to do. And don't worry about them trying to consume anything, I've disabled that feature until you have better control of them or you'd end up falling through the floor." She said, laughing.

I try again, this time visualizing my hand scooping up the ball from the floor and cradling it within my palm. The ball leaves the floor in my hand and I hold it up towards the window. "Good." Spoke the Colonel. "Now try walking a circle again but this time while holding the ball." I do as he says and repeat the motion without any issues and return to the window.

I hear the Colonel's voice through the intercom once more. "Go ahead and drop the ball and we'll move on the the next test." I do as he says and the doctor presses another button on his panel and the door to the room opens with a groan. The armed guards from before enter, keeping their weapons trained on me as I stand by the window. They carry a large slab of concrete into the room and place it against the wall before exiting as the door closes again behind them.

"For this next test we're going to test your strength. I want you to walk over to the slab and punch it as hard as you can. Don't worry about breaking anything as the walls are more than able to withstand anything you can do." I nod after the Colonel finishes and slowly walk over to the slab until I'm standing directly in front of it.

I visualize my hand forming a fist and I slam it into the slab as hard as I can, only for the nanites to splatter harmlessly against it and slide along the floor until they rejoin my main body. I think back to what the woman had said about being more specific with the nanites and begin to visualize every nanite in my arm condensing and joining together with solid bonds, leaving not even a molecule of air between them. I then begin telling my legs to brace against the ground and strengthen their bonds, and my feet spread out to twice their with to anchor me to the floor. I pull my fist back once more and slam it against the slab, but this time, the slab shatters into pieces of rubble. But, not stopping there, my fist travels through the slab before creating a three foot wide crater in the white wall behind it.

I turn back to face the window and all them men on the other side are slack jawed, staring at the damaged wall that could "withstand anything I could do". As the Colonel activates the intercom again he coughs slightly before speaking. "Very good Lieutenant, that's all for now. We'll be leaving to observe the testing of the other candidates but we'll have some entertainment and a bed brought in the mean time."

I nod in acceptance and the door opens again, and the armed men bring in an LCD pad and a small bed for me to lie on. They seem much more on edge this time, keeping their rifles trained on me and giving me a wide birth as they pass. "Good work for now Lieutenant. We'll see you again soon." The men behind the glass all leave the observation room, allowing me some time to myself to get used to this new body.

"Good work." The woman speaks, startling me. "You seem to be adapting to the nanites well, and they seem to like you as a leader." "What do you mean like me?" I asked confused. "The nanites might be simplistic machines by themselves." She explains. "But by joining together, they form a unified consciousness that results in an AI like me."

"So you're saying you like me." I say in a teasing manner. She laughs. "I only speak for the collective. But I will say they respect a confident leader, and the fact that you've taken the transition in strides has helped gain their confidence by leaps and bounds." I nod, accepting this explanation before asking another question. "So how to I get to the point where I can move my body around and perform actions without thinking?"

"Simply by practicing." She answers. "The more you practice certain movements, the better the nanites will interpret you thoughts. Think of it like learning a language. The more you associate certain words with actions, the faster you pick up on what that word actually means."

I nod, now understanding the process and rise to my feet. "I guess if they're going to leave me alone for a long period of time, I might as well practice." I say before beginning to walk in a circle and punching with every step.

As I walk the woman speaks again. "I think you'll be happy to know that Staff Sergeant Mindal successfully passed his interview last night, along with Sergeant Major Rathor. They should starting the transfer process shortly and be transferred to their own holding cells. I will guide them through the process as well until you all meet again."

I nod sharply before continuing my punch walking throughout the room.

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Nearly five hours later, I'd gotten a lot better at my punch walking, having mastered the punching part, I was now sprinting in a circle around the room. I felt amazing, as even after running for two hours, I couldn't feel even a hint of fatigue. I continued my sprinting until I heard the door to the observation room open again and I skidded to a halt, leaving black streaks on the floor.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Looks like you've been busy Lieutenant." The Colonel spoke as he re-entered the room with the doctor and guards in town. "You'll be happy to hear that Staff Sergeant Mindal and Sergeant Major Rathor both successfully transferred and passed their tests as well." I still couldn't speak, as I had only been practicing my movement, but I gave the Colonel a crisp "thumbs up" in response. He laughed before continuing. "Glad to see your fingers are working properly now. We're going to have you all transferred to a new common room so I'll need you to get a box again."

The door opens again and the guards place a large glass box, exactly like the one I had woken up in, on the floor. "I know you're moving around a lot better now but I'm going to have to ask you to step into the box again as a safety precaution. We don't want anyone getting hurt, even if it's an accident."

I nod before making my way inside the box, with the guards still keeping their rifles trained on me. When I'm finally inside, one of the guards closes the open panel, and the box seals with a hiss. They lift the box onto the same rolling dolly as before and push me though both doors, and into the hallway once more.

We travel down the hallway, passing countless doors in the process, until a few minutes later we arrive at another large, plasteel blast door embedded in a wall. The Colonel opens the door and leads the way. Inside the doorway is another observation room, with another large door attached to an airlock. The Colonel and doctor both stay in the observation room, while the guards wheel me inside of the airlock. The observation door closes with a click, and the airlock floods with some kind of white mist before it disappears and the opposite door opens.

The interior of the common room looked very similar to our previous lodging. There were three couches, arranged an a semicircular formation in the center of the room. The walls were clad in cozy wood paneling and the floor was covered in a soothing blue carpet, with each wall around the room displaying a clean, white door.

The guards wheeled me to the center of the room before entering the airlock once more. When the door closed, the doctor once again pressed a button and the box opened, setting me free again. "Make yourself comfortable and pick out a room" Said the Colonel. "You're free to do what you want but I wouldn't recommend sprinting in circles if you don't want to mess up the carpet." After he finished laughing, continued with "We'll be bringing Mindal and Rathor to join you soon so just sit tight until then." I nodded and the men exited, leaving me alone again.

I then decided that if Mindal and Rathor would be joining me, I would need to practice talking if I would want to hold an actual conversation with them so I began my training. I took a seat on one of the couches in the middle of the room and started focusing. First, I tried simply commanding the nanites to relay the words I was thinking, but after a few minutes I realized this wouldn't work and I would have to teach them how to make sounds from scratch.

The next couple of hours was mentally painful, having to command the nanites in my "throat" to vibrate like vocal chords to make even basic sounds. After a while, they gradually picked up what I was trying to teach them and I could think about making a noise and they would carry it out.

The hard part now would be forming those basic noises into words. I focused on the nanites in my "mouth" and showed them what I wanted them to do in my mind. Gradually the nanites pulled back from each other until they left a large, open cavity with a "tongue" resting within. I then tried forming a pair of lips, and after some effort, a pair of basic, black lips sat upon my featureless face.

I command my vocal chord nanites to create noise and then command my lip nanites to move. Slowly but surely I formed ugly noises and basic lips into a primitive "hello".

After another hour I able to form even more words, practicing words like "hello", "Yes", and "no, over and over again. After a short time later I was even able to say the phrase "I am Clark". Extremely happy with my success I continued my practice until I was eventually interrupted by the airlock door opening once more.

In walked ten armed guards, with five per containment box, and within those boxes were two tall, swirling black figures standing tall. I stepped back as the men brought the boxes to the center of the room and left, exiting through the airlock. The boxes let out a hiss, and the panels all dropped to the floor, releasing their contents.

The two figures within slowly stepped out before looking around the room, with their heads finally turning to me. I gave them both a short wave, while receiving simple nods in return. "All right, now that everyone's here let me be the first to congratulate you all on your successful transfers." I heard as the Colonel's voice blared out of the intercom. "I want you all to relax and get adjusted to your new bodies for the rest of the day, and tomorrow we'll start with a new batch of testing. We're going to focus more on combat testing going forwards, as the Federation wants to deploy you to hot zones as soon as possible." I say a simple "okay" and the Colonel seems surprised, but then smiles. "I can't leave you alone for a couple hours without you getting better can I? I'm sure by the time I check in tomorrow you'll be speaking in complete sentences! Nevertheless, don't over do it, make sure you get some rest tonight." Once the Colonel finishes I nod and they exit the observation room, leaving us to our own devices.

I beckon the two black figures in the room to sit down on the couch, as I take my own seat, and they slowly walk over before dropping onto the couch. "Hello guys" I say primitively but they only answer with a nod, not having figured out how to speak yet. I hear the woman speak in my head as she says "Let me try something to fix this real quick." and I feel a jolt of electricity in my head before the figure closest to me speaks. "Hello Clark." Says the figure closest to me and I whip around to face him. "Hello" says the other figure shortly after. I speak mentally at the woman and ask "What did you do?! I thought they hadn't figured out how to speak yet!"

"I simply transferred the control data from your nanites to theirs" She says. "Giving them the ability to speak, as well as increasing their movement fluidity." You can do that?! I ask in awe which she then answers. "There's a copy of me within each of you, albeit with small differences in my personality. I didn't know if it would work but it seems like I can transfer data between pilots at will."

After hearing this I realized this ability could be extremely useful. If each of us picked one ability to learn, she could sync up our data, allowing us to learn three times as fast! After thinking about this I turn to them and say "Practice own skill. We share." They both nod and we all start working on something different.

We practice throughout the night, with our new bodies requiring no sleep. I work on speech, getting progressively better the more I tweak the nanites. The figure closest to me get up and start running and doing summersaults, no doubt working on movement. And the last figure start flashing in bright colors, and I had no idea what exactly he was trying to accomplish, until pale, human skin appeared on his finger. The figure doing summersaults and I both noticed this and doubled down on our objectives, extremely excited for the potential as we practiced throughout the night.

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Every morning the Colonel woke up at 0500 and took his morning shower. "Nothing beats a shower at The Lab!" He would say before putting on his sharp, black uniform and heading to the cafeteria for his morning cup of coffee. As he exited his lodging, he walked down the pristine white hallways with a bounce in his step. The past day had been exciting! They hadn't expected to have one successful mind transfer let alone three. Yet there were now three successfully transferred soldiers waiting for testing in their lodgings. As he grabbed a mug from the cafeteria line and made his way to the coffee dispenser he thought about the past years of failure the Officer Project had experienced.

First, the digital piloting system had failed after the body was created which caused a massive amount of headache when he had to fill out more funding requests for the new mind transfer research. Then, after losing hundreds promising young soldiers, the Federation decided to limit him to only testing the transfer on permanently injured soldiers or deserters.

He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind as he finished his cup of coffee and dropped off the dirty mug at the dish washing station before happily heading down another hallway to reach the lodging for their newest successes. When he finally arrived at the door he pressed his wrist to the panel, and the door slid open, revealing an energetic Chief Scientist Menrik.

"Good, good, you're finally here." Said the doctor as the Colonel look toward him in confusion. "What do you mean I'm finally here? I'm got here right on time." The doctor just rolled his eyes and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards the observation window. He excitedly pointed at the glass before saying "Look, LOOK at them!" The Colonel followed the doctor's finger to what he was pointing at.

In the middle of the common room sat two normal looking humans arm wrestling over a smashed plasteel table with a third sitting on the couch observing.