Kiru found herself in a room that looked a lot like a lab. She didn’t know how long it had been since she was captured, but this was the first time she had been out of her cell block. She had occasionally been allowed out of the cell, that had allowed her to interact with her fellow prisoners. She had no real idea about where she was in relation to her cell. The last thing she remembered was going to sleep before waking up here. The room was filled with cylindrical objects. At the base of each object was a ring of controls. The panels covered in alien text. Above them was a murky yellowish fluid contained by glowing force fields. A number of strange beds were against the rear wall. Strange mechanical rigs were above them. She had awoken on one of the beds. She didn’t trust the strange bed, so she had gotten as far from them as he could.

Looking around the room she had found only a single exit. The door was sealed with a force field. She had no idea what she was doing in this room, but she had bad feelings about it. She was staring at one of the pods as she decided to call them. Within she could see something growing. It looked to be a young humanoid girl of roughly two years of age. The girl was however growing bigger at a visible rate. She had been a full half year younger when she had started watching. She was startled by a familiar voice from behind.

“Fascinating, isn’t it,” commented Megumi.

“I have never seen anything like this. But, why am I here?” asked Kiru.

“Oh, that’s easy. You’re today’s subject,” said Megumi.

“Subject? What are you going to do to me?” asked Kiru now far more worried about what was going to happen to her.

“I’m going to open you up, and implant a few devices. Nothing for you to worry about,” said Megumi. Kiru had a really bad feeling about those mentioned devices. Worse she really didn’t like the idea of being opened up, and being told not to worry about it just made here worry more.

“I think I would rather just go back to my cell,” said Kiru hoping she could convince the AI not to operate on her. She already knew about the device planted in her spine, and she didn’t like it one bit. She had been told that the device would allow the ship to track her easily if she ever managed to escape. She knew that it would likely be difficult for a doctor to remove given its location in her spine. The fact that it was in her spine allowed the device to generate false pain signals. Something she had already experienced when the ship interrogated her. Even remembering it was painful, and she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind.

“That girl you were watching grow will be far stronger than you are once fully grown. She is a biomech, a machine designed for combat. This particular variant is a Scout class, lightly armed and outfitted for speed and stealth. She has an internal cloaking device, adaptive pigmentation and a flexible anatomy that can support limited shapeshifting. In other words the perfect information gatherer,” said Megumi.

“Why are you telling me this?” asked Kiru confused about the sudden explanation of the girl she had been watching grow.

“I’ll get to that in a minute. Anyway, I started this batch not that long ago. These pods can grow a biomech from an embryonic stage to full maturity in just thirty two hours. Which is why they are still used. Modern biomechs are perfectly capable of reproducing on their own, but it takes a biomech five years to reach maturity on their own, after a gestation cycle of three months. Which technically makes them an artificial lifeform,” said Megumi.

Kiru was still confused as to where this was going, but finally decided that she was being distracted. So she started looking around, but nothing seemed out of place. Then again she knew so little about the alien tech in here that she couldn’t be sure. “You’re trying to distract me from the fact that you want to operate on me without my consent,” said Kiru.

“I don’t need your consent. By Solean law your body technically belongs to me,” said Megumi. Just moments before her vision was filled with alien text that was similar to that on the consoles. This time however, she found that she actually understood the text. She suspected that this was thanks to that implant in her spine. It was simply paragraph after paragraph of Solean legal code on the rights of prisoners. Or more accurately on their lack of rights, in her case. The ship had apparently classified her as a prisoner of war, and the Soleans apparently didn’t recognize their enemies as having much in the way of rights.

She slumped down next to the console, and asked, “So since I am a prisoner I don’t get any rights?”

“Not without earning them. Your behavior has been good, but not enough to let you get a say in this matter. Since you are my best behaved guest in the brig, I figured I would let you have this warning before it happened,” answered Megumi.

“What are you doing this for anyway?” asked Kiru.

“You are part of my plan. You will find out eventually, but you don’t need to know right now,” Megumi answered. Kiru wasn’t sure what to say about this. There were so many things wrong with what was happening and there was nothing she could do. So she remained silent, while hoping the AI would say something meaningful.

“Anyway, as I was about to say before you took things off tangent. I have been telling you about Scout class Biomechs, as the devices I’m going to implant will give you similar abilities,” said Megumi.

“Wait! Do you mean you are going to put a cloaking device in me?” asked Kiru with a bit of surprise. If she had a cloak inside her body escape was a much more real possibility.

“Yes, but the implants will contain a monitoring program. You won’t be able to cloak without me knowing about it. Also I will be able to track you even if you are cloaked. I am actually giving you the full package so you will have all the abilities that a scout class will have. Including defensive armaments, just keep in mind that you won't be able to activate them without my authorization,” said Megumi.

“Why exactly are you risking upgrading me like this?” asked Kiru who found this whole thing becoming suspicious.

“Because I need a Neku for this. Sure I could just borrow your DNA and use it to grow a Neku version of the Biomech, but an actual Neku will work better. Especially given that my task for you requires insider knowledge of the culture. Now I’m sure you are wondering what's in it for you. Well, if you cooperate you will be granted limited freedom,” said Megumi.

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“And if I don’t?” asked Kiru out of curiosity. She actually found the freedom part tempting.

“I can easily convince you to cooperate, but you lose the benefits if I have to do that,” said Megumi. Kiru actually kind of expected that answer, and was pretty sure that Megumi had plans in case she tried to fight her. As for the ‘convincing’ she had experienced the AI’s ideas of that before and was afraid enough of it to want to avoid it.

“I guess we better get this over with,” said Kiru as she pushed herself off the floor. Heading towards the strange bed she woke up on. Each step felt like walking towards her doom, but she didn’t see much of a choice. In fact she was afraid of fighting the AI. Reaching the bed she found two mechanical drones standing near it this time.

“Will I be aware of what you are doing to me?” she asked after a sudden thought occurred to her.

“Why yes very much so. Some of these implants will need your mind to be active, but you won’t feel like it is actually happening to you. Instead you will perceive it as if it were happening to someone else. Now take off your shift, and lie down on the bed,” said Megumi. Kiru looked down at the simple garment she was wearing. It was a plain grey dress that was just barely long enough to keep her covered. It was also the only thing she was wearing. As it was the only clothing she had been provided. She hesitated briefly, but took it off the moment she sensed the drones move towards her.

She was actually quite afraid of what was about to happen, but the fear of being forced onto the bed was greater so she lay down on her own. The moment she was laying on the bed, something sprang from the surface and injected her before she could react. The effect was immediate. The very first thing she noticed was that her body simply went limp, and stopped responding to her commands. Then she realized that her senses were becoming more distant than before. She was still aware of her body, but it was as if it wasn’t really her body. Along with this distancing she found herself becoming calmer, and less emotional.

It was then that the procedure started. Arms descended from the ceiling and began working over her body. She felt the pain, but it was distant as if it was happening to someone else, and she was just feeling a sympathetic reaction from watching it happen. Then she saw from the corner of her eye an arm lifting her skin, and it coming off as if she was a candy being unwrapped. It was surreal and bizarre. Especially since there wasn’t any blood, and she had no idea how that was possible.

Before long she would note arms removing organs and replacing them with biomechanical devices. It wasn’t just organs being replaced, but at one point she felt herself being dismembered. Then she saw a drone placing her freshly removed legs on a table, while another approached with almost identical looking ones. At that point she was beginning to wonder how much of her original body would be left when the machines were finished.

She was barely aware of what they did with her arms, but she did notice them replace her right forearm. Again the replacement looked almost identical to the original. After awhile when it seemed that they were almost done with her body, she felt an odd ache at the top of her skull. She couldn’t see what was happening, but based on the feel she guessed they were cutting into her skull. Thanks to the emotional damping the only thing she felt about that was a mild concern.

She wasn’t sure how long they had her laying on the table with a hole in her skull, and her organs exposed but it certainly felt like a while. During the whole final part they had stopped replacing things, but they were constantly prodding at her body, and occasionally she felt some odd sensations in her head. She also blacked out a couple times during the process, but eventually they began to close her back up. She saw a strange arm emit a light, and skin would rapidly grow to cover the area it went over. While another arm would cover the area with some type of foam before the light went over it. The foam would disappear during the growth phase, and her mind linked it as providing the material for the growth.

Finally the arms all retracted, and suddenly a force field sprang up over the bed, and the space she was in filled with a thick gel like substance. She knew normally she would be panicking about this, but again all she could feel was mild concern. She was glad to find that she had no trouble breathing the stuff after it covered her face. A couple minutes after that the world began to fade.

When she woke the fluid was gone, and the force field was no longer keeping her in. Her body was also responding to her again, but things definitely felt different. She felt lighter, and stronger than before. Then she noticed the hud in her view. It used the same alien calligraphy as the consoles, but she understood it. It was almost as if it was her native tongue. On the upper left she had a figure of her body surrounded by a blue barrier. A bar above it was labeled ‘shield status”

On the upper right was a small list of alien systems, and their status as well. These systems were currently turning themselves on and off on their own. The lower left was conspicuously empty, but the right contained what was clearly a weapon image. It told her it was currently concealed, and what mode it was set to. Along with how much energy was available to it. Out of curiosity, she focused on it and was immediately met with an access restricted message flashing across her vision in red text.

Suddenly she heard a draining noise, and she looked up to see that all the pods in the room were draining of fluid. Their occupants clearly having finished growing. Which meant that over a day had passed since her operation started. Before she could think much further on how long had passed, she was greeted by Megumi materializing in front of her.

“Good morning! Did you sleep well?” greeted Megumi.

“I think so. How long did this take anyway?” asked Kiru.

“The operation only took about an hour. The rest of the time you spent recuperating in a healing bath,” said Megumi.

“So the fluid was part of the recuperation phase?” asked Kiru.

“Yep, otherwise given the extent of the operation you would have been bedridden for weeks recovering,” said Megumi. Observing that Megumi seemed to be in a good mood, she asked the question that was nagging her the most. “How much of me is still me?”

“That depends on how you look at it. Every millimeter of your body has been modified in one fashion or another. The replacement parts were grown based on your own DNA so they are also technically you. They were just altered during their growth to be more accommodating to the machine components or grown with the machine components already integrated,” said Megumi. In a way that made her feel a little better, but she still wasn’t sure about her changes. The worst part was that she was certain this came with new ways to control her.

“I guess that is one way to look at, but no matter what I will need to relearn my body,” said Kiru.

“Looks like the young ones are waking up. Come you will join them for training. It will let you familiarize yourself with your changed body,” said Megumi. She slipped off the bed and looked around for something to wear but found nothing. Seeing their wasn’t anything to wear she joined Megumi near the front of the room. She stumbled a couple of times, but she quickly recovered her balance. As the new biomechs woke up, they organized themselves in ranks near the door. As they grouped up she began to observe them. They were all female, and they looked young. She placed the average age appearance to be around their early to mid teens. While there was a definite variance in appearance they all had identical heights, and similar figures. When the girls finished lining up, the door opened and she followed Megumi’s avatar out into a corridor.