I asked her “Why did you use your life essence? I am not sure what that is but it sounds like something that should not be used”

She said, “Yes, using it has severely weakened my already damaged body and as a result, I am at death’s door.”  Then with a deep scowl but eyes still pressed tightly closed she said “The ability to use life essence is a unique ability that I alone possess and I was abused and experimented on with the objective to try and duplicate my ability.  This ” 

She stopped for a second and made some sputtering sounds and started to cough which made me cringe a little.  She finished coughing then continued “I need your help to take care of my friends in the previous compartment.” 

I said, “Sorry to bust your bubble but I work in a bookstore, don’t have any decent sort of education and don’t have any remarkable skills or any idea as to what kind of help I can be.”

She said “It was not by chance that the place I traveled to was close to you.  It is not a coincidence that has brought me to you; it is what my people call Universal Guidance?”

I said “Universal Guidance eh? Well, that is all good and dandy but why me?” 

She gurgled and sputtered, and for a second she wasn’t moving.  I look on with trepidation knowing that there is nothing that I can do. Then, with a relief, she started moving again.  She then replied “That is not something I can answer but I trust it happened for a good reason.  Are you willing to help me?”

I pondered the question for a second thinking through a couple of scenarios in my head and when I made up my mind on the best course of action I said “Sure, I can try to help as much as I can.  I don’t know the whole story but from the looks of it was not a happy ending.  What should I do and how can I help your friends?” 

She said “Thank you for choosing to help.  I do not know what you can do or how you can do it but anything will be appreciated.  To give you some help for helping me, I will transfer my remaining essence into an object to assist you.  The only thing you have that I can transfer my essence into is that device on your wrist.” 

I looked down at my watch and shrugged.  “Sure, why not?” 

She said, “Can you place the object near me?” 

I took off the watch, bent down and placed it next to her. She then stretched out her thin metallic blue arm and touched the watch.  With a slight hum, energy started to travel from her to the watch.  While this exchange is happening, both her and the watch slowly get brighter and brighter with each passing second.

During this process, I thought “I hope the watch will still be able to control the robot afterward” Right before the process was complete I heard her say in a very soft, sad and pleading voice “Thank you!  Please take care of my friends” Then there was an even brighter flash of light on the watch and I attempted to shield my eyes from it to no success. 

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Once again I am blinded and it takes a little while for my vision to return to normal.  With a little anger and resignation, I thought “Fuck. What is it with this night and bright lights? I swear I will permanently lose my sight at some point”

I blinked a couple of times to try and clear away the brightness burned into my retina.  Once I can see clearly I looked down at where she was but now it seems she has completely vanished.

There is no trace of her at all, except the pool of drying blood.  I may not have known her very long but no matter who she was, a loss of life is something that is neither a pleasant nor wanted experience. I never even got her name and now she is nothing but an old memory.

I closed my eyes and bowed my head to give her a moment of silence at her departure. 

I walked over to the place where my watch was and was quite surprised to see that the watch I was looking at was not the same one I put down next to the metallic female. 

This watch (If I can still call it a watch) has a much bigger rectangular face that has a dark metallic blue color as opposed to the black matte original color.  There was a total of five buttons before but now there are no longer any on it at all.  “I wonder if I can still use it to control the robot now,” I said to no one in particular.

I picked it up and noticed it was super light.  The top is flat but the bottom of the watch is slightly curved and smooth.  I was unsure as to how to put it on because the band was gone. 

So I just cautiously put it on my left arm and without notice, there was a barely audible snap and a band shot out from both sides, met on the underside of my wrist and snapped together, like it was alive. 

At first, I was a little startled by a device performing this kind of action but I soon calmed down when nothing else happened. 

I touched the band to see what it felt like. It had a smooth and comfortable feel to it.  It felt like a mix between metal and leather.  I then tried to pull it off but it did not budge at all.  I rotated my arm in a couple of directions and waved my arms about to see if it would detach itself but it was firmly in place and looked as if it would take a lot more effort to get it off. Since it doesn’t hurt and is actually surprisingly comfortable I decided not to make a fuss about it and soon started to actually get excited to see what it was capable of.  If there is one thing I really like to do it is discover new things and figure out how they work.  I never saw anything like this before.

While I was in the process of examining it, it turned on by itself and immediately started showing the same weird symbols as the consoles.  The symbols were scrolling down on the display.  I tried to make out what the symbols were but I didn’t have any knowledge of them so I just looked on for a little while to see if there might be something I can recognize.  A couple of seconds go by and the symbols were still scrolling but other than that nothing else happened so I commenced looking around the space to see if there were anything of note.  When nothing was found I exited the space and headed back to the previous compartment. As soon as I entered the space the symbols on the watch began to swirl in a different more circular pattern.  I stared at my watch as this continued for about 5 minutes then the swirling stopped the symbols vanished and the watch showed a blank display.  Soon after, I heard a voice emanating from the watch that said “Analysis complete. Please input unit designation.”  I was in awe to see that my watch could actually speak.  It sounded just like the woman only even more robotic.  I hastily attempted to talk back to it by asking “Unit designation?  Are you talking about my name?” It said “Negative….Please input unit designation” So if it is not my name then it must be referring to itself.  I don’t know if it wants the woman name which I don’t know.  I guess I will make something up that seems appropriate.  I wonder. How am I supposed to input the designation without a keyboard? Maybe I should name you after the woman that made you, though I don’t know her name.  I thought on it a little more. Then I shrugged and said “Ari” I waited for a little bit but nothing happened.  Then I said “Unit designation is Ari”

A couple of seconds pass and then it responded “Unit designation Ari accepted.…Processing….Complete.”

I thought how weird that it seems like a computer but not at the same time.  I asked, “What are you?” Ari said “Unknown.  I do not have a firm understanding as to what I am but in order to acquire knowledge for my database I synched up with the Nanobots in your head and learned everything you know.  I am unaware as to what kind programming I am comprised of.” Oh great!  This just keeps gets better and better.