Flesh, Code, and Choices
Jackie's eyelids fluttered open. The neon chaos of the VR arena had vanished, replaced by the sterile white glow of the recovery chamber. Her right arm—still in cannon form—was bent unnaturally, the cyborg hand turned and fully gripping her metallic shoulder, the fingers extended down and spread out like a fan. The finger tips had inserted themselves into ports along her chest. At the end, where her elbow would be was a blue cannon. The normal silver glow of her cybernetics pulsed red and weakly, signaling strain, anomalies, and more importantly… evolution.
A soft whisper echoed in her skull, the same voice she had heard during the fight.
"Ocular system… recalibrating. Neural integration… stabilizing. Evolution continues…"
Her heart skipped. This time, she knew it wasn't her imagination. She could hear it. Her cybernetic system had a voice now, faint but undeniably there. The whispers were layered beneath the cold, mechanical commands of the Nexus Directive, yet somehow independent, alive.
"Subject alert," Nexus intoned, flat and impersonal. "All systems remain critical. Recommended rest period: 120 minutes."
Jackie tried to shift, groaning as the pain stabbed through her muscles and her mind. Every movement reminded her that she had survived something extraordinary, something unsanctioned.
Patrick's voice cut in, warm but tense: "Jackie! You did not finish the SIM as well as we had hoped But… I saw potential there. You… you have something the others don't."
Gregor's tone followed, cold and cutting: "No. We tried your way, Patrick. She's unreliable. I've assigned her to the inner city patrols. She needs to be pressed into showing what she can do. The lab and training simulations aren't enough."
Jackie's pulse raced. Her human heart and her mechanical enhancements both hammered in defiance. She could feel the weight of their judgment pressing into her skull. Pressed into showing what I can do? Fine. I'll give them what they want.
Her system whispered again, almost conversationally:
"Assessment: untrained combat data incomplete. Recommendation: override limited system commands to stabilize neural response. Warning: potential pain spike in ocular implant."
Jackie's cybernetic pupil expanded then contracted involuntarily, a faint silver glow pulsing beneath mechanical iris. She gritted her teeth. "Override, then. Let's see what this can do."
The pain surged into her mind like a dense flood. Her ocular implant whirled and seemed to drill into her head and her mind began to trace it, the flow of data as her ocular cybernetics absorbed, then recalibrate, and finally became something that registered new to her mental senses.
She was suddenly in awe. 'Are my mental capabilities changing as well? Is all of this truly possible?"
As if to answer her system whispered. "mental capacity increasing. Mental system mapping fully engaged. Cybernetic system check evolving in tandem with ocular cybernetics. New system created. New mental ocular enhancement detected."
Before she could react or fully understand the chamber door hissed open, and two figures stepped inside the barren recovery room. Patrick's face was taut, lines of concern etched into his features. Gregor followed, shoulders stiff, his eyes cold and calculating. They both paused, taking in her condition.
"Jackie," Patrick said softly, kneeling to examine her, "you survived the sim. That was… remarkable. But you can't keep pushing yourself like this. Your body—and your mind—aren't ready."
Gregor's scowl cut through the reassurance. "Ready? She's not ready for anything. That's why she's going into the inner city. Real combat. Real consequences. Maybe then she'll learn."
Jackie's chest tightened. The words ignited a spark of rebellion deep in her chest, a fuse she wasn't sure she could control. "Consequences," she whispered to herself, voice low. "Fine. I'll show you."
Her system stirred again, sending tiny pulses through her neural interface. The whispers grew more insistent, merging ocular tracking with weapon calibration. She mentally could see new connections forming, circuits lighting in ways she couldn't name. It was like she had a third eye or new sense.
"Observation detected. Two data nodes active. One: Nexus Directive. Two: Unknown. Tracking trajectory and signal integrity. Recommendation: monitor, do not engage."
Jackie froze. Unknown? Her pulse quickened. Someone is watching me… She couldn't see the source yet, but her system flagged it, faint red traces pulsing in the corner of her vision.
Gregor's voice snapped her out of the thought: "Stop spacing out, Jackie. Listen to me. You follow the Directive, or you fail. Are we clear?"
She nodded stiffly, masking the surge of curiosity and fear racing through her being. Her system pulsed against her neural interface, almost teasingly:
"Curiosity noted. Unknown observer data: incomplete. Suggest internal review upon system stabilization."
Patrick sighed. "Gregor, she's unique. You can't just throw her into danger and call it training. There's… potential here we don't understand yet."
Gregor's lips pressed into a thin line. "Potential is irrelevant if she dies. Period."
Jackie's jaw clenched. Between the two of them, she felt the full weight of expectation, authority, and impending danger. Her system whispered again:
"Warning: neural and ocular strain levels exceeding recommended maximum. Evolutionary adaptation in progress. Monitoring critical pathways."
She took a deep cleansing breath and willed her cannon to change back into her arm. She frowned a bit as her mind stuttered with all the pathway information that flooded into it. Her fingers pulled from the ports and her thumb released its hold. Her hand turned at the wrist three hundred and sixty degrees, then the forearm began to lower and, at the same time, the cannon retracted back into the upper arm. Finally the elbow joint clicked into place over the retracted cannon. She flexed her robotic fingers and ignored the throb at her left temple.
Patrick stepped closer, his hand hovering over the control panel at her side. He looked at the data with curiosity. Jackie felt her nerves rise a she felt she was about to be caught. "Your systems are unique Jackie. Nexus Directives already knows this I assure you. Your recovery and learning speeds are unprecedented and your ocular ability astounds me."
The chamber door slid open again, and a hover-litter arrived, designated to transport her to the inner city. The vehicle hovered silently, two black cyborg waiting patiently for their passenger. Patrick shot her a concerned glance. "Jackie, think about what you're about to do. These streets aren't simulations. You could die out there."
Gregor's voice followed sharply: "She has no choice Patrick. This is about survival. You have seen her in SIM. What happens when she is challenged for real and she spaces out? What will you say when this unique Blue Diamond is even less than those Black cyborgs over there?"
Jackie exhaled, the red lights in her cybernetics pulsing brighter. Gregor was right. She had to get better. She had no choice. Besides this was not about her. As soon as she died her family would instantly lose their new status. Yes they would receive a bit of money but they would have to move back to the inner portions of Naya Kasol. She gritted her teeth and rose.
Her system whispered one last note before paused:
"All systems functional… anomaly detected. Observational nodes active. Tracking unknown entity…"
Her pulse jumped. Someone—something—was watching her. And now, she was about to step into real danger.
The hover-litter quickly moved through the unique transportation halls of Naya Kasol's main government building, leaving the white glow of the recovery chamber behind.
The litter exited the massive building onto a private road that circled around to the front. Neon reflections from the city below shimmered across her visor as she surveyed her surroundings: the I conceivably tall buildings rising above her and descending just as deep. Naya Kasol was a major city in the Himalayas, one of the last of two landmass left on the surface of the earth.
They buildings, these streets, and these vehicles were pristine and and dar cry from what she was about to see in the inner city.
Her body ached as the two Black cyborgs pulled the hover-litter forward effortlessly. Unlike for her, with her blue alloy, most cyborgs were not easily identified. Most cyborgs were monochrome silver. From what she understood she had been as well. Her family told her while she recovered the blue alloy just seemed to come into being.
The Black Cyborgs before here were shiny silver, probably because they worked in the main government building. The Black Cyborgs she had grown up seeing were far different. They were always dirty and smelled bad. Often times their human portions were not cared for well and they always did the dirtiest jobs.
She dragged her eyes from the cyborgs before her and focused on the litter, it was the first time she had been in one. It was pretty lavish with its soft, plush interior and it sleek outer design. The litters hovered like all other transportation in the year 2635 but hover litters were no longer self guiding and needed cyborgs to guide them.
Jackie flexed her right cybernetic arm experimentally, as if she were unsure if it was truly functioning properly.
"Unknown observer: code name detected. Suggestive of resistance or rogue unit. Data integrity maintained. Recommendation: maintain awareness."
Jackie's pulse raced. Her ha d frozen in mid flex. Resistance? Rogue unit? She didn't understand the significance yet—but she felt it in the pit of her stomach. Something beyond Nexus was watching.
The hover-litter entered the tunnel into the inner city and, once on the other side, quickly descended into a narrow alley, and the city's chaos swallowed her. Children darted between stalls, vendors shouted over the hum of hovering trucks, and neon signs flickered in fractured English and old-world Mandarin. The smells of recycled water, metallic sweat, and ozone mingled with the distant tang of cooked algae.
One of the Black Cyborgs looked at her, its eyes blank and distant, it's voice rough and gravely. "Call when are ready to return. You are scheduled to remain for eight hours."
She nodded at him absent-mindedly as they disappeared into the crowd around her and she took in her surroundings.
She walked deeper into the congested alley. The people pressed against each other and the multitude of smells caused her head to swim. Maybe Patrick was right. She wasn't ready for this.
Her systems beeped lightly and began whispering beneath the mechanical hum. "Critical evaluation: potential survival outcomes mapped. Trajectory optimization available. Tactical advantage: unknown observer integration incomplete."
Jackie exhaled, letting her body relax slightly despite the tension. The evolution was painful, yes, but exhilarating. She could feel it—the merging of her ocular systems with her weapon systems, the subtle merging of instincts and calculations that no human, no standard cyborg, should possess.
Somewhere in the depths of her mind, her system added a quiet note:
"Unique. No other cyborg displays spontaneous evolution. Recommendation: monitor for further anomaly development."
Jackie smirked faintly, her teeth catching the red light from her system's critical glow. "Well," she whispered to herself, "let's see what I can really do."
Jackie's heart thrummed in synchrony with her cybernetics. Her system pulsed lightly, sensing heat, motion, and traces of the unknown observer somewhere above, somewhere close.
The first real test was about to begin.
And she was ready—or at least, she would have to be.