Awakening Protocol
Jackie's eyelids fluttered against the sterile brightness of the chamber. The world was a blur of white and chrome, cold and humming with unseen machinery. She felt suspended, head tilted slightly down, weight distributed across some unseen support. A thin piece of reinforced metal cradled her form, and the hum within her head reminded her she was no longer wholly human.
Her cybernetic arm hung to the right side of her. Her system hummed softly in her skull. The system had awakened fully now, overlaying her vision with the first real glimpses of her own capabilities. Tiny silver tracers danced across her perception, mapping energy, motion, and even heat signatures from people within her vicinity.
It was so much information yet it seemed to process with ease, certainty, and clarity.
"Neural pathways stabilizing… weapon system-ocular integration complete… evolution protocol active," her system whispered.
Jackie ached all over. Her throat was dry and her lips felt cracked. She seemed to feel every inch of her body: skin, flesh, blood, bone, metal plating, nanites, flowing lubrications, and connectors.
Suddenly humanity and cybernetics were one for her.
A series of soft clicks drew her attention to the lower right corner of her vision. A faint holographic prompt shimmered there, almost imperceptible beneath the hum of her sysrem and the ever-present overlay of Nexus monitoring:
Would you like to open your status window? Y/N
Her pulse kicked. She didn't know whether to feel curiosity or apprehension. The option hovered silently, a digital heartbeat just beyond conscious reach. She reached for it with her mind, hesitant, and then stopped. Something primal told her to wait, to let the system settle fully before she interacted.
Gregor's voice burst into the chamber, cutting through the quiet:
"This is ridiculous. No matter what you are, you're still a cyborg! Listen to directions, Jackie!"
Before she could react, another voice joined, calm yet urgent:
"Jackie, you've been transferred to the new hydraulic lab." Patrick insisted—"it's the only place you'll be able to work under controlled conditions with the upgrades you've undergone."
They knew! Of course they knew. But how much did they really know? They could see her weapon, could they see how it interfaced with her ocular implant? Could they see how her mental processes had changed?
Her eyes flicked between the two men.
No. Just like her system operated outside Nexus Directive's awareness it could had whatever it liked fro, whoever. If Patrick had known the extent of her changes he would be far more excited and Gregor would be far more adamadamant.
She allowed her body to settle onto the elevated table and looked at the data streams. Information on her arm being repaired, she narrowed her eyes when she saw nanobots close to operational.
She had heard od cyborg elites with nanotechnology but that was extremely expensive. Had someone upgraded… the thought crashed to a halt in her mind. What was the extent of all this? How much could she evolve and upgrade o. Her own? Had she been lied to her entire life?
Her system pulsed again, softly teasing at the unresolved status prompt.
"Status window: still available. System overview ready for review. Recommendation: wait until full neural stabilization."
Jackie closed her eyes briefly, forcing herself to calm the storm of adrenaline and pain. As she did so she saw a small prompt in the lower left corner of her vision.
Observational data unprocessed. Would you loke to process now Y/N?
She casually allowed yes to flutter through her mind.
Instantly information streamed through her mind: The alley fight, the explosions, the thugs—all of it replayed as fragments in her memory. Even piles of data readings. She could feel her ocular implant flickering faintly with residual energy readings. Then there were the two entities, her system continually reminded her: one always watching, one unknown.
"Kieran… still tracking. Nexus Directive… still monitoring. Neural pathways intact. Combat logs saved."
Her jaw tightened. Even unconscious, her body had been recording, analyzing, evolving. She opened her eyes fully, focusing on her restored arm. Tiny whirrs, minuscule clicks, and the faint glow of her integrated circuits reassured her.
Her system quietly murmured. "Unique evolution detected."
Jackie's vision shifted as the chamber's ambient light reflected off robotic repair arms diligently repairing her. Each one moved with precision, repairing micro-abrasions in her armor, tightening screws, aligning nano-fiber overlays. The smell of heated metal and faint ozone filled the air. Every repaired surface, every pulse of her arm and ocular implants whispered the same message: she was no longer the same cyborg who had fought in the alley.
Gregor stomped closer, voice harsh, cutting across the chamber's hum:
"For now you will be in the lab but don't get lazy because you will eventually return to the military."
Jackie's clenched her left hand, feeling the subtle thrum of energy coursing through her body. She was oddly both strong and weak. Prepared and yet so inexperienced. It was all so laughable.
Her system responded in kind, a calm, internal counterpoint to the directive's external reprimand.
"Neural feedback: stable. Weapon systems dormant. Suggest monitoring external commands only."
Patrick stepped beside her, placing a hand briefly on her shoulder. Unlike Gregor, he did not speak loudly. Instead, he outlined the transfer to the hydraulic lab, describing the equipment, the protocols, the tasks she would perform, and the controlled tests of her evolving systems. Every word carried weight, reassurance, and a challenge: she was to test herself, push limits, but within boundaries that would not destroy her.
Jackie inhaled slowly, feeling the fusion of human intuition and her system's computational whispers. The prompt remained faint in the corner of her vision: Would you like to open your status window?
She stared at it, fingers flexing mechanically, considering the unknown data that lay behind the holographic veil. She did not reach out— not yet.
Instead, she let the chamber do its work. Robot arms repaired, her system calmed, BDJ pulsed and analyzed, and the lingering echo of the alley fight replayed, a, new real world, training simulation embedded in her neural pathways.
Unknown to both her and BDJ: Somewhere deep in the chamber's processing core, the Nexus Directive's voice noted anomalies. Jackie's body and BDJ were evolving beyond standard parameters. Predictive models flagged her as a high-risk subject, potentially uncontrollable, and yet… viable.
She exhaled, letting herself relax for the first time in hours.
"I'll open it," she whispered to herself, almost as a promise, almost as a challenge. But not yet. She would wait until she could truly comprehend what the system had become.
For now, she flexed her fingers again, testing the synergy between human and machine, arm and mind, awareness and instinct. Each motion hummed with power, potential, and a faint pulse of danger. And each motion showed her how much stronger she would be.
Patrick clapped once sharply, looking at the robot arms completing their work, and breaking her reverie:
"Alright, Jackie. Let's get you to the hydraulic lab. You'll see what your upgrades are capable of… and maybe learn to survive without nearly frying all your systems."
Gregor groaned.
"What you did in the alley…" He shook his head and left his thought unsaid.
Jackie rolled her eyes, but there was a small, almost imperceptible smirk on her face. She was no longer just surviving. She was learning. She was evolving. And the status window—the one small corner of unknown that BDJ teased her with—would wait a little longer.
Because when it opened, it would show her what no one else had yet seen: a cyborg unbound, awake, and ready.