"It’s a good thing he is among my friends,” Alex thought, looking at the handsome, well-muscled body of the cyber animal. The Wolf’s hair was now light-grey with black scorch marks. As they were silently descending, Alex remarked a good quality of the indoor air. The bending wide stairway went deep downwards. The walls radiated soft greenish light. Alex was familiar with facilities of that kind. As a rule, such bases were well equipped so that one could stay there for years without the need to come up to the surface.
Soon their descent was over, and they found themselves in a tiny hall. A few heavy doors led to corridors of different blocks, each featuring a specific pictogram in accordance with the room purpose. The facility was perfectly clean.
For the first time Alex felt safe. But she was overwhelmed with fatigue. The wound began to sting with an unpleasant dull pain.
Having come a bit ahead, Abel turned sharp round and set down beside her. Then he looked her closely in the eye. Alex guessed that he was scanning her biological state.
"It’s the logical thing to do now," remarked Abel prudently in a soft low voice. And his honey-yellow eyes again stared at her face. “Go to the medical module, where you’ll get your wound properly mended. By the way, don’t forget to thank the doctor. She can do unique operations. When you are done there, pick up a uniform and a complete set at the warehouse. Then we’ll meet in the bunk room, where you’ll get something to eat, I will tell you our story and listen to yours. Then we’ll outline a logical course of your actions,” he said, wiggling his ears. All along, the Wolf was blatantly gazing at her right in the face. But strangely enough, the girl was not annoyed at that. “And while you are busy doing all this stuff, I will go and get my hair decontaminated and cleaned,” with these words he came up to the door with a pictogram, again made an elusive gesture with his face, and then the door noiselessly creped aside. The Wolf unhurriedly walked away down the hallway.
Alex headed to the medical block. Not to waste her time, she started unclasping her suit on the way. Before medical examination she had to undergo decontamination and cleaning procedure.
The hallway ended up by hinged doors. She found at once all the things required: shower, warehouse, arsenal, equipment. Having taken a shower and popped her shirt and underwear into a utilizer, Alex decided to leave her suit and boots at the warehouse in case she would need them again. She put her pistol and holster on an empty table next to the exit, threw a bathrobe on shoulders and went to the room with a pictogram indicating a medical station. Upon entering the room she underwent one more decontamination procedure. Now she was prepared to see the doctor.
“Hello! Please come in,” said an agreeable female voice. “I see you are injured in the stomach area. It was a good idea to use a nano-gel. Lie down on the surgical table with your back down and hands over the body. Breathe smoothly. I will do an examination. Close your eyes.”
Alex nodded politely in response and, as directed by the doctor, stretched herself on the surgical table. Biological scanner rays were slowly crawling along her body. The doctor’s AI could operate all equipment in the room by shifting to any appliance. In fact, AI was part of the base’s command processor.
Alex felt the touch of arm manipulators and realized that the doctor started her job.
“Something serious?” she asked.
“Not at all, officer,” replied the doctor in a soft voice. “Only you’ll have to endure a slight discomfort for a couple of days. No meds are required. I’ll make all necessary injections.”
“I see you still use your biological body. I should notice that it’s in good shape,” the doctor tried to distract Alex from unpleasant feelings, “There were times when the scientists in our base, all of whom were advanced researches and gifted individuals, used to design and develop artificial bodies on their own and to successfully rewrite anyone’s conscience wishing to change their body for a mechanical or biomechanical one. Oh! What awesome bodies our guys produced! Just take Abel or Arwid for example.”
“Arwid?” Alex asked.
“Oh yes. Translated from an ancient language this word means “eagle on a tree”. He is a most interesting person yet a bit short-spoken. You are sure to like him.”
“What happened to the people?” Alex asked.
“Aren’t you aware of that?” the doctor inquired in surprise. The Coalition had spread a nano-virus. We were not prepared for that. It began to quickly infect physical bodies and brains of our natural biological organisms. Of course, bodies affected were instantly becoming unfit for use. Fortunately, we managed to rewrite ourselves into the main processor. I hate to remember those bad days.
Nevertheless, we managed to preserve our staff, although in a slightly different form. At least now we can unite into a single controlling component. This is a unique case, as you can see. However it came as a shock for me to have to abandon my physical body to wake up inside a machine. Can you imagine that? You see through monitors your biological body being disposed while you are still alive! And what is even more complicated is that you have your mind transferred from your natural body into an artificial one or the processor. Feels like your brains are being scrubbed with a brush.
Also we had difficulties adapting to the new living conditions. Just imagine, you still have all human qualities being deprived of your physical body. While something was lost forever, new qualities were acquired, and the perception of the world itself was altered. For instance, the whole visual and auditory wave range remains available. One has only to limit perception so as to perceive the world as a human being living in a unique biological body.
The human mind potential multiplied several fold, coupled with the factor of immortality. When faced for the first time, it is a shock. But then, you simply change your body as clothes. It doesn’t take long to get used to a different capacity. Moreover, I now consider the natural biological body to be highly fragile. By all means, this situation has an advantage – we’ve survived. And do you know what we’ve come to realize?
No matter where a Piece of Mind abides: be it an innate biological body or artificial one. Everything depends not only on the number of neural impulses but also on the DNA genetic memory. The biological body has more capacity for self-regulation thanks to the Creator’s vast experience.
By the way, the cyber body biosensors allow for a deeper perception of the world. For example, the range of my visual and audible perception stretches far beyond human capabilities. What also changes is the thinking pattern. The unique human brain is more adapted to the conventional three-dimension perception of the world. Far more is available to me now. And you know how this affects one’s outlook on life? Life goes on, but on a different scale with changed priorities.”
Alex had never seriously considered changing her physical body before and was listening attentively to the doctor’s account.
“What’s your name? What do you do at the base?
“Bioengineer, Captain, Helen by name. Nick: River. Another nick given by our guys: Cyber-screw. Ha-ha! Doesn’t that sound funny?”
Alex could felt the arm manipulators proceeding with operation. She enjoyed her talk with Helen.
“How many of you were there at the beginning?”
“There were five of us: two girls and three boys. The fifth was Ninochka named Arrow, our pilot-explorer. When the enemy detected us, they started bombarding us heavily. But that caused us no harm. The base was hidden deep underground. But what we did not expect was the nano-virus attack.” Helen sighed, “No matter how hard we tried, we failed to rewrite Ninochka and so we lost her.”
Alex saw that Helen felt uncomfortable remembering the nano-virus attack. She could barely imagine herself in a similar situation.
“Well,” said Helen, “I’ve almost finished. The edges are being coupled. Avoid abrupt movements for two or three hours.
There are also a few micro-bleedings in the brain. You seem to have been beaten up pretty bad by the Coalition. You may have headaches, but I will deal with that later on,” the manipulators stopped operating. “Alex, pick up