Engineered Empress - The story of Bia

Engineered Empress Part 2

Happy birthday

Being a citizen of Hunters Back meant, you must choose a craft when you are 16 years old. From then on you had to learn the charter and rules of Hunters Back and pass a kind of test by the time you turn 20. As long you learned a craft and passed the test you become a citizen, for most it meant they learned what their parents taught, and they became miners. Higher education meant you pass the test of citizenship when you return from wherever you learned.

Bia's lack of friends and love for studying meant that Bia already got her degrees in hydroponics and biosystems, and due to her interests, she had a degree in botanics that she finished by the time she was thirteen. Add to that a collage of other online courses in whatever field she was interested in, you could say she is well educated.

Toran would give her a certificate as security guard, but she had no interest to work in that fieldWorking as Marrs helper Bia earned a stake in Facet Inc., Marr's company, that sold algae starters for the production of oxygen on spaceships and stations. This and the inheritance from her parents, gave Bia the credits to go and study anywhere or even just get a storefront and open a small company.

Not sure yet what exactly she wanted to do with her life, Bia decided not to spend her birthday on their claim, the hothouses or working at Facet Inc., instead she would go to the station Hunters Back central to shop and just enjoy her 18th birthday.

Strolling through the small gallery of shops in central Bia browsed the different useful additions to her wardrobe but nothing caught her fancy, until a few shops over she saw a add for a new generation of digital organization aide (DOA), and she decided to get one and went in the shop.

"Welcome to Moe's, what can I do for you young lady?"

"Hello, I am interested in a DOA, how do they work and what can I get, please?" the shop keeper smiled down at her,

"Well, I only can get you a learning model until you come of age. Those Models already have chat functions, a small organizer and are able to call." Bia winked and grinned at him and said.

"I know I don't look my age, but I turned 18 today. I'm not interested in a learning model."

"Oh, I'm sorry you look so...well anyway I can tell you about the models I have here and how they work. Or do you already know what you are looking for?" He asked her, his tone no longer condescending. Bia shook her head "No, I am new to it all, can you explain a bit, please?"

"It is my pleasure. All models I have here are made up of two components. An external display and control unit and an injection with small nanites, which will build the necessary internal components in your body. Depending on the model you can have a simple internal communication unit, a module to store data and compute them or in the most expensive case a control unit that can monitor and regulate body functions and vitals. For example, it could control your heartbeat in an accident or just regulate the reproduction system.

What you want to look for in any case is a good brand. Because not every nanotechnology plays well with others. If you would get now a cheap one and never upgrade that would be fine, but if you enter the military in a couple of years and they need to give you other nanites it can come to complications. In the worst case you need to get scrubbed of the old ones."

'What do you mean with scrubbed?"

"Well, they inject you with scrubber nanites, these search and destroy everything you got build intern but come at the price of a day worth of pain. Not sure why they can't shut down your nerves for that but believe me it's not a walk in the park. The problem with nerves is, you can't ignore the pain just suffer through it." His shudder at the recall of one procedure gave Bia a slight fright and she asked a bit muted.

"So which brand would be the safest? That scrubbing sounds really nasty and even though I don't plan to go into the military...I also don't know where my life will take me." He looked at his inventory and thought for a little while wandering his gaze up and down her clothes.

"Well how much would you want to spend? I have the basics from two renowned brands and a few higher packets from Trillium. That's the one the military uses as of now. They even boast, that they developed an AI that works as a real assistant in your brain but that's in the development stage. I mean who would want another voice in their head?" he laughed.

"I can upgrade later when I use a good brand, right?"

"Yes, you can. If you aren't sure, but have the credits, I would recommend the basic communication and assist module from Trillium. It's not too expensive and you stay safe from the scrubbers." Bia nodded and bought the package. The shopkeeper clapped his hands and showed her onto a small platform.

"If you would please step over here and stand on the circle. It's a scanner to detect other technologies in your body so we don't inject you with something and you react to it badly." She followed his orders and stood there while a red light indicated the scanning process. His gaze went over the results and he held his hand up for her to wait a bit and restated the process. Furrowing his brows, he told Bia.

"Hm... that is weird. It seems you're free of nanites, but you have an irregular amount of metal in your body and emit a slightly higher electromagnetic field." First thinking he found something wrong with her she exhaled and gladly told him,

"Oh yeah my mom got heavy metal poisoning during her pregnancy and I always had that weird reading. Does that mean I can't get it?"

"No, I just put these results in personal your file, so you have them whenever you need an upgrade. Okay you are cleared. This will pinch a little." And with these words he came to her and pressed a small auto injector patch on her wrist. He then handed her a wristband with a small display.

"The nanites will take a day to build your communication unit, until then you can still route your calls through the hand unit and organize what you want on it. Tomorrow evening you can use any screen, tablet or this band to display your data. Can I do anything else for you?"

"No, thank you." Bia nodded to him and left the store. The injection site felt weirdly cold, but she guessed that is normal. She strolled a little more through the different shops, bought herself some treats and decided to go home afterwards.

Intrusion in upper left limb.

"Core please advise what action to take. It's seems to be artificial metal-based cells with high electromagnetic compounds." The Core replied to mimic and integrate into these cells and to observe and stop it whenever negative results for the host happens.

After rewriting itself into the nanites program the organism found that these artificial cells basically mimicked what itself does. And that the program needed consent therefore would ask its host for it. Finding a way to get consent for the second rule that governed the Core it let the program run its course, named itself Ceri and altered the message of consent slightly to its advantage.

Bia stepped into the hangar bay on her way to her skid. A skid was a tiny space vehicle with a small open loading platform, where you can attach containers to. It has a tiny cabin seating maximal 3 persons and was used to transport ore, or other necessities to the homesteads. Just a few yards from hers she got the following message on her wristband.

'Would you like to connect to Ceri? Yes or No' She chose option 'Yes' and blacked out.