Lucent

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The hour it took to get back to Clear Skies was more than Adria could bear. She talked continuously - in between cursing the ISC and bemoaning her bad luck, she gave me detailed instructions. Everything would have to be accomplished before those three agents were found.

By the time we landed, one of Adria's three small freighters, loaded with equipment, was taking off. L5 piloted it. Inside the first freighter were the four finished bodies, L29 to L32, plus three other body shells that were partially finished. L3 and L4 were pushing more boxes into another freighter, which included the remaining seven body shells. L11 would pilot the second freighter once it was loaded, and L12 would pilot the last, which included Crew L22 to L26. The Crew would make sure the new bodies were properly stored and protected at HH6. Once the three freighters returned by early morning, Adria's lab equipment and the remaining supplies would be loaded and flown out.

L2 readied a meal for Adria when we returned to the house. Adria forced herself to eat while I connected to a network of private satellites owned by Braine Robotics, setting about executing her will. After the meal, Adria went to work on the last big piece of lab equipment left - her Rod Etcher. It was activated while we were still in the helicopter. It would need to be disassembled tonight. It was essential that she finish the rods. Five hours later, she was still sitting on her stool in front of the etching machine when I approached her.

"Adria, it is done. Thornbull will send all the necessary documents tomorrow at 7:00 am. He needs a biometric scan and a video of your consent. Everything will be loaded tomorrow morning and we should be able to leave by early afternoon. The three freighters will work though the night. To speed everything up, I had the Crew drop the cargo off in Indonesia first. Braine Robotics has a warehouse facility there. Mike is flying over to Indonesia to secure the cargo. He will find more freighters and trucks to move the cargo to HH6," I reported.

Adria nodded absentmindedly. Her fingers tapped on her thigh nervously as she fixed her eyes on the screen of her Rod Etcher. A digital timer counted down the seconds when the final rod would be done. Nineteen minutes. Adria waved for me to sit next to her on a spare stool.

"Put everything on hold for the next twenty-five minutes. Move L28 to the lab. Now plug yourself into the machine and start uploading your memory. Ready or not, you're going to get a new body tonight."

The data transfer was done in only a couple of minutes but it added another six minutes for the machine to etch sixty years of my memory onto the new rod. Meanwhile, L21 rolled the new body out through an elevator from the far right side of the room. L22 to L26 had been working on a new body for almost ten years, hidden two stories underneath the lab. Actually, they had been working on fifteen bodies, replacements if and when I ever needed them. With only five bodies fully ready, the rest must be finished at HH6. The encounter with the agents pushed the time line earlier than expected. All the bodies were scheduled to be finished within a year, ready for storage, but now a whole new lab must be built to finish the work.

L28 was many times more advanced than my current body. It was slimmer and lighter due to a thinner and more flexible armor: a concept borrowed from military robots which were protected by thin layers able to withstand bullets, stunners, bomb blasts, and electronic jamming devices. L28 was also designed to last much longer than previous versions. The complex maze of microscopic wires and gears were built with stronger, lighter, and non-corrosive alloys. And a new chemical energy source, discovered by Braine miners on Mars three decades ago, would provide a steady fuel source. Meters of this chemical cocktail were wrapped inside the abdomen like intestines. And every time I moved, that kinetic energy was captured and stored in batteries housed in my thighs.