He opened his eyes to look back at Nerva. His expression shifted from being nostalgic, to a deeply serious one.
"You see, the Canaan Project has been going for quite some time. I was one of the first to be modified."
The man turned around to avoid Nervas expectant gaze.
"PRIME has limited resources reserved for the Canaan Project. They are only willing to keep so many 'specimen' alive. But as you are here now, I'll have to take my leave."
Has been going on for some time? He was one of the first, how long has it been going? Where are the others? I still have questions. I need answers!said Nerva while the man was leaving the room. Just before he could utter the next sentence, Nerva was interrupted by the man's voice "Don't worry, all your questions will be answered soon. Farewell my friend."
Nerva made an attempt to follow the man, but as soon as he took a step towards him the whole room began to shift and transform. The tiles of the floor, the walls along with the windows and the ceiling everything was moving and twirling without making a sound, like a thoroughly rehearsed machine ballet.
As nerva looked down he noticed that his feet were fixated on the ground by some straps that had a metallic shine to them. As Nerva looked back up, some sort of lounger came flying towards him. As he raised his hands in defense, the floor tile he was fixated to spun around 180° and he felt the object that was flying at him just moments ago push into his back reassuringly.
Before Nerva had any time to relax, both the floor tile and the lounger tilted backwards 90° and he was fixated again, this time to the lounger/recliner-esque contraption.
Nervas pulse was racing, as all of this happened way too fast for his mind to process. He frantically looked to his left, then to his right. There now was a large window he didn't notice earlier. Behind it stood three silhouettes who's faces he couldn't make out.
Then a voice spoke that sounded and felt like it was directly injected into his bones:
"How do ya feel, buddy? Anything that we could offer you to make your stay more comfortable? Water, soda, tea, iced latte, some hot milk with honey maybe?"
As Nerva was still pretty shaken (both physically and menthally) from what just happened. The voice within his head felt a little intense, but somehow right. He was barely able to mutter a few words in his current state.
"Umm... What?"
The voice spoke again. This time overlapping with a second voice, giggling, like it was trying to contain itself just a little too hard.
Just relax, mate. That way the molecular re-structuring process and the nanite injection won't hurt ya as much.
The voice laughed. It was a hearty laugh, like a good friend just cracked an amazing joke - not malicious in the least.
All Nerva could think of was the imminent process that would basically re-structure his whole body into what he was told would be the perfect co-existance of man and machine.
Soooo.... it has been some time since someone offended me like this.. that guy offered me water, soda, tea, iced latte, some hot milk with honey... but no apple cider.
First this is going to hurt like hell, and... maybe kill me. Secondly...err... if get out alive from this, I shove my AI boot in that guy's WHOAAAA THAT NEEDLE IS BIG.
YUP, THAT NEEDLE IS BIG! the needle was just a bit larger than a normal one.
Time to prepare for a world a pain, or maybe ...two worlds of pain.. cuz he said ai and human.... yeah, jokes do not help now.
But there is one thing that will help. he started humming a song, it was the only thing that he remembered from his mother.
The voices stop laughing, it was time to start the procedure....
The needle slowly moved to the back of Nervas neck. Then with a sudden jerk it penetrated the skin over his spine. The pain was unbearable. As Nerva was about to pass out from the strain put on his body, another needle hit one of the veins on his arms. An intense, adrenalin-like sensation overcame him, keeping him concious.
"Ma- ... make it stop."
That was the only thing Nerva could mutter. Suddenly a ring-shaped apparatus appeared on one end of the recliner Nerva was fixed to. It twitched and surned around its own axis, before activating some sort of laser. The voice in his head re-appeared.
"You're making it harder than it needs to be. Just relax. Pain is temporary, immortality can be permanent."
As soon as the firs voice finished, a second, female voice burst out laughing.
"Very poetic, James."
The ring started moving around Nervas body. The lasers started to burn into his flesh and it felt like his body was replaced with something else that felt like it was less connected to himself, but he had much more control over. It felt like days had passed since the procedure started.
Nerva suddenly wakes up Mother ******** ... wait, I'm ok, I am alive? He moves his hand This works... Tries to move his legs These work... But suddenly he realizes that he was seeing without opening his eyes What on God's green Earth?
"Don't worry, you are alright. Welcome among friends"
Nerva opens his eyes, and freaks out Oh... this is not good.
"You are seeing some green information?" "It looks like an image from letters, but yeah... it's green." said Nerva "Rest now, this will be the last time you will ever have to rest. We will talk soon." Nerva lies back down, but he is suddenly wakes up Welp.... that was wierd. Oh.... I can see normally now. Quickly looks down Oh... thank God, it's still there.
"Hey there, you are back. You did sleep quite long, almost 2 seconds...."
The disembodied voice from earlier was now accompanied by a man standing at his side. Behind him were two other people, a man and a woman. Both looking like they were somewhere around their early 30s' and dressed as casually as James.
"Looks like you made it through without any complications. Your vitals also show no signs of being compromised. Even though the process has been optimized over the years, there still is a chance that it will fail."
The man extended his hand towards Nerva. Right as their hands touched a string of basic information was uploaded to Nerva's brain.
"As you now know, my name is James el Harady. I was put in charge of the Canaan Project by the PRIME AI back when it was originally established. Behind me are miss Maria Calvo and mister Mick O'Conner. Glad to have you on board."
As Nerva adjusted to all of the new sensations and information that flooded his brain. He moved his hand up to his head to rub his forehead, only to discover that he didn't feel any of the pain that this amount of new sensations would inflict on him.
"One way or another it will take you some time to adjust to all of this. As you might have noticed this room has been re-aranged for you to not have that long of a way back to your ship. In fact it's right outside this door."
James gestured towards one end of the room that now had another door in it.
"Take your time to re-adjust to your body. We'll talk to you later."
With that all of them left the room, with the burly - Mick - playfully waving goodbye in Nerva's direction. Nerva didn't really know what he imagined those cyborgs that are so closely connected to the PRIME AI to be like. This wasn't it though.
Somewhere on Gammu. Somewhere close to his ship *question mark*
Aaaand they are out of the room. Welp... this seems just like when we started. Nerva gets up and out of his bed. Uhm, where are my clo..... Before he could finish his thought, a swarm of nanobots rushed towards him and transformed into a pj. Now, I am wearing a rubber ducky pj. Someone is having here... Ok, then lets see.. He tries to recall his last time he wore a suit. Yeah, that time when I lived in that derelict in Gallia. The swarm readjusts and perfectly recreates what Nerva wanted to remember. Much better.
Nerva moves around the room for a while trying to adjust to his newfound body. He starts running, jumping, doing push-up. I've been up to this for about an hour, I'm not getting tired. This is going to be weird, I guess I won't be needing sleep.
Finally, he decides to go back to check up on Nera and Unity. He goes toward the door which opens up at the perfect time,
like it knew the exact moment when he will arrive.
Ohhhhhhkay then.... this does not look like my old ship. He instinctively reaches for his watch, just to find out that it wasnt there anymore.. The bastards robbed me....
Welcome professor Oh, Nera you were right on time. These guys stole my control watch. You already said that you were arriving soon, Uhm, no. I did not say anything. Waaait... I can control the ship with my mind?
Let's try this. I am thinking that I want Nera to play some music in this hallway. Music starts playing. There have been some changes to the ship. Should you wish, I can download all the information to your brain. Ahh... I guess a captain should know his ship. 0.2 second later Where is the command room? Where is the console room? The parts that had plants in them are still alright. He quickly goes to where the main deck was. Ok, the windows are here, but the room is empty.
I really need a chair here. How can I command a ship without a chair? A swarm of nanobots appears out of nowhere and the chair is build in front of Nerva's eyes.
He sits down on the chair and closes his eyes. Now, let's see what I can do with my ship. Welcome again, professor. says a voice of silhouette that was starting to materialize. Nera, is that you? Correct. You are now inside my "thoughts". This is the part of Unity that you never had the chance to see. I am inside our network? Yes. From here you can access every piece of information available to Unity.
Uhm... access robotics bay. Ok, let's see if I can control this service robot. Soon, it seem like Nerva's senses split into two.
It was like a part of him was transported inside the service robot. What the.... it's like I am inside this robot. The robot starts to run towards the main deck. Once arrived there, Nerva looks at himself from the outside. I went from 1st person point of view to 3rd person point of view.
Enough of this. Robot go back to your room. The robot silently stars walking out of the room..
Nera?/color]
[color=#408000] Yes professor?
Why do I even bother talking. I am going back to talk...err... do this techno-telepathic exchange of information with our new friends.
As he gets further away from the chair, the nanobots decompose the chair and scatter off. Nothing wasted, eh? Once he got back into the room, he instinctively know what direction to go...