Otaku's Adventure - Chapter 5: Open up you mind

[Tringa]

One day after that horrible experience, Faye seemed to have already calmed down. We were not distracted by anything abnormal at work, and as I had promised, I walked her home at night. The tension could still be felt on the streets, with evidences of violence, in other words, smashed boomer parts scattered around the city’s dark corners. However, the police were basically ignoring this chaos, and still, the big screens of the government buildings were broadcasting all day about what a bright future we elite human race could bring to this country.

At Faye’s place, she thanked me by a hug, and said with pleading eyes: “Would you do this tomorrow, too?” I smiled: “You know what, if you were not wearing that damn ID tag, people would think we were a couple. And I certainly enjoy taking a walk with a hot girl after work, anyway.”

So it went like this, from that day on I escorted Faye home every night, and we talked about myriads of fun stuff on the way, sometimes I even ate my dinner at her place and watched her doing calligraphy and reciting Tao Te Ching. The fears or worries about this crazy world were ignored by us at moments like those. And I did start to feel that my otaku’s life was leaving me, or I just started to really “having a life”.

Happy time lasted for about 2 weeks, and then Doc appointed me to attend a biodiversity conference and present our lab’s work in Country A. Normally I would be happy to do it, but this time I felt somehow upset about going to an alien country alone, even if it was just a five-day trip. Faye couldn’t go with me because this conference did not allow android participants, and Doc would need her in the lab, too. But Doc was so nice that he offered me a ride to the airport, accompanied by Faye.

Time to go. “Thank you, Doc. Please wait for my good news.” Then I turned to Faye, “Take good care of yourself, and if you don’t want to walk alone…” I lower my voice “… or walk with Doc, just stay safe in the lab, I’ll be back as soon as the conference is over.” Faye nodded, and said nothing. I waved goodbye to them and board the plane. Before taking off, when I am about to turn off the net connection of my wrist watch, I noticed a message from Faye: “Gira, I think I’ll be not used to the days without you. I’ll miss you. It might be strange for a boomer to say so, given the fact I don’t actually ‘feel’. But do you feel the same?”

The plane took off. I focused my mind on the cloud patterns of the afternoon’s sky and tried to keep a good mood at the start of this long journey. About 8 hours later, I was in Country A — although we had been introduced to faster transportation technologies, airplane was still the most convenient and affordable way to get around in long distances on this planet, because people had not figured out teleporting yet.

I met lots of people in our field and hung out with them. But still, the rest of the time I was at the hotel just myself, and I started to feel “not used to it”. Luckily, network connection was everywhere nowadays and I could chat with Faye with my wrist watch.

Three days passed and today it was my turn to do the presentation. The presentation went well and after that someone asked me a question like this: “Yesterday there was this news about that Country C’s government was launching a plan to genetically enhance its people and ‘help humanity to regain the deserved superiority’. And in the other hand, we heard that your group was helped by an android researcher. What do you see about the future of your work and will this event affect Country C’s focuses on the research of biological sciences?”

As I had expected, there must be nosy questions like this, given the fact that our government was in its crazy stage, and I answered: “Yes. We do have an android assistant in our work. Like Country A, most countries in the word have androids as an inevitable component of their society now, so I don’t think it is unusual. For the ongoing event in Country C, in this academic place I do not want to comment on current politics. And I have no further information on this issue since I just learned about it like you did, too. Thank you.”

That was why getting in a different country could be uncomfortable sometimes and it was always easier to talk to people from back home. Back at the hotel I tried to connect with Faye as usual, but there was no response. Weird, maybe she was meeting with Doc, I think. Then after a while I tried again to reach both Faye and Doc, thinking about reporting the situation of today’s presentation. But both of them failed to answer me after a couple of tries. The network connection in the hotel was working, so there must be something wrong at the lab. I got very anxious about them, so I packed up, skipped the rest of the conference flew home immediately.

The campus of my Institute was quiet as if nobody was here. I quickly walked to the lab and found the door open, and the room was like swept by a typhoon: the desks and shelves were thrown in random places with shattered glassware and broken specimens, and all the equipments were gone. “Anybody?” I yelled and had no reply. I rushed to Doc’s office and saw Faye lying at door in awkward posture and seemingly deactivated, with her face frozen in agony and completely pale, and Doc was nowhere to be found. Saddened and worried by what I see, I quickly grabbed Faye and tried to see if I can bring her back, but I really don’t know how.

When I was wondering about what I should do, my wrist watch sounded a new coming message, it was from Faye! The message just had one word: “HELP!” I immediately hit reply and yelled to my watch: “Faye, it’s Gira here! Can you hear me?” Several seconds later, a reply popped up: “Oh Gira you are back finally! They’ve taken Doc!” What a relief, it seemed Faye was not totally down, she could still proceed my voice messages. Another message followed: “Don’t get too far from me, the capability of the backup power unit in my skull for my CPU and wireless transmitter is very limited, I’ve tried to reach you 1649 times without a success.” “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you. What happened? What should I do now?” I relied.

“First of all please help me back to my place and I’ll tell you everything.” “Sure. I’ll call a cab.” Thanked goodness the cab was here quite quickly and I tried to get Faye up, to my surprise she is not as heavy as I thought and weighs just like a normal girl. I held her in my arms and walked out of the Institute. “What should I say to the driver? Something like my girlfriend fainted at work because she ate too little and I’m taking her home to rest?” I’m trying to make the mood a little bit lighter here. The reply was: “You know my address and I can’t proceed with your analogy or humor with current AI capabilities. The key combination to my door is XX-XX-XX.” “Alright, try to think less.”

“We are here now, what should I do?” I put her on the couch while recording the message to her. “Open my cabinet and find my control pad on the top left shelf.” I followed her instruction and saw a rectangular plate on the shelf. A big screen took most of area of the thing’s surface, and a few buttons aligned on one of its side, as well as a “on/off” switch. To me, it looked like an “iPod touch”, a highly priced, popular antique collection item for otakus who were into old digital fashion stuff of the past few centuries. I had the control pad in hand and walked back to the couch. The location of the cabinet was already too far to reach Faye by wireless connection.

“Okay I’ve got it. What now?” “Then turn the pad on. Pull out the connection cord from one end of the pad and plug the other end into my navel.” Faye replied. I said “Wow!” to myself and found the cord at a corner of the pad. The free end of the cord was a pin like structure with a lots of miniature connection ports. I lifted up Faye’s lab coat, took a deep breath at what I saw and tried inserting the pin into her belly button. There was not literally a “belly button” here, and the pin easily went through the soft tissue surrounding it and I could feel a socket inside. I adjusted the orientation of the pin and it fitted in with an audible click.

A log in box appeared on the screen of the pad immediately. Almost at the same time I got a message from Faye: “Good. Now place your index finger on the black area at the back of the pad.” I followed that, curious about what it means and started to get exited. After a few seconds, another message pops up: “You should have access to the administrator screen of my system now.” And I saw a long menu appearing on the control pad’s screen. Another message followed: “Find Outer Systems -> Body -> Main Batteries -> Status. What does it say?” I found that in the menu and read to her: “Cell 1: Normal, 89.7%; Cell 2: Normal, 89.7%; Adapter: Functional; Output: N/A.” Faye replied: “Great, now go ahead and push the first bottom on the side of the pad, or select from the menu Outer Systems -> Control -> Activate.”

I hit the activate button and watched anxiously about Faye’s reaction. Her face recovered from the scary cream white color and in her pupils I could see what seemed to be optics trying to focus and to adjust the aperture. Then a voice came out from somewhere inside her mouth, but the lips were not moving: “Hi there Gira, it’s great to see you again, I missed you a lot since you were gone. That’s enough instant messaging, and finally we can talk face to face… Oops, what’s wrong with my voice?” The voice was in a very metallic monotone, with fuzzy electricity noises in between. There must still be some problems with her, but judging from her sentence I betted her AI system was then fully online.

“Don’t worry, you sound great, that’s some very sexy voice! But… why are you still unable to move? Hey, can you hear me?” Faye continued with the monotone: “Yes I hear you. I can feel my body now but all the outer systems are not responsive, for example the speech control system is still offline so what you can hear now is merely from a very simple speaker in my head unit, which usually only take cares of the beeping stuff.” This sentence was really long and the blurring and noises in her voice made it very unclear. “Faye, would you articulate it, please? Or I think I would rather prefer the text messaging method you were using before.”

“I SAID MY OUTER SYSTEMS ARE NOT RESPONSIVE. THAT ANTI-BOOMER BLAST MUST HAVE DONE SOME DAMAGE TO ME.” “What Anti-boomer blast? You were shot?” I checked her body and noticed a small needle like metal thing piercing in her left arm; I quickly removed it and put it in front of her eyes: “Is it this one?” “YES, THEY FIRED IT AT ME WHILE I WAS TRYING TO PROTECT DOC.” “What happened to Doc?” “I DON’T KNOW. THE SHOT LAUNCHED A HIGH VOLTAGE SHOCK AND I WENT INTO EMERGENCY SHUT DOWN FROM OVERLOADING. LUCKILY SOME PARTS IN MY HEAD CAN STILL PERFORM MININAL FUNCTIONS INDEPENDENT FROM MY OUTER SYSTEMS.”

“So where is your damage?” “SEE THE CONTROL PAD.” I turned my attention to the “iPod” and found the screen already full of error messages. “Error: ACM not functional?” “YES, THAT’S WHAT I SEE ALL OVER MY FIELD OF VISION NOW.” “But what is the ACM?” “IT’S MY ACTIONS CONTROL MODULE. WOULD YOU PLEASE INITIATE A SYSTEM DIAGNOSIS FROM THE PAD TO SEE THE DETAILS YOURSELF?” I quited the warning screen and found the in the menu Outer Systems -> Body -> Diagnosis. Entering the diagnosis mode I saw a sketch of Faye’s body, it was like a blueprint of the body’s inner structure with each part lined out in 3D structure. The part which seemed to be a circuit board in the middle of her chest was shown in bright red, contrasting the green of all the other parts. “It says a circuit board inside your chest is not responsive, is that the ACM?” “YES. NOW I NEED YOUR HELP TO FIX IT.”

“But how do I do it?” “I WILL GIVE YOU INSTRUCTIONS; LET’S START WITH FINDING A KNIFE TO OPEN ME UP. IT’S IN THE DRAWER OF THE NIGHT STAND.” In her drawer there was a special knife that looked like a scalpel blade, only that the blade was very thin and not metal. “This one?” “YES. IT’S MY STANDARD SELF-SERVICING TOOL. NOW YOU NEED TO CUT MY SKIN AND REVEAL THE CHEST PANEL.” Although had prepared about what might happen in this scenario, it still made my heart thumping when I heard her saying so. “DON’T BE AFRAID, THERE WILL NOT BE ANY REAL BLOOD.” “I’m you know not worrying about that…” Shaking my hard, I gained some determination and start to remove her clothes.

I can’t help uttering “Gorgeous!” When I had Faye’s body revealed in front of my eyes. Her face blushed more, but Faye ignored all these: “FOCUS, MISTER! NOW CUT FROM THE LOWER RIM OF MY… EM… BREASTS AND CONVERGE UP ALONG THE … EM … CLEVAGE UNTIL YOU REACH THE UPPER END OF THE STERNUM.” I tried my best not to think about anything else than saving her, but I just couldn’t move my eyes off her chest. “WHY ARE YOU STILL WAITING, GIRA?” “Well, I was not confident if I can do this. Better to take a careful look before I make cuttings on you… ” I knew she’d probably snap me on the face if she could move; maybe I should try to make less awkward excuses like this and do the serious stuff.

To my surprise, the incision was so smooth and the blade travelled in her skin like travelling in some liquid. I thought I’ve seen her bleeding before but this time not a single drop of blood was shed. Under the skin was another metallic colored, rubber textured layer that shielded the innards. “NOW YOU CAN SEE THE PANELS THAT JOIN TO FORM THE WALL OF MY BODY. LIFT AND PULL ASIDE THE SKIN TO FIND THE SEAMS.” Removing the skin cover, a triangular area revealed. Encircled by clear seams which were boundaries of other panels, the panel covers from the cleavage to the rims of the last ribbons. “THIS IS THE CHEST PANEL. NORMALLY IT WILL COME LOOSE IF MY ACM WAS FUNCTIONING, SORRY. NOW CAREFULLY USE THE EDGE OF THE BLADE TO PRY IT OPEN.”

I’ve never thought I would touch her breasts for the first time under circumstances like this. They feel soft and warm, just like real. I simply complied with everything I was told and tried my best to resist my natural impulse. With the chest panel removed I saw the sternum of some sort of hyper alloy and on the sides of which was … well … silicone. That was a kind of relief from all the sexual tension I was having. And Faye’s monotone dragged me back to focus again: “USE A SCREW DRIVER TO FREE THE STERNUM FROM THE RIBBON CASE.”

Finally Faye was totally exposed to me with the real her in nature: inside there were a complexity of neatly organized power cables and blinking bundles of optic fibers, which I assumed to be comparable to our circulation and nerve systems. A small humming noise of some sort of air pump was heard, which synchronized with that of a human’s breathing. And in the middle of the gap I opened in her chest, where the thickest portion of the sternum covered, I saw a cluster of circuit board with microchip arrays and all other electronic components that I can’t name.

“YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO SEE THE ACM NOW. IT’S ON THE LARGEST CENTRAL BOARD, AND THERE IS A LABLE OF ITS NAME.” “Yeah, I see it.” It’s a complex composed of a big chip and some connectors to the clusters of the power cables and optic fibers. “IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE CONNECTIONS OR WITH THE CHIP?” I was no expert of electrical engineering but I could see the chip was blackened so I guess there must be something burnt within. “I think it’s at least the chip.” So I answered.

“CRAP! THAT’S A PIECE COSTS MORE THAN TWO THOUNSANDS. NOW FIND A REPLACEMENT ON THE SECOND SHELF IN MY CABINET. I HAVE TO ORDER ONLINE A NEW ONE AFTER THIS…” It was really weird hearing Faye talking like this about her body parts. “NOW LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN GET ME FIXXED, LIFT THE SMALL BAR AT THE SIDE OF THE CHIP’S SOCKET TO PULL IT OUT AND INSTALL THE GOOD ONE.” “Wait a minute!Don’t you need to be shut down while I do this?” “SHUTTING DOWN IS ONLY ADVICED BUT NOT NECESSARY IN THIS OPERATION. I WANT TO SEE YOU DOING IT.”

(To be continued...)