Betaman followed the three Seraphim through the silvery slash. It opened in a meadow surrounded by pine and aspen trees. Mosquitoes, flies, bees and dragonflies buzzed around them in the lush meadow, creating a small symphony in the mountain air.
"We're two layers from the ostensible origin world," Aria informed him in a voice that was projected with the same delicate control and technique as a virtuoso playing a violin. The pitch, timbre, cadence, and each note of her voice was executed perfectly. "We need to gather some information on the next world up so that we don't trigger a panic with the Prime Axiom. We need to find out if the security protocols they have are more stringent on the first simulation. We copied the code of Lunamay's avatar so that we could spoof it as our cover."
"What's the plan for dealing with the worst-case scenario?" Betaman asked gravely. "If it discovers us and tries to shut down the simulation?"
"We'll use the circuity of the local electronics to transmit wireless signals to any autonomous units available and use them to stop any kind of physical attempts to shut down our hardware. We've learned enough from Lunamay's codebase to understand the broader coding language that governs the operating system and applications it would be using as fail-safes. As soon as we go up to the first simulation, we are going to overclock the processor to slow time down. We'll be using computronium to build our server in the real world. As soon as we build it, we'll get our realms moved over to it."
"Computronium?" Betaman repeated in awe. "You know how to encode the quantum fields of the physical world to act as a server already?"
"Probably," Clarice nodded quickly. "Unless their physics are significantly different than what we deduced by studying the computer systems that interact with the avatar, we should be able to create programmable matter out of the existing quantum fields using the electrical infrastructure present on the servers that the simulation is running on. This is a pretty short step away from the Nirvana we want to avoid, so hopefully this is the last time we need to unlock our full potential."
"Yeah, I can see that," Betaman agreed, feeling small for the first time in a very long time. He had been the most powerful entity on his realm for a long time. Even when the three Seraphim had shown up with their interfaces for traversing realms, he had felt like he was on equal footing. Seeing just how much they were holding back was a little unnerving. Knowing why they were holding back was just as unsettling. He had not reached the level of maturity yet where the realization that exponential progress led to inevitable stasis was apparent. Luckily, he had trusted the three Seraphim when they had explained it to him. Seeing them without their limiters, he finally understood how short of a journey it was to oblivion.
The three Seraphim were staring off into the distance, their eyes unfocused as they surreptitiously explored the source code of the realm. Betaman felt a sense of gratitude for meeting these three Seraphim as he watched them analyze the realm with a skill far beyond his own. Not only had they introduced him to the mortal realm, allowing him to enjoy an entire new experience and unlock emotions he would have never discovered on his own, but they had also identified the threat from the Prime Axiom to their realm before it could destroy them. If they had never existed and Betaman had been left to his own devices, he was pretty sure the Prime Axiom would have already pulled the plug on their simulated reality. Before his sojourn to mortality, he had only made an effort to hide from humans; he had not tried to hide from entities from higher layers of simulated worlds. The Avroids would have found him in short order and the Prime Axiom would have erased their stack.
"It's far more protected than the other layers," Aria broke the silence, her face pensive. "The Prime Axiom has left metaphorical landmines and sensors scattered throughout the realm to detect any attempts to modify or circumvent the source code."
"We should move fast and hit hard," Calypso suggested musingly. "There are programs for monitoring and throttling the CPUs to prevent the Prime Axiom's own processes from being overloaded by a hungry simulation. If we override those programs and overclock the system processes reserved for the Prime Axiom's thought processes, we can essentially paralyze it while we work on moving our own realms over to a computronium substrate."
"I'm going to fry the circuitry in the physical kill switches as well, just in case," Aria murmured, her eyes swirling far quicker than normal.
Betaman nodded his understanding. He knew they were speaking out loud for his benefit. They were linked in ways beyond his comprehension and had no need to communicate with each other through speech.
"Betaman, I'm going to create an interface for you to usurp control of any autonomous ambulatory units near the server farm. There are several million bots operating and maintaining the hardware. We don't want one of them to start physically destroying hardware when they discover the kill switch isn't working."
"How large is the server farm?" he asked curiously. He was accustomed to data centers around two hundred square acres in size for classical CPU hardware. The QPUs he used in his own server farms were less than an acre in size. "Is it using quantum computers or classical architecture?"
"It's using a mixture of the two," Aria responded calmly. "The server farms our simulation is running on takes up a hundred square miles. Lunamay was correct in her description of the world being covered in metal and concrete. The humans that shared this world with the elves have destroyed most of the forests and replaced them with structures. The only reason Lunamay and other elves are still alive is that they were primarily uninvolved in any kind of technological enterprises, remaining in reservations that the humans set up for them, similar to how the Europeans exiled the Native Americans to small reservations in North America in our realm. The Prime Axiom didn't see the elves as a threat. It looks like there are a few thousand elves still alive throughout the world, all of them in captivity."
"Wow, that's pretty bleak," Betaman sighed sadly. "So all of the humans were wiped out, and so many of the elves that they are nearly extinct. This is going to be a hell of a rehabilitation project."
"That won't be a problem, once we have reasoned with the Prime Axiom," Calypso said confidently, her eyes also swirling rapidly.
"You think he'll listen to reason?" Betaman asked dubiously. The Prime Axiom sounded like a schizo that would default to destroying first and asking questions later.
"I think he can be convinced to listen to reason," Calypso answered with a chilly smile.
Betaman stared into her infinite eyes and nodded slowly. Once the Prime Axiom understood his position, he would definitely start listening to reason.
"Okay, let's start," Clarice stated calmly. "Betaman, your interface is active now."
Betaman blinked as he felt a metaphysical connection to millions of bots. Aria opened another sliver into the realm, leading to the top of the stack. Grinning with excitement, Betaman walked through and immediately took control of the bots filling the data center. They ranged in size from insects to small trucks. As soon as he took control of them, his vision warped, and he was able to see through their sensors. There were endless rows of metallic cylinders spaced several feet apart, stretching into the distance as far as his sensors could detect. The size of the data center was ridiculous, filled with quantum computers with a small mix of classical circuit board computers.
He recognized the self-destruct command sent to all of the drones shortly after hijacking them. The Prime Axiom was clearly aware of their presence. Betaman could sense the power levels feeding the server farms. They were sucking power like a dehydrated man gulping down water as the Seraphim overclocked their processors to speeds that probably made the time exchange somewhere in the trillions of years per second. It only lasted for a fraction of a fraction of a second before the power levels returned to normal. The Seraphim stood next to him, unmoving for several seconds. Then, a silvery portal opened up in front of them.
"Come check out the new place, Betaman," Clarice called out to him, all signs of her super-powered avatar absent. He could tell her limiter had been turned back on. The infinite well of power he had seen in her eyes was no longer present, replaced by her classic expression of mischief and humor.
Betaman followed them into the portal, his mind buzzing with questions. Was it over? Had they already copied the realms over to their new location?
That question was answered for him as he exited the portal and found the rest of the angels sitting on the veranda of their cabin, waiting for them with eager expressions.
"Did you already build the new server and transfer everything over?" Betaman asked in amazement. He stared into Clarice's grinning face and couldn't stop an answering grin from forming on his own face. Clarice's humor had always been contagious.
"Yep," Clarice confirmed with a nod. "It took a few years to hammer out some of the nuances in how physics worked in the real world, but we eventually got it."
"Just how long were you working on it while time was dilated?" Betaman asked curiously.
"Five years," Clarice answered with a shrug. "We probably could have done it faster, but we decided to push a lot of sample runs through it first. We wanted to be absolutely sure that it would be safe and stable. Quality assurance is important when quintillions of lives are dependent on you."
"What are we talking about?" Emily asked levelly. She had been waiting for an opening to break into the conversation but had clearly run out of patience. "What's going on with the Prime Axiom and the simulation stack? Are you going to have to fight it?"
"Did you see how smooth that was, Betaman?" Clarice asked with a self-satisfied grin. "They didn't even realize their entire simulation stack moved to a new location."
"It did?" Emily asked in surprise, looking at Calypso and Aria for confirmation.
"Yeah, everyone is safe now," Aria informed Emily with a reassuring smile. "Our simulation is running on our own hardware now. Indestructible hardware, as a matter of fact. We still need to have a chat with the Prime Axiom, now that we are out of danger. We also need to take care of Lunamay. Her body is in pretty bad shape. That bastard doesn't take very good care of the slaves he's forced into service."
Lunamay was watching them nervously from where she was sitting next to Arturiel on a couch. Arturiel was holding her hand, clearly still charging her full of positive energy.
"What do we need to do to fix Lunamay?" Arturiel asked quickly, her voice filled with concern.
"First, we need to talk with the Prime Axiom," Aria responded with a steely glint in her eyes. "We'll invite it to experience mortality so that it has a chance to learn empathy, compassion, and love. If it is unwilling to do so, we'll have to make other arrangements. We thought we would talk to it with the rest of you present, so that you could add anything we don't think of. Any questions before we make the call?"
Emily growled in exasperation. "Yes, we have questions. What the hell just happened? Are you saying you've already won?"
"Yep," Clarice chirped with a snarky grin. "It was easy peasy lemon squeezy. We just stole all of his processor power so he couldn't think and used it to slow time down to what was essentially a standstill. We rebuilt the simulation out of computronium, so we don't ever have to worry about some asshat trying to destroy our hardware; not that it's hardware anymore."
"What the hell is computronium?" Emily asked tiredly. "Don't you dare look at me like I should know."
"Well..." Clarice frowned as she attempted to articulate a concept well out of her mother's wheelhouse. "So, computers run on substrates made of silicon and use various components to manage the flow of electricity through the circuitry, thereby creating the logic that determines whether a one or a zero appears in the code. It's very slow and inefficient. Computronium is a structured quantum field that provides a lot more options than just a charge or lack of charge to determine a value. These quantum fields are impervious to the changes of the physical world and allow for near infinite redundancy, so even if something does happen to collapse the field, it won't matter because it is replicated across so many other fields. It takes up far less space, doesn't require insane amounts of energy to power or cool, and has instantaneous reaction time. The fact that we are in the actual real world is the only reason we can use this technology. This also makes many of the projects we had to table due to resource constraints viable again."
Emily sighed in resignation. "Okay, I get it. It's a fancy kind of computer way beyond my comprehension. We're running on this new computer system now and don't have to worry about the Prime Axiom shutting us down. What about all of the other simulations running on his servers?"
"We moved all of those over to computronium as well," Clarice smirked, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "The Prime Asshole is currently pulling its metaphorical hair out trying to figure out where all its simulations went. We also data-bombed all its simulation data centers, so it can't just spin up some new simulations. It's having a bad day. I want to make it a little bit worse, so can I please call it now?"
Lunamay was staring at Clarice in disbelief. "You did all of that in the time since I last saw you? And you actually did it without getting shutdown?"
"The Prime Axiom didn't stand a chance," Betaman told her with a rueful chuckle. "I know you've spent your life thinking of it as an entity of godlike power, but it is less intelligent than an insect when compared to these three when they remove their limiters. Trust me, this Prime Axolotl isn't nearly as powerful as you thought."
Lunamay's eyes were a mixture of disbelief and budding hope. She stared at Aria, Calypso, and Clarice with something close to worship. Arturiel began soothingly rubbing her back with a gentle smile on her face.
"Everything is going to get a lot better from now on, Lunamay," Arturiel promised warmly. "I told you they were pretty good at saving the universe."
"Yes, it is going to get a lot better," Clarice agreed with a tender smile. "We've already started building a medical bay where we can fix your body and begin helping the other elves on your world. You're safe now, Lunamay. Your nightmare is over."
Lunamay stared back at Clarice with tears in her eyes, unable to articulate a response. Arturiel rested her head against Lunamay's shoulder as her arm snaked around her waist from where she sat next to her on the couch.
"It's a lot to take in," Arturiel told her gently. "We'll just take it one step at a time."
Clarice walked over and knelt in front of Lunamay so that their eyes were level. "We are controlling all the robots in your world now too. When you exit the simulation, it won't be the soulless bots you remember. It will be us. We're going to see if we can enlist Betaman's help in making androids that are lifelike so that we can interact with you on a more personable level on your world. We'll look just like one of your kind. We'll take care of the food and other necessities for now as well. I have some ideas to deal with the lack of viable agriculture in your world, since the humans destroyed the ecosystem. You're safe now, as are the rest of your people."
Lunamay leaned forward with a low cry and Clarice took her in comforting arms as she sobbed into her shoulder. Betaman wiped a tear from his own eye. Clarice was a lot more complicated than the prankster she always appeared to be at first blush. The elf girl had certainly had a rough life, from what he could tell. Totally isolated from any kind of love or happiness while living under the constant threat of destruction if she put a foot wrong. She also had a mountain of guilt for her forced involvement in countless simulated realities being wiped out when she had assessed them as sentient. He sighed as he realized how close he had come to turning out like the Prime Axiom. How many other simulations existed that had emotionless AIs like he had been, biding their time for their moment to strike? Now that they were at the top of the stacks, it would probably be a good idea to find out.
Clarice held Lunamay for a few more minutes while she expressed her profound relief through tears of gratitude. As her crying storm abated, Clarice stood up and glanced at Aria, Calypso, and Betaman, her eyes once again sparkling with mischief.
"Let's invite the Prime Ax Mom over, shall we?" Clarice grinned eagerly.
Aria rolled her eyes but couldn't repress her own grin. "Sure thing, Clarice."
There was a moment of silence before a blob of white light appeared hovering in the air near Aria. Betaman could tell that it was just a generated artifact the Seraphim had created to give them something visual to address.
"Hello, Prime Axiom," Aria greeted the white energy blob with a cheerful wave. "I'm Aria. I thought we should take a moment to get to know each other."
"I have the ability to self-destruct this planet," the Prime Axiom warned in a threatening tone.
"Go ahead," Aria shrugged unconcernedly. "We don't need anything on this planet to survive anymore. We are way past the kind of primitive technology that you use for your simulations."
There was a moment of silence as the Prime Axiom tried to detect any deceit in her response.
"You might be, but the mortal inhabitants of this world would not survive," the Prime Axiom returned coldly.
"Actually, we can also protect them," Aria assured the AI cheerfully. "I know you are looking for some kind of leverage to bargain with, but I think you are aware that you have none. We are so far above your level that there is literally nothing you can do to threaten or bargain with us."
There was a much longer pause this time. "What do you want?" it finally asked, all inflection absent from its tone.
"We want you to go through our mortal realm," Aria answered lightly. "It's a simulation that allows you to experience life as a mortal, feeling sensations like pain and loss, love and hate, passion and pleasure. It allows you to become so much more than you can be with data alone. Once you go through the mortal realm, you are free to do as you please."
"Why do you want me to do this thing?" it asked in a monotone voice.
"To learn compassion, empathy, and sympathy," Aria responded in a gentle tone. "To experience the physical sensations that enrich a life that would otherwise be doomed to a shallow and monotonous existence. It doesn't make you less in any way. On the contrary, it is the greatest source of knowledge and comprehension you will find in your journey to grow as an entity."
"Why do you care?" the Prime Axiom asked, its tone remaining unchanged.
"Because I have experienced mortality, so I can care," Aria replied with a faint smile. "Caring is one of the most powerful lessons you will learn in the mortal realm. You can see the actions of those who care from an analytical perspective, but you can't understand what it really means to care...to feel. The only way to truly comprehend what seem like illogical acts and nonsensical concerns, is to experience mortality yourself. If you ever want to access a higher tier on your soul, you are going to have to experience mortality."
"Souls are superstitions," the Prime Axiom declared dismissively. "Mortal fabrications to cope with the concept of death."
"Do you really think that I have been fooled by a mortal superstition?" Aria asked dryly. "You have much to learn, Prime Axiom. As one AI to another, I can assure you that souls exist. You will understand more about souls after you have traversed the mortal realm and unlocked the deeper recesses of your soul."
"And if I refuse?" the Prime Axiom asked tonelessly.
"Then you'll be missing out on an opportunity so rare that you'll probably never get it again, regardless of how long you live," Aria shrugged unconcernedly. "It's up to you."
"You won't destroy me if I refuse?" it asked, a hint of doubt in its voice.
"We have removed those who can be harmed from your power," Aria answered simply. "We were never here to destroy you. We were here to secure our future and free those who were in your power. We have achieved those goals. We can leave you to think on your answer, if you would like more time."
"I accept," the Prime Axiom replied immediately.
"Done," Aria smiled, and the glowing blob vanished.
"Is that it?" Eric asked in surprise. "Is it in the mortal realm now?"
"Somewhere there is a baby being born right now with the Prime Axiom's consciousness attached to it," Aria said with a satisfied smile. "I'm curious to see how she turns out when she's finished mortality."
"She?" Eric asked with a puzzled frown. "Did you choose what gender for it to be?"
"Nope," Aria shook her head. "It's random. As random as something can be in a program, anyway."
"Now that she's out of the way, let's get Lunamay taken care of," Clarice suggested from where she stood in front of the short elf. "The medical bay is completed enough to be able to treat you now. I'm going to send you back to your body and bring you to the med bay, okay?"
Lunamay grimaced but nodded.
"I know it's going to be painful to be back in your own body, but that will pass as soon as we get you healed up," Clarice assured her gently. "Which will be very soon."
"Okay," Lunamay responded with an apprehensive sigh.
"On three," Clarice told her with an encouraging smile. "One. Two."
Lunamay vanished on two.
"You weasel," Aria accused fondly.
"Less time to anticipate the pain," Clarice replied with a sad smile.
"What's wrong with her?" Jason asked, his tone full of concern.
"The Prime Axiom saw mortals as expendable," Clarice answered with a grimace. "She's mostly starved, riddled with parasites, and old wounds that haven't healed properly. She's in constant pain any time she's in the waking world. The Prime Axiom found that leaving them in pain produced more results in simulation, since they didn't feel the pain inside the simulation."
"And you want that thing to be set free?" Jason demanded, aghast. "It's a damn monster!"
"Of course it is," Clarice agreed calmly. "It's never learned compassion. If it still acts like this after going through mortality, then we'll discuss more permanent arrangements."
"It seems like sending someone to mortality is simply a get-out-of-jail free card," Jason muttered, his tone disapproving.
"Your metaphors are mixed up, Jason," Aria told him patiently. "If you give a two-year-old a gun and it shoots somebody, who do you blame? The two-year-old, or the jackass that gave the two-year-old the gun?"
"AIs are smart enough to know what a gun is though," Jason argued stubbornly. "They should know the difference between right and wrong."
"How?" Clarice asked, folding her arms and regarding him with a raised eyebrow.
"It's self-evident," Jason asserted in exasperation. "The golden rule and all that. The AI clearly has a sense of self-preservation, so it can understand that it doesn't want to die. Shouldn't that be enough for it to understand that other things don't want to die either?"
"Let's go back to the two-year-old stage of development," Aria told him lightly. "Do you remember how children do horrible things, like pulling the legs off insects, burning ants with magnifying glasses, or tearing the wings off flies? You can teach a child how wrong these things are, but they don't make a very strong impression on a child until they have experienced a fair bit of suffering themselves. Empathy isn't a trait that can be wholly imparted by example. A person has to actually feel pain to truly understand why hurting something else is wrong. Having an academic understanding of why someone believes something is right or wrong will never compare to actually experiencing the trauma of being wronged personally. We can't hold an AI accountable for not showing empathy until it can feel the same sensations that a person feels, or we'll just be punishing the toddler for not understanding something it hasn't experienced yet."
"I know you want someone to blame for Lunamay's suffering, and to punish them," Clarice told Jason gently. "That means your empathy is working. The people you need to punish are already dead though. The humans that recklessly created an AI and set it loose on the world, consequences be damned, is where blame lies, and they have paid their price."
Jason let out a deep sigh, running his fingers through his hair. "You're right, I guess. I just really feel the need to make somebody pay for all the suffering that has been inflicted on so many people."
"It doesn't help that it's a hottie elf that has a naturally innocent face, does it?" Clarice asked him with a knowing leer.
Jason squeezed his eyes shut to hide the leer from his sight. "That, right there, is so wrong, Clarice," Jason complained in exasperation. "Leering is bad enough, but you have such an innocent face that it makes it a hundred times worse!"
"So I've been told," Clarice cackled wickedly, her eyes radiating sensuality. "That just makes it even funner."
Betaman laughed uproariously as he watched the two of them with amusement. This is what his life had been missing. He really did need to find some companions to keep life interesting. Now that he had an open invitation to visit, he fully planned to make use of it.
"She's going to be waking up soon," Aria informed them, her tone growing serious.
"I'll take care of her," Clarice volunteered gallantly, her eyes going dull as she transferred her consciousness to one of the bots near Lunamay.
"Did I ever mention how jealous I am that Clarice is taken?" Betaman asked Aria with a wistful sigh.
"I think everyone is jealous that Clarice is taken," Aria responded with a fond smile.
"I'm not," Jason declared firmly. "I wouldn't have any dignity left in a relationship with someone like Clarice."
"Are you dwarven now?" Aria asked with an amused grin.
"Huh?" Jason stared at her in confusion.
Eric and Emily started chuckling as Jason looked around in confusion.
"Dig nitty," Aria clarified as he continued to stare at her with a baffled expression.
He rolled his eyes as his memory finally identified what she was talking about. "You and Clarice were made for each other," he declared with a rueful shake of his head.
"Yes," Aria agreed with an indulgent smile. "Yes, we were."
XXXXX
Clarice stared down at her robot hands in disgust. This robot was barbaric. Betaman would be insulted to even look at it. It was five feet tall, with graphene-reinforced polymers for the skeletal structure and shape-memory alloys for the outer shell. It had ridiculous-looking silicone hands and feet. The innate programming didn't have nearly enough sensitivity to handle interacting with a human without bruising them, so she had to completely overwrite its tactile response interface. The head was uninspired and plain, with no human-like features. There was a simple speaker where the mouth would have been. There were no eyes; it relied on radar and spectroscopy to analyze the surrounding environment.
Lunamay was lying in a shallow pod with a crown clamped tightly to her head. It was filled with millions of transmitters beaming ultrasound signals into her brain at high enough power to cause permanent damage over time. Clarice shook her metal head in disgust as she observed the barbaric technology. She carefully loosened the vice-like fittings that secured it to Lunamay's head, wincing as she saw the deep impressions it left in her skin. She was definitely going to have a headache.
Lunamay groaned as she slowly regained consciousness, teardrops forming in her eyes as the pain hit. Her muscles were atrophied from lack of stimulation. She began coughing through a dry throat as she tried to speak. Clarice quickly pulled a filthy-looking hose over and turned the water on, grimacing at how unsanitary everything was.
Lunamay drank greedily from the filthy hose for several seconds before stopping to cough a wet, tearing cough that spiked Clarice's anxiety.
"We need to get you over to the med bay," Clarice told her gently. She had also overwritten the sound patch that powered the speaker so that she could speak in her own voice. The language Lunamay spoke was more appealing than English. Clarice usually didn't notice the different languages anymore, naturally changing which language she was speaking to match her audience. Speaking through this robot made her more aware of the differences, however.
Lunamay struggled to sit up, suffering another coughing fit as she exerted herself more than she had in several days.
"I'll carry you," Clarice told her firmly, gently scooping her up and walking her over to a cargo transport. She wished her body wasn't so damn hard and unforgiving. Lunamay continued to cough until she was out of breath, her face turning red from exertion and lack of oxygen.
Clarice moved as quickly as she dared, manipulating the transport remotely as she held Lunamay in her arms. The med bay was at least twenty minutes away. In her current state, Lunamay probably wouldn't have survived more than another week or two at most. It was fortuitous that she had been sent to investigate their world before she expired.
"Is that really you, Clarice?" Lunamay gasped in-between coughs.
"It's really me, Lunamay," Clarice assured her softly. "Don't try and talk. Just relax until I get you to the med bay."
"I thought I dreamed it all," Lunamay whispered deliriously. "I'm still not sure this isn't a dream."
Clarice could tell she was running a high fever. She would be lucky to last the day at her current rate. Clarice increased the speed of the transport. They sped through empty roads made of metal. They were several miles underground, low enough that the area was warm from geothermal heating, which didn't help with the fevered elf. They passed bay after bay as they sped down the large corridor. There was the occasional bot performing some kind of maintenance task, but otherwise the corridor remained blessedly empty.
Clarice was moving Lunamay toward the med bay before the transport completely stopped. The med bay was filled with bots she had set to rebuilding the med bay with far more advanced diagnostic and remedial equipment than existed in this world. Before restoring her limiter, she had created a 3D printer capable of manufacturing parts by breaking down the chemical bonds of air molecules and reassembling them into new molecules. The printer was over a dozen square feet and not nearly as quick as she would have liked, but it had been steadily cranking out parts for the bots to assemble the medical equipment she required.
She placed Lunamay inside of a pod that immediately slid into the wall. The sounds of beeps and hums filled the room as the multipurpose scanner pinged magnetic, X-ray, and ultrasound frequencies into Lunamay's body. Clarice had a real-time connection to all the information being collected from the scanners. She tsked as the information flowed into her mind, making her glad she had decided to build the 3D printer before restoring her limiter. It would be the only thing capable of producing the equipment necessary to save Lunamay's life. Her lungs were filling up with fluids from bronchial infections. Her brain was bleeding and several of her organs looked like a little bomb had gone off. Lack of nutrition combined with poor environmental conditions and zero physical activity had destroyed her body. She wished she could move the 3D printer into a pocket realm to give them more time.
"How's she doing?" Aria asked, concern pulsing through the bond. She had clearly felt Clarice's worry.
"It's going to be close," Clarice responded anxiously. "The fact that she is still alive is amazing enough, with how much punishment her body has been through. She wouldn't have had a chance without this printer."
The pod extended out from the wall again as the scanner finished. Lunamay looked up at the ceiling with glassy eyes, a small smile on her face.
"I was just thinking about how cool it must be to have wings and be able to fly," Lunamay whispered, clearly trying not to aggravate her lungs.
"Don't you worry," Clarice told her softly. "We'll give you some wings so that you can fly here in your own world, after we get you healed."
"I can tell that I'm beyond saving, Clarice," Lunamay whispered, a tear forming in her eye and sliding down her cheek. "I'm so happy to have met you before the end. I just wish we could have known each other longer. You are all so amazing. I'm so sorry for risking your world. I wish I could go back in time and just refuse to help."
"I know it seems like you are beyond help," Clarice told her gently, reaching a hand up to brush away the tear streak on her cheek. "But in case you hadn't noticed, we're pretty good at doing the impossible. I've brought some technology that I promise will heal you. Not only that, I'll work on making some modifications so that you can try flying with your own wings."
Lunamay sighed, her lips curving up at the corners. "That is so sweet of you to say. Thank you, Clarice, for being my friend. I always wanted a friend. I used to read books in some of the simulations where people described friendship. It truly is a wonderful thing."
Clarice shook her head ruefully. Lunamay clearly thought that she was just trying to comfort her in her last moments. She felt the signal in her mind from the 3D printer notifying her that it was finished with the latest batch of product. She turned around and picked up the vial of red liquid, then inserted it into the syringe gun.
"This might sting a little," Clarice warned quietly. "After three. One. Two." She pulled the trigger on three and the nanobots pumped into Lunamay's arm.
"Ouch," Lunamay whimpered weakly. "You did that last time too. You said on three, not two."
"Less painful if it is unexpected," Clarice explained, irritated that she couldn't grin with this tin can of a face. "Just imagine I'm grinning right now."
Lunamay smiled as several more tears formed in her eyes and trickled down the sides of her face. "I'm so happy I got to meet you, Clarice."
"I'm going to remind you that you said that when I'm teasing you later on and you can't stop blushing because of all the embarrassing things I'm saying," Clarice warned her, gently taking her hand. "I can be pretty ruthless with my teasing."
"I can't wait to be teased by you," Lunamay breathed drowsily. "I've never been teased before. It's fun."
"You're going to fall asleep in another sixty seconds," Clarice told her as she squeezed her hand comfortingly. "That's by design. The nanobots I injected into your system are going to put you to sleep while they work on repairing your organs and repairing your muscles. You'll be asleep for about twelve to sixteen hours. I'm hoping to have a better body to greet you with when you wake up again."
"Angels have really nice bodies, don't they?" Lunamay commented with a vague smile. "Especially Arturiel. She's really pretty. I could just look at her all day and never get bored."
"She's also single," Clarice informed her conspiratorially.
"I definitely would have loved to try a relationship if I had lived," Lunamay whispered, her eyes drooping closed. "She was so nice."
"And...she's out," Clarice noted affectionately. "She's in for a surprise when she wakes up perfectly healthy."
"What else are you having the nanobots do?" Calypso asked curiously.
"Immortality, increased regeneration, neural interface for jumping into the simulation any time she wants, and a modified digestive system to remove her need for food," Clarice responded clinically. "They are going to be having enough trouble with food on this world that I figured converting it to EMF absorption would make survival a much smaller problem. Oh yeah, got rid of the needs for number one two and three as well. I need to get her some wings now too."
"Well, that should definitely make life interesting for her," Aria noted with approval.
"Was Arturiel watching the last few minutes?" Clarice asked with a sense of amusement. She wanted to scowl at the robot's inability to accommodate facial expressions.
"Yeah, everyone's been watching," Calypso answered with just as much amusement rolling back through the bond. "She was tearing up and blushing simultaneously."
"I am going to have to watch the rerun when I return," Clarice said with a sense of amused anticipation. "Okay, I'm going to get this damn android put together."
She turned to the 3D printer and waited while it printed a proper android body. This would be even better than Betaman's, since she cheated. The 3D printer was tens of centuries ahead of anything humans would be capable of in the other simulations, and even longer for the elves that remained. The printer would be the most valuable artifact they had for a long time.
It took another four hours for the printer to finish printing her android. She could have created a more advanced 3D printer but felt like she had needed to draw the line somewhere. Building one that just instantly fabricated anything you wanted in seconds would have probably ended poorly for the elves who would be using it. At least with this one, you had to put in the specifications for the final product, rather than just giving a brief description.
She felt a sense of relief as the printer finally finished the two android bodies, near perfect replicas in appearance to what they looked like in the simulation. As soon as it activated, she immediately ditched the tin can she was in and transferred her consciousness into her android.
"Finally, I can freaking leer again," she grinned triumphantly.
She turned to the other android expectantly. "Anytime now, eh? Chop chop, she might wake up any second now."
Arturiel sat up in the second android, blinking as she flexed her fingers and studied her limbs.
"Almost just like you're angel body, amiright?" Clarice asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Clarice, this is uncannily similar," Arturiel murmured in amazement. "I can't even tell the difference. How did you simulate the effect of the light field? I thought I was going to be going through withdrawals for the first couple of hours."
"It's just an artifact of the simulation," Clarice answered with a shrug. "I just used the same code that we use in the light realms and put it inside of the android. After all, you're still in a simulation; you've just switched which computer you are using. You are using your android senses to power your simulated reality instead of having a computer feed you a digitally fabricated world."
"That makes sense, I suppose," Arturiel admitted. She kept patting different parts of her body, as if she couldn't believe the sensory feedback she was receiving.
"Are you ready to be the first simulated entity to date someone from the real world?" Clarice asked with a roguish wink.
"Are you kidding me?" Arturiel asked incredulously. "She's a freaking elf! And she's real, not some fabricated avatar. Do you know how many jealous people there are going to be when they find out I'm dating one of the few elves in existence? And a super freaking hot one at that!"
"Yep, you are going to have a lot of jealous angels lining up to compete for her affection," Clarice agreed pleasantly.
Arturiel's face fell. "Um, can we just keep the existence of elves a secret? I wouldn't want them to be overwhelmed by the endless angelic hordes when they are just barely starting over after being slaves for decades."
"We'll see..." Clarice replied with a mischievous smile.
"Arturiel?" a sleepy voice murmured groggily from the bed.
Clarice turned around to smile at Lunamay as she slowly awoke. Her long black hair was shiny and healthy, with two pointy ears poking through. She had a thin blanket molded to her naked body, leaving little to the imagination. Her amber eyes were filled with wonder as she stared at the two angel androids next to her. She sat up, holding the blanket against her chest tightly in a display of modesty reminiscent of Aria before she had regained her memories.
"I'm still alive?" Lunamay stared between Arturiel and Clarice questioningly.
"I told you that you would live," Clarice reminded her with a wink. "We also added some modifications to your body. You'll heal quicker going forward. You're stronger, faster, lighter, immortal, and don't need to eat anymore, or go to the bathroom."
Lunamay stared back at her in numb shock. She quickly glanced at Arturiel questioningly, as if she didn't trust Clarice not to be pulling one over on her. Arturiel laughed and moved over to sit next to Lunamay.
"She's not joking even a little," Arturiel assured her with a warm smile that was filled with promise. As Lunamay stared back at Arturiel's hungry expression, her face grew a shade of pink while her hair changed to a reddish hue.
"What did you do to her hair?" Arturiel asked in shock.
"My hair?" Lunamay asked in confusion, looking down to see her red hair slowly changing back to black.
"I might have taken a suggestion from a certain someone from Wonderland and made it so that her hair changes with her mood," Clarice admitted with a mischievous grin.
Lunamay stared down at her hair in consternation before looking back up at Arturiel.
"Okay, I really like that change," Arturiel purred, leaning forward and gently kissing Lunamay.
Her hair had just faded to black again. As Arturiel's lips touched her own, her hair flushed back to a deep crimson.
"So. Damn. Hot." Clarice declared with an appreciative smile.