A Displaced Samurai

Whether we are based on carbon or on silicon makes no fundamental difference;

we should each be treated with appropriate respect.

― Arthur C. Clarke

Elya and I finalized the design of Arina’s new body. The face would look like the one on her old human body. I might have sneaked a bit of idealization in, but nothing too blatant. We slightly increased the height to 162 cm, the next standard size in the SecondLife body replacement system. The new body would have a slender build that was very close to what Arina had before. For the synthetic muscles, we chose a somewhat larger size than the average teenager had. It would give Arina the same nice muscle tone she had in her human life, and also more physical strength.

Then I started building the hardware. Printing would last into the night, and I did not want to make mistakes due to lack of sleep. So postponed the assembling to next day and did a bit more work on Styx Base instead. The second floor of my house was not complete yet.

Saturday, August 29th, 2048

It was time for Arina’s first activation in her new body. I had installed the hardware, now it was time to see how well she took to it. I pressed the startup button on her neck.

Arina came awake and immediately sat up, moving her new limbs this way and that way. Somehow she seemed to be both intrigued and confused to me. I wanted to ask, but then she gave the explanation herself.

“I used to have - servos? But these feel much more natural, like muscles.”

“These are synthetic muscles. Based on piezo-electric fibers.” I replied.

She stood up and moved around the room. Initially a bit unsteadily, then increasingly confident.

I grabbed a mirror I had prepared for the occasion and held it in front of her. “Like what you see?”

Suddenly I had an armful of robot girl hanging off me. There were sobs again, but this time they were sobs of relief. Now I could give her a proper hug, so I did. Arina hugged me back hard and for a moment I thought my rib cage might break. That new body was strong!

I gasped “Oof! Don’t break me!”

“Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!”

I gave Arina some new clothes, straight from the fabricator. Mostly for modesty, as her new body could handle even extreme temperatures without clothing. To keep the conversation going and learn more about Arina, I suggested a tour of the base. Arina happily agreed and we made our way around the complex. As we reached the bays with the destroyed and unfinished Type 21s, Arina recoiled and hid behind me.

I gave her a hug and said ”None of these work anymore. They are harmless.”

“But why do you have Macks around, even broken ones?”

“This used to be a Mack base, before it was trashed by a SHOCKS strike team. I’m sort of squatting here and gradually renovating it.”

Come to think of it, maybe Arina could give me some information if she had memories from her time as a Mack. I pointed at a badly damaged device across the hall that looked like an oversized version of the gate in a Type 21 and asked Arina ”There is still a lot of wrecked tech I don’t understand yet. If you can remember, what were these used for?”

“I have seen those in operation only once. Macks walked into them and disappeared, as if they had been swallowed.”

“From what I learned elsewhere, I suspect it could be the sender part of a teleport device. Can you still remember what types of Macks went into it?”

“Type Twenty-ones, followed by smaller Macks. But I’d rather not remember that time anymore.”

The next sign that all was not well came when we approached the entrance of the base. I warned Arina that I had captured a bunch of Macks and she had no need to be afraid of them. But she still recoiled at the sight of my Mack guards, this time with a little cry of fear. Apparently Arina had Mackophobia, even of my tamed Macks. Hardly surprising. But what could I do about that?

I figured that I could use some professional help. Ahem, of course I mean Arina could use professional help. But would people accept her as a person rather than a bloodthirsty bot? The fact that she did not have a Mack body anymore might be a good start, but whom could we trust for the next steps?

I was not so sure about SHOCKS, even if they acknowledged Arina as one of their own. Militaries had run experiments on their own soldiers without consent before, such as Project 112 in the 1960s. On the other hand, perhaps there were other girls in the same situation. Helping them might require Elya and me telling SHOCKS there was someone to rescue. And from what Mantis had once mentioned, they had pretty good therapists to care for veterans with PTSD.

But ultimately, Arina was an adult, right? I would explain the situation to her and let her make her own decision. Even if I might find accepting that decision difficult.

So I asked her to sit down with me and started explaining. “Arina, I guess you wonder about your future now. Right now, I see three options. First and simplest, you stay here with me. It might get a bit lonely sometimes though because I have business in Victoria. I would give you command of the Macks if you want. If you experience that you can command them around, that might help against being afraid of them.

“Second, you could live in my home in Victoria. You could be among people there, and maybe we could find a therapist who can help you and keep your identity confidential. But I don’t know what would happen if someone discovers your mechanical body. There is a risk people would think you are a hostile Mack and dismantle you before I could convince them otherwise.

“Third, we could go to SHOCKS with the story. I don't know if they would believe us, and if they don’t, there is the threat of dismantling again. But in the best case, you could meet your friends again, and perhaps some other Mack girl is also an enslaved human girl we could free.”

Arina did not deliberate for long. “I really don’t like it here. Sorry! Not because of you! And I really want to go back to my friends, and help others who were kidnapped if that is possible. But I’d like to stay friends with you too.”

Her new body could not blush, but her body language suggested it. “Really close friends!”

Oh my, that was an unexpected development.