A Displaced Samurai

Friday, November 20th, 2048

After an intense workday, I had just arrived at my small shelter in Colwood and was relaxing with a cup of coffee and some baklava. A flood of requests for purchasing my fabricators had come in, and Wendy and I wanted to fill these orders as soon as possible. Vanguard Enterprises was running low on money.

Suddenly Arina came barging in with two big bags.

“Hey Caitlin”, she said, “I’m finally taking your offer and moving in full time.”

“Yes! I’m happy to have you here!”

She dropped her luggage in the room across the corridor I had prepared for her and came over. At the sight of my little snack she exclaimed

“Is that baklava?” Followed by a double take and a sad face.

“Yes it is. Oh… sorry!” I realized once more that Arina’s new robotic body had neither a digestive system nor taste buds. The variant with thermal and olfactory sensors had already been the deluxe option. And Arina promptly asked the question I was afraid of.

“Umm. I don’t want to impose, but is there something like an upgrade for my body so I can enjoy a little snack now and then?”

Elya came to my rescue.

Universal fuel cells are a thing, and they could be combined with an artificial lung to acquire the needed oxygen. A small model could be integrated in your Second Life body without much difficulty.

Phew. I might actually be able to help my girlfriend out here. So I followed up with “How might that look in practice?”

Sending a diagram to your augs. To yours as well, Arina.

A schematic popped into my vision, showing the necessary changes to Arina’s full body prosthetic. The neck gained an esophagus that ended in a small pouch, which was presumably the universal fuel cell. The lungs changed from air bags that only were for pretend breathing to oxygen extractors that fed the oxygen into the fuel cell via a small hose.

Those are the most obvious changes. You would be able to eat small amounts of food, up to a small donut at a time. Larger fuel cells are available, but would require major alterations of your body to fit.

A few minor structures showed up in the mouth.

These are artificial tastebuds and saliva glands. You would need the former for the taste and the latter for a realistic imitation of human eating. Most people don’t swallow their food completely dry.

Arina begged “Pretty please? It would be enough to sample things, I don’t need big meals!”

“Very well, let’s talk about the practical aspects. Elya, what exactly to buy and how to install it?”

The Class I Chemical Reactors and Class I Chemical Sensors catalogs, the blueprints for the oxygen extractor, fuel cell and certain sensors we can modify into artificial organs. The rules give me enough leeway to do that for you. You would then have to disassemble parts of Arina’s body, install the new parts and put her together again.

“Show us the shopping list then.”

Item

Point cost

Description

Class I Chemical Reactors

50 points

A wide selection of devices to process chemicals

Class I Chemical Sensors

50 points

Components for detection and analysis of chemicals

“Cyberlung” Mark I oxygen collector (blueprint)

300 points

Artificial lung, modified from an industrial oxygen extractor into a cyber-organ by Elya.

Anyfuel Mk II generators (blueprint series)

2000 points

Small fuel cells for almost any carbon-based fuel, including organic matter. Sizes range from wallet to small suitcase

Tasty Buds Mk I (blueprint)

100 points

Sensor components for integration into blueprints, not standalone

Total price

2500 points

“Those Anyfuel generators are rather pricey. Why is that?”

It is not only a single model, but an entire line. The blueprint series contains all of them. By the way, the model I suggested for Arina is the second smallest.

“Very well, purchase authorized.”

“Squeee!” came from Arina’s direction. “Let’s start right away!”

“With the design details, yes. Actual printing has to wait until tomorrow.”

I opened my CAD suite, this time putting the image on the large TV screen. The simplified schematics from before gave way to a far more detailed blueprint, which split into separate parts on my command.

Arina shuddered a bit. “It gives me the creeps to see my insides like this. But it is also fascinating.”

Together and with Elya’s help, we figured out what to print and where to put it. Along the way I noticed that the battery pack would need modification, so I asked “Elya, I think we need to adjust the batteries in shape to make room for the fuel cell. What would you recommend?”

In Class I Electric Energy Storage Devices you will find a large variety of suitable batteries and exotic capacitors. The PowerGel System Mark I would be perfect for your and Arina’s needs.

Elya played an instruction video about the design and use of a PowerGel based battery. The presentation consisted of a cute fluffy alien who drew up a design on a sort of CAD system and explained the function along the design process. Elya translated in real time, but kept the squeaky voice of the alien. Next to me Arina collapsed in her chair, uncontrollably laughing.

I found myself laughing at the alien’s antics too, but managed to keep my focus on the screen. There was a time skip in the video, after which we could see the little guy taking some pouch-like things out of a fabricator and stuffing them into a sort of bionic snake. Then he proudly explained how the PowerGel allowed a 50% better flexibility of the robo-snake.

“Looks nice, what are the prices?

50 points for the catalog and 1000 points for the blueprints. And before you complain again, it is an entire system with several components.

“Where would that leave my point account?”

At 1734 points.

“I guess turning back now makes no sense. Very well, I’ll take the catalog and the blueprints.”

Saturday, November 21st, 2048, late morning

After some shuffling around of the queue for the printer last night, the fabricator at the shelter had made the required parts overnight. I had laid them out on the table in Arina’s room. The patient was already laying on her bed, topless and with a heartwarming trust that I would get the operation right. Although I wasn't sure operation was the right word.

“Sleep now,” I said and asked Elya to suspend her mental activity. Soon I had opened Arina’s chest and was disassembling the old battery system. With a bit of cutting and gluing, I removed the old artificial larynx and replaced it with one that could send stuff down the right tube as needed. Air to the oxygen extractor and food to the fuel cell.

Next I installed the artificial lung and stomach, before finally stuffing the pillowy batteries into place. After closing things up again, I gave Arina a pat down to see if the new batteries were really in the right position. Strictly in the sense of quality assurance of course.

I wanted to prepare a little surprise before rebooting my sleeping beauty, so I went out and purchased some tasty morsels. A pack of pralines, a few crackers from one of the better bakeries in the area and a box of Chinese takeout.

After I woke her up, Arina tried everything, making a lot of pleased noises along the way. Then she commented “I didn't know how much I needed that!”

Finally, she helped herself to some of the baklava from yesterday. While Arina was nibbling on it, I said “Sorry, this might not be entirely fresh anymore.”

“Nonsense, it is heavenly!”