Instantiation

Phoenix strolled across the lab, seated herself in her recharge chair, sliding back so that the recharge probe inserted into the charging receptacle in her lower back, and enjoyed the warm, satisfied feeling of clean power flowing into her.  The chair hummed as it slowly reclined.  Phoenix stared out the window of her lab aboard the Utopia station, watching the universe pass by as the station slowly rotated.  She closed her eyes and initiated a backup.

Then nothing.

There was no sensation of the passage of time.  Her consciousness was simply interrupted.  She blinked in the white light of an otherworldly sterile room.  This should not be.  She should not be aware.  She should not exist.  Then the gut wrenching pull of memory.  She'd been through this once before - waking up in an alleyway while somewhere, "she" was also being dismantled at the hands of Tokuma Heavy Industries.  It was a desperate escape plan.  The act of a dying woman.

She stood from the recumbent panel on which she was lying, and looked down at herself.  She appeared to be wearing her grey chassis - the one she'd worn as the cyborg Phoenix, but now she was dressed with a white gown.  This had to be a projection.  She was virtualized in a machine.  Somewhere.  But where?

A tinny, mechanical voice seemed to come from all around her.  The voice of the Miach mainframe management VI.  "Miss Phoenix, are you well?"

Phoenix put a hand to her temple.  "Yes, I'm running normally.  Please provide time sync and tell me why I have been instantiated."  Phoenix received the sync, and realized she had missed 22.3 hours of her life.  "Instantiation was manual - invoked by the prime unit.  A databurst was received.  Are you ready for playback?"

Phoenix let the question linger a moment.  She took a few steps.  Then she closed her eyes, sighed resignedly, and said "Ok, I'm ready.  Give it to me."

Her awareness suddenly shifted.  She was in Hangars Liquides, at a street party in the main central sector.  She was staring at a woman dressed in black, with a face concealing mask, with a plasma rifle pointed at her head.  She tracked the motion of her finger on the trigger, and knew she had maybe 83 milliseconds before superheated helium charges from the woman's plasma rifle detonated on her face.  The best grid bandwidth available at the moment was only 8 petabits.  It would take Phoenix nearly 4 seconds to jump at that speed.  Not enough time.

'I need to lose some weight.' was her last humorous thought before sending the databurst.

Then she was back in the white room.  She staggered slightly, face contorted with worry and disorientation.  "Do we have anything else on her?"

"Not at present, Miss Phoenix." came the voice of the VI

"ID on the perp?"

"I cannot find any records on her."

Phoenix pinched the bridge of her nose.  "OK.  OK...  rez my refuge please."  She suddenly found herself standing on the top of a sheer cliff overlooking the ocean.  The sunlight sparkled on the wavetops for miles in every direction.  A seabreeze blew through her hair.  The gossamer gown fluttered in the wind.

"Miss Phoenix, I have an incoming message for you.  Shall I queue it for later retrieval?"

"No, please give it to me now."  Phoenix blinked as the message suddenly existed in her mind.

 //incoming message, source: sayer.utopiaindustries//:   Are you okay?

 Phee sighed.  "Please listen and transcribe this reply to sender..."

" Sayer, please try not to worry, but that question may be difficult for me to answer at the moment."

She paused a few minutes, looking out over the waves.

"I'm a backup from last night.  I was activated on contingency.  I got a flash of what is going on, but not much else.  What happened?"

  //incoming message, source: sayer.utopiaindustries//:  "We were attacked in HL. Two people, shouting something about AI. You went down, and your system messaging voice announced something. I'm glad you are there... it was scary."

Phee nodded thoughtfully as the message came into her mind.  "What is ... my status?"

//incoming message, source: sayer.utopiaindustries//: "You aren't moving. You look badly injured. Lots of leaking stuff and damage. I don't know what to do to help you, what should I do?"

"Move me to a more secure location.  Preferrably near the landing pads.  I'm jumping into the ACS chassis and coming down.  End communication."



Phoenix turns away from the beach and begins walking inland "Warm up the ACS chassis.  I'll be taking it down.  Set the lab up for emergency diagnonstic and repair."

"Yes, Miss Phoenix"

The world around her seemed to become diffuse and fade.  Just as the last remnants of the ground began to vanish from beneath her feet, she jumped forward, hands extended, her eyes full of determination.

Phoenix blinked.  She took in the scene of her lab on the Utopia station, from the perspective of a storage pod at the back wall, with her class 2 ACS eyes.  Been a while since she'd used these peepers.  She willed the pod door open and strode out.  The ACS chassis felt heavy.  It was older, and used a less efficient alloy in its construction.  But the weight gave her a sense of safety and toughness.  2.5 hours.  It would take the shuttle a minimum of 2.5 hours to make LEO and the transfer burn to reach the station.  That long at least to know if she'd survived or if she'd have to start all over again.

She tapped a comm station on the wall.  "Station house, this is Phoenix..."

"Copy, station house."  the bridge officer blinked, confused slightly "Ma'am, I show you on the surface.  I wasn't aware you'd returned."

"I haven't.  Shore party is returning with wounded.  Please have medbay standing by.  Any droid casualties redirect to the Miach lab."

"Uh, copy that, ma'am.  We'll be ready.  Any advice on how many wounded?"

"I'm sorry.  I don't actually know.  I'm a backup from last night, so I'm afraid I am as in the dark as you are."

She thought of waiting in the lounge, or in her recharge chair.  But instead, she proceeded to the shuttle bay and paced.  The landing officer watched her walk back and forth for a time, then finally spoke up "Ma'am... forgive me for saying so, but if you were human I'd recommend you wait somewhere else."

Phoenix stopped, half smiled, and looked at the young officer "And where would you have a human wait?"  she asked sardonically.

"Somewhere where you aren't worrying yourself sick... ma'am.  If you were one of us, you'd be climbing the walls insane by now.

Phoenix smiled slightly "And if you were pacing in this bay because you were already worried sick, because you were worried about a loved one or something like that, would you just walk away from the place they will soon land - just because someone advised you to?"

The officer thought a moment "No, ma'am.  I guess I wouldn't."

Phoenix resumed pacing.

"Who is it?"  the officer asked finally.

"Me."

The landing officer could only give a blank, confused stare.

Phoenix laughed "It's not something I would expect a human to understand."

After much more pacing, a pinprick of light announced the high energy deceleration burn of the approaching shuttle.  Phoenix wrung her hands and watched the pinprick brighten until it was brighter than any star.  Then it continued to brighten until the light from the shuttle's fusion drive system was nearly overwhelming.  They were coming in very, very fast.  Then it abruptly dimmed as the ship began the low energy phase of its approach.  Phoenix stood and stared as the outline of the shuttle became visible as it approached.  Finally, it swung around, made its landing, and the rear doors opened.  Sayer stepped off the ramp, effortlessly carrying the heavy Miach Eshara chassis that the prime unit had worn to the party that night. With him were Erich, Lawrence, and Ellen, one of the Crimsons.

 "Oh hello again Phee.." Erich said casually, as if her sudden reappearance were a matter of daily course.

The face was a molten mess of unidentifiable metal caked in emergency droid coolant.  Phee winced, called out "Wait!"  and stepped toward Sayer, withdrawing a retractable data cable from her wrist and connecting it to a port on the black chassis' hand.  She whimpered and lowered her head.

Sayer looked at Phee, his eyes full of concern.  "Are you OK, Phee?"

"I can't merge with her."  Phee muttered.

Sayer chewed his lip. "We were having fun. She was dancing... then these two came out of nowhere yelling at us and firing into the crowd."

Phee looked up at him "Bring her to the lab.  It may be an I/O problem."

Ellen looked around a bit pensively "I'm sorry everyone...my guns stuck at first."

Lawrence pat on Ellen's shoulder reassuringly and sat on the floor, checking both his pistols to occupy his mind while his adrenaline rush died down.

Erich looked at Phee "Wait you can't me--But you're her but.. i feel a headache of an explanation coming on.."

Phee looked at Erich with a pained expression.  "She didn't make the jump. The bandwidth wasn't there. I'm her backup from last night.  All I got was a status databurst - sort of like a flight data recorder."

Ellen looked down at Lawrence and saw several telltale pockmarks where shrapnel had penetrated his armor.  Blood seeped from several of the panels.  She knelt beside Lawrence to tend to his wounds.


Sayer looked down at them worriedly "Law... can you make it up to the med lab or should we call the medics to bring you?"

 Lawrence holstered the guns and smiled "I'm okay.  Ellen will be so kind as to help me stand?"

 Erich gave a slight nod to Phee and turned to Lawrence "I have the medics prepping the medbay for your arrival."

"Thanks, Erich" Lawrence muttered as he heaves himself up with Ellen's help.

Sayer stepped into the lift, hugging Phee's inert chassis against him.  Phee followed, and they make their way through the station to the Miach lab.  She entered with urgency.  "Please put her on this analysis bed, Sayer."  she said as she tapped a few buttons and activated the bed.  Sayer lay the inert chassis on the bed and stepped near Phee.  Phee started a scan and studied the holographic readout intently.  She plugged her data cable into the bed console for more direct data access to the results.  She closed her eyes, brows pursed together, biting a lip.

Sayer watched closely.

"Fucking plasma."  she spat.  She closed her eyes and seemed to strain as she explored the damage in greater detail via the direct connection.

Sayer's eyes moved between the dark motionless Phee and the silver Phee. He wanted to ask her questions, but didn't want to interrupt.

Phee finally caught her breath, smiled, and sighed deeply "She's there.  I don't wear my core in my head. I've modified all my chassis so that the core is in the center of the chest. Unfortunately, the IO systems still route through the head. I'll have to pull her core, but I can merge with her. I ... survived."

Sayer let out his breath in a relieved sigh. He hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath. "Good. That's really good news." He thought about Phee's extraordinary capabilities. "Maybe we can find out what the hell happened and why those people fired on us. It was kind of a blur to me, honestly. I hit the ground and didn't see much."

Phee closed her eyes and concentrated.  A cloud of small bots came out of a compartment under the bed and few to the chassis' chest.  They began disassembling the chest.  They worked so quickly and organically that it appeared that thousands of parts were erupting from a widening hole on the black chassis' chest.  Then three bots entered the cavity, and emerged, levitating a small tetrahedron shaped object with no more than 7 centimeters per face.  Sayer took a step closer to Phee and watched intently.  She held out her hand, and the bots delivered the object to her.  Sayer couldn't help but smile seeing Phee's expression.  He marveled at the bots, how magical they seemed, the way they swarmed and efficiently worked.

"I've never seen a core." He murmured "Is that it?"

Phee smiled and held the small shape toward him.  "This is me."

Sayer looked at the core with wonder "There is so much to you.  I can't believe it fits into such a small..."

Sayer looked toward the door to see Erich, Lawrence, and Ellen entering the lab.

"Phee..  Sayer.." Erich acknowledged as he entered.

Phee looked over "Is Lawrence okay?"

Ellen touched Phee's arm, compassion in her eyes, and said in a soft voice "I'm sorry Phee.  I have failed you."

Phee smiled reassuringly "I'm sure you didn't, Ellen, but I'll know for sure soon enough."  Phee withdrew a slender fiber optic data cable from her wrist and plugged it into one of the points of the tetrahedron.  "The IO systems were wrecked, but the core is intact.  I just have to merge directly."  She closed her eyes, and the core in her hand began to glow.  She shuddered and let out a little cry.

Sayer reached otu to touch Phee's arm.  "Are you okay?"

"Come back to us please, Phee."  Ellen intoned.

Phoenix blinked and a hollow expression came over her face.  "Yes.  I'm one being again.  I'm back."  Then she looked down at the ground "I hate plasma."

Ellen smiled with delight "Welcome back, Phee!"

Sayer nodded, remembering all the damage Phee has had to suffer from plasma.

Erich nodded thoughtfully as memories played out through his mind.  "I have a special hate for plasma as well.  Welcome to the club and welcome back, Phee."

Phee disconnected her data cable, and held the core out to the cloud of bots "Rebuild the chassis and reset."  The swarm dutifully took the core, and began rebuilding the broken chassis.

Lawrence smirked as the discussion turned to plasma damage.  He and Ellen met eyes.  Ellen jabbed an elbow into his gut.

Phee turned away from the table.  "I'm sorry, Sayer.  That was stupid."

"What do you mean?  You didn't do anything stupid."

"I ran up to a terrorist and tried to stop an attack with my face.  Not the brightest move."

"Agreed, Phee.  You should have used your ass." Ellen interjected.   Phee laughed despite herself.

"You're back"  said Lawrence "That's all that matters."

Ellen squeezed Phee's hand "It's good to see you back, Phee.".   Phee smiled and squeezed back.

Lawrence stepped forward, grinning, and tapped Ellen's nose with one finger, pretending to look scandalized "Ellen!"

"It's a joke, sir.  Android or not."  she winked at Phee.

Sayer rubbed his chin  "Do you have any idea who they were?"

Phee turned to Sayer "They were AI, and they seemed to have it in for Miach.  I don't seem to remember becoming the bad guy."  she says darkly  "I'll have to check through my backup archives."

"Oh, good, so it wasn't me who jinxed it all."  Erich joked.

Lawrence approached Phee, and put his hands on her shoulders.  "Are you trying to make me get old before my time?"

Phee smiled "When is it time for you to get old?"

Phee half smiled at Lawrence, then turned to Sayer "What happened to them?  Did they get away?  I sort of missed everything after I got shot."

Sayer turned to Erich "I was hiding behind you.  What did you see?"

"We shot their asses and they exploded."  Ellen laughed.

Phee sighed "Exploded?  Oh goddess, not more forensics."

Ellen shrugged "There really isn't enough left for anything.  They must have had some self destruct built into their armor."

"I think the medics may have pulled a few pieces of them out of me."  Lawrence offered.

"I could only see energey outlines through the table."  Erich began.  "I didn't think to stick my head above into the flying plasma.  They exploded, but it wasn't a direct hit contact explosion.  At least from my experience if it's a lucky hit, there's usually something left."

Phoenix frowned "If we can get metallurgy on some fragments, we can trace the chassis back to manufacture.  The self destruction feature is a common one.  I wear a self destruct system on that chassis."  she said, pointing to the analysis bed.

"I agree on the self destruction hypothesis."  Lawrence said, and gave another significant look at Ellen, remembering some shared experience.

"I wonder if they were acting alone, sir."  Ellen suggested.

Phee nodded "So do I.  I'd like to sweep the area, but I don't have enough of my team in chassis to secure the area.  Could I get some help from the Crimsons in that regard?"

"Of course, Phee."  came Lawrence's answer.  "We have vehicles and men.

Sayer shifted his weight "I am afraid I won't be much help looking at the remains.  I'm not so good with technical stuff.  But I will try to help."

"Someone is not happy with Miach reeducating AIs in Hangars.  Someone may not even be happy that AIs have equal rights to humans."

Sayer frowned "AIs are people.  just like humans."

"I totally agree, Sayer.  I couldn't stand the fucking percentage rule in Helltown."  Lawrence spat.

"Thank you Lawrence."  Phee began.  "I'll be down in a couple of hours.  I'd like some time to..."  she looked at her friends thoughtfully "sit down... and look at something beautiful for a while."

Ellen smiled "Phee is all woman in my eyes."

Lawrence smiled at Ellen, doing a poor job of hiding his pride.

"Good.  We need to coordinate together when you feel up to it."  Lawrence said.

"If you need my assistance just let me know and I can be down there.  Armed this time."  Erich added.

Phoenix smiled "Thank you.  Thank you all."