Risen: Shatterverse - The God War

Deux Machina

I was finishing my third round of pancakes, my four female companions looking at me with something close to astonishment, when Naveaia looked over at Siofra.

"How fares the Unity's efforts to get you your shell, Siofra?" she asked, instantly demonstrating a familiarity with the blonde AI's efforts to shell her intelligence so she could travel outside of VR.

Having moved her chair close to mine so she could lay a hand on my thigh as I ate, Siofra grimaced.

"They've made no progress, unfortunately," she admitted. "I'm at the point where I'll take a Juno shell and make it work."

"Pity." Naveaia looked at me. "We should summon your passenger to the diner and ask it how it was granting bodies to the essences you were saving, Two."

"We don't need it for that," I said, pushing my plate away. "It's digital DNA. The t'sang would run a conversion process that would map each essence to a corresponding DNA helix, giving their new body the same characteristics that their remembered body had."

"So we give you digital DNA, Siofra," Alys said, with a hand held out towards the blonde AI. "Then the mini-forges can build you a body that way."

"If only it were that simple," Siofra said. "I'm pure intelligence. There's no remembered body to use as a template for the DNA map."

"Well, how functional is the body you're currently wearing?" Miranda wanted to know. My brow lifted when, before she answered, the blonde AI gave my leg a light squeeze as if she wanted to make sure I was paying attention to the answer.

"Fully," she said, squeezing my leg for a second time.

"Then, why can we map that?" Miranda asked, looking at me.

"Because it's, um ..." I frowned. "I dunno, actually. Maybe we can."

"Do you have access to the t'sang's conversion protocol even though its roaming somewhere out in the city?" Naveaia asked. My frown deepening slightly, I started rummaging around in my head.

"Probably. It always leaves me aware of everything that it does, so I can replicate it in the future without its oversight. So, while it ran the conversion for both the Merkur event, and the rescue of Travelers' Point, I should have the process in my ...Ah! There it is!"

As I activated it, I was surprised that a HUD didn't appear in my mind's eye. Instead a glowing, rectangular interface in lines of blue light appeared hanging in the air directly in front of me. Mentally shrugging, I did a quick scan of the various t'sang symbols to familiarize myself with their function. Finding the targeting function, I reached out and activated it before swinging the interface to face a curious Siofra.

The entire interface flashed twice to indicate it had locked onto Siofra. I then tapped the symbol that designated the mapping protocol and held my breath as a circle of light appeared over Siofra's head. It then smoothly scanned down, flashing at several locations as it did. And each time it did, a portion of a DNA helix appeared in the space directly behind it.

Then it was done, winking out of sight. At the same time a message in t'sang symbols appeared over the helix.

- Do you wish to preserve this map? - it asked and I tapped 'yes'. Then frowned as I felt something push into my body.

"I think I ... got it," I said hesitantly as the interface faded out of sight like the scan line had.

"How are we going to know?" Alys asked, eyes wide.

"We need to go outside to the mini-forges," I said, frowning as I probed with my fingers where I felt whatever it was, enter my body.

"Let's do that then, yes?" Siofra said, slightly breathless with excitement and anticipation.