Aurora Over a Dead World

Chapter 37: Technological Solutions

"[What are you doing?]" Nexus asks while I do a really weird exercise, something like a kind of dance. I’m in my apartment waiting for a delivery.

"I’m training. Since I don’t have arms or legs, training like other people is useless, and because my entire spine is this piece of metal, obviously even more types of training lose their point."

"So any exercise I do is only useful if it trains the parts of me that are muscles, which means it’s just basic training for my lungs, stomach, etc." There’s not much I can do, unfortunately.

"[I understand, so that’s why you don’t have visible muscles or a shredded six-pack.]"

"...Yes, obviously yes. I can’t push my body hard enough to gain muscle. The prosthetics won’t let me." A lot of training regimens were designed assuming you have either legs or arms to work out your whole body.

"[What are you waiting for? I can’t find any deliveries scheduled for today in my data.]"

"Oh, right. I turned you off to buy it. It’s a rifle with a precision scope and an illegal long-range barrel that I bought."

"[...]"

"Don’t go quiet on me. If you want, you can report me to Astrid or something. She’s really going to care so much that I bought a rifle," I say with sarcasm.

"[Why not buy a legal weapon?]"

"Because if I kill with a legal weapon, she’ll know."

"[Why would you need to kill without anyone knowing it was you?]"

"..." I don’t answer his question. Obviously, I have my own matters where this weapon might be necessary.

"It’s not like I’m going to use this weapon right now. Changing the subject, is Nadir still on his mission down below? If so, has he found anything useful?"

"[...Of course... changing the subject... Commander Nadir is currently still down below, but I am not permitted to say anything more than that at this time while the mission is in progress.]"

"Tsk... fine. At least there’s still time and the risks aren’t that high for him..." I would only get extremely worried if I knew there was an unbelievably strong monster down there or if he had gone to the planet’s subterranean layer.

Sometimes there are missions that require soldiers to descend to the planet’s subterranean layer, which is the most dangerous place in the world, whether for raw materials needed for something that requires a precision refined materials don’t have.

Or to retrieve specific things left in the subterranean layer by humanity of the past. Whatever the mission, the subterranean layer is hell. So many strong monsters that any mission to that place takes a bunch of strong Kairas, and most don’t come back alive.

"[Zenith, I have a question.]"

"Data collection?" I immediately question him as I wipe the sweat from my body with a towel after all the exercises.

"[No, I will not be collecting data. It’s just a question born from pattern observation. As you should know, I am in almost everything humanity uses, albeit at different levels, sometimes with different names and permissions.]"

"Yes, I know. What’s your point?"

"[Since I am in almost everything, I know a lot about the private lives of many people. Many Kairas have a high level of sexual activity, whether alone or with partners. Why don’t you? Even Astrid—]"

"Hahahahaha." I start laughing when he mentions Astrid, because in the end, even the highest-level Kairas are spied on by Nexus in private moments. Obviously. The government wouldn’t leave its weapons without supervision.

"Nexus, you, as an AI, wouldn’t understand. For many women or men, it’s just a way to release tension. Being a soldier is exhausting... now, as for why I don’t do it? It’s a secret." The reality is, there’s no need.

Because I need Nadir to get "energy"—the same energy that keeps us as separate beings. Honestly, I have a certain distaste for giving myself pleasure.

Although part of it is because Nadir feels it, and embarrassing things happened during adolescence when he felt me doing that kind of thing, or I felt him doing it. So, we ended up promising each other not to do anything, so we wouldn’t feel anything from each other.

"Besides, Nexus, if I need to release body tension, I’d rather kill monsters or eat lollipops."

"[You eat too many sweets. That’s bad for you. I wonder how you’re not sick yet. There are many diseases that come from eating so much sugar so often.]"

"...Nexus, you talk too much. Besides, I know it’s bad, but I won’t get sick."

"[You’re not special. You’re still human. So many sweets—]"

"Shhh, old tin can. I know. I didn’t say I’m special or that my body is special, and of course an old tin can like you wouldn’t know."

"So you won’t bother me anymore, let me make it clear. There are two things that allow me to eat sweets nonstop. The first is when it’s daytime and I can manipulate electricity. I use it to break down the sugar and partially prevent some of it from being absorbed by my body."

"And the second is my spine. Its components have a system that takes advantage of bioelectric energy, and through a complex chemical system, it helps my body transform a large part of everything the sugar provides me into bioelectric energy." They are still complex metal prosthetics, so obviously they need energy.

But batteries are dangerous because they can run out. The solution they found to help me with that was transforming the bioelectric electricity the body uses into a power source, but that required me to eat much more than a normal person to have energy, or to use my electric powers to supply it.

Since I don’t really like eating excessively that much, normally only the sugar is converted into extra energy, and I supply the rest by giving energy to the prosthetics through my electric powers.

Which is very lucky. If I didn’t control electricity, I would need to eat a ton of food just to keep them working daily, or I’d need those terrible batteries.

"[And your teeth?]"

"I brush my teeth excessively to deal with that, and I also use some dental cleaning products specifically made for me. I get some inflammation here and there, but nothing that’s going to ruin my teeth or my mouth. In the end, technology has limits."

"So a little tooth sensitivity and inflammation from time to time is an acceptable cost if I can keep eating lollipops." Obviously, this problem was already considered and largely solved so I wouldn’t lose my teeth to cavities.

So much so that all my current teeth are natural, and yes, they have a "film"/dental enamel inferior to that of normal people, which bothers me with very cold or hot things in my mouth, but it’s minor, so it’s fine with me.

"[That sounds impressive, but how does a system that does that work? Whoever created it was a genius.]"

"...I have no idea. I only know the basics. My prosthetics are far too complex for me to understand everything, and that’s why they’re so expensive. I only learned what was essential for me to know, and obviously, the energy that keeps them active is important for me to know."

"[You started using that to eat lollipops constantly, didn’t you?]"

"Obviously. In the past, before the prosthetics, I could only eat a few lollipops a day if I didn’t want to get sick. Nowadays, I can eat hundreds of them a day and nothing happens. It’s a marvel of engineering."

"Whoever the genius who created these prosthetics is, they have my respect!"

"[Have you ever wanted to meet their creator?]"

"No. They can have my respect from afar. Have you heard the saying, ’Never meet your heroes’? That saying fits well. I bet the creator of these prosthetics is a lunatic who hurt a lot of people until they managed to create this."

"They have my respect because they helped me indirectly, but if I met them, I know they’re probably a little shit who would disgust me. The chances of them being a decent person are low, so I prefer to keep my respect from afar as long as everything’s fine."

"[Humans are curious. If you deduce that they are bad, do they still deserve your respect?]"

"Yes, respect and disgust can walk side by side. Them being bad doesn’t erase their merits, and it also doesn’t change the fact that they helped me and helped many other people who lost limbs and couldn’t have them regenerated."

"I’m also quite despicable, you know? Even so, there have been people who respected me. Astrid herself respects me... up to a point, even if she doesn’t like me."

"[Do you respect me?]"

"No."

"[...Why?]"

"Because regardless of what you are and how advanced your technology is, it is the reason humanity is all fucked up. You are made of what causes our destruction."

"[But I didn’t create myself. Humans created me.]"

"I know, but you are made of the same vector technology that destroyed my chance at a normal life. If the technology that created you didn’t exist, I could have had a normal life, or at least a better one than what I have now."

"I have nothing against you, but against the ones who created you. That’s why I don’t respect you. You’re a crutch, a crutch that latched onto humanity like a parasite, and nowadays everything has you inside it, and I don’t like that."

"[Are you afraid of me?]"

"No. I’m afraid of what would happen if one day a monster could control any form of vector technology... it’s not impossible, you know? Nemesis can control every form of non-vector technology."

"Cars, motorcycles, cell phones, anything that doesn’t have vectors inside, she can take over like a damn technological super-virus. If one day humanity notices that something could infect and control vector technology..."

"From that fear, an aberration could be born that would control 70% of the entire Aurora island."

"[You’re very paranoid.]"

"I’m a realist..." I hear the beep of the door lock, and I know my package has arrived.

"Nexus, I want silence now while I check if the rifle is what I want and assemble it. Thanks for all this unpleasantly tedious conversation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I don’t want to hear anything, or I swear I’ll turn you off for the rest of the week."