Heat leakage had melted some of her cytec abdomenal wall. A blue pressure bandage showed where her primary caretaker, Cellen Cerwia, had cut it out, leaving the nanotech corite skin to cover a void as big as a fist.
Cellen, an ACDF operations officer, had begun to research a new power system for Otanda, whose aging system was beginning to fail.
Unlike her virtual twin, Omanda, Otanda had been in continuous service since being rescued from derelection by Cellen over 200 years ago.
She had actually been online for 7 times that, spending most of that time badly damaged and offline in the destroyed bank she had worked at.
She had been shot with Asikiwa weapons and had fallen, utterly torn to pieces for hundreds of years not deteriorating, until Cellen found her at the bank's back door, where she fell trying to protect employees.
Cellen took her back to the office and reconstructed her with Merisa's help now, long ago. Ever since, Cellen worked to constantly improve Otanda's life and well-being.
Otanda's constantly improving body and strenuous job placed great demands on her power system. She was the security officer of the ACDF facility she was owned by.
Recently, Otanda had been having trouble staying active in the late afternoon. Then the heat leakage happened during a charging session last night.
It scared her experienced AI to no end. Otanda was afraid to die. If her power system malfunctioned, it was a possibility.
The elaborate and solid protection systems enjoyed by her newer kin, of whom she knew nothing of, were not in the last replicant built by Aldan Cerena.
Otanda now was largely redesigned and worked on by Cellen, the hacker, ops specialist, and now android tech. She trusted Cellen completely, the only one who ever showed care for her.
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Cellen, a beautiful browned haired female, child of a Cristalian computer designer, came in looking very grim. "I'm sorry, Otanda. I talked to 12 different roboticists and android specialists. They all agree that it has to come out before it kills you."
Otanda was crushed. "I am scared, Cellen. I cannot function without a power shell."
Cellen looked down. She had worked on that power shell for ages and never could get it to optimal specs. It was impossible. "I don't know what to do for you, dear."
Otanda had never heard her say that before. It scared her even more. "I do not want to die, Cellen."
She looked at her with teary eyes. "I won't allow you to die, I swear my life on that. Look, I don't want to but I will have to call Merisa, if she's even still around."
Otanda knew Merisa, of course, but had not heard from her since her heart attack years ago. "I do not know if she can work still."
Cellen shrugged. "I will see." She left Otanda's room sadly.
Otanda felt like crying but she couldn't. Curse of her artificiality.
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Merisa was mixing the new coral/ceramic blend for android bones when Orela came to her.
She took off her PPE and looked at the dark haired female replicant. "Yes? Is there a problem with the setting?," she asked with worry.
Orela shook her head. "No. The mix is setting excellently. I came to inform you that a female named Cerwia is holding on hypercomm for you."
That suprised Merisa. She had not heard from the prodigal computer whiz in a long time. "Did she say why she was calling?"
Orela looked uncharacteristically grim. "My kin, Otanda's power shell is breaking down."
That worried Merisa greatly. Her father had put those stupid power shells in the first two replicants. They were not meant to power an android, rather, they were an industrial power source. The heat they emitted would melt any cytec mix created all too easily. No shielding was totally adequate.
It had been a mammoth task to remove and replace Omanda's and she was offline at the time. But Otanda.... Merisa mused, was special. In ways, she was beyond any of her kin and had the least developed power system of them all too.
She looked at Orela. "I will talk with Cellen, will you continue the mixer here? I'll be right back."
Orela nodded. "Certainly." She began to run the mixer, not minding the dust that caked Merisa's worksuit.
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Cellen smiled on the wallscreen. She wore a grey ops uniform with all kinds of tools in its pockets. Had she been working on Otanda? "Hello, Merisa. It's wonderful to see you."
Merisa smiled. "You too, Cellen. It has been a long time. What can I do for you?"
Cellen looked down at an unseen computer. "I called to ask if, sorry if this sounds extreme, if Otanda's power system could be replaced."
Merisa frowned, troubled. "Not without some major work and changes to her body. I would have to take her apart and remake her. That would be the only viable option."
Cellen took on a similar expression. She shook her head. "How long would we be without her?"
Merisa hated to give deadlines to her work. There were always too many variables. "I really don't know. I've never done this type of thing before. It will be hard undoing my father's work. It's hard to improve on perfection."
Cellen scoffed at that. "Hardly, Merisa. You need only to read Otanda's duty logs to see the pain she lives with everyday."
Merisa wanted to get angry but Cellen was right. Aldan Cerena had made an uncharacteristic short-cut in designing the basic systems of Otanda. It was unforgivable in her opinion. You wouldn't give a person a faulty heart and nervous system. "I understand. Do you want me to help her?"
Cellen looked uncertain. "I don't know. Any major work on her has to be approved by Major Celja and she's off to who knows where in another galaxy now. If she wasn't back before the Major's return, there would be trouble. Mainly for me." She paused and sighed. "She already has me on a angry list for some reason."
Merisa knew nothing about Ketheri Celja other than that she was far older than an ACDF officer should be in her opinion. "I don't know what to tell you, Cellen. If Otanda isn't reworked, you may be missing her forever."
She nodded sadly. "I know. Um, I will take a chance. I love her too much not to. What do I do? I can pay a reasonable amount."
Merisa shook her head. "I will not charge for any work on Otanda. Bring her to Tirakel Zone 11, you can't miss my facility here."
Cellen looked suprised. "Tirakel?"
Merisa nodded. "I was relocated here by friends. It's far better than Ketaterra."
She smiled. "That's nice. I will bring her to you. We have a back up officer to take her place."
"Good. I shall await you, Merisa said and the channel was cut. She frowned. This would be a huge job. She called Theren and Orela in to discuss it.
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Otanda frowned as Cellen told her. "Remaking?"
Cellen nodded. "That's what she said. I do not know what she means but I'm sure that it will be significant work."
Otanda looked down, unable to look at the worry in Cellen's face. "I am scared."
"There is no need to be. This will make you better than new. Get ready for a trip to Tirakel."
Otanda nodded. "Yes, Cellen. You will leave me there?"
"I cannot stay with you, sorry. I have to be on duty constantly. I will be there for you if it's needed. Count on that."
Otanda nodded. "Thank you, Cellen." She went to her room to prepare.
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Orela smiled at her kin. "Hello, Otanda. It is nice to meet you."
Unused to seeing her newer kin, Otanda politely smiled. "Hello, Orela. I am glad to meet you." She had been impressed by this shiny new facility, totally unlike the antiquated dingy warehouse she had been constructed in.
Orela led her into a modern work area where Merisa stood, organizing tools on a work table. "Merisa, I have Otanda with me."
She turned and smiled at Otanda. "It's been a long time, Otanda. How do you feel?"
Otanda hugged her as was customary for old friends. She had known Merisa since her very first day online. "I am scared."
Merisa shook her head. "There is no need to be. This will make you better than you ever have been before. I understand that you must be back at your job soon so we should begin at once."
Otanda nodded. "What do you want me to do?"
"Take everything off. Jewelry, your comband, all your apparel. Give them to Orela and lay on that table over there." She pointed to a white table lined with sensors and power recepticles.
Otanda did as told, effeciently stripping, making Merisa wonder where she had learned that. When she was totally naked, she went and carefully lay on that table, suddenly worried. Being deactivated always worried her.
Merisa peeled away the bandage and gasped. There was an area of hardening around the injury, cytec shift. "Oh my, Otanda? Can't you feel this shift?"
"No, Merisa. I have no sense or sensor in that area that was not damaged by the heat leakage. Cellen says I that have bone damage on my spine as well."
Merisa was now even more troubled. If it was hot enough to damage porcelain-polymer, critical damage was likely. "I'm sorry, my friend, I have to deactivate you for scans and work. I will have you back online as soon as I can, I promise."
The look in Otanda's eyes chilled her. She never saw an android so scared of being offline. Why?, she wondered.
Otanda closed her eyes. "Please,do it quickly so I will not feel it, Merisa."
Merisa frowned as she touched the button on her master key to deactivate 8841.
Otanda instantly relaxed and went slack. The tension she had disturbed Merisa. What happened in her life to make her this way?
She ran the table's scanner and turned to a holoscreen nearby to study the resuts.
Orela was the first to see it. "Oh no! Otanda has level 3 critical damage to her internal structure!"
Merisa was astonished. How was she even functional? It must have been Cellen's work. She was more skilled than Merisa gave her credit for.
Otanda's power shell had literally melted part of the ceramic outer shell that protected her body from the heat. Two of her primary sensor regions and a main trunk of wires were destroyed. Six vertebra of her spine were significantally damaged. Part of her pelvis was destroyed. There was a void of viscous, watery heat destroyed cytec all over her internal structure. The shift was recent but there were signs of shift all over the internal areas. How she was even functional was a miracle of engineering.
Merisa looked at Orela. "You may not want to watch this," she said, pulling on her gloves and picking up a corite spreader and cutter.
Orela shook her head. "I wish to see."
"Then don't get too close. This is a hazard to you." She put the cutter to Otanda's neck and split her skin and inner membrane all the way to her pubic region. They fell apart like sagging sheets of plastic, not like they were supposed to do.
She gasped. It looked even worse in reality than it did on the scan.
Liquified cytec bubbled and steamed in the heat within it. Part of the ribcage was melted and deformed. It was so hot, Merisa had to step back.
"My goodness. I have never seen anything like it. It's awful," she said, her voice breaking.
Orela shook her head in horror. "Otanda must have been in awful pain."
"I doubt it. All her sensors in this area are destroyed. We have to take her completely apart. even her bones, and replace everything." She shook her head. She wanted just to make a new body. It would not be easy.
Orela looked forlornly at Otanda.
Theren came in with her image scanner and gasped in horror. "What happened to her?"
Merisa shook her head. "Power shell. I told you they were dangerous. None of her skin will be salvagable, I'm afraid."
"I don't doubt it. Can I still image her for a new one?"
She nodded. "Just don't get too close. And mind any piercings she has for jewelry. Everything must be as it was. She has to be intact as we got her. The ACDF owns her, you know."
Theren shook her head. "I will be extra mindful. Goodness, this is hot."
"Be careful, kid. I must go study scans. Orela, make sure nothing comes near Otanda as she cools," Merisa said.
"Yes, Merisa. Theren? Allow me to image her. The heat-," Orela said but Theren interrupted her.
"Don't worry about me, Orela. I come from a hot planet. Heat doesn't bother me." She began detailed imaging of Otanda's skin, taking hair samples and unique features to her.
Merisa went to her office to study the travesty.
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It took three days for Otanda's body to cool enough for work.
Merisa had vacuumed all liquified cytec out and threw it away. She was presently romving the power shell but it was too heavy for her. She wasn't as strong as she used to be.
Orela was not allowed to touch any contaminated part of her and was not in the area.
Merisa struggled to hook it onto a lift hoist and then lifted it out of the runied abdomenal area. Liquids dripped from it as she moved the hoist over to a refuse container for it. She would have it destroyed because she hated it. More vacuuming followed and then Merisa began the semi-easy task of skinning her.
Most of the nanotech cells in her corite skin were intact and operational. Merisa programmed them to abandon Otanda's body according to crease lines she made in Otanda's skin. They dutifully obeyed, Otanda's skin splitting and sliding off of the bluish-green inner membrane.
Merisa threw it in a refuse container to be safe. Part of it was destroyed.
About an hour later, she began cutting the inner membrane into 12 different panels to be removed one at a time because cytec muscles beneath could possibly fall apart and make a huge mess.
She removed all cytec achingly slowly, sorting out salvagable cytec for sterilization and industrial recycling and throwing the bad out with the liquified mess.
Once completed, Otanda's dark grey skeleton lay like a dark colored nightmare, the damage dramatically visible.
Merisa left her head intact. The skin was gone but the inner membrane and moldings were unaffected. She detatched it easily from the bones and put it in a safe box.
The skeleton was too badly damaged to graft repairs onto and the type of the bones was an old mix not used anymore.
Merisa made detailed meaurements and analysis and then had the skeleton, wires and lines all compacted for recycling.
When she was done, there was no trace of Otanda on the table.
Completely gone.
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Orela carefully and lovingly casted each bone. Her attention to detail exact.
Merisa admired her devotion to her kin. She, herself, was mixing more of the new coral/ceramic-polymer blend for the bones.
Theren was putting her incredible artistic skills to the test, carefully making a new skin of the highest grade corite, resistant to cuts and heat-damage. The nanotech cells of an advanced type with rapid healing and regenerative abilities.
She matched 347 different artificial hair types to Otanda's sample and found that none of them matched. She had to use her own hair to make a new type that matched Otanda's, which had curious Cristalian qualities.
Though not designed to replicate a Cristalian female, Otanda looked just like one. So Theren made her a Cristalian skin. Not unlike her own.
She even made Otanda new eyes and head moldings though that kind of work was done only by Merisa.
All this work took 47 days, molding, casting and finalizing.
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New wiring and lines were run. They were made of new superconductive materials and protected in one of the most strong protectants available.
Orela was allowed to do this as Merisa installed the new power cell, careful to replicate the systems in all later 8800 Series Replicants. If they all were the same, working on them would be easier on the small android shop.
Bones were assembled together as they went, sealed with biological grade artificial cartilage. The bones were a light grey color with a reddish tint, the darkest the coral/ceramic-polymer blend got. The Sci-Tech Ministry grudgingly approved it for use when they first came up with it.
It took them 3 days to finish and only then did Merisa start on the new cytec.
It was of a very new and exclusive type. Because most of the 8800 Series Replicants were regualr females with regular jobs, aggressive qualities were not needed.
Otanda was an ACDF security officer in an outfit no stranger to violence. Most of the damage Merisa had repaired over the years was gunshot or knife related.
One day soon, Ketheri's ownership clause would expire. Otanda would be free for the first time in her life. Merisa wanted to ensure a quality life after her years of servitude.
So she made a special kind of cytec blended with corite to make it far stronger than any made before. It had a very high heat tolerance and felt like real muscle and flesh, because not all cytec is muscle in a female android.
She molded them on a Cristalian mold system, matching exact specifications of Otanda's original body.
When set and done, they were sprayed with a protectant and a buffer that would keep them from sticking to the new inner membrane made of softer but no less strong and resistant cytec.
If the corite skin failed, and it rarely did, the inner membrane had to protect delicate systems.
The power system was enclosed in a coral/ceramic shell to keep it separate from the internal body. It was no heat danger, its heat dissipated as it processed water.
Otanda would have to pee more than she used to but it was a fair compromise in Merisa's opinion.
She grafted each cytec part onto the body slowly with precision and care, molding it all into one complete body unit. It took 2 days.
When it came time for the inner membrane, Merisa was careful to make Otanda's shape exactly the same as it was.
She was self-conscious of breast size for some reason and had previous work done to make them exactly proportional to her body size.
It mystified Merisa. Android breasts were decorations, not functional but she respected Otanda's wishes. She usually made them appealingly small, not unlike her own.
The inner membrane went on in form fitting sections that seamlessly molded together on contact, whick made it tricky and exacting. It took six days alone to put on and in a sterile environment that made Merisa sneeze a lot. She had to wear a sneeze-mask to keep from contanimating the work.
By contrast, Theren's job was easy. The skin was already done and excellently colored and exactly like Otanda's original but a shade more color to her. She had been sickeningly pale.
Her hair was made from an artificial type that exactly matched Theren's own and colored exactly like Otanda's own.
The skin merely wrapped itself around the body, the nanotech carefully and seamlessly sealing it as it went along.
Merisa did some slight work on her head and reattached it before the skin reached her chest area. She took the time to carefully replace Otanda's subgrade eyes, optic sensors from an obselete android model because there were issues with eye replacement or because Cellen could not get the proper replacement eyes.
The new ones were based on the Cristalian eye, replicated it exactly, automatically keeping moist, meaning Otanda could cry now, and were the same type developed for Orena, military grade.
They should not need to ever be replaced but it was not out of the question. Android eyes were vitally important and had to be maintained.
When the skin closed over Otanda's head and molded itself to her features, they were done at last.
Theren carefully pierced her ears and cut her hair to match her previous style.
Otanda did not look any different other than her healthy color and beautiful true Cristalian features.
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Merisa and Cellen stood next to the table as Orela pulled a red-brown Cristalian style bodysuit onto Otanda's slack body.
"Why does she look like a Cristalian?" Merisa asked. Cellen smiled. "She wants to be like me. She felt that since a Cristalian made her, she should match his kind."
She chuckled. "I'm glad. I don't know why my father never made Cristalian replicants. I have made 2 and remade one now. Our people are much reviled in the Commonwealth, though."
Cellen nodded. "I know that all too well. I'm very happy with your work. She's beautiful."
Orela finished and lay Otanda in a natural position.
Merisa took out her master key but Cellen beat her to it.
She had her own master key specifically for Otanda. "Watch this." She entered a bizzare computer code and Otanda suddenly awoke, shuddering as her new power system calibrated itself to her body. She blinked her eyes and sat up.
"Hi there," Cellen said.
Otanda looked at her, then intently at Merisa. "I feel different."
Merisa smiled. She imagined what it was like, waking up in a fresh new form. She sorely wished she could do that. "How so?"
Otanda smiled. She rarely ever smiled but this was genuine. "I feel like I have always wished to feel. My body fits me now."
Cellen held up a mirror. "Look at yourself, my friend. What do you see?"
Otanda did and was captivated by her appearance. "I look, I look like I have always wanted to."
Cellen smiled. "She's perfect. I am impressed with your work, thank you so much." She kissed Merisa on the cheek.
Merisa blushed. "I was happy to help her. You will not get in trouble for her being gone for almost 3 months?"
She shook her head. "Nope. Major Celja won't be returning to our office. I am formalizing Otanda's emancipation appeal soon. The Major has become indigent, something aliens did to her. She no longer has any legal rights over Otanda and for that I am glad. She is a person, not a slave."
Merisa liked Cellen a whole lot for that. "I'm happy you see her that way. Not many share that opinion."
Cellen nodded. "I know. I'm sorry, Merisa. I have to return to the office. I will come back and visit, Call me whenever you like."
Merisa nodded. "I will."
Otanda got off the table and came to Merisa, hugging her. "Thank you, Merisa. You have given me a new life."
"I'm happy that I did. Please stick to your new needs. You have a different body now, a sensitive one. Please take care of yourself."
"I will," Otanda said. "Good-bye, Orela, my kin. I will remain in contact with you always"
Orela smiled. "Thank you, Otanda."
Merisa said her good-byes and they left. She looked at Orela. "Was that not gratifying?
Orela grinned. "Muchly so."
� 2 March 04 Gregory Thompson