Chapter 8: Redecorate, Rebuild, Restructure

We had left Midori back at the bridge; Sandra and Beth were already there waiting for us. Midori’s torso was now covered with the nanite carapace; I was wondering what the nanites would do with the bionic parts of her. Her limbs were still missing though.

‘How are you feeling?’ I took a seat facing her.

‘I’m alive, that’s rather good ... considering the circumstances.’ she looked intensely at me. ‘Why ... why did you save me?’

I sighed. ‘Frankly, I’m not so sure either. You looked worse off than me. You are a cute girl; I’ve been making lots of stupid decisions when it comes to girls. I can’t seem to leave them un-rescued.’

‘So I’m just a stupid decision?’ Midori raised her eyebrow.

‘Maybe it’s more than that. It felt like we were sort of kindred souls. Used and betrayed. Maybe I saw ... an ally ... or a friend.’ I wasn’t sure what to do with her. Was she to be trusted? Would she turn us in at a crucial time?

‘Friend? Master, you can’t be serious! This bitch tried to kill us all. Remember? I’m not sure if she can be trusted. She deserves punishment and retribution!’ Sandra was fuming, her hands in her hips.

‘Master? Why do you call him that?’ Midori was genuinely curious.

‘Because he’s my Master. He saved us from the likes of you, from the Matriarchy, he risked his life for us. He cares and loves us. And he has a fucking huge monster cock!’

Beth sniggered. I groaned ... how did the topic always get sidetracked to sex?

‘Look! He can even control and fix us. Look at Brooke! You knew her right?’ Sandra stabbed a finger in Brooke’s direction.

Midori stared at the vision that was Brooke. ‘Her? No, I don’t believe we’ve ever met.’

Brooke patted her shoulder, ‘Left shoulder, Augmented Zp16s, custom fitted and rated for Cat 4. Right thigh — graphene core with neosteel microwrap.’

Midori’s single eye widened, ‘Wait, but I had those done by the crippled girl in... ‘

‘Shutter Town.’ Brooke finished for her. ‘The crippled girl. Yup, that’s me.’

‘But ... but you look like a holo-model. How? I’m sure even the Matriarchs’ personal gene scientists couldn’t have done this for you!’ Midori was still staring wide-eyed.

‘It’s a long story ... I’m not sure we can trust you with that yet.’ I sat down on the chair. ‘Look, you’re eighteen? Nineteen? I can give your original body back to you.’

Midori frowned, ‘And what will this cost me? As you can see, I have nothing to give. I’m a Matriarch outcast. Trash. I’m not supposed to be even ... alive.’

I had enough girls on my plate right now, I did not want to deal with a crazy ex-Matriarch assassin. ‘Look, I don’t want anything from you. We’ll fix you up and just drop you off somewhere when you’re better. Alright?’

Midori did not say anything, she just kept staring at me; deep in thought.

Sandra threw her hands into the air and stabbed an accusing finger at Midori. ‘See! You don’t deserve any of this. Master is offering you a priceless gift! With no fucking strings attached. And you hesitate? Do you know how much risk we’re all taking just keeping you alive? I don’t fucking trust you at all!’

‘I don’t trust anyone either!’ Midori bawled. ‘Look at me! This ... this is what trust gets you.’ She grit her teeth, but it could not stop tears flowing down her cheeks.

‘You should have left her!’ Sandra turned to me. ‘Toss her overboard. She’s a ticking time bomb!’

‘She’s right you know.’ Midori replied. ‘I am a bomb, I have nothing left but a burning desire to blow up the fucking smile off the Matriarch’s and Justine’s face.’

Beth interceded. ‘We could use that. Kieran, Midori knows the inside workings of the NorthAm Matriarchy.’

I came to a decision. ‘Midori, you’re a victim of the Matriarchy. Just like all of us. I won’t lie to you, in fact, the process of rebuilding your body has already begun. Once you’re whole again, you can decide what you want to do ok?’

Midori studied me further, her eye was now puffy and her nose red from her outburst. ‘I thought those parts of me that I’d bartered off were gone for good.’

‘I sold my soul for vengeance.’ Midori closed her eyes and recalled her painful past.

‘I know vengeance. It does not cleanse the soul. When I slowly turned into a cyborg, I knew there would be no chance at love, no chance of intimacy, or a family ... of ... children.’ she paused hesitantly.

‘Kieran, do you know what you are offering? You are giving me something greater than my body. You’re offering me a new life. My ... mother often wished for another life for both us. She died on a trash heap, used and discarded.’ Midori was crying freely now. ‘I’m such a big risk! How can I accept this? It’s too great a gift. I tried to kill you all, I deserve to be tossed aside like my mother!’

Surprising all of us, Sandra stepped forward and dabbed the tears off Midori’s face with her blouse. She ‘Now ... you understand how great Master is. He has already forgiven you. You will accept his gift. You will then repay him with everything you become. You will love, respect and submit to him.’

‘Uh ... wait — hang on... ‘ I tried to say. The last bit about submission wasn’t quite what I meant.

Beth cut me off instantly. ‘Yes, Midori. Become one of us. Join your sisters, submit to Kieran. I guarantee you will be happier in every way.’

Wait ... what the fuck. How did this conversation go so off the rails? I sure as hell didn’t need another girl or even a slave for that matter. I thought this ‘slave’ thing was just Sandra’s sexy kinks that I played along with to make the fucking hotter.

Midori nodded solemnly at the girls. ‘Very well. I accept this boon. I will be reborn. I will take this gift bestowed upon me and I will dedicate it to destroying your enemies. I will ... serve you with my everything. Master.’

Sandra smiled evilly at me, ‘Very well. I look forward to training your new slave, Master.’

Sandra put Midori back into a medical coma for the nanites to work more efficiently. I noticed that Midori closed her eyes with a remarkably blissful smile on her tear-stained face.

The alien teleportation ‘egg’ made no sense — getting Ce:Ri to interface with it was impossible. I’d been tasked with trying to figure out how it worked as well as procuring things for the ship.

I had been kicked off decks two and three — Sandra, Beth, and Brooke wanted me out of the way. There were seven automated mechs in the hangar; it did not take long for Brooke to integrate it with Ce:Ri — we now had a domestic work crew. Three were assigned to Brooke; three to Sandra and Beth, and I was left with one to refit the bridge with.

Ce: Ri had been needlecasting to the ship all this time; there wasn’t any discernible lag — she was backed up simultaneously in three ensats and two land-based servers. It was quite unlikely and difficult to destroy her in one fell swoop; you had to take all five servers offline simultaneously. But I wanted another backup on board the ship itself, in the event we got cut off from her — that meant an enterprise-grade processor and server. I had maybe a million or so quyptocash stashed away for ‘retirement’; but survival took precedent and I blew it all on Ce:Ri.

The main guns were also offline, thanks to my ‘accident’. But they were also terribly outdated and inefficient; browsing through some military virts, several exciting options came up; but they were terribly, terribly expensive, not to mention extremely difficult to lay hands on, even on the DarkNet. Since our main modus operandi involved not getting killed and running away, more useful were defensive secondary weapons; things like flak cannons, deflectors, and anti-drone flechettes. I had no clue really, but all the marketing material I’d seen were all targeted at military brass (not necessarily a very bright lot); plus I consulted Brooke. Eventually, I just added a bunch of the latest ones on my list.

Energy shields were also a recent development. While they did little for projectile weapons, they helped dissipate anti-air plasma blasts — that definitely went to the top of the wish list. I estimated I was behind maybe eighty or so million bucks, assuming I could even order them legitimately. I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to lay my hands on all this.

So I headed into the dodgier parts of the DarkNet; it was here I could buy hopefully almost everything. There were usually bounties for hacking jobs; I wondered if I could barter or trade something for what we needed. It was sad that I could not use my ‘Matador’ alias, it had a lot of reach and power, but that identity was most likely compromised. So I posted my shopping list under an old alternative alias I’d used when I was a teen; and asked Ce:Ri to notify me if I got any offers or replies.

Turning my attention to remodeling the bridge, I figured I wanted a cleaner and softer look — I had Ce:Ri render a 3D model so we could run some mockups. We no longer needed much of the manual controls, since Ce:Ri would be piloting most of the ship’s functions. What we really needed was a better interface, maybe one or two touchscreen consoles that we could use to override Ce:Ri in the event that she was unable to function.

The fabricator was in the hangar; the girls had already been putting it to good use, I sent my items for fabrication and it joined the queue. It was overloaded currently and I would only get all my stuff in a couple of days. I had the mech tear out most of the chairs and consoles; then deliver it to the fabricator for feed stock, I wanted to replace them with comfier, less depressing versions. My back ached a little from the unergonomic straight-backed Prussian chairs.

It thought it would probably be a good idea to leave the dais with the egg largely alone for now. We would eventually have to test and see how reliable the teleportation was, but I was leaving that for another day. The past few days had been hectic, it was good to take a breather.

Every hour or so, I would glance at Midori. She was still strapped to the mech; the black carapace was now a rudimentary humanoid shape. The girls and I agreed that we should return her biological body to her current age of nineteen; extrapolated from her DNA. We would not give her any enhancements until we felt we could entirely trust her. Ce:Ri estimated that since we were literally building her body from scratch, it would probably take a couple of days, give or take.

The hours flew by and at night the sea was pitch dark and silent — it felt like we were a sanctuary, a tiny comforting oasis in the literal sea of chaos. I think I saw a large creature break the surface once or twice. It was an idyllic existence, free from the claws of the Matriarchy — I was not looking forward to picking up items from civilization. We had an almost unlimited amount of energy to sustain the five of us and we could probably fashion a method of fishing; with that biomass, we could fabricate our food indefinitely. Drinking water wasn’t even an issue.

It was easy to simply hide away from the cares of the world. But I grudgingly admitted to myself, that we were sitting ducks if the teleportation device ever failed us. It was a risk we had to take — we had to do some jobs, purchase gear and slowly upgrade this vessel to stand a chance. Could we take on the insurmountable might of the Matriarchy? If it meant just running and hiding in perpetuity we might stand a chance. Still, all this alien tech on board may hold many secrets to uncover; that might give us an edge.

For dinner, we cracked open and reheated Nutri-meal packs. Very few of us city dwellers were proper cooks. Real produce was incredibly expensive and hard to come by, even the vat-grown stuff. I bought a real steak once to celebrate, it cost something like two months salary for the average guy. Its taste was indescribable, I savored every bite; our processed stuff did not come anywhere close, but it also showed me what I was truly missing — and could not stomach any faux beef products after that for a month.

During dinner, the conversation turned to the alien tech and nanites, the girls felt it was time to enhance themselves. This was our first quiet night of rest, it felt apropos.

The girls were suddenly coy to share details. ‘Look, Kieran, Ce:Ri says that she found some graphene weave that we could use to reinforce our bones; hopefully it would prevent our bones from being broken like your legs were during your last expedition.’ Beth placed her fork down.

‘All the other defensive upgrades too. I would love to have bulletproof skin and that thick skull of yours.’ Brooke said cheekily between chews. Her appetite was clearly much better now; she had much more to fill up.

‘We haven’t quite figured out how you can move so fast and be so strong though.’ Sandra prodded indecisively at a piece of NutriBread. ‘I think we should also pick a world champion athlete as a baseline template for our fitness level. I for one would like to be in super peak health. All those years of cheap Soylent slop from the dorms couldn’t have done me any good.’

‘There’s also some other stuff we’d like to change ... you know ... cosmetic stuff.’ Sandra kept toying with her food.

I put down my fork. ‘Umm ... you mean like Brooke?’

I didn’t want them to change their looks for me, I loved them for who they were. ‘You girls are super hot and beautiful. There really isn’t any need... ‘

‘Silly man,’ Beth interrupted. She stood up and sat on my lap. ‘We’re girls. Do you have any idea how much a girl would pay to be able to change our bodies at will? We all have our little gripes about how we look.’

‘But ... ah... ‘ I looked pointedly at Brooke. She stuck her tongue out, raised an eyebrow and saucily shook her wondrous, jiggly boobs at me.

Beth pressed my face into her more modest chest. ‘I know you like Brooke’s giant jugs, but she didn’t do it for you. Imagine you’ve been told that you couldn’t pilot an aircar for the rest of your life — let alone buy one. Then some sugar daddy offers you any aircar you wanted. No budget restrictions.’

‘I’m a sugar daddy now?’ my voice was muffled. ‘I’m not that rich.’

‘Hey, you own the most fucking valuable ship in the world.’ Brooke stabbed her fork in my direction.

‘And you even let us redecorate it.’ Beth signed and ruffled my hair.

‘We’ll consult Ce:Ri about the changes we want, you just approve them ok? And no peeking.’ Sandra smiled at me. The girls already had some kind of consensus, one that clearly did not involve me. Who was I to stop them?

I kissed Beth on her chest. ‘Anything my loves. Just remember I love you all no matter what.’ Sandra squealed and planted a big smooch on my cheek.

‘There’s some cots in the hangar. The living quarters aren’t ready, so we’ll sleep here tonight. I’m sorry Master, I’m too pooped for fucking — maybe once I get my upgrades we can do it ... all ... night ... long.’ Sandra began collecting our empty food containers.

Hmm ... maybe there was only so much one guy could take?

‘Oooh ... I can feel my skin tingling. It’s starting.’ Beth said rubbing her arm. ‘I can’t wait to see how we look like tomorrow.’

Christine Blackwood sat impatiently, her perfectly manicured nails were tapping the surface of a huge ebony table. It was covered in rich detailed carvings, telling the story of the rise of the Blood Empress. The entire table was carved out from a single extinct tree, even with her exorbitant salary she doubted she could afford one in her lifetime.

And she was fabulously wealthy by most standards; being the heir apparent and current CEO of Glory Armaments, she controlled a vast global corporation. Glory supplied arms to everyone across the globe; for military or domestic use, for freedom fighters or dictators, the Eastern Bloc or the Matriarchy, Christine could hardly care less — all that mattered was the bottom line.

Blonde with an immaculately neat, short, swept-back bob, Christine was as beautiful as modern cosmetic surgery could achieve. Though in her late forties, she could easily pass off as an attractive suburban mom in her early thirties. Despite her perfect vision, she wore trendy black-rimmed glasses because she felt it gave her gravitas, as should beget a high-powered CEO.

A one-on-one lunch meeting with the NorthAm Matriarch was an honor few declined; but it was like having dinner with a wolf, you never knew if you were there to eat or be eaten. Christine, however, was getting angrier by the second. The Matriarch had kept her waiting for over an hour, and she knew that she could not just get up and leave; the Matriarchs were as powerful as the European queens of old, offending her had terrible consequences.

Fuck that stupid white-haired bitch! She’s doing this on purpose!

Her mind drifted to the board meeting yesterday. Yilin, the COO had been making moves, thinking that she could outwit an experienced vixen like her. That stupid cunt had even married her moronic son. But Christine had never been much of a mother either, and she saw her new daughter-in-law for what she was — another power hungry young bitch trying to wrest control of Glory from her.

Christine left most of Chris’ upbringing to the domestic family mech, she was too busy running a global Corporation. The boy never amounted to much; he was fat, lazy and stupid; and spent his time drinking, partying and whoring. So when he told her that he settling down and marrying Yilin of all people, all her red flags were raised — she’d protested, but Chris was curiously adamant. Finally, she’d chosen to stick to the adage of ‘keeping your enemies closer’ and acceded. She’d watched their relationship like a hawk, and even prepared an iron-clad prenup for Chris.