Chapter 1: Something is Not Quite Right

I vaguely became somewhat aware. I did not actually wake up like a normal person wakes after a deep sleep. It was like I was slowly becoming aware that despite the absence of all sensation, I had an active consciousness. This realization seemed to take days, or it could have been minutes. Time was hard to judge in this state. Slowly, like the bathwater rising to submerge a bathing body with warmth and heat, the awareness of memories and sensations grew. I became aware that I was blind as I realized I missed the sensation of sight. I started to feel, but my first feeling was fear as my body became aware that it was running out of oxygen and I could not breathe. I felt a jolt and a thump in my chest which must have been my heart starting and shortly after I was able to gasp and inhale a deep breath.

I suddenly understood what was happening to me. I was ‘waking up’ from being in bio-suspension and had gone through this before! I calmed myself as a tube was withdrawn from my throat. I fought the urge to cough and instead, slowly breathed through my nose. I waited until my nervous system had control of my body and finally managed to pry open my eyes. I saw a blurry glow on a screen in front of me and heard a feminine sounding artificial voice speaking softly to me.

—John Abrams, please remain calm.—

The words sounded strange and I felt a funny sensation in my brain when I heard them. I was calm though, I thought to myself. I slowly cleared my throat and licked my lips.

“Sssstatus Agent? Directives?” I asked, now growing nervous as I remembered the potential dangers I was waking to.

—I am still acting under the new directives implanted during the override session, John. —

Relief flooded me and I relaxed back into the cushion. I was curious about how long I had been in bio-suspension. I also remembered that I was going to be rendered unconscious soon to complete my body’s reactivation. I would wait.

— I am now administering a sedative, John. You will be rendered unconscious for approximately eighty hours as the recovery process and the full reactivation of your body is completed, — the voice said.

Soon, I was again unconscious and sleeping peacefully.

This time I awoke refreshed and full of energy. I opened my eyes with a smile. I turned my head to look around and my smile was replaced with a frown. The medical crèche lid was almost fully open, and I could see that the vault beyond was dim ... and small. That was new. I stretched and I felt no aches or pains like I did during the last rushed revival back in...

“Agent, what’s the date?” I asked.

“The current date is Thursday, April 7^th and the year is 2912, John. The current time is 07:12 in the morning.”

This time, her words sounded more normal and I did not have the weird feeling in my head.

“The weather outside is a pleasant 23.3 degrees and sunny. The winds are mostly calm with an occasional slight breeze,” the machine continued, covering all my potential questions.

I remained silent as I digested that. It sounded like a great day to be reawakened. The passage of time still hit me though. I had last gone into bio-suspension in the year 2602.

“It has been 310 years, 12 days since you last entered bio-suspension, John,” Agent added, continuing to anticipate my questions.

I calculated how old I was. I had been 634 years old when I went under so that made me 944 years old now. I was just shy of nine and a half centuries old. Jesus! I’d have to look in a mirror when I was upright to see if I still could see my reflection. Maybe I could now transform into a bat! I probed my teeth with my tongue ... no fangs yet.

No matter my apparent age, I still felt great. Agent’s technology worked better than ever. Looking down at my nude and toned body with its flawless dark skin, I looked like a fit person still in their mid-twenties.

I swung my lithe legs over the side of the medical crèche and stood, stretching on my tiptoes, my spine arched backward with my arms extended up to almost touch the low ceiling. I marveled at how good I felt and how much energy I had. I felt lighter than air! I looked around the medical crèche vault and noticed two things. The first was the pile of clothing that I had expected to find. The second was that the medical crèche was definitely not in the same vault it had been located in when I was put in bio-suspension three centuries ago.

“Where am I at Agent?” I asked, fearing the machine would answer ‘prison’ or someplace worse.

“During your bio-suspension, you and the medical crèche were relocated to a facility much safer than the field base in Tennessee,” the machine answered.

“Are we still safe from the enemy A.I. presences?”

“Yes, John, you remain safe. The enemy A.I. presences remain unaware of your unplanned active status. Nor are they aware that you possess forbidden knowledge and harbor rogue technologies,” Agent reassured.

“Then where are we now?” I asked, looking around the dim, compact utilitarian vault once more.

“We are currently located at a hidden facility in southeast Georgia. I have prepared a media station in the next chamber. There I will update you on what has occurred since you last entered bio-suspension. I also have an assortment of beverages for your refreshment.”

I stooped to retrieve the clothing. As I sorted through the garments, I found the image card and my wedding ring. I slipped the ring on my finger and noted that it fit snugly, which was new. I looked at it and it looked smaller for some reason. I wondered if Agent had resized it. I began dressing and I bent to slip on my underwear, my smooth dark legs caught my eye. Something about that nagged at my brain causing me to pause.

I finally realized that it was my dark skin that caused my brain to hesitate ... It was unusual, but why? I stood there looking at my legs when it finally dawned on me what the strangeness was. I had been Caucasian before and now my skin was a medium brown color! I then recalled Agent’s last words as I was put under, ‘be aware that I will be altering your appearance’.

“Huh.” I muttered. I wondered what else was changed.

I realized suddenly that I was just not that surprised or concerned about my skin’s new coloring. It felt ‘right’ somehow, and I suspected why immediately.

“Agent, did you mess with my head about my new skin color!?” I asked angrily.

“Please remain calm, John. Yes, I did make slight adjustments to your thoughts about your body changes to limit anxiety and confusion upon your revival. I did not alter your memories. If you try, you will find that you still have all of your personality and memories.”

I tried to do as she suggested and verify that I had all my memories. I did have them ... at least those I remembered. It suddenly occurred to me that the exercise was pointless and futile. How was I supposed to notice things which I had forgotten? Still, I remembered the details of the rogue crystal data module, the existence of the hidden base and its location, and the culpability of Agent regarding the destruction of my world and species. Those were the important memories and certainly the first to have been tampered with if Agent had been compromised by the enemy A.I. ‘master’ presence.

I began to relax. It was reasonable that this Agent presence was still operating under the constraints and directives which I had implanted into its primary operating system back when I had hacked into it. I would just have to trust that this Agent version was still working with my best interests in mind. Maybe Agent’s ‘adjustments’ were as harmless as she insisted and did help with calming my anxieties. It still bothered me that the machine kept meddling in my brain which seemed to defeat the purpose of its attempts to keep me calm.

I continued dressing as normal and put on socks and a pair of shorts. My brain ‘twigged’ again when I slipped on my sports bra. It was not until after I had finished putting the shirt on over the bra when my brain finally caught up with the ‘twig’ and what I had just done. I felt a jolt to my core!

“YOU FUCKER!” I burst out, shocked to the point of screaming. “You made me a woman!”

Agent hesitated a bit before answering.

“I ... apologize, John. I did not realize that you had such animosity towards females.”

“I don’t hate women, I love women!”—waving my arms wildly—”I just ... I’m a MAN dammit! Agent!” I whined.

“It appears that my attempt at mentally adjusting your awareness of your current body’s gender was not completed in an optimal way. I will have to consider using a different approach next time,” the machine admitted.

No shit! I thought, still reeling as I stood there looking down at my covered breasts!

“Please relax, John. You are still you. Just consider this as... ‘taking a vacation’ from your normal gender. You will find this body is as fit as your previous body and even more agile and flexible. Though it is slightly weaker, I will provide equipment to make up for any shortfalls in brute strength which this body may lack as compared to your former body.”

I snorted at Agent’s use of ‘taking a vacation’. I had to admit that this was indeed a good way to disguise my appearance. I could imagine that if an enemy A.I. detected me, it would deduce that I was a native from Brazil and that my origins had derived from the rogue elements based there.

As I continued to look over my body, I began to realize that I was surprisingly comfortable with the new gender. For example, I seemed to ‘know’ what to expect when I needed to take a leak. I also seemed to know how to care for this body hygiene-wise, including during that time-of-the-month.

I noted I was also mentally ready for this body’s physical differences and capabilities as I could clearly imagine how I could now move and bend in new, very agile and flexible ways. I looked forward to actually working out and doing calisthenics. Maybe Agent actually had prepared my mind adequately to live in a female body.

OK, it was at this point that I ruined all that reasoned and logical thinking in one instant by groping myself. I couldn’t help it! I just had to see how they felt. I discovered that my new breasts felt great! This was very weird.

What the hell John! I had to get a grip on myself. I groaned at the inadvertent pun. I made a conscious effort to resist exploring the lower parts of the body and naturally, that led my thoughts to wondering how complete Agent’s mental manipulation of my psyche had been regarding things of a more sexual nature.

I had been married so the female form was not a complete mystery and hopefully, I’d be able to handle this body’s natural urges myself if it came to that. I’d just have to modify my past knowledge and think ‘first person’ instead of ‘third’ if I needed to take matters in hand. Again, with the puns! Jesus John! I could no longer control myself and started laughing. Agent proved its intelligence when the machine just let me laugh it out without interrupting or inquiring.

I soon got control of my laughter. I had to put the subject of my new body out of mind for now, at least until I could find a full-length mirror. I composed myself and taking a deep breath, turned to the door which Agent had now opened. Entering the next room, I found it also surprisingly dim, small, and utilitarian. The room was about two meters square with bare metal walls. There was another door on the far wall which must have been the exit. Like the vault, this room was lit by only a single wall fixture. The only furnishing was a reclining chair which faced a wall-mounted view screen. The sparse room was very unlike my lavish dwelling back in Tennessee and I asked Agent about it.

“These chambers are for your temporary use only. After the briefing, you will be moving to more permanent quarters. I suspect that you will find those much more to your liking,” Agent answered mysteriously.

Well, I guess we better get on with it then and went to sit in the chair. As I did, I noticed a small cooler beside the chair and helped myself to a bottle of cold water. The bottle of beer that I had spied was tempting, but I realized I had better forgo alcohol until I learned exactly what the situation here was. Lying beside the cooler on the floor was a pair of goggles of the type I was familiar with but I left them where they were for the moment. I reclined the chair and could not help again noticing my bare slender legs. That was going to take a bit to get used to.

“Agent, before we start, I have a few questions.”

“Yes, John?”

“Tell me about Ana? Did she survive to raise children and start her tribe? How long did she live?”

Agent paused a bit before answering.

“John, before I tell you what information I have of Ana and her existence in South America you must understand that the master intelligence had and still has direct oversight over the operations on that continent. Thus, the only data I have has been passed on from that presence and is somewhat limited. I have gotten updates on Ana and her status, as it was intended that the information be available at the field base to answer your questions when you were next awakened. Understand that I have no way to determining if the updates were correct.

“Ana lived on in the rain forest for over one hundred and twelve years before dying in an accident from a tree falling. Before she died, she had raised and overseen nine generations of children, grandchildren, and so on. The extended tribe grew and spread over an area of over six thousand square kilometers, although the population remained sparse due to fertility issues.

“While she was alive, Ana acted as a fertility shaman who oversaw the local A.I. as it acted to implant new generations of fertilized embryos into the sterile females of the population. After her death, new tribal members were trained to act in that role, and thus, a stable tribal population has been maintained for three centuries and this continues to the present time,” the machine answered.

Wow, there was a lot to consider there and I’d have to think about what I heard later. I was surprised to learn that she lived on a century and more before dying in an accident.

“What were the fertility issues? Were they sick?” I asked.

“The cause was not relayed by the master A.I. presence but I suspect that presence was controlling the population growth by purposefully limiting fertility,” Agent explained.

I bet that had pissed her off to no end.

“How did Ana live so long?”

“A landing pod delivered a fully equipped medical crèche four decades after she arrived in the region. Ana had initially refused rejuvenation treatments from it for over a decade before she was placed into the crèche by a descendant against her will after having succumbed to illness. The treatment restored her to a youthful condition as you had known her,” Agent answered.

I let most of my other questions go as I thought about Ana and her long life.

“Had she been happy?” I asked.

Agent paused a long time before answering.

“Yes, I believe overall she was. From the limited data, I can deduce that she felt frustration at both her exile and her outrage towards my presences but, she also clearly demonstrated joy and happiness with her extended family and their tribal life.”

I could see that. I imagined her being content with her lot in life. I sat remembering my friend whom I had known only briefly.

After nearly a minute of silence, Agent began the briefing.

“John, I will start by reviewing the first incident which threatened your survival while you were in bio-suspension.”

The view screen lit and displayed an image of the Tennessee base. I realized that I was looking at a camera view of the landing area located next to the aircraft hangar.

“Two hundred and forty-one years ago a landing craft unexpectedly descended upon the Tennessee field base. The craft had been sent by the master A.I. based on the asteroid 3074 Popov.”

I watched as a conical shaped lander rapidly descended and set down with a large exhaust plume of flame. There had been an aircraft similar to Flipper parked nearby and the exhaust from the lander caused it to tumble off the pad. This was clearly an unplanned event, or Agent would have moved the aircraft beforehand.