I next came to with a gasp.
I blinked confusedly up at the book, which had miraculously stayed over my face. The sun isn't bright anymore from the light filtering through the crack between my face and the book above and below my perspective.
Oddly enough, the pain is gone. There's no soreness, and my head feels completely pain free. In fact, I feel... surprisingly pretty good.
Wait scratch that, my mouth feels like the desert. Figuratively and literally. I sat up and turned to the side, spitting sand out of my mouth and noting how thirsty I am. My stomach is also no longer feeling nauseous and instead has given way to a feeling of hunger.
I look down to take stock of myself visually, and if I could have paled, I would have.
My skin is stark white. Like chalk. Any hint of human like pink has disappeared. My veins also still stand out a solid black against the white of my skin, and almost more alarming, the black lines of my vein have branches from them that weren't there before, and while those branches are thinner, they don't follow the appearance of veins at all. Instead they look like a maze. I'm almost reminded of that crossroad puzzle that appeared on Tony Stark's skin when he had palladium poisoning in Iron Man 2.
I grasped at my head with both hands, sand falling away as the weirdest sensation entered my head. I blinked as the world around me brightened and dimmed, before a vertical line passed over everything, almost like a scanner bar.
I think of a video game hud starting up upon seeing it, and to my shock, the instant I think it, another weird feeling pulses in my head, and a translucent box appears in my vision, with a single word dimming and brightening intermittently inside.
Interfacing...
I watched in shock as a sidebar full of 1's and 0's apeared on the side of my vision and scrolls down, before an honest to goodness targeting reticle appeared and seemed to cycle through various styles I recognized from different video games before disappearing.
Another pulse from inside my head, and the box that said interfacing disappeared. The box full of 1's and 0's cleared and then text appeared in the box.
You're not crazy.
What?
To put it simply, I am something like your subconscious communicating to you. Only your subconscious now consists of a hell of a lot more than just controls for your heart beating, lungs breathing, stomach digesting, kidneys filtering, etc.
How is this possible, I wondered.
The grey lines on your skin that first appeared. I know you know of something that would tell you exactly what it is, but at the same time, you'd be wrong. I'm suppressing that realization for now so you don't freak out on me and try to reject me or something stupid like that. You need to take this calm and rational like, the way you prefer. And yes, I am responding to your thoughts.
Oh. I was just about to ask that. I don't like the idea of whatever this is suppressing anything, but from the sound of things, I'd probably freak out, so I suppose I'm grateful for that much.
You ready? I'd rather just avoid the freak out, but I don't think that's possible, and believe it or not, I'm actually acting in your best interest. If you commanded me to remove the block, which I was obligated to inform you of, by the way, I would do it. It's just I want you to keep in mind that while this is the quickest way to answer most of your questions about what you are now, you'd also be wrong, so please do me a favor and let me clarify before you do something stupid, please. Now, are you ready for me to remove the block?
I took a deep breath and let it out. I'm ready.
Ok. Think Star Trek.
I felt a strange feeling in my head, like something was falling away, and the next instant I leaped to my feet and away, looking down at myself in horror.
"HOLY #$%, I'M A BORG!?"
10 Minutes Later...
I finally calmed enough to notice that a number of new messages had appeared in the box on the right side of my vision and I turned my focus to it, feeling a bit guilty as I read down the lines.
Calm down!
You're not a Borg!
I told you, your first realization would be wrong for the most part!
*sigh* You're not even paying attention anymore.
...
And finally a new line appeared.
Are you finally done?
I nodded, chagrined.
Good. If you remember before you so promptly freaked the #$% out, I told you that while your realization would answer a lot of questions, you would also be WRONG. You are not a Borg.
That doesn't mean you AREN'T though.
No, don't freak out! Just keep calm, and listen. Or read, as the case may be. I'd speak to you audibly, but I don't want you questioning your own sanity any more than you already are, and hearing voices in your head has always been synonymous with crazy.
I nodded at that.
Right. All you are is a human with nanites. For now. Thing is, these Nanites are pretty darn modular. They can do quite a lot. If you really wanted, you could have them replicate the whole 'Borg' thing and start your own Collective. Don't lie to yourself, I know you thought about it once or twice, what with that story you wrote about becoming Overmind of the Swarm. At least you have a subconscious interface that'll answer your questions.
Yeah, about that...
Yeah, the only reason I exist is mainly so that the nanites have a way to interface with you. They're kinda pointless if there's nothing there to command them, and you already have a command interface available to you. Your brain. Don't bother trying to strain yourself thinking about it, but I'm essentially you answering your own questions since I'm interfaced with the nanites and can tell you exactly what they can and can't do, based on your conscious decisions on what to do with them.
I... see... I think? Whatever. So what are these nanites, and what are they doing right now?
Like I said earlier, the nanites are modular. individually they can't really do jack, but when they link up to each other? Oh, that's where the versatility begins. What the nanites are, exactly, are the tiniest of machines, less than a hundred atoms in size, and there are, on average, one per molecule within your entire body.
As for what they're doing, I'll sum up because we'd be here for a couple years if I gave you a full comprehensive report to read. I could just make the knowledge directly available to the part of your brain that counts as your conscious state, but quite frankly, that part of your mind isn't made to handle that kind of information and I'd just end up burning out those neurons, making you technically brain dead. You could be... rebooted I suppose, but it'd be like rolling back to a point before you received the information in the first place, so it'd be less than pointless.
Wait, if you can do that, what's to say you haven't already tried, and you're talking to my rebooted self?
Well for one, I'd tell you if that happened. I'd rather not have that happen though since it'd be wasting time and you have some decisions to make. I realize you don't trust me completely, which is fair, but for what it's worth, I promise I will never lie to you. I may very well hold you back from realizing something to protect you, but only until I've explained why so you don't do something detrimental to your existence or health.
Now, on to the summary. Currently, all the nanites are doing at the moment can be considered your neutral state. Basically they're just assisting in keeping you alive in the ways that are necessary to do so without wholly removing themselves from your system. A given example of this would be that they've augmented your musculature to deal with the fact that you now have roughly twice the mass you did before. The rest of what they're doing follows along those lines, essentially making sure your body runs much the same way it did before so that you don't experience a systemic collapse just from having nanites in your system. That would kinda run counter to their purpose.
And what is their purpose?
Whatever you want. Currently that is following your base biological instincts as best they can, such as survival, hence why they're working to keep you alive and not harmed from their presence. Anything else is a conscious decision you have to make.
I blinked. So if I gave the order for the nanites to off myself or purge from my system?...
The shock of it would possibly kill you, and until you hit a point where you could make informed decisions, the nanites were programmed to simply keep you alive. If you ordered them to purge from your system safely, they probably would, but seeing as I'm you, I can tell you quite handly that you already know that that would be a rather stupid idea. You want to live, and unless you abruptly decide you don't want that anymore, trying to live without the nanites would be a very short lived endeavor.
What do you mean?
How long do you think you'd survive on a barren planet, buck naked, with no food or water or shelter to speak of?
I grimaced, seeing it's- my- it's point. Geez, that's gonna get confusing.
Tell me about it.
Shaking my head, I put aside the ponderings of literally agreeing with myself, and tried to think of what to do now. Cause my subconscious has a point. How am I going to survive? I need the big three. Food, water, shelter, and two of those don't even exist on that planet, unless I can eat sand.
I blinked. Wait... Could the nanites reassemble other atoms into the nutrients I need?
Yes, that's doable. There's a couple steps involved first that you have to approve, but it can be done.
What steps?
Well, first, the nanites need to be able to replicate. Up to this point, the nanites were just... appearing out of nothing somehow until there was enough to have just about one nanite per molecule of your body. At that point, no more appeared. In order to make more, a number of nanites will have to assemble into a replication implant or two, how large and how many will determine how quickly the amount extra that you need at any given time will be created.
Implants? Like... Borg implants? I winced at the mental image of myself growing metal pieces on my skin in a way that looked rather painful.
Exterior implants aren't generally necessary unless you want the nanites to do something that requires projecting out from your body, like exo armor or something. It's a pretty logical conclusion though that the Borg of canon Star Trek must've had implants inside themselves as well as on the outside. You are right though that there is a catch. Something can't spring from nothing. While the nanites can assemble themselves into a replication implant, creating more nanites will require fuel and they can't exactly just create mass from energy.
Which brings us to another problem. Currently, the nanites are running off of two main power supplies. Thermal and solar. That's part of the reason why your skin appears to be so white. It's a side effect of the layer of nanites on top of your skin that are currently absorbing the excess heat and solar radiation pounding on your skin. So congratulations, you'll never have to worry about a sunburn ever again.
As it is though, this current state of energy absorption is enough to run the nanites as they are, but if you want implants that do more than what the nanites are doing currently, you'll need a power source.
Huh. That actually explains why the Borg need recharge stations in a way. Are you sure I'm not Borg?
You could be. It's your choice how you go about things. While the nanites can assemble and do nanite like things and alter your biology, that's about all they can do currently. If you come across some tech or make something that works, the schematics will be stored down to the atomic level simply enough though. It's all up to you.
Right, so... I couldn't just sprout chlorophyll or grow my own solar panels huh.
Do you know the chemical composition of chlorophyll or how to make solar panels?
Nope.
Then no, unless you experiment and stumble across the answer yourself, that's not gonna happen.
Well crap. Wait, if I have to know how things are made already... I don't exactly know the chemical composition of food. How am I going to sustain myself?
Lucky for you, I have the schematics for everything your nanites... 'scan' for lack of a better term. That includes you, and you already have a large amount of what you need to survive, at least for the next three days. You already know the chemical composition for water, so it's simple enough to pull hydrogen and oxygen from the air you're breathing. You currently feel thirsty because you're not drawing in all that much. Again, a few things are needed that you need to give the OK for and those parts are important.
And I already have numerous chemicals and nutrients in me that serve as fuel for my body so I, through the nanites, would already know what kind of fuel I'd need to survive. Fair enough. What needs the ok?
Well, the big thing outside of a replication implant are implants for processing materials outside the body, such as oxygen and hydrogen for water, and the sand itself for minerals and just atoms in general that can be reassembled into what you need. Currently you can already absorb exterior materials, but at a rate too slow to keep you alive, much less anything else you might want to do. And... yes, the catch is that it will hurt. The fuel needed to create the nanites flowing through the replication implant has to come from somewhere, namely fat stores, and while the process of removing fat deposits would mostly just feel weird, the exterior implants to process exterior material would hurt once deployed until the signaling nerves are bypassed.
How much hurt are we talking?
Uh... without any prior experience... I'd simulate that it would feel a lot like getting a really bad sting.
Joy. And you can't... 'bypass' the nerves first?
Not at the moment. That kind of thing can be worked in as a subroutine, but right now the nanites can only do what they're currently programmed. I can't exactly program them to do something else without having any true idea of what exactly will happen outside of what I can simulate. The nanites won't deliberately harm you, but an exterior implant jutting from your skin does technically count as damaging your skin, so I won't lie and say that it won't hurt, but... well, to put it simply, the more often you get implants that displace nerves, the more examples I'll have to counteract those nerves to bypass the signals so you won't feel it anymore. That's about the best I can explain it.
So in a nut shell, the more implants I get, the less it'll hurt?
Pretty much.
I see. And won't the replication implant hurt?
Not as much. You'll feel it, but nerves in the skin are more sensitive by nature.
And where are these implants going to be placed?
The implants for processing exterior material can be placed anywhere, but you'll probably want them on the palm of your hand or hands. As for the replication implant... I will preface the answer by telling you again that the nanites are programmed to follow your orders, and will do everything they can to keep you alive and not be detrimental to your health. So no, it is not a bad thing where this implant would be placed. In fact, it is the most efficient location for the implant, since it makes use of what nature has already provided you as the quickest way to get nutrients from your body and move new nanites to your body.
Where?
Your heart.
My immediate reaction was worry, but I deliberately calmed myself, quickly scanning what was already written, and I had to concede the point. Blood is the quickest highway and is deliberately made to get nutrients around the body in the first place. It's a bit alarming to think of something, anything really, messing with my heart, but my subconscious has a point.
Ok, my heart. And it won't be detrimental to my health and won't hurt, right?
That is correct. As I said earlier, you'll feel it for a moment, but you won't after that.
I sighed. Alright. How long will it take to do this?
Not long. Once you accepted, the nanites began their work. You should feel something in a few moments.
I waited after reading that, and true to its word, I felt a tightness in my chest that vanished almost as soon as I felt it.
Not so bad, right? Now for the exterior material processing implants. Did you want those on your palms?
Actually... if this is for food purposes, can't I just get an implant or two in my stomach lining? Everytime I breath, air goes into my lungs and stomach, so can't it process what I breathe or eat?
Do you plan on eating sand?
I grimaced at the thought, then considered. If the nanites can block the receptors and nerves of my taste buds and mouth so I don't taste it or notice the texture, I could probably handle- ugh - eating sand.
Want me to test if I can do that?
As soon as I decided in the affirmative, my mouth felt curiously numb for a moment, and I blinked at the strangeness of suddenly loosing the taste of the interior of my own mouth for a moment a few times. It's not something I'd ever really consciously noticed, but the interior of my mouth does have a taste. I spent a few moments marveling over that, then snorted, wondering if this is what a stoner examining their own hand feels like.
Amusing as that is, I would advise against consuming anything directly harmful to your person. While the nanites can counteract a lot of damage, especially in tandem with your own already existing organs, best not to test it in case something harmful proves to be too much, yeah?
I agreed with that assessment. The ability to 'reboot' my conscience or not, I'm pretty sure getting shot in the head would still count as a mortal wound.
Yeah, the nanites could rebuild the damage eventually, but depending on the damage to your brain, I wouldn't be able to roll back your conscience if your stored 'backup' is destroyed too.
I don't suppose a small backup memory couldn't be created and stored elsewhere in my body just in case could it?
What, like a secondary brain? That would be... doable actually, depending on where you want it. While the body is flexible, you don't have too much space available in here.
What about increasing my overall size as needed, that way I'd have more room in my innards for stuff like that? In fact, could more space be made by streamlining a few organs or making them more efficient?
Yes, to both questions, though the former would require quite a bit of fuel for the process, and the latter can only go so far without another set of example organs to 'scan', and that'll only help if the organs you scan are more efficient than the ones you already have.
...Unless you want to have less efficient organs for some reason. I'd be obligated to ask why, but that's doable if you really want it.
Um. No thanks. While taking what my subconscious said to the logical conclusion means I could potentially turn myself into a dog or a cat or a tiger if I wanted, I'd rather not if it makes me worse than I am currently.
Some animals might be useful though. Retractable claws under your current nails or a set of fangs with venom glands might be useful if nothing else.
Guess I'll keep that in mind. So about the implants for my stomach. Would those work well enough for providing for my dietary needs, or would I absolutely need a set in my lungs too or on the outside of my body?
Yes. While not ideal, a single implant or two in your stomach would keep you alive and the replication implant fueled for the most part, provided you don't do something crazy like make bricks made purely of nanites. Putting one or two in your lungs would require reinforcing the lungs themselves in a way they're not designed for. It could be done, but it wouldn't be easy.
I see... Wait, if these implants can absorb material directly from the outside... the whole point of the lungs and stomach is to process oxygen and such in the atmosphere for breathing, and to digest and move nutrients into my blood, all of which could be bypassed with these implants. Wouldn't that mean that my lungs and digestive system would become redundant?
Yeah, for the most part. Redundancies aren't necessarily a bad thing, in case your nanites fail for some reason.
True, but is that likely? Even without the nanites, my stomach and lungs could fail due to disease or illness like cancer anyway, and all humans have to live with that. Even having the capability of a redundancy at all for something so fundamental as breathing is a bit far out of the norm.
As I processed this, my brain went down a side tangent as I wondered what I'd look like if breathing and eating became redundant and I just removed everything needed for those to make room. I realized with a start that I'd probably look like Neo from the Matrix when Agent Smith removed his mouth, or kind of like a Protoss from Starcraft.
I think... I'll save the decision of removing redundant organs for if it ever becomes necessary. For now, I'll accept redundancies. I'll have the two implants put on my palms, so long as they can be made low profile somewhat... Actually no. I'd rather they be put on the back of my hands, provided they're placed over the bony parts like my knuckles. If they're on my palms, there'll be a dead spot and a bump on my palms that'll inevitably bother the crap out of me. At least if it's on the back of my hands and disguised somehow, I don't think I'll care much.
As soon as I'd decided, a pressure on the back of my hand built up on the parts of my hand where my knuckles and bones on the back of my fingers were. Abruptly my hand stung like crazy for a moment before dulling again as I saw a silvery version of my bones protrude through my skin, before becoming porous and then camouflaging to look the same as my hands did before in those spots; white and black veins.
Actually, I don't suppose my skin could be camouflaged to look the way my skin used to?
That would be ill advised. The pigment itself is part of the system used to absorb solar and thermal energy, and yes, white is the necessary color, not black. I'd explain why, but I know for a fact that you don't have the conscious knowledge required to understand even a tenth of it. It'd be like explaining calculus to a third grader. Sure, they've been doing addition and subtraction, but outside of recognizing numbers, the rest of the words would be gibberish. Suffice to say, until a new method is developed to gain energy for the nanites to use for power, you're stuck as you are, and that includes being unable to wear clothing, provided it isn't some kind of biological exo armor that is white from solar/thermal absorption due to your nanites.
I... guess it doesn't really matter. I hadn't really thought about it, but I don't really feel hot since I woke up. I don't know if that means I won't feel cold either, but that pretty much means needing clothing as protection from the elements isn't exactly necessary, though I do file away the idea of growing a set of bio-armor as needed in case I need more protection than skin can provide, like sand blowing at hundreds of miles per hour. Or shrapnel from things moving at high speed. Hey, just thinking ahead. Gotta get off the planet right? That means I need a rocket or something, and rockets can explode.
Baby steps though. I've no idea how I'll build a rocket or whatever to get off this rock. And survival comes first.
Speaking of cold, the sun has started to dip below the horizon. Deserts have a nasty rep for being extremely hot during the day and extremely cold during the night. Not only will there be little to no solar or thermal energy to absorb, but I could freeze to death if my nanites can't keep me warm enough to survive the night.
Yeah, that's another reason you need to make decisions quickly. It's a good thing you read fast, else it might've already hit nightfall already by this point. As it is, your best bet at this juncture will probably be to go dormant during the night. With the new implants on the back of your hands, if you bury yourself beneath the sand, you'll be able to survive since I can cut the instinct to breathe off and lower your body's state of activity low to allow for conservation of energy without threatening hypothermia, and once the temperature starts to rise again with the day, you can be awakened and dig back to the surface.
Uh... show me what that feels like? As soon as I thought that, I abruptly ceased to feel the need to breathe. So I... didn't. I didn't feel lightheaded, I didn't feel an ache in my lungs. It was weird to say the least.
Still though, time's a wasting. The sun is going down, and it's getting colder. I abruptly set about digging into the sand as fast as I could. I'm not sure how far down I should go, but I figure about three feet should do it at most.
It's not easy work though, using just my hands. I don't feel sore, nor am I sweating or panting, all of which my subconscious informs me is due to the nanites. The hard part is that my hands just aren't big enough nor are they efficient for digging like a shovel is. By the time I get far enough down that I can start focusing on digging out sideways so I can lay down, it's starting to get noticeably colder. I feel fine so far since I always preferred the cold anyway, but the temperature hasn't stopped dropping, and the winds which had been buffeting me this whole time are starting to hit shiver inducing temperatures, not that I'm shivering either, once again thanks to the nanites.
Eventually though I did get deep enough and wide enough that I could lay down somewhat curled up and start burying myself with sand. It was disconcerting, and on my request, I had the nanites block certain chemicals in my brain to keep me from panicking from the fact that I was essentially burying myself alive.
I'd gotten somewhat used to not breathing by the time I had the sand layered over my chest. This felt somewhat similar to when I'd covered myself earlier today. But that was just a somewhat thin layer though. This is almost a grave.
I started covering my head after closing my eyes, and tried not to pay attention to how uncomfortable it was and how it was getting harder to move my arms. Eventually though I had my head covered, and had to shift my elbows back and forth to work my arms beneath the surface. It took some effort, but it worked, though I didn't get my hands all the way down. With the way I'd buried myself, I probably look ridiculous with my legs curled and my hands partly extended skyward. Still, I'm buried, and there's some residual warmth left. One command later and I began to drift off as I went dormant.