The Replacement - Part 8

Part 8

Part 8.1: Final upgrade

True to John’s word, Greg and Sabrina were called in several weeks later to receive their final body upgrades. While everyone else from the group was to be called in later that day, and over the rest of the week, Greg, Sabrina, and Julie were considered VIPs and had the first available slot.

While the last major upgrade to the artificial human bodies was several years ago, Greg still recalled it not taking more than a couple hours, yet John told them to expect to be at the lab all day. Confused, he decided to bring Ipek with them since he was sure that the extra time would be spent with John doing something the twins wouldn’t be interested in.

After they herded the twins into the car, with much help from Ipek, they made the long drive to John’s lab and to their own personal suite, where he was waiting.

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting you guys for another hour,” John said with a surprised look when they came in; he was standing over an exact duplicate of both Julie and Sabrina. “I only got the girls done,” he apologized, looking at Greg and then at the machine which was still printing the skin and musculature on Greg’s new body. While Sabrina’s new body was completely naked, Julie’s new body was wearing the same clothes as she was currently wearing.

“It’s alright John,” Greg smiled, “The twins actually behaved this morning, so we were able to leave earlier than expected,”

“I see,” John laughed, smiling at both twins while surreptitiously covering up Sabrina’s naked body in front of him with a cloth, “Well, why don’t I get Julie transferred over now so we can have some alone time?”

“Good idea,” Greg said, “Though doesn’t she need to download an A.I. update first?” he asked.

“No, I’ll explain later,” John said, getting Julie’s scalp panels opened up and pulling her brain out of her old body. John made surprisingly quick work of transferring Julie’s brain to her new body. As soon as Julie booted up in her new body, John set her down and told her to run off with James and Ipek.

“Thanks dad,” Sabrina said with a sigh of relief, glad that the kids were gone so she and Greg could play.

“Don’t mention it,” John winked.

“So, how much longer until my new body is ready?” Greg asked.

“Not long,” John said, walking over to the printer, “About 40 minutes,” he clarified.

“Okay,” Greg said, “Do you want Sabrina to transfer over now?” he asked.

“Not yet, I want to go over a few things first,” John said, removing the sheet from Sabrina’s new body, “We’ve made quite a few internal improvements, thanks in part to all the data we’ve been collecting over the years and during the final testing phase, as well as several technological advances that have come out in the past decade,” he explained, pulling a diagnostic tool from his clothes and running it over the torso, making the seam appear. Once it was there, he put the tool away and then separated both flaps, “Come, take a look,” he said, once both flaps were open.

Greg and Sabrina both casually walked over to the other side of the table so they could get a better look inside Sabrina’s new body. They both gasped when they saw the changes.

Several of the components were relatively unchanged, mostly the sexual systems, the lungs, and the heart. Many of the other components had been drastically changed, including the artificial kidneys, liver, and the entire digestive system. Each of the changed components was much sleeker than before and were actually made to resemble their organic counterparts, though they were actually made from some sort of flexible metallic alloy. In addition to looking like their organic counterparts, they were also in the same anatomical locations.

As for the motor control complex, it took both of them a while to spot it, since the more central location it used to be located at was now where the stomach and intestinal tubes were. They finally found it nestled between both lungs, much further up than it used to be. It also appeared to be smaller and was actually connected to the lungs with silvery tubes, though the multitude of wires coming from it had not changed. It was also surrounded on the front and back by a metallic looking shield.

“Yeah, we were able to make drastic improvements to our internal design based on new technological advances over the past decade, and the treasure trove of data we collected last month and over the past several years,” John explained, “Suffice to say, we’ve been able to make these bodies more internally anatomically correct as well as externally,” he smiled.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Sabrina said, gingerly touching the intestinal tubes, “Why all the extra realism?” she asked.

“Believe it or not, those intestinal tubes are more than 60% more efficient than the previous method,” John said, “We wanted to implement that before, but the size of the motor control complex was so big we had to shrink most everything else,” he explained, “Which didn’t exactly permit us much realism inside,” he added.

“How come the motor control complex is attached to the lungs?” Greg asked, “And what’s up with the extra shielding?”

“To help cool it off,” John replied,” And the extra shielding is to protect it from shock and projectiles, since it is a rather important component for our proper functioning,” he explained.

“Oh,” Greg said, “But wasn’t it capable of cooling itself off before?” Greg asked.

“Yes, but its internal cooling system consumes a great deal of energy,” John said, “By shrinking the computing components, we were able to shrink the whole device by about 40%, allowing us to move it up to the lungs and allow the lungs to cool it off,” he explained, “the internal cooling is still there, but it only kicks in if you happen to be in a situation where there is an absence or lack of air, or if you are engaged in extreme physical activities,”

“Interesting,” Greg said, “So then, what was the point of us being able to breathe before?” he asked.

“We had always intended on it being for cooling off the internal systems, as well as for realistic vocalizations,” John explained, “But it was mostly for realism,”

“Figures,” Greg said.

“Anyway, now when you go on a jog,” John said, “or have lots of sex,” he added with a wink, “You’ll actually be breathing heavily because you’ll be cooling off your systems, not just because the motor control is dictating that to your A.I. for realism,”

“Wow, you guys really have thought of everything,” Sabrina said.

“Also, because of the lungs handling the cooling, the motor control complex saves about 40% in power consumption,” John said, “Basically, most of the changes we made were to improve both power efficiency, and overall reliability and stability,” he explained.

“Is that why you made the organs look more like the real things?” Greg asked, pointing at the liver and kidneys.

“Precisely,” John said, “Now, depending on ethnicity, body type, age, and gender, we have standardized several different organ builds so they are much easier to both mass produce and replace in case of damage or failure,” John explained, “Before we would have had to design a custom replacement for each person,” he said, “But now we can simply remove the damaged organ,” he continued, pressing a control on one of the artificial kidneys and removing it, “And immediately replace it with a standard model and your bodies nanites do the customization as it integrates,” he finished, replacing the kidney back where he pulled it from.

“Wow, sounds like you guys are really trying to make things easy,” Greg said.

“Yes, we are,” John smiled, “We think organ replacement should be a very fast and efficient process,” he said.

“Still, won’t the new organs change the way our artificial bodies move?” Greg asked.

“Of course they will,” John said, “But realistically, your current bodies don’t actually move the way a human body does,” he said.

“They feel like they do,” Sabrina said.

“Well, of course they do,” John said, “We configured the motor control algorithm to basically trick your minds into thinking that they do, but the problem with that was it made the motor control complex use a lot of extra processing power, consuming more energy,” he explained, “Now, with all the artificial organs in the correct place, the bodies will actually move in the same way but more efficiently,”

“Wow, I never realized,” Greg said, absently stretching a little and feeling his torso.

“Well, that was the point,” John pointed out, “Anyway, we had the designs all worked out before R. Sabrina here was built, but back then we lacked the proper technology to make it all real,” he explained, “Now, with the technology and data, this is basically going to be the final design of the artificial human project for at least the next century until we determine the next phase of our evolution,” he added.

“So, you keep saying that most of these improvements were all about power efficiency,” Sabrina said, “So, how much extra time can we stay online?” she asked.

“Well, with the efficiency improvements, as well as the better batteries we’ve installed, the average person should be able to stay online for roughly 72 hours on a full charge, that is, if they don’t eat, drink, or plug themselves in,” John said, “So, we’ve added an extra 40-48 hours,” he said, “And we’re hoping with further software improvements we can improve that to 96 hours,” he added.

“Cool!” Greg said.

“Aside from the improvements in the torso, are there any other improvements?” Sabrina asked.

“A few,” John said, and he pulled his tool out again and waved it over the neck and scalp, making the seams appear. He then pulled the head off, followed by the scalp. Greg quickly became aroused at that sight, since he still had a weakness for seeing Sabrina’s head taken off, “Sorry Greg, I know this turns you on, but take a look,” John said, holding the head out so they could see inside.

Greg smiled despite himself as he peered inside the open head. Unlike with the torso panel, not much had appeared to have changed within the head. All of the components were still in the same location, though they had been refined to be noticeably smaller. Another thing he noticed was that the area where the brain was now surrounded by a metallic cocoon of some sort.

“So, what exactly was done in the head?” Sabrina asked, looking inside her new head.

“Well, obviously we’ve been able to refine and shrink the processing hardware and other components in there,” John started, “But more importantly, we’ve also been able to add that extra layer of protection for your brains,” he explained, pointing at the cocoon, “Basically, when your brain is attached, it closes up and acts as a shield against any shockwaves or projectiles that might get through the material your skulls are comprised of,” he said.

“Damn, you guys are a little paranoid, aren’t you?” Greg laughed.

“Well, we figured we might as well give ourselves as much protection as we can,” John shrugged, “After all, we are basically inducing forced evolution, so why not give our new bodies the protection that biological evolution couldn’t” he asked, “After all, if our biological bodies had this much protection, the real Sabrina might not have died the way she did,” he finished.

Greg sighed a little, looking at Sabrina with a sad look. He still felt sad about losing the original Sabrina, even after all these years and even though R. Sabrina had been more than convincing and adequate over the years, even giving him a family. She looked back at him, knowing what he was feeling and patted his shoulder caringly.

“You’re right,” Greg finally said. John stared at him knowingly before taking the head and reattaching it to the body, “So, are there any other noteworthy improvements?” Greg asked.

“Well, we were able to enhance the smartskin so it can heal a bit faster,” John said, “And we improved the EMP insulation by about 40%,” he added.

“What is it with all the EMP protection,” Greg asked.

“Solar flares,” John answered.

“Really?!” Greg said incredulously.

“Yes, really,” John said seriously, “A lot of people don’t realize this, but a century ago there was a massive solar flare that nearly fried all of our electronics,” he explained, “Ever since then, society has spent a great deal of time and resources insulating all of our technology from EMPs,” he continued, “Since we’re converting the entire human race into mechanical bodies, we want to make extra certain our bodies can handle any surprises the sun might throw at us,” he said, “Otherwise we’d be like the Bynars in Star Trek: The Next Generation who were nearly wiped out by a supernova,” he said, smiling at Greg.

“Nice Star Trek reference,” Greg smiled, also looking at Sabrina who still hadn’t watched them, “So that’s why you blasted us with an EMP at the final test?” Greg asked.

“Yes, though that was only about two-thirds of the energy that the sun would have launched at us,” John said, “But it was equivalent to the strongest EMP developed as a weapon in human history,” he added.

“Well, all I felt was a slight tingling,” Sabrina said.

“Me too,” Greg added.

“Good, with the improvement we’ve made, if we were to do it again, you shouldn’t feel anything,” John told them.

“Well, I suppose that’s a relief,” Sabrina said, “Though now I’m going to be worried about a solar flare wiping everything else out,” she said.

“No need,” John said, “We’ve had a century to prepare and more than 90% of our energy reactors are underground and properly shielded,” he assured them, “Obviously our solar, hydroelectric, and wind plants would be at risk, but we’re certain we’ve done enough to insulate them,”

“Okay, now I can relax again,” Sabrina smiled, sighing with relief.

“So, aside from the smartskin enhancements, no other improvements?” Greg asked.

“Not really,” John admitted, “The skeletal and musculature systems were already exactly how we wanted them when we first built Sabrina here,” he said, “The only difference is we’ve finally been able to modify the printer so it can use plant materials too, which slightly cheapens the process,” he explained, “And we improved the print speed by about 10%,” he added.

“Cool,” Greg said.

“Well, that’s all the major improvements anyway,” John said, “Everything else is just minor bug fixes and software improvements,” he shrugged.

“Wait, you never explained how Julie was able to integrate into her newly upgraded body so quickly,” Greg pointed out.

“Oh, we installed the A.I. update directly into the motor control complex, so as soon as your brains connect to it, the update will automatically install,” John explained, “Obviously, this new process is much faster than before when you actually had to download it yourself,”

“That makes sense,” Greg said, “But will we still be able to download updates wirelessly if we aren’t here?” he asked.

“Of course,” John assured him, “But obviously this update is the biggest one yet, so we installed it into the body itself to quicken the integration process,”

“Okay, just making sure,” Greg said.

“Anyway, now I think I’m ready for Sabrina to transfer over,” John said, “You might want to take your clothes off first so you can wear them out in your new body,” he suggested, starting to close up her primary access panel.

“Wait, can you leave that open please?” Sabrina asked.

“Sure,” John said, stopping his progress and flapping the panel back open.

“Thanks dad,” Sabrina said, and she quickly stripped off all her clothes and folded them neatly on a nearby table. Knowing that she would most likely be wearing them out in a new body, she had shut off her current body’s sweat glands so she wouldn’t soil them. Once her clothes were off, she unsealed her scalp panel and lifted it up off her head, setting it down next to her clothes. “Did you want to do the honors?” she asked Greg with a smiled.

“You know I would,” Greg smiled back, and he reached in his wife’s head and pulled out her brain.

Once he had it safely removed, he brought it over to her new body and carefully inserted it. Several lights blinked inside both her primary access panel and inside her open head. Greg noticed the cocoon surrounding her brain closed up until it completely covered the brain. He was briefly worried he wouldn’t be able to open it for next time, but he saw a button that could open it. After almost a minute had passed, Sabrina finally came to life by slowly opening her eyes and taking a breath.

“Well dear, how does it feel?” Greg asked her, clicking her scalp into place once he was sure she had time to fully integrate into her new body.

“It feels about the same,” she admitted, “But different,” she added, contradicting herself. She carefully sat up so she could look inside her open chest, “Wow, this is really cool,” she said, looking at the different configuration from her new body’s point of view. She gingerly touched some of the new artificial organs and recoiled slightly when she did. “Hey, I can actually feel them,” she said, touching them again.

“Yeah, I forgot to mention that,” John said, “We put a basic nervous system on each organ so the overall feeling is a bit more realistic,” he explained, “That’s partly how they reduce the overall processing load on the motor control complex,” he continued, “Since before, it had to fool your brains into thinking you could feel each organ,”

“Oh, that makes sense,” she said, poking everything in there.

“Does it hurt?” Greg asked her.

“No, it doesn’t,” she smiled, laughing almost giddily at the sensation of touching her own internals.

“The point wasn’t so they could feel pain,” John said, “Only so they have feeling so you can move around more realistically,”

“Okay,” Greg said, “Looks like we can have some more fun playing with our innards,” he smiled to Sabrina.

“I know,” she smiled back, “Wait until you feel for yourself,” casually flapping both sides of the panel back in place and sealing it up. She then dropped to her feet and stretched out her body, pausing briefly to look at her old body, still passively standing naked next to Greg, “Wow, I’m never going to get used to seeing my body staring at me like that,” she said absently.

“I can’t, wait” Greg said, and then he turned to John, “So, how much longer until my new body is ready?”

John quickly peeked inside the machine, which was about halfway done with the torso, “Between 20 and 30 minutes,” John answered.

Greg sighed at the length of time he still had to wait, and then he looked next to him at Sabrina’s old body, still standing there; an idea suddenly struck him. “Hey dear, maybe I could transfer over to your old body and we can have a little Sabrina on Sabrina action while we wait for my new body to be ready,” he suggested.

Sabrina stared at him and at her old body for a while before a smile slowly appeared on her face, “Let’s go for it!” she said.

“Interesting,” John said, “Before you do Greg, make sure to strip off all your clothes,” he said, “You have no idea how hard it is to undress or redress a body,”

“Alright,” Greg said, quickly stripping off all his clothes and folding them next to Sabrina’s. Then he opened his scalp and allowed Sabrina to remove him. Moments later, he activated in Sabrina’s old body, with her standing next to him clicking his panel back on.

They both stood there after that, staring into each other’s eyes. For once, both were exactly the same height and were in the same person’s body. Finally, Sabrina spoke.

“Wow, this is weird,” she said.

“Yeah,” Greg said, even matching her inflection.

“Why have we never tried this before?” she asked, since they had tried many things, even including Ipek in the switches.

“I don’t know,” Greg admitted, “We were always in such a rush to get home and play with ourselves, or to let the kids rest,”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Well, I figured you two would try this someday,” John interjected, “So I’ve created the perfect setting for you to indulge yourselves,” John smiled, walking to one of their suites anterooms.

Greg and Sabrina followed him, leaving Greg’s old body standing naked and passive next to the printer, which was still working on his new body.

When they entered the anteroom, they saw it had several alcoves that were sealed up, as well as a bed and several other pieces of furniture. John walked over to one set of alcoves and opened it up, revealing each of Sabrina’s previous bodies. There was the first body she activated in and lived in from age 23 to 25, as well as the upgraded body she received two years later for age 25 to 30; she had just vacated that body less than a year ago. Each body was still naked and looked just as real as the one Sabrina was currently in.

“Wow, I didn’t think you were going to keep them,” Sabrina said, walking over to them and taking a closer look.

“Well, you’ll remember several years ago when you got your first body upgrade, you joked you wanted a ‘hall of former Sabrina’s’,” John smiled, “Well, I didn’t see any reason why I could make an exception in your case, so here it is,”

“Aww, thanks dad!” she said, walking over and giving him a hug, not concerned that she was naked.

“I saved Greg’s old body too,” John said, opening another alcove which had the body Greg lived in briefly from the moment he was shot at age 27 until he turned 30, when John insisted on giving him a new body for aging purposes.

“Aww, he looks so lonely over there all by himself,” Sabrina said, walking over to it.

“He won’t be lonely for long,” Greg said, “Thanks John,” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” John shrugged, “Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone while I monitor the completion of your new body,” he said knowingly, and he quietly left them alone.

Once John was gone, both Greg and Sabrina stared at each other, and at the other Sabrina’s and Greg in the room.

“Well, what did you want to do?” Greg asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Well, we still have about 20 minutes, so we don’t have time for much,” she sighed.

“Well, considering we’re both in your body, maybe we could try some mirror fun,” he suggested.

“Mirror fun?” she asked with a confused look.

“Yeah, I stand a few feet in front of you and copy all your movements, like I’m your mirror image,” he explained to her.

“Oh, okay,” she smiled.

They had a few minutes of fun with the mirror fun. It helped alleviate Sabrina’s awkwardness of seeing Greg in her body while she was in her new body and helped them break the ice for what happened next. They slowly started making out, feeling each other’s bodies.

“This feels so weird, but so good,” Sabrina moaned in pleasure as she and Greg rubbed their chests together, “I feel so good,”

“You do,” Greg said in agreement, “You look good too”

“Thanks,” she smiled, “We should have done this a long time ago,” she moaned.

“What, have a little girl on girl action?” he asked, “Because we’ve already done that with me in Ipek’s body,”

“No, the Sabrina on Sabrina action,” she laughed, “No offense to Ipek, but I look a lot better than she does,”

“I don’t think she’d disagree,” Greg assured her, “You do look better,” he laughed, “Maybe later we could have a little Greg on Greg action,” he suggested.

She thought about it for a while before saying, “Maybe later, I don’t think it would be as much fun…especially for you,” she said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he admitted, shuddering a little at the thought of making out with himself.

“I thought so,” she smiled, “Now, why don’t we move to the bed now?”

“Okay,” Greg said.

They both spent several minutes on the bed getting comfortable with the unusual situation. They finally slowly started engaging in all the lesbian sex that Ipek had taught them each time they had borrowed her body over the years. This time was even more pleasurable, especially for Sabrina, since she was being pleasured by herself in her own body this time, so it was oddly like masturbating and it being someone else’s hand…like when people tell you to sit on your hand until it’s numb so it feels like someone else’s hand.

They kept at it for the entire time they had left, switching into multiple positions, until regrettably they had to stop and wipe themselves off.

“Wow Greg, you were great,” Sabrina panted, catching her breath.

“No, you were great,” Greg corrected her with a smile, though all he could think about when he saw her panting was that she was cooling off her systems.

“Ha Ha,” she laughed, “Wow, that sex was great and yet, it hardly even made a dent on my new body’s power reserves,”

“Really, how much did you use?” Greg asked, “I used about 3% in your old body,”

“Less than .5%,” she reported.

“Cool!” Greg said, “Well, my new body should be ready now,” he said, “Let’s go see it,”

“Okay,” She said, and after taking another look at their previous bodies, they closed up the alcoves and headed back out.

Epilogue

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| The Replacement | The Replacement - Part 1 | The Replacement - Part 2 | The Replacement - Part 3 | The Replacement - Part 4 | The Replacement - Part 5 | The Replacement - Part 6 | The Replacement - Part 7 | The Replacement - Part 8 |