Prodigy Eternal (book 2)

Chapter Five

The patch Alex had downloaded a year prior enabled her to access the most secure cyber locations on the planet, but she knew nothing of bio-hacking. With the right communication device and the proper language, biology could be instructed to perform in ways it was never thought possible before.

“So, Alex, what can we do for you?” Yuri asked.

“What are my options?” Alex replied.

“We can heighten your senses — improve your eyesight, hearing, sense of smell — that sort of thing. If you’re not interested in those, we could give you increased muscle density, rapid healing, stronger immune system, more resilient skin… you name it.”

“I’ll take all those things!” Aris said.

“Hold on there, Twitchy.”

“Toshi.”

“Whatever. It’s a little more complicated than that. First, we need to calibrate the coding to your specific DNA, which takes a lot of time, then we have to run diagnostics to ensure nothing goes wrong. Let’s focus our efforts on Alex first since she has travelled a long distance for this.”

“I’ve travelled just as long a distance,” Aris said.

“If only there were a bio-hack that would give you more patience, then I’d suggest you get that one. For now we’re all going to be working hard on transforming Alex… that is, if it’s alright with you, Aris.”

“Yes, that’s fine, but I resent the other thing you said… I have plenty of patience,” Aris grumbled.

“So the super abilities you mentioned, do all you guys have them?” Alex asked.

“Most of them, but it’s all based on personal preference. Some of us don’t want to be able to smell a fart from three blocks away, if you know what I mean.”

Alex laughed.

“Think of these abilities more as body-modifications, or accessories, rather than super powers. While they enhance the function of our biology, they’re not perfected yet. It’s just something fun for now. These so-called ‘powers’ may be cool at first, but they become novelties after a while. I can’t speak for everyone else, but they haven’t improved my quality of life all that much.”

“Have you been able to figure out any extrasensory abilities?” Aris asked.

“The bio-hacks are based on known abilities, so improving one’s sense of smell or eyesight is a matter of tweaking certain genomes. But with extrasensory perception like telepathy, clairvoyance, or even something like telekinesis, we’d need a working model to examine, and then we may be able develop a hack based off that understanding.”

“Makes sense,” Aris said, leaning forward on the edge of his seat. The entire process fascinated him and he was eager to learn more. Bio-hacking had captured his imagination in a way that he rarely felt in the real world. To have a similar experience, he would typically need to play video games or experience a dreamcast.

“So as I’m sure Aris told you,” Alex began, “I was hoping you were able to alter my appearance.”

“Yes, of course, we can do that. I’m not sure I totally agree with your reasoning, but I respect your choice. Characteristics like skin tone, hair and eye colour, and soft tissue are fairly basic procedures. I’d like to start you off with some simple hacks, which will allow us to run our diagnostic tests. These preliminary hacks have less to do with changing the way you look, and serve more as a way for us to make sure we’re doing everything safely and correctly.”

“When you say ‘safely and correctly’, what are some of the things that can go wrong?” Alex asked.

“That’s a good question,” Yuri affirmed. “Grinding is relatively new for us, and there are a lot of variables — things that can go wrong. So before we start making ourselves into telepaths and growing wings, we want to make sure we fully understand all the variables.”

“How well do you understand what you’ve done so far?”

“Fairly well,” Yuri responded. “All the procedures we’ll do for you are ones we’ve done to ourselves, so there shouldn’t be any surprises. But before you go through with any of the grinds, I encourage you to download all the information and see for yourself what we do here. Perhaps in your review you will uncover something we might have missed. After all, you’re the genius around here, right?”

“I wouldn’t classify myself as a genius,” Alex said coyly. “Besides, I’m only one person — the combined knowledge all four of you have is far superior to mine.”

“I’m sure you’re just being modest. I’ve heard many legendary stories of your powers.”

“You can’t believe everything you hear,” Alex responded.

“I heard you’re a telepath,” Glitch said. “Is that true?”

“It’s true,” Aris chimed in. “Show them, Alex.”

Alex looked a bit reluctant to show off her ability, and Aris sensed that. “It’s okay, we’re amongst friends,” he said as he nodded approvingly.

“Alright, I’ll show you what I have so far, but I’m not that good yet. Since I only discovered that I had this ability about a year ago, I haven’t had much time to practice.”

Alex took a step forward so she was squarely aligned with Glitch’s broad shoulders. Now standing about a foot apart from him, Alex looked intently into his eyes and concentrated. The anticipation was palpable as the onlookers were unsure what to expect. After a moment, Alex asked Glitch a simple question as if she had plucked a thought from his mind. “Who’s Dalia?” she asked.

“Okay okay, that’s enough of the demonstration,” Yuri said. “Alex, that was fascinating. You’ll have to teach me how you did that.”

Yuri stepped in and put his arm around Alex, redirecting her to another area of his triplex. Alex had no idea what had just happened, but was sure she had said the wrong thing. As Alex was being ushered away, she looked over her shoulder and saw Glitch still standing there with a sad look on his face.

The tour continued and Yuri showed Alex and Aris the rest of the rooms. The modern three-story dwelling was quite large for Tokyo. Based on the introduction, it wasn’t exactly clear to Alex what Yuri did for a living, but he was obviously doing quite well for himself. She just assumed he had organized some illicit scheme, or hacked into an online bank and stole an endless supply of units. She figured the less she knew the better.

“You two will have to share a room, if that’s okay,” Yuri said. “Sorry, I have a lot of guests at the moment.”

“This here is fine, thank you,” Alex said.

“Okay then, I’ll leave you two for the night. If you need anything, just sync your access pods with my robot and give him a command. He’ll be at your beck and call.”