Build Sequence Is Key

Lab

"Clothes, are just clothes. Come on let's look get you fixed up in the lab. We got to get your system back up and running." Cecelia looked at him weird when he tried to talk clothes to her.

Jason sighed, 'Yes! Anything to stop talking about my needs!'

Out loud he said, "Sure."

She led him out of the kitchen pantry laundry room and across the hall. The lab was three times as wide as the other three rooms, but it was also much higher and deeper.

In the center of the room was a pillar. The lower portion of which was definitely a crib. Like a literal crib. Glass made up the column starting two or three feet up from the floor and rising for about ten feet. Above that was more tech. In the glass was a reclined chair. Seeming to be half lab table and half segmented doctors office table. It had hinged sides that could come down into the center and seven or eight arms that came out from the floor and ceiling. Each of the arms had a different tool or had no tool at all just any empty claw.

Around the sides of the room were benches. Some were empty, some were stacked high with tools and materials. A few of them were what looked like computer stations with monitors.

"Wow, this place is incredible!" Jason found himself saying before he could hold it in.

Cecelia smiled, "Don't look so surprised, this is only one of the labs hidden with in the twelve singularities. They hold and provide energy to the space station, of course they would be powerful."

"What does this lab do? I mean what do you use it for?"

She blushed, "Well this is where I am made. Every couple thousand years I get a complete revamp. See that column, in side the glass. The station fills it up with protoplasm and then goes to work."

"What does the station do with the old body?" Jason inquired curious.

"The old bodies are put in there." Cecelia pointed to a locker, "Really it is an incinerator."

"What? The station burns you? You say that so calmly."

"It is not like this body is really me? Are you crazy, the real me is the station." She looked at him like he was some kind of crazy.

"Still, ..."

She went over to one of the monitor stations against the wall, "Come over here. We'll have you fixed up in a jiffy."

"Okay..." Jason followed her over to the station.

Here Cecelia powered up her gear and took a few minutes to navigate through a plethora of screens. All of them were text based. She didn't use a mouse and Jason couldn't tell what part of the huge screen she was looking at or what she was doing to make the screen change.

"Alright, usually transfers are given a really specific system with many of the system specifications set at certain levels. For what I need you for, I need you to start out with the most basic of basic systems." She warned him.

"Why?" Jason asked tentatively.

She rolled her eyes annoyed, "You wouldn't understand, but" and here she stressed the word heavily, "It has to do with the fact that you are my slave. I need to integrate with your system on a fundamental level."

"Aren't you the system?

"No! I mean, I guess I am the system. In a way. There are two completely independent but integrated parts to the system. One which can be cloned and multiplied indefinitely. This one is the system that you and every other individual piece of the system has. Then a second part which is that which is acted upon. That is what I am."

"And there can be only one of you?"

"No, there are others out there."

"Alright, you lost me."

Cecelia smiled, "I figured I would. Don't worry about it."

All this time Cecelia had been working on the computer.

"Alright, what do you need me to do?" Jason said after a few minutes of silence while she worked.

"Nothing. Done!" She stood up and in doing so gave him a big hug, "You are all set!"

The smile she gave him was priceless. Jason blushed, "But how, you didn't do anything to me."

"Oh, come on. You are in the middle of a singularity." Cecelia pushed on his chest with one finger, "Since the moment you set foot in the hangar, I have been working on your system. The center of a singularity is a hot bed of radiation. I could literally fried your whole body right now. It is actually harder to keep you safe than it is to kill you."

Jason turned pale, "Am I going to be okay?"

"Yes, sweetie. I have taken very good care of you."

She seemed to like spacing out and went into another moment. One hand pointing at Jason the other on her hip.

"Yeah, I just pinged your system and everything came back with green lights. You are good to go. Try saying or thinking menu." Cecelia commanded him.

Instantly Jason did as she asked and thought the word menu.

[
Menu:

Tutorial
]

And there was his menu. Contrary to what he had seen before. This time there was only a tutorial.

"All can see is a tutorial. This is different from what it was before." He said carefully.

"Good! That is exactly right." Cecelia smiled at him.

"What about the orcs? What about the baby dragons? What about Hezmet?" Jason was panicked.

"Whoa there don't worry. I had to delete your system to start over so you will have lost everything. But their systems will still remember yours and next time you meet or go to that same location your system will reconnect and everything will be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. Actually this is better because you lost out on so many rewards because your system was broken. This time all of that will register and it will be really beneficial."

"So how do I get back to that same desert to help with the dragonets?" Jason asked curiously.

"Well that will be the hard part. I have the location. But it is way out on the fringe. I can easily start you there again, but it will be really difficult. Not only will your system not have the presets everyone else has." She paused to make sure she had his attention, "You will also be in one of the most difficult areas. Do you understand what I am saying?"

"Are you saying the transfers compete against each other?" He asked confused.

"Yes, yes, of course they compete against each other. But that is not what I am saying. Are you clueless? You might die!" She said that last with some emotion.

Jason panicked, he never knew what to do in an emotional situation. For him it wasn't about how dangerous it was. All he was focused on was keeping his word. Or at least some version of that promise.

"Oh, it is alright. Don't worry. I am fine with starting in the same place." When he said those words she just looked at him. So he went on, "Actually now I just need to figure out how to get some milk and entertain three hundred baby dragons."