chapter 5

Claire retreated to her quarters immediately following the revelation that she now had an AI living in her head. She went through a range of emotions - a scared Claire spent a while sobbing on her bunk, unsure what to do next. Her fear soon turned to anger and she spent a good hour furiously reading through the contract that she should have read before agreeing to take part in the trial. When she verified that the Doctor did in fact have the right to implant the gizmo in her head, a right that she had given him by signing the document, she spent the rest of the morning lost in a sea of self-pity.

It was a little while after lunch, when she started to feel hungry that she finally pulled herself out of her slump somewhat. Grilled chicken and brown rice wasn't anything for her to get excited about but at least it stopped the clawing sensation in her head and the sick feeling in her stomach.

On returning to her room she spent a while observing herself in the mirror. She noted the pronounced musculature of her arms only to grimace when she traced her fingers over the scars at her elbows. Her hair had grown some but was still uncharacteristically short and Claire struggled to find some familiarity in her reflection.

Sighing, she decided to speak.

"Vega-11?"

"Yes Miss Connors?" came the voice in her head.

"Doctor James says we have to get acquainted; do you know what he meant?"

"Well, Miss Connors I imagine that he would like us to learn about each other, I'm no simple robot after all."

"Okay, so what is it you do exactly?" Claire replied as she closed the curtains to her room, feeling a little self-conscious about seemingly talking to herself.

"Well my primary function is to act as a translator between yourself and the array of armour pieces and weapons that make up the battle system that you will be testing."

"Are there a lot of pieces? How do you communicate with them?" asked Claire as she took a seat on her bunk.

"The way the system has been designed allows for infinite additions to the battle system, while you have been completing your physical training, I have been interacting with twenty-four different components wirelessly"



"Twenty-four huh?" Claire remarked as she unconsciously rubbed the scar on the back of her head. "If that's your primary function, what else do you do?"