"Only about thirty percent, ma'am, because this procedure is purely experimental. ONI wants to see just how the procedure would be performed, so the funding is extremely limited. Down to one subject, actually, and I was hoping that subject would be you. Sending one over here from one of the other colonies would also be expensive." The man explained simply as he watched the small female figure, nearly begging her to give this a shot with his eyes. The whole thing actually made some sort of sense. Seeing as how some Artificial Intelligences were created through human DNA, why couldn't the reverse be accomplished? However, the percentage he gave her left her feeling nervous. Or at least as much so as her programming would allow. Then again, her programming seemed to be a strange case. She'd heard many times from the soldiers around her ship that she seemed like the worrisome wife they had back at their homes. An interesting thought.
In the fraction of a second, she "thought" this over, along with the possible complications in which the agent had neglected to explain to her. The biggest and most obvious one was the fact that she could simply die. Being only three years into her operational "smart AI" lifespan, a premature death was not something she wanted. Not at all. But if it were to get her what she desired, then it was a chance that would have to be taken. However, what if only a fraction of herself was successfully transferred? Would it be as if her "soul" had been torn apart? Especially since she would not be able to just piece it back together like how she's always done. It was simple for an AI to send fractions of herself off into data chips, and other similar things, but those were only tiny pieces in which they could easily be brought back.
"If Commander Poole has already authorized it, I can transfer you to our station now." The agent spoke after what seemed like twenty minutes had passed for her, though it was only three seconds for him. The ship they were aboard, her magnificent Iron Sunrise, floated lazily around Reach, among other ships that were sent to protect the planet. But there was no signs of danger, so her absence should not be a big problem.
"Ah, I just discussed this with him a moment ago. He is busy elsewhere, but has given authorization." She replied, lying through her artificial teeth.
"Excellent," he said, smiling faintly and waiting a full three seconds to ensure she was ready. "Are you ready?"
"Yes sir."
He removed a small chip from the panel, the small clear disc in the center of the chip now glowing a bright purple.
There would be no turning back now.
________________
Aquinas was stored in a piece of medical machinery now, monitoring the various vital sign displays with very little interest. Though it was interesting to watch the screen that was showing how fast her processing was, there really was nothing else to do at the moment. Attached to the large piece of machinery was a long cylindrical tube, with the upper half of it a clear, thick glass. Various wires stuck out of the tube and lead to four displays, one of which beeped softly at a continuous pace. A heart rate and blood pressure display. Though Aquinas would have liked to see what lie inside the tube, something in her already seemed to know.
A human body. Her human body.
She wanted to see what it looked like more than anything right now, but then again, if this ended up being successful, she would have plenty of time to admire her new form. The angle that her holo-pad was placed did not allow for her to see the beautiful little figure that lay just six feet away. Created through the flash-clone process, the same process that allowed the SPARTAN program to continue without raising a red flag to the public, her new body was created in only two weeks, but was altered to prevent it from dying after only a few months. The clone looked surprisingly like her holographic form. Standing, she would be only five feet two inches, weighing one hundred pounds exactly. Her structure was frail and thin, just as she appeared in her current form. Her hair was very long, flowing down to the small of her back, and was a shocking, unnatural white. What was even more unnatural was the color of her eyes. Though her lids were closed at the moment-having no sort of mental process going on to allow them to open- what lay beneath was bright purple.
As Aquinas stayed bored in her cramped, temporary housing, the same man that had traveled to the Iron Sunrise to talk to her came into the room. Four nurses trailed after him, dressed in the standard sterile outfits they were required to wear for operations. Though Aquinas couldn't find the need for four of them to accompany the surgeon, there must have been some sort of reason. They knew what they were doing. She however did not.
"Aquinas, ma'am, are you ready to proceed with the operation?" The surgeon asked without bothering to face her holographic form as he put on some latex gloves.
"Yes sir," she replied in her usual soft, innocent tone, though there seemed to be a hint of fear behind her words.
"Good, now..." He started towards the section of machinery that housed her, and pressed a nicely sized green button with his elbow. "I'm going to need you to count backwards from ten million, twenty times."
"Yes sir."
The task was remarkably simple, but when she got to her fourth time counting backwards, she suddenly began to feel sluggish in her counting. Quickly realizing something was wrong, she tried to count faster, but despite her best efforts, she couldn't go faster. On the screen that displayed how fast she was "thinking", the numbers that flashed across began to slow down rapidly, until they moved at less than a crawl. Only after the "anesthesia" came into effect was the operation allowed to begin. The surgeon wasted no time retracting the glass that covered the clone body. One of the nurses brought over a tray holding a bone saw, a scalpel, metal plates, and stitching material. Scalpel in hand, the surgeon began making a long incision across the soft skin covering her skull. A small amount of blood began to ooze from the incision that ran just two inches away from her hairline, to the back of her skull. Gently peeling back the two flaps of skin, the bone saw was placed into one of his hands and turned on with a shrill cry as the blade began to rotate quickly. Digging into the thick bone of the skull with ease, he cut out a somewhat large section and put aside on a steel tray. Four circular electrode pads were handed to him by one of the nurses, and each one was gently put into their place on the now exposed brain. Once they were all in place, the surgeon turned to a different nurse, who was closest to the machine that held Aquinas and gave her a nod.
"Let's hope this works," he said to her softly.
The entire procedure wouldn't have made everyone so nervous had the money required to fund it been so absurdly high. If it was a failure...Oh...he did not want to think about what would happen then. And smart AIs weren't exactly cheap either. Though because of the huge array of things they were capable of made them priceless, just the fact that he was performing such a risky experiment on such a valuable asset to the war was enough to shake him to the core.
A soft beep tore him from his train of thought as the nurse pressed the button to begin transferring Aquinas into her human body.
_____________
"CARLSON. Where the HELL is Aquinas?" A voice boomed in the bridge of the Iron Sunrise. The crew was almost used to hearing their Commanders near constant yelling, but this time his tone was enough to make all of them jump.
"I-I don't know sir! No one does!" Carlson whimpered back to his CO, shrinking back in his seat instinctively.
Commander Andrew Poole was well known among the UNSC fleets for two things. One, for being the youngest Commander in UNSC history at 27 years old, and two, for being ruthless and having tactical skills on par with Commander Keyes himself. His ship, terrifying yet majestic, was just as well known as he was. Standing at six feet four inches, Poole was built well, but not so much so that just his figure was intimidating. His face was also strong, though somewhat young looking, having not been distorted yet by the stress of war. His hair was jet black and fairly short, and his eyes were like silver. The contrast was almost eerie, as if his eyes could look into ones soul.
Now where the hell could Aquinas be? The sometimes irritating little AI had been unresponsive for two hours now, ignoring the orders she'd been given, and not carrying out the tasks she was assigned to carry out daily. Was she upset with him about something? But what did he do? How ridiculous.
"Contact everyone in the immediate area. Maybe they know what the hell her problem is." Poole barked.
"Yes sir."
A few long moments passed, and finally they received a response. From an ONI ship. Great. ******** spooks.
"Commander Poole, I do not seem to understand the problem. Aquinas is in our care."
"Excuse me? How the hell is she in your care?"
"You authorized it sir. One of my own was aboard your ship two hours ago, and took her aboard my ship."
"I did no such thing. Aquinas was never authorized to leave my ship."
"She assured us that you were alright with her leaving."
"Why the hell do you need her, anyway?"
"I'm sorry, but that information is classified."
The screen went black, and a variety of obscenities filled the bridge.
The little body began convulsing horribly, limbs flailing about and her freshly stitched up head slammed into the steel that she lay upon.
"Hold her down!" The surgeon barked, and the nurses pounced. Each held down different parts of her body to prevent any sort of injury, and the surgeon pulled a sedative needle off of the nearest tray. Injecting her with it, the convulsions slowly stopped, and she lay still.
"Sir?" One nurse asked softly, "D-did it work?"
(More may be coming up soon)
