Chapter 178 (1/2)
EARTH-525
NU-U MALL
The Clone-My-Shit-Up genetic recalibration and body resheathing shop came to life as Victor-998146 come in and activated the holodisplays out front of the store as well as the ones inside. He checked to see if Corporate had any new updates, then checked the medical data-streams for anything interesting. None so far.
Victor sighed in pleasure as he sat down on his stool, folded his hands, and waited for customers. Today he was offering a 30% off sale on eyebrow glitter mods as well as fingernail polish implants. The sale had been advertised for a week so the customers came in quickly. The mod could be done in less than fifteen minutes by a trained jacker.
Victor could do it in five.
When noon came the sale was suspended till the next day and Victor relaxed, knowing that there would only be a few customers. His favorite time-management and boredom staller had updated so he overlayed the GUI of the game at 20% opacity and paid attention to the store while he played the game. He even uploaded his 'boss-program' GUI projection that made it look like he was modifying genetic code instead of tapping his way through the game.
He noted the woman entering the store but she was so unremarkable he just nodded to her and kept playing his game. She was completely uninteresting except for a scar, a slight gold ring to her left eye's iris, and the fact her left arm was 0.02 cm shorter than her left. She had long red hair, green eyes, a lithe body-type, and wore a dark suit. Terran Descent Human female, thirty years old - indeterminate-, according to her implant she was a traveler from Alpha Centuari-B.
”Excuse me, do you work here?” the woman asked from in front of him.
Victor almost jumped, cursing himself for almost missing a sale.
”Why yes,” Victor said, smiling as he wiped away the game in a save-quit hand-wave. ”How can Clone-My-Shit-Up help you today, ma'am?”
The woman sat down, smoothing the legs of her slacks. She held out a data-waver crystal case, giving a smile that was just slightly shy.
”Is any of this applicable?” she asked. She slid forward another datawafer. ”Here's my latest genomic records and my last eight mods as well as my base genomic data.”
Victor smiled. ”You came prepared. I appreciate that, it makes things much easier.”
Victor tapped a few icons, bringing up the consent forms. ”Before I can even scan your genome, I'll need you to sign these.”
The woman nodded. ”I'll be using a legal VI assistant,” she said. She tapped the side of her datalink and her eyes unfocused. Victor was surprised, she was using a Cheatum-338 legal assistant VI, which didn't come cheap.
No dog food for Victor tonight, he thought to himself, amusing himself with the ancient joke that didn't make any sense to over 99.99998% of humanity.
Victor waited paitently until she was done signing the paperwork then loaded the data-wafers and examined them.
Standard TDH genome, former Terran Army mods, reformed for birthing allowance, then 'normal' mods with, finally, a body 'reset' after raising children. Original genome string 418 Terran Standard Years prior. Some light work, what looked like vanity work to Victor's practiced eye. A slight genetic defect involving over-tight tendons that would have no effect beyond arthritic limbs in a later age category, easily fixable. She had a Kerensky template overlay that was starting to fade as her original gene sequences started to override the template. It was decayed far enough that Victor wasn't sure if it was a MechLord or an MCU-LARP template.
Victor looked up. ”Well, your genomic background certainly is well documented, which is good. I get a lot of customers come in with just their birth genome or their last doctor's scan.”
The woman nodded. A tight, controlled movement.
”Can you do any of the mod packs I bought?” the woman asked.
”May I asked where you acquired these modpacks?” Victor had alarm bells ringing in his head looking at the datafile crystal. It was a home data recording type.
Victor privately hoped she hadn't bought a sex-kitten or combat monster genome package off of some shady Net-Site. He hated those.
”Off of SolNet. A friend found them and tried them. He said they were highly recommended,” The woman smiled. ”They're male phenotypes. You can do a sex-swap, right?”
Victor nodded. ”That'll require a resheathe. Extremely complicated, detailed work. But installing your preferred, um, friend templates to a male clone blank will make it easier.”
Victor smiled his best and nearly patented winning smile at her and loaded up the datapack.
He began scanning it. Halfway through he started frowning. This datapack, his gene-template, was missing thousands of years of updates to the genomic databank. It still had sickle-cell anemia and Downs Syndrome in it. There were even a few fatal or miscarriage inducing genetic flaws.l
”Are you sure about this?” He asked, pausing it.
The woman nodded. ”Unless the mental engrams are transferrable to a female, yes. I heard you were the best and might even be able to splice the mental engrams and special packaging to a female sheathe,” she said.
Victor smiled. ”Indeed I am. I can honestly, humbly, say you won't find a better gene-tech for light years,” he said, and went back to scanning the genome.
Then he saw it. A simple set of genes. Not even that important. Most techs just saw the filler encoding, all but a specific handful of genetechs wouldn't see that little bit of code.
Victor did.
He looked up slowly at the woman, swallowing thickly. ”Where did you say you got this?”
The woman smiled slowly. ”Oh, from a friend.”
Victor twiddled the holokeys for a second and jumped to another section of the template.
There it was.
He recognized those particular gene sequences.
He should.
They were his.
Not now. Now he had 'veneer' sequences over it with the original coding hidden inside.
Victor looked up at the woman, licking his lips. ”Where did you get those?”
”Perhaps we should talk in your office?” the woman asked.
Victor nodded, standing up. He summed up an eVI to watch the store.
Walking in front of the woman made between his shoulder blades itch and he concentrated on his calming mantras to keep the genetic triggers from firing.
If she wanted me dead, I'd be dead already, Victor thought to himself.
He ushered the woman into his office, closing the door, and turning the privacy screens on. The woman sat down, crossing her legs, smoothing her slacks, lacing her fingers together to hold onto her knee, and staring at him.
Victor poured two shots of alcohol, real stuff, not the typical synthohol most people kept around.
”Clear,” the woman said, looking around. ”Nobody would think twice about the equipment you have and the work you do in this place.”
Victor nodded slowly. ”Shall we dispense with the dancing about?”
The woman sighed. ”The dancing is one of my few pleasures. I understand your desire to get straight to the issue at hand. Old people can be somewhat cranky about time wasting,” her gaze suddenly became intense and focused. ”And you're older than most.”
Victor sighed. ”How long have you known? Well, not you, but the people you represent.”
The woman nodded slowly. ”Decades. Since you established this gene-therapy and alteration chain.”
Victor sighed. ”It was a calculated risk, but as some people have pointed out, I am apparently less than stellar at certain mathematics.”
The woman smiled, a slightly shy smile, ”You stayed off the radar for thousands of years. We only caught you because of a minor mistake you made.”
Victor frowned. ”What mistake?”
The woman lifted a finger. ”You repaired a damaged FIDO neural tissue component. Easy for your skills.”
Victor laughed. ”That's what caught me? Repairing a FIDO?”
”Nobody else could have generated that tissue without the entire thing dissolving,” she said. She tapped her finger on her knee. ”Don't worry, the only people who realized what they were seeing was a small group in a research and development lab that is extremely isolated.”
Victor resisted the urge to burn away the veneer. ”I won't work for some megacorp or stellarcorp. Do your own damn research.”
The woman moved slowly, removing one of her cufflinks. She set it on the desk between Victor and herself, and gave it a twist. Victor felt his datalink click off as it activated.
TerraSol Military Intellgence ID holo appeared. It glimmered for a moment then vanished, a small wisp of smoke rising from the cufflink.
His datalink clicked back on as the woman replaced her cufflink.
”We are not some corporation,” she said, her face blank, her eyes and voice cold.
Victor had to resist the urge to run screaming.
”What do you want?” Victor asked. ”The things most people want I can't give them. I don't even know myself.”
The woman twitched her fingers in a dismissive motion before returning to being perfectly still. ”This has less to do with the past and more to do with the present and future.”
Victor nodded.
The woman undid the lapel pin she wore and handed it to him after twisting it slightly. Victor could see the complex and ultra-dense molycirc glimmering in the 'enamel' of the pin.
”Slot it. Review it. Tell me what you think. I will wait,” the woman said.
It contained two genetic profiles, a genome scan pack for 4 different genomes, and a bit more data.
”Are you able to reconstruct the beings in that template?” the woman asked.
”It will take some time,” Victor said.
”I will wait,” the woman answered.
Victor was tempted to go slowly, just to waste her time, see how long her patience would last.
But the more he examined the genetic sequences the more intrigued he became. He had been wrong, there were three profiles. Not of six different individuals, but three, done by three different scans. Two of the methods were elegant, smooth, but to Victor's eyes, amateur. What happens when a bored or mediocre technician worked with highly sophisticated tools.
He built holos of the three different versions of each of the three sexes, annotating them.
Several customers came in, one required his personal touch. The woman acted like she knew he'd come back and not run away.
Victor silently cursed her for being right as he handed her a glass of liquid refreshment and sat back down to get back to work.
The creatures were fascinating. Latent psionics that could come out under pressure. Active psionics in one sex, but extremely subtle stuff. Easy to miss even for a professional but it stuck out to Victor like it had been highlighted in neon colors.