[THE ODDS OF AN INTACT MASTER TABLET STILL HIDDEN WITHIN THE PHERNIKE TEMPLE PALACE ARE CURRENTLY AT 12%.]
Leta scowled, "Ruin the fun, why don't you? Okay, so finding one at the dig is going to be next to impossible with the thralls out there and what I'd have to do to get a boat and scuba gear. That rules out getting more info from the tablets right now.]
[OUTSIDE OF THE MASTER TABLETS, IT IS POSSIBLE THAT PHYSICAL HARD COPIES MAY HAVE EXISTED. HOWEVER, THE ATLANTIANS DID NOT GIVE THEIR SECRETS EXCEPT TO THEIR MOST TRUSTED FOLLOWERS. IF PHYSICAL COPIES DO EXIST, THEY WOULD MOST LIKELY BE RECORDED ON CUNEIFORM TABLETS. AS WITH THE MASTER TABLETS, FINDING THESE COPIES MAY BE DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE.]
"Fine." Leta sighed, "Inimus, do you have any information in your records?"
~'PHERNIKE WAS CALLED THE LADY OF MYSTERIES FOR A REASON. WHILE I AND MY HOSTS WERE AWARE THAT SHE WAS MAKING THE GODSEED, WE WERE NOT PRIVY TO HER WORK OR HER REASONING. HOWEVER, THERE WERE TIMES WHEN MY HOST COULD FEEL A SENSE OF URGENCY AS IF PHERNIKE WAS DESPERATE TO COMPLETE THE PROJECT.'~
Leta paused at that, their words reminding her of something Gada had said when she'd first woken up with the system in her blood.
"Gada, you once said that your last recorded archive is a distress call from Atlan.'
[CORRECT. HOWEVER, THE CONTENTS OF THE DISTRESS CALL WERE NOT RECORDED. ALL THAT WAS RECORDED WAS A DISTRESS CALL HAD BEEN RECEIVED, ALL PROJECT SITES WERE TO BE ABANDONED AND ATLANTIANS WERE TO RETURN TO THE MUL-SIR. IT IS NOTED THAT THERE WAS A CONFRONTATION WITH ONE OF THE ATLANTIANS AND THE REST OF THE CREW, WHICH WAS PUT DOWN BEFORE DEPARTURE.]
She chewed on her lip, thinking that over and wondering once again what could have happened to such an advanced race that they had to abandon an entire planet.
A disease?
An attack from another race?
Who could say if she'd ever find the answer.
"Moving on. Nanites. Everyone has them." She said in a clipped, factual tone, "You said that under a microscope nanites are going to look like any other organic atom in my body. When I make an upgrade, what exactly is happening?"
[WHEN A COMMAND IS EXECUTED, SUCH AS WHEN THE HOST IMPROVES THEIR PHYSIQUE, THE NANITES WILL RECEIVE THE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO REFORM CELLS TO MEET THIS COMMAND. THE COULD INCLUDE REINFORCING CELL STRUCTURE TO BE MORE RESILIENT TO MAKE SKIN HARDER OR MUSCLES STRONGER.]
[IN THE CONTEXT OF A SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD, THE COMMANDS BEING FOLLOWED DO NOT COME FROM THE NANITES INTERNAL ANALYSIS, BUT FROM AN EXTERNAL SOURCE - IN MOST CASES, FROM THE CLASS SOFTWARE SYSTEM THAT WAS DISTRIBUTED UPON THE INITIAL CLASS INSTALLATION. THESE UPGRADES REQUIRE THE REARRANGEMENT OF CELLS AND NERVES IN THE BRAIN TO CREATE NEW MEMORIES AND KNOWLEDGE THAT THE HOST DID NOT PREVIOUSLY HAVE.]
[REGARDING THE MONARCH CLASS, THE SKILLS FOR ALL CLASSES AS WELL AS ADDITIONAL SKILLS ONLY AVAILABLE TO ATLANTIANS WERE PART OF THE INSTALLATION. WHILE NORMAL CLASSES WOULD RECEIVE ALL THEIR SKILLS DURING THE INSTALLATION PROCESS, THE MONARCH CLASS WOULD HAVE TO SLOWLY DOWNLOAD SKILLS IN ORDER TO DECREASE STRAIN ON THE HOST'S BRAIN WHILE NEW MEMORIES AND REFLEXES ARE BEING CREATED.]
"Or you're brain could explode." Leta said sarcastically.
[IN EXTREME SITUATIONS, YES. HOWEVER, IT WOULD REQUIRE SEVERAL SKILL DOWNLOADS AT ONE TIME IN ORDER FOR SUCH AN EVENT TO OCCUR. BASED ON CURRENT HOST PHYSIOLOGY, ONE SKILL EVERY SIX HOURS WOULD HAVE NO ILL EFFECTS. THE LESS TIME GIVEN IN THIS TIME FRAME, THE MORE LIKELY AN EXTREME SIDE EFFECT IS TO OCCUR. TWO SKILLS BACK TO BACK MAY CAUSE A NOSEBLEED. THREE SKILLS MAY CAUSE A SEIZURE, AND FOUR A STROKE. WHILE YOU WOULD EVENTUALLY RECOVER FROM A SEIZURE OR STROKE DEPENDING ON YOUR UNPROGRAMMED NANITE COUNT, FIVE OR MORE MAY CAUSE IRREPRESSIBLE DAMAGE NOT EVEN NANITES CAN FIX.]
She gulped, "Wow. That's… gross."
[IN ADDITION, THE HOST MAY ALSO BE IN DANGER OF THE SKILL'S EFFECTS IF NOT UTILIZED CORRECTLY. FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN THE HOST RAN ELECTRICITY THROUGH THE TREE BRANCH ON THE LOUPGARU, THE RESULTING EXPLOSION OF SHRAPNEL DAMAGED THE HOST'S BODY. ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS THE HEARTH MAIDEN. WHILE SHE IS NOT EFFECTED BY THE FLAMES, SHE UNDERSTANDS HOW THE FLAMES WORK AND HOLDS HER BREATH WHILE CREATING A FIRE STORM AS THE FORCE OF HER SKILL WOULD SUCK THE AIR OUT AND SUFFOCATE HER.]
One spring had started digging into her rib and she rolled onto her back, looking up out at the pitch black of the room. "The skills that I do have, how are those chosen?"
[SKILLS THAT ARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD ARE BASED ON NUMBER OF NANITES AVAILABLE AND WHAT SKILLS WILL CAUSE THE LEAST AMOUNT OF STRAIN ON THE HOST. FOR EXAMPLE, THE HOST LEARNED THE SKILL OVERRIDE ON THEIR OWN THROUGH APPLICATION. BECAUSE THOSE MEMORIES AND SYNOPSIS WERE ALREADY CREATED, THE SKILL MONARCH'S AUTHORITY BECAME AVAILABLE. AS THE HOST ALREADY HAD THE ELECTRIC MISCONDUCT SKILL IN PLACE, THE ELECTRIC EYES STILL BECAME AVAILABLE, AS IT UTILIZED PARTS OF THE SAME SKILL.]
"Like a skill tree in a game," She mused, "Similar skills that branch off of each other as you progress because their functions work off each other. So what's with changing me into an Atlantian? It's not a skill to be downloaded, but I'm taller and better built than I was a few weeks ago."
[UPON INSTALLATION OF THE MONARCH SYSTEM, NANITES BEGAN REARRANGING CELL STRUCTURE AND SYSTEMS FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE. THIS INCLUDED DESTROYING HAZARD MATERIALS, SUCH AS THE EARLY STAGE BREAST CANCER THAT YOU WERE BEGINNING TO DEVELOP. THESE HAZARDOUS MATERIALS WERE BROKEN DOWN TO FEED THE CHANGES NECESSARY FOR THE HOST TO IMPROVE OVER TIME IN ORDER TO SLOWLY ADJUST THE HOST'S PHYSIQUE. AS THESE NEW MATERIALS ARE PROGRAMMED TO ACT AS FUEL FOR THE NECESSARY CHANGES, THEY DO NOT REGISTER AS UNPROGRAMMED NANITES.]
[EVENTUALLY, THE HOST WILL RUN OUT OF NANITES NEEDED TO CONTINUE THESE IMPROVEMENTS, WHICH IS ESTIMATED TO BE IN ONE TO TWO YEARS TIME. AT THAT TIME, THE HOST WILL BE REQUIRED TO ALTER INTERNAL ORGAN STRUCTURE TO EFFICIENTLY ABSORB UNUSED PROGRAMMED AND UNPROGRAMMED NANITES IN ORDER TO AVOID THE PROGRAMMED NANITES FROM CANNIBALIZING ON EACH OTHER.]
"Hold the damn phone." Leta shot up in bed, outraged, "You're saying that in a year the nanites are going to run out of the fuel they need to make me an Atlantian and start eating each other?"
[CORRECT. HOWEVER, THE HOST WILL HAVE AMPLE WARNING BEFORE THIS OCCURS. THE PROCESS FOR AVOIDING THIS SITUATION IS TO IMPROVE INTERNAL ORGAN FUNCTIONS, WHICH THE HOST HAS ALREADY STARTED BY CREATING ADDITIONAL STORAGE AND CONVERTING SKELETAL STRUCTURES TO ATLANITE. BY DOING THIS, THE SKELETAL CELLS NO LONGER REQUIRE UPKEEP BY THE NANITES ONCE THEY ARE CONVERTED INTO ATLANITE TO KEEP THE CELLS OPERATING EFFICIENTLY AND NANITES CAN FOCUS MORE OF THEIR EFFORTS ON SLOWLY UPDATING THE HOST'S ORGANS FOR THE FUTURE.]
"How much of my skeleton do I need to convert in order to avoid the cannibal nanites?"
[THE HOST WOULD NEED TO CONVERT 50% OF THEIR SKELETAL STRUCTURE TO ATLANITE AND CONVERT THEIR KIDNEY AND LIVER INTO A QUASI-MECHANICAL STRUCTURE IN ORDER TO COMPLETELY AVOID POSSIBLE CANNIBALISM IN THE NANITES.]
"Well, f***." She huffed, falling back on the bed and wincing when springs dug into her back.
"So," She groaned as she tried adjusting into a more comfortable position. "I think this is a good start - nanite are everywhere. Some people with a lot of specific nanites can become Arisen, we don't know what happened to the Atlantians, skills are good but too many at one time is bad, and I need to work at changing my kidneys, liver, and a lot of bones in order to avoid my own cells trying to kill each other."
[IN THE SHORTEST, BROADEST WAY POSSIBLE, YES.]
Leta sighed and looked down at her hands, "I guess I don't really have much of a choice in this, plus I have a feeling that there's going to be another monster body dumped in the holding tomorrow. How many nanites does it take to replace the bones in my hands? I feel like I should just complete the set and have Atlanite from fingertips to elbows."
[THE HOST CURRENTLY DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH NANITES OUTSIDE OF THEIR RESERVES TO FULLY COMPLETE THIS REQUEST. HOWEVER, THE HOST DOES HAVE ENOUGH NANITES TO REPLACE ALL BONES WITHIN THEIR RIGHT PALM. THIS UPGRADE WOULD INCREASE THE HOST'S STORAGE CAPACITY BY 38,234.]
"Damn, I forgot. Right then, let's do that option. I have a feeling I'm going to need all the leverage I can get coming up, and it keeps me from having to remember sleeping on this uncomfortable bed."
[UNDERSTOOD. SEDATION IN PROCESS. GOOD NIGHT, HOST.]
Leta closed her eyes as the room, and the old mattress disappeared into the black.