≈ALL STORIES MUST BEGIN SOMEWHERE≈[Ariana]
I died. I'm most certainly sure that I died. My breathing stopped, my heartbeat stopped, and then I was popped into a cryotube and insta-frozen. I was really lucky that the MR&DP ship was in our yard for a refit. There are very few other types of ships in the entire galaxy it would have a cryotube on board. Cryotubes went out of style a long time ago. Slingshot technology put them on the back shelf, and folding technology did them in completely, except for medical purposes.My father did his best to keep me from ever finding out what actually happened, but it's very hard to hide anything in this day in age from someone who is determined to find it out.
It seems the ship I was in the midst of checking and recertifying, have a microfracture in it's hull. When they repressurized the storage compartment the fracture blew out and before the emergency containment field could be activated the escaping air blew me away from the ship. This wouldn't have been that big a deal if I hadn't been in the last docking Bay. Because the last docking Bay was right alongside of the salvage and scrap area and I was blown straight into a running salvage and scrap cutter. It had cut most of the way through my neck all the way through my spine and spinal cord before the operator had the chance to slap the panic stop button. That would have been the end of me without that 'Medical Research and Development Planet' ship and it's outdated, but still fully functional, cryotube.
The next time I became conscious was quite a shock to me. I knew I was awake, but I couldn't see, hear, smell, feel, or taste anything. All I could do was think, and think I did, for what seemed like quite a while. The final conclusion I reached was, I was probably what is euphemistically referred to as a brain in a box. That explanation fit the situation best. With robots and androids and artificial intelligences being such a common occurrence these days everybody hears stories about people who wake up as a brain in a box, some by choice, some by necessity, some even by foul play.
you never expect this sort of thing to happen to you, but here I was, waiting to find out what comes next. After what seemed like forever, but I really have nothing to judge it against, I finally heard some sound. Some nameless technician was attempting to connect me back to the real world. Giving me the ability to hear and to speak and even to see. My father had spared no expense. He got me a top-of-the-line synthetic skin job. It was an android body with a human brain and the most realistic of appearances. it was a very slow process learning how to use my new body and getting reconnected to as many of my senses I would have at this point. Taste and smell were pretty much gone, but vision and hearing & speech and tactile senses like touch and temperature they could simulate.
It took me a few months to be up and walking and functioning like a semi-normal member of society. it shocked everyone, except my father, that as soon as I got out of the hospital I went back to work. I had always been a bit of a tomboy and I was never one for sitting around aimlessly for throwing myself a pity party.
Being an Android did have some advantages. I'm not about to focus on the disadvantages that's just depressing. I was able to easily access an interface other types of technology. Without the limits of needing to speak or hear, I could communicate with a eyes much faster then a person in a living breathing body. And my ability to multitask was much greater now that I was not responsible for doing all the minut little things that the human body has to do every moment of every day just to keep itself alive. The android body was much more complicated and at the same time much simpler to use.
As strange as it sounds, I found that I got along much better with machines than I did people. I was like that even before the accident, and now it was much more so that way. It was amazing to me how well I interfaced with artificial intelligences and intelligent machinery. Within weeks of returning to work my father gave me an entire arm of the docking yard as my own to do with as I pleased and I begin to do service and repair on ships that came into our shipyard on my own.
many different people commented that my entire dock looked like a choreographed dance hologram with robots and smart tools dancing and moving between ships at an astounding rate. I hate to admit it but when I was left alone at my docks I was the happiest I had ever been. If I had known it could be like this I might have chosen to become an android.
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