Family Reflections
Jackie sat in her newly assigned rooms, letting the faint hum of the dome's hydro-shield wash over her. The water outside pressed gently against the reinforced glass panels, bluish light refracting across her ocular overlay.
One main wall of the living room gave her an extraordinary view of the depths pressing in on the dome. The pillars in the distance, pressure-sealed walkways spanning the ocean floor towards them and to locations beyond.
Autonomous robotic appendages could be seen, as well as underwater vehicles and odd underwater structures meant for things she did not understand or know. This was a new world to her. She hadn't even known such cities existed.
Suddenly, her previous life seemed so very sheltered, and, in some aspects, such a huge lie.
She activated the holo-comm, and Tess Cannon's face appeared first, the motherly concern immediate and sharp. Behind Tess, Naya Kasol shimmered faintly, its lights reflecting in the holo-interface.
"Jackie! Where… where are you?" Tess's voice trembled, laced with worry. "Is that… an underwater city? Isn't that dangerous?"
Jackie forced a calm smile. "I'm fine, Mom. I'm in a dome city under the water. The place is stable—it is actually a thriving habitat."
Her father, James, stepped into view behind Tess, a hand resting lightly on her shoulder. His tone was quieter, reasoned, almost soothing. "Tess… she's a cyborg now. Remember, six months, and she's built to handle this."
Tess crossed her arms, eyes still wide. "A cyborg, yes… but an underwater city? Who knows what could happen? I can't just let you—"
Jackie's HUD pulsed softly, BDJ feeding in subtle telemetry: pressure gradients, energy shield harmonics, local population movement, and the pulse rate of nearby city activity. She ignored the numbers, letting the information settle in her mind as reassurance.
"I know, Mom. Dad. I'm careful," Jackie said. "But this—" she gestured toward the soft blue glow outside, "—this is part of it. Part of what I can do to make things better. And it matters. Every choice I make affects not just me, but you, Thomas… everyone back home."
Her twin, Thomas, flickered onto the holo momentarily, face half-hidden in shadow. "Jackie…" He paused, worry clear on his face. "… the scale of it all… it's overwhelming. Are you really sure you can handle all that?"
Jackie chuckled softly, though her chest tightened. "I have to." She shrugged. "I made a vow the moment I woke up a cyborg. This is my new norm, and I have to face whatever may come."
BDJ whispered in her neural overlay, only audible to her: Civic status elevated: Tess Cannon and James Cannon now eligible for high-tier citizenship upgrade due to operative actions. Emotional metrics indicate strong familial attachment; morale boost +12%.
She exhaled, letting the weight of responsibility settle, but also a quiet surge of determination. "I'll keep going," she told them, voice soft but firm. "For the city, for the people… and for you all. You'll see. Things will keep getting better."
Tess's expression softened, her lips pressing together in a brief, uncertain smile. "Just… come back safe, Jackie. We can handle the rest if you handle yourself. When will you visit?"
"Tess, you know that she has responsibilities to the government now." He turned to face the screen with a wide smile. "She will come visit when she can." Jackie returned her father's smile.
"Of course I will." And in the soft glow of the dome behind her, with the currents murmuring around the city, she made her silent vow anew: no matter the cost, she would continue to improve. For her family, for the people of her world, whether they were above the waters or beneath it. She would be a change and a helper, if needed.
The holo-call dissolved into a scatter of light particles, leaving Jackie alone again in the dim, blue-lit room. The faint, persistent hiss-hum of the hydro-shield was her only company.
'BDJ, disconnect and run primary diagnostics. Focus on localized shield integrity,' she thought, the query instantaneous and silent in her head.
'Query executed. Local shield integrity nominal. Emotional metrics decreasing from peak familial interaction—morale boost +12% now +8%. Operative should consider consistent, short-form communications to maintain baseline,' BDJ suggested.
Jackie mentally dismissed the emotional analysis. 'Focus on the data, BDJ. The Nexus Directive, the Resistance. Give me an update on all activity.'
It was time she understood the roles of these two powers. Since they found importance in her, she needed to understand where she would stand amongst them. Who was right and who was wrong, and what did they want?
The screen of data that flooded her ocular overlay was dense, but she parsed it instantly. The high-tier citizenship upgrade BDJ had mentioned for her parents was a calculated risk—a reward for her that offered them security but also tied them irrevocably to her success, adding another layer to the current world's complex social matrix. Her actions were never just personal; they rippled through the social, political, and physical structure of the entire society.
She took a slow, deliberate breath. She was designed to be this system, this hub of information and action. Yet, her mother's worry was a persistent, unwelcome latency in the system—a purely human emotion her protocols hadn't fully optimized for. Six months as a cyborg. It still felt like a lifetime of distance separating her from the world her mother still lived in.
A sharp, minor alert flashed across her peripheral vision. A utility duct, section C-14, feeding into the hydroponics bay, was registering a pressure spike—a minor stress fracture forming in the coupling joint. It was the kind of fault a civilian maintenance crew would take an hour to diagnose and three to fix, risking a minor water ingress that could damage crops.
Intrigued, Jackie stood. She cracked her neck, and when she went to crack the right side, she paused and smiled. "Still not used to it, huh?"
"75.14% probability it will be another 52 days before Unit fully remembers and accepts the current anatomical formation," BDJ spoke into her neural net.
Jackie rolled her eyes. "This unit has a name, and this anatomical formation is my body."
"Understood," BDJ confirmed.
Jackie left her rooms, her left arm already shifting. The smooth, obsidian-like casing of her forearm flashed blue and silver as it split and reformed, exposing fine tools: a micro-welder tip and a thermal dampening clamp. With practiced efficiency, she bypassed the lock of the maintenance panel.
She didn't wait for a full seal procedure. Targeting the fractured coupling, she sent a focused thermal pulse from the welder—not enough to sever, just enough to reform the metal atoms into a new bond. The dampening clamp followed, locking the joint against the sudden heat-shock. The pressure spike immediately dropped back to nominal.
'Task complete. Local threat neutralized,' BDJ confirmed, the satisfaction evident even in the dry data stream.
Jackie retracted the tools, her arm snapping back into its seamless, humanoid shape. That was the only language the city truly understood: swift, silent efficiency. No arguments, no tears, no fear—just optimization. She glanced back in the direction of her quarters and where her family's image had been. They saw the danger; she saw the work. And the work was endless. She had to be faster, stronger, and smarter than the sum of all their fears. She would start that patch on the ancient interface now. Better connectivity meant better security. It was all connected