I Sing The Body Electric

 Though they had said their farewells. Pilar couldn't resist reconnecting to the feed from 
Moira's camera that continued to stream images from the hijacked ship.  
Since the camera provided visuals only, Pilar decided to follow the final events on screen
instead of her internal sensorium. She sat watching silently while Moira made the final
preparations with the equipment that would scan her brain.

 Tudi moved over to watch the screen while hoovering over Pilar's shoulder,  but the electric
field had Pilar's skin tingle and pinched her shoulder with an electric charge.

 “Can't you link this directly if you're so interested.” Snapped Pilar while scratching her
left shoulder.

 “I am very sorry Mistress, I sensed your distress, and thought it would be a good idea to
provide a bit of company.” Said the AI and moved off.

 Pilar turned her head around to apologise: “I am really sorry for yelling at you Tudi, it was
a good thought, but I am really stressed out right now.”

 After Moira had started the scanning, Pilar found it too painful to watch the twitching face
of her sadistic lover while the brain was taken apart and scanned, so she disconnected.

 She felt she had to do something to keep her mind off the events that she in any case had
no means of influencing. As it was the middle of the day, she decided to go out. 

 After she had gotten her outdoor clothes on, she called for Tudi that she would resume the
program to protect her home while she was away. With no reply from Tudi Pilar assumed 
the AI had interpreted Pilar's outburst as a command to remain silent. And did not consider
that the AI had entered a mode comparable to when an actual person was sulking.

 Pilar closed and locked the door, making sure the alarms were activated via her implant
and took the monorail to the corporation that handled the cloning of Moira's new body.

 The staff was quite hesitant about this sudden and unannounced visit, and made a number
of excuses, but when they mentioned a potential infection risk, Pilar burst out in a protest
as she considered that so insignificant that it could not be taken seriously.

 But she was proven wrong on that matter, while Moira's new body had been immunized
against the dangerous pathogens known on Pilar's word. The addition of the plasmids
was just a first step toward providing the body with an immune defense against infection.
It would still take nearly two weeks for the immune system to respond.

 So they arrived at a compromise, that Pilar would have a look at what was done remotely.
Pilar was taken to a lifesize holographic display, where she could study any part in far greater
detail than if she had seen the actual body.

 While one of the technicians followed her, one man who apparently had been given orders to
provide answers to any questions, while perhaps also keeping an eye on her to ensure she did
not show any interest in the equipment or enter any areas of the building where she was not
supposed to go.

 Pilar looked at the face of the clone, which appeared to be sleeping. And she noted small
twitches as if Moira merely was asleep and dreaming, and Pilar asked what caused this reaction.

 “We're a few days from being able to start the process of uploading the actual memories
and persona. Right now we're doing the most basal reactions, adding a template for reflexes
in the spinal cord, walking and any automatic routine tasks that was part of the download.”
Said the technician that had followed Pilar into the room. 

 “Really, why did I get a notification that this will take several weeks?”

 “We must make certain that everything work as intended, besides, her brain is under a torrent
of information. You know you need to sleep to process everything that has happened in a single
day?” The man asked rhetorically, as he immediately continued to say:  
“While the information already has been processed, this body still have to integrate and make
memory molecules for long term memory.” 

 “Wait a second, so you've already started?”

 “Indeed we have. You signed for a rush order and provided the address where the information
would be stored with credentials to access your data cluster. We started as soon as the copying
had began. We're currently doing the limbic parts, even while the neocortex is not quite finished,
knowing that this step would take several days.”

 “I heard of people who have clones new bodies after an accident, who have been able to
walk out only after some weeks!”

 “Yes, but that's when the brain and spinal cord had been transplanted; what we're trying here
is unprecedented!”

 “Allow me to ask you a question,” said the technician: “Until recently, we didn't even know if
something like this even was possible, and then we get several requests for this procedure 
all of a sudden."

"Some are for people whose origins that has not been disclosed to us. Others are elderly people
who want not only their bodies but also their ageing brains to be replaced.”

 “So we got curious of this sudden and unexpected breakthrough, and traced the source of
this new technique. Guess what? That turned out to be you!”  The technician who had kept
an even visage until this point, finished the sentence with a shrewd expression while he
looked Pilar straight in the eyes.

Pilar found the sudden display of assertiveness unnerving: “Am I in some kind of trouble?”

 “You know that we maintain the highest level of customer confidentiality. That's not the
matter here.”

 “Yes that's why I did hire your firm, so why do you ask?” Replied Pilar somewhat shaken
and uncertain if it would be a good idea to admit her involvement.

"I only wished to pique my own interest." The technician responded, and his professional 
visage returned, with the expressionless mask he had displayed earlier.

Pilar, on the other hand, saw through the man's act and knew there was more to the 
question he had asked. 

At the time when she sent the information about the mind transfer technique to the ICN
network wardens. Her intention had solely been to give a warning that a mind could be
hacked and a body be hijacked in virtual space.

She assumed that someone had spotted an opportunity and reverse engineered the
reminder of the information she never revealed. Pilar felt a pang of remorse for not seizing
this opportunity herself.

But she lived in a utopian society where money rarely was an issue for anyone and only
used for vacations or to purchase luxurious items and services. She had acted as a
responsible citizen by informing the authorities about the dangers, instead of looking for a
means to make a profit.

She felt a pang of regret that she had not made the information public domain instead,
but then realised that might have made matters worse. As this was a disruptive technology
where there were no end to how it might be misused.

Regardless on how this had happened. Moral concerns was not on the table, while doing
something that might be seen to endanger society could result in a significant backlash.
And now her name had gotten linked to this situation, whoever had cracked this had made
certain that anyone who would look for an answer would have the leads pointing to her 
instead. 'I've been had.' Pilar told herself.

The technician had continued explaining how they would proceed, while Pilar had been
lost in thoughts. But she caught the mans next phrase, and felt it was obvious that the
technician still were fishing for information.

 “I have never heard of anyone attempting this before. It's quite different accessing a
sensorium of one android while the brain is intact in the body. Compared to sending
everything downstream and have it transferred into a new brain. Yes, we've regrown 
small parts of a brain after a haemorrhagic stroke. But while we can give some help for
a case of that kind, the patient mostly have had to recover on their own accord!” 

The man had taken a step forward, and continued to talk while he inspected the
holographic representation of Moira's cloned body.

 “This is a special case, her mind was not read by any of the standard methods we use at
this facility, and we had to reformat everything as it was a real mess from the start.
Luckily our AI's was able to make sense of many things. I have to thank you for giving
us all information about the source, else we might not have made any sense of the
alien mind that was included.”

The technician looked at he holographic display, and added with a quiet voice.
“Very unusual to have spent so many decades in a biological waldo, without any break!”

 “Oh yes, that was her rider,” said Pilar. “She mentioned more than once that she had
been influenced by living in the alien body for so long. So some parts of that remained,
well it's no serious concern. It's part of her life and personality.”

 “Yes you mentioned that in your memo, that we shouldn't remove anything no matter
how strange or odd them might be.” Said the technician and added;
“However, I have one question that we may need to address in order to get the cognitive
functions working properly here.”

“The time stamps of the virtual experiences do not match the biological clock though.”
Pilar paled, then regained her composure and replied.

“Oh those are VR experiences done under time compression, don't worry about the
chronology. It's good enough she remember they happened.”

“Well we'll do our best, but it certainly is a risk of becoming a bloody mess.” Said the 
technician, while Pilar wondered if this had been another act, or if the technician 
actually was so frustrated over the use of new and untried procedures that he felt 
the need for swearing.

And while they apparently had been able to distinguish anything done in virtual space
from actual events. Pilar felt it very unlikely they had been able to tap the actual
experiences, unless someone had injected these memories into their own brain and
done the CREB process to see the memories of what had occurred. 

She calmed down when she found this to be extremely unlikely, and she had after all
chosen this cloning business since they had made their name for their clientèle discretion.  

The technician had not noted, or chosen to ignore Pilar's brief antsy reaction, as he
continued to with his improvised lecture. “We have aided this process by synthesizing 
new proteins for the long term memory. But the process of integrating those into the
correct sectors of the permanent memory is something we only can guide.” 

 “This include the process in the two hippocampi sectors, our first attempts to hasten
this step did lead to various mental problems.”

 “I am glad you take every precaution, so a lot of sleep is still the best cure?” 

 “You got that right, we will send you an update when we are ready to bring the
cognitive functions online. Until then those will be suppressed until we see that we've
created a healthy functioning mind.”

Pilar thanked the tech for his time and exited the building, her worries mostly gone,
though her subconscious continued to grind in the back of her mind about some detail
she felt she had overlooked. But she couldn't quite put her finger on what it might be.