Dinner with Nisha had been quite interesting. Once she was finally believing that I was accepting her and her power, she had opened up quite a bit. While she had initially been deeply curious about my new relationship with the Guild, I had also learned a lot about her past, which had some overlap with my own. Her father was a consummate politician and had been most of his life. His politics were focused on allowing India to take its place as a great nation, without throwing away their culture and values, at least that was Nisha’s description. It made for an interesting balancing act and it put his family under a microscope. After all, the family was the base-unit of society.

Nisha had been under much closer scrutiny than I had ever been, which was partially the reason she wanted to come to Accord Island. Here, on the Island, there were very few professional reporters and those that got access were focused on the UN or the Guild, not on Indian political gossip. As we talked, I got a feeling that there were a lot of people that mistrusted her due to her power, maybe they thought she could read their minds or something like that.

After dinner, we split and I went back into my workshop, hoping to build myself a functioning arm over the weekend, so I could go to class Monday without causing too much of a stir.

My design, which Galatea had expanded on, greatly relied on nanites, far more than I currently had available, so I sent a message to Technica, asking if she had a good source for the materials I needed and if she would share the source. Within a minute, I was sent a form to order materials at cost, with very short delivery times. Smiling, I ordered about ten times the materials I had used for my current stock of nanites and paid extra for instant delivery to my workshop. Instant meant that the materials and standard components would be delivered within four hours, which was quite impressive.

While I waited on delivery, I started to put together a couple of microwave-transmitters so I could run the nanites outside the very limited field projected by the transmitters in my back. In the three hours, thirty minutes the delivery took, I managed to make two chests equivalent to my original chest and had gotten access to an additional high-voltage power feed to run everything I needed.

The delivery-driver looked a little confused, apparently it was highly unusual that his outfit delivered to non-senior guild-members or directly to schools for their laboratories but I had been verified. I smiled and kept my mouth shut while taking delivery.

Once I had the materials, I sent out as many nanites as I could spare without damaging my body, using them to start construction. Galatea started to work and once again, I started to help, slipping into a trance while countless microscopic nanites did my bidding. In the shared, mental space, I realised that I was not really tired, that my midday fainting spell had apparently satisfied my bodily need to sleep. A smile crept onto my lips and I knew that I could easily work through the night.

It was about ten o’clock when I left my workshop, happy with the night’s progress. Most of the nanites were done, Galatea and I had gotten the process down to an art over the night but I had a need for coffee. So, I decided to use my arm-cludge one last time and go get some. My body was still rather dinged up, but Galatea promised that she was working on it and once the additional nanites were introduced, she should be finished quickly. There would still be damage, the biological healing would take time, but it should be relatively painless.

Once I was fortified with coffee, I went back into my workshop and started to work on my arm, while Galatea finished up the last nanites. Most of the arm was designed to be solid metal pieces, made out of aluminum. The joints and muscles were simply made by linking together nanites, similar to the way they worked in a human. Every other open space would be filled with energy-crystals, as the increased amount of nanites would increase the amount of power needed to run them, even if a lot of them would just be inactive, not drawing power but linked together in a locked state, simulating bones in my spine.

And around all that, another layer of nanites to work as skin, to act as a sensory organ and gather information.

Once Galatea was finished with the nanites, we joined together and manufactured the pieces before linking them together so they would not fall apart if the nanites would ever lose power. Or worse, got hit with an EMP.

My flesh gave a tiny amount of shielding against one, but a serious EMP could easily kill me in my current state and even once the natural healing I needed was done, it would cripple me. There probably were ways around it, I had a couple of ideas that might work, but I would need time to explore those ideas, to turn them into viable solutions. So, for now, I would have to be careful.

When I was almost finished with my arm, I got a call from Technica, asking me if I wanted to meet for lunch. I was feeling conflicted about accepting, I liked Technica but there was her other role, that I still could not acknowledge, that I did not even want to think about, that made me hesitate. But Galatea gave me a gentle, mental push and I accepted, promising to meet with her at one of the nicer restaurants in the Guild area. I considered changing my looks, to de-emphasise the quite obvious similarities between us, but decided not to. I was not acknowledging her other role, but I would also not change myself in response to it.

Before I even got to the restaurant, I was intercepted by Technica, wearing a clean lab-coat and looking rather apprehensive. Her artificial hand was on full display, without even a glove hiding it. But then, she also had the replacement in her neck that kept her from blending it.

“Hello, Councillor Technica.” I greeted when she was in front of me.

“Hello, Metis.” she nodded back.

“Diana, when I am like this, if you do not mind.” she nodded her acceptance of my civilian name and answered, after a moment of hesitation, “Please, call me Andrea. I think my apprentice should be one of the few people who know my name.”

I nodded and studiously ignored the implications that went with that name.

“Andrea, then. How do you like my new arm?” I asked with a smile and took off the glove hiding my silvery left arm. We must have made quite the sight, me with a silver hand and Andrea with the less shiny but just as artificial and robotic looking parts. Now, we just had to tell people that resistance was futile and threaten to assimilate them and we would get sued for copyright infringement. Only that our parts were far superior, I would never assimilate anyone, why would I? I had Galatea joined with me, what benefit would a human mind add?

I shook off the strange ideas I was having and watched as Andrea studied my new, shiny arm. She looked rather fascinated, so I took the time to take a closer look at the way she had overcome the problem.

I quickly noticed that her way was deeply rooted in her power, the arm was only serviceable for someone who was able to control it with her power. My nanites would be up to the task, thanks to Galatea, but anyone else had no chance. I was quite curious how far Technica’s power extended and how much of her ability was grounded in that power and how much was acquired by study.

I saw her shake her head in wonder, obviously impressed with my arm.

“You know, it took me a few iterations until I had something as polished as you have.” she complimented as we continued our way to the restaurant.

“Thank you. But, I do have an immense advantage, or rather multiple. And, I have to thank you for allowing me to use the service you recommended yesterday, it helped a great deal.”

“You’re welcome, don’t worry about it. While they are quite picky who they take on, my apprentice would always be a welcomed customer there. They specialise in working with the Guild, to provide us the best parts they can. It is more expensive, as you probably noticed, but not horribly so.”

I nodded and we reached the restaurant, where we were quickly seated in a private room.

Smalltalk was incredibly strange, neither of us was fully comfortable in a social setting, especially with each other, so we did not even manage to get to ordering before our conversation devolved into shop-talk, mainly about preferences in our workshops. Neither of us even tried to hint at anything that could give anyone an advantage, due to the semi-public nature of the venue.

Over the course of the meal, I was however, offered a private workroom in her underground facility, so I could work in privacy and security. It was far more secure compared to my current workshop and it was an offer I was inclined to accept. The new workshop would be open to her, but I had no doubt, none at all, that she could also get into my current workshop at will, even without using the power she held as a Guild-Councillor, just using her power.

After lunch, she showed me to another hidden elevator, making me wonder just how large the underground facility was and how many holes her private warren had.