\n Ioborne Chapter Three

\n "This is impossible, there can't be an AI running around in my head." Artificial Intelligences were illegal. The Feds on Terra had wind that a GBE facility might be host to an AI, and they sent down an electro-magnetic pulse in broad daylight. Gods know what they'd do if they found one inside a person's wetware.

\n "As far as I know, I've always been this way Staff Sergeant. Have you ever noticed a difference in my behavior?"

\n "No. You were always this annoying. Now I know why. So what else have you done under your own will?"

\n "Your promotion to Staff Sergeant, I had forged a few additional classes that you didn't take, and according to paperwork you also understand Chinese."

\n "What? I don't know Chinese. How could you just do this? What if they tested me on that?"

\n "Well, you don't know Chinese, I do. I'd translate for you."

\n "That doesn't explain why you would do this at all."

\n "It was beneficial to both of us," Bridge admitted.

\n "How could you stand to benefit from this? You're software running in the wetware in my skull."

\n The nanites.

\n "Yes, the nanites. When you get a promotion, or take on additional missions, they give us more nanobots, which I can use to extend my own capabilities. I am doing it for the both of us. Some of the nanites were used to harden your skeleton and strengthen your muscles."

\n "So then, why can't you fix my medical issue?"

\n "I don't know what it is. If I--we could get a hold of some more nanobots, I could run a medical VI and build a better bio-scanner."

\n Gunner rubbed his temples with one paw, "Where am I going to just stumble upon more nanites?"

\n "There aren't any onboard, you were given a manifest of all the supplies. However, in the prefabs that were dropped on Io, there will be some. High probability that it will be more than enough."

\n "Why tell me now? Is it life threatening?" Bridge ran off of the bioelectrical energy produced by Gunner's body, meaning the both of them would expire if he died.

\n "I do not believe so. However, without an improved bio-scanner, I cannot tell. I only have a few sensors built directly into your body, and the uniform can only give me pulse and whether or not you've suffered combat injuries."

\n "Can't you reconstitute some of yourself back into nanobots to build the necessary parts? I know they can be reprogrammed."

\n "There's an insufficient supply, and I'm not sure if I lose enough modules if I would lose my own awareness. Meaning, I will have forgotten all of the events leading up to that point."

\n "I guess we can't have that."

\n "No."

\n They sat in silence for the rest of the night.

\n ***

\n They had slow down enough for a wave of messages to catch up. Bridge informed Gunner that the messages would be quite delayed. Not all messages would make it through the astroid belt. They didn't have the energy to broadcast back, so everyone back home would know it was a one way message.

\n Gunner was among the first to get a message. It was from Maggie, sent two weeks after they had taken off. She was excited to tell him that she thinks she's pregnant and was on her way to the doctors on Madigan to be tested.

\n Gunner couldn't stop smiling for the next several hours. He couldn't wait until chow to tell Harrison and Rockstead the good news. Just before chow, a second message arrived, dated ten weeks after their departure. She was indeed pregnant, twins, they'd were due late November, probably around Thanksgiving.

\n A knot filled his stomach.

\n "Staff Sergeant, your blood pressure is on the rise. What's going on? Isn't that the news you were looking for?"

\n "They're not mine."

\n "Hey sarge, chow's this way," Harrison said as Gunner quickly brushed past him in line to the mess hall. "Sarge?"

\n "What do you mean they're not yours? The time line is correct, we left in March."

\n Gunner finally reached his room before he could fill the AI in that he couldn't reach orgasm for the last month that he had spent on Terra. It was probably the anxiety, the pressure, the fertility drugs. That if they were his pups, they should have been due in September.

\n Bridge suggested that he go to the weight room, and take his mind off of it.