Chapter 2
Violet entered her friends studio with a her usual slightly raised eyebrow, before taking a seat on one of the sleek black leather and chrome sofas in the ‘waiting area’
“Tea or coffee?” the friend asked “coffee, black, no sugar” came the response, eliciting a flash of a small frown from the friend. Vee had always been a sugar fiend before…..yeah. Turning to hand Violet her drink they took a moment to look at her. She’d always been tall and thin, but recently she was thinner than ever. Further than that she’d usually curl up in a almost feline way when they were around, but now she sat almost bolt upright sipping her coffee, her long legs not even crossed in their knee high chunky boots
“So you know how before the lockdown I’d been working on bioengineering, trying to get beyond the bulky aesthetics of the replacement limbs?” Violet nodded “well about a month in I was rambling through some old folders, and I found that article you did for my website all those years ago..” Violet narrowed her eyes slightly and noticeably stiffened at this and interrupted “that part of me died with…” she couldn’t even finish as her friend interrupted “I know, but I might be able to help with that!” the shock at their own choice of words instantly clear on their face
“WHAT???” Violet screamed, showing more emotion than her friend had seen from her in years “how could you POSSIBLY help with That!” she spat, the venom palpable as she got up to stride to the door
“Wait Vee, please! That’s not what I meant! Please give me a chance to explain!” Violet sighed, before turning to face her friend with a cold expression that only slightly thawed as she took her seat and picked her coffee up from where she’d slammed it down “go on then, I’ll give you a chance” Her friend knelt on the sofa facing Violet, and taking a deep breath began again
“Well as I was saying with the bioengineering the bulky aesthetics were because of the limitations of the joints, but with the recent polymar “muscle” tech breakthrough the design can be streamlined to match the original arm, or even smaller. The trouble we’re having now is more with the interface”
Violet nodded “yeah, the biochemical mechanical link to the brain, whilst it can send impulses from the brain to muscles it cannot send the right ones for the movements needed” her friend smiled “I’m not surprised you keep up to date on it” Violet shrugged before her friend continued “as you say the problem isn’t with the interface itself, its with the human brain not sending the right signals. That’s where my breakthrough came from, linked to that article! What if rather than trying to mimic commands the brain used to make for a limb it had, what about could it learn to send entirely new commands to a limb it’s Never had before!”
Violet lent back at that, thoughtfully scratching the scar where her left ear had been “ I don’t know enough about the interface software as it were to know if that’d work, but I’m guessing you have an idea on that?”
Her friend smiled, or rather beamed with joy “Yes! Yes! I’ve come up with my own control system, and not only can it actively control one new limb but at least three!” Violet gave a small smile at her friend's exuberance “that’s fantastic Naira, you could make a fortune if the government weren’t such close-minded cockstains. Remember how they outlawed little things like pointed ears and split tongues! Imagine how they’d react to people walking around with tails…” a slow dawning look of realisation broke over Violet’s face as Naira’s broke out in an even bigger grin “You’re getting it Vee!! I could give you a TAIL finally!! Aaand we can replace your ears with proper cat ones atop your head!!” Violet’s face went slack with awe with her jaw dropping at the thought “well, theoretically at least” Naira said, starting to look sheepish.
“What do you mean theoretically?” asked Violet, instantly going back to a cold cynical expression “well I’ve not had a chance to actually Test it on anybody. I mean I have the materials to make the hardware and everything, though growing a bioskin, whilst I can do it I simply can’t afford the materials to do so. I mean the polymar muscle synths alone are expensive, but I’ve got the vats to grow them in already. Likewise I can 3D print the bones, and the biocartilage and synthnerves cheaply. But to grow the skin, especially a furred one, I just can’t splurge the money to do it”
Violet looked at her with her usual uncomfortably intense murky hazel eyes, eyes that always seemed to read a point beyond Naira’s head for a solid 30 seconds, enough to make her start to squirm slightly and struggle to maintain eye contact. “So what you’re telling me, is that you think you have the ability to give me the tail that's Always been missing from this trainwreck of a body, along with the ears that I should have had, even before one got literally torn off the side of my head, and it’s only a small thing like money stopping us?? Wait, would the ears actually Work? Or would they be purely for show? Like this one” with that she gestured to her right ear, a hearing aid clearly bolted to it. “Oh yes!” said Naira “they’d be Fully functional! You’d have better hearing than you’ve ever had! And they should twitch as they Should!”
“Interesting” mused Violet “so how much would you need?” Naira stumbled over her reply “oh, errm, err, that's the problem. To grow the skin with fur to cover the ears & tail of say 2 feet, we’d be looking at a hundred thousand PoundDollars at least.” Violet nodded in thought, not even flinching at the amount “and what about the rest? The polymer muscles, synthnerves and biocartilage etc. everything” Naira scratched her head and scrunched her face slightly “probably hundred fifty, maybe closer to one sixty”
Violet finished her now cold coffee “ok, so when I bring you two hundred thousand how long will this take to make real?” Naira looked visibly shocked “what do you mean ‘when you bring me two hundred thousand’?? How on EARTH do you have that kind of money?? That’s like a decade's wages on the legit alone!!” Violet smiled a very bitter nasty smile, barely above a grimace, and gave a disturbingly humourless chuckle “heh, well our Beloved Wonderful government gave me a sizable pay-out following the ‘accident’ I’ve never touched their Filthy blood money” her face set to a mask of pure hatred, before returning neutral “so how long will it take to get this thing going?”
Naira gulped, before muttering “oh, errr, it’d take me a week to get everything together, then another to grow everything ready before it’d take nearly a dozen surgeries to implant everything and graft all the connections. And then we’d need at least 24 hours in the virtual mindlink with my specially crafted BrainSuite to program your brain, and even then there’s no guarantee that it’ll work! Or that it won’t completely melt your brain! Even if it doesn't kill you outright”
Violet simply smiled, and rested her hand on Naira’s shoulder, before calmly stating
“make it so”
