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'How does it feel, doctor?' Jill said as she watched Tandy extend her new limbs, and slowly move them.

'Odd. My memories of using them are still there, but it's been so long. Baby, how long will it take to regrow the skin?' She asked.

'We can use the new artificial skin, to encourage the regrowth. It will take a bit less time, and the more of your body that is there, the more the regenerative capacity increases.' Aya said and lightly stroked her mind. 'It shouldn't be more then a week, doctor. Be patient. I won't have you ruin your reintegration, and adaptation to your new body with foolishness.'

'Baby.' Tandy pouted. 'I'm just eager, that's all. Should I visit your mom and sister when I get out? Or will that be a gimme?' She felt Aya inside her mind again.

'A quiet visit, Tandy.' Aya said gently. 'They know you're alive, but I don't want to tip grandfather off.' She heard Aya sigh inside her mind.

'So much to do.'

* * *

"Fourth generation micros." Aya whispered as she began to build the newest iteration of the micro machines that helped to sculpt her people, their interfaces, and replace their weak cervical collars with metal structures.

As she tweaked each generation, she became more intimately linked with the small machines. She became more aware of where they were, and what they were doing. Each cluster worked more efficiently then a single bot, and often, they would initiate some alterations on her own body that she hadn't authorized.

Once she began to feel the new alterations, and examined them, she realized that these were the designs she's worked on before, and either approved for further development, or wanted to tweak.

Her skeletal development had not ceased, but instead, continued long passed her initial installation of the skeleton. Actuators were now updated, modified, and rebuilt so that they were at least twice as strong as before. They had new circuitry added to reduce the sensory load, and optimize their responses.

Her skull replacement had also been updated with patterned plates, new implants in the plates, and new interface circuits so that the travel distance to the interface was reduced to that plate. Each plate is interconnected, communicates with its neighbor, and passes the load to each adjacent plate and implant series.

Each plate interfaces directly with her brain, through the new interlacing and overlaid neural net, which promotes further upgrades in thought speed, and creativity.

When the newest generation of micro machines began to work within her body, she sensed that something extraordinary was about to happen.

And something terrifying.

* * *

'Jill!'

'Boss? Why are you so loud?' Jill asked.

'Don't have much time!' she said quickly. 'Evolution! Take care of Tandy, and make sure she does not leave her tank. Computer! Authorization to override to Jill, provisional, along with Sol, and Danica. AAHHHHH!'

'Boss? Boss! Boss! Aya!' Jill started to panic.

'Sol! Aya gave us provisional authorization to override! You and Danica! We need to calm Tandy or she'll break out of her vat!' Jill's panicked mental voice reached out.

'Agreed. I need to calm myself. Computer, authorization Sol. Override Tandy's frame.' Sol said firmly.

'Danica. Jill. Do you concur?'

'Yes.' 'Yes!'

* * *

"What the hell is going on?" Tandy's voice surged out of the speakers. "I can't get a hold of Aya, and her voice sounded like it was full of pain!"

"Doctor." Danica started. "It was an emergency, and she transferred the overrides for your frame to us." Tandy's eyes focused on her. "We don't know what happened, but even in the pain she was in, her thoughts were of you first. We need you, doctor, but not out here, causing havoc. When we find out what's happening, which would take longer while we try to calm you down if you're out here on a rampage, we can respond. Until then, your body is incomplete. Your control of the medical systems is only second to the boss. She's in pain. She has an interface. She has micros." Tandy closed her eyes, then opened them, calm and methodical.

"Thank you, Danica. I'll fuck the hell out of you when I get out as my release mechanism." She let out a slow breath, which was reflected in the bubbles coming out of the breather now attached to her face. It was to help strengthen, and clear out her lungs so she could breathe air normally when she got out of the vat.

"Computer, access detailed scans of Aya." Multiple screens popped up and she moved through the data quickly. However, she moved back to two of them just as quickly.

"What the fuck. Computer, analyze. What am I seeing?"

"Ongoing evolutionary process. Due to cerebral constraints, Aya has determined that two lobes are insufficient to house her mental faculties. She designed her implants to help her evolve, and divide her brain into four lobes." Tandy closed her eyes.

"And the next evolutionary step is eight lobes, correct?"

"Yes. The process is incredibly painful, as well as overwhelming. Her awareness will be well beyond what is currently known about human awareness."

"Can she undergo the next step at the same time, and not have to endure this again?" Tandy asked.

"Negative. Her implants are sequenced to support her cognitive functions from a two lobe brain, into a four lobe. Additional implants, and cranial expansion would be necessary to increase to an eight lobe brain. There are too many unknown factors in the four lobe brain, so Aya refrained from designing along this route for now." the computer's information seemed quite detailed. Tandy asked another question.

"Computer, these are all background thoughts, correct?"

"Affirmative. Aya seems unaware of her higher thought processes operating as a simulation within her own mind, as she develops, and creates ideas for her own intellect to test within the simulation. Such detached thinking processes will become more pronounced, in theory. It was also a theory that each lobe will become it's own separate processor, and the interconnected lobes will be faster then two by more then a factor of two."

"Hypothesize. Will eight lobes only increase her ability to think, or are there other side effects?" Tandy asked.

"Unknown. However, Aya believes that only her ability to have multiple focuses, and still maintain concentration, will be affected. She does not believe that mental willpower will allow her to develop telekinetic abilities." Tandy smirked.

"Hustlers and scam artists. While she may not be able to make things levitate, she may be able to use mathematics to anticipate, and her creativity will go through another evolution too." Tandy closed her eyes.

"She just keeps growing, doctor. Will we ever be able to catch up?" Sol asked the one question they all wanted to know the answer to.

And feared the answer they sought.