Chapter 6: Jennifer Is Back
By the giant lake in the Lake Region, the Linap defrosted in Location 6 began to stir. He was incredibly disoriented and could barely move. He slowly tried to raise his head. This caught the attention of a Sapien-robot hybrid. She hovered over to him.
‘How are you feeling?’ asked the hybrid.
‘What are you?’ asked L6 Linap.
Linap are identified by the location where they were found. For example, the Linap located at Location 6 is referred to as L6 Linap.
‘I am a cyborg Sapien. You can call me Polly,’ replied Polly. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘What is a cyborg? What is a Sapien?’ asked L6 Linap as he shook his head.
‘A cyborg is a biological lifeform enhanced by mechanical parts,’ replied Polly. ‘A Sapien is a Linap that has been genetically modified with Sape DNA. How are you feeling?’
‘Stop asking that question!’ snapped L6 Linap in frustration. ‘I’m obviously feeling awful.’
L6 Linap heard footsteps approaching. He propped himself up against a tree. Before him was an enormous creature. He was carrying a large pizza. Behind him were several large robots.
‘What are you?’ gasped L6 Linap.
‘I’m Octavius Spiro,’ said Octavius. ‘Would you like a slice of my pizza?’
Out of terror, L6 Linap accepted a huge pizza slice. Octavius sat down opposite him.
‘Polly, with the help of her AI component, has figured out that you have been frozen for nearly a thousand years,’ said Octavius as he took a huge bite from his pizza. ‘Gauging from the technology, this must have been around the time I upsized my body.’
‘How could you be that old?’ asked L6 Linap.
‘I volunteered for an experiment during more desperate times,’ replied Octavius. ‘I wanted immortality. Instead, I got an eternity of loneliness. Now it’s my turn to ask the questions.’
‘My head is spinning,’ replied L6 Linap.
‘Do you remember your own name?’ asked Octavius.
‘I can’t remember. I can’t remember anything,’ said L6 Linap as he shook his head.
‘I must admit, your face is somewhat familiar,’ said Octavius, rubbing his chin. ‘Is the name Alset familiar to you?’
‘Yeah, it does,’ said L6 Linap. ‘I’m not sure how or why.’
‘The machine keeping you frozen was built by the Alset Company,’ said Octavius. ‘You’re probably a family member or close friend.’
‘What are you going to do with me?’ asked L6 Linap as he finished the last bit of the pizza slice.
‘I want to offer you a place in our new world,’ replied Octavius.
L6 Linap frowned and then nodded.
Octavius Spiro was the owner and founder of the Spiro Company. Spiro owned the rehabilitation centre in Cellrebrum. Octavius Spiro was also a part owner of Ripe, Aivr, and Direct Robotics. This was a little-known fact because he used pseudonyms to hide his identity. Octavius was rarely seen in public. He stood out because he was unnaturally enormous, and his facial features resembled those of a giant lizard. He did not want anyone to know about his unusual appearance. He also struggled to shapeshift because of his size and age.
During the Sentray attack six years earlier, Octavius Spiro had moved onto his houseboat on the great lake. He waited until he was confident that the Sentray had left the Lake Region before returning to land. When he reached land, he could see that the region had been completely destroyed.
Lake was the region allocated to Jennifer by the Carvaress Company to conduct operations for the Ripe Company. They were going to build a large theme park community by the great lake. However, this never happened. The Jennifer program had been uploaded to a computer in the region’s existing rehabilitation centre. It became disconnected from Cellrebrum during the Sentray attack.
Octavius played a key role in the development of Dr. Crane’s and Dr. Cortex’s upgrades and provided valuable input into the development of Jennifer. The deaths of Dr. Crane and Dr. Cortex had cut his access from Jennifer. With Jennifer down, Octavius wanted to reactivate her and regain control.
In hope that the Jennifer software was still intact, Octavius made his way to the Lake Rehabilitation Centre. He found and repaired several generators. He filled them with fuel and connected them to the rehabilitation centre’s power grid. He also built several machines and large robots to help with his search.
He and the robots rummaged through the ruins of the buildings in search of computers that might still work. He found several. He connected them to the power supply. Most of them could be powered up. He searched through the computer files to see if he could find Jennifer. Eventually, he found a computer with her program on it. He tinkered with the software program to regain authorisation to control her. Then he reinstalled her program.
‘Good afternoon, Octavius Spiro,’ said a voice out of the computer’s speaker.
‘Welcome back, Jennifer,’ said Octavius as he rubbed some dust off the computer.
Around a hundred metres away, a cyborg was lying on the ground. Once Jennifer was activated, the cyborg woke up. The cyborg got to her feet and walked towards Octavius. Octavius did not see her until she was around twenty meters away. He turned and looked at her.
‘Hello, Octavius Spiro,’ said the cyborg. ‘I’m Polly. I’m a Jennifer-assisted Sapien-robot hybrid. My organic side is greatly depleted. Would you mind sharing some organic nourishment?’
‘Ah, food, sure,’ said Octavius as he began rummaging through his bag.
‘Do you like chocolate eclairs?’ asked Octavius as he pulled out a lunch box containing two huge eclairs.
‘Dense in calories, exactly what I need,’ replied Polly as she stretched out her hand.
Meanwhile, while Octavius was attending to Polly, Jennifer was installing an upgrade.
Polly was a Sapien from Adoy. She was inside a vehicle that crashed into the region’s main wall. Vulay, who was under the control of Jennifer at the time, rescued Polly from the vehicle. She placed Polly in a medical capsule inside a flying vehicle. This flying vehicle transported Polly to Jeed, where Dr. Cortex performed an emergency operation to save her life. In doing so, he replaced large portions of her badly damaged body with robotic parts. He also installed a Jennifer chip in her brain as well as treated her with the compliance drug. When Jennifer was granted access to Lake, Polly was transferred there as part of the advanced team to set up the new Ripe Rehabilitation Centre and theme park.
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
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