The human had severe injuries to the point they could not move. Until the body could heal, or if the injuries were too severe, replaced, they had a special, AI-produced, neural net placed on their head, and an android body to move around and do things for them. -- Anon Guest
"I don't want no chips in my head, I don't want no copies made of me. If I'm dying, I'm dying. No implants. I knew what I was doing when I went in and I knew I was less likely to come out again. Actions have consequences. I'm honestly lucky I get to see you all again." Human Lerm could only speak. His ability to move had been disconnected by advanced science. Just a simple external bypass. Nothing invasive.
The B'Nari Medtech Speculum sighed as if ze was too used to hearing such objections. A B'Nari could technically live forever, but few non-B'Nari ever accepted the options they had to offer.
Combating the "Ick Factor" was always a problem.
"We do have something that will help," the holograms in Speculum's control danced around. One showed a helmet-like device, and the other was a skeleton with a screen for a face.
"Ew, said Lerm.
"That's the 'no frills' model," sighed Speculum. "It's fully customisable. You can even make it look like you're walking around inside your regular livesuit. Most patients prefer the 'almost human' chassis." Speculum showed Lerm that option. "It's also available in several colours."
The skeleton was now a shop dummy, and the screen was curved and almost masklike. It was, as the name suggested, almost human. There were seams with a black underlay, making it look like a Human in a robot costume.
"Yeah I can see why most people'd want that," allowed Lerm. "Can I cover it in hippie flowers and make the underlay, like... glowy?"
"You can even customise your glow," soothed Speculum. "Now, for the sensory inputs, most patient with your... objections; prefer a muted haptic interaction with their virtual environment, of course you can decide which experience you wish at any time..."
...oOo...
"Human Lerm! You are... you are... not here?"
"Telepresence bot. I'm still in bad shape. This just lets me go around and make sure you're not getting into trouble without me." The screen-face grinned for them. "I've set up a technical difficulties thing just in case stuff goes south, but Doc Frankenstein in there thinks I have a good chance of walking out for realsies."
It would be a month and a half, yet, before Human Lerm would "walk out for realsies," but in the meantime, it was good social therapy.
[Image by Cok Wisnu on Unsplash]
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