A Bird In Need By Smirkyguy Friday afternoon. Doc was looking forward to starting the weekend, but he still had work to do in the main lab. Something relating to nanite studies, like usual. Today it was nanites versus advanced cancer samples. He hovered over several petri dishes, taking samples and analyzing them under a high power microscope. Doc let out a long yawn, and kicked himself in his wheeled office chair a few feet to the left. A good scientist always kept work and food separate, and thus, his coffee was far enough away that an accidental spill wouldn't ruin anything. He moaned audibly from the pleasure as his usual drink, a cold brewed dark roast with ice and unsweetened cocoa powder, bathed his tongue. A moment of pleasure turned to a five minute break, one he dearly needed after three straight hours of dull, menial work. He almost wished for something interesting to happen... BANG! A loud thump on the solid titanium sliding door nearly startled him into falling off his chair. A few random error tones indicated someone was fumbling with the touchscreen control panel aimlessly. Of course, it was locked due to all the sensitive lab equipment inside. "Who is it?" Doc called out on the intercom. No answer. "Sophia, can you judge what's going on? Is it an emergency?" "It's Olivia, Doctor Foxworth. She's not responding to me, but is clearly in distress." He quickly ran through a mental checklist of Olivia's history. Once a short, chubby mole, Doc had built her an all new bird body from scratch, and digitized her brain. Doc sprinted over. "Open it, Sophia," he ordered. He prepared to catch the anthro quetzal, but was surprised to see Olivia just calmly standing there. She held out a wing forward, and walked into Doc as if she didn't even see him. She grabbed him, and silently pointed at her head. Half lidded eyes were glazed over in a deathlike stare, and her beak was relaxed open. Doc reacted calmly in return. He grabbed her wingtip and led her to the counter where his Samsung tablet was resting. A message popped up requesting a Bluetooth connection from 'OLIVIA_BRAIN', and he tapped accept. A custom built chat app opened. Olivia's 3D rendered face appeared in the virtual space and spoke. "Doctor? Are you there?" He picked up the tablet to look into the selfie camera. "Yes, it's me, I'm here with you." "Oh thank fuck, I found the right room. So, umm... I have nothing from the neck up." Her 'real' self waved its wings around her noggin for emphasis. "No senses, no feeling, no control, nothing." "Did this just happen?" Doc asked. "No, I've been like this for three weeks," she replied with deadpan sarcasm. "Uh, right... okay. No apparent cause?" "Nope. Just suddenly went dark." Her virtual avatar replied. "Well, that's helpful info, tells me it's an issue with the interface." Doc led her by the wing to the centrally positioned doctor's chair, and helped her sit down. He went to sit on his own chair, and rode it to the center of the room with a kick off of the counter. "Didn't you fix this the last time it happened?" "Well, actually I never found the issue. This time we have more info to work with, and can look for patterns." "...Are you gonna chop me again?" She asked. "I hope you don't mind." It was difficult for him to hide his arousal about the idea. "Nah, go ahead. It's dead weight until it's fixed, anyway. Plus, it gives me a chance to ask for a few tweaks to the next iteration of myself." "Such as...?" Doc opened a notepad built into the app. "My monthly egg cycle... I've come to like the sensation of laying an egg. Can it be sped up? More pleasure for me, and more food for Chef. A win-win." "Easy enough. Once every two weeks?" Doc commented. "Sounds good to me. Oh also, my back talons are growing outward at a fifteen degree angle. Please fix it, it makes walking hard." Doc looked over at her feet. It took him a second to spot the subtle offset, but yes, it was there. "Any more bug fixes?" He jokingly asked, which got a small chuckle from the virtual bird head. "Yes, I've got feathers growing in my vent." Doc halted. "Excuse me? Say that again?" "Pretty sure you heard me the first time. Down feathers. In my cloaca." "Alright, let me get gloves," he said, and wheeled over to the glove box. He slipped on a pair of blue nitrile gloves, then wheeled back to check out birdbutt. Olivia was already spreading her legs out sideways, as far as a bird could manage. Mixed feelings went through Doc's mind, which he tried to block out as he stuck a finger in to feel around. Confirmation was quick. He felt around to judge the severity of the problem. "Okay, yeah. This can be fixed," he said, and pulled out his gloved finger. "Aw, why'd you stop?" Olivia asked from the tablet. "No offense, but I doubt you washed it out thoroughly before visiting me." He disposed of the gloves quickly. "Necks over butts, huh?" "I don't do butts." He picked the tablet back up. "Fine, fine. You'll get your reward, but you still gotta fix me." She flashed her virtual avatar's 3D rendered neck. Obviously, Doc programmed it with realistic cross-section anatomy. Foxdoc smiled at the view. "Give me a moment to prep a scalpel," he told her, and rode the chair across the room yet again. A brand new scalpel was unwrapped and assembled in seconds. "Guide me to where your feeling cuts off." "Almost exactly where head and neck meet, just like last time." Doc parted her neck feathers, and poked the blade into her skin. "Here?" "Lower, can't feel it." Doc moved lower by one row of feathers. "Here?" "Faint, go a bit lower." Again, he moved down past a row of feather shafts. "Perfect?" "Yep, dig in." She politely stayed still, for the most part. She was fidgeting her bird feet around. Doc gleefully smiled as her skin split open under his knife. Meat, trachea, arteries, esophagus, veins, spine: all were evenly parted under his skillful slices. Her slender neck was severed within two minutes. Olivia's body sat up as soon as she felt the weight of her head vanish. Cold lab air swept across her moist, exposed neck and she shivered. "Any chance you could turn up the heat a bit?" "No. Sensitive lab equipment needs steady climate control." His tone turned seductive. "Although, there are other methods of warming up." "Transfer me to the lab network first. I prefer the WiFi and ethernet over Bluetooth, it allows me access to more than just what I'm standing next to." Doc obliged, picking up the inert bird head and flipping it over. He opened an access panel that was hidden by faux feathers and slid out a metal box from her skull. He glided his chair over to his laptop, then grabbed spare ethernet and charger cables. Both were easily plugged into ports on the side of the box. "Thanks, Doc." Olivia's voice came over the intercom as soon as Sophia gave her an access token. She sounded vastly better on the much larger surround sound setup. "So, umm... does a blowjob from your body sound okay? You know how to line up, right?" "You men are all so predictable... always thinking about sex." Despite the complaint, she walked over to Doc, and gave him a full winged hug (now that she could see via the security cameras). "Still, I'm eternally grateful for everything you've done for me. The least I can do is satisfy your sexual urges." She used her nimble, snakelike neck to boop his nose. Doc quickly unbuttoned his lab coat. His tiny pecker stood at attention for what was to come. Olivia sat down in place, a position most feral birds were capable of. Despite being anthro, Olivia managed the pose fairly well after a week of training in her new body. "...Which hole is it again?" she asked Doc. He chuckled, and gently caressed her feathered neck. "There’s two holes. The forward-most one is your breathing tube, and I doubt you want cum in your air sacs. Back a little bit behind it, there's a tube that's collapsed shut. Crescent shaped, and kinda wrinkly looking. That's our goal." "Can you text me a closeup picture? It's kinda hard to see from halfway across the room." Doc obliged, pulling out his cell phone and snapping a high resolution picture. He texted it directly to her brain-box. "Feel free to keep that saved," the digitized bird said. She saved the picture to her own media storage chips. She was curious enough to study it later, in greater detail. Maybe she could get a glimpse of why Doc liked it so much. For now though, she figured out the right hole, and slipped onto his cock. Tiny peen met tiny hole. One encompassed the other, and pleasure began to spark across Doc's mind. The strong esophageal muscles made it much tighter than a vagina, and Olivia could clamp down even tighter by swallowing. It was also much more lubricated than a vagina. Between that and the smooth lining, she was able to rapidly thrust her neck back and forth with almost no effort. Doc ejaculated in less than sixty seconds. "Gee, that was fast..." She seemed a bit disappointed, but stayed gripped on to drink it all. "Just goes to show how potent it was for me... You're good at this." "Thanks? I still prefer girls though." "I appreciate the exception, believe me. You're beautiful." "And you're... actually very smart. I'm almost jealous of your accomplishments." "Hey, don't underestimate your own skills. You're really good at mental math. And an excellent artist. And the only one here who types faster than you is a literal computer. I've never seen you lose a game of chess, either." "Stop, you're making me blush. Well, virtually blush." "And don't forget that you're the go-to person for Dungeons And Dragons advice. I swear you've memorized the entire handbook." "For both 3.5 and 5e..." she shyly admitted. "Okay, I get your point. But while you're sitting here complimenting me, I still have no head." "I can't exactly promise an immediate fix. It may be just like last time, where I have to build an all new you from scratch." "Well, alright then. I suppose I'll get back to work. Keep me updated on your progress, and keep my brain safe." She nuzzled him with her exposed neck, hugged him, and headed for the door. *** Doc spent the next six hours analyzing and debugging Olivia's head, to no avail. Whatever had happened, it left no trace. The whole interface implant was just... dead. Nothing he did could get it to boot up. There was no response when he pinged the error logs. The fact that her brain still functioned flawlessly baffled him even further, as that ruled out any kind of catastrophic power surge. He checked the battery; a unit that was meant to last three years between charges. Still fully charged, with normal voltage. Though the controller board was equally dead. He tried applying external power to the implant. Still nada, not even a power on light. As a last ditch effort, he probed several spots on the main board with a voltmeter. Every single continuity check failed. He scraped the protective green layer off of the board. All the copper was gone, replaced with black sooty lines. Exasperated sigh. He took a gulp of coffee, and headed to his quarters for the night... *** Saturday morning. After the normal routine of shower and breakfast (Chef always laid out a full breakfast buffet on weekends. All the classics!), it was time to figure out what happened. He grabbed the main board from his lab, and made his way directly to Mikey's cybernetics research lab. Sophia opened the door for Doc without question. Mikey was silently drawing up a circuit board layout on his laptop. "Good morning, Justin." Mikey commented without looking away from his screen. "How'd you know it was me?" "You're the only one that's allowed to bypass my lock without my explicit authorization. What do you need?" Doc tossed the fried circuit board onto Mikey's desk. "What would do this?" He asked, clearly exasperated. Mikey glanced over at the scorched circuits. He picked it up, and studied it curiously under a magnifying lens. He carefully scraped off the green paint in various spots. Doc patiently awaited the fennec's expert judgment. "I've only seen this in photography, but there's no doubt. A focused electromagnetic field did this." Doc's expression instantly changed from irritation, to concern. "Possible sources?" "A lightning strike, an EMP attack, a badly wound transformer coil, a running MRI, the lab's supercapacitors." "Hmm, okay. I'll go ask Olivia what she was doing when this happened." "She's lucky to be alive, you know. If her brain wasn't so densely shielded..." Mikey trailed off. The quiet fennec was not much for talking. "I know. Thanks for your help, Mikey." Doc left quietly to go question the bird. *** Doc found the headless quetzal quietly working away in the reception office. She was sorting the morning mail with Carly, the loyal teenage bunny who greeted visitors as a receptionist. "Mornin' Doctor Foxworth!" The rabbit declared, and politely handed Doc a few envelopes. "Thanks. How's Olivia?" "I haven't eaten in fourteen hours, what do you expect?" Olivia said from the ceiling. "Chef or Shade could’ve helped you with that. They both have practice helping headless furs eat." "Meh... Chef is always busy, and I don’t trust anyone with claws sharper than mine." "Fair, Shade is pretty intimidating. Anyway, I’ve come to ask a few questions." "Ask." The quetzal had not stopped sorting mail this entire time. "Where were you both times your head blacked out?" Doc asked first. "I was delivering mail to Andre, in the workshop. You think it’s related?" "Almost certainly. Anything that looked like it had a lot of electricity running through it?" "No clue. It happened as soon as I set foot inside." "Okay. We have a solid lead. Thanks." Doc went to interview Andre, but was stopped by Carly. "Umm... Will Olivia have her head back soon? It’s... weird. And a bit creepy." "Give me, say, a day or two?" Doc estimated. "Okay." The bunny took a deep breath, and put on a brave face. She went back to sorting mail. Meanwhile, Doc marched his way straight to maintenance. At least, he almost did. He smartly dropped off his cellphone in his quarters first. The hardware was easily replaced, but he hated needless waste. As soon as Doc set foot in the maintenance workshop, he could smell the ozone and burning plastic. He took a look around, and instantly spotted several dissected microwaves on a table. Their innards were heavily rewired, and the combined thing was plugged in and... burning a bag of popcorn. "ANDRE! FRONT AND CENTER! NOW!" He demanded loudly. He also took a quick second to unplug the monstrosity. "HEY, DON’T FUCK WITH MY INVENTION! GET YOUR OWN!" Andre, the constantly naked wolfess, shouted from the lounge doorway. "No. This 'invention' nearly killed Olivia. Twice." "Fuck off. Where’s your proof?" "Got an EMF meter? Turn it on." Andre angrily swiped a tool off the wall, and switched it on. "HA! IT'S READING ONLY BACKGROUND!" "That’s because I unplugged it." Doc stuck the plug back into the wall. Andre’s expression instantly went from bold, smug confidence, to utter shock, as she saw the reading spike beyond the tool's range. "FUCK! SHIT! FUCKING UNPLUG IT! NOW!" She demanded. Doc was quick to yank the plug back out. "Okay, fine. Inventing is hard. I don’t know how you do it so well." The wolfess admitted. "Dismantle it. That’s an order." "Fine... but only because it never worked right. The damned thing kept burning everything." *** Doc was quick to declare victory, texting Olivia to summarize everything that just happened. It only took him five hours to swap in a new interface for her head. She was fully reassembled by the end of the day.