The Fennec of the Future By Smirkyguy Doc and Mikey stared at a computer display in the main lab. A grim look came across their faces, as both knew what the data meant. "Is it really that bad?" the half-cybernetic fennec asked softly. "Raw data doesn't lie. Cellular mitosis has ceased across the board, and protein synthesis isn't far behind." "How long... until..." Mikey's voice hitched. "Michael, I can keep your cells in a slow metabolic state for a few more months, but the clock is ticking. There just isn't enough intact DNA remaining to keep you alive. I... I'm sorry..." The fennec sat down. He had to process this news. "And there's no other options...?" "Digitizing you maybe? But I don't have enough stable DNA to print more of your organic self. You would be condemned to life as a chatbot." Doc tried to keep his feelings from showing. Mikey sat silently for several minutes. Justin eventually walked over to hold his best friend's hand. "I... I don't wanna lose you Michael. I don't know if I can handle living without you..." Mikey spoke. "There is one option available... Sit down Justin, please. And Sophia, halt all recordings of the security system: classified protocols." The lab computer obliged, cutting all feeds in and out. "Michael, I know you. You have something big and important to tell me." Mikey paused, then finally said, "I am a time traveler from 150 years in the future." Doc sat silently for a moment. The tone, the way Mikey had said it, this was a confession, not a joke. Doc did not expect this turn of events. "...Justin?" "Don't worry Michael, I believe you. It explains a lot of things, actually." "I suppose it would," Mikey quietly replied. "But, you said there was an option to save you? Let's focus on that first. Storytime can come later." "Yes. Follow me upstairs, we need to retrieve something." Mikey instructed. And so, Doc followed the fennec. It seemed they were heading for the residential hall, and indeed, Mikey led Doc to his bedroom. They went through several security protocols after entering. "Okay, we should be safe to talk freely." Mikey relaxed, then headed for his bookcase. Doc quietly sat down on his friend's unfolded futon. The desert fox pulled out a large, educational book about the planet Venus. He silently flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. He peeled off a small computer chip that had been taped to the page. "Flash storage?" Doc made an educated guess based on the appearance of the black square. "Almost correct. Just, off by 150 years or so. The tech is 3D nanocarbon. Sixteen exabytes." Doc knew the fennec's personality intimately. He was not bullshitting in the slightest. Doc was direct and straight to the point. "Tell me just what I need to know at this very moment: what on that chip will save your life?" "A full copy of my medical records. My complete genome is included, as was made mandatory starting in the 2060's." "That's an excellent start, but it doesn't help me save your organic brain. I'll still need to digitize you." "What if I also included your own personal research and development files, spanning over 150 years? You'll be able to use the nanites to repair my cells at the molecular level." "...Am I really still alive 150 years from now?" Doc asked. "You were still alive in my timeline, and you didn't look a day over thirty. That timeline no longer exists however, and there's no guarantee it'll be the same in this timeline." Mikey swiped a common flashdrive off his workbench and began doing hardware surgery, swapping the storage chip with the one from the book. "No longer exists?" Doc was quite curious about that phrasing. "Scrubbed from the space time continuum, deleted, collapsed, kaboomed. However you want to say it, I am the last remaining proof that it ever existed. Just me and this chip. "I'm sorry about all the friends and family you left behind." Doc sympathized. "Don't be. They were spared from a fate far worse than death. I continue onward with new friends, and a new family." Mikey had finished reassembling the shell of the flash drive, and plugged it into his laptop. He was quick to begin accessing and transferring files. "How much data will this be, exactly?" Doc asked. "My medical files are twelve gigabytes, and your research is about fifty terabytes. Sophia will be needed to help sort everything." "Okay... Take all the space and security measures you need. I'll approve the budget for however many drives it'll take to hold all of this." Doc stood up, and softly hugged the fennec from behind. "Thank you for trusting me. I know it must've been a tough decision to share the truth." "We still have a lot of work to do. Don't ignite your ion reactors before they're primed." Doc seemed confused by the odd phrase... "Oh, just a bit of futuristic words of wisdom. One step at a time, don't celebrate until the job's done, etcetera." *** Two days had passed. Doc and Mikey had made excellent progress with the data, using it to upgrade the systems that synthesized new nanites. They now had half a syringe worth of prototype bots. The two were busy stress-testing the new batch in petri dishes. "So... would you like to talk some more about what happened? What deleted your timeline?" Doc inquired as they worked. "It was mostly my own fault. I messed up the vector calculus due to the timepod having an awful user interface. Though, maybe it's for the better. My Earth was not going to survive..." Doc silently listened. "I was a simple shuttlepod mechanic on the Venus orbital station. Made an honest living purging ion reactors and repairing dents and scuffs caused by rookie pilots. Then 'The Vessel' arrived... it warped in with no warning, and before the Earth defense net could even react, all of Brazil was a molten caldera. We foolishly opened fire. That just made them angry. Half of Earth's nuclear arsenal was exhausted with no effect. Then they fired a second beam..." The fennec was choking up in tears. "Three billion were dead within a day. The remains of our united government started a mass evacuation to Mars, and began conscripting everyone old enough to pilot a spacecraft. Twelve year olds were being ordered to fly suicide missions... We had lost our morality in a desperate, hopeless attempt at possibly destroying it. There was no thought towards anything but war. Then the conscription transport arrived at Venus... I fled to the colonial museum, downloaded the entire technical database onto that chip, and stole an experimental time pod. I activated the temporal generator, and ended up a mile down the road from your lab. Presumably the timepod vaporized halfway through the jump." Doc hugged Mikey. "There's no shame in fleeing a hopeless fight. You were right to try to find another way." "Thank you, Justin. I wish I knew what your fate was in all that chaos." "Knowing me? I would've been leading the evacuation efforts. Either that, or reengineering the nanites to destroy it." "Let's get back to work, please. This is... a difficult topic." Doc silently agreed. *** Three days passed. Mikey had been silently dealing with the symptoms of his metabolism slowing to a crawl, but he was getting increasingly fatigued with each passing day. That morning, he immediately visited Doc for tests. "So... what's the verdict?" Mikey asked. "Mitochondrial decay is faster than I expected. I'm tweaking your nanites to start producing ATP." Doc answered from his laptop. "ATP... energy molecule, right? I'm more of an engineer than a biologist." "Correct. I also recommend you take extended breaks, and get plenty of rest every night." "Justin, I should still be helping as much as I can." Mikey stood up to begin working. "That's the only reason I haven't kicked you out of the lab entirely. Just remember that I can't fix dead neurons. Take it easy, please." "I can only try." was the fennec's reply. *** The next day, they finally had sufficient confidence in the stability of the new nanites. As they awaited synthesis of one syringe's worth of them, the pair relaxed nearby. Mikey was reclined in the main doctor's chair, while Doc had his office chair, and a mug of cold brew. "So... one question that's been bugging me. Why do you have a chip that's mysteriously compatible with 150 year old tech?" Doc asked. "It was a college project. The professor asked us to blend together old and new chip technology, to prove we understood both the history and inner functionality of computers. He gave me a score of 91, mostly because I left out the filesystem AI in my rush to complete it. He claimed it would be impractical without it. Well, at least now I have real world proof that it's still useful." "He must've forgotten that we're used to manually sorting files and folders in our time. It's more authentic the way you built it." "Yeah... not bad for something I fabricated in three days." "Are you sure it's reliable long term?" Doc questioned. "The nanocarbon layers are naturally resilient against radiation and repetitive cycles, and I packed the circuits quite conservatively. It'll last." "Good. A chip failure would be devastating." The two sat in silence for a moment, before Mikey spoke up. "I'm getting quite cold..." "Not surprising. Your metabolism is low enough that you probably aren't producing any internal heat. You’ve effectively become cold-blooded. You'll need to absorb external heat." Doc acted on this by turning on the high powered surgical lamp that was overhead. Mikey calmly and silently unzipped his short sleeved lab coat, and slipped out of both coat and shorts. Doc was surprised though when Mikey kept going, and slipped off his underwear. "Getting more comfortable being naked with me?" Doc commented. "Yeah... and getting comfortable with my body, as well. I've been coming to terms with having a vulva." "It doesn't make you any less of a man. Your identity is all in your brain." "Thanks, though I would still like to get rid of my uterus. Make room for a larger bladder. Think you can do that Justin?" "I would be honored to do so. After the current crisis is averted?" "Okay, I can accept that." Mikey reached down to touch his slit. Doc stopped him. "Probably a bad idea to masturbate while you're still weak." "I thought it might help me warm up. Plus, I'm horny." He replied back. "The energy expended would make it worse in the long term. If it's that bad, I'll tell your nanites to produce more heat, and maybe help with the arousal a bit." "That would be nice." Mikey said, and leaned back. Soon a slow warmth filled his core, and the tingle of his nethers faded away. The fennec drifted off for a small relaxing nap. *** Mikey gently awoke to Doc calling his name. "...Oh, good. You're awake." "Sorry. How long has it been?" The fennec rubbed his eyes. "Just an hour. How was the nap?" "Lovely. I really needed it." "Good. By the way, the batch is ready." Doc held up a capped syringe. "Fully programmed and everything?" "Yep. You ready?" "Sure. It should be just like any other poke, right?" Mikey quickly stretched his neck for him. Doc uncapped the needle, and lined up along Mikey's jugular vein. The injection was fast, easy, and painless. "The repair process will take a few hours, but your health is no longer in danger." "As long as there's no glitches, that is," Mikey corrected Doc. "We both put the nanites through four straight days of high stress testing. We caught one bug during that entire span, and we fixed it," Doc counter-argued. "Well, I guess only time will tell if it worked." "You want me to get some sweet tea from the cafeteria?" "Have one of the techs deliver it; you need to stay and monitor me," Mikey insisted. *** A mostly uneventful hour passed. The two foxes silently sipped on their favorite beverages, while chatting about Mikey's various adventures on Venus. Apparently, the gravity, heat, and air density conditions made it really easy to glide shuttlepods in a straight line. Mikey had taken it one step further, and fitted small aero winglets to his personal shuttle. With a bit of training this allowed him to fly from the edge of space, to the terraforming station, without using any fuel. Doc asked if he ever did a loop. That got a hearty chuckle from the fennec. "Nah. I never got quite that good at it. I miss those days..." "Why don't you buy a powered glider? An ultralight trike sounds like your style." "That's... not a bad idea actually. Although, being that close to a loud engine..." The fennec twitched his enormous ears reflexively. "I bet it's not beyond your skills to convert one to full electric. Maybe even add one of those 'ion reactors'." "True, I was a mechanic after all. I'll check out the market." Mikey finished with a sip of his tea. For a few moments, the two were content to sit together silently. After a bit, Mikey began to fidget, and he started to get up. "I think my kidneys are working again." He commented. "I've been monitoring you long enough to call the nanites a success. You're free to go," Doc said, as the fennec got dressed. "Thank you, Justin. See you in a few hours?" "Yeah, after lunch would be great timing." Mikey finished zipping up his lab coat, and darted off to the restroom. *** To be continued...?