Sandra Murat

Initial posting of conversion offer:

Cygen is glad to present a great offer. Ever been tired of being prone to sickness? Ever want to be more resistant to injuries? Have you ever wanted to change your appearance or gender without having multiple surgeries and weeks of recovery?

Well Cygen can help you. Sign up today for a fairly inexpensive human to cyborg procedure. Cost only 5,999 Arunian pounds. At that price, you save money within two years (no more hospital visits, no more dental checks, no more expensive surgery, no more need of medication).

Cygen offers its clients free emergency maintenance and at a membership cost of 50 AP each month you can get premium service. However if damages occur out of negligence, you may carry the cost of repair.

Included after conversion:
-Weekly discounts for upgrades and occupational extensions
-Free emergency maintenance
-Free hardware updates
-Discount at Cygen community apartments (limited to 20 persons for the time being)

Premium membership:
-Bigger discounts
-Special maintenance
-Higher priority appointments
-5% discount on everything
-Eligibility for Cygen community suite, a large apartment with everything that suits your needs


Warning: A conversion means a full body conversion. You get the choice whether your organic body goes to waste, is donated for helping those who need new organs (3% discount on conversion) or is donated for research (10% discount on conversion).
A conversion is irreversible. A cybernetic body isnt perfect, so in rare cases issues such as glitches may occur.

First board of the year:

New occupational precision upgrades are in! Ever wanted to excel at assembly line work or other precision based labor? Well these upgrades could help you to achieving excellence at your workplace so you can get a raise or a promotion.

-Industrial excellence chip IX-4
-Precision enhancement for factory based tasks 300 Arunian pounds

-Gastronomical excellence chip GX-4
-Precision enhancement for tasks in restaurants or bars (dish-cleaning, bar-tendering and cooking only) 219 Arunian pounds

-Office typing proficiency chip OX-4
-Double the amount you are able to type with no error 150 Arunian pounds

Discount board:

20% off on the Cygen integrated phone TT-12 with video reception function, the Cygen hearing amplification module HT-2 and the Cygen EYE-10 eyes with 2x zoom and nightvision function

10% off Cygen high performance movement upgrade TS-11 (warning: Athletes may be excluded from further competition due to this upgrade)

"Change. It is the single only thing that is constant in this world. It is pointless to resist. Nothing lasts forever; not you nor I. A plunge into immortality--would it make it worth abandoning all shreds of humanity? No one can really say don't you think?"

BEEP!!! BEEP!!!

The shrill sound of a digital alarm clock resonated throughout the small confines of the bedroom. As the sound continued all throughout, a slight moving of a pile covered by a blanket moved slightly. Unable to bear with the sound any longer, the girl got up angrily and pressed the button to shut it off. Efforts were futile as the alarm continued ringing. Instead of forcing it all the more, she tugged on the plug, knocking the alarm on the floor.

"There's got to be a better way to start your first summer morning..."

Hikaru trudged down the stairs inside her small, studio type apartment and headed straight for the showers which was just past the living room area, flipping the TV on along the way. The weather forecast predicted clear skies all afternoon. With the recent advancements, the forecast's accuracy has risen steadily over the past years, which she found as a good thing.

"I'm guessing...there's no need to bring an umbrella then?" She glanced at her watch as she rode the elevator downstairs. Upon disembarking, she immediately ran out the front door, heading straight to her place of work: A shop that deals with various parts for android conversion. Passing a street that still bore remnants of the Old Century, she spotted a cyborg that apparently had a malfunction in some of his parts. Some bystanders managed to call help and he was now being hauled to the nearest maintenance service provider. Throughout the commotion, Hikaru looked on.

"The price of immortality..." Random thoughts flooded her mind but another ringing sound brought her out of her delusions and back to reality.

"Oh shit! I better get going--!" Brushing these thoughts aside, Hikaru ran on, continuing to her destination.

Sandra looked through the window of the shop and sighed. This was something she'd saved up money to do for ages, but she still wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to. The benefits were amazing and she'd always wanted to be beautiful, and she had the exact look she wanted in mind, but still, the nagging of her parents was always there in the back of her mind, the disappointment that this sort of thing would give them, the malfunctions that occasionally plagued people who got the operations done.

She bit her lip and looked at the bulletin board, looking for something that would push her over to one side or the other definitively. Unfortunately, she thought a bit bitterly to herself, she found it, "Oh bugger, it's half as expensive now." She sighed and turned towards the door of the shop entering and looking around nervously, not sure who she should talk to or how this sort of thing even worked.

It was the morning and Delia already had someone in for repair. "You luckily are up to date, such a malfunction would have been painful with an old body. New bodies have a safety switch however to avoid pain during more serious malfunctions. But since a critical control circuit was severely damaged, you have to pay ten percent of its cost." Delia said. Her client nodded and transfered her the credits. When done, he left after taking a respectful bow.

Soon, another guest came in and Delia asked: "How may I help you?" After examining the woman, Delia concluded: "You must be new to this. If you seek a body, its only 5,999. But since you are the first potential customer of the month you can have it for 5,799 or at original price with an upgrade. It gives you lots of benefits, such as change of identity and no more illnesses. So what will it be?"

Arc Cantos woke up from his sleep, his heart beating quickly. He had just had another nightmare. Of course, it was that same dream every night. The dream was about the same man doing the same thing every night; the man he had killed in the fire, known only as Arc's master, was once again doing despicable things to Arc. He knew it was just a dream, but it always felt so real. Like he was living it again.

After awaking, Arc soon calmed down and changed in the old apartment building, far away from any windows. He had brought seven pairs of clothing from the house of terrors, plus a few towels he also packed into the suitcase. It had almost cost his life, but it was better than nothing. If he ever got dirty, luckily there was a public pool a few blocks away, complete with soap. No one seemed to notice him.

However, he shouldn't shower today, he showered yesterday and he still was clean. Maybe he should find a job somewhere, preferably somewhere no one will care about the scars. He was a good while away from the ruins of the house, and no one had reported anything about what happened, or at least, it hadn't spread here.

He had about 1,500 credits in his account. His master set one up who knows how long ago, and deposited every time Arc was "good", until the day the man had died. The man also left 1,000 in his card, and Arc was somehow able to transfer it into his own account left by his master. Someone had made the accounts virtually untraceable, so that's why master had chosen it.

After he changed and put his hood up on his sleeveless hoodie, he left through the back (where no one would see him) and began attempting to find a place that was hiring in the urban area.

Arriving at the shop, Hikaru was immediately called on by her manager regarding her chronic lateness. Hikaru tries to explain, providing makeshift alibis which only served to anger him even more.

"Anyway, the reason why I don't fire you is because you get the job done well. So, here's the thing: Someone ordered some high-end maintenance parts from us. And I'm not talking about a couple of them. The amount that he's ordered are enough to make a full-flown cyborg body, complete with munitions and everything. Shady deal but, we need the money. You getting at what I'm trying to--"

"Okay, Hikaru Aisahara taking off!!!" Before he can even finish his sermon, Hikaru got on the parts hauler, which resembled some sort of bicycle and drove off.

"Hey! Do you even know where it is? Oh well..." The manager walked back inside and saw that the order form was missing. "She probably took it as well..."

Despite having the coordinates already, Hikaru still cannot decipher which part of town do the parts go to. She tried asking but, people usually just ignore her or didn't know what she was talking about.

"Maybe it's upside-down--Oh!" She stepped on the brakes after seeing that she was about to collide with a man on the street. Good thing that the vehicles safety mechanism stopped her before she can even come close within twelve inches.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! But--anyway, do you know where this place is Mister?" Hikaru shows him the map, which has a spot encircled in red ink named Cygen.

Sandra looks around at the shop and gulps, incredibly nervous about what she was about to do, "Um, good, uh, I want the standard and the Gastronomical enhancement please?" She was going to get that anyways but this new discount was incredibly convenient for her, there were so many other things she could do with that money aside from this.

Of course, she had some questions about this whole operations, "Um, is this going to hurt?" She asks, adjusting her glasses a little on her nose, running her fingers along the picture in her pocket that she'd drawn of what she wanted to look like. That was one of the things she was good at, transporting ideas to paper.

Arc looked over just as a girl was about to run into him. Luckily, she stopped a few feet from him. He was about to apologize for being in the way, but she showed him a map and asked where a place was.

The seventeen year-old thought for a few seconds while looking at the place encircled in red with a label. Cygen sounded familiar... Wait, wasn't that the place a few doors down from the abandoned building? It probably was. Arc remembered the sign on the place. He nodded after thinking. "Yes ma'am. Be careful, though, it's in a fairly rough part of town. You want to go straight three blocks, then at the intersection before the fourth one, you'll want to turn left. It's past an abandoned apartment complex with a sign that says 'Sunny Suites'. It's pretty big, so you probably won't miss the building. After you get to Sunny Suites, it's next door."

"Anything else?" He asked politely. Typically he wasn't up for talking, but something made his feel obligated to talk right now.

"The only thing that might hurt a little is you being injected with anesthesia. You wont feel the rest. All I need you to do is fill out this digital form and wait a bit while I prepare the body." Delia said. "I will explain the form to you. Since you will be consenting to replacing a perfectly fine organic body with a rather human-like robotic one, you will need to decide what will happen with your own body. You can donate organs to people who need them, you can give your body for research or you can just have it disposed off. If you give it for research, then you get a discount as research centers pay premiums for it. Disposing of it however costs extra as I and a contractor must deal with it."

"The following topics are regarding the fine tuning of the body. First is feeling sensory. The options are mild, medium or strong. Mild lets you feel only good sensations on your skin while completely blocking out pain or coldness. With medium, mild pains can be felt as well as temperature. Strong is a human like sensation where if you lets say fall from the third floor of a building or burn yourself it will feel like the real thing.

The second is eyes. You can choose eyes that are regular or ones that are specially adapted to a time of day. Thirdly, you have bodily structure. It is in regard of your skeleton. You can have a human skeleton build or have one more focused on ease of upgrade and being robust. After that we have skin texture. There are various kinds of skin such as just a skin layer of a somewhat rubbery texture. It is easy to replace, however it isnt that durable and other can feel that it isnt actual skin, the second possibility is more durable but is rather attached in a plated manner and feels real. On the downside it shins a bit more than normal skin. The third possibility costs extra and is call trueskin as it is a durable and nearly human feeling and looking artificial skin.

You will then have to chose body measures and thought processing upgrades as well as leasurely enhancements such as phones, wifi etc. And the last thing you need to decide on is performance. Would you rather move normally and have long lasting charges at the cost of agility or would you rather be quick and agile at the cost of charge endurance? Please fill it out. Once that is done then you just will have to wait an hour for preparations."

Sandra considers the options seriously, biting her lip as she looked at the digital form and its various options. She made sure to consider each one very seriously, as she didn't think switching any of these options at a later date would be cheap regardless of their present cost. After a minute she slowly started to eat through the list.

Of course, a discount was never to be turned down when one is strapped for cash, especially considering she was thinking about taking the one thing on the list that cost extra. She put herself down for donating her body for research, though she didn't dwell long on the idea, as it creeped her out; but who wouldn't be kinda weirded out by that thought anyways?

She moved on quickly. Sensory was one she got caught up on for a little while. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to do away with pain entirely and she wasn't sure how much getting rid of pain would skew her perception of nicer things, but on the other hand, she didn't quite feel comfortable taking the full human sensation option considering how often she'd heard about these bodies breaking. She went with medium.

The eyes were a rather easy choice. Who wouldn't want peepers that adjust to the time of day? Those were the obvious choice there. She went with the human skeleton simply because anything else would surely feel incredibly strange to move around in. For skin, she went with the Trueskin, judging that the extra cost would be well offset by the aforementioned donation.

The last bit of the explanation had been somewhat vague. What were the thought processing upgrades anyways? Some of it she knew precisely what she wanted of course. Body measurements, she somewhat embarrassedly went with a rather vain 36-24-36, hoping that that particular bit wouldn't be noticed by anyone until they'd left earshot at least. A standard phone, some decent wifi on the side.

She supposed that moving quickly would be pretty great, but there was no telling when she'd need a bit more time instead, and she didn't really have any need for quickness anyways. She went with the more energy efficient option. She then turned the form in, and waited.

"Okay then. I will lead you into a preparation room where you just need to change to different clothes since you don't want stains on your current clothing. Then within an hour the body should be ready." Delia said and lead her into the room that contained a set of white clothes, a chair, a table and a flatscreen tv.

Delia then went and entered in the options for the body into a machine that built the body. However it went a bit quicker than expected and the body was complete within 35 minutes. So Delia prepared the syringe with the liquid that would be used to make Sandra unconscious and not feel any pains during the procedure.

Delia then came back into the room. "Okay, preparations are ready. All you need to do is lay down on the table in the other room. I will inject you with anesthesia and then within two hours you will be ready to go with your new body." She said.

Sandra had changed clothes in the mean-time, and was nervously pacing when Delia came back into the room, somewhat startled when she spoke, as if not expecting her to be back so soon, "O-oh." she takes a deep breath, composing herself and her thoughts, looking down at herself to get a last good look of the old her as she prepared to dive into a whole new world.

"Alright." she resolves herself and walks into the other room, laying down on the table and taking another deep breath, this one significantly more shaky than the previous one. Her fists clenched a little, her eyes slammed shut as she awaited her brand new future, the bright new start she'd waited for for the last year, "You're sure this isn't going to hurt too much?" she asked, needing just a little reassurance that what she was doing was the right choice for her life.

"All you are going to feel is a pinch on your neck from anesthesia. Then it will all be over soon." Delia said as she gave Sandra the anesthesia. Once Sandra fell asleep, the following hour consisted of drilling noises and other similar sounds. Once Sandra's consciousness was transferred to the new body, Delia quickly put the old body in a cool room for preservation. As she got back, she ran a quick systems check and then decided to wake up Sandra. After pressing down in an unknown area, Delia managed to start up Sandra's new body. Delia quickly dressed Sandra's body in a black short sleeved and legged unitard like outfit.

"Miss Murat? Can you hear me? It's over now. The surgery went well. Please get up and walk around a bit to get used to the body." Delia said.

Sandra sat up, almost afraid to open her eyes because of what she might see. When she finally did open her eyes she was seeing in a completely different way than before. She felt different too, all over her body things were just plain different from before. That, she supposed, was going to be a theme in her life from this point forward. She rotated a little on the table and hopped off, placing her feet on the ground cautiously, "This is weird." she states, starting to try and walk forward.

It went well, all things considered. Despite the change in balance from what she was used to it seemed to work quite well, very stable, and as she looked down, she liked what she saw, "So, what now?"

"Anything else?"

Hikaru snapped out of her daydreaming and thanked the man, repeating her apology again. "A-ah! That would be all! Thank you! And--sorry for almost running you over!" Hikaru sped away at full throttle, fully prepared to meet the deadline for once, instead of almost always coming in late. Still, with her sense of direction, it maybe something a bit more difficult for her.

"L-let's see... next to Sunny Suites...Aha! There it is!" Hikaru enters the huge building, hauling the delivery via a trolley. She was immensely mesmerized by the components, upgrades and the various cyborgs that were walking around. Being mostly human, she began to wonder how she fit in within this institution.

"Amazing! You can come in a human and emerge as a Cyborg? This is quite awesome! If only dad--" Hikaru's voice go cut off once she recalled the incident she witnessed a while ago. Is full conversion an advancement--a milestone for mankind? Or is it a form of regression? A regression to a more primitive form of human who lacks any empathy for any life that they deem insignificant compared to theirs.

More confusion.

The price for immortality...

Hikaru walked up to the front desk, carrying the paperwork and showed it to the person in charge. "Umm...I've brought the ordered parts so, if the client would be so kind to fill it out, then the parts are all his? Hers?" Hikaru was obviously nervous. She had never been summoned to negotiate with corporations before.

"So, what now?" Sandra asked. Delia then replied: "Just a quick orientation and the payment." Delia then took a seat. "As said in the paperwork before, you have a lifetime guarantee meaning that if something breaks from normal use, repairs are free of cost unless you chose an upgrade as a replacement part instead. Negligence and dangerous activities are excluded from the guarantee. If you for example decide to test your limits and jump off a building and suffer damage from it, then you have to pay for the full repair. If you tamper with dangerous elements like fire and end up burning the artificial skin off your body out of sheer negligence, then you have to pay for the replacement. Only accidents beyond your control can be included in the guarantee. In case of an accident, you have a GPS tracker in your head of which your location is only visible to me in case of an emergency. Only two people can use that tracker, you and me. You can use it for personal reasons and I use it for purposes already mentioned."

Delia then grabbed a small device. "This is the kind of phone you got implanted. It is directly connected to your hardwiring for your use. To use it, you just need to say "open interface", you can even just whisper it as long as a signal is send out. To avoid that phrase accidentally opening the interface, it will only open when that phrase is not included in a sentence. Once the interface is open, which will transparently be viewable in your eyesight, your willpower will allow you to scroll through the options. Your current options are: "Messenger", "Phone", "Internet", "Tethering", "GPS", "Plugin assistant", "memory manager", "eye assistant", "music player", "video player", "cygen shopping center" and "cygen parts store". Now if you open phone, you will already have my number saved in it. It works similar to a normal mobile phone but just isnt handheld. Now to explain options that may need explaining. The plugin assistant is to manage devices that you plug in to yourself through a port behind your ear that is usually covered by your hair. So if you would like to transfer videos or photos you have made from a separate device to you or vice versa, you can do that with that option. The memory manager only manages downloaded and digitally acquired data. The eye assistant allows you to put in custom settings for your eyes including sharpness and how vivid you can see. The Cygen shopping center is where you can buy clothes, supplies or pretty much anything through Cygen. Electronic products from the center are customized to ease the use by cyborgs. It even includes cars. Lastly the Cygen parts store is where you can request upgrades and can see the discount board. All ordered parts will end up being delivered here. Now you can go ahead and play around a bit. If you have questions please let me know. Now all I am require to do is notify you of the chance to become a Cygen partner which means that you can invest in Cygen or gain jobs with Cygen easier." She explained.

"So it was a lot but standard procedure." Delia added. She then noticed someone at the from desk and said: "Give me just a moment." Delia then walked over to the desk and saw that new parts were being delivered. "Ahh, perfect." She signed the form and then said: "I was told about you and your... legs. Would you like to sign up for first class service in case you get issues with those legs?"

As Hikaru waited, she observed how the other full cyborgs moved about. They don't seem different from ordinary humans yet, she somehow feels something different? Like, despite their upgrades, they seem to be lacking something. She remembers her father's words.

"I will not stand for this! Do you really want to throw away your humanity just so you can keep up with the new trends imposed by this society?"

The words carved like a knife. Her hesitation was always due to this. Of failing her father's wishes. It just seems so odd that someone whose spent their life surrounded by machines would say these kind of things about them.

"Ahh, perfect."

She heard a voice call out. Turning around, she saw a woman emerge and sign the form she brought, acknowledging the order. "U-umm...! I hope you avail of our services again!" Hikaru bowed as she took the form. Yet, the woman didn't go away yet. She seemed to have taken a great deal of curiosity on her legs.

"I was told about you and your... legs. Would you like to sign up for first class service in case you get issues with those legs?"

"A-ah! There's no need! When they break down, I can usually fix them myself. Hehehe..." Hikaru giggled. She may be far from being an adept designer and builder but, she can at least do some maintenance. Though, her curious senses were tingling again. "If I'm not intruding too much--do you think it's possible for me to watch how you do your maintenance works? I'm quite curious regarding machines see?" Hikaru leaned in. She was about to cross another line again.

Sandra walked carefully to where her personal belongings were and grabbed her wallet. She'd gotten the job done and now she needed to pay them for the excellent work they'd done for her. She started to play around with the settings on her eyes a little. She'd never realized how poor her vision was before, at least by comparison with the amazing clarity bestowed by her new eyes. The settings went from "so sharp you could cut yourself on the clarity" to "normal" but she decided on something in between that. No need to hurt herself but if she didn't want fantastic vision what was she about to pay all this money for?

She then checked her email, in her head. She really didn't care what anyone thought, but that was some really tight stuff right there. After another minute of playing around on the internet she put on some Bon Jovi and started taking a video. She'd never felt so alive, though there were some sensations that one didn't miss until they weren't there anymore. For example, not only was she no longer breathing, but she didn't seem to have a pulse anymore either.

It felt incredibly strange, but she supposed that it was just one more thing she'd have to get used to.

"If I'm not intruding too much--do you think it's possible for me to watch how you do your maintenance works? I'm quite curious regarding machines see?" The girl asked. Delia smiled and said: "Sure thing. If it's an internship then I can offer that to you. However if you are seeking a part time job, you would have to formally apply first. You seem interested in cyborgs and such. At your age, I am surprised you didn't take advantage of the full body conversion with as much interest as you have. If you do decide to actually do it, I can offer you the choice of down payment or if you get a job at Cygen, it even is half price." It was rather typical of Delia to try to persuade people to get the full body conversion. Half of the time it worked, however there are still people who fear something about it.

Delia turned to Sandra. "Okay, that will be 5,799. Just one more thing. During normal sleep times, you must charge yourself. To do so, you say the command "charge port open" to which a panel will open on your left upper arm. You connect one end of the power cable to it while plugging in the other end into a normal household power outlet. It takes about six hours to charge and depending on your activities, power should last for 16 to 20 hours. When you have only one hour left, you will receive a warning. So make sure you have the cable on you just in case and I recommend you buy a charge pack in case you are somewhere that doesn't have a power outlet. And remember to tell your friends about this great service!" Delia said with enthusiasm. She saw cyborgs as human evolution and felt that cyborgs were superior to humans in many ways.

"Alright." Sandra handed Delia her debit card and resumed her exploration of her new features, switching up the music a few times and finding the clarity amazing. She experimented with a video, which she paused after a moment. It was a disorienting experience, almost like remembering something but far more vivid. She imagined that flashbacks would be somewhat similar, "I don't suppose you've got a mirror?" She asked, curious as to whether or not she'd come out like she'd planned.

She really was overwhelmed by everything that was happening. She wasn't sure how all of this would seem when she got used to it, but for now, she felt like a brand new person, which, of course, she might as well have been for how many similarities she shared with her previous self.

"Sure thing. If it's an internship then I can offer that to you. However if you are seeking a part time job, you would have to formally apply first. You seem interested in cyborgs and such. At your age, I am surprised you didn't take advantage of the full body conversion with as much interest as you have. If you do decide to actually do it, I can offer you the choice of down payment or if you get a job at Cygen, it even is half price."

"S-she even has a better sales pitch than I do..." Hikaru thought as she chuckled nervously and shook her head. "A-ah! Never mind. I'm not old enough to take internships without my parents consent and...I don't think I can handle another job." Hikaru politely refused. As she was to head out, she noticed the woman who got converted earlier.

"Is she alright? Does any part of her body feel strange? She's not going to suddenly start attacking people with laser beams and machine guns would she?" She wondered. Since it is clear that it wasn't going to be easy watching it at the place where all "the magic happens", she decided to stake it out and wait for the woman to finish up.