Interplanetary Sunsets (Chapter 3)

It's rather hard to fall asleep in this rather comfortable room Voltrex thought to himself as he was awoken yet again by the automated air system. With the latest in AI and machine learning algorithms, the air systems here keep rooms at precisely the temperature you desire. If there's any minute flex in the room's climate, the AI rather harshly adjusts the advanced HVAC to combat the effect so the room stays in suboptimal conditions.

Basically, there's always some sort of windy noise happening.

Even with suboptimal conditions, this didn't stop Voltrex from wanting other creature comforts. He stretched as he began talking towards the room's voice assistant module embedded in the wall near the bed.

"Can I have a drink?"

"Hello, Mr. Jameson. What would you like?" Prompted the speaker in a well-mannered synthetic voice.

"Just some water"

"The finest of H20 is heading your way". The voice finished as a container of water materialized in the "Humpod" nearby. Another invention that amazed his grandparents. They always harkened it back to this classic show from the 1960s. He tried to remember the name. Star... Trek? There was a Trek and a Wars anyway. Both involving space anyway. He finished the pointless train of thought as he digested the container's contents.

Smirking to himself from such nostalgic thoughts, Voltrex stretches out once again on his slightly welcoming bed. Everything was going extremely well and, with his upbringing of past science fiction that has morphed into modern "ho-hum" reality, that was unsettling. Nothing goes this extremely well, even with such advancements in AI and quantum-based neural logic. Overwhelmed by his troubling gut feeling, he arose from his prone position and placed his bare feet on the welcoming warmth of the bare floor with localized pressure-based heating.

After a few long-stretch moments have passed, his gut prophesies almost seemed to be realized as a moderate alarm sounded from his voice assistant.

"CODE SUNBURST. CODE SUNBURST. ALL MANDATORY STAFF PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR DEPARTMENTAL QUADRANTS. ALL GUESTS, PLEASE STAY CALM AND DISREGARD THIS ALERT."

The alert cycles a few more times before it stops and Voltrex is left with the ambient noises of his room. What is wrong with code red? Blue? White? he continued in his thoughts. Why do we need all of these secondary, tertiary, quaternary... You know what? It doesn't matter. You're just being paranoid and you simply watched too much science fiction during your adolescence. After minutes of contemplative civil wars, he decides to stretch out on his, once again, somewhat uncomfortable bed.

Unaware that he has fallen asleep, knocks came at Voltrex's door as he was jolted awake from the intrusive noise. The knocking was rapid and quick with obvious notes of panic behind each pounding against the door.

"Mr. Jameson! Mr. Jameson! Are you awake?" the voice called out.

"Urm... Yes? Yes?" Voltrex mumbles and eventually calls out as he quickly wakes himself up and jumps out of his slumber.

"There's been a rapid change in our scheduling. Nothing critical, but our systems are having some performance issues. Normally our several layers of redundancy AIs can quickly adjust accordingly, but the majority of said systems are under maintenance. To put this in laymen's terms, there's just a lot of bad timing. Do you understand?"

"Uh..." Voltrex paused. "Yes. Yes, I understand. What... What does this for me?"

"Oh, I do need to apologize." The voice continued. "My name is Forzept Niles. I'm going to your contact and specialist ensuring your appointment continues with no major hurdles. Fortunately, this means we're able to perform your operation sooner than later."

"Really? How sooner?"

"Within a couple of hours!" Forzept said with a weirdly optimistic tone considering the circumstances. "Step outside of your room whenever you're ready and we'll make our way to your designated operation room."

"Will do!"

Voltrex nonchalantly got ready, seeing that he only had to grab a shirt and change into fresh pants. The built-in dry cleaning feature of this closet is a nice touch he noted. Normally I have to pay an arm and a le... he stopped and looked down at his soon-to-be-replaced limb. Too soon, bro. He pressed the button to initiate the lightning-quick separation of his automated room door. As he stepped out, Forzept raised his hand in expectation of a handshake. Voltrex casually returned the shake and a question almost impulsively left his lips.

"Wait... are you a...?" His voice trailed off.

"Mostly, you could say" Forzept answered quite neutrally. "This hand and arm you're shaking are 100% synthetic.". He began to smirk a bit. "What do you think?"

"That is amazing. I'm hoping you can do the same for this guy" Voltrex pointed down at his leg. He then stepped forward into Forzept personal space and then continued with a stern tone. "Once again, this operation is only for this guy. Are we clear?"

Forzept seemed unwaved by Voltrex. "Why, of course! We don't want to press our, clearly better, solutions on you." He smiled. "We just want to make sure that said solutions are known. You really should consider..."

Voltrex held up his hand. "No." he paused and looked away, motioning towards the halls and rooms. "Millions might come for this solution. Heck, all of humanity might have leaped into this new synthetic future. I'm different." He stopped and looked directly into the clearly robotic eyes of Forzept. "I'm still pure. Not holy by any standards, but I'm still a human. I intend to keep it that way. " He said while pointing at his chest.

Forzept nodded and motioned Voltrex in the direction they're about to walk. "This way."

They made their way down the other end of the hall that Voltrex remembers traversing to his designated room the night before. Another section of elevators awaited them as the hall veered to a dead end on the left. As Forzept called up one of the elevators, Voltrex decided to break the short silence. "So, why me? Why was I chosen out of all the other scheduled operations?"

"It's quite simple, really," Forzept said with another somewhat eerie grin. "As you stated, practically all of what you refer to as 'humanity' as participated in one of our many solutions. You're the only 'pure' one left". He turned his face towards Voltrex's concerned expression. "We haven't seen a patient like you in quite some time."

Voltrex smirked back and nodded. It was getting harder to hide the obviously uncomfortable feeling that was being forced up from his rather concerned gut. He was about to make another comment when the elevator doors parted, revealing an empty box all for them. He could relate to the loneliness of the empty container as he took one last look at the luxurious halls before stepping onto the elevator with his specialist. As he started to turn again, the elevator doors closed almost immediately and he was descending below before he could have a second thought.

"Don't worry, Mr. Jameson." Forzept tried to comfort him. "You'll still be mostly human once this procedure is complete. You will be in the hands of the best surgeons with the most precise tools. Their accident rate is so small, it's practically zero. The accuracy of our calculations is..." Voltrex zoned out of the transportation container as he focused on those words in his head over and over. You'll still be mostly human once this procedure is complete.