Robert Meta
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The Brink and Back - Chapter Fifty Nine
🕑 Added 2025-03-19 15:24:15 +0000 UTCBy and large, my issues with cyberware stemmed from an instinctual squeamishness that I recognized wasn't entirely logical. I had adamantly stated multiple times I would never cut parts of myself off just to replace them, no matter how superior the replacements were. And yet, the idea of replacing my lungs, eyes, or other parts of myself with bioware, especially bioware that I made, was not nearly as repulsive. It wasn't exactly my idea of a fun time, but I didn't physically recoil from the very idea.
And it wasn't just the fact that it was non-organic that freaked me out. While the idea of my brain-to-computer interface was, again, not exactly what I would call a fun time, the thought of installing one that I designed and made did not send shivers of distaste running through my spine. Nor did the yet-to-be-designed plans for an updated and uplifted version of the Institute's already superior version of the PHOENIX Monocyte Breeder make my skin crawl. That implant would be a metal bind that cut into and replaced several sections of bone all over my body, and yet I was looking forward to the added healing factor, which would stack with my nanohive, not fighting down any rising anxiety.
Which handily brought up the fact that my disquiet did not stem from the items not being personally made. I already had muscle, skin, and bone weaves, as well as my nanohive. I didn't make those, in fact, I had no idea how they even worked beyond the general understanding Vik explained. Oh, I could make several guesses now that I had the Institute genetics, bioengineering, medical knowledge, and more under my belt, but at the time, I most certainly did not. And yet, getting those hadn't stirred any issues at all, other than what I would consider normal anxiety for someone in my situation.
At the end of the day, I could attribute the concern to a combination of instinctual, almost primal distaste mixed with a distrust of others' work and a not-so-minor phobia of body horror. But honestly, realistically, I just didn't like what I didn't like, and I would have to get used to it or work around it.
For now, however, I was just glad that I could handle my next big creation.
The Fallout brain-to-computer interface was already pretty advanced, taking advantage of the most cutting-edge technology and science available in the Fallout universe to develop. It was the final version of a technology that popped up several times in several different places, from the crude and brutal robobrain, to the much more subtle and delicate Visiontron. That said, there was plenty I could do to improve it with what I had access to.
First, I removed the power supply and replaced it with a tiny Elerium node, no bigger than my thumbnail. It was by far the smallest power generation method I had, and even at that size, it would run the implant for ten years of constant use. Of course, if the implant had had any powered moving parts, that number would have been considerably lowered, but thankfully, it did not.
Once I had worked the power source out, which shrunk the device by a few percentage points alone, I got to work upgrading the materials, trading out basic alloys and polymers with the more advanced stuff I had access to from Titanfall and from this world. I updated the connection points between the implant and the brain tissue, using designs that Samwise scanned from several pieces of other cyberware. I ended up using several different kinds of connections in the end, maximizing their sensitivity depending on what they were being attached to. Technically, I was blatantly stealing bits from several different implants, but since the only way for someone to find that out was to crack open my skull, a lawsuit from Arasaka would be the least of my issues.
The new spread of connections should be significantly more efficient and precise than the single type that the original device used. They were also smaller, further shrinking the device.
In the end, I was able to significantly shrink the implant, bump up its performance, and make the overall implant more resilient and safer. But all of those were just minor changes, trimming this, cutting that, and replacing basic parts with more advanced versions. The really impressive part, what I was really excited about, was what I did to the connection system. The original design had several methods of connecting to a computer, but they basically all boiled down to connection ports, a radio system, and a few other crude but ultimately effective methods.
I needed to make mine as secure as possible while retaining its usefulness, which meant breaking the problem down into two parts. The first one was communicating outward with the tech I wanted to link with, and the second was coming up with something to allow information to come in. Not only did it need to be secure, but it also needed to be fast. While not all of what I planned on using this for needed to be near instant, some of my plans did require as little latency as absolutely possible. And what method did I have of connecting two things in a way that no one could ever hope to intercept, was instant, and had absolutely no limitations on range?
Entangled photons.
I was going to link the connection through a pair of entangled photons, providing an undetectable, unhackable, unjammable connection. I learned how to shift charges between photons during the early portion of my work on the teleportation machines, and using that ability to create a communications system was more or less child's play. I ended up redesigning the entangled photon capsules to shrink them down a bit, making them easier to fit inside my body, and the rest was easy.
However, there was a limitation with this solution. Entangled photons, as far as I knew how to make them, could only function as pairs. Which meant I could only link to one device. That's where the second part of my design came into play, an entangled photon router. This device would be locked in my vault and link directly to my implant via the entangled photon. It would then direct the connection from my photon to any number of other photons, allowing me to control one or many other links at once. This meant that I could link to whatever I wanted, anywhere on the planet, with only one implant, and the only lag I would experience would be from the connection from me to the implant, then through the router. No length wires, no radio beacons, no transmission or broadcast systems.
And considering that I could use fiber optics for a good amount of the router, I was looking at absolutely minimal levels of latency. I could lower that even more by adding a second photon connection between me and the router, splitting the data load between the two.
Together, in order for someone to breach this system, they would need to disable something with a photon link, something like a drone. Then, they would have to somehow extract the linked photon without triggering the traps I would surely include. Then, they would have to identify the capsule as containing a linked photon without cracking it open and letting it escape. After that, they would have to crack whatever communications code I was using, and use that connection to hack into the router, which they could then finally send me false data or gather information from me. Not only would they have to do all of this without me knowing, they would have to deal with whatever monster security system I built around the router. After all, it was a stationary system built into the vault. I could make a sub-zero super server farm as big as a football field, stuffed with computers made with tech that made Cyberpunk stuff look like a Game Boy color. Then I could stuff that with dozens of VI designed to defend and monitor the connection.
It was overkill in the best way possible, and by the time I finished the design for the implant, I was fighting back excited giggles at the idea. There was, however, an issue. While the implant originally had come with a vague idea of how it was installed, it was not nearly enough for me to be able to explain the process to Frank. That didn't even account for the new, altered, and superior design. That was very much an entirely different beast, meaning even the small bits of information I knew about the original were now useless. I could tell Frank precisely where each brain connection needed to go, but beyond that, he was going to have to design a surgery process and installation technique from scratch.
As I sent the print instructions for the final version to the production room, with instructions to bring the parts into the garage but leave them in my workspace, I pulled out my Keyphone and called Jackie.
"Hey Choom, what's going on?" he asked, the background music familiar enough to identify it as what they played at the Coyote. "You need something?"
"Yeah, actually, you busy?"
"I'm helping out around the bar, but I should be able to cut out in a half hour. Why?"
"I just finished some major cyberware for myself," I explained, spinning around in my chair. "I want to bring Vik into the secret so he can help Frank work out how to install it properly."
"Preem news Genio! I was actually going to pick up Misty after this, do you mind if she comes?"
"Sure, that's fine," I responded, shrugging despite the fact that he couldn't see it. "See you in a bit."
"Adios."
I had barely hung up the phone when Kaytlyn's head poked into the door across the workshop.
"What's up?" She asked, sliding into the doorway and leaning against it. "You wanted to see me."
"Yeah, just wanted to know how she is doing," I explained, sliding my phone into my pocket. "Has she said what she wants or anything like that?"
"Well, she's finally given up the 'we are Militech' thing," She responded with a frown. "She is pretty broken up, Jay. It looks like most of her team is dead, including her brother, and it was all her team leader's fault. She still can't say his name without cursing for a full minute."
"Alright… well… she can hang around for a few more days as she recovers," I said with a frown. "But if she is going to stick around for any length of time, or if she even wants out of the Shack, she needs to convince me she isn't gonna just flip on us."
"I'll do what I can. She is sleeping now, but in a few hours, I'll bring her some food and outline the situation vaguely," She agreed, letting out a long breath and pulling her blue hair back.
"What's wrong?" I asked, picking up on her hesitancy.
"Nothing... It's just..." She started, trying to find the right words. "I was pretty rough laying it for Jackie earlier, about how all of this is just how the game works, but it really does suck."
"I know. And if she had come just two weeks or so later, I would be a lot less nervous about letting her hang around, since everything would be moved to the vault, and we would all have emergency teleport beacons," I pointed out with a frown. "Now, though? We are still vulnerable, and I can't have her poking holes in what's going on."
"Can't ever be completely safe, choom," She responded, shaking her head. "You chase that too hard, and you're gonna go crazy."
"I'm not chasing it," I assured her, though it sounded a bit weak even to me. "I'm establishing a solid foundation of safety to work from. Once I have it solidified, I might add the occasional new feature as I work them out, but I'll mainly focus on upgrading our gear and our first goals in improving Night City."
"Which is what, exactly?" She asked skeptically.
"Probably thinning down the Scavs, then moving on to crushing Maelstrom," I responded with a shrug. "Once we have their territory, we can start working to clean it up, help those who live there, maybe even buy some of the property to build cheap apartments and clear out rooms for factories that will make our first large-scale products."
Kaytlyn listened to the plan, her skepticism slowly changing into surprise as I outlined the general plan. When I finished, she chuckled, shaking her head.
"I'll admit, didn't think you actually had any idea of what we were doing next," She admitted with a shrug. "I know you had a basic 'I wanna help people' thing that was your eventual goal. I just didn't know you had gotten that far in the planning."
"It's still in the early stages," I pointed out. "And it doesn't quite matter that much, not until we are ready to implement it. For now, we just need to keep working."
We chatted a bit more before she left the workshop behind. Jackie was still likely another thirty minutes out, so I sat down and started to slowly design the photon router. It wasn't exactly complicated, just a pair of receiving slots for entangled photon capsules, then a few racks of spots for outgoing capsules. I decided to build them with two capsule slots as well, since making the photons was essentially free, it just took some time. For simple things like drones, I could just use a single entangled pair, but for more complicated items, I would need both. Then I realized I could probably just link them together in the router, working several pairs together, rather than building in the grouping to the device.
As I had concluded earlier, since this whole thing would be stationed in the vault, there was no real limitation on size.
I was about halfway through the design when I could hear a vehicle pulling into town. The fact that Murtaugh hadn't called me to tell me who it was meant it was likely Jackie. I looked over to my work table, seeing the finished pile of parts for my new implant, which were partially assembled, with the main brain connecter, the brain stem connectors, and the processor and entangled photon slots left separate. I wanted them to see what it looked like together, but leaving it partially disassembled would help them examine it.
Besides, this was not the model going into my head, it was more of a floor model. When it came time to install the implant, I would print out an entire brand-new one and have it carefully tested and installed immediately.
"Hey, Jay? You in here?" Jackie called out, before appearing at the same door as Kaytlyn had been standing at not long ago. "I got Vik and Misty in the Shack, you want to join us for some lunch?"
"Sure, bud, let me grab the implant," I said, carefully lifting the three sections and placing them on the tray.
"So what's this implant do?" Jackie asked as I followed after him, carrying the small tray with me. "Looks pretty complicated…"
"Don't ruin the surprise," I responded, chuckling when he rolled his eyes, holding the door open for me.
Misty and Vik greeted us as we stepped in, and while Jackie made his way to his little kitchen, I sat down at the table.
"So, what's this about checking out a bit of cyberware?" Vik asked, peeking over at the tray in front of me. "You got something you need identified?"
"Jackie didn't tell you? This is a custom of cyberware," I explained, Vik looking up at me with a raised eyebrow, accepting the tray as I pushed it to him.
"Custom cyberware?" Vik asked, very carefully picking up the net that was designed to wrap around the brain stem. "Jackson… I would call you an idiot if I didn't know what you were capable of, but… I've heard a lot of horror stories about custom work. Especially for what appears to be… Is this a neural implant?"
"It's the final word in the brain to computer interface race," I explained, smirking as he gave me a look.
"Jay, even I can tell that's a lot for a neural link," Misty said with a frown. "They are tiny compared to that…"
"That's because this is much more advanced. It's not just a connection for visual information or data, it's a complete sensory replicator. Touch, taste, sight, smell, temperature, equilibrium, pressure, every sense the body is capable of detecting can be replicated through it," I explained. "Not only that, but with the help of some handy programming, it can interpret my thoughts directly to control computers, drones of various types, and basically anything else that I link it to. Not only is it significantly more advanced than standard neural links, but it's built from materials and parts that are vastly superior, though I will admit some of these connector points were borrowed from other systems and then improved on.
As I talked, Vik examined the device, turning it over in his hands and inspecting the pins before examining the webbing and other materials. When I was done, he gave me a look while turning over the main computer and photon capsule holder.
"That is impressive, I don't quite think there is any neuralware quite this extensive," he admitted. "But you do realize that this is, in a lot of ways, the opposite of what you usually want, right? This device would have a direct feed into your brain. If someone hacks this, they could make you see, hear, taste, or feel anything they wanted."
"Ah, that's why the only communication method between it and the outside world will be through what goes here," I explained, lightly tapping the two slight indents where two entangled photon capsules would sit. "They use quantumly entangled photons to communicate directly to a stand-alone router system, which I haven't quite set up yet. You can only entangle two photons together, so as long as you have both pairs, the connection itself is literally unhackable."
"I... I'm sorry, did you say quantumly entangled photons?" Vik asked, looking between me and Jackie. "Just what kind of science are you guys doing out here."
"Only Genio is doing the science, Doc," Jackie explained, waving around his spatula. "I've been mostly cooking."
"And doing a great job of it, babe," Misty said, smiling at her boyfriend, who smiled right back at her.
I chuckled at Vik's still confused face, patting his shoulder.
"I know it's a lot, but we decided to bring you and Misty in on what we've really been doing around here," I explained. "Misty, because it's not fair to make Jackie keep hiding it, not when Misty is so trustworthy. And you because not only are you trustworthy and always looking for ways to help people, but I would like you to help our own doctor develop the implant methodology for this and a few other cyber and bioware."
"You guys have a local doctor?" Vik asked with a frown. "I don't know what I could do that a doctor wouldn't be able to do."
"Well, he isn't officially a doctor…" I admitted, before shaking my head. "Sorry in advance, for just ripping the bandage off. Frank? You feel like coming out and meeting these guys?"
After a long pause, Frank's door to his room opened, the AI stepping out in all his glory. He gave a small bow, before looking towards me.
"Am I to assume we are revealing some secrets today, Jackson?" He asked.
"Yeah, I finished the interface implant I mentioned, and I would like you to work with Vik to devise the procedure to install it," I explained. "You've proven yourself more than capable in research, Frank, but I'd like you to work with Vik for a bit when it comes to surgery and cyberware implantation."
"After working on Rebecca?" He asked. "I am not sure if I should be insulted or not."
"I know, Frank. I apologize for casting aspersions, but other than Rebecca, all of your know-how is technical and theoretical," I pointed out. "I trust your knowledge and your skills, I'm just concerned about the process of applying that knowledge. Vik has years of experience with installing and working on the human body. Not taking advantage of that to learn whatever nuggets of information he may have would be silly."
"Well… I do suppose I never completed a medical residency," He admitted, his hand behind his back. "Very well, I will agree to this, even if it will leave my ego bruised."
We turned to see both Misty and Vik staring at us with raised eyebrows and confused looks.
"Uh… Is this another borg friend?" Vik asked, looking over at Jackie. "Is he in a custom chassis?"
"Nah, Frank is an AI," Jackie explained with a shrug. "A whole bunch of the robots around here are. Don't worry, though, they are safe."
Misty's eyes bulged and went even wider, her jaw hanging open. Vik had a similar reaction, though, for a moment, I thought he was going to also jump out of his chair and run.
"AI? Oh sweet Christ, kid, please tell me you aren't making AI," Vik said, turning to look at me. "Oh god, you are!"
"I'm not," I said, pausing for a long moment before continuing. "... I'm not making any more. For now, at least. After making Sam, Riggs, Murtaugh, Noah, and Frank here, I'm holding off for a while. Oh, and a few of the MRVNs are as well, they are the ones with reinforced chassis, so it should be easy to spot them, but they are developing much more slowly, so they won't be showing signs for a few more years."
"Are you nuts?" Vik asked, looking around concerned. "Netwatch will be on your ass for this, Jay! They don't mess around with this kind of stuff! Not to mention that AI are crafty and difficult to control, you-"
"Woah, it's okay, guys, I promise," I assured them both. "They aren't your normal AI design. They were made using a very different process with very specific limitations. They are tied to their central core, which is located in their bodies. They aren't not the inhuman, almost fae-like creations you have creeping around the Blackwall. We've been working with them for months and had no sign of Netwatch or anything else. They have been nothing but stable, kind companions, eager to help and work with us."
Vik, listening to my reasoning, turned to Frank. After a moment, the AI reached his hand out.
"It's nice to meet you, Viktor," He said. "My name is Frank."
For a moment, Vik seemed to consider the offered hand, before finally reaching out to shake it.
"Nice to meet you, Frank," Vik responded, still a little shocked. "You really don't mind working under me for a bit? I mean as an AI, you must be light-years ahead of me."
"It's nice to meet you as well," Frank said with a slight bow. "It is irksome, but Jackson, unfortunately, has a point. I lack a lot of real experience, and I hope to fill that with your help. And you would be surprised, a lot of my system power is focused on running my personality, and I only have access to the computing power of this body. I may have some advantages, but I am not a supercomputer bigger than a car."
"To be clear, we will also be paying you," I assured him, the older man looking back at me. "Either in eddies, cybernetics, or even drugs for your work."
"What sort of drugs?"
"Anything you need, really," I explained with a shrug. "They may not be exactly what you prescribe normally, but I assure you they are safe and probably better."
"Well… in that case, how can I refuse?" He asked with a smile. "What exactly are you looking to learn?"
"I am looking to focus more on medicine, healing, and research than cyberware installation," Frank explained. "I would need to be capable of it for emergencies, but it will most likely not be my primary focus. I believe you will continue to be our cyberware specialist, even if we are no longer using your stock."
"That's just about the opposite of my specialty, but I can definitely pass on some pointers," He started, trailing off a bit before continuing. "It's not where I would usually start, but we can work on making the procedure for this implant first. Once it's installed, assuming it can be and passes all the tests I will be putting it through, we can work together to install it. After that, we can start going over some footage I trained on. It will take some time, however."
"Time isn't a problem. In fact, consider yourself hired as the town's official cyberware specialist," I said with a smirk. "We will give you weekly deliveries of whatever you need, and in exchange, you come out here, teach Frank a bit and install our cyberware and bioware."
"I don't know if that's gonna work," Vik said with a frown. "My schedule isn't crammed, but I do have a decent patient list. I can make some time, but can't be coming back and forth that much."
"Well… if we are supplying you with a lot of what you need to operate, what if you lowered your client list?" I suggested. "I know you have people who rely on you, but surely there are at least a few people who go to you for convenience alone."
"I suppose there are a few…" he responded, making a so-so gesture with his hand, leaning back in his chair. "And there are a few people who I could cut out if I didn't mind losing some eddies in the process…"
"What do you mean, Vik?" Jackie asked, looking up from his cooking. "You got people who owe you eddies? Why didn't you tell me, you know I could help."
"There might be a few people who have a tab," he admitted with a shrug. "I don't let people rack up anything too high, so it's nothing that bad…"
"He can't help it, babe," Misty said, shaking her head. "It's why I like working with him. And I seem to remember you got your first set of eyes on an IOU."
"Yeah, but I got his money to him in like a week," Jackie responded with a frown. "I didn't stiff him."
"Not everyone is as strict as you with their debts," Vik responded with a shrug. "It's alright, Jackie, I knew it was possible. It's a risk I take every time I do it."
Jackie grumbled about someone being taken advantage of, promising retribution, but since Vik clearly wasn't naming names, his threats were useless. Vik chuckled, before turning back to me.
"Alright, if you guys can help me help people who are struggling, I'll cut off the people who can afford more and are just looking for cheap work so I can spend more time out here, working with Frank and helping you guys with your chrome."
As he agreed, he stood, reaching out his hand to shake mine.
"That's great. I'm happy to have you on board," I said with a smile. "It's probably going to be pretty slow at the start, but I plan on hiring more people sometime soon, so you'll be working with them as well."
"Works for me."
"Also… we happen to have a merc upstairs who got her cyber limbs more or less torn off. Mind taking a look at her, seeing what she needs to get back on her feet?"
Vik froze for a moment, before letting out a long breath and rubbing his face.
"You guys are going to be crazy to work with, aren't you?"
"I can't guarantee much, Vik," I said with a shrug and a smirk. "But what I can promise is that working for us? It's never going to be boring."
Comments
cdmadgamer
You know I just realized you should probably have him warn Jackie to stay away from Dexter DeShawn and Faraday for fixer jobs
cdmadgamer
Probably should have an artificial body ready for the meeting and greeting with the board of directors that Sable wants him to do
cdmadgamer
Sarcophagus from Stargate comes to mind immediately although they'd have to keep careful watch on how often they allow someone to use it
Ray
he can also puppet a robot body and still go out on jobs but be safe in an underground bunker
Anthony Maxwell
Maybe Rebecca's team can be revived with some type of Frankenstein tech in the future. As there's all types of tech in sci-fi settings that can bring people back to life or sort of.
Fortunis
Holy crap thats a ridiculously op implant. One light speed, no lag link to what's basically unlimited computing capacity (considering he can keep expanding it infinitely) completely unhackable and with as many VI as he chooses to install. Add in he can use it to link to literally ANY kind of vehicle he decides to design from a micro spy drone to a fucking UNSC Carrier and yeah, op as fuck lol. This is going to be fun. I especially like his plans for Maelstrom. Merking those fuckers and reverse-engineering their cyberware and bioware would be a fantastic way to get a decent catalog. Taking their territory is even better. Especially if he can do things like set up training and education facilities for local kids so he can slowly build a base of loyal people to work with. I really like where this is going.
Joyeus
Tftc still think there need to be an event were Jackson looses an arm or a leg or something on a gig. His armor and gear are good but an anti-material rifle is still an anti-material rifle and every gang thats been around a while has had a way to deal with borges.
Al
Its good enough for now. I agree with you and probably will be upgraded when he can get a better solution. If he can get it to run off of something he produces naturally would be epic. But thats probably a fair bit of genetic modifications. Also, he better start quick hacking with this!
Al
Moving on up~
Duke of Coffee
Baby steps, baby steps to conquering Night City, Jackson.😜
BarrettSlayer
Yeah looking forward to Vik pointing out some of the problems with it. Its one thing to build something he has the blueprint for and then just upgrade it but it sounds like his implant is built from a bunch of knowledge and parts of other neural links so his prototype having some issues makes since. Also would be nice to remind him why even geniuses have a RnD department to take his ideas and make them realistic/actually work out any kinks he didn’t notice/care about.
Yunru
Got a double negative in there "aren't not".
Miguel Garcia
Except the design the author linked doesn’t appear to have any exposed parts. It appears to be designed to all sit within the skull, and he explicitly states that the only connection point is the quantum linked photon, which means no wired neuralink port.
cdmadgamer
battery part...if they are smart... is probably one of the exposed parts on the spine/neck
Avidyetboredreader
Awesome chap! And finally the brain implant! And Vic! So much goodness!!!
Miguel Garcia
So, he has to have brain surgery every ten years to replace the battery? That seems bad. I guess technically battery replacement shouldn’t mean cutting the brain, but you still gotta open the skull…
Troy Malloy
tftc
Noob
Tyftc
