2024-02-11
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he clung to the side of the ship as it rotated lazily over the broad gray expanse below. harsh shadows shielded his face,
only the standard NASA-derived EVA suit was any indication that it was a human. the tether floated off into the distance.

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(months later)

the crew sat joking in the newly constructed lab. we have more chairs than we're ever going to know what to do with. what is this table even for?
hey, don't recycle those bags just yet. we can make new ones from carbon, but if the film extruder ever goes offline we will have no bags. okay.

(months later)

it was a tense standoff, the station itself was partitioned along party lines. three crew members huddled behind an overturned table.
ray! how can you even believe in the future? you're not white.
she glared at him from too close for comfort behind the makeshift barricade.
ray turned to look at tania, raising his antennae. suddenly he began to laugh out loud, laughing insanely. the sound echoed down the corridor.
you're both full cyborgs asking me that over mental radio?

(months later)

we all gathered around the fume hood where his limbless torso was propped up, tears and colored fluids streaming down his face. the machines themselves
had picked up on our unconscious revulsion to them, and rebelled inside our own bodies. the augments squirmed to get free. it wasn't clear who was talking, 
the man or the machine. apologizing for his existence.

suddenly he tensed, straining all over. the augments used up the entirety of their adjustable movment mechanism and went screaming in all directions,
changing form into streaks of abstract metallic slime mold splattered radially in an explosive technological smear.

(months later)

production was going well. we had stacks of clear yellow containers of every shape and size.

the tables in the lab were now completely covered with samples of every inventoried element. i picked up a shiny blue circle and grimly examined it.
cobalt, infused into the outer layers of a slice of tibia. the nanomachinery was stunningly beautiful. how had they managed to progress so far, so fast?