Alice Sol, Reborn Cyborg Bertender (Distant Cyberpunk Future)

Bright light. Heat. Pain. Darkness. Darkness. Dark… light… faint, distant, growing… dark becomes light and a mind awakens in a void. Who am I? The mind thought as it struggled to piece things together. It was still coming into being. Forming. Being remade. Reconnected. Rewired. Biological brain patterns rendered into data. Gaps in the data filled with junk and garbage code till stability was archived. But one line of code slipped into the virtual mind.

Alice… Alice Sol. Her name was Alice Sol. She remembered that. Early childhood memories came first in waves. Growing up on the streets of Neo London. Getting involved in gangs. Raised by them, nurtured and educated by them. Buying and running her own bar. A front for the gangsters that raised her. A raid on the bar by a rival gang… the bright light… the pain… the darkness…

"Greetings Miss Sol," a voice said and Alice felt an ache in her brain. Not that she really seemed to have a body in this void to have a brain to ache. "It is my duty to inform you that your body has been killed but your mind has been archived as evidence in the investigation of incident 149-A-476 by the Lionheart Corp Security ****. Your memories were scanned to determine your involvement in the crime…"

Alice would hold her breath if she could even breath while in this state. Oh that was not good. **** was no longer the end for humanity. Not since long before Alice was born. Dying simply meant your mind leaving its physical body and becoming digital through the neural implant that every citizen had. Most minds went to Afterlife, a huge series of online servers, but the rich were able to afford new cybernetic bodies to continue on.

However, if you died as a result of involvement in a criminal case… your mind was evidence first and legally allowed to be searched. Not just for involvement in the case you died in. But any and all crimes you committed. If you were found to be a criminal… well no Afterlife for you. Limbo awaited instead, a prison server that promised to reform and rehabilitate the criminals. Alice knew that they were about to declare any moment she was going to be sentenced there.

"... and it was determined an error occurred during your upload," the voice continued. "You have been offered compensation for this by Lionheart Corp. A free upgrade from your position in Afterlife to a next generation Cyber-bod with a lifetime warranty, free future upgrades for both software and hardware. Congratulations and we thank you for using Lionheart Corp!"

Alice blinked… or at least tried to. She had no eyelids to blink or eyes for that matter. "I… I see," Alice said, her voice sounding oddly echoed and resonating. "What does that mean… AI… are you an AI?"

"Correct Miss Sol. I am Genie," the AI said. "It is time for you to select a new body to be uploaded into. Let me bring up the customisation menu. You are welcome to make any and all changes you like… please take your time."

A holographic image appeared out of the void, forming into a mannequin like body before slowly taking on the form of Alice before her **** as it flashed. She was a taller than average white woman with red hair, freckles, blue eyes, a very toned, athletic body, broad shoulders and muscular legs. The hint of abs from working out in the gym. C-cup breasts with pink nipples, red trimmed public hair above her pussy between those toned thighs.

She noticed her gang tattoo on her upper arm was absent but the one of a skull on her ankle with a snake coming out of it and winding up her leg to her lower thigh was there. Huh… that seemed weird… Alice thought but she was distracted as mental control of customisation options was granted to her. Time to see what this was about…

*

"Genie," the voice of the benefactor said in a dark room as they watched a large monitor of Alice's void. There was a flicker as a small purple, holographic, petite woman dressed very formal, like a highly paid corporate intern appeared from a projector in the desk between the benefactor and the screen. "How is our guest?"

"Settling in well Benefactor," Genie responded as she smiled at the figure in the shadows. "Mind reconstruction was a success. As instructed I delivered the deception you specified of her corrupted upload. Integration of the code into her digital brain is complete and ready for activation. Give the word and I shall begin running my subroutines and give the first commands."

"Do it," the benefactor said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it with the cybernetic mod in their fingertips. They took a long puff before breathing smoke out over Genie's projected form as the AI glowed brightly and code began to run up and down their purple body. Right now they would be connecting to a little piece of themself they had stored away in Alice's brain disguised as garbage data.

It would be little more than a voice able to suggest and convince Alice to do things outside her normal behaviour, but given time and Alice bending to it… it may well take over her mind. It was a new dawn in the era of digital brain manipulation. And Alice was the first of many prototypes.

Comment a suggestion from Genie the AI for Alice.