Nico brought over breakfast for the three of them, while Mary tried to process the information that she had just been given.
"So, you're telling me that with whatever happened to Max that made him huge, and the tweaks that you made to your own body, you are now capable of reproduction? As in, you could successfully carry a child to term?" Mary finally asked.
"Well, no exactly. You see, that didn't sound very combat effective, so I modified my body in the direction of the advanced reptilian species, but with a biomechanical twist. You see, the child will be delivered in the embryonic stage in an egg, approximately forty-five minutes after successful fertilization. Then it can be safely incubated in a warm, dry environment, or in a suitable liquid solution." Nico replied.
"You lay eggs? You're telling me that the joys of pregnancy seemed like too much trouble, so you modified your body to lay eggs?" Mary asked.
"Well, yes?" Nico replied, not understanding her mother's issue.
"System help us with this one. Do you not have any maternal instinct at all? Were you just planning to carry an incubation chamber in your Mecha into combat while you waited for the child to hatch?" Mary asked.
"Why would I do that? You were very excited about the concept, so I was planning to leave it with you for safekeeping. The ship's AI would also do a wonderful job of maintaining suitable conditions, and it could wirelessly transfer data so that the child was born with enough of a knowledge base that they would not be helpless.
As the living equivalent to a lesser energy being, mixed with an android, they will have no helpless baby phase, and will be mobile right from the start, though obtaining sufficient coordination will take some time."
Max laughed at Nico's logic and gave Mary a consoling pat on the shoulder. "Just be glad that she didn't give it wings. The research team says that she thought it might be amusing to have the first of the grandchildren be able to fly around the house."
Mary rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well, at least you did consider my request, even if I didn't expect you to fill it this way. Honestly, I had thought that you might pursue an organic reconstruction path that would enable your core biological functions. But, if this is the route you wanted to take, I suppose that is alright as well."
Nico frowned at her mother. "Have you seen the specs on the organic replacements? They're worse than I was before the reconstruction. Even if I started all over with the system advancements, the organic reconstruction wouldn't be able to keep up.
But I did do some research on that topic. In fact, I have a wonderful new advancement that will be sent to the patent office very soon. It is a neural backup device that can be attached to the spinal column of a select group of species. It will record all of their neural activity, and can be used to recreate their mind and personality in a new body.
If someone equipped with the device is fatally wounded, but the device survives in its armoured case, it can be transferred to a vat grown body, using the DNA sample included in the data, or an entirely new shell, and they can continue living.
Well, there are some ethical concerns about whether this is living on or if it is an AI in an organic body, but it is undeniable that the core is or was an actual living person."
Sylvie would love that, Max thought. Putting a proper AI into a permanent body instead of the holographic avatar projection that relied on the main core for much of its computing was a great leap in quantum computer application.
The usage had been restricted all through Max's past life, and that level of quantum computing had only been rediscovered recently in this life, so it hadn't really become mainstream, but if Nico was right, then important members of society could become functionally immortal.
The risks of disease, assassination and other losses of valuable experience would be immensely reduced, and the fear of death could be set aside, in favour of a new body once old age began to slow their functions.
Not that either him or Nico needed such a thing anymore. She would essentially live forever unless she stopped maintaining her body, and he was close enough to an energy being now that he could wilfully reconstruct his cells. Age no longer meant anything, unless the System decided that it needed to and altered him again.
They both let Mary sit and finish her meal as she contemplated the options that were put in front of her. She could finally have the grandchild that she wanted, but it would be a whole new species, and if Nico was right about the applications of this new neural device, a full-body transplant would soon be an actual medical procedure that would allow her to watch her children grow old.
Possibly more than once.
But her practical side was the first to reappear. "You know that new device is going to cause huge outrage among the sentient rights factions. They're already opposed to growing clones, and if you're planning to lobotomize them to insert the mind of another person into the new body, there will be an intergalactic uprising.
If you passed it off as an AI learning device, to train an AI replacement with the memories of great leaders, that might go over more smoothly, as the Alliance doesn't recognize AI as living, or grant them any sort of sentient rights.
That would be a problem for propagating them, but also a benefit to introducing the technology. The number of wealthy people who might want their minds preserved for posterity, or as an advisor to future generations of the family, is immense. The fact that it might well be the same person inside the device is both somewhat irrelevant and the greatest selling point."
Nico smiled as understanding began to dawn on her. If they gave the device to Ace Mecha pilots, they could live on and not just lead but train the next generation of Androids. If you could call the robotic bodies equipped with these devices androids anymore. But that was a problem for another day. Today, she was here to relax with her mother before she had to get back to work.
