...your eyes watch the pod’s interior systems slowly start up as you feel a sharp pinch at the back of your neck. You can feel something pushing its way against where the pinch was, though after a moment it goes numb, with the rest of your body following a moment later. In tandem, the ‘unnatural’ calm kicks in once more, pushing into your heart and keeping you from any panic. You, Mari, are calm. You’re being upgraded. That’s cool, right?
It’s the suit-you thinking that, sure, but there’s something satisfying about knowing that you’re about to be upgraded into a highly advanced war robot. A little tidbit of information flashes into your field of vision, sent by your pod, like a little tooltip; “Feel valued about your service, the Omniguard Digitation System turns you into an asset more valuable than a dozen fully loaded TZ-56 Space Superiority Gunships” Another push of knowledge from the pod, your mind seeing a very intimidating and sleek ship bristling with weapons. You feel a sudden surge of artificial *pride* at your change. It’s not like you have to believe it’s something to be proud of, but a little voice is telling you that you’re becoming strong, powerful; better than nearly any person could be on their own. You should be proud. This is an opportunity, this is a good change, a great one.
It’s meant to get you happy with this whole thing. You hate it, but you can’t deny the words, or at least denying them doesn’t make that thought go away. You grimace and brace yourself for whatever is coming next, feeling a grim determination settle over you that you hope comes all from you and not some programming. And yet for seven minutes, twenty nine seconds, six milliseconds you wait in anxious silence, mind churning and swirling in such a way that focusing your thoughts is near impossible, your head faintly hurting.
And then you feel it; another image flashing across your vision, telling you how proud you should be, how you should love your nation as you see a fuzzy image of dozens of races of all sorts, including one or two that look pretty close to human, all in smart looking uniforms. You hear some ‘patriotic’ music playing, some anthem which you don’t recognize as you brace for the rush of feeling. After a few seconds, the music distorts and the picture flashes into an image of your mistress. You feel an intense burst of loyalty to her, artificial, like so much else, but you can feel arguments for her greatness settling in, much like the pride in being changed. Now that little internal voice is also telling you how awesome Lisa is for taking you to space, on a grand adventure, and she’s making you into a powerful robot. Isn’t that great? Don’t you owe her loyalty? Don’t you feel a duty to keep her safe?
You groan a little at both those flashes, preparing for a third. You’re much less bothered with the programming than you should be. Maybe it’s numbness from the changes, or maybe there’s a bit of internalization that you’re being turned into an object and okay with being treated that way; or maybe it’s just some programming itself. All of those are disturbing thoughts which aren’t near as disturbing to you as they should be.
And so you wait. You just sit there, doing nothing for that time, glad for your artificial calm keeping you from panicking with the wait. But with your enhanced mind, the wait feels, well, long. And your mind keeps on drifting to Lisa, as if directed there. Despite it all, you can’t hate her. This is, well, it’s kind of cool. Chicks don’t only dig giant robots, they dig becoming them too, maybe. Well, not maybe; definitely. And you didn’t really have much going for you before; this might have taken your free will, but were you really using it? This seems like it’ll be a much more exciting, and cooler life, right? It’s thoughts like those that keep your mind occupied, each tangent about her driving you to more and more of a singular conclusion in your heart that you’re refusing to admit; that she is someone you want to keep safe, that you won’t betray, that you’ll listen to. That you’re loyal to her.
And then, at two minutes, thirty four seconds, ten milliseconds, the pod’s interior lights up and you feel motion. The thing lifts up, opening directly in front of you turning transparent, giving Lisa visual access to your prone body as you see her playing with a little tablet. There’s a little involuntary spark of joy at seeing her (an automatic controlled release of endorphins) in your heart, and you can’t help but genuinely smile when she gives you a derpy little wave now that you can see each other.
“Great, you should be completely loyal to me now! How do you feel?” You roll your eyes at her, though, much as you hate to admit it, it’s probably easier to go along with her at this point. Much easier than trying to argue against it, even if this whole thing is still really messed up. Looking at the tablet she beams, “I’ll take that as a yes. So, that means we can begin Phase 4, which is mass conversion. Instructions say that I should watch, and you know what,” she pushes a button as you see a ‘bird’s eye’ view’ of the pod, “I want you to see too!” as she pushes another button and…