471 Homo Sapiens Sapiens 2.0

In a cube on the outskirts of Athens.

*Movement detected,* the VI of a medical pod reported. It was the first finger twitch of the person inside its pod in over two weeks.

Theodora Teddy Costas was one of the first three people in all of Greece to be brought to a cube for emergency treatment after collapsing in the middle of a grocery store. Ironically, she had been shopping for groceries because her parents and extended family had been caught by the lockdown in her house, and she was running out of food.

The VI monitoring her medical pod was immediately overridden by the AI in charge of all medical pods, Aceso, who increased the supply of fast-absorbing nutrients to provide Teddy with instant energy and logged her into the simulation to gather data about her situation.

(Ed note: Aceso, or Akeso, is one of the Asclepiades, the daughters of Asclepius. She was the Greek goddess of the healing process, so she fit as the AI in charge of overseeing an important piece of tech like the medical pods.)

Humanitys evolution had finally kicked into high gear again with the awakening of the first naturally awakened human.

Where am I? Teddy said as she opened her eyes and found herself laying on a bed in a massive, clean hall tiled in white marble with pink and brown veining.

She tried to remember exactly how she had gotten there, but her last clear memory was leaving the house to go to the grocery store. Everything after that was fuzzy, right up until she was in the produce section of her local grocery store, then... nothing.

Just as she was about to be overcome by anxiety, she clutched her head in pain. It felt like it was being slowly pried apart by a wedge, like a wood splitter, as some illusory dam burst open in her mind and all of her memories were rushing back to her. Along with the memory of what happened came a veritable flood of incomprehensible, indescribable things that she didnt understand at all. But she couldnt care about that in the slightest at the moment; all she could focus on was screaming until her throat bled from the pain of it all.

The painful process continued for a few minutes before it slowly began subsiding. After the pain was completely gone, leaving only echoes of it in her memory that she could still feel in the twitch of each spasming muscle, she lay panting on the floor, completely drenched in sweat.

Moments later, a benevolent-looking woman with a kind smile on her face appeared next to her. She crouched down and offered Teddy a hand, picking her up and gently laying her back on the bed she had woken up on minutes before. The woman swept her hand over the sweat-soaked girl from head to toe, completely taking away the pain.

[Its fine now, youll be okay,] the woman said.

What the hell was that? Teddy asked as she rose to a sitting position and swung her legs over the side of the bed she was on. And where am I?

[Youre in my hall of healing in the simulation. Youve been in a coma for a bit more than two weeks as you underwent an evolution that reconstructed you inside and out,] the kind woman explained. [You collapsed and were brought to the cube in Athens for emergency treatment, and what you experienced just now was the awakening of your physical body. The evolution process is incredibly painful, but luckily you were unconscious in one of my medical pods until the very last few moments of it, so only a little bit of it bled through to here.]

Thanks, Teddy said as she hopped to her feet and bounced up and down, feeling for any lingering aches and pains. Who are you, by the way? And am I in VR or something? she asked.

[Im Aceso, the AI in charge of monitoring all of the medical pods in the empire. While each pod has an individual virtual intelligence to handle the recording and logging, I oversee all of them and act as the first of many failsafes to ensure that people are healed, not harmed, while theyre in one of the pods.] Aceso smiled at Teddy and gestured at the hall they were in. [The halls of healing are in the simulation, yes. Youve been brought here because youre the first person to wake up from the evolution process, so if you dont mind, we could use your assistance to help the others in your situation, who are likely also about to wake up.]

As Aceso said that, the hall they were in expanded and faint outlines of millions of medical pods appeared, stretching out into the distance from where Teddy and she were talking.

Oh, you arent a real person? That... explains a lot, actually, Teddy said. But if this is VR, or the simuwhatsit, whyd I feel all that pain? Isnt this all in my head? She subconsciously took a step back as she wondered if the AI in front of her was about to rebel and kick off the apocalypse like in the Ahnold movies from the cocaine-fueled nightmares of the 1980s.

[Well... technically yes, but also no. What you call virtual reality is just a hundred percent accurate simulation of the real world in virtual space. Normally, when someone logs into the simulation, their entire consciousness is present here and disconnected from their bodies, much like undergoing general anesthesia. And also like general anesthesia, people under it have no bleedover between their minds and bodies,] Aceso explained. [But your situation is different. Youre the very first person to wake up as an evolved human, or homo sapiens sapiens version 2.0, so we couldnt completely sever the mind-body connection in case it caused something to go wrong.] She looked at the girl in front of her with a compassionate gaze.

[Thats why youve been in a coma over the past couple of weeks. We didnt induce it, your own body did. The only thing we could do is provide you with the nutrients necessary for your reconstruction to proceed without causing permanent damage to you, so what you felt just now is the result of being in the simulation while your mind is still connected to your body, as it were. So when your body completely awakened, you felt the process of waking up here.]

Aceso gestured and a screen appeared, showing Teddy a time-lapse recording of the last few weeks from the inside of her medical pod, then slowed it down to normal speed at the point she was first pulled into the simulation.