Preface: The character of Rain, her story, and world is many years in the making. There is much cyber writing. Stories and even movies have been made touching on the subject. For the longest time though, I had a feeling of revulsion towards such works. I couldn't explain why I had such a feeling. As time passed I realized that they were a type of "uncanny valley" reaction to various flaws in the characters and world-building. Flaws that my mind recognized, but could not always put words to.

As I began writing and forming the world for my "regular" characters, I also started picking through my thoughts to find what exactly I found wrong with other cyber fiction and how I perhaps could create a world that did not have those problems. My thinking was of course influenced by many past works, though often in the form of rejecting much of the world-building in them. Even though I dislike what many people may consider classic cyber works, they at least got me asking the right questions.

The person who was the spark that lit the fuse for me to create Rain is the late  Rismic. I became interested in their character Elie, AKA Digital Vixen. She was working on the world-building and shared with me her ideas. I liked the direction she was taking things and offered to help do some writing. Bouncing ideas back and forth, I eventually wrote the short story "Soul Searching". The ideas I came up with in this story would develop in my mind over the next several years into Rain and her world. Thank you Rismic for being a friend and a positive influence.

 ecmajor 's character, Sine, influenced Rains external appearance. Anyone familiar with Sine will see this right away.

Great thanks to the fantastic  Dragonnetstorm for taking on such a large commission. Turning my ideas and text into something people can see. original https://www.furaffinity.net/view/28306586/

There are probably many others who influenced my thinking in one way or another that I do not remember. Thank you as well. We are all dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants, building a little bit more than those before us. I hope everyone enjoys what I have created. Perhaps it will help someone else with their writing. I don't expect this to be the next Lord of the Rings, but I hope it is the beginning of something more.

Anyway, on to the main event.

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Rain let her mind wander as she stared across the beach and bay, taking in the view. It was her birthday, 900 years old. Nearly 822 years in her second life. Birthdays as a second lifer are different than in your first life. Instead of a big get together with friends and family, one generally goes off alone to reflect on themselves, their past, and their future. You party some other time.

Watching the seagulls, or at least this planets equivalent of them, Rain reflected on her past. Centuries spent improving herself as a person, yet still so very flawed. It just wasn't possible to be perfect, no matter how long you lived. The best you could do was to accept your faults and mistakes. In some ways that was a good thing; free to just be yourself and the best you can. She looked down at her robot body and thought about how she came to be this way. She was one of the first to become a second lifer. Back then there were all sorts of names for it; cyborg, synthetic, non-organic individual. All of them made it sound like the person going through the process was somehow different, far from it. You remained the exact same person you were before, just made of silicon and steel instead of blood and bone. Eventually, the term that caught on was "second lifer". People who still had their organic brains and bodies were referred to as "first lifers". Neither one better than the other, just people at different stages in their lives.

What a time to be alive that was. Artificial intelligence research had hit a brick wall. The Beltrami AI proofs had showed definitively that sentience was impossible to create by physical means. Since people clearly were sentient, there had to be something more to a person than their body and brain. Scientists soon had their answer, researchers developing FTL radio receivers for space probes accidentally created what would later become known as the "PKE Meter", so named after the device in the "Ghostbusters" science fiction series. With it, scientists were shocked to discover the existence of immaterial "life force" in all living things. For sentient life, they found an additional aura. Tests on patients who were brain dead showed a lack of this additional aura while those who were simply in comas still possessed it. Science had discovered the soul. Both the generic life force and soul seemed to exist both in this universe, yet also "link" to somewhere that they could not identify.

Then came the Scharnhorst FTL drive. Fast and efficient, it opened the stars; except for one flaw. Organic life could not survive the jump between two points in space. At first it was used for space probes controlled by FTL radio. Dozens of FTL probes were launched to scour the galaxy. To everyone's delight, the nearby "life zone" of the galaxy was teaming with not just life permitting planets, but planets that had full living ecosystems. The only question was how to get to them? The answer was soon to come.

The Beltrami proofs may have closed the door on AI research, but it also opened new ones. While a true AI was impossible, researchers were able to use the Beltrami proofs to guide the development, production, and programming of a Virtual Intelligence brain. With no soul, they were not self-aware, but could be made to give the appearance of sentience. VIs quickly found plenty of use in industry, though these early models were far from independent. The VIs of that time required close supervision and direction by a sentient individual who was trained in their quirks.

Second life itself began with the invention of the Bio/Synthetic neuron conversion process. A basically foolproof method that would convert an organic brain into a synthetic one that was a fraction of the original size. Once complete, a persons brain could be removed from their body with no life support, their soul following the now synthetic brain. Placed into a brain case, maintained by micro-machines and powered by electricity, the now synthetic individual could be placed into whatever robotic body they chose. Rains organic body was old and dying, she and her husband were the perfect candidates for such early testing and they were accepted into the first trials. Both were successfully converted.

Now able to become completely non-biological and survive the rigors of the Scharnhorst FTL, civilization took to the stars. Within a couple hundred years, second lifers started colonies on several worlds; constructing bodies suitable to the local conditions.

Switching bodies for a second lifer wasn't as easy as some of the sci-fi novels of the day made it seem like. Several weeks to several months was required for a persons soul to become acclimatized to their new physical form. Though there was no limit to the number of times a person could switch bodies, it was extremely uncomfortable and mentally draining to do so. Soon after acclimatization was complete, a person would gain the ability to feel every nut, bolt, wire, and circuit their body contained. While normally not as good as the sensation that synthiskin provided, though it could be, it was good enough that many parts of a persons body simply didn't need synthiskin; bare metal and plastic was good enough. It was also invaluable for identifying failing hardware. Rain had headed off countless breakdowns by feeling something not quite right with a component. Researchers had no explanation for this ability, but chassis builders soon learned how to incorporate it into their designs. Hardware and circuits were specifically tweaked to generate abnormal sensation when approaching failure.

Resources were poured into searching for a solution for the acclimatization problem. Progress was slow and difficult, the forces at work were simply not understood. Through much trial and error, remote presence control (RPC) was developed. This technology allowed a second lifer to attach additional components to their synthetic body, legs or arms for example, or control a completely different synthetic body, as if it was already acclimatized. It only required that a person keep the remote body within the aura range of their soul, a mile or so, and not sleep with anything additional connected to their chassis. RPC, for reasons unknown, could not prevent acclimatization from being triggered when a person was asleep. Despite bodies of silicon and steel, second lifers were still very much alive. Their bodies may be able to take continuous use, but the mind and soul still needed its rest.

Researchers may have been pulling their hair out over not having any idea why or how RPC worked, but second lifers like Rain were thrilled by the things it allowed them to do. No longer constrained to a single chassis configuration, people now had far more latitude in their body choices.

The trend in chassis design had gone through a lot of change, both before and after the introduction of RPC. The first bodies Rain had were so clunky and slow compared to what is available now, though at the time they were the best available. Once VI and RPC tech had matured, many chose to forgo having a full body at all. Looking down at herself again, Rain admired her good looks. Of course, it was easy to look good when your body is made of metal, plastic, and synthiskin.

Her head was that of a fox, modeled after her face from her first life. Rain preferred a slightly more angular and mechanical look. Sure she was a living person with a soul, but her body was a robot; no point in denying or hiding it. It was actually kinda fun to embrace the robotic look, tweaking ones appearance to find that mix of organic and mechanical traits that you liked. Wiggling her ears, she felt the antennas at the tips whip back and forth in the breeze.

Below her neck, her body was a robotic vase. No arms, no legs, not even shoulders and hips. Two looping handles extended from her side. They were both aesthetic, making her look wider up by her neck and giving the illusion of shoulders, as well as practical, letting her VI assistants easily carry her about. They were also an indexing and attachment point for putting on a mobility frame. On the front of her body she had a set of alluring breasts. She was a woman, a wife, a mother, and proudly wore her feminine figure. Of course, her breasts were really just hollow metal; space for yet more electronics. Rain had made sure her body was beautiful in both form and function.

Vase chassis arose in popularity out of simple pragmatism. Biological bodies constantly repair themselves, the robot bodies of second lifers don't. The wear and tear that everyday life put on joints, actuators, and synthiskin required, compared to an organic body, frequent maintenance and part replacement. Many second lifers had better things to do than spend their time on the repair bench and then spending time getting acclimatized to the new parts. With no limbs and minimal synthiskin, such bodies were very low maintenance. A person could then RPC into a fully limbed chassis when they wanted arms and legs, or simply put on a mobility frame. The advantage of this was that one would own several sets of remote chassis and mobility frames. When one needed maintenance or repair, it was shipped off for the necessary work. The owner would then simply start using a different one with no acclimatization necessary. These chassis would usually be of a lower build quality, and significantly cheaper, than a chassis one would actually want to have their brain installed into.

With a flick of her mind and a short range radio message, Rain messaged her VIs to remove her brassiere. Two VIs stepped up to her and in moments had the aesthetic metal covers over her breasts removed, revealing her nipples to the cool ocean breeze. Physically they were just nipple shaped metal, each pierced with a large gold ring. To Rain, her soul imbued them with an incredible sensitivity to touch. Such sensual parts of ones body a second lifer would normally keep covered, not just out of modesty, but to keep it something special. Something that only a select and chosen few would have the privilege to enjoy. For Rain, herself and her loving husband were the only two who got to observe her full beauty. She gently sighed in pleasure as they were gently massaged by the passing air, out here was the perfect time for her to enjoy them.

Wanting to get a better view of the sea, Rain cocked her head to one side and swung it towards the other while twisting her neck, turning her vase with the inertia. She had no ability to move anything below her neck, which was just an open Stewart platform connecting her head and vase together; the various cables connecting the two loosely strung through the middle. Such movements of her neck and head were the only way she could move herself about. Of course, with a single thought, she could have her entourage of VIs move her or help her put on a mobility frame, but where was the fun in that? After each swing, Rain looked down and enjoyed the sensation of the gold rings swinging back and forth from her nipples. She smiled, life's simple pleasures were still often the best.

Her relaxation was interrupted by a battery warning. Her body, stuffed with high power processors, sensors, and radios, in addition to her brain, only contained power for an hour or so of normal operation. If she was working, running her processors flat out, she could drain her battery in a matter of minutes. She hadn't thought she would find such a mundane spot so relaxing. She still had a good 20 minutes or so of battery, but no need to needlessly cycle it with full discharges. Messaging her entourage, one of the VI assistants took a portable fuel cell from a bag and plugged it into one of her charging ports. After taking a few moments to start up, Rain felt it beginning to provide her with power. Seeing that her battery was now charging, she went back to taking in the new view and getting lost in her thoughts.

Not everyone was content to be installed in a vase chassis. Some people still preferred to be installed in a fully limbed chassis, not wanting to be reliant on RPC. Some went for the more traditional robotic appearing chassis that had organic modeling based on their appearances in their first life. Rain had used bodies like this for many years before she finally switched over to vase chassis. Others went for a heavy industrial type chassis. Big and powerful, they were clunky and ungainly in their appearance and movement. Those who used them enjoyed the coarse industrial look and feel though. Rain had bodies like that in the past and disliked them greatly.

Then there were the second lifers who wanted to appear completely organic, covering their entire chassis from head to toe in high-end synthiskin and fur. It seemed like so much effort when everybody knew that they were a second lifer. On top of that, they spent what seemed like an obscene amount of time in the maintenance shop and acclimatizing to new parts. Rain shrugged her head, not understanding the attraction of such chassis, as she thought about her friends who used them. They seemed happy with the results, though there were a couple who were always having themselves fitted with the latest incremental improvements.

Leaning her head back, Rain laughed to herself at the nicknames given to those of a particular chassis preference. People like herself were sometimes called "Flower Pots", those who tried to look like organics were called "funny cars", after the drag racing cars that spend more time in the pits than the track. All of this was in good fun of course. Those with limbed chassis one had to get a little more creative in making nicknames. Generally the nicknames were tailored for the individual.

Looking down again at her body, Rain realized that she had acquired quite a few nicknames over the centuries. She spent a moment to remembering them, accessing the copy of her off-body memory data-bank she kept installed in one of her VIs. Stopping for a moment, she thought of the big deal that offloading ones memories was back in the day. It used to be a serious concern that a second lifer would have to start forgetting things as time passed, their brains unable to hold all of their memories. Turns out that ones soul had an infinite potential to store memories. That said, with the correct software, one could export perfect recordings of their thoughts and experiences to external storage, clearing space in their brains and providing a far more exact recollection of events than what their soul would store. Yet another one of those advances that scientists to this day had no idea how it worked, yet still exploited the fact that it did.

To anyone other than the person who exported the memories, it was just terabyte upon terabyte of meaningless ones and zeros. To the person those memories belonged to, it was crystal clear memories of themselves from the sometimes distant past. One was always wise to keep plenty of backups of them, Rain had a couple sets stored on completely different star systems, just in case. She accessed her financial VI to make sure she had paid the storage fees, but quickly closed the connection. This was her birthday. No work allowed.

Getting back to combing through her memories remotely, Rain became restless. She wanted her memories now and the blazing fast radio link was still too slow for her. She ejected her optical disk drive and instructed the VI assistant what disk to insert. The automaton did as it was told and retrieved the correct quartz disk from the case it was carrying. Rain felt the disk being loaded into her tray and retracted it as soon as she felt the VI get its fingers clear. VIs always took too long to acknowledge when a task was complete, no matter how you programmed them. Rain paused for a moment, admonishing herself as the drive began accessing the disk. She was being far too impatient and was getting herself worked up over nothing. She was here to relax.

The contents of the disk were quickly loaded and Rain found the memories she was looking for; firming up the memories in her soul. All the silly insults she had been called over the years. Where to start?

"Empty Head", that's a common one for people who use chassis that put their brain somewhere other than their head. Rain couldn't imagine what it would be like getting a chassis like that nowadays. Beneath the vixen red metal of her head was a chassis stuffed full of the highest end equipment money could buy. Her optics alone took up more space than her brain case would. The rest of the space in her head was devoted mostly to the numerous high power radio transmitters and receivers that covered the entire radio spectrum. The antennas extending from her ears added an attractive flair to her already stunning looks. If there was a radio transmission, she would pick it up and could probably transmit back. Her muzzle packed a top-end olfactory sensor suite. She blamed her time as a "probe jockey" for these preferences.

Those were the days. Having your entire body be a FTL capable spaceship? In hindsight, that was such an incredibly bad idea. Not only was the acclimatization brutal, it was downright exhausting. Having a "body" that size just sapped ones energy. You spent more time asleep than awake, just trying to maintain your mental stamina. On the other hand, those were the days before RPC. Not like the bodies available then were super fantastic. For all the problems, it was quite the adventure. To be the first person to visit and explore countless worlds. It was exhausting work though and Rain was glad she didn't have to do it anymore. Wiggling her ears and antennas, she thought about her other habits that she got as a probe jockey. Her preference for high-power optics and radios was for sure was on that list. Thank goodness holo projectors let her have the best of both worlds.

The visor that covered her eyes was styled to look like a pair of protective wrap around sunglasses that kept dirt and dust from her optics. Their actual function was to produce a holographic illusion of her having organic looking eyes; hiding the massive camera lenses that she really had. Facial cues and expressions were still very important when interacting with others. Sure she could get organic looking eyes that took a fraction of the space, but they had neither the resolution or the high-power zoom that she had with this configuration. Many would say that such silly high resolutions were excessive for what one needed for everyday living, and they would be right. That said, she loved being able to zoom in on something and see every detail, just like she did back in her probe jockey days. The visor also covered her IR and laser transceivers, used for both communications and range-finding. Her visible wavelength laser also worked great for playing with her pets, something she enjoyed greatly.

Getting back to nicknames, "Owl head" was another. Unlike the compact and organic looking optics available, the camera system Rain had was only equipped with very limited traverse due to space constraints. Enough for them to adjust to being aimed at objects at different distances, but not much more. If she wanted to look to her side, she had to turn her entire head. This was only an issue when she was zoomed in on something, normally she could just leave her eyes on wide-angle and use software zoom to focus in on things that were going on in her periphery. Her visor would adjust the holographic projection accordingly, so the eyes people saw in her visor were looking where she was actually looking.

"Mute Box", that was one specific to her at one point, but more common nowadays. Her bodies had stopped incorporating a voice synthesizer centuries ago to make space for other hardware, leaving her unable to talk via sound. Not that it mattered to her. Her mobility frames and other chassis that she could always RPC into had voice synthesizers. She had enough radio transmitting power in her head to talk to ships in orbit, let alone someone standing next to her. Everyone on this planet was a second lifer and would have the necessary radio equipment installed. She playfully attempting to bark at the seagulls flying about, but all the seagulls heard from her was silence, as she knew would happen. Sure there were micro voice synthesizers, but their audio quality was poor. She would rather be mute than have a synthesizer that sounded like it came from a toy.

Rain felt a few raindrops hit her head as the wind picked up. Her VIs behind her, programmed to protect their master from any threat, had seen the changing weather and already prepared should a sudden downpour arrive. They had an umbrella over her within seconds of the first drops. A raincoat sized for her was at the ready in the hands of another, should it be needed. She pulled up the local weather radar to make sure it wasn't going to be a downpour. Nope, just a light sprinkle. She would be fine.

That reminded her of a few more silly nicknames,

"Indoor Planter". This one came from the fact that her chassis was very much NOT weatherproof. A light sprinkle, her chassis could deal with just fine, a downpour would have her shorting out from just about every connector. She had crammed her body with the best optics, most powerful radios, fastest processor, and the most RAM and storage she could. Something had to be given up for all this and that something was weatherproofing. Her vase had large vents and fans to keep her electronics from overheating. Her head was slightly better, but water would sill easily find its way in during a downpour.

Stopping for a moment, she again swung her head to turn her vase, this time to get herself pointed to face the stiffening wind. Turning off her cooling fans, she let the wind blow through her vents on its own. She savored the feeling of the cool ocean breeze flowing gently through her, cooling every circuit and microprocessor; very pleasant and relaxing. She tried playing some music from her internal hard drive to add to the relaxation, but found it more distracting than relaxing and turned it off.

"Gold nugget" was another nickname. It wasn't just her nipple rings that were made of gold. All of her internal electrical wiring was made up gold as well. Technically a gold/copper alloy of course, but every trace and wire was made of it. Even with armies of VIs mining asteroids and planets, gold was still a valuable commodity. The universe doesn't like making odd numbered elements. Rain rocked herself back and forth lightly by swinging her head in in the breeze. Mentally feeling the materials she was made of, it felt like her body contained several pounds of gold. Expensive, but oh so worth it. Ones electronics just felt so much smoother in their operation with gold wiring. Some people preferred silver, which made sense. Silver, after all, is more conductive than gold or copper. Of course, she didn't have those luxuries right away. It had taken several hundred years for her to reach where she is now, to afford the things she can now afford.

A mother and then a moderately successful business manager in her first life, Rain smartly used what money she had in the early days of second life to buy up mining rights of various systems. Worthless at first, those deeds paid dividends once RPC was developed, space mining technology improved, and VIs became good enough to not require constant babysitting. Now the owner of a massive mining and transportation empire, Rain spent her working hours managing her VI workforce and tending to the charities she had founded.

Beneath her vixen red exterior, Rain was a high-end VI managing machine. When she was working, multiple optical drives and hard drive readers built into her body kept her processors fed with data from the tens of thousands of VIs that she semi-directly managed. Now an expert in mining, refining, and transportation, her VI assistants were constantly switching disks to keep her buffers full. Nowadays, VI management software didn't require much input from the person running it; unless you ran into a situation stall that the software couldn't handle. All it normally took was keeping a clear mind, concentrating on the white noise of thousands of VI thought processes and memories as they were ran through her mind. You of course needed to be knowledgeable in the tasks that the VIs were performing, outsourcing to others the tasks you weren't familiar with. The VI software, in effect, borrowed her sentience to fine tune the actions and behaviors of VIs as they came across new situations and problems. Over time, each VI became more intelligent, more self reliant, and required less management. Though they could never become sentient themselves, older well trained VI brains were an incredibly valuable resource, though not irreplaceable. Sometimes you had to put them in dangerous situations, a younger VI being incapable of safely doing the job. Rain's stockpile of highly trained VIs, as well as her team of skilled second life employees, gave her business a significant competitive edge.

Rain had worked extra long shifts in the days before so she could have a nice long relaxing vacation around her birthday. Pushing her processors and mind to their limits when she was working brought its own pleasure; like the feeling of exhaustion one might feel as a first lifer after a long hike or hard exercise routine. Sure you were tired, but you still enjoyed every moment of it. Now was the time to relax though, the cool breeze from the sea continued to blow through her vase and between the heatsink fins inside her. Her processors sat almost completely idle. Pulling up her temperature sensors, Rain found all her components pretty much at ambient temperature. She wiggled her head again in pleasure, her chilled electronics eliciting a feeling of coyness. Her body was incapable of breathing so she did the next best thing and set the fan in her nose on high, drawing in the scent of the salty sea air as she turned off her eyes.

After an house or so of relaxing meditation to the sounds and smells around her, Rain turned her eyes back on. Following the seagulls flying across the beach some more, something caught her eye. Zooming in on it, she saw that a sizable chunk of what appeared to be part of a old spaceship that had washed ashore while she was meditating. Or perhaps it was there earlier and she had just not noticed it? Didn't really matter when it washed up, it was there now. She wasn't about to waste time going back through her memories to find out. Hitting it with her laser rangefinder and using her bodies compass and GPS receiver, she documented its position on her map of the area so she could easily find it when down on the beach.

Rain ejected the memory disk, the VI removing it from her tray and put it back in the proper slot of the case. Retracting the drive tray, she had her VIs put her brassiere back on. The VI tasked with carrying Rain disconnected the external fuel cell that had been powering her and plugged her into its internal batteries with a short patch cable. With everything put away, the VI picked up Rain and the entourage began walking back towards the road. Rain had packed a mobility frame in the car, just in case she wanted to explore. She had her fill of reflection and meditation, time for some fun. That piece of old spaceship was the perfect reason to put on a frame and go play in the sand.

She stopped in her thoughts for a moment and realized she had hadn't thought this through, the mobility frame was waterproof, but it didn't provide any waterproofing of her body. Tripping and falling into the surf would end her birthday almost instantly. Sure her VIs would deliver her waterlogged chassis to her mechanic to have them transfer her brain to a new one; that would be small consolidation though. Her entire chassis was completely custom designed for her, parts were made only as needed. It was awfully expensive, even for someone of her means. She would probably be offline for two weeks at least.

Once a new chassis for her was built, the worst would come after she was powered back on, acclimatizing to those new parts. Rain HATED acclimatization. Being disassembled for cleaning was actually quite enjoyable, getting all the accumulated dust and dirt removed felt good. She used to dread overhauls, but had gotten that under control to the point that she didn't mind them. Her real fear was a full body swap and the resulting acclimatization. Having a robot body and being afraid of a body swap may sound funny to some, but for Rain it was a very real phobia she had to deal with.

Rain thought about the chassis her husband, friends, and employees used. There were a few dozen or so standardized chassis by now, each with a healthy semi-custom market. Only the exteriors needed to be tailored to the individual, everything else was interchangeable. While only a small fraction of the performance of hers, their bodies could get completely wrecked and their brain be in a new body, built with off the shelf parts, on the same day. Many of them were even waterproof to 10 or 20 feet, more if they put on a chassis dry-suit. It would be nice to not have to treat water as if it was molten lava and falling rain as if it was acid. Not having to be constantly plugged into the wall or a battery pack for power was another little freedom that would be nice to have. Still, for all its limitations, Rain loved her body. Sure there were some things she couldn't do, but there was so much more that she could.

Just for fun, Rain started her radio scanner and tuned into the orbital shipping frequencies. Adjusting the position of her ears to get the best reception from her antennas, she listened in to traffic. She found that there were a couple freighters that belonged to her in orbit. Her transmitter at the ready, Rain decided against interjecting into the casual conversation that was going on among her employees. It would be rude to just barge in, say a few words, then leave; even if she did write their paychecks. There just wasn't much going on in orbit today. Rain smiled to herself, they of course had to use their ships on-board communications systems for chatting over such long ranges, Her body had all that built in.

Getting back to the issue of her electronics and salt water; her VIs continuing to carry her back towards the car. Rain decided that she would just have her VIs drag the wreckage further ashore for her to safely examine without getting herself drenched. The VIs she had brought with were plenty strong and smart enough to do so with minimal direction from her, they would just need to be cleaned off later to remove the salt and sand. Rain softly giggled. Not only did she get in some good meditation and reflection, she was gonna get some exploring as well. This was turning out to be a fantastic birthday.