As Mikey slept, a de-fragmentation program started to work on her systems. It was over in less then a minute, as it started to organise her memory. When Mikey woke (instant as ever), she was amazed at just how much information was inside her mind now. Most of it was not accessible of course. It was hardly useful for her processors to know what shampoo was used six years ago, two months and three days at approximately 7:23. The information was appropriately indexed with the most pertinent information at the forefront. She realised that much like her human mind, she could acquire an obscure memory if she wanted to, but it would take processing power. She was not exactly a savant before her change either. After her change... maybe something close to it.
Still there was this one thing that did bug her. There was indeed, some kind of memory drain being reported on her systems. She got onto emergence to find out what happened. The internet was a buzz with quite a lot of activity. Mikey ran her delicate hands over her green hair, as she considered the news:
Somehow, Earth lost some seconds of time, relative to the rest of the cosmos.
Intriguingly, when they tried to work out exactly how much time was lost. Down to the pico second, it was 15.99999..... all the way down to the plank second, which in theory is the finite end of how far one could go- yet even here, it seemed to split into improbable ratios when further mathematics were applied. So basicly it was 16 seconds of time. This was verified by the atomic clocks that had become out of sync and had to be adjusted by this exact amount.
This was very interesting too. Apparently the time discrepancy had caused quite a few malfunctions among the machine changed. Nothing serious, but there were reports of strange bugs in their systems as programs were expecting to be called during that 16 seconds of hanging... Mikey wondered if this could have caused an issue with her own system, but didn't see any reason why it should. She wasn't dependent on any GPS, although her system was probably vulnerable to the 'tick' of the universe, more so then normal humans. After all she was a digital creation that depended on synchronised algorithms to do their work- but even if this was the cause, it wouldn't account for Becca forgetting either. Fearing some external agent at work, she placed this memory in multiple redundancy and in protected memory. It also occupied part of her boot up... in theory she shouldn't forget now.
The gynoid reflected on her sense of self, as she looked in the mirror at the strange robot girl. Was she really just... reduced to mere mathematics? She didn't think so. Inside she still felt like herself. Maybe just a little different...
Mikey scanned her systems one more time to synchronise all her clocks back as they should be- and was curious to find a strange timing mechanism on one- and it was counting down to zero in about 3.4 seconds...
"Uh oh," mikey said- before her hair, suddenly just 'erupted' into long locks ruining all the way to the ground. She felt something a little strange as her body went through some kind of 'processing' of her external form with a curious sheen forming around the skin like structure. Her fore legs in particular became longer by at least four inches. She felt her hips strain a little to some strange pressure as they were re-shifted into the start of what could be girlish curves.
It took her a moment to realise, that this sudden 'wave' of puberty, must have hit her. Not like the other change she heard of, where mechanical servos ended up exposed, but a somewhat more subtle change. She walked a little, finding her body a little awkward- but her systems adapted very quickly. It didn't look that different, but she was definitely taller.
"Oh my," Was all Mikey could say. For some reason she wasn't scared though. It.. was growing up, and it felt almost exciting to be one more step towards being like Jon. She definitively needed to get a hair cut now after that but at least it was a very small change. Larger then it would have been for normal humans but.. manageable. She still felt a pang of embarrassment if anyone noticed, but she had to go to school... maybe she should wake Jon up first. She would know if she had to do anything.
Melanie woke up. She recalled her dream from before, but quickly realised that the act of waking up, took away the memory of the dreams that may have happened after. In some ways this was more unsettling then a nightmare. What if she dreamt something so horrible, that it would influence her subtly? It could effect her thoughts in ways without realising. How in the world did these sentient creatures cope with this!
"Breakfast is ready sweety, did you sleep well?" Her grandmother asked.
Melanie touched the ground with her insect legs, as she looked about. The strange bend they had was still counter-intuitive, but she seemed to be managing better. It was as if sleep seemed to help? But how could that be? "I sleep... this is awake now?" She asked. She had to be sure.
"Yes dear, you are awake" she said smiling. Melanie sure was a strange grand daughter to have. The elder woman in a way envied the young and this strange new world, they could now live in. It wasn't just her, many of her generation was quite envious. Some even opted to go into the sunlight, to see if they gained a few more years. It was not always the case, but often just having a healthy body was a joy- no matter how strange it was.
Melanie realised the signs that she was awake, were indeed here. Things just... seemed to be real? It was hard to work out how she could tell the difference, as the things she saw sleeping seemed real when being experienced. "Why... I see things in sleep?" She asked.
"Oh? did you have a nice dream?"
Melanie pondered that question. The first one, was defiantly not nice... but she couldn't remember any other. "Not- know. No memory." She explained.
"That happens sometimes," She nodded. "Come, I hope you like cereal. A growing girl like you needs it."
"Girl. Yes. Melanie is girl therefore needs cereal." Still the question was, what would she do now?
Adam was in the harbour, to look into acquiring more parts for their under-sea technology venture. Their project had hit upon quite a few issues, in particular the idea of power generation. She was on the peer, looking over. There were a lot of gulls in the air and part of her wondered if she could try flying- but she just... wasn't up to it. The idea of 'flying' just felt so alien and weird, she didn't even think it possible.
Besides, she wasn't really feeling to well. Her stomach was aching, despite the anti-acids she tried to have. Something on the peer caught her eye. A small ship was docked, and on the prow stood a figure head of a woman. It almost had a mermaid quality to it, with a curious star fish earnings on her. Her lower half seemed to encompass the entire ship. It was certainly very strange to look at. The ship itself seemed to be of an old design, though remarkably looked completely new.
"hi!" said the figurine.
Adam shrieked, nearly falling back to the other end of the peer.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," said the ship-girl.
"W-what the... y-you you turned into a ship?!" Adam was amazed. She had never, ever seen anyone change into anything quite like this.
"Um, yes," the ship girl said blushing a bit. She fanned her sails a bit, to show she had control over her super-structure. "Changes like mine seem to be very rare. I haven't met any other changed like me.
Adam was just so shocked, amazed, and in wonder at the pretty girl. "W-what's your name?"
"Well- I used to be Captain Edward, But... I guess that can't work. I just call myself Edina," she said blushing a bit. "You want to come aboard and ... see me? I don't mind."
Adam was too intrigued to say no...
