Jon was a little surprised at first to find so many familiar points of reference inside Karyn. Though her lungs looked like plastic accordions, there were two of them in the right places. Between them was a fist-sized vessel wrapped in gray-black synthetic muscle, pumping some kind of red fluid through an elaborate network of tubes that seemed to extend throughout Karyn's body. Jon touched Karyn's neck and confirmed that she had a realistic pulse.
"You have a heart-- it's amazing, but what does it do for you?" asked Jon.
"Mostly, my blood is the main part of my cooling system. I can also sweat. My circulatory system can also carry nanites around my body, if I should need an injection, to help repair normal wear and tear to my skin, muscles, and skeleton," explained Karyn.
"Siemens Omnivore 231-C," Jon read, looking at a label on something whose upper end was all that was visible from Karyn's chest cavity, as it seemed to be a small oblong cylindrical tank extending down into her abdomen. "I'm guessing this is your main power supply."
"That's right. I can eat everything I could eat before, and use it for fuel. As well as a few other things, like fossil fuels. I'll never forget the time Craig at the shop got me to drink a whole cup of kerosene before telling me how to adjust my taste buds," Karyn recalled, laughing at the end. "Anyway, you're supposed to be looking for a brain life support system so you can tell whether I'm a cyborg or a metahuman."
"Right. I'd think it would be some kind of distinct module with a couple of tubes leading up into your head for recycling fluids-- which I don't see, so I'm going to say you're a metahuman," Jon concluded. "So that means you're really-- one hundred percent robot?"
"Yep. You're pretty good at this, maybe you should--" Karyn trailed off. She sat up and closed up her chest. "Sorry, I can't stop thinking that the real Jon-- I mean, the Jon from this world, is out there somewhere. Probably he traded places with you because of whatever wish you made. Maybe it would be better if we just-- brought him back before this goes on much longer, if that's possible. I know wishes can't be reversed."
"I take it I got this stone in this reality as well. I did come here as a result of wishing something interesting would happen. Pretty nonspecific, wouldn't you agree? If that's what you want, okay," Jon said, taking the stone out of his pocket. "I wish the version of me from this reality would be transported back here and exchanged for me right now."
