Jace woke up with a dull ache running through his lower back. The couch hadn’t done him any favors.
He sat up slowly, rubbing his shoulder and stretching out his arms.
The apartnt was quiet, filled only with the soft hum of the fridge and the morning light filtering through the blinds.
He stood, wincing slightly as he straightened his spine. His jeans were wrinkled and stiff, a reminder that he hadn’t planned to fall asleep in them.
Across the room, the bedroom door was shut. Eva was still asleep in his bed. Jace stared at it for a mont, then shook his head.
He was really in the thick of it now.
One day he was a regular guy working part-ti with dreams of being a scientist.
Now he had a angry tahuman woman crashing in his apartnt, possibly a stolen power in his system, and a voice in his head that spoke like a robot mixed with a war strategist.
And sohow, all of that wasn’t even the strangest part.
He walked toward the kitchen, hoping coffee would help him think.
.
.
.
.
As he poured the coffee, steam rising from the mug, Zin’s voice buzzed in his head.
[I have great news and bad news.]
Jace paused, exhaling through his nose. "Let’s start with the good."
[I’ve regained partial access to my knowledge bank. So of it is general data about the universe, but this ans the more I observe and analyze, the more of myself I can recover.]
Jace raised an eyebrow. "That’s actually great." He took a sip, then narrowed his eyes. "Alright. Now the bad."
[Yesterday, there was a pulse in the Earth’s atmosphere. It wasn’t natural. The elents and energy frequencies don’t match anything native to this planet.]
Jace leaned against the counter. "So what, the Earth’s changing?"
[No. It ans there are aliens here. Active ones. The energy readings suggest over one hundred thousand foreign signatures. Possibly more. I lost the precise traces, but it confirms their presence.]
Jace set his mug down, slower than usual. "Aliens. Like ?"
[Uncertain. But the scale suggests this is no small arrival. So may have been here long before you. So may have arrived recently.]
Jace frowned. "Are they dangerous?"
[That depends. Alien cultures don’t share your morals. What Earth deems criminal might be standard for another race. Even acts of kindness could be seen as threats to so. What matters isn’t whether they’re hostile, it’s whether they see you as prey, asset, or threat.]
Jace stood still for a mont, the sound of the ticking clock the only thing in the room.
He looked at his hand. "Then I need to be ready."
[About the knowledge I acquired, I have a suggestion...] Zin’s voice echoed into Jace’s head as he stood by the sink, hands wrapped around the warm mug.
[Since we need to figure out how your abilities work, or how you took Evangeline Lin’s ability, I suggest that you repeat what you and she did.]
Jace didn’t move. His fingers tightened slightly.
"...What?"
[The only ti her ability could’ve transferred to you was when you two were intimate.]
Jace stared forward. "That’s—just—no. Forget it. I don’t think she’ll agree to that."
[Then an alternative would be to sleep with another tahuman and see if the sa thing happens.]
He looked down at the floor, blinking slowly. "Zin... I don’t know how much of you rember, but before all of this, I was on a dry spell so long I might as well have been a monk."
He sipped his coffee again.
"So no, I don’t think it’ll be easy convincing anyone to sleep with , especially not a tahuman."
Zin paused.
[Then perhaps we need to start by identifying tahumans, building rapport, and establishing opportunities for contact.]
"You an make friends with them and try my luck?"
[Essentially.]
Jace shook his head. "Right. Make friends, figure out if they’re ta, and then sohow get in bed with them without sounding like a freak."
He exhaled. "Yeah. This should go smoothly."
Jace paused for a bit, then turned his eyes toward the kitchen window.
"Zin... how long would it take for you to transfer everything from the internet, books, research, all of it, on biology, science, or even tech?"
He took another sip of coffee, the idea slowly forming in his mind. "Since I’m stuck in this ss, I might as well use it to my advantage."
Zin’s response ca without hesitation.
[If I bypass surface-level searches and focus on scientific databases, archived materials, restricted docunts, and compressed AI-sorted textbooks, I can transfer the bulk of global biological and technological knowledge in approximately twelve minutes.]
Jace blinked. "Twelve minutes?"
[With your current hardware and my optimization, yes. However, retaining and organizing it in a way your human brain can process will take longer. I’ll need to structure it into segnts, categories, and practical simulations if you intend to actually learn and apply it.]
Jace lowered his mug, thinking it over. "So I wouldn’t beco Einstein overnight."
[No. But with a few weeks of guided uploads and real-world application, you could be beyond most scientists on Earth.]
He leaned back against the counter. "Alright. Start it. Download everything. Tech, biology, engineering. Everything useful."
[Confird. Initiating global data assimilation.]
Zin paused briefly, then added with a flat tone:
[Warning, this action will flag activity across several surveillance networks. Intelligence agencies, private defense corporations, and cybersecurity watchdogs may notice abnormal bandwidth consumption.]
Jace let out a breath. "Of course they will." He rubbed his jaw. "Well, at least we’ll know who’s paying attention."
[Jace, I suggest you lie down. This might hurt. You’ll experience intense neural stimulation, possibly headaches, nausea, or temporary mory blinks.]
Jace gave a small nod. He walked over to the couch and lay down flat, grabbing a nearby pillow. Without hesitation, he shoved it between his teeth and bit down, bracing himself.
"Alright, do it."
There was no dramatic flash or surge. No glowing lights or tremors.
But inside his skull, it felt like his brain was being set on fire.
A wave of pressure slamd through his head, sharp, hot, focused. His jaw clenched tighter around the pillow as his hands gripped the couch. It wasn’t just pain, it was speed. Information forcing its way into every neuron like a torrent through a pinhole.
He heard things, saw things, formulas, diagrams, rotating molecules, schematics of machines he didn’t understand yet. His heart pounded. His vision blurred.
Zin’s voice echoed in short intervals.
[Phase one—Data structure load at 14%...]
Jace let out a muffled grunt, sweat already lining his forehead.
[28%... your prefrontal cortex is responding well. Temporal lobe under strain.]
The pillow muffled his yell as a sharp jolt hit behind his right eye, like a needle made of lightning.
[45%. Stay conscious. The more you stay alert, the better your brain adapts.]
He wanted to scream but couldn’t. His fists curled. His spine arched. Then just as suddenly as it had ramped up—
—it leveled.
The pain dulled to a throbbing heat. His thoughts slowed. He could still feel the pulse of information being embedded, but it wasn’t drowning him anymore.
[Phase one complete. You now have foundational knowledge in general biology, human anatomy, cellular engineering, basic robotics, circuit logic, and chanical design.]
Jace lay still, chest rising and falling as the pillow fell from his mouth.
"Shit..." he muttered, eyes glazed. "I think I can... build a prosthetic arm from scrap... and explain how it works."
[Excellent. Phase two begins in three hours. Rest before then.]
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