Evolution Unlocked Pt. 07

"However, I'm fairly sure the tests will come back positive. Assuming that's the case, then this gives us another really powerful tool in our arsenal to stymy those vested interests. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea to offer to license the design out for companies around the world to make and install for people.

"The threat being that if they refuse to play ball, we go ahead and manufacture it exclusively. That will likely get their attention. Rebecca, assuming the tests come back positive, can you and Victoria work on patent applications worldwide?"

"Yes, I've already looked into the process for most developed countries and have most of them ready to go. However, if you start coming up with lots of other far-reaching inventions, we are going to need a legal department to work with these things.

"We also need to make sure we understand the anti-monopolies legislation for most developed countries, and also how to protect the IP data from countries that have a history of ignoring IP, patents etc."

"How is the house purchase and both your sales going?" Sam asked.

"The deal is done on the house; we are just waiting on the land registries approval. They have informed me that it should be finalised within the next couple of weeks. For our houses, I've accepted an offer on mine, and Victoria is currently considering one on hers."

"OK, good," Sam replied.

"On a last point, the more I think about it, my one big worry about the whole thing is how people in general will react to what we do. Humanity as a whole tends to be averse to change, fearful of it and its implications. If that happens and you get rabble rousing leaders, either here or around the world, that could cause massive issues.

"As such, can each of you have a think about that, and what contingency plans we might want to have to protect both humanity, and ourselves from potential backlash?"

"No problem," was the response around the room.

Sam was really excited to see the results of the nanites on Victor, and he found the next few hours difficult to wait out. He ended up immersing himself in some more designs and thoughts of what could happen with Victoria's theory of gravity.

The tests of the energy device concluded about twenty minutes before Victor's stage one repairs were due to complete. Sam and Victoria were really pleased to see that it appeared that the design was totally successful, and that the predicted life of the device, even under heavy load, was well in excess of ten years. It only required modest maintenance to ensure things like bearings remained properly lubricated.

"Five minutes until Victor's first stage is done." Sam thought out, "Who wants to see the results?"

"Hell, yes." was the general rapid agreement, as Sam got up and started to make his way upstairs.

Victor and Anna both glanced in his direction as Sam walked through the door.

"Three minutes until stage one is done, Victor. How are you feeling? You ready for the spinal block to be removed."

Victor nodded, not trusting his voice.

"Just remember, the nanites are going to release the block slowly over a couple of minutes, so as not to overload you. Don't try and move, just let the feeling come back and you'll get used to it before we make any attempt to let you get up."

"It's been very weird, watching his atrophied muscles regrow over the last few hours." Anna whispered. "Totally freaky."

"I can imagine. OK, now the nanites are going to start removing the block in five... four... three... two... one." Sam concluded, as he watched Victor's face.

"God, that's tingly." Victor said with a slight start and an involuntary twitch.

Sam just watched. The expressions on Victor's face over that two minutes were something he would remember for the rest of his life.

"You OK, honey?" Anna whispered, gently holding Victor's hand.

Victor nodded his head vigorously as the tears flowed down his cheeks.

Sam waited. He could see the involuntary twitches in Victor's legs as the feelings gradually came back, and when it came to the two-minute mark, the nanites confirmed the nerve block was removed.

"OK, Victor, that's the block gone. How does it feel?"

Victor looked up at Sam and tried to speak, but couldn't, but the tears and the smile told Sam everything he needed to know.

"You want to try wiggling your toes and feet?" Sam couldn't help his own smile, as no sooner had he said that, Victor's feet started moving, just like someone stretching out.

Victor reached out and grabbed Sam's hand.

"You don't need to say anything Victor, just enjoy this."

Sam took a step back and just watched, as Victor couldn't resist the urge to swing his legs across the bed until his feet touched the floor.

"Just go steady, Victor. No need to rush anything." Anna said, the concern clear in her voice as Victor, slowly, cautiously took the weight on his feet and stood up with a little wobble.

"Take it nice and slow, Victor, everything is fine, but your brain and nerves need to remember how to do things." Sam reminded him.

Anna was holding his arm fairly firmly, as Victor slowly moved a foot forward, took one wobbly step, then another one, each slightly more fluid and confident than the last.

Rebecca's arms snaked round Sam's waist and she whispered in his ear. "You are a wonderful man." Before gently kissing his neck.

Victor had slowly, but haltingly, walked up and down the side of the bed a couple of times before he looked at Anna, and gently pushed her support away. "I've got this, my love."

Each step was still rather wobbly, the co-ordination not quite there, but also clearly improving each time.

"I have no idea how long it will take for all the coordination and muscle memory to come back, so please take it slow Victor. The last thing we need is for you to take a tumble and the nanites having to fix more broken bits." Sam said ruefully.

"You're a fucking miracle worker." Victor said softly. "Thank you, seems somehow so utterly inadequate."

"The expression on your face is more than thanks enough, Victor. Just remember that once the reset is done tonight, then both of you are going to need to eat a lot.

I'd also suggest using either the crutches or walking sticks," Sam motioned at the items leaning against the wall, "for at least a day or two, while your body remembers how to do things.

"Are we ready for some dinner?"

"Sounds good." Victor smiled.

Sam awoke the following morning and was immediately aware of the sound of a bedstead banging into the wall, which was quickly followed by Anna's cries. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me deep. I need it. Ayeeeeee."

With a smirk, he rolled over and started to flick Rebecca's exposed nipple with his tongue, until it started beading milk, before gently starting to suck it deeper and harder into his mouth.

"Mmm, I will never tire of having you wake me like this." Rebecca murmured.

Having drained Rebecca, Sam did the same for Victoria, before pulling Connie onto his lap, slowly sinking into her depths as he drained her newly milk-filled tits, and erupting deep inside her womb.

Gently lowering her back to the bed, the utterly sated expression on her face and she rubbed her distended belly, was endearing.

"God, I'm looking forward to seeing you even bigger and full of my babies." He whispered in her ear, before kissing her gently and heading to the shower.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked, when Victor and Anna came into the kitchen, Victor was only using one walking stick and looked pretty steady on his feet, although Anna was using the crutches.

"Amazing, so full of energy." Victor replied with a smile.

"Yep, we heard." Sam laughed. Anna's face went bright red.

"How about you Anna, how are you feeling? How's the leg doing?"

"I feel great, although the leg is really itchy, and already I cannot wear my prosthetic. I'd swear it look like my leg's grown at least an inch already."

"Can I have a look?" Sam asked gently, and waited until Anna nodded.

After she'd sat down, Sam knelt and examined her leg. He'd been curious about exactly how the nanites would do this. Anna shivered a little in discomfort as he lifted her leg. "Sorry, I just really don't like people touching it." she whispered.

Sam could see that her leg had indeed grown. He didn't have a tape measure, so he couldn't say exactly how much, but where the stump had previously had scar tissue and the obvious leftovers of the surgery and stitching of the skin together, now it looked completely smooth and the skin was fresh. So, if he had to guess, then yes, it looked like it had probably grown about an inch. Clearly the nanites were growing it back all at the same time, while keeping a nice covering of skin and flesh over the top. The muscles in her calf were clearly there and being grown at the same time as the bone. But how were the nanites keeping the muscle in place without the lower anchor points that didn't exist?

Honestly it was a bit of a mind fuck. How were they going to do it when they got to her ankle and the different bones in her feet? How were they going to keep everything in place as it all grew back at the same time? It wasn't like they could grow out the bones and ligaments first, then layer muscles, tendons etc over the top.

"Well, it looks brilliant, Anna, I may have invented the nanites, but some of the things they do are amazing and I'm far from sure how they work out how to do things.

"Both yours and Victor's gastro upgrades are already done, and based on the growth rate here, if you keep eating enough it looks like the leg will be fully regrown in maybe five to seven days. If you eat more, it could be sooner. How are the burns now, all completely gone?"

Anna, nodded, the smile on her face blazing, as she lifted up her blouse to show a perfect, totally unblemished tummy.

"Thank you, I don't know what else to say except that." she said softly.

"You are quite welcome, Anna." Sam replied with a smile. "By the way, can I get some pics each day to document the leg regrowing?"

"Of course."

"Help yourself to breakfast, we've gotten pretty much anything you might want and lots of it, in preparation for your stay, so feel free to eat as much as you want." Sam noted.

"Can we use your gym, once we've eaten? I really want to." Victor asked, almost self-consciously.

"Of course. Basically, feel free to use anything here, the only area I need you to be careful in, is my workshop in the basement, so please don't touch anything down there without asking."

"God, of course, we wouldn't dream of it." Victor responded, looking somewhat shocked.

"Do you have a computer I could use, Sam? Along with details of the new house? I might as well make myself useful and start working on your security plan while this leg regrows." Anna asked.

"Sure. Can you set her up and give her the info, Rebecca?"

"Of course." Rebecca smiled.

Over the next few days, Sam kept an eye on Anna's leg growth. He noticed that either due to the gastro upgrades, or the fact that she was eating an insane amount, most likely a combination of both, the growth was happening faster than he had predicted. Amazingly, by day three, the leg had regrown down to her ankle.

He'd spent more time looking into exactly how the nanites were regrowing the leg and the answer had been really simple. They were growing it all at once, but it was the nanites themselves that were holding all the muscles and ligaments in place as they grew, working like artificial anchor points to the bone as it lengthened.

They also estimated that the process would be complete within two days if Anna kept up with the eating schedule.

Victor had also hit the gym hard, eating less than Anna, but still a lot, as he wanted to get back the muscle bulk he previously had up top, as well as matching it with his lower body.

Sam walked into the gym where Victor had been for the last few hours. "You know that the nanites will simply grow the muscles anyway Victor?"

"Yeah, but then I won't feel like I deserve them. Humour me." Victor replied, deadpan.

"Oh, OK. I just wanted to let you know that Anna's leg will be finished in two days and I'm going to start initiating the upgrades we talked about in the both of you today. Once the muscle and skeletal upgrades are complete, the weights you are using are going to be ridiculously small, but I've ordered a bunch of one-off weights for the new house gym that will hopefully provide us all with a challenge."

"OK, cool." Victor replied, carrying on the reps.

"I also thought it would be good to use the skill share upgrades, to share some of your combat, tactics, and intelligence skills, and schedule an hour's training with you each day, so we can get those skills embedded properly. Hopefully we won't need them, but between you, Paul, and Anna, I can't think of any skills we might need to defend ourselves that we won't have access to. Can you think of any?"

Victor stopped for a moment as he thought. "Well, I cannot think of any on an unarmed combat basis, and for the firearms, we will have the use of Paul's training facility for that. About the only thing that might be missing is some handheld weapons skills beyond knives. Although, I cannot see them being terribly necessary, given the unarmed skills you will have... with your strength and speed, only someone else upgraded like that would be a problem."

"OK. Unarmed to start with, and firearms when Paul can schedule it."

"Sounds like a plan." Victor replied, returning to his reps.

Rebecca was waiting for him with some news when he came back upstairs. "What's up, Princess?"

"Well, the Land Registry has worked faster than we hoped, and the property transfer is scheduled to complete next Monday."

"OK, great."

"Also, we've had confirmation from Michelle at GCHQ that the testing is going well and they expect to have that complete in about two weeks' time. Assuming there are no issues, then the rest of payment will be made at that point."

Sam nodded with a smile.

"Also, I've spoken with Richard, and he's really keen to find out more about what you can do for the kids, and they wondered if they could come down and talk some more next weekend? Richard's got a couple of kids who aren't expected to last more than a month, and the thought that you might be able to save them is eating away at him."

"Well, I've got the simpler version of the nanites programmed, the batching and replication is also sorted, so if he is desperate, can you see any reason why we can't go ahead faster with that?"

"No, not really, I've got all the NDAs and parental consent forms set up and ready to go, so other than agreeing with Richard on how to proceed and also how to document everything, the only delay will come from any outside consultancy that parents might want before they commit."

"Good, although if the parents of the kids who don't have long left agree, and others can see the success, that might well tip the balance on any wavering parents. Well, at least we can hope." Sam replied.

"Do the agreements allow disclosure of medical info to other parents to help them make decisions for their own kids?"

"Of course, I'd already figured that out and included it. If nothing else, they have to agree to the trial for it to work, and for us to be able to demonstrate the results."

Sam laughed, "See, even this smart and I can still miss things."

"That's what you have me for." Rebecca smiled before planting a kiss gently on his lips.

"I don't know what I would do without you, Princess." Sam said softly, wrapping her in his arms.

"Save the world, while forgetting to tie your shoelaces?" she teased.

Sam couldn't help the deep laugh that erupted from somewhere in his belly. "Probably."

"Do you want me to try and get Richard and Min down in the next few days?" Rebecca asked.

"If they want to move faster, sounds like an idea."

"OK, I will try and arrange it."

Sam was just enjoying feeling Rebecca in his arms, holding her close.

"You know I think your idea of licensing the energy machines is a good one. You can't give it away, as that would arouse too much suspicion, but the priority has got to be to protect the nanites, not the things that come off the back of them, so licensing is a good way around the problem.

I also think it would be good to publish Victoria's theory of gravity, I know very few people are going to be able to understand it, but getting it out there, would garner a lot of good will and also divert more attention away from where we don't want it?" Rebecca suggested softly as she revelled in the feeling of just being held in his arms.

"Indeed, all this tech is going to disrupt a lot of industry, and potentially put a lot of people out of work. I just don't want greedy bastards trying to hold it back to enrich themselves at the expense of normal people." Sam sighed.

"We will work it out." Rebecca replied, gently stroking his arm.

"I know, Princess, one problem at a time. I just feel... I don't know. All this intelligence, all these solvable problems, but the real problem is managing the fallout from solving them."

Rebecca stepped back a bit and lifted his chin to look in his eyes. "Why do you think I work so hard recruiting you extra help?"

"I know... I just... I don't know how to phrase it. I love you, I love Victoria, Connie and even Lydia, despite her not being part of us yet. But I want to be able to love you all properly, I want to know, and be a father to, each and every child we have... I don't want to be stretched too thin and lose that connection.

"It feels like it's spinning out of control and I have no idea how I'm going to cope. Between you and Victoria," Sam stroked her slightly bulging tummy. "there are already five amazing, beautiful children to be a father to. Connie is going to make it many more... how can I really be a father to all of them the way they deserve?"

"Delegation, Master... I know you; you will find the time for all of them either individually or together to be what they need. You'll be around most of the time and don't forget they will grow and understand much faster. You'll have lots of people working for you to delegate to, you'll just need to focus on the big picture and then let the rest of us make it happen."

A small smile appeared on Sam's face. "Has anyone ever told you how amazing you are?" he whispered gently as he stroked the side of her face, before tenderly kissing her upturned lips.

"You can tell me as often as you need." Rebecca giggled.

Sam was helping Victoria put the finishing touches to her theory of gravity ready for publication, when Rebecca mentally announced that Richard and Min had agreed to come down on Sunday afternoon, in three days' time.

"I can't believe I'm going to publish this." Victoria whispered softly. "Everything has changed so fast." she continued, gently rubbing her belly.

"I know, Toy. It's a bit of a mind fuck in some ways." Sam answered ruefully.

"Do you regret any of it?" She asked, looking up, her eyes slightly nervous.

"Only the bits that mean I don't get to spend as much time as I want with the people I love.... But we wouldn't be here without the nanites and everything else. I wouldn't be in love with you and you wouldn't be growing those beautiful babies inside you." He whispered, taking her in his arms and gently holding her as he stroked her burgeoning belly.

"I know." she whispered, revelling in just being there in that moment with him.

"You know, you're going to be more famous than Einstein with this?" Sam whispered in her ear.

"That's fucking mad..." she said softly. "He was a genius."

"And you aren't?" Sam said softly.

"I know." she whispered... "I just... it kind of feels like I'm cheating somehow, it's not me, it's you and the nanites."