The Marine

Running diagnostics beside the Cerebral Capsule, Bill checked his hand device and read off the figures which indicated everything was functioning within expected parameters.

Today would mark a major milestone in the SATELLITE Program.

This program was aimed at addressing the ever-present lack of suitable assistants by splitting Vegapunks consciousness into multiple advanced cyborgs.

The idea had been something Vegapunk had thought about for years, only to be sidetracked as the genius scientist stumbled upon one discovery after the next.

Finally, after finding that the Science Divisions funding had been massively cut, the idea of helping Bill graduate as soon as possible led the old scientist decided that it was as good as a time as any to start working on it – essentially killing two birds with one stone.

By completing the SATELLITE Program Vegapunk would get more done in the lab and have a mobile force to collect badly needed revenue.

During this time, Bill had not simply been a gofer or spectator. He had helped with many designs for this capsule, including one ‘Golden Throne’ that had never amounted to much.

Gold was a fine electro-spiritual conduit but was drastically worse than synthesized conductive alloys and it radiated far too much heat. The fact it was shown to break down over time was just a minor drawback compared to the litany of others.

Now, looking down on the thing just before the test started, Bill thought that this capsule was so advanced the design was nearly magic in its abilities. It didn’t even matter that he had been there every step of the way building it.

Over the last two years he had worked nearly every minute of every day beside Vegapunk on the SATELLITE Program.

Today they would lock Vegapunks consciousness into the system and activate one of the seven cyborgs that Punk’s mind was to be split in.

The cyborg to be used today was code-named Edison and was calibrated to Vegapunks problem solving spectrum.

Of the multitude of things that he had learned from the genius scientist, the personality spectrum had to be the most fascinating things Vegapunk had taught his apprentice.

Simply put, Vegapunk showed Bill that ‘Free Will’ did not strictly exist.

This had been initially very hard for him to accept but the data proved that personality was a spectrum of emotions and experiences.

If this spectrum could be read perfectly then you would be able to predict movements and actions to a scientific degree.

What had stopped Bill from rejecting this science that was so against everything he believed was that Vegapunk had proved that Willpower, or Haki, was the soul’s way to rebel against the spectrum that tied it down to evident reality.

Bill had of course known about the existence of the soul, as nothing else could explain his reincarnation, but to hear Vegapunk speak about it so matter-of-factly had been a tremendous eye opener.

The lesson learned was that ‘Haki’ is the soul manifesting itself on the physical world, and this was so important because it showed Bill that while actions may have a cause and effect, there was something more to the human experience.

It was also while designing this capsule where Bill found out Vegapunk’s explanation for Devil Fruits.

After the first design had been done, the scientist had offhandedly said that: “Ist zee gooden worken, unt zat only funktions wizought zee spiritual interference ov zee Devil Fruit.”

When Bill had asked about this, Punk had again said offhandedly that Devil Fruits were extradimensional entities born from emotion.

“Zee Devils” as Vegapunk had put it: “Desire dat zey existen en zee material vorld unt showen zeeselves to zee person zey konnekt zis.”

The matter had been dropped there, but Bill felt in his heart it wasn’t something so benign as the Devil Fruit ‘Spirits’ wanting to exist in the material world.

He didn’t know what it was, and he also didn’t want to go too far deep the rabbit hole as he knew several people who had eaten Devil Fruits.

Bill feared that if it turned out that mortals unknowingly traded their souls for power by eating the fruit, he would never be able to work on anything else. He also feared that even if people knew, they wouldn’t care.

If that was the case, wouldn’t it be better for him to try and make the world a better place, so people didn’t need that power in the first place?

This is what he thought, and unknowingly just how an offhand joke would change his life, this offhand discussion had changed his priorities in this life. In the future, when reflecting on this time, Bill would simply claim that hand of Providence had a strange way to direct the course of events.

After checking the capsules diagnostics, Bill went over to the forge where the cyborgs were laying in rest.

These cyborgs did not just represent amazing science, they were truly works of art.

It was also in designing these, or rather standing by and watching Vegapunk design them, that Bill learned how cybernetic limbs worked.

Counterintuitively, the process for advanced cybernetics was not a top-down control model.

Instead of having the brain work as a central processor, each individual component had a very small range of inputs and outputs.

These ranges were so small they amounted to basically no actions individually, but when working together in a system had the full functionality of a regular limb.

In this way, it was as hard to hack into these systems as it was to brainwash a person because there was no single central commander that controlled movement.

Basically, what Vegapunk had created was electronics that perfectly mimicked biological life.

Even though Bill had watched Punk do this, he did not think he could remake this system. He was relatively sure that over the last two years he had learned how to create cybernetic limbs which used the brain as a central processor, a huge feat in its own right, but the differences between that and Vegapunks creation was the difference between heaven and earth.

Vegapunk’s design was a work of art as well as science. Even if one knew the science, they may not be able to recreate the art.

Walking over towards the center of the room, people in lab gear scattered in the background around the power generating machines.

The forge had been built into the labs floor, and as it activated steam bellowed out in all directions.

The amount of energy that needed to be generated was immense because even though the cyborg did allow for an external power source, the initial start up required the powering of each and every micro-system in the machine.

Just as it took a lot of energy to build a human body, these cyborgs required a lot of energy to create the inertia to begin functioning. In fact, it strangely took nearly the same amount of energy.

As the energy built up to a critical mass, a pod was slowly lifted up out of the forge, there was only one small observation window, and it shined with a light blue hue.

Minute after minute passed, and the blue light slowly reduced until it left nothing but darkness.

Once the light had completely vanished, there was a *psshhh* sound as the hatch on the pod opened and air was sucked inside.

Checking the diagnostics for the hundredth time, Bill made sure not to get too close until the hatch completely lifted up and out walked the familiar figure of the cyborg that Bill had been most intimate in building.

“Dr. Vegapunk, run the diagnostic check list before moving further.”

The cyborg looked down at its hands, then at Bill before saying: “It worked my boy, its worked.”

Bill smiled despite himself but repeated: “Please run the diagnostic check list.”

Nodding his head, Vegapunk did as he was told:

“Neural Duct and Optical Solvent – check

Organic Piping and Quad Servos – check

Superconducting Fibers – check

Instability Injector – within expected parameters, check

Fusion Igniter and Spark Canister – operating at peak performance, check”

After these, Vegapunk listed several more bio specs until he got to the most important piece of technology inside the cyborg.

 “Mind Arc – functioning at theoretical capacity, check”

With this last check, Bill only smiled and said: “Amazing, Dr. Vegapunk how do you feel?”

The scientist was still looking at his arms when he had read off his diagnostics, but upon hearing Bill’s question, the cyborg looked up and said: “It is a strange sensation to be in two places at once, but it feels good. I feel strong, perhaps stronger than you.”

Then, doing a little jump, Vegapunk started to move the cyborg around to familiarize himself with his new capabilities.

It wasn’t so important, but Bill wondered if the cyborg was stronger than he was.

Over the last two years, he had mastered the Iron Body technique but had virtually not gained an ounce of physical strength besides. With such a heavy workload, it had only been within the last few months that he had time to do anything at all besides work with Vegapunk and his handful of assistants.

After the bulk of the learning had been done, besides sending a few letters to his parents and friends, Bill had outlined his plans for the Procurement office of the Science Division and researched how his plans would take form.

Watching as ‘Edison’ walked around and studied the Cerebral Capsule, Bill knew his time here was at an end.

‘Edison’ was the dominant thinking and problem-solving spectrum of Vegapunks personality, and with it running within expectations, Bill’s assistance would no longer be needed in the lab as much as it would be in the field.

He didn’t know how much Vegapunk kept from him, but Bill had heard about the Science Divisions finances.

Vegapunk was the Marines answer to the growing threat of pirates. However, despite revolutionizing the sea stone production method, it was too slow and expensive to mass produce sea stone weapons and even the coating of Marine vessels was not as full proof as the higher ups expected.

During this time, Bill had finished his Metallurgy degree by producing a small amount of pure seastone, it was barely enough to make a gift out of but was enough to let him graduate.

As Vegapunk rightly saw it, the cyborg technology was truly the last straw of success if the Science Division was to continue.

The genius scientist did more or less want to do good in the world, but the realities of research and development were such that funding demanded a large portion of his energy.

With the completion of the SATELLITE Program, Bill knew Vegapunk would most likely move on to build cyborgs for the World Government, but he was more concerned about his own plans.

As the day ended, it was bittersweet despite the reincarnated old man’s personality.

He had grown attached to this place and even had become more of a scientist than he had ever thought possible.

But he knew it was time to put this chapter of his life behind him as he sat at his desk that night looking over his plans.

He would first get together with his friends on Vallipo and meet his two siblings that had been born while he was hard at work.

Then, if all went according to plan, he laughed thinking that he would create revolution not much different than what happened on Earth.

He planned to create a form of capitalism that would lift the less advanced islands out of poverty and that would hopefully not only make him money but also reduce the number of pirates.

In doing so, he would start with the object he had randomly found one night while researching some of the worlds many technological islands.

The file that sat on his desk had a two words written on it.

‘Clockwork Island.’