That’s how Stardust found himself two hours later in a small, neat waiting room on the fourth floor of the recruitment centre dressed in a blue hospital gown. It was one of those embarrassing ones that they made you wear before surgery. Tied around the neck and open down the middle of his back exposing his arse whilst hanging in baggy folds down to his knees.

Thankfully it was pretty warm in this room and the view out over the massive construction sight was pretty good; the raccoon could see right across the foundation work they were doing. He’d counted over a hundred different automata at work down there using a variety of high tech gadgets and tools to pour concrete, lay wires, move structural girders and a hundred other tasks.

It was quite exciting watching them all at work and it was a helpful distraction from the past couple of hours. He’d been through a thoroughly in depth medical examination, poked, prodded, he’d been made to work through a rather intense physical examination. Then he’d had samples of all his bodily fluids taken which had been the most embarrassing part, all those needles, he’d nearly fainted twice. They’d recorded his brainwaves, his heart rate, looked at what his digestive tract was up to right now as well as performed a complete deep tissue scan and MRI of all his organs, skeletal structure and neurological profile.

Now he was waiting for his turn in the processing room, there had been two other guys in here when he arrived and they had been taken through about two hours ago. It was a bit nerve wracking waiting on his own, it had been a nice crutch to have someone else to talk to who was about to go through this. Eyeing the drinks machine and contemplating whether another cup of hot chocolate was a good idea or not Stardust jumped as the door slid opened and the green reptilian automata who’d taken the other guys away walked in.

“Stardust, sorry to keep you waiting, we’re ready for you now,” he held out his hand and the raccoon gripped it, trying to not let his nerves show, “I’m Riddle, I’ll be your cyberisation technician today, shall we get going?”

“Sure… what do i need to do?”

Riddle smiled and led the raccoon out of the waiting room and down a short corridor and into a small circular chamber. There was a control station at one end of the room and two open pods recessed slightly into the floor. There was a table at one end of the room and Stardust was asked to pop his gown in the bin next to it and sit on the table whilst Riddle got things ready.

Feeling somewhat self-conscious at sitting around naked with a total stranger Stardust fidgeted with his tail as the lizard removed a large, bulky looking collar from a cabinet. It was made from some sort of black polymer, larger at the back then at the front and with a dull grey crystal much like the crystal embedded in Riddle’s chest on the front.

“Is that it?” Stardust asked, “The uhm catalyst collar was it called?”

“Indeed,” Riddle carried it over and held it up, “This is a standard CPU-Assist crystal and the collar contains vulcanisation nanites. They’ll be responsible for the initial conversion of your neural structure and brain.”

“So ah…” Stardust shifted nervously, “Is it too late to back out of this?”

“I am afraid so,” Riddle said pulling the thick collar around Stardust’s neck, it stuck to his fur, settling in place perfectly as Riddle positioned the crystal over the spot where the raccoon’s collar bones joined together.

“There all done, come along stardust, into the pod,” the lizard encouraged gently and Stardust obeyed, his heart pounding and hands shaking as he lowered himself onto the waiting chair. It was less a chair and more a series of pads and supports for his body that shifted slightly as he settled his weight onto it until the cold metal of the central support column was nestled along the length of his spine.

The glass lid of the pod swung shut and Riddle gave him a thumbs up and a smile before moving out of sight. A couple of seconds later Riddle’s voice sounded from a speaker grill set above his head, “Ok all systems are green, we’ll be starting in just a moment.”

“Uhm, ok… it’s a bit cramped in here, does the lid have to stay closed?”

“I am afraid so, but it is ok Stardust, I am right here… now then Cyberisation process will begin in three… two… one…”

Stardust gasped, his muzzle scrunching up and a short “Urrkk” noise escaped his lips as the collar around his neck contracted. The raccoon’s skin tingled and then went numb as he felt the collar’s slick rubbery extrude nanites that absorbed and converted his fur allowing the collar to adhere itself to his skin directly. It was a strange sensation, tight and uncomfortable but not restrictive, his throat could still move as he discovered when he swallowed nervously. He then jumped as the glass above his head came alive with images and text without warning.

The image of his body started moving almost as soon as it appeared, the view zooming in on his head and neck as text scrolled across the glass as a warm, calming voice repeated the words as they scrolled by over his head.

“Cyberisation Process has begun, do not be alarmed, the collar is nano-rubber and is bonding with and replacing your neck muscles. Please refrain from touching it at this time, Cyberisation Process initialised.”

The tingling sensation increased, he could feel things happening under the collar, a crawling, twisting motion that compressed around his throat. The collar’s bulk was blending seamlessly to his body, no longer sticking out as it settled a couple of inches to be in line with his fur.

“Stage One Complete, accessing Spinal Cord, Nano-Rubber Injection in 3, 2, 1...”

There was a sudden sharp pain right at the back of Stardust’s neck; he could actually feel the injector slide between two of his vertebrae and pierce his spine. At least he convinced himself he could feel it but he felt no pain just a sense of spreading numbness. It felt like thick cold liquid was oozing down his spine dripping along the length of his body, leaving him with an odd sensation of pins and needles all the way along his back.

“Stage 2, part 1: Cyberisation of Spinal Column complete, subsumation of nervous system now in process. Please remain calm, paralysis is part of the process to avoid accidental injury or damage to your body whilst you are upgraded.”

The feeling of liquid dripping down his spine spread, a sense of cold moving along his shoulders, down his arms, across his chest, and over his stomach. It spread across his hips, slipped down his legs, it was deep beneath the surface however, a tingling cold sensation that seemed to be coiling itself about his skeleton. Stardust tried to whimper, to cry out, it felt so wrong, it was like he was freezing from the inside out. Coldness rose from his bones toward the surface, across the whole of his body the dripping, freezing sensation rose until he felt like liquid nitrogen should have been leaking from his pores.

Then, without any warning, his tactile senses failed, the touch of the chair against his skin vanished, the movement of his fur drained away leaving a numb void where before the air had been. He could no longer wriggle his toes or fingers, or open and close his jaws. His nose no longer twitched, his eyes couldn’t blink, he was dimly aware of his body but it was just a lump of meat wrapped about his tingling nervous system. It was entirely unresponsive. A leaden, worthless mass that he no longer felt any intimate connection to. He could dimly feel his chest rising. He could feel his heart beating, but it was a distant echo it felt so wrong, he was dying, that had to be it he was dying!

Inside his own head Stardust started to panic, they were killing him, not transforming him, he had to escape, had to make them stop it was wrong, so very wrong! He couldn’t cry out though, his eyes wouldn’t even shut, his heart rate didn’t even speed up, his body couldn’t feel the psychological stress he was going through, it wasn’t his any more!

“Stage 2, Part 1 completed: Nervous system registers as Cyberised, Stage 2, part 2 initialising. Full Cranial Conversion now ready to proceed: do not be alarmed, external senses are going to go offline except for sight and hearing. Sounds may seem distorted and sight may reduce in clarity, this is caused by disharmony between organic organs and your new vulcanised nervous system. We repeat - please do not be alarmed.”

The calm, collected voice explaining everything shocked Stardust out of his spiral of panic. His mind froze, his thoughts locked up, the spiral of panic and anxiety just wasn’t sure how to react to that quiet announcement. Then before the raccoon could get back into a proper state of psychological worry the nanites went for his brain. It was like being doused in freezing water, cold sloshed up behind his eyes and filled his skull. The raccoon’s ears popped and silence fell as the constant, never acknowledge noise of his inner ears sloshing about and doing their thing stopped for the first time since he was born. Stardust’s vision wavered his eyes filled with tears that he couldn’t blink away, the silence was the strangest part. The cold was draining away, though his eyes felt like they should have frozen over and then the voice returned fuzzy and crackling as if he was listening to them through a blanket.

“Stage 2, Part 2 completed, life support provided by cardiovascular pulmonary system will be terminated at this stage. It is no longer required to maintain neural functionality. Do not be alarmed, you cannot suffocate and you are perfectly safe.”

Stardust gave a start, at least mentally as his body was still just a lump of unresponsive meat. The constant, re-assuring thumping of his heart ended, his chest constricted one final time and stilled and for all intents and purposes Stardust’s organic body died! He was now a sophisticated, artificial replica of his organic neural structure trapped inside an incompatible shell of meat.

“Accessing DNA profile: identifying, Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Carnivora, Procyonidae, Procyon, lotor - Common Raccoon no abnormalities detected: Basic Automata shape assigned, preparing to initialize full body conversion, in 3, 2, 1….”

Stardust watched in horrified fascination as a whole bunch of tubes deployed from either side of the chair and buried into his flesh. He should have been in agony, one of them was at least an inch thick and it was burying straight into his naval. Yet he couldn’t feel a thing, and according to the images on the glass above him other pipes where burrowing into his back!

“Vulcan Rubber-Nanite injectors deployed, connection to tissues confirmed, flooding organic tissue with conversion nanites.”

Stardust watched in amazement as the diagram of his body on the screen changed to show large patches of his body in red. Legs, tail, arms, chest, head, slowly they all started blinking red. If his mind hadn’t been entering a strange state of calm acceptance he would have started worrying, He blinked as suddenly the screen resolved into a real time image of his body; he found himself staring up at his soft purple, lavender and white body except it was now seamlessly joined to the grey collar around his neck.

“Nanites deployed, full body conversion program initiated,”

As Stardust watched shiny grey material started to slide across his body, consuming his fur. It was oozing up from either side, spreading out from his back to gently engulf his chest and stomach. It was strange, like a thin layer of rubber was being applied to his fur but he knew that it was no spray on layer of latex as might be used when one was clubbing. It was becoming his body, replacing organic fur and flesh with a smooth layer of shiny vulcanised rubber. It came for his head last, gently sliding across his body inch by inch, encroaching on the islands of purple and lavender fur that remained.

His whiskers were gone, his ear lobes stretched and curved around to close over becoming pointed rubberized metallic shapes that formed a solid ear-shaped unit. It was some sort of robotic sound wave and sensor package to enhance his hearing. Stardust’s vision wavered, strange lines of static ran up his eyes and he watched, staring in awe as they changed into smooth lenses from the inside out. His vision then cleared becoming bright, clear and perfect and the raccoon could see that his eyes now glowed purple, the same colour as his CPU-Assist crystal. Gone were his natural eye-balls, replaced with a composite that gleamed like glass or crystal, yet retained pupils for definition. Stardust stared in fascination at the data that was scrolling over the inside of his new eyes as they ran through a self diagnostic test as they finished booting.

“Cranial conversion complete, proceeding with exterior limb dimensions. Organ conversion 65%.”

Still feeling numb, Stardust lay there staring at the shiny surface of his new body things would be changing inside of him he knew. The nanites were replacing organs and muscles, flesh and blood vessels, cybertising him entirely. He could see his limbs twitching, growing limp only to suddenly twist and bulk up in strange and unfamiliar ways.

Stardust’s height remained generally the same, though his tail was growing thicker, shorn of its fur it was quite small but now it was bulking up, filling out to raccoon size. With a shiver Stardust looked up at his body in awe, his frame was split into two different colours, a flexible black rubber that followed the contours of his muscles, no were his actual muscles. The bands of black rubber flexed and contracted as he moved his limbs, it was fascinating to see them move. Stardust was also covered smooth rubberised plates of a dull, shiny grey material that added definition and shape to his body’s outline and made his species identifiable. He was a racoon just made of rubber, vulcanised metal and electricity, it was amazing!

“Cyberization completed, initiating internal power… energy at 20%, 50%, 75% internal power consistent at 100%, disconnecting from Vulcanizer Pod Power Supply.”

Stardust’s vision flickered, there was a peculiar twitch throughout all of his muscles, and text flickered across his eyes. It was like his vision had been overlaid by a translucent graph of text. There was a power read-out for his internal batteries, various diagnostics testing his new internal systems, and some sort of upload from the CPU-Assist crystal set into his collar bone. The crystal was shunting basic operating information into his brain! The text scrolled past quickly yet despite its speed he seemed to have time to read it all.

“CPU-Assist Crystal Basic Control Algorithm Upload - Complete”
“Senses suite - online”
“Tactile response system - online”
“Vulcan Automata AI interface - online”
“VA Terra-Operational-Zone AI - linked”
“Basic mind <-> body interaction protocol - online”
“Motor Cortex Online”
“Employee Data - Registered”
“Command Systems integrated”
“User Stardust Raccoon: Employee ID: ST47-5U5T”
“Control - transferred to local user ST47-5U5T”

The pod door hissed opened and the chair holding him lifted up out of the pod, slowly aligning vertical to help him take his first step. He felt somewhat clunky as he stumbled forwards, his body strangely unfamiliar… lifting one hand he stared at the smooth silver plated fingers. Wriggling each digit he swept his tail from side to side then lifted his hand to touch his face. Smooth rubber met his fingers, slick rubbery with a metallic hardness yet somehow flexible, able to form expressions as naturally as anyone else.

“This… is… wow is this really me?”

“Oh yes,” Riddle said as he walked over and smiled, “All you, how you feeling?”

“Uhm like I should be freaking out,” Stardust said, pressing a paw to his throat as his voice sounded the same, “I totally want to have a right freak out but… I can’t.”

“That’s part of process, extreme emotional responses are being monitored by your CPU-Assist Crystal,” the lizard smiled and turned Stardust towards a door, “It wouldn’t be healthy to let you have a total freak out, you might hurt yourself so it will help keep you calm.”

“Oh, ok,” Stardust looked at the door as it rolled open, staring at his reflection before it was whisked away, “What happens next? I am surprised my vision isn’t like full of robotic symbols and overlays and stuff?”

Shaking his head Riddle smiled, “That wouldn’t do your mental state any good, Automata like you and me have minimal invasive Heads up Displays. It’s to help us still feel like ourselves, in time, as you adapt you may start to put more of them into permanent mode but generally we try not to and use other devices instead to show us the robotic and computer data we need to work with.”

“That, actually makes sense,” the raccoon murmured, stopping in the corridor to stare at his body in the glass, “Wow… that… really is me?”

“Yup, now then the next step is templating. Your current frame is a base-form, no specialisation or advanced tech.” the lizard smiled, “From here your body will be tailored to suit your new role so if you’d like to follow Marduke here he’ll take you to templating.”

Stardust turned from his reflection and gaped at the jackal waiting for him. He was entirely black except for a pair of glowing silver eyes and crystal. His muscles, his plating, all where deep, dark black, blended together except for golden bands around his tall jackal ears and around each wrist and ankle.

“Oh gosh, I am so sorry,” Stardust stuttered, “I didn’t see you there that’s really rude of me.”

Wagging his tail the jackal slid an arm around the raccoon’s shoulders and started to lead him down the corridor, “Now that is ok, no worries I’m used to new automata being a bit bamboozled,” his voice was loud and rich and friendly and Stardust found himself smiling as he was led along.

“I’m your orientation officer, I’ll be looking after you for the first few days,” he barked happily and led the raccoon into an elevator, “Now then we’re going down to templating, my records say you’re scheduled to be an orientation trainer like myself! So it won’t take long, we’ll have you all set and ready for orientation in a couple of hours.”

He pushed a button and the elevator started to rise, ascending only one floor to what the sign outside declared was “Templating.” Stardust followed, looking around with interest, his earlier nerves was all gone. He couldn’t want to see what happened next and get started with things his new job. He hadn’t felt this good for years, he wasn’t doubting himself or second guessing his ability to do this job, he knew he could succeed!

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