"Yeah, my first incursion was wild and confusing. No one knew who was who, what was what, how to even begin to approach the problem or even what Vanguard are. Hell I butted heads with the Austrian military many times during cleanup, because they didn't want to let civilians enter a warzone, which yes, is reasonable, but I'm not exactly a civilian nor a non-combattant. Things are much better now that everyone knows what a Vanguard is, I no longer have to spend half an hour explaining what I am to every acquaintance I make, it's great."
~ Foxfire, late 2029
Katie did end up wanting to also have the dessert, so we ordered two of them and I made sure to let her in on all° the wacky queer hijinks I had gotten up to in the past.
°most°°
°°of the safe for work, legal, and child-friendly ones
This was a conversation that continued well onto the way to the tram-station.
"...and then he said 'Who do you take me for? One of you freaks?!' so then I said 'Well I had taken you for an intelligent being, my bad. I guess it's a good thing I didn't let my profs know I discovered intelligent life before double-checking.'
"And then he tried to punch me, forgot he was drunk, lost his balance, ate shit and was escorted out by campus security. Aaand I decided that was probably a good time for me to leave as well, because being an openly and visibly queer person, I didn't want to take my chances with campus-cops being possibly bigoted. Not before the cute chemistry student gave me her number though. Sadly it didn't work out between us, buuut that's a story for another day.
"Specifically one when you're 18 or older."
I wasn't sure I'd ever be ready to talk to her about that mishap in particular, but it was certainly not appropriate to discuss it with a minor.
We arrived at the stop as we talked. As much as Katie probably would have been more comfortable if we'd drive home in my car so we wouldn't have to carry whatever belongings they managed to grab before their mother kicked them out, unfortunately Vienna usually had really good public transport, especially when you needed to head to the city-center.
This and a general lack of parking-spots, as well as other drivers meant I usually would take public transport to and from work.
It just so happened that today public transport had the reasonable excuse of 'alien invasion' for not working.
I did a double-take when I saw how long it would be until the next tram arrived. I was not aware these displays had three digits.
Katie, equally, did not seem to be too thrilled at the prospect of waiting for close to two hours for a tram, so I started thinking about different ways to get us to my apartment.
If my car was here, I could just drive us home, but as said before, I left it at home in the garage I paid a quite frankly outrageous amount of rent for.
Actually...
"Lyona, is there any way you can get my car from my parking spot to here?"
Well unfortunately your car does not seem to be equipped with any self-maneuvering capabilities. If it was, such matters would be trivial, however seeing how it's not, there's not much I am able to do. You can of course purchase and install such systems, or have them installed for points with the right catalogues, however doing so would require being closer to your form of transportation than you are currently.
Well, add that to the to-do list, I guess.
"Uhh Aunt Luna? Who are you talking to?"
Right. Katie couldn't hear Lyona.
"My AI assistant. Lyona, could you...?" I pulled out my phone.
Certainly. Good evening Katie, I am Lyona, Dr. Doppler's personal AI assistant. My task is to assist her in fighting off the Antithesis as well as uplifting humanity.
Katie looked like she was about to ask something, but I motioned to stop.
"Let's do this when we're not in public. And no, she is nothing like ChatGPT and in fact has told me before being compared to that - and I quote - 'waste of otherwise perfectly good silicon' is insulting, so please don't do that."
Awkward silence followed.
Awkward silence, that would continue until after the taxi I ended up calling dropped us off and I'd locked the door behind us.
Katie looked at me expectantly.
"Right I don't really have a guest-room, I kinda turned it into a sort of home-office/workshop sorta? I guess I'll sleep on the couch tonight and you can take the bed."
I knew she wouldn't forget about, well everything, but by slipping this in right now, I could force her to either let the subject drop or get her to accept the bedroom without putting up a fight.
"Okay but can you finally explain what is going on? Start with Lyona."
They apparently chose the latter. And immediately made a mistake. I am a certified teacher. But given that they had dealt with enough bullshit already, I decided to clamp down those instincts and just answer the question they obviously meant to ask.
After motioning for them to sit, and sat down on the couch as well.
"Okay so you know how there's aliens?"
I got a nod in response.
"Right so those plant aliens, turns out, are not friendly. They wanna consume and eat everything and anything so they can grow. Not a good thing, because everything and anything includes us. But luckily, there's these other aliens called the Protectors who help other civilizations fight the Antithesis - that's the plant-aliens that wanna eat everything."
I pulled out my phone and placed it down on the coffee-table.
Was it still called a coffee-table if no one has ever drank coffee from it?
…I sat it down on the couch-table.
"Actually, maybe I think Lyona should explain this?"
My assistant did not need more prompting and started speaking.
Certainly. This galaxy is currently in the middle of a historically unprecedented war between the Antithesis and the Protectors. The Antithesis are the aforementioned aliens that wish to infinitely grow and consume any and all biomass in the process. That is why they are referred to as Antithesis: Their existence is antithetical to sapient life.
The other party, the Protectors, are determined to preserve sapient life and thus have taken up arms against the Antithesis. Most of the conflict happens closer to the center of the galaxy and thus peripheral worlds like yours have been left untouched by this conflict for an extended period of time, that unfortunately has come to an end.
The Protectors of course cannot spare the resources to send battleships to any inhabited world to fend off the threat, nor do they wish to deal with inciting panic in the locals. So they instead established the Vanguard system. Me and many others like me constantly scan the universe for civilizations that the fighting has reached. And on those worlds, we look for any worthy individuals to be uplifted into Vanguard. Before you ask, I am unable to provide the criteria of worthiness, that is classified information, but know that knowing them in and of itself can be a disqualifying factor.
Your Aunt, through merit of her bravery and willingness to do the right thing, fits those criteria and as such has been chosen as one of the first Vanguard on planet Earth. A Vanguard will receive points for a great variety of things, including but not limited to killing Antithesis, saving civilians and assisting in uplifting their respective civilization
Huh. That last part was news to me. Lyona had made it very clear she highly encouraged me to go do science to speedrun the fuck out of the tech-tree, but she hadn't mentioned I would be getting points for that. Could I get tokens for that too? I'd have to ask her later. If yes, maybe I should pivot to my initial idea for a dissertation and try to build an energy-efficient fusion-reactor...
Those points can then be spent on anything you can imagine, in fact a not insignificant amount of things purchasable via points is beyond your imagination. But most important are weapons, gear, and technology from around the galaxy.
Katie immediately stared at my ears. I twitched them for dramatic effect.
"Yup, that's how I got my ears. Next up is a matching tail and of course changing my natural hair-colour to pink."
That made them frown, like they were thinking about or contemplating something. Did they also want fuzzy bits? Well if they did, they would ask me about it eventually. Probably.
Exactly. That is of course just one example. It is worth noting that many trans Vanguard elect to spend a large percentage of the points they gain during their first incursion on transition and other body-modifications, not unlike your aunt's Snow Pouncer ears.
Katie seemed to find that name amusing, immediately starting to giggle. "Snow Pouncers?"
It is the closest translation of their civilization's name. They are a species of humanoid beings that coincidentally share many characteristics with arctic foxes found here on earth. They live on a planet barely outside the outer edge of the habitable zone of their star, which causes it to be frozen over constantly. The fact that life can exist on that planet is owed to the gigantic natural nuclear fission reactor making up the planet's core, heating it from the inside out. It is one of the coldest places with known Antithesis activity and they hunt for prey by, well, pouncing into snow.
They are experts when it comes to genetic engineering and bionic enhancements.
A fact I would be very glad to keep using to my advantage, now that I had access to some of their technology.
We kept talking a bit more, Katie asking questions about what I'd been up to this afternoon, what my weapons did and could do and a surprising amount of questions regarding gene-editing and body-mods. Then again, they were figuring out their gender, so asking about possible ways to medically transition wasn't really too surprising.
Obviously I would let them use whatever I'd end up purchasing for my own transition as well, which meant I would need to talk to Lyona about reusable stuff.
After they eventually ran out of questions, or more accurately, became too tired to continue asking questions, I made sure they knew things like where the bathroom was, where the fridge and the microwave were and of course where the bed Katie would be sleeping in was.
They did sheepishly admit, they forgot to pack their toothbrush, but that was easily solved at the low cost of 1 point for a top of the line electric toothbrush complete with rechargeable batteries and of course toothpaste, that according to Lyona was specially made to optimize Katie's dental health specifically.
5 minutes of brushing teeth later, they looked just about ready to pass out, so I offered them a goodnight-hug and despite their protests insisted I be the one to take the couch.
I then, once I made sure they were alright and sound asleep, went to brush my teeth as well, not buying ultra fancy made specifically for me toothpaste just yet, because I still had some toothpaste to go through, and more importantly I wasn't sure how much my teeth, along with the rest of my body would change.
'So, if I wanted to change my chromosomes to XX, how much would that cost?'
I was able to communicate with Lyona without having to speak out loud, courtesy of my new brain, but I probably would only do it when alone. That way people would assume I couldn't talk to her without speaking.
Well you would need a genetic editing catalogue and a sample for your second X chromosome. While it is possible to obtain that from your father, the far easier solution, especially considering you plan to make further edits regardless, would be to just use a generated sample. Of course DNA is just the blueprints and altering those will not do any more to change your body than altering the blueprints of a house will do to change the house. But such issues can be circumvented via means of the Class II Genetic Refractor, which takes a sample of DNA and rebuilds your entire body to match that.
All in all, it would cost you 50 points for the Class I genetic samples catalogue, between 10 and 50 points for the DNA-sample, depending on what exactly you wish to get, 500 points for Class II Snow Pouncer Genetic Technologies and finally 2000 points for the Genetic Refractor. Though I do recommend you purchase a Genetic Library Unit for 100 points, as this will allow you to not only store DNA-samples you purchased, but also give you the option to scan the DNA of any living thing within the sampling-chamber and save that for later use. It also lets you mix and match various DNA-samples, complete with a rendering of the most likely appearance someone would have upon applying the refractor, should they apply that sample to themselves.
By the time Lyona had finished explaining all that, I was done getting ready for sleep and I had a strict policy of not making financial decisions when tired, so to the couch I went.
'Remind me to think about that tomorrow morning?'
Certainly. Good night Luna!
'Good night.'