After a solid minute of harsh tingling, deafness, and moments of blindness, my discomfort level decreased. Touch returned to my scales, my hearing cleared up, and my vision restored itself to vivid sharpness. I was still in the ship. Neval had taken my wristband off and put it back into its compartment. Everything was the same, except for a glowing blue object in the bottom left of my peripheral vision.

I sat back on my haunches, my suspicions lessening. "Did it work?"

Neval nodded, folding his arms. "Indeed, it was successful. The changes should soon be apparent."

I kept turning my head left to see the object in my peripheral vision, but it moved along with the motion of my eyes. I came full circle chasing the elusive object.

"What's that?" I pointed in the direction of the object.

Neval failed to conceal his smirk. "That is a sign everything is operating normally. It will be legible when your implant finishes its startup phase."

Right on cue, the bright blue text became legible as if I looked at it directly, even though it was still in my peripheral vision.

<- INITIATING STARTUP . . . ->

<- STARTUP COMPLETE ->

<- INITIATING SENSORY ACQUISITION . . ->

<- SENSORY ACQUISITION COMPLETE ->

"Woah." I gazed wide-eyed into nothingness. My reaction amused Neval, who let out a half-snort. The older notifications slowly disappeared as they were pushed upward by newer ones.

<- TESTING DYNAMIC PIGMENTATION ANIMATORS ->

I jumped when my entire body flashed multiple different colors with quick succession. For a moment, I was a walking rainbow, before turning white again.

<- TEST SUCCESSFUL ->

<- TESTING EXTERNAL ACOUSTIC RESONATORS ->

"What was that?" I attempted to say. My mouth moved, my neck vibrated in accordance with my vocal chords, and a trace of my voice reached my eardrums through my skull, but nothing came out of my mouth. I clasped my muzzle with both hands, shocked.

Neval had figured out what I tried to say. "It was testing your ability to undergo partial cloaking. Now, it is testing acoustic camouflage, hence your current inability to make noise."

I lowered my hands from my muzzle, nodding in understanding.

<- TEST SUCCESSFUL ->

<- TESTING WAVELENGTH RANGE ->

I struggled to remain calm as everything except for the text went completely black. The room faded into view again, but in different shades this time. The walls were a deep violet color, while Neval was something straight out of a horror film. The top of his head glowed yellow, his eyes bright orange, and his ears red, with his face featured similar shades of yellow and orange. Darker reds and oranges colored the rest of his body and clothes.

That must be the infrared vision. I figured.

Everything shifted into visible light for a moment before turning a mixture of blues and violets, and eventually black again.

<- TEST SUCCESSFUL ->

Everything popped back into existence with normal colors, prompting a sigh of relief from me. "Glad that's over."

<- TESTING ELECTROMAGNETIC TELEMETRY ->

<- EMPS DEACTIVATED ->

<- RECEIVED REQUEST FROM: NEVAL ->

<- REQUEST ACCEPTED ->

Ominous incoherent whispering became present in my mind. Concerned, I made eye contact with Neval. "You requested something?"

His face remained motionless as the whispering increased in volume, forming into his reply. "I requested to communicate with you using telepathy, and the test automatically accepted."

The whispering calmed down once he was finished.

"You have telepathy!?" My eye ridges rose in amazement.

He rolled his eyes. "No, I have a neural implant as well. Most of our explorers are endowed with this privilege to assist them on their journeys. It allowed me to learn your language, common phrases, and accent in a matter of hours."

"Yours is broadcasting to mine so I can hear your thoughts?"

He nodded. "In addition to that, I can hear your thoughts. It is two-way communication."

I tested his claim. Can you hear me?

Neval and I awkwardly gazed at each other as the whispering stayed quiet.

"Did you get that?" I asked. "And what's with the creepy whispering in the background?"

"You need to think with the sincere intention of me getting the message. Simply imagining the message is not enough. The implant is smarter than you think; It knows the difference between true intentions and false intentions, as it is not a separate entity from you. It is an extension of you, intimately integrated into the neural pathways of your brain.

"The whispering you hear is my 'thought static', so to speak. Thoughts are fluid; The completion of one is blurred with the inception of the next. Some of these thoughts are stronger than others, and they are occasionally transmitted over a telepathic connection. To respect one's privacy, these 'accidental' thoughts are incomprehensible for the receiver."

"I see." I focused hard on sending him the message, almost talking out loud at the moment of truth.

"Can you hear me now?"

Neval's response was immediate. "You are a quick learner. That is good."

Thanks. I smiled.

"But not too quick, evidently."

I stopped smiling. "Why? Did that not get through?"

He shook his head. "You need practice maintaining your focus. Worry not, it becomes second nature eventually."

<- CONNECTION ENDED: NEVAL ->

<- TEST SUCCESSFUL ->

<- TESTING PHASE COMPLETE ->

<- GBCU FULLY OPERATIONAL ->

As the last notification appeared, the room lit up with holograms of many colors. Red holograms marked the walls, acting as labels for the contents of the drawers now outlined in a dim red. Judging by the labels, this was a medical room. I was sitting on a rectangular hatch in the floor labeled "Operating Table". The indentation in the wall where Neval worked earlier had a blue hologram hovering in front of each of the three inner walls. Each hologram was a different representation of my body accompanied with relevant graphs and diagrams: one was a wireframe, the next was a layout of the microchips scattered throughout my body, and the third was a full-color model of me doing a T-pose.

Along with the new decorations in the room, icons crowded my peripheral vision as if it had turned into a computer screen. Each icon and its label was legible only if I directed my attention towards that part of my vision.

Neval made a few hand gestures at the holograms and they blinked out of existence. "I will teach you about your upgrades, and then we must rest. Hard times await us."

I held up a hand. "I agree, but first do you have water? I'm getting thirsty."

I didn't need to wait for his response, because a blue line appeared in front of me. It extended down the stairs we went up earlier, curved around, and ended at a drawer in one of the lower rooms, labeled "Water". The line was visible even through the floor.

"Never mind." I looked up at Neval. "I got it."

"Go ahead." He gestured towards the stairs. "Be sure to be quick."

I followed the holographic line to my destination, whereupon it dissipated. The compartment popped out of the wall as I reached for it. As I drank from one of the containers, I explored the visual interface. The time was kept in the upper right corner. 2:08 AM. Ugh. The first icon that caught my eye was "Specifications". After I mentally selected it, I browsed the list that popped up. A lot of the stats went over my head, as they were measured in unfamiliar units. A few made my eye ridges rise. It was a surprise to me I weighed 365 pounds, because it certainly didn't feel that way.

When I landed on "Current Stored Power (GWh)", I spewed water from my mouth. "1.21 GIGAWATTS!?"

Neval chimed in from upstairs. "That is gigawatt-hours, mind you."

Shut up. I moaned to myself.

I hurried up the stairs when I was finished. Neval took down the hologram in front of him and started the lesson immediately. "I will condense the information, as we need to sleep well. The neural implant tests have exposed you to your new abilities. Dynamic Pigmentation Camouflage, or Partial Cloaking, changes the color of your scales, blending your body in with your surroundings from a certain perspective. Activating this ability is easy, as your implant intuitively understands the commands you feed it. The only necessity with this ability is you need to select a target or person to which you will become partially cloaked. It is partial because observers from different angles will notice inconsistencies with your surrounding details, not to mention shadows, which are a significant giveaway. Partial Cloaking is still a useful ability, however, as it makes you a difficult target to hit, even with guided projectiles."

I tested the ability as he explained it. Sure enough, it worked. When I selected him as my target, a reticle formed halfway between his eyes, and my body changed its color to match the wall behind me.

After inspecting the odd color differences my hands displayed as I rotated them, I returned to normal color. "What's next?"

"Acoustic Camouflage. You are already familiar with its effects. Activation is similar to Partial Cloaking, except this ability works in all directions due to the nature of sound waves.

"Your eyes are capable of perceiving every wavelength on request. My only advice here is to set a manageable wavelength range, as it becomes more difficult to make sense of your vision the more wavelengths you detect.

"Your implant grants you dozens of abilities, far too many to cover right now." He counted on his fingers. "The most important ones are telepathy, thought acceleration, echolocation, and lie detection. Before I go into more detail, know the holograms you see here aren't real. Your implant overlays them onto the pictures your eyes give you. Anyone without a functioning implant cannot see what you and I see. Now, you have already experienced telepathy. The process of sending, accepting, and denying connection requests should be intuitive. Remember to send your thoughts with purpose, else they will not be heard.

"Thought acceleration is a new concept to you, though the name is self-explanatory. Your implant can enhance the connections between neurons in your brain, accelerating your thinking processes. This is useful for giving yourself more time to think and react in critical situations. This ability is limited, however. The higher you increase the multiplier, the higher the risk of losing your sanity. For now, your brain should tolerate a multiplier of 5 without adverse effects, and I suggest you stay well below 10 for your own sake."

I brought up the thought acceleration option in my interface. It prompted me for a multiplier before it activated. I entered "2" and confirmed. My awareness turned up to eleven. The digital clock in my vision ticked twice as slow. Swiveling my head around took twice as long at first, but my strong neck muscles quickly compensated for the changed pace of time. My mouth hung open as I wiggled my fingers in front of my face.

I looked at Neval, who struggled to hide his amusement. "Woooooooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh."

My speech was twice as slow, which caused the pitch of my voice to tank.

He sent me a connection request, which I accepted. "Telepathy is the preferred medium of communication when accelerating your thoughts. Currently we are communicating twice the normal speed. You can adjust the perceived pitch to compensate for the altered time flow."

I ended the connection, returning my perception to normal. My eyes were bigger than dinner plates. "That was insane!"

Neval didn't waste any time. "Next, echolocation is useful for seeing unseen objects. Your implant does all calculations and overlays the resulting structure onto your vision. Usually, the sound of your breathing is enough for it to work, although it can use noise from other sources as well. The louder, the better.

"Finally, your implant is capable of lie detection. Although it is not accurate all the time, its use is obvious. It only works if you receive the statement audibly, as it must have a tone of voice by which to judge it. A visual of the speaker is helpful as well."

He gave an exhausted sigh, while I yawned. "That is enough information for tonight. Our rest is the priority now."

I followed him down the stairs, which pulled back into the floor as we stepped off. "If you created everything on my body for a purpose, why did you give me a mane?"

"I had to be prepared for every situation you encountered," Neval said as we walked through the first dividing wall. "You would have likely encountered humans as you travelled. I gave you an aesthetically pleasing appearance, such that any humans who encountered you would be less likely to see you as a threat."

He opened the second dividing wall. This room was more of a lounge than the others. One corner was labeled with kitchen supplies, while the other was a doorway to the bunkbeds.

"So, you made me cute?" I asked, hoping I had misinterpreted his answer.

He got a giant pack of bars from the kitchen area and plopped it on the floor in front of me. "Cuteness is subjective. I based your appearance off human's popular opinion of aesthetically pleasing. You need to eat these to replenish your energy."

"Now?" I looked at the bland snacks.

"Yes. Also, I recommend you use your implant's lucid dreaming capabilities to it full extent. Do anything necessary to prepare yourself for the challenges ahead of us. Rest well."

He started towards the doorway to the bunkbeds when I had an idea. I opened the lie detection app in my interface. "Do you think I'm cute?"

He paused and turned towards me, giving me a smug look. "Yes."

<- LD: TRUTHFUL ->

I forehead-palmed as he went to his bunk, the sliding door closing behind him.

I tore through the bland snacks in no time. I had never been more eager to fall asleep than now. Fortunately, my new implant had a sleeping function. I collapsed in the middle of the room, out in less than a minute.