When I woke the morning after the Festival, I did find Frydai home, with two others in his bed with him. I left them sleep and made breakfast. Frydai came out, seemingly embarrassed to tell me something. I let him off the hook by simply asking if they were just a fling, or if he was considering them, one or both, as mates. He was quite taken aback by it, relaxed that I wasn't going to be upset, and admitted that, while they were still discussing it, they were thinking about making a go as mates.
I then asked him if he planned for them to move in with him, or if he would be building a home? He clearly hadn't thought that far ahead, which made me smile. I'm glad I am able to help guide him. The others came out, I served breakfast, and we discussed their plans, which were very thin. Given that they had only just hooked up the night before, I'm glad they'd given it any thought at all.
They're still deciding on what they plan on doing. I plan on building a house, similar to the one Frydai and I built on the mountain top, here next to the module. It will let me give over some of the room to additional materials storage. They all seemed to like the idea, as the village is growing, and if they establish a home here, in what will become the hotter real-estate, they'll be able to build a bigger home to pass down to their descendants. I am rather proud of how they are so forward thinking in that manner.
I am however left with a conundrum of epic proportions myself. Frydai knows that I am very long lived, and at least some of the reasons why. Our species life-spans would be about equivalent, except... I have undergone so many modifications and upgrades, that I have extended by life-span extensively. I made the decision to do that so long ago, back when I first added the cyber-implants needed to control the Vietza Furie remotely.
Over time I kept adding things, the sub-dermal armor, the other modifications that let me be in space without a suit for extended periods and without risk. I added weapons systems, replaced organs with advanced cyber-simulants that are far more efficient, take up less space, and won't wear out as easily. I still have parts of me that are still me, the original me. Yet, I am very much a cyborg. I don't know how long I'm going to live now. There were some systems I picked up from my friends that produced Edix and the others for me. Those systems provide for regeneration of my still biological systems, such as my brain. It keeps my brain healthy and youthful, despite the actual age.
My problem is that Frydai has now asked if I can upgrade him in much the same way as I have done myself. We had a long talk about it, and he is very clear and understands what that means. He has even produced and upgrade plan for himself. The plan lays out what he wants, and puts more radical additions to later, in case he changes his mind or finds he doesn't like them. Much as I did with those first, temporary implants.
I told him I would think about it. Unlike my old friends, who were not the animals I though them to be, or Edix and the family who were engineered to be what they are. Frydai is coming into this fully aware and able to make the decision himself, and I find myself torn. Do I let him do it, or do I not? As a species they are quite advanced, even the tribe here, holding onto as much as they can as a people, given the situation. Yet, they are also primitive, until I started mucking with the works. They already have three of them that have dived into the metal working parts of the database and are planning on building a small forge.
I have already irrevocably changed the course of how they are going to develop. Though again, they are from a society where such things are not uncommon, even if they are hundreds of generations separated from that. I know I'm going to say yes. I wasn't even considering it, and he has clearly put a lot of thought into it, even discussing it with his new mates, neither of which want to partake themselves at this time, but are happy to welcome Frydai as a mate despite his desire for the upgrades.
Frydai said that he wants to help explore the world with me. That he wants to help me broaden the knowledge of his people of this world we all find ourselves on, to maybe find the ship they crashed on, and with my help, repair it. Depending on it's condition, that is a good possibility. To do that, he is going to need to live far longer than he normally would. He's going to need to live as long as me. He wants to be better able to protect his people, and lead them to a better future than just subsisting and hiding.
I don't know if my actions to teach them, to bring them back up to the level that they were before they crashed here is a good or a bad thing. Without my intervention, they really didn't have much of a chance of developing beyond where they were, because of the tides and other things. I have changed that. And now... Now I'm going to be changing Frydai himself.