With the young white whale integrated into the ship's whale society and Jonas taking him under his wing, Veronica was free to return to her cloning experiments. She and Dixon worked methodically with the Earth DNA that Mox brought. Dixon with her eye on the prize of a new snowy world to populate was influenced the creatures they worked on first. They expanded the bio-lab and within a year where growing test tube animals successfully. They focused on the mammoth and several varieties of arctic plants, adapting shrubs, weeds, and some high protein root vegetables to grow in a cold environment. 

Robot crews expanded the surface plateau of the frozen sea to accommodate a roaming species. They opened up an additional ten deck high range that was over a hundred square kilometers. It took up a good portion of the back of the ship. They tightly packed supplies and cargo into other parts of the Banga. The robots utilized every available millimeter of ship-wide storage to empty the needed decks. 

The highway systems were in full use. They brought out the large transports, activated legions of worker robots, and dug up tons of earth from the second rainforest to haul to the back of the ship. Uzi assigned pilot synthetic units to lead the efforts. 

When I interacted with the pilot Zero-Gs it was sometimes odd. At first, I thought they were former people from the simulation but soon realized they were programmed artificial intelligence. They looked uniform and I must admit, almost exactly like me. I came to understand why those from Echo-1 went to great lengths to individualize themselves. 

Zero-Gs learned and adapted but ultimately lacked true personalities. They were like drones, antisocial office workers, or dull people from the menial jobs of my youth. The larger grunt units were all soldiers with soldier attitudes. They were even worse than the pilots but they did follow orders well. I grew to understand why people who had seen synthetics before were very interested in X or myself. We were different. 

I don't know if we were better, but in some ways, I had to think we were. I questioned things. If the other synthetic units didn't know something they asked the computer. If the computer couldn't answer, then there was no answer. Usually, they would sleep and wait for assignments and they were happy with that. I always want more and there always seemed to be more to everything. 

Veronica, when in her synthetic form, chose a unique model, a medical unit designed as field surgeons when synthetics were used in wars. Her four-armed bald self became a regular fixture in my life. She worked with Dixon in the lab to clone forty individual mammoths. Twenty genetically unique males and twenty genetically unique females. The next batch of forty was going into incubation. 

The main lab became a wild baby pachyderm kennel. They were getting big fast and needed a place to go. I showed up on moving day.

Tim was out front of the lab entrance when I pulled up on my bike. He gave me his visor nod and I returned it. He leaned back in the cab of his flatbed transport and waited for it to be loaded. It would be a safe bet to assume Tim came from a long line of Teamsters in Echo-1.

X's Diamond-a-gogo with sidecar was also parked out front. When I went through the doors, five brown furry elephants charged for the opening. 

"Hands! Stand tall and put your arms up!" yelled Dixon yelled from the back of the room. 

I put my arms up. The baby mammoths still charged at me. The door closed behind me and I leaned against it. 

Our she-wolf towered over the yearling elephants. "Grrrooooowl at them." 

Nidi had grown to over two meters tall now, not including her ears. I let out a loud growl and the mammoths froze. Nidi went on all fours and herded the parade. She gathered them all into the center of the room with relative ease. X was in the middle legs straddled over one of the larger males, riding it like a miniature horse. 

No matter how many times you see a naked synthetic woman covered in tattoos, sporting a mohawk, and riding a baby wooly mammoth, it still tends to make you pause and marvel about the universe and its limitless possibilities. 

Dixon and Sunshine were shooing the last stragglers into the herd. 

"Ok, Hands, open the door." 

I turned around and opened the door. Tim backed the truck up and lowered a ramp. Forklift and Werner stood on either side of it. I stepped out of the way. Nidi barked and ran from side to side. The parade gathered together and nudged forward. They pushed from the back as stubborn animals at the front hesitated. As they slowly stepped forward the pressure from behind released and the herd moved out the door and up the ramp. Werner and Forklift hooted and hollered the stragglers into place as they filled the flatbed. 

The last two tried to make a break for it and Nidi bit one, which let out a straight trunked trumpet blast. The two ran full speed up the ramp and Werner raised it, locking the forty pachyderms in place. 

X climbed over the side after riding up the ramp on her mammoth mount. 

"Nidi, you can't bite them. They are intelligent creatures. NOT for eating." 

If the mammoths were anything like elephants I had met in my former lifetime, X was right. I looked into the eyes of the animals on the flatbed and it was like looking into the eyes of children. I wondered what they thought of me, my triple pupils, and my yellow eyes?

The Save the Whale gang climbed aboard the flatbed. X cartwheeled into her gogo and Nidi jumped on the sidecar as X began to pull away. Veronica got into the cab of the transport with Tim and they headed off. 

Dixon walked up to me smiling. "You'll give me a ride right?" 

Dixon climbed into my lap and I closed us in my Robo-a-gogo. 

"This is a pretty tough looking bike, my husband would have loved it." 

I looked at her quizzically. She smiled. 

"Well, he would have. You forget that I am an old woman, even if you remind me that I am young again." She snuggled up close, a little ball in my lap. She was comforting and kind and I began to care for her very much in those years. We raced after the transport.

We entered the vast steppe of the ice shelf that was created next to the frozen sea. The back fifty kilometers of which was a fertile plain with plenty for the furry herbivores to eat. X's gogo was parked outside and she jumped on the transport as it went by. I drove my bike through the door and then closed it behind me. We followed them to the center of the vast environment where we would release the baby mammoths into their new home. 

Nidi ran alongside of the truck. Her strength and stamina were never-ending. She was a star that burned twice as bright and half as long. Veronica predicted her to have a 20-25 year lifespan. These mammoths would live longer than she would. X was in total denial of this.

When Nidi was smaller I told her the story of the big bad wolf and little red riding hood making the wolf a smiling grandma. With what big teeth Nidi smiled her wily grin at Dixon and I. Her coal-black eyes shined from her soft light gray fur. Her pink tongue hung out of her jaws as she ran. She laughed and enjoyed running along. We came to a clearing and Nidi was ordered to not herd or provoke the mammoths. She stood up on her hind legs. 

Dixon and I climbed out of my gogo and walked over as Forklift and Werner were lowering the ramp. Nidi put one arm around Dixon and one around me. Her ears rose well above our heads. Veronica said she still would grow nearly another meter in height. She was close enough to my size that I could put an arm around her rib cage and poke her side. I tickled her and made her snort. One doesn't think of a giant wolf laughing until she snorts, but then I'm not sure anyone got to know a young Mega Therion before. 

Nidi butted her head into me. "Stop! Rrrrr!" 

Dixon kicked me and winked. 

X rode the first elephant down the ramp and the rest followed. Veronica and Tim came over to watch as well, a bunch of dumb animals not knowing what to do. And there were the elephants too. 

Finally one of the elephants started to eat from a small shrub. Over the next few hours, we watched them slowly wander off and graze across the plain. As the mammoths got some distance I found myself once again awestruck. 

"This is a sight not seen in maybe a hundred thousand years. The great wooly mammoth is back." 

Dixon nudged my side. "Take me home."

We rode to the land edge then out over the frozen ice. It was an advantage to have a hovering vehicle. Dixon curled up close to me in the small space inside the bike. I set the homing beacon on her ship and ordered Wingus and Dingus to keep us on course and notify me if anything was going to go wrong. They chimed one of their little songs. 

I nuzzled the top of Dixon's head and she looked up and we kissed for a good long time. She told me I made her feel like a schoolgirl again. The boys informed me we were approaching the submarine. I could see the black spiral of it poking out of the ice. She deactivated the electric field and I parked my bike on the observation deck. I left Wingus and Dingus in the gogo and Dixon and I went inside. 

We ended up sitting on a couch in front of the observation window, watching the belugas swim around. Now, my fine reader, I know I've mentioned that you will be giving up procreation if you leave the simulation, but you won't be giving up sex. Dixon and I took our relationship in a new direction. She stayed up all night with me telling me about the creatures of the sea. It was fascinating. 

The ice world cycled through a day and night light sequence. It kept the animals in good spirits. In the morning we went for a short dive in the water. Dixon gave me a thin wetsuit to wear that protected me from the low temperatures, but my face and hands still got mighty cold. It was spectacular to swim with the narwhal and beluga again. It's humbling to be in the water with such amazing swimmers. 

Dixon observed a night and day schedule. She didn't sleep every night, but she always returned home and always started her days with a swim with the whales. Then she would head out on the ice shelf to check in on the mammoths. They grew fast and they grew big. They developed an almost instant symbiotic relationship with the blue penguin. Everyone took this to be a very good sign. 

Dixon then headed to the lab to work. She was an active woman. I spent days with her helping in the lab. Veronica and Dixon treated me as a lab assistant, but I didn't mind. I absorbed so much knowledge about DNA structure and genetic cloning. 

They planned on putting a polar bear couple into the mix as soon as the mammoths were big enough to fend them off. They would keep the blue penguin population under control, but there was a risk of losing mammoths. It ramped up the whole danger level of the frozen sea section of the ship. For that first year on the ice shelf though, it was a peaceful winter wonderland. 

Nidi would meet us in the morning and chase the mammoths around. They were about the same size and she loved to play with them. 

Dixon, like everyone else, took a real liking to Nidi. 

"You know, the more time we spend time with her, the harder it is to believe the stories you tell about being chased by a pack of bloodthirsty wolves. She's such a sweet girl. And so very very smart." 

Dixon loved animals. For her, this life was like being reborn as a high functioning animal. She would run with Nidi, chase the mammoths, and dive with the whales. Our physical endurance was solid. She could easily run a marathon at a full sprint. Our synthetic bodies were masterfully designed. 

Dixon taught Nidi the Latin scientific names of everything. She trained her in biology and chemistry. She taught her compassion and understanding, always trying to bring out the morally conscious side of the wolf girl.