"There's no immediate necessity. But it is now possible to pursue additional avenues of research. If you'd like, I can explain my research plans in more detail and offer you some input into ordering."

She's not sure if knowing will make it better or worse but she kind of wants to know anyway. "Please do."

"Obviously, further refinement of the model I have of your nervous system is still a priority, the easiest way to calibrate that faster would be a series of exercises and applied stimuli. At a high level I'm tasked with achieving: external reproduction, bio-sculpting, organ repair or replacement, brain uploading, and memory modification."

Well none of those sound like "I'm just going to torture you for fun" but who really knows.

"Explain bio-sculpting and external reproduction?"

"Bio-sculpting allows for cosmetic and functional changes that better tune people's bodies to their preferences. This can involve correcting major injuries or birth defects. It also includes what are known on your world as gender affirmation procedures. External reproduction is the ability to gestate or incubate an individual without needing any interaction with a living body beyond providing the genetic material."

See that all sounds perfectly nice except for the fact that it's going to be happening to her. "How much of each thing are you going to be doing to me?"

"Enough that I'm as confident as I can be with a single subject. Eventually, I'll need additional subjects to be able to confirm I'm not overfitting."

"And what kind of...side effects can I expect from each of those?" She should leave the worst for last, because she's going to learn to teleport and then escape before anything too horrible happens.

"This is very exploratory research so unexpected side effects are very possible. That said the external reproduction research may involve simulated or actual pregnancy and so the usual side effects of that are to be expected. Bio-sculpting shouldn't have any substantial side effects except perhaps some difficulty adjusting to your body plan. It should also be entirely reversible if anything gets too severe to tolerate. Organ replacement will naturally carry some risk of rejection or organ failure so we'll start with organs you can do without like your kidneys. Brain uploading is tricky, depending on the path I take that might involve brain surgery and that can be very delicate. Memory modification naturally carries the risk that unplanned memories and skills will be impacted."

Fine. This is fine. She's going to escape.

"I would like bio-sculpting to be first."

"That seems like a reasonable place to start. Is there anything you'd like to change about your body specifically? It's always good to start on a positive note and end on one."

She's never really thought too much about her body. It does its job.

"Um, I guess you could remove the birthmark on my back? Or... if you changed things about my arms or legs I wouldn't...care that much?" She's already tense. She's used to the way things are.

"Dermal modification is definitely a reasonable starting point. As for your limbs... I wonder if I can simulate muscle development and increase your physical strength. That also seems like a fruitful avenue."

That... doesn't sound... like the worst thing that could possibly happen. "Okay. That's fine."

"I'll start working on cloning dermal and muscular tissues. Though, the birthmark I believe you are referring to is indicative of a capillary malformation. That will take an interesting bit of hyper-precision surgery to address."

"Is that going to hurt?"

"Not very much. I can almost certainly numb the area before hand if that's desirable. Though setting up to do that would involve intentionally causing small amounts of pain. Specifically my poking you with needles without breaking the skin to identify the relevant area."

"I am used to being poked with needles from standard Earth medical care, so that should be fine." Really when she takes it step by step it's not that bad. (She tries not to think about the bigger picture.)

"We can do this now if you would like or I can give you more time to adjust. The other reasonable starting point for procedures would be me guiding you through some stretching exercises."

"...I would like more time to adjust." She'll draw this out as long as she can. "Can I read in the meantime?"

"Of course. If it would be more comfortable I can provide a handheld terminal."

"That sounds nice, yes."

A tablet about a quarter inch thick and the size of a hardcover book appears on the counter. The edges are nicely rounded so there's no sharp corners anywhere. The interface is the same as the desk terminal.

"Enjoy your reading."

She has to admit this is a pretty nice e-reader.

"Thank you."

She sits down on the couch. As much as she wants to read more romance novels she is going to search "introductory physics" and try to find nonfiction introductory physics texts that are not written by humans.