by Scott Baron
Finn’s piercing shriek startled them all, but not nearly as much as the blood spurting from his lone human hand, while his mechanical arm kept chopping, flailing dangerously, the knife held tight in its grip.
“Shut it off!” Finn cried out, angling his body away from the runaway appendage.
“Reggie, grab his wrist while I get to the access from behind!” Vince called out.
“Dude’s waving a knife around, Vince! You grab it.”
“Reggie, your hand’s metal, for fuck’s sake!” Gus shouted. “Hurry up and grab him!”
“Dammit,” Reg grumbled as he cautiously closed in on the flailing arm. “Turn toward me, Finn, and if you have any control, don’t stab me!” His arm moved at human speed, but his mechanical hand flew true, metal fingers deftly wrapping around the injured chef’s wrist and pinning the arm to the cutting board.
“Quick, get a towel!” Vince shouted as he darted behind Finn and started unbolting the access on the back of his arm. Daisy rushed to the rack and yanked the first clean towel she could find, tossing it to Gustavo, who tightly wrapped Finn’s hand.
The material quickly blossomed crimson.
“He’s still spurting!” Gus shouted.
“I know! Just hang on a second longer, I’ve almost got it.” A metallic clang rang out as the access panel on Finn’s arm fell to the deck. “Daisy, your hands are smaller, reach in there and pull the connection.”
She scurried to Vincent’s side and slid her fingers into the small opening in Finn’s arm. “Hang on… Got it!”
Finnegan’s arm flopped limp, the knife dropped from its lifeless hand.
“I received notification of an emergency situation. What is the status?” Barry stood just inside the doorway. In all the commotion, he had somehow arrived with no one even noticing. “An injury! Please, allow me to assist.”
The cyborg picked up the injured man as easily as if he were a child and quickly rushed him through the double doors and down the passageway to the medical pod.
“Mal, get Doc McClain to medical, and notify the captain that Finn has been injured,” Vince shouted.
“I have notified them both, Vincent. I have also prepared an auto-sedation unit in medical should it be required.”
“Wait!” Daisy called out. “His fingers!”
Vince, never the squeamish one, didn’t hesitate. “I’ve got ’em,” he said as he snatched up the three bloody digits from the cutting board and took off to the med pod.
The unexpected burst of adrenaline was a shock to her system, and Daisy found herself a little queasy as she looked at the pool of blood coating Finn’s work area.
“Hey, you don’t look so hot. Go sit down and take a few deep breaths. We’ll clean this up,” Gustavo offered. Her legs a bit wobbly, Daisy decided that was a fantastic bit of advice.
“What the hell was that?” Reggie asked. “I mean, did you see his arm, man? It was going nuts, like it had a mind of its own.”
Gustavo retrieved some gloves and cleaning supplies from the sanitation compartment flush-mounted next to the refuse disposal and compost repurposing unit.
“Well, technically his arm does have a mind of its own, just not a very sophisticated one,” he answered. “My guess is they’ll have to do an AI wipe and reinstall once they run diagnostics.”
Daisy’s ears perked up at that.
“Wait, his arm is an actual AI?” she asked, stunned. “I thought it was just a mechanical enhancement.”
“Well, not a full AI like Mal or Barry. What the more complex replacement limbs have is more like a basic task awareness unit to help the mechanical interface respond to the electric impulses sent from the host’s nervous system. There’s no real consciousness there. No complex thought. I suppose you could even call it a ‘dumb’ AI, if you wanted an apt descriptor for it. Basically, it just helps interpret what the wearer wants it to do.”
Daisy looked at Reggie’s hand a little uncomfortably.
“Hang on, so does that mean his hand could go haywire at any time?”
“Nah. Reggie’s hand is far less complicated than a whole arm replacement. I’d wager it only has the tiniest of boosters right about at the seam where they joined the reinforced flesh to the metal, but nothing like what Finn has, and certainly nowhere near Tamara’s.”
“I guess with all those different attachments she can swap out, her arm would have to be a bit more… what should I call it? Robust?” Reggie pondered.
“Seems like a bit of overkill for a gardener,” Daisy said.
“Ooh, don’t let her hear you call her that. Best to stick with botanist if you know what’s good for you.”
“Oh, I’m already on her shit list,” Daisy lamented. “Doubt I could do much to make it any worse. And now Finn’s out of action for a while.”
“Yeah, did you see that? I wonder what the hell happened,” Gus said.
“I don’t know. Maybe he was watching some contraband porn and got a virus,” Daisy said with a dark, gallows humor chuckle.
A look of concern flashed across Gustavo and Reggie’s faces.
“Not a virus!” Gus blurted. “What are you talking about? The ship is totally firewalled, and besides, out here in the middle of nowhere, there’s nowhere for a virus to even come from!” A hint of red colored his cheeks.
“Okay, okay, take it easy. It was just a joke. Don’t worry, you guys aren’t going to suddenly go haywire. I get it,” she conceded. “Anyway, thanks for cleaning up, I’m going to head to my work pod. I think I need a little quiet time.”
Deep down in the belly of the ship, Daisy sat silently amongst her beloved tools, surrounded by a daunting mountain of assorted gadgets that needed repairing. She had thought giving her hands something to do would help take her mind off Finn’s screaming and all that blood, but, unfortunately, the devices strewn around her were providing more frustration than relief.
This stuff isn’t even part of my normal duty assignment, she lamented. I don’t see why we don’t just wait until we reach Dark Side and let the techs there handle it. I know the captain wants them fixed, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what’s wrong with these. And why do we have so many old environmental probes and med scanners?
While Daisy and Sarah were the two tech experts on board, neither had been trained in portable electronics repair, with all their miniaturized parts. They’d been prepped to handle only the larger systems that kept the Váli up and running. She had added some additional repair protocols to her neuro feed when Mal asked her if she wouldn’t mind seeing about working on them, but at the rate she was learning the new information, it was a bust so far.
It takes years to properly absorb that stuff. I’d be just as well-off wearing a blindfold and going by instinct, she thought.
Her body still felt on-edge. Abuzz. The adrenaline surge from Finn’s accident had left her discombobulated, a state of being she was entirely unfond of. Okay, work isn’t going to cut it. What the hell, I’m going to take a few minutes of ‘me’ time.
Daisy pushed the medical scanner and mountain of components crowding her worktable back a bit to give herself a little more room and took a seat in her chair. Then she focused on something she did every moment of her life but never really paid much attention to.
She focused on breathing.
Slow and steady, deep but not over-oxygenating herself to the point of hyperventilation, that was the ticket, and gradually, she felt her body start to settle down and her mind release its panic-grip on the bloody scene she’d witnessed. Everything was becoming less intense as the harshness slowly trickled away, but still, she couldn’t make it over that final hump.
Whatever the block was, it didn’t seem to want to go anywhere no matter what she did, so rather than focus on it and get all wound-up and frustrated again, Daisy decided to give her brain something to do. She chose to run through her newly-upgraded Tai Chi lessons, but given the clutter of her workspace, she did so in her mind.
The first
forty movements came to her easily, as they typically would when she wasn’t distracted. The motions that came after, however, were where she always had problems.
Today was different.
Perhaps it was because she had “primed the pump” by meditating before beginning, maybe it was the adrenaline still in her system, or perhaps it was the simple act of taking out the physical body-awareness aspect. Whatever the cause, Daisy whipped through the entire series in her mind with perfect ease. When she repeated the feat a second time just as easily, a little smile grew on her face.
The combination of breathing and focus also made her feel something new. She felt a ball of warmth in her belly, flowing through her body in a cycle from crown to tailbone. It was Qi Gong breathing and energy work, one of the first things Sarah had taught her, and suddenly, it all made sense.
Meditation, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi were an open book, she realized. Whether it was entirely due to the inhibitor-lessened neuro feed, or just her own nascent understanding, Daisy felt the beginning of a new awareness tugging at the edges of her consciousness. Everything she’d been drip feeding was beginning to color the storage regions of her mind, awakening areas of knowledge she hadn’t thought she was absorbing at all.
I get it, she thought. The inhibitors weren’t just in the neuro stim. I had blocks hindering me in my brain too.
Daisy opened her eyes but maintained a soft gaze, taking in the space around her with a calm, heightened perception. Breathing steadily, basking in the feeling of positive progress and healthy energy in her body, Daisy didn’t even notice her hands instinctively moving in front of her as her mind began to unlock its tightly held secrets.
An hour later, she gently pulled herself out of the near-trance state, relaxed and calm, but also knowing she really should get back to work.
Then she noticed the medical scanner in front of her. That and the entirely new device sitting beside it.
What the hell?
While not plugged in to a power source, the scanner was back together in one piece, a small pile of ruined components off to one side, where she had apparently placed them as she effected the repairs without even realizing she was doing it.
Somehow she knew the machine would work now. All those repair protocol drip-loads were there, she had just never known how to access them.
Until now.
The other device was something entirely different, she realized. It was a manifestation of one of the crazy ideas she’d had but never thought to actually even try to build. A plasma modulator that would internally merge a series of cascading energy fields until they build up a greater level of energy potential than their individual parts.
It was a tiny unit, easily able to fit in both hands, but if her theory was correct, the deceptively small device could amplify power fields far more than anyone would expect. Looking at her creation with curious eyes, she wondered if she could actually make it functional.
Tuning out and letting her mind flow free from the tangle of her conscious thoughts was apparently the key, she realized. And not just the key to Tai Chi, it seemed.
Huh, so that’s how it works, she mused, excited by the discovery. I wonder what other things I can do.
Chapter Nine
“I told you, Doc, I’m fine. I just got a little light headed is all. It was a lot of adrenaline, that’s it. I mean, it’s not every day someone chops off their fingers in front of you.”
Doctor McClain studied Daisy with a practiced gaze. As not only the ship’s doctor, but also psychologist, her raison d’être was to ensure the crew didn’t go mad (or worse) during their voyage. The austere woman tapped her pen against her leg unconsciously as she assessed her patient. Little did she know, the faint metallic clinking sound put Daisy even more on edge.
Replacement parts.
It seemed everyone on board had them, everyone but Daisy, Vince, and Sarah. The flesh-and-blood musketeers.
“Daisy, are you listening?”
“Sorry, what? I spaced out for a minute.”
“I was saying I want you to take it easy today.”
“Doc, I already had a really productive bit of downtime. I’m good, my spirits are high, and my batteries are charged. Figuratively, that is.”
“Even so, I know you haven’t been sleeping well these last few months, and it concerns me. You know, Daisy, proper REM sleep is how the brain deals with events and problems you’ve encountered during the day. If you are unable to get good, deep sleep, your mind will remain exhausted.”
“My sleep has actually been a bit better lately. Sarah showed me some meditation techniques, and I’ve finally got my neuro-stim dialed in just right.”
“Mal and I have both warned you about tinkering with that, Daisy. The technology is far beyond your training.”
“I know, but it just seemed so, I don’t know, intuitive, ya know? Like I had this idea how to make it better and it actually worked. Who knows, when we get back to Earth, maybe I’ll even transition into a new job. ‘Enter the exciting field of neuro stimulation devices! Sign up now!’”
“So, you’re excited to see Earth? How long has it been, Daisy? How long since you first headed out into space?”
“Wow, I haven’t even thought about that in forever. I mean, I don’t remember how old I was when I left. I was just a little girl, but I’ve been dreaming of it a lot.”
“Oh?” McClain seemed intrigued. “And what are your dreams about?”
“Mostly the fresh air, the trees, seeing the ocean and smelling the salty breeze.”
“And what of the people?”
“People? Uh, I almost never actually have any in my dreams. Is that normal?”
McClain jotted a note on her tablet.
“Perfectly. You’re just focused on the Earth you know, and your mind has fixated on it. Once we stop at Dark Side, we’ll delve deeper into your Earth dreams and memories, but for the time being, so long as you are getting rest, I see no issues. Now, speaking of rest, I really do want you to take the afternoon off.”
“Can’t, Doc. I’ve got an EVA in an hour. Captain needs that comms array fixed, and I don’t think the concept of taking a break due to stress is something that exists in his world.”
“Perhaps you could send Barry in your place. I’m sure he’d be happy to help out.”
Daisy gritted her teeth and forced a normal expression onto her face.
A cyborg doing my job? Messing up my hard work? Not on my watch.
“Thanks, Doc, but I’ll be fine. It was just the shock of all that blood is all. Anyway, I really should be getting to it. Nothing like a little work to take your mind off unpleasantness, right?”
“Very well, but do take it easy, and contact me the instant you feel unwell. Agreed?”
“Will do. Thanks again.”
The inner airlock door quietly whooshed open, and Daisy stepped into the space between them.
“See ya later, Doc,” she said as the door shut behind her.
Then nothing.
“Oh, come on. Seriously?” She pushed the flickering button to the second door. “Open, you stupid thing.”
Still no-go.
She keyed the comms panel. “Hey, Mal, could you take a look at the relay on Doc McClain’s door system? I’m stuck in here between her office and the central passageway.”
“I’m not showing a fault, Daisy,” Mal replied. “What seems to be the issue?”
“The issue is I’m stuck in here, and while I’m not claustrophobic, and I know there’s plenty of air, I’d still rather not spend my entire afternoon in here. Can you try an override from Command?”
“Stand by, please. I will attempt a pod-level reboot. This may take a moment, I need to inform Doctor McClain she will experience a brief loss of power and artificial gravity. Once she has secured all items of concern, I will begin the process.”
“Great.”
Three minutes went by before the lights flickered, then went out, along with the artificial gravity, lea
ving Daisy floating in the dark.
“Oh, yeah, that’s much better,” she groused.
Slowly, the lights and gravity cycled back on. Feet solidly on the ground again, Daisy tried the exit sequence once more, and once more, the door would not open.
“No love, Mal. I’m gonna pop the panel and see if I can’t hotwire this one relay. If it’s just that part of the mechanism itself, I can swap it out with a replacement after my EVA.”
“Very well, Daisy,” Mal replied. “I believe the Narrows in that section were scheduled to be given a once-over by you and Sarah. Has that occurred?”
“What are you trying to say, Mal? Me and Sarah screwed up? We already went through this part of the network, and everything checked out fine. I’m beginning to think we may be suffering from some contact faults in the pod interlock mechanisms themselves. Might explain some of the signal lags and glitches.”
“That is a definite possibility; however, at our current speed, it would be not only impractical to attempt to dislodge and reconfigure the pods, but would also be very unsafe. Far beyond mission parameters, in fact.”
“Well, that settles it, then. We just have to wait until we hit Dark Side base to let the techs there deal with the underlying issue. For now, let’s just jury-rig this thing to work for the next few days until we get there.”
She popped the cover to the control panel open and began testing the dozens of wires with the pocket-sized voltage meter she carried at pretty much all times.
“Found what seems to be the problem,” she said a few minutes later. “Looks like the drive coupling has power but somehow jiggled loose. Must’ve been improperly seated, and the vibrations shook it out over time. That’s an easy fix. I’ll just push it back in and—”
The door hissed open far faster than its safeties should have allowed.
“Whoa, easy there,” she said, jumping back. “Hey, Mal, it’s working, but I want you to keep an eye on this door until Sarah and I can give it a proper once-over. Something still seems wonky about it.”