by Aline Riva
Up ahead was an old pub that looked to have been built centuries ago and had still managed to stay standing despite the craziness of the world and the destruction that had rained down upon it. The sign was worn off and hung by a partly broken chain, the doors were open and inside the floor was dusty, the boards bare and sticks of furniture remained intact, tables and chairs, while alcohol was noticeable behind a bar that was decorated with a cracked mirror behind it, the roughness of the place made it look more like an old wild west saloon than a large country pub.
A tall, stocky man aged around fifty left the bar, walking down the steps in dark trousers and a white shirt, his shoes were polished to a high shine and his light brown hair was neatly combed as he set his pale blue gaze on the motor home and the people who stepped out of it.
“Mr Featherstone?”
“Call me Dixon – and by the way General Lynch,” he replied, warmly shaking his hand, “Your reputation goes before you. The City of Freedom would label you terrorist for your theft of life giving cybernetic fluid but believe me, every cyborg here thinks of you as nothing less than a freedom fighter.”
Lynch let go of his hand, feeling strangely reluctant to welcome such praise.
“I understand you need to trade?”he asked.
Dixon glanced at the others who stood beside him. By now Jekel had finished his energy transfusion and was up and dressed again and standing beside Joy as Elise and Flynn looked on.
“We usually ask for fuel or food or cybernetic fluid and I don't doubt you have most of that,” Dixon replied, “But you're a hero to these people and donations would be greatly received – but don't feel obliged. Your actions against Freedom City, that stand that you made, has given them all hope.”
Suddenly Lynch felt more than a little humbled by his words.
“We will help if we can” he said, “But we have no plans to stay... We are seeking the town of Sanctuary. Mr Jekel here is a personal friend of King Steel and seems very sure his palace is somewhere out here on the coast – but he doesn't know where exactly.”
“Neither do we,” Dixon replied, “But he sent a gift to me...an android built by his own hand. A love program called Mandy One.”
Lynch looked at him in surprise.
“So she must know the way to Sanctuary?”
Dixon shook his head.
“She said she's a courier. She's waiting to deliver a key. To whom, I have no idea. She's running the bar right now,” he said, gesturing behind him, “She works in the Grey Goose.”
Jekel exchanged a glance with Joy and stepped forward.
“She might be able to give me some answers – I know Blake Riley!”
Dixon smiled as he looked at the slim man in the expensive suit.
“I recognise you from the old days...I saw your stage show. I don't know how you used to vanish like you did...when did you become a cyborg?”
“A long time ago,” Jekel replied, looking away as he cast a nervous glance to Joy.
“And you have main cable damage?” Dixon asked.
Jekel nodded.
“I have a medical area - medical and maintenance but its not too greatly stocked, not for surgical procedures. I could probably replace mechanical parts for you but I wouldn't touch a main cable. That's a surgeon's job.”
Jekel breathed a relieved sigh.
“And I wouldn't ask you to!” he said, relieved there would be no chance of him getting cut open in this rough and ready settlement.
Lynch looked at him with interest.
“What exactly do you keep in your maintenance area?” he asked, “I mean, how did you collect the spare parts?”
“They come here every day,” Dixon replied, lowering his voice as residents passed him by, glancing to the motor home and then going on their way, “Some of them are in a terrible state when they get here. We cant save everyone. There's a rule here – if you die here, what salvageable cyborg parts remain, must be removed for the good of others. That includes the draining and transfer of cybernetic fluid to those in most need of it.”
Lynch nodded.
“In times like these, a wise course of action,” he agreed.
Then someone shouted Dixon's name, and he turned it see a small open truck pull into the settlement. The driver looked exhausted and as he stumbled out, he fell to metallic knees in exhaustion.
“Please help us!” he cried, and as he slumped into a dead faint, one of the men from the gates caught him, as another gestured to Dixon to look in the back of the truck.
Dixon pulled down the back of the truck, reached in and scooped out a woman, she was wearing a torn dress and it was partly stained with blood and leaking cybernetic fluid. Her eyes were half closed and her face was pale as Dixon carried her over to the soft grass lawn beside the Grey Goose and laid her down.
As Flynn and Elise looked on, Joy and Jekel stepped closer as Dixon checked her over.
“I'm a medic, if that helps,” Joy said, as Jekel said nothing, watching on in horror as Dixon got on his knees beside the wounded woman and grabbed at the rip in her clothing, tearing it further to reveal a gaping wound in her abdomen, through which he saw blood and guts and an almost severed main cable fixed to an internal battery.
“Too late for this one,” he said in a low voice.
The woman parted her lips and gave a low moan, too weak to speak and too far gone to open her eyes and focus.
“Give him a cybernetic fluid shot,” Dixon called to the man helping the exhausted driver, “I'll deal with this one...”
Then he looked down at the woman, swept his hand over her sweat drenched hair and spoke quietly to her.
“I know, I know,” he said softly, “You came a long way...you fled the people who fear the cyborgs...the ones who did this to you...and it's okay now, its all over now... rest easy...”
As he continued to speak softly to the woman, Jekel's eyes widened in horror as he saw Dixon slip his hand into her open wound and beneath the battery, disconnecting the power supply. Then he hooked a bloody finger under the thread of main cable and gently tugged on it, snapping the last metallic thread, leaving the cable severed completely.
The woman's eyes fluttered, she gave a sigh, and then her chest fell still and with his unsoiled hand, Dixon closed her eyes and then got up.
“They turn up every day,” he said again, “And I can't save them all.”
As one of the men assisting Dixon lifted the woman to carry her away, Dixon gave an instruction:
“Strip her wiring and parts, drain the cybernetic fluid...then bury her on the hillside, please. If her companion is well enough by then let him know of her burial.”
“Yes sir,” the man replied, then carried the woman's body away.
“Are you a cybernetic medic?” Joy asked.
“Technician,” Dixon replied, “I'm human all the way through but trained in the mechanical side more than the medical side of the field.”
Lynch looked about the shambolic village, noticing factory buildings in the distance.
“Are they functional?” he asked.
“They are now,” Dixon replied, “We have our own generators, we've got running water and power...its slowly coming together. But we were raided a few weeks back...soldiers came. I didn't know the uniform. Dark in colour, but basic. None of the UNA style tough gear. Just bastard thugs with guns....many of them... They came in here and they killed a few of us and some of us were strong enough to fight back...I've got some good men on guard and a few ex military who are willing to pull some kind of an army together but we don't have enough cybernetic fluid to get everyone strong enough to put up a real fight if it came to war.”
Lynch looked about the village again, seeing many weary but able cyborgs who could easily form an army – with the right help to do so...
“We have cybernetic fluid,” he said, and Elise looked at him in surprise.
“But what about you -”
“I can spare some,” he replied, “Not much, but enough
to get these people back from weakness for a while. One third of that barrel would last me for years on minimal shots.”
“Thank you, Lynch,” Dixon said warmly, “Your gesture is very much appreciated.”
Then Dixon looked to the others.
“I take it you'll be staying in the motor home?”
Elise nodded.
“We have our own accommodation,” she assured him.
“Then please while you stay, make yourselves at home – as much as that is possible,” Dixon replied, and then he looked to Lynch.
“Come with me, I'd like to discuss a cybernetic matter with you.”
Lynch looked at him with interest, nodded to Elise to join him, and they walked with Dixon past the Grey Goose to a white cottage that stood alone nearby.
“This is my home and treatment centre,” he said, “You might want Joy Thorn to join us too...”
Lynch called to Joy. She watched as Jekel entered the open doors of the Grey Goose with Flynn, and then she hurried over to join the others as Dixon unlocked the front door and led them inside.
The house was old, the paper was faded on the walls and the carpets had been taken up. There was a sofa and a couple of arm chairs in the front room and a leather couch along another wall, and the view from the window showed an over grown garden. The TV was intact and stood dark, a reminder of a life long since swept away with the changing times, but this room still every much had a homely feel to it. Dixon gestured the others to sit, and Lynch and Elise sat on the couch while Joy took the sofa.
“I didn't want to ask back there,” he said to Lynch, “But being a technician I have of course read extensively in the days before the cyborg process was banned, about how your conversion was done – as you were the first and most extensive cyborg conversion at the time. And as I said, we have parts here...I may be able to help you with certain aspects you may consider missing?”
Lynch blinked. Impatience flared in his gaze as his foggy mind became confused.
“What the fuck does that mean?”he asked angrily, “Are you saying my conversion was so frigging shoddy that I'm barely functional?”
“No, not at all,” Dixon replied, “But I do know the wiring that runs into your brain wasn't done too well. I'm guessing that's left you one moody bastard, am I right?”
“Oh, yes,” Elise agreed, then she smiled fondly at Lynch before looking back to Dixon.
“I've always been a bastard, so what?” Lynch said, and suddenly sounded a little too defensive.
“Well I can't touch the brain wiring.”
“Too right you fucking won't!” Lynch snapped, “I almost died twice during conversion!”
“I'm just saying I can't help with that,” Dixon replied, “But I'm also aware you had no under plate sensors in a certain area where you might have benefited from them. You have no sensors under the groin plate. I have a set of sensors in storage and I would imagine that would make a great deal of difference to you and your partner, am I right?”
Lynch blinked.
“Are you sure about this? Cybernetic development was banned just as that kind of sensor network was developed and -”
“I have a set,” he replied, “And as I'm a technician not a medical technician I think if Joy can fit them -”
“I can,” Joy replied, “I know about artificial sensors... I've fitted them under plating on other parts of the body before.”
“The wire leads off into the main line that runs to the lower spinal connections,” Dixon said to her, and he gestured to the next room, where the door was closed, “The sensors are in the cabinet in a saline solution – I'll leave you to it....” He glanced down at his hand still bloody from putting the dying cyborg out of her misery, “I need to get cleaned up, I'll see you later in the Goose,” he replied, and then he left the room and went up the stairs.
“I'll get everything ready, then,” Joy replied, and turned for the door and opened it. As she went inside and he saw it led to a medical area, Lynch broke out in a sweat as he looked to Elise.
“What will those sensors do?” she asked him.
Lynch felt gripped by hope for something long ago lost and at the same time chilled by fear at the thought of more work being done to his lower machine body.
“They will...” he ran his fingers through his hair and his hand shook, “They will make me feel like nothing is missing,” he said, “I get a sex life back...I mean, I get the feeling back...Oh I don't want to do this but...”
Elise rose from her seat and took hold of shaking hand.
“Yes,” she said kindly, “You are doing this, Felix...”
For once, despite his deep dislike of any kind of maintenance work, as Elise had offered to go in with him, Lynch had shot her a look and told her No thanks sweetheart, in a cold tone that surprised her because it sounded like such a rejection. Elise sat alone in the comfortable room, waiting as she wished she didn't take his every sharp and spiky response so personally when she knew most of it was down to his poor quality wiring that fogged up his often confused mind.
In the next room behind the closed door, Joy had turned to her patient, who was stripped from the waist down, and there was nothing human to see because his lower body was elegantly and seamlessly joined to his human body just above the waist.
“You won't feel a thing,” she promised.
Sweat ran down his face as Lynch looked up at the ceiling where a crack snaked across it and tried to remember how to breathe.
“Make it quick...”
“I'm not messing this up,” she reminded him as the screw driver connected with the first of many tiny screws that dotted around the smooth groin plate, “This is a big improvement for you – on a personal level. I want to make sure it goes without a glitch.”
He drew in a shaken breath as his heart began to beat a little too fast for comfort as Joy continued to remove the screws. Lynch was still sweating, but as he kept his gaze fixed on the ceiling and Joy lifted away the plate, he thought only of the end result. To have a part of him opened up after all the memories of the pain of his conversion made him want to turn over and puke over the side of the table – but he was half afraid if he turned sharply, with that plate off, wires attached to guts would fall out and trail on the floor...that wouldn't happen, of course, but all the same, the thought was inside him head and playing there too brightly for him to shut off the nightmare image.
“I've been laying out these sensitivity mesh parts for years,” Joys said to him as she laid the sensors down against the inner panel, watching as they instantly attached to the layer of living metal that embraced them, leaving a web of wires slightly visible shining a lighter silver shade than the bed on which they now sat. Then she took up a small tool and gripped the thick wire that trailed off from the mesh, pausing as she looked up to her patient.
“I can see the cluster that leads to the spinal connection,. I'm going to attach it now – the ends are coated in living metal which will instantly bond into the cluster and make sense of the pathways. You might feel some pain for a moment but don't move...”
He laughed nervously as another trickle of sweat ran down his face.
“I'll be too busy thinking about the difference this will make to my life - that's the only reason I'm going through this -”
He drew in a sharp breath, then started to tremble as pain throbbed in his lower spine as wiring attached throbbed for a moment and then the sensors set into his groin became hot, also throbbed, and suddenly it felt different, like if he closed his eyes, maybe the explosion had never happened and nothing down there had been lost...
Tears ran from his eyes as Joy replaced the groin plate. He was still recovering from the pain and the nightmare flash back images that pain had given him of the day of the explosion and the weeks and months afterwards as he had adjusted to life in a part machine body...but now the last screw was in place and the work was done, he was laughing as he looked to Joy with a tear streaked face.
“I think its w
orking...It's bloody working, Joy!”
She smiled as she leaned over him.
“Okay...don't take this the wrong way Lynch, but I have to test the mesh now...just close your eyes and let me know if you experience anything other than the sensations you're expecting...if there's any pain I might need to make some minor adjustments...”
She placed her hand on the closed metallic plate, slid her fingers over it, and her touch felt warm and made him gasp as the new sensation took over...he closed his eyes and it was so real that his breathing began to quicken as he gave a sigh of satisfaction.
“Oh Joy...” he said breathlessly.
“I'm just checking it,” she reminded him, but then Lynch trembled from his upper human body to his lower metallic half, gritting his teeth as he stifled a sharp cry that left him weak and panting for breath.
He looked down and laughed.
“I was expecting to have...shall we say, made a mess..but there is nothing there, just the plate...Oh but it feels so bloody real....Its so real....”
Then he stunned her, as the usually hard and bad tempered General gave a sob and lay back on the table, overcome by emotion and relief as he wept.
Joy swept her hand over his hair and as he looked up at her and tears ran from his eyes, in that moment she was surprised how vulnerable Lynch had become.
“Thank you, Joy,” he said as emption swept through him,”Maybe...you should do it again, just be to be sure it works okay...”
“That's a job for Elise,” she reminded him, “Pull yourself together, soldier. If you want to thank anyone, thank Dixon. Be glad he studied your case file and realised what was missing. “
Then she took a tissue from a box on a nearby table, turned back to Lynch and gently dried his eyes.
“I'll give you fifteen minutes,” she told him, “Calm yourself, get dressed and spend the rest of the day lying down back at the motor home, because you've had spinal work done and you don't want to ruin tonight's inevitable bedtime experiments with a headache, right?”
He managed to smile.
“I think Dixon promised me a pint in the Goose.”