by Viola Grace
“What about the leads?”
“The first injection sheared them off. Can you still hear the data streams?”
“I can.”
“That is what they thought. You got your message, we got ours.”
She chuckled. “Alphy is a bit of a bitch now and then.”
He grinned and checked her head. “All the insert sites are closed, and your hair has begun to grow back.”
She blinked. The next action was a gasp. She coughed, and Buddy moved quickly to slide something into her throat that she gagged on. She twisted and fought, the movements were feeble, but she flopped under her own power.
“Good. Keep moving, keep those protocols running.”
They withdrew the hose and kept working on her limbs, pushing, squeezing, and as they worked, she was shocked to find that her body was slowly tingling to life.
She kept running the protocols and kept one program sequencing into place after another. Her body was screaming, but she could feel it. She could feel it!
The data streams were still coursing through part of her brain, but she didn’t need to listen. Her body was speaking to her, bony, spindly, weak, but moving.
The artificial gravity of the array was something she was suddenly aware of. Her body felt heavy, but as the IV continued to flow, she kept an eye on her body via the cameras and monitors.
She was gaining muscle, her body was draining bag after bag as it used all of the material inside to build up what she needed, and she still kept running through the hundreds of protocols.
“Keep running those programs. When you stop, the nanites stop, so don’t speed through them.” Doros murmured it to her.
“Okay.”
Buddy and Doros looked at each other but kept stimulating her muscles, bending and straightening her limbs, sitting her up while supporting her head. They worked her so that no part of her tendons was left unflexed.
There were seven more bags of enriched fluid that went into her, and her body looked vaguely familiar when the last program fluttered past, and she was left with nothing more to play.
“They are done.”
Doros nodded and lunged for a med kit.
She didn’t understand what he was talking about and was confused until her heart stuttered in her chest and then halted.
Doros pulled back the blankets and applied the shock pads. He looked at Buddy. “Clear?”
Buddy nodded. “Clear.”
The shock burned through her, sending her arching on the gurney.
She watched them as they worked, over and over, getting her lungs breathing with a pump and coaxing her heart into beating again.
She watched her chest rising and falling, and then, she shifted her focus to her own eyes, and she looked up at Doros. She heard a hoarse whisper. “So, what the hell was that?”
He looked her in the eyes and collapsed. Buddy swayed.
Windy exhaled, and her lungs felt raw, her throat felt bruised.
Doros spoke from the floor. “The nanites could fix your body, but the moment that they were done, they disappeared. So, your heart and spine are whole, but your heart had to be restarted.”
She chuckled. “You really did get a different memo than I did.”
She used all of her focus to extend her right hand. “My name is Windy, pleased to meet you.”
Doros grabbed her hand in his. She could feel the heat coming off his nanite-generated skin. “I am very happy to make your acquaintance.”
She chuckled when Buddy came up next to her. “It is good to finally meet you, too, Buddy. You are taller than I imagined.”
Buddy laughed. “It is good to finally hear your voice, my friend.”
She laughed, and tears began to stream from her eyes. She helped the guys sit her up. She wiped the tears on the edge of the blanket, and black and silver smudges came out. “I was wondering how they would get out.”
Doros was looking at her, and he smiled. “Your hair is white.”
“I used to dye it blue.” She smiled. “Now, I have one request.”
Doros nodded. “Name it.”
“Get me some pants.”
He laughed. “I will think of something.”
Chapter Six
Learning how to walk again was complicated. Windy moved the walker forward a step, and then, she swung her leg to catch up. Doros was fixated on getting her to climb the stairs, but he was used to ships and ramps, not office chairs.
Windy did her best work on her ass.
She huffed and took a step.
From the shuttle bay, Doros asked her, “How are you doing?”
“I am fine. Great. Fabulous. I want to punch you for leaving me here to do this on my own.” She used the array’s speakers again. It was funny how she could switch back and forth.
“Buddy is there, and you can call if you need me. I am working on the next walking aid for you.”
She huffed and took another few steps toward her goal, turned around, and went back the other way.
Buddy chuckled. “Have you heard from Lacey?”
“Yes. She sent me a blurb. There is a gift packet on the way, and she congratulates me on my new mobility.”
She walked with increasing speed, and finally, she reached her starting point. “Hah! Fuck you, paralysis!”
Buddy stood in front of her. “Now, come and sit down for a moment.”
She scowled at him, and it was funny to feel her face pull down at the corners. “Take me to one of the observation ports. I want to see the stars.”
Buddy sighed. “Yes, Windy.”
He carried her through the halls of the array until they were finally standing in front of the ten-by-fourteen chunk of plexi that showed her the central zone where the array was located. She could see stars, planets, dead ships floating as empty husks.
“All this time, this was out there.” She pressed her palm to the plexi and felt the pressure and smooth surface against her hand.
“Tell me, Buddy. Was I dead?”
Buddy paused. “As your people measure it, yes. You are not anymore.”
She nodded. “I know that. I can feel it, can feel my heart beat, and I realized that I wasn’t feeling that for the last few years. They killed me when they put the filaments in.”
“Yes. They wanted you as fresh as possible when they put you in place, so it was the final filament that they inserted that killed you.”
She nodded. “I understand. How long did you know about that, Lacey?”
Buddy sighed. “How long have you known?”
“Since Buddy returned. I can feel it when you take him over. There is also the finest run of transmission around him when you talk through him.”
“Ah. Got it. Sorry, but there were things I needed him to do, and I had to make him larger to do it.”
“You had him set in the nanites after I suggested it. You knew what it would do.”
Buddy exhaled. “He was designed for it. I had to pay heavily to get the specs for the melding of metal, but I got an engineer who gave me what I needed for a hefty fee.”
“Where did you get the money?”
Buddy laughed. “That is a story for another day. How are you feeling?”
Windy knew what was being asked. “I feel emotionally bruised and physically frustrated. I want to walk and run, but I can’t, and I can’t even get additional nanite repairs to help me. We both know that.”
“I have taken another method for your mobility, and it will be arriving within the hour. There are also modes of defense that you can use. Some you were born with, some you have had thrust upon you, and some you can learn to handle. The base will be coming near in a few days. You just have to remain here, alive, and sane until then.”
Windy snorted. “I have lost sane.”
“I will settle for two out of three.”
“Always the negotiator. I will remain here and alive. You don’t need to worry about me.” Win
dy looked into Buddy’s faceplate. “I am very worried about you. Where are you, what are you doing?”
“I am fine. I am plotting and scheming and keeping track of every human I come across.” Buddy chuckled. “I will be with the gang soon but not before I have what we need for what comes next.”
“What do we need?”
Buddy went silent, and then, he chirped. “Windy? Where is the other person you were talking to?”
Windy patted his arm. “I think she is gone for now. She might be back soon but not today. Can you carry me back to the center?”
He nodded and lifted her in his arms. “You seem calmer today. Are you feeling better?”
She chuckled. “I am feeling better every... single... day.”
“Good. Getting better is good.”
She nodded and remained comfortably situated until they were back to the area around her tank.
The small barracks that had been created included a cot for Doros and a med bed for her. He had moved the food unit into the space, and after a few false starts, she had gotten back into the habit of actually consuming semi-solid foods.
Buddy set her on her feet next to her bed. “You should rest.”
“I have been suspended in a tank for too long. I need to get up and stay up, especially if I am to actually digest anything.”
“Fine, but I will remain near you.”
“Fair enough, I will take it. I have a parcel coming, and I need to be out there to receive it.”
Buddy followed her as she slowly made her way. “I could bring it to you.”
“You could, but I want to be there. This is going to be an aid for me, or so Lacey has informed me. I finally get to open a present on my own. You opened yourself.”
Buddy chirped. “Fine. But I am watching your steps. If you falter, I am carrying you.”
“The threat has been logged. I should be to the dock in an hour.”
She set the walker forward again and began an enthusiastic shuffle across what had been her prison. She was on her way to a present, and she was really eager to have something new, even it if was an ugly leg brace, it was still something she hadn’t had before.
Exhaustion overtook her, but she stepped into the dock as the torpedo casing slid into the interior space and settled on the floor.
Windy wrestled her walker to the unit and put her hand on the flat recognition plate.
There was a hiss as the pressurization let go, and the top of the capsule split and fell open.
Windy squealed, “Clothes!”
Blue, red, black, even purple. Each outfit was long with black and silver trim, and each limb had a strut running through it for support.
She sat on the floor and removed the shirt that Doros had given her, using it to brush her feet before she pulled on the dark red suit, one leg at a time. She wiggled, she squirmed and finally got it up over her hips. It would have been easier in a chair, but that wasn’t an option.
Once she had it above her hips, she rolled to her knees and pulled the arms up. They were fingerless gloves and very comfortable. The last thing was to close the suit, and when she had sealed it, she felt the fabric hug her.
Looking down, she grimaced. Her boobs were still at half-mast. She needed more body fat, but she could barely eat as it was. She had never wanted a cookie more in her life.
She slowly used the suit to balance and climbed to her feet. Windy flexed her knees. “Oh, this is cool.”
She felt strong, she felt balanced. She could bend over on her own. “Woo hoo!”
She did a jumping jack and then another.
Doros came over, and he was stunned. “You are standing on your own!”
She grinned. “I got a present.”
She twirled around and then staggered to catch her balance. The thick slippered feet of the suit were more rigid than her bare feet.
Doros stepped forward and caught her. “You might want to take it easy for a few days.” He laughed.
She looked up at him. “I might. I have spent so much time waiting for someone, anyone, that now that I can do it myself, I just want to run.”
“Wait on the running. Concentrate on walking.”
She chuckled. “There is so much that I have missed out on. I want to listen to the songs I have heard through the stream in person. I want to see the children with four legs, listen to the pipes of the Alguth as they court their queens.”
He paused. “You know about the Alguth?”
“I do. I know that Alphy and the others keep finding them and repairing them. They are almost human. Lucky is doing wonderful things with their programming, and I hear that Cracker is tuning them up.”
“You don’t mind aliens encroaching?”
She leaned back in his arms and laughed in his face. “We are in space. We belong here as much as the Splice do, the Alguth were ripped from their world. They don’t even have space tech.”
He blinked. “They don’t?”
“No. The Splice are looking for a species that make ideal hosts. They have found them in the past, but now, they are looking for a new source. Splice bodies don’t last long, and they have to keep making repairs. They only have some of the first raids of Earth left over. The ones without the nanite primers. We were just too fast to get a response system in action. The cyborgs came too fast.”
He looked at his arms, and he blinked. “Us?”
“You. And the others in the first-gen. I heard the generals whispering about it. They were bemoaning the fact that they couldn’t work with the first-gen anymore. You were warriors, you were weapons. You could not only kill on command, but you would keep doing it until they had to take you down.”
He shrugged. “I don’t remember that part.”
“Most don’t. They made you unstable, and they wanted to keep you that way. When Adaptation Station stepped in, we focused on fixing the men and creating the cyborgs in the same procedure. We talked them through it and kept them in the loop. They came out of it with a body that felt normal, like their human one, and from there, we turned up the power.”
Windy chuckled. “I didn’t do any of that. I just kept track of them once they left our station. I updated the roster of the dead and kept supplies flowing to the living.”
She stepped away from him and picked up the clothing in the torpedo capsule. “Hey! Boots!”
She snagged them and held them in her arms, slowly making her way back to their nest at the center of the array.
She was going to make herself an armoire... somehow. Maybe Buddy could do it for her.
She chuckled and laid out her goodies. She had choices in clothing. It had been forever since she had a choice in clothing. Even on the station, she had had to live her life in uniform. Sitting in those trousers pinched.
After her frolicking, she wanted to spend some time in the data stream, but she was having a problem getting into it while she was standing or sitting. Buddy had rigged a harness that she could suspend herself in, but she needed him to hoist her into it.
Doros came in and saw her looking at the rig. “Did you need a hand?”
“Please. I can’t get into the rig without help.”
He nodded and walked over to her, bending and lifting her up so that she could wrap the straps around her and swing slightly from the rig.
Humming one of the ancient songs, she began to swing and lost herself in the data streams. Without the filaments directly in her skull, she could hear hundreds, thousands of channels. It was a symphony in her mind, and she enjoyed every minute of it.
Chapter Seven
“The Splice are on the way.” She murmured it from her nest two days later. She untangled her arms and dropped lightly to the ground. Down was not a problem.
The array-wide broadcast put everyone on alert, and Windy picked up the weapon that Buddy had arranged for her.
Monofilament sabres were not really something she had much experience with, but she had managed t
o win a few championships with the standard type.
“I am in my shuttle. Call if you need anything.” Doros spoke to her.
“I am going out to meet them. Feel free to watch.”
“That is suicide.”
“No. I think I have a plan of attack. Close your ears.”
“I am human. They don’t close.”
“Put on some ear protection. It is going to get loud.” She smiled as she walked toward the docking area.
It took her seven minutes to get to the landing space. It took the Splice ten to exit their ship and approach her. She spoke slowly and said, “If you want this array, you will have to go through me.”
They paused. She was speaking Splice. They were not used to that.
“You were to be ours. You were promised to us. The signals stopped.” The words hissed out of the leader.
“I am my own person. They tried to use me, and that use has worn off. You can leave this array now, or I will destroy you.” She lifted the sabre.
The Splice laughed. They laughed.
She sent the waves of laughter through the array, with the psychotic cackle, and then, she focused on the notes that hurt them.
She watched them crawl back into their ship, and she remained in place until they took off. The array’s defensive systems sprang up and fired at the ship as they retreated. She crippled their vessel, and it drifted.
She was about to turn and head back into the heart of the array, and the ship exploded.
She turned to Doros where he stood next to his shuttle with a blaster. “I didn’t do that.”
A voice came into her mind. “I did. We are in your vicinity; would you like to change offices?”
Alphy’s voice was unmistakable.
“Sure. Just let me pack.”
“I can send someone to help you pack.”
“I have an armful of stuff literally. I can load it into Doros’s shuttle.”
Doros grinned. “Plenty of room.”
He was listening to her one-way conversation and was comfortable interjecting.
She grinned and walked over to his shuttle. “I have never actually been in this shuttle before.”