Into the Void

Chapter 20

Nate slowly opened his eyes, squinting against a harsh sterile white light. Feeling groggy, he tried to sit up only to be held down by a pair of strong steel hands. He settled back down onto the bed, tried to speak but failed, managing only to make a dry croaking sound. Someone passed him a cup of water and he drank greedily.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Little bit of bad news,” said Damon, quietly. “We brought you in, treated you for a little dehydration and then had to put you under and remove your arm for repairs. I'm sorry but I don't think we'll be able to save it. Now, the anesthetic we have here isn't great, you can expect dry mouth, maybe headache and a little nausea as side effects.”

Nate looked over to his right, his prosthetic had been completely removed at the shoulder, leaving stubs of nerve cable and a set of shiny brackets poking out through the scar tissue. Looking up he could see Damon standing over him, still holding him by the shoulders.

“Looks like I'll be taking an upgrade after all,” said Nate.

Damon looked surprised, “Are you sure?” he asked. “I know you were never too keen on being augmented.”

Nate sighed. “Well I can't fly one handed. So yeah, let's go find an engineer.”

Damon helped him out of the bed and together they walked out into the bright afternoon glare. Nate breathed in a deep breath of the warm salty sea air. They stepped into the large tent on the beach, finding Izzy, Reginald and Olivia leaning over a workbench. The engineers all had a vacant, half asleep look, like they’d all been working extra long hours. Nate stepped over to the bench, the engineers were looking down at his old arm. 

“What’s the damage?” asked Nate.

Reginald took off his glasses, rubbing at his eyes. “It’s pretty bad. Muscle fibers are pretty busted up, servos are locked and I’m not sure we’ll ever get this forearm bone to sit straight again.”

“Now what we could do is use whatever components we can salvage to make a new piece,” said Izzy.

Nate looked around at the meager tools and parts in the tent. “Do we have the right parts for that?” he asked.

Izzy shrugged. “The supply crate came with some spare parts for the ship, and some stuff to patch up Rowan and Onyx, I think we should be able to cobble something together.”

Nate looked past the engineers, Rowan was laid out on a table in the corner of the tent. Izzy’s multi-limbed backpack stood over him, working diligently on the Construct’s chest. Nate stepped slowly over to the damaged construct. His chest plate had been removed, revealing an orderly tangle of cables and processors. Rowan’s eyes fluttered open.

“Hey, you made it back,” said Rowan weakly. “Looks like you left some hardware behind too.”

“I didn’t leave it behind,” said Nate. “It’s just over there on the table.”

Rowan laughed. “I hope they can fix it.”

“I hope they can fix you too.”

Rowan shook his head. “Come on, you don’t mean that. Machines are replaceable, isn’t that what you said the other day?”

Nate bowed his head looking down at the ground. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “Onyx left me with some information on Constructs when I was stuck in the dropship. It was a real eye opener. You’re right, we’re not so different.”

Rowan nodded. “You know the first generation of constructs had their neural lattices made with imprints of real human brains, from scientists and engineers and stuff. We might as well be people, we’re just a slightly different species.”