The Syn-En Solution (24 page)

“You screamed ‘no’ then I heard you hit the ground.”

Memories surged through Nell: the hospital, the body parts on racks and the Monty Python morgue of the not-dead-yet. She opened her eyes and gasped in horror.

A pair of brown eyes in what was left of a tan face stared back. Pale pink lids masked the eyes for a moment before they continued their perusal. His eyes seemed to be the only part of him that remained intact. His bottom jaw had been ripped off, leaving flaps of skin and tissue to curl around his neck. His arms and legs had been cleanly detached at the joints, no doubt to join the heap of limbs for reuse.

Nell’s stomach burbled at the sight.
What do you call a man with no arms and legs who is treading water
?
Bob.

It is an inappropriate time for levity. You must help him, Nell. Help all of them
. Her mother/conscience prodded.

Help him
?
How
? Nell countered, thinking of all the king’s horses and his men. Although what help horses would be, she really didn’t know. Then again, maybe just the thought of the nursery rhyme was a sign of impending hysteria.

“Anaheim says you’re bleeding.” The girl spoke from somewhere above Nell’s head. “You’re not hurt bad are you? Because, we’re cut off from the others and unable to send for help.”

“Bleeding?” Nell slid her hand through the cobweb of spittle hovering around her mouth and touched her sore head. As soon as she reached the goose egg behind her temple, lightning bolts flashed inside her skull. “What happened?”

Although she glanced at Anaheim, Richmond answered. “Anaheim says you had some sort of seizure while in the imager then landed on the floor next to him.”

“I had a seizure?” Nell used her arms to leverage herself into a sitting position. Her body felt as if she’d been beat with brick bats.

Doc said you had many seizures
, her mother/conscience supplied.

I know that
. Nell rolled her knees under her body, latched onto the side of a gurney and hauled herself to her feet. But there was something else, a shadowy memory lurking on the fringe. She tried to tease it to the fore but pain ricocheted inside her skull.

You must help the Syn-En, show them you’re on their side. It is the only way to get them to trust you so you can complete your mission
.

Nell staggered toward the computer near the helmet-shaped imager. If she had scanned her head, there should be results. She fumbled with the keyboard.

“You’re not going to try again, are you?” Richmond’s concern wrapped around Nell. “Anaheim says the imager emits an ultrasonic frequency that some people are highly susceptible to.”

They sounded so calm, so sane. Nell hated it.

“I just need to check something.” Tapping on the keys, Nell brought up the recent images. The file was empty. How can that be? Unease coiled around her spine. Her fingers trembled as she called up the computer’s trash bin. Empty.
Shouldn’t there be something
?

You deleted the pictures after you found nothing significant on the images. You didn’t want the Syn-En to think you didn’t trust them. Trust is important
. Her mother/conscience soothed her, much like a snake charmer tamed a swaying cobra.

The comparison chilled the marrow in Nell’s bones and her thoughts flew making ominous connections. If the seizure hadn’t caused her to pass out, what had?

Perhaps you should sit down
.

Her mother/conscience knew. Nell wiped her bloody fingers on her pants and looked around the cramped rectangular room. Except for the area under the imager, the nearly-dead filled the gurneys and baker’s racks crowding the floorspace. What did it mean that her mother could remember, but Nell couldn’t?

Nell, I’m a part of you. I know things because you know them. The truth is you’re just not ready to deal with what you discovered yet.

If that’s the case, then why are you going to tell me
? Since there wasn’t a place to sit nearby, Nell propped herself against the wall. The cool metal dulled the ache along her right side.

I’ll tell you so you stop worrying and get on to more important things.

Like the mission
. A sense of calmness settled over Nell. The moment was surreal and unexpected but it didn’t bother her. Maybe it was the last seizure, but she now knew her mission was to get safely to Terra Dos.

Exactly. See you do remember
.

Do I
? The idea didn’t seem so much as a memory as a knowing, like the knowledge that came from nowhere. Her heart skipped a few beats before settling back into rhythm. Her scalp tingled then a warm languor filled her limbs.

You do. Now take a deep breath and I’ll tell you why you passed out
.

Foreboding pulled against her. Nell tried to brace herself against what was coming, but couldn’t quite muster the energy. She felt drugged, disconnected from her thoughts.

You fainted after learning that your family is dead
.

“My family is dead.” Nell jerked away from the wall. Tears stung her eyes and pricked her nose but the loss… She cupped her hand over mouth to hold in the wail threatening to burst from her lungs. Christ, if this was how she reacted upon hearing it the second time, no wonder she’d passed out the first time. Acknowledging it allowed memories to trickle in-the money, her family and her brother… The information came and went like a documentary. If helping the Syn-En didn’t gain her acceptance, perhaps her brother’s actions would. Yet a part of her whispered that there was something else. Something her mother/conscience didn’t want her to know.

A sheet-covered lump by the door moved. “That is to be expected, isn’t it? I mean you are from over a century ago, aren’t you?”

Nell waded through the tidal wave of grief to focus on the small feminine figure under the cloth. She trudged across the floor to uncover Richmond. “Yes.”

But somehow she’d thought maybe her parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews had also found a means to survive. The notion was absurd and stupid and yet… Nell inhaled a ragged breath.

You are holding up well
.

Nell choked on a sob. Damn. Aside from her memories, that inner voice was all that remained of her mother. She was alone. No one would miss her if she just disappeared. Pity partied inside her head.

That is why you must make yourself useful. Help the Syn-En so they will have no cause to make you disappear
.

Nell shuddered. The Syn-En had no problem accepting death, short term or permanent. Then again, as soldiers it had to be a constant companion. She clasped the injured girl’s hand. Life, warmth and vitality flowed against her palms. “Don’t you want to live?”

The girl nodded then shrugged, but moisture glistened in her green eyes. “Doc can save forty Syn-En in the time it would take to fix me. It is not so bad a trade off. They are my family. Wouldn’t you die to save your family?”

Information streamed through Nell’s mind. The Save our World Foundation had paid a large settlement to her family for Nell’s ‘death’. With the money, her parents had made contributions to a local food bank. Their donations had brought them to the attention of a group of thugs, which led to a home invasion and her family’s deaths.
Enough
! She shut off the thoughts and focused on the girl beside her. A droplet of water drifted in front of Nell. It took a moment to realize it was a tear. Her tear. “My being here caused my family’s death.”

Although merely a rasp in the silence, the words burned her throat like acid.
Stop thinking about it. Deal with it later, right now, make yourself useful. Maybe something good will come out of volunteering
.

“I am sorry for your loss.” The girl squeezed Nell’s hand.

“Thank you.” Nell nodded, somewhat angry at the pat phrase. Couldn’t they have come up with something more comforting in a hundred years?

“What do you think will happen to me once I cease functioning?” A watery sheen brightened her eyes.

You can help her, Nell. You can save them all
.

Nell’s thoughts flipped to the quadruple amputee missing the lower half of his face. Somehow she doubted he could be saved, even with her mother/conscience’s newfound optimism. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to try to help this one, would it?

They’ve already been written off as dead
.

Dead. Nell hated the word. If she could deprive the grim reaper of one soul, it would be worth it. Anger forged her determination. “I’m going to fix you.”

Hope blossomed in Richmond’s cheeks and lifted her lips. “You are?”

“Yes.” Nell’s hands fluttered around her like stunned birds, confused about how to land.
All right Mom. Tell me what to do.

You must trust me, Nell. Follow your instincts without question. The slightest hesitation could result in the girl’s passing
.

Nell nodded.
Trust my instincts
. A part of her rebelled against the idea, but another surrendered. Those hardwired responses helped her survive, they were there to protect her. After counting to ten, she set her hands on the side of the gurney.
I’m ready.

We’ll need to scan her.

As if watching from the outside, Nell slid the gurney out of its place, down the cleared aisle and maneuvered it under the imager. Pushing up the helmet, she lowered the imager’s arms and positioned the arc-shaped scanner near the girl’s head. Nell combed the hair away from the girl’s face and smiled down at her. “Try to be still while I scan okay?”

“I can shut down my motion subroutines.” A spasm shook her shoulders.

“Unfortunately, you can’t. I need to see what’s working and what isn’t.” Her mother/conscience’s words came out of Nell’s mouth. So this is what it’s like to be possessed. While not unpleasant, it didn’t seem quite right.

Do you want to help her or not
?

I want to help
. Striding over to the computer, Nell felt more herself. True, her body moved without conscious thought, but instead of feeling like a marionette to her mother/conscience puppeteer, knowledge trickled in. She knew what she was doing and why, no translator needed. Her fingers moved nimbly over the keyboard. A hum echoed around the room as the imager began to work its way down the girl’s body.

Images popped up on the screen. Red highlighted the systems facing critical failures. Of the twelve listed, only two remained green.

Nell tensed. Maybe she should have picked someone with not so many problems.

The girl studied her crushed right arm. “Don’t worry Nell Stafford. I did not really think you could fix me, but I do appreciate you trying.”

“Hey now, don’t give up.” Nell infused confidence in her voice. “I’m going to fix you.”

Already her mother/conscience prioritized the repairs and Nell’s palms itched to begin as instinct kicked in. She grasped the girl’s crushed arm, pushed it up tighter into the joint and twisted to the left. The seal broke with a sigh and the arm came free from the torso. On the monitor, one of the red lights flashed green. “See I helped you already.”

“And with the saved energy, I will live twelve minutes longer.”

“You’re going to live decades longer, by the time I’m through with you.” Nell eased her hands under Richmond and rolled the girl onto her side. “I’m going to power down most of your cerebral interface, okay?”

“That will disable my WA connection with the others.” Richmond’s lower lip trembled against her chin.

“For a short period.” Nell opened the fingertips of the severed arm and jerked out the Phillips head screwdriver.

“I’ll be all alone.”

“I’m here and I’ll keep talking okay?” Carefully, Nell pushed away the skin covering the access panel and unscrewed the cover. Black charred the interior of the small box. She wiped away the soot and inspected the five separate compartments containing a mesh of nanoconnectors. They would all need to be replaced.

“W-What will we talk about?”

Nell snapped off a flathead screwdriver from the finger tool belt and worked it against the first cerebral-neural link. Removing it would paralyze Richmond from the waist down, lock her Smart Metal Alloy skin/armor in place and render her mute. Without removing the chip, Nell set the screwdriver down and looked around the room. Shouldn’t there be spare parts around, it was a hospital after all? “How about I tell you a story?”

“A story?” Richmond relaxed. “Will cunning or strength win the battle?”

“A little of both.” Jockeying the gurneys, Nell wove a crooked path to the cabinet next to the door. One by one, she opened and closed the embedded drawers, plucking out spare neural links, fine tools, and other assorted parts as she went.

“I do not believe I have ever heard such a story.”

“Well I hope you enjoy it, then.” After working her way back to her patient, Nell dumped her treasures on the space near Richmond’s head. Nell sifted through the information, looking for the one bright spot she remembered. Along with the medical information, her mother/conscience fed her what she wanted to know. “Do you know why the Syn-Ens were created?”

“To protect citizens, then civilians. In that order.”

Nell grabbed the cerebral interface forceps, opened and closed them to get a feel for the sensitivity of the highfalutin tweezers then set the tips against the first burnt out link. “I’m talking about in the beginning, before everything degenerated into a caste system.”

Forceps poised, Nell waited for Richmond to answer.

The girl glanced over her shoulder at Nell. “There is no such time.”

Nell gently turned Richmond’s face away, wiggled the charred link free and tossed it on the floor. Using the forceps, she picked a new one and slipped it into place. “Before the solar flares of 2020, a great plague swept across Earth.”

Richmond blinked and reared back slightly. Her partially severed bottom lip flopped against her chin. Starting from the point of attachment, the gash healed itself in a zipper motion. “According to my history ebook, the great plague decimated Earth’s population. Humanity went from almost a billion people to less than two hundred thousand in the span of four years.”