Relieved that her efforts were working, Nell probed the next link. This would disable Richmond’s arms, neck and stop her artificial heart. A slight tremor shook Nell’s hands. If she messed up, Richmond’s brain wouldn’t get any oxygen and she’d die.
You will not mess up
.
Nell popped out the next neural link. It clattered to the floor, but she didn’t care. She quickly selected another from the gurney and snapped it into place. The computer registered a heartbeat, then two. Nell took a calming breath. Syn-En’s hearts only beat twelve times a minute. There wasn’t much organic tissue left in them that required blood. “Actually, the human population dropped from over seven billion to less than five hundred million. The disease also wiped out ninety percent of all mammals and marsupials, eighty percent of birds and reptiles and half of the ocean’s populations.”
“My systems register irreparable damage to my heart, lungs and digestive tract.”
Nell checked the screen. While she knew replacing the links wouldn’t cure all of Richmond’s problems, Nell had hoped it might fix some of them. “I have to stabilize your interfaces before I open your chest cavity.”
That sounded more appropriate on a medical drama than coming from an executive assistant. Sweat boiled from Nell’s upper lip. She wiped it on her sleeve then quickly replaced the last three links and closed the cerebral interface. Of course, no admin assistant had a mother/conscience like Nell’s.
Richmond rolled onto her back and stared at Nell. “I had not realized there could be so many people. The UEN Council says Earth should not be burdened with more than five hundred million and are taking efforts to curb the reproduction rates.”
The UEN lies
. Afraid of insulting her patient or the Syn-Ens, Nell kept her thoughts to herself and continued her story. She skimmed Richmond’s tattered uniform until her fingers found the six indentations that would open the girl’s chest cavity. “Because of the disease’s virulence, many scientists believe the virus arrived in one of the meteor showers common in the early twenty-first century. In fact, it has an odd base pair not common on earth and…”
Nell pushed the last indentation. There was a hiss and grind as Richmond’s chest split open along her sternum. Nell watched the remains of the girl’s uniform still attached to her small breasts. Could the magnets make the fabric cling to her skin?
Not skin, armor. Their dermis is artificial and functions as armor
.
Waving away the cloud of noxious vapors, Nell peered inside. Expecting the chest to be packed tighter than a Toyota engine, she was shocked by its emptiness. Silver plate glinted off her ribs and spinal cord. Of course the pink tubes and blobs present were crushed and there was blood. To her surprise it didn’t float but slowly seemed to be disappearing.
The SMA will return it to the heart, but we must stop the loss
.
Holding her breath against the stench, Nell donned a pair of gloves from the box attached to the wall then reached inside the chest cavity and wrapped her hands around the damaged tissue. Two small balloon-like sacs acted like lungs to oxygenate the blood going to Richmond’s brain. Both inflated in rapid succession to the hiss of leaking air. The pale pink heart was attached to the misshapen lungs. When the bottom of the tiny organ contracted, blood sprayed out of a puncture in the engorged top.
That is not correct.
Stopping, Nell waited for further instructions. God knew she didn’t want to do anything wrong. After a moment it dawned on her that her mother referred to the emptiness where the reproductive organs should be. How were the Syn-En supposed to have children?
We’ll send Doc instructions on how to fix this. It shall work out very well. Very well indeed.
Nell’s skin prickled from mother/conscience’s ‘stranger with candy’ tone. They were on the Syn-En’s side, weren’t they?
Of course, we just haven’t the time to fix her reproductive issues
.
Before Nell could change her mind about accepting her mother/conscience’s help, her fears seemed to evaporate. She could trust that voice inside her head. She needed to if she wanted to survive and complete her mission.
Richmond set her hand on Nell’s forearm. “How badly damaged am I?”
Below a tiny stomach, a small coil of bowel was split and waste smeared the inside of the girl’s body. The SMA absorbed the mess and returned it to her bowels for excretion, where it leaked out again. Shaking herself, Nell dipped her hands into the steamy interior and felt for shrapnel. “Not too bad.”
“You are not a good liar, Nell Stafford.” Richmond glanced down at the opening then frowned and wrinkled her nose. “Sometimes I think it would be better if the Syn-En had no biologic parts. They are very fragile.”
“I don’t know about that. I mean we biologics came back from being nearly extinct several times.” Nell inserted a tissue knitting patch with built in antibiotic and antiseptic capabilities into the split bowel and sutured the gash closed with nanotubes. After washing the area with sterile water, she checked for leaks but detected none.
“Yet this virus, something so small even Syn-En’s can’t see, has killed so many.”
Nell attached the replacement lungs to the mechanical heart and set them aside. Using a syringe, she sucked up a few droplets of Richmond’s blood, injected it into the cellular coating sac and waited. “New diseases always decimate a population. Imagine a castle. You’ve seen one, right?”
Nell’s palms sweated from tension. If the sac didn’t make the right mix of coating to cover the new synthetic lungs and heart, Richmond’s body would reject the organs, flooding her brain with antibodies and kill her.
No pressure
.
“Of course, Syn-Ens receive an eighth level civilian education.” Richmond’s pride shone on her nearly repaired heart-shaped face. “Plus castles are not affected by the Great Plague.”
“Well, a castle has a moat, walls, restricted entrance and exit points, turrets and arrow slits, right? Those are their defenses.” The coater beeped signaling its readiness. Nell plugged the nozzles on the bottom of the coater into the heart/lung interface. The lungs inflated and the heart began to pump.
“I believe that is correct.”
“So imagine your enemy has a shuttle and laser cannons.” Nell glanced up. Richmond’s face had completely healed. Not even a scar remained. “A castle can’t defend against a flying machine that can jump walls and ignore doors, nor could its walls withstand a barrage of high energy weapons. It takes time for the defenses to adapt and much life is lost in the mean time.”
“But many people died.”
“Those that survived adapted.” The light on the coater flashed green. The lungs and heart were ready for placement. “Your enhancements can’t adapt, they have to be changed out, replaced with upgrades.”
“I would have died without them.”
“Probably, but your armor punctured your organs, causing your fatal errors.” Nell carefully disconnected the damaged organs and began replacing them with the new ones. The system reminded her of a plumbing compression joints. Of course, these didn’t leak. After sealing the connection with nanotubes, Nell waited until all the blood was absorbed. Satisfied, she added an antibiotic stent in the mesh of vessels going to the brain and closed the chest cavity.
“I am sorry, Nell Stafford, but that is not a very good story.”
Nell smiled. She could imagine her niece saying the exact same thing. “Out of the chaos of the Great Plague and solar storms came the first enhanced citizens. These men and women were former soldiers who’d lost an arm or leg during the wars.”
Switching on the imager, Nell began to scan Richmond for missed injuries.
“Why would they volunteer for such a life?”
“They signed up to save their friends and family from the little plagues and a lot of natural disasters.” All systems on the screen flashed green. She had done it! Nell resisted the urge to dance a happy jig and instead, helped Richmond to sit up.
Richmond checked the movement in her arm and legs, then twisted and turned at the waist. “You did it. You saved me.” The girl threw her arms around Nell before quickly releasing her. “I mean, how high were their tech penalties?”
“Tech penalties didn’t exist. They were citizens before and after. Many regarded them as heroes, because their implants allowed them to go where most people couldn’t. The more prosthetics they had, the more they could do. It wasn’t long before what remained of the government took notice and began using them almost exclusively.”
Richmond leapt confidently to the floor. A bright smile lit her features. “And then the Syn-En lost their rights?”
“That didn’t happen until the United Earth Nations formed. You see no single nation could afford their own Enhanced Force so they pooled their money, and took advantage of a little known law enacted in 2012, that allowed them to take the children of indebted adults as well as conscript their parents, and the Syn-En Force was born. So was a caste system in what had been free societies.” Nell tasted the bitterness in her mouth. That loophole had been created in her lifetime. Would early twenty-first century Americans have allowed it if they had known where it would lead?
“I would rather die than give up my freedom.” Richmond curled her hand into a fist. Gone was the look of a girl, instead she now appeared as a resolute soldier.
“It was different times and it probably saved us from extinction. Despite the Enhanced soldiers, the census of 2025 recorded only fifty thousand childbearing adults on the entire planet.” Nell cleared away the damaged material, and arranged her operating tools on the gurney. In the back of her thoughts, Nell listened to her mother/conscience selecting the next patient. “The original Syn-En charter was for ten years, then the force was to be disbanded. But it didn’t work out that way.”
“No it did not. We became slaves.” Richmond closed her eyes for a moment. “You have used parts for purposes other than they were intended. Yet, I do not detect any incompatibilities. In fact, they are functioning better than the prescribed way with a time savings of over ten hours. Perhaps there is something to this bio flexibility you champion.”
“Perhaps.” Nell moved the tool laden gurney to the side and wheeled the nearest sheet-draped body into position under the imager.
Richmond lowered the imager’s arms around the patient’s head. “How do you know this part of the Syn-En history when it is not in our program?”
“My brother received the first Syn-En prosthesis.” Nell spoke with pride and sorrow. Her brother had enlisted to save her family when the power plant melted down in their hometown. Instead he had discovered their family had been slaughtered months before.
With confident strides, Richmond walked to the computer and initialized the scanner. “Then that makes you a Syn-En, Nell Stafford. We are inducted as families.”
Family. Nell cleared the lump from her throat. It would be nice to be surrounded by people who accepted you no matter what.
See, I told you by helping them you will be accepted and it should be easier to finish your mission
.
“Thank you for the honor of considering me a Syn-En.” Nell shuffled over to the supplies corner to retrieve more spare parts. Life would be easier now that she knew her job was to lead them to Terra Dos. Too bad she sensed another purpose buried deep inside, one that jeopardized her new Syn-En family.
The Supreme Council of United Earth Nations empowers the Syn-En Fleet authorities to enforce their collective will
for the betterment of the mission, the service and humanity.
Right of Jurisprudence
Syn-En
Vade Mecum
Chapter Thirteen
Where the hell could the woman have gone? Bei strode into sick bay, caught the scent of disinfectant, blood and burnt NDA. Fatigue twisted his thoughts back on themselves and responsibility hung heavy on his artificial limbs. The status of his fleet. The findings of the scientists. The citizens’ attack. And always, Nell Stafford. The woman lurked in his cerebral interface like a computer virus.
Thirty-six hours had passed since he’d last seen her. Between the prioritizing repairs and supplies, retrieving his men and reassigning crews and dealing with the civilians, he’d barely had a thought to himself. And yet the memory of her smile haunted him. Bei needed to see her and assure himself of her safety. That was all he’d allow. Despite her fancy words, they were too different. Even now, fury against citizens remained a dormant beast in the WA, waiting for a reason to strike.
A reason in the form of one unaltered human.
Hell, Bei knew she’d already been injured, had felt the attack the moment one of his men had deliberately run into her. Doc had confirmed that she remained healthy and active while explaining she wanted to protect her assailant’s identity. Bei had allowed the incident to pass because he hadn’t yet made it clear to everyone in the fleet that she was under his protection.
Thanks to the WA, it was crystal clear now, and his men resented it.
They saw her as a citizen, yet she was so much more. She was hope and the future. Their future. Bei ran his hand through his short, black hair before scanning the large room. Harsh white light filled the near empty infirmary’s triage room. The scrape of his boots against the deck echoed back to him. For a moment his gaze landed on a heap of mangled limbs, spotlighting the rising cost of the mission. His gut clenched.
While Syn-En armor protected him and his men from most injuries, flesh and bone could be damaged quite easily.
If Nell were well, why would Doc bring her to sick bay? Had he lied about her injuries? No. Bei trusted his chief medical officer. Hell, he trusted all his men.
Just perhaps not with Nell.
Bei struggled with the inconsistencies. Something about her drove him, made him want to see to her needs and protection personally. The ridiculousness of the thought irritated him. With the citizens openly declaring war against the Syn-En, he could not afford the appearance of favoring her, even if she had come to save them.