7-134- 14th December - 11 p.m. - Race Over

A needle slipped into my arm, and I woke to see Allie’s soft eyes staring up at me. “Just something different for the pain,” she whispered.

I nodded at her, keeping my head on the pillow. “How am I looking?” I asked.

“Not good,” she said. Her petite face frowned and her eyes watered. “Come on, I’ve got some warm water in a bath with your name on it.”

“A bath? You said shower.”

“This will be better.” She coaxed me forward. “Come on.”

I slid off the bed with her help; the new meds were working great. She then took me into a room where there was a walk-in tub. I stepped in, and she closed the door.

“It will start filling any moment now,” she said with a smile. Damn, she was cute. I found myself staring. Not that I’d ever not stared at her but here, now, she was like an angel.

The tub did start to fill. The hot water, which had salts and other good-smelling stuff in it, filled up from the bottom. Quite quickly, I might add. But, oh boy, it really felt good. “What’s in here?” I asked.

“There’s a lot in it. Just know it’s all helping.”

“I feel better.” I was also talking better. “But that is just the meds, right?”

“Yes, it is. You’ve had some nanite gel over your face, and I gave you a shot of morphadol and some crisis-management assistant with anti-sickness added in for good measure. Some other drugs, well, I don’t know what they were, they were from First Lieutenant Bryd.”

“That bad?” I asked again, really wanting to know and for her to say something nice, to assure me it was okay. I would be okay.

“Let the bath work,” she said.

She didn’t need to say it was bad; her silence confirmed it. I let the bath fill up while she played with the buttons a bit, and then she soaped up her hands and stepped towards me.

“What are you doing?” I asked, my stomach somersaulting.

“Just going to wash your hair. I’ll be careful,” she said. “It’s my job, Rusty.”

I’d never had anyone else touch me, not for a long time. Of course, my mom was the last person to wash my hair, too. It was odd. But damn, she was gentle, just like she’d said, and this got blood pumping to all the places I wasn’t thinking about. I tried to push how close she was to me to the back of my mind, but I couldn’t help it. I had always liked her.

She worked out the blood at the back of my scalp, and though it stung a little, it didn’t start to bleed again. That was good.

“You really did give yourself a knock,” she said. “I wish you’d come in last night.”

“I couldn’t have paid.”

“I know, but I’d have figured something out. You’re one of my brother’s best friends.”

“Not anymore,” I said. Anger surfaced, though I tried not to let it show.

“He’s really sorry,” she said and let out a small sigh. “The authorities really are looking for you.”

“They’ll find me here, then.”

“No, not with the surrounding security. No one knows you’re here. You’re a figment of their imagination.”

“Oh,” I said. “I guess that’s good.”

Allie shook her head, her eyes wide. “I’m not so sure about that, Rusty. What are you wrapped up in here? I’ve never seen clearance like what Bryd has.”

“But you can’t talk to anyone else either, I bet?”

She shook her head. “No, no one.”

“My results? What are they looking for?”

“Those drugs they gave me to give you, drugs I’ve never heard of, were working in seconds to help heal you. I—” She paused for a moment, and I looked back at her. “They saved your life; you’d be dead without them. Your bone breaks were significant; there’s serious damage to your face. Mostly, they wanted to see if there were any signs of permanent head trauma, or if it would surface again at any point in the future. They asked for your compatibility with tech, and more importantly, nite tech and military-grade metals.”

“I understand,” I said, my head nodding along with her words. My injuries. My face alone . . . I, well, they wanted to know if I’d be an asset or a drain.

“Please be careful with them,” she said and moved to rinse my hair. “They mean business.”

“I know,” I replied, and on the inside, I really did. “Did you send the whole report over to them?”

“Yes, though kinda reluctantly.”

“Thanks, Allie. And for the care.”

“You’re like a kid brother.” She laughed.

My heart took a double beat. I’d always had a crush on her and Bail knew it. He was always teasing me because she was ten years older than us. But ten years was nothing. She had no boyfriend. I had a chance, right?

Now, I could see she wasn’t interested. She was doing her job and trying to look out for me, and that made my heart ache all the more. I wanted to go home. I wanted my mom. Heck, I even wanted the harsh words and growls of Tsomak. I missed both of them. It had been hard the last year, really for most of my life. But it was home.

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Allie moved, bringing me out of my deeper, darker thoughts. “Soak as long as you need, then hit the empty and wash off. Think you can dry yourself off and get dressed?”

I shook my head at her. “I mean, I can try, but . . .”

“I’ll go order you some food, then get you back into bed.”

A voice came through from outside. “I can do that, Miss.”

When we both looked, there was First Lieutenant Bryd. Allie turned to me and stated, “I’ll come see you in a bit.”

When she left, First Lieutenant Bryd moved to the front of the tub. “Lieutenant general’s on his way back,” he said, giving me a once over, his frown betraying his thoughts. “How are you feeling?”

“How do I look?” I asked.

“Honestly?” He sighed. “Like an extremely battered waif or stray.”

I shrugged. “I guess I am.”

The bath’s plug made a sucking sound as I hit for it to empty, then with one hand, did as Allie had said with the soap and nozzle I found. It was nice to be and to smell this clean.

I stood then, with no real worries about the man before me who never even looked away. “You really are black . . . no blue,” he said, his eyes trailing my frame. “You could do with some good food to help you bulk out, too.”

“Thanks for the physical assessment,” I said. I glanced down, knowing what he said was the truth. “Going to be multicolored in a few days, no doubt.”

“With our meds, it shouldn’t last long.” He ran a hand over his cropped hair. “You just cost us a small fortune; I hope you’re worth it.”

“What?” I cringed at his us; did he mean M-Corp, or them personally? “How much?”

“Two hundred thousand credits,” came his answer.

“What?” Holy fuck . . . I hadn’t even signed anything important yet.

He handed me a towel, and I stepped out of the tub and onto the mat with his help. It wasn’t as nice with him in the room, or doing this, but at least my excitement had died off earlier. That would have been embarrassing.

He helped me dress, and the clothes fit much better than my own. They were meant for someone much younger than I was, though. I kept telling myself I’d grow into them, into all of them. At the moment, I seemed destined to stay skinny.

First Lieutenant Bryd gently got my arm into a sling and then rested it under a shirt. Tucking the arm of it around me, he fastened only the bottom few buttons. “Okay?”

I nodded, and we moved to the main room again. “Car’s here. I’ll be back in a moment.”

When he did come back, I found myself drifting again, leaning back on the bed. I felt someone sit, and when I looked up, it was into the eyes of the captain once more.

“Son?” he asked, his voice low, commanding.

I tried to sit up straighter, but he held his hand up. “At ease. You’re not in the military yet.”

“Yet?” I asked.

“Yet,” he said with a curt nod to First Lieutenant Bryd. “I am here to ask you to join us.”

“Join you? I passed your tests?” I asked. The butterflies in my stomach were growing. There were some choices coming my way, choices that would affect my life forever.

“Medically, you’re sound, barring recent injuries, so yes.” Though, he did glance over my form. “Physically, you just cost a fair bit, and you could do with some more work.”

I let out a little chuckle at that. “You said I needed to be fully with it to talk to you about this. Why?”

Lieutenant General Michaels looked to his First Lieutenant Bryd, who dipped his head, then stepped out the door. “Yes,” he said and held out a data pad. “I need you to look this over. You are then free to ask me any questions while I’m here, but once you sign it . . .”

“I’m yours?” I asked, “And there’s no going back?”

“I’m here at the request of an old friend. And pulling more than a few strings for him right now.”

“Tsomak liked me,” I whispered, trying to convince myself this was a good thing. That he wouldn’t have just sent me off to ruin my life or my mother’s if she found out.

I took the data pad and read.

Special Recruitment Request

Immediate placement for Ruslan Korolyov into the SAR 707 Intense Training Program at M-Corp’s Ground School for advancement into Ocean Oil Fields Full Helicopter Pilot Scheme, with installed M-Corp X tech to be fitted as soon as possible at Rise Hospital.

Cost = Undisclosed

I had no idea what SAR 707 stood for, or X tech. Any tech would add more costs to my debt. And I was sure it was a debt I would have to pay back.

“I have one question,” he said. “Why do you want to fly?”

I didn’t hesitate. “I’ve never wanted anything else, from the moment I first saw a helo cross the skies heading to the wall. I wanted that, to be up there, and to help the city any way I could.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” he said.

“Is it going to be hard?” I asked him.

“You’ll be pushed beyond every single limit you think you have and then even further.”

“Will you heal all my injuries?”

“We’ve done what we can here. You’ll be given a full medical workout at Rise. It’s M-Corp’s most prestigious hospital. That includes healing and fixing any damage, broken bones, old or new. You’ll also be retrofitted with the new X HUD system and balancing nite system.”

“I’d imagine that’s quite the cost.”

“Yes, it is. On average, every trainee coming in has already had over a million put into them.”

“A million credits?”

“Yes, they come from the top training facilities around Artem.”

“You’re talking about kids taken at the age of ten, right? I’m six years out of training, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Will you expect me to catch up?”

He just nodded this time.

“What’s the SAR 707?”

“Turn the page,” he said.

I did, and my whole body shivered. There, in full 3D was a helicopter, but not just a helicopter. This was . . . I tapped the screen, and a 3D image appeared before me. Its details flashed up with it.

SAR 707 - Statistics

General

Crew: 4 (two pilots, two special mission aviators/aerial gunners)

Capacity: maximum crew six / eight–twelve troops / litters and/or other cargo

Length: 64 ft 10 in (19.76 m)

Height: 16 ft 8 in (5.08 m)

Empty weight: 16,000 lb (7,257 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 22,000 lb (9,979 kg)

Powerplant: 2 × General Electric - E17-SQ 700 Turboshaft Engines, 1,940 shp (1,450 kW) each

Main rotor diameter: 52 ft 8 in (16.05 m)

Performance

Maximum speed: 193 kn (222 mph, 357 km/h)

Cruise speed: 159 kn (183 mph, 294 km/h)

Range: 324 nmi (373 mi, 600 km)

Ferry range: 441 nmi (507 mi, 817 km)

Service ceiling: 14,000 ft (4,300 m)

“Sir,” I said and my hand shook. I steadied it by putting the data pad on the bed. “You think I’m capable of flying this?”

“You tell me,” he said. “Are you?”

“Yes,” I said, needing no conviction there.

He straightened himself up some more. “Yes?”

“Yes, sir. I am.”

“So, ask away, I’ve time now. But after today I’m out of bounds, and you’ll defer to your superiors. Understand?”

“Yes,” I said. Then I proceeded to ask Lieutenant General Michaels many, many more questions about how far behind I was. How much work I was going to have to do to catch up to the teams he wanted to place me with.

After an hour, silence drifted between us. He shifted in his chair and let out a groan to stand and stretch. I heard his back pop and I flinched. “I’m not getting any younger,” he said.

“No tech?”

“No,” he said. “This is all me, ageing bones and all.”

When he sat back down, he perched on the edge of the seat. “I’m not going to lie to you. This is a lot to take in. Not only are you heading in unprepared, no time at all with military training, you’re severely injured.”

“Every disadvantage in the books, right?”

“And then some.”

I thought about the view up on top of the Duan Leeatre, and how many online credits I’d burned looking over the tech I might need to even think about flying. Here I was now with the opportunity of a lifetime.

My heart pounded, and I fumbled with so many other questions, I couldn’t get anything coherent out of my mouth.

“Slow down,” he said. Then his eyes misted as he ordered something in his HUD.

Moments later, we had food and drinks, and he settled in across from me much more comfortably, his jacket off, his shirt sleeves rolled up.