The battle outside the warehouse had shown Trace just how much he had been overestimating himself. He had gotten lucky with the scav den he hit, only a little bit of it was his actual skill. Though that had played a part as well, just not as much as it should have.

When he was able to close the warehouse doors behind him after looting all the bodies, the sigh of relief he let out was all-encompassing.

He had gotten caught up in the feeling of his increasingly healed body and the idea of relatively easy money. There had been many reasons, but the end result was him stupidly letting his mind run away from him.

It was something he would need to be more careful of in the future. After being poor his entire life, the thought of finally having some money had been a little too much for him.

It was a weakness he hadn’t even realized he had until that moment.

Trace maintained his introspective mood as he unloaded the desk computer and hauled it into the apartment. He pushed it into position next to the wall near his bed and slipped a chair in front of it.

Once that was in position, he set up the shelves that had been in the office when he moved in. Those went into the far corner where they would be out of the way for the moment. There were more shelves that he could and would set up outside the apartment near the tables.

For the moment, the shelves in the apartment held all the data prisms that he had already gone through. The items that he wasn’t sure what to do with just yet. Like the server-rack from the scavs, all the information was useful. But he could sell that off and be done with it. Then he would be left with a server-rack of data prisms, with no computer unit.

However, just having that rack was useful, as it would allow him to back up all his data. Assuming he ever had that much data. Now that he had a proper desk computer, it was time to expand on what he had been training for in the enhanced teaching modules. He could begin doing some programming if he wanted to, which he mostly didn’t. Or of more interest, he could begin creating schematics for all the tech he liked to play around with.

There was a lot he could use the computer for, and he was still learning in so many ways.

For the moment, Trace decided to leave the crates in the back of the truck and fetched Deckard’s braincase from the stairwell. He checked the level of the nutrient mix and frowned when he saw that it was practically empty. He could have sworn he had made sure to top him off before he left that morning.

Something was going on here, and he wanted to know what. Trace knew that Ko had tweaked his nutrient mix formula, but that shouldn’t be enough to suddenly make what should have been a multi-week supply vanish in a single day. Even if Deckard’s braincase had never treated the nutrient mix amount like it was supposed to.

He mentally tapped on the notification window for the nanites.

“What’s going on with Deckard? Has his braincase suddenly sprung a leak?”

- Negative

- Sub-User Devko Park’s alterations to the nutrient formula provided the needed ingredients to repair the last of the damage to Deckard’s brain

- Deckard is now in the process of waking up

- He will be fully awake and aware in approximately sixteen hours

Trace fell back into his bed in surprise. This was a good thing. Ever since he had found the braincase, this was what he had been keeping it safe for. Yet, it all felt anti-climactic for some reason.

Thinking about it some more, he realized what the problem was. He had been thinking about Deckard’s waking as the ending, instead of the beginning it was more likely to be. They hadn’t approached how to contact Meredith, or if she would even believe them when they told her Deckard was alive. There were countless obstacles, and a part of his mind had known that, leading to the unsettled feeling.

Sure, there were probably answers to many of those questions, but he certainly didn’t know them. For now, all he could do was make sure Deckard was safe until he finished waking up. And hopefully, when he did, he would have his memories along for the ride, otherwise, they might have more problems than they thought.

Trace eventually placed the braincase on the desk and sent a message to Ko. ‘Congratulations, your new nutrient mix formula worked. He’s starting to wake up. We have 16 hours to get items ready for him to see and hear so he isn’t stuck in a box.’

He promptly fell back onto his bed and was asleep before she had the chance to respond.

***

A rather insistent call from Ko woke Trace the next morning. “Hello?” He mumbled.

“HELLO?” She screeched. “You can’t just dump that sort of thing on me and then not respond to my messages.”

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His eyes flicked through his HUD, pulling up his messages as he scrolled through all the ones she had left him during the night. “Sorry, I passed out right sending that one to you. Did you even get any sleep? These kept coming all night long.”

Ko screamed, a sound that he heard from just outside the warehouse, as well as on the call.

“You’re here right now, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes I am, and I can’t get in because your stupid door is bent five different ways at the moment.” Stick-Point, Sevorah, and Ko each had digital keys to the door of the warehouse. Of course, they only worked if that particular door was in working order.

“Right, give me a moment and I’ll open the main warehouse doors for you.”

A few minutes later, a very irate and frazzled-looking Ko was standing inside his apartment with a box full of supplies. It turned out that Sevorah had everything they needed for Deckard. Apparently, she hadn’t wanted to know what they were up to, only telling Ko to be safe with whatever it was.

The kit she had brought could either be used as a whole, or as pieces. In this case, they went for the whole thing, as it promised the best experience for Deckard.

The braincase would sit on top of another unit that was responsible for driving all the other pieces. The unit itself had several cameras, microphones, and speakers that were all interchangeable depending on the needs and wants of the user. There was even a small display that covered the front area where an avatar or face could be displayed.

The setup was actually about ten years old, but Sevorah had rarely had a need or chance to use it.

After making sure everything was plugged in correctly, the two sat back and waited.

“What do you think are the odds that he still has his memories after all this time?” Trace asked Ko softly.

“I don’t know, first there was the initial damage that caused him to go into the coma in the first place. Then there is the damage caused by having your mind used as a computer for years on end. And let’s not forget any issues that being in a coma for over a hundred years might have caused.” Her head sank lower as she listed each item. “Honestly, if he can even form a coherent sentence, I would call it a win for him.”

“Assuming he can’t, then what are we going to do with him? I’m not good enough to build him a body, and I certainly haven’t seen those sorts of parts at the junkyard.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. That’s a problem we’ll think about when we have to, I think. For now, let’s just hope this doesn’t bring any more problems with it.”

Trace cocked his head as he heard a soft whirring noise coming from inside the warehouse. Opening the door, he saw a small off-road car that came up to the middle of his shin approaching the apartment door where he was standing.

“How did that even get inside?” Ko asked, peering over his shoulder.

“I have absolutely no idea. Maybe there is a hole I haven’t found yet.”

The car came to a stop in front of them and began to ripple as its form turned to liquid in began to grow.

“Oh, frack me,” Trace muttered, understanding dawning in both his and Ko’s minds at the same time.

The nanites that had created the car were enough to create a woman a little over four-feet tall. The overall density of her body was perhaps a tad questionable, but any more would have been really pushing it.

“Steel goddess Meredith,” Ko breathed, her voice sounding strangled even to her own ears.

“It has been some time since the last time I visited the surface of Earth. I thought my time with this planet was more or less done. Imagine my surprise when I began receiving information updates from my son’s braincase once more after all this time.” The diminutive woman brushed past them to enter the apartment. “You did well with the nutrient mix. Without that, it would have taken him another two months to awaken.”

Trace kept Ko behind him as he struggled to understand what was going on. “What are you talking about? What information updates? He isn’t connected to the net.”

“No, he isn’t, but you are, and you are connected to him.”

He groaned and palmed his face. “The nanites… Of course, they also created a network bridge that could be accessed in an emergency. That explains a few things.”

“Wait, if you knew where he was all this time, why did it take you so long to come down, and why in this form?” Ko demanded, pushing Trace to the side. “What’s going on?”

Meredith smiled warmly as she touched her son’s braincase. “Over the years, my mind has become somewhat fragmented. Losing Deckard was the final straw to what was already a somewhat tenuous hold on reality. At the moment, I am but one of several personalities playing host at any given time.”

“So, what happened to the real Meredith?” Trace asked.

“We are all the real Meredith.” She corrected him. “However, if you mean the original personality. Then, I can’t say for sure. None of us has seen or heard from her in over a hundred years. Since then, we have each been running different parts of Koarden enterprises.”

“And if I’m guessing, only you believed that the information updates on Deckard were real. Which meant that you had to work around all the other personalities.”

She nodded at Trace’s conjecture. “Although, saying I believed them to be real is a bit much. Hoped perhaps, as well as needed to see the truth if there was something else going on.”

“So, what now? You take him into space with you?” Ko wondered as she approached the mini-sized mother.

“No, it wouldn’t be safe for him up there. Not with my mind in its current state. I only came down here to check and see if it was really him. Now that I know it is, I’ll start working to rehabilitate myself. Perhaps he can even help. Regardless, it won’t be something that will be accomplished overnight.” A look of longing appeared in her eyes as she continued to touch the braincase. “No, I must ask that you two watch over, and do what you can to take care of him.”

She turned to face them. “Don’t worry, what I’m asking you to do doesn’t come without its own benefits.” Meredith quickly stepped forward and gripped both of them by the wrist. “Consider this an improvement and update to the G.H.O.S.T. System you have already received. That version was incomplete, in many ways.

“It’s a good thing neither of you tried to do anything other than receive knowledge updates. The results could have been interesting. It’s hard to say for sure. Who knows what the nanites got up to while Deckard was in his coma? Either way, this version you will find doesn’t have those flaws and has been significantly more optimized.”

The nanites that made up her body began to sink into their skin, causing her to grow smaller by the second.

“I’ll keep the personalities that believe he is a fake from attacking you three. Just concentrate on getting him a body and taking care of him.” A second later, she was gone.

“If you really wanted us to take care of him, you could have given us some credits,” Trace groused, rubbing his wrist.

Beside him, Ko nodded, her eyes now locked on the braincase that had suddenly and unequivocally become their responsibility.