After hours of tossing and turning, Peter finally checked the time: it was 01:51. Still lying down, his blankets on the floor, Peter raised his hand in front of him and smiled as his hand closed easily into a fist. Then he brought the fist down violently on the nightstand. “Ouch!” He rubbed his hand, knowing that action to be purely reflex. His cyber hand was not damaged, but the feedback had told him the impact smarted, and rubbing it made him feel better.
Still smiling, Peter stood up and walked over to the bathroom. He was about to sit down again but thought better of it and pissed standing. “That’s the stuff,” he said. His business done, he washed his hands and brushed his teeth. The mirror in front of him reflected a very hairy version of himself. Playing with his long and unkempt beard, Peter decided to keep it for the time being. Walking back into his bedroom, he got dressed again and left the apartment.
“Apartment: lock and secure!” said Peter.
“Unit 704: locked-and-secured,” answered the AA.
Leaving the building via the north lobby, he walked again towards the beach, but this time turned left, shunning the marina promenade in favor of the undeveloped beachfront natural park to the west. At nearly two in the morning, he was unsurprised to find he was alone on the seawall. Walking leisurely, he took in the sights. He admired the waves, slightly phosphorescent from the native plankton. His gaze was drawn from the reflection of Occinus’s two moons to the stars in the sky. Even accounting for the city glare, the night sky was bare compared to Earth’s. Peter sighed. The night sky the only thing he truly missed about Earth. For all its glory and being the center of the human conglomerate, it was still an overcrowded and polluted shit pit.
Peter’s reminiscence was interrupted by an unexpected sight: a new pedestrian pier extending on the ocean. It hadn’t been there the last time Peter came that way—he’d expected to find the end of the seawall and the end of human expansion. Instead, he was greeted with bright lights, a new park, three new condominium complexes and a large hotel under construction. As he thought back on it, Peter realized he had not walked that way in more than four years.
Curious about the new pier, Peter headed towards it. On the pier’s landing, he found a small building that housed unisex restrooms and individual locking shower stalls. Towards the water were 16 tables with built-in seats in four rows of four. As he continued his walk toward the ocean, the lights grew less frequent. At the end of the pier, he was nearly in the dark. For nearly an hour he watched the crawl of the moons across the bare black sky, matched by their reflection on the ocean. Finally, he turned and started the slow walk back to his apartment. As he neared the building at the pier’s landing, Peter was surprised to hear someone call out to him.
“Hey, Ese, you like some food?” said an unknown voice.
Peter looked around but didn’t see anyone. All he saw were three vending machines. The machine on the left had a dog wearing a purple cloak and a crown and a holo-sign that proclaimed: “Dog King.” The machine on the right was a very old pop and juice machine without any holo-sign. The center machine had a very advanced holo-display which made it appear like a food stand with a cook in the middle of it, the sign above said “Mexi Max”.
The holo-cook looked directly at Peter and said, “You like some food?”
“What? No,” said Peter.
“Suit yourself, Ese.”
Peter walked away from the strange talking vending machine and headed for the railing. As he approached the railing, he heard the deep baritone voice of a man playing with a dog below the pier.
“You want the ball? Go get the ball!” said the hidden voice.
Peter saw an excited mutt run towards the ball, catch it and promptly return below the pier.
“Oh, you’re a good dog! Yes, you are! Do you want to fetch again?” the hidden voice said, interspersed with very excited barks.
The tip of a mechanical hand, much like Peter’s, became visible as the hidden man threw the ball again. Peter barely noticed the dog as he headed towards the stairs to see a fellow cyborg. But as he descended the steps, he stopped, dumbstruck, as he saw, not a man, but a very large construction robot. Face blank, Peter turned and climbed back up the stairs.
At the top, he stopped and stared back down into the darkness. “What the fuck was that?” he said out loud. He had never heard a robot like that: it had sounded more human than he did most days.
He couldn’t leave it alone. He went back down to investigate, but when he reached bottom of the stairs, all that remained of the strange robot were footprints in the sand.
After a frustrating and fruitless week of searching for the robot, Peter was again entering the Genutech Clinic, arriving at 10:17. His optical implant informed him that there were currently 59 patients, 6 of which were here last time he was. All 10 counters were staffed as well.
Using his Netlink, Peter checked in and started a stopwatch. Looking around, he found a seat in a corner, far from the window and the washrooms. While he was waiting, his Netlink showed an incoming vid-call from the Occinus City Police Department. After a quick debate, Peter answered. “Yes?”
The image of the detective’s upper torso and head appeared in Peter’s HUD; he was well groomed, brown eyed with a thin mustache matching his light auburn hair. “Mr. Gordon? This is detective Creed. I’m handling the case you were involved with last week.”
“Yeah, I remember, what can I do for you?”
The detective paused briefly “Well, that’s sort of a tricky situation. If you remember, when you disarmed the gun wielder, you also took his finger off. He’s tried to press charges against you…”
Peter’s only response was to raise an eyebrow.
“If not for the footage you provided, it would have stuck. The clone you saved also decided not to press charges. This means that you are the only person that can decide if we proceed with this case or not.”
While he listened to the detective, Peter did a quick search and downloaded an app. “So, let me see if I’ve got this. Because the clone dropped the charges, the moron with the gun tried to get me charged for assault?”
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“That’s about right Mr. Gordon. The footage you provided clearly shows self-defense, so it didn’t stick. If you wish to drop the matter now, you can simply consent to clear the case and the matter will be dropped by all parties. Everybody wins.”
“Everybody except the clone, you mean.”
“Mr. Gordon, that’s not relevant right now. Do I have your consent to clear the case?”
“No, you do not. According to the free lawyer app I just downloaded, I’m the victim of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder at the very least. I might have been willing to let the matter drop, but the fucktard tried to press charges against me.”
His lips thinning, the detective said: “Thank you for your time Mr. Gordon, I’ll be in touch.” At which point he hung up.
Looking around the clinic, Peter saw that about half the patients had already cycled through. To pass the time, he watched the combat video in question a few times and reviewed his own performance. He was interrupted by his Netlink advising him it was his turn at the processing desk number 4. His total wait time was 32 minutes.
“Welcome to the Downtown Genutech Cyber-clinic, sir.” said the nurse. Unlike his previous visit, this nurse was an attractive woman. After a closer look, her yellow eyes indicated that she was also a clone. “Would you be more comfortable dealing with a human nurse or are you ok dealing with me?”
Peter frowned slightly and asked: “Aren’t you a human too?”
“Technically yes, but I’m a clone and I understand that some are not comfortable with this.”
“That’s fine, human or clone doesn’t matter to me.”
Showing a smile with a display of perfect teeth, the nurse said “Thank you, sir. I’ve already read your check-in form and I just need to confirm your ID and purpose of visit.”
Peter uploaded his ID. “I’m here for a follow up. My meds were adjusted due to GLS. The doctor also placed a monitor behind my ear to check for Cyber Psychosis.”.
“Thank you, everything is in order. As with your previous visit, there will be no charge. Please follow me; I will take you to Examination Room 4. Doctor Ryan Collins will see you shortly.”
Hope she read the fucking file this time. “I’m right behind you.”
Peter was again led down the sterile corridor and to the door marked 4.
The nurse opened the door for him and made a polite bow. “Have a good day Mr. Gordon.”
The room was exactly as it was for his last visit. Peter realized he didn’t check his stopwatch when he was called to the nurse, but he reset it now. The total wait and processing time were one hour, fifty-two minutes and four seconds. After just over five minutes, there was a knock at the door.
“May I come in, Mr. Gordon?” asked Dr. Ryan.
“Please, it’s your office after all”.
“How are the hands? I saw no mention of any issues in your check-in form.”
“No problems, they feel perfectly normal.”
“That’s good. May I connect to them for a quick diagnostic?”
Peter approved the connect request via his Netlink. The complex holo-diagnostic appeared again, but unlike his first visit, there was a warning indicator in his right hand’s diagnostic.
Dr. Ryan’s face showed some concern as she looked over the data. “Mr. Gordon, did something unusual occur with your right hand? I’m showing an unusual amount of kinetic energy absorbed by your nanoweave skin and plating…”
“Right, I forgot to mention it in my check-in report, but I caught a bullet.”
“What? …”
“Someone was about to shoot me, I reached for his gun to disarm him and it went off before I could take the weapon from him. It was just a small caliber pistol, nothing implants can’t shrug off.”
“… ok?” Dr. Ryan took a deep breath. “It appears you are correct Mr. Gordon, according to the manufacturer’s specs, your implant’s ballistic rating is for SVR2, standard velocity medium rifle rounds.”
“That they are.” Peter pointed to the scar on his right bicep “This was a three-round burst from an old K47 rifle, two hit the implant, that one didn’t. Hurt like a bitch too!”
“Well, that’s certainly something. Other than the bullet impact, your implants are showing everything within optimal parameters. Next, I need to connect to the monitor I installed. I must remove it, since it has no wireless capabilities.
“Please do” said Peter as he leaned forward and moved his hair out of the way.
Dr. Ryan took a silver wand from a drawer and touched it behind Peter’s ear. With just a simple touch, the monitor was removed painlessly. She placed the wand on the counter and it automatically activated the holo-readout. There was a complete representation of Peter’s brain with the deactivated encephalon and all associated implants. There were hundreds of data screens.
“That’s a lot of brain implants Mr. Gordon. I’ve never seen anyone with so many…”
“You haven’t had a lot of jarheads for patients then. Most marines end up with a lot of tech in their brains, if not their bodies. When the bullets are flying, you need every edge you can get. Although the arms were more of an accident than a choice.”
“If you don’t mind my curiosity, how did you lose your arms?”
“I can’t get into too many specifics, but while I was a space marine, I was part of a small commando unit. I was the infiltration specialist. That means I oversaw hacking, cracking, slicing or blowing my way into ships and facilities. During a hostage rescue mission, there was a bomb and there wasn’t enough time to disarm it, so I grabbed it and ran for the airlock. I made it to the airlock and cycled it, but it blew up just as I was throwing it. Next thing I knew; I was in a hospital bed with stumps. I saved my team and over twenty people. I was given a medal and the choice to either regrow the arms or get implants. Considering re-growing my arms would take about 90 days VS cybernetic replacement with a recovery period of less than 10 days. It’s pretty obvious which one I picked.”
“That’s incredible, I don’t think I’d ever be able to stay besides a bomb, let alone take it in and run away with it!” With a shiver running up her back, she turned back to the readout. “Back to our business at hand, the monitor was able to get a pretty good reading. I am concerned about a few things, one of them being a huge spike of adrenaline on the same day you got the monitor, but I’m pretty sure that was when you caught a bullet. I’m seeing a negative melatonin response from the GLS medication which might cause insomnia. Finally, I’m also showing unusual spikes in your cortisol and adrenal levels. Are you feeling stressed or frustrated?”
“Yeah, I’ve been having some issues falling asleep. I’ve also been having a frustrating week searching for something that apparently doesn’t fucking exist.” Peter flushed lightly at his language. “Pardon the language.”
“Hmm… I can adjust the medication for the sleep issue, but since there is a reason for the high level of frustration, I’d rather not medicate that right now, that is, unless you prefer to be medicated for that too.”
“Nope, what I have is more than enough. Before I agree to any new medications, can you send me what you were going to prescribe? I’d like to research it before I make a decision.”
“Certainly, I’ve just sent you the files.”
“Just got it, thanks.” Peter’s Netlink just received a file from Dr. Ryan. Since she didn’t visibly do anything, he assumed she used her own Netlink to send the file.
“I’d like to put the monitor back on you and see you again in a week. Is that all right?”
“Please proceed.” Peter answered as he once again leaned forward and moved his hair out of the way. While waiting for the monitor, he quickly read the documentation he just received.
Dr. Ryan again picked up the silver rod and touched Peter behind his ear. “All done, Mr. Gordon.”
Having seen no real issues with the new medication, Peter addressed Dr. Ryan before she stood from her chair “I’ve given it some thought, go ahead with the new meds.”
With a brief smile, Dr. Ryan connected to Peter’s implants to make changes to the medical program. She also reached to a dispenser as a small vial was being filled. She sent a request to access the medical compartment within Peter’s implants and replaced the chemical vial. “If you have any unusual symptoms or questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. Otherwise, I will see you in a week.”
“Will do and thank you.” Peter bowed politely from his seat. Once the doctor had left the room, he got up, stretched his back and left the clinic.
Walking outside the clinic, Peter used his Netlink to call his friend, Alex.
Alex answered quickly, “Hey Peter, how are you?”
“Mostly good, but I need to pick your brain. Where you at?”
“I’m at the bar, we’re setting up for this evening. Why don’t you come over?”
“I’ll be there shortly.”