I woke up. Unexpected, but I did.

The only sounds around me were beeping and a pump sound that reminded me of the old man from the tent.

I couldn’t move my head though and I couldn’t feel anything. Was I even alive? There was a pale orange in front of me that was slightly textured. I’d seen it before in basically all the apartments on

Marchand’s street apart from Marchand’s apartments which were white and smooth.

Rolling my eyes around confirmed three things to me. I had both eyes, I had a nose and I couldn’t see anything apart from the ceiling. I tried to pull up my interface but all I got was static.

Sanctum jumped ship then I guess, that’s alright. It was great to have it around while it lasted. I’ll miss the little ball of… Well, not fun really. But it was a good time. Kind of wish Sanctum had left me with a working interface at least, tidy up before you move out kind of thing.

Without an interface I was going to be enjoying this very boring view for some time unless someone visited me. Assuming this wasn’t some sort of afterlife where they broke you in slowly with familiar things, that’d really suck.

Okay, bodily movement time then. Legs, no. Arms, no. Torso wiggle, no. We’re looking at total paralysis at least then, not irreparable with modern medicine or cyberware but how was I or mom going to afford that with me like this?

Maybe I could beg Noe for a few aura to get a new cerebral implant and a medical port put in and live for good in the incarna worlds with mom, at least I’d see some outside then. I might be able to muddle through some programming work for her in exchange, not like there’s much else work for a paralyzed person.

[]

Hm, there was a box in the static. Maybe some of it still worked?

[Sanctum v1.3.4b]

Wait. Sanctum you’re still here? I thought you already left! I’m completely paralyzed, I’m not going to be earning many skill levels lying here you know. Why aren’t you with Dr. Wood?

[User is still a viable candidate and while User is currently below minimum physical capability acceptability this can be improved.]

Sanctum this isn’t a case of my attributes being too low because I’m scrawny here, I’m literally paralyzed.

[Sanctum disabled the User’s motor functions while Sanctum went through an update and the User’s health was severely compromised. It would have been hazardous to attempt an update while in active use by the User or while the User is able to move.]

So I’m not paralyzed? You just put me on pause because you were updating? That’s messed up Sanctum. Don’t turn me off again, that’s the one thing I asked you not to do before.

[User has been in a coma for a month. Sanctum only disabled motor functions for seventeen minutes. Now the User is awake your motor function activation requires User permission.]

Show me my health profile thing. Full open.

Health:

Severe post-trauma recovery chemical imbalances

Multiple medical grade supplements and balancing agents

[Dr. Wood and Dr. Nguyen were able to preserve your life with emergency treatment although you did cease heart function several times. You were then implanted with a medical suite cyberware that allowed Sanctum to repair the extensive damage and restore lost organs.]

Why would Marchand…? Dr. Wood is Marchand’s doctor Sanctum, why would they possibly help me after I stabbed her. I mean she stabbed me first but they work for her, not me. I get they gave me emergency aid because they’re doctors and I was dying but Marchand must have walked down eventually and told them to stop, or better yet just beheaded me or something. Why am I still alive in their clinic?

[Anna Marchand elected to keep the User alive in exchange for two demands of Sanctum.]

Wait Sanctum, you talked to Marchand? You can talk to other people? How?

[Anna Marchand was still connected to your cerebral implant, through the interface I sent her a message requesting aid in saving your life in exchange for assurances.]

Assurances? Like promises right? What did you tell her that you’d do?

[That I would not consider her a hostile entity after your exchange and that I am wholly a symbiotic entity unable to act without a host. She required me to use more specific legal terms while agreeing to a deep code exchange trace for deception but Sanctum was able to do so without serious issue.]

[While Anna Marchand believes Sanctum could avoid such scanning and that Sanctum has been untruthful in Sanctum’s assurances, she agreed to save the User anyway.]

She didn’t demand anything else? Like you move over to her at some point or something?

[Anna Marchand displayed a deep distrust for Sanctum from the earliest reveal of Sanctum’s existence, it isn’t likely that she would be a compatible host. In addition her advanced age and already extensive cyberware use would disqualify her from a list of possible hosts. Sanctum requires very high brain plasticity and a gradual introduction of outside influences such as cyberware in order to map User functionality to the highest compatibility factors.]

[She couldn’t demand much of Sanctum given the scope of Sanctum capabilities. But a simple offer to end hostilities and reach an understanding of core principles at a human level seemed to settle her immediate worries when combined with the User’s actions.]

My actions? I just got carved nearly in half Sanctum, you can’t call that an action. Making a mess of the street was likely my largest impact in the whole situation.

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[User did not kill Anna Marchand when User could have. User was limited in time and function and was forced to make a quick decision but User chose not to kill her when Anna Marchand assumed Sanctum would have taken control of the User’s body and done so to preserve Sanctum’s unknown status and to seek a new host. Sanctum did not assume control despite the extreme situation, the User did not kill her when she was vulnerable.]

This is too much Sanctum. I think I’m falling asleep again, I hope it’s not another coma.

[That is unlikely, the higher probability is the large amount of medications User is currently metabolizing are shifting in ratio.]

I don’t think I can focus, can you message mom for me and tell her I woke up for a little while but I’m just getting some more sleep for a moment?

[Message sent.]

-

Waking up the second time wasn’t as easy, my mind seemed slow and I had a headache. I tried to look around and found I could actually move my head now so I looked around the darkened room with bleary eyes.

The little bed I was lying on was covered with a surgical bedding type cover and then a load of electrical medical layers similar to the operating chair I’d seen before. Lots of wires built into a thick rubber mat that seemed to have lots of diodes and exposed metal plates on it.

As I tried to list myself up to see more of the room a dull shot of pain ran through me, but more importantly I noticed mom was sitting next to to me in a chair asleep. The room was literally full of machines that seemed to be keeping me alive in different ways, the pumping noise coming from a tall thin machine that seemed to be a lung machine of some sort.

I settled back to the pillow and reached out to mom.

“Hey mom. You’re here.” I said with a very weak voice, what was up with my voice? Is it just from not being used for a while?

Mom jerked awake and looked at me and then squinted before reaching out and touching my face. She just pinched bits of my face a little, one after another, until her eyes seemed to focus on me properly and she just screeched and dropped onto me and hugged me.

“Mal! My baba! My little baba.” She just cried out and hugged my harder than I could resist while tears went everywhere. I understood though, she must have thought I was gone for a long time.

I just laid there smoothing mom’s forearm with my finger a bit, it was the most movement I could easily do after pulling my elbow up.

Sanctum are you awake? I’m super weak at the moment. Is there anything you can do?

[Your adrenal gland was destroyed along with a near total neural over stimulation burnout due to Sanctum emergency action to over-activate your installed chem-brace cyberware to the point of malfunction to provide the User with the ability to defend themselves and escape. This combined with the widespread cardiovascular and muscular damage throughout your torso meant that your body reached a point of near zero neurotransmitter function.]

[It is through the work of Dr. Wood and Dr. Nguyen that your body is able to operate at all. They had to provide life sustaining functions to every few inches of your body’s flesh at once for almost three days until the medical suite was installed and integrated enough that Sanctum could make the needed repairs to multiple sections of your brain and neurotransmission organs that would allow proper respiration and homeostasis.]

I’ve been thoroughly cooked then and I’m still coming back from that, you can’t speed up my strength recovery then?

[Now that User is showing signs of consciousness Sanctum will prioritize mobility once more in the recovery process.]

“I thought I lost you Mal. I thought you were gone from me and I didn’t even know what happened. Noe took me out and then Ears took me somewhere and said it was important and I tried to get back here but…” She paused as she thought she was babbling.

“It’s okay mom, that was my idea anyway. It’s my fault you weren’t here. I really didn’t know how bad it was going to get, I needed you to be far away when whatever it was happened.” I said.

“I know Marchand did this to you, she apologized for risking your life and I nearly killed her myself. But she said she was caring for you in exchange, that you’d be saved, so I needed to let her be. I’ve come to visit you so much and I watched you put yourself back together while the doctors tried to keep you alive even as parts of you just turned septic and died. It was horrible.” She said from my chest, I could feel she was still crying.

“Something like this or worse was bound to happen, I had something I needed to tell Marchand about. Something I knew she wouldn’t like, something with major issues to it.” I said.

“What? What was it Mal?” Mom said pulling away to look at me.

“You really don’t need to know mom. It’s not dangerous to me or you, it’s not really relevant to a lot of things. It’s just something that Marchand wouldn’t like, as soon as I knew it was going to be found out I had to act a bit quick to get you clear of any consequences and then accept what I had coming.” I said.

“You didn’t need to do that Mal, I could have been with you. I could have helped.” She said as she grabbed my face in her hands.

“Mom, I couldn’t do anything and I was already in the situation. I didn’t need you or anyone else getting wrapped up and hurt by it.” I said.

“What is it Mal? What is so bad that Marchand attacked you? You almost died!” She said while shaking my head around.

“Mom you need to not know. It’s not important for you and will just cause problems. I’ll tell you if you need to know at some point but just let it go for now. I’m trying to avoid a repeat of this situation right now happening a lot of the future.” I said, grabbing a finger grip onto moms hand. The best I could do to stop her shaking me about right now.

Mom just let go of me and shrank in her chair, she was upset and likely scared.

“I know I’ve let you down in the past Mal, I’ve not been there a lot for you when you needed me to be there. You’ve had to look after me even from very young. I’m not a good mother, but you don’t even trust me enough to tell me this? To tell me what nearly killed my son?” She said quietly, holding her arms next to me.

“If I was someone else here mom, I’d tell you. I would feel bad and tell you. But I am your son here, I’m going to protect you when I can even if it makes you hate me, distrust me or leave me. I won’t put you in danger just to make you or me feel better and for no good reason. You need to not know.” I said, looking at mom’s face and speaking seriously.

We just stayed there silent for a little while. Mom just sobbed occasionally quietly, while I kept my heart hard to it. I couldn’t tell mom about Sanctum, I didn’t want to tell Marchand but that was a time bomb. Telling mom gained me nothing and put her at risk, and after what Marchand did… Telling mom was not going to happen.

After a little while mom got up and left quietly after kissing my forehead, leaving me alone among the beeps and pumping noise.

I felt bad for letting her down but she’d just have to accept the situation.

Pulling up my interface and checked my readouts, the cyberware was mostly fine with them all working apart from the chem-brace that was listed as “not responding”. Likely Sanctum would fix it when my actual body was working.

I connected to the little IR cluster on the ceiling of the room, I was too weak to roll over to the side enough to plug into the little input on the wall by the bedside table. I checked my messages to find a few messages from mom she had left me while I was in a coma, mostly sad messages and lots of “love you” messages.

A few tears did escape while I was reading the messages, especially after what I had said. But I shook of the sadness and kept checking my messages to find two from Ears, one saying mom was secure in the safehouse and that she’d punched him in the face when he was locking her up, then another saying he let her out after three days and that she’d punched him in the face when he let her out, apparently it was fine though and he hoped I was okay.

Noe had left a message saying she hated me and wouldn’t forgive me if I died and that she’d just punch my corpse a lot if she got the chance. Then another message saying she hated what I’d done to my mom and that I was awful but she still kind of got it, then another threat of punching if I didn’t wake up soon.

Fortunately I was now awake. It likely wouldn’t prevent Noe from punching me though.