The morning of the third day in recovery was when my restlessness hit it’s limit and I got up and started packing up the stuff that mom had arranged around my bed in the recovery room of the clinic. A plastic bag of folded clothes, another bag of food for the day and finally my duffel bag with some water bottles and my signet pistol, just in case.
I got a new set of clothes on from the clothes bag and then emptied what was left into my duffel along with the packets of food. I slung it over my shoulder just in time for Dr. Nguyen to appear as he came walking in with an odd looking tool in his hand.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were leaving this morning. I was going to test your optical wires and see if there’s any interference during simulated impacts. Wouldn’t want you take a blow to the head and lose sight in one eye after all.” He said as he gestured the little box with some wires dangling from it in his hand.
“Dr. Wood already ran the full optical wires tests yesterday along with a bunch of stuff for fluid pressure build up and temperature exposure. The new head is basically flawless. You guys have done fantastic work Dr. Nguyen.” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed once more.
Nguyen walked over and sat on a nearby visitor chair.
“Well, as long as you’re happy with it. Have you got used to it yet? Overall.” He asked with a tilt to his head.
“It’s a little different. Swallowing feels like there’s something off when I don’t feel certain small internal movements I’m expecting. My lips sometimes feel weird with certain words as they are close to flesh but just not quite, they don’t squash and squish exactly the same. There’s other small things. Mostly feelings though, nothing functional. I’ll get over them as time passes and my brain forgets the differences.” I said seriously.
“That’s the way it goes generally. Borgs in the past have said the same to me and as a doctor I’ve had to read a lot of mental health stuff for cyberpsychosis. The dehumanization aspects, superiority aspects, depersonalization aspects, identity loss and finally full on dissociation and delirium among other symptoms. Most of the time the whole situation is a runaway reaction that is best kept right at zero as much as it can be. You seem normal and okay right now but you need to keep yourself under watch for a while alright? You need to keep your support network close or at least secure until you’ve accepted this chrome as you, deep down in your subconscious.” Nguyen said with a very serious face.
“Surface wise, like right now. I can say this new chrome is my head. It’s my face. It’s a little bit off compared to before but it’s fine. I don’t feel weird touching my hair, or nose or whatever. I don’t panic when I remember I’m resting my head on the pillow and my head is mostly plastic and metal. It’s just my new head made of different materials. As far as subconscious I don’t know, I’ll have to see going forward.” I said, tapping my head and the crossing my arms.
“Kids always take chrome a lot better than adults, shame you’ll have to swap some of those bones as you age up. That’ll be a bunch of surgeries on your books over the next decade. The ceramics in the ones you have now are quite good. Try to earn enough to replace them with the same or better.” Nguyen said as he stood up.
“I’ll be fine. I’m an operator on my way up in the world. I’ll be pulling in huge stacks by the time I hit sixteen.” I said, flexing my tiny biceps under my shirt.
“Pfft. Yeah. Sure Mal. You at least should have the chance to get that with a head that hard now. It might be exactly what you need to make it.”
“Always was this hard. Noe always said so. Now it’s just chrome. I’m going to get to the gym, I’ve been here a long time. Just going to pop home and drop off some stuff and grab more water and towels.” I said, getting up and walking with Nguyen across the room.
“It’s good your thinking healthily body and mind but do be careful if you try fighting. Keep an eye out for any loose screws or whatever that fall out after you get hit.” He said with a smile as he opened the door for me.
“Ha. Yeah. I look over and my jaw is fallen off because Dr. Wood got distracted and didn’t screw it on.” I said before turning back to the room I was walking into to see the lovely Dr. Wood sitting on the operating chair working on a pulled down vid screen.
She was looking at me.
I looked at her.
Nguyen closed the door with him on the other side, his face carefully blank.
-
After getting shouted at by Dr. Wood about appreciating hard work and care I got back to my apartment thanking my luck that I didn’t have eardrums to blow out anymore and stepped into the living room. Lla was doing something on her interface as the vid screen displayed some news piece about logistic routes from Mars being overloaded on mute.
I walked across to my room and dumped the clothes and food onto my bed to sort out later as I packed a few of the steel bottles I kept beside my bed. I then grabbed the towel pile bundle I kept under the bed for the gym and stuffed that in. With that done I just took off my jacket and switched to a lighter t-shirt from my drawer than the one I was wearing from the bag. I was already wearing stretchy and breathable trousers so I just kept those on. I was good to go.
Walking back into the living room caught Lla’s attention.
“Hey! Let me see! Let me see!” She said, getting up from the sofa and coming over to poke and prod my new face and scalp.
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“It’s basically the same head, just different parts. You shouldn’t be able to find anything different about it without a tool. Apart from the hair being a little different. And some internals looking different if I open my mouth.” I said as she starting pulling on my left ear which was the one that had been the start of the whole thing when it took a machete blow.
“It all looks the same, boring. At least get super teeth or something. What do you mean about your hair? It looks the same too. Oh! Does it do something special?! Is it like those spiders that can shoot them out?” She asked excited.
“What? No. It’s just a little less soft. Looks the same though. I suppose you hadn’t felt my hair before this so it wouldn’t mean much to you. It should basically be impossible for you alone to damage the scalp or the hair though and I don’t get any pain until something starts to reach a limit. Apparently.” I said, as she grabbed a fist full of my hair and yanked my head sideways mid response.
“That’s so preem. I can’t even break the hair. Perfect for fighting. It should mean no split ends as well.” She said, letting me go.
“I’m off to the gym for a bit to do some fighting training stuff. Too long sitting around waiting for my head to feel like my head. It’s fine now so I’m going. If mom wakes up soon just tell her I’ll be back this afternoon.”
“No problem choom. Have a good time at the gym.” Lla said, getting out of the way of the front door and walking over to grab a snack from the kitchen counter.
“Is that the first time you’ve called me choom?” I asked as I walked to the door.
“We’re chooms right? I think we’re chooms. Chooms felt right to say.”
“Yeah, I think we’re chooms by now. Nice to have some more chooms. See you later.” I said as I walked out the door.
-
Arriving the gym I’d noticed the streets were still on alert but I was starting to numb to it outside of keeping aware of my surroundings. It was brought more to my attention when I got the gym itself and found not two but nine gang members of various colors hanging around outside with others across the street on a dragged out sofa.
One of the ones at the door stopped me as I walked up.
“Kid, this is our gang’s gym yeah? Don’t go causing trouble or you’ll be going home in plastic bags.” He said. He was quite tall with green hair to match his gang colors and had a skull outline wired around his exposed chest. Literally a black weave of synthskin strings that were pieced through his flesh at different places to sketch out a skull. Fancy and annoying to repair. Gonk stuff basically.
“No trouble here choom. This is my usual gym, I come here quite often to run through training with Ed and Layla, when she’s around.” I said, just about pulling the name from my memory. That memory ability that was offered before was feeling real enticing lately as I struggled to hold things in my mind cleanly. I hadn’t picked it and didn’t even know when I’d get another chance to pick it.
“Huh. Alright then. Head on in. We’ll be out here though, seriously no trouble. Streets are practically shaking with adrenaline right now and we don’t need more issues.” He said, waving me away.
I walked in to the place to see it actually had a good number of people today. Mostly gangers. Only a few were actually exercising but there were a bunch sitting around talking and a few at the back watching two guys train in the ring against each other.
Looking to the desk I did see a slightly unhappy looking Ed lifting a heavy hand weight on the working side of the desk as he stared into space. His interface or thin air, I couldn’t tell.
As I walked up to the desk I pinged the cluster and paid my day fee which caused a beep that brought Ed back to the world. He soon found me and looked at me for a moment, then looked a bit more, then squinted.
Did he forget me?
“It’s me, Mal. You remember? The kid who got you in the chin? Layla was there, she’ll back me up” I said casually. Pointing at my face.
“I got good optics kid. I can see you’ve got a whole new head unless I’m way mistaken. Chrome from hair to neck as far as I can tell. No idea on internals but I’d say they are too if you’ve had so much done.” He said, putting the weight down and standing up.
“You must have really good optics. Like really good. I can only tell in the mirror when I zoom into pore level.” I said, impressed.
“Yeah, something caught my eye with your neck and I zoomed in on your face and hair. What happened for you to need a whole head? Or is it just cosmetic?” He asked, patting my new hair.
“It’s all combat grade, whole new head basically. Just a meat brain and chrome now. Getting knocked out will actually be a pretty hard task to complete with my new set up. I got mugged and took a machete to the side of the head, I was going to get a faceplate and call it done but I had an offer for some more parts and went for them, they’re all good for work and the future so I invested.” I said and then knocked on my head.
“That’s crazy Mal. You alright otherwise? No other damage?” He asked, stepping back and looking me over.
“A couple of minor stabs and snaps. All healed fine enough to be getting on with. No issues. The faceplate was because of the interior and external damage to the ear and my face along with the wide scar being super weak. Other than that I didn’t need anything for now.” I said, showing off I could move my arms fully.
“Alright. What you got planned for today? Punching bots? Bag training? You could try some climbing for dexterity. You should try the climbing thing before you go through puberty, climbing as a kid is so much more fun than as an adult. You have to really commit to climbing to stay light enough and strong enough in the right balance to climb as freely as a kid can.” He said wistfully.
“I’ll give it a go, haven’t done much climbing that didn’t involve running away from something or someone.” I said, looking at the wall studded with colored hand holds and bumpy blobs.
“It doesn’t take much care to climb on our wall because of the stasis foam flooring we’ve got. Just ping the system cluster up top of the wall part you want to climb and it’ll wait for you to start and then soften the foam around the wall. If you fall it’ll be like falling into sponge that’ll push you out and then harden under you. Try not to fight it too much when it’s pushing you out or it’ll harden with you still in the floor a bit and I’ll have to come over and let you out, and I might have to also laugh at you there as well.” He said with a smile.
“Sounds fun. Sponge will still break bones though right?”
“Not at the heights we have. We’re not a specialist gym with super tall climbing walls. Also don’t go jumping between the parts, the floor under those won’t be active and you’ll land hard. Gonks do that all the time and get themselves hurt.” He said with a disgruntled expression.
“I’m not that kind of gonk. I mostly make mistakes, not dumb choices.” I said as I dropped my bag to the floor near the closest climbing wall and pinged the cluster at the top.
“Aren’t those the same thing?”
“Nah. One’s a dumb choice at the time when you didn’t know what you needed to know and that you don’t make again. The other is a dumb choice you made knowing full well what it was and that you’d choose it again. At least with me it is anyway.” I said as I limbered up.
“It’s not the best way to think but I kind of like that. Sometimes the dumb choices are who you are.” Ed said as he shuffled my bad further away from the wall with his foot. Maybe I’d placed it too close for safety.
“I’m nothing but dumb choices. From the ground up, I think. I try not to make mistakes too often though. It’s already cost me my head.” I said, starting to climb.