Three days later I was sitting on the edge of the recovery bed with mom sitting in the patient chair. She’d been reading through stuff on a tablet from some time which was very odd. Tablets were for secure data, I didn’t know what mom was reading as I hadn’t asked but she didn’t really have a lot going on that would warrant that level of security.
Before I could really build up the courage to ask what it was about though Noe had arrived with her mother for a visit to the injured patient.
“I’m going to pull your legs off.” Noe said when she came walking through the door and had seen me without my arms. “Sit still while I pull them off. You are clearly too much of a gonk to be trusted with limbs, we should have all known.”
Noe sat down angrily into the visitor dining chair next to the table on the other side of the room under the big vid screen. Noe’s mom seemed to find it all quite funny but her eyes softened when she looked at my arms, or the lack.
“Oh Mal. You got yourself all banged up again didn’t you?” She said as she came over with a rolling office chair to sit near mom.
“I’m fine, can’t really do a lot right this moment but I’ll be back in order before too long. Back on training or whatever. This thing was a bit of a unexpected bump and the arms are a bit rough but I wasn’t going to have them forever so it’s fine.” I said, nonchalantly.
“Poor Cara here has been worried sick, I’ve been staying at yours last few nights just to keep her from running down here and seeing you without your usual scowl.” Noe’s mom, Varia said teasingly.
The doctors had managed to fit me with a new face, same as the old face. Only the jaws were any difference with Marchand suggesting a stronger bite and stronger teeth to the docs while I was asleep. They’d shrugged and got to it and now I had a oddly powerful jaw and teeth made of extremely high quality steel with some veneers on the front and tops. Nothing amazing though, apparently it was milspec which was nice at least. Bulletproof gums isn’t my first thought for cyberware.
“I don’t scowl that much.” I said, scowling.
“In any case I’m hoping you’ll be taking it easy for a while. I heard the guy who fought you was a corpo borg, I had a quick look into the details just to stay in the know. As far as I can work out the corp involved has more on their plate than you right now and the guy didn’t have any major connections so you should be fine. Marchand would know better than me on that front. But as an operator I can say this: Keep your head down for a while. It’s good to stand out but right now you’ve run hot enough to glow and people start to notice, this early in your career is not good.” Varia said calmly.
Mom glanced her way for a moment before going back to reading.
“I know Varia, you don’t like hearing this stuff. But it’s good for everyone to be on the same page. Mal, you need to wait out your heat, let the tracking data of now be the record data of then and let the interested parties lose that interest. Now you’re tied to Marchand she’ll cover the gaps in your finances that’ll cause.” Varia finished.
“I don’t like that he’s shackled to Marchand. She pulled one over on him using Lla and then threw him into the fire the moment he said yes. She’s taken liberties.” Noe said from the other side of the room.
“It’s alright Noe, I said something similar to Marchand myself. She apologized in her own way and I’ll be getting something out of that whole situation. Eventually. She’ll also be covering my arms.” I said to Noe. “I still need to handle Lla’s whole deal, she’s locked up by Marchand until my arms are fitted but I’ve been sending casual messages and said we’ll talk serious stuff then.”
“But now you’re stuck to Marchand forever Mal! It’s rot!” Noe said, shouting at me from across the room, she didn’t seem to want to leave the snacks laid out there.
“I’m not glued at the hip Noe. I knew what I was getting into, mostly anyway. She’ll want me around and there will be some longer jobs from time to time but outside of that I’ll just be an operator she trusts. I’ll have more than enough time to do my own stuff and spend time with my friends and family. Not like I’m going to be sitting next to Marchand all day as she smokes and stares at the wall.” I said casually.
“I don’t think you’re thinking enough about this Mal, she’ll want you to make her moves for her in ways she wants as if she were making them. You’ll need to be able to make that happen or you’ll be in trouble. If not with her then with who your messing with for her.” Noe said as she munched on a roll of fruit gel.
“Marchand doesn’t go around kicking over takeout restaurants because they missed their protection money date Noe. If she sends me on a job then she’ll know I’ll be able to pull it off, and she’s pretty good at knowing what people can do, even if they have to reach a little to do it.” I said confidently, if there was one thing I trusted Marchand with it was knowing what her operators could do and what they couldn’t. It was likely her greatest skill.
“But what about the whole-” Noe began before the recovery door opened.
“Oh, I wasn’t aware there were other visitors. Shall I leave and come back later?” Asked Allie from the doorway.
“Miss Allie! It has been a long time.” Mom said as she put aside the tablet and stood to cross the room to hug old Allie. They parted quickly but mom held Allie’s hand as they continued speaker a bit.
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“Is that old Allie from near your mom’s old place?” Varia asked me from behind her hand.
“Yeah she’s been a good neighbor in the past, she’s either here to see I’m not dead or she’s here for something we talked about before.” I responded quietly.
Mom and Allie finished whatever they were talking about and came over to the bed.
“Mal. I came to find you to get you to go shopping with me soon, a pretty good night market is happening over in the spindle streets in the outskirts side of Apollo district up top next week.” Allie said as she sat on the end of the bed as mom sat back down in the visitor chair.
“Huh. Well if there’s a night market I might be able to find some good arms, do you think I should hold off on getting new ones until after that? I’d have to go to the market armless…” I answered as I thought about my options.
“I think it’d be for the best going forward. You’ll be able to get a good range of options from some normally more hidden gems. Even if you ignore the arms though there will be lots of kit for sale so it’s no big loss if you want to fit something before then.” Allie said as she checked something on her interface.
“I’ll hold off until then, my recovery is going well but I don’t know what a bunch of operations will do to it. The doctors have told me my face put a dampener on my healing for a bit already. Don’t want it to take months. I’ll have to check my finances before heading out, how much do you think I should try to put together for the trip?” I asked.
“Well it depends on a lot of things. This isn’t a fruit market, you generally don’t get in without some kind of appropriate backing or some reputation. You wouldn’t get in alone right now for instance without some effort unless you went in as Marchand’s hand, yeah, I heard about that.” She said, looking back at me
“I was in a tough position and she could get me out, she did put me in that position but I was dragging my feet making the choice so I can only blame her so much. And I did. So I’m her hand now, that’s just how it is.” I said defeatedly.
“Dumb. But you were always cautious even when you should have been more confident so whatever. I’m sure you’ll make it work for you, the worst case scenarios for you with her aren’t that bad to be honest although if you start messing up too much don’t expect to be more than a answering machine for her and she won’t let you wander far if she doesn’t trust you.”
“He’s always been a gonk.” Added Noe from the other side of the room as she ate the snacks from the table.
“As far as money though… I’d say going in with less than fifty on you will just be going in for disappointment as you’d have to find a very good deal to find what you’d want at that kind of price and even then you’d only have one thing bought for the trip. If you can put together more then you’ll walk away with more but don’t bring less than fifty.” Allie said with a palm to her chin in calculation.
“Allie, I thought it would have been rude to suggest but have you been… I don’t even know the words really. Are you looking younger than I remember?” I asked confusedly.
“Oh, how kind of you to notice.” She responded with mock demure. “I’ve been old for some time as I took a long break but I’ve grown a bit restless of late so I’ve been working on getting myself back up to operation level, swapping a lot of cosmetic parts for function. It’s not a quick process unless I was willing to head out to Luna to get the parts I needed quickly. The night market will be a good step in that direction. But yes, as I’ve swapped out some of the parts it has taken some of the old lady glamor away as details of that look are changed. Eventually when it’s finished I’ll get my new skin and I’ll look much different on the outside, but it’s still growing for now.”
“Growing?” Mom asked with a frown.
“I usually go for bioware for a lot of my exterior when I can, it just feels much more comfortable to me. So I’ve got some nice boys down in the south growing me a new skin that’ll be combat ready in a few months. It’ll be a bit heavier than I’m used to but technology moves on as they say. Apparently zirkeratinoids are all the rage in modern battle skin so I just let them do their work.” Allie responded casually with a wave.
“Bioware is cyberware that’s more organic right?” Mom asked, looking at Varia and then me.
“Generally yeah. I think.” I answered lamely. I didn’t know for sure despite having it explained previously. There was a lot of overlap in this stuff.
“There are a lot of different things, bioware is generally considered fleshy though so that’s good enough. Skin like that wouldn’t be worth much unless it was fancy.” Varia said as she checked something on her interface.
“Battle skin is usually higher grade cyberware, often some form of nanite spool tech. But this time I thought I’d try some of the newer toys. Biocybernetics have come a long way and there’s been some advancements with the bio skins that I’m interested in and some local boys have been working on a fancy project for me.” Allie said offhandedly.
“Locals?” Mom asked.
“Well, Terran anyway.” Allie answered as she swept up off the bed and stood looking down at me.
“I’ll wait for a time and date then Allie, thanks for helping me out with this.” I said from where I was basically tied down and covered with supporting pillows.
“It’s no bother really, I like looking out for the younger generation when I can. Especially when I know it’ll annoy Marchand, even if it’s just by proximity. I’ll leave a message on the grid for you, make sure to keep an eye out for the meeting place for pick up. Otherwise I wish you a quick recovery, try not to let the spider push you around too much. From what I’ve heard you’ve tried to keep her from sinking her teeth in too far, very good for a youngster.” She said as she fixed her clothing and checked her interface.
“Let me know if I you need any other favors in the future as well. I’ll still be around.” I said with a smile.
“I’ll keep you in mind. Part of my rebuild is dragging my old staff out of their cushy retirements or in some cases finding out they died years ago. Once I’ve got that sorted and I’m moving around properly with my teams, I’ll throw a line to your boss to pull you into some fun stuff. Can you swim?” She asked, her face looking quite old still but with an animation that had been missing last time I’d seen her.
“Uh. Yeah, sure. Why?” I asked, confused by the sudden question.
“Just checking. Might be important. Anyway, I must be getting on. Nice to see you again Mal, Cara, Ms. Gibson and little Noe. Bye for now.” She said with a little wave behind her as she walked out.
The recovery room was quiet after Allie left for a few moments before the silence was broken.
“I remember her being a lot quieter and… still. Did something happen?” Varia said from my side.
“She used to be a much grumpier woman, but still very kind and good to talk to. I don’t know where she’s gotten this change from but it’s nice to see.” Mom responded.
“I’m not sure on the details but I’m pretty sure full on borgs are as old as they want to be unless they’ve really let their brain melt down. She settled into low power mode for a good while, no idea why. Now she’s building up to normal I guess, no idea why there either. Marchand has only been old for about twenty years, I think, and she’s nearly two hundred.” I said as I squeezed my toes into foot fists to get come blood to them. Laying down so long was rough.