“It should be displayed. That being said…”
He looked at the screen.
Constitution Catalysts Available:
Mother Crab RNA ReInforcement>
Cordyceps Host-Augmentation Spores>
“Uh… how do I tell the difference? What do they even mean?”
“You’d need your AI disk to tell you that. I don’t have your base genetic profile.”
“Why does my body feel…?” It was difficult to put into words.
“Well… that was the second point, between the toxins in your system and the reconstitution there was a small problem.”
“What problem.” Always. Always another problem. He lied to himself in hope that one cycle he’d hear about a problem going away instead of throwing itself onto his pile of problems. 20 IQ Allocation was a good call. He was still able to keep track but if he kept adding problems at this rate he was going to need to write them down.
“There was a… quite unlikely reaction. Really one in a million chance, perhaps even much less likely than that.”
“Julia we don’t have time. I won’t be mad, just tell me.”
“Well it seems to have reset parts of your body composition.”
“What does that mean? Wait. My body is different.”
Previously Jack had felt shoulder heavy but otherwise somewhat thin. He had felt his skills burn into his body. Those enhancements were not there.
“My Mods are gone.”
Some skills too. He turned on his Electro Affinity and breathed a sigh of relief. He still had this. However there were significant clumps of cells that lacked nano reinforcement. His muscles were missing Nano. No Nano reinforcement no Nano Mods. The muscle reinforcement and the ability to move electricity on those circuits was gone as well.
“What happened exactly?”
“Well… we don’t really have time but ok. The mycelial growth had completely interwoven with your muscles."
His upgraded IQ and the assistance of a deep conscious part of his mind brought up the memory. Leanne shooting at him, catching the beads on his shoulder and the mushrooms growing up to defend his head. Added it to the list.
“Yeah forget it.” He turned towards Leanne. “Can you fix her up? Is that possible at this Terminal?”
“Most likely, this isn’t a Medical Terminal but it’s in the BioPrison. Put her hand on the Pad, remember, don’t take longer than a minute.”
Jack nodded then looked to Leanne. He’d be quick but would try not to injure her. He released his hand and scooped her up and brought her to the Terminal. He paused at how he was going to release her then just held her and put her hand on the Pad.
He set her down with a gentle thump, much softer than he would usually and snaked her hand to the Pad.
“Is… did you not Register her?”
Jack paused.
“I don’t know.”
Julia sighed. This time Jack did feel a bit foolish.
“I’d have to plug in the AI disk and then touch her hand to the Pad, right?”
“Correct. I can clear some foreign agents from her system but not at the level provided to you. Well, maybe that’s best. Still she wasn’t nearly as bad as you were, minus the physical injuries. Impossible to fix without the AI’s guidance.”
Yes, he got it.
“Alright, just clear her out then.”
Jack continued to hold her from behind as her body started smoking. Still unconscious, Leanne involuntarily coughed out several different-sized wads of thick phlegm spottled with black and green. It sizzled and smoked like the wisps from her flesh that quickly followed.
Somewhere in Jack’s head an inkling hit. There weren’t any lights nor electricity from it. Unfortunately that thought was drowned out by his concern for Leanne. I mean, she had almost assuredly saved his life.
A gleeful, hateful corner of his mind spun pictures of him attacking her through the front of his attention. He grimaced.
“Ok, it’s done. She has several fractured ribs on her left side, a completely shattered rib on the same side, her shin is heavily fractured and the end of her foot was essentially a lost cause. She also has a fairly severe concussion and a wound on her head that could use a look. I am unlocking a Security Locker as well.”
“Uh… alright, how-”
“Jack I’ve got to HardCut our connection soon…”
Yeah. Jack really didn’t like being interrupted. He had a peculiar thought that came through. Maybe other people didn’t like it either. He felt a pang of guilt about all the interrupting he did. He pushed the new feelings aside as he refocused on Julia’s words.
“…’Them’ will try and piggyback this connection, this channel has been open too long.”
“Ah alright. Wait-” the connection was already cut by that point.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Did Julia forget how to speak or did she say that on purpose? Them? That was the second time he had heard that name. Was it a group of people or the name of something worse?
He looked down to Leanne. Time for Improvised Surgery. He grimaced.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
“Is it possible that you and your crew can walk faster?”
“Nope.” Kala hacked a wad of spit and placed it near the bitching Monitor’s feet. “My crew, my speed.”
She was enjoying the walk after the running and the fighting. The occasional crab they stumbled across made for good killing and good eating. She was having a nice time overall.
She dropped Uller to the ground, an audible but muffled grunted came from within followed by some unintelligle cursing that emanated from within his Medjel shell.
“How long is it gonna take until you get out of there?” She was looking at Uller but the question was to Eilien.
“I uh… it should have released him already, I don’t know why Jack’s Medjel is still holding this securely.” Kala flicked a finger on the shell. A audible click sounded out each time her finger came down. Heavily muffled screaming emanated from within.
Kala yelled down to the cocoon, “SORRY ULLER, IT WAS A CRAB ATTACK!”
“What if we are late?” The Monitor was really starting to get on her nerves. However, with Uller still stuck in the shell she didn’t have an engineer to replace the Clan’s. Don’t kill him don’t kill him don’t kill him.
“Because I’m not running with Uller on my back all the way.”
The Monitor wouldn’t relent, “We can carry him.”
“How close is the Engine Department or Compartment or whatever it’s called?”
“It should be nearly directly south of the Labs.”
“Ok, and how far away is the Bridge?”
“It should be quite some more distance than that.”
The Monitors had met and consolidated information from each other. It was an unacceptable risk if something befell one of them and had subsequently lost a portion of knowledge forever.
“Right, well. You answered it yourself idiot.” Kala slung Uller under her arm again and continued walking, Eilien stabilized Uller’s feet for her.
The Monitor and the Guard whispered a fast, quiet exchange. Kala didn’t hear and didn’t care much. Time to find some lunch.
----------------------------------------
----------------------------------------
It was a brief debate for him but Jack did check the Security Locker first. A panel in the wall had slid to the side to reveal a locker. Inside was the purple, flexible plastic seal. He poked a hole in it with his knife and it turned into a liquid puddle.
His eyes landed on the new ship-suit he saw hanging from the side of the locker, this one looked sturdy. It had thick hard points at the shoulders, chest, outside of the thighs, and the groin. He quickly unbuckled his belt and took of his pants. They had hung in there.
Once in the new uniform he replaced his belts over the built in belt/holster. The armored ship-suit had a knife scabbard. Jack looked in the locker for the knife. It was a copy of the one Tule had given him. Jack guessed that it was a Security Personnel Knife. He placed it in the scabbard. Next to it was a holster for a pistol. This must be a Security Personnel ShipSuit. He silently grumbled that he should have had one of these from the start.
Water! He drank deeply and placed it aside. Guns… He debated on this. He picked up the rifle, this one looked different than the AK Yuma had gotten before, much different. It had black and gold striping that circled the barrel at enlarged circular points. Hmm. Jack tested it into the corner and a blast of lightning came out of it.
It ejected a shell. Jack scanned it for electricity. Just a small reaction around the rings of the barrel. Hard ammunition and electricity?
Next to it was a pistol. This one was red and seemed to be powered by an internal blue light. He decided to not test fire it.
Jack cursed himself for getting distracted.
He pulled out the drawer on the bottom of the locker. A bag of Medjel packets. On the front of the bag it was printed, “Medjel. Military Grade. Not for Individual Sale or Distribution.” Jack consolidated the ‘regular’ Medjel into one duffel and added the other one filled to the brim the Military Grade on the other side.
There was another locker with lots of particularly named medication. Jack didn’t know what any of them were for so he grabbed the wicked looking syringes and the bottles. Shit, not a lot of space left. He added them to one of his former Medjel pouches.
Jack wasn’t looking forward to surgery this time around. He consoled himself with the fact that at least they weren’t doing it surrounded by mushrooms.
He laid Leanne out. He’d have to do it quick. If Tule and Jonah had used the AI disk to enter a dangerous area, that was a problem. Ideally, he’d fix up Leanne enough that she would at least not be a direct liability when he got there.
He looked over his ‘surgical implements’. He had his two claw-blades, one in terrible condition by this point. His knife he got from Tule. He looked at two of the packets next to each other.
“Military Grade” and “Laboratory Grade”
Huh. That was different.
He examined her. He needed a priority list. Head down sounded like a good idea. He lifted her head gently and turned it to look at the wound. Looked like someone spread some Medjel on there. ‘Not particularly well’ he added internally as he touched up some sections. He removed the blood and spore covered cloth she was using to cover her mouth.
Jack looked at her ribs and pushed them slightly, she gasped, brows furrowed. Jack sighed. He already knew this was going to be a pain in the ass. He really hoped she didn’t wake up in the middle of it. Checking the locker, he found a female version of the armored ship-suit. He pulled out his knife and started to gently cut her clothes off. Please please, don’t wake up until I’m done.
Jack continued slicing following it to just above her boots. Her leg was clearly jeopardized. He actually had a flash of appreciation, it must have been incredibly difficult and painful for her. He cut and took those off as well. Her toes on her right foot were gone, a messy bite shaped wound. Someone had eaten her toes? Jack blanched. He was really hoping that it hadn’t been him. He looked at them closer and after washing her missing toes with water he decided to try slathering on some of the military grade. It dried quicker, much quicker, but beyond that Jack sure what the difference was.
He turned back to her leg. Jack stabilized the upper side of her leg, near her knee, with his gauntlet covered hand and grabbed her ankle with his left. He pulled them apart and heard? Felt? Some combination of the two transmitted a grinding sensation. It wasn't a good grinding sensation.
He stopped and sighed. Time to cut into her leg. He used the new knife from the locker to slice into her. He aimed for slightly away from the wound site, slicing around the area in an attempt to open it up. After not seeing progress he eventually connected the cuts and moved the oval-shaped flap of flesh to the side. He could just Medjel that back on later.
Why was this so miserable? I remembered this almost being fun before. Did I though?
One thing he was sure was that it was at least, interesting. Now, he was just not having a good time, at all.
He looked and gently carved away chunks until he got to the bone. Yeah, it was fucked. There was no way he was going to realign this by pulling without cutting her open. There were fragments of bone distributed around, presumably from her walking on it for so long. The bone itself probably shattered further as she took impacts on it.
This idiot should have let me fix it way earlier.
There was a section of shin bone that had settled into the other side. Apparently that’s how she had been walking, some of the bone was still working correctly, at least marginally. Jack plucked out pieces of bone and tried to set them in the correct places. He tried pulling the bones apart to reset them but had no way to manipulate the bone and shards while keeping it all under tension. The other leg bone looked like it was struggling to maintain the weight on its own. He prayed that it wouldn't snap while he was working.
Jack thought for a moment then rinsed off his new, ship-suit boot-soled foot with some water. He repositioned himself to sitting opposite her and noticed she wasn’t wearing underwear. Jack violently slammed that thought away and placed his foot against the only secure place possible and pulled her foot toward him with his gauntlet. It didn’t help that she was freaking tall either. As he pushed with his foot and pulled with his gauntleted hand he realized that his new EQ was the cause of all these new emotions and concerns. He disliked it intensely. Back to work, he reminded himself.
Please don’t wake up please don’t wake up.