City-21 “Kyiv”, UNSA Protectorate, Avril Dominion

The Palace of Sports

Nikola Kowalski, August 12, 2049, 12:25 PM

“Last flight, just last flight of stairs,” Nika whispered, as she pushed herself up the staircase. What would’ve been trivial for any healthy person had turned into an arduous ordeal for her. The problem started about halfway up.

Even if you have normal legs, bounding up the stairs one-legged is no easy task. And for Nikola, the situation was dire. Actually, she had ingeniously adapted a “scythe” she’d ripped from a “Mantis” as a makeshift crutch before she had left the garage. Redhead had even salvaged her own leg, which had been automatically detached to maintain her mobility during combat.

But on one of her leaps, her body veered to the side. Quick to react, she grabbed the railings with both hands, steadying herself just in time.

But just as she seemed to regain her balance and bent to pick up her dropped crutch, her remaining leg buckled, and gave out. Nika fell, her body slamming painfully against the wall.

Once again, an irritating pop-up from the Protectorate appeared, chastising her for damaging property. She was too exhausted even to be angry. After a brief pause, she tried to rise.

“Kurwa mać, what the hell’s going on?!” Nikola cursed in frustration. Her remaining cybernetic leg had stopped obeying her commands! While the feedback was still intact – she felt everything and saw no visible damage, but she couldn't move it.

“This is terrible. This damned Protectorate blocks even diagnostic access! I hate you, motherfuckers! Sons of bitches!” In her fury, she struck the wall and slowly exhaled, trying to calm herself.

“Swearing out loud, it feels a bit better. I need to keep moving, even if I have to crawl on my hands. I'm not dying today!”

Determined not to leave her detached leg behind, Nikola tossed it up to the landing, followed by her trophy “scythe.” You never know when such things might come in handy. Now her hands were free. Climbing the stairs upwards proved devilishly hard until she figured out to turn around and back up, hoisting herself onto each successive step and dragging her remaining leg.

“Done!” Nikola gasped on the landing. “From here on, it's a crawl, but it'll be easier; the limbs still pull!”

With grim resolve, Nika moved forward, her hands clutching the floor – so resolutely that it seemed even the muscle amplifiers in her hands kicked in, though she had no way to check. She covered the distance to the workshop’s closed door in just a minute and a half.

“Alisa, open up!” She knocked forcefully on the door with her fist. “Open th–”

The door slid aside, and a young man in a wheelchair stared in astonishment at the bloodied, dirty Nikola, with her tangled hair, lying on the floor…

“Uh… Nikola, is that right?” Maksim asked in surprise, not expecting to see a cyborg on his doorstep, especially one in such a dire state.

“I… need help,” she rasped, struggling to sit up. “The Protectorate has seized control over… my cyber-core, all the functions are locked. There’s a timer set, in eleven minutes it’ll shut me down. Permanently.”

“We'll get you out of this!” the guy responded confidently, reaching out to assist her toward the wheelchair. “Grab my hand, hang tight. Let’s head over to the workbench.”

He switched to reverse, and the wheelchair lurched back – quicker than turning, given the tight space. It had just enough power to drag Nika to the center of the room.

“There are no chairs, so let me help you onto the workbench. It’s a kind of seat, in its own way.”

Maksim assisted Nika to grip on, but she managed to climb up mostly by herself, only needing help to stabilize her non-responsive leg.

“Tough girl!”

“We’ll deal with the medicine once we sort out the Protectorate issue, okay? Can you hold on?”

“Don’t have much of a choice, do I?.. I’m okay. There’s no critical damage, but I dunno about the hardware. Kurwa, they locked me out of everything! Can’t even run basic diagnostics. And you can see the state of things on the outside yourself.”

“It sucks, I get it. Really, I do. We’ll get through this. I’m no hacker, but I know exactly whom to call.”

He set a new ten-minute timer, plainly visible. Simultaneously, he dialed up Vasilevskaya, recognizing the severity of their predicament. Without Alisa, Moira, or any other cybernetic assistants, nor a cyber-doc station nearby, and with time rapidly depleting.

“Max, nothing significant has changed in the last five minutes!” Dasha responded promptly, in voice-only mode.

“WonderStar, it’s something else, urgent. Critical situation.”

“What happened?” her image popped up on the media phone, sitting in a chair, a VR helmet on her head.

“I’ve got a cyborg here whose core has been hacked by the Protectorate. In ten minutes, they’re set to shut her down permanently. All I’ve got is this universal workbench and a heap of old cyber parts. We need to help.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“A cyborg? What?” Confusion marred her face as she removed her helmet.

“We’re saving this beauty here.” Max adjusted the camera to show Nikola sitting on the workbench.

Dasha was taken aback by the harrowing sight: torn clothes, multiple cuts on her face, abrasions, and blood on her body. And only one leg.

“That’s… that cyber-girl I saw with Alisa!”

“Hello… I’m Nikola, Nika is fine.” Redhead waved at the camera. “Sorry, but I can’t hear you. My cyber-core is under external control. The Protectorate’s message says they will shut down my brain in ten minutes – and they can because I’m built military-grade. Can you help?”

“This is tough... But not deadly!” Dasha quickly regained her composure, a key ability of hers – swiftly engaging in critical situations. “Max, make sure Nikola can hear me. As I understand, she’s got communication restrictions on conferencing and private channels.”

“Sure thing,” the guy replied. “Switching call to my mediaphone.”

“Nika, can you hear me now?” asked Dasha.

“Yes, loud and clear.”

“Before I start, we need to quickly assess how screwed up things are. What I’m about to ask is crucial. Please, answer honestly, this channel is secure.”

“Of course!”

“Backdoors. I’m interested in the one called ‘Dreamcatcher’ that you got installed first. You should have access to it. Am I right?”

“Kurwa! Can’t believe how easily you figured it out! I have access, yeah.”

“Ah, don't sweat it, it’s just that I’m a genius… Plus, without those backdoors, you'd be acting totally differently. Right now, we really need that access because we're without Moira. Max, looks like we'll have to manage on our own.”

“Moira?” Nika looked perplexed, shifting her gaze from the media phone to Max, then briefly closed her eyes, signaling that now was not the time for surprises.

“Got it, command!” Maksim waved his hand. “Dasha knows what she's up to. This is a matter for a skilled hacker, not just an engineer. And she's already worked with cyberized platforms, not just robotics.”

“I’m fetching the necessary software. How long do we have?”

“Nine minutes!” Nikola checked the countdown glyph on the screen.

“Perfect, we'll start in a minute, we’re cutting it close! Max, prepare her for the connection real quick.”

“Connection to what?”

“Maksim, don’t play dumb! To me, obviously. You don’t have a cyber-station or anything else but that workbench for assembling bots. So, we’ll use you as a proxy, just get me a direct line to her sub-brain.”

“We’ll get busted with traffic like that, Dashka!” He protested, still fetching the smart cables. “Though, I suppose TACTA probably wouldn’t care…”

“There won’t be any damn traffic! Nika’s got all her ‘backdoor stashes’ set up already. I’m certain of it. Nika, when were you supposed to be pulled out?”

“In a couple of months, after the final payment.”

“Great. See?! That means everything I need is already embedded in her! I just need full access – that’s it! And fast!”

At that moment, Maksim had pulled out the rack with smart cables.

“Nika, what’s your interface implant type?”

“RXTM-2, anchored in the occipital bone,” Nika replied. “I don’t have any hair ties or pins on me… Lost ‘em during a fight. Got a box with any sort of fastener nearby? Can you find a couple of plastic rods, pencil-sized?”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Then bring them with you. I’ll tie back my hair to make it easier.”

“Here you go,” he said, handing over eight smart cables and a couple of plastic ‘sticks’ from a box.

Nika quickly twisted her hair into a bun at her nape and secured it by crisscrossing the plastic rods just above her interface ports.

“Been through this before?”

“Yeah, had to… a few times.”

“Good. Can you turn over and lie on your stomach now? Turn your head to the right, so your interface port faces me.”

“I think I can do that,” Nika replied, maneuvering herself on the workbench. “Can you help me swing my leg up, please?”

Moving up closer, Max helped the Redhead get into a more or less comfortable position.

“I’m in the same boat right now, actually – legs aren’t working either. Good thing it’s temporary. WonderWhiz, are you ready?”

“Yeah, you can connect,” Vasilevskaya replied, now donning her VR helmet again.

The cables were already at hand, no preparation needed as the implants were modern and didn’t require adapters.

Maksim deftly connected four pairs of smart cables. Seven loud clicks followed in sequence. Almost done, just one cable left.

“Nika, here comes the last smart. We’re starting the connection now!”

“Go ahead, I can’t really help anyway, all my accesses are locked,” Nikola responded, tiredly closing her eyes.

“Max, software is up, hook up the sacrifice!” Dasha giggled.

“Hey, Dashka, I only just now realized that you said ‘Dreamcatcher!’ That’s the project you handed in back in February…” He remembered she had recently worked on reprogramming cyber-cores for a darknet syndicate, specifically writing software to bypass corporate firewalls.

“Well, yeah, small world. Especially the underground one. ‘Dreamcatcher’ is my software, I named it after my favorite t-shirt… The clients were very cautious, did their best to hide… But I got curious and dug deeper to understand what I was actually working on. It’s cool to see your own creation in action! Especially since it became a standard in this peculiar industry!”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Nika said, “but doesn’t calling me a sacrifice sound kind of… ritualistic?”

“Sure does!” Dasha replied importantly, pointing her index finger up. “A sacrifice to Cthulhu!”

The final cable clicked into the socket at the back of Nikola’s neck. Max was now connected to her with eight one-and-a-half-meter smart cables. All that was left was to open the pre-prepared remote access terminal and transfer access to Daria.

“Nika, can you see the authorization request?” asked the dark-haired Cthulhu priestess, ready to start the ritual.

“Yes, I see the screen!”

“Then let’s get started!”

“Done!”

“I see the access, all good, your backdoors are in place. Launching… ‘Dreamcatcher’ is loading! Pass and key?”

“I’ll spell it out. Capital C, y, a, f, a, r, digits 4-9-1, capital M, i, a, n, digits 2-5-8, ‘ergo’, with a capital and… Sacrifice, ja pierdolę, Cthulhu, kurwa! Where the hell have I gotten into?!”

“Welcome to the robotics lovers’ club. We love robots, you know? Now, we have to love cyborgs too. In all sorts of ways. So, where’s the key?”

“It’s in the ‘external certificates’ directory, there’s a lot there, look for the one starting with ‘Astwer’.”

“Yep, found it. Connected, working. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Fine, I’ll stick around.” Nika waved off another joke.

Max had a thought that, despite her clearly tough situation, she was holding up well. Even Dasha’s humor wasn’t irritating her – an incredibly resilient human!

“Max, Nika, keep in mind that after the Protes’s hacked the core, it was real-time leaking GPS coordinates online!” Dasha warned. “I’ll set up a decoy, but –”

“But old logs are already out there, so we better get out of here as soon as possible,” Maksim agreed; this news didn’t surprise him. “Alright, we’ll figure out what to do. WonderCharm, are we interrupting if we keep talking?”

“It’s fine, I won’t break the connection. If something needs to be done... I'll tell you. Nikola, don’t worry about time, I’m about to cut off the external control, the Protectorate won’t be able to do anything to you. There’ll be a few soft reboots and one hard one at the end.”

“A hard reboot, that's definitely unpleasant, but I can handle it. You’ve saved me from death, or perhaps something even worse. I am truly grateful, believe me.”

“Don’t mention it, thanks for helping Alisa.” The video with Dashka disappeared, leaving only the media glyph of the voice connection.