NOVEL NEXT Book 3 - Chapter 144
It was well into the afternoon by the time Deckard finally decided he wanted to rejoin the realm of the living.
"Ugh, my everything hurts," The man complained first thing when he finally awoke.
Trace looked up from where he was hunched over his desk computer working. "By which you mean you have a headache?" He guessed, stretching out his back with a groan.
"Yes, my nanites ran out of material to keep it at bay. Can you top my nutrient mix up again, please?"
Sure enough, when he took a look a few moments later, the man's nutrient mix level was indeed in the red once more. He refilled him with a shake of his head and went back to his computer.
"How did things go yesterday? I never heard back from you, and you've been out of it ever since I got back. Did you run into some trouble?"
Deckard's avatar hemmed and hawed for a few moments before finally nodding. "It was trouble of my own making. I was rerouting the credits through a few hundred accounts while also compiling some of the daemons and viruses in their systems. I ended up spreading myself a little too thin mentally is all and someone decided that it was a good time to test our connection and attacked my avatar.
"As far as I can tell, they were completely uninvolved, a third party who was looking for some fun and nothing more. Bad timing really," He sighed, his avatar running a hand down its face wearily. "Really bad timing. The transfers should have completed, on their own, but I have no idea what happened to anything beyond that."
"Alright, well, let me know when you figure it out. I know we both have a nice long list of items we would like to buy." Trace went back to working on his project. He had three large screens set up on the desk computer at the moment. One was for his new stealth suit, the middle one displayed everything he had learned about the railgun. While the one on the left had the schematics for the railgun rifle and the pistol variant that he was working on.
The desk itself also had a screen inset into the top of it that displayed all the various components and other information he was actively reviewing.
It was a lot of information, but having everything right there allowed him to get a lot done quickly. Not to mention he could always look up information on the net with his NetConnect if needed. It was a sweet setup, and exactly what he had always wanted, even if he hadn't originally known how to use a computer.
He was in the middle of switching between the two projects in an attempt to keep his mind fresh when a text from Monroe came in.
'Sorry, I ended up spending the day with Sabrina to decompress. You good to head back out tomorrow?'
'That's fine. Make sure you get your toy all reloaded.' Trace couldn't help but remind the man. The minigun tore through ammo with a vengeance.
'Ugh, you just had to remind me. Will do, see you in the morning.'
It was a good thing they were taking his truck, seeing as how the semi and its trailer needed some repairs and modifications still. Nothing that would prevent them from being used, but items that could make a big difference if they ran into raiders again.
He stood up and walked around the basement. Getting the blood flowing through his body and giving his mind a break while he looked over the various items he had collected. There were far more items than he had initially expected, despite having just recently moved them all down to the basement it had grown in size.
The collection of parts, components, and various items that he thought would someday be useful had somehow ballooned in size.
What had originally only been a few racks in the corner was now over a dozen. They weren't small shelves either, but massive ones that extended nearly to the ceiling and could hold several tons in weight. His latest jobs had been well, not lucrative in the monetary sense, but he always seemed to find a few items to bring home. Much like he had this time around.
The collection just continued to grow, waiting for him to find a use for it all. Which he had no doubt that he would… in time.
Just as he was about to get back to work, a message from a most unexpected person arrived, Atraxia.
'We should meet. Bring Devko. Same place as before. One hour.'
He glanced at the time and cursed; with traffic, it would nearly take them an hour to get to the restaurant. He would have to drive like an idiot to get there on time.
Before he could even think about sending a message to Ko, she was already calling him.
"I just got a message from our friend. She wants to meet in one hour at the same place as before."
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"Yeah, I got the same message," He told her while running for the stairs that led to his apartment. "It'll take us at least that long just to get to the restaurant. That's not including the time it takes to get ready and for me to go and pick you up."
"I know. I already sent a message back to her, letting her know that we would need at least an hour and a half to get there."
"Sounds good. I'm going to take a quick sani-spray shower, change, and then head on over to pick you up. Will you be at your apartment, or your place at the new clinic?"
"The clinic. I finished moving the last of my items over to it this morning. The apartment is officially no longer mine."
"That happened faster than I thought it would."
"Same here, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. While you were out yesterday on your job, I just decided that there was no reason to delay the move. If I'm living here, then I can get more done on the place than I would if I were still living in the apartment."
"Makes sense, just don't burn yourself out," He told her worriedly.
She laughed with a hint of mania. "It's too late for that, but I'll be fine. Once this is all over, everything can go back to normal, and that is something I can handle."
"I certainly hope that's the case." Something told him it wouldn't be though. New places were always swamped in the beginning and that more than likely went double or even triple for new clinics. It would take a fair while for Ko's life to return back to normal.
***
The car skidded to a stop outside the tower. They had arrived with only a few minutes to spare.
Trace hurried around and opened the door for Ko, helping her out. She was less dressed up this time around and was wearing a pair of nice billowy pants along with a matching silk blouse and scarf.
They rushed to the elevator and rode it to the top, finding the same room as before reserved. Sitting inside were Atraxia and G1gl3Myte in an oddly companionable silence.
Trace stopped in the doorway, Ko right behind him. "What's this then?" He demanded, refusing to take another step further into the room. His narrowed eyes were glued to the man who had put out a bounty on him while Ko was carefully watching Atraxia.
"Come sit," The android woman said with a simulated sigh. "There is much we need to discuss. Please?"
G1gl3Myte snorted and turned away.
Ko prompted Trace encouragingly, and a few seconds later they were sitting across from the two androids.
"I thought you said you hated him with your entire being," Ko said as soon as they were seated.
Atraxia's eyebrow rose in amusement. "I don't believe those were my exact words. Regardless, the two of us have a long history, and have come to an accord." Her fingers slowly tapped on the surface of the table in a nervous manner as she glanced at the man next to her. "Do you want to begin, or should I?"
He growled, only to sigh and hang his head. "I'll do it. It's easier for me. Less emotional baggage than there is for you." He looked up at them both and promptly asked them a question. "What do the two of you know about bioware, or biomods if you will? Specifically, their origins?"
"Not a lot. I just barely found out that they even existed a few weeks ago, shortly before our second run-in," Trace said.
Ko bobbled her head a little before answering. "I know a bit more than him due to my work. The entire field supposedly originated from cloning research being done back in the day. However, they were never able to fully clone the entire brain. Pieces of it, yes, and the rest of the body sure, but whatever drives the body, its ghost or soul was always missing from the end product. Even when they attempted to transfer all the target's memories, it remained brain dead in the end."
"Correct." He nodded at her precise answer. "Now, here is what you don't know. The cloning program that started it all was created by Koarden Enterprises. Around twenty years after Deckard died, Meredith had the idea of cloning him from some genetic material that had been saved during his operation when he was a baby." He held up his hand, stopping them from saying anything. "That never went anywhere as the material had been improperly handled and decomposed during the intervening years. It wasn't usable for her purposes."
"I feel like there is a 'but' coming," Trace muttered, leaning over the table, getting engrossed in the conversation despite himself.
"Indeed, there is a 'but', namely, in the form of her husband, David," Atraxia interjected, slowly raising her hand and pointing to the man next to her. "When he died in the accident, Meredith had his entire body put in cryostasis. She had all the material she could ever need to work with and more. His brain wasn't viable, as oxygen deprivation had long since set in, but his body was there. A perfect candidate for cloning, if she could ever get the process to work."
"Wait, if she can just clone a body, why hasn't she simply created herself a new body already?" Trace asked.
"The same reason she can't use an android body. When they conducted the initial operation all those years ago, the base of her brain stem was damaged beyond repair. Although," Atraxia winked at them. "Her little friends might have finished fixing that damage by this point. Who knows?"
Ko smacked the table, bringing everyone's attention to her. "Hold on, back up! Do you mean to tell me this pile of scop is Deckard's dad? How? I thought they never got a working brain out of the cloning process."
Trace abruptly sat back, slightly queasy. "Didn't you hear her? They didn't need to clone the brain. They already had one."
"Yeah, but then how did it… Deckard," Ko closed her eyes and leaned back. "She used the cloned body as some sort of template for her little friends to understand what she wanted, and to kick-start the process. Then once it was started, she removed his brain and stuck it in a braincase while the healing process continued."
Atraxia nodded. "It wasn't fully successful, as you have no doubt figured out. G1gl3Myte and David have two entirely different personalities. It's why he eventually adopted the moniker instead of continuing to go by his actual name."
"They brought his brain back into working condition, but all the memories were still lost," Trace said.
G1gl3Myte nodded. "I get flashes occasionally of events, but they're always singular and without any extra information that would help the memories make sense. If anything, the occasional flashes just make it all worse, and more frustrating. Knowing that there was this other life I lived, but being unable to remember it!" His hand squeezed the fork in his hand, turning it into a misshapen mess.
"How do you enter all of this, then?" Trace asked Atraxia. "How do you manage to know everything? What's your real history with him?"
"I thought that would be obvious by now," She remarked in surprise. "I'm Meredith Koarden, his wife."