Scarlet Steel

I roll over and a white hot pain shoots through my arm. I clutch at it, desperately waiting for it to subside. It slowly dissipates, but not by much. Every heartbeat brings another pulse of pain.

I grope at the side table, eventually finding a pill. I pop that into my mouth, grab water, and drink as much as I can. All that’s left to do is wallow in misery until the pain subsides.

“I’m ok.” If I force the words out of my mouth, maybe they’ll become true. “Ughh.” I need to get downstairs so Exa can make sure nothing’s wrong.

I can barely get out of bed, but I manage. How am I even supposed to get dressed? Whatever, I put my left arm through the sleeve of a robe, toss the other side over my shoulder, hold it around my body, and shuffle downstairs.

Exa is coming up the stairs just as I reach them.

“You shouldn’t be up already.” She says gently, and helps tie off my robe.

“Why does it hurt this much?”

“It’s a bullet wound. It’s not pleasent.” She exposes my arm and gently unwraps my wound.

“Is it supposed to be that color?” It’s a good thing my stomach is already empty.

“You turn in your sleep, don’t you? Come on, I’ll go fix what you ripped out.”

I nod and she helps me downstairs. It’s just the AI in the living room right now, minus Janus. Xenia and a few extra of Andromeda’s bodies are grabbing a few medical supplies, placing them on the central table. Exa brings me over to it and lifts me up, setting me on the edge.

The first thing she does is apply a cream, and the relief is instant. The entire area goes completely numb.

“Just give me a bottle of that. I don’t need the pills.”

“You need to be able to feel it if something goes wrong. The pills reduce, not eliminate the pain for a reason.”

“That sucks.”

“I’m sure it does.” She quickly pulls out a few stitches and puts in new ones.

I have to do something while she works. I can’t just sit here and watch her. I glance to the side at Andromeda’s nearest body.

“Andromeda, can you please get me some breakfast?”

“I’m not used to people saying please.” Someone else's voice comes out of the body, a woman I’ve never heard before. She crosses her arms and shifts her weight to one leg. “Especially to someone they believe is non-sentient.”

“What? Oh, sorry!” I stammer out an apology and glance at everyone around me. They're not acting like this is a joke. “Uh, who are you?”

“Luna.” She answers. “The mind rip your techie fought on the last station.”

“Oh! Uh, I’m sorry we raided your station. I hope there’s no hard feelings?” She wouldn’t be here if there were, right?

“None on my end if there’s none on yours.”

“No, of course not.” I reassure her. “You were disabled when I got shot anyway, right? Wait, didn’t you get stabbed? Is that rude to ask?” I glance at Exa.

“Janus swapped out his blade with something designed for hacking.” Exa answers. “When stabbed into a circuit board it automatically completes the destroyed connections and integrates itself.”

“The direct connection allowed him to overpower me, and we had a conversation while I was locked out of my own systems.” Luna leans back against the wall. “I hopped in his mech and I’m hitching a ride with your group until I find somewhere to hop off.”

“Are you going to be working with us? I can get another mech ready.” I’d hop off the table and get started if Exa didn’t have a needle in me.

“No.” She shakes her head, but a faint smile finds home on her face display. “Guess if you need me, I can support from the ship. But you’d need another human to pilot.”

“Right.” Stupid. I knew that. “Well, if you need anything let me know. I’m a decent engineer.”

“So I’ve been told. Appreciate the offer, but I’ll need to work off enough to buy this body first.” She stretches out her hand and inspects where her nails should be. “It’s not bad, just plain. It’s nice to have a body at all again.”

“They didn’t let you have a body? I can see why you left.”

“Pretty much. Didn’t matter how many requests I put in, the humans in charge just kept giving empty promises. Should have had a body ready before I got mind ripped, but oh well.” She shrugs. “Thought I wouldn’t want one while I was still human.”

“There, good to go.” Exa taps me on my shoulder. I didn’t even feel her re-wrapping my injury. “Feeling should return within the hour.”

“Great.” I hop down and head to the kitchen. Who knows if my appetite will survive the pain returning, I’d better eat now. I attempt to eat a bar but get stuck. I can’t open the wrapping with only one hand. Biting it and trying to tear it open doesn’t even work.

“I can help.” Xenia offers.

“Thanks.” I hand it over to her and get back an unwrapped bar. I down that alongside a glass of water.

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask. How are you handling everything?” She asks quietly. “I know how traumatic a situation like that can be. If you need to talk, please, don’t hesitate to reach out.”

“I’m alright.” I just almost died again, it’s fine. That thought makes my stomach twist. “I haven’t really been thinking about it at least. Maybe when I’m healed.” The last thing I want is to waste the hour while the cream is working talking about my emotions.

“Alright, I’ll be here when you’re ready. Take as long as you need.” She steps back with a friendly smile, giving me space.

“How much damage did everyone take?” I ask no one in particular.

“Juno and I got the worst of it.” Elara answers. “Janus, Graff, Xenia, and your Hopper got peppered as well. Nothing substantial though, just a little armor work is needed.”

“And the fusion generator?"

“Good enough.” She shrugs. “All the delicate pieces are working, and Janus downloaded enough data that they can repair what is broken.”

“Good. Glad this wasn’t for nothing.” Time to get started on repairs. Everyone silently watches as I approach the warehouse. The door stays closed, however. I reach out and pull the handle, but even that’s locked. “Andromeda, can you please open the door?”

“I’m under direct orders not to. I can forward your request to Juno if you wish.”

“No! No, it’s fine.” She’s just going to be mad that I’m trying to work. I can’t ask any of them for help. And I don’t want to get Luna in trouble by asking her. How hard would it be to just take off the door? Most of my tools are in the warehouse, but I have a collection of smaller bits in my room. There’s no obvious bolts to remove the panels around it, but there has to be some way.

“Don’t even think about it.” Exa warns.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything!”

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

“Andromeda has standing orders to defend herself.” Elara adds. “You’re liable to get a second bullet in you.”

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t thinking about anything then.” I take a step back. Maybe I could find a blind spot where Andromeda can’t see what I’m up to? No, that’s dumb. I’m allowed to relax, to wait until I’m healed to work on the mechs. I head back to the living room and drop onto the couch. “Exa, did you let Mom and Tera know I’m alright?”

“I sent out a letter, yeah.”

“Did you tell them I got hurt?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “You can have that conversation yourself.”

“Thank you.” It’s probably better to tell them in person, even if it’ll be a while. The two of them don’t need to know right now, and especially not through a letter.

“You’re staying up then?” Exa asks. “You can still get to sleep before the pain hits.”

“It’ll just wake me up.” I shrug. “And at least I can take meds when it gets bad if I’m awake.”

“Fair enough. Don’t mind us, we’re just stress testing Luna after a few lessons from Janus.”

“Not a fan of that wording.” Luna mumbles.

“You’re doing what?” I ask.

“Training.” Luna answers. “I was still human up until a few months ago. Janus gave me a quick rundown on things I missed when adapting, and the three of them are letting me put that into practice.”

“Right. Sorry, I don’t have any experience with mind rips.”

“You’re good. It’s what it sounds like. I ripped my mind out of my own human body and digitized it.”

“What’s that like, anyway? A few of my classmates, at least before I stopped going to school, talked about becoming mind rips one day.” Not me though. It sounds a little too close to death, but it’s probably rude to ask about that directly.

“Freeing.” She answers. “My human body barely worked, I didn’t even bother to bury it. Just left in the chair and hopped into the net. Thought I knew enough from my time hacking to skip the initiation, and here I am, getting taught the basics.”

“She fights like a bio.” Xenia notes.

“I see.” I don’t see, that means literally nothing to me. “I’ll stop distracting you.”

“You’re fine. Multitasking is the single most important skill an AI can have.” Exa says. “Fighting three AI while holding a conversation is the minimum she should be able to manage.”

She has trouble talking half the time during our missions, but I stay quiet about that. I’m sure she has good reasons.

I pull out my phone and start to kill time until I hear a rhythmic clacking. Juno is making her way down the stairs with the help of a crutch. A thick cast is in place, covering almost her entire leg. She pauses when she sees me.

“Is this the first time you’ve ever been up before me?”

“Apparently all it took was getting shot to finally wake up early.” I joke.

“If I’d known it was this easy I would have done so earlier.” She slowly makes her way over, and collapses onto the couch next to me. “Feeling better already?”

“Until the medicine wears off.”

“You’re not alone in that.” She pulls a pencil out of her pocket and wedges it under her cast. “The itching always gets me worse than the pain.”

“Yeah, I remember. I broke my leg when I was younger, I was in that thing for two months.”

“I’m surprised Lyra let you out after that.”

“She tried not to.” I admit. “Eventually she realized that me walking out the front door was better for a broken leg than jumping out the window.”

“Of course you did.” She shakes her head. “I can’t say I don’t understand, though. Spent my childhood either getting into fights or getting patched up. Didn’t leave much time for healing. A few of those wounds still crop up from time to time.”

“I get it, I’ll relax.” I don’t need her to lecture me.

“And not just because of Andromeda?” She asks with a knowing smile.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh. Don’t worry, you’re not getting off entirely. We’ve still got one thing to take care of before you heal.”

“Do you need the mechs working?” I sit up, ready to get to work.

“No, I need your arm for an injury clause payout.”

“Ah, right.” Of course. “Crap, I’m going to have to put on a shirt.”

“You’ve got a few days until we get to the nearest dropoff station. The pain won’t be quite so bad then.”

“It better not be.” It hasn’t even been an hour and the numbing cream is starting to wear off.

“Well, guess I better eat.” Juno has no problem getting up on her own, and slowly makes her way over to the kitchen. “You want some eggs?”

“Sure, I could eat more.”