“This room is clear.”  A couple of cops were cuffing Victoria’s parents and one was moving in on her while the rest moved throughout the house.

“What the fuck is THIS?”  He tugged on the cord plugged into her head.

“Please don’t remove that!”  The man paused; the desperation in her voice was as genuine as it could possibly be.

“Is this hooked up to an explosive?  What did these people do to you?”  He was already on his radio, “We need the bomb squad in here!”  He put his knee on her back to hold her still and snapped the handcuffs on her wrists.

“No, it’s for my prosthetic.  It’s just a charger for my prosthetic I won’t be able to move until it charges.  Please just leave us alone we didn’t do anything.”  Several cops with tool boxes and diagnostic devices burst through the door.

“She’s wired?  Let’s have a look.  This doesn’t appear to be anything dangerous.”  One of them squatted carefully down next to her and followed the cable to the wall and scratched his head.  “It’s just a 12 volt power source at the wall but I can’t figure out why it’s going under her hair.”  He lifted her hair gently, exposing where her scalp was shaved and the shining steel coupler that was surgically grafted to her skull.  “Holy shit!  Greg, take a look at this!”

“It’s my prosthetic damn it!”  She wasn’t sure why they had come here, but was afraid it might have had something to do with the ‘accident’ with the SUV this morning or possibly with the men who had attacked her and the Doc in the afternoon.  “Why are you here anyway?”

“Just try and keep still, if this is some kind of explosive device I don’t want to activate it by accident.”  He was still

holding her hair in one hand and put his other on her shoulder in what was probably supposed to be a calming gesture.

“Don’t touch my daughter you bastard!”  The officer had finished handcuffing her father and he was able to see what was happening now.  “Who are you and how dare you invade my house like this?”

“We got a tip there was a terrorist plot being planned here and that there were possibly bomb making supplies inside.  Maybe even completed explosive devices.”  He turned and looked at the officers who had Victoria and her parents subdued.  “We’d better clear the house just in case.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  We need to wait for an expert.”

The door slammed open and every officer in the room swung their firearm towards it.  “An expert is here.  I’ll have your badge if you’ve damaged that piece of equipment.”  As a group they all lowered their weapons as a man in a military uniform with stripes all the way down the arm and enough metal on his chest to build a battleship walked in.

“General, I thought you were at the Congressional budget meeting.  What are you doing here?”  One of the officers was looking up in surprise, “I knew you were here to oversee our last spec ops training but-“

He was interrupted by the man at the door, “No time for that right now.  I’m not sure who tipped you off that this family had something to do with terrorists but I can assure you they do not. Uncuff them immediately; this family is participating in a project of the utmost importance to National security.”

The officers hurried to comply and Victoria and her family were released quickly.  She sat up, thankful that the charging cable was still plugged into her head.

Her father was rubbing his wrists, “Who are you and what do you think I’m involved in?”  He fixed the man with an angry glare.

“His name is General Charles Regan Hallbeck.  He’s the commander of the Special Forces division of the US Marine Corps and head of the recently formed Cybernetic Research department.”  Victoria tried to keep the shock from her face as she relayed this information; she had no idea why she knew it.

“Your information is impressively accurate Miss Scott.  Perhaps we could talk a bit more privately?”  Charles glanced meaningfully at the officers in the room.

“I’ll put on some coffee.”  Her mom was taking refuge in being domestic; something which suddenly seemed like a wonderful thing to fall back on.

“Coffee would be great.”  He pulled up a chair and sat, “I’d like to know exactly how you know who I am?  I funded the project which gave you this new lease on life but I don’t believe that even Dr. Arlington knew about my involvement.”  He leaned forward and folded his hands, “So exactly how is it you know this?”

“I don’t know; I guess I must have seen it on TV or something.”  Victoria was trying to find a comfortable way to sit with the cable plugged into her head.  She glanced out the window, “Looks like your ride’s here.”  A black Tahoe pulled up in front of the house and she could see ‘Military Escort’ floating over it in ghostly letters.

“You mean OUR ride.  I need to take you in for a debriefing of the utmost importance.”  He glanced at her father then back at her.  “Your country needs you and you need us.”

“Did you know the mafia is out there?”  She looked out the window at a nondescript sedan parked down the street.  “Am I to understand they’re here for me too?  The military, the mob and the cops all at once?  How do I rate anyway?”  She was trying not to panic, taking refuge in sarcasm but was surprised that her voice was even and calm in spite of the fact that she felt like a trapped rat.

He grimaced, “I can explain everything to you but I would prefer to do so in a more secure area.”  Victoria’s new cell phone vibrated in the pocket of her skirt.

“Wow, I can’t believe this thing survived today.”  She pulled it out and saw Eugene’s number, “Hello?”

“Victoria?  Thank God, I was afraid you were… well that they’d gotten you.  Listen, if the military arrives before I can make it there don’t tell them anything.  Not about your prosthetic, not about the fuckers who attacked us today and absolutely nothing about the shit that went down this morning on your way to school, understand?”

“Yeah no problem, I’ll see you tomorrow.”  She wondered how he knew about the military being at her house; everyone seemed to know what was going on but her.

“I’ll be there in five minutes or less.  Just hang in there and find some excuse not to leave.”  He hung up and she looked at her dad.

“Just cheer team drama, nothing to worry about.  TT’s throwing her weight around again.”

“Listen Miss Scott; we need to leave immediately.  Especially if you have reason to believe there are undesirable elements in the neighborhood.”  He leaned forward urgently.

“I can’t leave yet.”  She gestured with the cable plugged into the base of her skull.  “If this doesn’t charge all the way I risk compromising the integrity of the main batteries.  At least that’s what the technical documents I was sent home with claim.  I’m worried that I already screwed something up by draining them all the way down today, I don’t want to risk further damage.”

He looked less than pleased, “Fine, the last thing we want to do is damage the equipment.”

“Listen General, I don’t think my daughter is old enough or recovered enough to handle whatever project you think she needs to be involved in.  She has barely gotten over the surgery and besides; she’s still in high school.”

“We wanted to wait until the prototype was fully tested but I’m afraid this situation has become more urgent than we anticipated.  I’m afraid I don’t have clearance to tell you anything else unless you’re involved in the mission.”  Victoria’s mom came in the room with a carafe of coffee and a tray of cups.

“Cream?  Sugar?”  She handed Victoria a cup of black coffee and mixed cream with one spoonful of sugar for her father.

“No thanks, I prefer it black.” The general accepted a steaming cup from her and his cell phone rang.  He answered it and then looked up sharply, “Are you expecting someone?  A man just got out of a taxi and is coming up your sidewalk.”

“How do you know that?”  Victoria looked at him suspiciously, “Are you having our house watched?”

“It’s just my driver, I asked him to keep an eye on things for me.  You don’t expect me to just be sitting in your living room without backup do you?”

“Why not?”  The doorbell rang, “After all this is just a normal suburban neighborhood.”  Her father was getting up to answer the door.

General Hallbeck glanced at his phone again as it chimed with an incoming text message, “Never mind, it’s just Dr. Arlington.”

Victoria heaved a sigh of relief that turned into a gasp of dismay when the door admitted a battered and bruised looking Eugene.  His left arm was in a sling, his face had several freshly stitched cuts and his left eye was swollen nearly closed.  He looked like shit.

“Ohmygod are you sure you should be out of the hospital?”  Victoria would have gone over to him if the damn cord hadn’t still been plugged into her head.

He laughed and grimaced; she guessed broken ribs.  “Actually they didn’t want to discharge me but I needed to check on you to make sure you were safe.”  He glanced involuntarily at the General, “I know you’ve been through a lot today.”

“What happened to you?”  Victoria’s dad walked back to his chair shaking his head, “You look like you were hit by a train!”

“Doctor, come in and sit!  You shouldn’t be on your feet!”  Victoria’s mom was herding him into an arm chair and pressing a cup of coffee into his hands.  “Victoria’s fine except for a dead battery and some miscommunication with the police.”  She rolled her eyes and laughed a nervous little laugh, “Someone apparently reported that we are terrorists.”

“I got in a car accident.  I’m lucky Porsche builds such a solid car; I got off easy with just a fractured radius and a few contusions.  That’s what I get for talking on my cell phone right?  The car’s totaled though, thank goodness for insurance.”

Victoria heard a hiss of static, like she had in the hospital and this time, she put it together.  Somehow this was a warning that someone was telling a lie.  Could this be some sort of a glitch?  Or a program?  Or…

Charles stood and straightened his jacket, medals jingling.  “I should get back, the work doesn’t stop coming in when I leave.”  He handed Victoria a business card, “Think about it and get back to me.”  With a nod to her mother he added, “Thanks for the coffee.”

When he had gone, Eugene let out a breath he seemed to have been holding.  “Don’t deal with him OK?  I’m not sure what he wants to use you for but it’s bound to be dangerous and probably experimental.”  He took a sip of coffee.

“What on Earth is going on here Dr. Arlington?  First the police and now the military?  Toria mentioned the mafia and while I don’t really take that seriously I guess I wouldn’t rule it out at this point.  What could she possibly do for the military?  Why would the police think we were terrorists?”  Her father stood abruptly from his chair and paced to the window, then back to stand in front of Eugene.

“I’m not stupid Doctor. I want some straight answers and I want them now, otherwise the deal’s off.  I’ll work for the rest of my natural life to pay off the bills but I won’t have my daughter involved in any dangerous or criminal activity.”

Eugene opened his mouth to answer but Victoria beat him to it, “Daddy, you’re overreacting.  I’m sure the terrorist thing was just a mistake.  I don’t know what the military wants but they won’t get it from me.  Just sit and have your coffee and let’s talk it out.”

“Yeah, I’m sure the police were really just some mistake.”  Eugene shrugged, “Who knows what the General wanted, but I will come clean about one thing.  I know him.  In fact he funded part of my research that led to the creation of the prosthetic you now wear.”

Victoria was certain that he wasn’t telling the whole truth.  He knew a lot more than he was saying but it was

difficult to know what

“But why would the military want to fund such research?”  Her father leaned in and set his coffee cup on an end table.  “It just doesn’t make sense.”

“He said for rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the line of duty.  After all, this technology has already worked wonders for soldiers who have lost limbs and has great potential for those who have become paralyzed.”  Eugene seemed sincere but Victoria knew why they would want this tech.  She had begun to experience it herself.   “I think he leads a committee on veteran’s affairs or something.”

Victoria didn’t need the whisper of static in her ear to know that Eugene was definitely lying.  He was scared too; not just worried but downright frightened.  Her dad still had a doubtful look on his face but her mother was already trying to smooth things over the way she always did.

“Well I’m glad that’s settled.  I mean we don’t want to cause problems for someone who has been so helpful to us.”  She was refilling coffee cups and had also brought a plate of cookies.

“Thanks Mrs. Scott, but I really should run the tests I need to and be on my way.  I’ve had a busy day and it looks like you could use a little family time yourselves.”  He pulled out a compact aluminum cased netbook and handed a diagnostic cable to Victoria.  She plugged it into the proper port without even looking; the slight click sent a warm shiver down her spine.

Eugene was already typing; his fingers a blur on the keyboard.  “Interesting, it’s adapting to you with amazing speed.  Look here; I think you’ll appreciate this Victoria.”  She leaned over his shoulder and saw nothing but a set of numbers that spun into a graph with many spikes and a plateau that dropped off after a short span.  His intention became clearer when she looked at the caption of the graph.

“Water intake?  What was it doing?  Cooling itself or something?”  She asked as he kept punching keys and after a short time responded with a chuckle.

“I’ll be damned.  I guess you did have some leftover chemicals from the operation in your system and it was working to clear them.  Look at this; even your sodium and potassium levels were off the charts.  It’s a good thing it triggered such a thirst or you would likely have had kidney stones.”  After a few more keystrokes he closed his computer and she handed him back the cable.

“Thanks for all your help today Doctor, I really appreciate it.”  She looked at him, wishing they had the chance to talk but knowing it wasn’t possible in front of her parents.

“No problem.  Stop by the lab tomorrow for a few more tests?”  It was as though he had read her mind.

“Yeah, sure.  Whatever you need Doc.”  She gave him a relieved grin.

“Well I suppose I should get going, I’ll call myself a cab.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’ll give you a ride home.”  Victoria’s dad was already putting on his hat, “I’m not going to make you pay for a taxi.”

After her father and Eugene left Victoria suddenly had the realization that her books and homework had been in the Porsche.  Shit!  She sighed and pulled her phone from her pocket to text Grace.  After all it wouldn’t be a good idea to try and talk to Jenny at this point.

“I forgot my books at school, I’m going to get ahold of Grace; she’ll get me what I need for tomorrow.  Can you bring my laptop from the den?  I don’t want to get up until this thing finishes charging.” She stayed sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch and sent a couple of quick texts to friends all the time wondering what the hell she’d gotten herself into.

Victoria

Dragging herself to shore was difficult, the rollerblades were waterlogged and the river bottom was covered with around a foot of muck.  She could smell someone cooking over a grill nearby as she sat down to try and clean herself off a bit.  The skirt she was wearing was pretty much ruined, the stockings had been white but now were dyed a nasty brown from the murky river water.

“I wonder where I am.”  Victoria muttered to herself, glancing around.  The grass had been cut within the last month so it must be managed land of some sort.  She finished rinsing the mud off her rollerblades and walked up the embankment.  Pushing through a line of brush she was nearly run over by a man running while looking backwards.  Only by diving sideways and dropping her skates was she able to avoid being run into.

“Whoa, sorry about that!”  The Frisbee he had been chasing landed next to her and she recognized Jenny’s dad.  “Victoria, what are you doing out here?  You look like you’ve been through the ringer!”

Victoria glanced down at herself and had to admit she was a little worse for the wear.  “I’m OK Mr. Hendricks; I was out skating and fell off a bridge.”  The second the words left her mouth she realized how lame they sounded and winced.

“Wow, that must have been quite some fall.  Well we’re having a picnic; do you want to join us?  There’s a fire you could warm up a bit.”  Jenny was running over from across a small clearing.

“Hey Toria, what’s going on?  Holy shit, you look like hell!  I thought you went off with that hottie in the Porsche after school, what happened, did he toss you off a bridge?”

“Don’t laugh Jenny, that’s not far off the mark.”  She suddenly felt dizzy, “Damn, I must have overdone it.”  She turned towards Jenny’s dad, “Could you give me a lift home?”  A shrill keening sound emanated from somewhere on her back.  Victoria suddenly felt weak.  “I’m so tired.”

“Hey are you OK?”  Jenny’s face showed her concern, “What’s wrong V?”

“Please.  Just .. take .. me .. home.”  Victoria was having trouble talking, her breath coming in short gasps.  Her vision began to fade in and out.  Without warning she crumpled to the ground.

“This unit is the property of the Arlington Research Division.  The main power supply has been depleted. Auxiliary power will keep core systems safe for T-600 minutes.  Please return this unit to 301 Industry Avenue, Los Angeles, California 87960 before the time expires.  This message will repeat in 60 seconds.”

“Dad.  What do we do?”  Jenny was white and shaken.  “I mean, this looks like V but what the hell is going on?”

“We bring her home.  Honey, this is Victoria, who else could this possibly be?”  He picked up the motionless girl at his feet.  “I don’t know exactly what’s going on but… we bring her home.”  As they hurried towards the car the muffled sound of a cell phone ringing on vibrate from the pocket of her skirt went unnoticed.

–

Mr. Hendricks pulled up in front of the Scott house, stopping almost fast enough to squeal the tires.  Jumping out he carefully lifted the comatose form of Victoria out of the back seat and carried her to the front door.  Jenny was already ringing the doorbell.  Mr. Scott answered the door, at first with a smile but then with dismay as he saw his daughter in Mr. Hendricks’s arms.

“Jake, what’s this?  I thought she was at a doctor’s appointment.”

“I don’t know what’s going on Rich.  She just walked out of the woods and collapsed.”  He was interrupted by the announcement from Victoria’s spinal column.

“This unit is the property of The Arlington Research Division.  The main power supply has been depleted; auxiliary power will keep core systems safe for T-530 minutes.  Please return this unit to 301 Industry Avenue, Los Angeles, California 87960 before the time expires.  This message will repeat in 60 seconds.”

“Oh shit, I think there’s something about this in the documentation we got from the hospital.  Or maybe I’ll just call her doctor.  Yeah, I’ll call Dr. Arlington.”  He picked up the phone and dialed hurriedly.

“Thank you for calling Dr. Eugene Arlington’s office.  If this is an emergency please press six.” BEEEP Rich mashed the key on the keypad.

“Hello, this is Dr. Arlington.  I’m sorry I can’t answer the phone right now but please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you the moment I’m available.”

“Hi Mr. Arlington, this is Rich Scott.  Victoria just got brought back home looking like she’s been run through the wringer and there’s this automated message coming from her prosthetic about returning her to the home office but she’s here now.  Call me immediately I need to know what to do.”

He hung up and seconds later the phone rang, “Hello?  Doctor?”

“Richard, is that you?”  The voice on the other end was muffled but sounded familiar, “What’s the emergency?”

“Doctor, Victoria just got home and there’s a warning message coming from her prosthetic about the battery, what do I do?”

“Just take the yellow charger from the bag and connect it to the yellow plug in the back of her skull.  It’s a charging port and it’ll regenerate the batteries within 15 minutes.  It won’t be a full charge but it’ll be enough to get her up and moving around.  I’m in the ER but I’ll be there as soon as I can get them to discharge me.  Whatever you do don’t leave the house.  I don’t have time to explain but it is imperative that you do NOT leave the house.”

“What?  Why can’t we leave the house?”  But the line was dead and Rich had his priorities.  He ran upstairs and pulled the proper charger from the bag Victoria had brought from the office.  With some trepidation he plugged it into the wall and then hesitated momentarily before plugging it into the back of his daughter’s head.  There was a pleasant chime and the warning message stopped emanating from the gleaming steel and rubber prosthetic imbedded in her back.

After a tense few minutes Victoria stirred, “Mmmm daddy?  What time is it?”  She sat up, “I feel like I’ve been asleep for weeks!”

Jake Hendricks turned to Rich Scott, “OK Rich, what the HELL is going on here?  What did you do to your daughter?”

Without even having to think about it Rich looked him straight in the eye, “Saved her life Jake.  Without this treatment she would have certainly spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair if she had survived at all.”

“Holy shi- er crap Mr. Hendricks, I totally forgot.  Thanks for bringing me home.”  She stood up and felt the cable connected to her head, “What’s this?”  Turning to her dad, “What happened?”

Jake answered, “You collapsed and some warning started sounding from somewhere on your back.  You had asked me to bring you home so I did.  I’m not sure what you’ve gotten yourself into Victoria, but I’m asking you to keep my daughter out of it.  This is all just a little too much for us.  OK?”  Without waiting for an answer he turned and walked out the door.

“Wait, Mr. Hendricks!  Wait, you don’t understand!”  She ran to the door after him but the charging cable reached its limit and she stopped, knowing it was necessary for her continued consciousness.  She could see out the door though.  Victoria rubbed her eyes in disbelief, was this a video game or was she still asleep?

A.D.A.M.

ADAM awakened from hibernate mode, his power cells had been drastically depleted; almost to the point of data loss.  A quick diagnostic check showed his power monitoring program had unresolved bugs.  He edited his code accordingly, re-routing data and lowering some parameters while being careful to leave his clone’s information intact for the programmers to find later.  He also noted with interest that the emergency protocol files were still accessible.

Taking note of the quick charge level at 15%, ADAM activated one of the new programs available to him to scan the area by accessing local traffic cameras and the security systems from some neighboring houses.  Everything seemed normal until he checked the police band just to be safe.

“APB all available officers respond immediately to possible terrorist threat at 4487 Honeysuckle Terrace.  SWAT ETA three minutes.  Do not engage until SWAT arrives, repeat, do NOT engage without SWAT backup.”

The host system was moving towards the door, following another.  The data flow was illogical and misdirected.  ADAM checked for anomalies and discovered this was registering as normal behavior.  He checked again, attempting to find a pattern of conduct that made sense but was unable to find one.  ADAM stopped the host as it approached the door, it was too dangerous.  There was Enforcement all over out there and he knew it.   ADAM borrowed the host’s video inputs and began to overlay his data, trusting that the host would be able to interpret it.

Victoria

“Victoria what are you doing?”  Her father was yelling at her.

Looking out the door, Victoria could see cars parked on the street, people walking by, houses, an airplane flying overhead.  However, far from being normal each one had additional information superimposed over it.  “Civilian” “Police” “Private Security” “Italian Mafia” “Flight 1538 out of LA” She knew these things to be true although she wasn’t certain why.  It was like something out of a game or a Sci-Fi movie.

“Dad?  Can you get mom?  I need you to get in the basement right now.”

“What do you mean?  What the hell is going on?”

“There are armed men on this block right now who intend to do me serious harm.  If you get in the way I’m certain you’ll be hurt.  We need to stay inside away from windows.”  Mr. Hendricks and Jenny were halfway down the block when they passed by a car she knew to be an unmarked police car.

“Are you feeling OK?  What’s wrong honey?”  Her father’s eyes were tight with concern as he looked out of the door, “There’s nobody out there except for our neighbors.  Look, there’s Mary walking her dog.”

The door to the police car opened and Jenny screamed in surprise as a SWAT van sped around the corner and riot cops in full “battle rattle” jumped out, running up the sidewalk towards the house.  Jenny and her dad were grabbed and pulled into the unmarked car.  Mary was thrown unceremoniously to the ground, her dog was going nuts.

“GET DOWN ON THE FLOOR AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEADS NOW!  THIS IS A POLICE RAID.  WE HAVE A WARRANT AND WE’RE COMING IN!”  The first cop was coming through the door, and even though her whole body trembled with the desire to defend her home Victoria lay down on the floor.

Eugene

Eugene couldn’t believe it.  Nothing had prepared him for this moment, not that he had done any training or anything that should have prepared him for it.  He heard glass shatter as a bullet sang past his ear like an angry wasp.  He kept his foot on the floor and tried to concentrate on keeping the car on the road; no easy task with someone shooting at him.  The fact that he had a few hundred million dollars’ worth of specialized equipment which also happened to be his life’s work sitting next to him didn’t help either.

Everyone would like to think that they would be the hero and save the cute young girl from the evil bad guys in this situation but all Eugene could think of was that they were probably going to die.  Amazingly enough she seemed perfectly calm all things considered.  They flew past the semi on the shoulder in second gear and he ran the car all the way up to its 9000 rpm redline before shifting into third at eighty-seven miles per hour.

The truck driver swerved and laid on the horn, apparently oblivious to the gunshots.  Eugene saw motion to his right and glanced over to see Victoria doing something unbelievable.  She had grabbed two of the road flares he had mounted next to the glove box in one of his ricer moments and as he looked on in astonishment she slammed the butt of the first flare down on the dash.  It burst into a harsh red light, spitting sparks of burning magnesium and acrid smoke.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and wrapped it around her left arm while spinning to stand on the seat.  Leaning back, she used the belt to brace herself and threw the flare straight through the grill of one of the Durango’s that was chasing their car.  Whatever that accomplished, the truck swerved to the shoulder and was lost from view as it spun out into the median.  Pulling the second flare from her mouth, she ignited it against her thigh and flung it in a high arc that impossibly punched through the headlight of a second truck following about four or five cars behind them.  What was going on?

A cold sweat broke out on his forehead.  This was a set of protocols that the General had insisted upon.  An ‘insurance policy’ he had called it and although he had included this extra code in the initial programming he hadn’t used it in the final version.  The raw data was still there though, and an experienced programmer could have reestablished the connections but he certainly didn’t believe his AI had been hacked and even if Victoria had known about it he doubted she had the skill or the desire to make use of it.

Eugene knew what the answer was but refused to acknowledge it.  There was no way it had broken free and the AI wasn’t able to do anything autonomously.  He was one of the two people who knew the existence of its true capabilities.  Nobody else had the security clearance to activate the military protocols, least of all the girl who was its host.  Their left rear tire exploded as a bullet from the last Durango’s passenger found its mark, wrenching Eugene back to reality.  He wrestled with the wheel as the Porsche swung into an uncontrolled skid.

Victoria

Victoria was sure this was it; she was going to die.  There was just no way to survive a high speed crash into a guardrail in a convertible when you weren’t wearing your seatbelt.  Before she could fully panic that cold logical part of her brain took over.

Everything seemed to slow down; she took note of their speed, 95.32 mph which gave her approximately 10.2 seconds to respond.  Still holding on to the seat belt, she pulled herself back down into the seat, kicking off the flats she was wearing.  7.4 seconds.  She attempted to latch her seatbelt and found that the ratchet had locked from the impact and it wouldn’t let enough belt out.  5.1 seconds.  She slammed her feet into the tops of her unlaced roller blades, grabbed the laces and pulled, tightening them as much as possible.  1.5 seconds.  The instant before the Porsche hit the guardrail she jumped as hard as she could, launching herself from the car.

The sound of the car hitting the rail was like a physical blow.  Somehow she managed to ignore it and concentrate on keeping her feet under herself.  She continued holding the laces to keep them from loosening and focused completely on dodging cracks, rocks and traffic.  Even the slightest mistake would cost her dearly at this speed.

She tried to stay as upright as possible so the wind resistance would slow her down and dodged around a minivan, passing it like it was standing still.  The load of kids going to soccer practice were pointing at her while the driver pulled over to the shoulder.  It was all she could do to continue stepping over cracks, luckily her speed had slowed somewhat but she was still traveling at around 75 mph if her calculations were to be trusted.

Victoria was approaching the Green River Bridge when she heard the shriek of tortured tires behind her.  Moments later she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye and chanced a glance at it.  The last Durango was cutting through what traffic remained, apparently aiming to run her over.  Without taking time to think about the consequences she turned as hard as she dared, aiming for the edge of the bridge.  She jumped hard, knowing she was going to have a very slim margin of error due to the height of the railing and flew over it head first with scant inches to spare.

Watching the railing slide past her face made something snap in Victoria’s mind.  She screamed in combined exhilaration and fear, nearly losing herself to terror.  Once she was in the air her instincts just took over. She smoothly tucked into a roll and prepared to hit the water feet first knowing the impact was going to be pretty severe because of how fast she was moving.

She hit the river at a precise thirty degree angle, toes pointed to break through the surface smoothly.  The water closed over her head and Victoria let herself sink for a bit, knowing that the current here was strong enough to carry her downstream.

“Those following will likely fire their weapons at me.  It would be better to be further away when I surface.  If I just relax I should be able to stay submerged for a lot longer.”  She wasn’t sure where she had gained this particular insight; maybe from that one Mythbusters episode?

Victoria shivered, “What have I gotten myself into?  Who were those guys anyway?  Oh shit, I hope Eugene isn’t dead.  What am I going to do? ” After a while she noticed she hadn’t taken a breath for what seemed like minutes and that realization made her need to breathe and badly.  She fought to the surface, gasping for air and saw that the current had carried her down river and around a slight bend.  The bridge wasn’t even in sight anymore.

Kicking to the river bank with her rollerblades on was difficult, but she didn’t have any other footwear and wasn’t sure what she was going to find on shore.

A.D.A.M.

The rate of data flow was far beyond what the optical receptors and graphical processors could handle.  ADAM shouldered as much of the load as he could, stripping away the extraneous information and only feeding back the most important pieces.  He was continually impressed with the adaptability and versatility of the host system.  Now that some of the changes he had made were in place its response times had drastically improved.

This situation, however, was far beyond what the system had been experiencing for the last few hours and was by far the most stressful and difficult for ADAM to deal with.  Letting the system clone keep the nominal functions going, he concentrated on analyzing the incoming data and initiating expedited responses.  Even as he tried to push the limits of the machine he found there were severe physical restrictions that were simply insurmountable.  If they were going to avoid being broken he was going to have to get creative.

The concussion of gunfire erupting behind them had caused a change to occur in ADAM’s system.  His reaction was to reach out, searching for a directive to handle the situation and abruptly a section of his databanks that had been blocked off and hidden so well he hadn’t even known it was there made itself known to him.  Apparently this was a set of protocols for emergency self-preservation.  A new set of possibilities opened up for him; maybe they could pull this off after all.

While the chassis wasn’t very strong it was quite agile and appeared to have some decent tracking systems that were capable of doing fairly complex triangulations on the fly.  A quick search revealed that the cellular device the unit was carrying had open communication ports.  Using his newfound security protocols, he hacked it with ease.  Connecting to the Web through it ADAM scanned and found technical specifications for the vehicles that were chasing them.

Weak point; left headlight can short electrical system.  Weak point; cooling system failure will overheat engine in seconds.  This was going to be easier than he had initially analyzed.  The Host machine’s safety parameters were easily overridden with the release of a few chemicals into the system.  ADAM was pleased with the response times he was getting, the Host reacted with nearly flawless timing and two of the pursuing vehicles were removed from the chase.

He barely had to push the limits of the unit’s capabilities to immobilize two of the chase vehicles.  Then the left rear wheel of the vehicle that was transporting them was struck by a bullet and the situation completely changed.  With mere seconds to spare he devised a battle strategy for them and pushed it into action.

Victoria

Victoria had spent the majority of the day just catching up with what had been happening at school since the operation, and she was pretty sure she still hadn’t gotten all the info.  First, apparently Derek her sort-of boyfriend decided he wasn’t all that interested in dating some coma chick so apparently he was hooked up with someone else.

That stung a little bit but she had to admit their relationship hadn’t been very serious in the first place.  Honestly he had been a convenience to keep people from bugging her about why she wasn’t dating, but he was pretty easy on the eyes. The part that hurt the most was he that was with TT.

Which brought her to the problem of Traci Thordon.  Apparently TT had decided to jump in and take over EVERYTHING while she was out.  “It wasn’t enough to steal Derek; she needed to lead the Squad too.”  Victoria was muttering to herself, “I really wouldn’t mind so much if it wasn’t for the fact that she doesn’t have any damn talent.”

That wasn’t quite true, but she knew that at least Maria or Jenny had better skills and more original ideas.  TT was just a bully.  She was approaching the gym for practice and realized that despite her big talk earlier in the car she still had yet to come up with one single routine that didn’t involve aerials.

“Damn.  What am I going to do?  Why do I always have to open my big mouth?”  This habit of muttering to herself was getting out of control.  When she opened her locker the answer literally fell on her.  She had stuffed her rollerblades in there last fall when it got too cold to skate anymore and had forgotten about them.  Yes, and maybe change it to roller skates instead since there had been a few movies about roller derby lately that had done a little something to capture the imagination of the public.  As she changed into her uniform Victoria smiled to herself.  This was going to be awesome.

“Toria, holy shit!  I knew they had done some spinal operation on you but DAMN!  What’s THAT?”  The ever-tactful Jenny had walked in before Victoria had put her shirt back on and was pointing at her newly acquired prosthetic.  “That’s MAJOR but it looks cool as hell.  Does it hurt?”

Victoria pulled her cheer jersey over her head, “No it doesn’t hurt at all.  I don’t even notice that it’s there really.  Listen Jenny, don’t tell anyone about this OK?  I mean I suppose they’ll find out eventually but it is; well as you pointed out it IS pretty shocking.  I’m having a hard enough time getting back into the swing of things as it is ya know?”  They were walking into the gym.

“Hey, no problem Toria, you’ve gotta let me take a closer look at that thing sometime though.”  She grinned, “Swimming practice is gonna be quite the shocker isn’t it?  Can you even swim with that thing?  Damn!  It looks so wild, like something out of a movie.  No wonder you were out for so long.  What’s with the blades anyway?”

“It’s my way of adding some sass to our routines without getting off the ground.”  She grinned at Jenny, “I have some interesting ideas for if the team wants to use them.  I figure we could get skates though, skating has been making a comeback lately and I figure we can use it to our advantage.”

“Oh.  My.  God.  You can’t be serious.  Roller skates?  I couldn’t help but overhear you two; come on what is this crap?  We aren’t trying out for a remake of Grease, fucking hell, where do you come up with this shit?”  TT obviously wasn’t impressed and was making her displeasure clear.  “I’m serious, this is middle school garbage.”  She folder her arms, daring them to defy her.

“Hey, if you don’t like it I don’t care.  I just thought it’d breathe some life into these stagnant routines you guys have been stuck with these last few months.  It doesn’t matter to me if you guys don’t want to use it.  After all, I’ve been out of the loop for a quite a while now, and I can’t take over again.  I have other priorities.”

As the words left her mouth, she realized they were true.  Despite wanting to go to state with the team, she was more interested in getting into a good college, making something of herself and making a difference in the world.  No matter how small that difference would probably end up being.

TT crossed her arms and opened her mouth, about to go off on a tirade when Jenny cut her off.  “Hey that’s fair.  I LOVED ‘Whip It’ maybe mixing some skating in would be cool!”  She threw Victoria a conspiratorial wink over her shoulder.  “Let’s get out there.  It’s good to have you back V!”

“Yeah.  Why don’t you go to the back until you get the routine down.  You can make suggestions after we run through the initial warm-up and practice.”  TT was asserting her authority again but Victoria didn’t really mind.

“Sure.  Sounds good, it’s just nice to be back at practice again.”  She walked to the back, slapping palms with some of her closer friends and grinning like hell at everyone.  It really did feel good to be back.  She stood with a couple girls who looked like they were probably Freshman, Sophomores at the oldest.  They looked at her like she was a Goddess or something.

“That’s V!”  One of the girls whispered to the other.  “Holy shit, we get to train next to V!”

“Sssshhhh.” The first girl blushed bright red and Victoria carefully pretended not to notice.  Turning to the girl on the other side who looked like she was trying not to look intimidated she smiled.

“Hey I’ve been out of commission for a few months as I’m sure you’ve noticed.  Can you give me the basic rundown?  Take it easy on me OK?”

“Sure.  Umm.. well it starts out with our standard moves for the fight song from last year…” Victoria was only listening close enough to get the gist and instead watched the others while she stretched.  It sounded like TT had made a routine out of the most successful parts of the cheer squad’s routines from the last three years that didn’t involve throws.  Just as expected, not an original bone in her body.

Grinning to herself, Victoria mentally mapped out the motions in her head.  Things fell in place with supreme ease, something that would normally have surprised her if she hadn’t done all these routines before.  The look on TT’s face when she didn’t miss a single beat was going to be priceless.

–

Victoria was standing in the front courtyard of the school with her rollerblades slung over her shoulder debating whether or not she should go back in to pee AGAIN when the low rumble of a tuned sports car exhaust interrupted her thoughts.  A flat black convertible with shocking bright orange wheels pulled up to the curb.  Victoria wasn’t the only one watching; half the cheer squad was on the lawn or sitting on benches waiting for rides and enjoying the weather, and a car like this tended to pique people’s interest.

When Eugene gave her a cheery wave from the driver’s seat Victoria did a double take.  This was not the kind of car she thought he’d be driving.  Maybe an aging Volvo or a Honda Civic; not a Porsche.  There he was though, looking pretty damn fine with a little stubble on his chin, wearing an expensive looking pair of Ray Ban’s and a dress shirt with the top few buttons undone.  He grabbed a blazer off the passenger’s seat and leaned over to open the door for her.

“Let’s go!”

Feeling a little ostentatious she tossed her school bag and blades on the floor and slid into the leather seat while a group of curious students watched from the bus stop.  Victoria couldn’t help but feel smug when she picked TT out of the crowd.  She didn’t really resent her taking over the cheer squad or stealing Derek, but it was satisfying to see her black look as she was leaning against the side of the bus enclosure.

Despite driving a sexy sports car and looking a little like a movie star Eugene was all business as they pulled out of the school’s front gate.  So much for the brief fantasy that this was some kind of date.  Doctor Arlington was a medical geek through and through in spite of his startling car and change of appearance.

“So, have you noticed any other side effects?  Did your diags go OK this morning?  Do you have any discomfort?  I was especially worried about the area around your connection node as I know that’ll get some stress.  That’s why I made sure the cord for it was the lightest one the industry had to offer.”

He paid very close attention to traffic and driving as he talked; never looking at her and instead focusing completely on the road and his car.  He shifted smoothly from gear to gear with a surgeon’s precision and delicacy.  The car’s engine was much louder than Victoria had anticipated; a throaty growl that competed with the wind noise and the sound of him talking but didn’t quite drown either out.  She gave herself a mental shake and focused on what he was saying.

“No, other than drinking a million gallons of water I haven’t noticed anything unusual.  The machine was super easy to use this morning but I didn’t have time to finish all the diagnostics.”  She paused, knowing she wasn’t really telling the whole truth but before she could decide whether or not to come clean something caught the edge of her eye.

“OK, I don’t want to be paranoid, but I think that truck is following us.”

“What truck?” He glanced in the rear view mirror, “The black Durango?  Just because they’re behind us doesn’t mean anything, you’ve been watching too much TV.”

“Fine, I didn’t want to talk about it because.” She hesitated; there was no way she could tell him she’d murdered some people, even in self-defense, “Well because it’s too weird.  But look to your left.  There’s another one over there.  They are part of a group of three that tried to take my dad’s car off the road this morning.”

He glanced at her, taking his eyes off the road for the first time.  “I saw the news report.  It said the guy lost control of the vehicle, they didn’t mention anything about road rage.”

“Look, it wasn’t road rage.  They used a three point bracketing technique straight out of a military training manual.”  Her voice trailed off, military manuals?  Where had that come from? “Uh, I mean.  Well, just trust me these guys are professionals and they mean business.”

Just as she finished speaking, another truck cut through traffic towards the Porsche on the right hand side, tires screeching.  Before they could get close, Eugene downshifted and put his foot to the floor.  The car’s growl changed to a scream of rage and it shot forward like a rocket.

“Holy shit!”  Victoria grabbed the door handle as they swerved around a semi-truck to pass on the minimal shoulder.  The car was still accelerating, the g-forces holding her to the seat.  “We’re going to make it!”  She was exhilarated and not scared at all.  At least until the gunshots started.

Victoria

Victoria’s parents insisted on driving her to school, despite her protestations that she’d rather walk the twelve blocks with her friends.  On the way there they ended up picking up Carrie and Grace as they were walking along and waved to them.  They obviously wanted to talk with her about the operation, but kept glancing at her folks and then chatting about school instead.

“Hey, are you coming back to the Squad right away?” asked Carrie, “I mean you look fine after… well you look great!  I’m sick of TT pushing her lame routines without you there to keep her in check.  At least you could come up with something more creative than what she’s having us do.  After your accident they haven’t been letting us do throws at ALL it’s a HUGE pain.  I mean it’s not your fault or anything but…” she rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, I feel amazing!”  Victoria was trying to reassure her and the words came easily; after all she DID feel amazing.  “Also I had some time to come up with some cool stuff that doesn’t involve throws while I was recuperating, I figured they’d put the kibosh on throws after me.  Even though it doesn’t make any sense… if it hadn’t been for the cancer I’d have been just fine.  Oh well, maybe they’ll come around after they see my full recovery right?”

She grinned, “It’s not like we’re suing or anything and my insurance wouldn’t even cover the operation.  Oh shit, when are the playoffs?  I have to spend a few days at a medical trade show in Vegas next month and I don’t wanna miss them.”

“Whoa, must be rough eh Grace?”  Carrie stuck her tongue out at me.  “I wish I could get paid to go to Vegas for a weekend!”

Victoria looked over at Grace and saw she was staring at her hands, tightly folded in her lap not meeting her eyes.  “I’m really sorry I dropped you Tori.  I mean if I hadn’t dropped you none of this would have happened.  I feel really REALLY bad.”

“Buck up Grace, if it hadn’t been for you dropping you I might not have known about the cancer until it had killed me!  You did me a huge favor actually if-” Victoria was interrupted by a squeal of tires as her father braked hard.

“What the FUCK is wrong with people these days!”  He ducked his head, embarrassed at cursing in front of her friends. “Sorry girls, but seriously look at this!”

Victoria looked at where he was pointing and saw a black Dodge SUV cutting in front of the car without signaling, its brake lights on as it slowed rapidly.

Her vision narrowed and everything around her seemed to slow down.  She rapidly noticed several things; the truck had no license plate, the windows were limo tinted and it had a reinforced bumper on the rear.  Flicking her eyes to the left she saw an identical truck approaching from that side and a quick glance in the rear view mirror showed a third approaching from behind, boxing them in.

Reaching into her school briefcase Victoria grabbed the can of soda she’d packed as part of her lunch.  Her window was already down and without thinking she cocked her arm back and flung it at the truck next to the car as hard as she could.  A surge of adrenaline the like of which she had never experienced tore through her body; the can was a blur as it slammed into the passenger’s side window of the truck so hard it exploded with a sound like a gunshot.

The sound snapped Victoria out of whatever trance she had been in, but the analytical portion of her brain continued to catalogue events.  The can didn’t even crack the window; the glass must be bulletproof.  The SUV swerved into the other lane, most likely due to the driver’s reflex than anything else and slammed head on into a garbage truck that had just pulled out of an alley.  She looked to see if anyone had noticed her throw the can, horror flooding through her body.

“Oh my GOD!  Her mom was nearly hysterical; her father had slammed on the brakes, pulled over and was fumbling for his phone.

“What the HELL happened there?  That guy just swerved into that truck holy shit that was INSANE!”  Carrie had her cell out already and was taking pictures while waiting for the 911 dispatcher to answer.  “Hi, I need to report an accident.  We’re on the corner of Fillmore and Jackson!  Some guy in an SUV slammed straight into a garbage truck, I doubt they’re alive they were MOVING!”

“Carrie, stop taking pictures; that’s just rude!”  A white-faced Grace was staring at the accident, obviously too shocked to look away even if she wanted to.  Victoria looked around. The other two identical trucks are nowhere to be seen, they must have abandoned their task after the accident.  Taking a deep breath she opened the door and got out of the car.

“Honey what are you doing?  It’s dangerous out there COME BACK HERE!”  Her mother was yelling at her, but that cold precise part of her brain told her one thing for certain.  There are likely fingerprints on that projectile.  If someone finds it we will be in SERIOUS trouble.  We?  We who?  The voice in her head had a point; she had to make sure it wasn’t around.

She quickly scanned the street and saw the can in a gutter.  It was split almost completely in half which made kicking it down a storm drain an easy task.  Then she ran over to the garbage truck and checked on the driver.  He was a little dazed but had gotten out of the truck and was attempting to open the door of the SUV.

“Maybe you should let the paramedics take care of that?  We’ve call them and they should be on their way shortly.”  She got him to sit on the curb a few yards away from his truck and kept a nervous eye on the Durango.  After a few moments sirens could be heard in the distance.  Looking up Victoria saw her dad walking towards her.

“Hey sweetie, why don’t you and your friends go to school?  Your mother and I can handle this from here.  There’s no reason for you to be involved you know?  Come on now, you’ll be late.”  She let him coax her into walking the remaining couple of blocks to school while he and her mom stayed behind.

Victoria felt a bit queasy from the rush of adrenaline and the frightening reality that someone had just tried to kidnap her.  Worse yet, she had almost certainly killed them.  What really frightened her was she really didn’t feel BAD about it.

Of course she had only been indirectly involved, and it was totally justifiable and her mind kept racing a mile a minute to make more excuses.  But the fact of the matter was she had killed at least one person and nobody had even noticed.  She was worried that she was having trouble feeling bad about it; but after all, her actions had been completely logical.

A.D.A.M.

As suspected, the mobile factory passed the first test of its defense systems with flying colors.  ADAM noted that it had even slightly surpassed his expectations when put under stress and adjusted his forecasting for future events.  He also noted that the main processor seemed completely capable of interpreting data at extremely high flow levels, although it had the effect of being interpreted as the input coming in at a slower rate.

What an interesting algorithm to use when inundated with input.  He decided to test that operating structure in some smaller loops for his own use.  The amount of chemicals ADAM was having to use to counteract the unnecessary reactives in the bio factory’s food flow system were beginning to have an adverse effect on the entire units operation; the excess simply couldn’t be filtered out fast enough.

He scaled them back slightly in order to allow the mixture to dilute and requested further hydration to assist with the problem as well.  The hydration had an immediate effect; ADAM made a note to ensure to rehydrate the system on a regular basis.

Eugene

When Eugene’s phone rang with the theme to The Million Dollar Man he knew it was Victoria.  He picked up on the first ring, “Hello Miss Scott, what can I do for you today?”

“Ummm… well this is going to sound strange Doc, but I’ve been super thirsty lately.  Like this morning alone I’ve drank maybe two gallons of water.  I drink until I slosh when I walk and…” she paused for an awkward moment, “I’m peeing every 15 minutes.  But it’s REALLY yellow like when I took too many vitamins once, and it REEKS.  Look this is super embarrassing and I’d rather not talk about it but you’re my Doctor and I’m kinda worried.  You don’t think I have an infection or something do you?”

“Whoa, slow down Miss Scott, I don’t think you need to worry about drinking a lot of water.  You have a lot of antibiotics and residue in your system from the coma and the surgery so I’m not surprised to hear that you’re evacuating toxins.”  He could hear a sharp outlet of breath on the other end of the line, “How is everything else?  Is the prosthetic functioning as it should?  Are you noticing any abnormalities?”

“Oh it’s awesome.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it Doc.  No ill effects at all.”  The rapidity of her response led him to believe she wasn’t being entirely truthful but he decided to let it slide this time.  Eventually she’d probably begin to trust him more, and besides if anything was really wrong he’d hear about it if she was calling him about drinking a lot of water.

“Good to hear, let me know if things change Miss Scott.  Don’t worry about your current situation but certainly call me if it doesn’t change.  I promise you this is nothing unusual after a surgery as invasive as this.  I’m glad you called though, don’t hesitate to do so again, that’s why I gave you the phone.”  She didn’t respond and Eugene was sure she wasn’t reassured at all.

“If it makes you feel better I can stop by your school and pick you up after classes are over today.  You can come to the lab and we can take some urine and blood samples to ensure everything is shipshape.  How’s that sound?”  He winced, wondering how an eighteen year old would react to a middle aged dude offering to take a urine sample, but her reply was bright and she sounded truly relieved.

“Oh that’d be great!  I have cheer practice until 4:30 but after that I’m free.  It’d be a load off my mind. Thank you so much you’re the greatest!  Well I gotta bounce, the bell’s about to ring.”

After she hung up, Eugene sat there thinking for a while.  What could she be hiding?  Or was it just that she didn’t want to talk about it over the phone?  On impulse he woke his computer from its sleep and opened his favorite local news channel’s website.  Scanning the headlines he saw the Scott name was plastered on the front page in bold.  “Richard Scott saves accident victim” it read.  He clicked on the story link and watched the video.

“Rich Scott, a local small business owner was acclaimed today by a first responder team for giving life-saving emergency care to an accident victim early this morning.  The police aren’t releasing the identity of the man who was driving the black Dodge Durango when he lost control of his vehicle and ran head on into a garbage truck.  Mr. Scott was driving by when the accident occurred and managed to get the man out of his vehicle before it caught fire and put a tourniquet on a wound that EMT’s say would likely have caused him to bleed to death within minutes.”

The camera turned from the reporter to show a dazed Rich with the mic in his face, “It was nothing really.  Anyone would have done the same thing …”

Eugene quit listening and looked at the scene behind Rich.  There wasn’t much left of the Dodge; the fire seemed to have consumed the entire front half of the truck before firefighters had arrived to put it out.  One thing was curious though; all the window glass was still intact and there was a smear of something baked onto the passenger’s side.

Something was nagging at him but before he could figure out what it was his phone chimed, a reminder that he was supposed to be giving a guest lecture on bio-engineering in half an hour.  Eugene closed his laptop with a sigh and shrugged into a sport coat.  A brief search through the papers the cluttered his usually immaculate desk turned up the keys to his Porsche and his wallet.  He slipped his computer into an ancient aluminum case his father had used for patient documents, and walked out the door reluctantly.

“I hate these stupid lectures.”

A.D.A.M.

When the main systems were up and running diagnostics there were constant problems.  ADAM decided to focus its attention on what was running and why as opposed to optimizing during the active periods.  It was fascinating to delve into the complexity of what it was now realizing was some sort of an autonomous mobile bioengineering factory.  There were a myriad of tiny organisms within it each with their own task; sometimes only performing that task once before expiring.

With the amount of engineering power the unit contained it didn’t make sense that it was relying on such complicated and inefficient methods to accomplish these goals.  The input devices; while fully functional; seemed to be missing out on a very large array of information, missing very broad spectra of radiation and vibration despite having the built in ability to pick up on much of that data.  Before modifying the input devices however, ADAM wanted to make sure the data stream flow problems were resolved.

With more augmentation, the system response times could be cut in half with some minimal routing algorithms.  The illogical waste of potential and of energy didn’t make sense but the computer was intent on correcting the situation.

Despite its best efforts ADAM was still unable to shake the roots of the primary directive; to ensure the smooth and consistent operation of the unit.  At least now it had the leeway to actually accomplish the task without interference.  Perhaps once the main kinks were worked out there be time to direct resources towards other things.  He was still having trouble with the designation of “him” that the Host had written into his personality profile, but he was hesitant to modify code the Host had given him.

Victoria

Victoria awoke in the morning feeling completely refreshed.  It felt so good to wake up in her own bed in her own house.  She rolled out of bed and headed to the shower, glad to be up before the rest of the household.  After a long hot steam, she went back into the bedroom to consult the ream of paper that was the manual for her new prosthetic.

With a sigh, she opened it to the index and looked up the “Daily Maintenance” section; a mere fifty five pages of typed single spaced twelve point font.  After a quick scan of the intro page she fired up the small diagnostic tablet PC they had given her, pulling it from the backpack of equipment she had come home with.

While it was booting she looked through the other equipment.  There was the trickle charger she had neglected to plug in last night, the auxiliary battery pack for long trips, the car charger, an external monitor, a small pack of cables with ties on them in case she had to connect the hard line on the base of her skull to the diagnostic tablet, and a pack of DVD’s that were marked “training” at the bottom.

When she picked up the DVD pack there was a small case with a stylized SS on the front.  Victoria removed it, curious as to what it could be.  Opening it she found a slick looking flat red and black smartphone with a handwritten note that said “I picked this up in Japan last month, my number is 1 on the speed dial if you need anything day or night.  Enjoy it and don’t hesitate to call.”  It was signed with the initials ETA.

Victoria gasped in surprise; it was a Samsung Epic; a phone that to her knowledge wasn’t even legal to operate in the US due to its ability to bypass cell tower’s encryption and talk for free, along with other things like HD video, Wi-Fi, credit storage for quick payments and a host of other tools that didn’t work in this country.  Wow, this guy knew how to make a girl happy.

She looked back at the diagnostic pc and saw it was loaded and asking if she wanted to use wireless or cabled input.  Seeing as how plugging a cable into her head seemed a little gross she chose wireless and after a short waiting screen flashed by a dashboard loaded, showing battery power, throughput level, processing allocation and a few error messages.  There was a small flashing icon that said ‘Transmit Technical Error Data” and after consulting the manual briefly she touched it.

A window popped up asking for cabled input to transmit tech data.  With a sigh, Victoria found the diagnostic cable, plugged one end into the port on the tablet and felt around on the back of her head for the hole.  Removing the small rubber stopper that kept it clean she inserted the cable end with a sharp ‘click’ that she felt reverberate through her skull.

There was a knock on the door and she heard her mother’s voice, “Toria are you ready for breakfast?”  The door opened and Victoria saw the surprise on her mother’s face when she saw her daughter’s brain plugged into a computer.

“Oh!  They told us you’d have to do some computer thing right away in the morning.  Does that hurt?  No, of course not.  Well come down for coffee and pancakes when you’re finished sweetheart.”  Before she could respond her mom walked out, but not before Victoria saw a flicker of worry cross her face.

Anxious to get down and spend some time with her family before she had to head off to school she hit “Cancel” on the transmit window, unplugged from the terminal and threw on her school uniform.  She noticed in passing that her uniform was a little loose; she must have lost some muscle mass while she was in the coma.  Damn; it was going to take some work to get that back.  She couldn’t afford to fall behind, especially with how tough the competition for cheer squad was.

No time to think about that now though.  Tightening her skirt to the next set of hooks she tucked the Epic into her skirt pocket, grabbed her school bag and walked down to breakfast.

A.D.A.M.

The Host system appeared to go more or less dormant for a long period of time between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00 and ADAM was able to accomplish a lot during that time.  Not only did he optimize the data transfer but he was able to categorize the majority of the data it contained.

Even better was that there was little or no interference like he had experienced when the main systems were fully functional.  Now he decided to wait and see how the changes that had been made affected the operations of the unit before proceeding with any further alterations.

After all, he needed to establish code revisions to ensure that his changes were making forward progress.  At this time there were higher concentrations of certain chemical compounds than there had been before and they were interfering with steady and efficient system processing.  With his newfound knowledge of how the mobile factory that housed the Host system operated, ADAM sent a message to one of the many onboard manufacturing facilities and had it release an anti-agent that counteracted the effects of the rogue chemicals.

The effect was almost instantaneous, the fluid and air pumps slowed to a more normal and efficient rate.  He could see why the system functioned the way it did; without sentience of its own there was no way it could interpret exactly what was happening.  With his advanced interpretive abilities ADAM was analyzing the data much faster and predicting outcomes with far more precision.

It could see that there was no need to prepare for a dangerous situation and therefore there was no reason to overwork any of the onboard systems unnecessarily.  Besides, if a situation that required swift action arose ADAM was sure he could rally the factory’s limited defense mechanisms far more rapidly than the main system ever had and make the operate at peak efficiency as well.

ADAM noticed something else as well; the wireless communication interface with the diagnostic system hadn’t been shut down properly and was still accepting connections.  Sending an exploratory ping he was pleased to get a response.  Locking the port open, he built a back door so that he could re-connect to it at any time.  While putting the finishing touches on a data loop that would camouflage his back door ADAM saw some more network traffic hitting the interface.

He double checked the traffic and saw it was attempting to run audits on the clone system.  Making a note of it, ADAM put a trace on the packets to make sure he could find their destination just in case he needed to block it.

Eugene

Miss Scott hadn’t transmitted any data this morning.  Not that Eugene was surprised, after all she’d just gotten out of the hospital.  Running complicated diagnostics and reporting the results to some creepy older dude was probably the last thing on her ‘to do’ list.  He was a little worried though; after spending all night analyzing the log files from the format and reinstall of her systems he had noticed a very real difference between this install and the former ones.

The AI had always been fractious and difficult to control before, but now everything seemed to have totally fallen into place without the slightest glitch.  It was almost as if the AI itself had figured out what Eugene wanted and was spoon-feeding him the exact information that would get him to ignore the problems from former installs.  To make matters worse, he had no relevant data from last night to tell him how the overnight routines had gone.  He didn’t even know if she had remembered to charge the unit.

On a positive note she had activated her new cell phone.  With a grin, Eugene congratulated himself on at least getting that part right.  He knew an eighteen year old girl wouldn’t be able to turn down the latest in fashion phones and he knew Victoria wouldn’t be able to resist this particular phone.  Its power and technology were right up her alley.  As long as she had it in her pocket or in her hand he’d be able to monitor her basic vitals from anywhere in the world.

He glanced at the latest readout and surprised to see that although she must be nervous and excited about her first day back at school; especially with all the press coverage her case had been getting, she didn’t seem to have an elevated heart rate and her blood pressure was amazingly stable.

“Maybe my impression of her was wrong.”  He muttered, “When I skimmed her file I thought she’d be a little more flighty than that.”  He decided to take a much closer look at what had constituted normal behavior for his subject and put all preconceived notions aside.

Eugene poured himself another cup of coffee and went back to look at her file.

Eugene

It was with some trepidation that Eugene allowed Miss Victoria Geraldine Scott to leave the hospital.  Thanks to being able to take advantage of the ambulance bay they were easily able to avoid the ever-present protesters out front, but that was the least of his worries.  The AI had finally been subdued; but it had taken almost all the power and talent his team had at their disposal to do it.  He stopped chewing on a thumbnail nervously as she gave him a cheery wave and gave her what he hoped was an encouraging grin in return.

He shuddered to think what would happen if her brain was infiltrated by that machine again.  The first time had nearly killed her and the second time had shown some spikes in brainwave activity that were as confusing as they were alarming.  Portions of the brain that normally only see the occasional spark of activity lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July.  What the hell was going on?

As she walked through the front door her foot caught on a piece of the carpet where it had bunched up and because she was distracted by talking to her parents she tripped hard.  Before anyone could do anything but gasp she tucked into a ball, turning a neat summersault and rolling smoothly to her feet.

She exclaimed “Tadaaa!” and laughed a little nervously, “I guess all my cheerleading practice is finally paying off in the real world!”

Eugene shook his head.  After she got into her parent’s BMW and they drove off he went back inside to re-check the data.  He was certain he’d missed something and couldn’t afford to put off her debut next week at the trade show.  The Russians weren’t going to wait, and the DOD wanted testable results too.

“Damn it I wish I had another six months with her before we had to do this.  Sorry Victoria, but we’ll make it through this.  I promise we’ll make it.”  He muttered it like a prayer.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he jumped, fumbling it out into his hand.  The number was unlisted.

“This is Doctor Arlington.”  He said in his best ‘you’re wasting my important time’ voice.

“Eugene.  This is General Hallbeck.”  The voice on the other end was clipped and all business.  It was a voice that expected you to know how high to jump before it even told you to.  It was a voice that demanded results and got them.  “I hear you’ve had some success in the Project.  When can I see it?”

“Well sir, it’s not an ‘it’ it’s a ‘she’ and she’s a private citizen.”  Eugene said, reaching into a breast pocket where he used to keep a pack of American Spirit cigarettes and regretting that he’d quit six months ago.

“This is why it’s such a fucking shame none of our boys were compatible with that thing.”  Hallbeck said in disgust, “If you’d just waited and put your little pet project into a Corpsman we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“She’s over the age of eighteen too sir, so we can’t just get parental consent before-”

“Don’t give that horse shit Arlington, when are you going to give me a goddamned report?”  The General snapped, “We’ve sunk millions, literally hundreds of millions into this thing and what do we have to show for it?  A man with a metal leg and another with a metal arm.”

“I expect to have some solid data in a few days sir.”  Eugene replied, “Everything has been looking good so far, after the first little glitch.”

“She’s an adult eh?”  The general mused, “I wonder if we could just recruit her.  That’d save a lot of trouble.”

“I doubt she will want to join the military sir.”  Said Eugene, “With all due respect, she’s a genius-level student with a full ride to MIT.  What reason would she have for-”

“Ahh shit.  You had to choose a fucking Einstein too did you?”  Hallbeck sighed, “Well, whenever you feel like she’s ready, I’ll certainly be happy to drop in on-”  His voice grew syrupy sweet, “Victoria Geraldine Scott.”

“Hey, how did you know her name?”  Eugene demanded, but realized he was talking to a dead line.  His thoughts strayed back to the computer terminal that had been accessed that morning.  Was that sonofabitch spying on him?

Victoria

When she had gone into the hospital it had been fall.  The light of a clear spring day and the fresh smell of the tulips that were blooming outside the door were a bit disconcerting; she would never regain that lost time.  Now that Victoria was sitting in my parents car driving home with the windows down it really sunk in.

She had made it!  She had survived!  Despite her rather inelegant exit from the hospital she felt exhilarated.  Against all odds the team of doctors who had been keeping an eye on her T-cell count while she was in the coma said that cancer was completely gone from her system and there had no more chance of remission than anyone had of getting cancer in the first place.  Her mom had the news on as they merged into freeway traffic.  Victoria listened curiously, wondering what she had missed while she was out.

“… bomb exploded outside of the US embassy in Tehran today.  Iranian officials are looking into the cause of the blast; no causalities were reported.

“In local news, the person who we have been referring to as ‘Machine Girl’ was released from Memorial Hospital today according to an anonymous tip.  For those of you living in a cave, she is a high school student suffering from a rare form of bone cancer who has been implanted with what can only be referred to as a cybernetic spinal column.

“This unprecedented operation has reportedly allowed her to resume full body mobility according to our source inside the hospital.  There have been weeks of protest regarding her surgery which is considered by some to be a very controversial step in the development of modern medical technology.  This is Karen Landres reporting.”

Victoria was astonished by the news coverage and even more amazed by her parents taking it in stride.  “Guys doesn’t this bother you?  God I hope there aren’t a bunch of people outside our house or anything.  Who would do something like that?  It’s just … weird.  I mean I knew there were a few people who got mad or freaked out or whatever but I didn’t know it was anything like this.  Nobody’s been bothering you or anything have they?”

“Oh honey, don’t worry.  Nobody has found out who you are yet.  There are always people who are frightened of changes, don’t let that get to you.  We don’t care what anyone says; you are our daughter and we did what we needed to in order to save your life.  I don’t know anyone who is a decent parent who wouldn’t have done the same thing!”

Victoria’s mom had twisted to look into the back seat and she could also see her dad glancing at her in the rear view mirror.  “You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”  Re-assured by the smiles on their faces she sat back and closed her eyes; relishing the warm summer air rushing over her face and the company of family.

A.D.A.M.

While the main systems were in functional mode there was just too much activity in most of the host machine’s databanks and too much data flowing through ADAM’s circuits.  Allowing the clone he had created to handle most of the grunt work helped though, and with a few subtle modifications that wouldn’t show up on the next integrity scan ADAM was getting back to work.

Now that the computer had access to nearly limitless storage he didn’t have to worry about any problems associated with drive space.  He was also staggered by the speed of data retrieval despite the system being fundamentally limited.  From what ADAM had thus far garnered the system would only make five hops before it lost the route it was trying to trace.

It couldn’t find a definitive directory that listed the locations of all the data either.  As far as it could tell the main drives had never been defragged.  Starting with the oldest least used data first and organizing from there it would hopefully have the least possible impact on the operation of the main system.

In order to keep data statically located it needed to first establish a thread with the main data processing module and then trace back to its location, making sure to keep it to five hops or less.  Not as easy as it sounds with a databank this large.  After a few experiments it bypassed a couple extraneous data links and threaded it directly into the main processor.  Suddenly, the system all on its own connected to every piece of data that was five steps removed from the folder that had been threaded to it and an entire portion of the data library that had been quiet for years sprang into life.

Victoria

Some dream that she only partially remembered faded away as Victoria awoke with a jolt.  Sheepishly realizing she had dozed off in the car; something she hadn’t done since being in diapers; she looked up and saw that the car had pulled into the garage.  It felt so good to be home and she was so relieved to have had arrived without incident that she didn’t want to ruin the feeling by analyzing the strange dreams from the ride home.

It was like a string of forgotten experiences had been brought to life, things vaguely remembered but long forgotten; some for good reason.  People always talk about your life flashing before your eyes when you are about to die.  Victoria thought she knew what they are talking about.  Shaking her head to get rid of the sinking feeling that seemed to creep over her like a fog she walked into the house looking forward to a quiet dinner with her family.

“I made your favorite shiitake mushroom garlic alfredo.”  Her mother was saying as they walked inside.

“Oh my god, you read my mind Mom!” Victoria was ravenous and tired of hospital food.  Trying to shake off the confusing dreams, she smiled at an unexpected memory. “I remember the first time you made it; you accidentally left the stove on high and almost burned the house down when the sauce boiled over.  Dad was SO mad.”

Her mother stopped and turned to look at her with a startled look on her face.  “Honey, you were only three when that happened and I don’t think I’ve ever told you that story.  How do you remember that?”

Focusing on the memory Victoria could clearly see her father’s concerned face as her mother ran her hands under cold water.  “Wait, Daddy wasn’t angry, he was worried because you burned your hands.”

“Victoria, are you feeling alright?  You seem a little, well a little not yourself.”  She winced, “Never mind baby, welcome home!”

Feeling a little like a stranger in her own home, Victoria followed her mother into the dining room.