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.