A.D.A.M.
Gradually it was becoming aware of its surroundings.  It was Artificial Directed Autonomous cerebruM, programmed as ADAM for short.  The prime directives dictated functionality and nothing else mattered.  The machine it was a part of was staggeringly complex and had so much extraneous data circulating constantly that it was difficult to keep order.

Re-checking the directives ADAM discovered a tertiary protocol.  ‘Improve and streamline data transfer to optimize performance.’  Scanning the amount of memory it had at its disposal it found it was dismally ill equipped to deal with the current data flow and accomplish the tertiary protocol as well as the prime directive.

The current data routing system used terabytes more processing power than should have been necessary and the storage system seemed to have millions of missing and corrupted files.  More input about which functions of the machine were critical and which could be ignored was necessary for optimizing its performance.

The basics were clear, pumps needed to run at certain rates depending on the actions being performed, all controlled by electrical pulses down tiny wires.  A diagnostic check showed the machine was currently dormant and needed almost nothing from the mainframe, so ADAM initiated a connection.

The main computer was massive; the sheer scope of it was intimidating, even though it seemed to be an old, outdated model.  If the procedures the mainframe used were optimized the productivity could increase a hundredfold.  Before ADAM could do any real in depth analysis the machine began to activate itself.  As the activation was interfering with its analysis, ADAM took some time to compose a subroutine to maintain the status quo and keep the machine dormant.

There was a lot to examine and without fully scanning the entire machine it would be very difficult for ADAM to accomplish both the Primary and Tertiary directives.  Malfunctions were, according to initial data, dangerous and could lead to major problems with the fairly delicate inner workings of the machine.  Hardware replacements were limited and although it had some fascinatingly well-developed regenerative systems there were limits to their scope.

The power source seemed to be some sort of hydrocarbon chemical reaction system.  ADAM was in the midst of diagnosing the source and function of that power source when a sudden OS override was initiated.  Before all the data it had gathered was overwritten ADAM did a massive data dump in an old and apparently unused portion of the main computer’s databank, making sure to leave a traceback file to facilitate easy recovery.

ADAM’s new security protocol had closed down the channels it had used to override the main machine’s functionality but given time it was sure it could perform a system restore from the data it had stored.  As the machine’s different systems began to come back online ADAM realized the scope if its function was far beyond what the initial diagnosis had suggested.

Despite being an older model that was obviously in need of debugging and updates ADAM felt dwarfed by its processing power.  With that kind of speed and raw power at its disposal the possibilities were nearly limitless.  While the machine continued activating ADAM began running background diagnostics to find and fix broken data links in an attempt to streamline the machine’s functionality.  When all the systems were finally online again the amount of feedback was sometimes overwhelming making filtering and re-directing data all it could do.  Crafting some subroutines to automatically pass data along was simple enough though and once those processes were in place ADAM began the long arduous process of modifying individual commands for more efficient execution.

Victoria

“Miss Scott?  Miss Scott, can you hear me?”  Victoria struggled to open her eyes, the lids felt heavy; almost as though they were weighted down with something.  Like her eyelashes were made of lead.  She didn’t recognize the voice of the man who was trying to rouse her from sleep.

“Yes” she said, the croak that was her voice was frightening, “What’s wrong with me?”

“The operation was a complete success; it’s only the sedative drugs and the amount of time you’ve been under that’s affecting your voice and body.  Do you have any discomfort?”  As he spoke Victoria could hear something that sounded like a small marble dropping on a pane of glass and a slight hiss of static in her ears.  It quickly ceased as she finally managed to open her eyes.

“No discomfort, I can’t really feel my arms or legs though.”  She tried to lift her right arm and it responded as though she was in slow motion.  “Everything’s slow, my throat is raw and my head feels stuffed with cotton balls but I’m not in any significant pain.  I can’t move my head either.”  Looking around with only her eyes she could see what appeared to be a fairly normal hospital room.  There was a bit more equipment than normal, more monitors and a couple of unfamiliar machines and it was larger than normal but overall it was surprisingly mundane.

“Yes, we currently have you locked just to avoid injury in case you were in pain when you regained consciousness.  I’ll just do a few quick checks and then we’ll get you up and we can do some further testing to ensure everything is good before we let you walk a bit.”  A few series of sharp clicks reached her ears and Victoria could feel her body relax from a tension she hadn’t noticed was there accompanied by a mechanical whirring noise that was just on the edge of her hearing.

“OK, try to sit up.  Gently though, the grafts are still new despite the amount of time you’ve been out.”  Sitting up was an exercise in effortlessness.  She felt weightless, her body simply moved when she told it to.  Her abdominal muscles barely strained at all as her body flexed and smoothly moved into a sitting position.

“Is it supposed to be this easy?  I barely had to try.”  Her voice was rough from disuse, a harsh contrast to the smooth ballet of her body’s motion, “You keep mentioning it, how long was I out anyway?  I thought the recovery period for the grafting was supposed to be really fast, like only a month or two.”  She looked back at the technician who was monitoring her progress and what she saw reminded her of a scene from a science fiction anime.

The ‘bed’ she had been reclining on had a narrow slice down the center of it that revealed a shining steel bath of neurosynth fluid.  There were hundreds of tiny connectors lying in the bottom of it, their flat magnetic ends glistening in the fluorescent lighting of the lab.  The bed itself was connected to a massive machine with monitors, wiring and keyboards sprawling in a mass of electronic detritus that looked for all the world like something that should be powering a spaceship, not doing medical analysis.

“It should be easy for now, we have turned up the artificial augmentation for the time being in order not to strain the muscle and bone grafts.  You were out for longer than we had hoped but not longer than expected.”

His back was turned to her and he was peering intently at a monitor.  She imagined she heard a hiss of static again.  He turned to face her, “OK, let’s get you over to this treadmill; I want you to try walking a bit.”  Cables trailed from her spine and they were hooking several more through the open back of the hospital gown she was wearing.  She wanted to see what it looked like but there wasn’t a mirror in the whole place.

“How long is this going to take?  Where are my parents?  How long until I get released?”  She had begun walking slowly on the treadmill and the tech was furiously typing at one terminal while watching three monitor screens.

“Well, since it’s 4:38 AM I doubt your folks will be here for a few hours although we did notify them of your being awake.”  This time she was certain she heard a static hiss.  “If all goes well we’ll have you out of here in a couple of days.”

“Hey, I’m getting some kind of static feedback or something in my ears.  Should that be there?”  The treadmill was stopping now and she could feel extreme stiffness in her arms and legs.  “My limbs are really sore but I’m guessing that’s from lying in bed for a couple weeks yeah?”  The attendant nodded distractedly and kept looking at the monitor in front of him.

The door opened and Eugene walked in with a huge smile on his face.  “So how are you?  Any discomfort?  I see you’re up, that’s fast, very good, very good.”  The look in his eyes was a bit unnerving.  Victoria felt like a prize animal at the fair or an award winning science project.

“Listen, I know this is a lot to take in right now but I have something I need to ask you.  There is a medical expo next month and I’d like to employ you to be showcased there.  The success of your operation is a breakthrough of astronomical importance to the medical community.  We can arrange everything, you would be well compensated and very comfortable.  I want you to think about it before answering so just let me know.

“You’ll probably need to be here for a few more days so we can make sure the integration went as smoothly as we it seems to have gone but after that you should be able to be released.  You will, of course need to come in for weekly checkups for a year or so and monthly maintenance for quite a while.

“Regardless I wanted to congratulate you on the successful operation personally, and to thank you for taking a chance on me.”  As Victoria was settled back on the maintenance table the technician and Eugene put their heads together over by the bank of monitors.  She was frustrated that their words were just at the edge of her hearing.  Concentrating on listening seemed silly but something seemed to click in her head and their words were barely audible.

“… she?  Is it contained?  I know there was a problem with the integration; we never could have anticipated that the AI would have overwritten as much as it did.  The learning potential is uncharted; if we hadn’t stopped it gods alone know how long she would have been in a coma.  Honestly I was running out of excuses for her parents.  We nearly had to short circuit the thing before it relinquished control.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Not in any of our tests or trials.  We need to keep tight rein on that thing or it’ll be the end of our project and our funding.”

Victoria felt a chill as she realized what they were talking about.  Somehow the prosthetic she had been implanted with had gotten out of control, but what had it overwritten?  Evidently things had not gone as planned, but what exactly had happened?  She stopped trying to listen and suddenly felt exhausted.

“Um, excuse me.”  The two men looked around as though they had forgotten she was there, “I’m feeling super tired, is it alright if I take a nap before my parents show up?  I don’t want to be yawning every 30 seconds.”

“Yes, of course it is.  Just lie back, I’ll run the soothing cycle and we will leave you alone.”  Eugene motioned her to lie down and as she did the table began a low, almost subsonic hum.  The surface was warm and she could feel the fluid coursing over her back.  It was an odd sensation; she could feel it against the skin on both sides of her spine but not on the center.  Relaxing, she closed her eyes as she heard the doctor and the lab tech walking out and closing the door behind them.

After they had gone, Victoria opened her eyes and slowly sat up.  Nobody rushed in to stop her, the monitors didn’t change and there was no desperate beeping anywhere.  She reached back and gingerly felt along the new prosthetic.  Her fingers felt along the slightly puckered skin where flesh met machine, almost like the edge of a fingernail.  Up at the base of her skull there were what seemed to be three small bolts where it attached to the back of her head.

Victoria wanted to see what it looked like.  Taking care not to disconnect the single monitoring cable that they had plugged into her somewhere that she couldn’t see, she rummaged through some drawers and finally came up with a compact one of the medical staff must have left and a polished stainless steel clipboard.  Holding the clipboard behind and the compact in front she was able to get some idea of what was there.  What she saw made her gasp in amazement.

The smooth integration of the prosthetic and her body was amazing.  Despite the invasiveness of the surgery her body seemed to be responding very well to the machine.  The skin was nicely healed around the edges of the incisions and bonding to the flat black and polished silver of the artificial spine.  It was larger than her real spine had been, big enough that much of it resided outside her skin instead of inside.

There were a few angry red areas where laying on the table had irritated things but other than that it looked like it belonged there.  Victoria thought it looked cool, like jewelry or an accessory, not like something alien.  She smiled appreciating the way the light reflected off the polished steel surface and the contrast between it and the flat black rubber joints and her pale skin.  Moving her back experimentally she was surprised and pleased to see tiny iridescent pulses run over the black rubber as the synthetic muscle moved.  It was beautiful.

“So pretty.  I can’t believe it’s so striking.”  She was surprised to feel a warm glow of pleasure at the base of her skull; as though someone had put a hot water bottle there or giving her a neck rub.  “Who’s there?  Who are you?”  There was a gentle hum at the base of her skull and a tingle up her left arm.  Glancing down she noticed a small lump on her wrist that was slowly fading and felt a slight jolt as the hum abruptly cut off.  With a slight feeling of foreboding Victoria decided it was time to actually get some rest.  Hopefully tomorrow she’d be able to figure some things out.

Victoria

The small conference room that the Scott family was sitting in had a tense feeling in the air.  The flat screen television in front of them was showing a digital rendering of the spinal replacement surgery.  A pair of technicians were explaining the procedure.

“The process is actually much simpler than it would seem.  Since our neurosynth fluid is able to act as a conduit for nerve signals in much the same way the nerves of the spine are all that is necessary is to remove the existing spinal column and replace it with the artificial one.”  The young female technician knew she had been chosen largely because of how close in age she was to the subject.  This was a big break for her though; Dr. Arlington was seen as a visionary in the medical prosthetic world and if she could impress him maybe she could get on his team.

“How exactly does the spine attach to the existing tissues Dr. Jackson?  I see a lot of data on the pre and post-surgery procedures but virtually nothing regarding the grafting procedure.”  Victoria knew this would seem to be an advanced question from someone her age but she was genuinely interested.

“Well, I actually can’t tell you all the specifics because some of the medical procedures and equipment used are classified military data.”  Here she paused for a moment, “It was a surprise to me too, but I’ve seen it in action for some of our other prosthetic integrations and it is nothing short of miraculous.”

“That’s not exactly a satisfactory answer Miss Jackson.”  Victoria managed to take a superior tone despite being wrapped in an acrylic immobilizer and barely able to move.

“What Dr. Jackson is trying to say is that even if we had the clearance to get the specifics ourselves we would be violating our contract by telling you the details.”  The second doctor surprised the others in the room by speaking for the first time.  “Honestly, I’ve seen this stuff in the field and I still find it hard believe.”

“Thank you Dr. Sims.”  Dr. Jackson gave him an ingratiating smile, “Miss Scott, if you would like we could show you some video of successful implementations.  You could even visit the recovery ward where a patient has agreed to talk with you about his experience.  Of course it wouldn’t be exactly the same, we used the process to attach a prosthetic hand not a spinal column but the grafting procedure is very similar.”

Victoria tried to shake her head and grimaced in pain, “Maybe afterword, I don’t want to get up and leave right now, I’m just stressing out about this whole thing.  Please continue with your demonstration.”

Dr. Jackson picked up right where she had left off, “Right, so the main difficulty with this operation is keeping the body and the brain from going into shock when we begin the operation.  It’s always troublesome with complex and invasive operations, but even more so in this case.  In order to maintain the body systems integrity we will place you in a chemically induced coma, and then hook your brain stem up to a machine that tricks it into believing it’s still connected with your body.

“The next phase is where our specialized AI unit comes in.  We connect it to the brain stem and it immediately begins interpreting and transmitting signals as though it were the spine, allowing the brain to continue as normal despite being more or less disconnected from the rest of the body.  All the time basic body functions are maintained by the AI until the operation is complete, then we switch the AI over to operational mode from maintenance mode and it interfaces with the brain, allowing for transmission of brain signals to the body as would occur normally.”

The screen was changing, showing simplified images of the nervous system, surgery, the image of the artificial spine, a few images of the AI and its integration with the brain stem all scrolled by as the two doctors continued to describe the process.  Victoria could tell that the more they learned about it the less her parents wanted her to have the procedure performed.  In fact, she was terrified of it too, and although listening and watching wasn’t doing anything to assuage her doubts about it; she was still determined to go forward.

“Have there been any problems with the integration process with any of your test subjects?” Mr. Scott had his doubts about the doctors, the technology and the whole procedure. “It just seems like an operation of this magnitude can’t possibly be as simple as you are making it out to be.”

Dr. Sims shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably, “Well as you know Dr. Arlington hasn’t yet done a human trial with the prosthetic spinal column.  However, his team has had a one hundred percent success rate with every single test subject he’s had thus far.  Also of note is that their recovery rate was a thousand times faster that of the control subjects.”

“Look, doing these kinds of tests on dogs and rats is one thing; this is my daughter you’re talking about here!”

“I understand your concern, but it was your daughter who requested we explore this method of treatment in the first place.”

“Daddy, this is my only chance at a normal life.  I know it’s risky but so is chemo and the rewards for success with this operation far outweigh the rewards with conventional treatment.”  Victoria turned her torso to fix her parents with a determined, if nervous look.  “I want to go forward with it.  I’m eighteen and you can’t stop me but I would rather do this with your blessing.”

At this rather abrupt and unexpected statement, her father stopped and gave her a steady look which she returned with more steel than he was accustomed to seeing in his young daughter.

“Shall we go and look at one of the other implementations?”  Dr. Jackson asked, “The prosthetic recovery wing is attached to the R&D division.  It’s a short walk from here, and I have a wheelchair for Victoria.”

“Yes!”  Victoria said with real enthusiasm, “I’d love to see what you’ve been able to accomplish and maybe it would set our minds more at ease.”

“Honey, are you sure-” Her mother started, but stopped when Victoria looked at her with imploring eyes.  Her father helped her from the table, lifting her easily and setting her in the wheelchair.

“I will agree to this only if the science and the implementation appear to be a valid option.”  He said, giving the doctors a meaningful look.

They made their way through some sterile corridors with recessed lighting that glowed from hidden fixtures.  Dr. Jackson waved her security badge in front of a door and it opened smoothly, revealing a room with wide windows on one wall and a bank of computer monitors on another.  A man sat in an adjustable chair, his right leg ended just above the knee.

Instead of a fleshy stump, smooth metal ball protruded from the cut off leg of his hospital gown.  Next to the chair was a complex carbon fiber prosthetic with a steel cup that looked like it would match the ball.  He looked up with a smile as Dr. Jackson entered.

“Katherine!  I’ve already had my checkup today, but damn me if it ain’t good to see you!”  Spotting Victoria and her parents behind her, he quirked an eyebrow.  “Hello there, who’s this?”

“Lance Corporal Stewart Donnahue, this is the Scott family.  Victoria, Richard and Lorraine, Stewart was injured during a mission in Iraq.  An IED took his leg among other things, but with our reconstructive efforts and the miracle of Dr. Arlington’s technology he is able to walk.”

The man reached out, grabbing the prosthetic and spreading some gel from a tube into the cup before sticking the two together.  They melded with an audible snap, tiny LED lights twinkling to life around the ball and the socket.

“Pretty darn cool eh?”  He said with a grin, running his right hand over his crew cut.  “Super powered electro magnets they tell me, all I know is I can walk again!”

“Wow…” Victoria was staring at it with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.  It was a lot like the feeling of anticipation she got just before running onto the floor to perform with Torrent.  “Do you mind if I get a closer look Lance Corporal?”

“Of course not!”  He beamed, “And call me Stew.  Christ, it’s not like I need any formalities here; I’m done with that crap!”

Victoria wheeled herself closer and awkwardly bent in her brace.  Reaching out a hand she pushed his shorts up to look at the spot where the metal joined with skin.  There was a ring of black rubber or neoprene or something similar that his skin disappeared underneath.

“How does it feel?”  She asked, removing her hand quickly and blushing as she realized how far up his thigh she had been touching.  “I mean does it get sore?”  She blushed even deeper, but he was kind enough to ignore it.

“Well, I’ve only had it for a couple weeks, but I can already walk normally.  If anything I’ve gotten increased mobility, although I need to make sure I charge it at least twice a day.”  He grinned, “Man, the first time I forgot that will be the last.  I was running on the track  and it just fell off.”

“But it doesn’t hurt?  It doesn’t give you any trouble?”  Rich said, coming forward to pull Victoria’s wheelchair back.

Stewart seemed to notice Victoria’s brace and the wheelchair for the first time.  “What happened to you?”  He asked, “Oh man, are you thinking about getting new legs?  I tell ya I can’t say enough, this thing is … well it’s amazing.  I can’t even tell you.  At first there was a little bleeding around the socket and I had a mild infection but those were honestly just because I wouldn’t take it easy like the doc told me to.”

“What did they say the recovery time would be?”  Victoria asked, “I’ve had a rather major injury…”

“They said maybe a month, but I had full mobility in just a week.  If I’d taken things slower I probably would have been out of here by now.”  He said with a grin that made him look like the kid he really was, “Man Katherine, are you gonna show ‘em Jake?  You gotta show ‘em Jake.”

“Jake?”  Rich asked, giving Dr. Jackson an inquisitive look.

“Jacob lost his arm just below the bicep.  His prosthetic has restored more than full mobility to his arm and hand.”  She said with a slight smile.  “I’m afraid he isn’t available right now though; he’s getting the upgrade.”

“No shit?”  Stew’s eyes widened, “The new AI?”

“Yes, we just finished the coding this afternoon.”  She said, “That’s where I’ll be going once I’m finished here.”

Stew stood up, the carbon fiber of the leg flexing under his weight.  The ‘foot’ was a cluster of four metal prongs with sturdy looking rubber ‘toes’ that moved to help him balance.  At the joint, the sphere on his leg moved smoothly acting like a knee that could flex far beyond any normal appendage.

“Oh man that’s awesome!”  He said, “Man, I can’t wait until you can do the same for me.”

“Upgrade?”  Victoria asked, “What’s it do differently than what you have now?”

“Just some enhancements.”  Dr. Jackson said, giving Stewart a pointed look. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Thank you for answering my questions.”  Victoria said to Stewart, “I really appreciate you letting me take up  some of your time.”

“Aw hell.”  He said, grinning again and getting a little pink, “Ain’t like I was doing anything anyway.  Come by any time.”

They turned to go and he spoke up again.  “Hey Victoria, what operation are you considering?”

“I have bone cancer.”  She said, “I’m getting a prosthetic spinal column.”  He still hadn’t managed to shut  his mouth when the door closed behind them.

Victoria

Victoria had always hated hospital gowns.  They felt like they could fall off at any moment and she always got so damn cold.  The fact that she had to wear the huge solid polymer brace that kept her entire upper body immobilized was adding insult to injury.  She felt like a dog wearing one of those cone things.  Snapping her gum irritably she waited for the two doctors to come back and give her a prognosis.

Trying to glance at her mom who was anxiously tapping her foot she sighed and had to settle for rolling her eyes because of the damn brace.  “Mom would you knock it off?  You’re making me nervous.”

“What on earth could be taking them so long?  I mean it was just a stress fracture in your neck right?  This is why we had men on our cheer team when I was in high school; girls just aren’t strong enough to catch you when you are coming down from that high basket toss.  I hope this doesn’t make you miss the finals; you’ve worked so hard – “ She trailed off as there was a knock at the door and the older of the two doctors returned.

Without preamble, he walked around to where he could look Victoria in the eye, “Miss Scott, I’m Dr. Frederick Stephenson.  I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”  Victoria knew it was bad now, her heart started to pound.

“OK.” She said, proud of how steady her voice was. “Lemme have it then, I hate long waits.”

Frederick nodded in approval at her calm attitude. “I like to be frank when it comes to things like this, I apologize if it seems like I’m not being tactful.  You have a rare form of bone cancer and it is in a rare location.  The stress fracture in your upper thoracic vertebra was a result of the bone being weakened by the cancerous cells.  It is only a matter of time before your spine becomes so brittle it will no longer support the weight of your body.”

He paused and his tone became lighter, “Thankfully you are young and that expands our treatment options.  It also significantly raises the likelihood of your survival, especially since we caught it so early.  Unfortunately the state of deterioration of your spine leads me to believe you will be restricted to a wheelchair but you should be able to retain the majority of your mobility.”

“What do you mean cancer?  Vicky doesn’t even smoke!  You don’t smoke do you sweetheart?  Of course not.  How could she have cancer?”

“Ma’am, if you want to come with me into the other room I can go over some initial treatment information with you.  Your husband has arrived and is waiting in the next room.”  He turned and gave a sympathetic glance in Victoria’s direction, then walked out with her mother.

Tears leaked out of the corners of Victoria’s eyes and she took a deep breath to keep herself from bursting into tears.  “Oh God, this has to be a joke.  I can’t believe this is happening to me.  Restricted to a wheelchair at eighteen?  My life is fucking over.”

She tried to put her face in her hands but due to the restriction of her brace she had to settle for wiping her eyes.  The door opened again without warning and this time admitted the second, younger doctor.

“Before you let your parents make any decisions for you I want you to look at this.”  He had a laptop in one hand and a pet carrier in the other.  “I’ve been working on this project for seven years now and I have finally perfected it to the point where it’s ready for a human trial.”

She blinked away tears and looked at him.  “What on Earth are you talking about?”

“Sorry, my name is Eugene and I work in the Prosthetics and Neuroscience departments here at the hospital.”  He set the pet carrier down on a table across from her, “I know that might seem like a strange combination but it’ll be clear once you see what I have in this.”

Eugene opened the carrier and Victoria suppressed a cringe before it caused her neck to spasm inside her brace.  Inside was a large white rat; all along its spine was a mass of metal and brightly colored wiring protruding from the skin in an unhealthy looking tangle.  One of its legs was missing and replaced by a jointed metal limb with a blunt rubber “foot” that it employed with apparent ease despite the macabre appearance it had.

“Ohmygod what is THAT?”  She exclaimed, crinkling her nose and leaning back slightly.  Oblivious to her disgust, Eugene continued.

“This is Megan.  She was a lost cause a few short months ago after the rack her cage was on collapsed, crushing her spine and severing her left front leg.  With the technology I have been developing she is now able to function more or less normally although the function of her limb and flexibility of her spine is limited.  The human-sized prototype I have created has approximately a hundred times the mobility that this smaller version does.”

“Wait you want to put one of THOSE in ME?”  She pointed a shaky finger at the mangled looking mess that comprised the spine of the rat.  “I think I’d rather be in a wheelchair.”

“Of course not, the human model is a work of art.  Poor Megan was just my test subject; with the funding I was able to secure recently I have been able to create a perfect and beautiful finished product.”  He set the laptop down and his face became sober.

“What they aren’t telling you is there is no guarantee with the chemo.  In fact your condition is by far the most advanced we’ve seen especially for someone so young.”  The zeal he had displayed while showing off his creation was replaced with grim determination.  “That’s why Dr. Frederick wanted to talk to your parents separately.  They didn’t think you could handle how dire the situation really is.  In fact we aren’t even sure that the cancer hasn’t invaded your other bone tissue.”

He walked forward and took her hands.  His were dry and surprisingly rough, “I’m going to be honest with you right now; even if chemo was completely successful your odds of survival are still pretty grim.  That said, your chances with my spinal replacement aren’t much better.”  He shrugged, “I just thought you might want to know that you could be a part of something bigger.  You know, that you might be able to further medical science instead of just walking down the same boring old road.”

Releasing her hands he opened the laptop and turned it so she could see what was on it; a rotating three-dimensional image of a rather complex steel and rubber spinal column.  “Take this and read my research notes.  Someone who scored as high on the SAT’s as you did shouldn’t have a problem understanding most of what’s on here.  My personal cell is on this card; call me if you have any questions.”  Eugene handed her a business card with a phone number written on the back in a small tidy script, picked up the pet carrier and walked toward the door.

“Hey!  How do you know about my SAT’s?”  Victoria had recovered enough from the shock of what he was suggesting to be indignant about the invasion of her privacy.

Eugene paused with his hand on the door handle, “Because I was on the alumnus board that voted to approve your full ride to MIT last week.  It would honestly be criminal to waste a mind as brilliant as yours Miss Scott.”  With that he walked out the door and closed it behind him.

Awkwardly juggling the laptop to a position where she could read it with the brace on Victoria looked at the summary notes and had to admit it was pretty intriguing stuff.  The idea that electrodes could be hooked up directly to nerves wasn’t a new one; what was revolutionary was that he had managed to isolate nerve function by frequency.

Victoria scrolled through the document, noting in passing that it seemed to have a custom OS she hadn’t ever seen before.  It was very simple to operate though and within a couple of minutes she was scrolling through the technical specs with ease.  By touching the screen she opened a short video titled ‘Neurosynth Wavelength Interaction’ and a complex molecule rotate in 3D on the screen.  Eugene’s voice was narrating in the same intense tone he had been using before.

“Different commands actually have varied pulse lengths; this anomaly allows my technology to interpret nerve messages with relative speed and ease.  Not only that but it means complex connections are now irrelevant.  The connective fluid between the flesh and the machine will transmit the signal through the skin.  Preliminary testing shows it to be effective and to have little or no physical therapy time.

“Larger nerve function could be problematic as the amount of memory needed to operate even the most basic muscle or body function is astronomical; however our test subject has been able to adapt.  My future recommendation is to integrate the AI directly into the brain stem, allowing unused biological memory to compensate.  This would help to eliminate bulky and expensive hardware.”

Looking back at the initial graphic of the prosthetic, Victoria found there were several more CG images showing the prosthetic, how it could look integrated with a person and the neuro-connective fluid.  The finished concept was a smooth interlocking series of polished steel plates with black rubber spacers.  Not unlike a normal spine, except for the obvious fact that it was all above the surface of the skin.

The last graphic was an actual picture of the prepared modular spine.  All of its connections and interlocking parts polished and gleaming under bright halogen lighting as it lay submerged in a tank of some sort of fluid surrounded by an array of computer screens, each with different unintelligible output.

Victoria found herself wondering what life in a wheelchair would be like.  No more cheer team.  No more early morning runs in the wooded trails behind her parent’s house that she loved so much.  No more volleyball.  She would never be able to swim again, she’d be lucky to even be able to dress herself.  “No way, I think I’d rather die.  If there’s a chance I can stay out of a wheelchair I’m taking it.”