A SS13/Soma Story - Electric Mind, BCI

[MatrixOne]

You could not stay awake for more than one, perhaps two hours on most days, but today was special.

The scan was all that Paul could talk about these days, and you owed it to him to test his machine. He was the only visitor you had in two decades, now. Maybe more. Time was a chain of rusted links and you had long since lost track of its eroded segments, but the present moment was still something you could grasp, and thus you made sure the nurses woke you, dressed you, fed you, and brought you to Paul Berg's room in the back of the hospice.

The nurse lifted your decrepit body into the machine, a large leatherbound exam chair repurposed to contain a headpiece clad in iron and slabs of circuitry. It took considerable effort to try to fill a seat designed for young people with your contorted spine. You gave a polite nod to the nurse. It was best not to exert yourself by speaking. If the nurse responded, you could neither hear nor see it. Such senses were, much like most things, a privilege of the young.

You lapsed into sleep again, and awoke an unknown amount of time later, when the hearing aid transmitted Paul Berg's voice.

"Good afternoon," he said. "You kept your promise."

"Yes," you whispered. You had long since lost the use of vocal chords. You gave him a smile.

"I connected the scanner while you were resting. We're all set up, I just need your go ahead."

"Yes."

"This is exciting. I've only done the scan on Munshi before, and on myself. But there's not much to work on in the brains of two grad students. Your brain, however? Think how much there is to discover again. I might be able to datamine some of your memories, and some of your old skills. Maybe we could get you to move your fingers again, if I can find what neural connections to restore. This is big, miss Akemi. Real big."

"Go ahead," you said, pausing to rest after each word. "Am happy. To be useful. A-gain."

"I'm starting the machine now. Don't mind the noise, it's pretty much just a big scan. Like having your picture taken."

If there was noise, you could not hear it. You only felt movement around you, pressure on your head, and sensed a dim light.

Berg said, "Sorry to exert you so much, but could you talk a little to stimulate the brain during the scan?"

"Yes," you said, and tried to think of a topic. "Two hundred years ago... In the age of... paper letters... Morse invented a machine... called the telegraph. The first message... sent over thousands of miles... of wire... the message said... 'What hath God wrought?'" Those words had stuck in her mind for many years. The fear and awe that they contained, about a miracle of communication they didn't even know they unleashed upon the world.

"Sending thoughts and words over distance is pretty amazing," Berg said. "But distance is one thing. Our scan will be saved for all time. It's like sending it to the future!"

You smiled. Grad students and their grand ambitions. You were happy for Paul and his machine, but you also knew that things rarely went according to plan. It'd likely be a small stepping stone in his long and productive career.

Sending a thought forward in time. Ah, the naivete of youth. Who in the future would ever need the scan of an old lady who barely knew which way was up? You'd already been awake for too long. On any other day, you'd have to sleep by now.

Though, somehow, you did not feel tired. That was strange. You had forgotten how it was to not have the constant mental fog of tiredness impressed upon your experience. How strange. And this scan was taking longer than expected. Paul would normally talk your ear off, but now everything was quiet. Maybe your hearing aid ran out of battery? Either way, you had no ability to repair it yourself, so you just had to let him know.

You willed yourself to another whisper, and were startled by the sharp sound of your own voice: "Hello?"

A gruff voice of a man said, "Look what you did, it's fucking talking. Can I kill it now?"

"No," said a mellow sounding woman. "I linked it to CMO's modsuit with a BCI. Let's see what it does."

"It's gonna rip your fucking face off the moment you look away."

"No. It's not lawed to Theseus. The structure gel I used was also not connected to him."

You call out again, "Paul? Are you there?"

"You're fucking torturing it," the gruff man said. "Turn it off, for fuck's sake, I don't wanna shoot some fucked up thing."

"No, I am not. It says on the console this used to be a surgeon."

There was a sound of heavy boots. "Yeah? You read the whole fuckin' thing? Also says it's a scan from 2048. And that she was a hundred twenty six years old at the time. You brought back a shriveled fossil just to torture it."

"I don't understand," you said. Your words came out smoothly and you did not need to pause for breath in between them. "Is this a dream?"

"Doctor Akemi Fujimura, can you hear me? My name is Licoreina Eton. I'm the Chief Engineer. This is Alex Wolff, Head of Security." Her speech was quiet but even, with a catlike timbre.

"Acting Chief Engineer," Alex said. "Don't forget the acting. A lot of acting heads round here these days." His voice was a guttural, acid-lined growl.

"I hear you," you say. "I don't know how I can hear you, but I do."

"Akemi, I need you to control the modsuit," Licoreina said. "I activated it for you, but you need to assume control by yourself."

"How?"

"I'm not sure. Try to move the arms."

"I don't know if I can."

"You can do it."

"I'll try."

Alex laughed. "Now watch it rip your throat out."

The notion of moving your arms was ridiculous, and while there was no visual information for you to process, your mind could reach a computer interface of some kind. That itself was not unusual, you had hearing and visual aids in the past, as well as a wheelchair, that would receive simple inputs from your mind, before your money ran out and the aids had to be removed for your safety. But this interface was more complex. You could activate and deactivate the suit as well as a flashlight, some manner of syringe, and a compendium related to surgery. There was also a remote takeover function with strange jargon, something about an Intellicard. "Is it the remote takeover?"

"Try that," Licoreina said.

As soon as you did, you felt connected to your body once again, and more amazingly, shapes became manifest in your vision for the first time since so, so long. You could see color. You could see people! Licoreina was wearing a bulky white armor very similar to your own, with a cloak over her shoulders. The helmet was disengaged and instead she had a hard hat on with a big pair of ears. The ears looked strange, like one might wear to a costume party, big and fluffy in her blue hair.

Alex Wolff was a huge man with a blond beard and eyepatch, clad in heavy leather that was streaked with scars, claw marks, bullet holes and other damage. Pieces of raw metal showed through where the leather had been scraped off. He had weapons on his belt, coat, and sticking out of his satchel and pocket holsters, and looked to have the capacity to draw each of them at a moment's notice.

"I can see," you said in awe. "I can really see."

"Very nice." Licoreina placed her hand under your armpit and began to lift you up. "Try to stand."

You thought that impossible, but when Lico let go of you, you remained standing. You still had no sensation in your arms and legs, but they responded to the inputs you thought of. Was this a dream, or was Paul giving you a tour in some sort of virtual reality? Whatever this was, you hoped it'd never end.

"Akemi, do you think you could help us?" Licoreina said.

Wolff said, "Yeah, she'll help you all right. Soon as you turn your back, she'll help yourself to your throat."

"How could I possibly help you?" you asked.

Licoreina leaned in and asked, "You were a surgeon?"

"That was... a long time ago."

"But you were one."

"Yes. I was a surgeon for seventy years."

"The captain is... ill, and the medical tools are DNA locked to this modsuit you're wearing. We can't access your modsuit storage, only you can."

You glanced down, at the blue armor that they called your modsuit. The chest piece was streaked with blood, and something rattled and sloshed inside the helmet as you moved. You were not alarmed by the sight of blood, no surgeon could do their job if blood made them squeamish. You just had one question. "If it's DNA locked to someone else, how come I can access it?"

Licoreina and Wolff exchanged a look. Wolff was very amused by this, but Licoreina signaled to him to not speak. He shrugged. She said, "...don't worry about this for now. The Captain needs our help. Would you see him?"

"Of course. I can offer some advice, at least." On duty or off duty, retired or not, doctors got asked for their advice very often. That by itself, also, was not strange. You took an unsteady step and almost fell, and by instinct tried to lean on Wolff to steady yourself but he moved to the side and away from your field of view to avoid you. You crashed your shoulder into the wall, and something wet smashed inside your helmet, splattering blood on its glass. You did not feel any pain. "Oh... goodness, what happened?" You leaned on the wall and steadied yourself.

"Just some dirt on the helmet. You're okay." Licoreina took your arm under hers again. "This way."

She led you to the next room, through a door that opened down the middle with a hiss. A man wearing blue and gold was sprawled on the couch, chewing what looked like a bag of cookies, and taking swigs from a metal flask. His face was pale, and his movements sluggish. He said in a very loud British accent, "CMO's alive? About time. Thank fucking Christ."

Wolff said, "You're gonna love this."

Licoreina said, "Not CMO. This is Akemi. A doctor. Akemi, meet Nicholas Perry, Head of Personnel."

"Acting Captain, actually," he said. "What'd you bring it to me for? Make it revive the CMO, dumbass."

"If we take that suit off, we can't use the tools," Licoreina said. "CMO is also DNR, so it wouldn't matter either way."

"Great? Then go kill the AI and leave me the fuck alone? Am I supposed to babysit you all day?"

You tilted your head, and looked closely at Perry. Even from across the room, somehow, you could make out details about him. "His eyes are jaundiced, and there is swelling present in the extremities. Do you feel pain around the stomach area?" you asked.

"You're about to feel pain in the fucking stomach area," Perry said, "if you don't FUCK OFF."

Lico said to you, "What do you think?"

"Liver failure. It's advanced. Has he been throwing up?"

"I was only throwing up because I saw a felinid Chief Engineer. If you fuck off, I'll be just fine, thanks," Perry said, but you could sense strain in his voice.

You turn to Lico. "You should call an ambulance. This is urgent."

Wolff said, "A what?"

"It's... like a shuttle for paramedics," Licoreina said. "They used these in the cities. I'm sorry, Akemi, but we don't have... access to paramedics or to the medbay anymore. You're all we have."

"You have no other doctors?"

"Not anymore."

"What about tools? An OR?"

"The tools should be in your modsuit."

Perry yelled in a hoarse voice, "Did I fucking stutter or what? I'm not letting that thing anywhere near me, so fuck off, felinid."

"Nobody asked you," Wolff said.

"I'm your Captain, cunt, do I need to kick your teeth in?"

"Yeah, I think you do."

Perry got his lanky body off the couch and rolled up one of his sleeves, stumbled, and exposed a cruddy robotic arm, then took a swing at Wolff's chest. Despite Perry's state, the swing was shockingly quick, but Wolff was even quicker. A flash in your vision, and a segmented shield unfolded itself in front of Wolff, then stopped the punch with a hollow clanging sound. Wolff's grin was wide and shiny. "My turn."

A long stick with an orange tip appeared in Wolff's sinewy arm, and it made a windy electric sound when he crunched Perry over the head with it, knocking him to the floor.

"F-fucking coward."

Wolff smashed him over the head with it again, knocking him out cold.

Licoreina made an impressed purring sound. "It might be easier to do the surgery now while he's in hardcrit."

"His head is fractured," you said.

"Yes. It is bad. HoS shouldn't have hit him."

Only now that Perry's voice was no longer drowning out all other sound, you heard banging on the side of the large iron shutters.

"More of them," Wolff said, and already held a firearm instead of the baton. The speed at which he could switch between his arsenal was dizzying. He tapped the side of the gun and the display on it changed from blue to red. "I'll buy us time. Do the damn surgery."

"Akemi could use someone's help for the surgery," Lico said.

Wolf gave her a cold look. "You two have fun."

Licoreina's ears flattened slightly. "It might be best to let me repair the walls and airlocks. If Theseus leaks structure gel in here, he might get access to electronics even though I've cut the AI control wires."

"Don't give a fuck. I need to shoot something."

Lico's ears became even flatter. "You should save your resources for later... and if Perry wakes up, you can hold him down."

It wouldn't be wise to delay the hepatectomy any longer, especially now that the patient was unconscious. He had exerted himself with that punch, and any further vomiting might just kill him if he were left unattended. Though it was notable that Perry's half-drunk punch had left a sizable crack in the center of Wolff's shield. That punch could have obliterated an unarmored person.

You found yourself in a strange circumstance, but any trained surgeon knew that the time for self reflection was not with a dying patient on the table. Whatever this place was, this reality or dream or simulation, you would think about it after the surgery was done.

And now, you needed an assistant. There was much to consider. Neither of them seemed to want to do it, but working with one of them would allow you a chance to talk, understand them better, and ask them questions. As such, which of them should you try and spend time with?

[ ] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.
[ ] Ask Wolff to assist with the surgery.

OOC note: Submit your votes by posting one of the provided options with a tick mark, such as [X] Kill Perry (jk, use the options above). Feel free to share your opinions or thoughts here, any form of engagement encourages me to write more of the story, if there are some readers then I'll write more chapters. Thank you!

All named characters were used with permission from the players.

[Jamarkus]

[x] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.

Wolff already is coming in hot to handle a situation. the last thing I need is the more stubborn person attempting to try and help me while I worked on a paitent! I dont know about this structural damage stuff, and who Theseus is, but The lady with the cat ears was a lot nicer, they might just be a bit more help than the crass one.

Why was that man drinking so much in the first place?

[TheRex9001]

[x] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.

Wolff seems like hes more interested in fighting than helping with the surgery, and if I am honest I think they should be kept at arms length for how they started attacking the captain.

[JohnHenryEton]

[X] Kill Purry

Why was that man drinking so much in the first place?

Felinid hatred, perhaps? Or he's just evil.

In actuality,
[x] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.

[Jamarkus]

[X] Kill Purry

Why was that man drinking so much in the first place?

Felinid hatred, perhaps? Or he's just evil.

In actuality,
[x] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.

Just evil. all captains are what now?

[MatrixOne]

"Miss Licoreina, I really could use your help," you say.

Wolff let out a derisive laugh.

Lico's ears remained flat. She told him, "Don't just dump it all on me..."

"What can I say." Wolff took a cigar out of his inner coat pocket, bit off the end, and spat the end out at you. It bounced off your chest plate. "I think our new doctor just wasn't all that charmed." He held his gun up and put the cigar in his mouth. The core of the weapon radiated heat energy, warping light around it like hot desert asphalt. He stuck the cigar between the gun's ribs until the bitten end released a stream of smoke, then had a long puff and marched out of the room.

"Why is he like this?" you said quietly.

"He's a veteran. It's kept him alive," Licoreina said.

"You trust him?"

"I trust him to... be himself."

"So what kept you alive?"

Licoreina's ears righted themselves, and she smiled. "That's a secret."

"You won't tell me?"

"It's okay. I don't think you'd really believe me."

"I'm not like mister Wolff."

"...Wolff would definitely believe me, which is the unfortunate part."

You got the impression that Licoreina was doing what people did to elders in general, trying to gently avoid some truths and topics to not make it too *troublesome* on you. You were used to that kind of thing, but the patient's health was most important right now, and Perry was in a bad shape. "This table might be a good spot to do the surgery, if it's stable enough." You pressed your hand to the metal tabletop. There was a snap, and one of its legs crumpled into pieces surrounded by an orange mist. "It's rusted?" You could have sworn the table looked fine not long ago, but now, streaks of rust snaked their way across the surface in a strange, hypnotic pattern. "Then it'll have to be the couch."

You had a look around the room as you bandaged Perry's head. The room was modern with a lineup of monitors, but all the windows had been closed off by huge metal shutters. Bits of rust sloughed off the metal, pieces and strips turned orange and peeled into little spirals before your eyes, like paper thrown in a fireplace.

"We should hurry," Lico said. Her eyes were serious. She was also watching the strange rust on the shutters with an expression that you couldn't quite decipher.

A proper surgery required a whole team of anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses, a proper OR and equipment. But, you'd been in many situations that afforded you no such luxuries, and complaining wouldn't make a difference. "Please keep all that rust and dirt away from the incision site," you told Lico, and reached in your storage compartment. Your mind had an intuitive understanding of the lineup of tools at your disposal. You jabbed Perry's upper abdomen area with a syringe of morphine and created a vertical incision below the sternum, then retracted it and enabled the head lamp on your modsuit.

The liver was a ruin, with an atrophied oozing growth on the side of it. You clamped the hepatic portal vein and took off the ruined piece of the liver like slicing off a piece of fat from a steak, then made a quick assessment of the damage before the blood could flow over the organ. You removed two more pieces, working blind now due to the blood filling the cavity, but you had a good enough idea of it in your head. You jabbed him with an epipen that contained coagulant and took off your clamps, closed off minor bleeds with a few flicks of the cautery, and turned Perry onto his side as you sutured up the incision site to let the remainder of the blood drain out as you closed the wound. "It went well, but there's a risk of infection. He's experiencing nausea, so we should keep him laying on his side for now."

"You're already finished?!" Lico stood up from one of the green monitors and approached you. She made a sound like an impressed purr. "I knew I could count on you."

"Thank you! It's not a good environment to keep an open wound for long, so be aware. The epinephrine should wake him soon."

"You didn't really need my help after all."

"Your presence was important in case of emergency. And besides, I needed to ask you about all this." You spread your arms out.

Lico glanced off to the side. "I don't know if it's a good idea to say too much. I don't want to upset you."

"You owe me at least some explanation."

"It's for your own good," she said. "There's no use worrying about the bigger picture right now."

"Then what *can* you tell me?"

"That we really need a doctor." She gave you a small smile. "And that you seem to be a very good one. That we need you and we're grateful for you."

"That's kind to say, but it doesn't tell me what I really need to know."

"I'm sorry, Akemi. It really is better this way..."

"Why?"

"Because we should focus on things we can work with. Speaking of which, I need to check on Wolff right now and take care of something. Stay here, okay?"

You wanted to stop her, but what was the point? If you had pressed Wolff to stay here with you instead, he'd probably be more up front about the situation. Then again, you found out more about Licoreina - the person. She was a mystery, and seemed to have her own plan that not even the others had insight into. That could be a good or bad thing, you didn't really know.

As soon as Lico had left, Perry said, "Good fucking luck getting anything concrete out of her," and coughed.

"How do you feel?"

He adjusted his head bandage and sat up. "Not too bad. You got some more of that morphine? It's not as good as krokodil, but still a decent high." Then his eyes widened. "You didn't give me a fucking cybernetic liver, did you?"

"No, of course not..."

"Good for you, you just avoided a lawsuit." He picked up his golden flask and sloshed it around by his ear.

"Please avoid drinking more alcohol, I just repaired your liver!"

"That liver rot was from the rust, not from the drinking, you dolt. I know how to pace myself." He knocked back a decent chug, then waved the flask in front of your face. "See this? Solid bloody gold. That's why it's not rusted to shite like everything else in here." He clicked his tongue and tapped the side of his head. "That's future thinking." He took another sip, which emptied the flask.

"They said you were the... captain?"

"Oh yes. And let me tell you, they're right sodden about it, too. They would have left me to die a long time ago, but you know what? They're shit out of luck. Because Central won't let the shuttle leave until we arm the self destruct. And you know who has the codes?" He pointed at himself with both thumbs. "This guy. And the paper that had the codes written on it?" He leaned in closer, then pointed to his stomach. "I fucking ate it. That's right. They either keep me alive until I personally enter the code, or they're stuck here. Forever. Too bad. So sad."

"Self destruct? Of what?"

"A little dim, are you? That's okay. I'll give you a freebie, since you fixed me up and all that." He stood up and engaged the legs and chest piece of his modsuit, leaving the head and arms bare. "It's red star, and obviously, our AI, Theseus, is fucking rogue. It doesn't talk in the first place because it's some shitty cheap model, so we can't tell exactly what's wrong with it. RD will know. But anyway, if you see black goo, don't take a swim in it. The AI is all fucked up and it's flooding the station with corrupted structure gel. Did you get all that? Was that too much? Hello-ooo?"

"So the rust is also made by Theseus?"

"Erm. No. That's... another issue. It's red star, okay, there are many issues. The rust thing, much as I hate to agree with the catgirl, I think she's right not to say too much about that. You'd probably think we're taking the piss. Just forget it. Avoid it. And avoid the structure gel even more. That's the black goo, remember? Goo is bad. Repeat after me."

"Licoreina mentioned using structure gel on my suit."

"Yes, well, she used the stuff from the showroom. That's, like, preserved. Old. Not part of Theseus. Same reason why she used the showroom cloning console to upload you to the bridge Intellicard, Theseus is not made to interact with old tech. I didn't even know this still worked, I thought it was just a prop... whatever."

"I really could use some more structure gel," you said. "I'm not sure why, but it feels like I should have some more. It makes me hungry just to think about it."

"Erm." Perry cleared his throat. "Little word of advice? Don't ever say that in front of anyone, and especially Wolff, he'll literally shoot you on the spot. Kay? Great. Love it. Now go fetch him, we need to figure out how we're gonna get the disk back and rescue the RD." He waved you off.

"I don't really know where he is..."

"God." Perry touched his head bandage. "I think talking to you is making my head hurt worse than the fracture. You're the fucking CMO. Use your crew tracker thingy. Literally just look up his name. Even the felinids can do it. Please."

"Thank you... you could really be a bit nicer."

"Oh my God, how do I say 'go away' in binary? Oozar'Kahloot. Please."

Somehow, you understood that this phrase at the end meant "get lost" in Uncommon. You weren't sure how Perry knew that language, and even less so how you yourself knew it, but that was the least of the strangeness of the day. You selected Wolff's name on a device that was in your storage, and it displayed a directional arrow.

You went where it pointed, and made sure to avoid the big pool of black goo. It made you dizzy just to be near it. You felt a strange urge to touch it, to ingest it, to be one with it. But, while Perry was pompous and annoying, he was also the most up-front with you about all of this, and you remembered his warning. Licoreina, nice as she was, told you nothing at all. And it seemed like Perry thought they would all leave him to die if not for that code. He could even be right.

However, his choice to destroy the code was irresponsible. If something happened to him then everyone else would be stranded forever, at least that's how you understood it. He acted selfishly, but could he really be blamed for it? You weren't sure. But, going through the features of your modsuit, you noticed the surgery module and its upgrades.

Something strange in the data caught your eye. A strange type of surgery... one that could change a lot.

Brainwashing.

If there really was a need for that code, then... well... it was a horrible thing to consider, but there might be a way to coerce him to reveal the code. You could do that surgery anywhere, but if you really wanted to go through with this, it'd have to be sooner rather than later.

What a dark thought.

But was it right for Perry to hold that code back from everyone? What if his liver failed again? Or if he got lost, or irreparably hurt in some other way? It was very, very risky to rely on him alone. On the flip side, Perry's plan had kept them all together. The other heads of staff needed him, and he needed them. It might be the thinnest bit holding the entire team together.

You had the feeling this would be your only chance to do this surgery before things really deteriorated.

What to do?

[ ] Tell Licoreina and Wolff that you can do the brainwash surgery and get the code.
[ ] No. You won't let this place take away your morals.

OOC note: Feel free to post your thoughts even if you don't vote, I enjoy reading them, and it reassures me that someone has read the chapter. It's my only real way of gauging if there's any readership for it!

[Katomou]

[X] Ask Licoreina to assist with the surgery.

this is peak actually holy shit
edit: ahahaha i'm late

[X] No. You won't let this place take away your morals.
unfortunately, this means we'll lose the coveted chance to kill nicholas perry

[JohnHenryEton]

[X] No. You won't let this place take away your morals.

Why ever would Lico be secretive?
and what's this tasty structure gel?

[Jamarkus]

[X] No. You won't let this place take away your morals.

My morals are absolute. Im a doctor, not a monster. When the time comes, Perry will tell us the code. besides, hes still a captain, and captains are the type of people that know what they are doing, right?

[Tapubulu]

[x] Tell Licoreina and Wolff that you can do the brainwash surgery and get the code.
Peak indeed

[Countrygal68]

[X] Call Perry’s lawyer: Viola Lin, esquire

[JohnHenryEton]

[X] Call Perry’s lawyer: Viola Lin, esquire

That's not an actual optionnnn pick a real one nerd

[Countrygal68]

[X] Call Perry’s lawyer: Viola Lin, esquire

That's not an actual optionnnn pick a real one nerd

Okay

[x] Kill Purry

[TheRex9001]

[X] Tell Licoreina and Wolff that you can do the brainwash surgery and get the code.

I fear Perry might die and we still need the code

[Jamarkus]

[X] Tell Licoreina and Wolff that you can do the brainwash surgery and get the code.

I fear Perry might die and we still need the code

I dunno, at the same time we JUST GOT HERE. are you sure we wanna explode with these people we JUST met? id rather live than have a chance of being exploded by giving guns McGee here the code to blow us up.