Chapter 7 - metal touch

The silence slowly fades away and imperceptible conversation arises. Spinning head, heavy eyes, a female voice.

"He is waking up." She says.

Slowly Pablo opens his eye to see a woman with silver-grey eyes standing in front of him. He is laying down on a ripperdoc's table, the place is familiar. He feels numb all over his body.

"Do you feel any pain?" the woman asks.

He keeps silent for a bit, trying to assess his situation and gather his thoughts. He can't recall much of what happened and starts to wonder if he is suffering from amnesia.

"No, I'm not in pain..." Pablo answers.

He starts to recognize the room, he has been here before but that's not clear why. He can hear another person shuffling some tools in the corner of the room.

"Why am I here? What happened?" he asks in confusion.

A very familiar voice answers him.

"Try to relax, you are out of the danger zone."

"Pax..." Pablo says.

Some memories come back to him, an old friend, his adoptive daughter, a small clinic in the commons, and an explosion. It hits him and he starts to get agitated.

"Hold him on the chair!" Pax commands the woman.

She tries her best to hold him as strong as she can. Pax finishes to prepare an airhypo and injects Pablo. He instantly calms down and stops moving.

"I... Like that." he says.

"I'm sure you do, now try to calm down, we still have a lot of work to do to fix you up." Pax says as he friendly taps on Pablo's shoulder who passes out.

The woman focuses her attention on Pablo's hands. His fingers are gone, his hands are no more, and his wrists are badly damaged. She examines him and adjusts his wrists on the side of the table.

The table is equipped with tools on the sides that help the clean removal of limbs. The woman seems very familiar with this type of tech. After adjusting Pablo's wrists for cutting, her attention goes to a small table just next to her. There is the logo of Meditech on that box with "prototype" written all over it.

She opens the box and takes out a pair of what seems to be the base of some hands without fingers mounted on mechanical wrists. She puts them next to Pablo's damaged wrists and gets the cutting machine ready.

Pax examines the metallic skeleton of the hands.

"You take a big risk for someone who is a stranger to you..." Pax says.

"This tech was made to help people, that was Meditech's goal." She mumbles.

"They won't be happy to lose such a prototype." he adds.

"They deserve it..." she says as she starts the machine and starts cutting Pablo's damaged wrists.

They start installing the metallic wrists on Pablo's forearms. Most of the work is done by the automatic tools from the table. Precise work is done by machines, more reliable than human hands.

"Neural!" shouts Pax.

A young Asian woman enters the surgery room.

"You finished installing the implants?" Neural asks.

"We are done with the base of the wrists, you can connect to his controller and do your thing." Pax commands her.

Neural takes a small stool and sits next to Pablo's head. She draws a long cable from a metal plate located on the side of her head right behind her ear. She plugs the cable in Pablo's slot also located behind his ear.

This kind of tech is common, it can link someone's brain to a small computer with slots to connect with different devices. It acts as a processing unit, connecting optics, audios, and mechanical replacements in people's bodies.

Neural's eyes start blinking which indicates she is working on Pablo's interface. Pax finishes installing the wrist and raises his head to look at the woman.

"We don't even know your name..." he says.

She looks at him with a smile on her face.

"I'm Angelica." she says.

"I'm Pax, this is Neural and the guy you are helping is Pablo." he says. "He is a lucky guy." he adds.

Angelica turns to the box and gets several sets of fingers out of it. She installs them on the metallic base of the hands and tests them.

The fingers fit perfectly and the range of movements is identical to human hands.

Neural's eyes suddenly get back to normal and she looks satisfied.

"Job's done, everything is fine, he will be surprised when he wakes up though." Neural says.

"He sure will." Pax says.

Angelica installs one of the hands on the wrist and checks that the range of motions is within normal parameters. She adjusts it until she is completely satisfied and then proceeds to install the second hand.

Pax and her take small stools and sit around the surgery table. They look exhausted but satisfied with their work. Silence invades the room as they stare at Pablo's new hands.

Suddenly the silence is broken by the sound of metal clinging and Pablo starts opening his eyes.

"Sleeping beauty is awake?" Pax asks.

"Damn Man! What the hell am I doing here?" Pablo asks back.

"You had an accident, but you should be fine now, thanks to Angelica." Pax answers pointing at Angelica.

"Angelica..." Pablo says puzzled.

Angelica keeps silent as she wonders how to tell him about his hands. Some people will be willing to cut limbs to get replacements that are more effective and others will just freak out.

When you rely too heavily on augmentations, you may lose the human perspective and start to think you are unstoppable. That's when cyber psychosis strikes.

"I feel numb in my hands..." Pablo breaks the silence.

He lifts his arms to look at his hands and stops as soon as he realizes they are artificial. He stares at his face reflecting in the metal.

"How?" he asks.

"Your booth exploded and it blew your hands up. Angelica and I moved you here to stabilize you. She is R&D at Meditech, you owe her your new hands." Pax replies.

Pablo tries to move his new metallic fingers, their movements aren't very synchronized but they can follow basic movements.

"Prototype, they will need adjustments but after they will feel even better than the organic ones." Angelica says.

"I owe you, I will pay you back." Pablo tells her.

"Neural should be able to tweak the signals to improve the motions and sensitivity." Angelica continues, ignoring what Pablo just said.

Neural is still connected and starts working on the signals. Pablo seems to get better control over his implants, making his fingers move faster. Angelica looks satisfied with the result.

"These hands can replicate the touch feeling, are you getting any feedback?" She asks.

"Yes, it feels weird, kind of cold and metallic." Pablo answers.

"It will get better." She continues. "Don't try too hard on the first day."

Pablo nods and rests his hands on his side. Neural disconnects from his slot and puts her hand on his.

"I can feel that! I feel the heat from your hand." Pablo says.

"That's good, I'm beat, I will go get some sleep." Neural says as she stands up from her stool. She gives a kiss on Pablo's cheek and gets out of the room.

Pax grabs a small bottle of pills and throws them to Pablo. Surprisingly his new hand catches it without any problems. He can feel the shape of the small bottle in his hand.

"Red pill for the pain and the blue if you feel any kind of itching where the implants connect with your skin." Pax says "And you will sleep here tonight, just in case."

Angelica stands up and yawns.

"I will be on my way, it has been a long night." She says.

"Give me your contact, we must meet again." Pablo says.

A light blinks behind Angelica's ear as she heads to the door. Pax stands and walks with her. They both disappear through the door leaving Pablo alone.

He lays back on the table trying to gather his thoughts. The booth explosion, an accident... He doubts it, it was probably sabotaged. Rival DJs would do something like that to get him out of the industry, he already thinks about revenge.

Pax returns to the room to check on Pablo and clean up.

"How are you holding up?" Pax asks.

"I'm OK, thanks to you and this Angelica. Her tech is incredible, she will get in trouble with Meditech for letting it out." Pablo answers.

"That's for sure, prototypes are corpos most valuable secrets." Pax sighs.

He finishes cleaning up the room and heads toward the door.

"Shout if you need anything." Pax says as he leaves the room.

"Thanks for everything man." Pablo says.

The lights are automatically dimmed. Pablo is alone with his thoughts again, he thinks about revenge for a moment but his metallic hands remind him of Angelica's generosity. His consciousness slowly drifting away, he closes his eyes.

The beautiful face of a woman with silver-grey eyes slowly disappearing in the darkness.