"Okay, that's enough for your first day back," Rudy said as he nodded to Carla who turned off the tape recorder and then disconnected Steve from the alpha wave machine.

"What's next?" Steve asked as he wiped the tear from his cheek.

"Well, that depends on how you feel. Your vitals are normal. Do you feel any pain?"

"No. None."

"Good. Your first round of surgery is complete and you've healed nicely," Rudy said. "What I want to do next is get your strength back up. I'm going to have our physical therapist come in here daily and start rehabilitation exercises with you. I'm going to have the catheter removed and have you start using the bathroom. And no more sponge baths. You'll take showers."

"Am I going to be able to do that with one arm?" Steve wondered.

"You'll have help and you'll learn how to adapt. Don't worry," Rudy replied.

Rudy turned to Carla. "Get him a hospital gown please."

"Yes, Sir."

"I'd like to get you back on solid food again," Rudy said to Steve. "Feel like eating?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Steve replied, suddenly realizing he was hungry.

"Carla, get him whatever he wants."

"Does this mean I can get the feeding tube removed?" Steve said hopefully.

"No, we're going to leave that in until you're completely done with surgery."

"When will that be?"

"Well, you've got two more rounds of surgery. We'll start your next round in about four weeks and you should be done with the final round in about fourteen weeks."

"Great." Steve frowned. He was finally feeling good and the thought of having to deal with more pain was disconcerting. "So what's been done already?"

"Let's talk about that tomorrow. I don't want to tire you out too much today."


Steve savored every bite of the first real meal he'd eaten in months, a medium-rare steak and a tall glass of orange juice. It was awkward eating with his left hand but Carla had cut up his steak for him so all he had to manage was the fork. Carla made sure to take the knife with her when she was done cutting Steve's steak. He wasn't strapped down any longer, but they didn't quite trust him with a knife yet.


The next morning, Rudy was by Steve's bedside explaining the various surgeries that had been performed on Steve. He had brought a variety of diagrams with him to give Steve a better understanding of each surgery.

"So I have a bionic heart?"

"No, just your mitral valve was replaced." Rudy pointed to where the valve was located on an illustration of the heart he was holding. "It's actually a procedure that's been done thousands of times throughout the world. You have a lot of company."

Steve thought for a moment. "I guess my heart will never be the same."

"You're right. It's better than it was before."

Steve's eyebrow went up in surprise.

Rudy picked up a thin, long piece of metal and handed it to Steve.

Steve examined the piece. "What's this?"

"This is what we replaced your crushed ribs with. It's made of Vitallium."

"So that's why it's so light."

"Yes," Rudy nodded, pleased with Steve's knowledge of the metal. "That piece you're holding will actually go into your bionic arm."

"Strong but lightweight. That makes sense." Steve handed the metal piece back to Rudy. "How many ribs?" He absentmindedly traced the scars on his chest with his fingers.

"Five. Three in front. Two in back."

Rudy pulled out an x-ray of Steve's pelvis and held it up to the light. He pointed to an area of the bone. "Here's where your pelvic fracture was located. Now, because we had to wait so long to get in there and fix it, we had to do an osteotomy."

"What's that?"

"It basically means that we had to re-break your bone because it had started to heal in the wrong position. We then realigned it in the correct position and reattached it with a plate and screws."

Rudy put the x-ray down. "Now there's something else I need to tell you, Steve. While we had you open, we opened you up a little more and reinforced your entire pelvic girdle, including your hip bones with cirosium."

"Why?"

"Well, we already had you open so it made sense to just do it then so that we don't have to reopen that area again later on."

Steve was confused. "Why did you need to reinforce down there?"

"It's part of the process of becoming bionic," Rudy explained. "You see, the normal human skeletal frame can't handle the stresses that come with bionics. Your bones would break if we didn't reinforce them with cirosium."


"I'm telling you, Oscar, his attitude is completely different since he's come out of the catatonia," Rudy spoke excitedly into the phone. "Now, he's nervous and scared about becoming bionic. That's normal. And there's something else troubling him that I can't quite put my finger on, but I'm sure with continued therapy I'll get to the bottom of it. The thing is he's not fighting me or the idea of becoming bionic anymore!"

"That's fantastic news, Rudy!" Oscar was thrilled to hear some good news for a change. "Do you think he's ready to meet me now?"

"Definitely. I think he's in the right frame of mind now."

"Excellent. Well, I'll be here in Washington for another two weeks, but I look forward to meeting him when I get back."


That night Steve couldn't sleep. He just stared at the ceiling. His conversation earlier with Rudy kept playing over and over again in his mind. They were already preparing his body for bionics…already preparing his body for bionics. That sent a cold shiver down his spine.

There was no question now what his fate would be. He had been reassigned by NASA and the Air Force. They couldn't use him anymore. But the OSI needed a guinea pig so they sent him here. He had always toed the line and followed orders throughout his career like a good soldier, but never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that his country would order him to become a test subject. This is not what he had imagined for his career. They hadn't asked for his permission. They were just doing it. And the hardest part of all this was accepting the fact that they had that right.

He didn't want to die. He wanted to live, but what kind of a life would he have as an experiment?

Steve looked at the clock. It was 3:51 a.m. He sighed. All this worrying wasn't changing anything. It was just costing him sleep. He may not like what was happening to him, but he knew had to accept it. He had no choice.