Dreadnought
Chapter Two: Transformation
Vostok Base
Pete Costas groaned as he woke up. His head was pounding like he had the mother of all hangovers. His eyes still closed Pete took careful stock of his surroundings. He was completely naked and lying on something cold and hard, his wrists, ankles and waist were held down by cold metal. There were narrow gaps in whatever it was he was lying on. Gaps around his neck, down his back and around his hamstrings and calves. Oh no not this again, he thought realising that he had been abducted yet again.
Already knowing that he wasn't going to like what he would see Pete opened his eyes and promptly regretted it as the light sent white-hot needles of pain shooting down his optic nerves. He immediately closed his eyes again and groaned.
"Ah you're awake at last," a cold male voice said as footsteps came over. Cautiously Pete opened his eyes again. Though the light still caused him some pain it was not so bad this time and he was able to make out that he was lying on a metal table in what was obviously some kind of lab/surgical room. A middle-aged man with a weather beaten face and curly whitish-grey hair appeared over him. And Pete shivered. This man's blue eyes were colder than arctic ice yet also burned with an inner hatred and controlled madness. They gave Pete the creeps.
"Who are you?" Pete demanded struggling against his restraints. "Where am I?"
"Who we are and where you are is of no consequence," a new voice with a pronounced Russian accent said. A grey haired man in a sleek, smart business suit came up to the bed/table. "All that matters," the man continued. "Is that you are going to be very useful to us." Pete shook his head.
"I won't help you."
"You won't have a choice," the Russian replied with an evil grin. "Your going to destroy N'Tek for us whether you want to or not." Pete laughed, he recognised the man now from television news reports and from some things that Josh had told him.
"What's the matter Mr Vostok. N'Tek kicked your but once to often." The older man looked surprised for a moment.
"So you know my name," the Russian said. "That won't help you."
"I must begin the procedure now Ivan," the first man said.
"Very well get on with it," Vostok told the man. "I look forward to seeing the results." With that he turned and walked away. The first man walked away also but only for a few moments. Then he returned with a surgical trolley, which was covered with strange pieces of equipment, and a woman in dark glasses wearing a surgical gown. She to was pulling a trolley on which sat a tray of drugs and more traditional surgical equipment.
"What are you going to do to me?" Pete demanded.
"Simple were going to change you," the man replied. "Unfortunately you have to be conscious for the procedure otherwise you would not have woken up at all."
"Change me? Into what?"
"That does not concern you."
"Like hell it does." The man didn't reply at least not verbally. Instead he merely placed picked up two identical devices and placed one on each of Pete's temples. Pete tried to violently move his head to shake them off but they were stuck tight.
"Don't waste your energy," the woman said. "You cannot remove them. No matter how much you struggle." Pete merely glared at her as the man placed more devices and placed them on Pete's arms, chest, and thighs. Then he went over to a control panel on the other side of the room and manipulated a control.
Abruptly Pete felt himself being jerked up into the air. The table he was lying on rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and suddenly he found himself facing the floor. The table stopped dead and Pete heard the sound of approaching footsteps. After a moment he felt more devices being placed against his skin at the nape of his neck, down his back and on his hamstrings and calves. Then the table rotated again and he was once more looking up at the man who was now holding a slim metallic object that was definitely a control pad of some kind. The man smiled at him evilly.
"Say good buy to your life as a free individual Mr Costas," he said in that cold voice of his. Pete frowned what did he mean by that? Then the man pressed a button on the control pad and he found out.
The devices that the man had placed on Pete's body lit up and abruptly Pete felt a searing, burning, stabbing pain tear at his sanity. Face contorting in agony Pete screamed, as he had never screamed in his life before. The pain was unbelievable. It began to feel like his whole body was on fire, and then there was another feeling. A feeling he couldn't describe as if something sharp and hard was crawling over his skin bringing along with it yet more pain.
That was when Pete felt something enter his mind, something cold and mechanical, something that pushed him right back into a corner of his own mind. Almost all sensation vanished he could see what was going on and he could hear what was going on, but other than that he could feel nothing. No pain, not even the pressure of his skin against the cold metal table. Nothing.
"Good," he heard the scientist say. "Phase one has been completed. State your identity and status."
"Dreadnought prototype one," Pete heard himself say. But his voice was cold without feeling, without humanity, it sounded almost mechanical. "Current status basic functions operational. Primary and ancillary functions currently unavailable." Pete wondered what on Earth a dreadnought unit was, he tried to open his mouth to speak but found he was unable to. Desperately he tried to look around or to move his hand. Nothing. He had absolutely no control over his body at all.
"Excellent," the scientist said. "Release yourself from your restraints and stand up." Pete noted a jolt and abruptly he was sitting up. Had he been able to do so he would have gasped, his entire body was covered with slender stips of pale grey metal interlaced with a delicate pattern of circuitry and with plugs everywhere. He watched helplessly as his hands reached out and effortlessly ripped the clamps securing his waist and feet off the table. Then his legs – or what had been his legs – was swung over the side and he stood up and stared straight ahead unblinking. The scientist smiled.
"Excellent. What do you think Mr Vostok."
"Impressive doctor," Ivan Vostok said walking back over from the door where he'd been standing watching the proceedings. "But is dreadnought going to be able to take on N'Tek and defeat them. I grow tired of their interference in my affairs."
"Not at the moment," the scientist admitted. "Only the first phase has been completed. There are two more to go before we can even think about sending dreadnought into combat particularly against such a well armed and equiped opponent as N'Tek particularly the superhuman agent of theirs - what his name again?"
"Max Steel," Vostok supplied. I wonder what they want with Max, Pete thought, are they after the max probes as well.
"Yes Mr Steel. He should be able to defeat Mr Steel for us and possibly steal a couple of those nanoprobes of his. Particularly if we catch him where he's most vulnerable whereever that is."
"I know," Pete heard himself say.
"What do you know dreadnought?" Vostok asked.
"Max Steel is an illusion, an artificial persona. He does not really exist outside of a computer. He is a cover identity and appearance for someone else." Pete realising what was coming struck out at what felt like the barrier in his mind intending to break it down and stop this machine-thing he'd become from telling them about Josh. It did no good. The barrier threw him back hard. So he just struck again harder - only to once again be thrown back.
In the meantime unaware of what was going on Vostok and the scientist exchanged an intrigued glance. This was something they'd not counted on, they had never considered the possibility that dreadnoughts host might have knowledge of N'Tek and its super agent that they didn't have.
"Who is he really then? And where is he most vulnerable?" Vostok asked intrigued at all the possibilities that he could see suddenly opening up. If they could find out exactly where Max Steel - or whoever he really was - was most vulnerable then maybe just maybe they could capture him and steal some of his nanoprobes. Vostok imagined the price they would bring on the open market. It would be astronomical. No government in the world - even the US government - possessed nanotech as advanced as the MX technology, they would all want it. Nanotech that advanced would bring about a whole new generation of weapons.
"His real name is Josh McGrath," dreadnought responded. Ivan's eyes went wide in astonishment.
"McGrath. Josh McGrath," he repeated. "As in the son of my late nemesis Jim McGrath and stepson of Jefferson Smith?"
"Yes." Ivan Vostok laughed as he imagined the look on the Jefferson Smith's face when Josh had asked to join N'Tek. He imagined that Smith would have been dead set against it but knowing full well it would be coming. All their pyscology reports on Josh McGrath confirmed that the boy was practicaly a carbon copy of his father in terms of personality.
"Oh how delightful," Ivan said still laughing. "I imagine Smith must have been having kittens when Josh asked to join up. So where is Mr McGrath most vulnerable?"
"He is most vulnerable on the Del Oro University Campus." Josh please forgive me, Pete thought from his mental prison. I can't stop myself. Forgive me for telling these guys you're secret. I never meant to betray you're trust.
"This is all very interesting," he heard the scientist say. "But we must begin the second phase now Mr Vostok."
"Very well proceed doctor," Ivan replied with a sigh. "Once all the required phases are complete send dreadnought on that initial test mission we discussed."
"Yes Mr Vostok." With that Ivan Vostok turned and left the room for good this time. Pete paid little attention as the scientist gave an order to his machine-self and the machine started across the room towards a large cocoon-like chamber on the other side of the room. The chamber opened at his approach and Pete felt himself climb in and turn around just as the chamber closed. Josh, Pete thought even though he knew that Josh would not hear - Josh was many things but psychic wasn't one of them but still he thought it, when you do encounter the monster that this madman has changed me into please kill me, I know that you can. It's the only thing that you can do for me now. Kill me.
