Dreadnought

Chapter Ten: An Unexpected Occurrence

Infirmary

N'Tek Headquarters

Pete Costas still lay deeply unconscious in the infirmary showing no sign of when he would awaken from his sleep.  He was currently on his own.  Dr Yevshenko along with Jacob and Amanda Costas had gone to the canteen to have something to eat and Max was currently in a conference room with the rest of Team Steel being debriefed after being recharged.  Laura was currently their as well just watching and being grateful that her boyfriend had survived another mission.

Deep within Pete the last of the Dreadnought circuitry had been eliminated and the cell damage repaired by the billions of tiny machines that had grown from the few hundred nanoprobes initially injected a few hours before.  With the Dreadnought circuitry gone and the damage it had caused repaired Pete's system was finally beginning to recover from the horrendous trauma that it had been put through first by Karlands technology and secondly by the nanoprobes destroying that self same technology to save Pete's life and give him back the freedom taken away by Joseph Karland.

Now that their assigned task had been completed the army of max probes present in Pete's body began shutting down.

All save one.

Of all the billions and billions of max probes present in Pete's body one nanoprobe sitting on the surface of Pete's heart did not stop.   A slight flaw in its circuitry caused by a fluke replication error caused the shut down command to be ignored.  Instead the nanoprobe resorted to its standard programming in place of the specialised set of instructions that it had originally been programmed with.

It's standard programming restored the nanoprobe immediately scanned its surroundings and detected more of its kind but that were inert.  Immediately the tiny machines computer assumed that the other nanoprobes were malfunctioning and moved over to the nearest nanoprobe and promptly 'repairing' it so that it too became active again with its standard programming operational.  Immediately the now two nanoprobes moved to the next neighbouring nanoprobes and 'repaired' them as well.  Within seconds every single nanoprobe in the area of Pete's heart was operating again but with their standard programming.  Most of the nanoprobes immediately integrated themselves with surrounding cell structures while a few continued repairing their fellows bringing more and more nanoprobes on line to merge with cells or continue seeking out and repairing other nanoprobes.

By the time the first signs of what was going on inside Pete showed up on the systems monitoring him it was too late for anyone to do anything about it, if anyone had been there to notice.

Dr Yevshenko along with Pete's parents returned to the infirmary barely five minutes later.  As soon as she entered the room Yevshenko moved to check Pete's vital signs on the monitors while Jacob and Amanda moved back into the chairs at their sons bedside.

As soon as she saw Pete's readings Yevshenko frowned.  There was still nanoprobe activity going on inside Pete.  Curious the max probes should have finished their task by now, she thought and then she noticed something.  The pattern of nanoprobe activity had changed from their previous pattern of activity – the new pattern was completely different and seemed familiar from somewhere.

After a moment's thought Yevshenko realised why the new pattern was so familiar.  She'd seen it before, once and in only one individual.  The time was two years ago and the individual was Josh McGrath.

For a few moments Yevshenko stared at the changed readings in shock before realisation hit her.  The max probes were doing something that they shouldn't have been doing, something that they weren't programmed to do in this instance.  They were integrating with Pete's systems in exactly the same way as another set of max probes had done with Josh when he'd been exposed to them two years ago in the nanotech lab.  The display showed that the nanoprobe integration was already fifty percent complete way past the point of no return.

"Is there a problem doctor?" Jacob asked noticing the look of surprise on Yevshenko's face.  Amanda looked up from studying her sons sleeping features to give Yevshenko a curious look herself.  Yevshenko overcame her surprise after a moment and responded.

"It's the max probes," she said.  Jacob and Amanda both frowned.

"What about them," Amanda asked.

"They've finished their programmed task.  But now they're doing something else.  Something they shouldn't be doing."

"What," Jacob demanded then it dawned upon him.  "There integrating with Pete aren't they?  Just like they did with Josh two years ago."

"Yes.  But they shouldn't be doing it they weren't programmed to."  Jacob thought back to the earlier conversation he and his wife had had with Josh and Berto just after they'd discovered that Max Steel and Josh McGrath were the same person.

"Berto said earlier that it was possible that the probes could integrate," he said.  "But only if the cell damage was bad enough."

"I am aware of that but the cell damage wasn't bad enough.  If it was the max probes would have started integrating with Pete's body hours ago."

"So what's causing it," Amanda asked.  "And can you stop it?"

"I don't know what's causing it," Yevshenko admitted.  "As to stopping the nanoprobes theirs no way to stop them now.  It's the same problem that we had with Josh.  The level of integration is already too high; a large number of Pete's organic systems are already dependent on them.  If we tried to remove the nanoprobes now then he'd go into complete systemic collapse and die."

"Is there anything at all we can do?" Jacob asked looking down at his son.  Aside from being asleep Pete showed no sign of anything being wrong with him now, there was no sign of what was going on inside him.  No outward sign of the superhuman he was changing into.

"No there is nothing we can do.  All we can do is wait for the integration to complete itself and then blast him with transphasic energy – he'll need it badly once the nanoprobes are done with what they are doing."  She moved over to the wall phone.

"What are you doing," Amanda asked.

"I'm going to call Jefferson he needs to be informed."  With that she picked up the phone and dialled the number for the briefing room.  After a moment she was answered.

"Smith here," Jefferson's voice said.

"Yevshenko sir you had better come down here to the infirmary and bring Berto with you."

"Why?  Has something happened?"

"Yes sir.  It's the max probes they've begun integrating themselves with Pete."  For a long second there was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone line.

"We'll be right there," Jefferson said finally before signing off.  Yevshenko put the phone down and went back over to the monitors besides Pete's bed.  It was essential that she keep an eye on what exactly was going on inside Pete so they would know when it was safe to expose him to a full duration blast of transphasic power not the small bursts he'd been subjected to so far.  Too soon and the energy beam would kill him, too late and the nanoprobes would shut down and he again would die.  Either way she knew full well that the very first recharge would be incredibly painful for Pete.  No one knew quiet why the first recharge was so painful – not even Berto knew – just that it was.  She hid a shiver as she briefly remembered Josh screaming – the agony implicit in those screams that tore into the soul – during his first recharge.  He'd later told her that it had felt as through every cell in his body had been on fire.  She would have to speak to Pete's parents to prepare them for what was going to have to happen soon otherwise it would not be fair to them.  They had already been through so much of an emotional roller coaster over the last few months that it wouldn't be fair not to warn them.