Simmons enters the room hesitantly. He was told that this was where he could find the mechanic. Glancing around at the piles of burnt out parts and cluttered tables, he wonders how he'll ever find someone in all this mess. It could definitely use the help of one of his many organizational schemes.
"Finally" a voice mutters by his feet. Simmons glances down to see Lopez rolling toward him. "I thought that door would never open." Lopez rolls through the door and disappears down the hall.
"Don't let him go!" a woman shouts, running from behind a pile of scrap metal and chasing after the robot head. She stops in the doorway and shouts down the hall. "Get back here. I need those wheels!"
There's a shout from down the hall and Yttri turns and stalks back into the room with a scowl on her face. "Great. Little robot bastard runs off with my wheels just because I said I needed them for another project. He knows I'm going to make him a body once I get the parts, but no, that's not good enough" she grumbles as she starts inspecting an engine on one of the tables.
"Um" Simmons starts nervously.
Yttri whips her head around to face him, curly hair drifting into her eyes as she does so. "What do you want?" she asks angrily.
"I- I was told you could help me with my arm" Simmons answers uncertainly.
Yttri pushes the stray hair out of her eyes before responding. "Rhodium's the doctor here, not me. Down that hall, eighth left, then fifth right" she says and then turns her attention back to the engine.
"Actually, I don't need a doctor. See, it's robotic" Simmons lifts up the arm in question as he starts to explain.
Before Simmons has a chance to say any more, Yttri strides over to him and grabs his arm. Her mood seems to have improved considerably with the prospect of repairing something. She rolls up the sleeve and begins studying the limb closely, then lifts it to her ear and listens. "The elbow keeps locking up?" she guesses.
"Yeah" Simmons says. "And the shoulder's been making weird noises." He rolls his shoulder to emphasize, causing a grinding sound.
Yttri winces at the noise. "Okay, I'll see what I can do, though it's a pretty crude design." She points to a table which, aside from a few papers, is relatively clear. "Sit down over there" she instructs.
Yttri drags over a box of tools, scanners, and miscellaneous parts while Simmons sits. She then removes the outer plate of metal from Simmons' arm to reveal the wires and gears beneath. "This is a mess" she mutters, pushing some of the wires around. "Who even designed this? It's disgusting!"
"Sarge, my team's leader" Simmons says.
Yttri continues her commentary as though he hadn't spoken. "I could see someone using this a hundred years ago, maybe, but now? Even the cheapest, most basic prosthetics use carbon fibers instead of wires and only non corrosive metals. Why would you let someone put this on your body?"
"It's not like I had a choice" Simmons mumbled.
Yttri finishes her inspection of the arm and steps back. "I can fix it" she says at length, "but I hate the thought of leaving a machine like that attached to you." She starts sorting through tools as she speaks. "I could make you a new one" she offers. "It'd have to wait until I get the supplies, but it'd be better than this piece of crap." She gestures toward Simmons' mechanical arm.
"I don't want to cause any trouble" Simmons starts.
Yttri holds up her hand to silence him. "As a mechanic I cannot, in good conscience, let you walk around with that thing any longer than necessary" she says. She turns back to him with a screwdriver in hand and starts removing and rearranging different parts within the elbow joint. "Besides, it'd be a nice side project. I've always wanted to break out into more complex robotics, but there's never any time around here what with all the repairs for the ship and everything."
After a few more moments of awkward silence, Simmons eventually nods. "Sure. That sounds great" he says. Honestly, he would prefer to have an arm that wasn't cobbled together with whatever was left over from Sarge building Lopez. He just felt weird asking for it.
A few minutes later Yttri finishes with Simmons' elbow and starts working on his shoulder. "What happened?" she asks.
"Hmm?" Simmons responds, dragging his thoughts back to the present.
"Well, something like this usually has a story attached" Yttri explains, tapping her knuckles against the prosthetic for emphasis. "So what's yours?"
Simmons explains briefly about how Grif got run over by the tank back in Blood Gulch all those years ago. Sarge had decided that the only way to save Grif was to give him Simmons arm and organs and turn Simmons into a cyborge.
"That doesn't make any sense" Yttri says when he finishes the story. She fastens the metal coverings back over Simmons' arm as she speaks. "If Grif was injured, why didn't your leader just turn him into a cyborge?"
"You've clearly never spoken to Sarge" is Simmons' only answer.
Yttri shakes her head at the thought of such insanity. "Someone like that should not be allowed around machines" she decides. "It's just cruel."
"Thanks" Simmons says as he rolls down his sleeve. He goes to stand but Yttri stops him with a hand on his chest.
"Hold on" she says, eyebrows knitting together in concentration. "Something's not right…" Suddenly she leans down and places her ear next to her hand, hovering an inch away from Simmons' chest. "Something sounds wrong" she confirms. She straightens up and looks Simmons in the eyes, ignoring the slight blush on his cheeks. "Are your lungs synthetic?" she asks.
Simmons nods. "Almost all of my organs are," he confirms, "especially on the left side."
Yttri glances away from him for a second, thinking. Then she looks back with determined eyes. "Shirt off and lay down" she commands, hands once again delving into her tool box.
"W-what?" Simmons asks nervously.
Yttri rolls her eyes. "Artificial organs need regular repairs and maintenance, just like your arm. Am I correct in assuming that they've received the same level of care in the past that your arm has?" Simmons nods sheepishly. "Then I need to check if they're still functioning properly. If any of them shut down, you could die within minutes."
Simmons blush fades at those words. He hadn't realized it was that serious. He pulls off his shirt, still slightly embarrassed, and lays down on the cold worktable. Yttri walks over with an arm full of tools, some of which Simmons doesn't recognize, and lays them out next to the soldier.
The left side of Simmons chest has been replaced with a plate of metal. Yttrium removes this, exposing wires and filters to the open air. She's surprised by the appearance of the most easily visible of the artificial organs. They're much more advanced Simmons' arm had lead her to expect, though still woefully archaic compared to modern technology. She wonders briefly if the sergeant had made the arm look that way on purpose in order to fulfill some mental image of what a cyborge should look like.
Yttri quickly takes stock of which of Simmons' organs need repairs, being careful to not touch any of his organic parts. Once she finishes, she pauses for a moment, running through her mental inventory. "Most of these filters need replacing" she reports after a moment. "How long has it been since the surgery?"
"Um, about five years," Simmons answers.
Yttri does her best to hold back a comment about his stupidity before responding. "These filters are designed to be replaced every six months. They serve the same functions as your lungs, kidneys, and liver. Letting them expire like this is the same as letting those organs fail" she explains. "It's a miracle you're still alive right now."
Yttri orders Simmons to stay where he is before turning around and disappearing behind a pile of broken ship pieces. "Of course, the reason the lungs lasted this long is probably because of your armor" she continues to speak as she searches. "How often do you wear it?"
"Almost all the time" Simmons answers.
"The Mjolnir armor has a built in air filtration system, which would have meant there's less for your lungs to filter. As for why the kidneys and liver are still functioning… I'm gonna say that was dumb luck." There's a crashing sound as something falls, followed by Yttri's triumphant shout. "Ha! Found it!" She reemerges from behind the pile holding something in a sealed plastic bag. "Luckily for you, the filters you need aren't very different from what's used for the armor, so we have spares. Just remember that these weren't originally meant to filter as much as your organs will, so they'll wear out sooner." She opens the bag of filters and begins replacing the ones in Simmons. Once she's done she reattaches the metal plate on his chest.
"That's about all I can do for now" Yttri says, a slight hint of regret in her voice. If she had the supplies, she knew she could make him into the most badass cyborge ever. As it is, she's just happy she can keep him alive. "Let me know if anything else breaks."
"Thanks" Simmons says, sitting up and hopping off the table. He flexes his arm experimentally, then takes a deep breath. Though he'd never noticed a problem before, he definitely notices the improvement now. He begins to pull on his shirt as the door opens.
Nick steps into the room and glances between Yttri and Simmons for a moment. "Interrupting something?" he asks, a teasing grin spreading across his face. Simmons finishes putting on his shirt quickly, a blush spreading across his cheeks.
Yttri ignores Nickel's teasing and turns to him with folded arms and a scowl. "Why didn't you tell me one of our new guests was a cyborge?" Simmons slips out of the room past Nickel as she speaks.
"I didn't think you'd care?" Nick ventures uncertainly. "Normally you don't like people."
"Cyborges are different" Yttri says. "They're like people, but with just enough machine to make me not hate them."
"Aw, come on, you know you don't really hate people" Nick says. Yttri's face is nearly blank, with a trace of 'you wanna bet?' in it.
"Why are you here?" she asks after holding his stare for a few seconds.
"We got some of the stuff from your list. Iodine said to leave it in the hangar for now, since most of it is going to be used to fix the hornet, but you should probably go see it" Nick answers.
Yttri moves toward the door, then stops, part of what Nick said standing out in her mind. "What do you mean 'some of the stuff'?"
"Oh, yeah, about that" Nick starts evasively.
"What happened?" Yttri asks, irritation lancing through the words.
"We ran into some trouble. Well, actually, Silver ran into some trouble. We had to leave fast and Tinu and I couldn't get everything on the list. But we got most of it."
"Did you get the parts I need to make a body for that robot?" Yttri asks as she folds her arms.
"No" Nick says slowly.
"Did you get something I can use to make armor for my toes?"
"Why do you need armor for your toes?" Nick asks.
Yttri continues on her way out the door. "A cranky Spanish robot keeps trying to run them over."
Nick catches up with her quickly as they walk down the hall. "All we have are the parts you need to fix the hornet. I guess the robot will have to wait."
"It's just as well" Yttri says. "He's an annoying little bot. I'd hate to do him any favors."
Nick jogs ahead for a moment, then turns to face her, walking backward. "Wait, you gladly helped a person, but you're mad at a robot?" Nick places the back of his hand on her forehead. "Are you feeling alright?"
Yttri smacks his hand away, glaring. "I told you, people are fine as long as they don't mess with my work, cyborges are different, and robots can be just as irritating as people sometimes."
Yes, I am fully aware that this chapter does absolutely nothing to further the plot of the story. I am sorry for this. I realized about 1500 words in that this chapter would serve no real purpose, but by that point it was too late to turn back. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it still.
-J