Generator Rex: The Modern Prometheus Chapter Four: "Points of convergence"
In the void Holiday labored at her command console.
" Status of all systems please."
The visual Holiday indicated all green, save for the eye it was tasked to ignore. The eye was a huge cost, and she'd need a prosthetic now. Her original was beyond saving and would need to be removed before it lead to infection. The resources that would have repaired it where spent on other things however.
"Status of immune system rebuild, and retrofit?"
The sounds of nanite base code sang in the dark, and she could tell but the key and pitch even before the symbols appeared in her view. The symbols themselves were red squares, their arrangement resembled a diamond with a central symbol square inside it like ZAG-RS.
"Well then nothing to do but see if it works."
The work done for the first time since the system was "installed" resources became free and once labored processes began to speed up. Three hundred seconds later she sat up in bed feeling great.
"Time to put my pretty on."
Rex sat in the petting zoo wishing for a cheese burger from this dinner he knows two states over. Instead he sat underneath a tree with eyeballs on it.
"No Rex you need to behave! You need someone in the room with you all the time because you might run off or . . . .turn someone into something.. . . Blinky what I wouldn't give from just one person to say It's OK Rex we know your not Van Klies lite!"
"Well young man judging by what I've been been told about you I'm sure that's not the case."
Rex looked up, and saw Kenwyn her rifle was in her hand set to full auto, and armor polished like she was going to be in a parade and not trudging though the zoo. The guy she was escorting out here looked old with a graying red hair and a lab coat worn over a suit. He reached down to shake Rex's hand.
Thinking for a second the boy pulled off his glove and shook the mans hand.
"I'm Doctor Benton Quest, I'm on the Presidents Committee on the Response to The Nanotech Crisis and I've come here to look into Doctor Holidays case."
Rex stood up and dusted himself off.
"Wait a minute you're with the Committee? You are Whites boss? 'Cause however you guys get food in their he acts like he gets ZERO fiber!"
The old man actually smiled.
"Yes I'm sure being stuck in there makes him cranky. If you have a moment I'd like to talk about you and Doctor Holiday."
"What do you want to hear, that I thinks it OK she gets treated the way I do now? Like some kind of a dog everyone's just waiting to bite someone? You save the world with something like that going on over your head."
"You sound like you care very much for your Doctor."
"I'm in love with her."
Six looked out over the desert from a balcony interned to house a rail gun in the event of a prolonged siege. A ghost from his past walked up behind him.
"Agent Sixkiller."
"It's just Six anymore Johnny, how Intelligence One these days?"
A blonde man in a black shirt joined him at the balcony.
"Same old same old, say its coming up on nineteen sixty seven hours. Lets get this review over with, and get a drink."
Six rolled his eyes or well eye.
"I'm an alcoholic remember?"
"I have a vague memory of you marrying the love of my life in a totally DRY ceremony yes. "
Johnny was an ass, but he was loyal, and Six knew this was his way of saying everything would be OK.
Doctor Holiday was so glad to be back in the skirt, top and lab coat she normally wore to work. This pair of boots was new and not broken in yet, but she knew she'd get used to it. After cutting out her bad eye with the same level of care some people would give to plucking a hair she tossed it in the trash.
"Lets see what they have in green, don't want to clash I guess."
Looking though the selection of cybernetic replacement eyes meant for people that lost one in combat. Picking out an older model she held it up to her own eye.
"Here we go, nothing fancy, light weight, and it's even made by the Tyrell Corporation. Oh for the days when I was just an intern."
Attaching the implant to her optic nerve while sitting at her desk with the aid of a small mirror, activated the implant and shut herself down. Her body sat limp in an office chair while in the void the circle of light responded with lighting speed now that the repairs where done, and its resources where freed up.
"Reactivate left optic never turn the pain back on, and scan for new hardware."
The eye popped up like she was installing a web came on a laptop.
"OK make sure nanotech repairs stop at the nerve, and reboot please."
One hundred and eighty seconds later she woke up and started getting use to not having one eye.
"Oh yea, that's better. Color balance is nice, and I . . . am not alone am I?"
Doctor Quest pulled up a chair next to her.
"Hello Christmas, is your hearing enhanced or are you just processing the input better?"
She cringed at the sound of her name.
"I had that changed the day I turned eighteen! Wait Doctor Quest? Either I forgot I signed up for more classes to get that last PHD or we . . . I'm on the Committee's radar, neither are good. What is it Sir?"
Her old teacher took out a pair of bifocal glasses and used a pen light to begin examine her eye. After a minute he spoke.
"For want of a nail the horse was lost. For want of a horse the knight was lost. For want of the knight the war was lost. So the kingdom was lost for want of a nail."
She looked confused, and almost insulted.
"Are you calling me a nail or a horse?"
I'm suggesting my dear girl that you and I spend a few hours going over project Lazarus before we have a meeting with Director Knight."
"Project Lazarus?"
He smiled warmly.
"Your knew assignment will be basically examining yourself, and you'll only be a consultant on Project Rex for a while at least."
She looked sad at the sound of that.
"I've got my immune system configured to repel other nanites. . .Rex can't . . . interface again, so you don't have to worry."
The older doctor looked worried.
"Dear that means even if he can learn to repair incurables, you'll never be human again."
She bit her bottom lip the way he remembered she always would when he come to him with a problem all those years ago. She spoke, and as harsh as it was it seemed more like her then the rest of the conversation.
"Theirs no evil in Rex Doctor Quest, if he had any before he lost his memories then I'm sure its only what a hard life would put in any of us. What he did he did for pure reasons, and if we had Gabriel Rylander's body I'd even ask him to do it again. Me though, I don't want anything violating me like that again, and now nothing can. You know what this means right Doctor?"
Quest sat in a conference room waiting for Knight to get his armor on to join him. It was something they could do with a video conference but Knight needed to be reminded ever so often he wasn't a king in a tower.
After a minute he entered and the cold formalities began.
"Hello Benton it been a few years."
"Yes it has Walter, hows the armor?"
"After the last field test shall we say I feel a lot better about the repair feature."
With that done they got to business.
"What is this about Benton? You drag me out here knowing how much maintenance on this suit cost. To top it off why have the floor cleared?"
"Two things, one your handling of Project Rex is admirable but given the new depth of his abilities we are assigning an advocate for . . . "
Knight cut him off.
"We need a weapon, not a well adjusted member of society. A bleeding heart will have me give him time with puppies and we will loose this war. . .with all due respect."
Quest took a deep breath.
"Holiday is exactly what he intended her to be Walter. Within the limits of the technology she is alive, and will spend years adapting to transformation like any other EVO. If what Doctor Rylander said before his death is to be believed this is the FIRST instance of an engineered EVO. Further more, the limited control she was granted allowed her to retrofit her immune system into a perfect nanite shield. You put those to together and you have what we need to vaccinate this world."
Knight raised an eyebrow.
"You want to CREATE EVOs?"
"Pandora's box is open nano technology is not going away even after the war. If we can turn people into EVO's who's only ability is to be immune to further nanite infestation the Committee and the President will want that made our top priority."
Knight was silent as he kept talking.
"We will of course need to keep Holiday and Rex close until we figure it all out. She will never be human again but her brain seems to be processing emotion just the same as before, the rest of her mind is more binary on and off yes and no unable to easily determine subtitles, so she'll need to be watched. Rex even thinks shes taken with him, she seeking out strong emotions and if I had to guess the boys her great hope. Poor kids going to get his heart broken but such is life. "
Knight turned to leave not caring what Quest thinks any longer.
"Old man while your pampering them and while he's getting over the damn fool idea someone that much older then he is would be interested in video games and making out on Saturday night he'll be powerless. Go ahead tell the Committee what you want and I'll get it done. Assuming of course we the human race doesn't end in the mean time."
End and not the end
Director cut coming soon with alternate chapter three and a new fourth chapter. After I do that secret santa of course.