Chapter 11.
"Sir! Sir!"
Bobby woke up to someone's voice.
"Robert?….Robert, wake up…"
Was it Mom? Then it was all a strange dream…
"Robert, open you eyes, please! Say something!"
Bobby forced his eyes open to a blinding, white light. Someone was looking into his face, but his vision was so blurry….the face looked sort of green…He blinked.
"Oh thank goodness! You're alive. I thought you had died."
Who was this strange green person?
"I feel so weird…" he whispered.
"Are you in pain?"
"No… I just feel queezy… Where am I?"
"You're still in Observatory Central. You appear to be stablizing. During the surgery you fainted from the intesity of the pain. I thought I'd lost you."
"Who are you? Where's my Mom?"
"Don't you remember? Or have you sustained brain-damage after all… Hmmm…Let me get a probe to see how much you've been damaged," said Doctor Jitt.
Everything came flooding back to Bobby all at once. "No! No no no no no, I'm fine. Please, please. No more probing."
"Can you move at all?"
"I think so, but…I feel so weird all over," he said. He sat up and the room swam before his eyes. He turned quickly and threw up beside the bed-table he was resting on.
"I-I'm sorry," he said feebly, wiping his mouth.
"You should rest on your stomache so the scabs around your PAK can heal properly," said Doctor Jitt, helping him roll over. "That should only take a few hours. Then you'll be interfaced for encoding."
"I wonder if this is what a hang-over feels like" he said, laughing weakly, resting his head.
"A what?"
"Never mind."
"Well, sir," said Dr. Jitt, "It seems you're body has accepted the PAK implant, so you'll be just fine. I'm going to run the diagnostics of your brain scan, and I'll send someone in to clean up this mess. Then once you're feeling better, I expect the General will give you permission to leave the space station. After that you may journey on to Irk, if you like. Goodbye, sir." And with that she bowed and left the room.
Bobby sighed and shut his eyes. Maybe now that he had a PAK, everything would be okay.
He fell asleep, but his dreams were strange, as if he wasn't tired enough to sleep deeply, yet not awake enough to stop dreaming, so that rather then the deep restful dreams he'd been used to, he had tripp-like hallucinations. When he opened his eyes he felt less disoriented, with a deeper sense of alertness and clear thought that was almost frightening at first. H never even knew he could feel so….awake. His PAK was already working its way into his very consciousness. He knew that he would probably never need to sleep again. The thought disturbed him.
He missed Earth, where people didn't force you to implant things into your body.