Eric 754: A Cyborg Adventure

Chapter 1-1

1Eric blinked dry eyes. “Come on. Damn it. Where are you hiding her?”

Nothing he tried was working and he’d stared so long at the com station his gaze was blurry with fatigue. As a Marine Lance Corporal, he’d received upgraded corneas during his Cyber Soldier conversion, but those only corrected a genetic vision deficiency from his youth.

Sometimes he wished he’d gotten full cybernetic orbs like Peyton. His eyesight always gave out before his mind grew tired. Cyborg or not, he needed a good solid eight hours of shut down time to keep his organics functioning properly. He sure wasn’t going to get that tonight if he couldn’t bust through his latest obstacle.

He grimaced as he lifted his wrist com to his mouth. “Contact Dr. Bradley Smith.”

Peyton and Kyra had come up with a wearable com device that scanned channels for covert monitoring before syncing to make contact. The random channel matchup allowed for more secure communication than using any of Norton’s available connections.

When the cyborg restorations were completed, Kyra said she was going to apply for a design patent on the wrist com and Eric didn’t blame her. It wasn’t just functional. It was also attractive enough to pass for any modern wrist piece. He admired the design as he waited for an answer.

“Acknowledged—Eric 754. How may I assist you?”

Eric huffed before swiping to reply. “Brad, please omit my cyborg ID number from future greetings. I’m calling because I need your help. I’ve found another file I can’t unlock.”

“After completion of my current task, I will be available. Your estimated wait time is approximately twenty-six minutes. Please allow an additional five for travel to your com room. I have mapped your current location.”

Eric snickered as he disconnected. Approximately twenty-six minutes? No way did he believe Evil Brad was guessing.

He talked to himself as he waited, an odd habit he did only when alone. “I think Kyra needs to tweak your logic chip, Dr. Smith. But a better question might be why the hell do I care about your reactions? Probably the same reason I’m talking to an empty room right now. This work has finally driven me over the edge.”

Though chronologically the youngest member among his Marine fire team, sometimes Eric felt like the oldest. Having two cybernetic compartments and two processors had required very unique programming. It had also required him to deal with situations the others had never known about.

Most cyborgs were shut off from their humanity. He never had been. The things he remembered—like watching his best friend get gutted—would have been better forgotten. But Kyra had said it was an all or nothing deal. So he’d kept it all.

To keep his mind from reliving a past he couldn’t change, Eric pulled up the official cyborg file on Evelyn 489. He’d memorized all the data in it already. Mostly he just wanted to look at her picture again. The woman was a beauty even with her copper-streaked hair cut military short. In her ID photo, little diamonds glinted in her ears, though they didn’t match the serious expression she wore.

It was damn strange to him that the woman’s standard military ID hadn’t pinged much back in his early global image searches for her. The photo attached to her file had been taken right after she got her Army captain bars. Military officers, regardless of branch, didn’t just go missing for no reason—not without a full-blown manhunt taking place. Yet nothing about any prior search for her was listed in the file he had in front of him. Only her current apprehension was documented.

Research often sent him snooping into a Cyber Soldier’s background. Lucy’s lack of one was nothing but frustrating. All he had for clues to her real identity were several female first names from a fiction book she prized highly enough to keep in her cell.

“If I’m correct that narrows your name down some, but are you going to be a Lucinda, a Lucille, or just a plain old Lucy like I’ve been calling you?”

Eric snorted when he realized he was talking to himself again. Maybe Marcus was right. Maybe he needed to get his ass out of the research chair more often. It had been weeks since he dated and a couple of months since he’d slept with a woman. Life had gotten busy.

And okay… he just hadn’t been interested. Unless you counted the woman on the screen.

He reached out with one finger and stroked the photographed cheek of his mystery woman. The female captain looked tough and purposeful, but also oddly calm in her picture. She was definitely not the swearing hellcat he’d met in lock-up who could read his mind. If he ended up working with her, he would have to warn Evelyn 489 about what she was going to find in his brain if she kept digging around in there. Nothing was locked away but stuff that would give her a thousand more reasons for those sad and angry tears she so often shed.

His random musings about cybernetics, women, and the elusive Evelyn 489 were finally interrupted by the sound of the room door sliding open. Eric checked his processor when he saw who it was. Evil Brad had arrived in fourteen minutes, not twenty-six, and hadn’t bothered to inform him. Strange.

“Hey there, Dr. Smith. You’re here much earlier than you estimated.”

Eric was stunned when Brad shrugged in response to his statement. The physical gesture was unmistakably a human one expressing indifference. The changes he was observing couldn’t be just his imagination. He listened intently as he waited for Brad’s response to his statement, his intuition already alerted.

“My previous task was completed sooner than I calculated. Is my early arrival inconvenient timing for your schedule?”

Eric shook his head, noting Brad was now staring stoically at him. He frowned. Was that irritation he’d heard in Brad’s reply? He shook his head a second time, forcefully pushing his concerns aside. There were more important things to consider at the moment than whether or not Evil Brad was breaking through Kyra’s special programming. He added a flag to his existing mental note. He would definitely mention his concerns to Kyra later.

Moving his gaze purposely away, Eric looked at and pointed to the com station monitor. “I’m looking for more information about the cyborg on the screen.”

“I am familiar with Evelyn 489,” Brad said. “What information do you seek that is not available to you?”

Eric’s eyebrows shot up. “You know her? How do you know her?”

“I assisted with her second cybernetic conversion.”

Eric barely stopped himself from showing more surprise. “Second conversion? I didn’t see anything about that in her records. Explain her second conversion to me.”

Surprising him once again with his actions, Brad walked to the chair next to him and sat down without any prompting. He set his curiosity about that action aside when Brad spoke.

“In the second year of the war, forty-two female soldiers volunteered for cybernetic conversion. Evelyn 489 was one of the first. Only five of those females remain alive today. Two are in long term medical treatment pending massive mental upgrades. Evelyn 489 is a third who has been diagnosed with severe brain trauma. Due to her still active weaponry, she was incarcerated instead of being sent to a medical facility. The missing two females return geophysical search pings, but their locations change too rapidly for them to be apprehended. Both of them remain on the renegade cyborg list.”

Eric tucked away the info about the two females still on the run. Peyton probably needed to be aware of that information. He lifted his chin and stared as he spoke. “Your choice of terminology is a point of a confusion for me. Evelyn 489 is not incarcerated. She’s in protective custody until she can be restored.” His eyebrows shot up in shock when Brad shook his head.

“Your statement is inaccurate. Her record lists her location as incarcerated. It is a documented fact that she killed Dr. Jackson Channing. Cyborgs can’t be tried for such crimes under current laws, but they also cannot be set free to kill again. I believe Evelyn 489’s records are a correct reflection of her situation.”

Eric watched Brad’s hands go to the virtual keyboard. They flew across it, pulling up files as fast as the screen in front of him could accommodate displaying them. It didn’t take long before Evelyn’s cybernetic enhancement schematic appeared next to an overhead view of her nude body on a medical table. Her unclothed body was every bit as beautiful as he had imagined the first time he’d seen her. The screen image was taken before cybernetic pulses had started sculpting her luscious curves. She was unquestionably hot, but what had been done to her body during her conversion was appalling.

“Damn. What I’m seeing is so bad my mind is rejecting the information. It looks like her uterus was removed and replaced with a radioactive materials containment unit.”

Eric narrowed his gaze when Brad’s completely guilt-free one met his. He hadn’t expected to see sympathy, but he had at least expected to see a little confusion over his swearing comment. It irritated him when Brad merely shrugged again.

“If I am interpreting your emotional reaction correctly, you seem highly disturbed by the woman’s sacrifice. Evelyn 489 was very aware of what was intended when she agreed to her conversion. A female’s empty pelvis is perfect physical storage for whatever is needed to be discreetly transported behind enemy lines. Her fallopian tubes and ovaries were left so that minimal hormonal adjustments would be needed long term. I imagine the implants she received back then still keep her hormone levels as optimal as any female half her chronological age.”

Eric grunted his disgust. “But all the theories about female hormones not adversely affecting cybernetics didn’t hold up over time. Isn’t that right?”

His eyebrows lifted again when Brad ignored him and turned back to the screen to pull up more data. He watched him peruse the additional information he’d retrieved. There was a long pause before Brad answered. Eric continued to stare, letting Brad know he damn well expected a reply.

“No. Early theories about the long term effects of female conversions did not prove to be correct,” Brad admitted at last.

Eric nodded, even though Brad did not turn his way to see his head moving. “So what is Evelyn 489 carrying in her containment area?”

“Dr. Channing and his team at the time did her initial conversion. She was the first chosen for a weapon of mass destruction. I cannot confirm its contents as the military maintained complete secrecy about that part of every Cyber Soldier conversion. Her original records hinted at it being a neutrino explosive capable of taking out a village, enemy camp, or even a small city.”

“Damn…” Eric said, glancing at the military photo still on his screen. So she had been loaded up by the military just like King had been.

Brad went on talking, either unaware of his shock or not caring. By now Eric was guessing it was the latter. Something strange was going on with Dr. Smith.

“What is known for certain about her specific containment device is that someone took one too many precautions with the installation. It cannot be opened without setting off the explosive inside it. This was done to ensure the weapon would never be disarmed by an enemy cyber scientist. Such extreme action was taken based on the assumption Evelyn 489 would die in the line of duty.”

Eric crossed his arms. “Well, that assumption about her future was wrong, now wasn’t it? She’s still alive. So what are the chances of the entire containment center being safely removed from her body?”

Eric frowned when Brad instantly shook his head and stared at the screen.

“Chances of safe removal have been estimated at twenty-five ten thousandths of a percent or in more common terms—the odds of success are 1 in 463,000.”

“I don’t understand. Why so low? Is it the radiation from the weapon that’s the problem?”

“No. Danger from radiation is minimal, so long as the containment center remains unharmed. It is made of titanium and nearly impenetrable by normal means. However, the containment center was intentionally wired to Evelyn 489’s human heart. When she dies or suffers a mortal wound, a countdown timer will start and follow her slowing heart rate. No breach of the containment center could happen fast enough to stop the detonation of what she carries. Her death is unavoidable and will destroy the surrounding area wherever she is located when it finally happens.”