Back to Reality

"Hey, you okay? Mark?"

Veers heard the alien woman's voice who was slapping him on a forehead, and opened his eyes.

"Wh-what happened?"

He began blinking, but for some reason the colours he was seeing weren't right. Everything had this weird, yellow tint.

"You passed out. I think. Either that or you died for a second and came back to life. Can your species do that?"

Several blinks later the world returned to it normal self.

"No. Well, yes, but only in some **** cases. And we tend to not do that too often, one guy did it and they built entire religion around him."

Mark joked, but she didn't understand.

"How do you feel? Any nausea, spine paralysis, pains, internal bleeding, burning loins…"

Kaliasi began listing the possible side effects.

"No. And what, that could have happened to me?"

"Well… maybe. The possible side effects are written in here, but who cares about those. Are you feeling different at all?"

Mark focused, trying to see the changes what this little thing could do. First of all, his breathing was more natural, like his lungs completely adapted to the air there. Previously he felt like oxygen was too heavy, like being in a smokers area or at some factory district with giant chimneys. Then, he noticed that he actually felt great. Mark was no longer tired from the previous running and fighting, it's like the implant gave him a surge of energy.

"I feel… refreshed? Like I just woke up and had a light, morning work out."

"That would be the injection of nanobots I gave you before installing the implant."

"Wait, nanobots?" He asked.

"Yeah, super tiny machines that are intelligent and can fix and improve various things in your body."

She explained.

"That's… interesting. Do they leave my body now? Or do I sweat them out?"

Kaliasi grimaced.

"Ew, sweating them out sound so gross. And painful, probably."

"Then what happens to them? I'd like to know, since, you know, you injected them into my body." Veers complained.

"Stop panicking. Let me see…" She picked up a flat, rectangle object from the suit case and pressed a button on it. It lit up and showed lots of letters. Must have been some sort of holographic tablet.

"According to these instructions they will stay in your body forever, feeding on some of your dead mass and will help to fix you up whenever you are injured. Pretty cool, isn't it?" She asked, enthusiastically.

"Yeah. I mean no, why are you reading the manual now?! You should have done that before injecting them!" Mark complained.

"Oh, shush, you whiny primitive. I admit I never installed any implants in anyone and I found this suitcase in the cargo bay-"

"In the cargo bay?! Tell me you didn't find the first random thing and thought - oh, I'll check how it works on Mark."

"Relax. You are alive, and look pretty well. Don't stress too much, or you might fry your little brain."

Mark wanted to say something more about her recklessness and stupidity in risking his life, but stopped himself.

"Ok. I'm calm. I'm relaxed as fuck now. What does the other thing do?" He asked with a deep voice, like he was forcing himself to stay emotionless.

Kaliasi scrolled down through the tablet.

"I'm checking the datapad... That's eyes, that's fingers, that's synthetic liver… found it, a synaptic and ocular accelerator. Version fourty two point seven hundred and four. Huh, you got a few versions more modern than mine."

She said, turning around and showing hers. Above the red skin, right where the line of her black hair began, she had six of those implants, each similar to his, each deeply planted in her skull.

"More modern means better, right?" Mark asked, cautiously.

"Depends. I suppose. Sometimes they push out experimental tech. Sometimes it's a more reliable rehash of old one. Never know what you gonna get."

"I've had mine for quite a while, and they are connected to some of the other chips and implants. Like, you noticed my fingers, right?"

Mark gave a deep, slow nod.

"They have a wide array of usefulness. The one of the implants in the back of my head lets me control them effortlessly."

To show the level of control, she showed him her hand and extended six inches long needles from the tip of each of her fingers.

"Cool. What does mine do?"

"It's basically a control base for installing a body implant, but also contains a small AI that lets you focus more easily in dangerous or stressful situations. The AI helps you deal with some pointless, time consuming questions and thoughts, and get you in shape whenever the fight is on. You'll be able to see stuff more clearly, react to shit faster. Minor things, but they do matter a lot when it comes to fine margins. It's also supposed to let you communicate with lots of devices in an easier way, but it's not like you had problems with it so far."

She smiled to him.

"I… that's a lot to take in." He said.

"Well, you can begin with thanking me." Kaliasi grinned.

"Thank you? You almost killed me. Thanks for not doing that, I guess."

"Good, but you still owe me one."

She showed him her tongue and turned around.

"I swear, you'll be the end of me…" Mark commented quietly.

“Hey, I heard that.”

“Good.” This time Mark showed her his tongue. “Is traveling with you always this chaotic?"

“I don’t know. Never had any companions complaining. “She shrugged, and then added quietly: “Or any companions at all.”

“What was that?” Mark didn’t hear her.

“Nothing.” Kaliasi winked at him, and focused on steering the ship.

Meanwhile Mark tried to get busy with something and was focusing on his implant, tweaking with random settings and checking out a lot of the options. Kaliasi was right, the Tech spoke to him now. He was finding lots of data threads that he could follow in different directions and they were branching into the multitude of selections to choose from. Human was learning fast how to operate it quickly, and even opened remotely a few times the cockpit doors. After that he had some fun releasing and hiding the chairs.

“Having fun with your new toy?” Kaliasi asked when he tried to hide the pilot chair from underneath her, but failed, because he got an ‘Error: occupied’ message.

“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. But I do have a small problem with it.”

“What’s up?” She turned around to face him and asked.

“Well, I can’t find the radio. Or any music at all.”

“Music?” She raised her eyebrow.

“Yeah. I like listening to some songs.”

Kaliasi laughed in response, and then her face got a sudden serious expression.

“You’re hot, so you get a pass, Mark. But remember something - songs are forbidden in the civilized space because of the Hive Mind Accords.” She said with a straight face.

“The what accords?”

“Uhh, I keep forgetting that you are shit at learning stuff. In short - there are horrors in this galaxy that the Nightmare I killed-”

“- We killed-” Mark interjected.

“- I killed is nothing compared to them. And Hive Minds are one of the most vicious ones.”

"Guess it's another thing I should research…" He made a mental memo about checking out 'what the fuck happened to the music'.

"Is there any food on the ship? I didn't notice it earlier, but I'm hungry."

"Must be the nanobots consuming more energy from your body than expected. There's no food in here, sadly, but we'll get it when we get to Cirrus. Until then, just focus on your new toys."