Ozark Mountains

The Spaceship

“Damn,” Michael said, after seeing the same white ceiling above him. The big difference from previous times he woke up here was a young woman lying beside him.

It took him a moment to remember the disastrous gold deal, the shoot-out, and the trip to the cabin.

“Max… why am I naked again?” He asked looking down his body. “And why is she wearing a hospital gown?” He pointed with his chin at the young woman.

“Well, I wanted to preserve her modesty, as for you… I didn’t really think you would mind.” Max replied through his implant.

“How long has it been this time?” He really hoped that he hadn’t laid on the bed for three weeks like the first time.

“Almost 12 hours, AutoDoc had to do a lot of work on both of you.”

Michael closed his eyes and recalled one thing that was bugging him from the last night.

“What happened with my body, when the time slowed down during the fight?”

The AI materialized his hologram beside the bed.

“What you experienced is something I’ve been working on for a while; I’m calling it a ‘Boost’. A cocktail of adrenaline and various organically produced chemicals that increase your physical and cognitive functions. Until last night, it was all just a working theory of mine, a virtual experiment. For a time, you were juiced up as no athlete using performance-enhancing drugs ever was.” Max gave him a guilty look. “Your body was not prepared for that, without nanites to constantly repair the damage… your heart would've burst.”

Michael could see the remorse Max felt, and part of him was worried about AI activating weird functions of his CEI, then again, it saved his life, so he chose to simply accept the whole thing as one more aspect of his new crazy life.

“Hey, we got out there alive so that is all that matters, don't worry about it.”

There was a pensive look on the hologram's face. “It was my fault; I should have traced the connection between the Russian and those thugs—”

“And hindsight is 20/20. You may be a very powerful AI now, but that doesn't make you a god, so mistakes will happen. Do not let them bring you down, learn from them,” Michael replied. “And you made me sound like gramps right now, damn it,” he finished with a grin.

“Yeah… I’ll work on it.” The hologram nodded, exhaling a breath.

“When will she wake up?” Michael said as he got out of bed, his hand rubbing the place where his latest gunshot wound used to be.

He looked at Elizabeth, lying on the bed with a peaceful look on her face, and noticed that she was quite beautiful. Shoulder length honey-colored hair, strong and pleasant facial features that made quite an impression.

“I could wake her up right now, she is almost completely healed. The bullet was removed, and all the damaged tissue was knit together just as it was before. She just needs to replace some blood that was lost, but her body will do that on its own. I waited for your own healing to finish, so we could decide what to tell her.”

That was the burning question in his mind; what should he tell her? She did save his life and he felt indebted to her, but she could compromise everything he was trying to achieve.

“What did you manage to find out about her?”

“Quite a bit, as a matter of fact; I made a personal file all the way from her birth to the present day. Most of it is from public databases and some… let's say, other sources.”

A flashing icon on the edge of his vision informed Michael that a new file was downloaded to his CEI.

It didn't take long to browse through it, concentrating on the highlights and especially at recent events involving her sister. Max even made a correlation between the trial and the thugs that got away scot-free, and ended up dead and burned to a crisp in the warehouse. Overall, he had a good feeling about her, and he really needed some people he could trust, besides the few he already had in mind. The way she acted in that warehouse gave him an inkling that she could become one of those to trust.

“I think we should tell her most of it, but let me get dressed first, there is no need to freak her out by waking up with a naked man in the room,” Michael said as he picked up his repaired clothes from the foot of the bed.

“OK, but before I wake her, there was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Shoot.”

“Well… for a while, I have been trying to think of a way to make you more durable, and if recent events are any indicator, it has become a necessity. Your bones are easily breakable, and your muscles are not as resilient as they could be. So, I’ve been working on a way to rectify that, observe.”

The medical hologram that appeared in front of the bed was one he recognized, and yet he didn’t. His skeletal system was now painted black, and his muscles were a mismatch of colors. He walked around the hologram, looking at the strange image.

“What is all this?”

“I have a lot of spare time on my hands, and have been using some of it on discovering new ways to upgrade the human body; this is the final result of an upgrade I devised. Bones are sheeted with the mesh-like graphene structure making them ten times stronger than steel, with only five percent of its density. Muscles are interwoven with composite fibers hundreds of times thinner than other man-made nanofibers and with tensile strength stronger than spider silk. The same material is used for an armor-like mesh beneath the skin, making it more durable. However, it is not completely bulletproof, that depends on the caliber used, of course. So… avoiding getting shot is still highly advisable, but most conventional rounds would only do damage to the epidermis, the outer layer of the skin, and would not be able to penetrate the body cavity and internal organs. It would make you much more effective in a fight, and I have a suspicion that there will be more of those in the future.”

As Max was making his presentation, certain sections of the hologram were magnified to be seen in microscopic details. It was way beyond anything Michael even thought possible and not something that could be done with current human technology. He knew that the military would be overjoyed to have something like this. Their programs to create super soldiers often went to the darker side of experimentation, disregarding some finer points of ethics and morality.

“And finally, the Boost you experienced; with this upgrade, your system would be able to take full advantage of it, without the consequences you have suffered. The Boost is a set of instructions that use your CEI to adjust the chemical composition of your blood, making certain glands secrete their products directly into the bloodstream, it is a controlled endocrine system. For a while, it changes your perception of time and gives you more strength. As you are now, it would do an equal part of the damage to you as it gave you the same advantages you used last night. That first punch fractured several bones in your hand, only by CEI suppressing your pain receptors were you able to function. The significant downside is that the Boost used much of your body’s resources while it was active, and you almost collapsed after that. But with all these upgrades, it can be used to its full potential,” the AI said confidently.

All of these upgrades and possibilities they represented made Michael think for a moment that he would turn into something not quite human since he knew that this was an advantage that he simply could not let pass. All of his ambitious plans depended on him being alive to implement them, and last night, any of those thugs could have easily stopped the future he envisioned for the human race… with one well-aimed bullet.

“How long would it take?”

“This is as invasive as it gets, and in the uncharted waters of human augmentation, so it would take some time. I have done multiple simulations and devised a procedure that will be done in stages. Nanites could be instructed to start preparations right now. You would not feel anything because localized nerve endings would be suppressed from sending pain signals. It would be necessary for you to drink certain supplements, to give your nanites the materials they need to lay down the foundation for the final procedure. And at that stage it would require you to spend some time in the AutoDoc; I want to do everything as slow as possible, just to be safe from any unforeseen side-effects.”

Michael took another long look at the medical hologram, as Max stood there, with the neutral look on his face.

“You can stop with that poker expression, that was a good pitch. You know I cannot refuse this… do it.”

Max broke into a smile and said with a badly suppressed glee. “What can I say, I'm that good.”

“Yes, you are, a regular Einstein with Dr. Frankenstein’s sense of subtlety. Just don't drill any bolts in my head, that would seriously cramp my style.”

A CEI message popped into his view, informing him that augmentation stage 1 has begun. He dismissed it and tried to feel some change within himself, but there was nothing, he felt fine.

***

“Okay Max, wake her up,” Michael said and the medical hologram, together with AI’s, disappeared.

Elizabeth's eyes fluttered and slowly opened as if she were rousing from a long sleep. She looked around and then locked her gaze with Michael. “Where… where am I?”

“That would take some time to explain, but you’re in a safe place,” Michael answered, not really sure how to begin and not make it sound like she stumbled in a twilight zone episode.

She touched her chest and then her eyes opened wide when she looked underneath the hospital gown.

“But I was shot, and I saw the wound… I should be dead!” Her voice rose higher while the expression on her face became confused and alarmed.

“Well, you certainly are not dead, and the wound was healed. Your clothes are underneath the bed. Why don’t you put them on and join me when you finished, I’ll be waiting in the next room.”

Michael exited through the door that slid open; Max had changed the color of the opening to be slightly darker so it would be more visible. The next room, or the bridge of the ship, had some new additions, a table with two chairs. Made using nanites from the recycled materials, it made the room less sterile and give two people a place to sit.

After a few minutes, Elizabeth entered, looking around at the strange and unfamiliar space.

“Please take a seat,” said Michael, pointing at the chair opposite of his.

“I know this must be quite confusing for you, but everything has an explanation.”

“Why do I feel that this is going to be something like Alice going through the Looking-Glass,” she said with a slight smile on her lips.

“Because it will. Let me tell you a story…”

For the next hour, he told her the entire story from the beginning. What happened to him and what his plans were for the future were. During his monologue she didn’t interrupt, and he told Max to change the walls of the room. First was the forest clearing Max first shown him originally, then several other scenes that were in the database, and even the one made from space that was so mesmerizing to him.

“So that brings us to now, how you came to be to this place, and how you were healed. What do you think?”

This was the moment he had been dreading, will she believe him or decide that he was some crazy guy with cool toys.

“I believe you, Michael,” she said after a short pause, “this ship and my miraculous recovery just confirms it.” She looked towards the ceiling.

“Max, are you there?”

“Yes Elizabeth, I’m always here,” Max said and his hologram appeared beside them.

Elizabeth took a deep breath, nodded to herself, squinting her eyes as if she was thinking about something.

“I want to make you a deal.” She looked right into Michael’s eyes with intense determination. “I believe that what you’re planning is very noble if a little over-ambitious. But there will be many obstacles on the way and I can help you overcome a lot of them. Having said that, I need something from you…”

“If it is within my power, of course... I owe you my life,” Michael answered, suspecting from the information in her file, where she was heading.

“I have a sister, Anna, and she is on life support in a hospital. If you can help her like you helped me, I will owe you a debt that I could never repay,” she said still focused on Michael, not moving an inch. Her hands, which were on the table, were squeezing one another with so much force, her fingers were making imprints on the skin.

Using his CEI he asked Max “Do you have any information on her sister’s condition?”

“Yes, I hacked hospital records and it does not look good, but we will need to bring her here, and use AutoDoc to perform a more detailed analysis,” the AI replied in the same way.

Elizabeth was still looking at Michael, with a piercing gaze, utterly focused.

“I cannot make any promises, but we will do everything we can. She would need to be brought here and placed in AutoDoc before we can say anything with certainty,” Michael finally replied.

“I looked at Anna’s records; there is nothing modern medicine can do to help her. If there’s any chance for her to make a recovery—it’s here,” Max said, looking at the anxious woman at the table.

“No matter how small a chance, I would take it, for her I would do anything.” There were tears forming in Elizabeth's eyes.

“Can you tell me how she was hurt? I'm familiar with some of the story, but not all the details,” Michael said.

Elizabeth told them the entire story from her point of view, not leaving behind any sordid details. When she was going over some of the most disturbing parts, Michael’s fists clenched until he could feel his nails digging into his palms. Whatever guilt he felt for taking the lives of those thugs disappeared, in fact, part of him wished that they were still alive, so he could kill them all over again.

“I'm so sorry.” He told her after she was finished. It was what you were supposed to say when someone shares something so personal and painful with you, but it also sounded hollow and inadequate.

“I promise you we will do everything we can to help Anna.”

Tears were sliding down her face, and for the first time, Michael could see the depth of her anguish and fanatical hope that shone from within.

“Thank you,” Elizabeth whispered, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

***

It did not take them long to come up with a plan. They would need an ambulance and paramedics uniforms; Elizabeth had contacts from her previous job that could help with that. Max’s assignment would be to deal with paperwork electronically and cover all their tracks, so nobody would be looking for Anna afterward. The entire operation was scheduled to be executed in the middle of the night since the staff and security of the night shift was far laxer.

“Come on, let’s go to the cabin, I'm being a poor host, you should eat something,” Michael said, and led Elizabeth to the exit, closing the entrance behind them.

“I still can’t believe that this ship has been buried here for such a long time,” Elizabeth said while looking at the visible portion of the ship’s outer hull.

“Imagine my surprise when I practically fell on top of it.” Michael joked, and winced internally at the memory of his fall.

He showed her the way out, and the closing mechanism on the top, which made the entrance shaft blend with the surrounding terrain. They walked to the cabin, where she stood on the porch, soaking in the view.

“This place is beautiful; you could really unwind surrounded by this peace and quiet.”

“That was my intention, coming here, but some things intervened,” Michael replied, and held the cabin door for her.

It was a strange feeling for him, having a guest here. Except for a few of the closest friends, he never brought anyone here. It was his hidden sanctuary from the world, even when he was away for years at the time. Just knowing this place was waiting for him, gave him some small feeling of connection to the happy life he had led here.

After a quick meal, they set on the porch, enjoying the view and drinking freshly brewed coffee.

“You know it can all fail,” Elizabeth said, after a while, looking at the valley. “Your plan, that is. There are so many unknowns, and you will have to piss off many people in the process, let alone various governments that will want their piece of the pie, as soon as you show on their radar.”

He smiled remembering that he had a similar conversation with Max. “Yeah, that was one of the major things Max and I worried about. There is no way to hide the operation of such magnitude, that is why I'm gambling on having enough time to escape their grasp before they find out enough to shut everything down. If we manage to gain the higher ground,” Michael said, pointing at the sky, “well, then it is a whole new ballgame.”

They sat there for a few hours, talking about their lives, and going over the plan to get Anna out of the hospital.

***

The first thing they did was go to the place where Elizabeth had hidden her car before the shootout. An old shed on the edge of an abandoned industrial building. A smart place to hide it, too far away for people to casually visit; even for the teenagers that loved spraying graffiti. And sufficiently distanced from the burned-down warehouse, so that the police investigating the case would not notice it.

“When I left it here, I thought there was a good chance I would never return to it,” she quietly said after Michael parked beside the dark blue Toyota Prius.

“Don’t think about that, it was in another life. Let’s go, we have much to do.” Michael said.

She got inside and followed Michael’s Ram Power Wagon back to the cabin, to hide her car. They used side roads so the cameras would not pick it up. After stashing her car, they drove back to the location where her contact said that she could pick an ambulance and uniforms in his grandfather's truck. The condition was that they would return them in the morning. $2000 later, they were dressed as paramedics and on their way to the hospital.

Considering that they knew her there, Elizabeth had put on a lot of makeup and covered her hair with a baseball cap.

“Remember, act casually as if this is just another boring transfer,” Elizabeth said as they were entering the building.

Michael gave her a short, sharp nod, knowing she was talking more to herself than him.

Finishing the paperwork was done in minutes, Max made sure that all the T’s were crossed in the hospital system.

The nurse that showed them the way walked in front of Elizabeth and didn't see her shudder as they walked into Anna's room. They pushed the gurney in and looked again at the cheat sheet with the procedure of hooking her up to the mobile devices, to keep her alive. Those were all the necessary steps when transferring a high-risk patient, and they went several times over each one while preparing for this, but still wanted to make sure everything was done right.

Anna was a sorry sight, barely holding onto her life; her skin was that unhealthy pale color people get when the end is coming close.

“Michael, you need to transfer some of your nanites to Anna before she is moved, in her condition she might not make the trip without them,” Max said through his CEI, and Michael placed his hand on an exposed part of her skin, holding it there until life-saving nanites were transferred.

“It will take a few minutes for them to go where they need to.”

He could see that standing beside her sister was very emotional for Elizabeth, she did not make a sound, but her shoulders were shaking.

“What the hell is going on here!” an angry voice sounded from the room’s door. A young man, wearing a doctor's coat, was standing there, looking like he had just woken up.

“A patient transfer,” Michael said, barely giving the young man a glance.

“What patient transfer? Do you know what time it is? That patient is in a critical condition and is not going anywhere,” he replied, rubbing the sleep from his face.

“Man, we just take them from point A to point B, here's the paperwork.” Michael pulled the prepared papers, officially stating that one Anna Miles was to be transferred to a long-term care facility.

The doctor looked at the documents, shaking his head, and mumbling to himself as he read through them.

“It seems to be in order, but it is still too risky, they should leave the poor girl alone, she doesn't have much time left,” he murmured, returning the papers to Michael.

“Not our call, we do what we are told,” Michael answered and turned toward Elizabeth. “Let us hurry up, we have one more transfer to do before the end of our shift.” He tried to sound tired and bored in spite of the situation. The doctor indignantly shook his head and left the room.

She nodded and started disconnecting her sister from all the machines, carefully following Max’s instructions transferred through a small Bluetooth earpiece he made for her.

Michael expected that at any minute, that doctor or another hospital official would try to stop them and call the police. They pushed Anna's gurney down the hall, used the elevator, and transferred her into the ambulance. He got behind the steering wheel and unhurriedly left the hospital parking lot.

The trip to the cabin was slow and extremely difficult on the last part of the mountain road. Still, he managed to bring them home without too many bumps, driving carefully and utilizing the vehicle's 4x4 drive to the max.

Elizabeth was in the back, holding her sister's hand for the entire trip.

“She is stable now, you can unhook her from the machines,” Max said after they stopped in front of the cabin.

Transferring Anna to the AutoDoc wasn’t very difficult, with the help of a levitating stretcher. She still had that pale unhealthy skin, but at least now she didn’t need help to stay alive; her breathing was slow and steady.

They laid her on the AutoDoc’s bed, and for the first time, Michael could see the machine at work. A transparent energy field shimmered around Anna’s body, and there was that metallic goo, exiting the surface of the bed, like sweat from the pores. Once in contact with Anna’s skin, it was absorbed.

Max’s hologram appeared beside the bed.

“That is a standard sterile field, it keeps bacteria, viruses, and contamination at bay,” he explained. “She will need to be treated for a few days, there is a considerable amount of damage that those drugs did to her system. Some of her organs are turning necrotic; you got to her just in time. AutoDoc can repair all the physical parts of her body, but until she wakes up, we will not know what it did to her mind. Now, if you would be so kind and exit the room, the nanites will dissolve her hospital gown for easier access. Don’t worry Elizabeth, your sister is in good hands now.”

Elizabeth looked once more at her sister and followed Michael out. The trip back to return the ambulance was mostly silent, the unsure fate of a young girl put a dark cloud over them.

They left the ambulance at the prearranged location and walked to the supermarket’s parking lot where Michael has left his grandfather’s truck.

“What are your plans now?” Elizabeth asked while he was driving back to the cabin.

“We need to transfer that money to the bank; which reminds me, Max, create a shell corporation to hide our trail. Then, after buying Dave's recycling plant, we need to set up the operation for extracting materials that we need. And I need to recruit more people”

“Do you have someone in mind?” She asked.

“Yes, to begin with, I have some friends from my days in the military; some of them are disabled and disappointed in how they were treated after returning home.”

His mind went over all of the people he knew from the service and then afterward from the VA hospital. There were a few he was 100% sure would join him, and others that he put under maybe column.

They made a quick dinner, and Michael showed her a guest bedroom she could use.

Sleep was long in coming for both of them. Elizabeth was thinking about her sister, but this time with hope in her heart, praying that Anna would be okay. Michael, on the other hand, was trying to come up with a convincing way to tell his unbelievable story to the people he often entrusted his life in the past, but who would still need a leap of fate to believe him, and not think he was drinking his own funny Kool-Aid.