Alyssa followed my instructions and we arrived at my father's old vacation home. It looked exactly the same as it did the last time I had seen it twenty-five years ago.

“This is a really nice place.” Alyssa said as she let the ground rover roll to a stop and turned it off. “You must have had a lot of fun here.”

“When I was a kid.” I said and got out of the rover. My robotic dog followed me over to the front door, and the house's primitive computer system activated. Rusty barked once and I bent down to check his back panel to see what my AI Amanda wanted to tell me.

The house is linked to you now, Jack. Full access has been granted.

I cleared the message and closed the panel, then stood up and opened the door. The cyborgs climbed out of the rover themselves and came over to the house.

“Wait here.” I said and held up a hand to stop what I knew would be an immediate protest. “I have to enter you in the security grid.”

Alyssa didn't look happy that she had to wait outside.

“I'll only be a minute.” I reassured her for some reason. “Rusty would be barking if something wasn't right.”

Alyssa sighed and nodded, and I entered the home and shut the door. I smiled as I thought about activating the security features, just to see what they would do if I locked them out and wouldn't let them in.

I ignored the small amount of pleasure I'd get from seeing their angry faces at a locked door stopping a cyborg, and walked over to the main control panel. It was one of the first generation ones, and had all those big buttons, switches, and even an external microphone pickup. I turned on the monitor to see the security camera feed, and looked at the very impatient cyborgs that waited on the doorstep, and hit the intercom.

“Stand in front of the electric eye, please.” I said to them, and they jumped at the sound of my loud voice that came out of the external speakers.

“Turn that down!” Crush said and put a hand over one of his cybernetic ears. “Or step back from the microphone.”

“Sorry.” I chuckled and leaned back slightly. “I haven't used a boom mike since I was a kid.”

Alyssa shook her head. “Stop playing around and scan us in already.”

I hit the buttons needed to add new people to the files, and the security computer pinged their IDs. It only took a few seconds to add all five of them to the active files, and I hit the button to open the garage and the maintenance bay. I walked over to the front door and opened it.

“You're in.” I said to them as I stepped out and shut the door. “Come this way.”

“What?” The female cyborg said, surprised. “We're not going in?”

“Not through the front door.” I said as I walked around to the side of the house to the garage door. “The floor of the main house isn't reinforced enough to take your heavy mods.”

“You're kidding!” One of the male cyborgs said. “How are we supposed to keep an eye on you if we can't enter the house?”

“I didn't say you couldn't enter the house, just that you can't go in the front.” I said and entered the garage. “Dad had a few cyborgs with heavy mods visit over the years; but they were limited to certain sections of the house.”

“Get a load of this maintenance bay!” Crush said. “Everything looks brand new!”

“I might not come here myself anymore, but I refuse to let it fall apart.” I said and hit the test cycle on the main diagnostic computer. “My mother loved this place.”

“When were you here last?” Alyssa asked.

“Just after my mother died.” I said, then frowned as I assembled the tools I needed. “It was also the last time I saw my father.”

“At the funeral.” Alyssa said, sadly.

I looked up at her and saw that she was looking out the maintenance bay door at the simple grave in the yard.

“Yes.” I said. “The day she died was the worst day of my life. Her funeral was the second worst.”

The diagnostic computer finished it's test cycle and beeped.

“How many worse days do you have?” Crush asked.

“About 50.” I said and pointed to the chair beside the diagnostic computer. “Sit.”

“Hey, I'm not sitting anywhere...”

“I can put you into maintenance mode again.” I said.

The flesh side of Crush's face made a sour face, and he sat down. I pulled out the leads from the machine and placed them on his chest, then plugged the jacks into the ports by his ear.

“This should only take a few minutes.” I said and hit the diagnostic cycle.

“Why're you doing this?” Crush asked.

“Why'd you clobber that Weekend Warrior that had the drop on us?” I asked back.

“Because I could.” Crush said, then smiled. “I also enjoyed it.”

I nodded. “There's your answer.”

“Who looks after the place if you've never been back here?” Alyssa asked.

“I have a friend that owed me a favor.” I said and smiled. “They might be by tonight or tomorrow.”

“How long are we staying?” The other female cyborg asked. “It won't be here in the maintenance bay, will it?”

I laughed. “I'm tempted to say you do have to stay here in the maintenance bay; but, my mother always told me never to joke about something serious... unless it's funny.”

The female cyborg snorted a laugh. “So, how long?”

“It could be done in an hour, or we could stay here for a week. It all depends on how hard my father protected the old system.” I said, then checked the maintenance computer and saw it was almost done. I picked up the first tool I would need and waited for the readout. The computer beeped and a list of 15 things came up.

“How the hell are you still walking upright?” I asked Crush.

“My Port Mother was a real bitch.” He said and laughed.

I laughed, too; because everyone's Port Mother was a real bitch. I hit the button to change the display from a list to a three-dimensional diagram.

“Ear first.” I said and used the automatic hex wrench to loosen the first bolt of Crush's cybernetic ear modification. I got all the bolts out and slid the piece out without having the wires get disconnected. It might be a crude piece of equipment, but it still needed to be treated with respect.

“How do you know how to do this?” Alyssa asked from right beside me, and I pulled out a fried circuit board. I checked over the board to see if it was an internal error, or if something had damaged it externally.

“Yeah.” One of the male cyborgs said. “We all thought you were a just a computer programmer.”

“I am a computer programmer.” I said. “I can just do other stuff, too.”

“Like drive industrial tanks!” The other male cyborg said.

“Remote pilot.” I said and smiled as I found the problem. I turned and opened a drawer in a generic parts cabinet, and pulled out several replacement parts that I would need. “It's actually a part of my job to know things that other people might depend on in their daily lives.”

“So... what should I do when my girlfriend insults me and says that the toaster oven makes her hotter than I do?”

“Either harvest the toaster oven for the element and make her hot yourself, or get a new girlfriend.” I said and laughed. “There's not really a lot of choices for you to make in that scenario.”

“Tell me about it.” He said and smiled. “I'm tempted to just let her have the toaster oven.”

Several of the cyborgs laughed, and I replaced the circuit board and installed a new receptor chip, then I picked up the solder gun. After a few seconds, it was ready to use and I secured the connections for the new chip, slipped the board back into the cybernetic ear attachment, then used the automatic hex wrench to reattach it to Crush's head.

“Hey, you suck!” Crush said. “ I still can't hear anything!”

“That's because I haven't turned it on yet.” I said. “The chip has to be calibrated for your firmware.”

“Ha!” Crush said. “That's just a bunch of crap!” He said. “It worked for years; long before they updated my firmware.”

“That's because the Port doctors are a bunch of quacks.” I said. “Look at the screen!”

Crush looked at the three-dimensional representation of himself and all the errors over his body.

“So?”

“You've got three different operating systems running five different upgrade packages!” I said. “I won't even get started on the software updates you've aborted because it was taking too long.”

“They do!” Crush said. “I can't sit on my ass for four or five hours to fix things.”

“You're not supposed to.” I said. “You're supposed to delay it until you go to sleep at night, then start the update. They're usually done before morning.”

“Well, hell.” Crush said. “I never thought of that.”

I laughed. “Look, you're going to be spending the night here anyways. You might as well let the others cover sentry duty and let me and the System finish the maintenance you need.”

Crush looked at his squad mates, and they all nodded.

“Fine.” He said. “If I miss any epic battles...”

“I'll give you a copy of the footage before I die.” I said, and he smiled.

“Deal.”

For the next several hours, I replaced, repaired, and did a general upkeep for a cyborg that never once had it done before. It took a while just to clean the parts enough to see if they needed repair or replacement. I had been right when I had guessed that Crush had gotten the most amount of mods for the cheapest price, and all in a single operation.

I didn't bother telling him how stupid it was to do that, mainly because I didn't want him mad at me. When he was pretending to be mad he had thought about taking my head off; I could only imagine what he would do if he was actually angry at me for something.

“That's all I can do physically.” I said as I removed the leads from his chest and unplugged the jacks from behind his ear. “We'll have to let the updates install overnight, then I can see about cleaning up the mess of your digital files.”

“So, you weren't kidding about that?” Crush asked. “You're really going to make me sit out here all night?”

“I said 'stay', not 'sit'.” I smiled. “Stand up.”

Crush stood up and I hit the release button on the maintenance chair. It folded down and became a good-sized cot.

“You can move around a bit, but stay within 20 feet of the computer.” I said. “If it loses the signal to your receiver, you'll have to restart the download.”

Crush shrugged and laid down on the cot. “Actually, that's not too bad.” He said. “I've slept on more comfortable rocks once; but, other than that...”

“Yeah, enjoy yourself.” The female cyborg said and then looked at me. “Show me where I'm bunking.”

“Right this way.” I said and led the remaining cyborgs into the reinforced section of the large vacation house. “You've got vids and entertainment there, food and jacks there, and the beds are behind the two doors.”

“Hey, this is bigger than my whole apartment.” One of the male cyborgs said as he looked into the first room. “This is great!”

“This isn't a vacation.” Alyssa said. “We're here to work.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The female cyborg said and sat down on the over-sized couch and turned on the vidwall. “How are you getting live television signals out here?” She asked, astonished.

“I bribe the company.” I said, and she laughed. “Well, enjoy yourselves.” I said and walked towards the normal part of the house, and Alyssa came with me.

“I'll come with you, Jack.” Alyssa said.

“That's not necessary.” I said. “We're all perfectly safe out here.”

Alyssa shrugged. “That doesn't matter.” She said. “I'm your shadow, remember?”

“But...”

“I think that's another reason we were sent.” Alyssa said. “I can go into the other sections of the house, unlike my squad mates.”

I sighed. “Okay, but you can't talk.”

“Excuse me?” Alyssa said, a bit indignantly.

“I'm going into my father's work office. Your voice will not be recognized.”

“Oh, okay.” Alyssa said and smiled. “I thought you were trying to tell me to be quiet.”

“Like that would work.” I said under my breath as I opened the door to the normal-sized area.

“I heard you.” Alyssa said and stepped through.

“I know you did.” I said and followed her. “It's the first door on the left.”

She went to it and stopped, and I smiled as I stepped in front of her.

Scanning... Done. Initializing Data recovery packet.

Installing... Done. Welcome, Jack.

The office door opened and I stepped inside. The place looked just like I had remembered it.

Barren and cold, just like my father.