S. C. R. A. P. E., or the Society for the Creation, Restoration and Ascension to the Proper Earth, thought humanity living underground was against everything humanity was supposed to stand for. They had been in existence for only the last few years, and rumour had it that they weren't limited to just one Cavern. Their reach supposedly crossed divisional barriers, and members could be found everywhere.

Of course, every faction had their outspoken crazy people, and they were usually quickly found and dealt with; it was just unfortunate that the main body of the organization didn't have any kind of base, or headquarters, or even a standard set of hierarchy. They were more fluid than any other group in history, and worked more behind the scenes than anything else... which made them much more dangerous than anyone had realized... until now.

“They successfully built a particle generator.” I whispered, and the nurse nodded as she finished washing my human half and dried me off. She reached into a pocket and took out a bottle of lubricant, then used the cloth to apply it to my new synthetic parts.

“It's only just a rumour, and there's no actual proof.” She said and carefully covered my chest, leg, arm, and part of my face with the ice cold lubricant. “But you know the rumour mill is usually right.”

I nodded, and she finished cleaning me, then wiped off the new parts.

“I hope you paid attention to what I just did.” She said and smiled. “You're going to have to do it all by yourself soon.”

“Good god, woman! I just woke up!” I said and grinned. “Are you shoving me out the door already?”

The nurse laughed. “No, I just don't think the tech assigned to you is going to be as hands-on as they need to be to maintain your new appendages.”

“Then consider yourself reassigned.” I said and she looked at me with wide eyes.

“Sir?”

“I'm pretty sure I'll have a medical discharge from the service for this.” I said and held up my new hand. “I'm a bit too old to have these things react properly in a combat situation.”

“But...”

“I still have the authority of my rank, though.” I said and smiled. “I'll ask the System to tender a leave of absence for the hospital for you, and hire you as a private care giver.”

“But... but, sir... I...”

“You'll still get the full day of Points for working; but, I'll only need one or two visits a day.” I said. “Assuming in your professional opinion that's what I'll need.”

“I... yes, once in the morning to clean, and once at night for maintenance.” The nurse said. “But, sir... I'm sure there are more qualified-”

“Nonsense.” I said and cut off her protest. “You have experience with both normal and cybernetic maintenance.” I used my new hand to touch her cybernetic arm. “If anything happens, I'm sure that you can take care of me.”

“All right.” The nurse said. “When will my new job take effect?”

“As soon as they let me walk out of this place.” I said and looked at my new leg. “Assuming I can walk.”

“Don't worry, sir.” The nurse said and pat the synthetic leg. “Neural mapping has made leaps and bounds in the last few years, and you've got the top of the line bio-memetic parts.” She smiled. “Your AI even sent over the last calibration files from your immersion chamber to help with the integration.”

“Oh, damn!” I said. “Where's my communication pad?”

“In the part of your chest they cut away.” The nurse said, and I sighed.

“They won't let me have an outside line anyway, will they?”

“Not until you can move around without tripping over your new foot.”

I took in a deep breath and let it out as I carefully fastened up my hospital unitard. “When is my first physical therapy session?”

“Now that you're awake, probably tomorrow or the next day.” The nurse said and gathered up the bath supplies. “I'll check on the schedule and see if they can squeeze you in.”

“Thank you.” I said.

“No, sir.” The nurse said and walked to the curtain. “Thank you for winning that battle.”

I nodded to her, and she left me alone with my thoughts... and my new cybernetic parts. I flexed my new fingers and toes, bent my wrist and ankle, then my elbow and knee, and finally my shoulder and hip.

I can't tell if they are heavier or lighter than my old parts. I thought, and a shiver went down my back. I have mechanical parts now.

My normal side started to shake, and I took several deep breaths to calm down, then tried to hug myself. For some reason, my arms just wouldn't fold together like they used to, no matter what I did.

“Goddammit!” I said out loud in frustration, and the curtain opened. Noreen and Sandra came in, and sat down on the chairs on either side of the bed.

“What is it, honey?” Sandra said.

“I can't... my arms won't... I can't even...” I stammered as tears tried to come to my eyes, but since I didn't have tear ducts anymore, nothing appeared.

“Oh, Jack.” Sandra said and hugged me, and Noreen took my new hand. The feedback worked quite well, and I actually didn't notice any lag between seeing when she touched it with her lips, and the feeling of it in my nervous system.

“We'll get through this.” Noreen said.

“Where's Nathan?” I asked.

“He said babying you was woman's work and went home.” Noreen said, and that made me laugh.

“He's such a lucky man.”

“He is, truly.” Noreen said, and she smiled broadly. “You should have seen his face after I ate a piece of cake and kissed him!”

Sandra snorted a laugh. “That was more disgust than luck, mom.”

“He wasn't disgusted! He even licked his lips afterwards!”

“You smeared icing on his lips.” Sandra said and chuckled. “He was just cleaning up after you.”

I laughed. “I would have paid to see that.”

“You did!” Noreen said. “You bought the cake!”

“So you did use my Points.” I looked at Sandra, and saw her expression. I used my normal hand to touch her face, and she looked at me. “You know... like I told the nurse... I'm pretty sure I'll have a medical discharge over this.”

Sandra's eyes widened, and Noreen gripped my synthetic hand tightly.

“With the both of us on medical leave from our normal jobs for the next few weeks, you and I can spend some time together.”

“That might not be true today.” Noreen said. “I talked to the doctor in the cafeteria, and he said that he was sending over a tech person to monitor you this afternoon.” She said. “I think that means we can't be here.”

“I guess it would depend on what the tech person had in mind.” I said and looked at Sandra. “If it's... ah... an inspection... I don't want you to see it.”

“Jack...”

“Sandra, if I don't want to see it, I definitely don't want you to see it.”

Sandra sighed. “If that's what's going to happen, then yes... both mom and I will leave.”

“Thank you.” I said. “Until then, tell me what you ate.”

“She had some of my cake!” Noreen said, excitedly.

“Mom! You said you wouldn't tell him!”

“I lied, dear.” Noreen said and laughed at her daughter's scandalous expression.

For the next few minutes, I sat back and watched the interactions between the two very similar and very different women, and let a big smile form on my face. After another minute, both women stopped talking and looked at me.

“What's the big smile for?” Sandra asked.

“Out of all of the people I've met in my 36 years of life, I ended up with two of the most frustratingly wonderful women to ever exist.” I said and smiled. “That makes me kind of happy.”

“Only kind of?” Noreen asked, a little puzzled.

“I'm a man.” I said and grinned. “It's against the unspoken 'man rules' to say I'm actually happy.”

Noreen laughed, and Sandra chuckled, then they told me about all the different people that were in the cafeteria, what they were wearing, and what they were eating.

“Time for lunch.” The nurse said an hour later, and came in with a vacuum sealed packet that contained a brown algenate disc.

“Oh, damn.” I said.

“They aren't that bad.” The nurse said and handed it to me. “Your taste buds adjust fast, believe me.”

“Can't I just have a blue?” I asked. “Or a red! Give me a red!”

She laughed. “I'm sorry, but your body needs the anti-rejection supplements.”

“Oh, all right.” I said and opened the packet. I took a bite, and it tasted like dirt covered in mud. “Okay, the first thing I am going to do when I get home is reprogram the damn food processing plant to make these things taste better.”

The nurse laughed again and offered normal packets to Sandra and Noreen.

“We already ate.” Sandra said. “Thank you.”

“You should head back to bed yourself.” The nurse said. “I've been keeping the doctor at bay; but, if he comes back in here and sees you're still here, too...”

“Okay, I'll go.” Sandra said and looked at me. “I guess our dilemma with the tech person was a moot point.”

“Only because you had to go this time.” I said. “Now go lounge in a bed for a while and relax.”

Sandra shook her head and stood up. “That's all I can do.” She said and leaned in close for a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I said.

“Come on, mom.” Sandra said. “You can keep me company until dad comes back.”

Noreen stood up and looked at me. “If you need a good cuddle, just have the nurse come and get me.”

I smiled. “I was just about to say the same thing, except you would still have to come here.”

Noreen bent over and laid her head on my chest. I carefully wrapped both of my arms around her, and she sighed. I let her go and she leaned back, and kissed my cheek.

“I'll see you both later.” I said, and they left.

“What was the dilemma with the tech person?” The nurse asked.

“If they were doing an inspection, I didn't want them here.”

The nurse nodded. “It's always weird getting them.” She said. “Seeing all the things inside is just... unnerving.”

“Tell me about it.” I said and finished eating the algenate disc. “Please tell me we're having real food for supper.”

“Well...”

“Dammit.” I said, and she laughed.

The nurse left to keep delivering lunch to the other patients, and the tech person showed up a few minutes later. He was less than pleasant to deal with, and before he could use his control pad to override my limb functions, I told him to get the hell away from me and to send someone else.

“You're the patient.” The guy said. “You don't tell the people trying to help you what to do.”

“I am the senior programmer for the System's maintenance crew! I do repairs on everything within the cavern!” I said hotly. “Before that, I was...” I stopped talking and took several deep breaths. “It doesn't matter.” I said. “Go back to your work space and keep playing with the prototypes there, and send me someone that has practical experience in dealing with prosthetic limbs!”

The tech guy went to push the deactivation button on his control pad.

“Don't.” I said, and he smiled crookedly.

Without thinking about it, I did a quick jab to his jaw with my left hand to set up a nice roundhouse punch to the face with my right; unfortunately, my cybernetic arm was the left one. My quick jab became a devastating smash to the guy's face, crushed his nose, and knocked him out. He fell backwards through the curtain and onto the floor, unconscious.

“Damn.” I said, and the nurse ran over to check on him.

“What happened?” She asked as she rolled him over to stop the blood from going down his throat and potentially choking him.

“It's a long story; but, essentially he was being an ass and I punched him.”

“Sir, you can't do things like that anymore.” The nurse said wisely.

“Apparently.” I said. “That was only a quick set-up jab with my off-hand.” I explained as she tended to the man's injury. “I didn't think...”

The nurse tapped her communication pad and I stopped talking. “Emergency Medical Team to Recovery Ward Two.” She said. “Crushed nose, possible breathing obstruction with sinus damage, and minor fractures in both eye sockets.”

I fell silent at the damage I had done with only a light tap of my hand, and then I recalled how damaged my arm was when Alyssa had playfully tapped it one time after I had made a joke. I looked at my synthetic hand and made it into a fist, then flattened it out.

The Emergency Medical Team arrived and did what they could to stabilize him, which wasn't much because the nurse had already done that; then they whisked him away to take him for emergency surgery.

“I'm sorry.” I said.

“You will be.” A man said as he came into the ward. He had a System Security badge on his shoulder and several peacekeeping tools on and about his person. “This incident has been logged by the System, and all evidence has been gathered.”

“Well, that's a lie.” I said, and the man looked at me with angry eyes.

“We've seen the evidence.” He said and pointed to the camera above my head. “You are guilty of assault.”

“I didn't say I wasn't.” I said. “I was objecting to your assumption that you had all the evidence.”

“You hit the man with a deadly weapon, and he was seriously hurt.” The security man said.

“What about extenuating circumstances?” I asked.

“Irrelevant.”

I laughed.

“This is no laughing matter.” He said.

“I'm laughing at you, not the situation.” I said. “The guy was being an ass...”

“His behavior isn't a factor.”

“Would him deactivating my cybernetics be a factor?” I asked. “That's what he was about to do, and without my permission, I might add.”

“That...” The security man couldn't say that wasn't a factor, and frowned.

“I haven't had a chance to look at the extent of my modifications yet, so I don't know if shutting them down would stop my heart or not.” I said. “When he reached for the button, I reacted.”

The man kept frowning, so I kept talking.

“I assume there's audio on the security footage; but, if there's not, when I get a proper tech person in here to set up the transfer to give me a proper connection, I'll give you the direct footage.” I said and tapped my temple to indicate my eyes.

The security guy grunted a little. “I don't think such specific footage will be necessary.”

“Let me know if it is.” I said, and the security man nodded and quickly left.