“You should never make disparaging comments to a woman.” I said to Cali when I stopped laughing.

“It was supposed to be a compliment.” Cali said.

“Astra didn't think so.” I said and looked at Nurse Deloris. “Can I ask you for a favor?”

“You can.” Nurse Deloris said. “Whether I can do it is another story.”

I smiled. “Chase the doctor down and see if he's actually going to the research project to get me those files.” I said. “If he isn't, go there yourself and get Astra to bring them to me.”

“Actually, I'll just go right to Astra.” Nurse Deloris said. “She and I go way back.”

“Do you need the official request?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“Considering who you are, you should have had the files already, anyway.” Nurse Deloris said, and left the ward.

Cali looked at Sandra with a scrutinizing eye, then she smiled as she held a hand out. “I assume you are the one Jack wouldn't cheat on.” She said as she held out a hand. “I'm Ranger.”

Sandra looked at her hand a bit warily, then took it and they shook hands. “I'm Sandra.” She said and quickly let go of Cali's hand. “I thought Jack called you Cali?”

“He did; but, only close friends are allowed to call me by my name.” Cali said. “Everyone else calls me Ranger.”

Sandra got the hint and let the subject drop.

“How long was I out?” I asked.

“Three days.” A deep baritone voice said from behind the curtain and didn't bother coming into my private space. “Before you ask; yes, we've all been here the entire time and not just your girlfriend.”

“Thanks for not securing me to the bed.” I said.

“You shouldn't, because we did that.” He said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “Who do you think convinced the doctor to keep your cybernetic parts locked?”

“Well, I hope the doctor appreciated that, because it saved his life.” I said. “I could have broken his neck if I had grabbed him with my synthetic arm instead of my normal one.”

The deep baritone voice laughed. “I know this sounds horrible; but, I honestly don't care.”

“I assumed so.” I said. “When are you dragging me out of here and back to System Security?”

“Just as soon as the doctor gives the word that you're okay to move.”

“You're all heart.” I said, and he laughed again.

The door to the ward opened and I heard two pairs of shoes walk towards my bed.

“I found her.” Nurse Deloris said and held the curtain open to show me the young tech engineer. She wore a blouse, a short yellow skirt, and fishnet stockings under her lab coat. At least the skirt was a different color this time. She still had her long blonde hair done up in ponytails on either side of her head.

“I like yellow.” I said, and she smiled.

“Hi, Jack.” Astra said and stepped into the space around my hospital bed. “I'm sorry you almost died, just so we could debug your operating system.”

“I'm not.” I said, and she looked at me with wide eyes as she set up the portable maintenance station. “I could have been at home and tried to log into my secured terminal using leads like those.” I nodded at the leads she had in her hand and was about to plug into the jacks behind my ear. “I would have encountered a similar scan and died right there, and no one would have known anything was wrong.”

Astra plugged the leads in and then put a hand on my chest. “Yes, that would have been tragic.”

“Only when my body started to decompose and stunk up the place.” I said and smiled.

“You're pretty morbid.” Cali said from beside me. “I knew I liked you.”

Astra's face changed from happy to a scowl, and I pat the hand that was still on my chest.

“She really did mean it as a compliment.” I said, and Astra took a deep breath.

“Yeah, I know... it's just...”

“Would it be okay if I said you looked cute?” I asked her, and her cheeks went a little red. “Aha! I have discovered the source of your anger!”

“Oh, shut up!” Astra said and her face turned to a deep red. She hit some random buttons on the maintenance kit and I reached out to stop her.

“It's okay.” I said and took her hand. “You're not the only one that still lashes out at things that make them uncomfortable.”

Astra opened her mouth to say that it wasn't true, and I gave her hand a squeeze.

“I'm sorry.” Cali said, and Astra looked at her. “I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Astra sighed. “I'm sorry, too.” She said. “I overreacted.”

“If you had made a fist I might have spit out a couple of teeth.” Cali said, and grinned as Astra's face went red again. “That was a compliment, so you don't have to be embarrassed.”

“I... I know.” Astra said and ducked her head a little.

“Now that we have that misunderstanding out of the way, you can transfer the project files to me.” I said, and Astra nodded. She cleared the last few commands she had entered without thinking, then started the transfer.

No one spoke as I closed my eyes and read the files on my HUD. It was much easier to do it that way, rather than try to find a flat surface to read it against. I used specific eye movements to choose different viewing options, then settled back to read. After about 10 minutes, I realized it was all just generic cybernetic information files. I opened my eyes and looked at Astra.

“I want the specific case files for the bio-memetic attachments.” I said. “This generic stuff is useless to me.”

“I figured you would want the basis for the research.” Astra said.

“I lived through the basis for the research.” I said. “I even wrote some of these files.”

“Wh-what?” Astra looked at me with wide eyes.

“Just skip to the good stuff.” I said and closed my eyes again. “I've got things I need to do.”

“Okay.” Astra said and changed the file transfer priorities.

“There we go.” I said, and looked at the first case file for the bio-memetic implantation. They had used a cadaver to add the part to, then ran electricity through the body to simulate muscle movement. I shook my head mentally at the abysmal results and the information they had received from the experiment. I looked through the other files and the various different parts they had replaced on the same cadaver.

“How in the world did you get approval to move on to live subjects?” I asked out loud. “These numbers for neural responses are... I don't know how to describe it.”

Astra chuckled. “Open the 'recalcitrant subject' file.”

I searched through the directories and found the file in the supplementary data folder, and opened it. Inside were all the neurological adjustment formulas for electrical signals across deceased and decaying nerve endings and tissue responses to delayed stimuli.

“Oh, the other numbers make a lot more sense now.” I said. “Thanks.”

“You integrated the formulas that quickly?” Astra asked, surprised. “It took me weeks to wrap my head around them!”

I chuckled. “I've been working on cyborgs for a lot longer than you have been an engineer.” I said and kept reading the files. “My own formulas are pretty close to them.”

“Your own formulas?”

“Hey, every cyber-monkey worth their time adapts their own formulas for the best results.” I said. “Especially when out in the field.” I chuckled again. “It's not like we had sealed environments and top-of-the-line lab equipment to use when we were working.”

“But...”

“You can use the same formulas up to a point, and then they have to change for the circumstances and the people you are working on.” I said and opened my eyes to look at her. “If you expect every part to function exactly the same in every person, then you aren't a real cyber-monkey.”

“I hate that slang term for cybernetic tech engineers.” Astra said. “It sounds horrible, and I do not look like a monkey!”

I opened my mouth to say something in response, and she pointed a finger right at my face.

“Don't say it!” Astra said, angrily. “I am NOT descended from monkeys!”

“I was going to say that is a common misconception.” I said. “We have a common ancestor with monkeys, but we split off from them and formed our own path, then evolved into what we are now.” I smiled. “If we evolved from monkeys, then why are there still monkeys millions of years later? Wouldn't they have evolved, too?”

Astra's mouth made that little 'o' of surprise, and Cali laughed.

“You're hurting my head, Jack!” Cali said. “Don't make me think about the meaning of life and the existential question of our existence in parallel with apes!”

“That's a misconception, too.” I said. “Apes and monkeys-Hmm!”

My words were cut off when Cali slapped a hand over my mouth.

“No means no!” Cali said and looked at Astra. “Can you like, turn off his voice or something?”

Astra laughed and shook her head. “Impaired speech is usually a sign of catastrophic failure between the neural interface and the cybernetic parts of the brain.”

“Then put him into test mode and knock him out.” Cali said, and I tapped her hand.

“Hm mm.” I mumbled, and she looked at me.

“What was that?” Cali asked.

“Hm! Mm!” I mumbled forcefully, and she laughed as she moved her hand away. “Hell. No.” I said normally.

“I knew that's what you said.” Cali winked at me.

“Jack, do you want me to start the initialization for your limbs?” Astra asked. “I can't take off the lock down protocols; but, I can at least restore the sensation of touch.”

“No, thanks.” I said and flexed the fingers and toes of my synthetic limbs. “I've done that already.”

“Ah!” Astra jumped back and looked at my hand as it did the fingertip touch test with each finger tapping on the thumb. “What? How?”

“Operator shortcut.” I said and sat up in bed. “Now that I have file access, I won't be relying on external activation anymore.”

“But... the doctor locked you out physically.” Astra said.

“Ha.” I said. “Is that what he told you?”

Astra nodded, and I pointed to Nurse Deloris.

“Grab me a normal unitard, please.” I said, and she left through the curtain.

“What are you doing?” Astra asked, and I pulled the portable maintenance kit over and looked at the readouts.

“Firstly, I'm accelerating the file transfer.” I said and entered a few commands, then started a full file dump. “I'll finish sorting and reading them later.”

“You can't do that.” Astra said. “You're going to have a massive headache!”

“I've had an AI jam over 60 petabytes of information through my brain in a personal file transfer.” I chuckled. “A couple of gigabytes is nothing.”

Both Astra and Cali stared at me, and Nurse Deloris came back through the curtain with a combat unitard.

“Thanks.” I said, and the maintenance kit beeped at me. “There, all done.” I said and popped the two leads out of the ports behind my ear. I packed up the kit and handed it to Astra. “Now, unless you want to see my naughty bits, you should turn around or close your eyes.”

Astra gasped and held the maintenance kit in front of her face. I smiled and stood up as I tore the thin hospital unitard off in one motion. Cali, Nurse Deloris, and Sandra all watched me as I became naked and then put on the new unitard. I wasn't self-conscious about it, mainly because when you're in the military, you get used to things like that. You see, and are seen by, lots of people without their clothes on. If you aren't comfortable in your own skin, that is not the kind of environment you want to be in.

“Are you coming with us?” I asked Nurse Deloris.

“I'd like to, except I'm pretty sure you're not going to be allowed visitors for maintenance and bathing.”

“That's going to be awkward.” I said. “Hopefully, they will give me access to some lubrication fluid.”

Nurse Deloris handed a bottle of it to me, and I took it.

“Cali, it was nice seeing you again.” I said and held a hand out to her. She took it and pulled me in close to whisper in my ear.

“I wanted another cuddle, and now you're running out on me.” Cali breathed into my ear.

“Only because I have to.” I whispered back. “I need to get things sorted out before I can get back to the way my life used to be.”

Cali chuckled and kissed my cheek. “It's never going to be like it used to be.”

“Don't crush my delusions with reality.” I said and kissed her cheek back. “Goodbye, Cali.”

“Only until you join my unit, or I get reassigned to yours.” Cali said. “Until then.”

I turned away from her and walked around the bed to take Sandra's hand. Nurse Deloris held open the curtain, and the squad of System Security guards were on their feet and waited for me.

“Gentlemen.” I said. “Sorry for the wait.”

“Damn, you just woke up from surgery.” One of them said. “Why aren't you staying in bed to recover?”

“I've got stuff to do.” I said and started to walk to the door of the ward. My stride was a little more even and I wasn't hobbling as much as I did before. Sandra kept pace with me easily, and the guards scrambled to catch up to guard us. It was almost comical to watch them attempt to regain their positions of authority, and I stopped at the door of the ward to let them open it for me.

One of them stepped forward and opened it for me. I nodded and went out into the hallway with Sandra, and walked over to the elevator. The System Security squad took up their stations and guarded us as we went up the elevator and out to the waiting vehicle.

“Hi, Frank.” I said as I got onto the vehicle.

“Looking good, Jack.” Frank said and waved to the seats. “Sit anywhere you like, as long as it's in the fifth row and in the middle seats.”

I laughed and led Sandra to the seats and sat down, and the squad sat around us. The vehicle left the General Medic loading area and drove back to the System Security building. Frank dropped us off there and we went inside. We approached the security scanner, and the guy behind the desk motioned for us to take the side door to bypass it. I ignored him and let Sandra's hand go as I sent her through the scanner first, then confidently stepped through it myself.

My HUD warned me of the full scan this time, showed me the file index the probe received, and I came out the other side perfectly fine. The guy behind the desk shook his head in disbelief and motioned for the squad to follow me through.

“You've got guts.” The deep baritone voice said as he stepped through the scanner behind me.

“You have no idea what I have.” I said with a big smile and pat his shoulder.

“Apparently not a lot of brains to touch your security guard that's carrying a fully charged laser pistol.”

“What? You mean this laser pistol?” I asked and held up the pistol. He quickly put a hand on his holster and found that it was empty.

“He's got my gun!” The deep baritone voice nearly yelled as the man jumped back, and I laughed as I hit the quick release on the side of the weapon and popped the charger out of the handle. The faint whir died out and I tossed the weapon and charger to him. He had to use both hands to catch them, and I shook my head.

“That is not how you survive in combat.” I said, and berated him a little. “Don't try to catch a useless weapon. With your hands occupied, you've left yourself completely open to attack.”

The man looked at me with wide eyes for a moment, then frowned.

“Take him down!” The baritone voice said, and the squad moved in.

“Halt!” A strong feminine voice said, and the squad stopped moving. “That won't be necessary.”

“He just attacked me and stole my weapon!”

“I believe he was trying to teach you a lesson.” She said. “Weren't you, Jack?”

I turned to look at the woman who spoke, and I didn't recognize her. “Not really.” I said. “It was more like, look what I can still do.” I smiled. “If I was going to teach him a lesson, I would have kicked him between the legs for trying to catch the gun.”

The woman laughed and nodded, and waved her hand. The squad holstered their weapons and she walked over to me.

“It's nice to finally meet you in person.” The woman said. “My name is Julia Grinder.”

“I'd like to say the same, but I have to hate people like you on principle.” I said.

“Come on now.” Julia said. “Just because I'm one of the higher-ups, doesn't mean I'm a bad person.”

I raised my eyebrows at her, and she smiled.

“You and I have a lot to talk about.” Julia said and pointed to a bank of elevators. “Right this way, please.”

I took Sandra's hand again and walked over to the elevators, and we were quickly followed by the squad... at a respectable distance. Julia saw this and glanced at me, and I winked at her. She laughed as she pushed the button for the elevator, and we all stood there and waited for it.