The reason I wanted to delay for three days was because Mr. Landing was going to wake up before then. I went to the medical bay on Adona and saw Amanda checking his readings again.

“You know they aren't going to change until he wakes up.” I said as I walked over to her.

“Which should be any minute now.” Amanda said and kept one eye on the readouts and one on the patient.

I was tempted to give him a boost to wake him up sooner, then decided against it. Not surprisingly, his Presence core hadn't increased at all and he didn't have any of my Presence inside of him. I checked him over with Detect Presence and all of his limbs and regrown parts were fine and had the same Presence signature as his core, which meant all that focusing crystal energy had been used solely for restoration and didn't power him up at all. He was just a normal man.

Amanda saw his brain scan readings fluctuate and stepped close to his bedside and stared down at him. “Mr. Landing? Are you awake?” She asked and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, then pulled her hand back.

The man opened his eyes for a moment, closed them, then he took in a sharp breath. “My eyes!” He exclaimed and opened them. His hand gently probed the cheek and around what used to be a cybernetic eye. His whole hand got into the action as he rubbed the side of his head. “I can feel that!”

“Well, it's your head, so that's no surprise.” I said and he looked at me.

“I don't see a heads up display!” He said and tried to poke at his eye with his fingers.

Amanda caught his hand and pulled it away from his face. “There's no need to test it. It's real.”

“No, it can't be.” Mr. Landing said. “I haven't had a real eye in years.”

“There's also something you didn't notice.” I said and pointed. “You used your hand automatically.”

“What?” He looked at me and then down at his hand. “My hand?” He asked and then his hand made a fist. “I have my hand back!” He said loudly and opened his hand and wiggled the fingers. “By the Goddess, I have my hand back.”

“And your legs.” Amanda said. “I doubt you're going to be walking on them anytime soon, though.”

“WHAT? WHY?!?” Mr. Landing yelled.

“You need to relearn how to walk with real limbs.” I said. “You've been stumping along on metal legs for years, so you can't expect to just be able to walk normally, even with a fully restored nervous system.”

“But... she said...”

“Wiggle your toes.” Amanda said and she and he looked at his feet, and the toes wiggled. “Good. Good.” She said and used a metal prod to poke at the sole of his right foot.

The leg jerked and he let out a short string of curses, then he started to cry.

“I felt that! I did!” Mr. Landing said and thought about trying to sit up. Both Amanda and I put a hand on his shoulders to hold him down.

“Baby steps.” I said. “Let the medical professional check you over before you try jumping around the compartment.”

“How did you know I wanted to do that?” He asked me and flipped the blanket off.

“You just gained eight inches in height and your real legs, so you want get right into seeing how much you can do with those legs.”

Mr. Landing gave me a knowing look and nodded. “Help me stand up.”

“I want to run a scan first.” Amanda said.

“Then help me walk over there!” He said and held his hands out to us. “Get me up on my feet! Now!”

I reached out and took his hand. He looked at Amanda and she sighed. She took his other hand and we slid him to the side of the bed and he planted his bare feet onto the floor.

“AH! The floor's freezing!” Mr. Landing said. “Ha ha! I love it!”

“Please don't try to move too fast. Let your brain get used to being back in control.” Amanda said.

He nodded and pulled on our hands and his weight left the bed and was completely on his new legs. He was close to my height and he stared down at the floor. He wiggled his toes and they still worked.

“They're really my feet.” He said, his voice full of disbelief and wonder. “This is amazing.”

“You're standing well.” Amanda said and made a note on her datapad. “Do you want to try it on your own?”

“By the seven hells, yes!” Mr. Landing said and she carefully let his hand go. Only I was holding him up and she nodded to me.

“Don't be scared if you lose your balance.” I said and slowly let his hand go, too.

“I won't.” He said with a smile and stood there. He wavered slightly; but, that was more to a normal person's auto-gyration response that made them keep correcting their posture. “Ha.” He let out a single bark of laughter and then took my hand again. “All right. First step.”

Amanda stared at her readouts and then kept adding notes.

Mr. Landing put all of his weight on one leg and leaned forward as he dragged his other leg. His foot made a slapping sound as it hit the floor again and he laughed. He did the same with the other foot and then kept laughing as he slapped-stepped over to the medical scanner with me holding him up. I helped him sit down and he leaned back and pulled his legs up automatically.

“Autonomic response is at normal levels.” Amanda said. “This really is amazing.”

“Make sure to give him the full workup while I take Herbie back to the Udelis to rest.”

“That's not necessary.” Amanda said. “Herbie's fine right were he is.”

“It wasn't a request.” I said and motioned to the medical droid. “Even droids need down time.”

Amanda thought about arguing with me and changed her mind, because she was sure I wouldn't find what she had hidden on him.

I led Herbie out of the medical bay and quickly used Presence to check him over. I found two things on him. A memory chip that wasn't there before and a small communications device. I didn't ask him to hand them over, since Amanda probably asked him to keep them for medical reasons. I covered them in Presence and made it solid instead and popped the battery on the communications device.

As soon as we were out of Adona, Herbie used an appendage to hit a button on the communications device. Nothing happened, since it was just solid Presence, and he kept following me. I took him back to Udelis and plugged him in, then used a nearby console to go over his programming. Sure enough, there were a few other subroutines that weren't there before.

I sighed and scrubbed the new additions, put Herbie into sleep mode, then removed the communications device and the memory chip. I took both down to the security center, turned on the black barrier to block everything, then absorbed the Presence around the two items and accessed them. The device was a dummy link and only contacted another device, and the memory card had all of the medical scans that were before, during, and after the procedures.

It also had all of her notes on everything she had seen and witnessed. Not only for this procedure, either. Both Hailey's and Simone's were on it as well and they were pretty extensive. It made me wonder how many copies of it she had made and where they were.

Well, I was warned about sharing it with her. I thought in disappointment as I copied the data after making sure there wasn't any malicious coding or software in it, then I wiped the chip. I was tempted to crush the communications device, then decided to copy the signal and see if I could trace the source. I turned off the black barrier and it took a while to find anything even remotely like it on the galactic net.

They were sold in pairs and worked like a beacon. Whoever pushed it first needed immediate extraction that was to be performed by the holder of the other one. That made me think about Herbie. I had told Amanda a long time ago that Herbie was a part of Udelis and couldn't be removed, so I spent a bit more time looking for how it was possible to change medical bots from one place to another.

I wasn't surprised to find that it was possible. As long as you completely reprogrammed the medical bot to fit the new station, it would work fine because it wouldn't remember the old one. Of course, there was no way that anyone was getting onto the station without me knowing about it, especially with Opina watching everything. They were definitely not getting off the station if they did somehow manage to sneak in.

That line of thinking took me to the memory chip with the data on it. It must be much more important than I believed it was, if they only wanted to get the data and not Herbie off of the station. So, either there was something hidden inside the data that I didn't recognize, or the data itself is what was valuable. I couldn't see how, especially since I didn't have many of the wooden placards left.

Amanda doesn't know that, though. I thought. I'm sure she knows they are of limited use; but, I haven't told her exactly how limited they really are.

I picked up the wiped memory chip and the disabled communications device and went back up to the docking ring. I stopped between the hatches to enter either Udelis and Adona and thought about what I wanted to do.

Do I want to let it play out and see who shows up when the communications device is activated, or do I confront Amanda right now? The first was a somewhat risky proposition, since I didn't know who, or what, would try to assault the station. Were they after Herbie, Amanda, or the data?

I sighed as I made my decision and went into Adona's main hatch and walked over to the medical bay. I entered the room and Amanda was deep into the analysis of the medical scan. I stood there and waited for several minutes, just until the first preliminary scan finished, then I put the blank memory chip on the display she was looking at.

“Lose something?” I asked her and she lifted her head to look at me.

“It's a backup I put into Herbie for safekeeping.” Amanda said.

“I guessed that much on my own.” I said and held up the small communications device. “Explain this.”

“It's a communications device.” Amanda said.

“Why did you give it to Herbie?”

“So he could call me.” Amanda lied and the Presence wavered.

“He wouldn't try to call you as soon as he left the ship, would he?” I asked.

“Maybe he missed me.” Amanda said.

“All right.” I said. “Now, think carefully about this before you answer. Are you trying to steal him from me?”

“What if he wants to go with me?” Amanda asked and then smiled. “Why don't you ask him.”

“I would rather you tell me the truth.” I said, a little tired of her evasions.

“What truth is that?”

I pointed at the man on the table that was looking at us. “Why did you make me waste such limited and priceless items on a goddamned combat soldier?!?”

“E-excuse me?” Amanda blinked her eyes. “What are you saying?”

“I'm saying that he's a complete non-entity! He's no one! He's not even highly decorated or fought in any significant wars! In fact, he doesn't even have a decent rank in the military!”

Both Amanda and Mr. Landing stared at me with wide eyes.

“That... that's a horrible thing to say to someone!” Amanda spat at me.

“Tell me how this insignificant man, with no personal resources, managed to pay the exorbitant auction fee YOU charged for MY restoration abilities!” I said loudly and the thoughts immediately popped up in both of their minds.

It was a test.

They had found the most damaged and hard-on-his-luck soldier they could find that was still mobile. The man who had actually paid the fee, or would pay the fee, had been too nervous about how it would turn out that he wanted to try it on a surrogate first.

“Oh, you stupid... ignorant... goddamned...” I muttered as my anger flared. “You will return or destroy all data pertaining to my processes and research. All of it.”

“Hunter, why are you acting this way?” Amanda asked.

“I read your thoughts.” I said. “I know perfectly well that this man was only a test to ease Mr. Bretburn's mind about going through the procedure himself.” I made a fist and held my anger back. “You made me waste my precious resources, my time, and my efforts for nothing!”

“It wasn't for nothing!” Amanda exclaimed. “It works! You didn't have any personal connection with this man and you healed him perfectly! It was a complete success!”

“Yes, it was.” I said. “Now tell me what makes you think I would ever do this again for you?”

“You promised to heal whomever I brought to you!” Amanda said.

“I agreed to do it only once!” I nearly yelled.

“Don't be greedy, Hunter. I brought Mr. Bretburn with me and he's waiting for this procedure. Mr. Landing was only the test subject. Now that we know it works and that it's safe, you can just use more of those things to do it again.”

I reached out and grabbed her by the throat. “What I just wasted could have been used to save someone I care about, you stupid cow!”

“Let her go!” Mr. Landing said as he sat up and tried to punch me. He was a combat soldier, so his body responded as if it always had its parts. It was just too bad that I was pissed. His fist hit a Presence Barrier and two of his fingers broke. He yelled and pulled his hand back, then laughed at the feeling. “That really hurt! Ha ha!”

“Then you'll love this.” I said and created a Presence Barrier behind his head and backhanded him in the face. I wasn't trying to hold back at all and the side of his face was completely crushed and his eye exploded. He fell to the floor, unconscious and possibly dying, and Amanda screamed.

I covered her mouth with Presence to shut her up. “I don't like being lied to or people trying to steal my things.” I said to her and concentrated on her mind. “I just need to change a few things in your head. I won't be a minute.”

Amanda screamed wordlessly as I rummaged through her head for all the places she had stored the data, on her person, in her private files, and at her private practice. I found all of the references to me, Hailey, Simone, and the procedure in her mind, then replaced it with the image of the man on the floor. Whenever she tried to think about anything to do with it, she would see the result of her deception.

I put her to sleep and went to the console. “Adona, lift the communications restrictions, please.” I said and used the medical professional's passwords and codes to enter all the places she had put the data and I deleted it, then ran a scrubbing program to clean out the memory and then overwrote the spaces with other files. With that done, I did a quick check of the system to see what ships were owned by Mr. Bretburn.

I was tempted to destroy it when I found it, then changed my mind. He might be on the planet's surface or on a shuttle ready to dock, so that wouldn't guarantee his elimination. I knew he was a tenacious old man and would do anything to get his hands on what I could do, now that he knew that it... worked. I chuckled, because he didn't know yet and then I smiled. I walked over to Amanda and emptied her pockets, dissolved everything, including the blank memory chip, then I went to the patient.

I knew I saved his artificial limbs for a reason. I thought and used Presence to open the closet where they were and brought them over to where I knelt, then I took out a Light sword and prepared myself to use Hailey's ability as I lopped off the man's legs and arm.

It wasn't going to take me long to put him back to the way they had found him.