I never liked how long it took me to surface from cyberspace, but I never hated it more than now. I had people to get into the auto surgeons, and it was indeed fortunate that I had two of them standing around now.

I just hoped that none of us would die.

As soon as I opened my eyes I realized that I had not come out unscathed from my contact with the quantum computer.

Every single surface was covered in moving psychedelic polka dots. After a few steps, I nearly threw up, but I managed to keep it under control. Still, I was anything but steady on my feet.

With the help of the wall, and doing my best to ignore my emerging vertigo I managed to reach the corridor on the ground floor where the battle had happened.

It was immediately apparent that Justin was critical at that moment. I staggered towards him and knelt down, looking at his wounds.

Christine was desperately trying to stop the bleeding, with scant results, and my cursory inspection revealed that he had several gunshot wounds. It seemed like he had not worn his armored clothes inside. It was a habit we all had to get into in the immediate future I feared.

Still, he had a pulse, and the auto surgeon was only a few meters away. I gripped Christine’s hand and drew her attention to me.

“Go into the lab and start the new auto surgeon! Anything we do here is useless.”

I then tried to call a bot, but my cranial board was unresponsive.

“Fuck! My connection is malfunctioning, can anybody round up a few of the bots and send them here? Or is anybody here physically able to carry him to the auto surgeon?”

They all looked at me like I had grown a second head. Kate, injured as she was, reacted first and picked up Justin carefully.

That shook Christine into action, and she jumped up, running towards the lab.

Meanwhile, I moved over to Mark, who was attended by Mia. He was still somewhat conscious, but he had lost a lot of blood and was pretty out of it. His arm was shredded. I had no idea how that could have happened, but I was pretty sure that I would not be able to save it.

“Mia, boot up the second auto surgeon! We need to get his arm taken care of as soon as possible. Ryan, can you carry him there please?”

Again, I tried to connect to the network, but still without results, so I fought myself standing again.

Darren gripped my shoulder and spun me around to face him. I managed to not decorate him with my last meal, but it was a close thing.

He was, obviously angry.

“Where the hell were you? We were fighting for our lives here, and you come only when everything is over?”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I answered him.

“I was fighting for all our lives in cyberspace. Do you think they simply walked through the diamond-coated walls?

No, they had a cyber assault, that deactivated the security system and opened the door for them.

I managed to beat them, reactivate the security system, which took out six of them, and managed to fight off one of the top 30 hackers, to deactivate the Cyberzombies.

No clue why the bot did what it did though. Now I have to get to my nano fab, or Justin and Mark probably won’t survive.”

I staggered back towards the lab, steadying myself on the wall the whole time. I heard a muttered “Fuck!” from behind me, but did not spare the energy to look back.

After a felt eternity I managed to reach the nano-fabs, and immediately ordered a batch of the blood substitute nanites, following with queuing up general health nanites in a larger batch.

When the blood substitute, 0.5 liters for each of them, was finished I filled it into a drip. The new auto-surgeon was already working on Justin, and again, my subconscious attempt to connect to it failed.

So I carefully made my way over to it. Christine was standing by it in near panic, fidgeting around, while I prepared the first of the drips.

With a short use of the touch screen, I set the auto-surgeon to include the drip into its operation and put the drip into the port I build in for that specific reason.

Then I looked at the read-outs. I decided on the blood substitute nanites as I had no blood transfusions lying around, and it was glaringly obvious that both Justin and Mark had lost much blood. Now I had to decide on further treatment.

Not that the auto-surgeon was dumb. For a machine, it was almost scary smart, and it had direct access to the cluster. But while I never had undertaken the certification processes, I was a fully VR-trained medical doctor.

And the only difference between me and other Commonwealth-trained doctors was that they had their certification.

The readouts were not good, but not as bad as I feared. The bullets had missed all immediately vital organs, did not perforate the bowels, and none of the important arteries were damaged.

Yes, he had lost a lot of blood, but the blood substitute would be enough to keep him alive.

The auto-surgeon was already in the process of removing the damaged kidney. He would need a new one in the not too distant future, but that was a point for tomorrow. The new cloning lab was already up and running, so it was only a matter of time.

Of course he would be out of action for a couple of months, but all in all, against four Cyberzombies and a power armor, that was a brilliant outcome.

I absently noticed that both Christine and I had left bloody fingerprints on the touch screen, but that was easily remedied later. So I turned to Christine.

“Calm down! He will survive. He will be in pain, and pretty weak for a few weeks, but he will be as good as new.”

Then I turned towards Kate.

“Kate, I would like you to hop into the scanner so I can gauge how bad you are injured. I have, tentatively, reserved the other auto-surgeon for Mark, but scanning is faster than the surgery, so if you need it more, hop in. I also have no idea if you can use the blood substitute nanites, or if you need them at all.”

She looked at me for a moment, before she nodded and moved towards the scanner. Oh boy, my first scan of a Mutant. Yay me. Not the circumstances I had expected. I just hoped that her biology was not too foreign for me to help.

Schoolbooks teach us that the geneticists created her people by splinting animal DNA into human embryos. That sounded plausible and logical, as long as one only sees the facial features of the mutants.

But as far as I know, there have never been any mammals, not even vertebrates with more than four limbs. So how do we now have hybrids of different mammalian species with six, or in some cases eight limbs?

Show me from what animal they got that part of the DNA. Yes, I know that sounds like a conspiracy nut, but please, it just doesn’t add up. Literally in this case. Two and two do not add to six.

Not that I was ever before interested enough to dig into that mystery, but the last few weeks have kindled my curiosity. Before I knew Kate, I was vaguely aware of the discrepancy, but I gave it no thought.

The results of the scanner were… interesting. The majority of her biology was analogous to mammals, as far as I could tell, but beefed up in ways I could not explain. Her muscles were significantly denser than that of a human. That seemed to translate into them being faster and stronger, and simultaneously making her much tougher.

Similarly, her bones were even harder and stronger than that of a strong alpha Pure. It was obvious that she could not swim. Most Pures could not either though, usually our muscles and bones are way too dense for that.

Her bone structure was where the similarities ended. Her double shoulder structure was elegant but very complicated, and her left upper shoulder had been dislocated. Her other injuries were mostly superficial. Not that she could have broken through the power armor, even with all four arms working.

I tasked the cluster to simulate the best way to give her a shoulder reduction. When I got no reply I was first irritated, before I growled at myself. Of course, the cluster would not reply. My implants did not work. I realized that my HUD was frozen as well. Trying the reboot sequence did not help, I would have to use an external reset. Fortunately, Precious was available this time.

“Ok, Kate, your shoulder is dislocated. In humans, that would be no big deal, but for you, I don’t know the procedure yet. And it is unlikely that I am strong enough to do it by myself.

So sorry, I can’t help you yet. The auto surgeon would also be no help in your situation. I will give you an injection with regeneration-enhancing nanobots as soon as we have set your shoulder. Unfortunately, my implants are on the fritz. That means I can’t research how to help you yet.”

She looked into my eyes and then nodded.

“Ok, I understand. What is the problem with my shoulder?”

“You have four arms, and as such four shoulders. Your complete shoulder structure is different. If I interpret it right, you have a somewhat limited mobility compared to us two-armed peons, but have the advantage of four arms.

Also, you are significantly stronger than me, and I am simply not strong enough to set it traditionally. And I know that the auto-surgeons are not programmed for your anatomy. For the new one, that is a bit my fault, but in my defense, I did not realize that your shoulder would be different. Not that I could have programmed it without a detailed scan anyway.”

“Yeah, fine. I get that you did not need to think about that beforehand.”

I nodded.

“Yes, I am really sorry about that. As soon as I get my implants up and running again I will make a detailed scan of your anatomy, and program the auto-surgeon for you too. But without the implants that would take months.”

Meanwhile, Ryan had brought Mark into the lab.

“Hey Kitten, where do I put him?”

I gestured towards the older auto-surgeon.

“Put him on the table there. Mia, please start the process as soon as he is on it.”

I returned my attention to Kate.

“Do you need something against the pain? Well, what can you use?”

She shook her head.

“Nah, it’s alright. Not comfortable, and I can’t recommend the experience, but nothing too bad.”

“Ok, if it becomes too hard, say something please.”

I turned back to the nanofabs, intending to get the new batch of health nanites ready, but this time, the vertigo got the better of me.

I could not remain upright as much as I wanted, and I was grateful for the waste bucket that was nearby, which I promptly filled quite a bit more.

Hell, I hated running into quantum encryption. I could only hope that the effects were short-term, as they were some of the harshest I had ever experienced.

Before I could fight myself back onto my feet, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulders.

“Hell, Kitten, is everything alright? What the hell happened to you?”

I took a couple of deep breaths when Ryan asked his questions and then struggled to get back up, and he helped me.

“Thank you. It is nothing really bad. Just an unfortunate reaction to some quantum computing. That always does a number on a Jack. Just our luck that this time it is pretty disabling. It will go away in a few days.”

Well, at least the polka dots would, I hoped. I had to ascertain what was wrong with my implants first before I could decide there. But for now, we had more pressing matters. I had to keep our people alive first.

With a few halting steps, I managed to reach the nano fab. The fab was chugging out nanobots in troves, and I had already enough for Justin. These I filled up into another drip.

When another wave of vertigo hit me upon turning around I leaned against the table and closed my eyes.

“Damn, that is so not going to work.”

Then I raised my voice.

“Christine, come get this drip and place it into the port I used earlier! It will help Justin heal. Ryan, can you lead me to the other auto surgeon with my eyes closed, please? It will help nobody if I fall back down all the time and I have to look into Mark’s injuries.”

I heard a sure from Ryan, shortly before somebody gripped the drip I had just prepared.

Then I felt the hands on my shoulders again, and soft pressure to move forward.

“And what is this reaction doing to you?”

“As far as I can tell, it simply produces chaotically colored and erratically moving polka dots onto everything I see.”

“And that lets you toss your cookies and lets you stumble around?”

“Think about it, every single surface is moving in several different directions. No single point of reference. It is the absolute worst case of motion sickness I can imagine, and it happens without any motion at all. Only closing my eyes seems to help.”

He seemed to mull it over for a bit.

“We are at the surgeon. And why don’t you use your implants to see then? I am sure you have some cameras.”

“Can’t. My implants are bricked at the moment.”

I opened my eyes and examined the control panel of the auto surgeon. What I saw was not looking particularly good.

“Bricked? What does that mean?”

“Bricked as in as functional as a brick. They are frozen, completely unresponsive, or in simpler words, just not working at all at the moment.”

The bad feeling from the first glance at the results fortified itself when I looked deeper into the results.

“Damn, there is no way to save the arm. It is destroyed. Well, it could be worse.”

Mia, who was standing directly beside me gave a new rendition of her outraged voice, and this time my audio filters were inoperable, so I got the full effect.

“IT COULD BE WORSE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT COULD BE WORSE? HE IS LOSING HIS ARM! WHAT WILL HE DO IN THE FUTURE? I THOUGHT HE WAS YOUR FRIEND!”

Urgh, that made me involuntarily look up, which in turn made my vertigo throw a little party.

“Mia, please try to keep an indoor voice. And yes, it could be worse. He could be dying. Or have his spine injured. Or how about a brain injury turning him into a vegetable?

Yes, he loses his arm. That is not good, but it will not kill him. Even if we did nothing after that he still has more than two million dollars, he has his knowledge, he has access to the industrial fabber, and can sell his weapon creations.

That would give him a comfortable life.

But you forgot two things.

First, just before the attack, I told you that I will be able to build cybernetic limbs in a couple of months.

Second, the bio lab on the third floor contains a complete full-sized cloning station. As soon as we have the situation under control I will clone a new kidney for Justin anyway.

That means that Mark will have to decide if he wants a cybernetic or a cloned arm in a couple of months. So yes, it is a temporary inconvenience, it is painful and I can understand that you are upset, but it is not the end of the world for any of us.

As soon as the auto surgeon is done, you can use a bot to bring him to his room, and he will sleep for a few hours.

And in a couple of months, he will have two arms again. I probably should begin cloning replacement parts for all of us to keep in stock but that is hindsight.”

Then I gestured towards the nano fab.

“There is a second batch of general health nanites being produced there. As soon as they are done, go there, fill them into a drip and put that drip into that port here!”

I demonstrated the port by plugging the blood substitute nanites into it. While it was a top-of-the-line auto surgeon, it was a needlessly complicated process. Seriously, the one I build did the same much easier.

Ok, it was probably because I had built in a much better scanner, and it could basically identify what was being injected on its own, but still, in an emergency, you want to do things like this as easy and fast as possible.

That the menu was randomly occluded by polka dots did not help in any way. Then I had a thought.

“Damn. Christine do… no, I have to do it myself.”

I quickly, or as quickly as my bricked implants and the only a part of the time visible menu allowed me, I programmed the auto surgeon here to keep the nanobots away from the brain, and then staggered towards the other auto surgeon.

Almost immediately I felt Ryan’s hands back on my shoulders.

“Close your eyes, Kitten. No need to make it harder for you.”

Thankful I closed my eyes and let him lead me toward the other surgeon.

“We are there.”

“Thank you.”

When I opened my eyes again, Christine stood directly in front of the control panel.

“Christine, I have to get to that, please.”

She essentially jumped to the side, and let me at the panel. And while I designed the interface in a way I thought was much easier to use, the polka dots still made it harder than it should have been.

After that was done, I closed my eyes again. Damn, these dots were strangely exhausting.

“Ok, that should be that. The rest the surgeons will do on their own.”

With a heavy sigh, I turned back around to Ryan.

“Could I bother you to lead me to my room? I desperately need access to my board.”

I just hoped that there was nothing permanently damaged with my implants. It was frustrating that I could not even call up the diagnostics. I would hate to have to replace all of it.

At least with Precious, I could get to the nanobot controller and get some information about if it was a hardware or a software failure.

I assume he nodded, as it took a few seconds before I got a verbal answer.

“Yeah. Be happy the lift is just around the corner.”

And I felt his guiding hands again.

After a few steps, I heard Natalie’s enraged voice.

“Hey, where are you two going? Why is our medic going away from the surgeons?”

Uh oh, she was pissed. Even I could tell that.

“I have done everything I can for the moment. Everybody here will survive, and the auto surgeons are doing their job. To do more, I have to take care of my problems first. And for that, I need my board, which is upside in my room.

And as I let nobody touch Precious but me, I have to get up there.”

I heard steps closing to us.

“And for that you need Ryan? Shit, Red, we need all the help we can get to clean up the mess. Somehow the bots are no help, so if you absolutely need to go to your room, then leave us Ryan.”

Another deep sigh.

“I can’t do that either. The problems I talked about? One of them is that every time I open my eyes I get blasted by motion sickness on steroids. While Precious won’t be much help with that directly, the other, bigger problem is that my implants are on the fritz.

Normally I would put on some smart glasses and see through their cameras, but I can’t do that now. I have to look up how to treat Kate’s dislocated shoulder, but I can’t do that either.

I have to look into why all the bots behave strangely, but without my implants, I can’t. So it is imperative that I find out if I can reactivate them or have the indy-fab make a new set for me.

I personally don’t want to be in a building with bots going around cutting people's heads off without knowing why.”

Add to that that I was seriously exhausted and yes, I wanted to get to my room. Hopefully using Precious to vanish into cyberspace for an hour or two to recharge my batteries.

She was silent after that, and a few moments later, I felt Ryan guide me again. It took only a minute or so to reach my room, but it was a long minute.

In the room, Ryan led me to my bed and told me that we were there.

I slowly opened my eyes and was immediately bombarded by the polka dots again. Who would believe that these things were so… devastating.

“Thank you, Ryan. I think it is better if you help the others with the cleanup. I will call you if this goes wrong.”

With a herculean effort, I managed to keep the remaining contents of my stomach where they were, while I opened up Precious's case.

I used Precious Bluetooth to connect to my nanite controller, to get a status update.

It was better than I feared. A bit of stress on the neural connections, and of course nausea, but the implants seemed to be intact.

So I needed to coerce my implants into a hard reset. Now that I had access to the nanite controller I could do it that way, but I wanted a core dump to look into what had gone wrong.

So I connected the OPB cable, only for nothing to happen. Damn, that port ran to the cranial board instead of to the jack, and apparently, that would not do anything.

Still, I needed the connection to that port to get the core dump, so I fished out the rarely used second OPB cable out of Precious’s case and inserted that into my second port, which was going directly to my jack.

With a feeling of relief that I had never experienced so strong before, I dove into cyberspace.

The relief intensified when I realized that there were no polka dots here.

Then I activated the second connection and tried to get into my implants. It was harder than it should have been, but finally, I managed to get in with low-level root access. The whole Kernel was caught in an infinite loop and reacted to nothing else.

That was of course not that interesting, I had expected something like that. What was interesting was why it had not simply crashed and rebooted. I could not determine why on the fly, so I copied the whole file structure into a sandbox on the cluster, before manually resetting the implants.

I then instructed the house fabber to make me a basic pair of smart glasses, happy that I had the functionality again.

Next, I had the cluster vacuum the net, and especially the medical institutions about treating mutants.

And finally, I looked into the bots.

What I found was startling. It seemed that all the bots were under remote control. Somehow somebody, or something, had taken control of all our bots. That was, in one word, disturbing.

It was very easy to follow the link back, and I found they were controlled by the security system. The security system that had been hacked only a few minutes ago.

Needless to say that this discovery did nothing to make me feel safer. I looked deeper into the security system but found no remaining trace of the hacks.

It was completely under the control of… right, I had tasked the cluster to reactivate the security here.

With that conclusion, I logged into the cluster and investigated the logs.

The result was interesting. It seemed as if the master control unit had developed virtual intelligence.

Not a full-fledged AI, as it could not think for itself, had no ego, no needs, and no will of its own, only the missions I tasked it with.

But the moment it got a mission it would doggedly do whatever it could to fulfill it.

And the primary protocol of the cluster, its absolute imperative priority, was to keep me safe.

When it took over the security system it quickly determined that none of our weapons would be a help against the power armor or the Cyberzombies. It looked into possible solutions for that, and send all of our androids and the industrial bot as reinforcements.

By the way, it decided that the risk of enemy reinforcements was too high to be acceptable and used the railguns to eliminate the mercenaries and corp-soldiers it had locked out of the fortress.

How much fun, more cleanup. At that rate, I would have to repave the parking lot in a couple of weeks. At least it dialed the strength of the railguns back accordingly.

About the bots, it reasoned that the androids were, while not capable of bringing the Cyberzombies down, would be enough interference to allow Kate and the others to take them out.

And the heavy industrial bot was able to cut through the power armor.

It was, honestly, pretty good reasoning. The problem was that now that it had control of the bots, it saw them as an extension of the security system and used them to patrol the fortress.

Luckily it was trivial to set the priorities so that it only took control of the bots in an emergency, otherwise their normal function was restored.

For the rest, I would have to look later into the ramifications of a VI running my cluster. It was a very dangerous thing.

I mean, the cluster had basically access to all my hacking tools, all my bridges, all my backdoors. If it decided that somebody was a danger to me, well, that is how paper clip optimizers are created.