Mitchell's Revenge
Covington Military Hospital, planet EQ2

The surgeons worked frantically tosave Lucy’s life. State of the art facilities in the military hospital atCovington on EQ2 meant that they had every chance of success. But at first,they were not sure what would be successful.

Lucy was in a very bad way by thetime Jake dragged her unconscious form from the ruined space craft and into therescue ship. He flew straight to the military hospital on the surface of theplanet, landing on the roof. Lauri contacted the hospital as soon as he wasaware of what Jake planned to do and the medics were waiting.

They stabilised Lucy immediatelyand trundled her on the hospital bed to the first available operating theatre. Theymade Jake wait outside. He was pacing upand down the corridor when one of the surgeons appeared. He approached Jake,looking concerned, but not overly anxious. His name badge read Ted Fosberg.

“Jake Stern?” he asked, makingcertain that he was speaking to the partner of the pilot in the operatingtheatre.

“That’s me,” replied Jake, “What doyou need me to do?”

“I need your permission...” thesurgeon hesitated.

“For what?” asked Jake.

“Lucy’s only just alive,” Ted said.“She has extensive damage to her face because of the rapid depressurisationwhen the windscreen cracked, and the impact with the pylon broke both her legsand shattered her pelvis. But she’s strong, her heart and lungs are workingwell and we think her brain’s pretty much OK.”

Jake was very worried now. “And this means?”

“We can repair her. But she won’thave the kind of life she had before. She will be an invalid for the rest ofher life, and not a very attractive one at that, unless she has extensiveplastic surgery to correct the facial damage. Her vision is pretty muchruined,” the surgeon paused, “We have a suggestion for you.”

“Go ahead,” encouraged Jake,feeling sick to his stomach.

“We have some new, experimentaltechnology available to us that may return her to her test pilot status. As it’sexperimental, I need permission from her closest relative, and I believe that’syou, in effect, to proceed. We can’t be sure of the outcome, but it may giveher a better chance of a life than if we do the traditional patch up work.”

Jake stared at the surgeon, as if tryingto read his mind, without success. The man looked calm enough.

“OK, you’d better explain.”

“We can fully intgrate new limbsinto her lower body,” he replied.

Jake sat down with a thud on thehard hospital bench behind him. He gaped at the surgeon.

“What?”

“We have access to advanced bionicsthat would allow us to fully integrate the new limbs. She will look quite humanand function exactly as humans do. She would have augmented strength andflexibility, of course. We can replace her eyes with high resolution bioniceyes and repair her face so that she looks like herself again. She would haveenhanced vision and a few other advantages, of course.”

Jake was having trouble closing hismouth. He was stunned. Suddenly his brain clicked into gear and he looked up atthe surgeon, standing calmly in the corridor.

“I’ve heard about surgery likethis,” Jake said slowly. “I thought it was just rumour. You’re talking aboutturning her into a cyborg. Aren’t you?”

Ted Fosberg smiled and nodded.

“As I see it, you really have twochoices here. An invalid for the rest or her life, probably in pain most of thetime, and ending up addicted to painkilling drugs, or take the radical optionso that she can have a life. She’s young, and strong. She’s a fine candidatefor this type of surgery. It’ll take some months of rehabilitation and trainingto use her new functions, but she’ll be as good as new. Probably better.”

“How long do I have to decide?”asked Jake, shaking his head as if trying to force his thoughts into order.

“No time,” replied the surgeon. “It’syes or no, now. Otherwise she might die. The longer we debate this the worse itwill be. So. What do you say?”

“With the state she was in when Ipulled her out of the wreck, I can see there is no option. And I know she wouldrather have some chance at an active life than not. So, yes, do yourexperimental surgery.” Jake replied.

“Thanks Jake, you won’t regret it.” The surgeon put his hand out and shookJake’s hand firmly. Then he turned and ran back into the operating theatre.

While Jake was at the hospital,Lauri organised a salvage ship to collect the wreck of the test craft and bringit back to the docking facility below the shipyard control room. It was dumpedunceremoniously in a repair pod and left for the technicians to take apart. Theywere looking for the primary chip, which was the equivalent of the oldfashioned “black box” fitted to the original airliners that flew around planetearth centuries ago.

Lauri Peltonen was the mostqualified design engineer employed by Universal Starship Enterprises based at EQ2.He was the head of space design testing and responsible for the properfunctioning of every type of ship designed and built by U.S.E. He had completed his engineeringqualifications as part of his military training, and then decided he wanted tofly, fast.

Lauri was one of the military’smost celebrated star ship commanders until he was captured by enemy forces,tortured, and subsequently rescued by members of his squadron. As a result ofhis experience he completely lost his nerve for leadership in the military, andwas honourably discharged as a war hero. He lost none of his knowledge however, andU.S.E was very lucky to have him to join them in their space design testingdivision.

The U.S.E. shipyard was moored offworld from EQ2, in the Karhu System, adjacent to the space pylon race course. Therace course was set up between stable wormhole mouths, which enabled spacecraftto return to start almost instantaneously. It shortened the time span fortesting manoeuvrability, design and overall responsiveness.

The race course was also used forintergalactic pylon racing from time to time. The races drew people with moneyand expensive ships into the solar system. EQ2’s orbiting moon, Tiberion, washome to a cornucopia of sporting complexes and entertainment venues.

The U.S.E. control room was locatedin the top deck of the shipyard above the design centre, repair pods anddocking bays. The pylon course was visible from end to end from the mainviewing screen. Docking bays for finished ships undergoing testing prior todelivery to their owners were also visible from the control room, along withthe blue green of the planet’s surface below. Lauri thought it was not a badplace to work on a good day.

Today was not a good day. Somethingwas seriously wrong with the Sniper class stealth craft currently being tested.His best test pilot had just been shredded in the horrible accident witnessedby all the staff in the control room at the time.

Lauri knew quite a lot about theoffer of a medical miracle being made to Jake. He had spoken with Jake’sfather, Tim, as soon as he was aware of Lucy’s condition. Tim Stern and hisbrother Erik owned and operated Universal Starship Enterprises, and money wasnot an issue when it came to their best test pilot. They immediately authorisedLauri to spend whatever was necessary to save her.

As soon as he had theirconfirmation, Lauri spoke with his contacts in the Karhu system military andbegan to pull strings. Bionics development had moved quickly in recent years. Hewas aware that they were working on recovery systems for service personel whoexperienced severe trauma in deep space. Suitable candidates for the surgerywere not always available, and sometimes they turned to civilian survivors fortesting purposes. The combination of circumstances meant that Lucy was theperfect candidate.

While the surgery on Lucy was mostlikely to be a success, their work on the Sniper Class stealth ship wasanything but. The testing run had destroyed three months’ work, and Lauri nowhad grave concerns about the computer software being used in the ships.

His technicians’ data showed thatthe ship had in fact slowed by itself at the end of Jake’s last run. Until theystripped the data from the on-board flight recorder they had no idea what mayhave caused the steering failure. Lauri suspected a glitch in the software. Thiswas worrying in itself because they had recently switched to a new softwaresupplier. They had a number of ships fitted with the software already operatingin deep space and if anything happened to them, U.S.E could be in trouble.

Lauri rubbed his eyes. He had beenawake now for almost twenty four hours and knew he needed some sleep. Hecouldn’t think straight.

“I’m going to get some rest,” hetold the technicians. “Give me four hours and then wake me if you replace anything.Otherwise, let me sleep at least six.”

He left the control room and slowlymade his way down through the shipyard to his personal quarters at the base ofthe structure. The sliding door hissed as he stepped through into his cabin,and then closed silently behind him. He stepped into the san unit and washedhis face. As he looked at his reflection in the mirror he thought he had agedat least ten years today. The corners of his blue eyes were pinched withexhaustion, his square face with its strong jaw line had a greyish tinge to itand his dark blond hair stuck out in all directions.

“Not my usual neat self,” hethought as he looked in the mirror. He sighed as he dried his face, scrubbingat the skin, trying to get some colour back into it.

He stepped back into the cabin andlooked at the view of EQ2 far below him, glimmering green and blue in the distance.He pulled the shade over the window and lay down, fully clothed on the bed. Heclosed his eyes and saw the dreadful accident replaying in his mind. If Jakehadn’t reached Lucy as quickly as he did, she would surely have died.

Gradually the images faded andLauri fell into a deep, restorative sleep.

Lucy Savage was also in a deep, restorativesleep. Hers, however, was drug induced. The surgery was complete. Andfortunately for her, nothing at all came to mind.