Mitchell's Revenge
Covington Military Hospital, EQ2

Lucy Savage took a deep, shudderingbreath and opened her eyes. She found herself looking straight at the recoveryroom nurse, who regarded her with sympathetic brown eyes.

“You’re going to be OK,” she said,and smiled at Lucy.

Lucy blinked. She felt numb. Andconfused. She licked her lips. Her mouth was incredibly dry. The nurse reachedover to a plastic cup with a straw stuck in it, lifted Lucy’s head up from thepillow with her other hand and put the straw in Lucy’s mouth.

“Try this,” she said. “It’ll help.”

Lucy sucked at the straw withoutmuch success. She felt as if her strength had evaporated. Eventually shemanaged to get some lukewarm water into her mouth and immediately felt better. Shesucked a bit more. Then the nurse took the water away.

“That’s enough for now. We don’t want to you to be sick after such along operation,” She said gently.

Lucy blinked again. “Where am I? Whathappened?” she asked, feeling panic rising in her chest. Her eyes felt likesandpaper. She gripped the edge of the bed.

“You had an accident,” said thenurse. “Your space craft crashed. On the pylon course. Your partner rescued youand brought you here. You’re in the military hospital at Covington on EQ2.” Shecould see the distress on Lucy’s face and began to gently stroke her hair.

“You’re going to be OK,” she saidagain. “The doctors have patched you up. Ted Fosberg led the team that savedyour life. He’ll explain what they’ve done when you’re more awake. Just restnow.” The nurse’s hand continued to stroke her hair and Lucy relaxed her gripon the edge of the bed.

Lucy concentrated on breathingproperly. In and out. In and out. She could move her hands, she could see,albeit a bit blurrily, but she couldn’t feel her legs. She had a vague memoryof tremendous pressure on her lower body and legs but couldn’t quite piece ittogether in her mind.

Then she remembered. She’d beentesting the new stealth craft when the steering had failed. She hit a pylon. Nowshe was here. And she was alive! What arelief! Lucy closed her eyes anddrifted back to sleep.

Sometime later she became aware ofJake’s voice asking the nurse if he could see her. She heard the nurse say itwas OK as long as he sat quietly and didn’t expect too much. She felt him sitdown next to the bed. He took her hand and just sat there, looking at her. Lucystruggled to open her eyes this time. The sandpaper feeling was worse thanbefore. After several moments of trying to open them, both eyes popped open atonce. Jake leaned over, looking concerned.

“How are you feeling?” he asked,stroking her hand with his thumb.

“As if I’ve been hit by amagnetised pylon!” she replied. Lucy tried to smile. It was more of a grimace. Jakescrewed up his face and kept staring at her.

“You’re so lucky to be alive,” hesaid quietly. “I’m so glad you can see me.”

“What have they done to me?” sheasked.

“I’ll let Ted explain all that,”Jake replied. “He should be here shortly, now that you’re awake. But you willbe as good as new, if not better, when you’ve recovered. Some miracles havebeen worked today.” He smiled at her as the door behind him opened and TedFosberg came into the room.

“Good to see you’re awake Lucy,” hebegan. “But there’ll be no more visitorsfor you today. This is quite enough already.”

He moved to stand in front of herso that she could see his face.

“My eyes feel like sandpaper,” shesaid. “And I can’t feel my legs. What have you done to me?”

Ted smiled broadly.

“You’re young and strong Lucy,” hesaid. “Your eyes feel like that because you now have bionic ones. It will takea little while for the nerves to re-establish themselves so that they feelnormal again. But they will. The success rate with this kind of surgery is veryhigh. You will be able to see even better than before.”

Lucy tried to nod her head andfailed miserably. She felt so weak.

“What about the rest of me?” sheasked. “I remember hitting the pylon but nothing after that.”

“Your legs and pelvis were crushedin the accident,” Ted explained. “So badly that we couldn’t save them.” Jakeshivered and held more tightly to Lucy’s hand.

“So I have no legs....” Lucy’svoice petered out as the full horror of what had happened struck home.

Ted smiled again.

“Actually, you do. Brand new, stateof the art, bionic legs and pelvis, fully integrated into the rest of your body.You’ll function absolutely normally once you have recovered. You will be ableto fly again. You’ll be able to run faster, climb mountains, dance, ski,anything you want.”

Lucy was stunned. She fumbled forthe bedcover and lifted it. Forcing her eyes downwards towards her toes she wasamazed to see that it was true. Two legs, two feet, toes pointing upwards. Shedropped the cover and looked Ted.

“How is this possible?" sheasked. “I’m just a test pilot, not military, or anyone special.” She felt quitefaint now.

Jake had a tight grip on her handagain. He was smiling too.

“We couldn’t lose our best pilot,”he said quietly. “And you’re special to me.”

“I think that’s enough for now,”said Ted. “You need more sleep. We’ll talk some more when you’ve rested forlonger. Jake and I will leave you now. The nurses will keep an eye on you. Justget some more rest. OK?”

“OK,” Lucy replied weakly. She feltexhausted by their conversation and the effort of lifting the bed cover. She wasglad when Jake followed Ted from the room. She drifted back to sleep.

Outside Lucy’s room the two menpaused and looked at each other.

“Thank you,” Jake said as he shookTed’s hand. Ted shook his head.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he warned. “Wehave to make sure there is no infection after the surgery. She has a lot ofwork to do to get full control of her new lower body. She’s very weak and hereyes are obviously worrying her. It’ll take a while for her to adjust, bothmentally and physically. I’m sure she’ll get there with some help from herfriends. Just don’t expect too much too soon.”

“Nevertheless, she’s still here,thanks to you. And I’m grateful for that,” Jake smiled. “I’d best be off. Ihave to meet with my father and uncle while I’m on planet. I plan to stay untilLucy’s starting to recover, then I’ll have to get back to the shipyard. I’ll beback tomorrow.”

They shook hands again and Jakestrode off down the corridor.

Ted walked thoughtfully back to hisoffice. The surgery had been a marathon thirty six hours by a team of eightsurgeons working in four hour shifts. It was highly experimental, but theirtest subject was the perfect candidate for success. And money was no object forthe bigwigs at Universal Starship Enterprises, which was why they had goneahead as soon as they had Jake’s OK.

The bionics were the very latestfrom the military development labs. This version was programmed to evolve with itshost. Ted expected that it would be at least six months before Lucy was fullyfunctional. He hoped that she would beable to understand what had happened to her and how they had mended her. Hethought it would be fascinating to see how specialist military bionics maturedin a civilian environment.