Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.33

Chapter 33

Scouting for Parts.

“You understand what we have told you?” Lucy asked, looking down at the wide-eyed teen. “I’m going to need some sort of response from you, JoJo.”

“Yes!” JoJo nodded. “You’re the thing that goes bump in the night. The terror from beyond the stars, and you are going to half turn me into a robot.”

“You have other choices,” Nellie said, glaring at Lucy, who had laughed at the description.

“No!” JoJo grinned, as weak as he was, “I want to be a badass nanite cyborg!” He hesitated. “Does this mean I’m going to have nanites inside me?”

“No,” Lucy shook her head. “You are not being converted, merely augmented.”

JoJo didn’t seem able to make his mind up as to whether he was relieved or disappointed about that.

“You need to be sure,” Nellie added, “It’s important, Jo.”

“Why don’t I just hop off the table and play some music while I think about it?” Jo said, the joke coming out strained. “I am sure. I don’t want to think about it anymore. Just, just make it stop… okay?” The facade dropped, and the terrified kid was plainly visible.

“We will,” Lucy promised. “Now, you go off to sleep, and when you wake up, you’ll be better than new.”

“How can I sleep?” JoJo laughed bitterly.

“I have a hammer,” Lucy said, picking one up. “Or we could go with very good drugs.”

“Drugs,” JoJo said and immediately fell asleep.

“I have a hammer?” Nellie said.

“I wanted to keep things light,” Lucy said, “He’s been through a lot.”

“Still, though,” Nellie said, worry still tearing at her.

“Sending instructions to your HUD,” Lucy said as information flashed across her eyes. “I’ll get the machines working, and you can get him turned over for the first surgery.”

“Okay,” Nellie read through the list and started to get things ready. “About Crush?”

“Oh, right,” Lucy said lightly. “He is completely fine and relatively uninjured unless Vicky killed him after I left.”

“Vicky?” Nellie asked.

“Yeah, they have a thing going.” Lucy grinned as a set of strange metal plates and shapes started to extrude from the fabricator.

“Wow, did not think he was her type,” Nellie said. “Isn’t he a little prim and proper for her?”

“She doesn’t seem to think so,” Lucy said happily as she transferred a few things to the table and set out some tools. “She was pretty pissed at him, though.”

“Like this?” Nellie asked as she cut away JoJo’s shirt and pulled the remains of his arms out to the side.

“That’s great, thanks,” She went to another of the machines and started collecting a complex set of wiring and circuitry. “We will need some nanites to control bleeding and such, can you?”

“Sure,” Nellie let the two tubes push out of her wrist and watched as they pierced into JoJo’s back. “Let me know when to stop.”

“That’s fine, thanks,” Lucy said as she started to assemble what appeared to be a copy of Nellie’s mechanical arm. “The tail is going to be a challenge; I never did one of them before.”

“Crush knows, right?” Nellie asked. She knew Lucy knew she wanted to know, but she was being cagey about it.

“He does,” Lucy nodded, “But there is nothing to worry about there. He seems to have had a change of heart since the whole attempted murder incident.” She came over and took Nellie’s offered nano-blade. “I don’t want to say too much because he wants to talk to you in person. Just know I think he is nothing to worry about.”

“He’s going to be okay then?” Nellie asked, fighting rising nausea as Lucy deftly cut into the teen’s back, pulling away strips of skin and muscle to reveal the vertebrae of JoJo’s backbone.

“Completely fine,” Lucy grinned, “Like I said, unless Vicky murders him. She was so angry it was really cute watching them argue.”

They worked together for hours, and Nellie lost her revolution of the open flesh after a while. Thanks to Lucy’s control of the nanites, nothing bled, so it mostly looked like meat unless she thought about it. A new set of plating ran up JoJo’s spine, carrying and protecting the electronics within and strengthening the spine to deal with the extra weight and force from the new tail.

At least, it would when Lucy figured the tail out.

The stumps of melted flesh were now gone; smooth metal and synthetic flesh joints replaced the damaged tissue. A few more connections were made, and the arms and legs were attached while the nanites fused it all together and made thousands of small connections internally; Lucy and Nellie printed synthetic muscles and, eventually skin. The skin had no scaling and no color at this point, as Nellie and Lucy both agreed it would be better to tie that into his implant once it was active.

“Does this look like a tail?” Lucy asked eventually, holding up a mess of metal.

“Sort off?” Nellie offered.

“Why can’t I make a tail?” Lucy growled and threw the mess in a corner. “It’s such a simple thing, but every time I try, I get….that.”

“Can we just get one of the spares from the Synthetics and use that?” Nellie offered.

“I promised him better than that,” Lucy huffed and glared at the pile of rejected tails.

“What about something that isn’t a tail but just looks like one?” Nellie offered lamely.

“Oh, I think that would work,” Lucy immediately moved to one of the machines.

“Really?” Nellie asked.

“Yes,” Lucy said thoughtfully. “I think I kept making it too complicated because I was irritated about the wasted space. If I use that space for something else… done!” She hurried over to the output tray and started collecting parts, which she quickly assembled.

A few minutes later, Nellie watched the nanite levels die off in JoJo’s body.

“Lift his head, will you?” Lucy asked.

“Sure, how’s th– oh, shit!” Nellie winced as Lucy jammed five tubes into the sinus cavity, and they started to pulse. “A little warning next time?” Nellie said, feeling faint as she watched.

“Sorry,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes and winking.

“They look just like my old ones,” JoJo said a couple of hours later as he sat on the table's edge. He was moving his new arms around experimentally. “I was kind of expecting, oh, there it is!” His arms started to shift and change color, the skin becoming translucent on one while the other gained metallic scales. “Hey, this is kind of nice.” He flexed the arm with the translucent skin and watched the blue muscle tense and relax over the metal framing. “Maybe we can add some glowing lights another time?”

“Why would you ever have lights inside you?” Lucy asked.

“Rule of Cool,” JoJo grinned. “That’s why.”

“Uh huh,” Nellie sighed. “Glad to see you’re not too badly traumatized by being turned into a cyborg, but take it easy for a bit, okay? Your body needs time to adjust to all the changes, plus the massive amount of trauma.”

“Speaking of,” JoJo asked nervously. “How come I’m not insane?”

“You passed out pretty quickly,” Nellie said gently. “My advice? Try not to dwell on it any more than you have to. It will hit you when it hits you. When that happens, we’ll do our best to help. Okay?”

“Sure, sure,” JoJo said. “Hey, did you bring the bag?”

“What?” Nellie asked.

“The bag?” JoJo asked again. “I had collected some great….” He trailed off as Nellie glared at him.

“JoJo, remind me to install some survival instincts next time you get injured,” Lucy said as she ushered him out of the room.

“Did he really just fucking ask about the fucking bag?” Nellie said, feeling her teeth creak as she was grinding them so hard.

“Come here,” Lucy said, grabbing Nellie into a hug, “You scared the shit out of me out there, Nell,” She held Nellie tight until she finally relaxed, and the floodgates opened. All the fear, anger, and tension leaving her in a rush of tears as she clutched Lucy to her.

They really needed to get off this fucking planet.

===<<<>>>===

Ahern paced back and forth in his office, wondering again if he had done the right thing. It felt like the right thing; logically, it was the right thing, but even now, he felt like he had made an error somewhere. The decision was eating at him, so he pulled up the replay of the whole thing on his internal office cameras and watched it back over again.

“Sir,” Prit-Mal had said when she entered his office shortly after leaving with Danforth. “I have an urgent matter to speak with you about.”

He remembered being surprised to see her again so soon and even a little concerned about what she wanted.

“In private, sir?” She had asked as she closed the doors to his office. The recording showed him sliding his hand onto the concealed weapon under his desk. He wasn’t sure, even then.

“What is it, Officer Prit-Mal?” Ahern remembered keeping his voice calm, but on the recording, he sounded irritated.

“Is this room secure, sir?” She had asked, glancing around nervously.

“No one bugs my room, Officer, I assure you.” No one other than him bugged the room anyway.

“Danforth has ordered me to transfer to the second largest city, sir. With him. My orders were signed immediately.” She held them out for him to see.

Again, the recording showed him being more obviously disturbed than he remembered, but a lot had been going on. No one else would notice the small changes, he was sure.

“I see, Officer,” Ahern had sighed. “I take it you would rather I counter these orders?” He remembered her suggestion that Danforth had designs on her.

“I did, sir,” Prit-Mal took a deep breath and plunged on, “I regret to inform you I believe Chief Sec. Danforth has designs on your command, sir. I understand this is a seditious comment, and I accept any punishment I am due, but I could do no less than warn you, sir!” She stood ramrod straight, waiting for him to explode.

Ahern remembered his glee at that moment, the feeling of a job well done. He had known it was coming, but proving it was another thing. Now, this young officer had made the declaration. He could not help but investigate, and what is more, she was so damn dedicated it would hold up to scrutiny. Prit-Mal even acknowledged it was sedition for her to even utter the words.

“Explain yourself,” Ahern had told her, adopting his strictest voice.

“Danforth indicated that he had one of the cities locked down with his own men, sir,” Prit-Mal said. “What is more, he indicated I would be safe there, as there would be no trouble there.” She gave a meaningful look as she said the word.

Ahern had been tempted to act then. To seize Danforth and his people before anything could even begin. Then he thought again, his eyes distant as Prit-Mal remained at attention. A city was going to fall, and now he had a perfect target, and what is more, it improved the story.

Of course, he could have saved the city, of course, he could, if only his treacherous second-in-command hadn’t mutinied and died in the process. The holo-vids would write themselves. However, Ahern would need someone inside to ensure it would work.

“Officer Prit-Mal,” Ahern had said. “Are you truly willing to help me with this?”

“If I can, sir,” She had replied immediately. “But, I am only one officer…”

“I need someone to watch the man,” Ahern sighed as if it was a wrench for him to ask her for this. “And I can see no one other than you for this task.” He had turned away then, “I can’t guarantee it will be possible to get you out if things go wrong…”

“Understood, sir,” She straightened again. “I shall do my best, as always.”

“I can’t order you to do this, Prit-Mal,” He had said.

“Of course not, sir.” She smiled sadly, “I volunteered, naturally,”

“You never fail to understand, Officer,” Ahern said.

“I always do my best, sir,” She said and saluted before hurrying out to transfer into the clutches of a traitor.

Ahern watched the recording twice more before he figured out what was wrong. Looking at the earnest, hard-working face of Prit-Mal as she hid a frown of worry as she hurried away, Ahern felt guilty.

There was no way to get her out that he could see, and until now, he had no plans to. But now… Ahern slammed his fist into his desk in frustration. It was ridiculous. He was planning to sacrifice a whole city to save his career. How could a single Officer matter in the midst of all that?

Still, it bugged and nagged away at him as he sat there in his silent office.

“Fuck it,” Ahern growled. “I’ll just have to get her out of there somehow.” It wouldn’t be easy, and timing would be everything. Planning to extract a single officer was a clear waste of his time, but at least with the decision made, he could relax.

===<<<>>>===

“Most things we need I have already been able to make,” Lucy said as she and Nellie lay in bed together, “I learned a lot from the Bly and all the scrap we got along the way here, but I can’t fabricate some things without getting a look at the real thing.”

“So, what do we need first,” Nellie asked, snuggling in closer to her love.

“A power generator,” Lucy said, “A big one.”

“Like we had back on the Bly?” Nellie asked.

“No, something much bigger,” Lucy said. “The biggest we can get, and at least one exosystem drive as well.”

“So, nothing too bad then,” Nellie laughed. “I mean, they probably have them just lying around out there at the moment.”

“If they did,” Lucy sighed. “We would have found it by now.”

“So, in short,” Nellie said, “We need to look further afield?”

“Towards where all the creatures are coming from, yes,” Lucy said.

“You didn’t need to say that bit,” Nellie poked her.

“Sorry, did I spoil the mood?” Lucy asked, pulling Nellie closer still.

“No, it's just the way my life works. It literally never occurred to me it would be in any other direction.” They both laughed at that.

A while later, Nellie had Salem gather everyone for a meeting. It was nanite and synthetics only for the moment, but of course, they would have to tell everyone once they had plans in place.

“So it’s an expedition,” Baz said as he twirled a stylus in one hand, “I’m in; you’ll need a good pilot.”

“We aren’t asking for volunteers just yet, Baz,” Nellie said with a smile. “When we go, it will only be a few of us, just in case anything goes wrong and we need a rescue.”

“I’m assuming we need to arrange for some scouting to be done?” Salem asked. “Perhaps some dedicated scout drones could be made?”

“No point,” Lucy shook her head. “We have scoured everywhere near enough for a drone to report on. If it was there, we would already know about it.”

“Forgive me,” Remy said politely, “But then what is the point of this meeting?”

“Two reasons,” Nellie said, “First, to let everyone know what we are planning and to give those who remain behind time to plan how to look after this place while we are gone.”

“I will handle the yard while you are gone, as well as provisioning the largest shuttle,” Salem said immediately. “Are there any changes we need to make to it now?”

“We are going to fit a pair of scouts to the outside to do some recon if we find anything,” Lucy said. “We will also take a trio of Centrum Models with us, leaving the majority of our forces here, just in case.”

“I think we might be able to mount a few gathering parties with the other two shuttles,” Remy said, “Might as well make use of them while you are away, as well as allowing us to train a few of the civilians as we go.”

“Sure,” Nellie shrugged. “Just be careful, okay?”

“Always,” Remy said with a nod.

“Well then,” Lucy stood. “If everyone is set, let’s get to work.”

Once everyone had filed out, Lucy and Nellie started to go over what little mapping they had of the area around them. It wasn’t much more than some data recorded from the shuttles, and most of it was out of date, but it was something.

Lucy overlaid a set of arrows on the edge of the map, indicating the trajectory of the larger ships as they fell.

A little number next to each arrow indicated the distance to the likely impact point. If anything was salvageable at that point was unknown, but it at least gave them a few areas to check over.

“This isn’t crazy, is it?” Nellie asked. “We could take more people with us.”

“And if we come back to everything destroyed by the next wave of creatures?” Lucy sighed. “Look, it’s far from ideal, but I think this is the best we can do short of bunkering down and waiting for the worst to pass.”

“Which it might not,” Nellie nodded. “Even if it did, we would have more problems with the Feds then. At least now, no one is out there but us.”

“I was thinking about that,” Lucy said. “We still need info on how Duke plans to get past the ships in orbit, so how about we offer a bit of trade?”

“Like what?” Nellie asked.

“We look for something he wants while we are out there?” Lucy offered.

“He’ll want someone on board with us,” Nellie countered. “Which means no nanites on display.”

“We take Vicky,” Lucy said. “It’s realistically only a matter of time until Crush lets it slip. So we get ahead of it and get the last bits we need to leave at the same time.”

“He might have some better maps as well,” Nellie admitted reluctantly. “So I guess we go and talk to Duke?”

“We go and talk to Duke,” Lucy agreed.