The Augmented Family
By Rilbur Skryler
©2011 by Rilbur Skryler
Cover Design by Rilbur
Skryler
All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Visit my website at www.RilburSkryler.net
Prologue
Sergeant Major Jared Brent Warren bit his lip and forced himself not to snarl. His kids couldn't see the white knuckles he was getting from gripping the steering wheel too hard, but there was no doubt in his mind they'd notice and understand that their parents were fighting if he gave in and tore that bitch's head off.
And maybe not merely in the figurative sense, either. If it weren't for the kids, he'd have hurt her long since.
"And Angela has this simply wonderful diamond ring her husband bought her for their anniversary," she nagged him. He was almost -- almost -- tempted to give in. She'd been incensed that his idea of a ten-year anniversary present had been a 'mere' trip to a day spa and not fancy jewelry. She'd been dropping hints that even if he hadn't made it up on their eleventh, their twelfth anniversary would work. Or, you know, get her some bling for no reason except that he 'loved her'.
Bitch, she knew full well he loathed her guts. If it weren't for the kids...
Jared sighed. The kids. David and Cody were the lights of his life and the only reason he'd ever married this gold-digging bitch. He'd never expected to have kids, not after he'd turned twelve and realized-
"Are you listening to me at all, Jared?" the bitch shrilled.
"Of course I'm listening," Jared lied. "But why should I bother responding to demands for luxuries we can't afford?"
"Luxuries?" she screeched. "But we can afford the 'luxuries' of David's new braces?"
Jared tried to bite his tongue, really he did. "There is a difference between worthless, horrifically expensive jewelry and the equipment necessary to straighten our son's teeth!" he ground out evenly.
"I don't know why I ever married such a brute!" Samantha complained, finally crossing the line. "You ugly, stupid, useless piece of trash!"
"Samantha!" Jared snapped, twisting around to glare at her. "Not in front of the children!"
Later he'd wonder if losing his temper had caused the accident, or if it was inevitable. Hell, the truck was coming from her side of the car, so glaring at her had bought him a few precious extra fractions of a second to hit the brakes. Instead of hitting the car dead on in an accident that would have killed all four of them, the large truck 'merely' caught the forward part of the car, spinning it around until the car bounced off the rear end of the cab. If the truck had hit any further forward on the car, the car might have ended up under the wheels of the shipping container the truck was hauling, and then all four of them would have died.
Later Jared would learn how lucky he and his family were, for now his eyes widened as he saw the dark form of an eighteen wheeler bearing down the side road with its headlights off. His nearly twenty years in the Marine Corps took over and his mind dropped into the hyper-aware state that had saved his life in hundreds of firefights. Even as he slammed the brakes, he checked the impulse to turn left, away from the truck and forced himself to turn right. It was a two lane road, and there was too much oncoming traffic. Despair filled him as he started to jerk the wheel right. His initial instinct to turn left had cost him too much time. He didn't even have time to shout out a warning as the truck slammed into his car and everything began to spin around him.
Jared's last thoughts, as the blackness overwhelmed him, was a hope, something that given an instant more would have become a prayer, that his kids at least die quickly, without feeling too much pain. He would have hoped for their survival, but he'd always been a bit of a pessimist.
What seemed like moments later, he obeyed his CO's barked order to wake up. "Yessir!" he slurred, pulling himself out of the blackness by sheer will and reflexive obedience to the lawful orders of an officer.
He didn't even question General Sheridan's presence in the afterlife. If the general wanted a day-pass to Hell to visit one of his marines, Satan would damned well provide one... or else. God, of course, would have long since issued the general a lifelong visitors pass to Heaven for such things; after all he was far wiser than the fallen angel in charge of the underworld.
"Sergeant, I need you to wake up and pay attention, we don't have a lot of time," Sheridan said urgently.
"M'boys," Jared tried to ask.
"Your wife is dead," the General answered, "David will live and is estimated to make a full recovery. Cody and you are the problem."
"Cohdy?" Jared mumbled, trying to force his mouth to work. Sudden worry helped burn away the fog that had muffled his mind, and held the pain at bay for a few moments.
"They're not sure if Cody will survive," the general admitted, "but if he does he's going to be crippled for life thanks to his spinal injury. And the doctors..." the general took a deep breath, and for a moment Jared could have sworn he saw tears in the man's eyes before the general wiped them away. "The doctors give you another three hours, if you're lucky, before you die. Modern medicine can't save you."
"No," Jared moaned. "Have to be there for the boys!" he tried to add, but the cotton stuffed in his mouth turned it into a jumbled mess. "I want to see them," he added slightly more clearly.
"There is one option I need you to consider," General Sheridan said urgently. "It's one of the projects I've been handling, and by God's grace you got brought to the one hospital in the country equipped to try it."
"What?" Jared demanded.
"It's called Project Prometheus, and if it works both you and Cody will make full recoveries and then some," the General promised. "But I need your permission, and we have to do it now if it's to do any good."
"Do it," Jared decided quickly. He trusted Sheridan not to bring this up unless it was the only option, and he had to live, he had to give his children a father.
And he'd be damned if he let a seven year old boy live the rest of his life as a cripple simply because the boy's only hope was an experiment. The General wouldn't be offering this if he didn't think there was a good chance of making it work.
"I'll need temporary power of attorney to oversee your affairs for the duration," the general asked. "With you wife dead, and none of your kin available, things are going to be a mess without it."
"Granted," Jared said as the darkness began to rise. "Protect.... Prt'ctmmmuhkeds..."
Chapter One
Jared would have screamed, if he could have controlled his mouth. Every part of his body hurt, hurt bad enough to cut through the haze of morphine and other painkillers to wake him up.
The worst part of the problem was that he wasn't lying in bed. He was sitting up and looking around the room with unnaturally keen eyesight. He was staring, for the moment, at a screw in the wall opposite his bed; and he wanted to scream. He could see the top of the screw as clearly as if it were three inches and not ten yards away. His eye was tracing the slight irregularity in the grooves from where the screwdriver had oh-so-slightly deformed it.
He could hear not only the sound of his own heartbeat, thumping away in his ears, but the breathing of the technicians working at a nearby computer. The whir of a fan in a ventilation shaft bored its way into his skull; some part of his mind noting a slight irregularity in its rotation on sound alone. Every half a second the sound would hitch up for about a tenth of a second, creating a regular pattern that somehow he knew meant the engine was preparing to fail.
Sight, sound, touch, all of it magnified a thousand fold and then interpreted and analyzed for meaning poured into his mind, and he wanted to scream.
Oh God, just one scream!
"Doctor, look at the alpha waves!" someone shouted in his ear, their soft, shocked voice breaking the deafening silence of the room.
"Shit, he's awake!" someone swore. "Lock down the neural feeds, cut the augmentation out of the loop!"
Seconds later Jared collapsed back into the bed, thrashing convulsively for a few moments before finding the control of his body returned to him. He promptly passed out for a few hours. The next time he woke up, he groggily licked his lips as he tried to roll over and managed only to dislodge the sheet covering him. He felt... strange. Light. Good. The small aches and pains of a lifetime had faded away, and he felt like... like a kid again!
He almost grinned as he opened his eyes and sat up. Then remembered he most definitely was not at home as he saw the grinning face of a nurse enjoying the show he was putting on. Grabbing the sheet, he rearranged it so that he wasn't engaged in indecent exposure. "Um... hi?" he asked.
"I'll let the doctor know you've woken up," the nurse's rich contralto was thick with laughter as she walked away, hips swaying inside her far too tight skirt. Jared smiled seeing her glance seductively over her shoulder as she slipped out the door. Apparently, yet another woman was aiming to set her hooks in him. Fat chance!
Soon enough the doctor bustled in, ending Jared's inspection of the hospital room. It wasn't the room he'd woken up in earlier; this one could pass for a normal hospital room. White walls, the smell of antiseptic and a second, thankfully unoccupied, bed with medical equipment lining the walls and doubtless filling the cupboards on the walls. "Sergeant Major Warren?" the doctor asked, checking his chart.
"Yes sir," Jared answered.
"Well Sergeant, let me congratulate you on surviving something that would have killed most men," the doctor smiled. "I'm Major Williams and the head of Project Prometheus's medical staff," the doctor offered his hand, and Jared shook it firmly. "Ouch!" the doctor snapped, pulling his hand back sharply. "Watch it!"
"Sorry sir!" Jared barked reflexively.
"Oh, don't worry about it," the doctor apologized, shaking his hand. "I should have expected that; given the lack of prep time with you."
"Expected it, sir?" Jared asked, confused.
Major Williams sighed and shook his head as he sat down into the room's only chair. "This is a bit of a long story," he told Jared. "Project Prometheus is one of a number of projects dedicated towards advancing the US military position. I don't know how much you've kept up with the science journals," the doctor said with a laugh, "so I'll go slow and start from the beginning."
"That works," Jared said with an answering laugh, "because I don't really follow them! But first, can you tell me about my kids?"
"Kids? Oh yes, David and Cody," the doctor checked the folder he'd brought in with him again. "David is going to be fine; he's bruised and battered but his only real injury is a broken arm. Lucky boy, he should have come out far worse. He's over in the regular section of the hospital, and according to the notes I've gotten, he really wants to see you. Cody is currently in post-op recovery, but it looks like he'll be fine. I'll cover his medical information after we go over your own, a lot of it's pretty similar to what you need to know. And some of that stuff you really do need to know now, as shown by your nearly breaking my hand."
"Breaking your hand?!" Jared gasped. "I didn't squeeze that hard!"
"Let me finish my show and tell and you'll understand, but right now you're a lot stronger than you're used to," Major Williams said.
"Alright, take it away Doc," Jared leaned back in his bed.
With a smile, the doctor leaned forward and started. "Almost ten years ago a scientist managed, through pure serendipity, to create a computer with a neuron linkup that worked. Since then, hundreds of scientists have spent thousands of hours trying to advance the technology. One of the really interesting facets of the technology..." the doctor shook his head and waved his hands to toss the subject aside. "Sorry, you don't need the full medical details, just an overview. Basically, we can't connect a person's conscious mind to a computer, but we can connect his senses and subconscious to it. Don't ask me why it works that way, I barely understand the details myself."
"Alright, I won't!" Jared quipped.
"Anyway, with the advent of neural tapping the military recognized the possible combat applications of the technology, and started up several programs to try and take advantage of it," Major Williams continued. "Project Prometheus is the most pie-in-the-sky of those, which makes it being the only one to pay off even more amazing. Well, so far anyway; some of the other projects are still going strong. Project Prometheus started almost two years after the others when another scientist managed to create a practical nanite system."
"Nanites? Those are really small machines, right?" Jared asked. "Microscopic robots or something like that?"
The doctor took a deep breath as he winced. "That's... a decent layman's understanding of the subject," he allowed grudgingly, "but please forgive me if I don't care for it much. It's... much more complex than that."
Jared laughed again, "Alright Doc, I can buy that."
"Anyway, Project Prometheus took the two and tried to combine them. There were a number of early failures that led to... well, they led to advances in the project even if they weren't originally part of it." The doctor shook his head. "Anyway, over the last five years we've been working on using the two technologies together to create enhanced soldiers by merging medicine and technology. Cybernetics, at a level beyond what most people associate with the term."
"Wait, are you saying I'm half-robot now?" Jared asked, glancing at his very human arms and legs.
The doctor hesitated. "Yes and no. Technically you can be called a cyborg, but the machine parts are all very small and are actually distributed around a mostly human body. You've been cybernetically augmented in a thousand and one small ways, but you don't have any large robot parts floating around. For example, your bones have been essentially rebuilt with an advanced alloy reinforcing them, but they're still there. A similar alloy has been woven through your muscles, but that one expands and contracts based on electric impulses, essentially enhancing your strength in a passive manner. It's completely passive and EMP proof, and the alloys in question are also non-magnetic. If you need even more strength, there are specially designed electric... well, call them motors that will provide it, but they require the cybernetic augmentation to be running so they can be taken offline by an EMP."
Jared looked down at his body and shivered. Raising a hand he looked at it, flipping it back and forth. He still looked human at least. "Any other improvements I should be aware of?" he asked softly.
"There are hundreds of things to go over. Most of the augmentation is locked down until we can teach you to control and use it, and other things are locked down until you can take the time to adjust to them. Enhanced senses, for example. You woke up -- we're still not sure how -- while we were doing calibration on your senses."
"That hurt," Jared complained.
"I imagine it did," the doctor said apologetically. "Your nanites were still rebuilding tissues throughout your body to incorporate themselves properly, and we had the... 'gain' on all your senses turned up to maximum. You weren't supposed to wake up while we were doing that because the human mind can't handle that kind of gain, and certainly not without training and preparation."
"Kind of like having the volume turned up too high on the TV?" Jared asked.
"No, nothing like that!" the doctor said indignantly. "It wasn't 'volume' that was causing the problem, it was your mind's inability to process that level of clarity. Your senses normally act as a kind of filter simply because they can't detect everything going on around you, and having that filter removed creates a neural overload that will eventually degrade into-" The doctor cut himself off with a shake of his head. "This isn't important, if you're really interested we can cover this later. For now, we have stuff we really do need to cover."
"Alright, I hope the owner's manual is written in English though!" Jared quipped.
"I'll make sure you get a copy of it, and I'll even make sure it's re-written to use words of two syllables or less," the doctor quipped back.
"That works for this grunt!" Jared laughed. "Doc, one question before you continue, why do I feel so... so good? I should be a lot more upset than I am over everything that's going on, shouldn't I?"
"Well, no. You're on a mood-enhancer to keep you from freaking out as I explain what we've done," the doctor admitted. "And I'm sorry, but you are not coming off it until we're sure you've adjusted to this; you could do a lot of damage to yourself and others if you lose control right now. We literally can notsimply tranquilize you now. The augmentation will filter out most tranquilizers, and none of the ones it lets through are fast acting."
"I see," Jared said, a touch of anger creeping into his voice. "Did the General order that?"
"Actually, the General is the only reason you've gotten away with only the mood-enhancer and not some additional controls," Major Williams said sternly. "General Sheridan was quite insistent that you didn't need any help, and that in the unlikely event that you did you'd know to ask for it."
"Well, I'll prove him right by not throwing too large of a fuss," Jared decided, "but I want off that pill, Doc."
"We'll discuss it later, for now I want to do a basic rundown of some of the things you really need to know about your augmentation," the doctor ordered.
"Yes sir!" Jared snapped out, responding to the tone of command the officer had used.
The doctor ran through a checklist of warnings and notices, explaining a few details. Jared was faster, stronger, more flexible, and just generally better than before. He'd have to exercise to get his endurance up where it belonged, but most of his enhancements started out at maximum. His body was capable of enduring massive amounts of damage, thanks not only to his new skeleton but another alloy reinforcing his skin and internal organs. As his augmentation was brought fully online, his reflexes would be significantly enhanced, and the neural interface would become capable of feeding him information through his subconscious mind as well as providing visual and auditory overlays. Oh, and he had built-in wifi.
"So I've got a computer stuck in my head too?" Jared complained. "I could just turn my desktop on if I wanted that!"
"Well, it's utilizing a distributed computational system with neural synaptic interlink memory, so it's nothing like a desktop. On top of that, the cybernetic neural network is designed to dynamically mirror your own organic synaptic network, with heuristic algorithms to-" Major Williams explained.
"Doc, Doc, Doc!" Jared tried to interrupt. "I don't understand a word you just said!"
The doctor sighed as he shook his head. "Sorry, one of my favorite hobbyhorses. I was in charge of the medical procedures necessary to install the augmentation, but I spent a lot of time working on the computer stuff too. Basically, rather than having a single processor it uses thousands spread throughout your skull. They talk to each other in a manner designed to develop and grow, and it uses your own brain as a model to do so. The end result is that as time passes, the augmentation will learn to talk to you better. It's possible, but highly unlikely, that it'll eventually link up to some parts of your conscious mind for direct neural controls. I doubt it; expect to use the sub-vocal and peripheral nerve controls for a very long time."
"Doc, simple words please!" Jared complained. "Sub-vocal would be talking really quiet, but peripheral nerve controls?"
"Sorry. That's fancy language for the way the augmentation taps into various minor functions. Basically, you twitch your left pinkie or flex your toes to interact with the visual and auditory overlays. Oh, and eye motion, it uses eye motion too. It's based on a heuristic system, so it'll learn and adapt to you over time."
"Doc, simple! Simple!" Jared begged with a laugh.
"Grunts!" the doctor complained. "Rather than pre-setting the controls, as the augmentation gradually activates and unlocks itself it will start working with you to find out what controls work and which ones don't. If it works like it should, you should find yourself naturally using additional functions as they come online, without any special training in the controls needed. You will need training to know what functions you can use, and what you can use them for, but controlling them should be natural."
"What kind of abilities are we talking about?" Jared asked.
"That's... a topic for another day. We haven't finished deciding which functions to upload to you," the doctor admitted.
"Wait, you mean this stuff isn't finished?" Jared freaked.
"The hardware is all finished, the core software is all finished, it's the peripherals that aren't there yet. And this is an experiment, Sergeant, expect hiccups and mistakes," Major Williams warned. "I'm trying to avoid specifics because nothing is finalized and won't be until we work with you to find what works. Just as an example, we've got five different versions of what we're calling the C-HUD -- the combat heads up display. Most of the variations aren't in the core code, but in the way it interacts with you and your needs. We don't know which version will work the best, and you're going to help us evaluate it."
"So I'm a guinea pig now?" Jared complained. "God, I shouldn't have gotten Cody into this."
Major William's lips twitched. "Sergeant, I didn't want to tell you this but maybe I should..." Chewing his lip the doctor looked away.
"What is it, Doc?"
"Well, your son..." the doctor sighed and looked directly at Jared. "Sergeant Warren, your decision to let us include Cody in this saved his life. The regular doctors missed a bleed in his brain stem, completely inoperable with normal techniques. The nanites were able to correct the issue before it killed him. Without them, he wouldn't have been crippled for life, but dead."
"The more I hear about these nanites, the more miraculous they seem," Jared commented. "They really saved my son's life?"
"And your own," the doctor answered. "And they are damned near miraculous. They literally rebuilt your body to incorporate the various technical components we've added, building most of those on-site, rather than requiring surgical installation. Some of the bigger things we had to go in and install ourselves, but even there the nanites helped pave the road and did most of the detail work for us. And they're still there; assuming they work as expected they'll accelerate the healing process if you're injured, help filter your blood for toxins, maintain your general health, and keep all the components we've installed functioning within standard parameters!"
"Doc," Jared said with a sigh, "do we have much more to do today? I think I'm about ready to take a break, maybe see my kids... please?"
The doctor sighed back and looked down on the documentation he'd been flipping through. "Alright, one more thing and then we can go see your kids, both of them. Cody's augmentation is different than yours. Since he's still a kid, we couldn't go the full route. We had to lock out certain functions of the nanites to leave him room to grow. He received the cognitive and sensory interlinks, which is to say he has the same enhanced senses and computer augmentation of his thought processes that you do. He also received a partial tissue-restoration treatment. Basically, he will heal from injury but the nanites won't try to filter his blood for chemicals. We had to leave it that way because he has to go through puberty, and with the nanites trying to even out hormonal surges, well it just wouldn't work."
"Thankfully, we had most of the software already in place for what we're calling the 'civilian' model of augmentation, so it's not something we slapped together at the last minute. Even the child-proofing we had to do was considered in advance. We didn't plan to actually have to do a child, mind you," the doctor added nervously, "we simply... well, we're scientists, and... well..." The doctor cringed. "I hate to put it this way, but it was something of a game."
"A game?" Jared growled. "My child's life was a game?!"
"Please, Sergeant, stay calm," Major Williams urged. "It was only a game as long as it was theoretical, once we actually had a child come up as a candidate because of the life-saving nature of the procedure, we took it very seriously."
Jared took a deep breath and cut off the tirade rising inside his chest. Having a kid come up as a candidate for an experimental military program was rather unlikely, so they were just lucky the scientists had something to offer in the way of life-saving miracles. "I'm surprised the General even approached you with my son if there's that big a difference between the two programs," he said instead. Major Williams started laughing. "What?" Jared asked.
The doctor shook his head as he forced himself to stop laughing. "The General didn't know," he said through a grin. "I'll have to get the video for you to watch, but his reaction at discovering that there was a difference, and that the only reason we had the child profile loaded was we'd made it into a game..." the doctor broke back into laughter, and Jared joined in. He could just imagine the General's reaction, and it was rather funny.
"Alright, anything else Doc, or can I go see my sons?" Jared eventually recovered enough to say.
"Well, let me track down a hospital gown for you, and then we can go see them," the doctor agreed. It didn't take him long to rummage through the cupboard in the room. "One other thing," the doctor added as he tossed the traditional hospital garment at Jared. "You and your younger son are going to be under twenty-four seven observation, and armed guard, for at least the next six months. Don't try to avoid or evade it, or people will become upset."
"What! Why?"
"The government has poured the better part of a billion dollars into the Prometheus Project, and they don't want you, or agents from foreign governments, walking off with it," the doctor said sadly. "Worse... There are some concerns about your sanity."
"My sanity?" Jared froze, halfway through donning the gown.
"The early versions of the neural interface tended to drive people insane," the doctor admitted. "We solved the problem by connecting through the subconscious mind, but there is still some concern over it. There's no evidence to suggest concern, but there isn't enough evidence to disprove it, either."
"Great, just great," Jared fumed. "I suppose the General knew all about this and just didn't tell me!"
"In defense of the General, you were pretty close to death, and he did tell you it was an experimental procedure," the doctor said defensively.
"Yeah, and now my son and I are both lab rats, probably for the rest of our lives!" Jared snapped. "Dammit, it's not like I even had a choice, 'do this or die'."
"It's not the General's fault those damned terrorists-" the doctor cut himself off.
"Terrorists?" Jared demanded.
"The general was quite clear that he wanted to handle that discussion himself," the doctor answered. "Sorry."
"Figures," Jared sighed. "Well, now that I'm dressed in this absurd thing, can I please go see my sons?"
"Alright, let's start with the younger boy, he's just around the corner. You won't be able to talk to him, we're keeping him sedated for the final adjustments to his augmentation, but you can see him," the doctor led Jared through the surprisingly empty hallways to a room filled with computers.
"Where's my son?" Jared asked as he looked around the room. Noticing a window in one wall, he walked over to it and saw the most wonderful sight imaginable. Red hair, freckled face, dimples dancing at the corner of a sleeping smile, and though he couldn't see them he knew if the boy opened his eyes they'd be the most beautiful shade of blue, just perfect. "Cody..." Jared whispered, pressing his hand against the glass. There wasn't a single sign of injury on the boy, he looked like he'd just laid himself down for an afternoon nap. "That's my son," Jared said happily, tears forming in his eyes. "My son is alive... Thank you God, oh thank you!"
Major Williams stepped up beside Jared and put a hand on his shoulder. "You really love those two, don't you?"
"They're my children!" Jared answered simply.
"Far too often, that doesn't matter," the doctor said sadly. "I spend my work time on Project Prometheus, but I also volunteer at a local free clinic in the poor section of town. The things I see... Thank you, Sergeant, for this reminder that some people are human, some people actually love their kids."
"You're welcome," Jared took his hand off the glass and placed it over the hand on his shoulder. He still couldn't look away from his boy, but out of the corner of his eye he could see the doctor smiling.
"We're almost ready to start calibrating his enhanced senses, but we don't want to start until after we figure out what went wrong with you," another man said, coming to stand on Jared's other side. "We're reasonably sure where in the code base to find the problem, but even with its general location we've still got a lot of code to go through. I've got three of my men working on new code to act as a safety cut-out if we can't find the base problem in time, though."
"In time? Can't you just leave him under until you've fixed it?" Jared asked, turning to face the man. "Sergeant Major Jared Warren, the boy's father," he introduced himself, sticking his hand out.
"Captain McCullough," the man answered, taking his hand. "I'm the guy in charge of all the programming involved in your augmentation."
"Hello Captain," Jared replied. "Mind explaining what this calibration thing is?"
"Well, basically we need to spend some time teaching the augmentation how to talk to the biological senses, and vice-versa," the Captain explained. "We've got all the basic code in place, but we need to zero in on the exact settings to use. Think of it like zeroing in a rifle; sure the sights are kinda-sorta right but you can't use them until you spend some time getting them set right for you."
"So you need to zero his sights before he can see right?" Jared asked.
"Yes, precisely. The natural senses are still perfectly good, mind you, but the augmentation needs some help linking up with them, and that's best done with the subject unconscious. The process involves running the augmented senses in parallel to the natural ones, and slowly increasing the augmentation up to maximum while constantly adjusting it to agree with what the natural ones report-"
"Doc, I don't understand half of what you're saying. I'm a ground pounding grunt, not a techno-geek!" Jared complained.
"Sorry, us techno-geeks like our toys a bit too much, I suppose," the Captain joked. "Oh, and I'm not 'Doc'; Captain, Captain McCullough, or even just plain Steve, but not 'Doc'. Only medical doctors get called that," he smiled at a laughing Major Williams as he sneered the word.
"You aren't a doctor?" Jared asked, surprised.
"I'm not an M. D., no, my doctorate is in computer science with a Masters in engineering," the Captain responded. "I've got a good practical background in medicine thanks to my job, but none of the credentials."
"A doctorate and a masters? That's impressive!" Jared complimented the man. And to a man who'd barely gotten his high school diploma, it was impressive, leaving him to wonder why the Captain suddenly looked upset and walked off.
"It's not your fault," Major Williams said softly. "He was scheduled for the oral defense of his doctoral thesis, but instead was called in to answer an emergency call here. He was really looking forward to being a 'double-doc', and on top of that none of us has gotten much sleep the last three days."
"Me?" Jared asked, equally softly.
"Yes," the doctor agreed. "You and your son, both, have kept us very busy. Once he gets some sleep he'll feel a little better, and I've already contacted the university to explain the situation. I suspect this is the first time they've ever had an engineering student called away for a medical emergency, but when I explained that he was involved in the programming of several experimental medical devices that were needed for a life saving procedure, they were more than happy to accommodate things."
"That does sound like a rather unusual situation," Jared agreed. "Should I do anything? Talk to them for him or something?"
"And tell them what, that you've been magically healed thanks to his computer skills?" Major Williams quipped.
Jared opened his mouth, paused, took a deep breath and then let it go. "OK, stupid me."
"Let's go see David, huh?" the doctor asked softly.
"OK, lets," Jared said with a smile, looking over his shoulder as they left the room.
Beautiful, just beautiful.
Chapter Two
"Dad!" David screamed with a volume level only a thirteen year old boy, his voice cracking as he screamed out a single word, could possibly hope to manage.
"Davey!" Jared cried out, tears in his eyes as he fell to his knees.
"Dad, oh Dad!" David cried, throwing himself into his father's embrace. "They said you were gonna die, then they said you weren't but I couldn't see you, and then they said you were gonna wake up and they let me see you and you looked fine but they said you couldn't wake up yet because they had to finish stuff and they wouldn't let me stay with you-"
"Slow down kiddo, slow down," Jared said, rocking his son as they clasped each other, Jared careful not to use too much of his new strength.
"Dad, I thought I'd lost you!" David started sobbing as he squeezed even harder with his single free hand. "Oh Dad, I thought you would both die!"
"Shh Son, I'm here, I'm fine," Jared whispered reassurances into his son's ears as they both cried.
"I'll leave you two be," Major Williams said, closing the door behind them.
After a few minutes David tried to say something. "Sorry, what?" Jared asked, letting go.
"You were hugging me too hard," David complained, wiping tears out of his eyes with his right hand. His left, Jared finally noticed, was in a sling.
"How are you, kiddo?" Jared asked.
"Been better," David admitted, indicating his left hand. "I got some broken bones, and they want me in this sling thing as well as a cast. They say the sling can go away in a week or so, but I'm gonna have to wear the cast for forever, like 2 months!"
"Guess you're gonna miss the baseball season this year," Jared told him.
"It sucks!" David complained.
"Son, what did they tell you about your mother?" Jared asked softly.
David's face went stony and angry. "The bitch is dead, and good riddance!"
"David!" Jared scolded him, shocked. His wife had never been his son's favorite person, but they knew better than to show disrespect!
"You should have heard her Dad! You didn't hear what she... she..." David started crying. "She hated us!" "Oh God, Son," Jared said softly, pulling him into a hug, "what did she do to you? Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"It was after the accident, Dad," David said between sobs. "I'm not 'spossed to talk about it too much, this General guy told me he wanted to do that, but she said... horrible things dad, she said horrible things!" "Wait, the General guy? Do you mean General Sheridan?" Jared asked.
"Yeah, sounds like him," David agreed. "He told me that he knew some other stuff you needed to hear at the same time, that... that Mom wasn't really herself, that... well, he said a lot of things but they don't matter. The bitch is dead and she deserves it!" David broke back down into sobs and fell into Jared's arms, spent.
"What did she say?" Jared wondered aloud. "Son, I'm so sorry, but whatever happened is in the past. Oh please, forgive me for not protecting you... forgive her for whatever she said. She is... was... your mother, whatever happened..."
"Hello Sergeant," a familiar voice announced himself at the door. "I wanted to talk to you before you met your son, but I figured there wasn't much chance of that happening."
"General," Jared said softly. "I hear you've been helping my boy?" "We've talked. A lot. I'd prefer to get him to see a decent psychologist, but he doesn't want to 'see no stinkin' headshrinker'," the general's voice carried a great deal of amusement. "A real chip off the old block, isn't he?"
"Just like his daddy," Jared agreed with a smile. "Forgive me for not greeting you properly, but a man has to have priorities." "Nothing to forgive, your priorities are right where they should be," General Sheridan agreed. "You and I need to talk, about a lot of things. Things that you need to know, and... things that you really, really need to hear."
"I see," Jared said.
"And judging from what I heard as I walked in the room, it's things you need to hear now," the General was an officer, and Jared knew an order when he heard it.
"I've been out for three days, Sir, surely-" Jared began.
"No, it can't," the General said sadly. "Your son overheard..." the General sighed. "Your wife said some things that you need to know about before you say anything further to your son."
"Dad," David broke in. "You need to hear this. Mom was... was..." David shook his head. "Go talk to the General, Dad. You gotta."
"Alright, but I'm coming right back," Jared reassured his son, "or I'm going to tear this hospital down around my ears trying." Jared was sure the threat wouldn't be lost on the General, and as he stood and looked, he saw in the man's eyes that he was right. The moment was broken as David started giggling.
"Dad, your crack is showing!" David giggled, prompting Jared to try and rearrange the revealing garment. He didn't really succeed.
"Stupid hospital gowns!" Jared cursed.
"Come on, this is gonna take a little bit," the General ordered before leading Jared from the room and down the hall. A marine guard opened the door to what looked like some kind of break room and ushered them in silently. "Take a seat," the General gestured at a couch on one end of the room before taking an easy chair across from it. He waited for Jared to sit before continuing. "The accident wasn't an accident," he told Jared.
"What happened Wednesday night was a deliberate attack on the base by a terrorist group. God only knows how they managed it, but they got their hands on a large quantity of an airborne poison and loaded it up onto that truck that rammed you," Jared stiffened as the import of this started to strike home. "The wind was in the other direction, and most of the toxin went away from you and your family. Your wife, by pure chance, got a stronger dose than the rest of you. As a result..." the general sighed. "The initial stages of the toxin simply loosen inhibitions -- the chemical is actually used in small doses to help with psychotherapy because of that. Your wife was in a great deal of pain, and essentially pinned in place, but she could still talk. The things she said..." the General looked away.
"Bad?" Jared asked.
"Oh God, yes. If she lived, the things she said would have landed her in jail for life," the General shook his head. "The things she's done, the things she was planning to do... and to you and your children!"
"Our children? She was going to hurt them?" Jared clenched his teeth. The bitch couldn't possibly have been that stupid!
"Oh, yes, she was going to, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'make a little accident and get rid of the mistake and both his whelps and start over'."
"Mistake? Me?"
"Oh yeah, and that's the beginning. Based on what she said we searched your house and got confirmation," the General looked at Jared hard for a few moments. "How familiar are you with IGP?"
"IGP?" Jared asked, confused. "It's a date rape drug, made popular about, oh, thirty or forty years ago back in the fifties. I remember hearing about it before I graduated high school because some kids were caught using it. I think it's also called 'the leveler' because it's one of the few drugs that women can use on men and still get, um..."
"And still get the man to perform," the general agreed. "It blocks memory, flushes out of the system quickly and without a trace, and functions as a massive aphrodisiac while also lowering inhibitions. In some individuals, it also leaves the person open to suggestion, allowing the giver to simply order them around."
"A nasty thing, but what does that... have... to do..." Jared trailed off and looked off to the side. "She didn't... my God she... it explains... that bitch!"
"According to her, she wasn't even 'aiming' for you that first time, she was just stuck with it after your friend left," General Sheridan said. "She was trying to slip him the drug, but ended up with you instead."
"God, Cody, of course she would want..." Jared shook his head. "Oh God! Cody! Oh I've got to... he should... my God I wasn't..."
"Pull yourself together Sergeant!" the General snapped. "I'm sure your monologue would be absolutely fascinating if it made any sense, but I'm not interested!"
"Sir!" Jared answered, pulling his upper body to a position resembling attention. "Sorry, I was just..."
"I understand, Sergeant, and under other circumstances I'd probably let you waffle for a while," the General shook his head.
"You have no idea sir, no idea at all!" Jared wondered if he should tell the General, but... what point would it make?
"Son, you might have tried to keep things a secret from her, but she knew," the General hinted. Jared found himself blushing.
"Sir, I'd rather not... I mean..." Jared felt his cheeks grow redder. She knew?!
The General smiled. "We'll consider it tabled. Thankfully for you, you won't have to answer any questions about that, she didn't... well, she only started raving after the emergency teams showed up, and your kids were out of earshot before she really went to town on that subject."
"Thank you God," Jared said, looking up, "thank you!"
"Don't be too thankful just yet. She did say quite a few other things. Cody was completely out of it, but David wasn't," the General warned.
"And David is old enough to actually understand far more than I want him to," Jared agreed with a sigh. "What did he hear?"
"I don't have an exact recording, but he's the one who was screaming that he wanted 'that bitch thrown in jail for raping my Dad' at the cops who showed up. He said quite a few other things, but that stuck out rather strongly," the General told Jared.
"Oh God, he must be... oh God, my son, my son!" Jared moaned.
"The records of what the two of them said are sealed, and they are going to stay that way. We used her ramblings as the basis for a criminal investigation, but... both of them were under the effect of that damned toxin when they were talking, so it's not really fair, or legal, to them to bring it up," the General sighed. "Listen, Sergeant, I know this is a tough time. Feel free to ask for help if you need it. I know I would in your shoes."
"I gotta be strong for my boys. I don't know... oh God, I have no clue what I'm going to tell Cody, much less David, about all of this!" Jared shook his head. "Alright, I guess I've got my work cut out for me," he pulled himself together. "Anything else I need to know?"
"Not right now," the General answered, "but..." General Sheridan looked away, biting his lip. A few moments later he nodded his head with a sigh and turned back to face Jared. "You won't be able to leave the hospital for a few weeks, until they're sure the augmentation isn't going to go haywire at random. I'm sure you figured that much out by now."
"Yeah, it seemed pretty obvious," Jared agreed.
"I've already made arrangements at a secondary facility so you and your family will have something resembling a real home next week, while still being under observation and in the reach of medical support if needed," General Sheridan told him, "but even once you 'graduate' from that facility you won't be going back home. Not now, not ever. It's contaminated."
"Contaminated? By..." Jared closed his eyes as he understood. "The attack?"
"The toxin spilled out and was carried by the wind straight into the residential section of the base. Most of the barracks were spared, either by luck or by aim they hit the family housing units instead. The casualties were... almost total."
"Merciful God help us," Jared prayed under his breath. "General, who... who would do that?"
"The INGC has already claimed credit for it, claimed it was retribution for the execution of their leader back in 2068," General said softly.
"The INGC?!" Jared shouted. "But they're a dead group!" The International National Government Corps had started as a counter-movement to the globalization trend that had begun after mankind really started moving into space in 2015, and had rapidly devolved into one of the nastiest international terrorist groups. In 2066, world opinion had swung, strongly, against them as a result of their terrorist 'blitz' targeting civilian targets in rural and developing areas. They'd gone from having a genuine political agenda to just being agents of chaos and horror, and no one was willing to put up with that. Within three years, their organization had been effectively disbanded, all its leaders dead or in jail and the rank and file on the run.
"Apparently not," the General sighed. "The Federation has already reported a number of similar attacks globally on both its own and other allied bases. They hit us hard, Jared, they hit us where it hurt. Every single attack was focused on residential sections, and they always went for the maximum body count in dependents they could get."
"Fucking bastards!" Jared swore.
"It gets worse," General Sheridan cut him off. "We haven't been able to ID a single person who wasn't directly involved in the attacks, and all of those are dead. All we have are dead ends and leads that lead nowhere. Essentially, they got away clean and free."
"Shit, the backlash from this is gonna be-" Jared started.
"It's already bad, and it's going to get worse," the General interrupted. "The Federation has instituted a full lock down of all military facilities, with full air and ground guard ordered. So has everyone else, for that matter. Heads are rolling at the highest levels, and you and I both know shit rolls down hill."
Jared had barely graduated high school, but that had less to do with raw intelligence and more to do with lack of scholastic interest. "You're going to be retired, aren't you?"
"I'm hoping to avoid that particular ignominious fate, but in all probability I'm not going to last a month as the base's CO. I don't know who's going to be given command after me, but you can bet they're going to be one of those damned war-hawks."
Jared closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "My family?"
"That's the one bit of good news in this whole thing," General Sheridan smiled slightly. "I don't know who did it, and I really don't care, but it appears the preliminary reports of your situation made it all the way to the President's desk."
"The President? As in the President? Of the USA?" Jared asked, shocked.
"It gets better," the General's smile broadened. "She gave specific and non-discretionary orders that she is to be kept appraised of your condition and status, that unless it's an emergency your position as Cody's father is not to be infringed upon without her direct authorization, and that you are to be considered as honorably discharged forthwith."
"Honorably discharged?!" Jared asked, shocked. "But... But..." He was a marine! It's all he'd ever wanted to be, even when... He was a marine sergeant! How could he live without that?
"I'm told she gave that order specifically to safeguard you and your children," General Sheridan answered. His kids? Jared's mind raced as he tried to understand. How did removing his career and leaving him without even a god-damned paycheck protect his kids? "She specifically ordered that you were to be given full pay at your current rank until a year after you are discharged from the rolls of the Prometheus Project, with said discharge to occur as soon as we're certain your augmentation is safe."
Things clicked in Jared's head. His kids. He'd been a marine for years, but a father... that was far, far more important to him any day of the week. And the President had as much as ordered this marine... this former marine... to put his kids first. Yes ma'am Mrs. President, will do!
"So, where do we go from here?" Jared asked.
"Well, I understand the tech geeks want you on-site while they do some stuff with your son, and they really want you there when he wakes up," the General smiled. "Go see to your kids. Oh, and by Presidential Order all three of you now have Top Secret clearances, and Code Word Prometheus clearances. So we can't just lock you up on those grounds alone."
"Thank you General, and thank the President for me," Jared smiled. "I've got some kids to go talk to."
"Yes, you do. And you can start by explaining this whole mess to your elder son!" The general sighed. "Speaking of whom, he really needs to see a psych expert. He's behavior is... more childish than I would expect of someone his age, and the one expert I've been able to run him past thinks it's a result of the trauma. You nearly died, his brother nearly died, his mother is dead and he hates her for raping you, it's a real mess. The psych thinks he might be regressing to shield himself or something like that."
"I'll talk to him about it sometime soon. I'll... what the hell, I'll talk to the psych myself and see what he has to say. If he convinces me that Davey needs help, then Davey will see him," Jared conceded.
"Alright, I'll arrange it, now go talk to your son," the General waved Jared to the door as he leaned back in the chair for a few moments.
Jared walked slowly down the hallway, feet dragging as his mind started to race. How did you explain things like this to a thirteen year old boy, to his seven year old brother? "Your mother raped me, and that's how you were born. Why? Um... I dunno, the General didn't mention that..."
Pausing outside the door that led back to his son, Jared looked back down the corridor just in time to see the general walk out of the room they'd talked in and walk away. The one glance the General spared him was as clear as a barked order, and with a sigh Jared opened the door. "Hey Davey," he called.
"Dad!" David jumped on his father, using his legs and one good arm to cling tightly to him.
"Come on, Davey, let's see if we can find your brother," Jared decided to side-step the conversation until he had more information. For the moment, the apple-blossom scent of his son's hair filled his nostrils, bringing tears to his eyes and a lump to his throat. Davey was all right, and Cody would be too, and that thrice-damned-bitch was being asked some hard questions on a one-way trip to Hell.
All was right with his world... As long as he ignored the strange machines crawling inside his body, and the body of his younger son. And for the barest of moments, with the scent of apples in his nose and the laughter of a child being tickled, he could.
"Daaaad!" David complained breathlessly, "no fair ticking me like that!"
"Hey, who's the one laughing his head off over it?" Jared tweaked his son's nose.
"Not here Dad! Please!" David's puppy-dog eyes made Jared grin.
"Alright, alright, not in public, no tickling in public!" Jared agreed before grabbing his son and giving him a great big kiss.
"Daaaaad!" David screamed to the laughter of the onlookers who had prompted his complaint. "Not in front of everyone!" Wiping his cheek with his sleeve, David glared threats of bloody retribution up to Jared, even as both of them grinned the silly little grins of people who had nearly lost one another. And for all his no-ticking, no-kissing attitude, the love in his eyes said he wasn't all that unhappy, just embarrassed.
"Come on," Jared said, "Cody's waiting for us!"
"And who exactly just swept me off my feet and started tickling me for no reason at all?" David complained.
"Davey, you know better than that!" Jared teased. "I had plenty of reason... son."
"Daaaaaaaad!" David complained. "That's not a reason!"
"Yes it is!" Jared countered.
"No it's not!" David retorted indignantly.
"Oh yes it is!" Jared repeated.
"No, it's not!" David insisted.
"Yes it is, no it's not, yes it is, no it's not, could you two please make up your minds!" someone complained, laughing. "You two have been going at it the last two minutes, and I'm about to go nuts!"
"Excuse me?" Jared asked, turning around.
"Corporal Edwards," a uniformed man introduced himself. "General Sheridan assigned me and a few of my buddies to keep an eye on David."
"And eye on him?" Jared asked.
"Jack is nice, Dad!" David interjected. "He took me to dinner last night, and helped me find some clothes since the ones at home were ruined!"
"I don't think my kid needs a nurse-maid now that I'm awake again, Corporal," Jared ordered.
"Once everything settles out that might be true, sir," Edwards agreed affably, "but for the moment the General wants you to have some help for the things you can't do. Like go get clothes from the PX for you and the kids."
Jared opened his mouth to retort, then closed it with a snap. "Fine, some clothes would be nice," he agreed.
"I'm not sure why you're in a hospital gown, I picked some clothes up for you when I grabbed Dave's and Cody's," Edwards added. "They're in your temporary quarters in the secure wing."
"Well, I haven't been by there yet," Jared pointed out.
"I'll show you the way as soon-" Edwards began.
"There you are!" Colonel Williams shouted. "Jared, I've been looking all over for you!"
"Doctor?" Jared asked.
"We need to get to work on your son, and I do believe you wanted to be present," the doctor reminded him.
"I thought you said we had a couple of hours?" Jared complained.
"It's been a couple of hours!" the doctor retorted.
"It hasn't even been two hours yet!" Jared argued.
"Oh really?" the doctor commented. "Keeping an eye on the clock?"
"From mark it's been exactly one hour fifty-seven minutes and thirty five seconds since you said that. Mark," Jared said smugly.
"And how do you know that?" the doctor asked with a smile.
"I..." Jared blinked.
"Your augmentation must have been keeping track of the time for you," the doctor commented. "Still, it's time Sergeant. We need to get this done now or there could be... complications."
"Complications?" Jared asked.
"Your son's nervous system might decide to reject the augmentation," Colonel Williams explained. "There's no telling what the end result of that would be, but it would at a minimum leave him less capable than he could be."
"Alright, let's hurry then," Jared agreed. The doctor led them at a quick clip back to Cody's room. "Let us do our job, just watch and wait Sergeant," the doctor warned before they walked into the middle of a veritable tsunami of sound.
Orders and comments were being barked left, right, and center and Jared quickly began to doubt that they were speaking English.
Then a familiar face grabbed him by the arm and showed him and his son to a pair of chairs clearly set out for them. "Sergeant, I need to apologize for earlier," Captain McCullough apologized. "I'm rather tired but that's no excuse-"
"Apology accepted, Captain," Jared smiled. "You've been up for three days, and my words poured salt on a wound I didn't know existed."
"Thank you," the Captain smiled back. "Now, I don't have much of anything to do for this procedure, so if you'd like I can explain what's going on?"
"That'd be great," Jared answered. "But first, did you track down that problem from earlier?"