Bactine (2 page)

He rubbed his eyes, even though there was no need for that. With his eyes closed he sensed the shuddering of the spaceship again as the pirate vessel slammed into it. The alarms that went off as the hull-breach was detected. That had killed at least four of his men already. As the rage rushed through his body, Daniel trembled. Bactine, he now knew, did not prevent that from happening. Which was good and bad.

He recalled running through the corridor, the twisted metal plating they had to jump over and the fireworks that the pirates had surprised them with as they had rounded the corner. Daniel blamed himself for that. He should have been more careful. Not being on duty at that moment had nothing to do with it.

The white and yellow blasts were all he remembered from that moment on. There had not even been pain; it had gone too fast to feel pain. He had simply been shot to bits.

"They should have left me like that. They turned me into a machine." Daniel knew that was not true but his anger did not allow him to admit that. Rhonda had done a masterly job, putting him back together, using as much of his old body as was usable, and filling the rest up with artificial things. Tendons, muscles, flesh. He wondered all of a sudden if there was anything like proper blood still flowing through his veins. Maybe, he thought, he should get a knife and see what happened after a cut.

"Crap. That won't work." A sigh escaped him. Bactine was tough. No knife known to mankind would cut through it. God alone knew where that stuff came from, but it was almost indestructible. Even enhanced kevlar was not as good as the soft tissue that he now consisted of.

"Businessman." Daniel spat out the word. His only option had been the army. His school results had always been good. Not great, just good. But somehow Malcolm had always stood in his way, taking the wind out of Daniel's sails. He was an army-man, and a damned good one. He had the new skin to prove it. Another sigh fled from the man's lips. "Man... yeah, right."

He did not dare to reach down, or even think that far. Bactine. He was a rebuilt now. Rebuilts were not fertile, so the rule was that any extraneous physical appearance was to be removed. He already hated Bactine, as his manhood had been taken off. A sharp laugh later, he wondered if there was anything left of that, after the shooting he had endured. "Maybe the pirates are to blame for making Daniel Zacharias a eunuch..."

There was a buzz. Someone at the door. Daniel said: "Come in, door's open."

Rhonda Flower stepped into the small cabin. "Hey sailor, how's things with you? Thought I'd check in on you as I am off duty now." She sat down on the only chair, her eternal camouflage outfit crumpled and smelly. As if she read Daniel's thoughts, she said: "I know. I stink. Us rebuilts have a more acute sense of smell. Glad to see that's working well with you."

"Yes. That does."

Rhonda frowned. "That bad?" She remembered the expression of pain, anger and despair on Daniel's face as he had first seen his new and enhanced body.

"Yep." He had looked at her all the time. Now he turned away his face.

Rhonda got up and kneeled down by the bed. "Daniel. Listen to me. And look at me." She waited until his eyes were on her again. "It was not my choice, okay? You'll have to live with it. And remember what I said. You have the cable. Not many people can find such a deep and intense sexual pleasure using a mere cable. We can. I showed you."

Daniel was silent, as the memory drifted through his head. As he had been released from the recovery table, Rhonda had shown him how to use several storage compartments in his new arms and legs, and also she had this strange little cable. She had shown him how to open a connector-port in his thigh, where the cable could be inserted. At that point he had also learnt that she was a rebuilt, as she had stripped and inserted the cable in her own thigh.

"Yes. You showed me."

"
And
that
was
great
,
Rhonda
. That's what you have to add at this point, Daniel. Because it was."

"And that was great, Rhonda," Daniel repeated, a kind of smile on his face.

"Good boy. Now, stop sulking. Go to the gym and work out and be surprised what you can do," the Head Medical Officer said as she got to her feet again. "And get to bed early. You'll need it the coming days, as you are adjusting to your new body."

"Yes, doc," Daniel said.

Rhonda walked to the door.

"Rhonda?"

She turned and looked at him.

"Thank you."

"Sure. Just take care of yourself. Good luck with the retraining. I'll drop by when I can, okay?"

Then the door hissed as it shut itself behind her.

Daniel sighed once again. The gym. After all the mind-numbing running around, that was the last thing he fancied. Yet, something in him was now tickled.
Be
surprised
what
you
can
do
, she'd said.

"Let's go be surprised," the man told his new body and hoisted himself from the bed. He put on some sports-gear and noticed it gave him a bit of a problem. His new body was bigger, wider, more muscular than the one he'd had before all this; he barely fit in it. "Oh, great. Not only a new body, also more expenses at getting new clothes." Hardly a miracle they'd given him an overall to wear today. They should have said something.

-=-=-

Daniel returned from the gym. He felt good, so good even that he dared to whistle a tune as he strolled through the corridors on the way back to his cabin.

"Daniel!" someone called out.

Daniel turned and watched. It was eerie, he noticed how his one new eye had located the person calling him sooner than his own eye. That would take some getting used to. "Christian, good to see you."

Christian Langford was one of the men who had been along on that fatal mission. He had been more fortunate than Daniel, in the attack. The end result however, Daniel had to admit, was less so.

Christian had lost a leg, a foot and three fingers of his right hand. He moved around in a levitational chair. "Man, I am glad to see you too, Daniel. Crap, what a terror that was on that freighter. I had heard they were going to patch you up with Bactine." There was a mix of emotions in the man's voice. Relief, for seeing his mate again. Anger, as the trauma and the defeat of the attack was still so fresh and bloody painful. And also envy, to see Daniel being Rebuilt and he had not been so lucky.

"Well, they did. How are you doing, Christian? Any word on what is in store for you?" Daniel instinctively knew how his mate would feel about meeting him, about the new body. "Are they going to make you walk again?"

Christian nodded, making his floating chair rise so he was at eye-level with Daniel. "Yeah. New leg, new foot, and early retirement because of Mary and Jonathan."

His wife and son, Daniel knew. Yes, that was not a surprise. There were not that many soldiers needed these days, so people were sent off home with a good pension plan quickly.

"I'm glad about all that, Daniel. But I'm sure going to miss this life. We had many a ball together, didn't we?" Christian grinned. He held out his hand, Daniel slapped it. "Ouch, dammit man, you have to be careful with that." Chris rubbed his palm. "You don't want to go smashing up your partners, right?" He said it with a grin.

"Sorry, Christian, just was at the gym, and somehow I still have to learn more control of this... body." Daniel had almost said 'abomination'.

"You learn control, Daniel. I'm being shipped off to the hospital on Deimos 9 tomorrow, where they can fix me up. Good thing," Christian said.

"That is indeed a good thing," Daniel said. "I hope things will work out perfectly for you, Christian. I'm really sorry about all that happened, believe me."

Christian looked his friend in the eyes. "It wasn't your fault these Qurgons fell on our roof, Daniel. Stop beating yourself up for that. Nobody saw that coming. It was a routine flight, with routine orders."

Daniel nodded. He knew that. But still... "You're right. Take care, Christian." They shook hands. "And let's try to stay in touch."

"Sure. Always, Daniel." Christian smiled.

Daniel knew he was sincere. He also knew that it would not happen. It never happened.

Daniel woke up with a startle. He'd had the day off yesterday. He had spent it getting new clothes, walking around, thinking, talking to a psychologist specialised in Rebuilts. Daniel had also tried to get drunk. It had not worked. It had only run up his tab. And today he would begin his retraining. The training designed for Rebuilts, to learn how to function properly inside the new body, to make use of all its advantages, and to learn about any disadvantages. He was sure of the latter, although nobody had mentioned to him that there were any.

He looked around for a moment, groggy, trying to find the alarm that had woken him up. "Urgh," he uttered as he manipulated a thought and the alarm went silent. He had told his inner clock to wake him up at 6:30 sharp. It was 6:30. And it was very bizarre to find out that despite his modified parts he could still feel groggy like a real person. Now there was something the specialists should work on. No hangover, but grogginess still worked.

He got up, dressed and headed to the mess for some food. After that he went to the seventeenth level of the building, where he should report to the commander of his new unit.

R1. That was the unit's short name. R for Rebuilts, no doubt, Daniel thought as he waved his hand over the identification plaque. The light did not switch to green, the door did not open. "Now what..."

"Can't get in?" a massive woman asked as she walked up to him. "Sergeant Abbott," she continued, introducing herself.

"Daniel Zacharias, and indeed, can't get in."

"Ah, right. You're the latest addition. You've probably not been authorised. I can fix that for you, just come on in." Sergeant Abbott opened the door and let him in. Behind the door was a small office, with standard everything.

"Call me Wilma," the woman said, "and I'll call you Daniel. We're low on formalities once we're in here. Okay?"

"Sure, Wilma." Daniel said.

She quickly got him authorised in the system, made him go out and come in, which worked all fine now. "Frigids," she nodded. "Burt will be in soon, go grab some coffee, tea or Blint. It's over there in the corner." Upon Daniel's frown, she explained that Burt, sergeant O'Shaughnessy, was the instructor that he had been assigned to. "And you're lucky. He's good. Really good."

Daniel opted for coffee. Blint had never been his taste. The weird nean-green stuff that was imported from some faraway distant place either agreed with you or made you violently sick.

Three more Rebuilts came in. They all were trainees, like Daniel, and with the program since a few weeks already. Troy, one of the men, was about to go out on missions again, Daniel learnt, and the other two still had some time to go before they were ready. It made him wonder how long the training would be. Shrugging it off did not work.

With four Rebuilt people in there, Wilma's office was rapidly filling up. "Gentlemen, I would really appreciate it if you were to make yourselves scarce here and give me room to move, okay?" she said.

Troy made a remark about how glad she should be with all the male presence. Daniel frowned at that. Wilma was not a pretty woman, but he was certain she was good for her job, and that was what counted. Phil, one of the others, beat Daniel to pointing that out to Troy and then they moved to a rather large room where they awaited Burt's arrival.

Burt was an amiable character, Daniel decided at the end of the day. The trainer was a Rebuilt himself, and knew exactly where most of the pains were.

"I've been training Rebuilts since four years, Daniel. I've seen just about any problem that can come up. Now that does not mean I've seen them all. After all, everyone is different and there is no way anyone can predict how someone deals with being Rebuilt. So if there is anything that you are worried about, or you just need someone to talk to, don't wait. Come to me." Burt was sincere towards Daniel, as he was towards everyone. "And that goes for wanting to cry also."

Daniel looked at his trainer in surprise. These last words surprised him. "Beg your pardon?"

Burt nodded, still sincere. "I mean that. It's not that I expect you to break down and come sobbing, but I do want you to know that you can come to me if you have problems. And also Wilma is able to guide you. She's had a psychological training for helping people with emotional trauma, and together we worked out how we can fine-tune that for Rebuilt people."

That was something Daniel had not expected. "Oh. Right." Something in his face betrayed his thoughts.

"What's up, Daniel? Spit it out." Burt waited.

"It's just that... uhm... it's just rumours, I guess." Daniel shook his head, embarrassed that he had been so obvious. The rumours were very untrue.