Sidewinder Days pt. 3: About to Crash
15 Oct 2016Steve Sake
If some egghead in a lab coat had invented a way to travel through time I would have by all means travelled back to that day and slapped my smug face until my hand bled. Sadly though scientists were more focused on those alien artifacts and the possibility to undo one’s errors was just a dream for the foreseeable future.That day started out just like the ones before it. I was in my brand new Viper, which I called Lucky Seven in reference to the Anaconda I had destroyed -the seventh ship in my career- granting myself the money for the upgrade from the Sidewinder. I had developed a tactic to lure wanted ships that consisted in transporting a single canister of gold and wait to get interdicted.
Normally I could use the time while my target was spinning around due to the interdiction to rid him of his shields. In most cases the ones attacking me would start to panic and try to run away, but their FSD was cooling down from the excessive amount of heat generated by the interdiction, this allowed me the time to end them of their misery.
I became more and more overconfident with every ship I shot down and I was starting to get bored, I wanted something more challenging than Adders, Cobras and Eagles. I had heard from some other pilot in a bar that there was a spot in a planet’s ring nearby where pirates were sprawling and the local authorities didn’t dare to set foot. He said that there was good money there for a bounty hunter and so I decided I would go.
The sole decision to listen to him was worth at least a hundred slaps.
My memories from when I arrived there onwards are hazy, all I can remember is that nothing was showing up in my radar, then I heard the sizzling sound of shields going offline, the second hit was loud and echoed through the cockpit of the ship. In two hits the hull integrity was down to a very low value, maybe 10% or 20%, I can’t recall. I desperately tried to issue some commands to the ship, I wanted to pitch and boost away, for all I remember I was just mashing keys without a clue of what to do.
It was as clear as day that it was all a setup, the guy at the bar intentionally encouraged me to come to this place where an ambush was prepared for me and I took his bait, hook line and sinker.
Then the third hit, the ship creaked with a low grating sound, like it was bending and tearing itself apart.
The ship assistant chimed with a monotone but slightly distorted voice.
-Hull integrity critical-
-Eject-
-Eject-
-Eject-
A few images flashed before my eyes and I thought that 19 years old was just too early to pass away.
I opened my eyes only to be blinded by a brilliant white light. I couldn’t see anything, let alone understand where I was, but I could hear two voices not too far from me.
“He was talking in his sleep again, this time it’s something about a promise he has to keep”
“No, look, he’s awake now. Quick, put some more analgesic in the drip or he’ll start to feel pain soon”
I didn’t have the time to focus on my surroundings that the drug kicked in and I was again asleep.
When I woke up for the second time my eyesight was much better. I was in a hospital, it looked clean and well organized, a doctor was standing at the end of my bed alongside the two nurses.
“Hello Steve, I’m doctor Liamsworth. How are you feeling?”
“For someone who thought he was dead, I have to say I’m happy to be proven wrong.”
“That is good to hear. I’m sure you have lots of questions so let me try to answer them as best as I can.
You were found by a prospector in an emergency stasis pod on the surface of a planet, that person signaled your presence and a rescue ship was sent to the location to perform primary medical procedures. From what we saw you had stayed in that pod for about three days, you presented a serious case of head trauma, near hypovolemic shock and other minor injuries.
I’m glad to tell you that you’re no longer risking you life and your condition is stable but I’m afraid there’s one more piece of bad news.
By your lack of response I’m assuming you haven’t noticed it yet but you also received fatal damage to your right arm and thus we had to amputate it”
I instinctively raised my right hand only to find it wasn’t there, it was like my brain thought that my arm was still in one piece even though it wasn’t. The doctor saw my shocked face and answered my unasked question.
“It happens most of the times, the brain at first doesn’t recognize the lack of a limb and creates imaginary stimuli coming from the said limb. You may feel pain in your arm even though it’s not there, the non-medical term is phantom pain.
We went with the standard procedure which consists in connecting the nerves in the shoulder to an electronic interface, this makes the process of installing a bionic arm rather straightforward once you’ll have the means to pay for it.”
“Wait a second, does it mean I don’t have enough money?”
“I’m afraid so, bionic limbs are an expensive piece of technology and surgeons that perform the installation demand a substantial fee too. Look at the bright side, you’re lucky you had the money to pay for our services, otherwise you probably wouldn’t be here.
Anyway my schedule right now is very packed, whenever you’re ready feel free to come and ask me anything you want, you’ll find me in first office at the third floor from 17:00 to 19:00”
I indeed had lots of questions to ask. What happened after I ejected from the ship? What happened to the ship itself? How did I end up on the surface of a planet and how did I survive the landing? How much time was I unconscious for?
I looked around me another time and found that my datapad was in a drawer of the nightstand beside my bed, how it survived all that happened was beyond me.
I reached my hand to take it, forgetting again that I had to use the other arm, fumbling with my left hand I managed to pick it up and turn it on. The glowing holographic display came to life and instantly notified me that I had 13 unread messages.
One was from my sister, reminding me I still hadn’t answered her. The other 12 were from Valery.
***
Stardate 05/08/3302 17:32
From: Valery
Hey Steve, thanks for remembering to call me but what the hell is happening? What were those noises? Were you in a Viper? I really don’t like the face you were making. Please tell me you’re all right.
***
***
Stardate 05/08/3302 17:42
From: Valery
Steve you’re not funny, answer me.
***
***
Stardate 05/08/3302 17:52
From: Valery
Steve?
***
The rest of the messages were all similar, except for the last one.
***
Stardate 05/08/3302 19:15
From: Valery
Ok I don’t like this, I really hope I’m wrong in thinking that something bad happened. If you’re still in Cartu and you read this message don’t move your ass, I’m coming to find you.
***
This is bad, I must have called Valery by accident while I was being attacked.
I didn’t want to show myself in the sorry state I was in, especially to her, so I sent her a message saying that everything was fine and started plan on what to do next.
It took a while to process but I came to the decision to take out a loan to buy the implant and pay the insurance cost of the Lucky Seven. My reasoning went beyond wanting to hide the truth from Valery, without an arm in fact it would be impossible to pilot a ship and without that I couldn’t earn any money. The only other option I could think of was slavery but I’d do anything possible to avoid that and besides I don’t see how anyone would want a mutilated slave.
The next day, when the hour arrived I made my way to the elevator and then to the third floor, even if the walk was short I was already exhausted and gladly accepted to sit on the chair that was offered me by doc. Liamsworth.
“I’m interested in performing the surgery for the arm you talked about, can you please tell me how it works?”
“Wise Idea, here let me show you”
The doctor rotated the display in front of him and showed me what appeared to be a schematic of the arm in question.
“This is the base model arm replacement, produced by Humanis Bionics. It is mechanically identical to a normal arm, it can be tuned to match the weight and the dimensions of your other limb in order not to create imbalances in your posture. Being the base model it lacks many of the finer details that other models have like touch sensors and skin like coating but I’m sure you can overlook those things considering your financial state.”
“Yes, about that, can you tell me where the local branch of the Bank of Zaonce is? I’ll need them to loan me some money if I want to make this thing possible.”
“You don’t need to worry, we’ll take care of everything for you. Many other people have been in your situation before and you don’t need to overexert yourself. We’ll contact the Bank and they’ll make some background checks. If everything is in order a bank officer will come to your room and ask you to sign some documents, after that we’ll proceed with the operation. Easy right?”
“Yeah, almost too easy”
I didn’t believe it would be that simple but I had no other choice.
“Alright I accept”
“Wonderful! Then I’ll prepare what’s necessary, you can rest yourself for the time being”
The next day the bank officer arrived and asked me to sign the documents. When I looked at the sum I was putting myself in debt for I felt dizzy, the officer instead was grinning. The kind of grin that makes you think something is off.
I managed with some difficulty to to sign everything with my left hand, it was too late to turn back at that point.
A few minutes later I was brought to the operating room.
The room itself was terribly cold, on tray near the wall was positioned the arm that would soon be attached to my shoulder, next to it were some surgical instruments that could scare even the surgeon. Then the surgeon himself entered the room along with his assistants.
It was doctor Liamsworth, and he was grinning too.
I realized a lot of people were making a good amount of money from my misfortunes.