Chapter Ten: Medic!
Flashes of dreams wash over me as I sleep, I am somehow both aware and not of the pain pulsing through my body, the pain keeping me from truly falling into the illusions my mind is trying to weave for me. Crashing, gnashing, metal screeching, and Syn’s screaming…
I jolt awake, and then I howl as that movement alone is enough to jar all of my injuries. I flip myself onto my back, and just stare at the ceiling as I breathe and gather the will to try and move. My breath starts to fog up the helmet, so I activate the latch mechanism, and finally take the damn thing off. Oh man, without that fish bowl on my head life suddenly seems a lot more bearable, I toss the thing across the room, it bounces on debris before settling.
Oh, right, the ship crashed. I finally look around, the room is a wreck, one wall is bent inward, the ceiling is mostly collapsed, the tank next to mine was pierced fully by what looked like part of the outside hallway, the same event that caused the gash in my own tank probably… I chuckle, luck is a strange thing… Though, if I am in Endymion, I suppose the game is designed to keep me playing as long as it can. I really don’t want to move, like, seriously, I think I’ll just live here now, as the idea of doing anything to my leg other than chopping it off and leaving it behind is unbearable. But, out of the corner of my eye, I see something that brings me some hope.
A sturdy little case that must have fallen out of the drawer in the wall during the crash. It’s over by the door, only a few meters away, though it may as well be miles in my condition. I groan, my inner voices arguing about what we should do, some saying that we need to rest more, others pointing out that resting won’t heal our broken bones, and the darkness, well, it just giggles with every pulse of pain. Sigh, I use my good arm and leg to start scooting myself, never any peace, scoot, could you all, scoot, just give it a rest? It takes a few minutes, but with the help of being covered in slime, I manage to scoot/slide my way over to the door, still on my back.
I reach out and grab the little case, feeling its familiar weight, and open it, finding a pristine pair of AR glasses waiting for me. Axiom, please let these work, I put them on, and they do their little resizing dance. Once they fit just perfectly, they boot up, but this time instead of the smooth transition to the home screen, I get a log in failed message blinking in my vision. After a moment of error messages and failed connection attempts the screen goes dark for a moment, then, an alternative boot sequence starts and I get the impression from the text scrolling by that a localized operating system is being engaged. I give a little chuckle when I see a logo flash by as part of the start up, it being an empty circle with cat ears on it, chibi minimalism at its best, then finally the interface comes to life.
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“Leod! You not only survived but you managed to find these glasses, the odds of that were, well, no point in dwelling on that now is there?” Fragments voice spills from the speakers built into my new glasses, and I let out a choked sigh/sob, I don’t think I have ever been more happy to hear someone's voice.
“Frag? Gods I am so glad you are still here, I thought maybe you would have died or been deleted or something when the ship crashed.” I am grinning as I speak.
“Based on the error messages I am receiving, It is likely that the ship's AI is down. It and I had gone through the possibilities just before the impact and we decided it would be best for me to transfer my instance into these glasses, well these and the ones you had been wearing, rather than remain in the cloud servers… It was our hope that you would live and that I could continue to assist you and the other survivors.” The little voice gives a strategic cough, “And so that you might help me reboot the ship's AI.”
I grunt, “Not exactly able to move right now buddy, it took all I had just to squidge my way over here… My leg is mangled, arm is very broken, and some of my ribs are donezo.”
Fragment makes a little trilling sound, half whistle, half thinking, “I am surprised that is all we need to worry about Leod, truthfully you should be in much worse shape.” I laugh, oh god it hurts, Fragment continues, “I cannot access the state of the ship, but there are medical units on each deck with machinery capable of diagnosing, splinting, and dispensing pain medications. If we can get you to one of those, we should manage to get you into much better shape.”
I let out a deep breath, ok… a goal… a horrible painful no good goal… but at least it's something to do… and damn, it's good to have Frag back, I hadn’t realized how attached I had gotten to the little dude until he was gone. I sigh and ask, “How far to the nearest med bay thingy?”
More calculation sounds, is he doing that for me? “Leod, assuming that the ship is intact and there are no major obstructions, the nearest auto-doc room would take about five minutes to walk from this location.”
God damn… I grumble, “So how long is that in agonized crawling time?”
