Mitchell's Revenge

Lucy Savage took a deep, shuddering breath and opened her eyes. She found herself looking straight at the recovery room nurse, who regarded her with sympathetic brown eyes.

“You’re going to be OK,” she said, and smiled at Lucy.

Lucy blinked. She felt numb. And confused. She licked her lips. Her mouth was incredibly dry. The nurse reached over to a plastic cup with a straw stuck in it, lifted Lucy’s head up from the pillow with her other hand and put the straw in Lucy’s mouth.

“Try this,” she said. “It’ll help.”

Lucy sucked at the straw without much success. She felt as if her strength had evaporated. Eventually she managed to get some lukewarm water into her mouth and immediately felt better. She sucked a bit more. Then the nurse took the water away.

“That’s enough for now. We don’t want to you to be sick after such a long operation,” She said gently.

Lucy blinked again. “Where am I? What happened?” she asked, feeling panic rising in her chest. Her eyes felt like sandpaper. She gripped the edge of the bed.

“You had an accident,” said the nurse. “Your space craft crashed. On the pylon course. Your partner rescued you and brought you here. You’re in the military hospital at Covington on EQ2.” She could see the distress on Lucy’s face and began to gently stroke her hair.

“You’re going to be OK,” she said again. “The doctors have patched you up. Ted Fosberg led the team that saved your life. He’ll explain what they’ve done when you’re more awake. Just rest now.” The nurse’s hand continued to stroke her hair and Lucy relaxed her grip on the edge of the bed.

Lucy concentrated on breathing properly. In and out. In and out. She could move her hands, she could see, albeit a bit blurrily, but she couldn’t feel her legs. She had a vague memory of tremendous pressure on her lower body and legs but couldn’t quite piece it together in her mind.

Then she remembered. She’d been testing the new stealth craft when the steering had failed. She hit a pylon. Now she was here. And she was alive! What a relief! Lucy closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.

Sometime later she became aware of Jake’s voice asking the nurse if he could see her. She heard the nurse say it was OK as long as he sat quietly and didn’t expect too much. She felt him sit down next to the bed. He took her hand and just sat there, looking at her. Lucy struggled to open her eyes this time. The sandpaper feeling was worse than before. After several moments of trying to open them, both eyes popped open at once. Jake leaned over, looking concerned.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, stroking her hand with his thumb.

“As if I’ve been hit by a magnetised pylon!” she replied. Lucy tried to smile. It was more of a grimace. Jake screwed up his face and kept staring at her.

“You’re so lucky to be alive,” he said quietly. “I’m so glad you can see me.”

“What have they done to me?” she asked.

“I’ll let Ted explain all that,” Jake replied. “He should be here shortly, now that you’re awake. But you will be as good as new, if not better, when you’ve recovered. Some miracles have been worked today.” He smiled at her as the door behind him opened and Ted Fosberg came into the room.

“Good to see you’re awake Lucy,” he began. “But there’ll be no more visitors for you today. This is quite enough already.”

He moved to stand in front of her so that she could see his face.

“My eyes feel like sandpaper,” she said. “And I can’t feel my legs. What have you done to me?”

Ted smiled broadly.

“You’re young and strong Lucy,” he said. “Your eyes feel like that because you now have bionic ones. It will take a little while for the nerves to re-establish themselves so that they feel normal again. But they will. The success rate with this kind of surgery is very high. You will be able to see even better than before.”

Lucy tried to nod her head and failed miserably. She felt so weak.

“What about the rest of me?” she asked. “I remember hitting the pylon but nothing after that.”

“Your legs and pelvis were crushed in the accident,” Ted explained. “So badly that we couldn’t save them.” Jake shivered and held more tightly to Lucy’s hand.

“So I have no legs....” Lucy’s voice petered out as the full horror of what had happened struck home.

Ted smiled again.

“Actually, you do. Brand new, state of the art, bionic legs and pelvis, fully integrated into the rest of your body. You’ll function absolutely normally once you have recovered. You will be able to fly again. You’ll be able to run faster, climb mountains, dance, ski, anything you want.”

Lucy was stunned. She fumbled for the bedcover and lifted it. Forcing her eyes downwards towards her toes she was amazed to see that it was true. Two legs, two feet, toes pointing upwards. She dropped the cover and looked Ted.

“How is this possible?" she asked. “I’m just a test pilot, not military, or anyone special.” She felt quite faint now.

Jake had a tight grip on her hand again. He was smiling too.

“We couldn’t lose our best pilot,” he said quietly. “And you’re special to me.”

“I think that’s enough for now,” said Ted. “You need more sleep. We’ll talk some more when you’ve rested for longer. Jake and I will leave you now. The nurses will keep an eye on you. Just get some more rest. OK?”

“OK,” Lucy replied weakly. She felt exhausted by their conversation and the effort of lifting the bed cover. She was glad when Jake followed Ted from the room. She drifted back to sleep.

Outside Lucy’s room the two men paused and looked at each other.

“Thank you,” Jake said as he shook Ted’s hand. Ted shook his head.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he warned. “We have to make sure there is no infection after the surgery. She has a lot of work to do to get full control of her new lower body. She’s very weak and her eyes are obviously worrying her. It’ll take a while for her to adjust, both mentally and physically. I’m sure she’ll get there with some help from her friends. Just don’t expect too much too soon.”

“Nevertheless, she’s still here, thanks to you. And I’m grateful for that,” Jake smiled. “I’d best be off. I have to meet with my father and uncle while I’m on planet. I plan to stay until Lucy’s starting to recover, then I’ll have to get back to the shipyard. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

They shook hands again and Jake strode off down the corridor.

Ted walked thoughtfully back to his office. The surgery had been a marathon thirty six hours by a team of eight surgeons working in four hour shifts. It was highly experimental, but their test subject was the perfect candidate for success. And money was no object for the bigwigs at Universal Starship Enterprises, which was why they had gone ahead as soon as they had Jake’s OK.

The bionics were the very latest from the military development labs. This version was programmed to evolve with its host. Ted expected that it would be at least six months before Lucy was fully functional. He hoped that she would be able to understand what had happened to her and how they had mended her. He thought it would be fascinating to see how specialist military bionics matured in a civilian environment.