The Aviator Awakening

The days merged into an endless loop. The crimson woman’s relentless tests pushed me to my limits time and time again. My cybernetic sense’s alternate world quickly became a safer haven than the physical world. Half the time, I didn’t know in which reality my body existed.

I woke up—or shifted into my normal senses, unsure which. The lab’s white lights came into focus, and my other senses flooded back with a nauseating rush. I teetered on the edge of losing consciousness, again, my mind lost in a dizzy fog.

Agent Nerzogk’s looming green bulk returned. The lights were blinding, and I desperately wanted to fall into the void and let the world fade to black. He injected another boost. It chased the void away, but even with the adrenaline, the world was fuzzy. Doctor Lsar said something, and a long transparent tube attached to my wrist began to turn red with my blood.

I hadn’t noticed them insert the IV. I laid back and closed my eyes, wishing to escape from this place. If not physically, then mentally.

A strange beeping filled the lab.

“The transfusion is being rejected,” Agent Nerzogk reported as his lumbering steps ran over, but not to me. After some time, the beeping stopped.

“A failure before we could even begin,” Doctor Lsar sighed and stepped away from where they’d gathered nearby.

Agent Nerzogk removed my IV. His armbands glistened, no longer obscured by the jacket he wore in my training room. The red gems on his right arm matched the color of my blood still in the IV’s tendril, which he put aside. Another med bed hovered behind him. I hadn’t noticed them bring it in. Nerzogk’s large body blocked most of the bed from my line of sight. I could only make out a hand—limp as it draped over the edge of the bed. A hand similar to mine, pale and scaleless.

Before I could give my observation much thought, Doctor Lsar replaced Agent Nerzogk by my side. Her crimson brow looked annoyed. She swiped a leathery finger across the nearest machine, the primary source of my nausea, plunging me into the depths of my sixth sense once again—an upside-down, untethered and disorienting state of being.

Time continued to pass in this manner. The lab’s machines tore me between glimpses of reality and my alternate awareness. Exhaustion cut so deep I couldn’t tell if the precious little sleep I got was part of the tests or my mind misinterpreting falls out of consciousness. But I was brought back, without fail, always earlier than what would allow me to feel rested. The only measure of time to go by was Doctor Lsar’s energy level—whether she was fully alert or in automatic mode.

My body and mind were throbbing when, at last, Agent Nerzogk dismissed the equipment used to drag me into the nauseating electrical otherworld. He removed the restraints holding me to the med bed, and I tried to prop myself up. He placed his leather-jade hand on my chest, the gentle weight of his oversized palm enough to sink me back to the bed.

“What now?” I asked, staying quiet enough to keep the discussion between us.

“Just a little longer,” he responded at the same volume, avoiding eye contact.

He removed his hand from my chest, and injected a stinging concoction into my right forearm. I attempted to pull out of his grip, but his hold easily overpowered my feeble attempt. I tugged again, and again with more force as I realized my arm had gone numb.

“Agent, restrain the subject.” Doctor Lsar’s passive voice carried over from her desk at the far side of the unit.

Nerzogk frowned but did as instructed. As soon as the last strap latched into place, a med bot appeared and engulfed my numbed arm.

“What…what are you doing?” My heart beat loudly, its rhythm relayed by the room’s equipment.

Agent Nerzogk’s jade face stayed expressionless, ignoring me as he flipped a holo from his uniform collar and tapped it against the bot, which responded by turning transparent and projecting a surgical path onto my forearm. I twisted against the restraints, but the bot held my arm steady. He removed a pair of gloves and holo glasses from the bot’s malleable body and settled into a seat by my side.

The crimson woman’s steps echoed to signal she’d left her desk. She joined to stand behind Nerzogk’s massive shoulder, her glinting blood-red skull tilted with interest as the first incision began.

I couldn’t feel it, couldn’t understand the reason for the intricate pattern projected and followed by the bot’s scalpel at my handler’s direction. I could only feel an intense dread from being stuck here, under the clinical gaze of the doctor’s ruby eyes.

I overtook the bot’s programming, halting Agent Nerzogk’s progress. Doctor Lsar shifted her gaze to me without moving her head. She narrowed her eyes and tapped the ring on her thumb. Lighting flooded from the implant.

“Are you volunteering to stay here longer, Aviator?” Her hiss was amused, although her eyes betrayed annoyance. “I don’t mind, if that’s what you want. We can do this procedure just as easily with you knocked out.”

“What procedure?” I demanded.

She cocked her head to the side and stayed silent for a long moment as a debate played across her slick leather brow. Then she smiled, her razor teeth impossibly white.

“I’m solving your dilemma, naturally,” she answered. Then her smile faded as quickly as it had emerged. “Once you’re discharged from here, there will be no obstacles hindering your cybernetic training. I won’t ask again for your cooperation. Stop interfering with Agent Nerzogk’s work.”

“I’ll do the training. I don’t need whatever this is.”

She blinked, the transparent side-to-side reptilian blink. “You are imperial property. The Empire will determine what you need or do not need.” Another shock issued from her ring. “Now, are we going to be able to complete our work on schedule—or should I notify General Larkkon of an extension?”

I shuddered from her threat. After another icy glare, I released my hold over the bot’s algorithmic current. I didn’t completely retreat. Didn’t want to admit defeat. The surgery continued to slice into my numbed flesh and bone. Wisps of data drifted through my connection, giving me the answers the doctor had refused. It was a circuit board. Sort of. A web of implants using my body as a conduit.

The sedation from earlier muted the scalpel’s work but did nothing to block jolts of lighting from circuitry embedding into bone. The pull from my cybernetic sense grew stronger with each shock.

“You’re slowing down the connection,” Agent Nerzogk warned.

Doctor Lsar followed his observation with a warning shock. I groaned, too dizzy to respond. The jade man sighed. He didn’t say anything else, although my interference must be growing more intrusive. I couldn’t separate myself from the bot, lost in its undercurrent, the pull growing stronger, practically magnetic. I fell out of touch with the white-walled world. I didn’t fight these electrical immersions anymore. I’d rather be in their strange other-world than the real one.

The bot silenced, and a light flashed against my eyelids, growing brighter, persistent. I blinked, winced, and turned away as much as possible, considering I remained locked on the med bed.

“Well?” Doctor Lsar asked impatiently from the background.

“He’s coming out of it,” the jade man answered and turned off the light.

“Good. We’re finished, then.”

Nausea twisted my stomach. My right arm tingled with returning sensation. Agent Nerzogk avoided eye contact as he packaged me up to be returned to my training quarters. I was perfectly fine with his avoidance, since I didn’t have the energy to filter my expression. The room spun. Doctor Lsar’s steps traced back to her desk. I strained to lift my head to check my arm, but I could not get a clear view. The attempt made me more dizzy. I glimpsed a subtle blue glow marking my skin before my head became too heavy to keep raised.

“You did well, Aviator,” Doctor Lsar commented from across the room, suggesting she was already too absorbed in her work to care for a response. I was too tired to think of anything to say anyways. Pod walls materialized from the edges of my hovering med bed, closing in. Soft blue lights replaced the lab’s harsh brilliance.

My implant pulsed with a scan, followed by cybernetic silence as an outer layer was added. The difference after the dimming was more pronounced than I expected. The biocircuit on my right arm finally quieted. And I breathed easier. The pod’s lulling motion as it sped along its route soothed my weary mind. A refreshing sense of safety permeated the small space. My body desperately wanted to sleep, but lingering effects from all the adrenaline boosts given to me to stay conscious prevented me from nodding off. I counted down the transport time, which felt much longer than it actually was.

At last, the pod came to a resting point. The dimming vanished. My sixth sense immediately recognized my training room’s familiar currents. And my implant pulsed with another scan.

When the pod walls dissolved, I expected to see Agent Nerzogk. However, to my surprise, I met a very different gaze.

Her eyes were hazel, with a slight dominance of speckled blue and a kind expression. Her skin had the same texture as mine. I froze, wondering if I’d wandered into a dream. Her silky brown hair cascaded down her shoulders with a finer texture than mine.

“Are you okay?” she asked when my surprise lasted longer than norms might permit. Her soothing voice contrasted the harsher tones I’d come into contact with so far. The woman’s accent was close to mine; maybe human vocal cords were simply not as eloquent in this guttural language. She wore a jet-black jacket similar to Agent Nerzogk’s. I could assume she was one of his comrades. Potentially one of my comrades. I searched for a hopeful moment for recognition in her eyes, naively thinking she might be someone from my past. It was a momentary hope, and when the recognition wasn’t there, I filed the thought away.

I shook my head, trying to pull myself out of my shock. “I’m sorry,” I stuttered. “Um, no, not really. I could use a boost.”

“You're boosted out,” she replied. “You need to get some real rest.”

She offered a smile to reassure me. I couldn’t peel my eyes off her. It was my first time seeing someone who looked like me. Or, at least, one of my species. Her features were soft, but her movements showed strength. I looked away to give her a break from my staring and reminded myself not to underestimate her. She was one of them. I didn’t know what purpose she was here for, and I should keep my guard up. I should. But I couldn’t. A part of me dismissed all suspicion and was simply happy to meet someone similar to myself. Someone with a kind, unthreatening presence.

She tugged at the straps. “What the Lrend….” She pulled harder and searched for the release. “Do you know how to unlatch this?” she asked.

I laughed weakly and shook my head. She tugged one more time, sighed, and took out a small plasma knife. I stared at it and then at her, at her jacket, wondering if she really was one of them. There was no way something like that was permitted in here, given the excessive layers of precautions.

“I guess that’s what I get for delegating my workload. Subpar workmanship,” she said the last word through her teeth, which gave an effect of a slight hiss.

“Who are you?” I asked as she sliced through the straps. Logically, I should be cautious. But I couldn’t help it. The plasma knife had me thoroughly entertained. If she was one of them, she wasn’t one to follow the rules.

She finished cutting the restraints, then got wide-eyed as her forgotten caution must’ve sunk in. She glanced back toward the entrance, then frowned and examined the burnt ridges of the straps to check if the evidence could be hidden.

“Let’s get you settled,” she said, ignoring my question and locking the plasma knife into a compartment in the med bay panels. She returned and lifted me to sit upright.

“Come on,” she encouraged. Then brushed her hair to the side and offered her shoulder to help me stand.

I motioned her away, wanting to look stronger than I felt. I wasn’t sure why I wanted to make a good impression, but I cared what she thought of me. She raised her eyebrows, grinned mischievously, and folded her arms to watch me, unconvinced I could pull it off.

Sure enough, when I tried to stand, my feet gave out. She caught me.

“Sorry,” I laughed to hide my nerves, dismissing my pride and accepting the help she offered. Thankfully she took my left arm over her shoulder, not the right side, which still glowed from Agent Nerzogk’s surgical handiwork.

“There’s no shame in asking for help. They really put you through a lot, didn’t they?”

I resisted being swept away by emotions threatening to burst their porcelain barrier at the soft touch of her concern. I held it together, saying nothing and simply focusing on staying coherent. The skin of her neck, subtly pushing against the nook of my elbow, was warm. I swallowed, becoming too aware of how close our bodies were. Her hair brushed against my arm. My fatigue dampened the embarrassment washing over me as we slowly made our way through the training quarters. I barely stayed awake long enough to reach my cell’s metal doorframe. The two of us awkwardly navigated the door before arriving at my bed. She sat me down. I shivered as she moved away. It was more than just a temperature difference; the cold penetrated deeper in the absence of her warmth.

The glow from my right arm caught her attention. She returned to sit by my side and lifted my wrist gently to trace the glowing lines with unfiltered curiosity. I resisted flinching, the skin sliced by the biocircuit’s installation still sensitive. I was too tired to mind her attention, and if anything, I was grateful to have a reason for her to stay close. When her analysis finished, an apologetic smile pulled at the corners of her soft lips. She lowered my altered arm.

“Do you need anything?” she asked with a hint of concern.

I shook my head, not trusting my vocal cords.

“Alright, get some rest.” A hesitant pause slowed her exit from the room. After she stepped outside, a deadbolt clicked, and the door’s silent signal buzzed through the training quarters.

I regretted not saying something, anything, to keep her near for a little longer. I had a tidal wave of questions I wanted to ask her.

I couldn’t remember what the questions were.

The world spun. I didn’t remember lying down, but the lights switched off, and I felt a vague floating sensation. I might’ve been sleeping before my head hit the pillows.