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.
2. Training
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.
“What rumours?” Burt did not let Daniel get away like that.
“Things that people say. About Rebuilts.”
Burt nodded. “Tell me about them.”
“You’ve probably heard them before.” Daniel felt awkward. This did not strike him as military stuff.
“So tell me again, Daniel.”
