into a wide white space that contained nothing except a diagnostic chair in the middle of the floor. They paused. 'Hello?' Gabriel called.
'Nonspecific greeting,' said a computer voice out of the middle of the air. 'One moment, please.' Gabriel blinked then as everything changed around him. Suddenly they were standing in a forest at morning. Beams of dusty sunlight stabbed down all around them through the trees, and birds sang high up somewhere in the canopy of green. The ground underfoot was covered with a carpet of fine brown needles. The diagnostic chair remained where it was though, amusingly incongruous among the pine needles. A small brown bird dropped down from a branch somewhere above, lit on the back of the chair, eyed Gabriel and Enda, and began to sing at them with great sweetness and (Gabriel thought) a fair amount of territorial aggression.
From behind one of the trees, then, slipped a mechalus. Gabriel looked her with interest. The mechalus was about two meters tall and had precise muscle tone as was usual for that people. She wore the typical rlin noch'i, the utilitarian everyday garment that mechalus favored, little more than a simple soft-booted bodysuit covering the body to the neck. The skin of her hands and face was very dark, almost olive hued, and had small veins of circuitry complementing the smoothness of her complexion. 'Introduction: Doctor,' the mechalus said, looking at them out of large, dark eyes that had a slight epicanthic fold. She bowed slightly to both of them. 'Gender female, in case of treatment matter in which gender affects result or cultural stance. Assistance?' 'Not with a treatment matter,' Gabriel said, nodding to her. 'Gabriel Connor.' 'Enda,' the fraal said and bowed slightly as well. 'A pleasure, honored one.'
'Delde Sola,' said the doctor. She was extremely handsome, even by mechalus standards. The genetic engineering the mechalus had done on themselves over many centuries seemed to have selected for what humans considered good looks-high cheekbones, dramatic faces with prominent noses, high foreheads, and large eyes. This mechalus wore her long hair back in a kind of shaggy mane that began to be braided below shoulder level. The neural-net fibers and hair wound together in an elaborate pattern that Gabriel realized, when he got a closer look, somewhat reflected the pattern of the Sealed Knot, the mechalus version of the lifestar or squared cross which many human medical practitioners wore. Many other implants and mechanical augmentations were doubtless woven into and through the doctor's body, engineered there at the molecular level by her ancestors and born with her as part of her normal heredity. Many mechalus even had further augmentations later in life by choice and design, but what these might be there was no telling at first glance.
The doctor came toward them, glancing around her as she paused by the diagnostic chair. 'Species- specific comfort system selection is idiosyncratic,' she said as the small bird on the chair stared at her and began to sing even more piercingly. 'Query: this environment comforting / relaxing / providing relief from stress of visiting medical practitioner?'
'The forest is very beautiful,' said Enda, 'but I would think this small creature would raise my stress level somewhat if I had to listen to it for very long.'
Delde Sola made a slightly annoyed face and waved one graceful hand. The forest disappeared, though a faint echo of the small bird's voice lay on the air for a few seconds after the trees were gone. 'Garbage software,' she said, 'debug process requires millennia, not worth the medium in which produced. Warning: value judgment. Query: nature of assistance required?' 'Phymech supplies,' Gabriel said. 'Better than the basic pack. Anything you have.' 'Query: anything?' Doctor Delde Sola said, with a look in those big dark eyes that was suddenly rather mischievous. 'Whole-body transplant kit? Special this week. Eight hundred thousand Concord dollars.' Gabriel swallowed. That was maybe a tenth of Sunshine's entire cash value, if such a thing as a whole- body transplant kit actually existed. 'Uh, no thank you.'
'Just the usual second-level augmentation package, I would think,' Enda said mildly. 'Traumatic amputation, crushing wound, extremity suite, pneumothorax, and explosive decompression intervention package.'
'Query: take original basic package in trade for reconditioning / resale?' Doctor Delde Sola asked. Gabriel raised his eyebrows at that. 'How much would we get in trade?' The mechalus considered. 'One thousand Concord.' 'Oh, come on,' Gabriel said. 'Two at least.'
Doctor Delde Sola looked at him with a wry expression. 'Statement: this facility medical intervention, break even plus five percent, not charity. Subsidies zero. One thousand two.'
'One thousand seven.'
'In new condition?'
'Seals unbroken,' Gabriel said.
'One thousand five.'
'Done,' Gabriel said and reached out a hand. The braid came up from behind Doctor Delde Sola's back and wrapped itself around his wrist in agreement, then let go rather quickly. Delde Sola looked at him curiously.
'Unusual 'personal magnetism,' ' the doctor said. 'Query: planet of origin?' 'Bluefall,' Gabriel said, wondering just what her sensors had noticed.
Delde Sola shrugged. 'Statement: electrolyte balance may need adjustment. Dietary intervention possibly useful.'
'Yes,' Enda said, 'he does eat like a... well, never mind that. Do you have the replacement packs in stock, or will you need to reorder?'
'Statement: all equipment in stock, inventory software fortunately less than garbage,' Doctor Delde Sola said and gestured. A panel of the white wall slipped aside. 'Conditional query: alternatives: cash and carry; or make purchase, arrange transport and installation?'
'Purchase and have transported and installed, please,' Enda said as they followed the doctor into a surprisingly large storage area full of shelving and 'secure' cabinetry, impervious to rifling except by the person whose hand prints, or even brain wave patterns, were programmed into the protective circuitry.
'You sure we couldn't save a little money by taking 'cash and carry'?' Gabriel said to Enda.
Doctor Delde Sola gave him that slightly wicked look again. 'Statement: savings plus minus ten percent, installation extra, certainty of success of self-installation plus minus forty percent.'
Gabriel swallowed again, not much liking the image of sticking a broken arm or half-amputated leg into the phymech and getting a response along the lines of 'Installation error, cannot find programming module A458, terminating run.'
'No,' he said hurriedly, 'you go ahead and have the usual installer do the job.' The doctor whistled. A floater pallet came from down behind one of the long racks of shelves and levitated up to where it was wanted. The doctor's braid reached up to touch the pallet and instruct its onboard computer which film-wrapped component packs to select. Manipulating arms whipped out of the pallet and started plucking packs out of the shelving.
'How long will we have to wait for installation?' Enda asked, reaching into her satchel for her credit chip.
'Reply: installation immediate, this module will perform,' said Delde Sola, patting the floater pallet with one hand while it finished loading itself. 'Self-trained AI with direct oversight, most reliable.' 'You don't seem overly busy here,' Gabriel remarked after a moment, as the pallet finished its packing. Doctor Delde Sola gave him a slightly peculiar look. 'Meaning of query?'
'Uh,' Gabriel hesitated, since he wasn't sure himself exactly what response he had intended to elicit. 'I mean, there doesn't seem to be the usual number of people around today.'
Delde Sola nodded. 'Speculation,' she said, 'politics, local disruption, possible intervention of outside powers. Instability. Bad for business.'
'Outside powers as in the stellar nations?' said Enda. 'There has been no indication of such in the news services.'
The doctor waved her hands in a gesture that Gabriel thought might have been a shrug. 'Statement: nonspecialist, politics; specialist, medicine. Speculation: disruption periodic, especially of powers normally present in this system.' 'The Concord,' said Enda softly, 'and VoidCorp.'
Doctor Delde Sola turned away from the pallet, now done loading and levitating down to floor level again. She reached out to take the chip that Enda offered her. 'Payment received, thank you,' she said as her braid's cyberfilaments brushed briefly over the chip's surface. She handed the chip back, adding, 'Statement: VoidCorp traffic in vicinity much increased. Speculation: major disruption. Speculation/ analysis: other neighboring star systems very pleasant this time of year.' Gabriel grinned a little. 'Noted,' he said.
The doctor walked them out to the entrance again. 'Instruction: locate ship, open/release phymech module and computer controls. Carrier will implement installation routine. Estimated time for completion one hundred sixty
