Tunnel Rat Chapter 377 (Patreon)

The change in the alphabet from excited children having fun to focused professionals happened in less than a minute. Part of Belinda watched as all of them began to focus and work together. Onyx proposed a new project: Study the new batch of data and find a way to cure Belinda. The study would begin immediately and take priority over other projects.

Belinda and Milo watched as each person took thirty seconds to give their thoughts, and then they voted. It was unanimous and they got to work. Nina was assigned to the position of project head because of her expertise in human medicine. Bork, Onyx, and Algernon were given the task of working with Rusty to go over the existing data they found on Vigo's experiments and go through the remaining discs. Belinda, Nina, Zander, and Milo left them to do their job and drove back to the small hospital in Downtown with its MkVII pods.

Nina outlined her plans. "I want to put Belinda in a pod to do a full exam. In addition to whatever is causing you problems, you're also suffering from a high level of stress. The side effects of that may mask your other symptoms, so we start by getting that under control. I want to get nutrients into you, slow your metabolism down, and see what effect that has. I need to establish a baseline for you. How long since you've slept?"

"Two days? No, closer to four. I've been keyed up, anticipating dealing with my father, ever since I found out the truth. After I talked to him, I ran back and got back to work. I couldn't stop scanning the discs and was going faster and faster. It's like I can't slow down! I've never had this happen before."

Nina looked at Milo who nodded, slightly. Not being able to slow down was a familiar feeling for all of the alphabet. "Something has changed. Let's get you in the pod so you can sleep. Milo, I'm going to need access to our private medical labs in the Rhebus sections. How do we get her there?"

Milo considered taking her through the habitat with a Roomba escort, but there was an easier way. "Rhebus has a helicopter with cargo capability. When you have her stable, we can go up the elevator to the top of the hab, and use the copter to hop from section E to your sections."

"Good plan. Next, I need you and Zander to give me a secure Data Net connection to Rhebus. I don't trust any other form of communication. Too many of our secrets could leak. Corporations are constantly trying to get into our systems. Bork is constantly upgrading our security, and sending little electronic time bombs to the people hacking us. He's turned a lot of computers into doorstops."

Zander turned to Milo, "Downtown isn't connected, obviously, since you have an AI down there. One hint of Rusty's existence would make the big AI go ape-shit, he's hardwired that way. We need to keep him secret. We could run the cable from Rhebus through the sewer systems using the new clog eaters to do the work. That gives us a closed system, but where do we need to go to connect?"

Milo liked that plan, and that Zander understood how bad it would be if Wally found out about Rusty. "I have a connection from Downtown to my old home, we can connect it there. My systems are set up to block Rusty from accessing the full Data Net and keep Wally out. I download materials to my system, then feed data to the connection to Downtown. If the Rhebus labs are isolated we can hook directly to them."

"Great, you work from your end. I'll work from Rhebus and we'll meet in the middle somewhere."

Milo used his datapad to show Zander his proposed route. "These water pipes are clean and in good condition. We can use the bots to do most of the work and follow along checking the connections. I'm sending six of them to meet you on the Rhebus side." They didn't stop when they got to the doors to Downtown. The Roomba opened them up and Milo drove through, saving Belinda the walk. Butch, Brad, and Min saw them driving along and ran after them to the Medical Center.

There was concern in Butch's voice. "What do you need help with? And don't say you have it handled. You wouldn't be driving through the hallways and breaking the 'No motorized vehicles' rule. That rule had been put in place after Butch had convinced Max and the Roomba to take part in 'Camel Races', with the Roomba acting as the trusty steeds. When four teenagers riding Roomba had nearly run into Mama, new rules were immediately posted. Camel races were now scheduled so non-participants had warnings and could watch from the finish line.

"I need you and Brad to help us get two pods into the elevator and unseen to the helicopter landing pad. You know the area and can count while the four of us maneuver the pods with the Roomba's assistance. And I need Min to drive this thing back to the doorway and park it."

"Awesome!" Min grinned at her big brother, happy with the allocation of jobs.

"Slowly, and you can't get caught by Mama."

"Less awesome, but still fun."

Nina looked at Milo, puzzled, "Two pods? Is someone else hurt?"

"Yes, and it's part of the long story that involves Rusty and Icarus. They were created here, by Jeremy Cooper. To save Icarus, Jeremy created Rusty. But to do that he had to be directly connected to the Quantum Core. Full immersion with the creation of a robust Overmind. He slowly lost his link to his real body as the stress took its toll. He succeeded but at the cost of being trapped with Rusty and Icarus in the core. Injured is a mild way to describe the situation. Jeremy spent months, maybe years, in a pod in the lower fusion levels, directly connected to the quantum core. His body is barely alive, with most of his nervous system overloaded. I don't know what we can do, but I promised I'd try. We'd have to find a way to download his conscious mind back into his body after we restore him to health. Two big unknowns."

"His consciousness survived? That's amazing, and ties into some of the research we've been doing. Please tell me you have all of his notes and research!"

Milo grimaced, "Much worse. I have all of his tutorials! I never had anything hurt my brain like those did! And yes, all of his research is saved as well."

Nina grinned, "Groundbreaking research and medical miracles. We live for this type of challenge. " She glanced down at her hand. "But you've done some of that yourself. How did you discover a method for aligning nerve impulses? And why did you sell your gloves as video gaming gear?"

"Um...accidentally? It was protective gear in case I had to deal with Victor's goons. Butch saw the gloves when I was wearing them during the test period and assumed they were for gaming. They do speed up reactions and eliminate fatigue, so I made the gang their own set. I was surprised when they helped Belinda."

Nina held up her hand. "You did more than that. This isn't a prosthetic. We've pioneered some cloning techniques. I was able to graft a new left hand without rejection, but it was clumsy and hard to use, even after a year of physiotherapy. I only had 17% of the mobility of my right hand. That's up to 64% without the gloves and still improving. With them on I'm at 94%. That technology is why we made that deal with Claw Master and Genesis." She peeled off the glove and wiggled her fingers.

Seeing that made Milo extremely happy. And then the ramifications hit him. "I could have two legs?"

"You certainly could. And I need more test subjects, so thanks for volunteering. We'll have you dancing in time for the Broadway show."

Milo fervently wished to avoid such an event. Dancing with Larry was one thing. He wasn't sure he could handle being in a live-action anime production. The discussion ended as they arrived at the small hospital, Nina looked around at the equipment, noting that for a government installation, it wasn't half-bad, although some of the equipment needed updating. But it wasn't a research laboratory, and that was what she needed. Belinda had fallen out of her hyper-focus at some point during the short trip and was half-asleep. Milo and Nina got her into her pod and hooked up to the diagnostics scanners and nutrient dispensers.

"As I thought, she's running on too little sleep and too much stress. Her EKG graph shows more mental activity than I've seen in a normal human. We're far beyond normal, and she's somewhere in the middle. Whatever is happening is a long-term change. I suspect things accelerated when you got her off that horrible cocktail of drugs, and she started wearing the suit you made. Normally, those are both good things, but something else is at work here, some legacy of what her father did. Let's get her to Rhebus."

Butch and Brad helped them wheel the pods to the elevator to the top floor and through the security center. Nina took a quick look at Jeremy's pod, confirming what Milo had told her. The body was alive, barely, but no one was home. In any hospital, they would have declared him brain-dead. At the top, the two boys quietly left the abandoned offices and scouted out the nearby corridors. The area was almost completely abandoned now, businesses that had occupied the top floors had fled after only a few years and there were no housing areas. It was rare that shipments came by helicopter, but in the past year, the roof had seen more use by executives from Genesis, Claw Master, and Manpower. Within minutes the two pods were loaded and the copter was in the air, traveling once around the building and setting down again on the Rhebus landing pad.

Butch and Brad were quiet until they got into the elevator with Milo. "Does Claw Master have a cool helicopter like that?"

Milo could think of no reason why he'd ever use such a vehicle. He didn't even like being on the roof. "No, what would I do with it."

Brad grinned, "Loan it to your best buddies so they can learn to fly it."

"That sounds like a good way to lose a million-dollar helicopter and whatever it lands on. Shouldn't you know to fly one first, then get the vehicle?"

Butch agreed with such sage advice. "This is why we keep you around, for your big brain. You're right, we need to begin lessons and let you buy us a cool copter when we won't wreck it. Playing Chopper Commander only gets you so far."

Brad sighed but gave in. "OK, pilot's license first, chopper second."

"I don't see why we need a helicopter."

"Well, you have a place to land one and you bought the whole section. Seems silly to not get yourself two pilots and a fancy ride."

Milo looked at the two of them, trying to figure out how serious they were. They'd fooled him before. "If you can beat me in Chopper Commander, I'll pay for lessons."

"Ooh, a three-way battle?"

Milo wasn't about to let them team up on him. He'd barely played the game, and it was one of their favorites. "Nope, I get Min on my side. If we win, she gets to take the lessons."

Brad grimaced, "Now that's just unfair."

Butch didn't seem to mind, "Roll with it. Either we get lessons, or Min gets them. She can teach us." Discussions continued until they reached the bottom. Mama was waiting for them.

"I need the help of three strong boys, and I want an explanation of what's been going on."

The three of them exchanged looks, before Butch said, "Well, what do you think is going on?" He'd tried to impress on Milo that information was dangerous and to never give away what you'd done, in case that wasn't the subject of the current investigation.

"I think that someone was taking a half dozen rabbits and two of the younger children for a ride, and managed to get the vehicle stuck in the bushes in the middle of the park. No one got hurt except for the bushes. You three can get your story straight while you un-stick it, and I have a long talk with Min."

As Mama walked off to find her daughter, Brad looked at Butch, "Probably a bad time to tell Mama that Min is learning to fly a helicopter."

"Just means we have to win!"