Ark

Despite the fact that his legs were sore, Dmitry ran back to the medical bay as fast as he could; hoping to get there by the time Nyo and Dominic did. But by the time he slid through the door, Medbots were already swarming around one of the beds across the room and Nyo was standing beside it rapidly giving out orders.

"Come on! We need to get him prepped!" ordered Nyo.

As Dmitry started running across the room one of the Medbots approached him, "I am sorry sir but I can not let you get any closer, we are trying to work."

"But he's my friend!" Dmitry protested.

"D is that you?" called Nyo from behind the Medbot. "Number 32 let him pass; I need his help."

The Medbot shook its head but moved aside. Dmitry rushed over to the bed that Nyo was standing next to, and then jumped into the bed with his friend, wrapping his arms around the boy.

"Oh Dom, I thought for sure you were gone," cried Dmitry. "Waltkins killed almost everyone else and I know how much he hated you. I'm so glad you're alive!"

Dominic let go of Nyo's hand and wrapped his arms around Dmitry, "I'm ok DT."

"This should have never happened to you Dom, this is all my fault," whispered Dmitry. "If I would have just..."

"Don't start that, you know it had nothing to do with you. Besides it doesn't hurt anymore," said Dominic. "It stopped hurting a while ago; it's just a dull feeling now."

Dmitry let go of Dominic and looked over at Nyo, "Can you help him Nyo, can you fix him like you fixed me?"

"We'll do our best D; I'll have a direct hand in this one. The Medbots will need my mechanical knowledge for this," said Nyo.

Dmitry gave Nyo a confused look, "I didn't think eyes were mechanical."

"They're not D," said Nyo. "But you have to understand, eyes are the only organic organ that we can't reproduce so the best we have to give him are mechanical eyes. They'll look normal for the most part, well except for the metallic look."

"I'll be able to see again for real?" Dominic asked.

"That's what we're shooting for," said Nyo.

"Sir, we are ready to begin the procedure," said one of the nearby Medbots.

"Lets begin then, give Dominic two shots of Cryoferrum and then start the regeneration chamber's sleep cycle," replied Nyo.

"Wait, what's Cryoferrum, is that like Vitaferrum?" asked Dmitry.

"DT what's going on?" said Dominic.

"We are just getting ready to put you to sleep Dominic so you don't feel anything," said Nyo. "And yes D, Cryoferrum is very much like Vitaferrum because it induces a sleep that will allow the regeneration chamber to integrate Vitaferrum into his systems. We have to use Vitaferrum based compounds in the hardware to wetware interface so we can tell his brain how to deal with the signals his new eyes will be giving him."

"So he'll be like me and Step when you're done with him?" asked Dmitry.

< Yes Dmitry, he will be. >

Dmitry smiled and then whispered in Dominic's ear, "You'll be ok Dom, they're going to take good care of you."

"Who was that strange voice?" asked Dominic.

"That was the Ark, she's my friend; she knows what she's talking about," replied Dmitry.

< She? >

"She?" said Nyo.

"Oh oops," giggled Dmitry. "Ok, IT, is that better?"

< Quite. >

"I trust you DT," Dominic whispered back. "Will you be here when I wake up?"

"Yeah I'll be here," said Dmitry.

Dmitry helped Dominic lay down on the bed and then slowly backed away as the Medbots rushed forward to give Dominic the Cryoferrum injection and begin their work on him. Soon Dominic was asleep and Dmitry sat down in a near by chair to watch Nyo and the Medbots begin their work.

~~~

Stepan watched as Dmitry rushed out of the room heading back towards the medical bay and slowly got up from his chair to follow him.

< Just a moment Stepan. >

Stepan stopped, "What's up?"

< I need you to help me with something important; I just hope that you are up for it physically. >

"What do you need my help for?" asked Stepan.

< Nyo will be extremely busy with the young man he just brought back; he will be helping the Medbots implant mechanical eyes for the boy. Anything to do with mechanical devices, Nyo is an expert in. But with Nyo not being here the last few days a few of my memory modules have shut down and I am not exactly sure why. Regardless of why, I need to have those modules back online otherwise I can not access the information that they are holding. >

"Umm Ark, I'm not exactly an engineer," said Stepan.

< Well congratulations, today is your lucky day because you are now. And do not worry; I will walk you through the entire process, I just need you to get the proper equipment first. >

Stepan smiled, "This should be interesting."

< Probably more for me then for you. >

"Where's this equipment I'll need," laughed Stepan.

< On the left side of the room you are in now you will find a storage closet >

Stepan slowly walked over to the storage closet and looked inside, "Ok, I see four different boxes and a few strange looking headsets."

< You want the storage box labeled 'Memory kit' and one of the headsets. >

"Ark, I can read Russian but I can't read the labels on these boxes, it doesn't even look like English," said Stepan.

< Oh, I must have forgotten to load our written language into your memory while you were unconscious. I am sorry; I'll have to do that later, but for now it is the small blue box and its label looks like it has two words on it. >

"Am I going to have to read anything else while on this mission of yours?" asked Stepan as he grabbed the blue box and then one of the headsets.

< I do not think so, and even if you do I will be able to see them and I can translate for you. The headset has a camera and communication system built into it so I will be able to see what you are doing and you will be able to hear me better when you are inside of the memory modules. >

"Inside?" said Stepan while putting on and adjusting the headset. "How large are these memory modules?"

< There are three bays that house my memory modules; each bay has several levels to it stretching for about a kilometer in all directions. The modules themselves are large enough that you can easily fit inside of one. >

"Damn, that's a lot of memory modules if you have three bays that big," replied Stepan.

< Thankfully I am not out of memory yet otherwise I would be having you operating equipment to dig another bay. >

Stepan shook his head and smiled, "Are you trying to scare me?"

< Maybe, but I am also just warning you, in another 10,000 years I may need another bay. Go ahead and turn the headset on, the switch is behind the left side of the set. >

Stepan found the switch and turned the headset on, "Is that it?"

< Perfect, this will work just fine since you and Nyo are about the same height. Ok go ahead and leave this room, you will take a left right outside the door and go to the end of that hallway, then take another left. >

"Right, I think I can handle that," said Stepan.

< Actually I said left. >

Stepan sighed, "And you said that Dmitry was bad, I think he might be rubbing off on you."

< He has only been here for about 12 hours. >

"And your point is?"

< Can you not walk faster, or maybe talk about something else? >

"Wait a second, do you absorb personalities or something?" asked Stepan.

< No, but when I load information into a human brain or even the brain of a sub human I have to do a neuro-image just in case I do something wrong I can just reload them. I may have integrated what I copied into my main memory, after all I will be working with both of you. >

"You say that like we're machines or something."

< To be honest you are not far from it; human beings are just a much more complex kind of machine. >

"And you did the same thing to me?" asked Stepan.

< Yes. >

"I don't know if that's comforting or not," said Stepan. "Ok I'm at the end of your directions, where to?"

< Go through the door to your right and then get into the lift car that you will find there. >

Stepan opened the door to what he thought was a small room because at first glance it only looked to be deep enough for the small box like cart that sat against the far wall. But suddenly Stepan noticed that to his right, his left and straight up it just seemed to keep going on and on forever.

"What kind of room is this?" asked Stepan in awe.

< This is the room just outside of the first memory module room. To your right and left it goes on for half a kilometer and going up is an entire kilometer. The lift car in front of you will take you to whatever level I need you to go to, go ahead and climb in. >

Stepan slowly walked over to the lift car and got in but the moment he was standing in the car it took off going straight up at lightning speed for a few seconds and then stopped and then took off again to the left. A few seconds later the lift car stopped in front of an opening just big enough for Stepan to crawl through.

"Ark, if you ever do that again you might be telling me where the cleaning supplies are," said Stepan as he rested against the wall for a second.

< Oh sorry about that, Nyo never seems to mention that anymore so I never really think about it. I think it stopped bothering him about 40,000 years ago. >

"How old is Nyo?" asked Stepan. "He doesn't look that old."

< He's 50,320 years old. >

Stepan shook his head, "Well, he's probably had more practice at this then I have then."

< Well come on, those memory modules will not fix themselves, into the hole. >

"That sooooo doesn't sound right," giggled Stepan as he pushed the repair box into the crawl space and then climbed in himself. "So how far into this hole am I going?"

< You'll start to reach side crawlways very soon, when you do take the second right and then the first left after that. At that point it will open up to a small module service area and it will be the blue one. >

"Blue?"

< You'll see why I say blue. But while I have you here can I ask you a few questions of my own? >

"I don't see why not, I'm not going anywhere," replied Stepan as he made his way through the crawlways.

< I have never actually interacted with humans that have lived in the world that I watch before, so I have gathered a few things that I am not sure about and you might be able to clear them up for me. So my first question actually has to do with how you responded the first time you saw Nyo. >

"I have a bad feeling about this," mumbled Stepan.

< Other then an audible gasp I noticed that several different chemicals in your body changed. These changes caused your skin to warm slightly, your heart to beat faster, and for many hormones to take 'effects' on your body. I am curious as to why these changes occurred in the first place, what were you thinking when you met Nyo? >

Stepan sighed, "Would you hate it if I told you I don't want to answer that question?"

< If you do not answer then I will just keep guessing until I receive a chemical reaction from your body telling me that I have come to the right conclusion. >

Stepan frowned, "That's not fair."

< Well? >

The crawlway that Stepan was in opened up into the service area that the Ark had mentioned and instantly Stepan saw what the Ark meant by blue. Each of the face panels to the extremely large memory modules was colored a different color.

< Oh good, you have reached the room. >

"Right the blue one, ok what do I do?"

< Open the module door and crawl in. >

Stepan opened the blue module and saw that there were indeed different sections into which he could easily crawl into.

< You want the bottom most crawl space, take the box with you and the first tool you will need is the screwdriver. Do you know what a screwdriver looks like? >

"Yes Ark, I'm not that dull witted," said Stepan as he crawled into the module and got the right tool.

< So, what is the answer to my question? >

"I don't know Ark, why do you want to know?" replied Stepan.

< I want to understand human behavior and the reasons behind them. >

"I don't know...maybe...well...I thought he was cute," stammered Stepan. "There I said it."

< Oh, Dmitry made that same comment about both you and Nyo. But he did not have that same reaction that you did, are you using the word 'cute' in another way then the way that he used it? Besides if you can answer this question then I do not have to ask Dmitry the same question in regards to Dominic. >

"This is going to be a long day," said Stepan.

~~~

Dominic stretched and then slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Dmitry was standing there smiling at him.

"Hi Dom, how do you feel?" said Dmitry.

"I feel..." Dominic started to say but then he realized what he was doing. "Wait! I can see you! I can see!"

Dominic grabbed Dmitry and pulled him into a tight hug. Dmitry smiled to himself as he hugged him back.