Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

24 - Ghost Girl

When she opened her eyes, it was too bright, so she screwed them shut again.

It took a few seconds for the pain to come back, and when it did, Piper wished she hadn't woken up. It felt like her bones were on fire; she could feel sweat on the flimsy sheets covering her body and her cheeks burned. Her ribs ached along with one of her ankles. When she breathed in, a wheezing sound rattled in her throat.

Ow.

At length, Piper forced her eyes open again. A blinding glare of lights eventually subsided to reveal the crisp interior of one of the academy medical centres, a fuzz of bleeping and whirring machines filling her ears.

Her nose twitched.

She could smell cigarettes.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

With a herculean effort, Piper turned her head in the direction of the voice, and found Dr Carstairs lounging in his chair, puffing away nonchalantly as he swivelled towards her. She opened her mouth to speak, but a jolt of pain burned up her throat.

"Hurts doesn't it?" he muttered, flapping a hand at her. "Don't try to talk just yet. The impact fractured your larynx. Let the meds do the work – you should be able to speak in a few hours without aggravating it." Rolling his chair closer, Carstairs placed a data slate and stylus on her lap. "Use that if you've got something to say."

Piper tried a nod. Her neck hurt and she winced. She picked up the stylus and gingerly scribbled out a message on the reactive screen.

How bad?

"Bad enough." Carstairs wheeled back over to his computer, scissoring his cigarette between two fingers and leaning forward to peer at the screen. "The blast fed back into your implants and burned your ribs, right on the bone. Scarred your lungs along with it."

Piper's eyes went wide but he waved a dismissive hand. "Relax, relax. Nothing we can't fix here, but you were lucky that little raptor stopped when she did."

She scowled at that. Scribbled.

Does anything happen to Ferra?

"Nothing happens to her," Carstairs replied, shrugging apologetically. "She might be a vicious young woman, but she's one of the most capable AmpCore operatives in the whole academy. They overlook her ... eccentricities on that account.

"She's the darling of Wayfinder Navtech, and they build navigation systems for half the barges and cargo-copters in the city. AmpCore's not going to get on their bad side. On top of that she's hooked up with your friend Toran, which means Skiltron's got a stake in her well-being, too."

Toran's not my friend, she scribbled quickly. Carstairs rolled his eyes, turning back to the screen.

"Just a figure of speech." He sighed, one hand flashing over the keys. "But long story short, Ferra's done a lot worse for a lot less reason, so you can count yourself lucky. Little witch keeps me in a job, I suppose."

How long will I be here?

"A few days," Carstairs replied. "You're jammed full of the very best bio-repair nodules that Real-Raid and Maxpharm can come up with. They'll form base level repairs so I can clear an A.I.P. to finish the job."

Piper frowned. What's an A.I.P.?

"AmpCore Internal Practitioner. People who have mastered the Internal Principle – the best of them make pretty quick surgeons, but it's a delicate process. I like to keep them to specific tasks rather than fixing everything all at once." The doctor swung back to face her, a rueful smile on his face. "Someone should apologise to you, so it might as well be me. Sorry you got dragged into Ferra's little club."