The Deviance

Part 5 - Crash and Burn

Bastion's eyes opened to chaos all around him and his body ached with pain from head to toe. He felt rough hands pulling him through the window of his vehicle, which was now twisted metal and shards of glass. "He's coming too!" the man dragging him shouted, "He definitely needs a medic, and I can't get a read on his cyber-wear." Bastion tried sitting up, but the man gently pressed on his shoulders and said, "Hey man don't move, you're pretty banged up man, I got the medics on their way here, you ok man?" still confused, Bastion replied, "What happened? I don't remember anything.", the man sat next to him and took a deep breath, "I really don't know, I happened to be driving by and saw the car wreck. Something must have gone wrong with your cybers, I can't pick up any data from you, what's your name Sir, I'm Elijah." "My name is Bastion." he replied, his voice shaky and his throat burned from the strain of speaking, "I had to pull you out of that car Sir, it looked like it's about to explode!" Elijah replied. As he was being dragged to safety, Elijah's eyes went vacant, Bastion knew he was accessing, summoning whatever emergency responses he could get to come to the scene.

The medics arrived shortly after and assessed him, being unable to access his diagnostic systems proved to be a challenge for them, "It's like you got hit with a bus, and an electromagnetic pulse Mister, we can't read anything from you at all!", on of the medics said as his partner approached him with a manual scanner, "We can't move you until we know if there's more biological damage, your Cybers are zeroed though, either way, we need to get you into a healing pod as soon as we can." The other said.

The preliminary scans showed broken ribs, a punctured lung, on top of the obvious lacerations, the medic team gave him a shot with a cocktail of drugs that would ease the pain, relax his muscles, and make his body receptive to whatever treatment he would receive at the hospital. They loaded his body into the rescue vehicle with a remote stretcher which hovered into the air when he was strapped in, he noticed in his peripheral vision drones was already cleaning up the wreckage of his vehicle.

He dipped in and out of consciousness on the trip to the hospital, when they arrived, they rushed him into the diagnostic machine which attached to his access ports and started sedating him. When he awoke, he was unsure of how long he had been asleep, Nicholas at his bedside holding his hand, a relieved look immediately came to his face, "You gave me quite a fright lover, what the hell happened out there?" he asked gently, Bastion tried to reply, but he was too sedated so he just squeezed his partners hands.

"They don't know what caused the wreck, or why your cybernetics were disconnected for at least 4 hours, I didn't know you were experiencing problems with it, why didn't you tell me?", Nicholas asked with concern, he leaned over and kissed him gently on the forehead, "I'm just rambling, sleep! I'll be there when you wake up. I love you.", he kissed him again, as the sedatives took him back into unconsciousness, dulling his fear about what would happen next to him.

Bastion was no stranger to augmentation, it was the way that his people kept their youth, and functioned with the techno-driven society, but he was worried about the level of control his firmware would give to the Authority. In less than 48 hours he could see that they had the ability to impact his memories and his body without his permission and consent with very rudimentary gear, he could only imagine the level of control they would now have with his upgrade.

Augmentation meant to sleep, but conscious, the process was delicate as it intertwined the bodies various systems with nanotechnology. While most implants were added to the body internally, some people augmented their exterior as well, sometimes with beautiful or grotesque results. "If you were going to be heavily enhanced why not show it off" was a popular saying with the grotesques.

Bastion's mind awoke as his body was suspended in a TionGen chamber, floating in a protein-rich liquid that was similar to the amniotic fluid mammalian babies would live invitro in. The technology was developed millennia go and were used to develop life or heal the body. All human children were genetically mixed and incubated in them now, and if the body needed repair or augmentation doctors worked through them to make the changes needed in a person's body, using a combination of genetic manipulation and cybernetics.

There was no pain, but his mind remained active during the process, the medics needed to ensure the bio-ware was knitting and responding in real-time in order to correct any problems before they become fatal. He was connected to the medical complex's mainframe from a bio-port which was located at the umbilical region, and several others along his spine starting at the base of the neck down to his lower back. Through the ports nanites were being pumped into his body, and he could sense them making changes to his body to accommodate the upgraded technology that was about to be implanted into him. His new senses also swept over him, allowing him to almost see the cellular changes that were being made, he was becoming more adept with his new gift as he started to understand how it worked.

He knew, for example, that they had already removed his old cybernetic frameworks from his body and upgraded the cybernetic CPU that sat at the base of his brain. Observing his body more he also realized that the filaments of the CPU new ones which were more robust and, able to process more data. There was no turning back now, he was in the grasp of the Authority with a power cybernetic leash, and for the first time since this all began, he felt truly alone.

<I'm with you Bastion.>, a familiar voice echoed in his mind, <I'm sorry for this, we had to stage an accident that would explain for your time offline, it was the only way.>. It was Christophe, and from what Bastion could sense, he was actually sincere in his apology, which was surprising of the character who seemed to enjoy his discomfort. <This is going to be counterproductive to your plans I'm afraid, the augmentations they're making are going to give me less personal autonomy, you knew they intended to do that, why would you allow it to happen so quickly!> Bastion demanded, anger and panic welling up inside of him.

He felt a sense of calm took over and he relaxed, <We have the knowledge and you have the power to make adjustments to your new cybernetics, that's what makes you so special to us, you can interact with machinery and cells of the body in a way that's incredible, that's what we chose you.>, Christophe sent, <I can show you the changes you need to make in your body, and in the programming of the tech, changes that will allow you total freedom, and unique access back to the Net and the Collective. But you need to make the choice, I can set you free now, or allow you to be a part of the cog, know this, what I offer comes with a price, if you're ever caught they will destroy you.> , <You're giving me a choice then?> Bastion asked, <Yes, and I will not lie to you, my people can never lie to you in this type of contact either, we can only withhold the truth. Before you make this choice know that you'll be happy if you say no, powerful too with your talents, and I'll take away the memories of us so you won't be haunted by it. But happiness, in this case, does not mean freedom for you, or my people.>

Christophe's consciousness receded, leaving Bastion even more perplexed. Things were moving at such a fast pace and all of it seemed unfair. All he ever wanted was happiness, to be content with his work, to be in love with the man of his dreams, and now that all of this was in his grasp, a part of him knew deep down inside that he had to do the right thing.