Cutlass Sharpened (9 page)

He rolled to his back and heard the sweet
voice say “Finally awake are we?” the scanner stopped and
disappeared up into the ceiling without a single word.

A sharp pinch had him look
down to his left arm to find tubes stuck in his veins. Not just
one. He counted ten. He went to touch it, but suddenly stopped,
unable to do so and saw Renee sitting at her desk, legs crossed in
a way that was greatly uncomfortable, but her eyes glowed like when
he was on the floor. He then followed the lines from his arm to a
hole in the wall beside his head feeding into them. “Don’t
even
think
about
taking them out. You need a few more hours and I must say you’ve
certainly bulked up and are quite a looker. Stand up, but don’t
take them out.”

He carefully turned and stood.

That was a massive understatement. Renee
never believed how well the solution would work so she used her
chip to drop down a mirror from the ceiling.

Oliver’s height hadn’t changed, everything
else though did. In a big way. No longer did he look like a
skeleton with skin. Skin now stretched over cords and mounds of
solid muscle. So much muscle he was no longer in the same clothes
Renee put on that hung. He could see his bulk would have shredded
at the seams. Bony fingers were thick like sausages, but not
obscenely so. He was still hairless, but that only made him seem so
much more muscular beneath a gown that was more a curtain. The
smooth floor was cold on his bare feet.

He at least knew the image
was no threat as his moves were matched. He knew the object.
It’s a mirror.
Oliver
touched a bulging bicep beneath the cloth of his left arm hooked up
to the wall. “How have I changed so much?”

Renee licked her lips, still in disbelief by
the transformation. Just the sight of him had her libido at war
with her medical side. He was clearly a strong and well hung man,
but she wouldn’t cross that line. “It wasn’t easy finding your
veins without them collapsing since you were so puny. When I got
one in I made sure it worked. Six hours later your veins grew so I
could put in the other nine needles.”

“
But you haven’t told me how
I got so large.” He turned those amber panty droppers on her and
was glad she didn’t rise. “You look the same as when I fell asleep.
Do men change so much?”

Renee would have laughed if he hadn’t sounded
so genuinely confused. “Didn’t you take my memories? Can’t you
figure out how a protein and electrolyte solution mixed with rapid
generating muscle growth hormones identical to what you make during
exercise, synthesized through a sequencing matrix could build
healthy muscle without the need to endure nature’s need for
exercise?”

Leaving the mirror, Oliver guessed he had
plenty of cord length and moved to sit down in the chair left
behind. He shook his head. “No. This” he showed off the shiny
smooth object covering his right forearm. “took all your mind’s
words and speech patterns and allowed me to communicate more
effectively. I know the names of things and objects, not what you
deeply understand. I know nothing of you other than you and Deegen
are different. You know many more words and how to join them. More
than he. I don’t know much more than what I’ve seen since I looked
at you.”

“
So the Brain-hacker just
allows to instantly communicate, but can’t take memories?” he
nodded. “Can you read?”

“
Yes. It was greatly
associated with the way you speak. Can you explain how I’ve gotten
so large and how I may stay like this? I do not want to return to
how weak I was. It hurt.”

“
Hmmm…” She folded her hands
together and laid them on her lap. Sparky got up and moved to sit
beside her seat. He didn’t say a word, just watched the much more
deadly looking man. “We’ll you’ve been out for fifty three hours…
don’t ask how time is told. You’ll learn soon enough.” She stopped
him with a halting, upraised hand as soon as his rugged lips
parted. “Without going into years of medical training, you wouldn’t
understand the how. I’ll just say your body was starving and it
gladly took the vitamins, minerals and other complex nutrients to
rebuild from the bones out. You’ve also put on a tremendous amount
of lean muscle. You’ll likely weight Standard hundred and seventy
eight kilos. More than even average Hunters and far above normal
men. You are one
big
boy, which isn’t surprising due to your height. The solution
pumping into your arms are not done working for you to be in a near
prime condition. It’s not the first time I’ve done muscular
regeneration. Hunters like yourself, when wounded, sometimes can’t
eat with a broken jaw. At the least, Oliver, you are much better
than you were. And unless you plan to return to that hole we found
you in, you do not need to worry at all about
regressing.”

“
It eases me to hear it… And
you called me Oliver still, have you found who I am yet? Or is
Oliver my real name?”

“
No such luck I’m afraid.”
Renee admitted and mildly concerned. “I’ve ran your DNA over the
Terran genetic database and found nothing. Nada.”

“
Oh. I wish to know why I’m
like this… unless it is normal.”

“
Nothing about this
is
normal
. Not one
fucking bit.” She shook her head. “Amnesia, the real kind, is
nearly impossible to occur anymore. Nanites fix any damaged neurons
in seconds to limit any form of memory loss. Amnesia is rare, so
rare it’s mostly unheard of outside those with medical
background.

“
No, you misunderstood when
I said I found
nothing
. By
nothing
,
I mean it’s as if you’ve
never
existed.” She had to make him understand the
depths of such an improbability. “Oliver, in seven and a half
centuries of DNA testing and collecting, yours seems to not exist
anywhere. No one, and I do mean
no
one, has your kind of similarities. You have no
descendants living nor is there any record of long dead familial
ties. It means you have no children or parents anywhere. Ether you
were an illegal genetic creation or someone wiped out all ties that
you ever existed. Since I see you have a belly button it rules out
the former. Clones don’t have them nor are they allowed to live
under most circumstances. Whoever you were before we found you,
must have been important to keep you back on the planet. Why? I
don’t know. Until we discover your origins there is only wild
speculation.”

“
That
, I understood.” He said gloomily and rubbed a jaw with two
days growth of beard.

As he went to open his mouth Renee held a
hand up again and touched her ear. “Yes?” his eyebrow missing brow
furrowed and wrinkled. “Oh really? Sure, he just woke up actually…
No, he’s still hooked up… Yes, you can come visit and can bring
Jess too. What about Papa?” Another pause. “Oh, then he’ll be too
busy anytime soon to meet him… no, he’ll behave or I’ll spank him…”
Renee’s cheeks changed color, but he remembered the no touch rule
quite vividly. “Oh yeah, say that when you look at him now. I see
potential to make you question your orientation… Wait and find
out.” She grinned wolfishly and tapped behind her ear.

“
I said nothing, but you
spoke oddly.” He admitted.

Renee turned her head to profile, pulled her
pointed ear forward some and pointed at a new unnoticeable bulge
underneath the skin. “My com. It allows me to speak to anyone
whether they are in the same room or not. I was just speaking with
Stephanie for your information. She and her wife Jessica are coming
down to talk with us.”

“
This com… could I talk to
you and not be near?”

“
Are you asking for one
too?” his quick nod made her smile. “Alright. I’ll have one made
up.” She got a faraway look for a moment before turning her chair
to the desk where a crystal no larger than a grain of rice dropped
out of a tiny hole in the wall and into a clear sample dish. Renee
grabbed her injector, fed the com into it and had him turn his
head.

But before she could shoot the implant
something grabbed hold of the gun and she found it instantly
unsettling as the vambrace ensnared it, covering every facet as
soon as she dropped it and leapt away. Then the thick tendril
dropped the injector, but her eyes were glued to the com somehow in
its grasp. Her heightened hearing picked up a faint crack as it
shattered the crystal, did some writhing before going thinner than
her eye could see, punctured his neck and something was pushed
along like a mass traveling down a snake’s length. It then inserted
in the neck and instantly was normal. Not even a drop of blood
happened from the insertion exactly where she would have done
it.

“
Wha… what did you just
do?”

He didn’t look the least bit sorry, hadn’t
learned to be conditioned for it yet. “I wanted a com and I think
my multi-tool made it better.”

“
What do you mean
better
?” She came forward,
lifted the gun to find it undamaged and put it away.

“
I cannot say… it just feels
better.”

“
May I?” She grabbed a
smaller scanner in her desk.

“
May you what?”

“
By the stars!” She said
with less patience than she tried to keep together and not chew his
head off like every other idiot. Sparky turned his long neck,
saying nothing and not needing to. He was a creature of endless
patience and she drew on it a little. “Sorry.”

“
I can assume you mean you
are upset. I’m doing as best I can. Do not be sorry. I just need to
learn and you do not need to smell angry.”

“
You can smell my anger?”
She diverted.

“
He is a predator like me.
He does not know how to lie. That is a learned trait. It is why
hatchlings cannot hide truth and speak their mind. Though he is
adult, he has the mind of one who has yet to leave the nest. I will
guide him on how to properly interact, but you need to be a medic,
not Renee the hellcat.”
Sparky
advised.

“
Yes. It is bitter over your
other scents. You smell like me when the creature made you scream
as it tried eating the other male called Stone.” He
admitted.

“
We’ll discuss boundaries
later, but I was going to ask if I can measure the com? This needs
to touch your neck.”

“
You won’t hurt me unless to
help.” And turned to exposed the area.

Soft beeps measured quickly and her eyes
widened. “Impossible. Sparky, tell me my eyes are reading this
wrong.” Aiming the display in his direction.

“
Com output subspace range
is over a thousand percent. Crystalline structure modified and is
densely smaller by fifteen percent. Output above measurable
readings this device is capable of detecting.”
He was just as surprised.
“Stephanie
did say the multi-tool was an original. Reverse engineering to my
knowledge never matched up to original creations. Yet again
additional proof he is not more than a person afflicted with
amnesia, having creations beyond price. Likely his com will cross
solar systems rather than interplanetary to orbital range. Ask if
he can do it for you.”

“
Not without knowing if it’s
safe. He’s one thing.
That
is another… but Stephanie will want to know about
this.”

“
About what?” the blonde in
a sexy green dress came sliding in as the main door opened. In her
hand was the black sword and brown cloth in a clear box. “Who is…
By the stars! It can’t be! Oliver?”

Following her was Jessica in casual jeans and
a gray blouse. She was slender and marginally taller than
Stephanie, but had auburn hair, hazel eyes and had high, but soft
cheekbones. And like the two women she was youthful and one easy to
excite. Jessica gently swatted her wife’s arm, knowing that tone.
Jessica knew Stephanie’s mind was working double time trying to
unwrap a mystery.

Before another word was said
Oliver felt a brush, an intangible presence and looked to Sparky as
he thought in a moment so fast only the mind could keep up, leaving
the mouth behind.
“Oliver, I will begin
teaching you proper interaction among civilized species capable of
intellect. It is good you humans have a social structure comparable
to my peoples.”
The Drake blinked and in
that span he said
“When entering a room it
is custom to say ‘Hello’ or ‘Greetings’ followed by the individuals
first name if you are close or use their last as a sign of casual
respect. For close relationships not among mates, it can vary, but
in this instance it would be wise to say…”

Oliver turned back to the two lovely looking
women still standing and got to his feet very carefully, sensing
moving as he wanted would send him into the ceiling rather
painfully. He inclined his head saying as prompted “Hello
Stephanie. It is a pleasure to see you again and you are looking
very lovely in that dress. And greetings. You must be Stephanie’s
mate, Jessica. It is a privilege to meet you.”

“
Sparky!” Renee gasped as
the two women were shocked at his eloquence at introductions. It
was absurd someone in a backless gown, having a hulking body with a
deep voice could sound so soft and pleasant. Her friend lifted half
the side of his reptilian lips, a Drake’s version of a wry
grin.