The List:
Irissa Carlisle
Yraxxan
17:00 standard Earth military time
not so distant dyson sphere
The Result:
"The Trial"
The red giant sun blazed through the windows as Irissa slumped
against the warm pane of reinforced transparent steel. Slowly, she drew
her knees toward her chest, grimacing as the skin of her left hand
slipped on the metallic surface of her right. She scowled at the
not-so-distant Dyson sphere, that seemed to rest on the nearby cloud. A
tiny alarm blipped as she felt her blood pressure climbing, and Irissa
fought the urge to fold her body tighter on itself as the metallic chest
plates whined in protest. Irissa released her hold and let her knees
flop, exposing the cybernetic rig that had replaced the right side of
her torso.
With her good left hand, she brushed a stray lock of straight blond hair from her face.
"So
much for being the hero," she grumbled, brushing the array of glowing
circuits spreading over her shoulder. The phantom ache in her arm that
wouldn't go away served as a constant reminder of the event that
warranted the prostheses.
Once, she lived on
the terraformed colony of Yraxxan. She had been happy in the agrarian
society, amid the clamor of harvesters and livestock. Her life's focus
had been to explore and find the joy in the moment. She had traversed
the small colony from one end to the other—and yet there was always some
unexpected detail that would make her smile.
A visit from the Governor changed all that.
He
arrived with his entourage in fancy ships of some sleek metal that
always shined, even in the dead of night. The Governor never went anywhere without his sleek
personal skimmer, which was roughly the same shape as the other ships,
albeit on a smaller, single-occupancy scale.
To a people who understood engines
and motors and wheels, the advanced antigravity technology was
borderline miraculous. The smooth machine seemed to coast along the
surface of the ground as easily as a boat drifting through the water.
Only Irissa knew just how much of a punch one of these miraculous
vehicles could pack.
She groaned as the space where muscle and bone met machine began to ache.
"Stupid child!" She hissed through gritted teeth.
To
this day, Irissa didn't even know her name. The little urchin had been
directly in the path of the Governor's skimmer, and far too short for
him to see, so Irissa had complied with her instincts and ran in front
of the skimmer to snatch the girl up. She remembered the small body
rolling away from her, the slight press of the skimmer, the sensation of
flying—and the distinct snap of bones breaking as her right side
crashed into a stone wall. That was the last time she had been able to
move her organic right side.
The Governor, of course, did
what he could: generously paid off witnesses, withdrew from the planet,
taking Irissa's mangled body with him and assuring everyone he would
personally see her body repaired by the best medical professionals in
the galaxy. The crash had shattered her rib cage, splintered her arm,
and snapped her collarbone... But there was nothing modern medicine
couldn't fix.
This was why she now sat in a
state-of-the-art medical facility, many orbits from Yraxxan. They
replaced the damaged parts of her body with titanium prosthetics: a
chest plate that covered her left side as well, an arm modeled after her
left one, and all the latest developments in cybernetic technology.
Irissa stood with a sigh and looked down the length of her mechanical
arm. Clenching the metal hand into a fist, she drew back and punched the
concrete wall as hard as she could. Chips flew, and a spiderweb of
cracks spread across its surface. She had not even felt the impact
beyond that side of her spine.
A slow clap echoed behind her.
"Impressive, but maybe you should save that for the Demonstration."
Irissa
whirled around as a young man with thick dark hair strode into the room
she'd been living in during her stay. She glared at him.
"It's
not a Demo; they're going to test me." She crossed her arms, tucking
her left arm into the crook of her right. "I'm not going, Roneesh."
He sighed. "Sis—"
"I mean it! What if they want to replace more of my body? I'm already half-cyborg. What if they decide to weaponize me?"
Roneesh nodded to the dent in the wall. "It might help if you didn't act like a weapon, Riss."
She
huffed and sat on the lounge next to him. He reached around and rubbed
her left shoulder. "They just want to see what you're capable of,
Irissa. If you want to just be normal with your cybernetics, then just
act normally. You still have your brain. You are not a machine."
"But I am, Ronnie!" Irissa pulled away, looking at her arm. "I am only half a person."
Her
brother took both her hands, forcing her gaze up into his eyes. "You
have half a body, true. But that doesn't make you half a person. You are
still my sister, completely and all the way. That will never change."
He grinned at her. "How about if I go with you? I will be right there
next to the doctors running the tests, and if even one of them tries
anything, I'll pull you out, okay?"
Irissa felt her heart rate elevate within the titanium casing. She smiled at him. "All right," she said. "I'll do it."
"'Atta girl!" Roneesh cheered. He held her left hand as the two of them reported to the medical bay.
"Irissa Marie Carlisle," she stated her full name to the automated receptionist. "Reporting for Cybernetic Assessment Trials."
"Very good," said the digitized voice. "Doctor Rong-Ja is ready for you."
The doors hissed open. Irissa and Roneesh stepped into a single darkened arena, the size of a school gym. Nothing moved.
Irissa stepped forward. "Hello?" She called, her voice echoing in the empty room. "I'm here!"
A
video screen flickered to life, projected on a smooth wall overlooking
the arena. The face staring down at them could not have been much older
than Ronnie, and still much younger than Irissa's father.
"Hello?"
Blue eyes blinked behind thick glasses as the young man brushed unruly
locks of messy brown hair from his face. "Ah! My little cyborg. How are
we doing today?"
Irissa winced at the reference. But at least Ronnie was still with her. "I'm fine; let's just get this over with!"
Dr.
Rong-Ja waved his hand. "Okay, okay; I will just be running some
simulations for you, and all you have to do is react as you normally
would. Think you can manage that?"
Irissa nodded.
"Good.
Okay, so the time is 1700 Earth Military Standard, Subject Irissa
Carlisle, Test One." He flipped a switch, plunging the whole room into
darkness as a voice boomed out from everywhere at once:
"BEGIN."
Previously in This Series:
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