Trace was reviewing the schematics of the original stealth suit he had made, thinking. The more he thought about it, the more barebones it seemed. He had designed it for stealth, but at the same time he had neglected armor and everything else far too much. There had been a reason at the time, namely lack of credits, and his own knowledge, among other things.
He still lacked knowledge, just not to the same extent as before. At this point in time, he had run through the enhanced learning module for intermediate electrical engineering along with the one for intermediate mechanical engineering enough times that he was ready to move on to the next module in both. Normally, he would have simply continued to run through the courses, attempting to glean every little detail he could from them.
That was before. During their mass purchasing spree, Deckard had come in like a champion and purchased the advanced learning modules for both subjects. He had also gotten him one other learning module, that was similar to the ‘Not Dying’ series, in that it covered multiple subjects, but none in depth.
It was called ‘Integrated Cyberware Design’, and the module was taking a full three days to transfer and convert. He still hadn’t taken a look at it, in other words. From studying his other subjects, and just generally being around cyberware, he was aware of how much work went into designing them. The thought of taking what was the equivalent of a crash course in the subject scared him more than he liked to admit.
It wasn’t just about working with synth-muscles, synth-skin, or various nerves. You also had to make sure all the connections played well together and the person's NetConnect. And that was the just basic requirements, well, maybe not the synth-skin part. Still, it was a subject that could easily overwhelm him. Just thinking about it was threatening to do that to him.
He was excited to study the subject, but it still terrified him.
Regardless, with all the studying he had been doing, Trace had learned a lot, and his recent brushes with danger had only compounded what he had learned. Namely, that he needed to put more emphasis on armor.
With the new DMSL printer, they could add layers of new material to the armor plates they already had. With that, they could strengthen the old plates some and keep using them, if he wanted. The first 3D printer would allow them to even make their own armor -to a degree-, however, it was the CNC machine that would let them really do anything that they wanted with metal.
“We’re going to need to order some impact-absorbing gel to line the brace, spinal column, and other vital areas with,” Trace muttered. “In another day or two, I should be able to perform an upgrade on my spinal nerves. I'm hoping that the nerve smoothing will also heal it at the same time. Of course, it might also give me an error or something and tell me to wait until I’m finished healing.”
Deckard’s avatar looked up from where it was working on its virtual computer. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How come you haven’t used the healing function yet? The one listed under the Nanite submenu?”
“Is there a reason for me to?” Trace asked suspiciously. “I’ve actually always sort of wondered about that particular option. The nanites do a pretty good job of healing me most of the time. I mean, they’re not the fastest things around, but I still have my stims and everything else to help for exactly that reason. Unless I really needed to send them to one location immediately, it doesn’t seem like something that will get a lot of use.”
“In a perfect world, none of the options in the GHOST System would get a lot of use,” Deckard pointed out dryly. “Anyway, I admit the information prompt on that particular function is somewhat poorly worded. However, haven’t you ever wondered why it would consume special nanites merely to heal the body, even if it’s doing so at a faster rate?”
“Can’t say I had, before now.” Trace really hadn’t given a lot of the functions in the System a second thought. Was he underutilizing it, absolutely. Was he bothered by that, no, not particularly. He was using it in a way that fit his life. He wasn’t going to push himself to explore every nook and cranny of the program to get a few extra benefits. That wasn’t who he was.
The avatar nodded at him to give it a try, and Trace obediently did so. Pulling up the G.H.O.S.T. System menu, he selected Nanite, and then Healing. The menu vanished from his HUD and was replaced with a 3-Dimensional copy of himself. Interestingly enough, there were a couple of areas on his body that were highlighted in light-yellow, while only the area around his spine, which he had to zoom in on to select, was red.
“Why do I have areas that are light-yellow in color?” He asked while reading through the material requirements for the healing.
“Are they located around your right shoulder and lower right chest area?” Deckard returned after a moment.
“Um, yeah. How did you know?”
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“That is where they had to replace your original bones with titanium ones,” Deckard explained. “The nanites are working to convert the replaced bones so they match your natural bones that they are in the process of turning to titanium on their own. The bones Sevorah put in you were likely solid, whereas a normal bone is riddled with ducts and holes for blood and fluid to travel through.”
“Right, well, you were right. The healing function will work on my nerves, partially. It seems like regular nanites just don’t like working on nerves for some reason. It will take six sessions, with three days in-between each one at a minimum. The resource cost is also rather… impressive.” He finished with a wince.
It wasn’t the worst he had seen, but with a distinct lack of ability to go out and earn money or get what he needed himself. They were needing to find workarounds and tighten the belt in someways.
“Okay, let’s do this then. I’ll run it twice and hopefully get to a point where I’m at least semi-mobile. Then we can decide. If nothing else, the two healing sessions will still cut down my normal healing time by a lot.” With that decided, Trace accepted the requirements and began the first healing session.
His back straightened and began to itch at first, then moments later it began to burn and twist as pieces of his spine shifted into their correct positions.
Trace clamped his mouth shut and limply slid from his chair. The cool concrete floor felt great against his skin as he lifted his shirt and simply sprawled out, trying not to scream. The pain was intense with how uncomfortable it all was and how sensitive nerves naturally were.
The targeted healing process took five minutes, but it felt as though days of unbearable pain had been tearing at his mind. A constant source of agony that simultaneously weakened him and strengthened his mind.
A pool of sweat surrounded him on the cold concrete floor of the basement as his stomach rumbled, and he grew increasingly aware of his need to pee. His back was feeling like he had been healing for a couple of weeks now, but he still wouldn’t be running up the stairs. Which left him with one option, get back in the chair and scoot over to one of the drain holes near the wall. Then never speak of this again!
After cleaning himself, he dragged the chair back over to the desk computer, finally ready to get to work.
“Don’t say a word!” He said pointedly to Deckard, not looking away from his screen.
For the next several hours, he delved into work, slowly tweaking settings and measurements as he refined portions of the original stealth suit. Occasionally, he would copy portions of it over to a second schematic file. That second file was where he kept everything he intended to use for the new stealth suit.
Some portions of what was in the file were obsolete or were an alternative method to do something. It was a mess and would take him a while to go through when it was time.
He cracked his neck and sent a file to Deckard. “Can you look this over for me? I want to send it to the CNC machine.”
“Hmmm,” Deckard murmured. “You’ve done a good job of analyzing the damage and weak points from your recent encounters. You’ve worked to reinforce several key areas with this full back and chest brace that is on a ball joint, so you don’t lose too much flexibility.” His avatar nodded. “I like it. There might be more improvements that can be made to it, but you will need to wear it to know for sure. The impact-gel will also help to make it more comfortable. As for the file itself…” He paused, sending the schematic through a program. “I need to make a few changes. I’ll walk you through them later. But they would have caused various problems during the milling process if they were left as is.”
“Fine, make your changes, but I do want to know what I need to change for next time,” Trace said agreeably.
While Deckard worked on making the needed changes, Trace struggled to load a couple of pieces of metal into the CNC machine. They were relatively small flat pieces of metal that would be cut out and smoothed in turn. After the process was completed, Trace would then need to use his shoddy laser welding abilities to put it all together.
After he had put the metal in the machine, he went back to his desk computer and began looking for someone who could supply him with impact-gel at a decent price.
As usual, the black-market solved any worries he might have had. The gel was indeed slightly expensive, but actually not as much as he had thought it would be. The price still would have held him back in the past, but at the moment, he still had enough credits for something like this.
Then the proverbial belt-tightening would need to begin, especially if he still needed to buy items for the new suit. He would need to ask Deckard later if there were any credits leftover from his spending spree that he could use.
It was a good thing he had finished putting all the upgrades on the server first thing. Trace was surprised by several of them, as Deckard had gone in a direction he hadn’t even thought of. If it had been up to Trace, he would have simply gotten better hardware, with maximum specifications. Which to be fair, Deckard had done as well, however, that wasn’t all he had done. He wasn’t content to leave the server with just the one multi-CPU unit.
Instead, Deckard had purchased specialized CPU units that could be linked to the main server. Each of the Sub-CPUs was designed to handle one task extremely efficiently and any others with difficulty. In this case, he had gotten specialized CPUs for running simulations, a virtual space through which he ran all his net activities, and then a third one for machine learning and Artificial Intelligence. AI had come a long way since he had been sent into a coma, and he was determined to understand how it worked.
Installing each of those items had not only made Deckard more efficient at what he did, but also happier.
Near the lift, the CNC machine, which was still on its delivery rollers, whirred to life. Those rollers were the only reason he had been able to move any of the equipment in his condition. Straps, ropes, and various other cobbled-together methods had helped as well, but none of them would have been possible without the rollers. He had locked them in place, so the vibrations and general movement of the milling going on inside shouldn’t cause any problems.
Trace glanced at the screen on the wall that showed Deckard’s avatar busy working and then turned back to his own screen. There was a lot he needed to do on the original stealth suit, and his mind was alive with ideas about what he could do for the new one.
Thank you to all the people who have taken the time to rate the story and to my latest Patrons! I have other stories up on my Patreon, including my current WIPs. Which are now Created G.H.O.S.T. System(My Cyberpunk story), WetWorks2, plus The Restaurateur and His Daughter and DungeonFall. :)
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