Three Lives Of Mary Read Online Free PDF Page B

10,000 volts. She struggled to breathe and her stomach clenched repeatedly. She stuck her head past the edge of the bed and vomited a foul, choking spray of clear liquid onto the floor. Almost immediately a small service bot scurried in to clean up the mess.
    Then the significance of what she'd done hit her—she'd rolled over.
    "That's a lot better than previous days." The viewball floated close by. "Do you know where you are?"
    "H…hospital. Haaa.a.ven" Her throat was raw from the acidic bile. "W.w.water."
    A small dispenser tube appeared and Mary wrapped her lips around it, swallowing as much as she could. It wasn't water, but it soothed nevertheless.
    "Do you know who you are?" the face on the viewball asked.
    "Mary. Mary Reyes." Mary's vision was distorted, as if she were seeing things through a thick lens. She could tell the face on the viewball was male, but couldn't read the name display near the bottom.
    "Much better. That's a big improvement on the last few times."
    Mary's thoughts cleared slowly, but she could sense immediately that her body had changed significantly. All the "normal" sensory signals were gone, leaving her feeling naked and vulnerable. She'd expected it, but it was different feeling it. "It worked?"
    "There were some complications, but overall you're making good progress."
    Mary slumped against the pillows. Everything felt strange. The precise feedback from her Cynetics was gone, replaced by disorganized and simplistic impressions that teased rather than informed. The result was fuzzy and imprecise, but somehow felt warm and comforting.
    The "warmth" surprised her, but she definitely felt it. The Cynetic signals she remembered as "cold" in comparison to those the meat body was sending. The beep of an incoming call sounded and she croaked permission for the connection.
    "Ben?"
    "Hello, my dear." Tartoa's face appeared. "Not the wake-up call you wanted obviously, but I wanted to check on you as soon as they said you were conscious. How do you feel?"
    "Different. Strange."
    "It will take a while for the nerve bundles to fully interface, so they tell me. You're bound to feel different while that's happening."
    "How long have I been… out? How's Ben?"
    "Longer than anticipated. The initial relocation went well and the clone tissue presented no rejection issues. Brain stem splicing was touch and go, as anticipated, but we managed." Tartoa's large face seemed to almost split in two as he grinned. "Near enough for Company work, at least."
    "Ben?"
    "There was a major cardiac failure. Something went wrong during the accelerated growth phase and the reclone developed an acute dysrhythmia that we didn't catch soon enough. We replaced it with an artificial unit which is working perfectly. You'll suffer no side-effects from the substitution, but as a result we had to hold you in Equilibrium for an extra two weeks. That wasn't a bad thing as it gave your neural pathways more time to knit together and you should feel less disoriented as a result."
    "You're avoiding my question, Tartoa." Mary shuffled more upright and the viewball adjusted to match her change of position. "How's Ben doing?"
    Tartoa turned away from the optical pick-up slightly, focusing on something to his right. "Sorry Mary, I still have to run things here. Ben's completely repaired. All system diagnostics checked out after the work. He's been fully functional for the last seventeen days."
    Seventeen? That was much longer than anticipated. "When can I see him?"
    "You can call him whenever you like." Tartoa hesitated. "But it might be better to wait a while until you leave the hospital. They want to monitor you further. It's quite an accomplishment and everyone is very proud. Only seven CySaps have ever been recloned and survived, so you're a bit of a celebrity with the med team."
    Mary didn't want to speak to Ben remotely. Calls would undoubtedly be monitored, hampering free discussion. She wanted to be inside Ben. To talk directly to him. That