Peaches...

[Cenya]

Peaches…

The first thing that popped into his mind was peaches. His body felt like it had gone a twelve round bout with a rhinoman on steroid stims. Maybe that’s what he had done. Peaches. There it was again. He tried to sense anything else, but the only thing he was aware of was the fact that he was naked. It was cold and he could feel cold steel against his back. The feeling was not entirely unpleasant. It felt like his body was on fire and the coolness of the metal felt good. It was dark and he actually felt a little bit scared now that he thought about it. Why was it dark? He knew his eyes were open. Weren’t they? He tried to move his hand to poke his eyes to see if they were open. Nothing. He tried again, but it seemed none of his arms were willing to do what he wanted. He tried to snarl. Snarling was his favourite. It was easy. Snarling took hardly any effort at all and always seemed to intimidate even the most scary of people. Peaches. Ooops, there it was again. He had to admit that some peaches really would be tasty right about now. Wait! What was that? Yep, there it was again. A white dot that increasingly grew larger. The white dot opened up in a blur now. His eyes were open, they were just not working, he thought. He let out a happy snarl. Heh, good to see that the snarling worked too, he thought.

- “Did he just snarl?” Doctor Moregens leant over the large atrox that lay sprawled on the operating table like a chunk of well pounded Bronto meat. He turned around and started reading data on a monitor.

- “System. Run a nanobot check on subject 272-34.”

He could hear now. A womans voice. Cold, but not unfriendly, filled his head. It said strange and complicated words like synapses, cerebral cortex and retinal scan. He was sure he had eaten all of those things at one point or another. Yes, that’s what they were. Meals. He must be at restaurant, he thought. Oh no! He must be drunk again. Saihakal won’t like this. No, he sure won’t. He would get mad and say what he always said: “Pops! If ya ever wanna fight again and reach the top ya gotta lay of the Jack!” He didn’t like when Sai got mad. He didn’t mind him yelling. He was used to people yelling. It just wasn’t fun to see Saihakal sad.

- “System. Increase Apidroxin levels by 70cc. Keep monitoring for signs of brain activity.” Moregens picked up his scalpel again and waited for the system to acknowledge his order.
- “You’re giving him Apidroxin?” Doctor Aitken sounded quite surprised. “That’s the stuff hunters use to sedate brontos, you know”
- “Brontos… atroxes… All the same to me.”, Moregens replied.

The darkness crept up on him again and he felt very sleepy again. He blinked and tried to keep his eyes open, but they kept narrowing and finally the darkness took him. He was sedated again.

- “That’s it again? He’s down?”

Aitken kept his eyes on the monitors. Not that this particular patient was of any major concern to him. It.. Him, he meant him… Was just another prize fighter. One of those lunatics, madmen, that fought perma-death matches. He had operated on, he shrugged his shoulders without knowing, hundreds, maybe even thousands by now. Why anyone would put themselves in that kind of situation was beyond him. Fighting dangerous animals, droids, and other people, without any medical coverage at all. He frowned. Mankind and medical science had not strived to achieve near immortality without reasons, he thought. But… If troxes, like this one, wanted to throw his life away it wasn’t really his concern. Aitken wasn’t really concerned if this one lived or died. It was just a job, a messy one at that, but with good pay. God knows you couldn’t support a family on what the corporation paid surgeons these days. This kind of “unscheduled surgeries” was a must to make ends meet.

- “Abnormal nanobot activity detected in frontal lobes and cerebellum. Nanobot count at dangerous low levels. Subject 272-34 at risk of total cerebral loss.” the system suddenly noted, waking Aitken from his thoughts.
- “Well, then Moregens. Let’s get started on this one again, shall we?”

Moregens nodded. He too was not concerned about the well being of the slab of meat on the operating table. It meant more credits if he pulled through though. Doctor Moregens picked up his vibro scalpel again and leaned in over the giant atrox. They had to speed it up some. In just thirty minutes the guards would do their routine inspections of the OR’s again. They had to be done before that or… He didn’t want to think about the consequences..

- “Placing lobal incision again. System. Monitor for any rapid eye movements. We don’t want this one to wake up again.”
The two doctors continued the operation not caring whether the “patient” lived or died. As a matter of fact no one in the entire Omni-tek medical facility cared if this atrox made it through surgery. Well.. Maybe one, who at the time being stood helpless on the other side of a double plated window. Saihakal leaned his head against the glass. This was the last time. This had to be the last time…

To be continued.... soon..

[My first attempt at writing something so be kind. Hope you enjoy. ]

[Dabblez]

(( That was good, I enjoyed it! ))

[Cyani]

Originally posted by Savoy
(( That was good, I enjoyed it! ))

(( what she said ))

[Cenya]

[Thankies]

Part Deux!

He stood watching the blinking lights and the two surgeons. So many matches, he thought. So many surgeries like this one. It was a wonder that Popster had lasted so long at all. Christ… If they manage to put him back together this time… That’s it. He sat back down in the chair. The recent activities in the operating room had had him at his toes for a few minutes. He didn’t like to admit, but he liked Popster. He had done so since the first time they met. He was really a kind atrox. Nothing like the monster he was now. No, that part was my own doing, Saihakal thought. But he needed to be like that to survive in the business.. Yeah. It was no place for softies. They both did what they had to do. It was a cut throat world out there and you better adjust to it. Bah, who was he kidding. He had let Popster fight all those times and taken most of the money for himself. But on the other hand the atrox had seemed content with just enough money for Jack’s, peaches and leet pie. He had never complained. Sai was sure that if the trox wanted more money he would just have taken it. Popster was, after all, nearly twice his size. What would a small opifex like me have to put up against an atrox? Yeah, all things considered the trox must have been content. Deep down he knew he was just trying to rationalize his own actions these past three years. He had met Popster through his friend Tumbler. They both worked for a small semi-illegal organisation called Grifters at the time and Popster had been hired as a body guard.

Saihakal smiled at the memories. Popster had been so naive, was still so naive perhaps, about the whole death match thing. It didn’t seem to bother him at all. Maybe he still didn’t know what it all meant. Thought they called it “Combat ‘til the permanent death” it never really got that far. Sure, it happened that rookies didn’t know when to take a dive and feign serious injury and just kept popping back up on their feet. Most just kept down when knocked out and stayed down, and very few of the victorious dealt the final blow to end it all. It was “their right” according to rules, but they all knew that next time it could be their turn to lay face down in the concrete. No one wanted to make unnecessary enemies in this business. Popster had been very successful the first few years, but as time went he became pretty predicable to his opponents. And old… He was almost 40 and it was a young mans sport.

Saihakal stood up again. He heard some beeping noices from the operating room again. Was he so concerned? He had never cared if his fighters got any serious injuries or died. After all wasn’t this what atroxes was kinda made for…? He thought about it for awhile. No, Pops was different he had become more like a friend. All the other troxes he had managed liked the fighting. They lived for it. Popster fought because he had told him so. He never seemed to like it all that much.

He sank back into his chair. The things I’ve made him do in the rings, Sai thought. He shook his head and actually felt a sting of remorse. Ok, this was it. He was out of the business. Most of the good fighters were gone anyway. Other managers had offered better deals and the fighters he still had left was, well, sub par to say the least. The thought of leaving Rubi-Ka altogether didn’t seem all that unpleasant these days. There were other things to do and make money of in the galaxy after all. And as for Popster… Saihakal sighed… He don’t belong anywhere else than here. After all this is his world. In total he figured Pops had made him about 70 million in cash prizes. I’ll give him 60… no… 50 of those and some of the most essential gear to make it on his own. And there’s the question about the law too. I bet they’ll come looking for after the last fight. Just thinking of it made Saihakal break out in sweat. Yeah, I better find him a safe spot far away from the entertainment district before I leave. Maybe they won’t come looking for him at all… If they wanted someone it was himself. Not some punch drunk trox.

He felt a light tap on his shoulder and he flew up from his chair. Doctor Aitken jumped back when the small opifex sprung up like a coil.

- “Hiya, doc… So the what up with the operation. He gunna make it?”, Saihakal said staring at the startled doctor while he at the same time tried to peek into the operating room.
- “Well… There has been a few complications…” the doctor said.

To be continued again…

[Sollstice]

((Good story, I want to see part 3 now hehe))

[Cenya]

Part… um… 3 [The last one… pwomise]

- “So… What you mean, doc? He gunna make it or he ain’t?” Saihakal sounded agitated.

Aitken took a step back and tried to collect his thoughts.

- “Well, the operation was… performed above expectations.” He knew he was pushing the opifex’ patience now. He decided to just put it bluntly. “He is not going to fight anymore.” He paused. “Ever. His brain is just… “ He tried to find a word that a layman would understand. “Goo.” The best word he could come up with. “Imagine a can of berries that you shake for two-three years, leave out in the desert sun for another few years then shoot to pieces wi..

- “Ya, ya I got it, doc.” Saihakal interrupted the doctor. He got the picture. “He ain’t gunna make it then?” He just wished a doctor would come to point quickly for once.

- “That’s the amazing part, you see. Even though he should be brain dead, he’s not.” Doctor Aitken sounded excited. “But those troxes seem to be fully functional even with only about 30% normal brain function.”

- “Ya, no great mystery there, doc. So he’ll be like up and walking again then, huh?” Saihakal eyed the doctor again, who seemed bothered, a bit afraid of him.

- “Yes, no doubt. But… And this is quite important. He can not take anymore blows to the head. Ever!” Aitken said the last word very firmly. He felt a bit proud that he dared to take that kind of tone aginst Saihakal. He had met the fight manager on numerous occasions, but never alone like this and he most certainly never seen him this concerned. Had he known the opifex’ concern before the operation he would have done a better job, but Saihakal would never know that. He hoped.

- “That won’t be no problem. He’s retiring now.”, said Saihakal as he sat back down. He was relieved that Popster had made. Well, kinda made it.

- “There’s one more thing. His memory is gone, or, uh… Partially gone. I highly doubt he will remember the last few years at all. Vaguely perhaps. Some parts may come back as brief flashes. But I don’t think he’ll be able to connect them or even know what they are. He’s banged up pretty bad.” The doctor looked surprised when Saihakal looked happy at the news. Well, not any of my concerns, he thought. He just wanted the atrox and his friend out of the building before the guards came.

- “There’s one more thing”, Saihakal said. His voices sounded demanding. “He need some reprogramming. The only thing he know about is fighting, see. And since you was saying he can’t no more. He better have some other skills, ya know.”

- “It can be possible to do, but on a very basic level. We might be able to run some kind of modified droid program. His brain might respond to it. I can’t promise anything though.” The doctor was now talking about things he had no grasp of. But it meant that they would move to another part of the building, away from the guards.


A few minutes later the doctor, Saihakal and the still not awaken atrox found themselves in a computer lab in the upper parts of the Omni-med building. The faint sound of rooms upon rooms filled with computers buzzed through the at night time empty corridors. In one of the rooms a technician sat hunched over a terminal. Saihakal stood next to him, leaning against the wall. He had been forced to pay the doctor and the techie another 500k for this. He eyed the latter. A young nanomage girl. In her twenties. Good looking in their pale way, he thought. Under other circumstances he would have put in a move, but this wasn’t the time. Popster sat slumped in a corner with wires connected to his brain. The techie was about to begin uploading a droid learning program through the troxes eyes. Saihakal had no idea how it worked. Not even if it worked.

- “What program do you want to me upload?” the soft voiced programmer said looking up at Saihakal.

- “Whatever ya got that ain’t violent.”, he replied.

The young woman looked questioningly at the short opifex.

- “You mean that he isn’t prone to violence at all?” She found it very hard to believe.

- “Well, uh… Not really. If he ain’t remembering stuff about the past like the doc says he ain’t he won’t be.”

The techie took a second to translate what had just been said.

- “Ok, Non violent it is. I’m not going to make him a bureaucrat though. Tried it once and it was a total failure. Some troxes seem to be able to manage paperwork, but most just order food for entire budgets.” She smiled when she said, it was a joke, but with a hint of truth in it.
“Ok, what more have we got. Doctor, perhaps?” Saihakal shook his head. For the sake of mankind, he thought. This one then. Trader? Independent, uh, businessman?

Yeah, that would be it, Saihakal thought to himself. Far away from fighting. He could picture the towering atrox haggling with people at a market in Tir or Athens. That would be it. He nodded and a second later the programmer pushed a button. Popster’s head flew back as the information pushed through his mangled head.

- “Oh, one more thing, guys.” Saihakal added, as all the information seemed to have poured into Popster’s head. “Can ya two see to it that he’s ‘sported to Athens, yeah?” He knew it would cost him alot, but he felt he needed to leave Rubi-Ka as soon as possible. The doctor nodded, happy with the extra income.


The sun hit his eyes as the door slid open. He was thirsty… a bit hungry, but felt happy. Yeah, that was it. Happy. He opened a can of beer, took a zip of the cold beverage, scratched himself, let out a snarl and burped. A sign outside his apartment door said “West Athens Back Yard 4”. He liked it, the sun shined, the beer was cold and the snarl had sounded just about right to him. He scratched himself again and walked out…

[That's the story about how Popster came to be a trader. ]

[Cyani]

(( very nice story ))

[Sollstice]

((Yup, nice story indeed. Welcome to RK1 ))

[Tussa]

[*applause* Great story! Welcome to Atlantean, Popster!]

[Cenya]

[Thanks for the kind words. ]

[Shadowset]

[ sweet writing and welcome to Assembly ]