Flesh and Alloy: A dystopian novel

by Nathan Lunn

  “Hey! You there!” He pointed his hand to Kye, snapping his fingers to get his attention quicker. “With the arm. Yes, you! Over here, boy.”

  Kye put the goggles down gently and walked over. When he got close, Wei continued, “That there is AchillesCorp, you know this?”

  He grabbed Kye’s arm without warning, triggering an unconscious reflex as it whirred into action, before he reached up to the crook of the elbow and pressed the pad of his thumb deep into the joint. The whirring ceased immediately as his arm shut down and dropped to his side – limp and uneffective. “Slow down there, kid, I’m just taking a quick look.”

  “Wha– how did you do that?” Kye said, tripping over his words as all eyes turned to him and Wei, crewmembers dropping their holograms to the floor in disinterest.

  “No matter now, no matter. This is still in beta, are you aware? It has yet to be activated. You understand?” Wei’s condescending tone was beginning to irritate Kye, who was quick to respond, now entirely ignoring the no-talking rule that Douglass had imposed. Confidently, he returned.

  “Yes I understand. It’s a beta product, the whole thing is in beta, Douglass had told me. Thing’s not great, keeps breaking down on me at inopportune times. Take now, for example.” He shrugged his right shoulder, pulling the arm up and dropping it back down.

  “Yes, well there is a reason for that,” Wei said, pulling the inside of Kye’s elbow back towards him and laying his arm flat onto the table; Kye took a seat nearby and spoke.

  “It’s so temperamental, like it just won’t–”

  “I said no matter. You see the marks? In here? This is AchillesCorp. This one here, is the manufacturing mark.” He pointed to a small chip in the crook of the elbow. “There is another in the socket too, just that these are hidden until you activate it. Not the only mark that is hidden, either – this here is the beta padlock.” Running his thumb over the smooth purple material to the left of the manufacturing mark, the nanotechnology shrunk and morphed into a second, more visible mark: ‘β’. Looking to Douglass, he tilted his head to the side, as if asking for permission.

  Douglass nodded, as Kye flicked his lame fingers with his good arm, questioning Wei a moment too late, “So… what’s this going to do to it?”

  Wei ignored him, and turned around to his desk, pulling a small brass tube from the cupboard underneath. Not waiting for a word of confirmation, he spun back around and slammed the tube into Kye’s arm – hitting squarely on the middle of the newest mark. The sudden movement coupled with the loud noise gave everyone a terrible shock, not least for Kye who almost fell from his seat.

  “What the fuck, man?” Kye shouted, scrambling in his chair, as his arm was starting to jolt and twitch as violently and sporadically as though it was struck by lightning. Wei smirked, unfortunately showing off his grin for the first time, as he braced the elbow of the arm against the table with the brass tube. Purple arcs of electricity leached into the arm from the tube, crackling out from the point of origin – surrounding these charges, the nanotechnology transformed and shifted, mutating into a liquid form, swirling in space, and then back to solid once the bolt had passed by. The energy reached both ends of the arm with a final flash of purple. As the nanotechnology finished materialising, the pink glow underneath shone through and lit up Wei’s face, reflecting an insane glow in his eyes, and catching his misshapen teeth as he spoke.

  “You’re welcome.”

  **

  A hiss sounded as Wei pulled the tube from the elbow; a clang echoed around the room as it dropped to the table.

  “What did you do to my arm?” Kye asked, staying as still as possible, his prosthetic limb emitting a peculiar dying charge as the last sections solidified.

  “Want to see? Give it a try for me, why don’t you? Just a little wiggle to begin with…” Wei said, as he stood and gave Kye some room, ushering the others back with his open palms. Kye obliged as best as he could, a numb feeling receding from his shoulder into his chest as his arm came to life. His fingers started to move, smoothly and without any noise, as Wei nodded in the corner. “Baby steps. Okay, now pick up that device there. No, no, that one on the table, please.” Kye corrected himself and reached for the small cube behind the display, weaving intricately through the crossing of physical wiring, and plucked the cube off the desk, exclaiming as he did so, “Pretty good, huh?” With a short laugh, his concentration and hand collapsed, crushing the cube with a great force and sending shards of glass display in all directions – a light buzz sounded from the machinery as it was pulverised; the occupants of the room ducked as best as they could to avoid the rogue debris. “Shit! Sorry, guys – is everyone okay?” Brushing chips out of their clothing they nodded, watching attentively to what Wei would ask next. He stayed quiet a moment, before pulling his display out of his pocket and typing something into it. Kye stood, patiently waiting for instruction. Suddenly, Wei lobbed the display towards Kye’s head; lightning fast, Kye’s arm kicked in to defend his body from the attack. The nanobots once more turned fluid, stretching and morphing into a different shape, as fast as the time the phone took to reach Kye – who was too busy flinching to notice the change that was going on. Up until his wrist he kept the same form, but past this, his hand had been altered: the lavender nanobots flattened out into a thin disc, the AI raising the forearm high above his head. Reformed, he was able to block the attack easily, as the display smashed off the thick shielding and dropped to the floor. The rest of the room’s occupants slid back to their corners, as Kye reeled in his small space, feet glued in their place. “What the hell is this!” he yelled, waving his arm around as though he was trying to shake it off. Despite his strongest attempts, the arm remained the same, stuck to his body and currently completely different in design to his other. Wei walked forward, talking calmly as he did so.

  “This. This is the true power of your prosthetic, boy.” He leaned down and picked up the shattered parts of his display, sighing as he did so, ignoring the deterioration of the man worrying in front of him and choosing instead to continue his pre-planned speech. “I have unlocked your abilities, should you not be thanking me?” Kye, panic in his eyes, watched as his arm turned aqueous once more. Instead of settling into its new form, the arm began to vary, tendrils of nanobot shooting out and spiking as it slumped into a mass of ever-changing lilac – the contortion only worsened as his stress increased, the terror at what was happening to him reflected in his prosthetic. Wei noticed the nanobots fly past his head first and moved back, palms outward and caution maintained as he spoke. “Ah, shit. Calm down, kid. Seriously, you’re making it worse, just calm down.”

  Kye tried to relax, but his breath caught in his throat, throwing him into a fit of coughing – racking his chest and bringing out more spikes from his arm, pulsating in time to the forceful exhalations. Each cough brought the sharp nanobots closer to the people in the room, who were now pressed tight against the cold metal walls, shouting back at Kye to rest and relax. The climax of sounds proved too much for Kye, and as his arm started to proliferate in front of his vision, his mind snapped, and his commlink shattered. Glitches dropped pixels from his vision, as the world around him started to blend with ones that weren’t there: sand washed up at his feet, brought on from waves unseen; thick blood coated his hand and forearm; the sound of cheering matched with soft island music mashed into a disgusting melody that wormed its way into his ears. It began to loop as the light disappeared and the nanobots smothered his body in a rhythmically twitching sphere of energy.

  The room was in chaos. As though he were humming with power, the arm was spreading, growing in size and filling the space left in the room. Even Douglass, who usually kept his composure, was broken when one of the nanobots’ serrated edges nicked his ribs. Raising his voice, he grabbed at the latches on the door to try and escape. They had been ID-locked. Growing desperate, he called out to Julie, who was cowering in the corner, “Julie!”

  She looked up, miraculously catching him
over the noise of yelling and screaming. “Talk to him! He’ll listen to you, you can break through all this!”

  Julie shook her head, trying to utter a response, cut off when Douglass persisted, shouting once more, “You have to!” Steeling herself, Julie took a moment and agreed internally that it had to be stopped. She looked towards the corner of the room.

  Almost enshrined in the nanobots, Kye was crouched, vibrating and gnashing his teeth, muttering under his breath juxtaposed words of combat and calming – his eyes were frantically turning in their sockets, and his nails were scratching at the porcelain floor below. She walked slowly, half crouched and low, calling out lightly to Kye at first. As he didn’t respond, she raised her voice to be a little louder, though tried her best to keep it just as calm and soft. He froze on the third time she called to him, and her spirits lifted, thinking he had caught her voice – but those spirits were crushed just as soon afterwards when he dropped back down to his knees and the spinning nanobots shrouded his face in shadow once more. With another violent shake, a thick tendril sped out of the orb, catching Julie on her shoulder and sending her spinning to the floor.

  She cried out in pain, the sound breaking clear through the racket of noise and wall of nanobots to hit Kye’s ears – he yelled aloud and his eyes split open. The scream punched him out of his stupor entirely, the restless sphere collapsing and the liquid nanobots falling to the ground around him. The noise died down nearly immediately, as he stayed crouching, both his brain and his commlink coming back online. After a moment of breathing, he gritted his teeth, and stood, preparing to address the room, watching as his prosthetic rebuilt itself before his eyes. He had to concentrate, hard, but eventually he was able to flex his fingers and bend his elbow, as each element came back into focus. The room, collectively panicked and still on the edge, waited with bated breath for him to speak, a confirmation that he was okay and back to his normal state. They got their confirmation, not through his words, but instead through his actions: once his arm was finally whole, he ran to Julie’s side and supported her lolling head, pressing his forehead against hers and whispering apologies into her ear. She moaned lightly, as a fresh wave of blood spurted from her shoulder wound. He spoke, fast and worried, checking her pulse and her eyes for some kind of understanding. Looking at her straight, she blinked and began to laugh, talking in a hushed tone to his ear.

  “How about that. Guess we’re gonna have matching scars, eh?”

  Kye caught her gaze, and laughed, stumbling over himself to apologise,

  “I’m sorry, Jules. It was the PR, I’m sure of it. Some kind of delayed reaction, mixed into my commlink, I don’t know…”

  Wei leaned in, having taken a second to compose himself (scratching his already unruly beard into a bigger mess) and interposed himself between their moment. “I can provide some insight, if you will.”

  Successfully gaining their attention, he walked to the cluttered wall, taking a second to run a finger over the dents – in a quick movement he opened the box set upon it and threw a MediCare packet over to Julie. Kye caught, opened and started to apply it. He passed some quick-fixing gauze to Douglass, and spoke. “You used PseudoReality, did you say?”

  Wei’s question caught Kye out, and he paused his medical dressing before nodding a quick reply. “Only the one time. More recently anyway.”

  Julie squeezed his hand with her good arm. Wei waved it off, going on to explain, “Maybe it interfered with your commlink a little. But it’s likely–”

  Danny interrupted, crassly spitting out some of his insight. “He took e-Drine too. Just the other week, and so he…” He trailed off as he saw Wei’s reaction, clearly unhappy at his intrusion. “Sorry.”

  “As I was saying,” he glared at Danny, “it’s more likely that you just had an adverse reaction to the nanotechnology. I was, or at least was trying my best, to ease you into it. Some sort of overreaction caused the arm to bug out – my best guess is that the PseduoReality flashes only served to enhance that breakdown. I’m sure the e-Drine didn’t help either. You gotta control it, you get me?” Wei asked, tapping Kye on his arm to draw his attention. “Hey! You’re less man now, you need to make sure you remain in charge of the machine, make sure you always are you. You see? Are you feeling different now?”

  Kye responded, “Better, yes.”

  Wei nodded, as Kye finished applying the MediCare packet to Julie’s shoulder. She sat up on her arms. “Very well.” He shook his head, some of the anger returning, “Irresponsible wielders. Why did they give this to you? You’re just a child – no clue what to do. Quit your fumbling. I will teach. Let’s move to a more versatile environment and complete your testing. Yes?” The room nodded collectively, as Wei turned to the door, stopping to speak tersely once more before he left, “Bring any weapons you would like to purchase.” Grabbing the nearest hardlight hologram, Kye stood and followed him out.

  15

  Their testing-ground was an abandoned cargo outpost, battle worn and rusted through. It was a large, cluttered space, pushed right against the side of the vacuum seal, so the light was minimal and there were no people around – the only present company was a few automated freight-haulers and janitorial sweepers. Wei, tapping away at the screen set into the wall, sent them off immediately. They all received a low rating for their performance, following his yelling at them to leave both the first and second time. He commented to the others after he did, “Always rate them badly. That way the tin-can fuckers can’t rise up against us.” He didn’t bother to explain himself, or any of his confusing actions or requests as they made their way to the cargo hold, and the crew didn’t bother to question them – Eddie had originally attempted to, but the ferocity that Wei had met back with had ceased any further action from anyone. Ultimately, he seemed pleased with himself that they had managed to arrive without incident.

  The cargo outpost was the ideal location for testing: well secluded and diverse. The flat grey concrete on the ground was chipped and cracked all over, memories of discharged weapons were scarred into the holes, and imperfect patterns of discarded shells scattered the floor around them – clearly the janitorial sweepers' review was a fair one. A levelled atmosphere was achieved through the many corrugated metal containers strewn through the hold, a few rising to at least eight layers high and running for over a kilometre wide. The extent of deterioration on each was manifold – some stood spotless, fresh coats of paint still shining and pungent; whilst others were dilapidated and decaying, sheets of rust falling off with every jolt and bump they endured. In the centre of the outpost was a cleared square, entirely free of containers. This was where the crew was currently standing. They each held a hardlight weapon in their hands, the bright green lighting their faces envious and the surrounding areas with an eerie glow.

  Both Kye and Danny had gone for the largest weapons available, the former sporting the Clayton Automatic Rifle, and the latter the RP 9X, a miniature rocket propelled launcher. Danny had also decided to bring the Amaterasu Goggles, already activated and resting over his eyes. Eddie had decided to go for a more subtle approach, opting for the Type 400, a handheld submachine gun. Julie was battling with both sides: cradled in her left hand was the aptly named On-the-Fli, a hand pistol that runs on 3D printed ammunition; in her right hand she was strongly gripping the Stockholm P40 Shotgun.

  Lined up along the longest of the nearby cracks, they all stood in front of Wei. He was currently preoccupied with marching back and forth, spouting off incomprehensible rubbish about the pride of the military and the great undertaking they were about to go through. Kye, feeling in a better mood, leaned over to Julie and slyly commented, “What’s this asshole on about? Doesn’t he know we’re civilian?”

  Julie snickered just a little too loud, and Wei brought himself to an abrupt stop. A snarl on his lips, he spat at her, “Make sure you don’t drop those, cripple. Otherwise, you are going to have no weapons to test with. You know what we will do then?” She shook her head, fumbl
ing with her pained shoulder to hang onto the pistol. The others laughed through their noses, earning an equally horrific glare for each person from Wei. He continued, “We will have to get creative. Find other ways to use some weapons. Maybe... we will use you for target practice instead. Understand?” She nodded, and Kye apologised quietly when Wei turned back around. Mystified, they watched as he moved to a nearby container, pulled the broken bolts up and flung the doors open. Then, even more mystified, they looked on as he proceeded to drag out four long and thick treadmill-like pieces of metal, separating them from each other and dropping them at regular intervals along the concrete floor in front of them – each was connected to the other by a wide cylindrical wire, which eventually joined together and ran to a handheld display which he was toting around as he prepared. They could hear him counting out numbers as he went, leaning down at each end and fiddling with some unseen machinery under the treadmills; with every connection made Danny commented, “Another line for the tapestry.” At last, once all were finished and ready, he stood beside them.

  “What they do then?” Danny asked, scratching at the back of his head with his free hand.

  Wei shook his head, and pressed a large button on the display, barking an order as he did so. “In line! Behind me.” They shuffled into place, as the treadmills came to life. The metal didn’t move in place – instead a group of wired plates popped out and began to swing slowly back and forth along the treadmill. Another jade hardlight hologram rose out of these plates, producing a recognisable image to all of them: a humanoid figure, fully decked out in military protection and armed to the teeth, traversing the concrete, guns pulled up and primed to shoot, alert and conscious. “These will be our actual targets.” A smile was flashed to an irritable Julie, sweetly condescending. “Which you will all practise shooting at with your weapons of choice. I can control them with this display here. I have also used this to shut down the cameras here, so we are off the grid.” He shook the display, then tapped another button. Instantly the figures snapped to attention, each freezing mid-movement in various poses of vigilant offence. “This is the best way to test out the weaponry with minimal issues of noise and destruction. As you can see from the battleground here, previous attempts to test have not gone very well. They certainly lacked the adequate amount of subtlety. Is that right, Mr Douglass?”