On The Surface of Nisar

I tried to breath but couldn't, lights glared in my eyes. I screamed, so much pain, I tried to sit up, to see where I was, a hand pushed me back down, then I was restrained. I managed to turn my head, I saw a little color, my eyes tried to focus, my arm, my was stretched out on the table. My hand was gone, in it's place was a black lump of tech fused into my flesh. Then I heard the gnarling sound of a buzzing saw, it came closer and closer until I could see a man in a white plastic coat standing holding it, looking at my chest,
“No, Please!” I begged, but he didn't care. He slowly, and carefully lowered it down.
“Please, Please.” tears streamed down my cheeks. The saw tore into me, the man’s white coat was splattered in hick, red blood.

“Mom.” My eyes opened, I was sweating and breathing hard.
“Mom, you were dreaming again.” Danin said, he sitting on my pillow.
“Ya, I was baby, Sorry did I wake you?” I asked, pushing myself up.
He shook his head in an exaggerated way.
“ No, I was up already.”
“Ok, um, what time is it?”
Danin glanced up at the clock.
“It's O’800 hours.”
“k” I said, rubbing my face with my tech hand.
“Where are we?”
He ran over to the imaging table and tapped the center. A holographic map shot up out of it, showing our position and the features around us. He began to read the numbers and letters that appeared over it.
“We are in Beta sector, Oak 226/5 Yelllll.....yell....yellow!”
“Good Job!” I said, standing up, shaking off the last of the nightmare.
“Now go get dress.” He beamed proudly and rushed off to his dresser, in the back of the compartment. I sighed and went over my mental To-Do list, make breakfast, fix neutral combustion chamber, and set heading to Crystal Prime.
I pulled on a brown tunic and my pair of boots. I fried some soft squash, Danin’s favorite, and we ate at the Imaging table, and told him about today and together we mapped a course through some of the steep slopes in the Dry Mountains.
After Breakfast, I went out and checked the cargo in the back trailer, the shipment of spices was fine, but I had to regulate the temperature to keep any of the salts from melting in the heat. Then I had to work on the combustion chamber, I pulled one of the cylindrical chambers out of the engine. The levels were fluctuating like crazy, great. As I was attaching the stabilizer Danin called out,
“Mom, Mom!”
“What is it?” I called back trying to keep my tone regular.
“Something just showed up on the map!”
I stood up with the chamber in my tech hand and ran into the trailer.
“What?!”
Danin pointed to a red shape on the holomap, it was shaped like an arrowhead, and was heading right for us. I slammed the door shut, threw the combustion chamber on the counter, and ran into the cab of our rig. I sat down and began the startup sequence. The engine hummed and I felt the rig rise up of the ground.
“Whats going on?” Danin asked walking into the cabin.
“Sit down and put your seatbelt on!” I told him.
“It’s going to be a bumpy ride.” My foot hit the throttle, the rig jolted forward and I didn't let off. The sound of a low flying jet became loader, I tried to push more out of the engines, but without both neutral combustion chambers, she began to die out. An arrowhead shadow creeped over our rig, the sound of a laser beam hit the side of the rig I swerved to avoid another. Danin’s eyes were wide in horror, I got a second to pull up the weapons file, a targeting screen came up on the windshield, I aimed for what I hoped and prayed was their propulsion system and fired.
A small, but powerful missile shot out from the rig and headed to the left side of the arrowhead, there was a clash as it hit. The left wing of the arrowhead dropped, then the massive machine ground and dug into the ground, the metal screeched and it began to tip over on use. Danin covered his eyes and screamed, it scraped against the back trailer, but we got out just in time.
I stopped the rig, gasping for breath. I looked over at Dan, he was still covering his eyes.
“Hey, Buddy, it's okay, it's over.”
He lowered his hands and looked over at me, then without warning, he threw his arms around me, hugging me tightly. I hugged him back, pulling him up onto my lap, I could feel him shaking a little.
“It's okay, it's okay now.”
We stayed there for a minute, I rocked him back and forth like he was a baby again. Finally, I picked him up and sat him down at the imaging table and crouched down next to him.
“Mommy, has to take care of a few things, so it would be good if started your lessons now, okay?”
He nodded and I smiled, I stood up and went back to the cab, behind me I heard the familiar gender neutral voice of TeacheR.
“Good Morning Danin, today we're going to learn about the basics of fractions, proper use of the colon, the plant and animal cell makeup, and discuss chapter twelve of ‘The History of Interspatial Travel’. Shall we get started!”
I closed the curtain between the cab and trailer and sat down in the drivers seat, then opened a com band to Delta Headquarters.
“Delta, this is ValleyRock117, do you copy?” a few seconds later a man’s voice came through the static.
“Yes ValleyRock117, we copy.”
“I’m reporting an attack that took place at 1047 hours, in Beta Sector, Oak 226/5 Yellow.”
“Go ahead”
“We were attacked by a delta shaped, low flying, attack aircraft possibly a 62 or v74 Sincon.”
“We exchanged fire, minimal damage to our vehicle, the enemy craft was shot down, unknown casualties.”
“Any damage to you?”
“Yes, we were hit on the side and took some scratching on our tail, it can be repaired.”
“Okay, ValleyRock117, you report has been filed. How far are you from your destination?”
“About, 11 hours away, we’ll get in late tonight and we’ll leave the day after tomorrow.”
“Thank you ValleyRock, have a nice day.” He said the last sentence automatically then terminated the com link.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair, I looked out the window at the vast, dry wasteland before us, I had driven it hundreds of times, the only thing that kept me sane was Dany. He kept me in check, I had to stay sober for Dany, had to stay away from my memories for Dany, and in a way Dany helped me accept what had happened and move on. He had no problems with the way I looked, or what was organic or tech, as long as I was there for him as long as I was his Mom.
Come on the rig ain't gonna fix itself, I snapped out of it and headed outside, Danin looked up at me for a second, then went back to his fractions. I grabbed the neutral combustion chamber with the stabilizer still attached and pushed the door, it didn't open, I pushed against it some more, it didn't budge.
“Shit!” Which came out louder than I had intended.
I slammed into the door and it flew open, causing me to tumble out. I looked back up at the rig, the entire side was burned, in the case of the door it had almost melted shut. The cargo hold had a large gash that had burned through and the charred remains of fire leaves scattered to the wind.

Ch. 2
We got into Crystal Prime later that I hoped, Danin had long since fallen asleep. We passed through the gate, where a cranky security guard scanned my ID and hassled me for having a passenger without being licensed to carry people, of course that wasn't the real reason. The Walls around Crystal Prime glowed a shimmering green color, as they were made completely from Albernite, which had a crystal like shape. I drove into our usual truck yard and set down. After checking in at the post I was walking back to ValleyRock. A familiar voice came out of the shadows.
“Rein, my man!” I cringed and my stomach turned.
The owner of the voice came into the light of one of the overhanging lamps.
“What do want, Wes.” Wes looked at me with his sick and ever present smile,
“Can’t I just talk to an old friend?” He asked tilting his head a little, his eyes seemed to stay in the same place.
“On the contrary, I wish we were better strangers.”
He ignored me, Wes had nice features, to nice, well kept hair, to well kept, and a voice that, like everything else, was to smooth. He wore black pants, black shoes, black jacket, black tie, but a red shirt.
“I have a job for you.” He told me.
“I’m not interested.”
“Come on, it's just a hauling job, all you have to do is deliver some cargo to Alastor, then go about your way.”
“I don't work for you, Wes.”
“Did’nt stop you the first time.” I glared at him.
“That’s right.” He said
“That was before you got knocked up, how can you even take care of the little brat on your pay.”
“We’re fine.” I said through gritted teeth.
“Seems like he’s just a liability.”
“I said, We’re Fine!” I stormed off, but Wes never gave up easy.
In a manner of seconds a monstrous face ripped through the perfect mask, buttons on his shirt popped and the seams of his jacket tore open, revealing massive hairy arms with clawed hands. His face was snarled like a bat and sharp spikes shot out from his head and neck. he grabbed me and threw me against the wall.
“CYBORG BITCH, YOU LISTEN TO ME OR....!”
My tech hand formed into a long blade that shot through his body. The blood dripped down my arm, staining my sleeve his claws slowly loosened from the gashes in my shoulder, he morphed back into the perfect-faces Wes, blood streaming from his perfect mouth, his perfect eyes staring at me then he was gone. I gave the body a slight push and it slide of my blade and crumbled to the ground.
Wes was a convicted felon, and the police in Crystal Prime was more concerned about who was killed rather than who killed them. But, my hand shook none the less, the gashes in my shoulder began to throb and it took me many minutes of sorting through the bloody flashbacks before I could keep walking.
In the trailer Danin was still asleep, I hope. I went into the bathroom, stripped off my clothes, pausing for a moment to stare into the mirror, at a face that was only half mine. My left eye had been shot in the war, it was replaced by a cybertech visual sensor, it saw in color, infrared, and sonar, simultaneously. It was a flat, grid with a little square that would move with my other pupil (most of the time). A grey lump that constantly buzzed just below my sternum was the tech’s heart, moving necessary fluids to inorganic parts of my body. I turned around and looked at my black spine, with fake discs that would never wear out. There was assorted ligaments, tendons, and muscle tissue in my body that had been replaced by stronger fiber, but all you could see from that was the scars, and my hand, which I had to make improvements on since the war, as it's only function there was holding a gun. These were the things that gave me the hatful name Cyborg, and the stigma that came with being one.
I made the water hot enough to turn my skin red, then when the blood was gone, I got out and bandaged my shoulders. It was 1:00 by the time I got to sleep. I lay down in the bed and was washed over with tiredness, sleep took me away.