(Picture to come when I have a scanner again!)
Sircuit sat at the meeting table with the blueprints and the new Pectoral Guns in sealed sterile bags. No sense in getting bacteria and dust all over them. Also helped keep fingerprints off the black patina on the barrel covers. He had been working on these for the past few weeks. Normally a project like this would take him a few days at the most. But these were for NoFace. She was his friend which made him a little more cautious. She would also kick his ass if they malfunctioned and hurt her. That had made him downright paranoid.
Today they were going to be inspected by the pre-eminent cyborg expert in the world: Pierre Cartes. He had read about Dr. Cartes' achievements when he heard the man had been hired by The Lawyers. He had been responsible for Big Dolly, The Columbine, and Turbine Sally -three of the most famous Cyborgs of this era. Dr. Cartes' had come up with several designs for NoFace and all the designs had been presented to her at the same time minus the signatures on at the bottom to denote the designer. Given all the options (some of them granting flight and sonar disturbance) she had picked his. It had been immensely gratifying. "There's a sense of humor to this set," she had said as she handed his work over to The Lawyers. She had also picked out a set of gills by Cartes that would grant her the ability to breathe underwater as well as move her breathing organs from her lower torso (where Murphy had put them) to her neck. Her torso cage would be expanded to her neck for extra protection. But the guns were Sircuit's design and he couldn't think of anything he would like to build more at that point than her primary weapons.
Sircuit unrolled the schematics again and checked one last time for any small mistake. Cartes was the expert and he didn't want to present the man with mistakes. After a very careful re-evaluation he found none and was rolling up the drawings when the meeting room doors opened. Cartes was here.
The man looked surprisingly normal. Tall and thin with short brown hair, glasses and a no-nonsense look on his face that Sircuit knew NoFace would appreciate. Sircuit stood and the two men silently inspected one another for a moment. Then, faster than most would think him capable, Cartes whipped the sunglasses off Sircuit's face, leaned in close and studied his eyes. "Impressive," Cartes said in a very flat tone. "They look familiar."
Sircuit grabbed his glasses and put them back on. "My own design."
"They resemble Zuhan's work. You should be very proud of those." Again, his voice lacked inflection and the words were spoken carefully. "If your gun design is as good, this should be a treat for me."
Upon further inspection, Sircuit noticed the peculiarities in the man's movements. Synapse enhancers, probably the nano-attachment variety as opposed to chemical. Almost imperceptible except to someone with Sircuit's eyes. It was a good sign. Extra manual dexterity was a plus in a cyborg surgeon.
Cartes unbuttoned his dark blue pinstriped suitcoat and sat, picking up the schematics. He leafed through them casually while Sircuit watched nervously. Then Cartes stopped and went back a few pages. His brow furrowed and Sircuit almost swallowed his own tongue. There was a mistake. How embarrassing!
"These are beautiful," Cartes said. "I was wondering if you could clarify something for me."
"Sure," Sircuit said, trying his best not to look upset.
"To re-load, will she have to carry so many ammo tubes with her? I would think that would be a bit cumbersome." He pointed to the interchangeable ammo tubes in the barrel.
"Gloves," Sircuit said. Both donned sterile silicone gloves and Sircuit unzipped the bag around the left gun, removed the larger center tube and handed it to Cartes.
Cartes turned it over in his hands a few times. "The Infinity Mark," he said. "Who did you get to do that? I hear it's terribly expensive. If NoFace didn't already have magical components I would be hesitant to install these."
"It's a little trick I picked up." Sircuit shrugged. "She's my teammate, Dr. Cartes. I wouldn't put something in her if I thought it might hurt her."
"You realize what kind of destructive capabilities this gives her?" Cartes put the tube back. "Her old models were enough to permit her to do what she did to Sweden."
Sircuit grinned. "I know full well. Like I said. She's my teammate. I want the best for her because it means the best for me. She was so efficient in Sweden because she was smart, not because she had a lot of firepower -though that didn't hurt. She systematically shot out gas lines and electrical stations. And before you even ask; No. We still don't know why."
Cartes began to flip through the anatomical photographs, which Sircuit hadn't seen and didn't want to. The old schematics had been all he needed. Judging by the way Cartes shook his head with disgust (the first notable emotion the man had shown), Sircuit knew he was better off not knowing. Aside from being his teammate, NoFace was also his friend. All he had to do was watch her to see how much the old guns hurt her. He was not the kind of man who enjoyed the suffering of his friends. The scars the past procedures had left on her and the way the old guns clanked together when she bent over or turned at certain angles had been enough to convince him that her past work hadn't been kind to her. It would have taken a cruel person to not want to fix her. "What was Murphy thinking? Even with the cage, guns and ammo that weigh so much and make a relocation of her respiratory organs necessary are an act of cruelty. I wish she had come to my attention sooner."
"What has it done to her?" Sircuit asked, curiosity getting the better of him. "I know about the artificial parts, but have no idea about the organic bits."
"Her spine, as advanced as it may be, is only calibrated to handle the upper body weight of a normal person. Each of those guns she has now weighs in excess of 40 pounds. Yours weigh in at half of that at the most. The places where metal meets flesh around the barrels lacks padding or vibration control. In fact, her current guns have no insulation or extra bracing of any kind. They are floating freely in her chest cavity," Cartes began. Sircuit gritted his teeth. It was just plain sloppy work. An engineer of any kind should know better! "If it weren't for the torso cage, she wouldn't be able to stand upright anymore. Her actual ribcage has atrophied, broken, and been ground down to a few splintered pieces that probably move and poke at her constantly. I'll be removing them. The scans show that the guns are now resting on her lungs, which have been squashed into her lower torso. This means she can only take in about 1/3 the amount of air than would otherwise be normal. You know her fairly well so you know how many headaches she has and that she can get extra irritable very quickly. You can blame her guns for that. I have never seen such poor planning and haphazard engineering in my life."
Sircuit ran a hand over the new guns with their reinforcing braces and shock absorbing pads, both surface and sub-cutaneous. They were lighter and had new covers that minimized movement. The little kick (and it was next to none) that would be created when she fired had been compensated for in the design. "So ... these will help?"
Cartes raised his eyebrows. "Because of her current condition, the procedure will not be without the risk of infection and outright rejection of the new pieces. But compared to what she has now? These will not alleviate the damage already done, but will still feel like mercy made real to her." Cartes eyes were drawn back to the schematics again. He looked up at Sircuit and managed a smile. "Reversing the polarity of the firing charge?"
"She naturally produces negative energy. That's her Given Ability. I thought it would be obvious."
"It wasn't obvious to Murphy." Cartes stood and re-buttoned his jacket. "Congratulations, Sircuit, I am very impressed. In two weeks time, your guns will officially make Lunette Bruce the most destructively efficient Cyborg I have had the pleasure of seeing."
"Are you saying ..." Sircuit stood and pointed at the doctor as he left.
"More terrifying than my own Turbine Sally. My advice? Next time you all get in a battle? Stand behind NoFace and enjoy the carnage. It promises to be spectacular and all the more rewarding because you made it possible."
