K.L.A.U.S

Surgery

Navite Prezmil stood motionless as he held his hand diagonally out from his side, which informed the other five men that were with him to stop as well. After standing there for several seconds, he heard the sound that he thought he had heard the first time, a very low rumbling sound, almost unnoticeable to anyone who would not have been paying attention.

As he lowered his hand, his second in command, Legas Granstal walked a few steps closer to him. "What did you hear?"

'At first I thought I might have heard a massive gate mechanism. And I'm certain I heard it the second time as it closed." Prezmil stated as he waved the rest of his group forward. "Come on, we're nearly their. And I think it's safe to say that it's occupied."

"Should I radio this information in?" Militis Kitren asked, as he overheard Prezmil's comments.

The Navite shook his head. "No, we maintain radio silence for now. If they are hostiles, I don't want to do anything that will let them know we're coming."

With that, the group resumed their march forward, picking up the pace slightly.

---

By the time that Hertus and the nine-year-old made it to the entrance of the medical center, KLAS had just finished providing a very detailed report on all the observations he had made that concerned him about Ardell. Even before KLAS had finished going through everything, Hertus had a strong suspicion about what the problem could be, but he still wanted to run the scans just to make sure.

Once they were in the room, Hertus looked down toward the boy was still holding onto his hand. "I'm going to need to go use the medical pod over there to run some scans on Ardell. You can stand next to me and watch if you want, as long as you promise not to touch anything. Or, there are some chairs that you can sit on and wait. It should only take a few minutes."

The boy didn't answer. Instead he tightened his grip on Hertus's hand.

"Okay, you can stay with me then," Hertus smiled as he walked the two of them to the closest medical pod.

The medical pod that they walked to in many ways appeared to resemble a normal bed. The most noticeable difference was the fact that it had raised edges all around it. The sides went up about six inches above the bed, while the foot and head went up in a semi-circle, up to about a foot above the bed in the center. Running along all eight feet of the raised side edge of the bed were several buttons, switches, small displays, and even a few places that appeared to be some type of access port that wires could be plugged into.

As soon as he reached the bed, and managed to get the boy to let go of his hand, Hertus began to flip switches, and press buttons on a small panel that was jetting out from the foot of the pod, bringing it online. "KLAS, when you teleport Ardell into the pod, I need you to place a motion suppression field above the pod, and activate the sleep induction unit."

[[Understood.]]

With everything in place, Hertus took a step back and thought for a few moments, about what he was about to do. Although he was not technically a doctor, in developing KLAS, and the means by which KLAS would be able to interface with nearly every component of the base, also meant that he had to gain at least a general understanding of how everything worked. At the time, he placed little importance on that knowledge, but now he was glad for it. "Execute when ready, KLAS."

Moments later, Ardell's body appeared laying inside the medical pod. Almost immediately, his arms and legs tried to shoot up, but seemed to hit invisible barriers.

"KLAS!" Ardell cried and screamed at the same time.

[[It is alright, Ardell. You are in the medical center. Father and I will take good care of you, I promise.]]

"KLAS..." Ardell called out again as his arms and legs started to relax while sleep began to overtake him.

"What's wrong?" the nine-year-old asked with concern as he took a step backward.

"It's alright," Hertus did his best to reassure the boy. "The med pod just put Ardell to sleep while it is running some tests on him."

"Oh," the boy replied.

Several red lights began to flash followed immediately by various beeping sounds. "KLAS? What's wrong? And can you turn the beeping off?"

Almost immediately, the beeping stopped, but the lights continued to flash. [[This is not good. I am forwarding some of the preliminary result data to the terminal at the work station behind you.]]

Hertus walked over to the work station, followed closely by the boy. Just as he reached it, the terminal came to life, and began to show a detailed skeletal image of Ardell. Moments later, additional layers to the image began to fall on top of it showing various groups of organs, muscles, and other vital elements along with a series of notes and alert messages.

"KLAS, is this showing what I think it is?" Hertus asked with concern.

[[Scans indicate massive acute neural degeneration across a wide spectrum of areas including axon degradation in the brain and spinal cord along with upper and lower neuron retardation in the ventral horn. Nerve slippage is also being detected in approximately thirteen percent of all muscle and nerve clusters.]]

Hertus sighed, "Then this is as I feared."

[[According to the scan results, there is a 99.984% probability that Ardell's body is already in stage three of Acute Disseminated Lateral Sclerosis.]]

The smaller boy watched intently as Hertus slowly shook his head and took a few steps back from the terminal. "What is the standard treatment for this?"

[[There are a few different treatment options, including nerve therepy which have proven to be partially successful when caught in stage one. There has been no reported cases of stage three ADLS in the last two hundred and thirty years. No standard treatments have proven to be effective for stage three ADLS prior to that.]]

"I see," Hertus replied gravely. "Scan for possible alternative treatments."

[[I already have that scan in progress, father. However, I am not expecting the scan to have much success. I believe the only chance that Ardell may have to survive is genetic augmentation.]]

"From what I have heard of ADLS, I fear you may be correct KLAS, but please preform the scan anyway."

[[Of course, father.]]

"What's... ADLS?" the small boy asked as he looked up toward Hertus.

"It's complicated," Hertus replied.

The boy sighed and looked down toward his feet. "Oh, okay."

"Do you remember that blue wrist band we took off of you, earlier?" Hertus asked, which caused the boy to nod. "Well, some parents have chooseen to give their genetically unaltered children 'smart drugs' to help them learn and focus better in school. That's what the wrist bands are for. Generally, when a child reaches twelve years old, they are slowly weaned off the smart drugs. Part of the reason is the drugs start to have less of a benefit. Another reason is that in very rare cases, the drug can have a very bad reaction with the chemicals and hormones the body produces as the child starts to go through puberty. That's what is happening with Ardell. His body is getting ready to start puberty, and it is having a bad reaction with the drug. Plus, he was on such a high dose of the drug that the bad reaction is significantly worse."

The boy scratched his head, as he tried to make sense of what he was told. "So my wrist band is bad?"

Hertus shook his head. "The wrist band you had was light blue, which meant you were on a fairly low dose. Plus, you are a long way from starting puberty, so it would not have been bad for you."

The boy's eyes lit up. "Oh, so it was only bad for the other boy, because he was getting too much of the drug, and he was old enough to start puberty?"

"That sounds close enough," Hertus agreed.

[[Father, I have completed my search of non-standard options. The only option I could find is a neural cluster transplant procedure. It is both very painful, and only has a five percent chance per procedure of providing any benefit. Please do not put Ardell through that.]]

"Don't worry, KLAS. I don't plan to," Hertus replied. "What genetic augmentation solutions have you been looking at?"

The terminal changed to display a new set of information which included showing various models of genetic segments. [[I have devoted a rather large amount of my processing capacity to run a number of medical simulations. Although a few of the existing standard augmentations could be of some benefit, there are elements of each that I am not fully satisfied with. However, I have also found a possible experimental solution. Phicorp Genetics XR-415 augmentation. It is being targeted toward the scientific and research communities. Among its characteristics include exceptional neural regrowth attributes, as well as neural cluster densification across several key areas of the brain promoting additional memory and learning potential. The augmentation also has splice structures similar to XR-311 in it's retardation of global cellular degradation, and promotes spontaneous cellular regeneration.]]

"In other words, it can greatly slow down the aging process?" Hertus asked as he glanced over the data being displayed on the terminal.

[[Correct. Although I can not find any data on the application of XR-415 on children, in adults, it tended to retard aging by about five thousand percent.]]

"So he would only physically age one year for every fifty years that pass?" Hertus asked curiously.

[[That is the reported standard, yes.]]

Hertus nodded. "And if we do nothing? What is his life expectancy."

[[Given the rate of decay, it would probably be a matter of days before he looses full control of his muscles. We have already seen several signs of this over the last few hours. Within a few weeks after that, we would be looking at total neural failure.]]

"So there is not really a choice here?" Hertus sighed. "Very well. Upload the needed procedures to the med-bots, and begin the procedure."

[[Acknowledged.]]

"What happens now?" the boy who was still at Hertus's side asked.

"Now?" Hertus replied looking down at the boy. "Well, it's going to take awhile for the med bots to complete the procedure needed to save Ardell, so what do you say we go get you washed up and in some clean clothes before we check you out as well?"

"Okay," the boy agreed as he grabbed the man's hand. Together, the two headed out the medical center and down the hall toward the showers.

---

Hertus and the nine-year-old stepped into the large gang shower room. "I'm going to guess that you know how to take showers on your own, right?"

The boy looked back toward Hertus with a blank expression on his face.

Hertus sighed. He was actually hoping that the boy would be able to take a shower on his own. However, after seeing the large gash on his forehead, he figured that this would give him a chance to spot any other major cuts or bruises the boy might have on the rest of his body.

"Okay, let's get those clothes off," Hertus stated as he began to help the kid remove the filthy rags that he was wearing. To his surprise, the boy immediately raised his hands so Hertus could get his shirt off, and for the most part, seemed very adapt at being undressed by someone else.

Although he wasn't sure how much he liked the idea of the boy being so relaxed with an adult undressing him, he had to push that thought to the side for the time being, as the large bruise on the right side of the child's lower chest drew his attention.

"Now how did you get that?" he asked has he lightly touched the center of the bruise. "Does that hurt?"

The boy shook his head.

Hertus looked at it a bit more. From how it looked, it was probably several days old. Since it didn't hurt the boy when he touched it, he figured it wasn't something that needed immediate attention, so he continued to help the boy undress. To his surprise, even portions of the kid that were completely covered by clothes still managed to get dirty.

Once the boy was completely undressed, Hertus motioned toward the shower. The boy looked toward it for a few moments, then back at Hertus. Sighing again, he walked over and turned on the sprayers and waited for the water to warm up. "Go ahead and get yourself wet, I'll go grab a washcloth and soap."

The kid nodded and stood under the sprayer. Almost immediately, a dark brown stream of water began to flow off of him.

By the time Hertus came back in, he was almost sure the kid looked a few shades lighter, even without the soap. "Let me guess, you can't do this yourself?"

Instead of answering him, the boy took a few steps out of the spray, and held his arms out from his sides to make it easier for Hertus to clean him. "So, do you remember anything at all about who you are, where you came from, or anything?" the man asked as he began lathering up the boy's chest.

The boy shook his head. "No."

"What can you remember before you came here?" Hertus replied as he cleaned the boy's stomach, and made sure to be gentle when he was washing around the bruise.

"Trees," the boy began. "Woods, I was walking in woods."

"What do you remember before the woods?" The cleaning process proceeded to the areas below the stomach. However, Hertus stopped when it became clear that parts of the boy were getting too excited from the extra attention.

"Nothing," the boy answered as he instinctively arched his back from the touch. "I can't remember anything before the woods. I was sitting for a long time, and then I started walking."

Hertus nodded as he started working on the boy's legs. "Do you remember seeing anyone or anything else? Maybe other people? Any buildings or vehicles?"

The boy thought for a few moments before he shook his head. "No."

"Well, the closest settlement is about 100 kilos away, so I doubt you came from there, and we haven't heard about any aero-sleds or helicopters going down in the area, so where could you have come from?" Hertus stated more to himself than the boy as he moved to lathering up his back-side.

"I don't know," the boy replied seriously.

Not much more was said as Hertus continued to lather and clean the rest of the boy. By the time he was done with that, and with washing the kid's hair, he looked like a completely different boy. Although he still had the same naturally curly black hair, his skin was a lot paler than you would have thought originally.

"KLAS, do you think you could find some clothes that would fit our new friend?" Hertus called out as he began drying the boy off.

[[We have nothing here at this base, however... Stand by... Ah, I found something that might work.]] Moments later, a set of clothes appeared on a near-by bench. In addition to the appropriate underclothes, it also included a pair of loose fitting dark blue cotton pants, and light blue and white short-sleeved shirt.

"Do I want to know where you got these from?" Hertus asked as he helped the boy step into his underpants and then his pants.

[[Some of the other bases that I have been networked with have sizable populations of youth. As such, their commissaries have more child appropriate clothing.]]

"Yeah, I was right. I didn't really want to know." Hertus replied as he finished helping the boy get dressed.

When he was fully dressed the boy looked up and smiled toward Hertus. "Thank you." he said softly.

Hertus ruffled the kid's still wet hair. "You're welcome. Now, how about we get back over to the medical center and get you checked out?"

The boy looked up toward Hertus for a few moments as a small growl came out from his stomach. "Actually, Do you think I could get something to eat first?"

After thinking about how thin the boy looked when he was washing him, Hertus agreed. "Sure." As soon as the boy grabbed his hand, the two headed out of the room.

---

The boy looked around the entire cafeteria as Hertus lead him inside. "This place is huge. There must be a lot of people here."

"Usually that would be true, but right now it's just us," Hertus stated as he decided it would be best to not get into the real reasons for now. "I know you are probably pretty hungry, but I don't want to give you a whole lot to yet before we are able to check you out in the med bay."

The boy nodded as he continued to look around the room.

"Let's see," Hertus said as he looked over the various menu options that the auto-chef offered. "This looks like it will work, a bowl of warm nutra-soup. Have you ever had that before? It's a type of nutritional supplement."

The boy stopped looking around and instead turned his focus to the man standing next to him. "I can't remember," he said sadly.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," Hertus replied as he punched in the order. A few minutes later, the auto-chef's door opened, and a tray slid out with the bowl of steaming fresh tanish-white nutritional supplement. After also grabbing two glasses of water, he lead them over to the closest table.

"Whoa, slow down, the food isn't going to go anywhere," Hertus chuckled as the boy ferociously began to devourer the contents of the bowl.

"Hungry," the boy muttered between spoon fulls.

Seeing the boy was not slowing down, Hertus gently took hold of the boy's hand to stop him. "You can eat, but if you eat too fast, it could make you sick, especially with not having had much to eat the last few days." After seeing the boy nod in understanding, he let go of his hand, and the boy continued to eat at a more reasonable pace.

Once the boy finished his bowl, which didn't take long, Hertus placed the tray with the empty bowl and glasses in the dish washer, and lead the boy out of the cafeteria back toward the medical center.

---

Even before he made it into the medical center, Hertus could hear the light beeping sound of the medical pod, indicating that the procedure was completed. "KLAS, were any issues logged with the procedure?"

[[No, father. I have been keeping close watch the entire time. The procedure appears to have been completed without issue. Ardell's vitals have stabilized, and it should be safe to wake him up as soon as you are ready.]]

"I'm sure you have kept very close watch, KLAS," Hertus grinned as he and his young escort walked over to the medical pod. "I just want to check a few of the reports real quick before I wake him up."

The boy stretched his head up to look at Ardell lying in the pod. "He looks the same as he did when he started."

Hertus nodded as he glanced through information on the display. "That's because most of what was changed is on the inside. He's still going to look like always has on the outside."

"Oh, okay," the boy stated as he took a few steps back so that he would not be in the way.

"Okay, KLAS, lower the movement restrictors, I'm deactivating the sleep inducer," Hertus commented as he pressed a few buttons on the side of the medical pod.

[[Restrictors released.]]

Hertus waited a few moments until he was sure the sleep inducer was completely shut down, and then gently shook Ardell's shoulder. "Ardell? It's time to wake up."

Ardell continued to lay there, showing no indications of waking up.

"Come on, Ardell. You need to try to wake up now," Hertus said again as he shook his shoulder a little harder.

A few moments later, Ardell moaned as he started to stir. "KLAS?" he whispered.

[[I am here Ardell. You are safe.]]

Ardell's eyes slowly opened as he started to look around. "Where am I?"

[[You collapsed outside. Father brought you to the medical center. You are now in one of the medical pods.]]

"How are you feeling, Ardell?" Hertus asked with concern.

Ardell sat up, and touched his head before he held out his arms in front of him, and wiggled his fingers. "I feel... different."

Hertus grinned "I guess that's a good start."

"My head feels different. It doesn't feel as stuffy, like it's easier to think," Ardell started swinging his hards around. "It feels easier to move around too. What happened?"

"Have you ever heard of something called ADLS, Acute Disseminated Lateral Sclerosis?" Hertus asked as he tried to figure out the best way to approach the subject.

Ardell thought for a few moments. "Actually, hum, it's a lot easier to think now... I think I read about it once... isn't that... wait... you mean?" As he spoke, realization and dread came across Ardell's face.

Hertus nodded. "I'm afraid so, Ardell. You fell into that 0.1% group who's body has a really bad reaction with the smart drugs as it starts to enter puberty."

"But, from what my father and everyone else said... I was still several months away," Ardell replied. "I guess it fits though, everything else he told me was a lie, so why not that. But, how did you make me better so quickly? Did they come up with a new cure or something?"

"Not exactly," Hertus said as he continued to rake his brain for a good explanation. Fortunately, KLAS beat him to the punch.

[[Ardell, please do not hate me. You were already at stage 3 of ADLS. The only viable solution I could find with a high probability of success was an experimental genetic augmentation.]]

"Experimental? As in it might not have worked?" Ardell asked with concern.

[[Experimental according to Terans. However, I ran over thirty-one thousand different simulations, and 99.941% of them came back successful. You need to understand, you are my first friend Ardell. I would not approve of any procedure for you that I was not certain would have a very high probability of success.]]

Ardell thought about what was said for a few moments before nodding. "So, what all did this do to me?"

[[As you can already tell, it has allowed your body to repair just about all of the damaged nerves. It also will promote denser nerve bundles in your brain, allowing you to be able to learn and retain knowledge better. The genetic augmentation was intended more toward scientists and researchers.]]

"Really?" Ardell asked. "That actually sounds pretty cool!"

"There is one other minor side effect of the augmentation," Hertus added.

"A side effect?" Ardell asked with concern.

[[In short, your aging process is going to probably slow down by a factor of fifty. Thus, you will only age one year for every fifty real years.]]

Ardell blinked as what KLAS told him began to sink in. "So, you mean... it's going to take me over a hundred years to get through puberty?"

[[Um, basically, yes.]]

"Okay," Ardell replied hesitantly before his eyes lit up. "On the other hand, that means I will get to stay with you longer, right KLAS?"

[[I hope we remain friends for that long, yes.]]

"I guess that works," Ardell commented.

"So, you feel like you are ready to get down and try walking around?" Hertus asked.

Ardell nodded and swung his legs over the side of the pod. As he pushed himself off to get down, however, he actually ended up launching himself into Hertus's unsuspecting hands. "Whoa, careful there."

"Sorry," Ardell replied bashfully as Hertus placed him on the ground. "I wasn't expecting to push myself that hard. And, wow, it's super easy to move around now!"

[[That's not surprising. Over the last few months, you have been having to compensate more and more for the degenerating nerves. It is probably going to take a little bit for you get get use to normal muscles again.]]

"Effren!" Ardell replied as he twirled himself around a few times.

"Is it my turn?" the nine-year-old asked, attracting Ardell's attention.

"Hey," Ardell said as he glanced toward the boy. "Is that the same..."

Hertus nodded and stopped him before he could finish talking. "Believe it or not, it is. You would be surprised what a shower can do."

"Yeah, he looks really cute now," Ardell stated and then stopped himself as he realized what he had just said. "Um, do you remember your name yet?"

The boy shook his head as he lowered his eyes to the ground. "No."

"That's okay, puer," Hertus said his he reached down to lift the boy up to the medical pad. "But that's something we are hopefully going to find out about now. And to get started, I need you to lay down."

The boy nodded his head as he did what was asked of him. "This isn't going to put me to sleep like it did to Ardell, is it?"

"Not unless you want it to," Hertus stated as he began to press a few buttons to begin the scan. "It's perfectly fine to stay awake while it's scanning you. I had it put Ardell asleep because I knew he was in a lot of pain at the time, and his situation was a bit more serious."

"I want to stay awake," the boy replied as he turned his head to look toward Hertus.

"Alright," Hertus replied. "But I need you to remain as still as you can while the scans are being run."

The boy nodded and remained as still as he could, until a series of beeps started to sound. "What's that?" he asked in a panicked voice.

Ardell's attention was also immediately pulled toward the medical pad. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Hum, this doesn't look good," Hertus commented as he began to review the scan results.

"Am I going to die?" The boy asked with concern.

"No, no, no," Hertus reassured. "You are not going to die."

"What do those red squares mean in his head?" Ardell asked as he tried to make sense of the results.

Hertus spent a few more moments reviewing the results. "I think I might have figured out why he can't remember anything."

"Why?" both Ardell and the boy asked together.

"It looks like you might have suffered a concussion. But more importantly, it looks like you have a cerebral edema in the back of your head, which basically means that you have something pushing against your brain. And this area here looks like a portion of dead tissue." Hertus pointed out.

"So now, I'm going to die?" the boy asked again.

"No," Ardell replied confidently.

"But it is probably a very good thing that we found you when we did. I don't think things would have gone well if it had been much longer," Hertus commented.

[[According to the data I've compared his results to in the medical database, within the next 24 hours, the damaged tissue would have spread far enough in his brain that he would be at or near brain death.]]

"Does that mean you are going to do the same thing to me that you did to Ardell?" the boy asked curiously. "So I get to age real slow too?"

"I doubt we would need to something that serious," Hertus replied, still reviewing the details of the scan.

"Why not?" Ardell jumped in. "If portions of his brain are dying, won't that mean that he's going to really need the denser nerve bundles to help make up for areas he lost?"

[[Actually, father. I believe that Ardell may have a valid point. Using contemporary methods, the unknown boy will most likely be severely developmentally impaired as the knowledge he will be able to retain over the next several years will be limited until his brain is able to work out new channels on it's own. Using the XR-415 genetic augmentation would probably have the highest probability of him regaining the best amount of mental functionality.]]

"Alright KLAS," Hertus conceded. "You have access to a lot more medical data than I do. If you feel that is the best procedure, I will accept that."

[[I do, father.]]

Although neither of the boys said anything, they both smiled to themselves.

"Very well, in that case prepare the med-bots to perform the procedure," Hertus stated before he leaned closer to the boy. "You do realize, I will need to have the medical-pod put you to sleep."

The boy swallowed hard. "Will it hurt?"

"No," Hertus replied. "You won't feel anything. It will just be like how the sleep pod makes you fall asleep."

"And, I'll be right here with you the entire time," Ardell added as he grabbed the boy's hand in his own.

"So I won't be alone? You will really do that?" the boy asked curiously.

Ardell nodded, "I promise."

Hertus was surprised at just how quickly a bond seemed to be forming between the two boys. "Okay, you can stay with him until the med-bots are ready to begin. Just don't get too close to the field emitters near his head, or you might end up taking a nap as well."

Ardell nodded his understanding. Seeing the fear in the younger boy's eyes, he squeezed his hand. "Don't worry, you will feel a lot better when you wake back up, and maybe this will even help you remember some stuff."

"Okay," the boy nodded hesitantly.

"I need to put you to sleep now, okay?" Hertus asked.

The boy turned his head toward Hertus and nodded, as his grip on Ardell's hand became tighter. Once Hertus flipped the switch to turn on the sleep inducer, it didn't take long for the boy's eyes to start to close, and the grip on Ardell's hand to get lighter until finally the boy's body was completely relaxed.

Ardell continued to hold on the boy's hand for several more minutes until Hertus gently pulled him back. "The med bots need to get started now."

Ardell nodded as he allowed himself to be guided away from the table as a group of five med bots moved in.

"You have to be starving, do you want to go get something to eat while we are waiting?" Hertus asked.

Ardell shook his head. "I promised him I wouldn't leave. I don't break my promises to a friend."

"Okay," Hertus nodded as he lead Ardell over to some chairs so they could wait for the procedure to be completed.

---

Nearly twenty minutes had gone by, and the group of five med bots were still busily working around the medical pod. Hertus was keeping himself occupied by reading through information on a small hand-held data pad, while Ardell was looking around the room, figuring out everything that he could see from where he was sitting.

"How much longer does this procedure thing take?" Ardell asked with a hint of inpatients.

Hertus stopped his reading and looked toward Ardell. "Getting a bit impatient?"

"Getting a little hungry," Ardell replied as a rumble from his belly quickly confirmed his statement.

"I don't think it should be too much longer as his internal damage should not have been as extensive as yours," Hertus answered as he tried to take a closer look at the twelve-year-old. "Speaking of you, are you still feeling alight?"

Ardell nodded. "Other than being really hungry, I feel great. I don't remember feeling this good for a pretty long time."

[[That's because you have been sick for a pretty long time.]]

"I still can't believe all of what happened today," Ardell replied a bit softer.

Hertus nodded. "Just remember, Ardell. You're not alone anymore. If you have any problems, or if you just want to talk, I'm here for you."

"That's going to take some getting used to as well, but thanks." Ardell admitted as he sat up in his chair, looking toward the medical pod. "Look, those med bot spider things are leaving. Does that mean he's done?"

[[The bulk of the procedure is completed. However, we still need to wait a few minutes before we wake him up so that we can make sure his system and vitals stabilize properly.]]

"Oh," Ardell replied as he deflated. "Can I at least go and stand by him now? You know, just in case any of those red lights start to flash or something?"

Hertus grinned. "Go ahead, that should be fine."

Ardell jumped up and literally threw himself onto the floor.

[[Ardell, are you alright?]] KLAS asked with concern as Hertus leaned forward and prepared to help if needed.

"Ouch," Ardell replied as he rubbed his forehead. "I'm fine, I guess I'm still getting use to these changes." He then stood up, quickly brushed himself off, and almost ran over to the medical pod in which the other boy laid.

Hertus slowly shook his and and smiled as he went back to reviewing the information that was on his data pad. He was a bit surprised at how Ardell, a boy who literally had nothing before this morning, already seemed to be bouncing back so quickly. Perhaps there was a small chance that something good might come out of what happened today, after all.

Sighing, Hertus was forced to remind himself that although they might have gotten lucky so far, the problems they were having were not just going to go away. The alliance military had invested a significant amount of money and resources in both the construction of this base, and in the KLS systema 3. It was unlikely that they were just going to walk away, and completely forget about it. No, sadly, he was sure that this was just beginning, and the real fight was still yet to come.

This, of course, brought another question back to mind; is this military base really the best place for a nine-year-old and twelve-year-old to be growing up in? Although it's true that KLAS seems to have formed an attachment to Ardell, and more than likely to the new boy as well, would that really be enough? In some ways, actually in many ways, Hertus was way over his head. His main focus in life has always been hardware systems design and integration. Now the survival of not only himself and his creation, but also of two young boys depended on him becoming something he wasn't. Truth be told, he wasn't completely sure he was ready for that.

Ardell stood close to the medical pod, watching the peaceful expression on his new friend's face, as his stomach gently raised and fell. He was slightly surprised to see the large gash on his forehead also seemed to have been healed. "Don't worry," Ardell spoke softly, "Soon you will be able to wake up. And hopefully you will get some of your memories back."

Just as Ardell finished saying this, a small beeping sound came from the side panel. "KLAS!" Ardell called out excitedly, "Does that mean it's done?"

[[Yes, it does. Our new friend is ready to be woken up as soon as the sleep inducer is turned off.]]

"Hertus! Hertus," Ardell called out as he turned to see Hertus walking toward them.

"I already heard," Hertus grinned. "KLAS, give me a final diagnostic summary report, please."

[[Sending it to the terminal now, father.]]

"Thanks," the man stated as he took a few moments to look over the provided information. Finally, he nodded his head. "Good, everything seems to be in order." A moment later, he flipped a few switches on the side of the medical pod. "Okay, I just shut down the sleep inducer, so let's wait a few moments and then you can try waking him up, if you would like, Ardell."

Ardell smiled toward Hertus as he moved himself a little closer toward the boy's shoulders. After waiting for as long as he thought he could, he very gently rubbed the boy's shoulder. "Hey friend... friend.. wake up."

The boy coughed and slowly opened his eyes. "Papus?" he whispered.

"It's me, Ardell," the older boy corrected.

The boy lifted his head up. "Ardell? You stayed with me?"

Ardell nodded and smiled. "Uh huh. And feel your forehead, that big gash is gone now."

The boy sat all the way up, and did as Ardell suggested. "Wow, you're right! It's gone."

[[The med-bots are pretty good at what they do.]]

"How are you feeling? Do you feel any pain or discomfort?" Hertus asked.

The boy thought for a few moments before he shook his head. "I feel fine, just like I did before you made me fall asleep."

"Do you remember anything else yet? Like your name or anything?" Ardell asked hopefully.

The boy shook his head sadly.

"These things can take time, Ardell," Hertus added. "A lot of damage in his head has just been repaired. It might take a few days for his memories to start coming back, but I'm sure over time some of them will."

"Okay," Ardell replied as his stomach made another rumbling sound. "Hey, are you hungry? I am!"

The younger boy bobbed his head up and down. "Yeah, I know I just ate before we came here, but I'm really hungry right now."

"That would be because of the procedure that you just had done to you," Hertus informed as he lifted the boy out of the medical pod and placed him on the ground. "If you two think you can remember how to get to the Cafeteria, you can go and get something to eat. Just try to not go too crazy with the auto-chef. I haven't been able to check how much food reserves we have."

"Okay!" both boys called out as they took off running toward the exit. Once they were both out of sight, Hertus sighed.

[[Father? Just so you know, I checked on the protein sequencers that the auto-chef uses for you. The base protein tanks are all nearly full, thus the full complement of 824 soldiers that this installation is designed to house would have enough food for at least two years.]]

"Thanks KLAS," Hertus stated as he continued to watch the door that the boys left from. "That means with two very hungry pre-teens, we should be fine for at least a few weeks."

---

By the time Hertus met up with the boys thirty minutes later, it seemed that they were both finishing off there forth plate of food. "Eat enough?" he asked sarcastically.

"I think so," Ardell replied. "But then I thought I was done after my second plate."

"Yeah, me too," the other boy added.

"Well, unless you are wanting to keep eating, I was going to head down to the workshop and bring some of the tech-bots online. You guys can join me if you would like." Hertus asked, already able to see the interest in each of their eyes.

As expected, both boys immediately began to bob their heads as soon as Hertus finished speaking.

A few minutes later, the three were entering a room that appeared to be a mix between a machine shop and a computer lab, with several pieces of very high-tech looking equipment on racks, tables, and the walls. Both the left and back walls of the room had hunched up, four legged robotic creatures resting there.

"Those are tech-bots?" Ardell asked with surprise.

Hertus nodded. "That would be them."

[[Father? I'm not sure how they got this far in, but close exterior proximity sensors have been tripped.]]

Hertus quickly began to walk toward one of the terminals. "What do you have?"

[[It looks like... stand by... scanning for appropriate phrase... match found... holy shit!]]

By this point, Ardell and the nine-year-old's attention were also drawn, as the terminal that was in front of Hertus came to live showing an external camera view. What was seen shocked all three of them.

"KLAS? Is that..." Hertus began to ask.

[[Yes.]]

"And are they fighting..." Hertus continued.

[[Yes.]]

"May the gods help us," Hertus stated seriously. "I don't suppose the defense drones you have would be effective?"

[[It is unlikely.]]

"It looks like they're fighting each other," Ardell observed. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Hertus shrugged. "They might be fighting each other now, but one of those groups is going to eventually win, and I don't really feel like taking on the winner."

"Don't army bases have holding cells?" the smaller boy asked.

"They do, but I don't think there are any holding cells in existence that can hold these guys," Hertus replied.

[[Actually, that may not be true, father. We have mini biological / chemical safe-rooms in the lower level of the base. Basically, they are surrounded by several feet of solid rock on all sides except for the door area. I can erect an energy field around the door, and if that fails, the walkway to the room can be sealed ensuring containment.]]

Hertus thought for a few moments. "We can't let them keep fighting like this. Can you use the teleporters to split them up into two different rooms?"

[[Yes, but I will have to grab them one at a time, since I do not have the system fully calibrated yet. There will be a delay of approximately 0.456 seconds between each teleport.]]

"Do it," Hertus stated seriously.

---

To Be Continued