Chapter 12

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 As tired as I was, I made my way to the station constable's offices to find out where they had taken Caleb for repair. I wished silently that Devon was still here, but she was no less than a week away. Longer than Caleb could go without his processor and not essentially die. "Excuse me," I said to the desk sergeant as I walked into the front office. "There was an android attacked earlier, do you know where they took him for repair?"

"Caleb? Yes, bad shape that one. The tech wing of the hospital; level 42 section B. "He said with a grim smile, "You must be the little redhead Constable Mitchell spoke about. You've a good friend in Juan, but you really need to choose your words more carefully. There are plenty of constables here that would have called his bluff and locked you both up. So you know, it wasn't the implied threat Juan gave that saved you, it was his willingness to vouch for you."

"I will try to control my anger better. It's just that I thought they'd killed my best friend." I replied softly.

"I understand, and truth be told if he'd taken you in no charges would have been filed. You'd have been detained long enough to settle down; now go on down to the hospital and check on your friend."

"Thank you," I said as I turned to go. I made my way swiftly, following the route I'd been given. It was quite a way to the hospital level, so it took me nearly an hour to get there even using the trams and lifts. When I arrived at the reception area I asked about Caleb. I was told that his processor had been delivered a half hour earlier and that he was in surgery. I smiled at that; they called it surgery instead of in the shop getting repaired.

I went to the wing where the procedure was being completed and signed in. I was shown to the waiting room. Four long hours later a technician came out. I later learned he was a nurse with cybernetic training. "Miss Buchannan; your friend is going through the final checks and then he will be fully reactivated. You should know that quantum processor androids with emotion programming can and often feel trauma just as we do. He is already showing signs of PTSD."

How can you know that without time to evaluate?" I asked.

"It's the advantage of him being an android, his code can be analyzed. When he came online the subroutines that analyze memory started up. He was stuck in a loop reliving the attack till the doctor forced the code to break the loop. This is a primary marker for PTSD. We're already advising him to seek counseling."

"Thank you. Can I see him?" I asked

"As soon as we're done with the final diagnostic checks, yes."

I was led back to the room they had him in after only a few minutes. When I saw him standing, a thin cable connected to a port on his head, I rushed over and hugged him. "Are you ok?" I had tears in my eyes despite myself.

"I am now, but it was close, and I lost the last three hours of memory, corrupted by the violent removal of my brain as it were." He said trying to make light of things. It was clear by his tone he was still shaken up by the ordeal.

"What do you remember?" I asked as the technician unhooked him, closed the access panel, and said we were good to go.

As we walked to the finance office to pay the bill he said. "I walked Megan home, and then started back to our ship." He paused with a look of fear, "I'm afraid it's all blank after that." The bill came to five thousand credits, I was going to pay it but Caleb wouldn't let me. He reminded me that I had insisted he have his share of the cargo sale and that he was a free citizen and therefore responsible for his own bills.

With only four hours till my Friday night show, we headed straight to the Inn. As we exited the hospital into the corridor Caleb paused, a look of panic on his face. He closed his eyes and just stood there for a few seconds. When he opened them, he began to walk. "I'm sorry" he started with a trembling voice. "I just had what I think was a flashback. Memories of the attack that I thought were gone." He looked right at me with frightened eyes and said "McKinsey, please don't leave me alone, I think I am losing my mind."

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