Chapter 28

Pan stared at his new leg in the full-length mirror of the hospital rehabilitation training room. Except for a scar that ran the circumference of his leg, and was still a little red as it finished healing, the leg was almost a perfect match for his real one.

He twisted back and forth, viewing it from different angles and felt like a little kid on his birthday. The interface was still a little buggy though, as evidenced by the slight tremor in the artificial calf muscle and the delay between when he ordered the leg to move and it actually did, but it was getting closer every day.

Each day for the last week, he would come to the rehab center after breakfast and spend the day working with the new leg. The technical gurus would be present and would jump in to adjust the programming as needed. At the beginning, he had wires running from the skin of the leg to a data pad. They explained that wireless would be easier, but it would also be susceptible to interference and hacking, where the contact pads they used to interface with the leg directly were more secure.

The pads had small electronic sensors and interfaced with similar contacts just under the synthetic skin of the prosthesis. As the rehab and adjustments progressed, the techs were having to step in less and less. They were estimating that the integration would be complete in just a couple more days.

Pan moved to the treadmill and set it for a normal walking speed, based on his pace length before he was injured. It was awkward and he felt like he was lurching, but he had to retrain his muscles. He had been without a leg for many months and had trained his body to accept the off-kilter gait of an un-powered prosthetic. Now he was having to readjust to a leg that responded to the nerve impulses just like a real one ... or almost.

He increased the speed to a slow jog and was starting to get into a rhythm, controlling his breathing and trying to relax, let the body do its thing. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes before he was gasping, cursing his lack of conditioning. He had not run since he lost his leg and his body was punishing him for it. He was determined to push the performance envelope every day of his rehab, and he ignored the pain and soreness that came with that push.

He increased the pace again, his lungs laboring mightily to keep the air in his lungs oxygenated. He had kept the pace for just under two minutes when the ankle on his prosthesis locked up, causing it to catch on the textured belt of the treadmill.

Losing his balance, he was able to prevent a more serious fall by grabbing the handrails and lifting his legs free of the belt while a technician, Marty, rushed to hit the emergency stop.

The medico who ran the rehab was there in an instant, helping him off the treadmill and on to a nearby bench, his ankle sitting at an unnatural angle and Pan gasping at the pain that was shooting up his left side.

The new bio-mechanical leg had been grafted to the nerves and blood vessels in the stump of his old leg. The pain receptors worked, though their performance had been spotty at best. Parts of the leg had no feeling at all while other parts were hyper sensitive. Right now, it felt as though he had broken the ankle even though he knew it would take a hell of a lot more than a twist to do any harm to the alloys that took the place of real bone.

Marty slapped the conduction patches on Pan's calf and hit a few keys, causing the leg to reset, releasing the servos that were holding the ankle at that unnatural angle. The pain ceased immediately and Pan breathed a big sigh of relief.

He watched as Marty fussed over the readings on his data pad, and then called up the programming sub-routine that controlled that portion of the leg. He had not worked on the original design, but he was the guy who had figured out a lot of the bugs and had become the de facto head of the technical effort, much to the chagrin of the original designer. Pan was glad to have him here, especially after the first couple of disastrous efforts earlier in the project.

In one case, synthetic calf muscle had torn itself loose from the anchor spot behind his knee and the pain had been indescribable. Pan had nearly passed out on the spot, and it took two surgeries and a new, less powerful version of the muscle to make it right again. On the plus side, the new synthetic skin was easier to work on and didn't scar like real skin does, sealing back seamlessly when they were done.

Marty utter a profanity, and then an "Aha!" before typing furiously on his pad. "I found the line that was causing the issue. I knew it was there but I couldn't figure it out until I could capture the event and study it. It was a simple transposition error, if you can believe that. We can friggin well travel the stars, but we still have to troubleshoot code by hand." The disgust in his voice would have been humorous, if it hadn't been Pan's leg that felt the pain the error had caused.

Marty looked up, smiling from ear to ear. "Try again?"

Pan looked at him, grimaced and stood, slowly. He gingerly put weight back on to the new leg and tested his balance. It all seemed okay, so he stepped back on to the treadmill and activated the rollers once more.

This time he made it through all three stages with nothing worse than a cramp in his side and a sweat-soaked shirt. Gasping, and wiping his face with a towel, he gave Marty a big thumbs up and a grin.

The rehab medico announced that the session was over and that he wanted Pan back after lunch for some fine motor control practice. Pan nodded his understanding, thanked the team and headed to the showers. As grateful as he was to the team that gave him a new leg, the real reason he was pushing so hard had nothing to do with them, or with himself for that matter. He had not heard from Kat for several weeks and he knew, deep down, that something was very wrong.