Chapter 17: Rebirth

Floating... Darkness... Floating... Where was he?... Who was he?

'... Rand. You are Rand. Rand Korsun... '

'... I am Rand Korsun. I am Rand Korsun. I am Rand Korsun!... '

Memories came flooding back. He tried to open his eyes, but they were sealed shut. He was floating, and not breathing, and something was holding him in place. Something that felt like webbing. He remembered the fight on Skryben's bridge, and that he'd been hurt fighting against Captain Jeryth, trying to protect... Berniss! What had happened to her? He tried to call out her name.

'... Berniss!... '

'... Easy there, go easy... ' The voice echoed inside his head, but it wasn't hers. Who was it? Where was she? Why couldn't he move?

'... no, it isn't Berniss, but she'll be all right. This is Joerd Tshegh. Acting Captain Tshegh, while you are out of action. You'll be all right. You can take over again, just as soon as we get you out of there... '

'... out of where?... ' He linked with Skryben, a kaleidoscope of scenes as he scanned all of her interior sensors. He couldn't find himself. Not anywhere! All that he remembered was a sense of being pulled apart, divided somehow.

'... right here, inside Skryben's brain box... '

Rand opened an eye in the right place, looking around at the spherical golden chamber that housed Skryben's three brains. Tshegh was there, all right, along with a nurse. He thought that he remembered her from the time he'd spent in sick bay after his operation. Tall and thin, old but surprisingly strong. What was her name? He scanned Skryben's memory banks. Ayx, that was it. Nurse Stit Ayx. The chamber seemed a little different from when he'd seen it last. Different how?

There were the three hemispherical domes, set low to the bottom of the room around the elevator. Skryben's original brains, now dormant. Three more, set higher and between the first three. Those were the three new ones they'd induced Skryben to grow. The oblong blister that had been Berniss's special project. There! That was what was different! A second blister, next to the first one. His body wasn't there, though.

'... I don't see me... '

'... here.' Tshegh placed a hand on the first blister. 'A brand new body. Your old one was... well, not in any shape to get you back to Base... '

'... NOOooo!... ' In his mind, echoing like a curse, the word CYBORG!...

'... it had to be done. Now, calm down! You were dead, Rand. Dead! The only thing that saved you was your new heart and lung. They kept on working, even though your neck was near twisted off, kept sending fresh blood to your brain long enough so that we could do something for you. Medic Morss had us transfer your persona to the body she'd grown for Captain Jeryth. That was three days ago. We'd have brought you up out of it sooner, but she thought that you'd adapt better if your new body was reshaped to look at least something like your old one... '

Tshegh's words echoed hollowly through his skull, their meaning almost lost in the clangor of his own thoughts. CYBORG! They'd Cybed him! His mind was spiraling down to darkness, held to rationality by only one thought.

'... Berniss! Help me! Where are you? I need you, Berniss. HELP!... '

'... quick, now.' The voice in his head was urgently whispering to someone. 'Stimulants, and monitor his... '

'... she can't help you, Rand. She needs your help. Berniss needs you. You've got to hold on, Rand. She needs you... '

Slowly, Rand's thoughts settled. The pain was still there, but it was overridden by this new thought. Berniss! She needed him?

'... she'll need your help, Rand. Steady down, now... ' Tshegh's voice echoed in his mind, chasing out the phantasms of panic. Rand's vision steadied, and once more he could perceive what was happening around him.

As Tshegh talked, his voice was picked up by microphones in the room, and brought to Rand through his linkage with Skryben. At a nod from Tshegh, Nurse Ayx punctured the blister in front of her, causing it to deflate rapidly. Heavy liquid drained from it, pooling on the floor for a moment before it was absorbed. Rand could even smell its pungent odor through Skryben's sensors. He realized that his own blood would smell like that from now on, but he forced the thought to the back of his mind. When the blister hung limp, she slit it down its length and peeled it back, exposing its contents.

Light! Rand blinked his eyes as they adjusted to the glare. He could see, though fuzzily at first. He squinted at the two figures in front of him. It was Tshegh and Ayx, all right. The gray gold neural fibers that had suspended him within the blister withered and fell away, releasing him. He slumped, almost falling, but caught himself in time.

"Step down, here." Tshegh offered Rand a helping hand.

He slipped on the tunic and trousers that Nurse Ayx handed him, then sat on the floor to pull on his boots. He was feeling better all the time. His mind was clear, now that his panic had subsided, and his body felt alive. There wasn't even the occasional tiny ache or pain that anybody always had somewhere, without noticing. A sense of limitless energy surged through him, as though he could do anything, meet any challenge!

He looked himself over through Skryben's eyes, comparing what she was seeing with what he remembered. He saw a young man who looked almost exactly like Rand Korsun. Sure enough, it was the same face that had looked back at him from his shaving mirror every morning since he'd gotten his full growth. The colors were a little bit wrong, was all. The skin was too golden, and the hair had too much red mixed into its brown, but even as he noticed the difference his colors seemed to change, shifting closer to normal.