Chapter 1

I sure as hell had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this crazy gig. I was riding my moped home from high school when it happened. I was tooling along at about 35 MPH in a 25 MPH zone as any self-respecting sophomore would do, when the pavement simply disappeared from in front of me and I tumbled in head first. I later was told that there had been a water main break that had washed out a hole under the street, and I just happened to pick the wrong time to be riding on said street.

I distinctly remember going into the mammoth hole with my head down and my ass up, but that was the last I remembered until I woke up in the damnedest hospital room you ever saw. It was a creamy white that was brightly lit by indirect lighting, but somehow the light did not hurt my eyes. The bed was the standard adjustable bed that tipped in every direction, maybe even upside down for all I knew. There was some sort of hood-like arrangement hanging over my bed, extending from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. It never touched me, but it hung about 18 inches above my body. There were all kinds of monitors scattered about the room, and they were showing so much data that I could not absorb it all.

I was staring at all of this wondrous stuff and wondering whose insurance was covering it all when I suddenly realized that I had a companion in the room. This companion probably would have normally frightened me out of my wits, but I was not adversely affected for some mysterious reason. The choice of the word "companion" was made because I had no idea what its function might be.

The being was alive, that was obvious because of a regular breathing-type motion made by the front of its translucent coat. I could see under the coat a forest of arms that looked like tentacles, but there were no suckers on them such as are found on an octopus. These arms, there had to be 20 of them, were fastened in three levels to a torso that looked to be about two feet in diameter and four feet long. At the bottom of this torso were three legs that looked for all the world like the legs of a camera tripod, they were even covered in shiny metal.

The top of the torso had a neck ending in a nearly spherical head with six eyes symmetrically spaced around it at the equator. There was one mouth and one nose, but I could not detect any ears or hair. The skin was an orange color that closely mimicked the color of a pumpkin—all it really needed was a green stem sticking out of the top.

I heard a chuckling noise in my head and not with my ears. "It's good that you have retained your sense of humor. It will probably enable you to enjoy your new career. Welcome to the Galactic Rangers, William O'Connor."

"OK, I'll bite. Tell me what this charade is all about and I will probably laugh with you." Somehow, the attitude of this guy pissed me off, but I could not say exactly how or why. He was obviously an alien, but I kind of doubted that he was from Central Casting. Ever since I had seen Avatar in 3D 13 times, I was well in tune with the possibilities of the existence of strange aliens. (No, I was not rich—I worked at the local cinema complex after school.)

"You died in your former existence and were resurrected by us. Your essence has been transferred into a cyborg body so that you can serve your new masters. Ah, I can tell, you would like to resist, but there is no way that you can. Your AI (Artificial Intelligence) adjunct to your brain will not permit it. Like it or not, you are now a slave of the Galactic Consortium."

Another form appeared beside the first. "Oh, just wonderful, Guk'ordnan. You have been so gentle and tactful in breaking the news to our latest recruit."

"Please, Orl'eander, I am so tired of coddling these aliens. It's so much simpler to tell them the truth of their servitude."

"It sounds like you are ready for reassignment, Guk'ordnan. Leave us and report to Supervisor Alt'udnum. I have relayed to him that you are on your way."

"Bah, it's about time that I escape this kindergarten!"

"Bill, I'm sorry that your introduction to the Galactic Rangers was so poorly done. Yes, you have no choice in whether or not you join us, but the reason is a little different from what you may have deduced from Guk'ordnan's clumsy remarks.

"You were selected from innumerable potential candidates because of your quick wits and intelligence. You are also of the age group that has the internal pressure to be on the move and up and about doing things. The Galactic Rangers are a league of explorers and trouble shooters that roam the galaxy heading off trouble before it starts.

"Your only choices are joining us or dying. The reason is that you are no longer simply a real person. We captured your mind with all of its nuances just before your original death and implanted them in a special type of AI. These AIs are very rare and expensive, very difficult to build, and they are rationed out only to those who truly want to live again. By the way, if you can keep your AI from being destroyed, you are functionally immortal, so that should weigh in on your decision about becoming a Ranger.

You are a cyborg, a cybernetic organism, which means that you do not have your original body. Instead, we cultured a body for you which is as nearly exactly like your original as we could possibly make. You have the same strengths and weaknesses that your body had as a true human, but you are immune to disease. Your muscles and nerves will react just as they did in your old body, so, except for your mind, you will not notice any differences. One of the few things we did not do was to make you able to procreate. That is, you can enjoy all of the acts of sex that humans are used to, but you can never father children. I hope that does not cause you serious concern.

"If you decide to forgo joining the Galactic Rangers, your AI will simply be turned off remotely, and your organic body will be dumped back into the vats to be reused in forming another, hopefully more cooperative, agent. It makes a real difference to us whether or not you decide to join us because of the tremendous expense we went to in order to create you new body and new mind. Please say that you will join us."

"Well, I don't see that I have much real choice, Orl'eander. Either I am with you or I am dead. Under those circumstances, I am most definitely with you!"

The very surprising thing was that I was released to duty as soon as I agreed to join. I did not need any basic training because that was already installed in my AI, and all I needed was to go through the motions one time to establish the proper muscle-memory. After that, I could do the required maneuvers at full speed and full strength. The effect was amazing. Generally, it was possible to train me for any mission in no more than half an hour of body motions. Of course, my brain was already ready because of the AI. This special AI was stuffed with additional memory so that it could hold the experience and knowledge of a multitude of former Galactic Rangers.

The AI was effectively an extension of my brain, so that I did not have to think in any special way to make contact or to use my AI. Just like any other part of my brain, it was just there! Boy, I sure could have used this on those English Lit. quizzes!

Just to make sure everything was operating as it should, my first assignment was essentially a training exercise, though it was possible to be seriously hurt or even killed if I did something stupid. I was sent out with four other recruits and an instructor to explore an underwater cave on a large planet that had life forms, but none were sentient.

I never set foot in a spaceship, instead the whole bunch of us was shipped out via a device something like the Star Trek transporter. One second, we are here, the next second, we are there. At least, we didn't get bored by the confinement of a long trip.

I was overjoyed to find out that two of the other new recruits were humanoid females, though not from Earth. Nevertheless, they looked to have all of the right equipment in all of the right places. I knew because I saw the naked evidence!