After waiting for years, I can finally use this image or a cover. I think it suits this novel, but I'll leave the final verdict to you.
We continue with the preview of Broadcast 9: Warpath with chapter four. After this there will only be two more chapters on the blog, and you'll have to wait a little while for the book to come out. Check back for a release date soon.
Chapter 4
Parallels
Jacob Valent
could not walk. No thing in his memory was more frustrating, more difficult to
cope with than that simple fact. For two days his daughter helped him in the
morning for two hours, trying to get his feet, as useful as clubs, to support
him while they dangled from inept ankles with little improvement.
He was thinking
about his frustration and the sweat that he’d put into so little improvement
when his hand slipped from one of the parallel bars and he fell to the mat like
a marionette with its strings cut. It was the fifth time.
He kept his
grumbling to himself, but could feel his face flushing red with frustration.
Alice was patient and cool as she helped him back up. He didn’t fight her at
all, those bars seemed so far away from the padded deck, nearly impossible to
reach from where he landed.
With her help he
got them under his shoulders and pushed up. Another thing he didn’t understand
was why everything but walking seemed to come naturally. His hand-eye
coordination was returning, he could sit up without assistance and his balance
seemed a little unsteady, but improved. As soon as he tried to walk, his legs
seemed to forget what they were supposed to be doing and go on strike.
Alice took a step
back when he nodded, indicating that he felt steady again, even though he was
only holding himself up on the parallel bars using his arms, there was no
weight on his legs. The recovery room aboard the Solar Forge was rectangular,
two stories tall, and all the surfaces were a plasticized off white colour. He
had mats in one corner, a few balls of various sizes ranging from small for
throwing to large for sitting and balancing. Then there were those damned
parallel bars. “All right Jake, this is easy,” Doctor Messana said from the
other end of what he’d started calling ‘the pill box.’ “I programmed the muscle
memory in your legs, so they should already know what a walking motion is, you
only have to relax and urge yourself to do it, like you’ve done thousands of
times before.”
Jake tried, but
the response he got from his leg was a haphazard flop forward. He stared at the
awkwardly placed foot. “Are you sure you gave me the right legs? There isn’t
someone else with mine having the same problem?”
Doctor Messana
shook her head, her lips pursed. “You’re still trying to learn to walk when
there’s no need to. It’s easier than that. Your muscles know what to do, you
just have to relax and let them do it. You were standing on your own for a few
seconds a couple nights ago, remember how easy that was?”
Jake nodded and
exhaled. Listening to the Doctor was becoming more frustrating by the minute.
He looked at Alice, who had a neutral expression. Jake took a step, or at least
that’s what he commanded his left leg to do. He got more awkward lifting and
flopping instead.
“Okay, wait,”
Doctor Messana said, shaking her head again.
Alice looked
almost as irritated as Jake felt, only she had her back to the Doctor.
“You’re
concentrating on the small motions required to take one step. Walking is a
reflex combining balance and about two hundred muscles working together, you
can’t control every single one consciously. What I’d like you to do is forget
about one step, and just try to walk to the other end of the bars. Just take a
deep breath, relax and as soon as you finish exhaling, let go of the bars and
walk to the other end. Alice, give him extra room.”
Jake nodded to
Alice, signalling that it was all right, and she took several steps back as he
inhaled. He made several unwelcome realizations while he slowly exhaled: his
hands were sweaty, his heart was pounding fast, and that the other end of the
parallel bars seemed very far away.
He finished
exhaling and let go of the bars, refusing to look down at his legs. The
realization that he was standing, feeling steadier than he’d felt since waking
up gave him a surge of confidence. He started to take his first step, then the
whole training room went sideways, he smashed his ribs on the right parallel
bar, the padding didn’t seem to spare him any harm, then he finished falling
between them, his impact on the mats knocking the wind out of him.
“This is easier
than you’re making it, Jake.”
“Stop telling me
how fucking easy this is!” Jake roared as soon as he caught a breath. “Does
this look easy to you?”
“Fine! Do it the
long way, learn to walk all over again!” Doctor Messana said before storming
out of the room.
Alice was at his
side, helping him back up. He was about to ask for a break, but glanced the
other end of the parallel bars, less than three metres away. Even if he had to
drag his feet, he’d make it. “I went too far,” Jake muttered.
“She had it
coming,” Alice replied. “She couldn’t have expected all that programming to
work perfectly. I get my control freakiness from you, so I know what this is.
You can’t just trust a brand new pair of legs, and back, and bum to work
together to keep you upright unless you’ve had something to do with it.”
Jake smiled at
her and nodded. “Yeah, I know. I just wish I was better at picking my battles.
These bars are kicking my ass.”
“We’ll take it
slower,” Alice said. “One step at a time, first we just get those feet under
you properly, then you move them forward without putting much weight on while
you keep upright on the bars with your arms. Baby steps though.”
Jake carefully
concentrated on moving his thigh so his foot landed on the mat just in front of
him, then put a little weight on it. The weight felt good, his leg was strong
enough, but his footing was shaky. He shuffled forward a little with his right
hand on the bars. “Where’d you learn about teaching someone to walk?” he asked as
he started working on the other leg.
“Ayan, Oz,
Minh-Chu and I all took a physical training course. Doctor Messana wasn’t
thrilled, but we did it anyway, it was Commander Anderson’s idea. He said he
went through the course before Ayan was reborn. He had to be prepared if all
those memories he recreated in her head wouldn’t attach to her physical body
properly.”
“Thank you,” Jake
said.
They didn’t speak
as Jake ponderously took baby steps all the way to the other end of the
parallel bars. He was almost completely dependant on the bars, keeping most of
his weight off his feet, but his legs were doing some of the motions, if
clumsily, and it felt like progress.
“Now, we turn
around,” Alice said, moving to the opening in the bars behind him.
Jake decided to
try the Doctor’s advice one last time. He closed his eyes and simply desired to
turn around one hundred and eighty degrees, willing his legs to do the work. He
got one foot into position, and fell to the mats between the bars so suddenly
that Alice couldn’t catch him. The mats saved him from numerous bruises. He
looked up from the floor at his daughter, who stared at him in utter shock.
“time for a break?” she squeaked.
He couldn’t help
but laugh. “I guess we do this the hard way,” he said as she sat down beside
him.
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