บท 63: - Release from the Infirmary
Gus was kept in the infirmary for a little while longer as a precautionary measure. Oddly enough, he had heard nothing from the other members of his squad, neither in person nor on the communication device.
When he was released, he had a final physical examination conducted on his body to ensure that there would be no consequences to his injuries in the future.
While he was safe from further harm, he would forever bear the marks of the mission on his back in the form of large scars. The option was there for him to have them mostly removed through medical procedures, but he chose to keep his body scarred as a reminder of the dangers that he would face in academy missions and beyond.
"Any progress on Dean?" Gus asked Becca as he was leaving.
"Nothing yet. We can't really act until we have proof of him hiring the Corsairs, so we have to wait until the investigations are done," she responded.
"The Corsairs? Does your squad know them? Bryer seemed familiar with that guy with the cybernetics."
"We've had a few run ins with them over time. It's pretty odd to see them on Earth, but I guess the pay they were offered was just that good."
"They're not usually on Earth?"
"No. They usually opt to fight out in the expansion systems, taking jobs for the rich who have some petty grudge against one another. This is the first time I think they've ever got involved in an action against one of the factions."
"Huh."
"While I remember," Becca said, suddenly realising that Gus was wearing an open backed gown of the infirmary, "your uniform. It was torn to shreds, at least part of it was. In here," she said, gesturing to a door to the side of the entrance to the infirmary. "There's a replacement from the academy, free of charge. Get changed before you go."
Inside the room was a small shelf with folded clothes and a mirror. As he dressed, Gus looked at his reflection and examined his wounds. They had healed very well in the time he had been there, no doubt a result of the medical technology at the disposal of the academy.
Despite not being touched during the mission, his face had changed a lot. In the time since joining the academy, his auburn hair had grown to a point somewhere between neat and unkempt. His eyes were different. Although he could not place it, it seemed as though something was missing from them.
'Perhaps I just now know the true dangers of this war, of what this life brings,' he thought to himself. 'Or, perhaps this is just one of the consequences of the burden of being leader.'
His face was not all that had changed. His body, too, was different. Despite being in orbit above Earth, his body had not yet shown signs of degradation.
'Probably something in the station, if it has even been long enough for a change to happen.'
In fact, if anything his body had improved slightly, in terms of tone and shape. He had always been a fairly scrawny kid growing up, but now it at least seemed to be changing.
'Not that the change is likely to be noticed by anyone else for some time, not until it gets more prominent.'
Once dressed, he left the room and almost bumped into an older man with greying hair.
"You must be Gus," he said, after the initial shock of Gus unexpectedly opening the door in front of him. "I hope Beccania has treated you well. She took over most of your care here. In fact, she insisted that she do it. Something about her wanting to see her mission through to the end in all forms. I don't quite get it, but I never did get that girl's dedication to things."
"That girl is standing right here. Don't talk about me like I'm not here," Becca said in a joking tone.
"I wasn't, not intentionally," he replied, feigning a defensive tone. "But, I'm glad to see that your patient is back on his feet."
"Yeah, thanks for making sure I was alright," Gus said. "And thanks for down there."
"Before you go," Becca said. "Let me get your comm information. I'll contact you when the situation with Dean progresses."
"Comm information?" Gus asked.
"Yeah. So that I can contact you."
"How do I do that?" Gus asked. "I've never used something like this before, and it came with contacts for my squad and one of the officers here, and that's pretty much all that I've ever needed to use it for."
"Don't like technology or something?" she asked.
"Can't say I ever had a use for one before."
"Okay, it's really simple. You press the face of the device to activate it, and then you can control it with your mind. These ones are simple, so there are only a couple of options available to you on it. Contacts allows you to see the contact information for someone, and either send them an encrypted message that cannot be intercepted by anyone, at least not in the academy. User shows you your user page, which is where you can find the comm information."
"Hold on, with your mind?" Gus asked. He knew that the technology existed and was available outside of the academy, but he had not anticipated them having it in the academy. "They have that tech here?"
Becca nodded. "Why fiddle with buttons when you can just think and have neural signals sent to the watch directly? It's as true in here as it is out there. And it's not as if this is one of the places in the galaxy where it's difficult to find the latest tech."
"That's a fair point, I hadn't considered that," Gus said, following the instructions he had been given to find his user page. "Can you see that?" he said, tilting his wrist to show Becca the projected display that shone from the face.
"I've got it," she said, fiddling with her own. "And done! I'll let you know when we have something back from the investigation. And remember, in the meantime keep it quiet, and keep your nose out of it."
As Gus left the room and walked back down the corridor towards the main entrance hall, he glanced into the room containing the strange mirror. After seeing it for the first time, he had expected to never see it again in his entire life, and for it to slip out of his memory. But with each visit back down to this floor, the mystery surrounding it only grew in Gus's mind. What was it? Why was it here? Where did it come from? And why did the surroundings never actually reflect Gus's surroundings?
"It's different this time, too.'
Instead of being in similar surroundings, the surroundings showed an image that was now seemingly behind a doorway.
"What are you?" he whispered, staring into his own reflection.
Eventually, he turned away from the mirror and returned upstairs to the first year floor of the station.
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