[Permanent Midnight] Chapter 3 - "The Eyes Have It"
Reice has a heart-to-heart with Zamira about what the 0gr3 did to her and checks out some top-tier ocular implants.
Ahoy, friendos! I’ve decided that a lot of the chapters I post are still going to be public, both here, Patreon, and Royal Road because I want to get more of a readership on this partocular book before locking it for early-access.
(It would be really awesome if you could go over to RR and leave comments and reviews, too, since engagement really helps stories stand out.)
It’s also worth mentioning that I did republish my Patreon page because of how it integrates with the Royal Road system and readers. Nothing for you will change here, though.
Content Warning: profanity, graphic violence, sensitive topics
"Two hundred thousand credits?!"
Zamira nods, grimaces. "Yeah, that's the lowest possible amount I can get the eyes regrown for. And that's pulling strings and calling in favors."
"You know I can't afford that, Zamira! I've never seen that much money in one place before."
"I know, Reice. I know."
I can't believe this. "I have seen you get a guy a new leg for under five grand."
"Yeah, you have. I have," Zamira says. "Legs are easy. There's not a whole lot there to screw up, and if you do, you can always put in some kind of chrome." She took a breath. "But Reice, these are your eyes. They're delicate. There's a lot more to fuck up. At least with real ones."
"Can't you get me a discount? You've done it before. You got Marv a couple of new fingers for what, two-fifty?"
Zamira shakes her head, still grimacing. "Again, that stuff is easy. But, Reice, listen: two hundred thousand is the discount." She pauses to let that sink in. "This has to be done at a lab up top, at least in the Mids, not a dump like this. I don't even know anyone in the Commons who can do it. Not do it right. And that's not cheap. Two hundred grand is my cost, girl."
"Fuck," I say, "And you're sure that you don't know any other docs around here that can grow a couple clones for, I don't know, a fraction of that cost?"
"I mean, yeah, I do. But you don't want that. Believe me."
"The damn 0gr3 did a lot more damage to you than I thought. The triage nanites have been working overtime. I'm amazed you can see at all, honestly. They're not really designed to do what they're doing. They're made to pull things back together. Which they did. So they're holding your skull fragments together," she once again pauses for emphasis. "You're actually pretty lucky they figured out a way to fix your vision, too."
"And they've done an okay job so far. You can just shoot me up again, and that'll get a boost, and I'll keep on healing."
Instead of directly responding, Zamira points at the eye I have left and cocks her head to the side. "You're likely seeing in one or two colors, medium to low res, right?"
"The res is fine…ish…but I am looking at your beautiful green skin and slightly darker green hair right now." Since Zamira has dark brown skin and even darker brown hair, my answer reinforces her assumptions.
"I thought so." Zamira scrunches her face up and rubs her eyes. "There's a lot going on inside our eyes, Reice, and the quality of nano that I have to work with down here just isn't cut out for the long haul. They're for rescue and triage, not healing and recovery. Honestly, no nano is good for permanent chrome."
"Shit."
"Yeah. I know. And you're a fleshy," she holds up a hand to shush my retort before it comes, "and you're proud of that. I'm just not sure if we can do this with organics, Reice. I don't know if you can stay a fleshy and still be able to see."
My heart sinks into my stomach. I get a little nauseous thinking about having to replace a part of my body permanently with cybernetics of any sort.
"You said you know some other docs who can regrow organics for less, though?"
"Sure, yeah, I can totally take you to one of the other streetdocs I know. I'm sure the gobbos can regrow them for well under twenty grand. Maybe even ten."
"The cheaper the better," I say, knowing that isn't true, even as I say it. Especially if goblins are involved. Goblin biotech isn't exactly cutting edge. But ten to twenty thousand credits is a hell of a lot more doable than two hundred. I mean, I don't have ten thousand credits, but I'm sure I can scrounge that up easier than twenty times that amount.
"No," Zamira says with the patience of a saint. "It's not. Going cheap on regrowing your real, actual, true eyeballs? Shit, Reice. Not even considering that it would be goblin biotech, I'd give a 90% chance anything you get grown down here would be way worse than the temporary junk you have in there right now. I've seen eyes grown in a place like this," she gestures around at her work area. "None of them were worth even half a damn or even half the credits. No one has been happy with the results. Not one person. Not in my experience."
"Fuck," I say again. It really seems like it's the only word that fits the situation. "What do you suggest I do then? Stay blind? I don't have that kind of money, Z. I don't know anyone who has that kind of money."
"Right? So here's what I suggest—"
"Wait just a goddamn minute," I say, interrupting. "I do know someone with that kind of money. One person."
Zamira's face falls. "No, Reice. Just no."
"Hear me out—"
"No, Reice," she says again. "He's off-limits, remember?"
"Yeah, I know. But also, hear me out: fuck him."
"That's what I'm saying! You're not asking him for money."
"Hell no I'm not. That's what I mean: fuck him. Fuck him, fuck asking. I can just take it from the conniving little piece of gutter-trash."
"Reice, no."
"Look, Junon is—"
"No."
"We've talked about this. We just have to move on, as friends, as professionals, everything. Junon Caprice isn't worth the energy it takes to even think about him."
I sigh. Zamira is right. "You're right. He's not. It's just that he gets me so—"
"I know. I know. He does me, too." She scoots closer. "Now, can we get back to the matter at hand? You want my suggestion?"
"Yeah, sure." I grit my teeth and talk through them. "What am I in for, doc?"
"I don't think you should grow your eyes back."
"What kind of crazy doctor talk is that? I need my eyes!"
"At least, not yet. And of course, you need your eyes. Right now, I can set you up with some metal that's way better than your meat will ever be."
"But I like my eyes, Zamira. They're…uh…" I struggle to find the right words, "my eyes."
"They are. And eventually, we'll be able to afford to regrow them. But in the meantime, until we can save up, I can install a pretty fucking amazing pair of CyTek KnightVisions. Like right now."
She probably thinks I didn't catch it, but I did. She said until we can save up and afford them. Not you. I don't say anything because that's just Zamira is. She takes care of me. She takes care of everyone. I know that she means it, too. Z will be squirreling away credits here and credits there until she has enough to combine with whatever I will be able to save.
Goddammit, I don't deserve Zamira in my life.
"And these are the latest model, too," my streetdoc BFF goes on. "I don't usually get tech this new. So I'm excited to see them in action. Until right now, I hadn't really decided if I should sell them or keep them for a patient. What the 0gr3 did kind of settles that for me."
"You love me."
"I do," Zamira confirms.
"But you also are afraid that selling them would bring a fuck-ton of heat down on you from the CyTek if they were to trace the implants back to you."
Zamira makes a heart with her hands. "You get me." She smiles and goes on, "But really, this is some top-tier chrome."
"You know how I feel about chrome, Zamira," I say, trying to keep the whine out of my voice. "I have the one dataport, and that barely counts. Temporary nano holding my skull together is one thing, but I'm not sure if I want that permanently. Even if I did, I can't afford them."
"You don't have to worry about that. They're on the house."
"Z."
CyTek KnightVisions are the kind of tech that goes for millions in the higher tiers. Of course in the Unders, nobody can afford that much. She can't get anywhere near that much money from someone down here, but she can potentially get that much money's worth of heat from the guilds, from CyTek in this case. Nobody in the Unders can afford that, either.
There are only two ways someone like us could have come across this level of tech. Neither of them are looked on very kindly by any of the guilds.
First, someone could steal them straight from the source. For these KnightVision prosthetics, that means directly the biggest arms dealers—no, manufacturers—in the world.
They aren't headquartered in Bester, but every megaguild has a presence here, even though it's sovereign Araketh soil. CyTek has at least a few factories, embassies, and storage facilities.
If those eyes really are the newest models, then that most likely means there was a raid on a warehouse or shipment mid-transport. Those kinds of jobs bring a lot of attention, though, since most guilds aggressively track down stolen and missing shipments and retrieve them.
The second way to get that kind of tech is the far more likely, far more gruesome way: somebody rips them right out of a CyKnight's head and then sells them to someone who sells them to someone who sells them to a streetdoc. In this case, Zamira.
Ripping tech off and out of guildies isn't uncommon, but it is dangerous. CyKnights are CyTek's elite security force, who are often rented out as mercenaries. They're oath-sworn (read: contract-bound) paladins that serve the megaguild like it's a god, putting more and more metal into themselves until they are more machine than meat.
If I were to guess, the tech that Zamira is talking about was taken from some metal-brained motherfucker who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
To be honest, I'm not exactly crazy about the idea of Z putting second-hand eyeballs into my head, but at the same time, the temporary ones are gonna dissolve into inert nanites in a few hours. At which point, I will go blind. And I sure as fuck can't afford to get organics grown.
"Anyway," Zamira says, "I don't think it's safe to have this kind of tech out there in just some random shitstain's head. In this case, I know exactly which shitstain's head they're in." She laughs. "Plus, I'll know that they're being used to their full potential, and not just to play interactive fuckvids from the matrix on repeat."
"Plus, you know I won't rat you out if the guild somehow tracks them down and wants them back."
"There is also that," she says and laughs again. It's the truth, too. I would never do that. I'd die first.
"No promises on the interactive fuckvids, though," I say, raising my eyebrows and biting my bottom lip seductively.
Zamira groans.
After taking a deep breath to steel myself, I say, "If this is what we're gonna do, let's get it over with." I walk over to the station where Zamira handles her cybernetics installations. The reclining chair is far more comfortable than I expect. The back starts to recline immediately. "Alright, doc, time to rip my eyes out."