PART 1

Chapter 1 - Michael Sterling - Ode to a Dot

The operating room shook violently. Michael wouldn’t have noticed anything except for the tiny amounts of dust that fell from the ceiling.

‘Was that an earthquake?’ He thought as he began grafting the artery in place in his patient's heart. Ignoring distractions while doing a delicate operation like Coronary Revascularization was necessary. It was a difficult surgery, but with his grafting tools he could finish in under the allotted thirty minutes. Fortunately, when working through his Dot outside interference didn’t affect him that much.

The symbiotic robot that he used for surgery, well hell, everything, he knew as Maestro. The industry standard name for it was Dot, this was because of the two identifying LED rings on the forehead with a square in the middle. The outer ring for the owner and the inner ring for the driver, the square for a security combination of the two. Yet for Michael this symbiotic existence was his only way to interact with society.

Michael Sterling was diagnosed with extreme Social Anxiety, to the point of not being able to function in crowds without a great deal of preparation. With Maestro though, he could interact with a filter between him and the real world, so his anxiety was a thing of the past.

He drew the grafting tool around the large artery to start the build. His hands were as steady as ever. Working through Maestro was like wearing a second skin, except this skin was confident and fearless. Building this artery in under thirty minutes would be a breeze, he thought as he started drawing the tool back and forth to create the new pathway.

Another violent shake sent dust sprinkling down from the ceiling.

“What was that?” Michael/Maestro turned towards his human nurse annoyed.

For the first time he noticed that she looked frightened. Her eyes darted around the room and settled on the small window in the door, as if she could gather information from its twenty-centimeter frame.

“I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t an earthquake.” This came out in a quivering voice.

Michael gave an indifferent grunt, continued to ignore the sounds, and focused on the work. He was too far in to stop now, so the mystery of the shaking room would have to wait. He looked down at the bloody artery and noticed that it was leaking a bit. He adjusted the clamp, which caused more blood to flow out from the released vein.

“Suction, please”

The nurse tore her eyes from the window in the door and started to apply suction to the area.

“Sorry Dr. Sterling.”

“It’s okay. Let’s get through this, whatever is happening outside will figure itself out.”

She nodded and continued to move the suction tool around.

Michael ran the grafting tool up and down the area where the artery was synthetically being built against the other severed piece of the artery. He felt time beating against him whenever he did this type of surgery. As soon as the cut is made the clock starts ticking, and disruptions could mess up the timeline. He didn’t like just finishing, he liked finishing with a perfect rebuild and time to spare. It was his signature.

Michael heard the first loud crash as if it were right next to him. He turned Maestro’s head just in time to see a second crash rip the door to the operating room from its hinges spraying debris in several directions. The nurse covered the exposed area on the patient as best she could, while gaping at the man that just ripped the door from its hinges. The man was average height, with dark hair and the lightly dark skin that was inherent to most people. His clothes were torn and a bit ragged from obvious tearing and damage. What Michael zeroed in on were the two red circles and square in the center of the man’s forehead. It was someone operating a Dot, an extremely strong Dot.

Some Dots were made for industrial or military/enforcement use, with reinforced joints and enhanced servomotors to make them more than human. That didn’t matter as much though, even a human without super strength or abilities can cause mass damage, but this one was the latter.

The man zeroed in on Michael/Maestro and ran towards him screaming, “DEATH TO THE GIFTED!” at the top of his lungs.

Michael/Maestro was lifted into the air and thrown across the room. He still held the grafting tool as Maestro slammed into the far wall. The man tried to throw the patient aside but stopped. Michael assumed that it was the failsafe that wouldn’t allow a Dot to harm a human. This idiot running a Dot was going to kill his patient.

Maestro was unresponsive except for the ability to see through his eyes, and that was getting increasingly difficult. Michael struggled to turn Maestro’s head. Out of the corner of Maestro’s unmoving eyes, he could partially see the Dot jump six feet in the air and punch into the ceiling grid, ripping it down and dropping it on Michael’s nurse who was laying her body over the patient, and then it ran out the door screaming its insane slogan. “DEATH TO THE GIFTED!”

He could see his condo coming into focus as he started losing the connection to Maestro. He could hear the voices from the hospital fading as Michael tried to re-establish his link. His feed cut off completely and he was left standing in his condo staring at the holoscreen in front of his eyes.

He started to type in the air swearing loudly. “Dammit! Come on Maestro, reestablish!” Michael wished that he had a Dot built for strength, or speed, or some athletic ability, but he never saw the point. He was a surgeon and he never needed Maestro to function that way. Being Creative and Motor-Skilled was enough for him and his Dot could do exactly what he could. He didn’t think he would ever need access to a third genetic gift or add a strength enhancement.

After what seemed to Michael like an eternity, the reboot process started in front of his Augmented Reality contacts. The blue flashing words in front of his eyes repeating over and over.

Establishing connection....

Establishing connection....

Establishing connection....

Connection accepted.

Michael was back in Maestro and was able to move again. He quickly stood up and carefully pulled the ceiling grid off his patient. His nurse climbed out from underneath the tangle of ceiling debris looking dazed. She had a large gash down the side of her face, and a flap of scalp seemed to be hanging off the side of her head. She didn’t seem to be aware of this and that was fine for now, they had to save the patient.

“What just hap...” She started to mumble out when Michael cut her off.

“Help me with him.” He pointed to the patient.

“Uh, okay.” She swayed her way towards the operating table.

Michael could tell she was in no shape to assist him, but he had no option, she would have to do. “Find my instruments and start sterilizing as best you can, please.”

He kept his voice calm. Much calmer than he felt. This was a disaster. He thought to himself, ‘What the hell was that about? What just happened? Why did it happen? And why did it happen here? Did the guy know the patient? Did he know me? And what did he mean death to the gifted?’ These questions poured in through his mind as he cleared the debris as best he could from the opening in the man’s chest.

The clamps held. At least one good thing happened amid this chaos. Then he checked the patient's pulse. Weak, but still alive. He saw that he had dropped his grafting tool where he had slammed into the wall. He darted around the table and grabbed it from the floor. He reached into his lab coat pocket, grabbed his sterilizing wand, and ran it over the grafting tool to clean it.

“Nurse.” No response.

“Nurse!” Still no response.

Michael yelled, “Betty!”

She stopped picking things up from the ground, swaying a little as she did so, and looked up at Maestro/Michael. “Doctor.”

“Come here, I need your help with debridement of the area around the arteries. Do you have any forceps?”

She looked at the instruments in her hands. “I think so. Just a second.” She dumped the retrieved equipment into a tray she had righted and shook her head as if to clear some cobwebs, the flap of scalp flipping around as she did. She scanned the tangle of instruments and pulled out the forceps.

“Okay, Betty, I am going to start pulling as much debris as possible out from the open area, will you find me some saline so we can irrigate the area. We are running out of time so please hurry.”

Maestro/Michael turned towards his patient and gazed at the open wound. ‘What a wasteful, stupid, ridiculous mess!’ He started pulling pieces of ceiling tile out of the patient's chest as fast as possible. The nurse rushed to the other side of the patient with a large bottle of saline. She looked questioningly at Maestro/Michael. He nodded his agreement. She started irrigating while he suctioned the area. He noticed that she was still unsteady, but nothing could be done about that now.

He began scanning the artery and saw that it was torn when he was thrown. He would need to cut away the synthetic build and start over. He looked at the tray and scanned around for his laser scalpel. There it was. He grabbed the tool and ran his sterilizing wand over it. He cut away the torn synthetic artery. Once done he began again, and much faster than was safe. ‘It may not be my best work, but dammit he is going to live.’

When he was...