Nano Contestant - Episode 1: Whatever It Takes by Leif Sterling Read Free Book Online

his mind and then gave as confident a grunt as he could muster.
    Ivan’s fingers began lighting up the inside of the green ball again. “Here we go!” He began rolling the ball back towards himself. The mechanical arm responded in kind.
    Roland was completely unprepared for the feeling of the retracting needle. He could feel every millimeter of movement. It almost seemed as though it were pulling the inside of him with it.
    Ivan stopped moving his holographic ball. “We are at turn now. You might feel little pain now.” He started rolling his ball backwards without waiting for a response.
    Skylar tried to offer encouraging words, but it didn’t look like Roland could hear her.
    Roland was instantly put right back into his nightmarish world of pain. He grunted loudly. Every nerve in him screamed to make it stop. Every muscle in his body was pulled completely taut. He held out three fingers again.
    “Ivan, he’s at a three!”
    Ivan continued rolling the ball backwards. “Almost past curve, Roland. Pretty Girl, you must get him to relax.”
    Roland moaned through gritted teeth.
    Ivan paused and looked over at the wall screen. “That’s it. We are past curve now. Only ten seconds and the needle will be out.”
    The excruciating pain left Roland almost as suddenly as it had arrived. He took in a deep breath and tried to focus. He could feel the last bit of the needle being retracted.
    Ivan stopped rolling the ball and lifted his helmet. “Ok, needle is out.” He reached inside the holographic ball and hit a few of the buttons, which lit up. The robotic arm repositioned itself back to its original starting position. It was followed by a whoosh sound as the pneumatics let out their stored air pressure. “Pretty Girl, you get equipment ready to read Roland’s signal. I will help him lie down on table. Time for ‘fibrillator, da?”

C HAPTER E LEVEN :

    J UMP

    SKYLAR BEGAN LOOSENING the restraints on Roland’s head. “I’ll set that up after Roland is out of all this.”
    Ivan hung his immersion reality helmet on a peg on the wall and walked over to help Roland. “Roland, you did good. See, Ivan always take care of paying customers.”
    Roland felt the pressure release from his head as the restraints were taken off. Blood began to flow back through all parts of his body again. His pale color began to fade. His fingers and toes tingled.
    Ivan pulled a black eye patch from a supply drawer. “You wear eye patch for at least two days, da? And keep eye closed.” He carefully fitted the patch over Roland’s right eye.
    Roland tried to stand. “Ok.” He wasn’t able to get up.
    Ivan easily hoisted Roland up and helped him to the patient table.
    Skylar brought the oxygen mask over to him. “I think he should breathe in some straight oxygen while I get set up.”
    Ivan helped Roland swing his legs up on the table and lay down. “Da. O2 help him recover quicker.”
    Skylar pulled her computer from her pocket and set it on the metal table on the side of the room. She pushed a button on the top and a three dimensional hologram of a radio tower projected up from it. Skylar waved her hand in front of the projection and a holographic keyboard appeared under her fingers. She typed in a few commands and watched as the script that Matthew had written jumped to life. After a few seconds of code flying by her holographic terminal, it finally stopped. The command prompt read, “Searching signals…” followed by a blinking cursor. “My equipment is ready, Ivan.”
    Ivan set the old defibrillator up next to the table. He had a paddle in each hand. “Roland, remove shirt.”
    Roland pulled his shirt off and dropped it on the floor. He groaned as he moved his arms above his head. “Everything hurts!”
    Skylar looked over at Roland. The restraints had left imprints on his arms and head. “Roland, your arms… Are you ok?”
    “Yeah, I’ll be ok. Let’s get this over with.”
    Ivan picked up the defibrillator paddles.