Warpath by Randolph Lalonde Read Free Book Online Page B

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.

Chapter 5
The Codis System
    The deep pore cleaning
was always refreshing. A pretty, ultra slender attendant bot in a
short red and green kimono handed Governor Tate a large towel as he
exited the treatment booth.
    “There is nothing
like steam and a nano scrub to make you feel fresh and new,” he
said to her.
    “Yes Sir, will there
be anything else, Sir?” she asked.
    “No, you just get in
there and work your magic. The jets have to be