Andromeda

Chapter Eight

"Here we go again," Park muttered to himself.

Several weeks had gone by since Park had been summoned to the Pentagon by the government heads behind Project Machina. The only upside to being held here against his will by both the military and the CIA was the living quarters. General Melsom had provided Park with a private lab space to continue his work with the M-Gene and assist with the efforts to track down the missing assets. Since he lived, slept, and worked in the same lab, he had yet to leave for any reason, and no amount of relative luxury he was given made it seem any less like a prison sentence.

If it was not for the massive digital clock suspended on the wall above the door leading out of the lab, he would never have known what time of day it was since he had not seen the sun in weeks. Right now, it read, "19:26:45," with the seconds counting up one after another. Sometimes he would just sit in his wheelchair or lie on his cot and watch the numbers for hours, as if to convince himself that he had simply gone mad this entire time, but tonight he had other matters to attend to.

"Alright," he continued. "Let's try this one more time before we call it for the night."

Park's wheelchair sat next to the table positioned in the center of the lab, where normally he would be experimenting on various new applications for the M-Gene, mainly potential cures for diseases. He reached over and typed into the laptop sitting on the edge of the table.

"Remote stabilization test 17-C," he spoke into the headset he wore over his ears. "Commencing calibration."

Park turned away from the laptop and stared down at his legs, which were now encased in a cybernetic exoskeleton that enveloped his entire lower body, ending in a strip that extended up the full length of his spine. He had spent much of his down time in the lab developing this configuration, inspired by the transformative properties of the M-Gene as displayed by the subjects of Project Machina.

Park took several deep breaths before, slowly and with great strain, he raised himself up from his wheelchair. He grunted as he put all his focus on moving his legs, which miraculously shifted in a shaky manner. He planted his right foot on the floor in front of him, followed by the other in careful succession.

"Okay." Park heaved in one last breath as he pushed himself into a standing position. It had been over a year since he had been able to stand on his own like this. "So far so good. Just don't overdo it. One step." He moved his right foot forward in a small stride, barely taking it off the floor. "And again." His left leg followed in the same motion.

"Yes!" Park exclaimed. He attempted to bend his knee to raise his right foot higher off the ground, but the exoskeleton suddenly began to buckle under the immense pressure of his weight. "No, no, no!"

Park collapsed, barely catching himself on the end of the table. "Dammit!" he cursed as he pulled himself up with great effort and guided himself back to his wheelchair. He took a moment to catch his breath before speaking into his headset again. "Stabilization test 17-C results: negative. Again." With that, he removed the headset and tossed it angrily onto the table. He had been at this for many long hours, sometimes well into the night, yet it seemed that his attempts to walk again refused to progress beyond this one point. He was so frustrated with the latest failure that he hardly registered the pounding against the metal door behind him.

"Enter," he called out loud. He heard the secure locking mechanism of the door being released from the outside as the door was pulled open.

"Thank you, Agent," a female voice spoke.

Park pulled himself up to lean against the table. His eyes fell on the door as it closed behind his visitor. A young woman was standing in front of the doorway. She had blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, a thin pair of glasses and was holding a brown leather tote bag in front of her. Her eyes moved all around the lab she had just entered with a sense of fascinated curiosity.