This chapter kept getting in the way of everything else I tried to write. I was stuck on this idea of trying to convey the show for the reader and kept failing miserably. I had this ubercool thing in my mind's eye but I couldn't manage to do it justice... So I gave up and took this route instead. I hope you enjoy.

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“Closing time
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end….”

The lights faded to black as I let the last note trail off into silence.

“Thank you! You’ve been a great crowd tonight! Remember free cab rides home are offered to anyone so don’t take a chance! We want you to get home safe!”

I let myself sag into Theo’s bulk and he half carried me offstage, propping me in a chair and handing me a glass with 3 fingers of amber liquid in it. I took a small sip and let it burn down my throat slowly bringing a little energy along with it. It was a few moments before I was able to bring myself around enough to realize that my family was at the same table along with the Secretary and his sister.

“So what’d you think?”

I hadn’t addressed the question to anyone specifically and it was a bit of a surprise that the first response came from the woman I’d just met before the show(If you didn’t count our meeting in that alley).

“I’ve never seen or heard anything like it! You gave high energy a whole new meaning! I couldn’t believe you were able to do that after being hurt so badly! Are you ok?” She was clearly concerned even though she was almost bouncing in her seat.

“I’m glad you liked it Camille… Honestly I didn’t think I’d be able to do everything we had planned but the show is the best drug ever, ya know?” I smiled at her muzzily and took another sip. The tightness in my muscles was beginning to ease and with it the pain that I’d held off for the past 2 hours.

“I’ve never done LSD or anything like that but I’m pretty sure I know what it feels like now… That was… I’ve never even imagined anything like it….” Ernie was sprawled in a chair, blissed out and talking toward the ceiling, a glass of the same amber fluid I nursed dangling from his huge hand like a toy.

“I did tell you not to eat the candy…”

“Hey I don’t get tested anymore, I’m a civilian! I can damn well eat the candy if I wanna!”

“Take this.” I handed him a lozenge. “Suck on it. It’ll keep you from being serotonin depleted tomorrow.”

“Serotonin depleted?” He looked puzzled as he regarded the dull orange colored candy.

“You rolled pretty hard tonight. It’s a serotonin flood that makes you feel awesome… but it uses up all you have and without it you get really depressed. This replaces it so that doesn’t happen. An anti-hangover pill if you will.” I grinned at him and took a pull from the vape Theo handed me, smiling at the taste of minty hash oil.

After another pull I passed it around and Ernie straightened up a little as he inhaled deeply. “I haven’t tasted anything like this since…”

“Since we were running around the jungle. Brings back memories, huh? Remember that first time we went to Phuket for R&R?” Little trickles of vapor escaped from my dad’s nose as he talked.

“I’ll never forget the expression on your face when that girl pulled out a dick bigger than yours!” He barked a sharp laugh then cut it off and looked over at me with a stricken expression on his face. “Shit, I’m sorry…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’d give a pretty penny to have seen that one…” I grinned at him and blew vapor in his direction, giggling a little at the relieved expression on his face. “Seriously dude, I understand you mean no offense and so I take none. If I went around being pissed off every time somebody stepped on their dick I’d never get any peace.”

“Its just… I don’t see anything but an extraordinary young woman and I let my tongue get away from me. You might not have taken offense but I still need to apologize for being insensitive. I’m sorry.” He gave me a ‘kid being punished’ look and I had to giggle at him again.

“Thank you. Now lets leave that alone, shall we?” He nodded assent and we spent another happy hour around the table as the place slowly cleared out. Shortly after the furnishings began to disappear as well and Heath rolled around, pulling a sideways skidding skater-stop and plopping into an empty chair. He poured himself a half glass of whiskey and sipped appreciatively before setting it on the table with a sigh of satisfaction.

“Mr Secretary.” He nodded in Ernie’s direction.

“Ernie.” A plume of vapor followed the single word.

“Ernie then. We were all honored to have you here tonight sir. I’m glad you were able to enjoy Angel’s talent and I hope you’ll come see us again, all of you.” He gestured around the table.

“I’ve never actually seen and tasted music before. I can see why the release forms, that was the most intense thing I’ve ever experienced short of combat.” Ernie pulled himself a little more upright and gestured at Theo and I. “The two of you on stage together… singing at each other? I could feel your emotions, every little hurt and joy… just astounding. Thank you.”

“We’re glad you liked it. Now I believe you mentioned you’d have something for me?” He sighed and slumped a little, gesturing at dad.

“Did we ever have that much energy?”

“This from the man who did a full triathlon before there even was such a thing every day on R&R?”

“Hey you were the one who started that shit!”

“Not on R&R!” Dad gestured with his glass as if to emphasize his point.

“I still say it’s the best hangover cure ever…”

“Masochist.”

“Like you have room to talk…”

It felt good to see that sort of banter between the two men… I’d rarely seen my father in such a relaxed frame of mind. It was a new realization, that he had always held a part of himself locked away from us and here at last was the rest of the man I was realizing I still loved in much the same uncomplicated way I must have as a small child.

I drifted back into myself for a few minutes, toying with an idea for making an interface to use with the target weapons systems and just about any architecture I knew. The outlines just began to crystallize when I realized the table around me had gone quiet and filed it away for later. For some reason everyone was looking at me and I was puzzled until I realized I’d been fiddling with the controls for my hair and body lights.

I snapped them off abruptly feeling my face heat and then that batch of heathens actually started clapping!

“What?” I couldn’t manage to keep a sharpish tone from my voice and instantly regretted it though the smirk on Theo’s face told me no one had taken offense.

“You were sparkling…” He managed to sound awed although I could tell he was barely holding back laughter.

“Oh shit, I’ll never hear the end of this… Dammit Jim, I’m a goth not a vampire!” I did my best to look angry but couldn’t help joining in as the rest of the table burst out laughing.

“Seriously though, it was kinda cool… it was like you were playing music with light but different than it was on stage… this was more peaceful, meditative almost.” Heath was being sincere and I had to reply in kind.

“Thanks… I wasn’t doing anything on purpose, just sitting here thinking.”

“Happy thoughts?” Theo rumbled at me, his chest vibrating against my side where he’d moved around to encircle me with a casual arm. .

“Yeah… “ I gave a little sigh of happiness and snuggled into his embrace a hair more.

“You were writing code weren’t you?” I goggled at Michelle a bit and she grinned back at me. “I know when my little sister is in Brainiac mode… the expression is a dead giveaway.”

“What expression?”

“She means that little half-smile Mona Lisa thing you’ve got going on. Your RBF is severely flawed…” Camille chimed in.

Ernie looked puzzled. “RBF?”

“Resting Bitch-Face.” Camille supplied, causing him to nearly lose a mouthful of whiskey.

“Jesus, warn a guy Twerp!” Ernie husked out after hacking for a moment.

She just laughed at him and took a sip of her own. “I’m jealous, I was never that sexy…”

“Me? Sexy? I think you’re confused.” My face was back to burning.

“You got some serious self-esteem issues girl. You could give a corpse a raging hard-on just sitting there, much less up on stage struttin your stuff and adding that awesome voice to the mix.” Camille was matter of fact.

“Look, we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.” I took a deep pull from the vape Theo handed me and hid behind a cloud of aromatic vapor, wishing I could hide behind my hair.

“Hmph!” She folded her arms and gave me a stern look, belied by the smile hiding in her eyes.

“So Ernie, you have something for me?” I was trying my best to deflect attention.

He slid a milspec thumbdrive across the table at me and I made it disappear, slotting it into an interface and dumping the contents before making it reappear on the table, sliding fast toward his free hand.

“That looks like you two have practiced it for ages… slick!” Camille observed.

“Practiced what?” Ernie was the very picture of innocence and I followed his lead. She glanced back and forth between us and I saw the metaphorical light come on.

“Right, I’m seeing things…” she muttered to herself before taking a pull from a convenient vape and following with a sip. “Damn spooks…”

“You’re one to talk! Remind me again who that 32 year old chief analyst was? Sounds like a bit of projection to me sis…”

“Hey I’m retired!” This was obviously an old and well-worn conversational path for them and the table laughed at her when she stuck her tongue out as well.

The joking around continued for a few more minutes before we all went our own ways with Heath staying to wrap everything up.

“Hey you wanna come to the Doss when you’re done? Bring your walking feet and I’ll fix em for you.”

Heath got that familiar mulish look on his face and started to balk so I cut him off.

“Dammit Heath, you know I never mind helping that way. Bring Kendra with you and we’ll make a party of it, ok?” I was bulldozing him at that point and he had enough sense to back down.

“Fine… Take Kendra with you and I’ll have Jeff drop me at South Low. I’ll be about an hour.” He skated off muttering to himself and I allowed myself a small smile. He’d be a lot happier when he saw what I had for him…

Little more than an hour later I was proven correct as he regarded the new hand I’d made for him with glee, flexing the fingers individually.

“Wow! This is… how did you do this? Its so smooth its almost like having my hand back again! It even has fingernails! You could make a killing selling these!”

“I don’t intend to make a dime. The specs are out there, open source so anyone can print them, improve them, whatever. Control circuitry and everything, it costs less than $200 to print a hand and under $500 for an arm. A leg for an adult male around $900. Its still more than I’d like but I haven’t figured out how to get the materials costs down… Thats coming along as 3d printing spreads.”

“You’re just giving this away?” The disbelief in his voice was evident.

“I’d give it away a hell of a lot cheaper if I could figure out how. I know vets need em a lot but there are so many others, here in the US but more… other places where a person might be lucky to get any sort of prosthetic at all. There are some other versions using as much local material as possible, anything from wood to bamboo and all kinds of scrap metals but those are basically field expedients, better than nothing at all.”

“Shit… now I feel guilty for having something this good…”

I patted his bio-hand gently. “Don’t. You already do more to help others than whole churches full of people who pat themselves on the back for mouthing platitudes at the poor. You’re a good man Heath and I won’t allow anyone to say otherwise, not even you. Capische?”

He looked like he was going to argue the point but Kendra jumped in, sliding her arm around his waist and giving him a proprietary squeeze.

“You listen to the girl, she’s got you cold. And you, girl“ she fixed me with a stare that could pin a 3rd grader to their seat “listen to your own words. You’re worse than he is!”

I chose not to argue the point. She came from the streets of Camden and was one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. She was… solid. Not fat, not thin, curvy but not extravagantly so and gave the impression of being absolutely unmovable. Arguing with Kendra is slightly more pointless than disputing right of way with a freight train. In her case the train would lose and anyway she was right. I do beat myself up that way and I know on one level that is unhealthy but its not like I can turn those feelings off…

“Don’t give me that look! I’ve been watching you since that day in the motel room and hearing about you before that. I know exactly who you are and I don’t give praise lightly. Shut up and accept it.”

I did as ordered. When Kendra spoke, people listened. Admittedly a part of that might be the fact that she was usually saving their lives at the time, be it from fire or some other threat. She was respected by the city’s first responders and the firefighters she worked with held her in special regard. There were higher ranked firefighters in the city but none so revered by the community and her fellow smoke eaters as the woman they called Pyro, short for Pyromancer.

Kendra had a fey sort of relationship with fire and there were whispers that she could tell it what to do, that it wouldn’t burn her. I knew better, I’d seen the scars she carried, seen her find a corner to cry in private when she couldn’t save someone. I understood the drive she felt, to help whenever and however she could but I could never hope to match her courage.

“Kennie… We’ve got to work on scaling this thing up. Its time for us to start purchasing materials in bulk and training some people. I’ve been thinking about this on the wrong level, trying to make it a completely cottage industry sort of thing, maybe training a few of the kids who’ve shown interest to do a repair clinic. That’s fine for what it is but I want to… have to do more than that and I think I’ve got a way to make it happen.”

She grinned broadly at me. “Who’s this we, white girl?” She waited for the laughter to die down.

“I’ll put you in touch with the head of polymer science at Whitinghouse. We pulled him out of a nasty accident a couple years ago. What you do with that contact is all you. I’ve got an idea where you’re headed with this but I’d guess you just popped a fully formed business plan out of your head and you’re the one who can translate that plan into reality.”

“It isn’t exactly fully formed but yeah, I’ve got the basic outlines. If I do it right I can reduce costs to half of what they are now, maybe a little more. That means I can make 2, sell one and give one away. Sleeves and the like are a different matter, those need to be custom made and frequently remade so I’m thinking deploy laser measurement gear in as many places as possible to make it possible to access. There is a great deal of work to be done to make it happen but I think its feasible to have it up and running within 3-4 months on a small level and expand to large scale production within 2 years.”

“I’m impressed.”

“Don’t be. It might not work but I think I have to try. I’d love for things to be at the point where the means of production could be completely decentralized but I have to confront the fact that we haven’t reached that point quite yet. Its around the corner but for now… This is the most feasible way I can dream up to get prosthetics to people who need them no matter where they are or whether they have any money.”

“I have no idea how I’d be able to help but if you think of something call me, ok?” She reached over and patted my arm. “I know you’ll get this done. I have no clue how your mind works but… you’re gonna rock the world girl. In a good way of course…” she gave a little snort of laughter.

“Only with the assistance of people like you that want to help just for the sake of helping. Thank you Kennie… your support means the world to me.” I gathered in the rest of them with my eyes. “Thank all of you… I wouldn’t even be able to think about doing something like this without you.”

“Oh bullshit.” I gave Dad a mock glare and he laughed before continuing. “I know my daughter well enough to know just how stubborn you are. You’d get this done if you had no support at all. False humility doesn’t suit you.”

“Yeah well it’s the only defense I know against hubris… and its not false anyway. I honestly don’t think I could do any of this without all of you.” I cut off the protest with a raised hand “We’ll have to agree to disagree about that one, ok?”

“Worse than your mother…” was barely audible.

“Pfeh. The woman could teach a mule how to stubborn.”

“And you are the only person I’ve ever seen who could actually outdo her. I’m proud of you Angel… I was worried that being who you are would get in the way but you haven’t let it. If anything I think that is a part of why you’re so strong.” He smirked at me over the rim of his glass as my face burned.

“Gimme your foot Heath.” I patted the table in front of me and he obliged, removing his walking feet from a backpack. I busied myself with repair… somehow he kept managing to stress the foot in such a way that one of the actuator rods twisted out of alignment and had to be replaced periodically. I’d spruced up the rod and its mountings in my version and I was retrofitting his existing feet partly as a repair and partly to have him test the mods for me. I’d have a good answer in a couple of months but was reasonably certain I’d isolated the issue.

Focusing on the repairs allowed me to escape, to get back into my own headspace in a less all-consuming way than the sort of work I’d be doing in a couple of hours. I had to focus on something concrete because my mind was going off in 20 directions at once and the only way it would gel into something workable was if I didn’t focus on it at all, just let my subconscious cook it over.

I don’t know if other’s minds work this way because I can’t even quite describe it. Its like there are layers of thought going on and no matter what I’m doing on the top layer the others are always working away. I can’t turn it off even when I’m completely bombed out of my gourd and can barely form words. Sometimes I wish I could just not think but the closest I ever get is when I’m taking one of the high routes… or during sex…

I was beginning to feel pretty aroused suddenly and images of Theo came to mind, unbidden but not unwelcome. Down girl, you’ve got to be a good hostess for a couple more hours… I made myself snerk a bit with that one and focused again as I secured the fairing on the second foot and flexed it experimentally. It felt right but time and Heath abusing it would tell the tale.

He took it and did the same, flexing it experimentally as he had the other then securing the quick release to his multileg. He stood and flexed, bouncing around a little and showing a widening smile. “There was this little spot where it felt… mushy, even right at first but I think you’ve got it! I never would have guessed it was that simple! Thank you!”

“My pleasure Heath. I’m just glad you like it but do me a favor will you?” He looked quizzically at me but replied quickly.

“Whatever you need Angel.”

“First, you don’t owe me anything so get over that idea. I owe you because you’ve helped me refine my design and I’m going to ask you for more help. I want you to be as hard as you can manage to be on these feet. Actively try to break them. Erm… no explosives please, at least not while you’re wearing them…”

We all laughed at the look of mock indignation Heath adopted. His fondness for making things go boom had been nearly legendary amongst his peers and he still enjoyed playing around a bit so the explosives comment was only half in jest and we all knew it.

More levity followed and the night fled from the fingers of a vermillion sky ragged with fleeing puffballs of cloud and a sullen moon glaring balefully in the twinkling remnants of starscape. A storm was coming and I couldn’t stop a little shiver of apprehension, a foreboding about… What?