Connections: Recovery

I felt oddly at peace, the thoughts of what had happened were distant. I felt weightless, warm, and comfortable, in an almost prenatal state. It really calmed my nerves which felt like they were buzzing with panic for some reason. I couldn't remember why.

I started to become aware of my surroundings; the heat of the liquid I was floating in, the drone of the machinery close by, and suddenly, the sharp tapping of something sharp on glass. My eyes shot open and I saw a distorted image of Amalea's face behind glass, her nail resting on it's surface.

Once the liquid had drained away and my dignity restored, I sat up in the alcove I had been sitting in and she tossed me a towel.

"What the hell happened? This is your medical clone, you know. I know you didn't just jump from somewhere!" she asked, helping me up. I looked around confused. I was sure my Medical clone was in our outpost in Null Sec. Why was I in Kusomonmon, in High Sec?

"I'm not sure..." I muttered, and paused for a moment, "I can't remember." A nervous, and rather venomous glare from Amalea to the technician at the controls had him jump and furiously type on his controls as he did a scan to see what happened.

"It all looks green, sir. No abnormalities." he said, "You really don't remember how you were podded?"

"No." I replied. I closed my eyes and tried to think. The last thing I remembered was buying a ship and going into a wormhole after Chadrick. I didn't remember coming out the other side.

"I bought a Buzzard and went into a wormhole." I said, uncertainly, "I don't remember coming out the other side."

"Hmm." the technician muttered, leaning back in his chair, "I understand that pods anywhere in New Eden are within range of the fluid router network for transfer of the pilots consciousness back to a waiting clone, even if death should happen in a wormhole. I'm also under the understanding that the process can't be tampered with. Maybe the presence of interference had corrupted the transfer?" He tapped a few buttons, "Everything we received from the fluid router network was integrated into the new clone. No errors on that end. Might be something from where it was sent from. A pod glitch?"

"Sure..." Amalea said sarcastically, with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

"I think you're being a little overprotective. The man is just doing his job." I reassured her. "I'm sure it will come back to me." There was an obvious look of worry in her eyes but she sighed and let me out of the room to get dressed.

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"What a waste of a perfectly good ship." Osiph said with a sigh as she took a sip of her drink. We had opted to check out the night life on board the station and were sampling the atmosphere of a rather high priced club, with several armed escort standing at the exits, all arranged by Osiph who seemed to be ignoring them. It was almost like old times, yet I was clearly not in the mood. It could have been that I just died, but the loss of memory had me just thrown for a loop. It was bugging me greatly that I missed that time. It was like a bad hangover that I couldn't shake.

"Still rattled from that last podding, Sain?" Osiph asked, concerned for my lack of witty comeback for her earlier statement to infer her lack of caring for my well being. I just wasn't mentally present tonight. My mind was wandering.

"What?" I asked, I wasn't paying attention.

"You alright?" Amalea asked this time, concerned. She gave my arm a squeeze to get my attention and I stopped staring blankly into my drink to actually take a sip and give them a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, just worried."

"About what happened?" Osiph asked, "It could have been worse. Could have been Mindlock or something."

"I'm not worried about that." I said, "About Chad. I can't remember what happened in that wormhole."

"It was probably some wormhole corp who caught both of you in their turf and podded you back home, or Chad probably saw you, got mad and shot you himself." Osiph said, waving a hand.

"He was in a pod..." I muttered, again, staring into my drink.

"Well the former then." She retorted, putting her drink down, "I'm sure he will turn up again somewhere. Let him be. He clearly didn't want you poking your nose in his business."

"I suppose." I said with a sigh, then downed my drink, lifting my finger to the waitress for another, "I'm just worried now about this memory loss. It's not very common for issues like this to happen in cloning procedures." The waitress left another drink in my hand, winked and meandered away, dragging Amaleas scornful stare as she left. I took a sip and my Neocom beeped in my pocket, before I swallowed I glanced at it and nearly choked on the alcohol, the liquid dribbled down my chin.

Chadrick Belefonte just transferred over six billion ISK into my account. The most amount of ISK I have seen since becoming a Capsuleer. Granted my total assets might be around that amount, but I've never seen my wallet contain that much. I felt an odd elation that was jaded by concern. I knew exactly where that money came from, and I felt bad to have it. It took me a few moments to realize that both women had jumped up to look over my shoulder at my Neocom, both had shocked expressions and neither said a word.

"Um, drinks are on me?"