The amazing thing is, Fred woke up. It was only amazing because the last thing that Fred remembered, he was crashing his hoverbike at something like two hundred miles an hour, and one generally didn't wake up from that.
He couldn't feel his arms or legs, or much of anything else. He could see a sterile white room, could hear voices calling his name, could even turn his head and look around a little, but he couldn't move.
"Mister Smith? Fred? Fred Smith?" came the annoying voice. Fred nodded, and tried to lick his lips. Somehow, it didn't work.
"I'm Fred Smith," he said, his voice sounding strange. It wasn't quite his voice, and it wasn't natural. It didn't feel like he was talking... there was no tongue against teeth or moving air in his throat. It was just... a voice.
"Don't be alarmed," said the voice. "This is all perfectly natural."
"What happened to me? Am I dead?" asked Fred, starting to panic.
"Not clinically, no," said the voice. As if by magic, a figure in white faded into existence in front of him; a middle-aged man in a doctor's coat. "Your crash was pretty bad, but you were wearing an excellent helmet. Your cranium made it through the incident intact and saved your brain. I'm afraid that's about all there is, right now, but we'll take care of that."
Fred really wanted to scream and run around and cry, but all three options seemed off the menu for the moment. "I'm... just a brain?"
"For now, yes," said the Doctor, sounding apologetic. "We've installed you into a very serviceable bio-pod, and it's piping a virtual simulation into your visual and auditory channels. I'm talking to you via a network connection in the pod; we'll show you how to use it to get online in a little bit."
Fred nodded, or at least he thought he did. "I'm... a brain in a pod. Like on the news."
"Yes, your insurance covered the transition nicely," said the Doctor. "We'll be transitioning the pod into a prosthetic body fairly soon; they have to be custom made, right now. I need to ask your preference for a few things."
"Go ahead," said Fred, trying to look down at his hands. There weren't any to speak of.
"First of all, it's fairly easy to produce the head and torso component of the prosthetic body, but the limbs will take a while and they'll need to be fitted specially. We can leave you here in the virtual until the limbs are ready, or we can go ahead and install you in the partial body. It'll be for a month or so, but you'll have full access to your senses, even taste and touch. Which would you prefer?"
"I'll... I'll take the body right away, thanks," said Fred, as he tried to scratch an itch he knew he couldn't be having. "This is kind of... well... maddening."
"You're not the first one to say so," said the Doctor, nodding. "Secondly, the body has very few requirements, once you're installed. We could take care of you here in the hospital, but there's no reason you couldn't be taken care of by a registered nurse in your own home. It means a little less in the way of personal care, but some people do swear by a little familiarity to get used to their situation. Which do you think you'd rather do?"
"Um, heck, if I can go home, that'll be fine. There'll be a nurse to take care of me until I get the arms and legs?"
"We'll assign one to essentially live with you until the limbs arrive and are installed, yes," said the Doctor. "Excellent. You're going to have some disorientation in a little while when we install the pod; just try to relax."
"I... I'll try," said Fred. It wasn't like he had a lot of choices.
It was a few days before the transition, and another day until he had adapted sufficiently to the head and torso frame to be transported home. Steve, his registered nurse, met him just after the transition and then was by his side through the transportation and into the apartment.
Three medical technicians got Fred settled into the upper half of his bed and covered him up to his chest in a blanket. Under that was only a flimsy medical gown over mostly empty space. The armless, legless cyborg was propped up on a pile of pillows so he could watch his television, and the medical technicians left.
"I'm just going to set up to sleep on the couch out here in the living room, if that's all right," said Steve, his voice warm. Fred nodded, immensely grateful for the ability to nod.
"You go right ahead. I'm... I'm just gonna lay here, I guess."
Steve chuckled. "Let me get my things set up, and I'll come in and do some of the field testing. We still need to make sure all the connections are right before the limbs get here."
Fred was able to use the wireless connection in his bio-pod to operate his television, although he could have just used his onboard computer to pipe the entertainment straight into his audio and visual cortexes. He was wired for full connectivity just in case the interface between the pod and the prosthetic body crashed.
Steve came in after a few minutes and sat on the edge of the bed. "Just going to test tactile response, it'll take a little while," he said. Fred just nodded, trying to focus on the television. He wasn't much for being touched, especially by another man, and he just wanted the procedure to be over.
Steve took down the blanket and slowly removed the surgical gown covering Fred's limbless torso. The synthetic skin was nearly perfect to the appearance and touch, even being warm. Steve started with a hand on the center of Fred's chest, gently prodding.
"Feel that? Is that ok?" he asked. Fred could feel the touch as if it were his old meat-chest, and nodded. Steve's trained hands traced up to the collarbone, across to the point where the shoulders ended, and down the ribs. Fred squirmed a little bit; that tickled!
"Good," said Steve. "They got the tactile mesh just right. It can be really unpleasant if they're off by just a neuron or two." He looked into Fred's distracted eyes, admiring the quality of the prosthetic replacements. They were a lovely shade of dark blue.
Steve's hands slid up until his fingertips were resting on Fred's nipples. He gently tweaked them a bit, drawing a yelp from Fred.
"More sensitive than the other areas?" Steve asked. He didn't stop touching them.
"Yeah, like before," said Fred. He looked down to see Steve looking in his eyes, and became a little self-conscious. "Do you need to spend so much time on them?"
"Yes, sorry if that's a problem" said Steve, in a voice that said he wasn't all that sorry. "There's no physical response to the stimulation here, yet, but areas with more neural connectivity need to be tested a little more thoroughly."
