"Actually…" Sevda said as she set the scalpel aside. "…my girl, your manual dexterity hasn't rusted one bit. You've gotten used to healing robots, but even without them, you're still a fine scalpel user."
With the sound of quick, successive footsteps, a group of people ran toward Sevda. 56, covered in blood and sweat, shouted toward her: "24!" he said. "Please hurry, 77 is dying!"
When Sevda stepped out the door, she noticed the child named 77 lying on the ground in a pool of blood, having fallen from the roof. Actually, there wasn't much wrong; his leg was just broken. But even though the other Uruzenians around him tried to lift him, they didn't seem strong enough. Instead of unplugging the stretcher robots from their chargers, they had deemed it sufficient to call Sevda.
Sevda took the young boy in her arms. While the child trembled with fear, he clung tightly to Sevda's neck. Normally, the spoiled 56, who looked for every opportunity to make fun of him, had left all that insincere brattiness behind upon seeing his friend crying in pain; he was holding his friend's mud-covered, cold hand. At first, they waited a few seconds to be disinfected. Then...
"Ah… I'll take care of you right away, dear," Sevda said while the child was in her arms.
"I know, 24," 77 said in a trembling voice. His lips were set firm to keep from crying out in pain.
"I know it hurts. You can cry, it's okay." Once the sterilization process was finished, she took the child toward one of the capsules. "Does it hurt a lot?" When she laid the child on the bed, the bed immediately administered two or three anesthetic injections. 18, 56, and 49—who had fallen asleep under a machine from constantly maintaining the robots—were waiting at the door. 56 couldn't resist his friend's tearful face; he threw himself into the room, knelt down, and placed his hands over 77's.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, but… but I'm scared."
"I'm here, 77!" 56 said. "I'll give you my own leg if I have to!"
As the healing robot began the surgery, the Uruzenians didn't seem to care much as stitches that would turn a normal person's stomach were applied one after another. They had witnessed many surgeries, but whenever it was their own surgery at stake, the human instinct to fear the blade kicked in, transforming those Uruzenians from soulless machines back into humans.
"There won't be any need for that," Sevda said, stroking 77's head. "The healing robot will do its best, and your friend will walk even better than before."
"If that's the case…" said 49, who still hadn't quite woken up. "…then I should break my leg right now so the new one turns out better. I get a twinge every now and then…"
"What?" Sevda said, turning to 49. "Then let's put you on the table and give you some maintenance too."
As other children waited outside the glass, Sevda turned and asked curiously: "What were you doing on the roof, anyway?"
"Well…" 77 began, but paused before he could continue.
"I'll tell you!" 56 cut in. "Urgan told us to fix the antenna."
"That old man said that? Why was that, then?"
"We don't know."
"Well, where is that old man now? I haven't seen him for hours."
"Outside, by the spaceship…"
Leaving her Uruzenian friends behind, Sevda went out to the transport ship. The spaceship, which looked as if it were buried in the mud-covered ground, trembled as the old man moved atop it. Sevda's heavy body sank easily into the mud, so instead of approaching the ship, she shouted from a distance.
"Urgan! Can you take a look?" she said, her hand on her hip as if demanding an explanation.
As Urgan poked his head out from the ship's cockpit to look outside, his pilot goggles, which had slipped back off his head in his haste, fell toward the ground. Urgan caught them with a sudden burst of enthusiasm so they wouldn't hit the ground and break. It was as if the panic on his face was a harbinger of something bad.
"What happened?" he asked, breathless with a sense of panic.
"What do you mean, what happened?" Sevda asked. "Why are you messing with the antennas? You had one of the kids climb up there. He fell down and broke his leg…"
"The connection to the Network is cut. That's why…" Urgan said, and disappeared again. A lot of racket could be heard from inside the spaceship. Drills, hammers, and all sorts of noises…
"What do you mean?" Sevda said. "By Network, do you mean the SWR Network? You should know that if my humor module were on, I would be laughing like a madwoman right now and rolling on my back in this mud-covered ground."
"Yes… the connection to the SWR Network is cut. Catch…" he said, and tossed the hologram projector out of the cockpit without thinking about where it would land. Since Sevda was a cybernetic, her reflexes were superhuman. She caught it with a swift move. "…that's a national channel tracker. Or a hologram television, in the old tongue."
As Sevda flipped through the channels one after another, the text on each one was the same: "Connection cannot be established."
"Stop talking nonsense! Something must have happened to the national channels. This place is only a few standard time years away from one of the Network's hubs… The chance of the Network cutting out here is absolutely zero!" Sevda walked with heavy steps toward her hospital. There was an input port in one of the holes in the wall. Sevda plugged the cable emerging from her back into that port. "You must be mistaken…" she said.
She tried to connect to the facility's IT system and send signals to the Network. She tried the internet, tried a direct connection, but each remained ineffective. "Very interesting!" she shouted.
"Yes!" said the Old Man.
"And how did you notice this?" Sevda asked.
"A new episode of one of my favorite shows came out. Love on the Space Road!"
"Don't tell me you actually watch that garbage!" Sevda said. "From what I've heard, nobody watches that nonsense except cybernetic women on drugs and old men with worn-out modules…"
"I watch it! And I love it!" the Old Man said.
"This must be a malfunction related to TESO," Sevda said. "I don't think we should worry too much. TESO can only last a few hours without connecting to the Network; otherwise, it would immediately start losing money on its operations. A company that can stay in the black thanks to millisecond-level overtime wouldn't want that much risk. Without the Network, their AI and robots can't function either. In short, waiting is best…"
"No, it won't do!" the Old Man shouted. "I'm going to watch my show! Even if I have to send a proxy satellite into space, I'll watch it."
"Are you really going to bother with that? When the connection could come back at any moment?"
"I don't leave things to chance," the Old Man said, then leaned out of his cockpit window and pointed at the satellite on the roof. "Can you bring that to me, Sevda? I'm planning to attach a small rocket to it and send it into space."