Ko hesitated, her foot dangling outside the door of Trace’s new car. She nibbled on her lower lip as she struggled to get up the nerve to say whatever it was that suddenly had her on edge.

  “Are you free tomorrow?” She blurted out.

  “Yeah? Monroe will be working on the semi for the next few days. I need to get the rear window on this fixed at some point as well. Outside of that, I’ll just be at the warehouse working on projects, I suppose. Maybe with a couple of quick stops to sell items.”

  She swallowed and licked her lips. “I have somewhere I need to go tomorrow. Normally Sevorah goes with me, but she can’t leave the clinic alone at the moment. Would.you.be.willing.to.come.with.me.instead?” She finished in a breathless rush.

  “Sure,” Trace agreed without hesitation. If he could help with whatever had her so on edge, then he would be glad to do it.

  She relaxed a hair and smiled gratefully. “Thanks, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  ***

  Trace was sitting at his desk, yet again, finally getting to work on the railgun. He had been slowly cutting away bits and pieces of the expanded foam he had put in it before. The stuff had certainly done its job, as even though he had never ended up taking the weapon out of the van, there were still granules of sand stuck inside it.

  Despite the efforts he had made to remove the excess and modify it, the insulating properties of the foam had likely played a hand in its rapid overheating. He would need to find a different method to seal it if he ever went to the badlands again. Not that he planned on going to that hellscape anytime soon again.

  Once was enough for him.

  Removing the burned controller boards, he let out a low whistle in appreciation of their crispy state. Ordering extras really was the way to go, because the condition of this board was even worse than the original ones he had pulled out of it.

  That was fine though, as he had just been reminded of earlier. If he was going to use anything that had once belonged to those corpo agents, then it couldn’t look like what it did originally. It needed to be modified in such a way that it was no longer recognizable.

  In the case of the shotgun, the suppressor and some paint would work.

  The railgun, on the other hand, was going to be slightly harder. However, since he needed to improve how it was being cooled anyway, he had a few ideas. There were a few pieces of tech hardware in the crates that he had already picked out for the original improvement. Now he was simply going to go a step or two farther.

  If he was to do what he was thinking though, then he would need to get another can of expanding foam. He would need those same insulating properties that had exacerbated the issues this time around.

  The foam would help him to create air channels for the heat to be dispersed through. Fins for heat-dispersion would be attached to some of the underside of the front handguard. There would also be a couple of vents there as well. The fins would be directly attached to the heat sink using heat transfer tubes. While the air channels would go to the vents.

  He would need to be careful with all the modifications. That area was near the supercapacitors, and also where his fleshware hand would be holding the gun. As a matter of necessity, the fins would only be going on the right side away from his hand, and maybe even a few underneath. However, that might then make it a tad lopsided.

  There was only one way to find out.

  The first thing Trace did was put both controller boards on the desk and place the components in place. Now that he had full control of his hand, soldering them all properly was an absolute breeze. It only took him a half-hour to complete both boards, and he was much happier with how they turned out this time. There was no excessive amount of solder or badly done connections.

  Setting those to the side, he began working on the new heatsinks, including the vapor chambers that had been in the crates. The two vapor chambers he used were actually too large. However, that was fine. It would result in a small loss of efficiency, but it was better to have them be too big than too small. Normally vapor chambers were made specifically for each application, as they were meant to fit as much of the heat-creating device as possible. That typically meant odd shapes, among other things.

  The vapor chamber helped to carry away more heat with better efficiency to the heat sink. The new fans he had installed on the heat sink would then blow the hot air toward the channel he would carve into the foam. Heat transfer tubes would also be run through that space and connected to the fins.

  In theory, it would all work much better. In reality… Well, there was only one way to find out.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  ***

  Trace was nearing completion on the final parts of the railgun when Ko called him the next day. He had gone to sleep after cutting the vent holes and placing the fins and heat transfer tubes. The fins and tubes still needed to be welded onto the gun, which was something he didn’t have at the time. He also hadn’t possessed any more expanding foam.

  The matter with the foam he had fixed easily enough that morning. The other two would need to wait a while longer. He planned to get a small laser welder but hadn’t done it yet.

  As for the foam channels, he was busy carefully carving them out from both sides of the handguard when Ko called.

  He put everything down, cleaned himself up, and drove to the address she had given him. Which was to her apartment. A place he had never been before, and ended up still not going to, as she was waiting for him out front when he arrived. At least he had the address for it now.

  She opened the car door and hopped inside, her legs bouncing nervously before he even managed to fully come to a stop.

  “Are you alright? I would have come up and gotten you. I mean… come on, Ko, I’ve opened the door for you in the past. What’s with all the excitement? Has my charm finally gotten to you? Do I need to speed back to the warehouse and turn off Deckard’s cameras?” He asked, bouncing his eyebrows, trying to get her to laugh.

  It worked somewhat, though the resulting chuckle sounded strained. She wrung her hands and took a deep breath. “I’m going to see my mom today.”

  “Oh…” All levity fled from his face at her announcement as he concentrated on the road. “I can appreciate the trust bringing me along shows for something so private. I assume your backup is usually Anna?”

  She nodded. “But Sevorah needed her there today.”

  “I get it. She picks up the slack at the clinic and fills a few different roles there. How often do you see your mother, exactly?”

  Ko stared out the window at the passing buildings and parked cars, her eyes moist with unshed tears. “A few times a year. It’s hard to visit her more often than that, for both of us. She has never forgiven herself for attacking me, and if I’m being honest, I never have either. Still, she’s my mother. The woman who raised me, I love her. Despite how awkward and strained each of these visits are, I keep doing them, hoping that someday something will change.”

  Trace reached across and briefly, gently squeezed her leg, before returning his hand to the steering wheel. “Where does she live now? Where am I taking you?”

  She wiped at her eyes with a sniff. “Right, forgot that part. She lives in an assisted care facility in the eastern part of the city. She is allowed to have a job, but everything that happened left a part of her permanently broken. Siren’s Rush pays for her housing, and two others who are in similar circumstances there.”

  “Don’t worry, they’ll get theirs,” Trace assured her.

  The rest of the drive passed in companionable silence. Her legs went through different moods where they would bounce nervously, only to stop a few moments later, then begin again. The cycle repeated itself even during the few times they talked.

  It was clear that no matter what Ko said; she was nervous about seeing her mother again.

  Trace parked the car and hurried around to the side to open the door for her. Her lips were pale as she smiled thankfully at him.

  “I can’t tell if you’re just really nervous or are scared.”

  “A little of both,” She admitted. “These visits always remind me of how I got this.” She felt at the silver cyberware of her throat, the robotic qualities of her voice suddenly becoming far more pronounced than usual.

  “Well, I don’t know what Sevorah or Anna usually do for you in these circumstances, but I’m here for you. Just let me know what you need me to do.” He told her with a wink, a gentle hand placed on the small of her back, just above her hidden gun, urging her forward.

  She took a few deep breaths and nodded. “Just stay by my side and help me make small talk with her. That will be plenty.”

  Together they walked through the doors of the megastructure and rode the elevator to the forty-third floor. A large atrium, spanning three floors in height, was spread out in front of them. There was grass, trees, a small field for crops, and even windows. Obviously, the windows were fake, but they looked realistic and were enough to fool the senses. The builders had used high-resolution screens and cameras placed outside the building to emulate the outdoors. It was incredibly well done, in his opinion. Then again, this was Trace’s first time in a megastructure, for all he knew, this might be something basic.

  Ko looked around for several seconds before tugging on his sleeve and pointing to a woman sitting beneath one of the trees. She was wearing a short-sleeved blouse, and long skirt, and was reading something on an ink-sheet.

  “There she is; that’s my mother.”

  Trace magnified his vision and studied the older woman for a moment. They looked… similar; he supposed. It was hard to say. Some of the most distinctive things about Ko were parts she had changed herself. The augmented green eyes, which had a tendency to glow, and her dark purple hair along with its rather distinctive style. Then there was the obvious one with her throat.

  He supposed there were some similarities in the face, but if he was being honest, most people’s faces tended to look similar to him. He wasn’t face blind or anything. It was just that most people didn’t have anything truly distinctive about themselves, especially when he didn’t know them.

  Take Sevorah for instance. His initial impression of her face had been lackluster. The woman herself was impressive, while her face was nothing special. Now, however, he had managed to memorize what she looked like.

  Trace returned his vision to normal. “I suppose that you two look somewhat similar.” He said, scratching at his ear.

  She rolled her eyes and pulled him along toward the woman. “Annyeong eomma, jega chingu Trace.” (“Hi mom, this is my friend, Trace.”)

  Trace blinked at her in surprise. “I didn’t realize you spoke Korean?”

  “I don’t,” She whispered back. “That was pretty much the extent of what she ever taught me.”

  Ko’s mother’s hand trembled as she lowered the ink-sheet and looked up at them. “It has been a while Devko.” She said with a clear tremble in her voice. “Trace, was it? My name is Su-min. It is a pleasure to meet you. This is the first time my daughter has brought a man around to meet me. It was always the other two. I had started to question certain things about her.”

  Ko blushed, while Trace chuckled, taking a seat on the grass, lightly pulling her down beside him. “If I may be so bold, what is it you are reading?”

  https://www.amazon.com/author/joshuakern

  

  https://joshuakernbooks.com/