Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary
Chapter 207 207 Rest, Recovery, and an Anomaly

Avery groaned as he lay in his bed, his body sore all over from the fight against Doyle and his followers.

He had done his best to minimize his movements and avoid really straining himself, but the exertion had still been a little too much for his current state of recovery.

Now he felt like he had on only the second day after waking up from receiving his augmentations. Everything hurt and he could hardly move around. It was awful.

Still, he could not change what had happened, and avoiding fighting had not been an option. This was just something he would have to get through.

Soon he heard the door to his room slide open, and when he strained his head to look up, he saw Kasandra coming in with a large bowl in her hands.

"Jasmine's gone to sleep since she was not feeling well either. Before you pass out though, it'll be best if you eat something."

Kasandra walked up to Avery's bed and sat down next to it.

Now that she was closer, Avery could see that what was in the bowl looked like a grayish-brown mush. It was some kind of oatmeal.

Embarrassing as it was, Avery let Kasandra feed him since she insisted. He had tried to convince her that he could do it himself, but she had told him that he needed to focus on his recovery rather than worry about his pride.

"When augmentations are fully setting in is a delicate time for the body. You've already been pushing yourself, so just focus on getting some rest. I doubt that you want to end up crippled and needing another expensive treatment to fix completely avoidable damage." Kasandra said, shoving a spoon into Avery's mouth and allowing him no chance to refuse.

Giving in, he allowed his lover to take care of him.

Once he had finished the entire bowl, Avery felt his eyes getting heavier. Yet he did not allow himself to fall asleep. There was something he felt he needed to say first.

"Sometimes I think that you're too good for me. I'm just some random guy from a middle of nowhere colony that got a little lucky."

Hearing Avery's self-deprecating comment, Kasandra sighed.

She then caressed his face with her fingers and smiled warmly at him.

"Being lucky can be considered part of a mercenary's skill. I already told you months ago that you're my ideal partner, and that has not changed to this day. In fact, you've only grown brighter in my eyes. Sometimes I'm the one that feels like I can't keep up with you."

Kasandra had been with Avery for the longest, and she had seen how he had grown exponentially. His drive to push forward even through perilous situations was impressive to say the least. It almost seemed as if there was nothing he could not do.

"Now, why don't you get some rest. I'll take care of the ship while you're asleep." Kasandra said, giving very a light kiss before leaving.

Once she was gone, he felt himself losing consciousness quickly, and just moments later, Avery was peacefully off into dreamland.

…

When Avery woke up, he found that he was drenched in a horrid smelling sweat.

'What the hell is this?!' He thought in a panic.

Everything was soaked and it felt like he was basically lying down in a puddle.

It certainly felt highly unnatural. Back during his years as a kid, he had gotten sick and had similar experiences, but nothing to this degree. There was so much water that he was surprised there had been so much in him.

'Now that I think about it, I'm really thirsty.'

Getting up, Avery did not even notice that there was not a hint of soreness left in his body as he headed towards the bathroom.

Putting his head under the sink faucet, he drank water like he never had before. Gulping it down for nearly three minutes with only brief breaks to take a breath.

"Whew, that's better. I feel alive again."

Except, the moment that his body had received enough fluids, his stomach began rumbling. Sending him a signal that he was incredibly hungry.

Avery nearly followed his instincts and headed to the dining room to get some food but stopped when he saw himself in the mirror. His hair was all over the place and his body was still slick with sweat that smelled like it had been marinating for days.

Going against his stomach's wishes, he took a quick shower to clean himself off and put on a fresh set of clothes before leaving his room.

"Oh, you're finally up. I was about to come and get you soon." Jasmine said.

She was currently eating herself, having a savory pastry that was filled with an orange sauce that had chunks of meat and vegetables in it. Or at least replications created by the autochef.

Thinking that it looked and smelled good, Avery asked her what it was and ordered three for himself.

"Wow, someone is voracious today. Though, I guess that's bound to happen after sleeping for nearly twenty hours."

"Really, I was out for that long?!" Avery asked, surprised he had slept so much.

"Yep, I checked in on you about thirteen hours ago when I woke up and you were dead asleep. Kasandra and I decided to let you get as much rest as you wanted, but we were both getting a bit worried that you were still unconscious. Fortunately, it looks like you're fine. How do you feel now?"

It was only now that he had drank plenty and eaten some that he realized he felt great. All of his soreness was gone.

The chance was almost uncanny. As if he had already finished his recovery period even though it should have been at least another week and a half.

'No, that couldn't be it. Kasandra and Jasmine told me that at a certain point they started to feel normal as well. At least so long as they didn't exert themselves too much. I must have just hit that point.' Avery thought, figuring that his twenty hours of sleep must have done the trick.

He pushed his miraculous recovery to the back of his mind and continued eating. Once he finished his first course, he had a second, a third, and a finally a fourth. Eating more than he ever had in one sitting.

After that, he went to the ship's medical bay at Jasmine's instance and completed his daily scan. With everything that had occurred with Burke and Doyle's mercenary company the day before, and his extensive sleep, Avery was a bit behind in sending the data to Dr. Raiti. It was best that he did so before she grew upset and she started sending them persistent transmissions. As she had once before when they were late one time.

…

"This can't be right."

Mercedes was looking over the scan data that she had just received from Avery and was stumped by what she saw.

The figures listed should have been impossible

"Is their medical pod malfunctioning?"

However, as she looked back at Kasandra and Jasmine's most recent scans, there was nothing out of place. If some sort of malfunction had occurred, it must have been very recent. Either that or the information about Avery's body she had received was correct.

"No, that's just not possible. How could so much change on its own. It's as if his body somehow improved upon the enchantments I gave him. But that's preposterous, no way that could happen in a normal human body."

Before jumping to conclusions, Mercedes typed up a message asking for Avery, Jasmine, and Kasandra to send her another scan from their medical pod. This time using a more extensive program that she sent along with the request.

While she waited for a response, Dr. Raiti pulled up every document she had on Avery started going over them to make sure that there was not something that she had missed.

Naturally, she had taken a sample of his DNA and tested it to make sure that he was a full-blooded human. Sometimes there were individuals that looked fully like one race but in fact had a great grandparent or other ancestor from another species that made them slightly different. For applying bionic enhancements, it was paramount that everything worked with the subject's biology. Certain species were incompatible with some augmentations after all.

Except, even as she looked over her past data, and even re-examined the sample she had on file, everything came up exactly the same. From what she could tell, Avery was just an ordinary human.

"That does not explain the scan that I just received though. I'll need to wait for the follow up data to make sure that this is not just from a malfunction. But if it's not, then I need to get my hands back on him." Mercedes said, an almost maniacal excitement in her eyes.

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