Free On Galaxy's Edge: Ascendance by Alex T. Kolter

Colver, and this is my sister, Staf, and my brother, Gae. I’m hoping you can help us. See, our mother recently suffered a tragic, tragic accident. She was moving some things around in her apartment - she lives alone, you see, since our father died - and managed to knock a cabinet over, which fell onto her, crushing her arm.
    “Sadly, no one discovered her for a couple of hours, and in that time the blood wasn’t reaching her arm. When I found her, her arm was severely broken and deathly white,” Nero paused here, as if to allow himself a moment to compose himself. “Well, the doctors say that they can, of course, patch her arm up, though it will never be quite the same. However, we thought,” he said, indicating Tal and Nate, “that it might be a nice present to get her a new arm. So we were wondering, Doctor, what you might be able to suggest?”
    “Well, it’s a shame your mother couldn’t come with you today. I generally like to have a look at my patients. However, I can certainly suggest a few options to you, and give you some information to take back to her,” the doctor paused, allowing Nero to nod his approval.
    “One of the most popular arms we have at the moment is a beautiful, skin coloured one. Unless you look closely, you wouldn’t even know it was an augmentation, yet it still comes with all the usual benefits, as well as our lifetime guarantee. We also have arms designed for extreme strength, and which come in the more traditional black with visible vents and actuators. But perhaps those sorts of arm are more suitable for a younger customer...?”
    “Indeed,” Nero replied. “I believe our mother would prefer a more discrete arm, don’t you agree?” he said, turning to Tal and Nate. Right on cue, Talyah started to tear up, hiding her face behind her arm. “Ah, Staf,” Nero said, putting his arm around her.
    “Staf gets a little distraught thinking about our mother in this way,” Nate explained to the doctor, as Nero was comforting her. Tal gave a particularly loud sniff as if to illustrate the point.
    “Will she be okay?” the doctor asked, concern writ on his alien features. “Can I help?”
    “I’m sure she will, given time,” Nate paused for dramatic effect, and then carried on. “I wonder if you might be able to find her something to dry her eyes with? Perhaps you could escort her to the bathroom?” he asked, hoping that the doctor would agree.
    He hesitated for just a moment, before agreeing. “Certainly, certainly.” Standing up, he held out his arm for Talyah, who accepted, still with tears running down her face, and the doctor led her towards the door, and out of the room.
    “Good old, er, Staf,” Nate said with a grin, as soon as the door had shut.
    Nero was already moving around the doctor’s desk to access his computer. “Let’s hope she’s bought us enough time.”
    He fetched a small digi-stick out of one of his jacket pockets. The doctor’s computer being a high-tech piece of kit, Nero didn’t have to plug the stick into a socket. Rather, he placed it near to the screen, and the computer detected it and started running the files on it. Unfortunately for the computer, the stick had some impressive code on it that automatically broke through the computer and network security, letting Nero access the secure information.
    With more time, there was probably a significant amount of intel that he could find on the system, but with the doctor’s return imminent, Nero just searched for the stock the clinic had, and the location of that stock. It didn’t take long, with an inventory list coming up almost instantly. Nero whistled to himself, impressed at the number and variety of augmentations they had. Glancing up at the door, he copied the files across to the stick, watching the progress bar flash across the holodisplay.
    “Quickly, Nero,” Nate urged.
    As soon as the files were copied, Nero grabbed the digi-stick, seeing the screen revert back to its previous