Author: David C. Nutt

I was having trouble with my rotator cuff again. “Shouldn’t have bought that cheap snap in online sweety” the spouse says. I just grumble and nod. She’s 100% correct of course, but what’s a guy to do? The cheap part offered free same day delivery. Can’t just let my arm hang. Can’t go for any interviews not able to plug in any tool sets. There are still shops out there who can’t afford the new tech yet and we’re in their price range. Pick us up at huge discount. It wasn’t always like this. Hell, until the company went belly up we were rolling in it. Yeah, especially in the early days.

I remember the intake briefing as if it were yesterday. Become a Augmented Flexible Technician- a “snapper.” Agree to the surgery, have an arm replaced with the company prosthetic and then make an ungodly amount of money. Need more folk on the floor? Snap out the “everyday” arm and snap in the basic tool set. Need some folk for more skilled work? Get trained up, snap in the specialized tool set and good to go. Need more help in assembling nano parts? Suit up in your whites, go through the clean room process, snap in a new set, and pretty soon you’re cranking out one-of-a-kind specialized chip sets, making buckets of bit coin. Oh yeah, with this job, me and the wife, the kids, we had it all. Health care, dental, a second home, new car every other year, college funds, IRAs, the works.

Then the company folded up.

Then snap tech became obsolete.

And here I am now. My arm looks OK. If I didn’t tell you I was a snapper you might not notice… until you got close. Some of us have twitches & tremors. Some have nerve reactions so violent it’s like the snap arm is shadow boxing and the body is just along for the ride. Some just leave the arm off, but the nerve pain is excruciating. I tried it for a while and couldn’t take it. I am no stranger to pain- was wounded in the Moon Base Revolt, gen-u-ine purple heart recipient. I’d rather get shot a few more times than leave my arm off. Yeah, that bad. That’s why a lot of us drink.

So, we don’t fit in, and the government won’t pay for the upgrades to get us anywhere near normal, so its bargain basement augments to keep going, keep us functional.

But some of us have figured out a work around. Real arms. Bonafide human body parts. I’ve been part of group that “liberates” limbs from the crematorium. Matched, re-attached and goodbye snap outs! Get a few tattoos to cover the scars and no one is the wiser. A big difference. So why not just get one for myself?

Well, someone has to do the re-attachment work and that’s this guy. Snap in a set of reattachment tools (my own hack,) and the cash rolls in. Paid off our mortgage. Paid off the kids college debt. Got us back a beach house.

But I have to keep up appearances. Go on job interviews. Meet with the counselors. Go to the demonstrations, whatever it takes to look downtrodden and angry. The wife thinks it’s hilarious the way I go back and forth- to the support group and then the off-the-books clinic. She wonders how I do it.
It’s easy. Just one more thing to snap in to do the job.