2 - Breathless - Chapter Two
BreathlessTale of the Breathless One
CHAPTER TWO
"I don't understand....It's impossible...."
The words of the deputy made me chuckle inwardly again. From his view, I must be a marvel. I doubt I should tell him that there are millions of us in the army. It'd blow his mind. Not that I could tell him. Or want to.
The creature - no, the Pokémon - was currently having the feast of a lifetime. I was a bit envious. It's not like I've ever eaten.
Well....
Per se. I still had memories of a normal life, eating, breathing, sleeping! The closest I could really get to sleeping is in recovery stasis, but that was more like thinking slowly than sleeping. It was a marvel, to my mind, yet it seemed all too familiar. Maybe I could ask for a real face on my next maintenance visit..?
That, however, begged the question of how I would go about, exactly, getting back to base. I mean, it's not like we've ever done any inter-dimensional exploration, not that I knew of.
Clink!
What?
The subtle distraction pulls me away from my internal thoughts. I could hear a girl muttering.
"Stupid thing doesn't even have games. Can't play music, since the headphones port's all full of water. Can't use the stupid speaker, `cuz mom says it's too loud."
Following the muttering, something shiny in the public waste bin catches my eye. Picking it up, I look at it. Ah, yes. This is what's called a 'portable audio player', if I'm not mistaken. Why did she throw it out..? Did it break.. ?
... An idea comes to mind.
Maybe I don't need a mouth just yet..?
After all, we Military Combat Robots can all adapt to technology to use it. Why couldn't I just make myself a mouth..?
Flipping the `player over in my hand, I head back to the hospitalization center.
The Pokémon I brought in greeted my arrival with a hug. Looking at the device in my hand with wide eyes, she asks, "Oh!Where did you get that?"
I shake my head, dismissing it. My eyes say 'Unimportant.' Pointing at her, then her mouth, I make eating gestures, then a confirming thumbs-up. Her eyes widen in recognition.
"Oh! Yeah, it was delicious! Thank you so much!"
She hugs me again. I smile inwardly. Turning to the nurse, who I now knew was called Nurse Joy, I send a string to her computational terminal.
" Might I have access to a surgical facility? " I ask.
She looks at me in confusion. "For...what?"
I ponder over how much information to give her. Miming a wrench, I turn imaginary screws, then point at myself. She hesitates. "Maintenance..? What... maintenance?"
I look at her, waiting for her to realize.
"Oh...you mean, self-maintenance?"
I nod impatiently.
Still hesitating, she looks at me, with my eyebrow raised impatiently. Damn! Am I glad I already have eyebrows. It would be too great a pain to communicate with next to no facial features. Good thing I was about to change that.
She gives in, sighing. "Follow me," she says, motioning me past the Pokémon's room into what seemed like an operating room. Waiting for her, I give her a 'go on' signal with me hands. Hey, it's not like I want her watching me putting a mouth into myself! Getting the signal, she rushes out of the room, a beet-red blush apparent on her face. Closing the door behind her, I close the shutter. 'This will take much planning and calculation,' I think.
#***#
Six hours later find me in the surgery room, looking quite pleased with myself and my new mouth. It was going to take quite a bit of calibration to make this 'tongue' thing work right, but it was a start, at least. The synthetic skin was quite easy to make, all I had to do was process a few of my diamond-alloy gun shells into a pliable semi-solid with color. Now all I have to do is -
Someone banging on the door interrupt me. "Hey, you alright in there?"
Pulling open the door, I look at Nurse Joy with annoyance. She looks at me, wide-eyed. Seeing a gaping hole in my face and an even bigger one in my chest, the one in my face where my nose should have gone before being interrupted, she drops in a faint.
Sigh.
Back to making my nose, then. I hope she didn't hit her head too hard. Closing the door, I shake my head.
Putting the final touches on my new nose, I integrate it into my facial muscle system, wrinkling it a bit before being fully satisfied, then placing it in the hole in my face, the skin joining together with the already placed synthetic skin. I take my first, hesitant, breath. Cold, crisp, very clean. My aeration system seemed to be working fine, the temperature sensors in my nose, mouth, and synthetic lungs feeling the cool temperature of the hospital air, my new olfactory 'scent' sensors smelling a strange, too-clean scent, which I could feel the word 'Antiseptic' come into my mind soon afterward. I could taste the chemicals in the air, and suddenly knew why humans felt somewhat unnerved by hospitals and the like. Sealing up the under-skin and over-skin on my chest, I check the shiny, white diamond-alloy 'teeth' in my mouth. Phew! I didn't mess up anywhere. Oh!
Peeling two 'ears' off of a protective sheet, I fit them over the small, almost unnoticeable funnels leading to my 'ears', the super-charged sound sensors all of my class had. And then, to finish it off...
Using tweezers, I implant the majority of my new hair into my skull and head area. While I did have hair already, it was the common, military buzz that most of us were stuck with, as it usually didn't grow any further than how it was implanted in our bodies' creation. I didn't see the need to coat my chest with skin before, but now..? I felt like I wasn't giving my artistry my all! Spreading the substance over my chest, it quickly forms evenly, finishing my masterpiece.
Turning my head to get better glimpses in the small surgical mirror I was using, I grin. Now I know how it feels to be able to smile!
Opening the door, I stop just before stepping on Nurse Joy. Almost forgot about that..
Lifting her up in my arms, I bring her out to the main waiting area. An officer approaches me.
"Who are you, and what have you done to Nurse Joy?"
Good! She's not incompetent. I grin, setting her in a chair, retrieving my holster, gun, and jacket, donning them like before I began my operation. I grin, waiting for it to sink in.
"That's--you?!" I nod.
"Wow. When did you..?"
I point back toward the surgery room, grinning. I slowly speak.
"Haven't quite gotten the hang of the tongue yet... I'm going to need to calibrate the synthetic muscles. She caught me mid... in the middle of my operation. She fainted."
She chuckles nervously.
"I must say, I probably would too."
"I'll give you that, when I looked at myself, it was a bit unnerving." I say, grinning harder. I felt...happy. Yes, happy. I wasn't new to the emotion, but it was a new kind of happy.
"Say, I never got your name, officer..?"
"Jenny. Officer Jenny. What about you?"
"Well, to tell you the truth...." I trail off, frowning. "I've never needed a name. I just had a code-name, to make it easier to remember me than a sixteen-digit number."
"Well, you're in a new place, don't you think you'll need a new name?" Officer Jenny asks.
My eyes brighten considerably with the prospect.
"Yes...I suppose I would. How about...Adam?"
"Well then, it's nice to have met you, Adam."
"I have a question, though.." I say, thinking.
"What is it?" she asks, seeming concerned.
"I highly doubt that everyone in this world is as understanding about my orig... where I come from."
I could see the gears turning in her head.
"Yes... that could be a major problem. At the least, they'll think you're insane, at worst, they might want to hunt you, or use you as an experiment."
I nod.
"Well... you could always tell them where you came from..?"
I look at her as though she is insane, which now I was very unsure of. About to explain just how it would feel to be internally poked and prodded, she holds up her hand.
"You could tell them that you lived near Lostlorn Forest. I doubt anyone would be able to prove you wrong. After all, that is where you appeared here."
My mouth closes. I nod. "Yes, that might work. I suppose, after I calibrate my new muscles, I could. But what about the other people.. ? Surely you can't trust a huge group of random people to keep quiet about me.. ?" I shake my head. "No time to worry about that now. It's not like we can make them un-see what has been seen."
A clawed hand taps my shoulder. I turn around, looking down as I realize it was the creature. She looks at me in disbelief.
"You have... a mouth..."
I nod. "It took a lot of time to get right, and I'm still not an ex... not very good at speaking with it. What's wrong - "
The flying hug she gives me takes me off-guard. An oomph escapes my new lungs.
"I can't thank you enough for saving me! I was running for so long! I just can't believe you showed up and ...and.."
Apparently the shock of the whole situation had caught up with her. She began to sob. I just held onto her, letting her cry herself out on my shoulder. She stopped hugging me for a moment, and then, so quickly that I couldn't even understand her, she said,
"And...canicomewithyouplease?"