Bab 57: To Know Or To No
"Why couldn't Ch-4 occupy more of her time?"
Pa-5 frowned. "You told me that the two of them staying so near to each other was abnormal. Have you approached either of them yet?"
"And ask what?" He ran a hand over his head while she set to work on her arm, muttering "ten seconds" under her breath.
"That's for you to figure out. I'm not the Prime Beacon, am I?"
"When did you get so cheeky?"
"Oh. Is that what it is? I've felt…I don't know how to describe it. Bigger? Something like that, since I escaped the tunnels." She chewed on the end of one of her nails and paused in her progress. "But more--should I say less? Less…full."
"What does that mean?"
"You know how when you enter a room and everyone stops whatever they're occupied with?"
"Intimately."
"I may have that, to a lesser extent. But whenever it happens…I don't like it. It hurts."
He frowned upon hearing that. The phenomenon he elicited from others was due to prestige. He could crack a few guesses as to the origin of hers, but the most likely one was sympathy or pity. Thanks to the Third's quick and diligent activities, the civilian populace knew next to nothing that the Last Light was in danger of Aud incursions. But among the staff of the Directory, it'd take a brain-dead oaf to not realize something had happened. Something of incredible importance and significance.
In the absence of hard facts, there was only speculation. But there was something they all knew: among those involved, there was Pa-5. Her previous station at Fort Io should make her presence here in an…incomplete state, impossible. The only way she'd find herself where she was now would be the Aud.
Everyone lost something to them, but for most, it was other people, not parts of themselves. Among veterans, and even those still fulfilling their compulsory service, those with disabilities received honorable treatment almost as high as the ancients.
So that was it. He added a note to his agenda to approach Pa-5's assigned medical personnel to make them aware of this development. They shouldn't only focus on physical rehabilitation alone. He looked up as one last click penetrated the atmosphere. With all three replacements in place, she looked more like herself. "Now what?"
"Now this," he said, leaning forward to press a switch on every part. She froze as the arm and legs began to hum. And when the humming became lesser than its original pace, she gritted her teeth.
"That feels weird." He knew what she was referring to. To facilitate nerve signal transfers through her severed and now treated stumps, the cybernetics had to penetrate past the sealed, dead layers of skin with mild shocks. The first few dozen would be painful, and the ones after would be uncomfortable. But if she survived the Aud, she could survive this.
After a minute, she let her fists unclench. "Can…can I try to stand?"
"Need help?" he asked, already predicting the response.
She shook her head while using her flesh-and-blood arm to brace herself on the bench. Her face scrunched, and the legs stiffened, the first sign of movement they displayed since installation. After a few seconds, the soles--curved to resemble an arch--planted themselves on the floor. It took more until the ankles began bending forward, taking the rest of her legs with them. Once the knees straightened with plenty of available room before her, she looked down at him.
He raised a thumb; any further encouragement was unnecessary. She wasn't looking to him for help or advice; a touch of reassurance would suffice, something simple to provide. The artificial musculature hidden beneath the plating bulged, pressing them up in a fascinating display of mechanical engineering.
With the soles no longer moving and the legs exerting themselves, she found herself waving her arms for balance as they brought her into an upright position. She consumed precious seconds to register her new orientation, and more after that to come to terms with the returned pull gravity joyously exerted unto her.
He stood, noting she was taller than before. They stood at equal height beside the bench. "Try taking a step?"
Her cheeks colored in muted excitement as she glanced down at her legs. Her facial features twisted themselves as she thrust herself into a second bout of concentrated fervor; her reward was the leg raising, retracting, moving forward in an arc, and pressing down. Her lips twitched as she completed the second step.
By the eighth, he'd stepped back, no longer worried about her falling, and she wore a smile so bright that he was hard-pressed to remind himself of the last time he could convince himself he'd seen another of equivalent grandeur.
After crossing the hall and returning to her starting position, he guided her through a series of exercises to familiarize herself with her new hand. The servos whirred as she clenched and manipulated the fingers. The thumb was of particular interest, with her folding and curling it so many times he found himself tempted to voice trepidation at the fixation. She turned to him and approached, startling him out of his thoughts.
"I want to spar."
Air hissed between his lips. "Are you positive?"
"I want to see how durable they are. And how much force I can exert with them."
"You could ask for a specification sheet from the team responsible for constructing your replacements from scratch." His toes were still sore, and he couldn't admit himself to be in the mood or personality to discover what it felt like to experience that ache spreading to his knuckles.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"Ask 'Aunt Eight.'"
"Please?"
"What does no mean?"
"Please?"
"You won't stop asking, will you?"
"Please?"
"Why me?" A thought struck him. "I could ask Ni-6 over."
"I'm afraid of hurting him."
"And not me?" His nose wrinkled.
She went silent, opting to stare as an answer. It continued long enough to make him shift and consider breaking away before her lips parted. "Could I even hurt you if I were piloting a WAV?"
"I'm not eager to discover if that's a possibility."
"It's good I only want to test these then." She knocked on the front plates of her legs.
"And the arm?"
"And the arm."
"Why do you want to spar in the first place? I doubt the Aud will be willing to set aside their charges for some fisticuffs."
"Some what?"
"Boxing." He sighed. "You should spend more time in the data archives. I'm like an odd man out, knowing so many things others don't."
"You could use words others will know."
"Then I will be a 'boring man'!"
"Is that the worst thing to be?"
"I suppose not." He sighed a second time in defeat and took a stance. "Come on, then. After, tell me why your desire to spar is so overbearing."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone