My head was pounding and my brain was burning. I opened my eyes to see a reddish glass directly in front of my face. My arms and legs were trapped, locked.
A slight hiss of air blew into the coffin I was currently locked in.
My toes began to squirm and my fingers dug into the smooth surface.
"No! No! Sir! Let me out... I'm a good girl! I'll play nice from now on!"
My head shook, and the air felt hot, like there wasn't enough. My breathing picked up, and a high-pitched squeal left my lips.
My body started to shake and tears began to well in my eyes.
"Sir! I'm a good girl! Please... let me out. I just want to see you again..."
My nose ran, mixing with the tears streaming down my face.
I could feel it in my head, telling me to escape. Whispering to me, to break free. To kill them all.
Anger built and burned through me.
"Let me OUT! I'll dismember every one of you! Let me go..."
A final defeated sob escaped with a deeply shuddering heave.
I just wanted to go to the Happy Room. Why am I here? I was a good girl...
Clank.
My heart froze.
[Suggestion: Function Properly.] Whispered like a command from the back of my mind.
My heart beat normally like nothing happened.
I looked up and saw her. That girl with black hair and green eyes.
She was peering into the glass with cupped hands, obnoxiously chewing something.
"Mmph... I heard you were supposed to be in the Happy Room today. Mmm... man that... sucks. They had some really good sweets in there."
She smacked her lips and smiled, with a hint of chocolate on her mouth.
I felt a hot ball of something forming in my chest. Every part of me wanted to... eliminate her.
"I am a good girl! Sir said I could go. Let me out!"
She wiped her cheek with a finger and licked the residue.
"Mmmm.... No. You see, your Cortex is a little buggy. They're lucky I was in that sector, honestly. So they're keeping you in Stasis until we reach Corinth-6, or at least that's what the commander said."
Standing back and looking at my stasis pod, she pressed a finger to the red glass.
A pointed, metallic tip formed and she tapped the glass.
I shuddered,
"I don't care about that. Just let me see Sir! Let me out and I'll be a good girl... I promise."
Her finger scraped across the glass with a loud screech.
"Sir? You killed him... Yep, the good doctor is dead. Good for him, too. That's how the story goes anyway, one of his little 'pets' got free and decided to fill him full of holes..."
My blood froze but my fist clenched.
"How could you? He's not dead! He's not... we were supposed to go to the Happy Room together..."
She retracted her finger and grinned, her teeth bore sharp white canines.
"Sorry but, I'd rather not have a rival. So I think it's a good story. Oh and, before I forget..."
She leaned in close, her breath fogging the glass.
"They're gonna play with your brain. They want the Cortex gone, so you won't be able to play anymore... enjoy being a vegetable. Ta-Ta 141."
She drew two X's and a smile under them. Prancing off like she was a princess.
Her parting words soaked into my brain.
He was dead? I didn't kill him... I didn't.
Was I a bad girl?
My stomach dropped and I limply let my weight go. I didn't sink an inch; this coffin was molded for me.
It should've been me... Sir was such a nice man. He always treated me nice, and when I was a disappointment he always let me know. I deserve to be here.
My head dropped and bumped the red glass. Tears and hot breaths fogging it.
Sobbing for what seemed like forever, my eyes stopped dripping. My breaths came ragged and hot still.
Looking up I saw terror. I jerked, and struggled. Before my mind caught up to my eyes.
A suit with an orange visor was looking into my window. Tapping a blue data pad, he spoke, "Sorry kid, I really am. We're going to be operating on you soon, and I need to take you in for medical scans, and we need to grab the serial number off of your Cortex. It will be quick. I promise and then you'll be back here and you'll be normal again..."
My heart pounded and I began pleading.
"Please just let me out! Take me... and return Sir! I know you can do it. I know you can fix people! So take me and give him back!
I'll be a good girl! I promise..."
He only shook his head and blew out, from inside of his suit.
"Damn, doc really did a number on you huh? Listen.... ah fuck. I can't lie to a little girl. We can't bring back the dead, 141. He's dead, dead as fuck. He ain't coming back..."
Staring out of the red glass my eyes began to water again and a sob built up in my chest, my bottom lip quivered.
He can't be gone. That's impossible, he was just here with me earlier, helping me learn...
"Aww, fuck, man! Don't look at me like that. God damn it, I didn't sign up for this. Okay, listen, the commander won't be overseeing this. As far as surgical staff goes, it's me and a clanker. I can make it look like you got the surgery. You need to fake it and turn a new leaf.... please. Just don't make me regret this."
He lowered the data pad, and sighed deeply and aggressively, rubbing his covered head.
My sobbing slowed, and I looked out.
"I don't care what you do to me. Sir said I was a disappointment. Do whatever you want..."
My eyes closed and my head hit the glass again.
He spoke up, "hey c'mon 141, it's not the end. For Kimura sure, but for you it's not. You'll get discharged, released for general work and sent back out into the general public after a few NDA's. You'll probably have a living stipend for the rest of your life. So cheer up, because it's not the end... now you're probably going to feel like you're suffocating. That's just the gas doing its work.
When you wake up, you'll be put in general triage and it'll all be good."
Before he could even finish the last words, I began to feel it. A warm suffocating feeling.
Finish it. Please. I can't live in this world without him...
[Observation: You can live in this world without him. You already are…]
A voice, soft yet rigid, spoke to me before my light faded into nothing.
What was that?
I drifted lifelessly in the void.
Between life and death, I felt a surge of fear. Panic.
Like something was closing in. I couldn't run, or hide. I could only float there while it chased me.
I didn't want it to touch me, I didn't want it to end. I wanted to keep going. Without him, without everything. I wanted to see a field of those flowers, and a sky as beautiful as the one in the Happy Room.
I could almost feel the warm sun on my skin.
Alien, yet comforting. Drifting there, I opened my eyes.
My vision was red. Did he take it out? Is this what being normal is like?
I blinked twice, my eyes were so dry and sore.
Above me I could only see in a small rectangular shape of red.
Then it dawned on me, I was still inside of the Pod.
Screaming, painful screaming could be heard.
Was it me? No...
A metal machine, vaguely human in shape, with a grille for a mouth and two clusters of optical sensors passed over me. Dressed in a blue apron, covered in blood. It spoke, in a metallic, neutral voice.
"Surgeon Attending, patient exhibits a nominal loss in blood pressure. Vitals have dropped below normal human functions. Suggestion: Release the Esper. It has healing capacity far exceeding traditional surgical procedures."
"98, are you fucking insane? The girl is unconscious! Wait... did you actually wake her? We're taking you to the quartermaster after this... you need to be checked." Spoke the Surgeon.
"Fine, let her up. This is an enemy combatant as it is. If 6 didn't kill him, 141 will."
The robot clanked over to the pod, and typed in several commands on the terminal attached to the front.
It hissed open, with a breath of fresh recycled air.
I lay there.
I'm a good girl. I won't break the rules.
"Well? What the hell are you waiting for, girl? Your kind are supposed to be these wunderkinds. My patient is dying and needs some of that magic."
The surgeon spat out.
"No! I refuse. I'm not breaking the rules anymore. I want to be a good girl and I'm staying here."
An audible growl rumbled from across the room.
"Get that dumb ass nonsense out of my surgical room. That's bullshit and you know it! A man is dying and you care about being a good girl? My gods they fucked you kids up."
98 stood over me, and gripped my dress lifting me by the neck.
"Esper, Female, Child. You are violating a basic rule falling under Section B of the Populace Control Act of the Protac Union. Section B, Article 9 states: All subjects who can render aid, while therefore be required to render aid. When directly ordered by a saint of the Machine Concord. Saint-9951 has sent a directive directly to this interface. 'The Esper child is required to treat Terran POW reference 1.' You must render aid if you wish to be considered 'a good girl' to the Machine Concord."
It put me on my feet and smoothed the wrinkles in my dress.
My body began to shake. I felt paralyzed as I watched the scene.
A man with long black hair, and a long beard lay strapped to a table under lights and instruments hanging from the ceiling.
The surgeon was steeped in blood, he had a white mask over his face. His head was bald and shining.
The patient, with his black hair, had several wounds across his chest.
Gouges like claws tore into him. Holes in his neck and shoulder, and burns across his legs.
He was barely breathing.
What was I supposed to do? I could barely lift a pen.
I wanted to run, hide.
My frozen body was shocked to life when the surgeon yelled, "well?! You gonna stand there and play hide the thumb like a baby? Or are you going to be a good girl and get it done?"
Those words. Good girl.
They rippled through me like electricity.
My mind flooded with information, eyes darting across the surgical theater.
Male, Late 30's, Approximately 190lbs, close to six foot. Lacerations across the chest, perforation close to the clavicle, and one close to the trachea. Third degree burns indicating energy weapon use. Patterns consistent with the fighting style of the last opponent encountered.
"Suggestion: Use Cortex to apply nanites, encouraging cell growth in the Patient. Please, move aside."
My mouth moved without me wanting it to.
My hand extended, and a cloud of black dust swarmed the room. Sinking into the patient in thick viscous swathes.
As if by magic, his skin began to slowly knit, and his burns began to heal.
Within seconds, his skin was fresh and pink where it was healed.
The black dust formed into a steady stream entering my outstretched hand with a cool itch.
Heat began to build up in my head.
The surgeon just stated,
"Gods, nanites really are the future... It's a shame they're trying to turn you kids into weapons. You'd all make top notch surgeons. I'd be out of the job, right 98?"
"Esper, Human, Child. The Machine Concord has seen your actions. We judge you to be 'a good girl,' your preference of title has been noted and will be filed for review by the High Systems. Your efforts are noted, please insert yourself back into the stasis chamber, to be transported safely."
A hum of defiant logic shifted gears in my mind. I am a good girl. Their definition needs to be updated, I've done what I was supposed to do. They should be in that pod, not me. They couldn't save that man, I did. They're the disappointments.
I will not go back. I'll find her, that girl with the black hair. It's all her fault.
"I don't think so. I'm going to walk out of here and leave this place behind. I'll eliminate any who get in the way. Try and stop me...."
The surgeon held his hands up, gloved and bloody, "Woah! Hold up there girl. We definitely don't care about what you do, TZ-98 was just kidding. Huh pal? We wouldn't force this child who is clearly in the right state of mind... back into this coffin here. We would never!"
TZ-98 just turned its head as if to say "What I don't see, doesn't bother me"
I looked up between them both and asked, "where is that girl? The one with the black hair. The one who put that man here in the first place. The one who made me fail my prime directive?"
The surgeon sat in a stool backwards, leaning on the back rest for support. "You mean 6? Beats me. She's a little hellion, and in the commander's pocket. So if you find the commander, chances are you'll find 6 trailing him somewhere."
Starting to walk out, I looked back at TZ-98 and the Surgeon. "Thanks... for helping me out..."
TZ-98 swiveled its head at me, "Esper, Human, Child. Thank nothing. You did as requested, and performed satisfactorily in your assigned duty. Words of caution. Beware the Esper, Human, Teen, Designated Subject-6. She is not what she seems... The Machine Concord looks forward to developing a future relationship with you, Esper, Human, Child, Designated Subject-141."
Running, I cleared the doors of the surgical theater, into a familiar hall.