"I want to thank you Susie. You've really made me feel better. I don't know how long it'll be before I go crazy, but at least the ride will be easier because of you."
"That's what I've been assigned to do. Make the road, whatever one you travel, a little easier for you.
You're very important to all of us."
"Will you be assigned to me for very long?? Less than fifteen minutes ago, I'd shoved her away. Now the thought of her not being there made my chest tighten. It would really help having her near, especially the next time I was with Dr. Barrett.
"Believe it, kiddo. We're roommates now."
"Room…"
"Yep. Private quarters are only for officers, awakening Cues, and Dusty. You're none of the above, so until we figure out how to best get you back into society, you're rooming with us dogs. Pulling duty, too, in a couple, three days."
"Uh, yeah.? This was going to be very difficult. I was finally waking up to the fact that my whole life, not just the way I went to the bathroom, was hanging. Had changed.
"C'mon. It's almost breakfast. Let's grab some grub and I'll give you a tour.? She hopped off the bed and lifted me down. I wasn't that much shorter than her, less than six inches. But I was very unsteady. I lurched about two steps on my own before Susie grabbed my upper arm. I looked at her, just a little confused.
"Why is it so tough to walk? I'd figured it was because of weakness, but I feel plenty strong enough. And I walked better than this last night."
She shook her head.? No, you're pretty much full strength, though your muscles could use some toning.
We'll hit the exercise area later. The problem is that your body never learned to walk. That you can walk at all is because your mind is doing a pretty fast translation of walking, and teaching your body. Pretty fast, but not fast enough. How tall were you? You know… before?"
"Uh-six foot one."
"Foot? That's an old style measurement isn't it? What's the one stand for?"
"Sorry. How about metric? I heard Doctor Barrett use it yesterday. Six foot, one inch would be about one point nine meters."
"So you were pretty tall. And your build was different. Remember how awkward you were at fourteen?
Double that. Don't worry, though, it'll grow on you. Maybe we should practice a while. Breakfast can wait a little longer."
So we spent the next half hour teaching me how to walk. It took about twenty minutes to get the fundamentals down. It was strange, seeing as I'd walked only last night, albeit roughly. That was before I realized I had a new body, though. Now that I knew, my mind kept getting in my brain's way, as odd as that sounded. I picked it up eventually, so we used another ten minutes practicing my sitting and standing, starting and stopping. I spent the whole half hour amazed at the difference in locomotion.
"Do my hips always move like this?"
Susan giggled. I think she was enjoying herself.? Of course they do. Comes with the territory.? She laughed again at the unintended joke.? The problem is that you're exaggerating the movement. Don't try to walk like a girl. Just try walking."
"Won't I end up gallumphing around like some jock in a tutu?"
She mouthed my words silently, as though translating them, then shook her head.? If I understand you right, the answer's no, you won't. Not unless you… gallumphed around as a man on purpose before."
"Of course I didn't. I just walked."
"So do that now."
A little light went on in my head. I tried again, and this time I didn't swish near as much, if you can swish at all in army fatigues. The wiggle was still there, but much diminished. I beamed at her, quite pleased with myself. Susie clapped her hands.
"Wonderful! Now you don't look like… well, never mind what you don't look like. We'll have a lesson in girl humor another time. I'm starved! Let's get some breakfast.? My own stomach was growling, too, so it sounded like a great idea. She grabbed my hand and led me to the wall where the door was. I should have felt self-conscious about it, but the truth was that I would have enjoyed holding her hand as either a man or a girl. Just for different reasons. At least, I hoped for different reasons. I was still too new at this to really understand my own feelings. I did know that I liked it.
The door appeared as before, but a little higher and a little wider. I held my breath a bit as we went through, but it didn't close in on me this time, either. Hand in hand, we entered the wide, rough-hewn corridor.
It was much different from last night. Instead of being dark, dank and deserted, it was full of life and light.
People, all clad in a uniform style of dress, moved up and down the corridor, which was nearly as bright as day. And they were noisy. Mixtures of laughter, formal, and normal conversation added much to the atmosphere. If it weren't for the craggy, solid rock making up the floor and walls, I'd have never guessed we were in a cave. I said as much to Susie, then repeated it in a louder voice. She nodded and spoke back in as loud a voice.
"We're a pretty loud bunch when we have the chance. That's why we spend the extra energy on the ghost walls for our Cue's recovery rooms and ghost doors for private quarters. Ghost walls are planed energy fields that simulate mass. It cuts out everything. The doors can even allow openings large enough to fit exactly to whatever's in its plane, down to a millimeter. It's a pretty weird feeling, going through.
And it can be phased to keep out light and sound. C'mon, the mess is down this way.? She pulled me to the right, the direction I hadn't explored.
It seemed longer than it had last night. I would have guessed it to be only fifty feet, but was closer to 100
feet. Check that. Closer to thirty meters. I'd been easy with either the English or metric systems, but apparently only metric had survived. That was one plus in this society, anyway. I'd best fall into the habit of using metric exclusively.
It was the same as before. Brightly lit, heavily used, and cut from solid stone. It was also very clean, though I did spot a couple of stains
YES, MRS. FLETCHER? THE CARPET'S STAINED JUST DOWN THE HALL FROM YOUR DOOR? DID YOU NOTICE WHAT KIND OF STAIN? BLOOD? ARE YOU SURE? MY SENSORS DIDN'T DETECT ANYTHING THAT WOULD ACCOUNT FOR BLOOD. IT MAY BE JELLY FROM THE BREAKFAST DELIVERY… NO, I'M SURE MY SENSORS ARE IN WORKING ORDER, MRS. FLETCHER. YES, I RAN FULL DIAGNOSTICS ON MYSELF LAST NIGHT, AS ALWAYS, MRS. FLETCHER. NO, I'M NOT ARGUING WITH YOU, MRS. FLETCHER. I'LL PUT A CLEANING 'BOT ON IT IMMEDIATELY, MRS. FLETCHER, AND REPORT TO YOU WITHIN THE HOUR… VERY WELL, THEN, WITHIN THE HALF HOUR.
that looked almost like blood. As we approached, though, I realized I was mistaken. It did make me notice, however, that it was in front of a section of rock on the right hand side that was completely smooth and flat. I glanced back and noticed another section like it, where my room was. Here would be another recovery room. I looked at the stain once more. Nope. Definitely not blood. Not even a stain, just darker stone. I didn't have to be a genius to figure out why I'd made the mistake. Right now, my senses were whirling from everything I was seeing and hearing. But the whirling this time felt almost like a euphoria.
We continued to the end of the hall, passing a third blank surface on the right, and came to a huge opening on the left. Like the hanger on the other end of the hall, this one also had a lower floor and higher ceiling. Bright sunlight poured down from the ceiling; it must be open to the sky above, though I couldn't see yet. Unlike the hanger, it was completely man-made, judging from the flat floor and fairly rectangular shape. It was accessible via a large ramp, cut from the native rock. Susie led me down this ramp, and we were inside the mess.
Roughly forty meters by sixty meters, it served as a mess and storehouse. The ramp was about fifteen meters long and ended about halfway into the room. Its gentle slope indicated that pretty heavy objects were brought through here-even though they'd apparently eliminated the weight problem with antigravity, there was still the mass to contend with, and a slope for controlled descent was required. The wall on the ramp's right side was glass smooth and looked somewhat like my room's wall. A ghost wall, Susie had called it. I reached out a hand to see if it would go through, but it felt solid. A small tingle went up my arm and I quickly withdrew my hand, more surprised than shocked. I looked at Susie, but she was too busy suppressing a grin to speak.