part 4

This picks up about where the last left off. I need to go through what I have written and recompile and  put the overlapping parts together and distill the story a bit.

This is from the latest third-person narrative.

“This is curious.”

“What is?” Jim moved from his computer over to Tanya’s side.

She smacked his thigh with her fist. Jim collapsed as the force of the blow knocked him off balance.

“Ow. That hurt.” Jim cradled and massaged his leg, and shortly got back up to his knees, still rubbing his thigh.

Tanya rubbed her hand and shook it. “That did hurt. I just cut my own palm up.” She had four small slits on her palm where her talons had poked in.

Once they were able to pay attention, she pointed at some code on her screen.

“This coding: it’s changed us, seriously. Have you ever seen what happens when you put say, corn starch into water? Not just for food. I once saw a demonstration. The water was over saturated, almost to a paste. Then a man walked quickly across the top of the stuff.”

Jim nodded, as memories connected for him. “I’ve never seen it but have heard of it. Long chain molecules in a fluid; apply a sudden energy like walking or running and they tangle and harden. Stand still and you sink. I understand that impact resistant fabrics are similar to this.”

“This code, the cells in our skin and fat layers are impregnated with long chain molecules. Your thigh had almost no give.” Tanya rubbed her hand again.

A prurient thought about Tanya’s breasts jumped through Jim’s mind. He bit his tongue to keep from saying it.

“I wonder where else they put them?” Tanya continued. “I wish I had a code editor on this machine. Then I could scan better. What other parts of our bodies have been redesigned to be impact resistant?”

“I once read a fiction story about a martial artist that had this done in the characters brain, to keep from getting concussed. This was done so that hits to the head would not slow the character down.”

part 3

Originally I wrote this in third person, then rewrote it in first person. this is from that rewrite, as I have not yet rewritten this section in third person.

Jim is the narrator.

I heard the water shut off in the shower. Listening, I could also hear the fans on the computers and the other equipment there. The gurgle of some fluid setting in the tank support systems. The motors of the two big room fans on the ceiling that I had not really acknowledged despite looking right at them previously. Their blades moving the air. The water heaters cycling down. The barbell shifting in my grip against its stand. My tail on the bench. The locker opening. Then there was a faint buzz I could not place. It was either not localized, or from several sources.

Shortly I heard Tanya come through the door and sit on the stool. I tried to walk over to meet her, took three steps from the bench, and fell on my face. I caught myself like doing a push up, and had partially unfurled my wings as I did. The rubber mat was somewhat cushioning, but still hard. Putting dignity aside, I crawled over to the racks, and knelt beside Tanya as she sat at the terminal for her tube.

Tanya had a towel wrapped around her, with her wings pulled tight to her back. She had a second towel around her gathered up hair. She smelled of damp fur, damp towel, and woman. Her lower wing spars and tail rested on the foot board of the stool. She paused as I knelt at her elbow and comprehended what she was doing.

Discussion of how they got there

“Aren’t you usually looming over my shoulder?”

I looked at my knees on the floor, then back to her screen. “Usually. But I can’t stand unsupported yet, and don’t want to risk tipping this rack over.” I tapped the screen with a talon as I read the text there. “So far there are the medical programs, our nanite-base program, and the usual computer junk. Check the date, please.”

She moved her cursor to the spot and the calendar popped up.

“Two weeks to do this to us.” She did not seem surprised.

“We speculated it would take that long in a full immersion tank.” I nodded.

“Dr. Tiller, the last thing I remember is injecting your i.v. with the syringe of nanites, for the test on your cut hand. Then I must have been hit from behind.”

“Last thing I remember is you putting the syringe in the i.v. I think our corporate masters must have intervened. You remember how they were after the team to speed things along. I’m guessing I disregarded one too many memos to do that. So much for ethics and the scientific process.”

Tanya looked at me for a moment, then back at the screen. She started a search, and sat back to let it run.

“What do you think happened to the rest of the team?”

I had wondered that myself, but knew there was no way to be sure. So I voiced my guesses and surmises.

“I bet Carl and maybe Leslie are monitoring us somehow. Rodger was on vacation, and his team was all about computer to nanite interface, so I doubt he would be involved in this. I doubt your or my staffs would consent to this happening without our own consent.”

Tanya shuddered slightly. “I always felt odd about Carl.”

“Because he hit on you or because he openly wanted my position as team lead?”

“Neither. Because he seemed to be distracted, and unfocused, not fully involved… There it is.”