We spent some time going through the files on her terminal. When my knees had complained I had gone over and retrieved a chair from the table and using it as a walker had brought it back. I then confirmed that my terminal had all the same general information, and a lot of the same specific information as hers did. We decided that there was too much information to process in one sitting.
Tanya had let her hair down, and was sitting on that towel. I got up and used the chair for a walker and went around to her.
“Time for a rest and tour, Tanya.”
Pushing her on the stool again, I wheeled her over to the table and showed her all I had previously discovered. She stood up both to stretch, and to not be dependent on the stool. At the sink, Tanya and I each had several cups of water, and like I had previously she wretched the first one out then was able to hold the rest down.
Tanya took a long look at the sleeping arrangements. I jokingly suggested using the tubes, but she did not like that at all. In more serious tone I volunteered to take one of the blankets and pillows to the far end of the room and sleep there.
Our next concern was food. But with nothing to do I showed Tanya to the far end of the room, taking one of the blankets and a pillow with me. I led. We leaned against the wall as we walked, but out feet were a bit tender when we got there.
I started to point things out, but Tanya already understood the equipment just looking at it. She went to a gym regularly and was able to coach me on it over the next while. But at this point she just pointed out what the various stations were. Then she hobbled over to the end of the frame to two horizontal handles at about elbow height.
Tanya jumped slightly to get her arms straight and her body over the handles. She bent her knees and bent her arms and extended them again, doing several of these in quick succession. As her muscles in her back flexed with her shoulders the towel that had been wrapped around her fell to the floor. Tanya put her feet down then reached up to a pull up bar above her head, and did several of these. She stopped and switched from an underhand grip to an overhand one without touching the floor and did a few more. She put her feet down and stood there balancing against the frame for a moment. As she stood there, she felt the muscles in her arms, shoulders, and down her side and back.
“What’s got your attention,” I asked.
“Before, those were always the hard exercises. Now I hardly feel them, and felt I could continue for some time. Also the tissues themselves feel denser, less give. Not just the armor plate, but the muscle underneath.” Tanya probed a bit more, feeling the line where her arm muscles interlaced with her wing muscles on her side.
I found it hard to not just watch her and actually listen to what she was saying as she moved around demonstrating the various stations, and working the muscles in her body. Suddenly she stopped and moved for the wall and bracing against it she headed back along the wall. I recognized this as that she had a mental breakthrough and needed to record or act on it. I leered at her as she went along ahead of me.
I stopped leering as I guessed that by the change in her movements she was feeling the same call that had just hit me. She passed the counter and table and went straight through the door into the far end of the built area. I was about three steps behind her.
To the right was just a wall, to the left was a pair of sinks, and some industrial bathroom stalls. Tanya had gone into the first one. I skipped one and went in and used the third. Without realizing, I let out a large sigh from release of the built up pressure. We both giggling for a bit from this then settled back down as our bodies drained. Shortly we stood at the sinks, washing our hands.
There were no towels here, so we went to where we knew there had been. The lockers were past the stalls. We opened all of them up and after the towels we found some janitorial supplies, and bulk soap. I wondered whether Tanya was put out for not finding any feminine supplies, hair care supplies, or even tooth brushes. Gentility kept me from asking.
Opposite the door we had entered was a large door with no handle, only a deadbolt lock. For whatever reason, we ignored it for now.
Tanya led out and back to the table, where the stool had been left, and claimed it. I had to stagger a few steps, and then go on all fours to get to the chair I had left by her station. She quickly opened and explored the actual code of the program for the nanites. She would pause at certain sections to keep track of where she was then would continue on. Finally she found the section she was looking for. She split the window in half, and left the top static as she scrolled through the bottom. I read the remarks paragraph for this section, mumbling as I went.
I read it again, parsing it. “Change the muscle structure to a more durable form… using this chemical formula… increase strength… contraction time… reflex action… healing… interesting.”
I read the code, and reread it. “Carl and Leslie cannot have written this. Well, not the chemistry of it. It’s way outside of their fields. And here. Last I heard, that idea was only theory. Changing the base element of a tissue, to increase the capacities of it. Adaptive evolution selected for certain things. There must be a subroutine or another program that has the nanites working with the bodies automatic functions to keep things in balance and good health.”
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