11.the-crystal

the crystal

“Alex?”

“Alex, can you hear me?”

“Alex?”

“Alex?”

“Alex, can you see this light I’m shining down at you?”

“Alex?”

“Alex, can you hear me now?”

“Alex, if you can hear me, think about what it feels like to wake up after a long sleep.”

Her head feels soft and rested, like a weightless cloud. Her heavy eyes slowly peel open. As usual, there is nothing but white light all around her. She squints at the white-coated figure standing over her.

“Alex, can you see me now?”

“Mom?” Alex murmurs. “Auntie Cass?” Gentle waves of soft static roll through all her nerves. She wiggles her toes. Her fingers come back online. Her chest feels heavy, but cozy. Her bedsheets are white and silky, her skin smooth as air as she rubs a cheek against her white satin pillow. She squints up at the white-coated figure again. “Mom?”

“Take it slow, dear,” Medea whispers. “You were in hypersleep for a long time.”

“I feel . . .” Alex pauses for a moment. She looks around at the white walls of empty white medical room. She looks up at Medea’s long whit robe and jet black hair. Medea smiles. “I feel good,” Alex smiles back at her. “I’m fine. I’m awake.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Medea nods.

“How long was I in hypersleep for?” Alex glances around the white walls again. No clocks to be found. No decorations. No data feeds or interfaces loading into her vision.

“Almost two days.” Medea’s eyes twinkle as she flickers through the patient data in her eyes. “I’ve kept most of your reality filters and user interfaces offline for now so that you don’t get overloaded. You’ll be ready for a higher psychological load again soon. Just take your time.””

“Is everyone else okay? Wasn’t I just with Carson? Shen? Abebe?”

“Everyone’s okay,” Medea nods, “nobody else got badly injured during the fight with Gorgon. Just rest, my dear. You’ll be able to see all the nice messages they sent you soon enough.”

“You must be tired of resuscitating me like this over and over,” Alex giggles.

“It’s my job,” Medea grins. “And I’ve gotten good at it over the years. But hopefully this will be the last time.”

Alex giggles again. “Fingers crossed.” She sits up from her silky white bed, her heart pumping strong, brain purring with energy, hands sturdy and feet ready to go. “What did you do to fix me this time? I’m already feeling wonderful.”

“Good,” Medea nods. She scrolls through more dashboards in her eyes and pulls a slender white wand from her lab coat. “I put one of my special crystals in you. Similar to the last one, but this one’s more potent. I just need to run a quick quality test on it.”

Medea hovers her wand over Alex’s white tunic. The wand gently hums and vibrates as it senses the tiny crystal embedded beneath her skin. More dashboards pop onto the surface of Medea’s eyes.

“What’s in the crystal?” Alex asks. “Or is that classified as usual?”

Very classified,” Medea laughs. “But what I can say is that it is delivering special compounds into your bloodstream that are perfectly aligned with your current mind-body mappings.”

“Is that because of all the time I spent going through your Fountain?”

“Precisely,” Medea smiles. “The experience you had in hypersleep helped to fine-tune this crystal so that it functions in accordance with the master identity scheme you developed throughout your life.” Medea’s white wand chirps and pulses with a soft blue light. “And it looks like the whole process was a marvelous success! Crystal performance is at 99.999%, far above the minimum quality range.”

“So I’m recovered then?” Alex asks. “So what’s next for me””

“Oh my dear, you are far from recovered,” Medea laughs. “What’s next for you is restLots of rest. I am ordering you to take a leave of absence. That is part of my treatment plan. You are not permitted to re-integrate with Aeschylus under any circumstances until you have completed your prescribed leave of absence.”

Any circumstances?” Alex raises a brow. She’s been ordered by Aeschylus to take a day or two off before, but never an extended leave of absence. And it has never been Medea giving an order like this. “What if there’s a big threat? Readiness condition 2? Won’t Aeschylus order me back down into the Command Deck?”

“You will be unable to re-integrate with Aeschylus until you have completed this treatment plan. And Aeschylus is not authorized to interact with you until then.” The bright lights and data feeds flickering in Medea’s eyes vanish. Her gaze becomes dark and clinical. Her warm smile becomes a cold smirk. “I have authority over Aeschylus on this matter.”

Alex peers through the glossy whites of Medea’s android eyes. There is a venom in her gaze that Alex has never seen in Medea before. “The generals are okay with this? Secretary Asaju is okay with this?”

“I have authority over all the generals and the Secretary on this matter.” Medea grins. Her teeth are shining white, perfectly white, like all the white walls and white bed and white lights surrounding them. “You will not re-integrate with Aeschylus until your leave of absence is complete. This is all within protocol.”

“Okay . . . well, how long are you prescribing me a leave of absence for?” Alex asks.

“Two weeks,” Medea nods. “A standard vacation length.”

“Two weeks?!” Alex shouts. “No no no no, the threats are becoming way too severe, Gorgon just tried to kill all of us! I can’t possibly—”

Two weeks.” Medea glares down at Alex.

 

  • “Okay . . . two weeks.” Alex sheepishly looks away. “What do you recommend I do?”

 

 

 

 

> container unpacking . . . 

> script in progress . . . 

> browse the library while you wait?