[NOVA] Zoo (K 1.5)

WPTunes

Ksenia, moments after Dr. Gaumata's soft footsteps fade from hearing, you hear the distinctive, rapid thwack-thwack-thwack of a jump rope workout, coming from the cockpit. 30 seconds later, you hear the equally distinctive thud of a body hitting the deck, and a string of profanity worthy of an angry drill sergeant, if that isn't redundant. What do you do?

Rich

[Ksenia]

Was that Zoo? Hunh, that's interesting enough to get me up and walking that way. If the cockpit's open, I'll walk in. If not, I'll rap at the door. What's going on?

So we're clear, I'm wearing a pair of track pants and a sleeveless lyrca shirt, it's cut to hide my shoulder joint, and like all my outfits, my side, and my hip.

WPTunes

Ksenia, you can see through the open door that Zoo is making her way back to her feet after a fall. She hasn't seen you yet. She grabs the handles of the jump rope and begins to swing it in a quickening pattern. She's skipping the rope on one foot. First the right for 10 skips, then the left for 10. By the time she's up to speed, the rope has got to be doing somewhere between 100 and 120 revolutions per minute. Not too long in, though, maybe on the third set of skips on the left foot, she loses her balance and falls again. She clearly knows how to fall right, and she does so without any damage, but sees you as she once again pulls herself to her feet.

"Cribbage. Evaluating my fitness? Guess I forgot to put up the privacy screens."

Rich

[Ksenia]

She's got the quickness, but there's a point where she loses the rhythm. Interesting. I wonder why, she normally seems so focused and exacting. "Hey cap, didn't want to bother you. Heard you fall and came to check."

Then I can't help but offer, "Did you fall with your left foot the first time, too?"

WPTunes

"Frak yes. Always the left foot. The deformity in my left inner ear is different from the right, the doctor says. Keep with the balance exercises, the doctor says. The upgraded firmware needs to learn, the doctor says. Frak the doctor. Watch this."

The Captain stands on her right foot for 60 seconds without wavering. Firm as a gymnast. Left foot, though, with essentially mirrored physical indicators as to muscle use and support, she lasts 20 seconds before she starts to topple and has to bring her other foot down.

"Doctors."

Rich

[Ksenia]

I watch her display. "Yeah, I hear you, cap. I don't have any headware, but the phantom signals the doctors tell me don't exist can really frak me up sometimes." I cross my arms, feeling the cold steel of my right elbow joint, "It's like, just once, I would like to meet a doc with some cyber, see if they feed me the same bullshit."

WPTunes

"Amen." She coils the rope, sits in her chair and invites you in. "So... you show me yours, I'll show you mine. I suspect what you see is not all you get for us both."

Rich

[Ksenia]

I give Zoo a head shake of agreement, but in my head, there's a bit of worry. Of course I won't flinch, it's not like I'm going to wimp out. Nothing I can do about my body now, so no use whining or being shy.

I close the door to the cockpit, since, you know, I'm about to strip down. Could look suspicious. There's no way I'm trying to seduce Zoo, but I'm sure Sanchez would give me shit for the rest of the mission if he saw this.

Once I've shut and locked the door, I peel off my top. Nothing dramatic or sexy, I just pull it up and over. Took me a week and a half to get that down with my new arm. Yeah, really. Since I'm in "show and tell" mode, I go ahead and pull off the sports bra as well, stand there topless for a moment.

It's frakking cold in here! My left nip stands at attention, which is not my fault. I hold my cyberarm up and slightly out, so you can see the joint. It's a beautiful piece of machinery, really. I run my left hand along the elbow down to the shoulder joint, "Like you saw at the dinner, which was incredible by the way, my arm can be removed. It isn't easy, but it's handy sometimes."

My hand runs down the joint to the horrid waste of skin along my side. It's a train wreck of burned, mangled and grafted skin, the color of angry red and gray swirls. I call it my pizza side, mostly as a defense mechanism, one psyche doctor told me, "I was hit all along my right side. The blast just about blew me in half." I don't bother to point out how my right breast is also burned pretty badly, too.

"This here," I show her my bio-port, "Is my bio port. This is where physical waste can be extracted, normal stuff that mixes in with human waste that I can't, you know, get rid of like most people."

I look at her, then say with a slightly apologetic tone, "Food doesn't come out this way, though. Which is why I made an early exit." I gesture over my tummy, which despite the burns and scars on the right side, is tight and muscular. I have a three and a half pack, I told Ylldel once when she saw me getting out of the shower. "I has some alien shrapnel in my abdominal cavity, caused sepsis and a host of other nasty shit, so they pretty much scooped out my guts and replaced it with all the latest enhancements. I have a kind of stomach pouch here," I point to a place below my breastbone, "But it is tiny. And the food doesn't go anywhere, just collects until I, ah, evacuate." I shrug. I'm done being shy at this point. It's actually oddly nice just talking about this shit with Zoo.

"I've got cool shit with my legs, but I want to know about your gear, Cap." I cross my arms, shift my hips and wait for her to show me hers.

WPTunes

Ksenia, Zoo listens and watches with interest, making those little nonverbal "go-ahead" grunts that indicate the depth of her attention. She smiles when you mention your abrupt exit of the previous night.

When you finish, she says, "I'm afraid that, aside from the headpiece, my modifications are more subtle. Nevertheless, she strips down the top of her coveralls and you notice for the first time a fine trace of silver lines making a spiderweb down her torso. Under most circumstances, in most light, you wouldn't notice unless you were looking for it.

"In addition to the ears, supplemental nerve pathways, both at the surface and throughout the body. Paid for by a malpractice settlement from a botched attempt at therapy when I was 18 months old. Of course, they couldn't install it until I mostly stopped growing. Advantage to that was that the settlement had over 22 years to accrue interest, so I got the best, and plenty left in the account for maintenance."

Rich

[Ksenia]

Wow, she wasn't kidding about subtle. I step closer, fingers of my left hand moving towards those silver lines. "Do you mind?" I ask softly, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable, but I'm drawn to touch the lines. I want to know what it feels like. Is it cool to the touch or did she get thermal matching circuits? For all my derision about my cyberwear, a nice replacement does look flash, that's no lie.

I like how the lines sprout out like vines from a tree, stemming from her spinal cord. It's more art than science, in presentation. "This is beautiful stuff, Cap."

WPTunes

She shrugs amiably when you ask permission. After you trace a few of the subtle silvery lines she takes your hand in hers and brings it to the base of her skull. There, just below the notch, is a slight bulge. "Bio-battery. My reflexes are good to start, but when I need it, I can kick into turbo for a few minutes, juice my reflexes way up. Like for a bad landing, or evading debris. I pay for it after."

This moment is so intimate. You are both partly undressed, examining each other so openly. Her hand is still there on yours where you cradle the back of her head as if she was an infant. For just a flash, her head leans back into your hand and her deep brown eyes meet yours, hold them.

You compliment her enhancements. Softly, she responds, "Thank you."

Rich

[Ksenia]

My face grows hot but I barely notice it. This is the first time I've been close to anyone since I held Mei on that alien ship. I don't flinch away from her, still holding her head with my left hand, my flesh hand that sends nice sensations back of how smooth her skin is around that battery. She reminds me of Lana, right now.

"I wish my work made me... as beautiful as you, Cap." The words just flow out of my mouth, I don't even have a filter right now. My head's swirling with thoughts of jealousy and arousal.

WPTunes

"Beautiful?" The fingertips of her other hand brush the rough, ridged, red and gray skin of your right torso. "Have you read Rumi? He said, 'The wound is the place where the Light enters you.' I wonder how much Light must've entered you, Ksenia."

Rich

[Ksenia]

It's unexpected, the touch. I can't actually feel her touch, the skin there has no nerves. The Corps never saw a need to fix that part of me. But the act of it, the knowledge that I'm letting someone touch me there, not a doctor or a nurse, but a real live person who is doing it with my full knowledge. I am speechless for a very long moment.

My eyelids flutter, finally, my body responds. I open my mouth slowly, like I'm wresting control of my jaw from that moment in amber, "I... I've never. Read Rumi." I manage to stammer, still looking in her soft, brown eyes. I glance up, mentally tracing a line where the metal seems to flow from her over her ears, across her crown. She's a work of art.

I'm a frakking robotic load lifter.

The moment flits away like a squirrel darting up a tree, leaving behind just the rustling tree limbs. I gently lift her head back, pull my hand away. I don't snatch it away, and the mix of her skin's warmth and the coolness of the steel on her body remains lingering on the tips of my fingers. I hope it doesn't fade for a while.

I break eye contact, looking away. I don't move her hand off me, even though my instincts are telling me I should do that, right now. Right frakking now, and get some damn clothes on. Someone could come in on us, what the hell am I thinking?

Instead, I look down, at her bellybutton, my head angled so I can't see any part of me in my peripheral vision. She has an outie. It's adorable.

WPTunes

You watch her bellybutton move in and out for several long breaths before she removes her hand from your torso. She brings it to your chin, lifting it so that her eyes and yours meet again. Hers are deep and brimming with sympathy and her own pain. Her hand moves away slowly as she looks toward the console at the pilot's station. She blows out a slow breath.

"Much as I regret it, I have a ship to run, even in FTL. Time to check in with Dinah before she gets impatient and hails me."

She shrugs back into the top of her coverall. "To be continued?"

Rich

I don't fight her when she pulls my chin up. I get a delirious thrill when my brain screams SHE IS GOING TO KISS ME in excitement, then some other voice in my head trembles with fear Oh shit, she is going to kiss me. But no kisses. Thankfully, no kisses.

It tails off when I feel her sympathy. I don't want that, why is she feeling sorry for me? Oh, probably the whole thing you've done since you walked in here, dumbass. This is why it's good to stay strong and keep them at arm's distance. Damn, I still feel light-headed.

I watch her dress, still mute. She needs to get back to work. Work, I have work to do. Clearing my head finally. I clear my throat, nod, then move quick to fetch my clothes, dressing with my back to her. She asks me if I want to continue, but I have no words for that. "Maybe" sounds shitty, but it's the closest thing to truth.

I manage a noncommittal grunt, then completely unrelated to her question, I say, "Thanks, Cap. I'll leave you to it." Open the hatch and go. I think I need a cold shower.

WPTunes

Ksenia, you may not have nerve endings in the skin Zoo touched, but there's a lingering sense of light pressure, even after you dress and leave the cockpit. For hours, even, a phantom sensation not born of cyberware.

WPTunes

--End Scene--