Slipspace

I didn’t sleep but a bare hour that night. Nerves and excitement kept me awake and almost vibrating with pent up energy. Rather than even trying, I just plugged my interface into the room’s viewer. I didn’t want to watch any shows or play games for fear of waking up the sleeping Echo, but I did take the opportunity to send a text-based message to Captain Blackburn, my former mentor, updating him on everything going on. I had no doubt the man had heard the news, but I knew he would appreciate hearing it straight from me.

What started as a letter ended up being most of an essay though, as I found myself sharing some of my personal feelings about everything going on, along with a significant chunk just talking about the loss of my precious Oxide. Jay was as close to a father figure I’d ever had and he had always let me confide in him before, even if I had been nervous about telling him about my hidden identity.

At some point during the night I also ran across a message from Mister Yates, the lawyer I was working with. The date for Kruger’s trial had been set, though it was going to be more than a month out. I looked forward to it still, though, possibly almost as much as I was for my process at the institute to finish. My heart still burned for vengeance against that slimeball.

Included in the same message was the trial for Connor Davis, the poor sap that Kruger had convinced to do his dirty work. As it stood, I still hated the guy’s guts for what he did, but I also somewhat sympathized with him.  Just like me, Davis had been an exploited employee, just trying to make ends meet. That didn’t excuse knowingly participating in sabotage, but I could at least kinda understand the reasoning.

I did my best to avoid the negativity after that message. This was my special day and I didn’t want to let anything ruin that. When oh-six-hundred hours (local time) came, I carefully climbed into my wheelchair and engaged the motor to take me to the bistro for some food, at least for Echo. With the procedure coming up, I couldn’t eat anything too solid.

The cafeteria was still closed for another hour, but I needed to do something to keep the nerves at bay. I might not have really needed to eat, but Echo would and surprising her with a meal to wake up to sounded nice after the awkward end to the previous night.

The bistro was just about a ghost town when I arrived, only a couple of residents in a back corner and a lone employee in a lab coat sipping coffee while working on a slate. A cook was back in the kitchen though, and a bell chime alerted him as I pulled up to the counter.

“Mornin’, what can I do ya for?” The man’s accent was strange, but I managed to piece together what he was asking.

“A bowl of changua, if you don’t mind. Maybe some hot tea to go with it?” The man nodded. It wasn’t ten minutes later that a tray was provided, bearing a large bowl of steaming milk and egg soup sprinkled with fragrant tomato and cilantro. A small loaf of crusty bread also sat on the tray along with a tea service for two. After peeking at my wheelchair, the cook whistled at a wall until a small robot wheeled out of a cubby. “Take this tray to the guest’s rooms.”

In the same odd accent, the chef told me, “Looks like yous could use the help.”

I sighed, but accepted the gesture without responding. I hated being crippled as I was. But it was finally the day where that particular issue was going to be resolved. If there was one thing I had learned over the last several weeks, though, it was that I didn’t give disabled people enough credit. They lived in a society that was not built for them and managed to make do anyways. In my head, that made them even stronger than any body builder.

The bot followed me back through the halls to the temporary residency wing and into my quarters. It rose up on its treads and gently placed the tray on the table inside. Without even thinking of it, I thanked the machine and watched it roll back out of the room, presumably back to the bistro.

I gingerly reached out and rang the chime for Echo’s room and then rolled back to the table to move the plates off the tray and to the table proper. A cup of tea was poured and I allowed myself to simply sit, waiting for my companion.

The youngest Erickson came out into the common area a few minutes later, wearing sleep shorts and a familiar-looking red tank top. Her hair was a mess and I giggled at her overall appearance even while my heart clenched longingly.

“Morning, sleepyhead. I got breakfast for us.”

Through lidded eyes, Echo’s gaze landed on me and she mumbled something that sounded vaguely like a “Thanks” before plopping down in a chair to consume the soup. After several bites and a sip of the tea that I poured her, Callisto seemed to gain a bit more consciousness. She blinked several times and then looked at me.

“Vacation schedule got me fuuccked…”

I snorted in laughter. “You’d better get readjusted to your ship schedule quick once we go back. Don’t want to disappoint Daddy.”

Echo mumbled again, this time with a touch of embarrassment. “I’ll be fine. Just remember that it won’t be long before we put you back to work too.”

A pleased hum sounded from my throat. “Absolutely, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m getting real tired of sitting around on my ass, not that I have much option lately.” She shrugged and I continued. “I really do look forward to it though. Even if I am just doing some flying around the docks, it looks like there will be plenty of work, and I’ve got plenty of experience with it. I never much liked it before, but I also didn’t have a good boss before. I can handle it until the captain decides what to do with me going forward.”

She smiled, the food bringing a touch more life into her face. “Yeah. Good morning though, Addy. You excited?”

“Couldn’t hardly sleep!” I responded. “Ended up awake most of the night. Played a couple quiet games and sent some messages out, but otherwise just daydreamed, well, night dreamed?”

Echo took a hunk of the crusty bread and dipped it. “Is good soup, thanks for getting it for me. As for the sleeping? Yeah, I get it. I didn’t sleep much the night before either. It took until Mum spiked my tea with a sleeping draught to get me to get more than a few minutes at a time.” The bread crunched as she took a bite.

I chuckled. “You know, I’ve never been one for stress eating, but I really wish I could be stuffing my face too, even if only as something to do to pass time. I guess I’ll have to wait, though.”

With a look of someone who knew a funny fact and wanted to share it, my incredibly attractive friend pointed her spoon at me.

“It would be a mess if you did though. Once brain functions stop, all of the muscles in a body relax all at once. Your old shell would quite literally shit itself in the tank once things progress past a certain point, probably will anyways. Docs want to reduce that as much as they can.” She snickered.

“Of course, the reason they actually tell people is because they are limiting the sensory changes between shells. There are additional brain signals and stuff they have to wrestle with if you are actively digesting, could disturb the delicate process or whatever.”

My face took on a look of skepticism. “Shouldn’t you know all of this, Miss College Graduate?”

“Do I look like a medical doctor to you, Addy? I was there for business, not medicine.” Echo’s free hand reached over and lightly smacked my shoulder. She was still smiling though so I knew I hadn’t said something bad.

Playing up my background, I made a dumb face. “How would I know what kind of classes are involved? I’m just an orphaned backwater bumpkin. I never got fancy schooling like you.”

Like the mature adult she was, Echo stuck her tongue out at me. I blew raspberries back at her and we both devolved into a silly, giggling mess.

The two of us continued our antics for a bit longer and it really helped me at least push back the doubts and energy burning in my mind. I was grateful to the Erickson heiress for getting me out of the funk that had suffused me all night. There were several moments over the next few hours where I caught myself just staring at her.

This girl had been in my life for less than two months, and yet I knew that everything had changed in that time. She was not only drop-dead gorgeous, Callisto Erickson was intelligent, kind, and confident. We shared a lot of interests, similar dreams, tastes in media. Despite our vastly different backgrounds, I related to her in ways I had never related to anyone else. I knew that I loved Captain Blackburn in a mentor/student way. I loved Vox as my closest confidante. Echo though? She had already become something entirely different. A memory sprang to mind.

My former captain had told me once, after I made some negative comments about not having been in any relationships like so many of the other crew on the Forge, “I’ve found that, more often than not, people will come into your life most unexpectedly. You never know when it is going to happen. There’s no shame in not wanting to be with someone, regardless of who that person might end up being. But, if you do want to have a partner sometime down the road, be patient. You’ll know when the time comes.”

I’d never believed him before, but I was quite suddenly acutely aware of the truth in his words. That realization nearly took my breath away as I looked at the girl across from me. Safety and stability had always been my goal in life, but Echo added something new, something possibly just as important. Echo was adding comfort, adding light. And now that I was aware of the existence of such things, I suddenly wasn't sure I could live without it anymore.

‘After the procedure’, I promised myself. ‘After that, I’ll ask her. I have to try.’

Sooner than I anticipated, the call came in that the doctors were ready for me. For one last time, I wheeled myself out of our rooms and to the center of the medical complex. Echo was right beside me the whole way.

The room we were pulled into was much darker than the others in the institute. In the center of the area, illuminated by a single overhead light, was the jewel of the Celeste Institute. Literal billions of credits had gone into the construction of this miracle of science. A truly enormous central computer pagoda dominated the room with thousands of wires and cables carefully tied up and out of the way of the workers that crawled around it. To either side were two large cylindrical tanks, which I knew to be the sensory deprivation tanks used for the transference. One tank was already closed, its passenger awaiting the procedure. The other laid open, the dark water and wires inside awaiting the patient, me.

Doctor Hayes herself was at a console to one side of the room, tapping at the display. She looked up to see us come in and stepped over.

“Well, Miss Matson, are you ready? It’s your big day.” Her tone was pleasant and her face showed real care.

I gulped. “As ready as I can get. I’ve been dreaming about this since I first learned of the research that became this entire program. I wasn’t sure I would ever get here.”

The doctor nodded understandingly. “I may not be using it myself yet, but this was my dream too. All of the diseases that were always incurable, all of the lives needlessly lost to industrial accidents, so many of them can be saved with this machine. I hope that one day, this will become much more widely available. In the meantime, we simply must use the money we get to advance the technology until we can safely expand its use.”

It would be incredible if the institute could make good on that dream. Some people wouldn’t be able to benefit from the process, to be sure. For some, their neural patterns were simply too complex to transfer properly. For others, they were comfortable and content with how they were. For those like myself though, this machine, this process, it represented a second chance at life that traditional methods simply couldn’t match.

“Ah well,” began the doctor again. “No use dreaming of the future when, for you, the future is now. Let’s get you prepped, Miss Matson.”

The next minutes were filled with wires, sensor pads, and the unpleasant smells of temporary adhesive and biogel. I was changed out of the loungewear I wore and into a pair of flimsy shorts and a simple hospital gown. All of the remaining tech I had implanted in my body was shut down entirely to avoid any interference.

Doctor Hayes caught me after I finished changing. “Before you get in, would you like to take a look at your transference vessel or would you prefer to keep it as more of a surprise?”

Despite being built using patient-provided templates, the bodies built by the institute rarely matched up exactly. Due to variances in bioconstruction, genetic drift, cyberware augments, and many other factors, the final product usually had several differences from the template. I was excited, but I liked the element of surprise so my answer to her was a solid “Thanks but no.”

With the assistance of a couple of the technicians, I climbed into the open pod. The gel within was warmed to skin temperature so the sensation of slipping into its embrace was incredibly odd. It was definitely a feeling, but not one I could really describe effectively. Carefully, I lowered myself deeper into the pod until I was in a mostly reclined position, only my head still entirely exposed to the low light of the room.

Beside me, Echo silently stood, watching as the technicians and doctors completed preparations.

With an air of finality, Doctor Hayes stepped to the other side of me, holding the final piece of the halo array that allowed the machine to do its eldritch work. “It’s time.”

I nodded but my companion held a hand up. “Just a sec, doc.” I turned to look at her with a bit of confusion but was unable to voice it before the girl looked back down at me. Her hand came down to take my own and she took a deep breath.

“I’ll see you on the other side, alright Addy? I’ll be right here when you wake up.” My head nodded numbly.

While keeping eye contact with me as best she could, Echo leant down in an obvious repeat of the night before. Again, I drew back slightly. “I don’t look right yet though…”

Without missing a beat, Callisto whispered back at me. “It isn’t your body I am attracted to, Adresta. It’s you.” That said, the girl finished her lean and placed a gentle kiss on my forehead. “You are already beautiful, Addy, this is just going to help you feel it.”

A shiver raced down my spine as my eyes began to mist. One last smile graced Echo’s face before she backed away to allow Doctor Hayes to continue.

At the doctors order, everyone in the room began filing out so that the procedure could begin. When the last of the techs had slipped out through the door, she pushed the halo onto my head and connected all of the associated wires.”

“You’ve got a good one there, hun. Don’t let her get away.”

Almost as much to myself as in response to the doctor, I whispered, “I don’t plan on it.”

She smiled at me. “Good.” A few more wires connected and she checked a status readout. “Alright, last chance to back out. Are you ready to do this?”

My lungs filled with air. All of the dysphoria I had experienced came to mind.

I exhaled. All of the unspoken wishes of my childhood replaced the darkness.

Another deep breath. Thoughts of a better future, of days spent in happiness, any remaining doubts were swept from my heart.

“I’m ready.”

A slight hiss sounded out from the pod. A mouthpiece was given to me. “Just breathe then,” Doctor Hayes told me. “That’s all you have to do now.”

Then the pod closed and I was alone. No sound, no smell, no sight, no taste, even the sensation of weight faded as systems came online. There was only the light of the approaching future to give me company, but that was enough.