Sister Murphy awoke in the recovery room. She opened her eyes to vision crisper and clearer than she could have ever imagined. Looking across the large surgical bay, through a glass window into the next unit, and across it, she could see the details of every wrinkle on Melock's old face. And there were clearly less than before.
She sat and pulled stiff legs up to her chest. Her keepers were there to help; one monitoring her vital signs and her body's response to their treatment, the other attending to her psychological needs.
"How do things look with your improved 20/5 vision?"
The clone held a set of curious clothing. Though he looked exactly like every other clone; silver skin, bald, middle-aged, green clothes, an occasional blue bee buzzing about him, etc., he had a way of speaking that reminded her of a servant in her late husband's court. Reginaldo had always been kind to her when she was a child bride and hearing just a hint of his reflection in the voice of the clone helped her trust them.
"Reggie, I have the eyes of the gods!"
"We've enhanced your visual acuity as far as possible given your oddly evolved eyes. Was your species once aquatic in nature?"
"I am a good swimmer."
Murphy extended her legs, dropped the sheets to the floor, and stretched naked before her clone keepers. She reached her arms high above her head and stood on the tips of bruised toes. Her skin was porcelain colored and covered in the scars and bruises of a thousand fights. Her tightly cropped red hair matched an orange triangle at her pelvis and two other outcroppings in each armpit. Her breasts were small with nipples the same pink color of her lips. The clones lacking mammal-esque traits like hair and sexual reproduction noted these traits in the same fashion they measured her height, weight, metabolic, and neural activities; with cold precision and accuracy.
Murphy felt at ease being undressed before the two men as they were doctors and she considered their whole species to be eunuchs. She bent over, revealing a scar from a nasty bite wound on her left buttock, and reached her arms down in a perfect forward fold. Placing her hands on the floor, she lifted one leg, then the other, and pressed her body into a handstand. After pointing toes at the ceiling for a minute and a half, she flipped her legs over and performed a front limber ending in a mountain pose. She squatted low, jumped six feet straight into the air, and landed silently like a cat.
"Woo!" she yelled. "My body looks the same but it sure feels different."
"We tweaked your muscle cell replication process and minorly increased the elasticity of your ligaments and the strength of your tendons. Your muscle fibers are denser, more flexible, and you'll probably feel a bit more spring in your step," said Reggie.
"That is an understatement."
"As you requested, we've introduced no new technology nor altered your genome in any way. We just helped your cells do what they do with more reliability. The vision surgery was a simple corrective procedure. Because of your age and developmental state we predict a twenty percent increase in physical health and longevity."
Reggie handed her a pair of black boyshorts which she put on and proceeded to jump around the room kicking the air. She did a one-armed cartwheel, landed next to Reggie, and punched him in the arm. He remained stoic and separated out the remainder of the garments he had brought.
"These are called Zero-G combat fatigues. They come from a humanoid species similar to your own and are readily available, though outlawed in some systems. They will absorb disruptor and conventional projectile weapon blasts and give you some protection from phasers and other energy weapons but can not negate them entirely. The helmet can be attached for spacewalks and will help regulate your body temperature in extreme environments. I chose white because of your virtuous nature."
"Thank you, Reggie. I shall not forget your kindness." she pulled on the padded pants, shirt, and jacket.
Reggie handed her the matching white grav-boots.
"These boots will help you navigate planets and ships with different gravitational configurations. They power off walking motion and won't require repair for at least a hundred of your human years."
She slipped her smashed-up feet into the form-fitting wildly comfortable boots and nearly cried.
"Reggie, I don't deserve such fine armor."
"Where you're going, I fear it will not be sufficient," said Reggie.
***
In the adjoining surgical bay, Melock was slower to recover. He floated a meter off the floor, legs crossed under him, and hands resting gently in his lap like a levitating Buddha. His eyes were closed and his head crowned with a monitoring helmet. Wires of countless colors ran out of it, trailing down to the floor. They zigzagged across the room connecting him to various computers and medical stations.
He too had keepers yet none of them spoke aloud. The team of clones adjusted instruments, monitored physical recovery, tested the limits of the wizard, and kept him informed of incoming uploads. With a tiny neural transmitter surgically placed at the center of his cerebral cortex, he was now able to communicate with the 71s using technological telepathy. He was also invited to take the mental plunge into their gargantuan quantum computing array.
In his mind, he heard, "Your implant was a success. We've reprogrammed your DNA to perform perfect cellular replication without error. You've been frozen in time, physically speaking. Natural aging is over for you. We've enhanced your muscles and though you look like an older human, you have the physique of an athlete. Your vision is already spectacular and we are studying why you are able to see in the dark."
"I once gave the witch of fate a replacement eye after she plucked her's out during a ritual. In return, she granted me night vision. It's that magic you boys refuse to believe in," said Melock with his mind.
The clones could not understand why he called them boys, as they were clearly born adult men and any random sampling of clones would be more than a thousand years old on average. It was also clear to them that this strange little man held secrets of the universe that even a species as grand and far-reaching as themselves had yet to discover. They understood that any significantly advanced technology would appear as magic to a species that had no understanding of it. They were scientists and they would apply their method of discovery to this wizard's magic.
YOU ARE READING
Space Wizards
Science FictionUsually, they say not to judge a book by its cover but....
