(((Here is an image of what Nurse now looks like. I don't own the image and am just using it as a character guide for later when I can hire an artist to create story art. I changed her eyes to match what I needed. The creator happens to be an amazingly talented artist on ArtStation by the name of Mandy Jurgens. You can see more of her artwork here: https://www.artstation.com/aliena85)))
*****
"You look like a fish gasping for air out of water." Nurse said after several seconds of me just standing there staring at her.
I quickly closed my mouth, still unable to formulate words to express what was going on inside me.
Was this good? Heck if I knew. I couldn't get past the fact that I just almost burned out my entire swarm and lost everything all in one fell swoop. As far as I understood it, my swarm bridged critical parts of the innards of the Tela technology that kept their environment and digital selves running. My swarm acted as a safety check for me, making sure that nothing got in or out of the Tela-based system without the oversight of Nurse. Had my swarm all died, then I might as well have tucked my head between my knees and kissed my butt goodbye. The fact that I hadn't noticed any interruption in VR was a testament to just how dedicated my swarm was at serving me.
"After you set a boundary around Meditati, I had to quickly move your AIs into remote storage inside your old Personal Live Matrix, lest they get deleted by the foreign mess that you were extracting. Since it is something manifest, almost like data in a way, the Personal Live Matrix tries to store it, as though it was simply a part of you even though it can't make heads or tails of it. As far as I can tell, it might be science on a whole new level. Tela technology might not be able to fully handle whatever it is." Nurse said as she read my mind, keeping up with my inner dialog without forcing me to blurt it all vocally.
"So, is Jenna, ok?" I asked, remembering about the little girl who was currently being doctored by one of my Nurse.
"Yes, we were in VR time so her mind wouldn't have felt a change. The swarm inside her body and mind is working at helping the body heal, not replacing her body with itself. If we had been, then she would have had some serious issues."
"Whew, good," I said as I blinked at the young woman in front of me.
"Oh? Are you still thinking about this?" She said as she spun in place, seeming more alive and human than I had ever found Nurse to be. Her dress floated up a little to show her legs and knees. She was barefoot and had a ready sparkle in her eye as she watched me.
"Yeah, sorry, it is too soon to fully get that image out of my mind."
"No, I wouldn't think so with all those changes you just endured as well as having a drone's permanent memory." She said with her head tilted to the side as she looked at me.
Her hair was dark, nearly black with little hints of lighter browns mixed in. Her face looked vaguely Middle Eastern to me. Just something about the asymmetrical features set with a prominent, yet still cute nose and two very lovely and large doe eyes. Her eye color could have been hazel, if not for the flecks of little colors that I had never witnessed in human eyes. Flecks of gold, blue crystal shards, and tiny reflections of reds.
"Are you cheating with your eyes?" I asked as I stepped forward in mesmerization. "They look like fire opals."
She simply let me look, her pouty lips slightly smiling as she kept her eyes wide for me.
"Does it matter?" She said softly as she watched me.
"No. They just look amazing, like I can get lost in them."
YOU ARE READING
The Core: The Dark Enemy
Science FictionKevin was finally home. Just not in the way that he had dreamed of returning. His family thought he had drowned and ended up in a coma after suffering brain damage. They had no way of knowing what had truly happened or what it meant for their live...
