Consciousness comes to me slowly. First I hear the noise of the heart monitor beside me. Then the smells of the room flow through my nostrils. Finally I shoot up in the bed and stretch my arms out wide before laying back down and lifting up the top of the bed and looking around the room. The door is closed and the blinds are drawn. I look at the TV on the wall which is displaying Robocop but had long been muted by my twin who was now sleeping on the chair beside my bed.
On the couch is my mother. She is sleeping in the fetus position with a blanket draped over her body, whether it had been placed by a kind nurse who had been walking past or by herself because she knew she was going to fall asleep, I didn't know. I went over and gently tapped her on the shoulder. Jemina flinched slightly before opening her eyes and looking at me in amazement.
"Atchaco." She said cupping my face with her hands. I hold her hand and nod slowly. "Are you feeling any better?" Her voice has some concern in it but I don't know why. She takes my arm and helps me get back into bed, placing the blanket back on me. I don't notice that my legs are made of metal.
"A little tired." I say shrugging my shoulders, leaning back in the bed and placing my head on the soft, welcoming pillow.
"That's to be expected." She tells me. "Even with your metabolism you still won't have completely burned through the sedative and therefore will still be tired. Now as promised I'll tell you what happened. Well that's if you still want me to."
"I do mum, I really do."
"Well in that case let me tell you what happened." She sighed. "I was at home cooking lunch when I got a fanatic phone call from Ashêanna. She told me that you were in an accident and were gravely injured. To the extent she did not know. She said that you were both being flown to the hospital in an air ambulance and that's what the background noise was. I was so scared. I couldn't lose you, not after I lost your father. I just couldn't.
"Ashêanna told me that she couldn't talk about it anymore, that it was too heartbreaking so she told me the address which I wrote down and then hung up the phone. I then went and told Lenzonia and Jimch what had happened and they were as devastated as I was. We all packed some clothing for about a week and headed over to the hospital. I stayed with Ashêanna for a bit before a doctor came out with a sad expression.
"I expected the worst so when he told him that you were indeed alive I was so excited. The happiness died down when he told me that he needed my permission to amputate your legs. I asked him what would happen if we didn't so when I found out that you could die if we didn't I told him that he had my permission. I'm sorry."
"Don't be." I reassured her. "You did nothing wrong. If me not having my legs means that I can live then I'm all for it. I always would be. You can replace my limbs but you can't replace my life. Now is there anything else that you're not telling me?"
"Yes." Jemina nodded. "Then a problem arises. You had gone blind, your body was not responding to light or to anything for that matter. We did a scan to find out what had caused it as you had previously woken up during an operation and your eyes were working. All the nerves, all the veins, all the arteries, all of if in your eye was destroyed. They told me about this new experimental procedure they could do to return your sight. I told them to do it.
"That operation was quick in being done and we saw some progress after a few days. Then you didn't wake up. Your heart was failing, so was your liver and kidneys. When Asheanna found she told them that she was a viable organ donor because she was your twin and I gave them permission to let her be a donor. Ashêanna saved your life. Obviously she couldn't give you her heart. You were given a more sophisticated type of pacemaker. Especially made so that it could be compatible with your enhanced metabolism.
"The last thing the doctors did was put in metal implants to support your body as it was no longer able to support itself. The one on your chest is external as your body wouldn't be able to handle it being internal. The one we used to fix your jaw and skull is also external but with the fact it is made of nanites, if you concentrate hard enough you can look completely human. Do you want to see?"
I nod my head and mum helps me stand up and I go and look into the full length mirror that had been brought into my room. My legs were made of such a dark brown metal that it was almost black. You can see some red, pulsing lines flow through the legs in a lovely pattern. My chest was more detailed. The center admitted a bright red glow, two lines flowed from the top of the circle all the way up my neck before disappearing around my neck. The other lines on my body all pointed to my center, the powercore and heart of my body.
But that wasn't the most interesting part of my body. Nor was it the incredibly designed jaw that felt perfect to the touch. No, it was the blood red eyes that I had. They contrasted very well against my actual skin and in the middle of each there was a white dot which after a little bit of testing I realized were my pupils.
"Hello ma'am." A voice said, catching me off guard. Mum saw this and laughed before slowly leaving the room and standing outside the door. So she knew who this person was, not that they were in the room, so I could trust them, I think. "I am your Artificial Intelligence or AI. One of my main functions is to make sure that you can see, my mind translating the computer code from the cameras that make up your eye into images for your brain. I also make sure that no one brings harm to you and that you are okay."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm okay right now." I replied. "Just was caught a little off guard there. Anyway, nice to meet you. So you give me my sight, I owe you big time."
"I need no reward, ma'am. Serving you and helping you is what I am programmed to do." They replied, I still have no idea where the voice actually comes from. I think it might just be fed to my audio input
"You need a name." I tell them. "Also what are your pronouns so I don't just say They/Them all the time, unless they are your pronouns. Wait, do you even have a gender?"
"I do not have a gender but I believe I do have a masculine voice so I think I would be considered male. To make it easy just have my pronouns as He/Him. Am I right in saying that yours are They/Them and you identify as Genderfluid."
"I am. Also can I call you Triton, I think it suits you."
"Of course mistre. Are you feeling masculine or feminine today? I can change the colours of your bionics or your body shape to accommodate how you feel."
"Well that is impressive, also I am feeling feminine today. Also call them cybernetics, not bionics." Suddenly my body becomes a little slimer and my shoulders less broad. "Cool." I say and then I realise that my voice is a little higher, still recognisable as mine but more feminine and softer. "Thank you." I tell Triton and I hear a soft you're welcome come from inside my head. That's when I realized that my cybernetics was a burgundy colour rather than the red that it was previously.
I see my mum walk into the room and she places her hand on my shoulder. "So I see you have seen what your AI can do."
"His name is Triton mum, also isn't it cool. Instead of just dressing the way I feel I can change my body to have a masculine figure or a feminine one as well as the colour of my cybernetics themselves."
"I know it is very cool. Now what would you like to eat from the cafe or would you just like to have your food that is brought to you."
"Well that depends, what's on the menu for today's food?"
"Tomato and Lentil soup with cheese and ham panini." I stare at her with a look of hunger and satisfaction on my lips. "Food that comes to your room then." I nod. "Do you want me to leave or to stay?"
"Stay mum." I yawn and mum walks up to me and helps me get settled back in my bed. "You think you can find an interesting movie to watch? The Space Between Us or Geostorm perhaps?" She laughs. "What, they are my favorite movies and you know that."
"Yes I do." She sat down on the chair beside my bed with her blanket over her body and I was cuddled in mine. Not that long after Jemina had left to get something to eat and see where everyone else was. By the time the nurse came to give me my meal I had already fallen back to sleep and knowing how much I needed to sleep they just gave me another IV bag of everything I needed and left me peacefully, turning off the lights and quietly closing the blinds and closing the door.
YOU ARE READING
Macanese
Science Fiction"It's not like you have to save the world." That's what mum told me after dad died. Now I wish someone could tell me that now because it looks like I do have to save the world.
