First of Her Kind Part 2

Beep. Beep. Beep. a bright light shone in the young woman’s eyes. She tried to turn her head away but it wouldn’t move.

“How’s it going?” a male voice asked.

“Vitals are steady,” a woman replied. “The nanobots are working quickly.”

The girl became aware of a presence near her. A sharp, tugging sensation in the bend of her elbow drew a gasp from her.

“What was that?” the woman asked.

“She gasped,” the man answered.

The light overhead shifted and the girl was able to open her eyes. A man with brown hair and wire framed glasses stood over her, his green eyes shining eagerly.

“Adam?” he said cautiously.

The girl’s eyes darted around, looking for the source of the other voice. A pale, blonde woman came into her line of sight.

“Adam,” the woman said gently. “Do you understand us?”

The girl, Adam must have been her name, blinked rapidly. Her mouth couldn’t, or wouldn’t move.

“You shouldn’t be awake yet, sweetheart,” the man said. “Your body is very damaged.”

Adam tried to lift her head but again, nothing moved.

“We’ve given you a paralytic agent,” the man said. “If you moved right now, you could hurt yourself more. Just, try to relax.” He looked at the blond woman. “Let’s give her something. It’s hard to know if she’s in pain right now or not.”

She again felt the sharp, tugging sensation at her elbow, followed by a strange coldness. Moments later, her vision began to turn gray and the sounds of the machines faded out.

When Adam awoke next, she was staring into the pulsating blue of fluorescent lights. She attempted first to move her head. To her relief, her neck turned and she she was looking across a metal and plexiglass cell. She sat up, throwing her legs over the edge of a small bed. The glass sides of the room were surrounded by a curtain. A small table, a lounge chair with a tv and the bed were all that furnished the cell.

Adam stood up, her legs wobbling for a second. She staggered across the room to the table. A small tray of food and a glass of water awaited her there. Cautiously, she sipped the water. As the first cool drop hit her lips, she realized how incredibly dry her mouth was. She eagerly drained the whole glass before turning to the food. She looked around again, half expecting the strange man and woman from earlier to be watching her from some dark corner. She selected a granola bar and munched on it as she walked the perimeter of her enclosure.

“Adam” a disembodied voice spoke from inside the cell.

Adam startled, running to one corner and searching for the source of the voice.

“It’s okay, Adam,” the voice said again. “It’s good to see you awake. Can you understand me?”

Adam thought for a long moment. “Y-yes.” She said.

Her voice felt strange in her throat, as if it wasn’t completely hers.

“Do you need more water?”

“Yes,” Adam said eagerly.

“Can I come in?”

Adam peered around the cell again. “In?” she thought about the word. As far as she could tell, the voice was coming from inside the cell. “Yes? You can…come in,” she finally answered.

A few seconds later, the curtain on one side of was drawn open. The strange woman from before was standing in front of the near invisible door that bordered the metal wall. The door opened and the woman stepped in carrying a large bottle of water. She crossed the cell, opened the bottle and set it on the table. Adam eagerly crossed to take it.

“Do you know who I am?” the woman asked softly.

Adam searched the woman’s countenance and shook her head.

“I’m Jessie,” the woman said. “I am Dr. Sheridan’s assistant.”

Adam took another long drink of water, hoping she would say or do something else that would make more sense of her situation.

Jessie seemed to be waiting for the same.

Finally Adam looked around the room. “Can I leave?”

Jessie smiled softly, “not yet. Your body has been through a great ordeal. We need to make sure you are healthy before we let you out. For your own safety.”

“My body,” Adam looked down at herself in her blue nightgown, “feels… strange.”

“We have had to alter a lot of your body,” Jessie explained. “Your vocal cords, spine, your face in a couple spots, your leg.”

Adam tried to process the information she was receiving. She didn’t remember getting hurt. It was now that she realized she didn’t remember anything. Her mind began to swim. She tried to remember anything that seemed significant. What would be significant? She thought about everything she had done so far. The water and food. She knew what the food was and she knew to drink the water from the cup.

“Adam?” Jessie stepped towards her. “Are you okay?”

“What happened to me?” Adam demanded, drawing away from Jessie. “Who are you? Why am I in here?”

“Take it easy,” Jessie said softly. “You’re in a lab. We helped you. You're here to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” Adam looked around the room, which was feeling more and more like a small box by the minute.

“You’re healing,” Jessie said. “You might hurt yourself out there.”

Adam’s gaze fell on the door behind Jessie. Without pause or thought, she bolted. Her feet carried her with astonishing speed to the door.

“Adam, no!” Jessie shouted.

Adam rounded the corner outside the box and froze. She found herself in what appeared to be a large operating theater. The clacking of Jessie’s high heels on the tile floor sent her dashing for the big metal door. It didn’t budge. Adam scoured the room for another way out. Jessie pressed a button on the wall.

“Can I get some help in here?”

Adam picked up a heavy metal tool and threw it at one of the windows, to no avail. She growled in frustration and grabbed a larger object, a large silver canister.

“NO!” Jessie jumped in front of her, grabbing hold of the canister.

Surprised, Adam froze.

“You need that,” Jessie said through gritted teeth, holding on to the canister. “Let them go.”

Adam released the canister, causing Jessie to stagger backwards. She regained her footing and held the canister to her chest.

“Look, I know you are really confused right now,” Jessie panted. “It’s normal. In fact, you are doing a lot better than any of your predecessors. If you would just, please, calm down, I will answer any of your questions.”

“What is that?” Adam demanded looking at the canister.

Jessie sighed and gently set the canister down. “I’ll show you.”

She crossed the room to a computer and opened a video file. Thousands of tiny silver cubes bustled about a pink and red mass in the middle of their swarm. The image zoomed in, as the tiny cubes extracted a piece of the pink matter, they turned the same color and began to take on a more organic form.

“What are they doing?” Adam asked.

“They are nanites,” Jessie explained. “They are sampling stem cells from your body and copying the organic makeup and function of the cells.”

“Why?” Adam asked.

“They were injected into you,” Jessie explained. “They have repaired numerous systems inside your body, including your nervous system, internal organs and spine. If anything every happens to the nanite currently living in your body. We already have a colony of them in that canister, in a sort of cryogenic state, ready to be injected back into you where they will reproduce and spread to any part of your body that you need them. They are also already adapted to the implants and prosthetics we put in you. You will never need any kind of anti rejection medication.”

Adam felt a confusion rising in her.

“Why- why do I need these?” she asked.

Jessie turned and looked at her intently. There was a sort of sadness in her eyes, mingling with the interest.

“You are the first one to ask anything like that,” Jessie confessed. “Um, it’s a long story, and it is a lot to process. You’ve got so much to deal with right now.”

“I want to know,” Adam demanded.

She hadn’t intended to sound so forceful. Jessie seemed taken aback and Adam regretted her tone immediately, though she wasn’t completely sure why. However, the questions swimming in her mind would not rest. Where was she? Why? What was she? What happened that she needed prosthetics and implants?

Jessie sighed and removed her glasses, rubbing her temples. “I need you to remain calm. I have to record this interaction.” She turned to the computer and pressed a few buttons. “Sit down.” she gestured to the exam bed nearby.

Adam nervously sat down on the edge of the paper covered bed and waited for Jessie to begin.

Jessie pressed a button on the computer key board and began speaking. “This is Dr. Jessica Amworthy, the date is October 25th. I am in the modification lab with subject Charlie-Charlie-3, AKA, Adam. We followed the same protocols as Charlie-Charlie-2, AKA, Lucian with a repeated and apparently even greater success.”

“What are you doing?” Adam asked impatiently.

Jessie raised a finger. “I need to do this in a specific way. Please be patient.”

Adam cast a glance around the room, noticing several cameras.

“Subject took advantage of an opportunity to escape her quarantine containment. I found myself in conflict with her in the modification lab. I was able to verbally deescalate the situation without the use of any safety protocols or sedatives or the aid of my colleagues.” She looked directly at the cameras intently. “Thankfully, as they seem to be otherwise engaged at the moment,” she added curtly. “The subject inquired to the contents of a canister she had attempted to throw. Engaged by her curiosity, I showed her footage of the nanites used to duplicate her stem cell functions. She has requested to be informed as to how and why she has been modified. I will begin explaining the basics of the experiment to her now.” Jessie looked at Adam.

Adam sat up intently, ready to receive answers.

“This is a scientific research facility tasked with researching the potential of advanced healing and possible resurrection through biomechanical modification,” Jessie began cautiously. “Do you understand?”

“Your combining technology and biology to heal and possibly bring people…. back to life?” Adam had a sense of realization.

“Yes,” Jessie nodded. “Exactly. It seems your vocabulary and comprehension are completely intact. That’s good.”

“Did you heal me?” Adam asked.

Jessie drew a deep breath. “Adam, we brought you back.”

For a long moment, every thought seemed to leave Adam’s mind except those words; “we brought you back.” Back? Back from…?

“Adam?” Jessie leaned forward in her chair.

“Back from death?” Adam asked.

“Yes.”

The room was silent again for a long moment. Shakily, Adam lowered herself off the bed.

“I think I’d like to go back to the quarantine room now,” she said. “You were right. I need more time.”

Jessie nodded and walked quietly with Adam back to her cell.

“Do you want more food?” Jessie asked gently.

Adam shook her head numbly and stepped through the opening in the glass panel. She turned and looked at Jessie.

“I was dead?” she asked, half hoping she misunderstood.

Jessie nodded reluctantly. Adam turned and crossed to the bed on the other side of the room, sitting on the edge.

“I’ll let you have some time to process,” Jessie said.

Adam nodded again and laid down on the bed. Her mind was still ringing with the same words. “Dead. We brought you back. Resurrection.”

She didn’t even notice she was tired as sleep finally gave her mind a little peace.

The wind whipped Adam’s brown curls around as she stood on the edge of a rocky precipice. She stared down at the abyss in front of her fearlessly.

“Don’t worry, we can bring you back,” a disembodied male voice rung over the landscape.

Adam looked up into the orange and yellow of the sun rise and stepped casually off the cliff. Wind rushed in her ears as she soared downwards to an unseen landing.

“We can bring you back,” the voice sounded in her head again.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

A light bulb blinded her for a moment before she awoke to see masked faces hovering over her.

“We brought you back,” Jessie said, her blue eyes squinting with glee.

“Thank you,” Adam muttered. “I wasn’t done yet.”

“Adam?”

Adam was stirred awake by a male voice. Her eyes flew open and she sat up, looking for the source of the voice. A tired looking man stood in the middle of her cell, staring intently at her. Jessie stood at the door of the cell, no doubt hoping to prevent another escape.

“Adam?” the man spoke up again.

“Yes?” Adam said.

“Do you,” the man cleared his throat. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes,” Adam said.

There was a moment where the man’s eyes widened and posture relaxed.

“You must be Dr. Sheridan,” Adam said. “I remember Jessie mentioned you.”

“Yes,” the man said stiffly, his shoulders slumping a little. “I am John Sheridan. I wanted to come check on you. You received some difficult news.”

Adam nodded and thought for a moment, recalling her dream.

“Yes,” Adam said. “It was… shocking. But, I think I should thank you.”

“Thank us?” Dr. Sheridan’s brows furrowed as he cast a glance back at Jessie.

“Yes,” Adam stood up. “Thank you. I don’t know, I can’t even think of what might have happened to me. But, I…” a pang in her throat made her consider her next words carefully. “I am glad I am not dead.”

Dr. Sheridan and Jessie both stared for a long moment, almost as if they couldn’t beleive what they were hearing.

“That was incredibly introspective,” Jessie spoke up.

Dr. Sheridan nodded in agreement.

“You seem really surprised,” Adam observed.

“You are a delightful surprise,” Dr. Sheridan said with a light chuckle. “You are for more advanced than we could have ever predicted.”

He gestured to Jessie who disappeared and returned with two other people in lab coats all pushing carts with small cabinets on top.

“Clothes, food, some books,” Dr. Sheridan explained. “We have to do some more tests, but, I think it’s looking promising that you could move into the residence soon.”

“Residence?” Adam asked.

“We have a residential area where our more successful subjects get to live a fairly ordinary life, while still being supervised,” Jessie explained. “You will be joining Lucian, your predecessor and Evander, the most recent and most successful subject from our Delta class.”

“Are they like me?” Adam asked.

“Like you?” Dr. Sheridan asked.

“You brought them back?”

“Ah, yes,” Dr. Sheridan said. “Yes, in that respect, they are like you. Why don’t you, uh, get dressed, eat, we’ll get to the tests in a little bit.”

Adam nodded and turned to the cupboards as the lab team left. First, she thought, food.