Chapter Text
“Hey!” I call out. “One of you, wake up!”
I hear a murmur from one of the beds.
“Eye movement detected.” The voice chimes again. I watch as the robotic arms swivel over to something fussing under the blanket.
It sounds feminine, if a little gruff. But not like the lifeless emulation of a voice coming from the speakers. An actual other human. At least I’m not alone in …whatever’s going on.
“What is two plus two?” The robot questions the moving blanket. Then fingers curl over the hem and push forward, revealing a woman’s face. Long brunette drapes around her face, contrasted by her clearly caucasian complexion. She’s groggy and slurring like I was.
She makes a kind of swatting motion and mumbles some more, clearly still fighting sleep. I considered addressing her myself, but figured I’d give her some time to wake up.
“What’s two plus two?” The computer asks my cabin buddy.
“Hhggmm” She gurgles.
“Incorrect. What is two plus two?” The computer asks again.
“Four.” I answer for her, keeping my eye on the robotic arm’s motions.
“Correct.”
I laugh. Man, for a thing meant to keep us alive, it can be tricked quite easily. Perhaps it was just looking for an input. Any input will do.
“What’s the cube root of eight?” The computer continues.
I hesitate. I want to answer but it’s clear these questions have a purpose. Or I can at least reason that now my drug induced fog seems to be fading. If I answer for this lady …what? I’ll have a harder time knowing if she has brain damage?
“Fffffooourrrrr” The woman responds, rolling her “r”. Huh. She sounds Russian, or Eastern Europea-
Wait why am I focused on that? She answered wrong!
Or …she had a delayed reaction due to the drugs and I should shut my piehole. … My piehole? Am I American? With a Russian on board? Oh boy.
“Incorrect. What is the cube root of eight?”
The woman wiggles in a fashion that I imagine is her trying to shake the sleep off. She looks like a baby fussing in a crib. Which is a weird thought to have now that I mention it.
Do I have a kid? Did I leave a child behind from wherever I am? Maybe I had no choice? Maybe it was the end of the world and I had to do this?
Huh. Sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. I should try to keep to facts until I can establish more-
“Ttttwoo.” She struggles against the blanket, barely covering her modesty at this point. I look away but keep her in the corner of my eye to try and maintain her dignity.
The idea of looking at a woman’s naked body, even in this weird scenario seems to send my nerves shot. Hmm, likely heterosexual. Well it’s not like that really matters right now but I’ll pocket it for later.
“Correct.” The computer says, warily motioning it’s hands above her. It almost looks like it’s preparing to square up to fight, or maybe stop her from ripping out the tubes in the woman’s body. The fricken hurt when I did it, I’d rather that not be a repeated incident.
She seems distressed. I mean of course she’s distressed, she woke up in a weird room, like me. Whether she has her memory or not …well, I could figure that out if I talk to her.
I tie my blanket around my waist then gingerly walk over to her, keeping my eyes on the robot arms in case they decide it’s not time for the patients to fraternise yet.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s not trying to hurt you.” I say, unsure of myself but desperate to say something comforting. The woman’s eyes flutter open, focusing on me. She looks confused, frightened and distrusting. All emotions I understand completely.
“Wwwherrre…” She sputters through the breathing mask, struggling to catch her breath to speak.
“I don’t know. I woke up shortly before you.”
That clearly didn’t reassure her, but she closed her eyes again so either she’s calmer than I was, or got too sleepy to stay awake.
____________________________
I wait for the woman to wake back up. While I do, I check the other bed. There’s an older asian man lying there. Motionless for all but his chest which slowly rises up and down.
Clearly he’s alive, just having a harder time waking up. That will happen with older people. Their bodies find it harder to recover from things. Coma is no exception.
Well at least I think it’s a coma. I don’t seem to have any scars so if I was injured it couldn’t have been external.
I’m weak, and feel heavy. So maybe I’m sick? But I don’t feel typical symptoms of sickness. I’ll have to check on the others when they’re up.
In the meantime, I work my way over to the ladder that leads to another room I presume.
It takes all of my strength to pull myself up the rungs. Then the hatch is even more of a challenge. But I get it open!
“What is your name?” The robot asks.
Damn it, this again. Our robot nanny has been asking for my name for a while now. I wrack my brain but I still can’t remember. Perhaps something will jog my memory behind this hatch?