After a short tour of his apartment to calm his guest’s nerves, she was better but still too tense to sleep. Zax didn’t want to make arrangements without Aran anyways, so he moved on to the second most urgent of her needs, a bath.
The social and leisurely aspects of ablutions were kept in the entertainment areas, so even in familial apartments, a standard water unit was only large enough for an average adult human to stand up and spread their arms. Part of his custom orders was adjusting them for taller or wider mutants like Glob. It was made to get in, let the program aim and control the water jet’s pressure, get out, with air-drying or not according to preferences.
Strange Girl wasn’t much taller than him, but her wingspan couldn’t fit inside, and even if it did there weren’t any programs adapted to actual wings. Dotters rarely had more than a coat of feather and slight deformations, and it was never much more.
They were discussing possible solutions when Aran arrived with the briefcase and a few items he thought would help: a blank bracelet, standard clothes to alter, food pills and solutions, and special toiletries for feathers. He wasn’t sure the last one would work either, but it was worth a try.
Zax made a giant washbasin as a makeshift bathtub, surrounded it with curtains to give a modicum of protection to his living room, connected to the water unit’s jets and evacuation. Whatever Strange Girl usually did to wash her body; he didn’t have the equipment or the space required. She couldn’t clean herself normally either, so they would have to do it themselves. However, while the first invlolved reluctantly agreed it was the most practical solution short of staying filthy all over, Aran was having none of it:
“She’s the most advanced mutant I’ve ever seen! You will not convince me you will be able to rein your curiosity in.” She exclaimed, starring unflinchingly at him. “I’m sure if we had walked normally, you’d have already drowned her in inappropriate questions and I don’t want to know what will happen if you can actually touch her body.”
“I met Residents not that long ago and I have yet to analyse their videos. Just that will keep me busy for a while, I don’t need new data.”
“Are you saying you didn’t record everything since you met?” Her tail swished menacingly as she crossed her arms, sceptical.
“Need I remind you I don’t even have nanites in me right now?” Came the haughty answer.
“Oh, right. You didn’t try then?”
Silence.
As she had for all the joust, their visitor kept moving her head left and right, following the exchanges with embarrassment and fascination.
“Zaaax?”
“Going now.”
He knew when to cut his losses and fled the room immediately, leaving the girls alone for their business. He would deny any mention of blushing in the future.
He passed time browsing the network to try and find out more about his feathery guest, but it was a faint hope. Dot news only talked about ongoing series of strikes following the powerplant sabotage, without going in details, of course. As for news from the First Circle, they always took a lot of time to pass the border. He had never looked into the reason. All his current search told him was that the Circle didn’t appreciate admitting weakness, because they didn’t report their missing people, although not denying they had some.
I hope they are less tight-lipped between peers.
Like the girls in the other room. He couldn’t make out what they were saying through the door, but they talked a lot. Excellent, emotional support was what Strange Girl actually needed the most right now, although he wasn’t sure bonding with a dotter would help in the long term. Aran truly was a natural at making friends, and she even seemed less hesitant to make lasting bonds. Her own progress was heartwarming.
With no lead about his guest on the network and no way to leave the room, the programmer passed time by making more nanites. It was a complex and delicate process, but he was seasoned enough to do it without too much focus. He used the down times to do some more research about nanites one size below his. He had to be on point about the theory before trying his luck with the swarm he kept from the Core, or he couldn’t ascertain what to pay attention to.
There were more theoretical studies on the subject than he would have guessed, although the lack of practical examples was as expected.
He had filled all his Zax-Boxes and was in the process of making a new one when he was called back in the main room. He couldn’t help a chuckle at the heap of drenched feather that greeted him. Feathers were meant to keep water out, not to have a lot within; she looked ridiculous, and from her blush and fleeing eyes, she perfectly knew it.
“I know. How do we dry her?” Aran called again.
“Er… ah.”
He hadn’t thought about that. He didn’t have anything to dry hair. Both Aran and him used the air blower of the water unit.
“We didn’t think that through. Wait a bit, I may have something to tinker.”
His experience as a handyman came in handy, as he managed to open the water unit’s panels and change his improvised water pipes into improvised air pipes connected to the air blower. He added fans inside to help push the air over the distance and connected the blower’s controls to Aran’s and his bracelet like the faucets earlier. It would consume more energy than he was comfortable with, but he could refill fresh nanites and recharge old ones easily in his own home.
“Not ideal, but better than waiting for you to dry off. We can use that on your wings and dry the rest with the normal dryer. Or your whole body right now, how you prefer.”
“That was… impressive. How did you do that?” Strange girl let out.
She had watched Zax working with fascination, but she had held back to not bother him. He answered as Aran grabbed a wing and started to finish the treatment.
“Most of the basic shapes are pre-programmed and could be added to each other. Pipes are basically cylinders with tweaked ends to connect them.” He demonstrated by grabbing a ball of nanites and giving it various shapes through his bracelet in public screen mode. After that, he enlarged the display: “Here are basic shapes to start custom constructs. That tab here makes common objects, and you can see, the dimensions are adjustable.” He moved a slider and showed her the small wide pipe in his palm transition in a long thin straw. “For that part, the hardest is to make sure the nanites groups are properly defined and separated. You do not want to program a change somewhere and have something else move. Especially if it is already installed.”
“That makes sense.” The winged girl nodded enthusiastically. “So anyone can do it? I thought it would take years of training...”
Definitely more open, Aran did a great job. I wonder what they talked about.
“Yes and no.” He shrugged. “There are enough intuitive software tools to make basic construction accessible to anyone nowadays, so yes, you can do it too. But it does take years of training to learn how to make nanites and actually understand how to build something complex or consequent. For example, this bathtub could never be made with common tools, it has to handle its own weight, water movements, your movements, and stay watertight all along. I made it with the structure of skin and a ribcage. Without training, you will be limited to pre-programmed shapes and you’d have to buy pre-made nanites.”
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Is that a problem?”
“Depends on what you want to do.” He shrugged again. “You won’t make anything too complicated or outside the pre-set parameters, and you won’t get far in any career that needs nanites, but you can still have a lot of fun with only pre-programmed shapes. Though at that point it’s more using nanites as convenient storage for regular building blocks.”
“Seems fun.” She perked up as Aran made her switch wing.
“Can be. The real problem would be to buy nanites. There are no sellers, and even if you find a good quality but cheap supplier, the bill will still rank up fast even just from usage loss. Nanites are particularly sensitive to the 3G’s disruptive field, even more so than most machines. Case in point.”
The programmer held up the pipe he had use as example, crumbling apart in his hand. His winged guest poked it with a literal feather-light touch, and a less damaged piece collapsed like dry sand.
“What…”
“Someone must’ve mutated not too far from here.” Zax ignored her flabbergasted expression. “Probably in a neighbouring building. And that’s all your nanites currently activated, spoiled, lost and wasted just like that, and you needing to recycle them and buy new ones.”
“I can see how that would build up… Wait, how come the rest is still…”
“We adapted.” He shrugged, but pride still laced his voice. “Every nanite made in the dot is built with specifications for this situation; once inert, they are inoffensive to living organisms, so no risk of poisoning if someone inhale flying dust or step on it. Not to be mixed with bio-compatible nanites, that are made to interact with living organisms even when active. Mine tend to be both. And everyone who dabbles in them knows to keep as little active at the same time as possible and to always have backups.”
“Yeah, that surprised me too.” Aran casually barged in, done with her task and turning the air blower off. “Only active nanites are destroyed, so they are made and arranged in a way that keep them together even when deactivated. Mister expert here can even minimise losses even more by deactivating the ready parts before the construction is done. Which greatly adds to the difficulty. Or so I heard. From him. But if I got that well, it shouldn’t work that way for the more active parts. How come the air blower still works? And your fans?” She demonstrated with a few bursts of hot air in their faces.
“Like your bracelet, the air blower still works because it is part of the dot network. When a disruptive field is detected – hard not to, with all devices at the same place failing at once – all the machines around are forcefully deactivated until the mutation is done, then reactivated. Mutations in the dot are small and don’t last long, so if it’s far enough it’s so fast we barely notice. And the fans have backups too. Auxiliary motors to pick up the slack if needed.”
“That’s… a lot of work for a tinkered air blower.” Strange Girl was impressed.
“Yeah, that’s awesome… but I shouldn’t be surprised by now.” Aran concurred in her own way. “I’m done with your wings; do you want me to dry the rest or do you want to try the normal blower? It should be fine if you keep your wings outside.”
A few minutes later, Strange Girl stepped out of the water unit, feeling surprisingly refreshed. She didn’t even feel the subtle smile adorning her face.
They sat her on a stool, Aran brushing and ordering her hair and feathers with brushes she had brought. The hair was quickly done, but the wings would take longer; Aran wasn’t familiar with their care, and neither was their guest, somehow. Luckily, information was always a query away.
Zax mopped the floor in front of the back-to-normal water unit, and it was time to use the rest of what Aran had brought. Or so he tried at least. Aran’s prediction proved true: he couldn’t help glancing back at the winged girl and visualise the changes in bones and muscle structure. He was surprised she hadn’t thrown him out again, actually. He went back in his workshop on his own, ignoring the foxy girl’s smirk.
He wanted to prepare the rest in front of Strange Girl to assuage her paranoia, so he let everything on the kitchen counter, within her line of sight. To pass time and scratch the itch that had made him leave, he pulled the last of the rewards from his adventure in the Core, the recordings of forced mutations. It didn’t take long to be reminded why he had stalled what should have been the most interesting part.
No. I can’t bury my head in the sand again. Face the facts.
Ignoring the sourness on his tongue, Zax opened his files, cut them and sorted the smaller sections for easier analysis. There was a lot to unpack, even without the numerous breaks to balance himself, he wouldn’t be done in one day. Still, it was nothing time, grit and perseverance couldn’t handle. His old guardian’s words came back to him.
Even a single drop per day and the deepest bucket will eventually overflow.
He went on until Aran called him, they were done. Strange Girl was admiring herself, and with excellent cause. Clean and more relaxed than they had ever seen her, she was unrecognizable. She also seemed older than he had first guessed; at around a few years older than him. Amused, Zax took a picture and displayed a side-by-side with those from the tunnel. Even she was in disbelief, asking if they were really-truly-actually her.
When the storm of emotions had passed, it was time for the bracelet. She was hesitant at having a piece of traceable technology on her, but its utility was undeniable. It was an actual requirement in the dot, especially if she wanted to get out of this room someday. Zax explained its basic use, it was fairly intuitive, and only put the bare minimum information to make her account functional: a name, his address in case it was found and his information for emergency contact.
“There. Its functionalities will be limited, but it should do for a while. It’s just like a child’s account, actually. Except with everything private.”
He threw her new bracelet to their guest, who clumsily caught it between two wings, where the wrist would be. Strange Girl stared at her wings with a strangely forlorn expression, and it was not pondering how to wear it like Aran was doing.
“Ah. I thought something was weird, and your reaction when I explained the bracelet gave me an impossible thought, but now I’m not that sure.” Zax knew it was a poor idea, it was too early, but he still felt compelled to voice his thoughts.
Both girls turned to him, his downcast expression more than minimally concerning. They had never seen him in such a state.
“Mutations are unpredictable, but theories and studies have revealed trends over time. The Main Families definitely know a lot more, but the most basic parts are well known. Like, mutations help people to be better at what they do.”
“That’s common knowledge.” Aran interjected at the pause, not understanding where he was going with this.
“It is.” He nodded. “And when several options help the same, the 3G will make the one the mutant is the most comfortable with, but survival and convenience take priority. As a result, the only way to have a mutation you don’t like is if your life depends on it, and even then, it is not an inconvenient one.”
“That makes sense…” The tailed girl had an inkling of where it was leading, but it didn’t explain his grave voice.
“Strange Girl, you hate your mutations and your body, don’t you?” His voice was soft, but their target recoiled as if she had been slapped. That was all the confirmation he needed to continue. “That’s why your feathers stop so brutally even if your mutations are that deep; you rejected it as hard as you could. Even if you didn’t realise it. Not only that, but you are surprisingly dextrous with your unusual limbs, even the parts that should be clumsy. That shows you had them for a long time. And it is a very deep mutation. It can’t have happened at once.”
“What… what are you getting at?” Aran voiced both of their thoughts; Strange Girl was shivering too much to talk.
“For a long time, weeks, months, perhaps even years… you were trapped in a dangerous situation, and you had to do something you hate to survive. Over and over. Perhaps 3G was used as a reward, feeding that loop of self-hatred. I have no idea of what it could be for such a result. You somehow escaped and ended up in the water distribution network.”
“That’s… going very far from just looking at her mutation.” Aran stated, hugging the shivering girl and patting her back. For some reason and despite her words, she didn’t doubt him.
“Canary didn’t tell you?”
“Eety? That’s what she meant? That creepy dive in her past you did so casually?”
“That’s how she called it?”
“Nevermind that, what does that have to do with her bracelet?”
“From how deep her mutations are I thought she was a Resident at first, but she didn’t have anything against bracelets, only reluctance at having a traceable device on her. And thinking back, she had no issue with the Main Computer knowing where she is either. Cat and Dog totally did; Residents don’t trust machines. Which makes sense, theirs must break all the time, with all the strong activations in the Circles. If she didn’t activate in normal circumstances, and getting lost landed her in the dot, I thought maybe she wasn’t from that far. And her face when I gave her the bracelet, not reluctant or disgusted or thinking how to wear it… You’re not a Resident at all, are you?”
The last part wasn’t stated as a question. She wasn’t shaking anymore, her head low and her eyes clenched.
“Sorry.” Zax bowed at the waist even if she wouldn’t see it. “I wanted to wait until you felt open enough to talk about your past on your own before bringing it up, but the next step of settling you in made that an unwise decision.”
Silence. The survivor didn’t dare to say a word, holding back her sobs, but Aran couldn’t hold her tongue for long:
“The next step?”
“The answer will change the way you should wear your bracelet, so take your time before answering. It doesn’t even have to be today. Where do you want your mutations to go next? In other words…”
He took a deep breath and without raising his back, he lifted his head and looked at the winged girl square in the eyes:
“Now that you’re out, what do you want to do with your life?”