Apollonia was not sure what to expect on her first day.

She felt refreshed from her nap, ready to do . . . something. Whatever it was they were going to ask her to do.

Unless it was really hard.

"Hey again," Zey said with a yawn as Apollonia came into the medical office.

"Oh, now you've got me doing it," Apollonia said, yawning as well.

"We'll call it the first lesson in infection control; wear a mask if you don't want to spread your germs or catch them from others."

"I have a mask on," Apollonia said, pulling off her clear one that filtered the humid air.

"Wear an opaque one. It hides yawns, that way."

"Do I need one now?" Apollonia asked.

"Too late, you caught my yawn," Zey replied. "Come on, let me get you started on training."

As Zey opened the door to the office, she nearly jumped. "Dr. Zyzus, I didn't expect you to be here this early."

Apollonia peered past the woman at the doctor.

She'd met him before, several times. She barely knew him, though, except as a rather kindly older man with somewhat crazy hair.

He smiled lightly and waved them in. "Please, don't worry about me, you can come in here. Training, I presume?"

"Wanted to get Apple up to speed," Zey said.

"Or up to anything useful at all," Apollonia added.

Zyzus looked slightly confused at that, but moved on. "Ah, the training set just finished setting up. I recommend that we get Ms. Nor started on some basic introductions, and then as soon as we can onto something practical, even if light."

"Something light?" Apollonia asked.

"Yes, perhaps some light cleaning, to let you practice basic sanitation," Zyzus said.

"Let's hope I don't mess it up!" Apollonia replied, grinning.

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Zyzus looked even more confused. "I sincerely doubt you could."

"Well," she said to him, feeling awkward and on the spot. "I am cursed." She laughed.

To her surprise, the doctor's face suddenly became very serious. He turned to face her fully, leaning forward slightly to look her in the eyes.

"Many people believe that their differences are a curse," he said. "I know that in your case it truly feels that way. It has brought you much suffering. But I do not believe that your gifts are a curse, Apollonia Nor. I believe that you are at the forefront of history."

She often disparaged herself, because it was better to take control of it, in a way, than to let others do so. It also broke her own feelings of awkwardness.

But now, she found herself emotionally defenseless from his words. He had not meant it, but her armor had been stripped away.

And she felt . . . She didn't even know.

Almost positive?

"Zey, I shall be in my office," Zyzus said. He did not seem to have noticed the effect he'd had.

He left, and Zey studied her. "You okay, Apple?"

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. I'm fine," she said. It didn't sound convincing even to her own ears.

Forefront of history, she thought. She didn't know what that meant, really, but it sounded very good.

"Okay, well, let me take you to the learning terminal. Don't worry, it's not that boring - the VR lets you learn in a practical way."

"All right," Apollonia said.

She found herself smiling.

----------------------------------------

The VR training was, in all honesty, fascinating, Apollonia thought.

Since she didn't have eye implants to let her just see it, someone in engineering had rigged up a simple headset. It seemed to weigh nothing, and looking through it made her feel like she was in an entirely different place.

Putting on some light gloves, she suddenly was not just seeing a new place, but it was like she was actually in it; her whole body was projected there in perfect, minute detail.

At least until it started jittering out.

"That's odd," she heard Zey say. "The sensors in your suit are desynced. I don't think I've ever seen them all do that at once before . . ."

"I have that effect on things," Apollonia said. "It's why I don't have implants. My body rejects them. The closer they are to me, the more they get messed up. Put them in me and they go absolutely bonkers."

"Huh. Does that have to do with you being a CR?"

"I guess," Apollonia replied. "I don't know if others have that problem."

"I think some have problems like that. But I don't think usually to this level. It's more like . . . they need an alignment for their tech once a month or something."

Zey was quiet a moment, and in her view Apollonia got some amusement by waving her hands, watching how the ones in the screen moved more and more out of sync.

They glitched, and her hands became frozen in space while her arms continued to move, the wrists just stretching and wiggling.

"Actually, can we leave it like this? This is kind of awesome."

Zey laughed. "I can see it. Wow, that's a weird bug. It's like some cheap Gohhian shovelware game."

"You play shitty games from Gohhi?" Apollonia asked, wiggling her arms so that her stretchy, loopy limbs spelled out Y and O.

"Yooooo," she said.

"Sometimes. There are some decent ones that come out of there. Especially since the microtransactions are illegal in the Union. Not nearly as annoying once that's patched out."

"Wait, they really patch those out?"

"Yeah, Union requires that the content be available through an in-game system," Zey said. "Hold on. I think if I slap a couple of reflective stickers on your arms, the system can kinda keep tabs on you and re-sync automatically."

"Okay," Apple said.

It took an excessive number of the stickers. Zey kept slapping more on, convinced that one position might be better than another. Apollonia stopped counting at thirty-six.

It was working, though.

"Okay, that was easy," Zey said, taking a deep breath. "The training programs will run now . . . just follow the prompts."

"Is it hard?" Apollonia asked, cringing internally at how whiny she thought she sounded.

"Nah, it's just like a tutorial, super easy stuff. The learning curve is super nice. I think it adjusts on the fly to each person, too."

The VR simulation started. It was as if she was in the same room, though the appearance of it had changed to a more clinical setting.

"Hello, Ms. Nor," a man's voice said. She looked and saw a doctor standing nearby.

"Is he . . . in the game?" Apollonia asked.

"I am a virtual tutor," it said to her. "Now, let's get started. If you have any questions at any time, please ask. If you need something repeated, please ask."

"Okay . . ."

"Great. Today, we're going to go over the basics of infection and infection control. While much of modern medicine seems miraculous and is simply done by drones, humans, or any other species, are still vitally involved in the entire process. Through this contact, however, there is always the chance of spreading infection. The infectious materials, known as pathogens, come in many different forms . . ."

A series of large, realistic microbes appeared, and Apollonia sat down on a chair to begin to listen and learn.

Maybe I can do this, she thought.