Orivar: Deep Black

17 - Neural Interface

After leaving her father's bedside to have a meal within the quarters she shared with four other cadets, Lieren returned to her father's small room where she spent the night. The morning found her lying asleep on the couch across from her father's bed.

"Lieren?" her father called out to her. Lieren stirred, gasped as she awoke, and brought herself upright. She brushed her hair away from her face with her hands and looked at Doctor Souq through groggy eyes. The young cadet revealed a weak smile.

"Hi, dad," she said, rising from the couch and stretching her arms. She was still wearing her loose-fitting, white cadet uniform.

"Look at you," Souq stated, also suffering a bit of grogginess. "My baby girl's all grown up."

"Not quite," Lieren told him, walking over to sit in the chair next to his bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm hungry," he said. Despite the lingering weakness from the sedative and the emotional turmoil he was experiencing as a result of the Akkain station attack, he smiled with the joy of seeing his daughter again.

"We'll get you something to eat," Lieren said. She pressed the call button on a lumigraph next to her father's bed. Seconds later, a nurse entered the room, assessed Souq, left and returned with a breakfast tray. When Lieren asked, the nurse said that meals served in the medical bay were for patients only. Souq heard this, and after the nurse left, he offered his daughter part of his meal which she promptly refused.

"You need to get your strength back," she told him.

So Lieren hugged her father goodbye while she left to have breakfast in her quarters. As she passed the nurse station, the nurse overseeing her father's care informed her that he would be released around noon. The nurse also reminded Lieren about her appointment for the installation of her neural interface. When the cadet returned from breakfast, the lavender-skinned Larissian took a seat in the medical bay's waiting room next to a light-skinned, blonde Terran in standard uniform with armor sheathed over her right forearm. Both of them possessing shy dispositions, neither of them said a word to each other until they were both called by their full names simultaneously.

"Lieren Souq, Krystal Zara," a nurse called. The two stood and looked at each other for a moment before walking toward the nurse together. "Follow me," she said as she led them down a corridor and to a medical officer's examination room. Once inside, they were greeted by the chief medical officer herself: Doctor Iveti, a Yeran, wearing an unfastened lab coat over a dark gray bodysuit.

"You're both here for neural implants?" Iveti asked them. Krystal and Lieren nodded. Iveti pointed to Krystal and asked, "You're swapping to Accellus Four, correct?" Krystal gave another nod. Directing her attention to Lieren, Iveti asked, "You don't currently have one, correct?" Lieren also nodded. "Okay," the medical officer said impatiently. "We have a million of these to do today, so go ahead and take off your clothes while I evaluate your health." Lieren began unfastening her jacket while Krystal hesitated. The cadet had stripped down to her undergarments before Iveti told Krystal," Remove your Accellus for me, please." As soon as they were completely undressed, the nurse gave each of them a gown to slip over their naked bodies. Iveti's medical scans confirmed their good health, and she walked with them through an airscreen to the operating room where another medical officer was waiting next to two vertical operating tables.

"Lieren, your procedure will be performed by my assistant," Iveti stated as she recalled her lab coat and replaced it with a gown. A sterilizing shield-scrubber passed over her as she talked. "You are going to stand on this platform," she instructed, pointing the base of the table, "and you're going to lie with your chest against the cushion and your face against this hole at the top." The two did as they were told. When the two had positioned themselves appropriately, the tables angled themselves downward toward the horizontal. Lieren was given anesthetic first. Iveti could feel the tension in Krystal's body, so she leaned down to speak softly in Krystal's ear while she was still conscious.