“We meet again, Calan" the voice that came out of the ball caught him off guard.
"Wait why are you a girl-" It dawned on him, "Oh! it's you! The red lady! So you're a ball now. There’s this old man ball in here. He put me in a robot. I can't move though"
"You can move, try now" She told him. Loss of agency was bad for anyone. He had to be allowed to try. He felt his own weight in the next second. His knees buckled. He took one step forward and toppled into a table, bending it in half under his immense weight. He crumpled it like a tin can trying to get himself back on his feet.
"Uh oh. Sorry, sorry!" He tried to stand up and it only made things worse. His hands were too strong and too heavy. Everything he tried to grab for support twisted and bent.
"I can't move!" He wailed.
"This is what I wanted to talk to you about. I'll handle the suit for now"
The battle-frame moved on its own and stood straight, following the ball like before. This arrangement was weird. Just a few hours ago, he was getting used to looking up at the lady because he was smaller than her. Now he was looking down at a floating ball. They were both weird robots now.
"How are you sleeping here and down there at the same time?" Calan asked his burning question. "You told me you were sleeping even when you were jumping around carrying me. That was weird"
"I'm sure that was interesting. I came here 12 years ago. I made a copy of myself before sending my body for repairs. I can only wake up here if things went very wrong down there, like, if I died"
"You can just copy yourself!?"
"Yes, That's...standard practice"
"Did you copy me!?" he asked, half panicking. This was a new idea to him and he understood just enough to be weirded out by it. There couldn’t be two of him. He already had a copy. Linan was annoying enough. A third was unimaginable.
The ball hovered for a second. "You are not a copy. I split you. I can do that too"
"I don't get it"
"You will, one day"
they arrived at a door. It slid open as they approached, revealing a staircase.
"Where are we going?"
"Deep storage. There’s something here I want to show you"
The staircase led to a room full of machines. All sorts of screens popped up as they passed them, displaying things Calan couldn't understand. They arrived at another door. This was a door on the floor. It slid open in a circle and revealed a glass window.
"Take a look"
"Woah is that...you again?" It was a sleeping girl. This one was sleeping underwater. He had many questions about this space lady and her trying to sleep everywhere all at once. He never thought it was even possible for someone to be this lazy. "Why are you sleeping all the time?"
"That's funny" The ball turned to him. "You’re asking interesting questions"
"I have more questions!"
"I'll explain" The ball turned back to the sleeping girl. "That, is my body"
"You have two!?"
"I can have more. But this one's special. It's the one I was born with"
"Oh! you’re like me, now?"
"Something like that. I like the body I left down there, the one that helped you. I haven't really used this body you see right now in a long time"
"Why not?" Calan thought about it. "Can this one make things explode?"
"No, this one's just like everyone else"
“You hate it because it's not fun...”
"You could say that" The ball turned back to him. "See, this body is a secret. You have to promise me you'll never talk to anyone else about it without asking me first"
"Uh, right, right" He could keep secrets. He liked secrets. They made him feel important.
"Good. I'll get it out, you wait here" the ball dropped on the floor and rolled away. "Sineul, take over" her voice echoed elsewhere in the ship.
Liera hated reintegration. It was unpleasant and constrained. She felt claustrophobic inside her former body. The stasis chamber drained its fluid out as soon as she passed the neural interface. It took several minutes for the conversion block to mend the neurobits of her soul back into her biologics.
She opened her eyes as a machine arm pushed a soft pad on her stomach right below the diaphragm. It pulsed in slow repeated movements. Yellow stasis fluid spurted out from the nose and the mouth as her heart established its rhythm.
Waking up in her biologics was an ugly, messy affair. The restraints that held her in place released her once her body autonomy was established. She raised herself. It felt heavier and slower than the body she lost. Her biologics were in no hurry to obey her commands. This limited everything about her and she felt nauseous.
Her skin was covered in a translucent membrane, built up over time from the fluid that kept her in stasis. It felt slimy and oily, sensations that she also hated. She combed her wet strands of hair, wiped the membrane off her face and looked up at her battle-frame. She waved at Calan, making sure to smile through this discomfort.
The showering capsule in the room next to the stasis chamber was her next stop. She saw her body for the first time in decades reflected in the mirrored steel surface. It was just as she remembered herself. Her pale orange eyes stared back at her. She checked the rest of her features while the capsule dried her off. This was a body frozen in time, it had memories on every inch of skin. Memories she couldn't yet find a way to live with.
She found a white dress neatly packed in the storage locker. It was sealed in its original packaging. She had never really gotten this far in her body. Every previous attempt at reintegration was concluded in the nude before she left the stasis chamber. But today, she had a reason to keep trying. After wearing the plain dress, she walked into the elevator.
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Calan waited with Sineul who picked up the ball left by Liera. He knew the child got too confused with disembodied voices.
“Look! she’s here... she’s so small!”
“No, this battle-frame, you, are huge” Sineul corrected him. At the same time, he made sure Calan had no control over it whatsoever. He could just crush that frail biological body into pulp with a finger. That would be the worst thing to ever happen to his priestess if she lost both her bodies in a single day.
”Sineul, leave us” She told him, walking out of the elevator.
“Is that wise? I must warn you, do not lift the locomotion block I placed on him”
“I won't”
Liera let Calan move his head when Sineul gave them privacy. He was overprotective of her biologics. He had been that way since she reclaimed it.
”We have a problem now that you’re here, Calan”
“So, this is your body?”
“Yes, this is what I was a very long time ago”
"How long ago?"
"About 6900 years"
"Wait!" He was trying to picture the number. He couldn't, the most he could count to before getting bored was 120. "That's so many years! you should be dead, how are you alive!"
"I was sleeping like that for almost all of it"
"Like drowning in jelly all this time!?" He didn't like what he saw when she woke up. The way she blew out thick strings of yellow from her nose or the amount of it that came out from her mouth. “I’m going to throw up” He felt dizzy trying to process the sheer disgust.
“You can’t” Liera stood up. She walked over to him. “You don’t have your body anymore”
“I forgot!”
“And I don’t want you to get used to my battle-frame” She lowered his head to her eye level. “...Because this is very bad for you”
Calan stared at her now that she was closer. She was unusual, attractive, but weird. Her hair was pale red and her eyes were bright orange. It was almost like the robot but less intense. There were some big differences. She didn’t have the red lips or the lines on the body, she was thin and didn’t seem as strong as the robot. She said she was a large amount of years old but he wasn’t sure if she was even grown up. His mother was definitely older than her.
“You can get sick if you stay out of your body too long. It’s worse if you’re a child. I’m sure you won’t like this battle-frame for long, even if you could move in it”
“Kinda..” Calan agreed partially. There was a part of him that was still amazed and fascinated by everything he was experiencing. It was all new to him. But the lady was half right, he didn’t like how he couldn’t move when he wanted. Other than that, he liked being tall, heavy and powerful.
“You need a new body” Liera looked at him directly. “So I’m giving you this one” She pointed at herself.
“W-what!?”
“Yes, you can have this one until we figure something out for you”
“I don’t want to be you!”
“You can’t be me. You’ll still be Calan. But you can use my body to be you”
“But, but! you’re in it!”
“I don't want to. You see, I hate being in it. I actually can’t be in this for long. By long I mean a few minutes. Then I feel sick and I pass out”
“Why!”
“Because I’ve been out of it for longer than I’ve been in it. I like the body I left down there. Being in this one feels…wrong”
She looked at him with a serious frown.
“That’ll happen to you if you stay out of *your* body too long. You’re very young, it'll get worse faster. So I don’t want that for you”
“But-but then I’ll be a girl!!!” This was outrageous. A robot was more than fine, but a girl? He could just picture his brother's face if he ever saw this. He could never live this down.
“Better be a girl than a battle-frame. You’ll have a real body. You can eat and sleep and walk; you can feel things again”
“Don’t you have a boy in here somewhere!?” He was desperate.
“That’s ridiculous. No I don’t, why would I?” Liera laughed. “Anyway, you’ll get used to it. I’ll try to find you a body. You won’t be a girl forever“
“I want a boy!” he howled at the sky like a wounded animal. If he had his body, he'd be on the floor throwing the greatest tantrum.
“We’ll work on it”
“D-do you promise!”
“Of course. This is all temporary,” Liera guided her battle-frame to the nearest console.
She paused for a bit to look at Calan.
“I hate being in my body but It is still mine. Please don’t break it or hurt yourself”
Liera pulled out a thick metal spine that extended from the back of her battle-frame. The boy was using a brain module that Sineul quickly rigged together for him. The battle-frame didn't come equipped with a brain module that could host a soul. Sineul had repurposed a spare module into the battle-frame as an extension. She plugged it into the deep storage system.
“I’ll see you in a bit”
“I’m scared!”
“You’ll be fine, I won’t let anything bad happen”
She took the elevator down and sat back on the stasis chair. Calan stared at her through the glass. A metal bracket tightened around the back of her neck and she smiled pleasantly at him, just like the robot did. This smile was far more human. She waved at him and closed her eyes.
Calan opened his eyes. It felt himself being pulled into a string that wound itself up in this new body. He could move now and blink. He felt the cold metal on his skin and he opened his mouth to talk.
“EUAHhahsuwA-”
He grabbed his throat. The voice terrified him. Even as a robot, he had his own voice, although it was slightly distorted. Now he was a total girl.
“AAAA!” He screamed only for it to be confirmed even further.
The metal bracket that held him in place released. He felt a sudden jab of pain at the back as if something crawled out of him.
“Oww oww!” He grabbed his neck as he stood up. He was twice as big. He became a girl from the robot so this was a significant downgrade but he was still taller than he used to be. He had more meat on his bones. He touched his stomach; it was flatter than his own. He had a bouncy one but this girl’s stomach felt like knocking on a table. The chest was softer; it was like his stomach used to be. Further up, he could feel collarbones, something he didn’t really have the way this girl had. He could trace the ridges the whole way on both sides. There were more neck bones as well, he could feel them shift as he shook his head wildly. It was all weird and different from the body he had. His arms were firm and he felt a new sensation when he bent them at the elbows - muscles. That was nice. If he had muscles like this, he could’ve beat Linan in every fight. They weren’t as tough as his mother’s but he felt strong and tall. This was better than the giant robot that he couldn’t move in.
“This hair, gets in my mouth” He complained, blowing it out. He’d gotten some in his mouth when he shook his head earlier.
“You can find cosmetics in the next room, tie it up” Liera’s voice came from above.
“How do you tie-”
Calan stood up, slid on the wet floor and fell face first, flailing his new long limbs all over the place.
“Oww” He touched his face, now wet with slime.
“Be careful with that body, child!” The old man’s panicked voice thundered from all around the room and it spooked Calan.
“Sineul, it is fine. I’ll handle it” Liera’s voice came from above. “Get out of that room slowly” She told Calan. She had forgotten how slippery the floor was. It was residue from the stasis fluid. The stasis chamber was not supposed to be used consecutively. She had gone back in before the cleaning and sterilization process.
“I’m trying!!!” Calan yelled, his legs sliding both ways. He had to use his hands to keep himself standing. ”Why is this place oily! Trying to kill me!”
He managed to get out of the room on all fours.
”You need to wash yourself, you can see the capsule?”
He did as was told and stepped into the capsule with the symbol for rain on it. He was immediately drenched from head to toe with fine jets of water from all sides.
“EEEE!!” His surprised yells were drowned out with water.
When the water jets stopped, he blew out his nose. He had nearly drowned. The drying process was more pleasant and comfortable. He stepped out of the capsule, cleaned and dry. His dress was still damp and it made him cold. He forgot to take his clothes off in the rush to get clean.
“Can I change clothes!”
“Yes, You can find them in the storage locker on your left”
He looked around. He wasn’t good with remembering left and right yet. There was an open door and he found several sealed packages.
“They’re all the same!” He whined, after checking two. He was hoping for pants and shirts, but it was all the same loose white dress.
“Sorry about that, but they’re dry and warm”
He got out of the wet dress the way that made most sense to him. He had never worn a dress and he didn’t know how they worked. He only saw the zipper on the back after he lifted the whole thing up and pulled it off him like squeezing a candy bar out of the wrapper.
“Better now?” Liera’s voice came from the battle-frame as he exited the elevator.
“No way! you’re in that now!?”
“Yes, I need to get it back to where it was”
“So you can be a ball, a small robot and a big robot and you can be this girl”
“Or just a voice like this” Her voice switched and it came from everywhere around him.
“Weird! Weird!”
“You’ll get used to it”
“What do we do now? He asked, yawning. The bath and this fabric made him very comfortable. He was sleepy now, his eyelids closed on their own for longer and longer each time he blinked. This was the longest day of his life.
“You should get some sleep”
“But-the city! It is exploding”
“It’ll keep exploding when you wake up, I promise you”