The Shape of Things to Come (Hypernaturals 15)

Surreal

Don and Liz looked down at Mom and Dad in their clinic beds, side by side and slumbering away as the VMC does its thing. The monitors chirped. The drips dripped.

Nakoma is taking readings to see if there are any concerns for Jessica to address. One of the two Doctors that normally monitor this process is laying unconscious, so Nakoma fully stepped in and up. She has done all of this before. Liz is watching Nakoma work with fascination. A combination, I think, of her own medical training and marveling at the easy competence my oldest daughter is displaying.

This is our clinic at Casa de Gato. The single hospital room is taken up with Mom and Dad, so out in the other room is a third and fourth bed, and Janie and DeWayne are sleeping away in the converted exam room.

We have never done four at once before.

Jessica is out checking on Janie and DeWayne. Morgan is out in the other room with Janie. Carol with DeWayne. Sonja is up in the main house with my kids. Rachel and Helen are on duty there. I remained with my sister and my parents.

"You have done this how many times?" Liz asked.

"A fair few." I said. "This version of the procedure, using the serum, started with Vera. We turned Marvin without it. A much more ... Brutal procedure, I guess?"

"Did not seem to hurt him." Liz said.

"No. Once the complex takes over, it's all about support." Jessica said behind us.

"We are much better at that than we used to be." Morgan said, who is behind her. I inferred Janie and DeWayne are fine.

"I learned a lot about support putting you back together." Jessica told Morgan.

"That story: You getting shot up like that. Yet another in a long line of hard things to believe." Don said.

"Believe it. I have seen more of her insides than I ever wanted to." I said.

"I am here because Adrian was my lifeboat. He absolutely insisted I survive." Morgan told Don.

"And Adrian shot the hell out of the guy that blasted you. Don't forget that. I never heard a gun that wasn't a full auto fire off that fast before." Denise told Morgan.

"Oddly, I barely recall that part. Jeffery shot me, I went shocky. The next thing I really remember was Adrian over me. Protecting me from crossfire and insisting that I live. Then setting fire to me with gunpowder."

"Crude. But effective. Field medicine from the old days." Liz said.

"Deeply painful field medicine." Morgan told her.

"Yeah. It would be." Liz said.

"Condos. Councils. Sirens. Lord of Claremont for god's sake. Yet all of this in here seems like a normal little hospital and Mom and Dad happily sleeping patients. Their vitals being taken by the young medical team. So young. So professionally good too." Liz looked over at Mom's vitals being readout on the screen. "All normal. This is so surreal. From those readings, this looks like a coma. Except that the brain activity from the EEG says Mom is dreaming."

"I had great dreams when I turned." I told Liz. "They were all about Jessica. Why, when I woke up, I knew what I had to do. Even if I felt like a stalker doing it."

"The brain is being updated, but it is not inactive. The intense dreaming seems to be the brain's way of dealing with the physical changes the VMC is causing to occur. The brain itself is being re-architected. I don't really remember my dreams. Too long ago now." Jessica said.

Liz gave Jessica a sour look. "And you, oh my sister-in-law. A damn Doctor for over forty years. Shit."

"Fifty now." Jessica told her.

"Surreal." Liz said again.