Nightingale (Sequel to Solider Boy)

Nine

Several hours later, the princess shut down the computer and cracked her fingers. "It's late," she said, stifling a yawn. "We should call it." 

Melody could tell that the night had fallen, the sky was pitch black across the jungle but even so she felt wide awake; her mind a swirl of equations, numbers and anatomy. She didn't want to stop, but she knew that smart as she was, she couldn't do this alone. She didn't know the technology as well as Shuri. "Can we run what we have once?" Melody asked, "just to see where we are?"

Shuri glanced over her shoulder. "Just don't tell my mother," switching to her native language she said, "Run simulation AB."

A robotic voice answered back in Wakandan that it was doing so and the glass walls that surrounded Shuri and Melody darkened, becoming brick and mortar with a clock on the north wall and a tiny scrub room looking out onto the table where a body laid, draped for an appendectomy, but that was about all they had so far. Monitors were missing, as was needed equipment  but this was a start. A far more positive one than Melody could've hoped for. 

"End simulation," she said, her own Wakandan far less confident than Shuri's but the program understood her either way and the operating room faded, becoming the same glass square it had been prior. 

"When did you learn my language?" Shuri asked, yawning as she continued in the same tongue.

"Before coming here," Melody replied, wracking her brain for the right words. "I thought it would be good." She'd forgotten the word for 'important' but her message came across all the same.

"We can speak English if you like," Shuri offered, switching back.

"Thank you, though I should practice if I want to improve."

"Let's do that when we're less exhausted?" Shuri yawned again but Melody herself didn't relate. Though she hadn't slept for almost a day now, her internal clock was still working; it was daytime in New York and she was used to being awake right now. They walked out of the Sim and began making there way through the empty lab. 

"What time do you want to be back here tomorrow?" 

"I have to go with T'Challa and Mother to meet with the other tribes." The girl rolled her eyes. "And I have to wear a very uncomfortable outfit for it. I'm not excited."

"I know how you feel," Melody said, thinking back to the charity dinners and auctions she had to attend on behalf of the hospital. Her feet already hurt thinking about the heels she wore. "Good luck."

They climbed the stairs and bid each other goodbye, Melody deciding it was best to go back to the apartment T'Challa had provided for her and attempt to sleep. Internal clock or not, perhaps her lack of sleep for a day would be enough to override it. Her mind made up, she began walking, following the map T'Challa had sent to her phone after they'd arrived at the compound. 

"Melody?" she looked away from the blueish light of her screen at the sound of her name. James stood before her, dressed in pajamas and barefoot.

"James? What are you doing here?"

"I go for walks when I can't sleep." He answered, "What are you still doing up? It's late."

"I just got back from the lab and got caught up with an idea. Shuri and I just called  a quits."

"What were you working on?"

"She's developed this technology that crates highly realistic simulations and we tried to make an interactive one."

"Let me guess, it had something to do with surgery?"

"How well you know me," Melody smiled, "you really should try to get some sleep."