Triptych

Chapter 7

Candor

2 – 4 – 6 – 8 Repeat.

Lana repeats the sequence in her head as she runs through the examination. She starts small, the synthetic skin covering her fingers splits apart to reveal needle like appendages. She flicks her wrist with a thought, and they snap into miniature wires sparking with electric current. She catches her father’s eyes across the room and he smiles, pointing a finger towards his temples to show her he’s recording this historic moment.

The lights around the room go off and Lana cocks her head to the side as her infrared activates. She dodges the sudden fist aimed to her head with some surprise, her right hand rising up to close around the attacker’s throat before her mind catches up. She shoves him away, left arm rising at her side to block an attack from behind. Lana spins around, sweeping his feet from under him.

Both her arms end in semi-automatics by the time she hears a shout that pulls her back. Lana switches her vision back to normal, becoming aware of her rabid breath and erratic heartbeat. She lowers her arms slowly, wide eyes scanning the floor littered with groaning bodies in varying degrees of pain. The glass covering the front room retracts, dr. Stein rushing to her as the rest of the panel looks on in paralyzing shock. She spots Dr. Yates’ inquisitive eyes    moment before the former reaches her, grabbing her face without any reservations and studying her eyes. He nods understandingly at something lost on her before grabbing her arm and leading her to the only chair in the room.

Lana is still staring wide eyed at the paramedics checking on the injured when he asks, “What happened Lana?”

That’s what I’d like to know she vaguely thinks. “I—did I do that?” she asks hesitantly.

“You don’t remember?” He asks slowly. His question almost gets drowned under the commotion in the panel room where the executives and doctors are locked in an argument. Shouts of she’s out of control, unacceptable behavior and national threat reach her ears through the placating words of her doctors, who swarm her like protective bees and usher her out of the room.

“Did I do that?” She asks again. “Did I hurt those people? Because I don’t remember any of it.”

Her words come out panicked enough for Dr. Yates to shift his attention back on her. “I’m sure it was nothing but an overly effective fight response.” He says placating. “The execs are overreacting as they often do in the face of new advancements. Try not to worry yourself”

Lana actually scoffs “Not to worry? I just decapitated a room full of people without realizing it. How is everyone so blasé about this?”

“We’re not blasé.” Dr. Stein answers. “We just know it’s a minor problem that can be solved with some tweaking.” He rests a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Try to relax Lana. You can overcome this.”

Lana nods, meeting his gaze. She can, she will overcome this.

“Right. Back to the drawing board, as they say” Dr. Yates claps his hands, all business. “Candor I do recommend another psych assessment in the light of tonight’s events. Other than that, I think everything is on schedule for the conference” He smiles, a bit too gleeful for the situation before stepping away.

Lana glances at Dr. Stein, her thoughts confused and panicked. She swallows audibly, thinking of a way of express the sudden fear gripping her heart, the tiredness weighing down her shoulders. “Can I go home now?” is what she says.

“Sure.”Dr. Stein nods. “Contact me if you need anything though.” He says sternly, before waving her away.

The car ride back home is silent. Lana rests her head on her father’s lap, a rare moment of sentiment on his behalf. She closes her eyes as she feels him thread his fingers lightly through her hair. She starts to hum quietly, an old habit she picked up to calm herself when the world around her became too much. It clears the constant chatter in her brain, pushes the constantly running analysis back until she can focus on nothing but the tune.