View source for Colony/Ch1/Veronica

"How about... the older one, Veronica?" Dillan says. The older girl is close to his age, so that means she should be someone he might be able to become friends with. And besides, she is a girl and all. If there are no adults around, then maybe he was going to have to marry one of the girls here. Maybe he would get married to this Veronica girl.

"Acknowledged, beginning awakening sequence. Replacing slurry with heated blood with an ABO and RH type matching to the recipient. Estimated time to regaining of consciousness, 30 minutes. Please assemble the appropriate supplies to assist in the wake-up procedure," the AI says.

"Uhh... what items?" Dillan asks.

"Tape, cotton balls, tourniquets should be prepared on a tray and brought over to the work station. A blanket should also be prepared. It will also be necessary to prep the dermal recovery accelerator in the recovery bay. You should use this on yourself as well as you have also recently awoken from cryo-sleep."

"recovery accelerator?" Dillan asks. He didn't really understand what he was being told. It took him a moment to remember that this was the name of the device used to close up scrapes and cuts quickly. He'd heard the theory. It uses some kind of light to make the cells divide faster.

"Please exit the cryo-bay and go to the recovery bay. You require the administration of the dermal recovery accelerator before you can begin assisting the patient in the awakening process."

Dillan decided to do as he was told. He wandered out into the corridor, and found the recovery bay under the AI's instruction. It was right across the hall from the cryo-bay. He still felt very awkward being naked and covered by only a blanket, but he still remembered how much he was bleeding when he took those IV tubes out and wanted to heal up his arms quick. So, focused on that, he didn't mind the awkward feeling.

The recovery bay seemed like a mini med bay, probably set up just for waking up cryo patients. One of the beds had a large contraption on it. It looked like a box, and it was aimed at the arm-rest on the side of the bed. He recognized that device as the dermal recovery accelerator, and climbed up on the bed. The blanket slipped open a bit, revealing his penis. Although there shouldn't be anyone else around, he still felt embarrassed and covered himself back up again after he got situated on the bed. He put his arm on the arm-rest, and the machine started working. The AI guided it to focus the light from the device on the crook of his arm where the cotton-ball was.

"Please place your other arm on the arm-rest," the AI prompted, and at the same time the box-like device moved on some kind of track attached to the ceiling to the other side of the bed.

Dillan followed instructions, and soon both his arms had been treated. He was able to remove the cotton-ball tape from his arm.

"Please use the washing room in the back to remove the blood to avoid bio contamination," the AI said, at which point a door on the other side of the recovery bay slid open.

The 'washing room' was essentially a bathroom with a nice bath at the back, a shower on the side, and toilet and sinks over on the other side. About the only thing special about it was that there was no stall for the toilet to allow people to do their business in private.

This brought Dillan's attention to something. He had that catheter thing in his penis that sucked out all his pee, so he didn't have to go right now. But, he also hadn't had anything to drink since waking up. He was feeling extremely thirsty right now.

He went straight over to the sinks, turned them on, and then stuck his head under the faucet in order to drink directly from it. He half expected the AI to say something about this, but it remained silent on the matter. He kept on gulping down water continuously until his stomach felt queasy from how much fluid he'd crammed into it, but his throat still didn't quite feel right. But, he wound up having to stop before he threw up just from the sheer volume of water he was drinking.

He let out a gasping breath as he finished, noticing the front of his blanket had fallen open again. This time, though, he didn't really care quite as much. He was in a bathroom now, after all. 

This was when the AI finally decided to speak up. "You can find washcloths in the cubbies next to the door. Please use one to scrub off the blood from your arms, chest, and thighs.

Dillan followed instructions, and then got into the shower. It felt really good to have warm water running over his body, and he scrubbed the blood from his arms and body. However, he noticed something else was coming off his body while he was scrubbing the blood. It looked like pieces of soggy paper or curdled milk that were rolled into little strips, and they were all over his skin wherever he scrubbed.

"What is this?" Dillan asked, looking at his arms with a small amount of fright.

"Those are dead skin cells that have built up over the course of your time in cryo-sleep. Some minor metabolic processes continued to be preformed, and this included cell division of your dermal layer. Dead skin cells will need to be scrubbed off thoroughly. This is a task that will not be possible for a single person, and will take a fair amount of time to accomplish. Please ignore this issue for now and return to the task when patient Veronica has been awoken. You can assist each other with the task," the AI said.

"Wait! Are you saying to shower naked with a girl!?" Dillan asked.

"I... I can't do that! It's vulgar!" Dillan protested.

"This is a medically necessary procedure. Failure to wash properly can lead to serious health complications. Please disregard any rules of propriety until the task of proper cleaning is complete," the AI said.

Dillan did not know how to respond to that.

"5 minutes until the awakening process for patient Veronica is complete. Please dry off and proceed to assist the patient with awakening," The AI said, causing Dillan to look down at himself. He hadn't even really finished scrubbing off all the blood. He'd gotten it off his arms and chest, but there were still a few smears on his thighs. He decided to just scrub those areas real quick, but didn't quite get all of it. Fortunately, it seemed the dead skin cells actually helped him to clean the blood faster, as the skin just flaked right off and took the blood with it.

"3 minutes remaining. Please discontinue unnecessary actions. There is no longer time for proper drying, proceed to the cryo-bay immediately," the AI said.

Dillan groaned and jumped out of the shower, quickly wrapping the bloody blanket around himself again and pressing it against his wet skin as he ran, hoping to dry himself a little that way. Meanwhile, he rushed back into the cryo-bay, ready to wake up the girl.

:[[Colony/Ch1/Veronica/Awakening|Awakening Veronica]]

[[Category:Colony|Ch1/Veronica]]