Colony/Ch1/Veronica/Awakening
The cryo-bay felt much colder as Dillan walked back into it after having his shower. He had just enough time to gather up the tape and cotton balls at the AI's instructions, and forgot completely about the extra blanket. For some reason, the AI didn't remind him either. Rather, it simply demanded he hurry along.
"Patient has begun regaining consciousness. Please proceed to the side of the pod to greet patient and prevent them from causing harm to themselves by pulling out IV or catheter prematurely," it prompted him.
Dillan had no idea what he was doing. He was only 12 years old and his memory of how he got here was still rather fuzzy. He had started to remember his parents talking something about getting on a colony ship before, how they were packing up and had some medical appointments where they talked about cryo sleep, but he still could not remember actually getting into the cryo pod at all, and had zero memory of when his clothing was removed and he got all those tubes stuck into him.
He walked across the room carrying his tray of tape and cotton balls he had prepared. The front of his blanket had fallen open again, revealing his nakedness underneath, but he had a hard time fixing it while he was holding the tray with both hands. There was a small table next to the pod as he approached.
"Patient will regain consciousness imminently, opening cryo pod," the AI said.
The cryo pod hissed and opened. The girl in the pod still seemed to be asleep. Dillan felt nervous, he didn't really know what to do. He looked at the girl, and it only just occurred to him she was naked just like him. He heard his friends at school say that girls didn't have a penis and it was only a slit between their legs, but this was his first time ever actually seeing a girl's privates.
He couldn't really see a whole lot. From the angle he could see, it was more striking to see what was not there. Just like he'd been told, there was no penis or scrotum. The only thing coming out from between her legs was the dirty-yellow colored catheter tube he'd seen when he took it out of his penis when he woke up. It went up between her legs, where he could see the top of her slit. He started to move to get a better look, but then the girl started to stir and moan a bit as she was waking up. This made him straighten up and look toward her face.
He was silent and practically holding his breath as he looked up into her eyes as they slowly drifted open, feeling very guilty over the fact that he was just trying to look between a naked girl's legs. He just knew he was doing something very wrong, but the AI did tell him to help wake the girl up. He was sure he would be seeing her naked no matter what, he had an excuse, but that didn't stop him from feeling like someone was about to get him in very big trouble if this girl told her parents or a teacher what he was doing.
He had been told there were no adults around, but his ingrained instincts still hadn't adjusted to that. He still couldn't help dreading the punishment some authority figure was about to bring down on him. As such, he felt he had to explain himself to this girl as best he could that he wasn't doing anything wrong.
"Uhh... Hi." Dillan said timidly.
"Good morning Veronica Conner. You have just woken up from cryo sleep. Please follow the instructions of the acting captain Dillan Winters as he helps you through the post-cryo medical procedures," the AI said.
"What? I'm the captain now?" Dillan jumps up and nearly squeals at the surprise of what he'd just heard.
"Affirmative. As you are the only child older than age 10 aboard the ship at this time, you are evaluated as the most qualified to receive the role of acting captain and shall be regarded accordingly," the AI says.
"Uhhh... what?" The girl groans and starts to sit up. "What's going... onn... Why am I naked!?" She suddenly shrieks as she notices her lack of clothing.
"Clothing is detrimental to the post-cryo sleep awakening process, and thus was all removed before you went to sleep," the AI answers.
The girl was silent after hearing this and looked around nervously. "What's going on?" The girl asked again.
"Uhh... well, the AI said that we're the only ones on the ship, so I'm helping wake people up right now," Dillan said.
The girl just silently stared back at him, curling herself up and covering her crotch with her hands. She found the catheter stuck in there and started grabbing it.
"Please refrain from removing your catheter as it can damage your bladder if removed incorrectly," the AI said.
She looked over her arms, noticing the IV tubes coming out of both of them, and then stared daggers back at Dillan.
"Stop looking! I'm naked!" She demanded.
"Umm..." Dillan stammered, not really sure how to respond.
"Acting captain Winters must preform your post cryo-awakening medical procedures, and it will be impossible for him to perform these duties without keeping his eyes on what he is doing," the AI said.
The girl just goes silent after getting rebuffed by the AI in that way, and the two children simply stare at each other for a while, neither of them making a move. Dillan is really not sure what to do, but for some reason, he feels his penis beginning to get stiff and stand up from staring at this naked girl. This has happened to him before when he touches his penis, and it has also happened a few times when him and his friends start talking about girl's privates. He doesn't really understand it much, but he knows his parents would probably not answer questions he asks about his privates. He might even get in trouble for it.
"Hypothermia likely to set in from prolonged presence in cryo-bay while lacking proper clothing. Please begin attending to patient Veronica," the AI prompts.
"Uhh... what to I do?" Dillan asks.
"Please place the tape that was prepared from the medical tray on the side of the cryo-pod such that a portion of it is hanging in the air for easy access. Then, take a prepared cotton ball and hold it firmly against the inside of patient's arm on top of the site of the IV needle injection. Then, while still maintaining pressure, remove the IV needle and place the tape over the cotton ball to secure it firmly."
Dillan follows the procedures as he's told. The girl reluctantly gives him her arm while still nervously watching him. While the cryo-pod is not exactly high, it is bulky enough that Dillan has to lean his body against it just to reach her arms. He is just a bit over 4 feet tall, so he has difficulty working with the girl who is in the raised cryo-pod that's adjusted for adult heights to work with. The front of his blanket drops open several times, and while he needs to lean over the cryo-pod to work on Veronica's arms, it is a curve-shaped pod, which means that when he stands straight she still gets a clear view of his penis. He caught her actually looking a couple of times, and ever since her eyes have been practically locked to his crotch every time he backs away from the pod.
He is also shivering the entire time due to the cold, and he can see Veronica starting to shiver as well. She is in a fetal position, and it is almost impossible to tell how much of that is to cover her body for modesty reasons and how much is to simply preserve body heat.
"Now please begin removal of vitals monitoring equipment and catheter. Due to complications related to care provider's height, it may be necessary to climb up into the pod along side the patient for better access purposes," the AI says.
Dillan is a little hesitant about these instructions. It would be pretty hard to keep his blanket from falling open if he was climbing all over Veronica's cryo-pod. But, after taking one last long look up at Veronica who's also shivering and naked, he figures it doesn't matter and it's probably pretty selfish to worry about his own nakedness when he has to help Veronica.
The cold metal of the pod feels even colder than the air in the room, and this quickly removes any thoughts of exploring Veronica's naked body as he climbs up and perches himself over her. He manages to coax her into uncurling from her fetal position a little, and her leg presses against his penis as she opens up. She flinches at first and looks at Dillan like she's expecting some sort of retribution, but when it doesn't come she actually presses her leg more firmly into the space between his inner thigh and his genitals, causing his penis to lean quite firmly against the side of her leg. That's not all though, the rest of her leg up to her knee is also leaning against Dillan's chest. It's pretty easy to guess she's probably doing this for warmth.
Dillan also can't help glancing down between her legs as she opens them up, noting the vertical slit and puffy labia around where a boy's scrotum would be. He thinks it looks very strange and despite how cold it is and how much he wants to get this done so they can get out into the warm shower again, he can't help but stare.
"Please proceed to remove the vital monitoring equipment and catheter," the AI prompts again, snapping Dillan out of the spell cast by those alluring girl privates he's seeing for the first time. He looks up at the pads attached to the girl's chest, and he leans forward to peel them off. Meanwhile, Veronica is silently looking up into his eyes.
"Did you just wake up naked too?" She asks as Dillan finishes removing the ECG pad.
"Yeah," Dillan says, and then looks down at her privates and the catheter tube coming out of them again.
"Mmm... why is there blood?" She asks, and Dillan can trace her gaze to the insides of his blankets and a few parts of his skin where he hadn't washed the blood off his skin well enough.
"I... I didn't have the cotton balls and all that when I took my... IV tubes out," he manages to get out between his teeth chattering from the cold.
He looks back up to Veronica for a second. "Umm... I've gotta take out this tube now," he says, indicating her privates. He pushes her legs slightly farther apart, but one of her knees are still firmly planted against his chest. His stiff penis is pointing directly at her privates. Although he knows absolutely nothing about sex and has only occasionally heard his friends mention girls don't have a penis. But, now that he's seen a real girl's privates, he wonders if it's possible for a boy's penis to go inside where she pees from. It looks like it might actually be big enough.
He knows all he has to do is release a valve part way down the tube and then pull it out, but despite it being so cold and him just wanting to get out of her and back to that warm shower he is sorely tempted to use this excuse to explore her privates a little bit further. This is still his first time seeing a girl's privates, after all, and he's very curious.