57. Weird People

The trio, Abyssal, Kuon, and Meica found themselves within a rather cold room in Doctor Julia’s ‘clinic’. Meica was currently lying down comfortably on a white bed. A small empty glass of water was on a table next to her alongside the leftover wrappings of some medicine that she took. She looked to be much better than she was a few hours ago and was back to her hyperactive self again. All around the room were very advanced-looking medical equipment and apparatus.

Truth be told, Abyssal had expected the room to be unkempt and in disorder. Contrary to the mess that Abyssal saw in the lobby, this room was easy on the eyes and screamed professionalism. The cabinets in the room were neatly stacked and the room itself looked to be sparkling. There were other things in the brightly lit room such as a personal shower and even a dining table near the far end of the room. If Abyssal had to rate all the hospital rooms that she has ever been in, she would put this one in her top five.

“How are you feeling, Meica?” Abyssal asked Meica who looked refreshed.

“Meica okay, nyaa!” Meica gave Abyssal a thumbs up, her ears and tail even perked up. “Medicine very effective! Sick feeling went away so fast!”

“There is a small part of the human brain that computes three-dimensional perception. The earlier jumps must have messed up that part a bit, giving rise to nausea. All I did was give you medicine to inhibit that part of your brain from making you vomit. It will wear off in a few hours, and which by then, your three-dimensional perception problem would have been cured as well. I wasn’t sure how a Nekomi would react to the medicine, but a quick search through my medical database said it was alright. So there is that. Then again, it must have been bad if a Nekomi of all people was getting space sickness. Ya guys must have been exposed to excessive jumps without protection.”

Doctor Julia gave out a long drawn explanation on Meica’s symptoms.  It was a rather knowledgeable explanation that one would expect from a doctor. Though the conduct of the person itself was as far away from a doctor as possible.

Doctor Julia adjusted her glasses before sitting on a chair next to Meica. In her hands was a stick of what looked to be a cigarette alongside a device that looked to be a lighter. She lit up the cigarette before putting the thing in her mouth, contaminating the room with a foul cigarette smell.

‘I guess people still smoke in the far future… Also smoking in front of a patient in the room… What kind of doctor is she even…’ Abyssal thought to herself. She looked at Doctor Julia to analyse her. Outside of her ragged clothing, she really looked like one of those nerdy scientist types— timid face, large round glasses, etc. The only thing was, her body language, her words and her actions are no different than one of a delinquent.

The young woman wearing a white robe then sucked a big one from her cigarette and let out a puff of smoke. Once done, she asked a question: “So? What are these things? Why suddenly bring them here? Kyle’s client?”

‘Kyle?’ Abyssal took notice of the name ‘Kyle’. She did not recognize the name. Could it be the name of the captain that was with E?

“Nah. That kid’s got better things to do. Besides, we are technically off duty for now. Ain’t no way we are getting clients in this situation. These guys are Astral’s leftovers.”

“Hmmm…” Julia looked at Meica before moving her eyes towards Kuon and Abyssal. “Astral sure does meet with some weird people.”

“I know right? I guess weird people attract each other gahaha!” E let out a loud laugh.

‘Really? You guys are calling us weird? You guys are total weirdos, as well!’ Abyssal yelled out internally. On the outside, she only gave a blank stare towards the two. It was an action that was shared by both Kuon and Meica who gave a blank stare as well.

“Hear this out, Julia. I was fighting this big battle against some trespassers when suddenly—” E said out before suddenly stopping out of nowhere. She tilted her heads upwards to look at the ceiling, though there was nothing there.

“What? That ship is discovered where? Dammit, just hiding right in front of our eyes? Talk about daring,” E said to the room. However, it doesn’t take much to know that she was talking to someone that was not in the room.

“Alright. I’ll be right there,” E said before massaging her temples and letting out a sigh.

“Emergency?” Julia asked.

“Yeah, something urgent came up, I got to go,” E replied before looking at Abyssal.

“I’m going to leave you guys here. You guys can walk around wherever you want, but remember that I have my eyes on you,” E said before pointing one of her fingers to her eyes before pointing it towards the trio. “Julia, you’ll be in charge of supervising them.”

“What? No freaking way. That’s waayyyy too troublesome.”

“Sorry ‘bout that. Captain’s orders,” E put her hands together in an apologetic pose before winking at Julia.

All of a sudden, E’s body ‘glitched’ out. Her hands and legs swapped places and her clothing looked like it had grown digital thorns made out of numbers and alphabets. She glitched a few more times before disintegrating right in front of Abyssal. Her whole body turned to dust which then disappeared into the seams of the walls and the ground below her.

“Nyaa?!” “Uwah?!”

Abyssal and Meica let out a surprised yelp.

”What the…”

“First time? You’ll get used to it. She doesn’t seem to understand that turning into dust like that can shock people. That or she just likes messing around with people. She’s been like that ever since I met her,” Julia said before letting out a sigh.

“Forget about shock, someone could have a heart attack,” Abyssal responded.

Julia let out a small chuckle at her response. “Well, it may not be to the extent of a heart attack, but I have seen people having a mental breakdown at seeing her do that.”

“I see…”

“So where are you guys from? It’s rare to see a Nekomi round these parts. It’s quite a distance away from the main planets. Ya from Rhodes? Or ya guys from Coney?”

“No, we aren’t from Freedom United,” Kuon responded.

“Oh? That’s interesting,” Julia let out a small hum before resting her head on her hands. She stared intently onto the person who responded to her question, Kuon. Not long after that she then took a look at Abyssal. The way she looked at them was how a bored person would stare at something random uninteresting to kill time.

‘Why is she staring at me like that…?’ Abyssal asked herself.

That question would be soon answered when Julia asked another question. “What exactly are you two, anyway? Talking drones with personalities?”

“Well! That is a really good question! You see! We are um…. Uh….” Abyssal fumbled around trying to think up a good answer.

“Yeah, alright. Ya don’t have to tell me if you are going to be like that. If I hafta guess, ya two some sort of Living Core?”

“Wha-what makes you think so? I’m just a person controlling a drone!” Abyssal refuted.

“Uhuh, yep. Totally. Here’s a little tip for ya. You guys are pretty obvious, you need to do a little bit better to hide your identities,” Julia said before waving her hand away at them. She then stood up from her chair and headed her way towards the door.

“I’mma leave a bit and get some grub for myself. Ya guys have fun,” said Julia as she exited the room.

The door snapped shut and the trio was left in the room all by themselves.

“...Isn’t this person supposed to watch over us?” Abyssal muttered to herself.

“Doesn’t matter, we already have another pair of eyes on us,” Kuon said as she looked around the room, searching for something.

“Right...“ Abyssal let out a sigh.

Her curious eyes darted across the room to find a camera or even a hidden microphone. Meica, who saw that the two were just looking around the room, did the same, just turning her head to find something. None of them spotted any cameras but just because they could see none doesn’t mean that there were none in the room.

Giving up on looking for cameras, Abyssal turned towards Meica. “Are you really alright? Not going to lie, you did look like you were in serious pain just a moment ago.”

Meica brought out her arms and flexed it at Abyssal. “Meica is fine, nyaa! I think I can even walk and run around right now!”

“That’s good then. We should leave this place immediately and get back to the ship if that’s the case. I feel uneasy just staying around,” Kuon said.

“No objections on that one,” Abyssal replied.

Hearing this, Meica let out a dejected expression. “Ehh… Meica didn’t get a chance to explore the ship.”

“We can do that once we... ” Kuon replied without finishing her sentence, but not before glancing towards the room and then towards Abyssal and Meica respectively.

No words further from Kuon were needed to understand what she was going to say. It was not wise to discuss their future plans in a place where someone could snoop in on them.

“I guess so, nyaa,” Meica replied.

Before the conversation could move any further, the trio heard footsteps from the outside and soon enough, the door to the room slid open, revealing Julia holding a tin can. Steam could be seen coming out from the can that she was holding. In the can was a small spoon. On her other hand, was a cup of what seemed to be hot water of sorts. Abyssal couldn’t identify what kind of drink or food it was, only the hot steam coming from the cup and can respectively.

“Alright, I’m back,” she walked towards the trio before putting the water on the small table next to Meica’s bed. Julia then sat on a chair before taking a small bite from her can.

It was at this moment that Meica suddenly went crazy. She sniffed super hard a few times before locking her eyes towards the tin can that Julia was eating from. Abyssal couldn’t really tell what was up as she didn’t have any smelling module installed on her.

‘It must have been something nice.’

“Um.. Doctor Julia… is that… fish?” Meica as timidly, as if trying to control herself.

“Hmm? Yeah. It’s a can of sardines. Fresh from our fish farm.”

“Fish farm?!” Meica yelled out.

“Huh? Yeah, the people need their protein, it is best to just grow our own instead of buying it from a station or a planet,” Julia responded.

‘Fish farm? So there is such a thing in space… good to know, I guess.’

“Can I have some?!” Meica perked up with an excited face before moving closer to Julia.

Julia didn’t even get to answer before Meica swiped the can of sardines from Julia’s hands. Like a beast, Meica devoured the packed fish in front of her.

Needless to say, Doctor Julia was not happy at this event.