Repairs

Systems online

Synchronizing....

Neural synchronization complete
Chassis at 100% structural integrity
Time is 22:47 LST

Athena sat up on the work table, the sheet covering her torso slithering down to pool in her lap. Where the hel- her eyes darted around, analyzing her situation. Deliverance, engineering bay, micro-manipulation module. Sensors picked up the chill airflow across her new skin, prompting her to look down and run fingertips across her torso, jostling the cables snaking out of her ribcage and skull. Oh yeah, she'd been shot. Mei Xui'd done an excellent job with repairs, she couldn't even see a seam between old skin and new. A sudden frown marred her face as she poked experimentally at her breasts. Did Jei-Jei make her boobs bigger? A twitch in her neck jerked her head slightly as she accessed her design specs and compared them to the most recent data. No, the numbers matched. This was what Athena hated most about repairs, the system reboots involved always left this odd feeling afterwards. Not quite deja vu, as far as she could process, but she still hadn't found an appropriate term for this 'not quite right' hyper-awareness.

Her fingers continued meandering over the replaced torso skin as she ran a quick diagnostic on her neural net. She'd never suffered such extensive damage to her brain before and she wasn't certain that the facilities on Deliverance were quite up to the task. Thank all the gods that Father had built her with so many redundancies. That little thought flashed over pathways like lightning, singeing her circuits with fear. Mother of God and all her wacky nephews, people had SEEN her! If word got around, then They would be able to start tracking her and she'd have to invent a whole new identity and go on the run again. Not to mention that it would bring Jei-Jei and Di-Di and Deliverance under a whole other sort of scrutiny that they really did not need right now, along with the rest of the crew. The crew... Athena's eyes widened at the new flash of fear. All the planets in space flushed up Buddha's butt, what if one of THEM leaked it?! They'd be in the perfect place to set up an ambush, and if they could get in contact with the right people then a full pardon would be the very least they could expect in exchange for her. Intact and functioning, preferably, but Athena didn't doubt that They would take her in any condition They could get her.

First things first. Clothes and hair. Confirmation of location and situation in regards to ship and crew. Make sure the prisoner didn't know and/or was unable to reveal the information. Making sure the crew wouldn't tell would take more...finesse.


(OOC: I'm assuming that this takes place on the trip back to Patience, but it could easily be afterwards if someone who would have been on the captured ship wants to reply.)

Lee stepped into the engineering bay a bit cautiously. She hadn't ever been in here before and wasn't entirely certain she ought to be there now. She was well aware that what she considered sensible curiosity and responsibility, other people considered nosy and presumptuous, and so while it seemed to her that she ought to check in on Athena she was unsure if she would feel the same way.
If she even felt at all? She wasn't sure. Athena had seemed to be perfectly normally, emotionally, and she'd certainly insisted that she was no different from them. She wasn't exactly an expert on the matter.
There was no sense questioning without more information anyway. She glanced around the room as she stepped toward Athena, noting with interest and (she was surprised to notice) not some small measure of relief, that she was stirring. She hung back long enough for Athena to prod at herself some (perhaps making sure everything was still there?), then stepped forward when she stilled.
"Athena?" she asked, a bit hesitantly. It was definitely still strange to see the woman with wires attached to her all over. "How are you feeling?" Perhaps not the best choice of words, but she was doing her very best to treat Athena just as she would have if she had been fully human. She seemed to think of herself as such and she would respect that. Even if she couldn't quite get the image of her with a giant hole through her torso out of her brain.

The approaching footsteps seemed unnaturally loud in the stillness. Athena made a mental note to double check the settings on her governors, make sure that the limitations were still firmly in place; it would not do to accidentally display any sort of abnormal abilities. It was only when the Good Doctor spoke that she turned her bald head to regard the woman with a smile. "Good evening, Doctor. I am much better now, thank you. There appears to be some residual fragmentation, since I forgot for a moment how big my breasts were supposed to be, but that will pass."

She looked around, taking note of the rest of the space instead of just taking stock of her own status. The used plate and napkin on the nearby work table made her smile. The remains of Mei Xui's meal, no doubt, though no sign of the woman herself. Poor Mei Xui would be so vexed to find that her colleague had awoken while she was getting coffee. No wonder the Good Doctor was here, no doubt left to keep watch in case of status changes.

Well, no reason to not start gathering intel. She would just have to be more subtle without a confirmed ally as her source. Athena looked back to Doctor Lee with an expression that was hesitant and a little concerned, trying to find a tactful way to broach the subject of the crew's reactions. "...How is everyone?"

Lee smiled wryly. "A bit confused, mostly." she said. "I haven't really got a chance to talk much with Sol or Li Shen. Patience and 44 think it's hilarious. I think Weihan actually kicked them out because they were bothering Mei Xie with their jokes." She laughed at the memory. "So, I think it went pretty damn well, considering everyone just found out you're an entirely different order of being."
She bit her lip. Athena was absolutely fascinating, but she didn't quite feel comfortable asking a bunch of questions that were probably fairly personal. "So how does that work, anyway? If you don't mind me asking. I've never even heard of anything like you." The admiration was clear in her voice, and she hoped that her phrasing and body language made it clear that answering the questions was optional.

Well, at least someone found her predicament to be amusing. Odd, she would have thought that superstitious 44 would have been the one with the biggest problem. Athena smiled slightly, glad to have been wrong about this particular something. "Go figure." She'd have to check the menfolk herself, then, but at least the ladies weren't likely to be any immediate trouble.

The Doctor's excitement made her laugh just a little. How the hell was she going to explain this, and how much? She couldn't just leave it be, then Lee would turn to other sources to satisfy her professional curiosity and that could get very bad. Athena ran her hand over her bald head, whizzing through permutations for a moment. "It's... complicated. Essentially, I am the end result of a very long experiment. The first iterations were purely biological in nature. When that didn't work, they tried it from the other direction. I am the sixth attempt at a completely humanized android, and the only one that succeeded. Once he got past the idea that my parts had to correspond to biological parts, it was easier."

Lee nodded. "Yes, you mentioned your 'brain' was in your chest." she noted. "So, you're more or less functionally the same as a human? Brain, emotions, pain receptors-can you feel things properly? As in touch, not emotions, I've seen you do enough to not doubt that you have those."
The implications were absolutely staggering. Athena's technology could change the 'Verse forever. Lee wasn't much of a tech nerd, but the medical implications were as exiting as they were staggering. It didn't really occur to her that her questions could be perceived as rude