Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Doctor S and Professor A ❯ Will We Survive? ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Chapter Three-Will We Survive?
A.C. 173 June 22nd
"Here put this on," said Lisa holding out a head harness with a computerized box attached.
"Like this?" Henry asked.
She nodded. "Now slide the box around so it's behind your ear."
"Here?"
"No, here let me." She moved the harness slowly. "It's got to be in just the right spot."
A light on the box flashed.
"Got it." She smiled. "Okay, now make a fist with your left hand."
Henry did as she instructed. On the laboratory bench in front of him another left hand also made a fist.
"Hey, wow!" he cried.
Henry wiggled his fingers; the prosthetic hand mirrored action.
Lisa smiled. "It has full range of motion from the wrist up. It will do what ever your brain normally tells a left hand to do."
"Lisa, you're amazing!"
"And that's not all." Lisa reached out and tapped the prosthetic hand.
Henry jumped in surprise. "It felt like you tapped my hand!"
"Yes, it's totally interactive with the mind. Both sending and receiving, but only pressure so far, we haven't got it to understand temperature. See?" She slipped her hand inside the prosthetic hand to where a normal hand would feel her warm skin.
"Your right. It feels kind of numb."
"Well a hand has many more nerves than we can allow for. A person would never get a total recovery with this--could never read brail for instance."
"Would they have to wear this box too?"
"We've developed implants for it. Only problem is the smaller the box the fewer features the hand has. And we can't put this big a box inside someone's head. That's our goal for this year, along with eye-sight."
"I bet that takes a huge harness?" He asked distractedly.
"Yes, right now it takes a whole helmet for black and white vision. But I have a few theories, which I hope will get it down to a reasonable size."
"What about your book?" He shifted nervously in the seat.
She sighed. "You always ask me about that!"
"Publish or perish!" he coined an old phrase.
"I've set a goal to have `Map of the Zero Interface' to the editors by Christmas." She read his body language--something was up.
He forced a laugh, "You're so much like me: always setting too many goals."
"And you're stalling."
"Huh?"
"Instead of asking me the same old questions, why don't you just tell me what's on your mind?"
He a look of fear passed over his face, "Uh...I have news." He looked down at his hands. "And I'm not sure...what it will mean for us." He finished in a rush.
"Oh," she said. "Let me sit down then."
"Yes, you'd better."
She pulled a stool over and perched on it next to him. The prosthetic hand cavorted in a worried half twiddle mirroring his hand in his lap.
"So what's the news?"
"Oh, it's good news really...partly. It's a new job. Designing mobile suits."
"Oh Henry! That's wonderful! It's your dream, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is but..." There was no easy way to say this. "It's on Earth."
Her heart plummeted. She also looked down. "Well, it had to happen sooner or later."
They sat that way side-by-side for several minutes, staring at the lab counter in front of them. A lump started to form in her throat. The more she thought about them breaking up, the more her heart hurt. She tried to think of something else to suppress these feelings...maybe they should add hearing to the list of goals? But the feelings persisted, distracting her, refusing to be ignored.
"Lisa!" He turned to her and grabbed her shoulders. "Marry me, please."
Her eyes filled with tears. "You know I can't! I can't leave L3! The center of my career is here. That's why I live here instead of with family on the Mars colony!"
"I know!" he cried. "I'm not asking you to leave here. Marry me anyway."
"But."
"Lisa, please listen," he begged. "This last year and a half--I've never been so happy. Even if I only get to see you once and a while it would be better than giving you up!"
Tears streaked down her face. Sobs racked her body. "No...no..."
"People like us...scientists...we burn out early. When we get off this technology roller coaster, at least we won't have to be alone! We'd have each other." He brushed a tear away from her cheek. "Too grow old with."
She gulped a sob, "So you want us to marry now and be apart?"
"Yes, don't you see? I understand about your work. You're helping to reverse blindness. You love it. I could never take that away from you!" He sighed. "It wouldn't be much different than it is now...with the way you and I go Under all the time. I'm never going to find another woman like you...I don't want to loose you."
"We'd have to plan our time-off better," She wiped her face with the sleeve of her lab coat.
"It'd be good for us," he agreed. "Please say yes...you're my soul mate. We were meant to be together."
"Oh Henry, I love you so much!" She threw her arms around him. "It won't be much different--not really. But people will say we're crazy."
He hugged her tightly.
"I don't know about you, but people already say I'm crazy," he said.
"How can I bare you being so far away?"
"Just think about the future. We have so much to look forward to, my love!" He pushed her back so he could look into her eyes. "I can do this...I can spend long hours in a think-tank, go Under for months on end, invent the world's best mobile suit, if I know that someday you and I will be together forever. You protect my sanity. And you, my miracle worker, will make `lame beggars walk and blind men see'."
She smiled through her tear-stained cheeks. "What did I do to deserve you? I will marry you Henrik Stein! Tonight if you want me too."
"Yes, tonight." He kissed her, then pulled her in tightly to his chest. Over his shoulder she saw the prosthetic hand flop helplessly on the desk. It had fallen off its stand in all the excitement.
She giggled, stepped back and removed the harness from his head.
"I still don't believe in Plato's dual soul mumbo-jumbo."
"Then, I'll have to work harder at convincing you."
A.C. 175 June, 27th
Lisa had checked her email at least three times every day for the last two months-nothing from him. Her voice mail was equally empty.
Heero Yuy was dead.
It was still so hard to believe! Heero had been the hope for colonial independence. His assassination on April 7th had thrown L3 into chaos. Gunmen, papers, military rule...but nothing bothered her half so much as loosing touch with Henry. She could get no word of him, whether he was still on Earth, whether he was still alive. Her last email was dated May 2nd. It was just a few lines. "Love, things are hectic. I'm leaving here as soon as I can. I'll call you tomorrow. H.S."
But he hadn't called.
She had terrible nightmares--red glaring lights, people screaming. Lately they'd become physically painful to her. She figured she must have been thrashing around in her sleep. She must have whacked her head against the headboard a week ago--her nose still throbbed in pain. Before that, it had been her hand, which was still numb in places. The dreams had only grown in terrible images-torture, the sound of a familiar voice screaming.
It was a good thing the Technology District closed down as often as it did. She could never work in this state of worry. But it left her pent up in her apartment--pacing like a tiger in a cage.
She'd just started in on a second bout of dusting that morning, when several loud sounds drew her to the window. A hover cab floated there. She opened the window.
The back door of the cab flew open and a young man poked his head out.
"Hey, Lady! You Dr. Stein? Dr. Lisa Avilovski-Stein?"
"Yes, I..."
He cut her off. "Get in quick!"
"What?"
"Lady, I don't have time to explain it to you. You see that patrol down there?" Fifteen stories down a patrol of Alliance soldiers came to a stop in front of her building. "They're here with a warrant for your arrest and execution! You wanna stay and invite them for tea?"
"Who are you?"
"Doctor S sent me."
Could Doctor S be her husband? She heard shouting below. The elevator was very fast. She didn't have much time. She made up her mind. Taking the man's hand she jumped into the cab. It sped away as a soldier kicked in her door.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"Your lab."
"Why?"
"Doctor S says you can fix the blind and give a body a new hand."
Her heart leapt to her throat. "Who needs that?"
"Nobody you know. Doctor S says your code name is now `Professor A' and you're not supposed to tell any one who you really are."
"Professor A?"
"Yeah."
"Who is Doctor S?"
The young man looked at her like she was stupid, "He said he was your husband."
She grinned like an idiot. "Thank God!"
Confirming that this was the last trip she could ever make to her lab, Lisa had the young man and the cab driver bring her entire set of prosthetics--six cases worth. She spent the time downloading things onto her laptop. She added all of her fine tuned electronic tools, and a medical kit. They were impatient to be gone, but she was careful. If Henry expected her to give someone back his or her sight, she was not going to let him down. Her heart sung at the prospect of seeing him again. He's alive! It was all she needed to be happy--well maybe not all.
She grabbed her first print copy of her book on the way out the door. Couldn't leave that behind!
The cab took her into the bowels of L3. She saw places of the colony, she'd never seen before, and didn't care to see again. She saw her first glimpse of the hover war tanks the news had been talking about. Patrols were numerous in this blasted and run-down side of L3. The cab finally ducked through a trick roof on top of a run-down apartment building. She found herself in a long tunnel, moving under the colony surface. Cracks of light peaked down into the dark tunnel as the cab sped along.
Finally the tunnel opened in to a room. Three other parked hover cabs sat there. Standing in front of them was a familiar figure--tall and narrow with wild upward standing hair. He stood in shadow, but there was no mistaking that figure.
Her heart flipped over in her chest, she opened her mouth, "Hen..."
"Don't say his name," the young man hissed, cutting her off. "This is not the place for names. He's Doctor S, remember that."
She nodded, but her eyes never left the tall figure as she waited impatiently for the hover cab to land.
She burst from the cab the instant it touched the ground. Tears of joy blurred her eyes as she ran to him. He met her halfway and caught her up in a hug.
Her body was racked with sobs of relief as she clung to him.
"It's alright," he whispered to her. "I'm here, my soul. It's alright." He kissed her ear and her cheek.
She pulled back to look at him, and that was when she noticed it. As her eyes adjusted to the shadows, she could see a large bandage where his nose had been.
Later that day
Doctor S watched as his wife and Master O stepped out of the examination room. She didn't look at all well. She removed her surgeon's mask and rushed to the sink to be sick.
Doctor S winced and walked over to the shuddering form of his wife. He placed a hand on her back. She spat twice, still shuddering. He handed her a towel. She took it and stood up from the sink. She wiped her mouth, but did not turn around.
"Who would do such a thing?" she said, with a cold steely chill to her voice.
"They call themselves `OZ'," he said, his nasal voice still sounding un-natural to his ears.
"Why?"
"The mobile suits...we wouldn't finish them. We refused. They found other means to persuade us. First him, then me." He looked down at his bandaged hand. "His screams, it kept us all working. Then he stopped screaming..."
She said nothing. She stood staring straight ahead. Such things didn't happen in real life did they? She asked herself. It seemed so unreal...like some dime store novel.
"Can." Doctor S paused. "Can you help him?"
There, something scientific to think about! She clung to it. "He's a good candidate for prosthesis, but that young man in the cab didn't tell me the eyes and hand were for the same man. I can't do both. We've gotten the controls down to a reasonable size for either a limb prosthesis or an optic prosthesis, but not both. I'm sure he'd rather have his eyes."
"Yes," Doctor S agreed quietly.
"Then all I can do about the hand is a simple two-motion hook or claw. Optic prosthesis just takes up too much space." She sighed. "I can do nothing for his legs. He'll get up to 70% of his leg mobility back, but he'll never walk without braces ever again."
"Thank you," said Doctor S.
"I'm not a medical doctor, but fortunately Master O is. We can begin whenever, he's ready."
"I would like to review the procedure with you a few times before we start," rumbled Master O from behind them.
She nodded, but didn't turn around. "I've...I've never created nasal prosthesis, but it...it shouldn't be that hard. I can at least get your face back to looking normal."
"No," he said bitterly. "I don't want you too. This face...my face will remain as it is. I want the whole L3 resistance to see it, so they know what OZ is capable of."
"I understand. There are nose shields in my prosthesis cases."
"I'd find one. Go on now."
She turned and looked at him. Her eyes were blasted. Her face was pale and gaunt. She mustered a sad smile, which barely turned the corners of her mouth. He felt as though he'd been punched in the stomach, torture was preferable to the raw pain that engulfed their lives. Quietly, she left with Master O.
"How will we survive this?" Doctor S asked the empty room.
It had no answers for him.