Chapter Thirteen: The Grudge — Part 4

Though she was unable to stop the loss of flesh that gave Yap the core of a human, Elec was relieved when Yap’s android frame readily accepted anything that filled the growing sensory void resultant of that loss. The frame connected automatically, refining the connections as it worked its way through things, as if desperate to replace what had been lost with anything that might somehow do the same job. When she was done, and Yap was more or less whole, the crew broke down their medical equipment and cleaned the kitchen of all evidence of surgery, sterilizing the room with the same odd little handheld devices they had used some hours before. Elec took off her surgical garb washed up, and let out a deep, wondering breath. She headed across the garden and into the study, where Orchid waited.

“Yap is now fully an android. She will be unconscious for several hours as her processors adjust to the new stimulus from her replacement parts. I have no wish to be here when she wakes up, and you should have no further need of me now that she is recovering.” Elec prepared herself for the Snap.

“Thank you for coming all this way to help.” Orchid said.

Nikkei stood at a distance from Elec, her back to the door of the main entrance into the study. The two made eye contact, Nikkei waiting for Elec to talk.

“The baby will need breast milk, I imagine that you already have that contingency covered.” Elec said, after some consideration.

“Thank you for not taking it from me.” Nikkei said, referring to the baby.

“You needn’t worry about my wanting Yap now.” Elec said, knowing full well whom Nikkei was talking about. “Every part of her that mattered to me is gone.” Elec said as the Snap Gate opened.

Elec was the last through the Snap, which sealed with a hard clap behind her, leaving Orchid in a room with Nikkei, who, once Elec was gone, broke down into tears.

Nikkei had arranged for a wet nurse long before Yap had come out of surgery, rushing the young woman up from the city by limo, having found her via Pearl’s string of local connections. Orchid’s medical scan of the woman found her to be in perfect health, though if she had been sick, she wouldn’t have been for much longer. Orchid was with Yap when she woke up. Physically she was no different than Orchid remembered her. The hume organs had been buried under android skin and within the android framework, and though she had looked horrible during Elec’s repair process, Yap now looked a little thinner but otherwise healthy, moving carefully to a sitting position. She seemed to know immediately that she had lost her biological components, but any real concern she had with this remained unexpressed for the moment.

“Where is my baby?” Yap asked sounding upset.

“With Nikkei and the wet nurse. Hard to find such a person these days, but Pearl managed.”

“I wanted to know what it was like to breastfeed.” Yap said, nearly to tears.

“Oh dear.” Orchid said quietly. “I don’t know how Elec merged the organic tissues with your android components in the first place, and I don’t think I could get hold of breasts even if I could undo the damage done. I certainly wouldn’t know how to induce lactation in breasts not part of a larger biological system. You should go to Nikkei, when you’re strong enough, and get to know your wet nurse. She is such a sweet girl, I’m told.”

Yap stood up, looked around. “I’m in my room.” She said almost in surprise, walked to her closet and put on some clothes.

Orchid followed Yap to another room on the bottom floor, one that had been set up as a family room for the child and other children to come. Yap leaned in close to look at her son, momentarily oblivious to the woman holding one baby to each breast. Yap swatted at Orchid with her hand, shooing her to leave, to which Orchid acquiesced reluctantly. Yap stared at the children, tilting her head slightly. She looked directly into the young woman’s hazel eyes, her own green eyes scanning the girl’s face and body in an attempt to memorize the details.