~o~O~o~

 

 

Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is just the reader's imagination. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whately Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

 

Notes: Sorry about the HUGE delay in getting this chapter out. Work/Life balance has been crazy this past month and after I started revising this chapter, I couldn't stop. I kept finding things that "needed" fixing. That added almost 2k more words. I hope those extra words actually help the story. :) Thanks to djkauf for correcting my slightly less than many grammar and punctuation mistakes!

 

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** Chapter 21 **

 

<Sat Feb 17 12:55:32 MST 2007>

 

Well, that is the time that my new internal clock displayed when I thought about what the time was, as my mom, Fey and I walked down the hall to get to the 1 PM meeting. The day is proving to be disturbing on so many levels.  Instead of fighting my new gender, I just decided to go with it. Well, that is what I keep trying to tell myself. I will be like the reed that bends in the wind versus the tree that snaps trying to resist.  Hmmm, I wonder where I have heard that before. 

 

>Sat Jun 25 20:34:02 MST 2005: "I will bend like a reed in the wind" - Paul Atreides while watching the 1984 movie “Dune” with Dad.

>Tue Oct 17 18:20:34 MST 2006: "The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm." - Confucius via Sensei Rogers

 

Umm, okay.  I guess that helps.

 

I decided to adopt that mindset about the time my mom and Fey had me try on my third pair of pants and they turned out to be those high water pants that girls like to call “Capri’s”.  Why can’t girl clothes work like boy clothes? Clothes are clothes, right?  Two arms, two legs, waist, everyone has the same basic parts, right. Why can’t girl clothes just fit? 

 

As a boy, one small t-shirt, random color or slogan, underwear, preferably clean, jeans size 28x30 any brand will work, clean white socks and finish that off with one of my two pairs of tennis shoes depending on my mood.  Run a comb through my damp hair, brush my teeth and out the door in 10 minutes or less.

 

As a girl, the only fast and easy part has been the dreaded girl underwear, aka ‘panties’. Without the convenient layered opening in my boy briefs, it took a second or two to figure out which side was the front, but once I puzzled that out; the panties went on pretty easy. I can’t say that they are supportive like my briefs felt on my junk, but I must admit that they are comfortable.  However, I am still a little worried about the panty situation.  I saw the look my mom and Fey exchanged when the silk panties in the suitcase were uncovered during the great dress-up Brian, I mean Brianna, adventure.

 

The bra fitting session caused my biggest mental hiccup. I had to try on three different bras before I found my bra. Not three different size bras, three different styles and brands. My mom even apologized for not having enough for me to try on. I discovered that one size does not fit all, even when the bra in question is labeled as the same size, 33B. How crazy is that?  From all the fascinating, umm, fashion-art magazines that I found far too disrespectful of women to really read,  I know that the ideal is a ‘C’ or god forbid, a ‘D’, but now that I have a pair of my own; I am damn glad that they aren’t any bigger!

 

Intellectually and structurally, I know that I need to wear a bra. I have had a virtual day or so to get used to the physical sensation of having boobs, but the sensation is still alien for me.  They are there, but the fact that they are there still feels strange.  I thought that the lack of my junk would be freaking me out more, but my missing bits are easier to ignore since out of sight is out of mind.  Every time I look down, bam! There they are.  Every time I move, they move and I feel them. I’m kind of stuck in a feedback loop and it’s annoying, but I have found that the feedback loop is reduced with my bra.

 

My bra and my panties, my brain skips a beat every time I think about those two basic clothing items as belonging to me.  Wind, reed, bend…

 

The bra fitting took ten minutes and my mom still had to dry my hair.  That took another ten minutes of drying while brushing mixed with some hair mousse goop. When she turned me around to face the mirror, the sight of the pretty girl wearing only her bra and panties made me smile, until I remembered that she was me.  My mom was behind me and she had a pleased smile on her face.  I think that she felt my initial confusion and when Fey appeared at my side I almost started to cry, again.

 

“Hey, it’s okay, Bree.” Fey said as she grabbed and held my hand while my mom hugged me from behind.

 

I looked at her and her smile reassured me enough to take a deep breath and face the mirror again.  I liked what I saw and my hesitant smile made my mom give me a supportive squeeze before she released me. 

 

Fey gently pulled me out the bathroom with a giggle. “Come on Bree, we need to get you dressed.  We can’t have you running around in just your bra and panties!”

 

The rest of the clothes fitting was a whirlwind of try this and try that. I never had time to really think about all of the different styles and cuts when mixed with all of the different colors and how the different combinations highlighted different parts of my body. Like my collar bone, my boobs, my butt, my stomach, my neck, my ankles or all of the above.  I never had to worry about that kind of stuff and I can’t say that I really ever wanted to either.  Clothes are just clothes.  They are supposed to be for protection from the elements. After forty-five minutes of trying on this top with those pants and that shoe, I had my wind/reed epiphany.

 

It was the Capri pants that finally broke me. While my mom and Fey gushed over how fresh I looked with them on, all I could think about is how they got ripped off when they bought those pants.  Why would someone purposely wear high-water pants?  The Capri things and the second pair of jeans fit the best, but I think they both felt how uncomfortable I felt about wearing the Capri’s, so the jeans won out.

 

They matched the jeans with a green long sleeved v-cut top that Fey claimed matched my eyes and hair perfectly.  Why I needed to wear something that matched my eyes and hair escaped me and I’m not too fond of the v-cut top thing either. I don’t care how fashionable it might be; having the top part of my chest exposed with what amounts to an arrow pointing to my boobs is...unsettling.  My boobs…more feedback.  My chest.  Okay, that’s better.  I have an arrow on my chest that is pointing to my chest.  Okay, that’s kind of redundant.  I need to come up with something better, but I don’t have time for that right now.

 

I only have one word for my first trip to the bathroom. Awkward and gross. Okay, make that two words.  My mom had to hold the urine sample jar for me while I figured out how to let go. That was the awkward part. I’ve done urine samples before and I have to say that it positively sucks to do one with girl plumbing.  My mom’s hand got pee on it and the jar was dripping.  I’m glad that she was there to deal with that. I probably would’ve just dropped the jar. Then, I was all wet down there and had to wipe.  That was the gross part. Well, maybe it wasn’t really gross gross, but it wasn’t right either. I have never gone to the bathroom and felt like I peed on myself as I peed in the toilet.

 

Wiping and the strange sensations of the toilet paper drying off my girl parts just added to my discomfort. I didn’t even know what part I was touching when I dried myself.  I was able to pull up an anatomical diagram from the sex education class I took this year, but the sight of that complex thing just made me not want to know and I blocked it out.  I can’t say that the diagram was really all that complex, but compared to what I had before, it was a nightmare.  Boy parts are dead simple.  Nuts. Don’t hit. Penis.  Done.  I don’t even know where to start with the girl parts. I know that I am going to need to know this stuff; I can’t avoid it and I’m sure that there are going to be some surprises, but I hope that I can remember this wind and reed thing when those surprises happen.

 

The first time out of my room was a real eye-opener for me.  My mom, Fey and I were walking down the hall when I noticed two soldiers walking towards us.  My HUD automatically tagged them as Corporal Gregory and PFC Killian.  I was a little distracted by a nifty little display that showed me their equipment and weapon’s status until I noticed them using the same girl hotness assessment pattern on Fey and me as I did to the girls at school. Even though they kept their heads forward and their faces professional, I could see their eyes moving up and down as they approached and passed us. I know that I did that with the hot girls too, but I never got caught doing it, I think. 

 

After the two soldiers passed, I looked at Fey and her smile made me smile, especially when I heard a thump and Corporal Gregory try to whisper. “Eye’s front Killer, they’re both jailbait!”

 

“Oh my gawd, Gregory! Why in the hell weren’t there any girls like that when I was in school?!?!” PFC Killian said, incredulously as he tried to keep it down to a whisper. 

 

I glanced over to my mom and she didn’t seem to notice or hear the soldiers, but Fey’s smile told me that she could hear them just fine.  Super robo-elf hearing to the rescue!

 

Gregory chuckled. “There probably were, but you were just too much of a loser to ever score with one.” I heard him whisper back.

 

I missed PFC Killian’s reply when they turned the corner of the hall.  Oh well, it was kind of funny and I know how he feels. It’s just weird being on the other side of the equation.  I guess that  I am now one of those hot girls that guys like I used to be would ogle.  Yeah, ogle. It’s a technical term and being ogled for the first time feels so weird.

 

Lunch was a bit different.  Last time I walked into the cafeteria here, no one even noticed me.  This time, not only did almost everyone notice me and Fey, but my HUD went crazy as my system automatically identified all of the people eating lunch.  It made me glad that there weren’t any of those cheesy sound effects.  I’m sure that the sound effect would’ve been just one big annoying screeching sound. I had to tone down the HUD thing after that to the basic info just so that I could see the people in the room.

 

As I was doing that, Fey steered me towards the food line.  I was a little confused about why she grabbed some napkins, instead of the food tray first, but once I saw her use the napkins to pick up the tray, the reason became apparent to me.  I briefly debated just dealing with the pain and letting my healing power fix things for me. Instead, I decided to copy her technique.  Fortunately this cafeteria was old school and used metal utensils and real plates instead of plastic for those items.

 

The mystery meat looked good, but I decided to follow Fey’s lead on the food selection. It was a lot easier to do that than to try and figure things out for myself.  I copied her request for extra veggies and an extra salad.  She passed on the pies, but I just couldn’t pass up the apple pie and a nice big glass of milk. 

 

Fey waited for my mom and I before she hunted for a table.  Mr. Reilly, Sir Wallace and Dr. Edmundson had a table of their own and I hoped that Fey didn’t want to sit with them. It looked like they were talking business of some kind and I didn’t want to interrupt them. Fey glanced back to me and decided to lead us to an empty table near the three of them.   I pretended to not notice all the stares that I got as I made my way to our table.  I didn’t see anyone drooling or anything crude like that, but I did see a lot of people’s eyes follow us.  Not just the guys either. 

 

Food wise, the only surprise I felt was the fact that I enjoyed the salad more than I expected.  My mom did get the mystery meat and she reported that it tasted “okay”, so I didn’t feel too bad for passing up on it.  I figured that I could explore my new palate a bit more when I finally got home.

 

Mr. Reilly, Sir Wallace and Dr. Edmundson stopped by our table on their way out.  They just stopped to say “hi”, but they didn’t want to interrupt our lunch; so they quickly excused themselves.  The rest of lunch was pretty uneventful, but I did catch a few of the guys sneaking looks at me.  Well, I think they were anyway, but maybe I was just being paranoid.

 

**

 

After lunch, my mom, Fey and I made our way to the meeting room. Entering the room, I see that in addition to Mr. Reilly, Dr. Edmundson and Sir Wallace, Brenda, Dr. Johannson and Colonel Thompson are also here.  I’m not sure why Brenda is here, but it is still nice to see her again. 

 

There is a casually dressed man that I don’t recognize who is looking at me with a curious expression. It’s not a leer, but he still makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

 

DOD/DARPA/Paranormal Security Analyst/GS14/Daniel/Alexander/Hoffman/xxx-xx-xxxx/A-/FALSE 

 

Paranormal Security. Hmmm, I guess that explains why he’s not wearing a suit or in a uniform and why he’s looking at me.  I wonder what he is seeing?

 

“Oh. My. God!” Brenda says as her friendly smile distracts me from him. Yep, I still think that she’s pretty. She surprises me when she rushes over and gives us both an enthusiastic hug. “Jennifer and Brian. Oh my god! I am so glad that you’re okay.  I wanted to ask you how you were doing when I dropped off the drinks in your room, but it just didn’t seem like a good time with all the people there.”

 

Her hug and exuberance just makes me feel even more confused because I like it and my body reacts, but I don’t really understand what my mind and body is trying to tell me. I think I’m still attracted to her, but without my penis to embarrass me; I’m not one hundred percent sure. My chest feels tingly and my body feels warm. Especially my junk, but the feeling is more diffused and less certain.  Embarrassed by my thoughts and unsure what to do, I instinctively cross my arms over my chest and then, immediately uncross my arms when I realize what I’m doing.

 

Three new men enter the room and I automatically scan their CAC ID badges.

 

DOD/DARPA/IPTO Director/EX04/Johnathan/Allen/Grier/xxx-xx-xxxx/O-/FALSE 

U.S.Army/RA/Major/O-5/Jacob//Thole/xxx-xx-xxxx/A+/FALSE

U.S.Army/RA/1st Sergeant/E-8/James/Edward/Griebler/xxx-xx-xxxx/AB+/FALSE

 

“Thanks, Brenda.” My mom says as her eyes become a little moist, like she might start crying or something.

 

I guess that my mom and Brenda spent some time getting to know each other while I was unconscious.  I’m still not sure how to handle Brenda hugging me.  My mom seems to pick up on my confusion and gives me a quick hug with a reassuring smile.  Somehow, that makes me feel a little better.

 

Brenda gives us both another quick hug before returning to her seat and I carefully inspect my chair before I sit down.  I’m not sure what this chair is made out of, but after my previous chair experience, I am not taking any chances.  It should help that I am fully clothed this time. 

 

With everyone seated, Mr. Reilly walks up to the front of the table and turns to my mom and I. “Mrs. Peters, I can’t find enough words to express how sorry I am about what you and your family are going through right now.” 

 

My mom squeezes my hand and smiles gratefully at Mr. Reilly. “Thanks Mr. Reilly, but I can’t thank the staff here enough for their support.”  She looks around the room at everyone and I can see that she looks like she could cry at any second now. “Because, there is no way that I would’ve been able to handle this without all of you here.  I’m sorry.”  She stops as her voice gets choked up with emotion.  I give her a hug and after a quick glance sideways to Fey for reassurance, I look back at Mr. Reilly.

 

Mr. Reilly smiles at me after he sneaks a glance at Fey. “Brian, I know that things aren’t exactly normal for you right now, but I will do everything in my power to get you and your family the help you need.”

 

“Thank you, Mr. Reilly and everyone here. I just feel lucky just to be alive!”  I smile gratefully at everyone as I look around the room. I notice a few smiles and nods in return. I decide to go all out and just get the name thing out and in the open. “Umm, I noticed that people were having problems with my name and I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable about that.”  I catch a few people nod unconsciously at my observation. “So, umm, my mom and I talked it over and decided that I should take the name that my parents would’ve named me if I had been born a girl.  Umm, If it’s okay with you all, I’d like it if you all just called me Brianna from now on.” I say, as my stomach does flip-flops from how nervous I feel about telling everyone in the room. I feel somewhat reassured when my mom squeezes my hand and proudly smiles at me. 

 

Mr. Reilly smiles at me before he quickly glances at Fey again before returning his gaze to me. “I think that we can manage that, Brianna and I must admit, that I think that is a very nice name for you.” 

 

I’m not sure how to handle that compliment and I’m glad he didn’t say that my name was “pretty”, but I still feel myself blushing as I mumble. “Thanks.”

 

Mr. Reilly’s expression turns serious again. “The team here has gone above and beyond the call of duty with their handling and investigation of this complex incident.  I want to commend everyone here for their role in making the impossible look merely difficult. The results of this investigation are being taken very seriously.”  He pauses for a few seconds to gather his thoughts and let that compliment sink in before he points to me with a smile, “Now that we have the star of the show present.  I think that it might be beneficial if we have Major Thole give us all quick recap of the investigation’s findings.  Brianna, feel free to interrupt when you can fill in any details we may have missed.”

 

I nod to him while Major Thole gets up from his chair to stand near the head of the table and closest to where the projector starts to display a presentation.  He begins the presentation with a simple event timeline that starts from the time I entered the lab during the field trip and ends when I woke up this morning.

 

Major Thole starts to explain the timeline, but when he gets to “1230hrs - Ms. Koshnik notes eye color…”

 

Feeling incredibly nervous, I decide to interrupt him.  “Sorry to interrupt you sir, but, umm, something happened before Brenda noticed my eyes.”

 

He pauses and smiles reassuringly at me. “Go ahead. What happened?”

 

“Well, I first noticed something weird when Bravo Ten inspected the bus.”  My new and improved memory allows me to describe everything down to whatever level of detail they want.  Dr. Edmundson tests my memory by asking me if I can remember seeing the name tag on the soldier’s uniform when he inspected the bus.  I rewind the memory from the bus and pay attention to his uniform as he is walking towards me, “His name tag says ‘KILLIAN’”, I tell them.  Wow, that is the same dude who I overheard in the hallway.

 

While I was talking and Dr. Edmundson asked me his questions, I noticed Dr. Johannson feverishly taking notes.

 

Major Thole starts back up by jumping forward to my call to Brenda.  That causes more questions, so I begin to describe what happened when I started playing GEO that night. Dr. Edmundson and Dr. Johannson are most interested in the ‘system’ messages. 

 

“Excuse me, but could you describe to me how you by-passed the wards in the game?” Sir Wallace asks.

 

“Umm, well, I just looked at the, umm, magic line and moved it out of my way.”  I say as I unconsciously pantomime doing that with my hands.

 

He looks a little perplexed with my answer.

“Is something wrong, Sir Wallace?” I ask, feeling slightly alarmed by his reaction.

 

His face relaxes into a patient smile and he glances at Fey before turning back to me. “Oh nothing right now, but I find your descriptions of the wards and how you slipped past them to be simply fascinating.  We will have to discuss that during our lesson tomorrow.”

 

“Good thing that’s only a game…” I hear the paranormal security dude mutter under his breath.

 

Both Sir Wallace’s and the security dude’s comment concerns me a little, because I think that there might be a lot that Sir Wallace didn’t say with his answer. On the other hand, he did mention the magic lesson.  I can’t wait for that, but if doing magic requires that I run around the woods shouting “Magic Missile! Magic Missile!” at people, I think I will skip the learning magic stuff. I saw the videos on the Internet and there is no way that I want to look like that much of a nerd.

 

I follow that up with an almost blow by blow account of the fight.  The military guys look the most interested when I describe the targeting thing. I describe my near-death scene after the fight in Seramis’ room.  It hurt and just recalling that memory reminded me just how close I really came to dying for real.  My mom lets go of my hand and pulls me into a full hug as I lose my composure from recalling that event.  I hear Mr. Reilly call for a short bathroom break to give everyone a chance to stretch their legs while both Fey and Brenda join my mom comforting me.  The sight of their concerned faces almost makes me totally lose it, but I manage to draw on their support and find the strength to not cry.  Just a few days ago, I would have given anything to have two hot chicks hugging me, minus my mom, of course.  That thought almost makes me laugh.

“What?” Fey asks with a grin.

 

I think she knows what I was feeling there. “Oh, nothing.  I’m just glad that you,” I look at Fey before I turn to an anxious looking Brenda. “And you are here.”  I feel a pinch from my mom. “Oh yeah, and you too Mom.  Thanks!”  I laugh, but I think that it comes out as one of those giggle things that girls do. 

 

That reminds me about the reason Mr. Reilly gave for giving the meeting a break.  I wonder how long we have been in here. I could just look at my own clock, but I find myself reflexively looking at the room’s clock.  I am surprised to discover that the meeting has already been going on for a little over an hour. 

 

I perform a bladder diagnostics and I feel relieved, no pun intended that I don’t feel like I have to go to the bathroom right now.  The one time just before lunch was enough for me.  I am so not looking forward to my second trip to the cold toilet seat room. I do decide to tempt fate and grab a glass of water though.  I am thirsty after all that talking.

 

Once everyone returns, Major Thole continues with how my family found me inside of something called a METS suit. I get to see the pictures of me inside the suit.  Well, of the suit anyway.  I can’t really see myself inside the suit, but I have to admit that the suit looks and sounds pretty cool.

 

I’m not sure when in the timeline it happened, but I interrupt again to describe the part where I saw Whisper on the table.  Dr. Edmundson theorizes that memory must have happened sometime after I was enclosed inside the suit, but before Mr. Hoffman checked me for magic before they manually deactivated the suit.

 

I also learn why Brenda is here when we watch the video that they took when Brenda went online to investigate. The room must be a little dusty or something, because I totally do not start to cry when I watch Lord Vincint talking to Brenda about how awesome I am.  I can’t believe that the he said all those nice things about me and he even gave Brenda his phone number in case we had some more questions.

 

I don’t have anything to add when Brenda talks to Seramis, but even though I know that Nikki is also Aunghadhail; I still find the differences in their personalities surprising to see.  I can’t help but wonder how all this is going to play out in game once Brenda and Nikki are able to play again.  I don’t ever plan on playing GEO again, but I can't help myself from wondering what happened to Whisper once Seramis healed me.

 

That gets us to Mr. Hoffman’s part in the timeline.  I’m pretty happy that he was around and able to figure out the magic stuff.  I am guessing that the suit deactivation is what “woke” me up inside my head. 

 

I end up telling that part of the story. Of course, I leave out a few of the embarrassing details with the mirror and I leave out meeting Sara too.  Since I’m not a good liar, that is a little tricky, but lying by omission isn’t as hard as completely lying.  I do blush when I hear a few chuckles when they find out that I thought Fey was an angel there to escort me to heaven.  It doesn’t help that even Fey giggles at my admission.

 

Once again, Dr. Edmundson is amazed by the re-org process and how I was able to speed it up.  I get the feeling that he can’t wait to get some time with me as his lab rat. Not that I have anything against helping him out.  I’m sure that whatever I can do to help him, will also help me understand all the weird computer stuff inside me.

 

Mr. Reilly decides that we should take another break and I am happy for that.  Well, happy for the break, but not at all happy when my self-diagnostics indicates that I have to go to the bathroom again.  I stop Dr. Edmundson on his way out. “Umm, Dr. Edmundson?  Do I still need to do more urine samples?” I feel very embarrassed and hoping that he will say no.

 

“I’m afraid so Brianna.  We detected some nanites in your last sample and we need to keep checking to verify that the nanite levels are dropping.” Dr. Edmundson says. 

 

I don’t think he understands how much I dislike the urine sample thing, much less the entire bathroom experience as a girl. I turn to my mom and sigh. “I need to go to the bathroom. Can you help me again?”

 

“Sure honey.  Let’s get to your room and get it over with so we can get back in time for the re-start of the meeting.” My mom says with a reassuring smile.

 

Honey?

 

Once again, urine sample as a girl, bad.  Sitting down to go pee, grrr.  Needing to wipe every time I go to the bathroom, so not happy with that. I just know that my sister is going to give me crap about all the times I yelled at her for taking so long in the bathroom just to go pee.  That makes me think about Fey’s answer about it getting worse.  I wonder how it could get any worse. 

 

Oh crap!

 

“Umm, Mom?  Am I going to start having a period now too?” I hesitantly ask as I wash my hands.  I just know that she is going to tell me yes, but it would be nice to be wrong once and awhile.

 

“I’m sure you will Brianna, but it’s really not that bad.” She says, predictably. 

 

Has she drunk the kool-aid or something?  Not that bad?  If it’s not that bad then why are she and Lindsay so crabby and like to pop aspirin during “that time of the month”?  That line of thought spawns more thoughts until they all collide and I drop the f-bomb in front of my mom.

 

“Oh fuck...I can get pregnant!” I say, as the blood drains from my face and my knees buckle.  I hold on the sink and barely manage to keep myself from falling to the floor from the shock of what should have been an obvious realization long before now.

 

>Medical Alert! 

>Blood pressure drop detected...

 

Stop it!  The damn Medical thing goes away.

 

I just want to hide.  Maybe if no one could see me everything would go away.  I wish that I really was Whisper.  If I was, then I could just wrap myself in shadows and disappear.  My vision begins to get weird on me again.  Maybe it is the blood pressure thing, but I am starting to see glowing black and white lines.  How can black glow?  I feel like I can just reach for them and if I wrap myself up in them, maybe I could just disappear.

 

“Brianna Nicole!” I hear my mom yell like she is going to do the full name, you’re in trouble thing, but she stops herself from chewing me out. Instead, she grabs my shoulders, turns me around and wraps me up in a tight hug.  Where did all the pretty lines go?

 

She’s pretty much holding me up as I completely lose it and start crying. Crying isn’t really the right word for the level of water works that I am displaying.  Bawling, that is the right word.  I just keep whispering over and over, “but I don’t wanna be a girl...” while my mom just holds me, rubs my back and rocks me while saying, “Shhh, it’s going to be okay...I know that it’s hard to understand right now, but it’s going to be okay...” 

 

I don’t know when Nikki got there, but I start to feel a little bit calmer when I feel her join in the hug.  I can feel her panting.  She must have run the entire way. It takes another minute before I finally get myself under control.  I feel like a total wreck and to make matters worse, I start to feel ashamed of myself.  I’m sure that I’m holding everyone up with my hysterics.

 

“Don’t worry about anyone else right now Brianna.  Mr. Reilly knows that you’re going through a hard time right now.  He will hold the meeting until you are ready.” Nikki says, as if she can read my mind.

 

“I’m sorry…” My voice breaks a little. “I need to blow my nose, sorry.” I break the hug and make my way back into the bathroom.  When did I leave the bathroom?  It is amazing how much better a simple thing like blowing your nose can make a person feel.  I wash my hands and splash some cold water on my face to help wipe away the tear tracks.  I’m not smiling when I finally exit the bathroom again, but I am feeling a bit more human. Sorry, elvish or sidhe’ish or is it just sidhe?  I mean, I wouldn’t say “humanish” would I?  Okay, problem solved.  I am officially feeling more sidhe.  One problem down, 100,000 more to go. Piece of cake!

 

Somehow, that makes me smile a bit, which causes my mom to give me another hug, which causes me to smile more.  It is really an out of control chain reaction that ends with me giggling at the absurdity of it all.

 

“Feeling a little better now Brianna?” My mom asks, full of concern, while Nikki looks at me with another of those radiant smiles on her face.

 

These mood swings are killer, but I can’t help myself when I smile back at them both. “Yes. Sorry about that.  It all kind of hit me at once.”

 

“That’s okay honey. I understand, but please don’t use the f-word again or I will have to ground you.” My mom says with a smile that tells me that while she understands why, she still doesn’t like it.

 

“Sorry, I won’t.  I think, but I’m not sure how many more shocks I can handle here.  Is it okay if it accidentally sneaks out one more time at a later date?” I ask, feeling a little mischievous, yet still serious because it could happen.

 

My mom just looks at me skeptically. “Hmmmph, if you’re feeling good enough to try and weasel out of future punishment, then I think you are feeling good enough to head back to the meeting.”

 

Okay...no free f-bomb passes.  Got it.  She didn’t say “no” though.

 

We are only fifteen minutes late and I apologize profusely for the delay.  Dr. Edmundson looks concerned when he asks me what was wrong.  I just blush and mumble, “Female problems.” I feel a collective “oookkkaaayyy” from the room and everything is forgotten.  Hmmm, I might have to remember that one again.  It seems to work pretty well.

 

We start back up with me describing the final boot process as I list all the kernel module things. “...and then, all hell broke loose for exactly 2.43 seconds.” I say as I stop, expecting some questions.

 

Mr. Reilly looks concerned. “What do you mean?”

 

My mom tenses and looks nervous. I hesitate before replying. I look to Fey and she nods for me to continue.  I feel reassured by her and I get the feeling that I can trust Mr. Reilly. I then proceed to describe exactly what happened. I describe how the room looked, the camera, the motion detectors, the funky vision modes and how the colors look different due to some tetrachromatic vision thing, the cell phones, the soldiers showing up on a map, complete with unit information.  Except for Fey, everyone in the room is looking a little stunned by what I am telling them and I am just now getting to the good stuff.

 

I pause for a second to see if anyone had any questions before I continue with the radio thing, and then with the expansion of that view to the three states bordering New Mexico, all of the weird map symbols and icons, and finally, how all of that minimized down to a single “C3” icon. I’m trying to be as descriptive as can. I also tell them about the targeting brackets around everyone and exactly what my “scan” of their CAC ID badges revealed to me.

 

“That is what happened in that first 2.43 seconds, until I finally managed to find an ‘off’ button for all that stuff.  I’ve found two more things since then though.” I say.

 

Mr. Reilly, along with the rest of the people in the room, looks a little stunned by my admission. “There’s more?” Mr. Reilly asks.

 

I exhale a nervous breath. “Yes sir.  I discovered that I have a voice stress gauge thing that shows up on my targeting display.  I noticed that most people were stressed out by my boy name.  That is why I decided to ask my mom about a girl name so soon.”

 

Dr. Edmundson looks excited by that admission.

 

“Dr. Edmundson? Do you have any ideas about that feature?” Mr. Reilly asks.

 

Dr. Edmundson smiles at me before he turns to address Mr. Reilly. “Yes sir, that is part of the C3 system.  We thought that it might be useful if a commander could see how stressed his unit commanders sounded while they were giving orders.  Maybe it would help them decide priorities, but we weren’t sure if it would work.”

 

“Well, I guess you can mark that one as working too, Dr. Edmundson.” Mr. Reilly says with a trace of a smile. “What was the second thing?”

 

I hesitate for a second before I answer. I’m not sure why I feel nervous about admitting this ‘feature’, but here goes nothing. “Well, I accidentally intercepted my mom’s phone call when she called my dad to ask him about my name.”  I’m sorta holding my breath, expecting people to freak out, but instead everyone is just looking at me with a calculating look in their eyes.

 

Mr. Reilly’s eyes narrow as he considers the implications. “What do you mean by ‘intercepted’?”

 

“Well, when my mom called my dad’s cell phone, I saw a window open up with CDMA connection from my mom’s phone number to my dad’s phone number.  I was able to listen to them talk and even reply inside my head while my mom was on the other-side of the room with her phone.” I say.

 

“Have you been able to intercept any other cell phone since then?” Mr. Reilly asks.

 

I shake my head back and forth. “No sir. I can see that there are other cell phones in the building, but I haven’t detected any calls.”

 

“Do you think that you can try intercepting your mom’s cell phone again?” Mr. Reilly asks.

“I don’t know, maybe?” I say.

 

Mr. Reilly looks around the room. “Hmm, is everyone up for a little experiment right now?”

 

Everyone looks interested and I hear a few “yes’s” in there. He asks my mom to use the room’s speaker phone to dial her cell phone.  I watch her punch in her phone number, and then, exactly 1.21 seconds later, a window opens up with:

 

>Active CDMA Signal from device: Jennifer Peters <555-123-9909> Incoming call from USADARPA <555-200-0333>

 

Right after that, her phone begins to ring, but before she can answer it, I answer it for her and inside my head I say, “Hello?”

 

Everyone looks a little confused when her phone stops ringing, but when they hear me ‘say’ “Hello?” without moving my lips, they all gasp with surprise.

 

“Can you hear me Brianna?” Dr. Edmundson asks, forgetting that I’m sitting right there in the room with him.

 

I can’t stop myself from giggling, but I decide to be nice and just look at him. “Yes.” I say, out loud.

 

He blushes and laughs at himself as he realizes what happened. “Well, that was silly of me.  Mrs. Peters, since Brianna hasn’t been able to intercept any other phone calls today, could you try stepping out of the room with your cell phone and walking down the hall.  I would like to see if she has a range limit.”

 

My mom briefly looks at me with concern. “Sure.” She says as she leaves the room.  She gets exactly twenty meters down the hall when I get a message that tells me:

 

>Lost CDMA Signal from device: Jennifer Peters <555-123-9909>

 

“I lost the signal when she got twenty meters away.” I say. 

 

Dr. Edmundson pokes his head out the door. “Okay, Mrs. Peters, you can come back now.”

 

As soon as she hits the twenty meter mark the connection is reestablished. “I got it back again.” I say inside my head and hear my voice come over the speaker phone.

 

I’m about to say something else when another alert pops up with:

 

>Incoming GSM Signal from device: Nicholas Reilly, Sr. <555-200-0092> from Office of the President <121-000-5555>

 

Oh crap!  I can’t help it, I gasp with surprise. “You should probably get that Mr. Reilly and umm, leave the room?”

 

He pulls out his vibrating crack-berry and frowns as he looks at the caller ID. “Yes, I think that you are right, Miss Peters.”  He stands and heads for the exit. “Nick Reilly.” As he walks out of the room everyone can hear him say, “Yes, Mr. President, we are...” 

 

I don’t even try to listen in on that conversation.  The room gets very quiet after Mr. Reilly exits the room.

 

My mom breaks the silence by turning to me. “You’re not?” She asks, whispering.

 

I vehemently shake my head “no” to that question.