Once again, I have got a story into IMO a satisfactory state after having it nearly complete for ages.
Comments, critiques, and suggestions (especially for the title) are welcome.
Tuesday 3rd June 2014, Sample analysis lab, Prometheus Forge
When entering the lair of a mad scientist, one should take a measure of care. Greenpeace just strode in without stopping, having the advantages of bravery beyond mere mortals (being an occasional mad gardener herself) and knowing that A.C. wasn't working on anything dangerous or needing constant attention.
The woman herself was bent over and looking into something similar to what you would imagine was the result of a head on crash between a medical equipment manufacturer and a hiccupping glassblowers anonymous convention. This did allow the green-skinned woman to drape herself sensuously over the cyborg cyberneticist's back and reach round to start undoing the buttons of her lab coat.
"You're done for the day." Greenpeace said, interrupting A.C. before she spoke. "You're coming with me to do something fun, as you've spent far too long in the Lab lately."
"Uh-huh." A.C. replied, ignoring the accidently-on-purpose grope of her breasts the pixy on her back performed. "What is it?"
"It's a surprise!" Greenpeace said brightly, finally opening the lab coat to reveal the simple halter-style leather bodysuit the raven-hared cyborg had put on this morning.
"Your LAST surprise involved one and a half metric tonnes of ice cream, 200 litres of chocolate syrup, and the Sailor Moon marathon." A.C. noted.
"This is better!" Greenpeace insisted, trying to pull the lab coat off. "And it was all diet anyway."
A.C. had to at least acknowledge that as true, coconut milk being lacking in much fat. Sighing, A.C. closed down the sample examination and let herself be dragged through the Forge towards the new section. She raised an eyebrow when she spotted the new room, and raised the other when the doors opened onto a tropical paradise.
Then the humidity hit.
"You built a swimming pool." A.C. said tonelessly.
Greenpeace just smiled wider and moved A.C. over to changing booths in the corner. Sighing, the emerald-eyed woman went ahead and changed. Coming out forced a groan of disappointment from the green-skinned pixy.
"Told you." Lebia snarked.
For the most part, the one-piece was almost fantastically modest for the beautiful cyber-bioroid. It covered the torso and neck near completely. However, there were two details that changed that. First, the suit included a thong-cut bottom and left her shoulders completely uncovered. Second, it was literally moulded to her form like a second skin.
"Having fun with the bio-plastic?" A.C. asked, half teasing half curious as she stretched and tested the fit and support of the suit.
"Soo hate you." Greenpeace muttered, watching. A.C. grinned, hearing it.
"Let's see the new physiotherapy pool then." The owner of the asteroid wandered over to look at the new construction.
It wasn't really atypical of the breed, being mainly a 25 by 10 metre pool for the most part. And it wasn't alone, with a Jacuzzi bath and a paddling pool to one side. About the only difference was the lack of a chlorine smell and blue tone to the water.
"How are you recycling the water?" A.C. asked, looking around more carefully. Ah, there it was, artfully hidden behind some flowering bushes and palm trees; the glass panels and door to the zero-g pool.
"High efficiency filtration through several of the plants around here. Now I've got Ki growing properly her xylem helped with the water transportation." Greenpeace shrugged in her silver string bikini. "Are you getting in or do I have to push you?"
The cyberneticist shot the gardener a look that said clearly 'Are you STUPID?'
"As you seem to be suffering an inexplicable attack of amnesia, I think we should take a nice walk to Medical."
Greenpeace rolled her eyes.
"Have you even TRIED?" The personification of photosynthesis asked in annoyance.
"Should I?" A.C. retorted. "I'm far too physically dense to float."
"That's logic talking." Greenpeace said. "When has LOGIC mattered to the Wave?"
"Point to Greenpeace." Lebia said where she was laid back on a sun bed in a strapless one-piece and sunglasses.
"You want to join me?" A.C. asked in an even tone. "It'd be a nice experiment, except I happen to KNOW you won't float."
"I looked up the designs for Noah Scott's order." Lebia said, unruffled. "It was a simple job to fit myself with floatation devices."
Her builder went through everything she knew about Lebia's construction (which was everything), tied it into what she knew was available (which was a lot), and thought through the additions.
"Andy's cracked the projective superhydrophobic effect." A.C. stated deadpan. "If I had to guess, using a semi-conductive ultra-low density foam."
"2.437 seconds. Libbie wins that bet." Lebia didn't move, enjoying the artificial sun.
***
By the time Greenpeace had cajoled A.C. into the shallow end of the pool the others had arrived. Kasumi was wearing a slightly more modest white string bikini, Roberta and Fawn in simple one-pieces, and Adonis in nothing at all (It spoke for how fast the later two women had acclimatised to Adonis that they didn't even blink at his totally revealed physique).
"Go on." Greenpeace encouraged, unphased by A.C.'s dark looks.
A.C. didn't say anything, but walked towards the deep end. The waterline climbed up her body (the cyber-bioroid noting the depth of feeling she was getting through the bio-plastic swimsuit) until she had to hold her breath and disappeared under the slight ripples of the pool's surface. Finally she stopped walking at the lowest point of the pool, a full four metres down. To add insult to injury, the raven-hared woman sank into an easy lotus position.
~ Well, this doesn't help. ~ She noted, holding her breath without problem. After 5 minutes, she heard the splash of someone diving in.
Fawn swam down to the sitting cyborg and signed a query. Raising an eyebrow about where Fawn had learned sign language, A.C. signed back that she was perfectly fine. The talented assistant nodded and swam back to the surface.
After 10 minutes A.C. finally got bored and decided on a whim to try to swim.
And to her complete surprise, swim she did.
It was slow at first, remembering his rusty swimming skills, but as she rapidly refreshed her physical memory of swimming she sped up.
***
"See!" Greenpeace said. "I told you!"
"Yeah yeah." Lebia mock-grumbled.
"Mistress Attim is speeding up." Roberta noted. "She has just exceeded the current world record 100 metre breaststroke time."
"EH?" The rest wondered.
***
Scything through the water started to become easy, so A.C. pushed her self. She quickly realised that her speed was far in excess of any human, then as she continued to push she exceeded anything currently verifiably manmade. Finally she reached her limit, bouncing pack and forth between the ends of the pool at less than half a second between ends. With a bit of pressure, she slowed herself down to a stop.
She was floating in the water. Or rather, she was neutrally buoyant and neither rising or sinking.
She thought about this, and then noted she sank. The implication was clear, as long as she thought about swimming, she could swim. Otherwise...
Finally she started to feel short of breath, so with a burst of speed she aimed for the surface.
***
With a mighty splash, A.C. shot out of the water to land on the side of the pool. Taking several deep breaths she set herself and with a shiver nothing but an enticing layer of droplets remained on her body. Even her hair was merely damp.
"That was an interesting experiment." The cybernetic cyberneticist said to no-one in particular, before turning to the crowd. "Looks like we were both right Greenpeace." She told the green-skinned bioroid. "Which means I've got some work to do to get the rest of you up to speed." She smiled. "After some down time."
***
Comments, critiques, and suggestions (especially for the title) are welcome.
Tuesday 3rd June 2014, Sample analysis lab, Prometheus Forge
When entering the lair of a mad scientist, one should take a measure of care. Greenpeace just strode in without stopping, having the advantages of bravery beyond mere mortals (being an occasional mad gardener herself) and knowing that A.C. wasn't working on anything dangerous or needing constant attention.
The woman herself was bent over and looking into something similar to what you would imagine was the result of a head on crash between a medical equipment manufacturer and a hiccupping glassblowers anonymous convention. This did allow the green-skinned woman to drape herself sensuously over the cyborg cyberneticist's back and reach round to start undoing the buttons of her lab coat.
"You're done for the day." Greenpeace said, interrupting A.C. before she spoke. "You're coming with me to do something fun, as you've spent far too long in the Lab lately."
"Uh-huh." A.C. replied, ignoring the accidently-on-purpose grope of her breasts the pixy on her back performed. "What is it?"
"It's a surprise!" Greenpeace said brightly, finally opening the lab coat to reveal the simple halter-style leather bodysuit the raven-hared cyborg had put on this morning.
"Your LAST surprise involved one and a half metric tonnes of ice cream, 200 litres of chocolate syrup, and the Sailor Moon marathon." A.C. noted.
"This is better!" Greenpeace insisted, trying to pull the lab coat off. "And it was all diet anyway."
A.C. had to at least acknowledge that as true, coconut milk being lacking in much fat. Sighing, A.C. closed down the sample examination and let herself be dragged through the Forge towards the new section. She raised an eyebrow when she spotted the new room, and raised the other when the doors opened onto a tropical paradise.
Then the humidity hit.
"You built a swimming pool." A.C. said tonelessly.
Greenpeace just smiled wider and moved A.C. over to changing booths in the corner. Sighing, the emerald-eyed woman went ahead and changed. Coming out forced a groan of disappointment from the green-skinned pixy.
"Told you." Lebia snarked.
For the most part, the one-piece was almost fantastically modest for the beautiful cyber-bioroid. It covered the torso and neck near completely. However, there were two details that changed that. First, the suit included a thong-cut bottom and left her shoulders completely uncovered. Second, it was literally moulded to her form like a second skin.
"Having fun with the bio-plastic?" A.C. asked, half teasing half curious as she stretched and tested the fit and support of the suit.
"Soo hate you." Greenpeace muttered, watching. A.C. grinned, hearing it.
"Let's see the new physiotherapy pool then." The owner of the asteroid wandered over to look at the new construction.
It wasn't really atypical of the breed, being mainly a 25 by 10 metre pool for the most part. And it wasn't alone, with a Jacuzzi bath and a paddling pool to one side. About the only difference was the lack of a chlorine smell and blue tone to the water.
"How are you recycling the water?" A.C. asked, looking around more carefully. Ah, there it was, artfully hidden behind some flowering bushes and palm trees; the glass panels and door to the zero-g pool.
"High efficiency filtration through several of the plants around here. Now I've got Ki growing properly her xylem helped with the water transportation." Greenpeace shrugged in her silver string bikini. "Are you getting in or do I have to push you?"
The cyberneticist shot the gardener a look that said clearly 'Are you STUPID?'
"As you seem to be suffering an inexplicable attack of amnesia, I think we should take a nice walk to Medical."
Greenpeace rolled her eyes.
"Have you even TRIED?" The personification of photosynthesis asked in annoyance.
"Should I?" A.C. retorted. "I'm far too physically dense to float."
"That's logic talking." Greenpeace said. "When has LOGIC mattered to the Wave?"
"Point to Greenpeace." Lebia said where she was laid back on a sun bed in a strapless one-piece and sunglasses.
"You want to join me?" A.C. asked in an even tone. "It'd be a nice experiment, except I happen to KNOW you won't float."
"I looked up the designs for Noah Scott's order." Lebia said, unruffled. "It was a simple job to fit myself with floatation devices."
Her builder went through everything she knew about Lebia's construction (which was everything), tied it into what she knew was available (which was a lot), and thought through the additions.
"Andy's cracked the projective superhydrophobic effect." A.C. stated deadpan. "If I had to guess, using a semi-conductive ultra-low density foam."
"2.437 seconds. Libbie wins that bet." Lebia didn't move, enjoying the artificial sun.
***
By the time Greenpeace had cajoled A.C. into the shallow end of the pool the others had arrived. Kasumi was wearing a slightly more modest white string bikini, Roberta and Fawn in simple one-pieces, and Adonis in nothing at all (It spoke for how fast the later two women had acclimatised to Adonis that they didn't even blink at his totally revealed physique).
"Go on." Greenpeace encouraged, unphased by A.C.'s dark looks.
A.C. didn't say anything, but walked towards the deep end. The waterline climbed up her body (the cyber-bioroid noting the depth of feeling she was getting through the bio-plastic swimsuit) until she had to hold her breath and disappeared under the slight ripples of the pool's surface. Finally she stopped walking at the lowest point of the pool, a full four metres down. To add insult to injury, the raven-hared woman sank into an easy lotus position.
~ Well, this doesn't help. ~ She noted, holding her breath without problem. After 5 minutes, she heard the splash of someone diving in.
Fawn swam down to the sitting cyborg and signed a query. Raising an eyebrow about where Fawn had learned sign language, A.C. signed back that she was perfectly fine. The talented assistant nodded and swam back to the surface.
After 10 minutes A.C. finally got bored and decided on a whim to try to swim.
And to her complete surprise, swim she did.
It was slow at first, remembering his rusty swimming skills, but as she rapidly refreshed her physical memory of swimming she sped up.
***
"See!" Greenpeace said. "I told you!"
"Yeah yeah." Lebia mock-grumbled.
"Mistress Attim is speeding up." Roberta noted. "She has just exceeded the current world record 100 metre breaststroke time."
"EH?" The rest wondered.
***
Scything through the water started to become easy, so A.C. pushed her self. She quickly realised that her speed was far in excess of any human, then as she continued to push she exceeded anything currently verifiably manmade. Finally she reached her limit, bouncing pack and forth between the ends of the pool at less than half a second between ends. With a bit of pressure, she slowed herself down to a stop.
She was floating in the water. Or rather, she was neutrally buoyant and neither rising or sinking.
She thought about this, and then noted she sank. The implication was clear, as long as she thought about swimming, she could swim. Otherwise...
Finally she started to feel short of breath, so with a burst of speed she aimed for the surface.
***
With a mighty splash, A.C. shot out of the water to land on the side of the pool. Taking several deep breaths she set herself and with a shiver nothing but an enticing layer of droplets remained on her body. Even her hair was merely damp.
"That was an interesting experiment." The cybernetic cyberneticist said to no-one in particular, before turning to the crowd. "Looks like we were both right Greenpeace." She told the green-skinned bioroid. "Which means I've got some work to do to get the rest of you up to speed." She smiled. "After some down time."
***
