08-05-2025, 09:49 PM
== One month later ==
"Doc'tr!" the little girl yelled as she rose to her feet, and then immediately fell to her knees with her hands over her ears. "Owwwwwww too loud!" Those words brought on another round of obvious pain.
"Robin, you have to whisper." The Edosian doctor gave a sympathetic look at the girl's mother, sitting on a couch reading. He kneeled down so he could look the child in the eyes and smiled. "Remember. Whisper. You won't have to for long." She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, but she clearly listened to his words.
"'Kay," she said quietly. She wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her gown, then held up a stuffed doll. "Look what I got." It was a old cartoon character from Earth's past, a character he was completely unfamiliar with. "He's Mickey."
Doctor Kizol smiled again. "He's very nice. Can I talk to your mama outside? She'll be right back." The girl nodded and plopped down on her butt, conversation clearly over and intent on playing with her new toy. Sonjia Mayfair rose, put her book down, and followed the doctor out of the darkened and quiet room. As the door slid closed the two of them looked at Robin through the one-way glass.
Out here sound wasn't suppressed. The entire recovery room where the child sat was a small holodeck that the staff of the facility could configure as they wished. Right now it was set up as a combination playroom and sleep room. The toy was holographic but the geneticist had already decided to replicate her a real one. Inside sound was muted and lights were kept dim so as not to overwhelm the child's newly expanding senses. She wasn't used to them and even minor noise and light were terribly painful. Robin's vocal outburst had been dampened to others, but no holodeck could suppress the noise that was transmitted through the bones in her skull.
"We're at 33%, Mrs. Mayfair. We should be able to raise the room settings to 66% by late next week, if she continues to make progress. Hopefully within three weeks she can leave the room without requiring noise cancellation and dark glasses. It's remarkable progress."
"And her hair and eyes, Doctor?"
The child's formerly blonde hair had grown out quite a bit since the procedure had begun. They didn't want to cut it until she grew less tactually sensitive, but it was clearly showing brilliant purple with only the ends still blonde.
"Those are due to the replacement chromosomes from the Augment genetic samples. That particular set was the best match for Robin, but they do show signs of artificial manipulation of hair and eye color. Remember, we didn't create those samples. They're centuries old. Whoever did create them intended for that result. We could attempt to go in and..."
Mrs. Mayfair cut him off. "No. That's not important. Her eyes are beautiful. They're like gemstones. And I'm not concerned about her hair. She can always dye it. I was just curious."
The Edosian nodded. "I wanted to stop by and bring you the latest test results personally. She still has another 14 sessions to go through, but at this point we can officially declare that her Turean’s Syndrome has been eliminated."
Tears appeared in Sonjia's eyes but she didn't say anything. She merely looked at the doctor with gratitude.
"Her DNA won't further degenerate and we're making progress on repairing the damage. So far her body is adapting to the changes well."
"I'm teaching her to read, Doctor."
"Really? Remarkable. She's only been out of sedation for two weeks. How much progress have you made?"
"Pre-Kindergarten level. The alphabet and phonics. She's already starting to figure out unfamiliar words. I was a schoolteacher before I married Karlos, and I've never seen anything like it. Her language skills have already recovered to the level she was at before the condition took hold. I think I'm going to need access to materials."
The Edosian laughed. "Done. We have plenty available, a full library of print and electronic books. Once she adjusts to her senses we can transfer you to a room with holotables and anything else you need in order to facilitate her education. It's good that you're starting now. Her mind is growing at an incredible rate. It needs to be nourished."
== To be continued ==
"Doc'tr!" the little girl yelled as she rose to her feet, and then immediately fell to her knees with her hands over her ears. "Owwwwwww too loud!" Those words brought on another round of obvious pain.
"Robin, you have to whisper." The Edosian doctor gave a sympathetic look at the girl's mother, sitting on a couch reading. He kneeled down so he could look the child in the eyes and smiled. "Remember. Whisper. You won't have to for long." She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, but she clearly listened to his words.
"'Kay," she said quietly. She wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her gown, then held up a stuffed doll. "Look what I got." It was a old cartoon character from Earth's past, a character he was completely unfamiliar with. "He's Mickey."
Doctor Kizol smiled again. "He's very nice. Can I talk to your mama outside? She'll be right back." The girl nodded and plopped down on her butt, conversation clearly over and intent on playing with her new toy. Sonjia Mayfair rose, put her book down, and followed the doctor out of the darkened and quiet room. As the door slid closed the two of them looked at Robin through the one-way glass.
Out here sound wasn't suppressed. The entire recovery room where the child sat was a small holodeck that the staff of the facility could configure as they wished. Right now it was set up as a combination playroom and sleep room. The toy was holographic but the geneticist had already decided to replicate her a real one. Inside sound was muted and lights were kept dim so as not to overwhelm the child's newly expanding senses. She wasn't used to them and even minor noise and light were terribly painful. Robin's vocal outburst had been dampened to others, but no holodeck could suppress the noise that was transmitted through the bones in her skull.
"We're at 33%, Mrs. Mayfair. We should be able to raise the room settings to 66% by late next week, if she continues to make progress. Hopefully within three weeks she can leave the room without requiring noise cancellation and dark glasses. It's remarkable progress."
"And her hair and eyes, Doctor?"
The child's formerly blonde hair had grown out quite a bit since the procedure had begun. They didn't want to cut it until she grew less tactually sensitive, but it was clearly showing brilliant purple with only the ends still blonde.
"Those are due to the replacement chromosomes from the Augment genetic samples. That particular set was the best match for Robin, but they do show signs of artificial manipulation of hair and eye color. Remember, we didn't create those samples. They're centuries old. Whoever did create them intended for that result. We could attempt to go in and..."
Mrs. Mayfair cut him off. "No. That's not important. Her eyes are beautiful. They're like gemstones. And I'm not concerned about her hair. She can always dye it. I was just curious."
The Edosian nodded. "I wanted to stop by and bring you the latest test results personally. She still has another 14 sessions to go through, but at this point we can officially declare that her Turean’s Syndrome has been eliminated."
Tears appeared in Sonjia's eyes but she didn't say anything. She merely looked at the doctor with gratitude.
"Her DNA won't further degenerate and we're making progress on repairing the damage. So far her body is adapting to the changes well."
"I'm teaching her to read, Doctor."
"Really? Remarkable. She's only been out of sedation for two weeks. How much progress have you made?"
"Pre-Kindergarten level. The alphabet and phonics. She's already starting to figure out unfamiliar words. I was a schoolteacher before I married Karlos, and I've never seen anything like it. Her language skills have already recovered to the level she was at before the condition took hold. I think I'm going to need access to materials."
The Edosian laughed. "Done. We have plenty available, a full library of print and electronic books. Once she adjusts to her senses we can transfer you to a room with holotables and anything else you need in order to facilitate her education. It's good that you're starting now. Her mind is growing at an incredible rate. It needs to be nourished."
== To be continued ==