Chrome Symphony - Chapter 4

Duncan went to the front desk inside the hotel and reserved two rooms. Jess sat down for a moment in the hotel lobby to think.

We have a day before we can go to the asteroid, she thought. We have the entire team now. Elise has probably secured us some weapons, from the way she was acting.

Shell ran over to Jess and lightly grabbed her arm. "Come on," said Shell, "Let's go check out some of the swim suits."

Jess stood up and walked with Shell over to a clothing shop, which was attached to the hotel. After looking around for a while, Elise came wandering in after she, Renk, and Atlas took the luggage cases up to the hotel rooms.

"Is Lazarus here looking for something to go swimming in," Elise asked Shell. Elise turned to look at Jess as she was browsing some of the swim suits. "You should be careful not to get your bandages wet," said Elise, with a slight giggle.

"I was just planning to get my feet wet," replied Jess. "They're really sore from all this walking around."

Atlas, Renk, and Duncan were looking around for some basic swimwear, too. Duncan held up an old 19th century style striped one piece men's swim suit and gave a completely sincere expression of approval as he looked at it. Renk and Atlas both grabbed the first pair of standard swimming trunks and went straight to the counter.

"I can't believe we're shopping for swim suits at a time like this," Jess told Shell. "There's not much else we can do at the moment, I suppose."

Jess found a reasonable looking swim suit and went into the dressing room to try it on. As she changed into the suit, she looked at herself in the mirror. She was still wrapped tightly in bandages from the shoulders to the bottom of her rib cage. This is going to look really weird with the swim suit.

She started to unwrap the bandages slowly so that she could check the status of the wound on her chest. Thanks to the nano machines in her blood, the wound had mostly healed. Internally, she was fine now - the nanotechnology within her combined with the treatments at Dr. Uzuki's place had rapidly regrown her heart and muscle tissue - but there were some very ugly scars in center of her chest.

Jess carefully re-wrapped the bandages and stood there for a moment. After some hesitation, she finished putting on the swim suit and walked over the Shell to get her opinion.

"It looks fine," said Shell. Jess looked at Shell's swim suit. "Yours is good, too," she replied. Jess felt really self-conscious wearing a swim suit while looking like a mummy from the waist up. It was still better than leaving the scars visible.

Shell walked over to the counter and paid for the swim suits. It was humiliating for Jess to have someone else pay for her. Since her accounts had been frozen, Jess was unable to pay for anything at the moment. She was a little surprised at how eager everyone was to help her despite the fact that she was unable to pay them any further for the time being.

After everyone paid for their swim suits and some other items, the group went to their hotel rooms briefly to change and then headed out to the beach. Duncan, being the age that he was, was totally comfortable with his silly appearance - his metal arms and legs contrasting with the goofy looking striped swim suit made him stand out like a sore thumb. He knew people were staring but he didn't seem to care.

Atlas and Renk were busy racing each other swimming. Shell sat under the umbrella with Duncan and sipped some kind of drink. Duncan lay in a lounge chair, reading a book and eating some donuts. Elise was sitting out in the sun taking in the scenery.

Jess waded around in the water for a while, being careful not to get her bandages wet. Some kids nearby accidentally splashed her a few times while they were playing around.

It was a peaceful scene and it caused Jess to reflect on a lot of things.

Renk walked back onto the beach from the water. He felt refreshed from the swim. Atlas followed him out of the water and got a towel from Shell, who was still sitting under the umbrella with Duncan, sipping one of those fancy drinks with the tiny umbrellas.

Renk sat down in a lounge chair next to Shell and Atlas took the seat on his other side.

"Ahhhh... the world's going to Hell in a hand basket, we're about to risk our lives again in a dangerous mission tomorrow, and the entire military is probably going to capture us the moment we return to Earth... but damn if this isn't nice," said Renk.

"This might be the first and last time any of us get to enjoy this," replied Atlas.

"Yes... yes, indeed, buddy," said Renk, shutting his eyes and enjoying the atmosphere.

"Listen, I was going to tell you earlier but there's something we need to let you know..." started Atlas.

Renk interrupted, "If it's about when you guys took Hans and myself down back at the hydroelectric facility," he said, "don't worry about that."

Atlas gasped. "You knew? You're... you're really cool with it?"

"s***, Atlas," said Renk, laughing a bit. "You didn't know it was me in that armor. You were there specifically to rescue me because you thought I was being held prisoner," he said. "I put all the clues together way back when we were at Dr. Uzuki's. Besides..."

Atlas then interrupted, "You knew it was Jess that cut the cables and knocked you out?"

Renk nodded. "Hey, like I said, it's okay. You realize she almost got herself killed to save us later on at that EMA facility."

Atlas looked over at Jess, who was still nervously walking around in the shallow part of the water.

"She really did almost die for us," said Atlas, in a solemn tone.

"Hell, man, she's waaaaay beyond making up for giving me a volt nap."

Atlas continued looking at Jess.

Renk looked at Jess and then over at Atlas. "Hey, bud. Why don't you go over there and talk to her? Let her know that we're cool and everything."

Atlas shook his head. "Why don't you tell her?"

Renk shook his head, too. "Ah, well... trust me on this. Go over there and talk to her."

"Hey Duncan, what'cha readin'?" asked Shell.

"Oh, this? It's a 20th century book, back from when everything was published on dead tree meat," replied Duncan.

Shell continued to sip on her drink.

"I was born in the early 21st century. Back then, the Internet was relatively new and, although almost everyone had primitive networking machines and communicators, paper was still in common use," he continued. "When I was in school, we still did a lot of class work with paper and pencils."

"Sounds cumbersome," replied Shell.

"It wasn't that bad. Sometimes our backpacks got really heavy from lugging those books around, though," said Duncan. "I remember having to walk almost two miles to and from the bus stop and back to our old farm house, sometimes in several feet of snow..."

Duncan could tell that Shell was more interested in what was happening out by the water. Renk had told Atlas to inform Jess that Renk was okay with what had transpired at the hydroelectric base. Duncan had, somewhat inadvertently, overheard Renk and Atlas talking to each other.

Duncan stood up. "Whelp," he said, "This was a great idea. I really needed a chance to relax out here."

"Where are you going," asked Shell.

"I'm going to get changed back into my regular outfit. When everyone's ready, let's have dinner at the hotel restaurant and start discussing our plan of attack on NEA726," replied Duncan. He headed up the stairs from the beach and went back into the hotel building.

Shell finished her drink and stood up. She called out to the others.

"Yo!", she yelled, "We're going to meet up for dinner in a little while!"

Elise, Atlas, and Jess were still out near the water. Renk got up from his lounge chair, gathered up a few towels, and walked up the stairs.

"See you in a few," he said to her.

Shell walked up the stairs behind him. Renk stopped at the hotel bar while Shell took the elevator back up to her hotel room.

Shell, Jess, and Elise had one hotel room while Duncan, Atlas, and Renk had the adjacent room. Shell knocked on the door between the two rooms and Duncan unlocked it. Duncan and Shell pushed a couple of tables together to create a large meeting table and pulled some chairs up around it.

"I'm going to check the room for bugs and other surveillance equipment," said Shell, "Just to make sure."

"Good idea," replied Duncan.

After performing a sweep for bugs, Shell returned to her room and checked her messages.

One of them was from Kel.

Shell, there's been a lot of stuff in the news about
EMA corporation suddenly folding.
My sources tell me that our division has shut down 
but there are lesser known departments that have been
in operation all along.  All of this information has
been surfacing all of the sudden; it's making my head
spin!

I hope you are safe,

- Kel

Shell replied.

Kel, I'm in a place that I can't disclose right now.  
A lot of things have happened and I'm not sure when 
I'll be able to return.  I can confirm that EMA has 
turned out to be a much different company than the 
organization to which I owe my life.  I don't know 
if they were just taken over or if the whole thing 
was a front from the beginning.

Whatever you do, Kel, keep a low profile.  
I'm sorry I can't tell you more right now but things 
are very dangerous for us all.

I hope we live through this, thought Shell. EMA corporation was my life. Now it's one of the greatest threats I've ever known.

Jess was walking out of the water when Atlas walked over to her.

"Miss Price," said Atlas. "Um... Renk wants me to tell you that he knows it was you who attacked him back at the hydroelectric plant."

"What?" gasped Jess. Oh, great, she thought. That will only complicate things.

Atlas noticed the look of shock on her face. "No, no," he stuttered. "He says it's fine. He knows we had good intentions. He figured it all out a long time ago, actually..."

"Whew", sighed Jess. "That... that makes things a lot easier. I'll have to buy him a drink later or something," she mumbled.

"I think he's already helping himself at the hotel bar," Atlas chuckled.

Jess and Atlas both stood there. Jess avoided eye contact.

"So, uh..." said Atlas, not knowing what to say.

"Hmmm. We probably ought to go get ready for dinner," said Jess. "I guess I should go apologize to Renk..."

Atlas cleared his throat. "Miss Price, you don't have to apologize to anyone. You almost sacrificed your life to save his and mine!"

Jess was silent for a moment. "I have... abilities. You were helping me. I couldn't just abandon you two. Of course, now I have this ugly scar and these awkward bandages to show for it," she said. "I guess I'm just glad I could help, even though I don't even know if I can pay you the rest of the money we agreed upon..."

Atlas interrupted, "Money? You're worried about not being able to pay us right now? Miss Price!"

"Call me Jess," said Jess.

"Sure, Jess, listen... we're all in over our heads right now. We have to stick together. I can't speak for the others but payment isn't even an issue for me right now," said Atlas.

"Even though you don't have a home right now?" asked Jess. "Although, I guess I'll do what I can for you once this is all over."

"By the way," said Atlas, "those bandages aren't awkward. You picked out a nice swim suit. It looks great on you."

Jess turned bright red. She didn't know what to think or say. Atlas stood there for a moment, scratching his head.

"L..L...Leh...Let's go meet the others for dinner," said Jess. She ran as fast as she could to get back inside the hotel.

When Jess entered the hotel room, she saw Shell, who was responding to some messages over her cybernetic gear. Shell noticed that Jess looked extremely flustered. Shell, looking through her augmented reality vision, looked at Jess a minute, puzzled.

"You okay?" asked Shell.

"Yeah! Fine! What a lovely day, isn't it? Ready for dinner? God, I'm hungry! I could eat a porcupine! Ready for the mission tomorrow?! We might die! Where's my outfit? I gotta..." said Jess, VERY rapidly. Shell handed Jess her clean laundry and Jess darted into the bathroom to change.