Chapter 107: 106. Debriefed

There was some disorientation when I woke to find myself already standing up, in a featureless white room. Jenny was there with me, and incase the location wasn't enough of a hint the white fringe in her hair told me this was her digital avatar rather than her android body.

"What happened?" I asked in confusion. "Why am I in your Re/Gen pod?"

The AI gave me a sympathetic look, "You've been wounded Amanda. While your injuries are not immediately life-threatening, they are serious. And my services are the most expeditious way to get you back on your feet."

"What? How did I get hurt? When did I get hurt?" I asked. "The last thing I remember was my girlfriends were taking me to bed so I could get some rest after the battle."

She shook her head, "We weren't taking you to your cabin Amanda, we were bringing you to my capsule. You passed out from blood loss."

Seeing the confused questioning look on my face she continued, "You were hit in the abdomen by a high-velocity projectile. Your spleen, intestines, and one of your kidneys were all damaged. The internal bleeding was significantly worse than the external bleeding. Unrelated to that injury you also suffered some minor hearing loss, and sustained some bruising to your right shoulder."

By the time she was finished I was staring wide-eyed at her. I glanced down at myself but the damage wasn't reflected on my body in here. My simulated self was in perfect health, there wasn't even any blood on my clothes. The only thing that seemed out of place was my boots and belt were missing. Though I realized my girlfriends probably took those off me before they put me in the pod.

I looked back at Jenny as I mumbled, "It didn't even hurt. I didn't notice. I thought it was a graze, so I ignored it."

"You were probably in some low-level shock," she replied with that same apologetic look. "Combined with adrenaline that can occasionally suppress pain. And your genetic modifications help there too. To my knowledge the enhancements aren't specifically designed to include a reduced pain response, but in my experience they can have that effect for some people. I believe it's connected to their mindset at the time of the injury."

I thought about that for a moment, and realized it made sense. I'd been focused on doing my job as a medic, so after deciding my injury was minor I completely ignored it and concentrated on my work. And thinking back to the fight with Lebeau's people, Rebecca was able to ignore her wounds while she focused on the business at hand.

With that in mind I asked, "Is everyone else ok? Was anyone else hurt?"

"Rebecca and Sarah are perfectly fine," the AI replied. "My android body sustained some minor damage, but nothing critical. Sarah will be able to repair it with parts we have left-over from the original upgrade project."

She continued, "Among the local militia there were two deaths and four injuries, one of which was severe. You provided immediate medical aid to all of them, and stabilized the man with the serious injuries. I understand the local doctor will take over his care, and you yourself indicated the man's prognosis was positive."

I had no memory of that, apart from some blurry indistinct images of doling out trauma shots and wound sealant. I was glad to hear it though, and glad the local physician was able to step in and look after the people. On the other hand it worried me that two of the local people were killed. That just left one more group of people she hadn't mentioned.

"What about the raiders?" I asked. "And the attack? I take it we won?"

Her tone was rather neutral as she responded, "One grav-sled was destroyed, the other captured. Of the eleven hostiles involved in the attack, one was taken prisoner, the others were killed."

"Moving on," Jenny's tone made it clear she wasn't comfortable talking about the raiders, "I really should get to work patching you up. Would you like to keep the same body specifications Amanda, or would you be interested in trying something else? Or taking advantage of any of the available modifications I have to offer?"

I blushed as a few ideas crossed my mind, but I shook my head. "That's ok Jenny, maybe next time."

She reminded me she could read my thoughts as she responded, "I can make those changes you have in mind very easily, and I assure you it's no additional burden on my systems or resources. Honestly the adjustments you have in mind are less taxing than those which Captain Piper requested when she visited me a few days ago."

"Ok then," I replied as my blush grew a bit brighter. "Yes please. And yes, I consent to the Re/Gen process."

Jenny smiled, "Thank you Amanda. Just relax, in a moment you'll be in a deep sleep."

From there the process went pretty much like I remembered it from my first experience. The countdown timer appeared, everything went black, the numbers on the timer jumped ahead, then Jenny and the white room returned. I didn't really feel any different, but the modifications I'd had in mind were pretty minor. There was a good chance my girlfriends wouldn't even notice, or at least not right away.

The timer was counting down the last minute as Jenny smiled, "Welcome back Amanda. Do you have any questions or comments for me, before our session is over?"

I glanced down at myself and saw I was naked now, but that didn't surprise me. My long floofy tail swished back and forth before I wrapped it around and hugged it to my chest with a grin. It was both longer and floofier than before. Not enough that it'd cause problems, or at least I hoped so anyways.

"I think I'm good," I replied with a grin. "Thanks Jenny."

She grinned back at me, "You're welcome Amanda. I imagine your girlfriends will be waiting to greet you, and there's probably a debriefing in store for you as well. I'll see you again shortly."

"See you soon," I replied as the timer hit zero.

Everything went black again, then with a hiss the capsule unsealed. The door rotated away and I was left blinking a few times as my eyes adjusted to the light in the secondary hold. Sure enough both Sarah and Rebecca were standing there waiting for me.

As I took in what the two were wearing I realized it was basically the middle of the night now, considering I'd spent a good eight hours in Jenny's care. My girlfriends both looked ready for bed, or like they'd just got out of bed. The cute blonde was in one of her small tight t-shirts and panties, while the tall amazonian redhead wore a slightly-too-short nightshirt. And both had only sandals on their feet.

And apparently the ship hadn't been unloaded yet, or at least the secondary hold hadn't. It was just as cramped as before, the four big shipping containers were still there dominating the normally empty hold.

"Hey cutie," Sarah smiled. "Welcome back."

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Rebecca added in a more serious tone, "You gave us a bit of a scare Amanda."

I grimaced as I pulled myself up into a sitting position, "Hi Sarah, Rebecca. Sorry, I didn't mean to get shot."

The tall beautiful redhead offered me a nightshirt as she stated in a mock-warning tone, "Just don't let it happen again, ok?"

"I'll do my best," I replied as I accepted the garment. I pulled it on, and saw a pair of sandals waiting for me on the floor next to the pod. I carefully dropped down to the floor and stepped into them, and when I was ready the three of us headed aft.

As we rode the lift up in engineering I noticed Sarah looking at me a little more intensely than usual, which started to make me feel self-conscious. I finally asked, "What is it? What are you staring at?"

"Just admiring the modifications you had Jenny make," she replied with a smirk. "It's subtle. I bet you thought we wouldn't notice, right?"

My cheeks went bright red and I wrapped my tail around to hide my face behind the white floof at the tip.

"Silly fox," Sarah giggled. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice my girlfriend got an inch or two shorter?"

Rebecca stifled a giggle of her own, "And her tail looks longer. Floofier too."

My blush grew even brighter, but I couldn't argue. They were both right, I'd gotten smaller while my tail got bigger. In fact it was nearly as long as I was tall now, which made me very happy. I just didn't expect my girlfriends to notice all that so quickly.

The captain and Sarah were both still grinning and I continued cringing behind my tail as Rebecca guided the three of us into the lounge. I sat on the sofa with my first girlfriend while the second went to get us all some drinks. Just water though, no booze or anything. Then she joined us, so I was in the middle with a girlfriend on either side. And my extra-long extra-floofy tail somehow ended up on Rebecca's lap.

Jenny came into the lounge as well and sat on the other side of Sarah, so all four of us were together. And once we were all comfortable the captain began our little informal debriefing.

"I don't know how much Jenny's already told you," Rebecca addressed me, "So let me quickly bring you up to speed. The attack failed. They made several attempts to transmit data back to their base but Jenny disrupted all their communications. She also shot down the sled they were using as a gun-platform, which probably saved several lives. The other grav-sled was captured, along with one of the raiders. The rest of the attackers were killed in the fighting."

She continued, "Our side didn't escape unscathed, the town lost two men and four more were wounded. One of them was severe, but you patched him up enough to keep him alive. The local doc is looking after him now, but I think everyone will be happier if you and your medkit could pay him a visit in the morning. I'm pretty sure you've got better skills and training than the local guy, and I know for a fact your equipment is better than whatever he's got on hand."

"Finally," she said with a grimace, "You were the only serious casualty among the four of us. Jenny caught a bit of shrapnel that damaged her right arm, but Sarah already repaired that after dinner this evening."

Sarah took over at that point, "The ship escaped any serious damage, fortunately. There's some new scratches and a couple little dents, not that anyone would notice. About half the raiders were using HVP-type ammunition, but the real threat was that mounted gun on the sled. If they'd thought to target the cockpit or the engines they could have done us some serious harm. I hate to say it but we were lucky they were using it as an anti-personnel weapon."

"They were probably hoping to capture the ship intact," Rebecca added. "El was going to interrogate the prisoner so we'll know for sure, but my guess is their primary objective was recon, secondary was to secure the ship and its contents. With luck we'll find out what we can expect in terms of a follow-up attack. Or if we're very lucky there won't be any follow-up, considering they've already lost two vehicles, an artillery piece, and almost a dozen men."

By the time they were done I was left with a lot to process. I had a few gulps of my water as I thought through everything I'd just learned, along with what Jenny told me earlier. In the end I had a few questions, but I decided to ignore one of them. I had a bad feeling about the captured man and how his 'interrogation' might be carried out, but I figured I was better off not knowing for sure.

"How did Jenny shoot down the grav-sled?" I asked as I looked back and forth from the captain to our android crewmate.

The AI answered, "Sarah suggested we use the point-defence lasers. She activated them and I overrode the programming to take direct control. One of the PDLS turrets is hidden near the port-side aft landing gear so you might have seen the hull plates open up there. The laser itself is invisible, its wavelength is outside your visual range, but you would have heard the noise as it superheated the air when it fired."

"It was a loud cracking sound," Rebecca added. "And while it's too weak to be useful at long range against hardened targets, it did a hell of a number on the grav-sled hovering forty or fifty meters away. Almost cut the thing in half. The explosion was from hitting the ammunition for their artillery piece."

"Wow," was all I had to say about that. Then I moved on to my other question, as I looked back at the captain and asked "Sorry if this is personal, but how did your conversation go with Jace's mom? Is she...?"

Rebecca's expression got more serious as she nodded, "Yeah. Ella Wheeler is Ellery Talwyn. Seems like neither of us died that night twenty-nine years ago, but we both believed the other perished. And we were both pretty badly shot-up too. She lost an eye and a leg and she was badly burned, but she lived. She's been here at Ganvis Station ever since."

"El never tried to contact Gabe or the Demeter because she thought I was dead," she explained, "And with her injuries she couldn't work for Gabe anymore anyways. And I guess Gabe missed her when he came looking for us? Apparently El was unconscious and trapped beneath some burning wreckage. She was found by locals who came to scavenge the site later on. So she ended up settling here, she hooked up with Preston Wheeler after his wife died, and helped him raise Jace."

"I told her who I am," the boss added after a moment. "Or who I used to be. Needless to say, that took some convincing before she believed me. And Jenny, I told her you could help her if she wanted it. I know you have some rules and restrictions on offering your services to folks, but Ellery meets all your requirements. She's still listed as a member of the Demeter's crew, and she's a cis woman so she's not going to have the kind of adjustment issues I did."

The AI nodded quietly but didn't respond.

"That's about all me and El had time to discuss," she sighed. "Then we had to deal with the incoming threat. I don't know if she'll take the offer, she has a life here after all. Husband, son, mayor of the community and everything. She might have to walk away from all that if she let us help her, but I don't know that she'd be interested in joining us."

Then in an even quieter voice Rebecca added, "And uh, I don't know how she feels about me now? I mean, with me being Rebecca now, being a girl."

We were all silent again after that, until I finally spoke up. "It's late, why don't we turn in? Today's been a lot, for all of us. I'm sure we can all use the rest."