Most people would have said some variant of That's impossible. Hot Lips was not most people; since the impossible had apparently happened, then it damn well was possible. I don't believe you got an instant's consideration before she rejected it; she knew, from long acquaintance with Hawkeye, when the doctor was being serious. "Makes sense," she said. "We were putting off the inevitable before I ended up here."
"That's not the worst part," Hawkeye said. "Apparently most of the people stored here aren't human anymore. The machines here transferred us into some sort of robot bodies."
That's impossible and I don't believe you popped right back up. Hot Lips squelched them. "Including us?"
"Ayuh," Hawkeye nodded. "Me, I don't feel any different, so I don't pay it any attention. As far as I'm concerned I'm Hawkeye Pierce until someone else with a better claim to the name shows up."
"Really," Hot Lips murmured. Reaching down, she pinched the skin of her arm, rolling a fold back and forth before letting it snap back into place. She then took her pulse, nodded, then reached over and felt Hawkeye's neck and then wrist. "We have pulses, proper body temperature, and proper skin response for people in their twenties," she said. "Leaving aside fifty years of age, give or take, that seems human enough."
"Glad you're satisfied. My turn."
"You'd enjoy it too much. How'd you learn all this?"
"Well, the computers couldn't find whoever was in charge, so they found one of the few people who was still human and woke him up. Japanese kid, can't be eighteen yet. The computers put him in charge, he woke me up to watch over him while he had some cancer cut out of him by the machines, and I looked you up and made a couple adjustments. And that," Hawkeye threw up his hands, "is all I know about any of this, for now."
"Japanese kid? Does he speak English?"
"Nope. I woke up knowing how to speak Japanese. I guess the machines put it into my head so I could communicate with him. Damn!"
"What?"
"I didn't think of the same thing for you. Try to say something in Japanese."
"Er..." What very little she'd ever learned of Japanese had been during her time in Tokyo prior to assignment to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. "Sake, ichiban, rickshaw chop chop?"
"And that kid doesn't understand a word of English," Hawkeye grumbled. "I guess we'll have to stick you back into the machine."
"Absolutely NOT!" Hot Lips stomped her foot. "I am not going back into that THING where you or God knows who can fool around with my mind and body. I like it just fine out here, thank you."
"I like you just fine out here too."
"Pierce, you are impossible. I just don't believe you sometimes." There. It felt good to let the phrases loose at last.
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(Posted Thu, 23 Feb 2006 02:34)
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