You're Going To Be Just Fine, Ma'am...(The Black Hat)

[Bhaltair Dhimani]

The patient should be waking up soon. Bhaltair wanted to oversee the procedures of this particular operation. It was the company's first official brain implant procedure. He wanted to make sure everything was pristine. He walked over with a datapad in his hands. It held the real-time data stream of the patient's vitals. Everything was looking steady and normal.

It was very good news that the operation had gone exactly as planned. Now, the only thing left to do was see how well she acclimated to the implant. As a precaution, her eyes were covered with a gauze and cotton pad. It would help her acclimate to the data intake so soon after initialization.

Her vitals showed that she was coming around. He went to her side, set the datapad on the night stand next to the handheld mirror and gripped the bed rails while he waited for her to come around. The name he had been given for her was "Arya Talone". Signs showed that she was now coming out of Stage 1 sleep. He figured that he could start talking to her.

"Ms. Talone? I'm Doctor Dhimani. I know you're probably feeling disoriented, but the most important thing to do is to remain calm. Your eyes are covered so you can become used to your surroundings slowly. You're going to feel weak, but your strength should come back bit by bit every minute."

He turned his head off to the side and said,

"Someone dim the lights! Half power!"

The lighting was dimmed and he continued.

"Now, Ms. Talone? This implant allows you to process data about, roughly, 20 times faster than your normal perception. Take things slowly. You can reduce the the speed of intake, but that's an instinct learned skill. You should be able to get the hang of it soon enough, though."

He stopped talking so that he didn't overwhelm her, so she could respond and so he could look back at the datapad and see how her vitals were. Vitals were still good. They were rising at an expected rate as she adjusted to the new her.



[member="The Black Hat"]

 

[Nyx]

As she came around to the waking world, the girl now known as the Black Hat realized she couldn't see. Panic began to set in, but then she realized there was some sort of pad covering them.
She relaxed, simmering in the darkness. That was when she realized she was feeling something... Strange. She was vaguely aware of someone speaking to her, his words processing in her mind, and she understood them completely, but she wasn't focused on them. Odd. In her experience, one needed to be focused completely on someone talking in order to understand them, or fill in the blanks like she was. And yet, the proof that understanding was false was in her mind.
These thoughts occurred to her in the span of a few moments, enough for her to respond to the good doctor.
"Are there any side effects of the surgery I should be made aware of?"
[member="Bhaltair Dhimani"]

 

[Bhaltair Dhimani]

He chuckled nervously to himself at her question. If he had needed to answer that NOW, of all times, he'd definitely not be in business for long.

"It's nothing different than what I went over with you in the waiting room, ma'am."

He went over and keyed for the back of her bed to become elevated so that she could rest in a more upright position.

"You just have to remember to take things easy at first. You should be able to acclimate, like many others, just fine. If there was going to be any side effects, we'd have noticed them already."

After a couple more minutes and answering any more questions, he went to a drawer, opened it and pulled out the gauze scissors. He then walked back over to her side and said,

"Ms. Talone? Can you lean your head forward? I'm going to remove the gauze."

When she was ready to comply, he would carefully snip the thin gauze with the near blunt scissors. Then, he'd slowly remove the gauze, but he was ready to slide it back on if it turned out to be too soon for her.

After the gauze was gone and she acclimated, he would put down the scissors, pick up the mirror and hand it to her.

"As you can see, there are no marks. Everything is back just the way it was."

He smiled. Work well done was always satisfying.

[member="The Black Hat"]