The Medical Bay wasn't much to look at. Dr. Ibrahim and Medic Takahashi were both very aware of this and only spent as much time in Medical as they absolutely needed to. Tre, however, found herself to be spending much more time in Medical than her own room next door. She had taken to talking to the nameless woman about everything, mostly regarding maintenance concerns and arguments she had in engineering forums online.

Tre also found herself referring to Eden on occasion, but she never spoke her name out of fear of summoning her like a demon. Nevertheless, whenever Tre would talk about school or her life before the Beacon of Solace, she would inevitably start talking about the person she spent all of her time with. Tre and Eden had been attached at the hip for most of their lives. It was hard for Tre to talk about her past without including her.

The woman was starting to respond more, not just to treatment and exercise, but to Tre herself. Her eyes no longer stared into space, but watched when Tre moved around. As the muscles in her neck regained mass, she began to track Tre with her head.

As her treatment continued, she began expressing a disdain for being touched, especially to have her wounds cleaned. As soon as they were sure she was generally responsive and aware of their presence, Dr. Ibrahim began asking the woman questions to try and learn more about her. Eventually, they were able to determine that while she could understand them perfectly, she was stubbornly quiet when it came to personal information.

"At this point, your wounds have almost completely closed up," Dr. Ibrahim said. "All that can be done now is to keep them clean, which I know you hate us doing. In that interest, we do have the capability of making some prosthetics for you, and we can even install a BSI to work with them."

"No." A faint, rasped whisper emerged from the woman's lips. Tre, Dr. Ibrahim, and Medic Takahashi all perked up at hearing the woman's first spoken word since they had found her. Dr. Ibrahim had to shake off her shock to be sure she understood her patient.

"You... don't want the prosthetics?" Dr. Ibrahim asked.

"I think it might be the BSI she objects to," said Takahashi.

"Is that true?" Dr. Ibrahim asked and then clarified, "are you rejecting our offer to provide a BSI?"

The woman nodded in no uncertain terms as she looked directly into Dr. Ibrahim's eyes. For a moment, the doctor stepped back and considered why the woman wouldn't want the procedure, but refrained from pressing, understanding that the woman's choice wasn't her concern.

"Suit yourself. We can still make some prosthetics that'll help, but they won't be as good without a BSI. Is that amenable to you?"

There was no response from the woman, which Dr. Ibrahim took as a 'yes.' As she and Medic Takahashi moved away to begin their work, she pulled Tre away with them outside of the room.

"It doesn't exactly make sense to me why an amputee might reject a BSI for prosthetics, but it isn't my place to judge. It would significantly increase her quality of life, however, and if I'm being frank, it will make less work for us, and we could use that bed for other patients," the doctor said.

"And you're telling me about this why?" Tre said.

"It seems obvious to me that she responds the most to you. You also spend much more time with her than we do."

There wasn't a response from Tre except crossed arms.

"I don't mean to pry," Dr. Ibrahim continued, "nor do I want any more details, but as I understand it, you have some personal history with BSIs yourself, is that right?" The doctor's question, again, did not elicit a verbal response from Tre, but her change of expression was enough confirmation. "Try to convince her or not, it's up to you, but I really don't want to hand off a quadriplegic woman to some random hospital when her abuser is still out there, but we will have to do it sooner or later." Dr. Ibrahim began walking away. "She's lucky we haven't had to do it already."

Tre wasn't angry. She understood the situation, but she was hesitant to return to the room. One of the reasons she enjoyed spending time with the woman was because there was no pressure to do anything with her. The woman was also incapable of refusing her company. Until now. Tre slinked back into the room. The woman tracked her as she moved slowly across the floor and sat back down in the chair next to her. Tre couldn't look at her. The room was silent for a few minutes.

"I, uh... was asked to try to convince you to get a BSI," Tre said. The woman expressed nothing, and waited for Tre to continue. "But, even if I could convince you, I'm not really sure I want to." Tre crossed her arms and legs as she shrank into her chair as much as she could. "I mean, I guess having BSI connected limbs is certainly better than nothing," Tre looked at her left arm, betraying its disguised inorganic structure, "but I don't think unconnected ones could be that bad, right?

"I get it, really," Tre continued after another moment of silence, "There are things I regret about getting a BSI. I thought it would allow me much more control over... well, a lot of different things. But I'm starting to realize that you could be giving a lot of control over to... whoever." Tre looked around the room. She couldn't see Eden, but she had a distinct feeling that she was listening. Of course, she always had that feeling anymore.

"I really wanted to get one when I was a kid, and couldn't wait until I was 18, but I did. Me and... someone would always talk about it and all the cool stuff we could do, games we could play, fun we could have..." Tre stood up from her seat and began pacing around the woman's bed. "And we did have fun, for a while. To be honest, I'll never forget those first few days. Well, I guess I don't actually remember much, if you know what I mean, but I do remember coming out of it and waking up in the hospital, almost dead from dehydration.

"I learned pretty quick to set alarms and take breaks for the bathroom, food, and water, but she found an AI with a script that took care of her body for her. I remember thinking she was like a zombie in meatspace, even moreso than myself. When I asked about it is when she started showing an interest in digitization."

Tre began picking her lips as she paced. This was the first time she had described her deepest relationship, and as such, the first time she had put it into perspective for herself. As much content as she was constantly consuming, it was rare that she would delve into her own memory. But, as she spoke, she looked at the woman and realized that she wasn't sure how much context she had about anything.

"You know what digitization is, right?" Tre asked. "Consciousness digitization?" She clarified. The woman didn't respond. Tre sighed and continued. "What about Brainstem Interfaces? BSI's? Do you even know what that is?" Tre asked, and again the woman was silent. "C'mon, are you just toying with me, or something? I know you're able to speak. I just heard you.