Not Quite Possible
by: NoDrog(s)
Chapter 2: A day in the life
Joss stirred, waking up at the sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door. At first she hoped yesterday had been some bizarre nightmare, brought on by staying up and watching old sci-fi movies with her dad. When she opened her eyes, she realized she wasn't back home… even with most of the personal items removed, she still recognized the room she was sleeping in as her cousin Kim's old bedroom.
Her reaction last evening had certainly been human enough; once she was sure she was 'safe' with her uncle and aunt, she had found herself exhausted and fallen asleep almost immediately. Her aunt/mother Anne had apparently undressed her after putting her to bed; Joss found herself dressed only in jockey shorts and training bra.
The knock was repeated at the door. This time Anne spoke. "Joss? We're having breakfast in about forty-five minutes… Shower and get dressed."
Joss climbed out of the bed, trying to make sense of her memories of yesterday. She unzipped the backpack she had brought, grabbed clean clothes, and ducked into the private bathroom Kim had.
The bathroom had a full length mirror. As soon as Joss saw it, she placed her clean clothes on the counter and stripped down to examine her naked body. She looked the same as she had yesterday morning… She ran her fingers over her arms and thighs, looking for the seams that had opened up yesterday, but there was no sign of them. Her skin felt warm and soft, over firm muscles from working on a ranch. Perhaps there was some other reason she was at her uncle and aunt's house, and yesterday had been some sort of bizarre dream?
"I must be going crazy," Joss muttered. She turned from the mirror, her thighs splitting open temporarily to allow her holsters to emerge. She took the Smart Rope and Auto-6 out, laying them on the counter so they couldn't get wet. She froze, staring down at the weapons she had just sat down. She whirled to look back at the mirror, seeing the holsters on her legs. As she watched, her thighs split open again and the now empty holsters retracted back inside her body.
"Ok… Ah am definitely gone loonier than a tin horn with sun stroke," muttered Joss. She ran her hands over the smooth skin of her thighs, searching for seams. "This ain't happening… it ain't happening… ." She stepped away from the weapons. "Ok… Ah'm going to shower, and when I get out, they ain't goin' to be heah."
Joss showered quickly and stepped out. She tried to ignore the corner where the metal rope and pistol rested, getting dressed in clean underwear, plaid shirt, and denim shorts. Only when she was done did she turn back to look at the counter. The rope and gun were still there.
Gingerly, she picked up the pistol. It certainly felt real enough. Yesterday, it had seemed like an extension of herself… she had effortlessly known exactly where each bullet would go when she had pulled the trigger. Now, it just seemed like any other weapon, although of a somewhat futuristic design. Studying it, she realized there seemed to be no safety switch. She ejected the magazine and unchambered the round still in the pistol to make sure the gun wouldn't accidentally go off. She tried pulling the trigger, but the trigger seemed to be frozen in place.
She placed the ejected bullet back in the magazine and then left the magazine and pistol on the counter. The thought of carrying a loaded weapon inside of her leg, even if it might have been there for years, seemed needlessly dangerous. The metal rope seemed innocuous enough, so she cautiously picked it up. When she hiked the left leg of the shorts up, her thigh split open and the smart rope holster emerged. When the rope remained limp, acting like ordinary rope, she coiled the rope up and placed it back into the left holster. She watched the holster and smart rope retract back into her leg and then her thigh sealed close; only when the smart rope was no longer visible did she realize that the holster had been bone dry; apparently, she could have left the weapons in place during showering.
"Thas is nuts," Joss muttered. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. "Ah'm human, Ah am."
A knock at the bedroom door caused Joss to turn in panic. "Joss? Are you ok?" Anne asked through the bedroom door.
"Ah'm fine!" lied Joss. She grabbed the Auto-6 and magazine and dropped them into the dirty clothes hamper, then threw the underwear she'd been wearing last night and her wet towel in over them. She hurried through Kim's bedroom and opened up the bedroom door. "Is breakfast ready? Ah'm starved."
"Yes, go on downstairs." Anne said.
Joss scampered down the stairs, wanting to get far as possible from the pistol and its grim reminder of the events of yesterday, trying desperately to act normal.
Jim and Tim were already eating, while Dr. James Possible was sitting at the head of the table. He had the newspaper, but he wasn't reading it. He waited till Joss sat down, then began talking. "I told Jim and Tim that Uncle Slim was kidnapped by the Bebes. I don't think they need to know any other details." He ignored the disappointed looks on his sons' faces.
Joss nodded, picking up her silverware. She ate sporadically, shoveling in a new mouthful whenever Jim or Tim seemed about to ask her something. Realizing that Joss didn't want to speak, the boys tactfully just picked up their book bags and left for school. Joss was home schooled, so fortunately she didn't have to worry about missing school work.
Anne, having eaten earlier, came into the room and sat down at the table. She looked at Joss. "Joss, we need to talk."
"About my dad?" Joss asked.
"About him… and about you," said Anne. She set the Auto-6 and the magazine down on the table. "He loves you. He gave you this so you could protect yourself."
Joss stared at the gun, making no move to pick it up. "Is it true?" she asked.
"What I told you is true." said James. "What your dad told you on that DVD is true. You're a… ."
"Stop it! If what Ah saw on that tape is true, then Ah ain't his daughter! Ah ain't even real!" Joss cried out.
Anne reached out and slapped Joss, smacking hard enough to shock the pre-teen into silence. "Did you feel that?" Anne demanded.
"Y-yes," said Joss, rubbing the side of her face to ease the sting.
"Then you're real," Anne said firmly. "You're as real as anyone. You just started life out a little differently. And Seamus Possible is, in almost every sense I can think of, your father. And we are going to get him back."
Joss stared at Anne. "How ken you say that?"
"I'm a brain surgeon," said Anne. "I know as much as any human on this planet does about human brains and I know about yours. Yours is silicon where mine is organic, but you grew as a child, learned as a child, and I know from what your father told me, you were developing into a human woman I could be proud to call niece or daughter. The only thing that has changed is you know a bit more about yourself now."
There was a tense moment of silence, as both Joss and Anne waited for the other to speak. Finally, James decided to break the silence. "Would you like to know more?" he gently asked Joss.
Joss and Anne followed as James led them to his study. Once there, James revealed a hidden safe built into the wall and opened it. Inside, there were a stack of hand labeled CD jewel cases. Instead of taking one of the DVDs out, as Joss expected, he took them all from the safe and handed them to Joss. "These are yours," he said. "It's up to you what you do with them… but they represent information your dad wanted you to have, and information you might need to face the Bebes."
"Thank you," Joss said.
"We'll be in the kitchen when you're ready to talk," Anne said. She took James by the hand and led him out of the study.
Joss took the DVDs and walked over to the lounge. She picked one of the DVDs at random and placed it in the player.
An image of her father, several years younger, appeared. "Joss, if you're watching this, you must want to know more about your creation. Your physical appearance was a high priority in your design, to help you fit in with organic humans. To make your skin, we used everything from nano-thread sensors, electro-static micro-actuators, multiple types of plastic polymers, and even cosmetic products. The following products went into the outer most layer of your skin."
James and Anne set in the kitchen, pretending they couldn't hear the sound of Joss crying as she watched the DVDs. Anne flipped through the latest issue of Journal of Neuro-Science while James looked through the newspaper, neither of them actually retaining anything they read. It was after One in the afternoon when Joss finally came out of the TV room. Neither of the two adults spoke, just watched warily as Joss picked up the Auto-6. The holster deployed from her right thigh as she picked up the magazine of ammunition and slipped it into place. Both James and Anne gave a silent sigh of relief as Joss didn't try to use the gun, just placed the pistol into its holster and allowed it to retract into her leg.
"One of the DVDs said the Auto-6 won't fire unless Ah'm in combat mode or in tahget practice mode, but didn't say how to trigger those modes," Joss said.
"Combat mode automatically triggers when you are under stress," said James. "Basically, whenever you believe that you or a loved one is in immediate danger. Target Practice mode requires a code word to activate. There is a code to give you voluntary control of both modes, but only Slim knows what it is; he was planning to give you the code when he told you when you turned eighteen."
Joss chewed her lower lip, then spoke. "When y'all find where these Bebes are keeping my father, Ah wanna be there to help get him safe."
James nodded; his experience with Kim had shown him there was no point in arguing with a teenage Possible on certain subjects.
Joss turned to look at Anne. "Yuh were right," she said. "Watching those DVDs… He really does think of himself as muh father."
"Of course he does, Joss," said Anne.
"Well, if Ahm going to be of help, Ah reckon I need some practice with this fancy shootin' iron," said Joss, patting her right thigh.
"All right," said James. "The Rocket Center has a shooting range; we can get lunch, then I can get the range cleared for us."
Lunch was just drive-thru; Joss ate her hamburger in silence. Once at the range, Joss and James carried the case of special equipment into the firing range. James got ear-protectors for both of them, then locked the firing range door. Joss got out her Auto-6.
James opened the case, taking out the second Auto-6 and laying out several different ammo magazines. "The Auto-6 automatically adapts to six different calibers, you might as well practice with all six of them," James said in explanation. He picked up one of the magazines and slapped it into the second Auto-6, then handed the weapon to Joss.
Joss stood at the line of the firing range. She pointed both pistols at a target and squeezed, but neither trigger moved. "How do I activate target practice mode?" she asked.
"Snacker-Snick," said James.
Joss felt a moment of distortion, then realized she was mentally seeing two points of focus, instead of the normal single point. When she moved the two Auto-6s, she discovered she could track independently where each pistol would hit. The shooting range had six lines, each with a paper target hanging down in the lane. She fired, hitting the two most outward bull's-eyes perfectly. "Two gun mojo," she said, dragging the term up from an action movie she'd seen. "Cool." She turned sideways, holding the pistols extended down-range. She found herself able to watch both left and right at once, using what was normally peripheral vision. She was puzzled at what she was seeing appearing flat, then realized her eyes were pointing in two different directions; instead of her brain processing a stereo image, she was dealing with two two-dimensional images.
She set one of the Auto-6 pistols down and changed magazines, trying a higher caliber magazine. It held fewer bullets, but each bullet would hit with more force. She took aim, finding herself automatically compensating for the heavier recoil.
She had gone through a full magazine of each caliber type when James called a halt to the firing practice. "We need to go now so I can pick up the boys. We can come back another day if you want to practice some more, but I think tomorrow you should work with your Smart Rope."
"Ok," said Joss, feeling better. She put the second Auto-6 back in the case, then loaded a fresh clip of ammo into her Auto-6 and put it away in her leg. "You can go ahead and say whatever it is that switches off target shooting mode."
"Don't worry about it," James said. "Just be aware you'll automaticly be logged out of target shooting mode the next time you sleep. "
"Thanks, Unca' James," said Joss. She carried the case out to the car. On the way to Middleton High, she asked a question that had been bothering her all day. "What… what do yah think the Bebes are doin' to dad? Are they torch'ring him?"
"No, I'm sure they're not," James said. "The Bebes wouldn't use torture just to be sadistic, and they have other ways to get information. They have neural scanning and data retrieval technology."
"They have what?" asked Joss.
"They have a brain tap machine," said James. He rubbed his head, remembering his own experience with such a device. "The process is painless; the only side effect is it leaves the subject temporarily disorientated, with no memories of the event."
"I hope you're right," said Joss.
"The boys… don't know about you being… I mean…," James hesitated, not sure how to say what he wanted to say.
"Yah haven' told 'em Ah'm 'synthetic'," said Joss, with a wry smile. "Ah figured, when they didn' ask to poke aroun' in me this morning'."
James nodded. "If you don't mind, I'd rather we didn't tell them… at least not till we can discuss it with Slim also. The Bebes aren't the only ones who could be a threat to you, and the boys aren't the best people in the world to keep something like this secret."
"Ok," said Joss, grateful for the excuse. She was still having trouble adjusting to the idea; she didn't want to have to deal right now with Jim and Tim adjusting to it also.
Dinner went by normally; the only break in routine being when James called Wade and Wade reported that, unfortunately, he had no news to report about Slim and the Bebes. Joss sighed in disappointment. Seeking some way to distract her, Anne spoke up. "Tomorrow is family movie night; we usually let the boys pick out a movie to watch, but as you're our special guest, is there one you would like to see?"
"Ah don't really have a preference," Joss said with a shrug.
"Oh, how about Not Quite Human?" suggested Tim.
James and Anne exchanged a worried glance.
"Now, Tim…," said Anne. "We saw that movie last week."
"Not Quite Human 2?" suggested Jim.
Before James or Anne could protest, Joss spoke up. "Sure, wha'ever."
James and Anne shrugged in resignation.
