Occasional Sputterings

Juno reached out and walked her right hand along the letters in the MAKE etching. As her finger left the E, the white-noise abruptly stopped; on the other side of the door, machines of varying sizes began humming to life. The room appeared to grow larger as the sheets fell while the bed slid quickly into the wall; Juno quickly landed on her feet and watched as golden footprints appeared. Curious, Juno stood and followed the footprints to the far wall; upon arrival, the rest of the room dimmed as an archway roughly a foot above Juno lay imprinted on the wall. As Juno examined the archway, the entire portion of the wall in front of her grew painfully, brilliantly lit.  As she shielded her eyes, she looked into the strange source of the light. "That ... light feels like its changing ..." said Juno, as the light grew in intensity.  The moment before she blacked out, Juno turned to see a familiar face behind her. And Juno slept. [ Awake ]

Barely acknowledging the vial, Juno slumped down and rolled into her pillow.  The moment her eyes remarked of Rapid Eye Movement, the tile quickly fell, a thin cylinder arose around the vial, and both returned to the floor. Small voices outside the cell died down as the sourceless white noise slowly rose again. A pinprick appeared in the wall; the hole grew to three centimeters and slowly poured fourth a mechanical arm.  Upon reaching its full four feet, the arm slowly nestled Juno, covered her legs, and returned to the hole.  As the arm slid smoothly into the wall, the aperture closed leaving no mark. [Respond to arm] [Awake with a start]

Juno reached for the vial and held it aloft.  Barely transparent auto-carbons floated amidst macro-nanic wrappers. "They sure know how to fix a body," thought Juno, as she drew the vial to her lips. The anti-hum of the white-noise generator slowly filled her periphery as she slowly drank the fluid.  Juno felt the strange, purple mixture reach her throat and warmth branch out to shoulders, thighs, knees.  A gentle numbness followed to her fingers and toes. "S'always feels odd," said Juno, as her tongue fell asleep. As the fluid reached her eyes, Juno sensed the door slide open quietly; trying to look up, Juno's eyes slowly walked from floor - to tile - and the back of a white lab-coat drew her attention to the door as the door began to close. [Leave the room] [Blink]

Juno slowly rose off her bed and walked to the wall-terminal.  Standing on the user interface foot-mesh, Juno faced the bio-metric lock and waited as the sensor evaluated.  Two swipes of the poly-mimetic laser satisfied the code and revealed a small dais. Juno raised both hands and twisted - the dais turned appropriately, revealing a small single-hand print.  Raising the fingers in her left hand in a familiar cadence, the dais interface showed a small note. - PLEASE COME - Bringing both hands together, Juno pushed the message to the data stream.  Drawing a small inward circle on her left palm, the dais muted and the foot-mesh dimmed to ambient lighting. "I hope he gets this in time," thought Juno, as she wearily sat back down on the bed. The begrudging squeal of the bed quietly filled the chamber as the white-noise generator continued its distraction. [Remember] [Find the key]

"Errr," moaned Juno, as she pushed against the wall. Small tears fell from the outer edges of her eyes as her small hands tightly grasped bed-sheet.  The background white-noise lowered and a THUNK revealed a small, rectangular hole. "Prisoner #113, can you speak?" asked the deep, raspy-voiced guard.  Several other voices behind the guard became audible as the white-noise continued to ease into silence. Rocking slowly side-to-side, Juno writhed listlessly. After several minutes, the door's rectangular hole closed.  A small rectangle tile on the floor drew even with the bed; centered on the tile was a small purple vial. Juno looked up; with eyes squinted, she noted the vial was just within reach.  Near the vial, etched deeply into the tile, read the word "MAKE". [ Drink the vial ] [ Return to sleep ] [ Touch the etching ]

The air from the abandoned tunnels infused the small space with hints of cinnamon, rust, and frustration.  Long-abandoned papers taped to the sides of the vent blew inwards, hinting at visitors past, as the white-noise generators shielded Juno from what she knew lay on the other side of the walls. "They'll never make me talk.  For their sake, I can never talk," thought Juno, as she sat, curled up on her bed. The metal frame and nickel fasteners attached to the bed jostled as leather straps gently fell off the swirled sheets.  Hints of professionally-swished cotton, metal trays, and muted sirens wafted through the barred window as Juno moved to the center of the room. [ Feign Sickness ] [ Wait for a Visitor ]