Kyle's eyes slowly opened.
His vision blurred and his mind foggy.
He sensed two figures around his uncomfortable hospital bed.
When he attempted to speak, all that came out was a mess of nasal exhalations and guttural groans.
“It's no good kid. Everything you say is gonna sound like someone trying to whistle through their ass cheeks until you learn to use those new vocal cords“ Garrett Mercer informed him. “Here, use the pad”.
Raising up slightly from his bed on weakened arms, Kyle typed. “What's happening?….Where the fuck am I?”
Mercer nodded “I’ll let Dr Hamilton answer this one.”
His sight starting to return, Kyle focused on the name tag of the second man.
The man was scanning through a lengthy checklist on his pad: “Appendage restructuring, Skeletal enhancement, respiratory and vocal-cord installation, all complete,” he was muttering out loud.
Dr. Nish Hamilton said “You’ve just finished your last session Kyle and everything looks optimal. You’re in post-op now but after a few days rest, we can move you to landing prep.”
“Full immersion training begins now though” Mercer added.
Kyle lifted a tired arm and gave a half-hearted thumbs up as his memories of his mission prep came back to him.
This was who he would have to be now. At least until they did the complete opposite reversal procedures on the way back home. When would that even be? They better have kept his fins like they assured him they would.
How had he gotten here? He could have eked out a life in Tau Ceti. It didn’t have to be this way but his actions had definitely had consequences…for everyone.
But it was and all he could do now was make it through this. No matter what!
There was nothing for it, he would have to begin to accept his current situation. For the foreseeable future he was going to take the human name Kyle Lewis and just keep moving forward.
Kyle then realised that no one had spoken for an awkward amount of time and he'd been internalising while staring blankly at Nish's new human face.
Sensing a potential mental breakdown Nish interjected “Let's get you moving to recovery, shall we”.
A comms burst flared on Mercer’s smartwatch at that same moment. He read it, jaw tightening, then gave Kyle a quick, almost apologetic nod.
“I'm needed on the bridge. Rest up, the real work starts soon. We're gonna go save a planet, son!” he tapped the metallic bed frame as he left. It took all Kyle’s remaining energy to not roll his eye back into the top of his skull.
“We're only a lightyear out from Earth now so the AI has been able to cobble together some decent transmissions” Nish added as he started to wheel Kyle’s bed out of the room.
As he moved through the corridors Kyle got glimpses of his other shipmates. Some going through the same final round of procedures he'd just been through, others writhing as their fins were gruesomely moulded into legs and arms and some lucky, blissfully ignorant few who swam happily in their tanks.
The non-ops crew, who would stay on board for the duration of the mission. “They really are a bunch of smug pricks.” Kyle typed on the pad and showed it to Nish. He stifled a smile but one corner of his mouth moved up.
As they turned around the corner into the Recovery Wing, Kyle got his first real look at his new life. Fluorescent light, light green decor, and checkered tiles everywhere. This section of the ship had been reconstructed to look like a mid 90s hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
“Here we are. You relax and I'll check back in with you in a while” Nish whispered.
As he left he switched on a large television and left Kyle with the newest transmission the AI had been able to compile. The sounds of The Rembrandts filled the silence and Episode 14, Season 2 of Friends began.
“Oh, this is the one with the Prom Video” Nish chuckled slightly as he left Kyle. The same blank stare had returned to his face as he attempted to take it all in. Just then a laugh track filled the silence.