"Concussion headache pain. You will continue to get the sharp pains until I treat you or when this migraine stops. It is your choice."
"Well, when you say it like that," she muttered.
She wasn't a fan of nanite medicine, but what choice did she have? She needed to get this headache under control. She held out her arm. His needle hit her, and it only took a second for the nanite fluid to enter her system.
"I have had these headaches all my life. I have been told there is nothing that can be done for them."
"You have not had Rhimodian nanites."
"You seem very sure of yourself."
"I am half-robot. I know exactly what those nanites can do. You'll thank me later."
She smiled. "You seem very confident."
"I am. I have seen them fix much more intricate problems than headaches."
"This is a little more than a headache," she said. "These will knock me down, sometimes for days. Yet another flaw."
"Are you flawed?" he asked
"Some believe so."
"The nanites will fix whatever flaws you may have. That is what they do."
"So they will make me perfect?" she asked.
"Are you not now?"
She waved her hand over her face. How could he not tell? If they knew all this stuff about Terran humanoid body systems, surely they'd know what a perfect Terran was. "Can you not see them?"
He shook his head. "What are you gesturing to?"
She blinked. Pointed at her eyes.
"Your eyes? What is wrong with them?" He pulled up his gauntlet. "The scans reported that they were working at peak efficiency."
"But they're the wrong color."
"Why?"
"I don't know why. I didn't make them. I was born with them like this."
"No, I mean, why are they wrong?"
She paused. "Because..."
He waited.
She sighed. "Because they are not what is considered perfect."
"By who?"
"My father, I guess. He is the one that reminds me how flawed I am and how worthless I am." Saying the words out loud was like validating them. Giving them power. It punched her in the gut, and the confidence she'd been pretending to have evaporated.
Jedriek touched her. He put his hand on her shoulder. She turned into him.
He wrapped his arms around her in the most gentle and comforting hug she'd ever had.
