[Query. Princess, are you experiencing medical distress?]
I try to catch my breath and answer the voice. Excited laughing, jumping up and down before dropping and rolling on the cockpit floor looks like distress to it? Ah, I guess that's not something that happens often, even for humans.
Maybe only my seventh time ever in my life.
"I… I'm fine, Presio. This is just me being *unbelievably* happy."
[Cross-referencing. Understood.]
...What did he just reference exactly?
An AI in my robot, though! I'm so giddy about that fact, I almost forgot the other new thing that was happening. When I first entered - and before the voice spoke out its greeting that had me overjoyed - the skin across my body below my neck had started becoming covered with *something*.
I guess it… sort of felt like I was being eaten. Maybe that was why it was really worrying for me? Its master was being attacked! It must have finished as I rolled about. A thin layer of black material… stretching from neck to toes.
"Presio, is this… is this like a pilot suit? It doesn't quite leave much to the imagination."
It's true some of the shows I watched with him had the women in *very* form fitting suits. I definitely don't ever recall being especially vocal or excited about that aspect…
Holographic screens appeared in the air at my question. I stopped counting after the tenth, but around a dozen of them sat in an arc. Some showed something like what I was wearing on a kind of 3-D mannequin while the rest just listed out scrolling data that I couldn't make any heads-or-tails of.
I don't even read that language, but it looks *technical*.
[Partial-affirmative. The design specifications within your ring designate its nature as that of an Alpha-class survival-barrier gear with Zodiac-class alterations.]
[Considering. Princess would not yet be familiar with InfoSea Technology Class performance designations, would she?]
I have a feeling I should have said something about calling me by the Princess title for this third time, but I really don't want it to tell me its bully of a creator 'forbade' it from calling me anything else. Being mad at him for months without being able to meet just isn't worth it.
I'll just pretend I'm fine with it.
I'm definitely not coming around to it just because the amazing mech is the one saying it to me.
"As painful as it is to agree with being ignorant, you are right. I've had the time to study about *you* to an extent… and the day on ship so far here to read some about my job to come. Which is almost just a giant list of what I 'legally' can't do. But that's it."
[Understood. Clarifying. A wearer of Alpha-class survival gear would be safe when subject to most known galactic phenomena. Princess can think of it as a personal suit of armor.]
"I feel like that sounds super impressive, but it sounds so impressive that I also don't really get it. Like seeing big numbers without other context. So, if it's space-armor would it like, deflect lasers?"
[Negative. Deflection of energetic particles is an inferior method of technology that exists on Zeta-class and lower personal gear. While effective at protection of the individual, the rebounding energy causes detriment to the surrounding environs.]
[Conclusion. An undesirable criterion for high technology.]
"So then I need to avoid lasers."
[Negative. This specification of survival gear will completely absorb such phenomena, erasing all danger. As previously stated, Princess would be kept safe from most known galactic phenomena.]
[Reasoning. The Zodiac-class alterations our creator assigned it provide additional functions and furthers the protection to cover the remaining three known dangers.]
Absorbs lasers. What is that?! Is this stuff stitched together black holes?
I guess lasers as I understand them probably aren't the most amazing thing in the universe, even if it's all my mecha-media brain keeps thinking of. Doesn't help that I know Presio has a whole fancy repertoire of varied directed energy weapons that I'm kind of familiar with in a vague fashion.
Or at least familiar with the media he 'copied' them from. Honestly a grab bag of all the things I might have called out were cool while he was around. They were the only listed weapon functions I really 'understood'.
"And uh… what are these remaining three things I'm safe from?"
[Summarizing. Point-blank gamma ray bursts; Tachyon detonations; Antimatter annihilations.]
…
"Well, putting things I once again don't *actually* understand the science or scale of aside, the black is a little… I mean it's slimming and all? Especially when it is basically painted on me. But it's never been my color. My hair is enough black for me."
Speaking of that, what about the helmet? A laser to the face doesn't sound fun at all. Or you know, space vacuum suffocation. Many other dangers…
[Extrapolating. The outer layer of the material is a circuited nanofabric. Should Princess desire, the radiant frequency can be minutely adjusted into more aesthetically pleasing spectra.]
[Condensing. Its color can change.]
"Silver with blue details like Presio!"
[Addition. The middle layer can be adjusted with excess matter to adjust the overall form factor. The inner layer contains the real protection.]
[Designing. Presenting three suitable variations derived from your personality database.]
Three holographic mannequins appeared as the rest of the screens blinked away. He works fast. Incidentally, they were all helmeted this time! Now that I think about it, maybe it would have been unnecessarily *disconcerting* to suddenly have my head being enveloped by this stuff too…
Yeah. This was probably some sort of intentional 'adjustment period' thing my husband arranged for me. Protecting my fragile human psyche. Even after springing all this other ridiculousness at me. Love you, Soren.
Though I don't know how to feel about the personality database it brought up *again*. When did he make something like that? Imagine finding a pro/con list about yourself written directly by your spouse.
Or a 'how to handle' guidebook…
Right, I was working on *not* finding reasons to be mad at someone not even around.
"Can I see the third one's helmet on the first one's body?"
[Adjusting. Of course.]
"I like it. Does it do all the changes quickly? Also about the helmet… how do I…"
I blinked and it was already around me. Rather than my peripheral vision being blocked - it wasn't, everything *somehow* looked the same - I could just tell that something was suddenly different around me. The fluid pressure difference maybe?
So of course my hands went feeling all around it like a crazy person.
Kind of impossible to not try that when something is suddenly around you there. Your face is a vulnerable area. My sense of touch seemed to be preserved somehow through the suit so I could still 'feel' the barrier it presented to touching my own face in my fingertips.
Some sort of advanced haptic feedback?
Honestly, it hadn't even felt like I was wearing much of anything at all across my entire body so far, when it comes to sensations of weight or friction on my skin. It feels essentially the same as when I was naked in here.
But with the helmet active, I now have the sense of my hair being very lightly constrained by something behind me.
[Explanation. Depending on the circumstances, the suit will encapsulate you automatically to prevent death. At Princess's mental discretion, it will remain in standby unless called upon.]
[Reasoning. The documentation notes that this is for your species' sense of personal comfort.]
Mental discretion, huh? I tried thinking about taking the helmet off and that sense of 'different' hit me again. Like I thought, part of that was some slight movement due to the breathing-fluid being displaced. My hair no longer felt constrained in quite the same way as I felt around the back of my head, but…
"Ribbon?"
It was up in a ponytail with a piece of thin material spiraling around it. Or so it seems through the sense of touch. I guess the suit can style my hair in that same flash? What needless luxury… though I guess maybe more practical and less luxurious than having a handmaiden waiting around for it like the royalty in fantasy fiction.
Leave it to science to get rid of thankless jobs!
Another hologram actively mirroring my profile popped up to show me what it looked like. His AI is very good at inferring what I want, maybe from this 'personality database' Soren gathered on me?
I thought for a moment about how the outfit looked together and quickly flushed, a mixture of embarrassment and happy at what I'd realized.
I'd only worn a silver ribbon in my hair *once* in my life before.
The night I got a little fired up for a first date with a certain weird guy I suddenly met.