[This chapter includes medical talk, so avoid it if you are squeamish.]

Tom decided the first thing he should do is get some less conspicuous clothes.

He pressed the the talk button on the radio. "Sergeant, are you there?"

"Yes, what is it?" replied Sgt. Sweet over the radio.

"Could I get some clothes to wear over the suit? A camo jacket and pants ..."

"Yes, that should be no problem."

"... and rubber boots."

"Rubber boots? Ok, makes sense. I'll see what I can find."

Tom suddenly felt a strong urge to immediately confess to Sgt. Sweet about what actually happened in the underwater base. He decided that over the radio wouldn't be the best way to do it, and would do it when a better opportunity came up. "Great, thank you sir." Tom said.

"Also, I should tell you that I haven't found someone to give you a tour yet, so that may not be until tomorrow."

"Understood. Thank you sir." said Tom.

Tom still had the belt he picked out earlier. He put on the belt and clipped the radio onto the belt. He didn't know where his diving knife went off to. "Maybe Sgt. Sweet or sickbay has it." he thought.

There was not reason to wait around the bunk, so with his free time he decided to see if he could learn more about the suit from Dr. Farquharson. "I'll bring up the dizziness to get an appointment; I should get that looked at anyway."

He checked the emergency procedures manual to find where sickbay was from him, and set off toward it.

The hallways were narrow, but some crew members looked at him suspiciously but relaxed when they saw the temporary badge. Some kept looking even afterwards.

He arrived at sickbay and talked to the nurse. "I'd like to see Dr. Farquharson, please."

After getting Tom's information and calling the doctor, she said "Dr. Farquharson will see you. Please wait in examination room 2 until he's available."

Tom went to the examination room, closed the door, and sat down on the examination table.

Tom thought to himself "I'll bring up the dizziness first, then see if I can shift to topic to see what information I can get from him about the suit."

After about 25 minutes of waiting, Dr. Farquharson opened the door and closed it behind him. He was carrying an electronic tablet. "Hello Thomas, what can I help with today?" the doctor said. He looked at the tablet. "Dizziness?"

"Yes, when I stand up especially but sometimes other times." Tom said.

The doctor took a blood pressure meter from the shelf and put it on Tom, then continued talking while it worked. "When you first came in, we did all the relevant tests that we are able to do here." Dr Farquharson thought for a moment. "No drugs, headaches, family history, not eating and drinking well?"

"No, none of those." Tom said.

"Maybe anxiety related. Are you experiencing anything that would cause you stress?"

"... No."

Dr. Farquharson took off the blood pressure cuff. "This looks normal too. I understand you're only here temporarily. I can prescribe some dramamine, and if that doesn't help, come back and I can try something stronger."

"That's all you're going to do??" asked Tom.

"When you came in, we did head X-Rays and bloodwork. They came back normal, except for what we'd expect from your cybernetics. There doesn't seem to be an issue that's an immediate risk, so if this happens long term, you should talk to your primary care physician."

"Well, maybe the cybernetics are the problem. Maybe you could remove the suit to check?" proposed Tom, angling for getting out of the suit, or possibly learning more about it.

Dr. Farquharson sat down. "I received a bunch of files from Dr. Conrad about the same time you came in. It's very interesting; I've been reading them and I still don't understand half of them."

"You know Dr. Conrad?" asked Tom.

"No, I hadn't heard of him or these cybernetics. When he heard you might be in medical danger, he sent the files so I could try to save your life. He included a diagnostic app to check your cybernetics." He pulled out his tablet, pressed some buttons, and looked over the results. "This is the same results as last time; we looked over the results and they were functioning as expected."

"How could you even know what's happening in my body from an app?" asked Tom.

"They're microscopic robots. Nanites, invisible to the naked eye, but if they group up, they appear like tiny silver wires. They take readings, communicate with each other, connect to the computer in your backpack, and the app connects to that computer wirelessly."

"How could microscopic robots even be used for anything?" asked Tom.

"They all work together, breaking up dead cells and bacteria, releasing the small pieces into the bloodstream, and carrying larger pieces to the digestive tract. Working together, they can influence where cells grow. They're small enough to cap off nerve endings, so even when they make large changes, the only sensation is an itch."

"So what does this have to do with removing the suit?" insisted Tom, who was trying to get a straight answer. But Tom was also being circumspect; he already knew some of this from the spiral bound manual he had been looking at days ago.

"They've removed your epidermis, the outer layer of dead cells, and integrated the suit with the dermis. The only way to remove the suit would be to remove your skin, which would be ... not survivable."

"What happened to my hair and nails underneath the suit?"

"They would be considered dead cells, so ... removed."

"Hypothetically, could the suit ever be taken off?"

"Well, first the nanites in your bloodstream would have to be directed to dispose of themselves in the digestive tract or urine. Otherwise they would float around until they caused an immune response or blood clots. Then the nanites in your dermis would have to be directed to remove the suit from your dermis in stages, allowing them to direct cell regrowth as they receded. Then your epidermis would have to regrow; you'd probably need to be submerged in a specially controlled liquid during this stage to provide the correct environment for regrowth. Then the suit could simply be cut off of you."

"That's a lot of information about removal. Did Dr. Conrad create that removal routine?" asked Tom

 "No, he wrote that he hadn't created a removal program yet. It's mostly speculation on my part and could be wrong."

"You mentioned blood clots? Maybe that's the problem?" asked Tom.

"If the system is working correctly, it would detect damaged nanites and blood clots as damaged cells and remove them, then direct cell regrowth if there was actual damage. The diagnostic I just did shows that they're working normally. "

"Wow, that's an impressive system." said Tom.

"Also, a blood clot would show up in the X-Rays I did, if it was large at least," Dr. Farquharson paused, "Yes, impressive. Well that's almost all the time I have available. Any other questions?"