203. Amiya: Doctor... Is Laughing
"I feel like I'm as tired as a dead dog that's been trampled by Originium Bugs eight hundred times..." The Doctor sank into the large sofa in the command room like a melting slime, too lazy to even move a finger.
"Not quite dead yet," came Xiling's voice from the side, as he lightly kicked the human-shaped trash that was taking up most of the sofa.
"But the dog part is quite fitting, especially when you used your brilliant brain to come up with this earth-shattering idea today. You were as dog as you can be."
The doctor let out an incomprehensible groan and reluctantly writhed a few centimeters to the side, making room for a small space.
Xiling then plopped down without any hesitation, letting out a long, relieved sigh:
"Phew—! I'm exhausted."
"Huh?" The doctor didn't even bother to lift his eyelids; his voice was weak and listless.
"Someone like you can actually feel tired? You're kidding me."
"I get annoyed just thinking about work," Xiling's muffled voice came from the side.
"I get tired as soon as I start working. Don't you know about the law of conservation of energy?"
"So, what am I to you?" Xiling asked.
The Doctor perked up and held up three fingers:
"I have about three impressions of you."
"Oh? Tell me about it."
The Doctor retracted two fingers: "First impression, a super big shot. Just standing there, his aura is different from others, like he has his own background, truly unfathomable."
Then he raised a second one: "Second impression... God."
The Doctor paused, his eyes becoming somewhat unfocused.
"It's strange, this word almost instinctively jumped into my mind. But I don't have any specific description or understanding of you as a person."
Finally, the third finger was raised, and the Doctor smiled: "As for this last one... hehe, it doesn't seem to be much different from mine?"
Xiling, with his eyes closed, let out a short, soft laugh: "Heh, wouldn't that be sad?"
"Hey, hey, hey!" The Doctor looked up, protesting indignantly, "What do you mean by 'sad'? What's wrong with me? I'm trusted and relied upon, incredibly intelligent, helpful, and I have this stunningly handsome face! I've praised you so much, and you're still not satisfied?"
Xiling glanced at the Doctor, then slowly raised a long, slender middle finger: "...Those adjectives would be tailor-made for me. But for you?"
Xiling looked the Doctor up and down.
"Do you think this is appropriate?"
"Perfect! It's like it was made for me!" The Doctor nodded seriously, then leaned closer as if he had no bones, his face full of curiosity.
"And what about the other way around? In your eyes, what kind of person am I, the Doctor of Rhodes Island?"
"It feels pretty ordinary, not quite what I imagined, and it even has a bit of a comedic talent."
"Comedic talent?!" The Doctor pointed to his nose, his face filled with disbelief.
"Are you talking about me? Me? The Doctor from Rhodes Island? I've become a comedian in your eyes?!"
"So what did you imagine me to be like at the beginning?" the Doctor pressed, a hint of resentment in his voice.
Xiling was silent for a moment, as if flipping through distant memories—memories from another world, shared on a screen.
"I thought..." his voice deepened, "that you would be more silent, more lost...like a fallen leaf without direction. But at the same time, I also thought you would be a brave person, someone who would sacrifice yourself for others..." He paused, then added, "...a good person at heart."
The seriousness in his words and a certain distant expectation instantly froze the smile on the Doctor's face.
The Doctor's expression vanished, replaced by a fleeting, complex look. He leaned back on the sofa, his gaze fixed on a nonexistent point on the ceiling, his voice deepening: "...It feels...quite fitting."
The initial awakening... was a blank.
He didn't know who he was; he simply instinctively chose to believe the Carter girl who reached out to him with a warm smile.
Then came the repeated losses.
ACE, Misha, Bonebreaker, Frostnova, Patriot... So many familiar or unfamiliar faces are forever left on that broken and cold land.
He witnessed death, separation, pain, and suffering—these were the most authentic scenes that Terra showed him.
And he... was often powerless to do anything.
That heavy sense of bewilderment and powerlessness should have crushed him and left him silent.
But he chose another path—perhaps, facing it with a smile could at least make things a little easier for those around him?
He thought this way, and so his smile became his mask, his armor.
The complex thoughts finally turned into a barely audible chuckle: "Perhaps... I've always been the same, who knows?"
Seeing the faint smile on the Doctor's face, tinged with self-deprecation and weariness, Xiling suddenly reached out and forcefully pulled down the Doctor's signature hood, completely covering his feigned relaxed face.
"Don't force yourself to smile if you don't want to," Xiling's voice carried a hint of barely perceptible gentleness.
"Your smile looks worse than a grimace, as if I've really bullied you. If your Amiya or Kal'tsit sees this, won't they issue me a wanted poster within the ship?"
Suddenly, his vision was plunged into darkness.
"Hey! Let go! Let go now, you bastard!" The Doctor immediately flailed his arms wildly in the air like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, aiming directly at Xiling's hand that was still on his hood.
Xiling decisively let go, and at the same time sprang up from the sofa as if he had a spring in his body. In the instant that the Doctor was frantically trying to lift his hood and his vision was blocked, he had already rushed to the door like a gust of wind.
"Damn it! Don't run away if you dare!" The doctor's body almost instinctively chased after him, as if his fatigue had been thrown to the winds in an instant.
"If you don't chase me, I won't run!" Xiling turned around, his voice clearly tinged with laughter.
"Fine! I won't chase you anymore! So stop!" the doctor tried to reason with him.
"I'll stop if you stop!" Xiling shouted as she ran.
"You stop first! I'll stop if you stop!"
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Inside the medical ward. Amiya stared down at her slender fingers. Her illness… was it really cured? The incurable disease that countless operators on Rhodes Island had fought against day and night… had simply… vanished?
"How are you feeling, Amiya?" Kal'tsit's voice was as calm as ever.
"I… feel wonderful, Dr. Kal'tsit." Amiya looked up, her eyes filled with a dreamlike haze.
"My body feels lighter and… more whole than ever before. But…" She looked again at her empty fingers.
"This feeling is so unreal. It's like I've had a… dream that was too beautiful."
Kal'tsit remained silent for a few seconds, her gaze falling on Amiya's hand as if to confirm the unreality of the situation.
"...I, too, find it hard to believe."
Her voice was low, her mind replaying the mind-blowing scene in the laboratory.
"That Mr. Xiling... who exactly is he?" Amiya looked at Kal'tsit, her eyes filled with pure confusion and awe.
The awe-inspiring scene vividly appeared in her mind: she made a wish to that indescribable, great being, and the wish turned into a seed, taking root, sprouting, and growing into a towering tree in the flowing river of light, eventually bearing abundant fruit.
And that being personally plucked the fruit symbolizing health for her... sacred, solemn, and indescribable.
Kal'tsit gazed at the sky outside the window and slowly replied, "Perhaps... it is something we have never known, or even been able to define. Something... like a concept akin to a god."
Amiya wasn't surprised by the answer. She was about to nod in agreement when her gaze inadvertently swept across the passageway deck below the observation window, and she froze instantly, her eyes widening in disbelief:
"...Dr. Kal'tsit, look there!" Kal'tsit frowned deeply and followed Amiya's gaze—for a moment, even Kal'tsit was unusually stunned.
On the wide deck passage below, the great being they had just been talking about, as if it were almost like a god—Xiling—was now being chased all over the deck by the Doctor from Rhodes Island!
Xiling even turned around and challenged, "At this speed? Can you keep up with me, Doctor?"
"You...you just wait!" The doctor was panting heavily, his voice filled with gritted teeth, but his steps didn't falter at all.
To Amiya and Kal'tsit, two Super Terrans, the two running figures looked as clumsy as two playful children, perhaps even less physically capable than some of the operators' children.
Amiya's gaze was fixed on the figures desperately chasing after each other. The Doctor's face was devoid of any smile, only flushed from exhaustion and gritted teeth, but...
"...Dr. Kal'tsit, is the Doctor smiling?" Amiya's tone was uncertain. The Doctor's face did not show any particular happiness, but she sensed that he was smiling. In fact, the Doctor seemed very relaxed, completely different from before.
Kal'tsit didn't speak, but silently watched the two chasing figures below, her gaze finally settling on the Doctor's back, which looked somewhat comical from running so hard.
The Doctor's steps were heavy, his clothes fluttering; it was a pure, tactical pursuit, tinged with a childlike persistence.
After a long while, Kal'tsit's tightly pursed lips seemed to loosen slightly, a barely perceptible curve appearing briefly before being quickly suppressed.
She watched the Doctor's figure disappear around the corner of the corridor before answering Amiya in a calm tone, devoid of any ripples, yet seemingly containing a certain sense of relief:
"Yes. The Doctor... was smiling." It was a pure, even slightly silly, ease and joy, as if he had broken free from invisible shackles and unloaded a heavy burden.
It was a radiance she had never seen in him before.
.....