A day off

You check your messages when you get back to your room and see that you are not on call today. It seems like you have been going non-stop since you joined up, so you are thankful to have a day to catch your breath. After twiddling your thumbs in your room for a bit though, it's clear that you're going to be bored out of your mind if you don't find something to do. One of your other messages mentions coming down to the med bay for a follow up, so you decide to take care of that.

The med wing is eerily silent, which you suppose is a good thing in the grand scheme. "Knock knock," you say as you enter the offices. The only person inside is an unfamiliar face, a roundish man with thick glasses and a balding head. "Oh I'm sorry. I was expecting to find Dr. Katari here."

"She's not here today," the man answers with a little twinge of annoyance in his voice as you have interrupted whatever he was doing. "I'm Dr. Alfred. What can I do for you?"

"I had a message asking me to come in for a follow up. Dr. Katari seemed concerned that my recent encounters may have affected me in some way."

"Shadow, right?" Alfred responds, a little more energetic now. "I remember running the workup on you. Your case is absolutely fascinating. Nanobots sustaining and protecting you! We'll have to have a chat sometime about how you built and programmed these little guys. Let me just pull up your file." He starts typing away. "Ah yes here it is. Your nanites, along with being able to protect you from harm, also appear to be capable of learning from introduced stimuli." He swivels around the screen so you can see the charts. "See here, you were exposed to the pheromones and endorphins in Dr. Johnson's 'Love Potion.' After your bots processed that and neutralized it, you can see here that you started producing low levels of similar compounds. Are you in any contact with the nanobots?"

"No. They work autonomously."

"Fascinating. Then they have somehow deduced that there is a benefit to you producing these compounds. This doesn't really pose any risk or threat though. Presumably, they would know better than to, say, emit gamma radiation. But to be safe, as long as you don't possess a conscious connection to the nanobots, we should keep an eye on things after you are exposed to new things."

"Would subliminal messaging count?" you ask.

"Perhaps. Was this from your latest mission? I don't recall seeing anything related to that in the Johnson files."

"Yes, the mission I just returned from had audio with subliminal messages interlaced that my bots filtered out."

"Hmm well that should be an easy one to check. Just speak into this microphone. Try to tell me to do something that I might not normally do." He points the mic from the computer in your direction.

"Okay, uh. Dr. Alfred, you should do a handstand."

"Good. I'll just let the computer analyze the voice-print....and you're clean. No secret hidden messages under your voice." Whew, although that could come in handy... "You're free to go. But like I said, check in with us if you are exposed to anything odd so that we can monitor any changes your nanites might be making to you."

"Got it. Thanks for your help."

Exiting the med wing, you look at your watch. You have managed to kill all of 30 minutes with this visit. With a whole day of nothing ahead, you think of what you might do: Hit the gym? Call a friend to hang out? Go out on a solo patrol? Something else?