Free Damage Control - ARC by Mary Jeddore Blakney

that horrible prisoner-restraint in the
pod, the garoshh. “How do you use the desk?” Jade asked.
    In one quick, graceful movement, Laitt knelt
in one of the metal devices, facing the counter. She looked like a
patron sitting at a bar. Then she stood again. “I put my knees
here,” she said, touching a spot on the device, “and here. You can
adjust it to the desired height, like this. If I will stay in this
station long, I will place this piece behind me for support when I
lean back.”
    Jade tried it. The metal wasn't padded, and
it hurt her knees. She stood and glanced around the room. “I don't
see any chairs,” she said.
    “There is one,” said Laitt, putting her
emphasis on the word ‘is,’ as though only one chair was to be
expected. She led Jade to a spot near the corner of the big room
where there was a shape painted in red on the white wall. Laitt
pushed on the painted shape with her hand, and it swung open on
hidden hinges. They entered a smaller room, Laitt opened another
painted-shape door and they crowded into an even smaller room.
    In one corner was a triangular sink with an
overhanging lip that Jade assumed must contain the faucet. A
package of 12 rolls of toilet paper sat unopened on a shelf. Jade
recognized the brand. The only other item in the room was a round
thing that looked like a cross between a toilet and a wide-mouthed
jar. It stood only about a foot high.
    “The toilet,” said Jade, “is the only
chair?”
    Laitt hesitated. “Our translator is not
perfect. What is the difference between 'toilet' and 'chair'?”
    “This is a toilet,” Jade answered, “and a
chair is something you sit in.”
    “Something I shit in,” Laitt said. “I know
only one thing. Do you require something else as well?”
    “No, that's okay. I can sit on the bed.”
    “No,” Laitt answered with authority. “That is
not acceptable.”
    “Sitting on the bed is not acceptable?”
    “Yes, it is not. Describe what you need and I
will get it. But you must not shit on the bed.”
    Jade decided not to try to explain the
difference between 'shit' and 'sit.' There were more important
things that needed explanation. She tried to keep a straight face.
“I'll just use the toilet,” she said with difficulty. “I don't need
anything else.”
    “Be sure that you do not,” Laitt replied
sternly, then continued in a lighter tone, “I will show you the
shower. It has been altered so that you can breathe. I will show
you how to use the alteration.”
    “So that I can breathe?”
    “Yes.” By this time, they had left the little
toilet room and entered the shower room. The shower was
recognizable, though not familiar. It had a pocket-door and what
looked like water jets in the door, walls, floor and ceiling. “The
water sources have been disabled in this corner,” Laitt explained.
“When you breathe, your face should be in this corner. Otherwise,
you should...” She paused and spoke to her Personal Device in her
own language, and the rest of the sentence came from the Device in
a perky American accent: “...to hold one's breath.” She put it away
and said, “Do you require more information about the shower?”
    “I'm just curious about the alterations, I
guess. Is it a height thing? Maybe I'm not tall enough to use a
shower without alterations?”
    “No,” Laitt answered. “Without alterations,
there is no air that is not mixed with water. As a mammal, you
would drown.”
    “You're not mammals?”
    “Yes, we are amphibians. When we shower, we
breathe the spray. It feels refreshing. If you have no more
questions, then I will leave for a short time, then return.”
    “Oh, sure. I think I'll try out the
shower.”
    “Yes. Give a shower. That is incorrect. Take
a shower.”
    “Take a shower, yes. I'm going to take a
shower.”
    When Jade stepped out after showering, her
clothes were gone, replaced by a folded slate gray outfit. As much
as she hadn't been looking forward to putting her dirty clothes
back