Part VII – Unter Null
Soft indicators pulsed at steady intervals along the panel interface beside Nyla's bed. Air moved through the closed-circuit vents in slow, regulated cycles, and hymn along by the faint breathing cadence of Nyla and Kaodin.
SOMSRI LOG:
Executive-attention coherence sustained.
Dream-associated markers escalating beyond baseline.
Patient AS-07-K remained seated and upright, posture having shifted gradually over time before settling into stillness. No further adjustment followed. The position held.
Kaodin did not move. His hands rested at the center of his body, loosely, unmoving. His breathing stayed even.
Somsri disengaged from standby and stepped closer.
At close proximity, she lowered her sensory receptor. Neural readings stabilized, though failed to align with any recognized human rest-state. No voluntary motion. No indication of postural transition. Respiratory rhythm remained even. Muscle tone showed partial relaxation, inconsistent with conscious alertness.
SOMSRI LOG:
Theta amplitude rising.
Gamma persistence detected.
Somsri lowered herself until her optics aligned with the boy's face.
His breathing was present—steady, measured—but no longer adaptive. Each inhale arrived on time, yet the cadence failed to keep the perpetual sound, its rhythm subtly disrupted.
He may be experiencing a restless night.
Somsri disengaged her torso lock, the internal release passing through before the manual adjusters at her hips followed. The waist assembly lowered in a controlled descent, threads turning with a muted mechanical rasp until her height aligned with the boy's seated level. She tightened the thigh locks—left, then right—securing the position.
Eyes level—confirmed. Gaze steady and unblinking. A brief, almost imperceptible recalibration passed through her ocular assembly as retinal analysis finalized.
The pupils did not settle.
SOMSRI — NEURAL / AUTONOMIC READOUT
(Subject: AS-K-07)
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Breathing Condition | Regular / non-adaptive
Heart rate variability | Within baseline
Theta activity | Elevated (gradual rise)
Gamma persistence | Sustained
Ocular tracking | Uncorrelated (internal)
Blink latency | Delayed
Postural adjustment | None detected
Autonomic escalation | Absent
Sleep architecture match | No convergence
Recovery transition | Deferred
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Status Flag: PARTIAL-PROVOCATION
To unaided observation, the boy appeared calm.
His posture remained upright, spine stacked without strain, hands resting loosely where they had fallen. No tremor. No fidget. No unconscious correction. The body held its configuration as if following a retained instruction—one that had not yet been released.
The ocular data failed to resolve into any recognized sleep architecture.
Eye movement remained active but uncorrelated with environmental input. Blink latency exceeded wake-state norms, and yet, without crossing into rest thresholds. Postural control remained intact.
No distress indicators were flagged.
That absence registered as irregular.
Then it is confirmed. Patient AS-07-K is experiencing Oneirophrenia—Dream-state cognition active during wakefulness.
Sustained internal engagement persisted without autonomic escalation. Executive regulation remained active beyond expected duration. The subject was maintaining alignment rather than yielding to transition.
SOMSRI LOG:
Volitional output delayed.
Sensorimotor alignment degrading.
Sustained partial-provocation detected. Prolonged failure to enter a recovery-compatible state assessed as suboptimal for pediatric patient stability.
Assisted neural support protocol selected.
Low-frequency modulation authorized—within safety margins. No contraindications detected.
Somsri's hand rose to the compartment set into her upper left arm, just above the elbow. The lock disengaged, and she retrieved the stethoscope with practiced efficiency. Despite her age, the movement was precise—unhurried, exact.
She guided the stethoscope's chest piece to the side of her neck and turned the collar of the external vocal connector. The moisture seal disengaged, the protective cover retracting as the interface seated beneath it with a soft mechanical click. The stethoscope's earpiece shifted orientation, repurposed—no longer listening, but prepared to emit.
A brief pause followed as internal calibration resolved and began activated by Somsri internal processing unit control.
Lurking beneath the warm blanket beside Nyla—now fully recharged—the small blue-fur tiger's ears twitched against her chest. His body tensed as an instinctive unease rippled through him. He lifted his head, eyes snapping instinctively toward Kaodin's direction—toward the foot of the bed.
Intuitively, Wawa tried to leap back into his spectral form. But instead of shifting swiftly mid-air and slipping across the distance in a blink, he found himself stuck—still bound by the heavy blanket and Nyla's sleeping hold. He tried to thin himself as much as possible, attempting to slip free for a brief moment. Then, as Nyla—still asleep— unknowingly shifted her right arm aside, Wawa was abruptly popped out across the blanket, the motion saving him precious time by sparing him from having to climb through the towering wall of fabric.
Utterly loyal by instinct, Wawa knew his master needed him—now. However, his body felt extremely tight and misaligned, the internal Qi unable to circulate fully through his frame unless he completed what was usually common by regular feline standards, yet difficult for a still not fully familiar Wawa to consistently perform after became fully rested: the awkward bodily adjustment that came with the Jamlang-Kai state.
He therefore began slowly, deliberately arching his spine, then extending his front paws forward, followed by a high lift of the hips, and finally stretching his hind legs backward in sequence. To restore warmth and alertness, his full body required a brief cycle of tensing and lengthening the muscles, fully releasing the flow of Qi circulation.
The motion tensed the muscles, then lengthened them, restoring warmth and alertness while releasing the flow of qi through his body.
Then Wawa moved.
He ran toward Kaodin in a fast, fluid burst, covering the distance in seconds—and the moment his paw touched…