Jon woke up to find himself in the same medical bay where they ran the blood tests when he first arrived. He blinked a couple of times, noticing that his eyelids felt a little bit heavy. He sat up, noting that although he felt a bit stiff and a little sore, he was not in pain as he'd expected. Obviously the medical technology here were as advanced as the rest of what he'd seen.
As Jon sat up, he surveyed his body. No noticeable changes. He was still male. That was a good sign. He looked around but didn't see anyone in the room.
"Where is everyone?" he asked, then blinked in surprise at the sound of his new soprano voice.
"Ah, Jon! Glad to see you back with us!" Dr. Bradford said as she came around the corner from another room.
"What--" Jon stopped for a moment, cleared his throat, and tried again, this time speaking in his normal voice. "What's wrong with my voice?" He blinked again, surprised that the bubbly feminine voice seemed to have disappeared.
"We implanted your new vocal chords with the freeze-breath technology, as we said we would. Are you feeling all right?"
"Yes, I sup-- argh, why do I keep sounding like this?" he asked, back to the high voice again.
"They didn't tell you? Ugh, just like them to keep secrets like that. We had to give you a female voice to fit in with the superhero costume. After all, it would sound pretty strange for someone who looked like that to sound like a boy! However, the new vocal chords are better than your old ones: we designed them to be able to switch between your new voice and your old one."
He nodded, and concentrated on sounding normal. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. But you might need to recalibrate them or something. It seems like I keep switching back to sounding like a cheerleader!"
Dr. Bradford nodded. "Yes, we designed the female voice to be the default. The reason for that is when you're flying around saving people, you'll probably be put in some stressful situations. We thought it best to avoid having you accidentally use the wrong voice because you're distracted."
"So you're saying I can sound like myself, but only if I am actively concentrating on it?" he asked in his male voice, then let go and continued in his female voice, "Otherwise I'll sound like this?"
"Exactly! It'll take a bit of practice, but you'll get used to it."
Jon sighed. "I'm sorry. This is a lot to take in."
Dr. Bradford nodded. "I understand. Take a few moments to compose yourself. The clothes here are for you," she said, gesturing to a pile of folded clothing on one of the tables. "Get dressed, and when you're ready you can join us for lunch in the mess hall."
