Author's note: This is a novelette that will be broken up into several pieces due to its length. It is a humorous glimpse into the societal rules of a futuristic culture where everyone has something to hide.  This section continued from:

The Naked Truth- Part 3

One at a time, he replaced his work limbs and hands with shiny black forelimbs that locked easily into place with a beep-click, sealing automatically. He sighed with relief as they attached flawlessly and worked perfectly as he ran a test diagnostic on every joint in both assemblies. My social forelimbs: guaranteed to make me a hit at any social, political or other type of function. Replete with eating utensils, hypersonic cleaning cycle for the utensils, music player and speakers and automatic upload displaying all known drink combinations and party recipes within my existing databases.

The light reflected on the newly attached hands showing exaggerated fingers and gold trim that accentuated the joints and traced the major palm lines and faux fingernails that would flash neon yellow when he laughed. He smiled as he admired the metal flake that seemed to dance through the white finish. Padding on the fingertips. That should make it easier to hold my drink, especially after I’ve had a few too many. Nice touch. Maybe these were worth the money, after all.

And now for the finishing touch. He strolled over to a full-length mirror and laughed at the mix and match appearance that his arms and hands gave the rest of his torso and legs. His holographic projections were still set on his standard Neluan engineer’s uniform. Reaching down to his right forelimb, he flipped open a hatch and activated the holographic image that went with the arms and matching lower limbs and his uniform image shimmered briefly and disappeared, revealing the non-appealing, metallic enhancement encasement underneath. In place of his uniform, a formal black coat with tails, white trim and gold buttons shimmered and then appeared covering an immaculately pressed white shirt with a low collar. He smiled at his appearance. Boy, will Andela love this. The quality of the holograph was readily apparent: Biko could see the threads in his clothing and the seamless interaction of all holographic sections. The gold buttons carried his family’s coat of arms and he laughed as he pulled a holographic “Inspected by No. 27” slip of paper from the breast pocket and watched it fall to the floor, disappearing after a few seconds.

His last step was to calibrate the holographic projection of his head to reflect the input from the forelimbs. At the top of his suit, he felt for the reset control for his head and pressed it, allowing the new forelimbs to augment his usual projection. Briefly, the view of his face that he saw day in and day out disappeared to reveal the angular, head-shaped mechanism known as his sensory augmentation unit or SAU. The SAU (the “Head” of the suit) provided intensified senses such as sight and hearing as well as filtering pollutants, contagions and foul smells from the ambient atmosphere. In addition, the sustenance filter removed any unhealthy ingredients or poisons from all food and drink (except alcohol if desired). Biko remembered to adjust his body encasement’s allowable alcohol level on the sustenance filter and gasped as the new projection covered his SAU. His normally ruffled yellowish hair was slicked back perfectly and his gray-blue eyes became a dark, smoldering gold, matching his outfit to a tee. He smiled, showing incredible iridescent white teeth inside smooth, golden lips and his normally yellow flesh took on the appearance of white marble streaked with delicate veins of gold. Amazing! All this for less than three month’s salary. I’ll be the hit of the dinner.

Summoning Andela from the plaza, he released the lock on his apartment door as he walked into the living area and struck the best pose he could imagine for her entrance. As the door shushed open, a stunning redhead with emerald green eyes was revealed. He gasped in awe. “Wow, Andela, you are gorgeous!” As usual, she had caught him totally off guard. Instead of him surprising her, it was always the other way around.

She smiled demurely and waltzed past him into his quarters, her hips accentuating every step. He admired how her hair was perfectly choreographed with her other movements and appeared to be made of a live flame. Her medium length deep purple dress sparkled with what appeared to be fish scales, perfectly accentuating her pale lavender colored flesh. At her ankles, wrists and throat, Biko noticed delicately articulated fins giving her a rather aquatic appearance. That, together with the live flame, embodied Andela: she loved contradiction. Her visual metaphor (whether intended or not) was the perfect summary of her attitude about him: apparent passion mixed with the coldness of a fish.

“Hullo, handsome.” She turned and looked him up and down. A long, low whistle left her holographic lips. “Let’s skip this boring dinner and go dancing.”

He smiled at her. “You know we can’t do that. The Sector Chief will be there and I’ve never seen him in person.” He moved over close to her and smelled her perfume. “Besides, I find these things to be terribly interesting. Not only is it fun to find out what other projects are going on around the rest of the sector, it’s great to see who spent what on their attachments.”

She smiled a smile showing stunningly white, sharp teeth that made his knees weak. “You engineer types are all alike: all business and no play.”

“Oh, and you logistics types have cornered the market on play time. Just wait until after the dinner and discussion when we have open bar. Then I’ll show you how to play.” She smiled as they both realized he could not approach her level of social skills.

Biko and Andela left his quarters arm in arm and moved toward the transference chamber that would take them briskly towards their destination. Just as they reached the crystalline door and it slid open to admit them, Andela stopped. “Let’s walk. I feel like showing off a little.” Biko smiled and noted to himself that he felt like showing her off as well.

The Naked Truth - Part 5