Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer) (61 page)

Helen Richards wasn't a beta genie unfortunately, so she didn't
have the links in her brain and on her nerves like a beta would have. It was
unfortunate, but Doctor Zane did have such genes so it was hoped his surgery
would go easier.

He could see the nanites clustering in along her optical nerves, a
flick of his left hand changed the view and then zoomed in. Doctor Chung came
closer, watching intently.

Slowly, but then with increasing speed the nanites began to form
the intrinsic connections that would allow the doctor to not only see files and
through the artificial eyes of a machine, but also allow her to see better than
ever before, in most of the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and control such
abilities. Most of the connections were merely following the earlier ident
implant, but they were enhancing it, growing micron thin tendrils into her
eyeballs with tiny sensors. If this didn't work she could be blind the admiral
thought with a pang.

As the optical implants were finished the nanites turned to the
brain stem and brain. Connections were made, first between the lobes of the
brain and the implants, and then to the optical lobes. It looked like a mob of
spiders were angrily weaving a web. The admiral knew that not only were the two
AI connecting her various motor functions to the implant, they were also adding
implants to her long term and short term memory which would allow her to
process downloaded information faster.

Slowly the frenzy of nanites began to recede back into his hand.
He checked her vitals, everything was stable. Slowly he let out a deep breath,
then inhaled and did it again as the nanites retreated.

“So it's done?” Chung asked softly.

“We don't know how successful it is, but yes, I think she's
finished. Not out of the woods though,” Irons replied as the last of the
nanites retreated into his hand. He felt the bridges disconnect and he let go
of the back of the woman's neck slowly.

“Just like that?” Chung asked.

“That's the basic implants doctor. Level three basic. We don't
have time for anything higher.”

“Oh. So, she's a cyborg now?”

Irons turned to him as nurses moved in to take care of the doctor.
They murmured softly as they moved her to gurney, flipping her onto her side.
She looked peaceful. A nurse gently rolled her onto her back and then folded
her arms across her chest. Another brushed her hair and then they switched her
IV's to the stand attached to her gurney and pushed her out.

Irons watched this ballet and smiled a little in approval before
returning his attention to the watching doctors. “Of course. You all are now
remember?” he asked.

Chung blinked and then snorted explosively. Ramius flicked his
tail and touched his antlers. “True,” Ramius replied sheepishly. “We had
forgotten that.”

“Well don't. You'll have some additional abilities beyond normal,
Proteus is throwing them in as he made the connections. But it will be up to
you two to finish the job after all this is over.”

“Oh?”

“If the doctors want full implants I mean,” the admiral replied
with a shrug. “I don't know. They really don't need super strong bones,
enhanced strength, speed, the works.”

Chung looked at him in surprise then slowly smiled at Ramius.
“Well it's an interesting idea,” he murmured.

“Two hours. Two and a half,” Irons said correcting himself.
“Next?” he asked, looking expectantly to a nurse. She jolted as if he'd shocked
her then moved to get another patient. Another nurse was already moving the
next bag of implant materials to the waiting table.

“In Pyrax they used regen tanks and even stasis tubes to control
and promote healing. Here you are going to have to watch them carefully.
Especially for bleeds,” the admiral said, nodding to the two surgeons. “Proteus
wove around the circulatory system as much as possible, but there's always a
chance something may abraded a blood vessel with disastrous results,” he said.

“Ah.”

“And then of course there's tissue encapsulation, swelling, total
rejection,” he sighed.

Chung grunted. “You aren't doing a lot to help your case Admiral,”
he said.

Irons smiled. “Just laying it out. Next,” he said turning as the
double doors opened and Doctor Zane was wheeled in.

...*...*...*...*...

 The first crop of four were on the road to recovery when Doctor
Chung called a break. He checked the vitals of each and insisted the admiral
get some food and down time.

The admiral snorted, wryly pointing out that he hadn't been the
one doing any of the work, he'd been a passenger as much as the two doctors.
That had amused Ramius but Chung had still insisted on a break. “Besides! I’ve
got to pee!” he said. That got a laugh.

The next group went well, Irons was focusing on the humans first.
His last doctor was Doctor Chung himself before he moved to the nurses and
trouble.

Chung had been a bit of a hard case, he had some plaque that had
been dislodged during the implant procedure. Fortunately Proteus had noticed
and taken care of the blockage when it hit the surgeons’ heart. It hadn't done
any damage, but it had been a close call.

One nurse died when she went into a seizure after the treatment.
All of the surgical staff were affected, all sobered by the sudden unexpected
death, some of the staff about to go in for their own procedures were
justifiably scared.  All however thought that the reward was worth the risk. A
quick postmortem discovered that the middle aged woman had been allergic to
anti-inflammatory medications, something that had gone unnoticed. It was an
unfortunate oversight.

The admiral delayed the follow up procedures until a check could
be performed on the remaining volunteers. All were cleared of allergies so they
moved on.

Weary, tired and ready to be finished, the admiral hadn't expected
to lose another patient so close to finishing. He should have, he should have
had his mental guard up he thought, but he hadn't. She was the last, and
everyone was eager to get the work done. Nothing had gone wrong in the suite,
nothing was assumed to be able to go wrong. They were wrong, horribly wrong.

Thing started to go south as the woman's heart fluttered and went
into an asynchronous rhythm. The slowing heartbeat unnerved them. Irons
redirected Proteus to the woman's heart to see what was wrong, pulling the
nanites away from the other implants to diagnose and repair whatever was wrong.
Apparently that was a mistake.

The second nurse died from multiple aneurisms before Proteus could
track them down and help. She was brain dead in seconds. The admiral turned
away, listening to a woman gasp and sob in anguish as the machines screamed.

“We're done here. No more,” he said, rubbing his eyes, feeling
horrible. “Spirit of space,” he murmured, sinking into a chair, watching as
they shut the machines off and covered the body.

“What happened?” Doctor Innes asked, looking bewildered. One
moment everything was normal...”

“Aneurisms. I'm betting. Have an autopsy done. Proteus was
repairing her heart when they went off. By the time the nanites got to her
brain it was over she was gone.”

“Oh.”

Irons sighed as he got up. “Damn,” he muttered, leaving the room,
kicking a can. “Damn, damn, damn.”

One by one each of the sleepers woke over the next day. A few like
Doctor La Plaz slept longer, the nurses joked that he didn't like to wake and
loved his beauty sleep.

Irons nodded, looking at the sleepers. They were doing okay, all
vital signs normal. He'd lost two nurses despite all the efforts of the
surgical team, he was going to wait to tell Helen later.

Post mortem autopsies had concluded each had died from different
causes. One had gone into shock and her heart had seized. As the medical team
struggled to deal with that an unforeseen clot had worked its way through her brain,
and before he could detect it the clot had clogged several veins feeding the
autonomic portions of her brain. She'd gone brain dead just as the nanites
arrived on the scene to fix the problem.

It was his fault, he knew it. Proteus had been stretched thin
working on each of the cadets, it had been stretched even thinner trying to not
only deal with the implants, but in trying to save the nurse.

It sucked, he knew it. Fortunately Proteus had a primitive
personality core so hadn't turned morose over the deaths.

After breakfast he gently told Helen the news. Her face set. She
didn't cry, but she did nod grimly. “I... I know you warned us,” she finally
said.

“Yes well, this is hopefully the last time I'll have to do this
myself. Now you have people who can do it.”

Helen nodded. “When do we learn the implants?” she asked, changing
the subject. She'd look into notifying the families later, on her own.

“As soon as the swelling is under control and you have recovered.
I'd give it another day. I'd like the sleep teaching to begin tonight as you
recover, but that might cause more swelling.”

“Which is bad,” Helen said, rubbing her brow. “Did you go through
this?” she asked, fighting the headache. “Is it bright in here?”

Irons nodded. “Sight, sound, and touch sensitive, all normal, it's
the swelling around those connections. No, I had more downtime and I wasn't
forced to grow up so fast.” He frowned.

“We can handle it Admiral,” she said. “Though I am proscribing
another round of anti-inflammatory meds and checks every two hours.”

“Understood,” he said, as she flopped back into her nest of snow
white pillows. She crossed her hands across her abdomen. “I'll let you get some
downtime. Sleeping will help.”

“Understood.”

...*...*...*...*...

“It's good that she went first,” Sprite said as he exited the
director's room. He looked around ICU. It was very different than it had been,
workmen were still running new wiring, but they now had all modern equipment.
Many pieces were on carts.

“How so?”

“Date of rank. By going first she made certain she'd have date of
rank. Though I believe she wouldn't think of it in that light,” the AI
responded.

“Most likely not. I think it was leadership. Going where her
people needed to go, leading the way. Admirable.”

“Yes.”

“Status on the others?” he asked under his breath, nodding to the
duty nurse. She flicked her eyes to him but just nodded slightly and went back
to her paperwork. Everyone had paperwork, charts, new data, equipment
manuals... it seemed everyone was learning on the job.

“All resting comfortably. It appears that there is a bit of a
balance in the implants. For those who went first Proteus and I were learning
the procedure so the damage was more invasive but there were more nanites to do
the job faster. But in later volunteers we had learned from our mistakes and
corrected the procedures, but Proteus had fewer nanites and was stretched thin
in doing the job.”

“That is why we lost the two nurses?” Irons asked softly as he
exited ICU and headed to the exit. He needed to make his rounds in the
engineering warehouse and key in the next round of equipment. He was in fact
overdue.

“Actually admiral, we were flying blind. I calculated that we'd
lose half, and that a third would have some major problems that would make us
go back and do repairs. We lucked out.”

“Yes. Yes we did.”

“Fortunately. This time. I don't recommend ever doing this
admiral, though it is something to have on hand. I've filed the notes on it.
Proteus needs time to rebuild the nanite pool.”

“Which means downtime for me?” Irons asked, clearly amused.

“Yes. Since your officers are going to be down as well, I'd
recommend getting the current rounds sorted out then get at least a two hour
power nap in every six to eight hours. That is the best compromise I can think
of currently.”

“All right.”

...*...*...*...*...

Small towns across the western side of the continent were
reporting outbreaks. Some may have been hysterics, but the admiral wasn't so
certain. They were sending out hundreds of tons of material daily, flights were
crisscrossing the continent dropping pallets of goods. That was an additional
risk, some of the aircraft weren't pressurized so they had to fly below three
thousand meters so they were therefore vulnerable to the virus and to passing
it on. One plane disappeared, it was reported crashed later that evening. The
authorities were reluctant to investigate it. Irons couldn't really blame them.

The volunteers were recovering, recovering in fact to the point
where they had insisted on sleep lessons. Helen was of course the first. She
reported a headache the next morning but was stable. After breakfast and her
medication she received a briefing. She was distressed by the report of the
spread of the pathogens, it had made it all the way to Port town by railroad
from Crater city. She quickly ordered the other cities to quarantine all
incoming travelers until medics could clear them. Then she went down for a nap,
this time without the sleep teaching.