Omni-Medical operating room audio file. Doctor Philip Lightner, Nurse Shelia Runge attending physicians. Operation date: October 14th, 29466. Operation description: Implantation of Omni-Tech type 38 Foreign Organic Material Hunter-Seeker Factory running Omni-Soft Hunt-Seek v18.6.
Transcript begins.
Nurse Runge: “Begin recording. Nurse Shelia Runge assisting Doctor Philip Lightner. Patient is one Meta Durousseau, Bureaucrat contracted to… Omni-education. What is a teacher doing up in the mines? Trying to teach Atrox to read? Doctor Lightner has just inserted suction tube into patients digestive tract.”
Doctor Lightner: “Terrible design. Should have separated the canals, you know. So long as the digestive and the respiratory share the same pathways, you’ll have the danger of choking on vomit. Terrible way to die. Omni Med should have designed the new Homo lines with two mouths. Much more efficient.”
N: “True. But then they would have been even more freakish. Homo Opifex has such a terrible skin tone. Almost corpselike, don’t you think? And their ideas of hair fashion. Laughable. Do you want to head over to Rompa after work tonight?”
D: “Quiet. I think this one is waking up. Miss Meta Durousseau? Can you hear me? There’s been a terrible accident and you are recovering at Omni Med. No, please don’t bite on that. It keeps your lungs clear should you vomit while you are unconscious. I’ll remove it. There will be discomfort, mind you. There. Much better, yes?”
N: “My name is Nurse Runge, this is Doctor Lightner. We are your attending physicians. Can you tell me what the date is? Pupil dilation seems good, Doctor.”
Patient Durousseau: “October… Fourteenth? Twenty nine, four sixty six.”
D: “Good. Now Meta, may I call you Meta? There’s been an accident. That’s why you’re here. The Dust Brigade attacked the mines at Argentum. Your lucky your family had you insured. You will feel a great deal of disorientation and confusion. This is a natural side effect of the resurrection. Have you ever died before? No? Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on your return from that recently discovered country. No. No, don’t pass out on me.”
N: “Should I hit her with a stim, Doctor?”
D: “No, I think she might come around. Look at the vitals. See, massive blood pressure drop… Say, is that internal bleeding? I suppose we should do something about that. Hit her with some nanites to patch that mess up. Should have the factory installed in a moment.”
N: “So, what are teachers doing on the front lines?”
D: “I read some article in the Times about how this group of Opifex are leasing abandoned sections of the mines and turning them into housing up in Argentum. Getting it dirt-cheap by the way. They work in the mines, live in the mines.”
N: “So they can avoid the sun and get even worse complexions? Splendid. Nano factory shows optimal placement. Wonderful work, Doctor.”
D: “I’m an artist at heart. Their moving their entire families up there, I read. Their public relations guy said something about how parents will work harder and fight to the death knowing their children are nearby. Speaking of housing, I hear you and Donivan have got a new place up in Rome.”
N: “Yes. You should come and see it. Where having a house warming party on the twenty-seventh. You should come. Bring Jack too.”
D: “Jack doesn’t do parties. Too shy. Never takes me dancing. Ah, she’s starting to come around again.”
N: “Miss Durousseau? It’s me, Nurse Runge again. Here. This button will inject a synthetic opiate into your bloodstream if the pain gets to bad. Whenever you can’t endure the pain, press this button. Yes, just like that. No, you can’t press it again. It has a five minute reset before you can get another.”
D: “Meta, we need to discuss your condition. Can you understand me? Do you realize that you were three months pregnant?”
P: “Yes… The pain is very bad, Doctor…”
D: “We’ve had some problems after the seventh, when the insurance databases were sabotaged. We’ve been working around the clock to fix those problems, and I’m afraid that your file has had significant data degradation. When you insured last, your child’s genetic pattern was saved as well. There has been significant genetic data over bleed into your file, after the sabotage. There’s no easy way to say this, Meta. Your child’s life force pattern has dissipated, and his genetic structure has comprised your own.”
P: “My child…”
D: “Irrevocably dead, I’m afraid. However, because of the sabotage, and the data over bleed, you have foreign tissue developing in your body, almost like a form of cancer. We’ve had to implant a nanite factory inside you. These nanites will seek out and destroy all foreign tissue within your body that does not match your genetics. Otherwise, there is the danger that one of your organs could begin to develop a mass of foreign tissue, resulting in organ rejection and system failure. This will unfortunately be a factory that you must carry for the rest of your life. If only you had died after your file had been repaired.”
P: “My…”
D: “Your worried about your pregnancy. It’s not like you can never get another child, mind you. There is an expensive process where two of your eggs can be combined. Now, you will be essentially giving birth to yourself, almost a form of cloning you see. Now, it is experimental, and success is not guaranteed…”
N: “Doctor, she’s passed out again.”
D: “Well, her vitals have stabilized. Send her to post op. Nothing more we can do for her here. So, who’s on the slab next? Ten credits say it’s a male nano.”
N: “Your bet is accepted. This is Nurse Runge, assisting Doctor Lightner. End recording.”
Transcript end.
Maybe i'll get around to catching up to present day....
