NOVEL WEB Blood and Steel C33: Medical Checkup
Chapter 33: Medical Checkup
2:34 PM
June 18th
Diana
Sitting outside the quiet hallway, a digital number floated in my view. Today was the day I was supposed to be fitted for my new Frame and Lenses, I’d used any replacements I had on me and Indra was beginning to tire out from all the requests to repair my equipment. I couldn’t blame her, not like she was getting paid for it… but I did owe her several lunches now.
A buzzer ran out, a screen on the wall flickering as a new number was alerted to transfer to room six. And would you look at that, token 17, the same as mine.
I pushed through the door, an elderly woman with frayed blonde hair welcoming me into the gene-clinic. A spacious room with an operating chair and several racks of vibrantly glowing vials, mutagen. The doctor introduced herself with a stretched arm. “I’m Dr. Faltest, and you must be Diana Jones? This is, I believe, your first visit as an Adapter? Curious, normally most people would visit a clinic to test out their compatibility with the SIM.”
“I’d already had it tested out privately.” I said calmly, this was so easy.
“Ah of course. That must be why we don’t have it on the system, you have a Silver Grade, correct? Just sit down on the chair, I’ll take a few blood samples, some skin curettage and a pluck of your hair. That’s the bare minimum your offices require, unless you want me to opt for muscle or bone testing as well.”
“No, I’m not Silver.” My voice was firm as a lake frozen over. “I’m a Gold, but you probably knew that. My father figured it out, didn’t he?”
Dr. Faltest froze in place, her eyebrow raising then falling in a moment of indecision between what I knew was truth and deception. “Diana Ulrich… yes, your father had his suspicions, but how did you know that I would be the ?”
Yesterday’s games had sent me on a streak of paranoia, but it turned out for the better. “Just did some research on the employment records of everyone in this Gene-Clinic. You struck out since you were transferred one day after my promotion, from a forensics lab off in the Yellowstone Police District. Nothing concrete, but I just knew it wasn’t a coincidence. So in summary, yes, I got the Gold from the MAL.”
“And the Silver he gave you?” Dr. Faltest dimmed her glasses down, robotic eyes unveiled with a Bronze glow.
“Still have it, does he want it back?” I flashed an equally shiny orb from my pocket.
Dr. Faltest sighed, whatever my father had hired her to do was now thrown in the drain. It wasn’t a position I envied. “I’ll have to communicate this with him, but, I’d imagine he already has a plan in mind. So… Gold then, how does it feel? The compatibility alright?”
I knew she was trying to seem calm and steady, but that nervous jitter in her eyes told me that she wasn’t used to things going the unexpected. My findings pinned her as former mid-level corporate researcher before her office was defunded and she switched over to the police. She was willing to take a deal with my father, because he offered her something good.
I had to offer better.
“Compatibility is good.” I quieted quickly, waiting to see if she would elaborate more. How much they knew about my Implant was still unknown, especially my 99% compatibility.
“Well, my job is still the same.” Dr. Faltest typed out something on her pad. “Although… more complicated. Now I’ll need to dip into some fraudulent recording… Founders, I’m asking for a raise from your dad after this. He already had his suspicions since the abilities you showcased were different from the Implant he bought. He thought you took an Iron or Bronze until he saw… well, I think you know what event I’m talking about.”
I had my guesses. “When I took off a Tier One Bronze’s jaw out in one kick.”
She clicked her tongue. “Even for a Gold, that’s impressive. Your own cybernetics seem to have short-circuited, bioelectrical genes are rare but pose incredible strength with time and development. There’s a NeoCore Inquisitor, Thunderheart, he’s Gold too but from what I’ve researched he didn’t begin manifesting physical strength out of his electrical powers until the second Tier.”
“Yeah and I’d imagine he didn’t start with Gold out of the blue.” Most NeoCore operatives were hired from various military or private security groups, pulling in promising Bronzes or Silvers and training them until they were powerhouses. Archangel had been Bronze a few years back, and now she was a Silver.
“Nope. Bronze, I believe he worked in SynTec’s military.” Dr. Faltest pulled up something on her lenses, her hands pulling and pushing invisible screens until a final wave discarded them. “Point of the matter. We need to observe your Mutations with a more discerning eye, the stronger the Grade of the mutation — the deeper it alters your body. An Iron Grade gene of the same variant would remain only superficial, maybe you’d be resistant to a taser but not a fully-charged shot from your gun. We also need to check out your heart, make sure you aren’t prone to popping it in simpler terms.”
Ah yeah, I’d had that idea in my head. After the fight with Tonguelasher, I’d been having pain in her chest for days until… well, the doctor would probably see.
As I sat on the chair and various tools and medical equipment were strapped and spun around me, I pondered whether this was a good idea. It disgusted me, truth be told, that I was willingly going ahead with my father’s plan but there was a way to spin this around.
A sharp sting on my forearm had my blood dripping into a vial, then she scraped skin from the inside of my cheeks and finally plucked out a few strands of my silver-white hair. Then she plugged into my Neuroframe which was all too loud as who-knows-how-many-times it’s internal circuitry had been overloaded.
“Diagnostics are showing you’re healthy, but your frame is in critical condition.” As she spoke, I grimaced… always hated having my Neuroframe plugged in, it was like worms were wriggling into my skull. “Good thing you got a non-invasive model, otherwise your brain would not be… okay. I’ve already prepared a custom model with an insulative casing, but you might need to visit a Shard Operator soon to tune it further. I’ve got a contact that can… keep secrets.”
“They’re on my father’s payroll aren’t they?” I sighed, and she didn’t bother confirming an answer we both knew. An option prompted in my lenses, which were blurred and dry on my eyes by this point.
[Allow external device to view Implant data?]
Allow. I thought, and it followed through with a painful needle ejecting out of my neck, non-invasive models were not suited for external connections like this.
The doctor nodded as a screen showcased my Implant’s specs, then she stumbled in her words as she grasped the severity of what she was seeing. “A total of 19 Meta-Mutations?!”
Diana Jones Implant Data:-
Type: SIM
Grade: Gold
Classification: Mutant/Esper
Warp Tendency: [Unknown… possible derivatives: Spark; Fire; Water]
Development: Tier 0 [Convergence: 87%]
Gene Capacity: Calculating… Base Amount: 10
Integrity: NA
Energy: NA
Capacity: NA
Mutations:
Tier 0 [8 Mutations]:-
Integrity
[Iron] Elastic Muscles: Increases Elasticity of muscle-tissue, improving contractility force. [2 Meta-Mutations]
Metabolism
[Gold] Pacemaker (100%): Uses Electrical energy as an alternative source of energy for bodily metabolism [3 Meta-Mutations]
Alteration
[Gold] Unstable Biology (100%): Increases rate of genetic alteration and cell mitosis. [3 Meta-Mutations]
[Iron] Skin Hardening (31%): Adapter can harden their skin with usage of Warp Energy. [1 Meta-Mutation]
Cognition
[Gold] Electromagnetic Sense (100%): Adapter’s skin is sensitive to Electromagnetic radiation. [3 Meta-Mutations]
[Iron] Reactive Sight (64%): Increased visual acuity and response to changes in the environmint. [2 Meta-Mutations]
[Iron] Mental-Fatigue Recovery (56%): Increases rate of recovery from mental exertion during rest. [2 Meta-Mutations]
Energy
[Gold] Electrical Conduction (100%): Through Warp Energy usage, Adapter can conduct electricity through their body without harm. [3 Meta-Mutations.]
“Holy shit.” Then Faltest repeated it in a long, whimsical tone. “Hoooly shit.”
“I know Meta-Mutations are supposed to be rare but, what I want to understand…” There had been something bugging me for the last week. “Is why all the mutations I got from my police-issued Mutagen are just… not what they said they would be. Muscle Endurance, Quick Sleep, Reflexive Vision and Skin Conditioning were what I bought.”
“Generally, they won’t always be exactly what’s on the bottle, but you’re right… they’ve all somehow Mutated before even being expressed within your genome. I think this is… Parallel Convergence?” She said it like it meant something to me.
“Explain.”
She was pulling up various screens and graphs on the screen while her voice hurried. “You are aware how advancing the Tiers effect Mutations right?”
I was aware of the basics. “Once you reach the threshold, your Mutations sprawl out and spawn derivatives, typically combining to form hybrids. Like if my Skin Hardening combined with my Elastic Muscles, I could potentially harden my own muscles.”
“In the loosest sense of the phenomenon, you’re right.” Faltest said. “However, something within you caused the Tier 0 Mutagen… the most basic of all Mutagen with no precursors, to differentiate according to your needs. Elastic Muscles, for example, compensates for the increased blood flow and tension your muscles would face under the exertion of Pacemaker. Think of going up a Tier as like eight threads that shoot out, some of them will knot up with others while the rest stay by themselves except stronger. This is very different because you’re having genes knotted up at the starting position.”
“So instead of my threads combining forward, they’re branching sideways?” I looked closer at the diagrams she drew out, and they all pointed to one specific Mutation in my body.
“Unstable Biology.” Dr. Faltest murmured. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mutation like it, it’s remarkable — perhaps it’s a Deviant Mutation? Don’t… Don’t worry about that! It’s nothing for you to know. And your compatibility? They’re reacting so that any Mutagen which enters your body is adapted to become exactly what you need.”
As confusion and blank fear drained from the doctor’s face, it was replaced by excitement. The exact thing I’d been looking for and my mouth moved to capture her. “You seem to think I have something extraordinary.”
“That’s because… it is!” She seemed almost enraged that I would question it. “Don’t you see? This is revolutionary, a Mutation that can alter all the other’s without derivating? It’s… it is so much more than extraordinary.”
“So something like this is valued a lot?” I was getting closer to the true point of my scheme.
“Extremely so.” Dr. Faltest immediately started writing down something on her personal pad.
I shot my verbal bullet. “Soooo… if my father knew about something like this, he’d probably have me transferred somewhere where they could properly document my case, to a lab full of high-tech Geneticists all just as skilled, if not more-so, than you. Leaving you with nothing but a paycheck, a transfer back to your old job and an NDA, am I right?”
It was a headshot, if there was one thing I could credit my newer Reactive Sight for it was the exact moment someone’s words failed them. “I wouldn’t say that.” Her voice wavered. “I’d imagine I’d get plenty of credit and probably be promoted but-“
“But you would lose access to something… Extraordinary.” My words hung in the air, a clear warning hidden in them. “Correction. More than extraordinary.”
She turned her chair to me, giving all of her attention. “What are you playing at?”
“You keep this Unstable Biology Mutation a secret from my father. Spout one of my Meta-mutations as a replacement. I’ll let you experiment with me, take blood samples and whatever, work it out and build up a thesis or scientific writing or whatever. In a year or two, you could have pretty substantial findings regarding how to promote that… What'd you call it? Parallel Convergence. You could make a killing later on, dig out a whole goldmine compared to getting a single nugget of the thing.”
Dr. Faltest pushed her fingers together, reciting some deep mantra I couldn’t hear. Then she breathed out along with some relieving words. “We have a deal. But I’ll need muscle, bone marrow, cerebrospinal fluid, vitreal fluid and uterine lining samples from you.”
I was comfortable with all except the last, and what even was vitreal fluid? Still it was enough of a deal as I could get. “You’ll get them, but first, I need to know what I’m dealing with. Most information is hidden behind a paywall and I want to know exactly what all these hidden parameters behind my genes are? Like this classification of Integrity, Metabolism — all that.”
She nodded like an excited dog being fed a treat. “Yes, of course. Like you said they are the simplest ways to classify the various mutations. Integrity holds importance in terms of your strength and durability so Elastic Muscles are the forefront in that end. Although it isn’t formally stated, your Skin Hardening genes do play a role in that as well, but in precision it’s only active during Energy expression which makes it an Alteration Gene.”
That helped, but it wasn’t exactly clear. “Then why isn’t Pacemaker classified as an Integrity Mutation?”
“Because it’s primary function is to metabolize your body using Electrical Energy, it doesn’t add to your physical strength, not really. Just pushes your body to exert the maximum threshold it can handle, which in your case as a Cradle-engineered human is about as strong as any human could be without strength augmenting SIMs. You’d know about the Olympics back from your days in the Cradle, correct? Let’s just say, those athletes were the minimum benchmark your creators were trying to imitate.”
I didn’t like bringing up my early childhood, so I shuffled past it. “So Metabolism Mutations are all about using bodily energy, physical recovery and, in cases like mine, to boost strength. What differentiates that from Energy Mutations? I know they make Espers but… just looking for some clarification.”
“Energy Mutations…” Dr. Faltest hummed, “are, as you said, the crux of Espers. Effectively, they allow you to manipulate phenomenon of the physical world… and even rarer few allow for the potential of psionics. The science behind it is… complicated. Effectively, you alter physical constants of the world with a subconcious thought, such as manipulating electrical conduction within so that it can pass through you. The ones that can manipulate their own body with Warp Energy, create blades from their bones or make themselves intangible, they’re Mutants. Mutants typically find their specialty in the Alteration and Integrity set of Mutations.”
“Got it. And Cognition refers to genes that govern your thought processes and senses?” It seemed obvious.
“Correct.” She said with a satisfied look. “Any other questions?”
“Quite a few.” I spun a confused look. “Why do people only lean in one way, as Mutants or Espers?”
She took a deep breath, looks like this had quite the explanation behind that. “For one, and you’ll understand this once you install a Genedeck on your Neuroframe, is that the two tend to clash. There’s a hidden limit your Neuroframe’s current software can’t calculate, but according to my system’s Genedeck your Mutational Capacitance stands at a value of 10, meaning you can hold two more Tier 0 genes. The way these genes interact with one another can affect their Gene Capacitance, for example if an Esper tried to manipulate multiple phenomena — like the air and earth — at once, they would be pulled in too many directions. A Tier One Mutagen with a typical capacity of 4 may now be the equivalent of 7 or 9, similarly more synergistic Mutagen could be lowered to 3 or 2. So you make the choice between more similar Mutations, or fewer varied Mutations.”
Before I could ask, she continued with another statement. “Another reason is that Energy Mutations are incredibly rare, they can’t be derived though going up the Tiers normally. They’re almost always found on the Implant or million-Shardyne vials, whereas an Alteration Mutation can be derived from Integrity or Metabolism Mutations. That’s why there are so many more Mutants compared to Espers. Also, just because someone is a Mutant doesn’t mean they won’t have Energy genes, it’s just typically more of a 80-20 split in terms of how they’re used.”
“So like a guy with really hard blood could also cause someone else’s blood to explode? The exploding part is the Energy Mutation while the blood hardening is an Alteration Mutation?” I hope she didn’t know who I was referring to.
“Odd example.” She scratched her chin. “But it works.”
“Okay then.” One less confusing thing weighing on my head. “My advancement to Tier One is going to happen any day now, what exactly happens?”
“Once you complete your Convergence, your body will automatically draw your Warp Energy inwards. It’ll cause rapid development in all of your current genes that will spawn derivatives. Either your Mutations will converge together to create a new Mutation out of two, or rarely more, old ones; or they’ll directly create a more powerful variant of a pre-existing one.”
“How do I know what I’ll get?” That thought was consuming me, I was already thinking of some combinations.
“You won’t.” Her answer was firm. “That’s part of the deal for getting a SIM and not a BUG, they get their Features out of a limited pool of 12 possible Features. If they have a problem, they can throw their Shardyne away to get a new cybernetic that solves the issue for them. SIMs on the other hand have thousands of possible starting points, the only way of control is by injecting new Mutagen into you. Even then, you don’t have conscious control over their development other than knowing that they will adapt depending on your compatibility.”
“So what? I just pray that they blend together in a way I like?” I did not like that idea whatsoever.
“Pretty much. Most research is pretty fruitless in their attempts to simulate or regulate Mutation development. Besides, I don’t have a clue how your Unstable Biology mutation could derail everything, just get to Tier One and you’ll know.”
Well, that was about as much I could get. “Sooo… that’s pretty much it then.”
“Not quite.” She clicked her tongue in a more decisive manner. “Remember how I said your Gene-capacity is at 10? Well, it also means you aren’t going to Advance unless you get two other Tier 0 genes, lucky for you I have some ready here at the clinic.”
My eyes lit up. “Didn’t take you to be charitable.”
“They’re not for free!” She folded her arms. “Believe me, I wish I could inject you with a whole lot of interesting Mutagen the police have stored up here but this is a firm that reports to them. Even combat-type and athletic Mutagen would require weeks of paperwork and it would be signed off by your reporting officer.”
So either Rorsche or Wickett. If it was the former… he’d have leverage. “Then what do you have that won’t set me back weeks?”
“Cosmetic Mutations.” A small smile crept up on her, she seemed to think it was funny.
I did not as my groan evidenced. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Faltest was still smiling. “Nope, but I’m curious to know how your body will spin up beauty genes into something for you. Here’s the list of Tier 0 comsetics.”
Haithama Full-Lips
Syntec Clear Skin
Syntec Moisturized Skin
Imperium Thick Hair
Haithama Nose Shaper
Haithama Pore Cleanser
Imperium Curve Shaper
Syntec Breast Enlarger (D Cup)
Imperium Fat Distribution
I hated my options… only slightly less as I started to actually consider what I would look like with them. “The last one won’t you know, shrink my assets right?”
“Nope.” A chortle choked out of her. “Just alters your body’s rate of fat metabolism in key areas, might actually make them look better. Heard of the horror tales during the first generation Imperium made, causing grown women to look like little boys. Hell of a lawsuit.”
“It might be useful… you know, keeping me more fit.” That translated to me being allowed to eat whatever I wanted. “And I guess the hair one too, might make my braids all zappy like the rest of my body and use them like whips. Could be like Medusa, you know…”
She blinked awkwardly. “Like the NeoCore Inquisitor? She turns MALs to stone with her claws. Some variant of a poison-based Mutation that causes cells to freeze and harden.”
Right, I forgot not everyone was forced to study old-old World stuff at a damn Cradle. “No, like the one from Greek mythology. Who… also turns people to stone but with her eyes.” I flicked my fingers from my gaze to hers, hoping she would get it.
“Aren’t they the same? Doesn’t Medusa come from New Troy, that used to be Greece right? Back in the Old World.” She began to look something up, I stopped her with my hand. Everything she wanted to find would be locked under a Haithama paywall anyway.
We finished up the meeting with an agreement on my changes in Shardware. I was moving to an even less invasive model of Neuroframe that relied on a tiny, insulated chip to mesh in with my brainstem that was remotely connected to a processing unit in my Holo-pad. The procedure was simple, and upgrading to a weak Iron-Grade Frame meant I wouldn’t lose out on any functionality. It also came on board with a Genedeck Data-Module, some weird combination of Warpcode weaved together by Imperium that could better study my genes and their development.
As for my lenses, I hated that procedure with every bone in my body even if it was only a few minutes. My eyelids were curled up, so she had access to the fleshier parts, then installed rice-grain size projectors into the cartilage. It itched for the next few hours.
By the time I was home, the evening sun reflected over the city’s towering buildings as a shimmering mirror maze of golden-orange. It almost consumed me, the Gold.
Two injections of Mutagen into my femoral artery sent my exhaustion spiraling into slumber. Tomorrow was going to suck, I had no idea how Rorsche would treat me, but it would suck.
At the very least, I would soon be at Tier One.