A State of Future Existing

Chapter 9

There was no bed for her, and at night when she had worked herself weary, she to to sleep by the hearth in the ashes. -Grim Brothers

"Successful transmittal of the carriers," said Duri. "All reactions appear normal. Blood pressure stabilizing. Signs of stage two expected around 0100 tomorrow morning." He clapped his hands and spun in his chair to face Dr. Hyun-woo and A-Yeong. "That means we can go home and take naps, right?"

Dr. Hyun-woo sniffed. He traced his finger along the screen before him, slowly turning the holographic image of the patient. Twenty little green lights were flickering along his bloodstream, spreading slowly through his veins. But he had seen that before, dozens of times. It was the rest of him that held his interest now.

"Have you ever seen anything like him before?" said A-Yeong, standing beside him. "The sales form his control panel alone will cover the family payoff."

Dr. Hyun-woo tried to give her an unimpressed glare, but it was less than effective when he had to tilt his head back to look up at her. Snarling, he scooted away and turned back to the holograph. He tapped on the top of the glowing spine, where two metal vertebrae connected, and enlarged the image. What had been a small shadow before now appeared too substantial, too geometric.

A-Yeong crossed her arms and bent down. "What is that?"

"I'm not sure," said Hyun-woo, rotating the image for a better view.

"It looks like a chip," said Duri, getting up to join them.

"On his spine?" said A-Yeong. "What good would that do him?"

"I'm just saying that's what it looks like. Or maybe they messed up on the vertebrae and had to reweld it or something.?

A-Yeong pointed. "This is more than welding though. You can see the ridges here, like it's plugged into..." She hesitated.

They both faced Dr. Hyun-woo, whose eyes were following a small green dot that had just floated into the holograph's viewing range. "Like a vicious green firefly," he muttered to himself.

"Doctor," said A-Yeong, snapping his attention back to her, "why would he have a chip plugged into his nervous system?"

He cleared his throat. "Perhaps," he said, pulling spectacles from his breast pocket and sliding them onto his nose, "his nervous system experienced traumatic damage."

"From a hover accident?" said Duri.

"Spinal injuries used to be quite common before computer-operated navigators took over." Dr. Hyun-woo scratched his nail across the screen, pulling the holograph back to show his whole torso. He squinted into the lenses, his finger flittering over the image.

"What are you looking for?" asked A-Yeong.

Dr. Hyun-woo dropped his hand and glanced at the immobile boy on the other side of the window. "Something is missing."

The scar tissue around his wrist. The dull sheen of his synthetic foot. The grease beneath his fingertips. 

"What?" said Duri. "What's missing?"

Dr. Hyun-woo stepped closer to the window and pressed a sweating palm against the counter. "A little green firefly."

Behind him, Duri and A-Yeong traded glances, before spinning back to the holograph. They each began their count, him silently, her out loud, but A-Yeong paused on number twelve with a gasp.

"One just disappeared," she said, pointing to an empty spot on the boy's right thigh. "A microbe, it was right here, I was looking right at it, and now it's gone."

As they watched, two more dots flickered and disappeared, like burnt-out light bulbs.

Duri grabbed his port screen off a desk and pounded his fingers against it. "His immune system is going berserk."

Dr. Hyun-woo leaned into the microphone. "Med, please draw another blood sample. Quickly." The boy jolted to attention at the sound of his voice.

A-Yeong joined him at the window. "We haven't given him the antidote yet."

"No."

"So how..."

Dr. Hyun-woo bit down on a thumbnail to tame the rush of giddiness. "I need to get that first blood sample," he said, backing away, almost afraid to take his eyes from the cyborg boy. "When all the microbes have disappears, have him taken into lab four."

"Lab four isn't set up for quarantine," said Duri.

"Indeed. He won't be contagious." Dr. Hyun-woo snapped his fingers, halfway out the door. "And perhaps have the med untie him."

"Untie-" A-Yeong's face contracted with disbelief. "Are you sure that's such a good idea? He was violent with the med-droids, remember?"

Duri folded his arms. "She's right. I know I wouldn't want to be on the other side of that first if her got angry."

"In that case, you have nothing to fear," said Dr. Hyun-woo. "I'll be meeting him in private."

Hello! This update is very late, and I'm sorry for that. Life has been hectic recently. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you have a good day/night!