10 Minute Tales, Part 2

Jul 27 - Question of Who

Neil entered the clinic with a nervous gulp. How had they talked him into this? He looked around at the tiled walls, the entire room reflecting the cool blue light from the simple light overhead. His gaze turned to the posters hanging on the walls. They showed various semi-humans, each boasting a different Self Implant - that one was water-based, that one was skinnier and taller, that one was using the Unreal modification for a half-cat sort of body, that one was strong enough to lift a truck... he didn't know what sort of thing he was after. Maybe a mental one, keep it simple to start with? Or he could go all-in, try the Morpher S.I...

"Good morning!" a voice distracted him, snapping him out of his chain of thought. It was the receptionist, a young woman cleaning her glasses on her shirt. To his surprise, she didn't seem to be particularly Implanted. "Welcome to Gene-Clene, home of the original cosmetic gene-alteration program. How can I help you today?"

"Hey, um, I got this letter thing?" he fumbled it out of his pocket, quickly smoothing the many wrinkles it had developed and put it on the counter. She took it and quickly glanced through it, humming slightly as she considered its contents.

"Okay, this seems to be a lottery letter, but I need to confirm its validity." she opened a drawer and put the letter in, closing it again. A muffled "whumph" soon echoed out of it, and she opened the drawer again. A small plume of smoke drifted out as she reached into it, pulling out a completely different piece of paper. He blinked, confused.

"Uh... what the hell?"

"Private technology, sir, I can't share that. What I can tell you is that the letter is genuine!" she beamed, showing perfect teeth. Almost too perfect. "We can start your scanning straight away."

"Huh? Scanning?"

"Well, of course, we can't have your genes altered if your body is likely to reject it. It's just a cursory scan, pretty routine." she stood up, and he gasped in surprise. She was a half-snake! He hadn't even noticed it behind the desk, but as she moved away he could watch the massive tail slide back and forth. Her motions were effortless, gliding along. That was certainly one option...

-----

He was laying on a hospital-type bed. It had been nearly an hour since they drained what felt like half of his blood and taken some of his skin... he had recovered a little, but he was still kind-of dizzy. The door slowly opened, attracting his attention. A doctor walked through, staring at a clipboard as he pulled the door closed behind him. He recognised the doctor!

"Doctor Prokaryo, right?" he asked. "I've read a ton about your work!" The doctor smiled, glancing up at Neil.

"Indeed, that is my name. It is a pleasure to see such a young advocate of my work. Tell me, how much of my work have you studied?"

"Well, most of the stuff that went public. Genetic biology was my minor in uni, too..."

"Ah, then you should be familiar with..." the smile on the doctor's face faded fast. "You should be familiar with immuno-rigidity syndrome."

"Well, yeah, I've heard of it..." Neil smiled for a moment. He suddenly realised something, though, and his smile vanished. "Wait, you don't mean..."

"I'm afraid I do." the doctor shook his head slightly. "Despite the 0.1% chance of the affliction, you appear to suffer type-3 immuno-rigidity syndrome."