Parasite Lost

Parasite Lost Chapter 4

Dante sat in the glossy waiting lobby of the penthouse office of MediSyn headquarters, a corporation devoted to advanced pharmaceutical and biological pursuits. The largest of its kind in human-controlled space, MediSyn held a virtual monopoly on all pharmaceutical drugs and synthetic / biological components such as cosmetic and performance enhancing surgical procedures. This included lab grown organs, genetic modifications, and even cybernetic hardware and software. They also trained and 'leased' the best medical professionals money could buy.

A fairly new practice, MediSyn trained willing participants in advanced medical procedures for free under the stipulation that they work privately for the company a certain number of years at a reduced pay rate. This allowed companies like MediSyn to access a wide variety of professionals and advance their own research for drastically reduced costs. 

MediSyn pioneered this program, dubbing it the Aceso Initiative, and gained a reputation for having the best medical staff money could buy. A large team of loan officers, lawyers and other gatekeepers were employed around the clock to judge who is worthy of this staff, an unfortunate reality for those less privileged. 

Despite the high barrier for entry, MediSyn continued to be the leading company for any medical solution imaginable. It also was the company that Dante's father, Sirus Opulen, built from the ground up.

An attractive woman dressed in a way that suggested she was very comfortable with her figure approached Dante with a tray of refreshments. "Excuse me sir, would you like a drink?" she asked. Glowing purple eyes and the soothing metallic timber in voice identified her as an android.

"No, thank you Sia," Dante said with a dismissive wave.

"Let me know if there is anything I can-"

"I know, I know, go away."

Sia, incapable of taking offense, bowed her head and went back to the desk in the corner of the room, that doubled as a charging panel, and entered standby mode. Dante tapped his foot while he waited. He was uncomfortable for a multitude of reasons. The fact that his father's waiting chairs weren't made for men of his substantial height and brawn was somehow more irritating than the fact he was called to be there in the first place.

Sirus and Dante never had a very good relationship and as a result Dante avoided contact with his father whenever possible. As a teenager his father's response to making the winning point of the planetary youth gravball division was that the sport was for 'worthless, brain-dead meatheads with no future'. 

When Dante earned his first medal of honor, his father told him 'good men had died to make sure he could get home safe and collect that trinket'. It was hard to impress a man who became a multi-trillionaire by the time he was twenty-five standard years old.

Dante squirmed and shifted his weight while playing out various conversations in his head. He thought of what he would say and how his father would react. He tried to come up with a response or reaction to every possible outcome because he knew his father was an experienced negotiator and diplomat. He had to be prepared.

The office door slid open with a hiss. Dante's father sat at a large bloodmaple desk at the back of the room beyond.

"Come in," Sirus said as he stared into the eyes of a hologram floating above his desk. Dante stood up, much to the relief of the chair he was in, and walked into his father's office. Dante tried to sit down but was promptly reminded that this chair was specially designed to be uncomfortable for people that fit in it, let alone people twice their size. 

Sirus enjoyed making anyone who met with him physically uncomfortable so he had a psychological advantage over them before the meeting even began. Dante abandoned the idea of sitting and stood up, waiting for his father to finish his conversation.