Mission of Mercy (poetlore and dunruffle)

Erik smiled and nodded, "sure Doc. Who wouldnt want to go for a stroll with a pretty lady?" He gave her a wink and began walking beside her. "So what do want to talk about? This doctor sechen guy?"
 
Cassandra huffed a bit, "Well, I don't know where you're going to find a pretty girl at this time of day but...if you have time you can walk with me." She was grinning as well, and had added a bit of humor to that little speech, but the truth was, she didn't feel like she was particularly pretty or even desirable. She felt like the thin scars on her face took away a lot of that. She was glad for how her implants made her job easier, and her life as well, but they did detract from her looks. At least she believed they did.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about him, yes." she said as they walked, "does he create things for the men in the SOG or does he create things for the guards?" She frowned and looked over at him, "Some guards came in last night...one of them was coughing up blood..."

She huffed a bit, "He said the other doctor said he couldn't do anything, and that he told them it was part of natural selection." he'd almost be able to see steam coming out her ears as she spoke. "But the higher ranking guard said something about bad air." she made a face, "do you know anything about that?" She made a face then and lifted a hand in the classic 'I coulda had a V8' movement, "Um..sorry...it's really nice to see you...how's your day going?' she said finally squeezing her eyes shut as she realized she hadn't even said hi to him.
 
Erik stroked his beard as they walked. "Hrmm..cant say I really know the guy. Word is he is kinda eccentric but really smart. He has been here since the beginning of the base. They say he is the one responsible for how the local guards are. Because isnt it kinda odd how they are almost not human? But they have only been living here for around 200 years. Plus you know the director and his pet projects. Sorry if I could not be more helpful." He laughed, when Cassandra asked how he was. "Oh I am fine. I just was coming over to restock on some supplies and get some medicine. Apparently there has been a GI bug going around. The bathrooms look like a warzone."
 
Cassandra listened and nodded and then stopped walking when he mentioned medicine. "Erik Ritkof," she said staring at him, "Luckily for you I don't know your middle name or I'd ahve taken the liberty of using it just now. Why didn't you say that first?' she asked and then turned around and started back to the hospital. "What kind of medicine do you need?" she asked as she walked. Doctor Sechen could wait, patients were patients after all, and that was what she was there for, meetings came second.
 
Erik laughed, "just some basic GI antibiotics. Nothing too heavy. I can get harrison to grab them for me. You have a meeting to get to." He turned her around and gave her a gentle push. "Now march double time soldier, dont want the director to send captain stink eye after you." He walked away and nodded to the two guards at the door before walking inside.
 
Cassandra was forcibly turned around and pushed in the opposite direction and she huffed, "Fine," she said and then muttered under her breath. She followed the map on her eye and before long was in the Doctor's domain. She stepped into the genetics area and looked around before seeing anyone. "I am looking for Doctor Sechen," she said to the first person she saw who just pointed but did not stop. "OoooK..." She said and followed the direction they pointed. She saw someone in a room to her elft and leaned into the room a bit, "I'm looking for Doctor Sechen?" she said hopefully.
 
The man turned around and examined Cassandra. "Hrmm, average height, brown hair, scarification around eye, enhanced muscle size. Possible mining planet ancestry?" He muttered to himself and made a few notes on a datapad before hobbling over with the assistance of an ebony cane. "Doctor Brandford I presume? I am doctor sechen, if you could have your original eye back would you keep your artificial one?" He walked out the door obviously expecting her to follow. "My research has been my lifes work. Imagine the possibilities of genetic modification. Babies born without defects, inherited diseases eliminated, the possibilities are endless!" He turned around and took off his glasses to show his mismatched eyes. "My left eye had developed cataracts, a crippling blow to one such as myself. But I was determined to not let nature get the best of me. I used my own tissue and grew another eye, an even better eye than before. They called my work "unethical" and "playing god". But how did their opinions change when I proved my theories were correct. My eye is not only a part of me, but my proof that my work bears results. Unlike those worthless peons that call themselves scientists, theoretical physics my ass. All they do is postulate and pat themselves on the back. Their work brings no physical results, mine do."

He whipped around and hobbled down the corridor, coming to a decontamination room and leading Cassandra inside. "You can never be too careful. My rivals have tried to contaminate my labs before. But I stopped them! They underestimated the dedication of doctor Sechen!" There was a hiss as a cloud of decontamination gasses filled the room. After a few seconds, the gas was suctioned out and the door opened to the lab. "Tell me doctor Brandford. If you had the choice between giving someone an artificial pacemaker, or giving them a brand new lab grown heart. Which would you choose?"
 
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Cassandra blinked and listened as he spoke, not actually believing he expected an answer. When he asked about her eye she shook her head, "No sir I would not.." but before she could explain her answer he was off and moving down the hall so she followed. She listened as he spoke about his life's work and his 'results' and still she did not comment, but merely listened.

They entered a room and she could smell the disinfectant in the air and allowed the man his rite of passage into his holy of holies, so to speak. He asked about the pacemaker versus the heart and her brow lifted, "If I could not surgically repair the damaged or defective heart, I would choose the best option for the patient based upon the total of their medical history."

She stepped into the lab, following him as she was aware he expected, "Anyone, who is a doctor, has studied to defy the human body's natural inclination to self-destruct. In that way all doctors 'play God' I believe." She tipped her head then, "However, there are lines that should not be crossed, such as patient approval." She was listening and watching him. He seemed very set in his way and manner, and she wasn't sure that boded well for their working relationship.
 
Sechen turned to squint at Cassandra. "You sound like you are a reasonable person. Unlike those usual meat cutters they send me." They walk into a viewing room overlooking a large lab. Scientists in full bio-hazard suits milled around the various tables, tanks, and vats. Taking notes or inputting data into consoles. "The director is a man of vision, a diamond in the rough so to speak. He not only was interested in my work, but also funded my research. Of course one stipulation was that he would be the first one to have access to the finished products." They walked through another decontamination arch and into an operating room area. A man in a hospital gown sat in a wheelchair reading a book as a nurse scanned his body. "Meet Ray Otranto, he is one of the first volunteers to undergo an experimental procedure." They went over to a wall with a holographic screen on it, Sechen waved his hand over the surface and a variety of X-rays, charts, and medical documents filled the screen. "Mr. Otranto has Osteogenesis Imperfecta, commonly known as brittle bone disease. He has had this disease since childhood, he has never been able to play sports, ride theme park attractions, not even be able to let someone hold him close in fear of causing injury. We have already grown the new marrow samples to replace his old ones. Once implanted, the new dna will overwrite the old diseased ones and cause his bones to essentially regrow the layer of calcium and bone that is needed for bone structure and support. That is where you come in, my specialty is growing and culturing the organs. Unfortunately neither me one my staff are experienced enough to do this procedure alone. But now with you here we can move into the action phase and begin implanting as soon as possible." He turned to Cassandra with a wide smile, his eyes full of excitement. "Do you want to be part of medical history doctor? Rest assured I will make sure your assistance is well documented for future medical journals."
 
Cassandra almost laughed at his comment about her being reasonable, but managed to stifle herself. She followed him and looked around with an informed, aware and educated eye. her own eye scanning the room and making notes as she walked. No, she wouldn't trade this eye for anything.

She smiled at the man in the wheelchair. Imperfecta, horrible disease. She looked at the charts and because of her eye's ability to scan and process the information she was able to see that this man would definitely benefit from the procedure being proposed. "Mr. Otranto will greatly benefit from such a procedure," she agreed. "Tell me Doctor Sechen, how have you tested your bone marrow? How do you know his body will overwrite his genetic code?"

She needed to understand his methods and practices, not just his results. She didn't want to be part of anything that happened as a result of blatant unethical testing or abuse of volunteers.
 
Sechen waved at the wall and the files were replaced by pictures of dna and various notes. "On our testing on animals, we have achieved a 96% successful transfer. Due to the director's policy of no human test subjects, we have only been able to use preserved tissue samples for testing purposes. The genetic code we created is similar to a virus, any similar code it comes across will be absorbed and reprogrammed. The overwriting itself is a very carefully crafted process, we cant have the transplant overwrite all genetic code, that would just end up in the body shutting down. I am very confident in my work and estimate we will have at least a 94% success rate.
 
Cassandra scanned every panel and very quickly had a wide array of data at her fingertips for future reference. "I am very glad to hear that you do not test on humans," she said candidly, "I would ahve to decline to even work with you if that were the case." She wasn't one to pull punches and she didn't think they should get started without understanding one another.

"So I can easily see the benefits of the bone marrow, not just for Imperfecta, but Leukemia and other bone tissue disorders," she admitted, "What else are you trying to create?" she asked, "You mentioned a heart. Are you attempting to grow or create the entire heart, or use tissue to strengthen an existing one?" she wanted to know what all she was going to be expected to be part of. "I was led to believe you will have a wide array of operations for me to perform."

He'd mentioned seeing that she was credited but she didn't care about that. Her own hard work and skill had gotten her everywhere she ever wanted to get to, and she didn't plan to start riding other people's coat tails now.
 
Sechen swiped his hand and more data showed up detailing various projects. "Right now we have several tissue implants ready to be used. We will also have several fully functioning organs in a few days. I will send you all of our project data so you can choose which ones you would like to implant first."
 
Cassandra scanned all this information as well. His detail and references were impressive, and if the data was to be believed, he had indeed found the means to bypass the traditional Organ transplant problems of rejection and the need for immunosupressing medications. She glanced at him and then at the man she was first introduced to. "I believe I will start with Mr. Otranto." she said, "If you are going to be gracious enough to allow me to choose." She looked at the man in the wheelchair and thought about his quality of life, as compared to what it should be. Imperfecta was a brutal debilitating and isolating disease. If there was even a slight chance this would help him it would be worth the effort.

"Your operation here is quite impressive Doctor Sechen," she admitted, "Will you be needing me to perform these operations here, or in my hospital wing?" she asked, "I would prefer to do them there if I have the option, because of the monitoring equipment and my trained staff." She had little doubt that the same equipment could be made available here if she requested it, so either way she would be able to evaluate and care for the patients. She would prefer to be closer if anything happened though.
 
Doctor Sechen shrugged, "either is fine. If you want to perform the transplant in your own medical bay I have no objections. If that is all I will send you the marrow transplants in an hour. Then I will send Mr. Otranro over to your wing after dinner. Now if there is nothing else I must take my leave, I have important work to do." He ushered her back to the entrance and pushed her out the door before closing it with the hiss of contamination seals closing behind her.
 
Cassandra was pretty much pushed out of the place after agreeing to perform the surgery in her hospital. She heard the hiss and was barely out the door when it closed behind her. "Well ok then," she said with a chuckle. That was not at all what she'd expected, but she was glad of it. She would go back to her hospital and send everything into printed form and read it at leisure later.

Once back at the hospital she called Harrison, Point and graves out to her. "So we are going to be receiving an implant patient after dinner. He is an imperfecta patient and this Doctor Sechen has developed a marrow transplant that he is confident will actually grow the calcified layer of his bones, by overwriting the genetic code of the man's bones." Her voice was steady and clear and she then began speaking to them individually, "Graves, the tissue is to be delivered within the hour. It must be maintained properly until the operation. Point I will need you to check the operating room for supplies and tools, and make sure everything is sterilized and in its proper place. Harrison, You will be working with me as always during this procedure. I know this is not something we ahve ever done together, but I have confidence in your ability to know my methods, and be an able second during this." She looked at them all and got either a thumbs up or a nod, "Eat a good dinner, it's going to be a long night."
 
An hour later, the door opened and captain sokolov walked in. Her demonic gaze sweeping over the room until it panded on Jen. With an icy stare she pointed at Cassandra's door. "I need to speak to doctor brandford. Now."
 
Jen nodded and pointed to the office, "She's back in her office.." she said, "I'm sure you remember..." but before she could finish, Captain Sokolov was already making her way back to the rear room. Jen pushed a com link, "One ice queen coming your way."

Cassandra was in her office reading over the notes she'd scanned at Doctor Sechen's lab. She hit the unlock button on the door and it opened to allow Natalya in, "Captain," she said with a nod, "To what do I owe the pleasure?' she asked, "Or am I about to be scolded for removing the listening and observation devices from my private rooms?"

She motioned to the chair, that was now a more comfortable one, placed opposite her at the desk. "Or..have I managed to do something else that I am not even aware of?" Her eyes were full of unmasked humor, "It usually doesn't take this long. I must be slipping."
 
Natalya smiled and shrugged, "it was probably expected that you would have discovered the bugs eventually. I am sure the director has many other means to spy on you. But that is not why I am here today. Remember yesterday you said you could help with my eye pain? I only have two hours until I need to report back so I would like to have it done now. If that is alright with you Cassandra."
 
Cassandra huffed at hearing the director ahd other ways of spying on her. "Well, he's certainly welcome to try. I may prove a bit frustrating. But he may enjoy the challenge." She shrugged and let it go.

She blinked then and a wide beautiful smile blossomed on her face, "Of course!" she said. She stood and moved around the desk and led her out of the office, "If you would follow me to my operating bay." she said as she led the way. Cassandra lifted a hand and Harrison was with her in a second. "If you will get up onto the table so we can keep you stabilized while we work." She lowered a special dome over her head and looked at Harrison, "She has pain from her implant."

Harrison lifted a brow and then watched as the machine sent information to a screen. Pointing to a number and a diagram he huffed, "Hack job," he said and then looked at Cassandra. She smiled, "Work your magic Big Guy," she said, "I will monitor and feed to you. He didn't react but just went to work. They pushed a button and the dome would be filled with a sleep gas and a numbing agent. Sometimes people woke from the sleep, so they added to numbing agents as a result. Some things were discovered the hard, painful way. Cassandra was personally aware of that, as she was one of the people who was awoken out of the sleep by the pain of a procedure.

Harrison used retractors to pull her eyelid out of the way and then gently removed the implanted eye. He changed the settings in the rear of the implant itself and then changed the position of the muscle attachments so that the eye itself would ahve proper motion and no muscles would come in contact with any of the electrical parts of the implant itself. He had to believe she was being shocked on a minute to minute basis before. He replaced the implant gently and then released her eyelids. He scanned the implant again to see if the attachments were holding and able to relax. He could see the proper spacing and he knew she'd be completely pain free when they let her wake up. "How long can we let her sleep?' he asked.

Cassandra replied, "She said she had two hours...so for at least an hour yet."

He nodded, "You can go back to the other patient. I will watch her."

Cassandra knew what he meant, that she could go back to the paperwork about the Imperctecta patient, and nodded. "Call me out before you wake her."

He allowed her to sleep for the full hour, to give the muscles in her eye a chance to adjust and the attachments to take to the implant. They, well he mostly, had developed a better attachment compound and method. They had a MUCH higher success rate, than anyone else performing implant procedures. He scanned her a few more times and saw the attachments were strong and firm. He called to Cassandra in her office, "Time to wake the Captain," he said.

Cassandra came out of her office and lifted the dome. Most people woke up within minutes of the dome being lifted. They used very light sedatives for this, since they were also using the numbing agent. Some lesser procedures didn't even require sedation at all. She smiled when Natalya blinked, "Welcome back Captain," she said, "How does your eye feel now?"
 
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