Invasive procedures - Knowing the risks

Posted on Tue Nov 30th, 2010 @ 4:48am by Morgan Pass & Jan Valentine

736 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Session 4: The Humans are Dead...
Location: Infirmary
Timeline: Prior to Lagashi landing

Pass' brow was a deep furrow. The medical surgery plans were spread out on his desk in front of him and he had been going over them in fine detail. The surgery was... exhaustive, and he doubted Jan knew what he was in for. He reached for the Comm link he left on his desk, knocking over the cup of brown syrup that passed for stimulant amongst the crew. Not normally a man given over to expletives he took advantage of this opportunity to release a few he savored.

Then depressing the Comlink, "Dr Pass to Jan. Could you come to my office please? I wish to discuss your upcoming surgery."

"Yeah, sure, uh give me a few minutes." Jan said, chucking an empty bottle of alcohol against a bulkhead.

Jan walked into the office, nearly tripping on the ever present, forever inconvenient door frames.

"Mother-fucking-god-damn-son of a bitch useless fucking door frames!" Jan shouted.

Morgan barely glanced up at the explosion of sound that was the engineer. He half smiled though. It wasn't like the infirmary even had a door at the moment. So much for sterile environments.

"Sit down, Jan. Have you been told about what the Lagashi are planning?"

"Yeah, some sort of bio-implant to replace my eye." Jan said.

"Ostensibly it is a retro-fitted bio-organic polymer case with a Nyridium interface. The Occular implant it self is impressive; bi-lateral sensory modes, HUD interfaces, cross spectric patterning, even an optional Micro-lensing which could be useful for delicate engineering work. Trouble is the Plicate bonding requires a cerebral augmentation and sub dermal power interfacing, normally accomplished by the vestigial Lagashi Neural interface. In your case however... you haven't understood a single word I have said, have you?

"You lost me at plicate..." Jan said.

Morgan breathed deeply and tried again, "The eye is good. For it to work properly they are going to have to do several additional surgeries including adding tech to your brain and nervous system. Even without the more advanced features, you will need a dedicated processor to handle the different data gathered by each eye."

"And the Lagashi don't see this as a problem?" Jan asked.

"The Lagashi wouldn't even think of this as an issue. Most of them already have the sort of augmented internal wetware to handle this in a plug and play fashion. You are looking at a major retro fit. I have no doubt the Lagashi can do it, and that you will probably not notice any side effects, but I can't guarantee that the units wont develop issues when they are not receiving regular servicing by a Lagashi. And once you have taken the implant there is no going back. They will be removing and replacing much of your cerebral cortex and nervous system."

"Hmm, are there any other options?" Jan said.

"I can still use some of the Lagashi tech to clone you an eye and do some simple repairs to get it operating as it was, perhaps even correct your genetic defect issues, but it will never be able to perform like the Lagashi unit could. I just thought you would appreciate being fully informed."

"Well I appreciate your efforts. I think I'll go through with the procedure. Did Jone's mention the cost?" Jan said.

Morgan shook his head, "Not my department. Look, what I can do for you is try and get some manuals about maintenance. Best case scenario you have a super cyber eye which can even look through the darling Lottie's undergarments. Worst case scenario, you go blind in both eyes and be reduced to an IQ of 25, needing help to tie your shoes. I would give it only a 5% chance of either extreme though."

He glanced back down at the schematic.

"7%", he corrected.

Jan chuckled a little, slightly worried in the back of his mind.

"You really are one for inspiring confidence doc." Jan said.

"I've been subjected to high levels of radiation on many occasions, I've broken most of my bones more than once, oh, I got shot in the face, been in space without a suit, I think I can take the surgery." Jan said.

Morgan nodded in acceptance, and even tried a smile, "I was not known for my bedside manner, I admit. I would say anything below 5% would be statistically irrelevant, so... good luck. And now, if you will excuse me, I need to eat."

 

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