Organ Donor [edit]

One of my editors decided to work on Organ Donor, so here is the edited and revised version.  I havent made any changes to this, and I plan to do so.

Enjoy.

Organ Donor

By Scott Keith Hess

An event in the history of The Bleeding Roses

Coffee had never been my favorite drink, but at this moment it was the only thing keeping me up through these boring hours.  The donor would be in soon and construction of the new Whiskey prototype could begin.

I took the first sip of my latest cup of 'English toffee' flavored drink and spilled some of the contents on my hand as I pulled it away from my mouth, it was way too hot.  After biting through the burn on my hand I decided to cool it down with some cold water.

"Hey Marcus, still awake are we?" Nicholas said as he trotted into the break room.  He reached for the same pot I had poured my cup from, and took a large drink of the scorching hot coffee.

"Hanging on by threads at the moment.  Think though, just minutes ‘til our organ donor arrives, I'll be up and going like no other by then"  I took a seat and started stirring my cup, an annoying habit I wanted to break.

"I'm not sure if you know but I'll be in on the procedure today, Vincent couldn't make it," Nicholas informed me, before taking in another large slurp of his hot drink.

"Well that’s... unlike him, must be something big,” My mind was on bigger things though, I changed the topic, “Have you read the report on the subject?" Nicholas’ face turned from a tired smile to a look of worried sorrow, maybe even guilt, it was hard for me to tell.

"I did," he coughed.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"No, well... a bit," he didn't want to spit it out.  My prying expression telling him, 'you should know better by now' got to him.

"Think about it Marcus, all of the Phonetics we've constructed to this point have been what we would expect to see for military use.  Large battle hardened soldiers built nearly to Grinder specifications, with all accessories unattached.  But this one is on the opposite side of the scale." I wasn't sure if it was me, or the fatigue, but listening to him was hard.  Outside of the break room we heard the doors slam open and people yelling to get out of the way.  We poked our heads out to see a gurney with a clear plastic body bag on it.  Our organ donor had arrived.  A feeling like a spring shooting through my spine told me that it was time to work.

"She looked so young," Nicholas said, as the gurney rushed past the break room door.

"Report said she was 21 at time of death,” I retorted.  Leading Nicholas out of the break room, and down the hallway, in a slow pursuit of the gurney.  Looking at Nicholas though, it seemed more like a funeral procession, the sorrowful walk to a grave, rather than a groundbreaking leap in cybernetic technology.

"Did you see her though? She looked like she could be my daughter."

"You mean 'it' looks like it could be your daughter."

"Just because she's passed on doesn't mean she's any less human." Nicholas was making it personal, a bad move on his part.

"You and me are scientists Nicholas, becoming attached to our work on such a small scale like that is what puts progress in a bottleneck.  She was an organ donor, now she's dead.  We bought her body and now its our property, we can do whatever we please with our purchased materials." Nicholas didn't look happy with me but as far as I was concerned it was the truth.  We continued on our way to the operating room at a comfortable, slow pace.  As we made like sloths down the hall a large box joined us on the pilgrimage.

"Ah, good, the projects here." I felt giddy.

"The what?" Nicholas said.

"That,” I nodded to the box, “is Project Whiskey"

"It looks like a coffin to me,” Nicholas stated grimly, “this whole project seems to be a huge risk, it seems..." He paused, “somehow, wrong.”

"Every single piece of technology in that 'coffin' is a brand new material, all of the tech in it has only ever been tested in computer simulations and other minor tests. I guess we could say, Whiskey, when complete will be a prototype, composed of prototypes down to the N'th degree.  Yes it is a risk, but the reward will be sweet. This is the most efficient way to test these parts in an absolute non-bias environment.  All of the successful testing will be transferred to “Project Alfa” later on, but that's going to be quite a while from now, at least, from what the estimated testing periods will be," Nicholas still looked sad, despite my passion for the project.

"So, Whiskey is just a prototype, while Alfa will be the production model.  What happens when the testing is over?"

"Whiskey's operating time is unknown so we'll take what tests we can, based on its overall time in action.  The testing isn’t over until it’s non-functional"

"Where is it going to get this 'non bias' testing?"

"Levan said that Whiskey, under a different name will join a naval mercenary group called the Bleeding Roses, where it'll become a member and be trained in multiple forms of combat," I said, a slight belt of pride in my voice.

"Where 'she,' will become a member," Nick persisted.  Nicholas was a good person, but with his background, it would have been better for Vincent to have been here instead.

"Nick, listen.  Once this operation is over 'she' will have a cybernetic body percentage of 94, 'she' will be a machine designed as a test platform for the metal and synthetics 'she' will use everyday. In order to further the success rate of the testing 'she' will be unaware of the fact that 'she' is almost a cyborg on a Tier 8 Grinder specification. Whiskey will be designed to operate and act as a total human, with no room for attachments. Even if Whiskey wanted to it couldn't operate a Grinder." We arrived at the operating room. The body and the replacement parts were all together now. We got cleaned up and prepped for the operation. The lead scientist wanted to review the operation once more before we started.

"Thank you for being here everyone.  Now I know its been a hell of a week, BUT... if everything goes as planned today, we'll be on cruise control for the duration of testing, testing that we would have otherwise had to have done manually for these parts.  As of now, the only parts of the actual body we need are the brain and the eyes, the rest will be going elsewhere to be used as... well I'm not sure, BUT, that doesn't matter.”

I yawned.  I didn't like how the head scientist spoke, it was annoying, and yet he persisted in continuing to do so.

“The body has already been scanned and recreated so we can develop project Whiskey to the body's exact specifications... while leaving room for... this and that. BUT! we will still be very very careful with what we need.  I hope you've done what you needed to because... the next 6 hours will be long ,BUT rewarding"

The 6 person team stepped into the room, the body lying there just eager to be taken apart.  I picked up a scalpel and slid it and my fingers up and down the leg, before getting elbow-nudged by Nicholas.  Behind us, a projector PC spread out the details of our operation.  I was in a mild high at the moment, filled with pride that I was helping science to proceed forward.  The 6 hours ahead of us for the beginning of this test seemed more like a test of how long I could enjoy myself.

For science, I could do this forever.