"Wait." You call after the leaving Silas, and he turns around, confused. You extend a hand, and he raises his brow and passes it over to you.
You claim a seat on the medical bed and flip through the document. Its roughly organized, but you understand most of it, besides the higher-level technical jargon. Emma could probably explain some of the more complicated subjects to you.
Day 1
William has arrived back, horribly injured. Lacerations to the chest have resulted in most intercostal muscles severed. [Three liters] of blood lost, in total. Near exsanguination. Left ribs three to six broken, one puncturing lung. Right ribs one to seven broken. No lung punctures. Right Sabclavian artery minor puncture. Small intestine suffering lacerations, as are stomach. No signs of The Plague. Other infections are sure to occur within seventy-two hours. Possibility of brain damage-- subject [flat-lined] three times on the evacuation ship, before stabilizing.
I fear William will not make it through the night. His injuries are severe enough to warrant him 'SEED's grace'. We affixed his cybernetic limbs to have better handholds that were not on his torso.
Addendum: Subject received a transfusion of blood from Lady Alphira. What she thought I have no possible idea. The capacity of error and rejection is monumental!
Day 2
William is continuing to fight. He flat-lined again. I performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation myself. The subject continued to breathe and have a pulse, albeit weak.
Day 3
William's wounds are beginning to close. Color is returning, and his pulse is slower but stronger. Alphira, despite her injuries, should have recovered. Could there be a transfer of healing powers? Is her blood that potent?
Day 4
William wounds continue to heal at an astounding rate. An attempt to gather bone-marrow showed a black, dusty material mixed with the sample. Dust material rapidly broke down when exposed to the atmosphere.
Addendum:Dusty material broke down when removed from proximity to William, not exposure to the atmosphere. Further away increased decay, closer slowed the process.
Day 5
William's deepest wounds have healed to mere superficial injuries. He awoke today, croaking for food. I made the decision to feed him some of Alphira's nutrient paste. William initially responded poorly to the taste. but gorged himself and went back to sleep.
Day 6
William's wounds have fully healed. A strange coating of black is beginning to edge its way down his cybernetics, and I find I cannot remove them. He's awake more often than not, usually eating and recovering his strength.
Day 7
The black material now completely covers his cybernetic extremities. Attempt to draw bone marrow for sample ended in a broken needle and an annoyed William. His pain response has dulled, resting heart rate has slowed, body temperature has increased. His cybernetics have increased strength and durability, exceeding that of the steel and plastic they were originally made of.
Day 10
William has been experimenting, at the behest of Alphira. This would not be concerning if Lady Alphira was not in torpor for the last ten days. At one point, and with great strain, he managed to conjure forth a small hydrogen fire in the palm of his hand, but he could not sustain it for long before slipping into unconsciousness. He no longer needs to sleep for the human baseline of eight hours, instead, only needing four for a restful night. He always seems to be in motion. Gone are the days of him laying in bed for hours on end. He is often on the track, pushing himself faster and faster. Or at the range, performing better and better shots with a monsterous Thornton Las-rifle.
His cybernetics were not designed to handle the weight of that weapon, made for graceful movement and to ease the handicap they posed on his life. But it does not damage them, or seem to exert William or the Machinery.
Day 18
My suspicions have been confirmed. William is beginning to exhibit physical changes. They were minute, at first, but his appearance has become more androgynous, his musculature, where present, has increased in density, but most telling of all is that his eyes, once green, are now a bright electric blue. His torso, once measured, has grown slightly, now very close to Alphira's own.
Addendum: There's no doubt. The Angels/Demons are a unique race. McCreary's corpse has roughly the same height, build, and features that both William and Lady Alphira posses. His hair color, however, is different, and, from what I could see of them, so where his eyes-- McCreary possessed eyes of a dull brown. Perhaps if he was alive, they would be a different color. Perhaps there are different phenotypes? William shows no inclination to be able to manipulate the earth, as McCreary did. Instead, he focuses on fire.
Recommend: Asking Alphira to interdict and ask SEED if there are 'demon' corpses we could view. Sample size too small to determine if there are phenotypes to the angels/demons. Need a better title for them, not crouched in superstition and the veil on knowledge that SEED puts up.
Lady Alphira somehow replicated part of her genetic information and passed it on to him, perhaps using a specialized version of those black cells[SEE PROJECT ALPHIRA]
Day 21
William comes to me sometimes to complain of nightmares, and annoyance with what he calls, 'the voices'. There are records of demons talking and arguing with themselves. I advised him to ignore it, and remember who he is. I cannot help further in this matter, as I do not understand the changes that are occurring. Lady Alphira is going to awaken soon. Her body, once far colder than her baseline is now heating back up. Heart rate is slowly increasing over a period of days to near her baseline. I ordered her saline drip to be removed and for food to be made ready, as her body did not heal her wounds immediately. Unsurprisingly, her lower heart rate made her loss of blood much less difficult to deal with.
You rise from the bed, stretching out your limbs as you begin to pace the breadth of your private hospital room, thinking. Then you pause, glancing at that line from the document with a small scowl.
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Topic: McCreary's Planet -- (FINISHED) (Read 259818 times)