Sweet Science
July 25th, 2193
The WISE building,
Havana,
Cuba.
“Whaddaya mean conscious?” barked Milo.
“Well, I mean he’s awake,” the doctor replied, confused by the unnecessary nature of the question. “In fact, he’s responding to treatment very well, considering the …”
“Doctor!” Milo interrupted, angrily. “If I ain’t mistaken, you was told not to revive him until you had my frigging say so.”
“Of course, Herr Direktor, yes, but it was unavoidable. Mr Jaeger suffered a sudden mental aberration. It was not entirely unpredicted, and we are dealing with experimental surgery after all.” At first, the doctor thought this explanation enough, but then noticed the nonplussed look on the face of the Direktor, and digressed further. “As it turns out, this is a common phenomenon after prolonged cessation of high level cerebral activity.”
Direktor Robert Milo stopped striding the long, white corridor of the medi-wing and stared at the doctor who had been nervously hurrying behind him. He hated it when people used long words and technical terms; it meant he had to concentrate on what they were saying. He also hated it when he had to talk to someone who might be less important, but more intelligent than himself, especially if it was a woman, and he made a point of setting aside a particular disdain for doctors in particular.
“Direktor?” she asked him timidly. Milo breathed a sigh of aggravation.
“Sweet science,” he blasphemed, under his breath, but still loudly enough for the doctor to hear, “So what?”
“Well, the only way that we could prevent further episodes of this nature was to activate all higher cerebral functions.” The doctor then consciously adopted the form of speech she would use when addressing the first year med student level during her lectures. “We now know that if the mind operates at such a low level as our patient’s has for too prolonged a period, it abandons its higher level functions and becomes permanently set on this minimal level of operation.”
“That may be true, doctor, but it still all means jack shit to me.”
“My apologies, Herr Direktor, rarely am I as concise as you are in your explanations.” The doctor recognized that first year med student level was not nearly plain enough for Milo, “quite simply, if the brain is starved of sensory stimuli for too long; sight, taste, touch, that sort of thing, it becomes accustomed to working at a strictly subconscious level. You could say it ‘forgets’ how to respond to outside elements.”
“So, you’re saying it gets lazy?” Milo asked, now slightly enthused through his understanding.
“If you like, but the important thing is that there is a point where the patient’s brain will no longer accept any sensory input, and interaction with the patient becomes impossible. Once that threshold has been reached, we know of no way to re-engage the functions which have ceased, and effectively the patient becomes trapped within their own subconscious. Our guest, Mr Jaeger, came dangerously close to that stage, but fortunately did not exceed it.”
“Yeah, well …okay, but what’s that got to do with this, er…mental, er…whatever?”
“Aberration.” The doctor affirmed, knowingly nodding her head. “As I said, Mr Jaeger was very close to what you would call a mental shutdown. It has been a substantial length of time since he has used any of his senses. After he came into our possession, it was in our interest to keep him unconscious, but we failed to realise the consequences of this, omitting to hamper his aural faculties. We believe that because he was able to hear, sound itself would have been too great a shock for his brain to handle.”
“Right, yeah…” Milo took a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his brow,
“He then experienced some sort of schism and therefore immediate stimulation of the other functions was necessary to fully ‘awaken’ his mind. I believed the simplest way to do this would be, of course, to revive him.”
Then, both Milo and the doctor broke from the conversation in surprise, reacting to the sole applause of a woman leaning comfortably on the wall in front of them, With a little flick of her shoulder, she pushed herself away from the wall, straightened up, and stood in one swift movement. Idly brushing the hair from her face with her thumb she spoke,
“I believe congratulations are in order, doctor. I applaud you for your quick thinking in both saving our patient, and for justifying your own actions so astutely; or saving your ass, as some less charitable folk might have put it.”
“It is very kind of you to say so, Kontroller,” the doctor replied, respectfully, “but I regret there will be some unfortunate side effects.”
The woman eyed the doctor over the frame of her glasses and raised them with her thumb and forefinger,
“Thank you doctor, I am aware of the practicalities,” she said sternly.
“Kontroller, please, I assure you I wasn’t…” the doctor began, hands clasped together, imploring her.
“I’m sure you weren’t.” The woman interjected. “Thank you, doctor that will be all.”
The doctor bowed her head submissively to both the woman and to Milo.
“Kontroller, Herr Direktor.” She continued to walk the corridor she and Milo had been following. The Kontroller cast a mirthy smile in Milo’s direction, but they both waited in silence until the doctor had turned the corner. She easily read the open-book look on Milo’s face and spoke before he had the chance,
“He has a mental dysfunction, Bob.”
“Mental dysfunction? But I thought that it had been a success, I thought …”
“Let’s not go crazy Bob,” she interrupted, calm in her Californian tone. “It’s not really a problem, in fact it could even work to our advantage, and we just need too take a little extra care.”
“Wait a minute here, I don’t understand this; how can Jaeger having a mental problems possibly work to our advantage?”
“Gee Bob, don’t you ever read any of your reports? And if you’d attended the last briefing …”
“Well, I …” Milo began, not intending to continue.
“Listen, I don’t have the time to go through this with you right now, but I had Ralph upload the case file in Kontrol. Get yourself up to Ops and fill yourself in, okay?”
“yeah, okay, I’ll go now. Kontroller.” He said, failing to hide the resentment in his voice, as he walked to the elevator.
READ CHAPTER FOUR
The WISE building,
Havana,
Cuba.
“Whaddaya mean conscious?” barked Milo.
“Well, I mean he’s awake,” the doctor replied, confused by the unnecessary nature of the question. “In fact, he’s responding to treatment very well, considering the …”
“Doctor!” Milo interrupted, angrily. “If I ain’t mistaken, you was told not to revive him until you had my frigging say so.”
“Of course, Herr Direktor, yes, but it was unavoidable. Mr Jaeger suffered a sudden mental aberration. It was not entirely unpredicted, and we are dealing with experimental surgery after all.” At first, the doctor thought this explanation enough, but then noticed the nonplussed look on the face of the Direktor, and digressed further. “As it turns out, this is a common phenomenon after prolonged cessation of high level cerebral activity.”
Direktor Robert Milo stopped striding the long, white corridor of the medi-wing and stared at the doctor who had been nervously hurrying behind him. He hated it when people used long words and technical terms; it meant he had to concentrate on what they were saying. He also hated it when he had to talk to someone who might be less important, but more intelligent than himself, especially if it was a woman, and he made a point of setting aside a particular disdain for doctors in particular.
“Direktor?” she asked him timidly. Milo breathed a sigh of aggravation.
“Sweet science,” he blasphemed, under his breath, but still loudly enough for the doctor to hear, “So what?”
“Well, the only way that we could prevent further episodes of this nature was to activate all higher cerebral functions.” The doctor then consciously adopted the form of speech she would use when addressing the first year med student level during her lectures. “We now know that if the mind operates at such a low level as our patient’s has for too prolonged a period, it abandons its higher level functions and becomes permanently set on this minimal level of operation.”
“That may be true, doctor, but it still all means jack shit to me.”
“My apologies, Herr Direktor, rarely am I as concise as you are in your explanations.” The doctor recognized that first year med student level was not nearly plain enough for Milo, “quite simply, if the brain is starved of sensory stimuli for too long; sight, taste, touch, that sort of thing, it becomes accustomed to working at a strictly subconscious level. You could say it ‘forgets’ how to respond to outside elements.”
“So, you’re saying it gets lazy?” Milo asked, now slightly enthused through his understanding.
“If you like, but the important thing is that there is a point where the patient’s brain will no longer accept any sensory input, and interaction with the patient becomes impossible. Once that threshold has been reached, we know of no way to re-engage the functions which have ceased, and effectively the patient becomes trapped within their own subconscious. Our guest, Mr Jaeger, came dangerously close to that stage, but fortunately did not exceed it.”
“Yeah, well …okay, but what’s that got to do with this, er…mental, er…whatever?”
“Aberration.” The doctor affirmed, knowingly nodding her head. “As I said, Mr Jaeger was very close to what you would call a mental shutdown. It has been a substantial length of time since he has used any of his senses. After he came into our possession, it was in our interest to keep him unconscious, but we failed to realise the consequences of this, omitting to hamper his aural faculties. We believe that because he was able to hear, sound itself would have been too great a shock for his brain to handle.”
“Right, yeah…” Milo took a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his brow,
“He then experienced some sort of schism and therefore immediate stimulation of the other functions was necessary to fully ‘awaken’ his mind. I believed the simplest way to do this would be, of course, to revive him.”
Then, both Milo and the doctor broke from the conversation in surprise, reacting to the sole applause of a woman leaning comfortably on the wall in front of them, With a little flick of her shoulder, she pushed herself away from the wall, straightened up, and stood in one swift movement. Idly brushing the hair from her face with her thumb she spoke,
“I believe congratulations are in order, doctor. I applaud you for your quick thinking in both saving our patient, and for justifying your own actions so astutely; or saving your ass, as some less charitable folk might have put it.”
“It is very kind of you to say so, Kontroller,” the doctor replied, respectfully, “but I regret there will be some unfortunate side effects.”
The woman eyed the doctor over the frame of her glasses and raised them with her thumb and forefinger,
“Thank you doctor, I am aware of the practicalities,” she said sternly.
“Kontroller, please, I assure you I wasn’t…” the doctor began, hands clasped together, imploring her.
“I’m sure you weren’t.” The woman interjected. “Thank you, doctor that will be all.”
The doctor bowed her head submissively to both the woman and to Milo.
“Kontroller, Herr Direktor.” She continued to walk the corridor she and Milo had been following. The Kontroller cast a mirthy smile in Milo’s direction, but they both waited in silence until the doctor had turned the corner. She easily read the open-book look on Milo’s face and spoke before he had the chance,
“He has a mental dysfunction, Bob.”
“Mental dysfunction? But I thought that it had been a success, I thought …”
“Let’s not go crazy Bob,” she interrupted, calm in her Californian tone. “It’s not really a problem, in fact it could even work to our advantage, and we just need too take a little extra care.”
“Wait a minute here, I don’t understand this; how can Jaeger having a mental problems possibly work to our advantage?”
“Gee Bob, don’t you ever read any of your reports? And if you’d attended the last briefing …”
“Well, I …” Milo began, not intending to continue.
“Listen, I don’t have the time to go through this with you right now, but I had Ralph upload the case file in Kontrol. Get yourself up to Ops and fill yourself in, okay?”
“yeah, okay, I’ll go now. Kontroller.” He said, failing to hide the resentment in his voice, as he walked to the elevator.
READ CHAPTER FOUR
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home