Born again from the ashes.
By Ethan Hobson
Chapter 1
Prologue to Eternity.
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"Twenty cc’s of iridosmine; MID at 40%."
"Go on the iridosmine; MID stable at 40%."
"Spike MID to 67% and stimulate cell bonding."
"MID spike go-cell bonding at 307%, cell reproduction stable between 312 and 314%."
The operating genetic surgeon turned to his assistant and asked, "What are the figures based on? That is, is it set on normal or on the custom settings?" The assistant turned to his superior and replied, "They’re set on custom, sir."
The geneticist nearly leapt out of his chair with surprise and glee. He had set the custom settings to 150% of an average human! The subject was responding ridiculously well to the controversial gene surgery. The faulty cystic fibrosis and hemophilia genes we being replaced with healthy genes using a combination of viral replacement therapy and the new, untested, "wildcard" gene treatment. The geneticist gnawed on his thumbnail, wondering what changes eagle and puma DNA were making in the body of his subject. Well, any road, he assumed time would tell.
The current subject was Kyle Razenski, a 32-year-old with more medical issues than he cared to count, which was part of the reason he had volunteered for the first treatment of gene replacement ever. His thinking was that if he had even a small chance of getting rid of even one of his ailments, he would be satisfied. He was not thinking now, however; the virus that was curing him kept him unconscious so he would be impervious to the intense pain of being genetically reprogrammed.
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The geneticist hurried across the lab area to supervise subject two’s virus contamination. The subject lay flat on a metal table around which were suspended various intravenous bags, all pumping the subject full of PROTO-virus2, the virus specifically made to reform her defective arms and re-grow her severed spine. He had not been in charge of sculpting her virus-one of his colleagues, Dr. Ja’akkel, had been charged with that duty. This specimen was a delicate 17 years of age. She was trying to live fully or die-a fact that she told the geneticist when he had interviewed her what seemed many months ago but he knew was only a matter of weeks. Those weeks had been the most severe and taxing he had ever gone through. She knew that she had less than an optimistic 73% chance of dying on the proverbial table. In his head the doctor had given her a chance of less than 12% to live, and his inner cynic had given her a snowball’s chance in hell. Maybe, he thought, the king cobra DNA along with the grizzly "wildcard" DNA would make her more resilient and allow her body to be remade. Well, he thought,
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The Ph.D. continued on his rounds to make a stop at the third patient, who was only now in the first stages of the sculpting process. He heard a muffled scream coming from her cell, as she tended to call her DNA modeling room, were she was having her limbs measured for RNA durability, an intensely painful process, especially since she had open sores where her elbows had been and two stumps, barely healed, above where her knees were. She was being modeled for an eccentric combo of komodo dragon and rhinoceros, the former being to boost her healing, the second to "increase her durability", as a lab tech had so dryly put it.
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The physician continued around the ward until he came back to the vacuum-sealed area around one of the most biohazardous district in the hospital. One of three. Yes, it was indeed Subject HS-1. The HS designation stood for Homo Superior. This was the current term for the subjects of his experiments until the International Science Council gave them a formal name, but the he suspected that the in-limbo name would probably stick.
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Chapter 2
A Change of Winds.
Troubled dreams came to him. The man in front of him was tired, exhausted beyond imagining, but also he sensed that he had great power. The ubiquitous creature spoke naught, but beckoned him back to the world where he really was. Old beyond thought, strength beyond that of youth.
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