First Aid Station

graphix: spwilcen

First Aid Station

“Your first tour here?”

“Yes. My first contact with what, again?”

“Humans.”

“Yes.”

“Not a bad tour.  Three brackets and you’re onto your next station anyway. Humans. Tedious at times. Illogical always. Mentally deficient but occasionally something new.”

“This one looks to be leaking.”

“Yes.  In poor shape otherwise, too.”

“These broken seams here?”

“Yes.  Self-inflicted wounds.”

“You know exactly why?”

“She, this one is called a ‘female’¹ you see, tried to remove the NAC.^2”

“Why?”

“Irrelevant, really, but the sublimation of something called emotion.”

“Emotion?”

“One of many flaws, emotion. Vacillations of purpose they, humans, call hate, love, avarice, independence, and more.  The list is endless and all to a greater or lesser degree debilitating.”

“This ‘emotion’ is species specific?”

“Yes. For all its variations, evidence is constant in one form or another. Often multiple manifestations in the same specimen.  Usually at different times, but not always. Weren’t for that, as a species they might be worthwhile.” 

“Have we tried interbreeding?”

“Doesn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Physically strong but anatomically imperfect. As a species they lack essential parts. Fairly-well an isolated strain. Nothing like them anywhere in any galaxy.”

 “Shame. So today we repair the leakage?”

“After we replace the NAC.”

“Replace?”

“This is the third time for this one.”

“Third?”

“First one barely inside the lining of the species’ brain. By law fully aware of the process, some rebel and scratch it out, reverting they think to their ‘normal.’  They don’t understand, much less believe, the ‘chip’ is quite alive and capable of circulation, formless, throughout the host’s body.”

“Quite a deep break in the membrane.”

“Second time, we implant deeper inside the organ.  Makes maintenance and redirecting more difficult, but we are mindful of possible damage with all this scratching and digging to get at the NAC seed. Still, some persist, trying to dislodge the seed. Third time we implant a neucleized seed.”

“Why not neucleize the first time?”

“Impossible to reprogram or adjust effectively later.  Sadly, over time, microneucleized implants result in defective or outdated specimens.  Quite imperfect, real or artificial, useless, and in cases, dangerous.”

“Then there’s room for improvement.”

“In the mechanics and process, certainly. In species specimens, not at all.” 

“Watch closely, this is a severe case. Not the worst I’ve seen.  I’ve had cases where the specimen’s probing and prodding pushed the seed controller so deeply, in removing it, I damaged the human. Nonetheless, this one is going to be a challenge.”

“A lot of time that could be invested elsewhere.”

“Indeed.  There was talk of eliminating the species. Once, anyway. But they breed uncontrollably.  Not to replace or regenerate to improve, but simply to do so, as if breeding were an end in itself.”

“Couldn’t the seed control that, ‘emotion,’ is it?”

“The replicating emotion?”

“Yes.”

“It’s been tried.  There is no pattern to alter or control.  Purely an illogical, unpredictable propensity.”

…

“Done.  Tricky.  A lot of fluid lost. Now to restart the major organs.”

“This specimen seems unresponsive.”

“Indeed. Well.  No loss.  Come, we have five more to re-imbed on this bracket.

—

Notes

¹ Apparently, in other galaxies, there are also more than two reproductive genders.

² NAC Neural Augmentation Chip.  Use your imagination.

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©spwilcenski 2021

spwilcenwrites 10/7/2021 “First Aid Station – October 7, 7E5”