Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold

Author:Lois McMaster Bujold
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9781439133941
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2010-10-19T10:00:00+00:00

It took many hours to bring Lisa Sato's core temperature up from deep-cryonic to just below freezing. Miles sent Johannes back to the consulate, and, as the night wore on, took turn-about with Roic napping in a makeshift bunk in a room opposite Raven's cobbled-together revival lab, set up on the third floor of the old patron intake building. Raven and Medtech Tanaka, too, took the night watch in shifts. Dawn of the new day brought the start of the critical procedures: the flushing of the old cryo-fluid, the swift replacement with what to Miles seemed vats of new synthetic blood. The skin of the supine figure on the procedure table went from clay gray to an encouraging warm ivory with the transfusion. The cryo-fluid gurgled away down the drain.

If they'd had the time and equipment, not to mention a starter-sample from the patient, whole blood identical to the original's could have been grown. The synthetic blood lacked the unique white cells the patient's own body produced, so the revived person would have to be in isolation for an indeterminate time following, till her own marrow began to refill the immunity gaps. Miles had been kept asleep through that phase, Raven told him, but then, he'd had a lot more trauma, surgical and otherwise, to heal from. Ako had spent all last evening cleaning and readying the isolation booth.

Raven was maddeningly vague about how soon his patient might be questioned, and made it clear that her children had priority as her first visitors. Miles didn't argue with that; he couldn't think of anything better to motivate the woman to fight her way to her full faculties.

Miles was anxious to offer help, but as they approached the point of no return in the procedures, Raven sat him down at a distance on a stool with a face mask across his mouth. The memorystick around the edges molded to his skin in a flexible but efficient seal, and the electropores even filtered viruses. Still, Miles wasn't entirely sure if it was only to block germs. So he bit his tongue rather than shrieking when Raven muttered, "Damn it . . . that's not right."

"What's not right?" Miles asked, as Raven and the medtech busied themselves about the table and didn't answer.

"There's no electrical latency in the brain," Raven said, just before Miles started to repeat his question, louder. "It should be coming up by now. . . .  Tanaka, let's try a good old-fashioned shot of shock, here."

Lisa Sato's head bore something resembling a swimming cap, studded with electronics and sensors, tight to the dark hair plastered flat with cryo-gel. Raven did something to his control screen, and the cap made a snapping noise that made Miles jump and almost topple off his stool. Raven scowled at his readouts. His gloved hand went out, almost unconsciously it seemed to Miles, to massage his patient's limp hand.

"Close that drain," Raven said, abruptly and inexplicably, and the medtech hurried to comply. He stepped back a pace. "This isn't working."

The bottom fell out of Miles's stomach in a sickening lurch.

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