Jason X: The Experiment by Pat Cadigan

Author:Pat Cadigan [Cadigan, Pat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure
ISBN: 9781844161690
Google: H-kVNAAACAAJ
Amazon: 1844161692
Publisher: Black Flame
Published: 2005-01-24T11:00:00+00:00

***

As it turned out, the tissue-sampler Dr Gold had been referring to was not the standard assortment of specialized syringes and sterile receptacles with settings to regulate temperature and pH all laid out on a custom-built cart, but a self-contained technological marvel that Professor Morse had once assured her would not exist for at least another decade. So much for free exchange of academic knowledge and research, Lynne thought. If someone as well connected and respected in his field is not aware of this, then no one out there is. The knowledge, the technology, were trapped in here as surely as the airlocks trapped anything that might want to float out in the air.

The tissue-sampler was shaped exactly like one of those really old Pre-Evacuation dollhouses she had seen in the Museum of Eternal Childhood at New Harvard. Not one of the late-twentieth century artifacts with a brand name, but one of the really, really old ones made out of metal or wood with a gabled roof. The top of the tissue-sampler's exterior housing came to the same kind of point and once Lynne had made the association, it stuck there in her mind, refusing to go away. Some toy. On the other hand, if Professor Morse could have seen this, Lynne thought with some amusement, he probably would have reacted to it very much like a ten year-old confronted with the toy of his dreams. Not that there was any chance of that: Morse and everyone else outside of this complex were out of the loop, way out.

It was unlikely that he would have made the same association with the shape; he would have been captivated by the gathering tool, a deceptively simple-looking instrument on the end of an ordinary retractable cable. When not in use, the tool took the shape of a flattened metal teaspoon. Applied to certain areas of the human body, however, and it would detect certain cells as specified. If a sample were requested, nanos would realign the tool's make-up and structure so that it could penetrate the body painlessly, retrieve the desired cells, and withdraw. And all using a fraction of the energy (and expense) it took to perform the same procedure on a nano bed. Yeah, that really was some toy, all right.

She was starting to feel a little sorry that she wasn't more actively enthused and fascinated by the thing as she followed Gold from bed to bed. That could have been the medication the beautiful doctor had dosed her with, of course. Or it might have been the fact that there wasn't very much for her to do. Occasionally, she repositioned the unit for him when the cord on the collecting tool wouldn't quite reach and from time to time, she would have to set the brake to keep it from rolling because he had forgotten. But other than verifying a few numbers off one of the read-outs for him, all she actually did was stand around wondering why Gold had insisted on her presence.

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