Chương 28: Chapter Twenty-Five - Self-Operation

Vena had never operated on herself before, but she supposed there was a first time for everything. She ran the tip of a scalpel along the edge of her lowest rib, then reached over for a towel which she used to dab away at the blood seeping through. She was, at the moment, very drugged. A painkiller from Vyper, as well as a powerful anti-coagulant. The cut had felt like a soft touch, and it was painless. A second cut, then she was able to pull away her skin and observe her insides.

Strange, how doing this to others was only a little different than doing it to herself. Intellectually, she knew there was a difference, of course, but she felt like her emotional response should have been greater.

"Okay," she said as she laid the scalpel down and reached in.

"I see... stomach, transverse colon, and this is my gallbladder here. Huh, its shaped a little strangely."

"Some amount of variation is to be expected in the shape of organs."

"Of course," she agreed. Blinking, she refocused on the moment, and then was promptly interrupted by a small pop-up. Kill Confirmed: 1x Genestealer New Point Total: 446 That was good, and-- Kill Confirmed: 1x Genestealer New Point Total: 451"Two in a row," she muttered.

"And still only five points each."

"The kills aren't done in your proximity."

"Yes, you explained as much," she said as she pinned her skin flap to the side. The towel returned and she dabbed more blood away. The anti-coagulant was really quite good.

"It's fine. A few points here and there add up. I'm ready to implant the synthetic organs."

"Understood. I've determined that this order is best." New Purchase: Gene-editor Organ New Point Total: 251 The new organ came in a small, translucent box within one of Vyper's more standard boxes. She lifted it up to the lumens above and observed the little pale-pink thing. It wasn't much larger than her gallbladder.

"Well, here goes nothing," she said. The small box went into her chest cavity, and was opened on one side. Then she gently shook the new organ out. It squirmed around, then latched onto the side of her stomach where it spread out. Once it was fully in place, the organ squirmed a little more and 'bit' into one of the veins running along the side of her stomach, from there, it turned a darker, healthier pink as her blood flowed into it.

The Gene-editor organ would allow her to tweak and edit her own genetic code, re-writing her DNA as fresh blood and cells passed through it.

"How long would it take to grow an extra pair of arms?" she asked.

"Under normal conditions? Approximately nine years." A little disappointing, but not altogether strange. The idea was to allow her access to a slow but steady, and more importantly cheap, way to improve her vital functions. Vena was well aware of the multitude of issues that plagued her. Merely being voidborn as she was came with a list of detriments. Her height, surpassing seven feet, was already a drain on her body's resources.

Her bones were more brittle, her muscles more liable to suffer from minor strain, and her heart had its own host of issues. A few genetic tweaks could help that. And the organ would allow her to 'download' new genetic templates to grow within herself. It would be slow, but having the eyesight of a person born with the genetics of an aeronautical pilot, the cartilage of a tenth generation gymnast or the lung capacity of someone born on a water world... well, there were advantages. Peak humanity was now within reach.

She intended to push past that, of course. In for a penny, in for a throne.

"Next," she said. New Purchase: Hemo Regulator Organ New Point Total: 51 The next new organ was a little larger, and this one required that she move her colon around a little to make room for it. She intended to improve her digestive system soon. Make it more efficient and take up less space in her torso so that she might fit other, more interesting organs in. The Hemo Regulator was a flat organ, covered in several sacks. It reached out and tapped into a spinal artery, then some of her veins.

Almost immediately, it puffed out, the sacs on its sides filling with blood. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. It had the muscular capability of a weak heart. More interestingly, it had the blood-fabricating properties of a spleen and some bone marrow and was covered in small lymphs that could fabricate fresh cells on demand. More importantly, its sacs could grow and squeeze down, regulating her blood pressure.

She closed her chest up, spraying an anti-bacterial as she was doing it, then she held the skin in place while taking a deep puff of a Nanoregenerative she had bought prior to the operation. The skin sewed itself together, at first leaving an ugly mark like a stretch across her torso before even that started to fade.

"Beautiful," she said as she turned the Nanoregenerative away. She redressed in a hurry. Her 'break' could only last so long. This was the first part of her plan. The next part would be a little more tricky. Kill Confirmed: 1x Genestealer New Point Total: 56"How timely," she muttered before she packed her things away. All except for three syringes. Moving to the door flap of her operating theater, she opened it, stuck her head out, then looked at her 'guards.'

They were there as much to keep her in place as to protect her.

"Miss healer, ma'am?" one of them asked. He was a big man who might well be part ogryn, though he was relatively well-spoken.

"Would you three mind giving me a hand? I need to move the operating bed." She smiled then backed up.

"I wish I were more convincing... do you know of any biological ways to improve that?"

"Beauty may assist. The human mind is susceptible to such things. There are also pheromonal solutions. You may want to invest in either external or internal systems to produce different chemical agents with different effects." She nodded, that was on her shortlist as well.

"What about... psykers?" The subject was taboo. It was also one she had researched. Many things that the average medicae knew were taboo, or even outright heretical, but unless a medicae pushed things quite far, it was uncommon for the inquisition to care. After all, their service was necessary for the continued health of entire worlds. They needed to know how mutations worked, how certain xeno medicines interacted with people, and how to cure the effects of psyker-caused damage.

There were also statistics that she had memorized. A purestrain, or near pure human, was far less likely to have psychic abilities compared to a mutant. That made treating mutants somewhat more risky. Based on that and some... additional research, she knew that there were some with a genetic predisposition to becoming psycho-active.

"Interesting. I know surprisingly little about the subject. Given what I do know, I could create a catalogue that would allow you to tap into that kind of power, but my guidance beyond that point may well be limited."

"Interesting," she said.

"Would it be costly?"

"The opposite. You would be putting yourself at risk, but I'd be willing to lower certain costs to defray such a risk." She worked her jaw while thinking. Then the three guards moved into the room, and she refocused. Doing something like this right after an operation was foolish, but.

"Yes, just there, the table," she said. The guards moved over, and the moment two of them had their backs to her, she grabbed two of her syringes and plunged them into their backs. Both men flinched, and one spun around, only for his momentum to carry him around as he crashed down. Then she moved up and stabbed the third before taking a long step back.

"What the!" the big man said. He pulled out a large, rather chunky-looking autopistol and pointed it at her.

"What'd you do?" he asked.

"I knocked your pals out," she said.

"They'll be fine in a day or two. Now, I need you to listen. You won't be. I poisoned you, but, but, I have the cure." He paused, then looked at the space where she'd stabbed him.

"What?"

"You will die unless I help you," she said.

"But why?" he asked.

"I need your assistance in leaving this place. If you help me, I'll give you the cure, and we can part ways amicably," she replied.

"Isn't that fair?"