Chương 135: Chapter 134 – Egg-stermination

"Alex, you need to come see this!" Mikale called out, his voice sharp with urgency.

"What is it, Mikale?" Alex called from Thai's bedside. He was hunched over her small arm, trying to thread an IV line into a vein barely visible beneath her fever‑flushed skin. The overhead lights cast a harsh glare across the room, reflecting off metal trays and glass vials.

"I'm kinda busy at the moment." Seraphina stepped beside him, her presence calm and steady. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Go. I will take care of this," she said softly.

"I have medical training, mostly triage and stabilization care. I can handle the IV." Alex looked up at her, searching her eyes for certainty. When she nodded, he exhaled and stripped off his gloves.

"You sure?" he asked, needing the reassurance.

"Yes. Go," she replied, already reaching for the IV kit. Alex crossed the lab quickly, the soles of his boots clicking against the tile floor. The room smelled faintly of disinfectant and warm electronics, the hum of machines filling the air. Mikale was seated at the analysis station, his face lit by the bluish glow of the monitor.

"What did you find?" Alex asked, leaning over Mikale's shoulder.

"She is definitely infected with the nanobots, but they are not behaving like the nanobots we have been studying," Mikale said. His voice carried a mix of confusion and awe.

"Here. See for yourself." He stood so Alex could take his seat. Alex lowered himself into the chair, eyes narrowing as he studied the magnified images. Tiny metallic structures moved across the screen, each one performing its programmed function. Except something was wrong. Something was different.

"Huh," he muttered. He glanced at Thai, then back at the screen. Her small body lay motionless on the cot, her skin glistening with fever.

"Well." He scratched his head.

"No." He shook his head and adjusted the magnification.

"See what I mean?" Mikale asked.

"It is like a war zone in the sample you gave me." Alex leaned closer. The nanobot dropped a clutch of eggs, each one shimmering like tiny silver beads. The moment they touched Thai's blood, something inside her hemoglobin reacted. The eggs ruptured violently, bursting apart before they could stabilize. A sudden series of beeps erupted from the DNA analysis machine. Red warning lights flashed across its display. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"What the hell?" Alex asked, pushing away from the chair and rushing to the machine. The air around it felt warm from its overworked processors. Mikale looked at Thai's still form, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths. Was it possible that something in her bloodstream was destroying the nanobot infestation? Alex scanned the DNA report, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well, this makes no sense. None at all," he said, shaking his head as he walked back to Mikale.

"What is it?" Mikale asked, watching Alex's expression shift from confusion to disbelief.

"Here. Take a look. I think we may need to run it again. There is obviously some form of contaminant in the sample," Alex said.

"We began feeding comparison samples into the machine as we got samples from other species. We should not have results like these." His voice dropped to a murmur.

"Seraphina, I need you for a minute," he called out. Mikale picked up the report and scanned it. His brow furrowed deeper with each line.

"She is positive for Elven, Fairy, Goblin DNA. But what are these no known matches and partial matches?" he muttered. Seraphina approached, wiping her hands on a cloth.

"Thai has an IV in and seems to be stabilizing with a simple saline solution. Her fever is down to one hundred and three degrees. Maybe it is not the nanobots after all. Maybe it is just a simple childhood illness." Alex shook his head.

"No, Seraphina. She is definitely infected with the nanobot tech, but her body is responding in ways we never could have anticipated." He pointed to the screen.

"Her body is actively killing the eggs as the nanobots drop them, preventing the infestation from hijacking her DNA. But that is not all." He took the report from Mikale and handed it to her.

"Look at her DNA report." Seraphina scanned the page, her eyes widening.

"Well, she tested positive for every sample of DNA you have in your database," she said.

"But did you download the sample profile Jasper sent over for the species you do not currently have samples for?"

"What report?" Alex asked, confused.

"This one," Elena said, stepping forward and handing Alex a document. Her fingers were smudged with ink and machine grease.

"Mikale, when you processed the sample, did you modify the parameters to include sample groups one and two?" she asked, moving toward the machine.

"Well, no," he said, his voice small.

"I did not know that was something that needed to be done."

"Sorry. That is probably on me. We had to rewrite the coding on the reporting function to accommodate the new specimens. Our machine was never meant to analyze different species. It was only meant to identify individuals of a particular species," she said, typing rapidly. The machine hummed louder as it processed the new parameters.

"It should only take a few minutes to run the comparison against the new species. We should." She stopped speaking as the machine beeped sharply. A fresh report slid out of the printer. Elena grabbed it, her eyes scanning the page with growing intrigue.

"Well. This is interesting," she said, walking back to the group.

"What?" Alex asked.

"She is positive for every known sampling of genetic material we have in both databases, as well as some that are still showing as unknown," Elena said, handing the report to Alex. The lab fell silent except for the hum of machinery and the faint sound of Thai's breathing. Seraphina looked at the report again.

"Who the hell is your daddy?" Seraphina said, looking at Thai, her voice barely above a whisper.