I took the first sip of my new cup of 'English toffee' flavored drink and spilled some of the contents on my hand when I pulled it back from mild burning pain. After biting through the burn on my hand I decided to cool it down with some cold water.
"Hey Marcus, still awake are we?" Nicholas said as he trotted into the break room. He reached for the same pot I did and took a large drink of scorching hot coffee.
"Hanging on by threads at the moment, just minutes till our organ donor arrives. I'll be up and going like no other by then" I took a seat and started stirring my cup, an annoying habit I wanted to break.
"I'm not sure if you know but I'll be in on the procedure today, Vincent couldn't make it" Nicholas said before taking in another large slurp of his hot drink.
"Well thats... unlike him, must be something big. Have you read the report on the subject?" the look Nicholas gave turned down from a tired smile to a worried look of sorrow or maybe guilt, it was hard for me to tell.
"I did" he coughed.
"Something wrong?" I asked.
"No, well... a bit" He didn't want to spit it out. My prying expression that says 'you should know better by now' got to him.
"Think about it Marcus, all of the other Phonetics we've constructed to this point have been what we would expect to see. Large battle hardened soldiers built to near Grinder specifications with all accessories unattached. But this one is on the opposite side of the scale" I wasn't sure if it was me or the fatigue but listening to him was hard. Outside of the break room we heard the doors slam open and people yelling to get out of the way. We poked our heads out to see a gurney with a clear plastic bag with a body in it. Our organ donor had arrived. A feeling like a spring shooting through my spine said it was time to work.
"She looks so young" Nicholas said.
"Report said she was 21 at time of death"
"Did you see her though? she looked like she could be my daughter"
"You mean 'it' could be your daughter"
"Just because she's passed on doesn't mean she's any less human"
"You and me are scientists Nicholas, becoming attached to our work on such a small scale like that is what puts progress in a bottleneck. She was an organ donor, now she's dead. We bought her body and now its our property, we can do whatever we please with our purchased materials" Nicholas didn't look happy with me but as far as I was concerned it was the truth. We left the break room and made our way to the operating room at a comfortable, slow pace. As we made like sloths down the hall a large box met our stride ahead of us.
"Ah, good the projects here"
"The what?" Nicholas said.
"That there is Project Whiskey"
"It looks like a coffin to me, this whole project seems to be a huge risk"
"Every single piece of technology in that 'coffin' is all brand new materials, all of the tech in there has only ever been tested in computer simulations and other minor tests. I guess we could say Whiskey, when complete will be a prototype composed of prototypes down to the N'th degree. Yes it is a risk, but the reward will be sweet. This is the fastest way to test these parts in an absolute non bias environment. All of the successful testing will be transferred into Alfa when we start that project, but that'll be a while from now from what the estimated test times will take" Nicholas still looked sad.
"So Whiskey is just a prototype while Alfa will be the production model. What happens when the testing is over?"
"Whiskey's operating time is unknown so we'll take what we can get for its overall time in activation"
"Where is it going to get this 'non bias' testing?"
"Levan said that Whiskey, under a different name will join a naval mercenary group called the Bleeding Roses, where it'll become a member and be trained in multiple forms of combat" I said, a slight belt of pride in my voice.
"where 'she' will become a member"
"Nick, listen. Once this operation is over 'she' will have a cybernetic percentage of 94 percent, 'she' will be a machine designed as a test platform for the metal and synthetics 'she' will use everyday. In order to further the success rate of the testing 'she' will be unaware of the fact that 'she' is almost a cyborg on a Tier 8 Grinder specification. Whiskey will be designed to operate and act as a total human, with no access for attachments. Even if Whiskey wanted to it couldn't operate a Grinder if it had the capability" we arrived at the operating room. The body and the replacement parts were all together now. We got cleaned up and prepped for the operation. The lead scientist wanted to review the operation once more before we started.
"Thank you for being here everyone. Now I know its been a hell of a week BUT... if everything goes as planned today we'll be on cruise control for all the long testing we would have been doing to these parts. Now, as of now the single parts of the actual body we need are the brain and the eyes, the rest will be going elsewhere to be used as... well I'm not sure BUT that doesn't matter. The body has been scanned and recreated so we can develop project Whiskey to the body's exact specifications... while leaving room for... this and that BUT we will still be very very careful with what we need. I hope you've done what you needed to because... the next 6 hours will be long BUT rewarding"
I didn't like how the head scientist spoke, it was annoying. The 6 person team stepped into the room, the body lying there just eager to be taken apart. I picked up a scalpel and slid it and my fingers up and down the leg, before getting nudged by Nicholas. Behind us a projector PC spread out the details of our operation. I was in a mild high at the moment, filled with pride that I was helping science to proceed forward. The 6 hours ahead of us for the beginning of this test seemed more like a test of how long I could enjoy myself.
For science, I could do this forever.
