Hardenbrooke shrugged, and made an adjustment to the couch so that Kendrick found himself staring upwards into a complicated array of lenses and sensors suspended from the ceiling.
Hardenbrooke picked up one of the spray 'derms and paused. 'We're in unknown territory here,' he said. 'I want you to understand that.'
Kendrick nodded. 'I do.'
Hardenbrooke touched the 'derm to the inside of Kendrick's bare elbow. Kendrick felt a curious coolness spread along his arm, a sensation with a peculiarly synaesthetic quality to it, as if he could taste peppermint through his skin.
This faded quickly. Twisting his head round slightly, Kendrick watched as the medic unrolled a blank eepsheet and hung it from a hook screwed into the wall. Next he picked up a slim plastic wand that looked even more out of date than Kendrick's own. He pointed it first at Kendrick, then at the blank eepsheet.
Kendrick could see the eepsheet clearly from where he lay. Its surface strobed for a moment before resolving into a cloud of brightly coloured pixels spreading rapidly across a field of black. There was a vague sense of form and pattern to the movement of the pixels.
Kendrick realized that Hardenbrooke had just injected him with a form of nanite – vat-grown molecular machines that would provide a wealth of information about what was happening inside his body. This process extended to real-time visuals and, over the next minute or so, the blurry mass of pixels resolved itself into a distinctly human-like shape.
Kendrick twisted his head around so he could watch Hardenbrooke, who was meanwhile keeping an eye on the other eepsheets mounted above his workspace. Kendrick gazed with uneasy fascination at the outline of his own heart, the major blood arteries already clearly delineated by the flood of information flowing from Hardenbrooke's nanites.
Now other 'sheets had started to display full-colour video images of his blood vessels – from the inside. Tumbling camera views spun by arterial walls, and he caught occasional glimpses of smooth, metallic grey where, in any normal unaugmented person, there should have been no such thing.
The first time Kendrick had seen these pictures, he'd expected them to make him uneasy. It could be a hard thing to get a high-definition tour of the sack of meat and blood that made up your body. Instead, he felt strangely reassured by it. He was still clearly human, whatever might be happening inside his body. He suspected that the reason the medic was letting him see these images was to make him feel involved in the consultation process, a psychological ploy intended to make it seem as if they were engaged together in a journey of mutual discovery.
Hardenbrooke didn't actually need to witness any of this process himself since it was the correlated post- examination data that the nanites provided which really mattered. But Kendrick was strangely glad of it all the same. He thought of the nanites as tiny agents of positive change, even though they comprised the same kind of technology as his augmentations. The 'good' nanites roamed through his body like microscopic policemen, making sure that everything was in order and that no rowdy augments were stirring up trouble deep within his organs.
On-screen the augmentations showed up as red patches, mostly clustered around his spine and major organs, which manifested as blue. Countless red filaments spread up the tube of his neck, reaching deep into his skull. More filaments surrounded the meat of his brain like a wire cage. There were also segments of red scattered throughout his lungs, his kidneys, through every major organ. Kendrick peered, straining to see if anything had visibly altered. Every now and then one of the video images afforded him fresh glimpses of the artificial organisms that had taken root in his flesh.
But they were also intrinsically part of him, whether he wanted them or not. He thought back to the nightmares that had assailed him, ever since his incarceration in Ward Seventeen, of fine grey filaments extruding from his body like stilettos.
Hardenbrooke too watched the progress on the screen, then turned back to him.
'Your heart…'
Kendrick sat up abruptly, the electronic map of his body on the screen changing in response, shifting, twisting and blurring as he shifted onto the edge of the examination couch.
Hardenbrooke picked up another spray 'derm, one on which Kendrick noticed a sticky label with fine, tiny cursive handwriting. But the label was angled away from him, making it impossible to decipher the words.
Hardenbrooke held it up. 'How much did I tell you about this stuff?'
'Last time I was here, you said it was something new from the States.'
'Do you remember our other little chat, when we first met, about the current legal status of what's inside this?'
Kendrick took a deep breath. 'Yes, I do.'
'Remember what I said then, how this is strictly experimental? You know how tight the guidelines are regarding biotechnologies like these.'
'But you're sure it's safe?'
Hardenbrooke sighed. 'It's probably no worse than what you've already got inside you. I'm not going to give you any guarantees or false promises, but there's every chance you'll keep getting better. This stuff has already successfully stabilized much of the augmentation activity inside you.'
'But it is working,' Kendrick insisted. 'I'm getting better. I know I am.'
'And you say you've suffered two seizures in rapid order. Perhaps that's a sign of change – perhaps even positive change.'
'But what about my heart? What's happened to it? I need to know,' Kendrick demanded, his mind going numb.
Hardenbrooke pinched his nose between two fingers and closed his eyes, pondering. 'I'd need to analyse the information downloaded from the nanites and try to get some grip on exactly what's happened to you but, from what I've seen, it's clear your heart's been bypassed in some way. There are new structures inside you. My guess is – and I stress the word guess – is that the new structures are now controlling the flow of your blood.'
Kendrick absorbed this information without comment. Hardenbrooke had only told him what he'd already suspected, yet hearing it confirmed in this way stirred up a darkness deep inside him, something shrill and insane that was fighting to get loose. He pushed it back down.
'I urge you to remember that this is no reason to start worrying,' Hardenbrooke reminded him.
Kendrick laughed, hearing the edge of hysteria there. 'Not worry? I'm not to worry about it? Are you crazy?'
'Mr Gallmon, I never had reason to ask this before, but is there any history of heart problems in your family?'
'What does that have to do with anything? I…' Then he remembered an aunt who'd died of a coronary. His mother had also suffered a mild heart attack in her early forties. 'Some, yes, I have to admit. But why do you ask now?'
'Your augments integrate with your nervous system and major organs, changing them as they do so, like soldiers building a fort out of whatever material they can find. They respond strongly to perceived threats and, to a very great degree, they come up with their own definitions of what they regard as a threat. That could include medical conditions.'
Kendrick was thunderstruck. 'Wait a minute, are you saying I… you mean I had a heart attack? That's what this is all about?'
'I'm saying just imagine, if you will, that your augmentations reacted to a heart attack, or some kind of coronary event, by taking over your heart's functions. I'm not saying that's what it is. I'm only saying that's my best guess for now. If I were you, I'd thank my lucky stars.'
'My heart-?'
'Has been bypassed, but you're very much alive. Focus on that: it means your augments are working for you, instead of against you.' Hardenbrooke held up the 'derm again. 'So let's make sure things stay that way.' He leaned over and injected its contents into Kendrick's arm while Kendrick glanced over the medic's shoulder at the pixellated views of his own internal organs.
Hardenbrooke stood up straight again and smiled. 'Remind me, then: have we had this conversation?'
Kendrick sighed. 'No, we haven't.'
