Re: Cutting through the Surface: Tuesday March 27th
undefinable data passed through T1's memory banks, it was not coming from himself but something else in the room with them, mecahnical or human he did not know but it was not binary and his systems had not adapted to translate it yet, though in time perhaps it would be possible. "such a complex thing the human mind, fascinating yet so fragile" he spoke slowly observing the nurse's movements with great intrigue, recording every last speck of information aout this encouter as he could, the scns his systems were performing on the patient and doctors, his own reactions and processes and those of the machinery in the room, even the mild flickering of the lighting, undefinable to the human eye still got recorded into his long term memory.
the convulsions from their patient, though they could be quite severe were in fact nothing compared to what could happen, and was very likely to happen once the implants were actually removed from his body. there had only been one attempt at removing the implants on file, well one attempt on a living subject, scanning over the file it suggested that the convulsions could be lessened by keeping the patient calm mentally as well as physically.
"Having not done this bfore i doubt the correct Drugs were issued before the procedure" he said in his emotionless voice, knowing full well the laundry list of concoctions on the file he had up would not have been thought of, mostly because the good doctor had morals "the patient would have been isued with a form of mind control serum in order to calm them whilst under anasthetic and lessen the effect of later convulsions" there was a pause as he did some calulations "it would be too late to administer them now, with the patient in his current state his survival chances would drop by 34 per cent" another pause was made to scan the room for anything that might be of help, totally missing the fact that he had managed to break down at least one of the many barriers that stopped him from speaking of the initiative in any way.
"Once the implants are removed the patient will convulse further, the shock of taking away something that has been feeding him fo rso long will be great, though he should be more accessable to direct calming help" it souded vague, though the robot had directed his focus once more to the nurse. everything he had read upon the school suggested that they frowned upon residents from using their powers to control another, and he knew it was wrong of him to suggest it but every calculation and system in his mechanical being told him that logic and the change to save a mans life was more important than a rule about moral use of powers.
wether or not the doctor and Talia understood what T1 was suggesting he did not know, but his protocols were telling him that out and out saying 'you have to control him for a bit to keep him calm' was wrong in this situation. instead he looked across at the doctor, a man of principle who had already broken some of those by meerely allowing the mechanical to assist in this procedure. "it is possible to do this without it" he added his scanners showing that they were close to uncovering the implant, meaning time was running out for descisions to be made "we would need to restart him though" the initiatives tests with simulated subjects had all ended in much the same result, the simualted patient's heart stopped and had to be restarted.
Re: Cutting through the Surface: Tuesday March 27th
Consciously opening yourself up to a telepath wasn’t something you did lightly. Especially if you knew what they were capable of! Not even if you trusted them implicitly, as Hank did Talia. He knew she wouldn’t pry. That she would be as loath to delve into his secrets as he was to divulge them. Still she would see too much. She would see the man behind the doctor. With all the fears and doubts that entailed! This bond had to be so perfect, so seamless that their very senses would flow together and become one. To achieve it Hank knew was asking his young assistant to wield her own power as skilfully as he wielded his own scalpel. Nor did he doubt for a moment that she was capable of doing so. Provided he kept still. Mentally that was. While she made the incision!
So when she entered his psyche he didn’t try to hide anything. Not his concern for Riley. Not his pride in her. Not even his guilt at having brought them to this pass by having overlooked an implant that was, by its very nature, designed to be overlooked. Intellectually he knew that to be true. Emotionally though, that was something else entirely. Those emotions though were the side of him he kept hidden behind the glasses and the reassuring smile. And which she was about to discover.
Not that she was without her own fears though. Understandably enough! Hank hated the fact that he had unwittingly plunged her into this situation. But if she could in fact read his heart then she would know that he thought her infinitely capable of assuming it. And she could read his heart that much was certain! It was hard now to tell where his fear ended and hers began. Thoughts inevitably bled into each other, though Talia’s touch was light against his open mind. Every doubt that she felt was mirrored in him. Doubts about his abilities! About his appearance! About every aspect of his life! Doubts that he lived with each and every day! As everyone did.
Doctor or not! Mutant or not! Highlighted, yes in this particular place and time but present each and every day! And if they now stood , both of them, holding Riley’s life in their hands than that meant they had looked these fears in the face and overcome them. As they would again!
Hanks vision swam dizzily in front of him before settling down again, as if he had been trying to read one of his beloved books without the benefit of his spectacles and had suddenly put them on. The eyes he was looking through were not his own. And under the circumstances that was all he could have asked for. Though he wasn’t sure it would be enough. .
"Such a complex thing the human mind, fascinating yet so fragile" T1 said unexpectedly and though his voice was by its very design incapable of rendering emotion yet still his curiosity was obvious. As was his underlying concern when he spoke of Riley’s condition! "Having not done this before I doubt the correct Drugs were issued before the procedure" he told them, his words causing a wave of deepened anxiety to sweep through the physicians mind before he got it under control.
The drugs! That insidious mixture that the agency had poured into Riley’s body to keep him compliant! Hank had been forced to recreate at least a part of the formula just to get Riley this far, supplementing what the implant pumped into his system with his own concoction of opiates and steroids. That had been a recipe for everyday use though. Not a solution for extreme conditions such as this. What else should he have given Riley to keep him safe? What else could he do now to rectify the situation? Nothing it seemed, if T1’s analysis was accurate.
"The patient would have been issued with a form of mind control serum in order to calm them whilst under anaesthetic and lessen the effect of later convulsions" the mechanical man informed him "It would be too late to administer them now, with the patient in his current state his survival chances would drop by 34 per cent"
That was 34 per cent they didn’t have to play with and they all knew it. Already the odds were stacked so heavily against them that no one in their right mind would cover this particular bet. And yet despite all that they had to pull it off or Riley would be the one to pay the price. That was what kept Hank focused when he could so easily have ceded to panic. Because if he allowed himself for one moment to believe that this was impossible then all was lost. Instead his agile mind searched for solutions as T1 's implacable voice continued to feed him the facts he so badly needed.
"Once the implants are removed the patient will convulse further, the shock of taking away something that has been feeding him for so long will be great, though he should be more accessible to direct calming help" They were all thinking the same thing then. There would inevitably come a time when Riley’s mind would need to be soothed and if they didn’t have the drugs with which to do it then perhaps they had something better. He could feel the realisation sink into Talia’s mind bringing with it even more doubt and fear as her role in this drama became central. The doctor forced his concerns to the background calming his own emotions in order not to trouble her further while letting those feelings of trust and belief in her capabilities come to the fore.
"It is possible to do this without it. We would need to restart him though" The initiatives tests with simulated subjects had all ended in much the same result, the simulated patient's heart stopped and had to be restarted “
Hank couldn’t help but feel a certain degree of relief set in at this declaration. They would have a plan B then. Something to fall back on if, despite the implant being removed, Talia still couldn’t reach into Riley’s thoughts and bring him the peace he needed. Even if at first glance it seemed drastic in the extreme. Restarting someone’s heart though was always on the table whenever someone went under the knife.
No matter how skilful the doctor was, things happened. Unexpected things that could stop a heart in the blink of an eye! And oblige the surgeon to force life back into it. The shiar machines did it with an expertise and a degree of gentleness that could be reproduced no where else. But it was still a last resort. Something to be avoided if at all possible.
“Very well then” Hank said calmly, his mind too, calculating ways and means as always, but emotionally at ease now that a decision had been reached. ‘We have a workable course of action laid out before us. And the first part of it has already been accomplished. I can guide Talia through the initial opening of the skull.. then you can remove the implant. At which point, technically it should no longer prevent Talia from entering into contact with Riley’s psyche and calming him down.
If this does however still prove to be impossible then we shall simply wait for the inevitable reaction and deal with it accordingly. If it comes down to it then this will not be the first system I have rebooted on and operation table. Nor will it be the last. Are we agreed? Or does anyone have any questions before we begin? . .
Re: Cutting through the Surface: Tuesday March 27th
The machine man was talking, and Talia tried to pay attention but failed for most of it, all her focus was on Hank, and the staring down at Riley, suddenly she felt bad for all the times he ever asked her just to say something to him and all the times she refused. "Having not done this before I doubt the correct Drugs were issued before the procedure" It wasn’t only Hank’s anxiety the shifter felt, she knew her own stomach was in knots and fear over what exactly that meant. Was something seriously wrong? Was there something they had to do now to make up for that? Talia’s golden eyes had turned to stare at Hank, and watched her mentor as he struggled with his own thoughts, there were things now flowing through the doctor’s mind, serious concerns, upsets, it was all written in his face, the same expression that came when faced with such stressful crossroads of uncertainty.
"The patient would have been issued with a form of mind control serum in order to calm them whilst under anaesthetic and lessen the effect of later convulsions" Mind control serum?! Talia frowned, more upset now then before, what kind of people used such drugs? And why? Mind control was never a good thing surely! "It would be too late to administer them now, with the patient in his current state his survival chances would drop by 34 p Cocnern filled her all the more, looking back towards T1 and then over at Hank again to see what McCoy would say in reply. 34% was a serious drop, and Talia was sure it wouldn’t be something they’d do, but it still all felt nerve racking and frightful.
"Once the implants are removed the patient will convulse further, the shock of taking away something that has been feeding him for so long will be great, though he should be more accessible to direct calming help" Direct calming help? Talia wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Riley calm, at least not outside when he was training or doing exercises, those seemed to be the only moments Riley wasn’t stressed or stressing over something. But who here could help calm him? T1… killed Riley’s unborn child, even if all this was some sort of effort from T1 to rectify that, in the end it changes nothing, Riley was not going to just get over the fact, and Hank? There were point Riley seemed so anxious around the doctor, so worried or unsure, she couldn’t see that helping him either. In a room of three people, four including Riley himself, Talia had managed to knock off two already, which left Riley, or herself… the chances of Riley soothing his own stress was minimal enough to be brushed aside without much thought and that left just her. Suddenly it all seemed so much, what could she do? He got upset at her all the time in training because Riley kept insisting that she had to be more open with her team mates, she couldn’t just send the odd comment to one or two people, her voice was her tool and she needed to use it and it was too much pressure and she always backed down.
With eyes closed, Talia could feel Hank’s mind, she could sense his desire for her to notice something, the positive sensations that flowed from him, like a warm and gentle aura, and yet she wondered if that would be enough… Just because he believed in her didn’t make her capable, it just meant he needed her to do this, and he was taking the chance that she’d be capable, and maybe a part of him believed it, another part of her still wasn’t sure what to think.
"It is possible to do this without it. We would need to restart him though. The initiatives tests with simulated subjects had all ended in much the same result, the simulated patient's heart stopped and had to be restarted" Opening her eyes, Talia stared once more towards T1, biting her lip gently at the thought of willing stopping someone’s heart! Then again, Hank didn’t seem as if he were about to burst out in disapproval, so the telepath continued to watch between the two men, only slowly allowing her eyes to drift down and stare almost sympathetically at Riley’s face. She wondered if it perhaps was more common then the young shifter imagined… maybe later, when all this was over and there was nothing more then just time and waiting left, she might go and research this sort of thing more thoroughly.
"Very well then" Came McCoy’s levelled voice, he knew what to do, he knew where to start, Talia braced herself, because soon enough, he would be giving her orders. "We have a workable course of action laid out before us. And the first part of it has already been accomplished. I can guide Talia through the initial opening of the skull.. then you can remove the implant. At which point, technically it should no longer prevent Talia from entering into contact with Riley’s psyche and calming him down. " With a nod his nurse continued to listen, feeling a lot of pressure and yet doing her best to swallow it all and move on with what needed to be done.
"If this does however still prove to be impossible then we shall simply wait for the inevitable reaction and deal with it accordingly. If it comes down to it then this will not be the first system I have rebooted on an operation table. Nor will it be the last. Are we agreed? Or does anyone have any questions before we begin? " There was a slight shake of Talia’s head; she had no idea what to ask even if she wanted to say something. Right now all that mattered was paying perfect attention to Hank’s orders and following his knowledge and input with as much swift understanding as possible.