2327/Host In The Shell

Host In The Shell
Date of Scene:	26 May 2015
Location:	Paragon City <CoH>
Synopsis:	Rory and Demetrios meet to discuss options for saving the life of a very sick patient.
Cast of Characters:	673, 769

---

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Demetrios Vasilikos is a man of science. As such, he turns to science for answers to problems... Or at least problems of the medical variety. It's a much different sort of thing to find answers to 'Why does everything I do to help my father only seem to make him worse?' or 'Why, after all the good he has done, is he having to suffer such a painful and horrifying end?' He could provide cold, logical answers to a lot of things. But not all questions. And a logical answer doesn't necessarily quiet the turmoil inside. In a meeting room at Vasilikos Laboratories, on the island north of Independence Port, Dr. Vasilikos is seated and going over information on a computer in front of him, along with many piles of paper. He could be doing this in his office.

    But he's not just working on his own, he's also expecting a visitor. A visitor who might have information regarding one of his last hopes. If conventional medicine will not suffice, then there must be other avenues of research. Other things he can do. Even if they are extreme or untested. There must be SOMETHING. Cybernetics, prosthetic bodies, transplanted minds... Anything other than just bowing to the inevitability of death.

    Sometimes a doctor must accept that there is nothing they could have done.

    Demetrios will not do that for his father.

    Rory will have a special guest pass and an escort to the meeting room. And she will probably have been checked out a bit to make sure she's an actual physician or scientist, and a reputable one. No incidents like the previous one where someone who clearly didn't belong there snuck in.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Background checks on Rory link back to an organization called the Argonauts, who seem to be a forward-thinking group that aims to see technology not only expanded to new heights, but used ethically on behalf of all humanity and its derivatives or friends.

    All information on her is very public. An AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) who's fond of appearing human for better relations, a roboticist, explorer, and infosec specialist roaming the Multiverse as part of Project Odyssey.

    The only trouble is that most of the articles are so full of futuristic lingo that understanding all of it's rather tough. But she is here!

    Dressed in an outfit that looks like a cross between a labcoat and priestess robes, she's strolling through the halls and towards the meeting room with only a few things to bring. What looks like a PDA, and a miniature holo-projector?

    Once in the room however... "I hope this is the right room?"

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The doctor looks up and smiles when his guest appears. He looks ashen, unrested, with dark rings around his eyes. It makes him look far older than he actually is. He is wearing a white lab coat himself. He rises from his chair as he says, "Greetings. You must be Miss Rory White. I'm Dr. Demetrios Vasilikos. You have my utmost gratitude for coming. Please have a seat. If you need anything, let me know."

    Once Rory has gotten settled, the doctor seats himself again, and says somewhat urgently, "You said you had knowledge of cybernetics and prostheses?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Due to the fact that it is extremely commonplace for my world, yes!" Rory answers with a smile, bowing her head in acknowlegement to the greeting and then extending a hand! But once greeting's dealt with she seats herself with a smooth, polite motion and tucks the chair in... then lays both items down on the table.

    "Earlier you asked about a prosthetic body?"

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Dr. Vasilikos glances to the materials set down on the table and then says, "Yes, indeed. A couple days ago I think it was? Or was that yesterday? I've been so busy lately, I've lost track of time." He rubs at his eyes briefly with the back of one hand and says, "A prosthetic body is one possibility I am strongly considering. I have a patient in rather desperate need of SOME sort of treatment, and nothing we have attempted is making any significant progress. We managed to forestall death as a result of a failed treatment recently... We have reason to believe a serum we had prepared to help him was tainted by a villain. Using it or any derivative again would only make the situation worse."

    Vasilikos sighs and says, "To be honest, so much of his body is infected now, saving anything other than his brain might be impossible. Transplants seem to be the only option. Either transplanting healthy tissue into him, or his remaining healthy tissue into a non-infected one. Or, if necessary, a body not susceptible to infection at all."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    THIS news is met with alarm. Rory's eyes go wide. "Someone sabotaged a medical treatment?! Why... would..." She cannot comprehend it, and just shakes her head. "Irrelevant now, I suppose." But her expression brightens. "Thankfully, a full recovery when starting from just a brain is entirely possible! Though growing a new body around it could take weeks or months. Allow me to explain."

    She folds her hands over the table and, ENTIRELY without warning, the holoprojector comes to life! Well, there was a wireless signal, of course...

    The scene it depicts in miniature is a body bank - dozens of bodies, both living and synthetic, stuffed in tubes for storage. An animation plays showing a generic human entering an empty tube, and going dormant... only for another body to come alive.

    "The ideal solution for a failing body would be to grab a new one in my home world. What you see is called a Body bank, where a fairly common device known as an ego Bridge is able to make a backup copy of one brain and implant that into another, or a digitalized neural network. Some people choose to live an entirely digital existence too. In short, bodies are commodities. While I am no doctor, this technology and all of the data on it is freely available from the Argonaut databases and I have some working examples on my ship! ... the trouble is..."

    She akes a frown now. "Tests show that body SWAPPING is unreliable when the subject comes from a world other than my own. It should be possible to use a medical vat to regrow a healthy body though... how much time is there to perform testing?"

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    "The patient has saved a lot of good people, who have then gone on to save many more, and fight against the forces of evil. He, and the people he treats, are heroes. Those who wish for evil, misery, and death to flourish likely do not want him to recover. That is the only reason I can think of for such a heinous act," Demetrios explains.

    The doctor is only briefly surprised by the holograms. He is quickly over it and raptly paying attention, though the timeline provided of 'weeks or months' is less than inspiring. Any ethical considerations over bodies being 'commodities' is seemingly not really in his mind right now. Maybe he's open-minded. Maybe he's just that desperate. As long as they aren't stealing bodies from others, it should be fine, right?

    He drums his fingers on the table for several seconds, considering and not answering Rory immediately. Then he stops his hand's idle movement and answers, "We do not expect him to last the rest of the week. Two to three days. Four if he's lucky. That serum was our last hope for stalling the infection until we could find a long-term solution." He takes in a breath and then lets it out slowly. "If there is a way to speed up the process, please let me know. I am going to continue investigating other possibilities as well, but at this point, we may well need a miracle to save the patient."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Only days?! ... This is risky, but there is no time for delays. Alright, then..."

    The holoprojector changes again. This time it shows what looks like another body-holding tube, except this one's full of a bubbling liquid and all kinds of thin apparati. A nude body - merely a silhouette - is displayed. "Medical Vats might be able to handle it. Regrowing a body from nothing more than a freshly severed head - apologies for the grismal image - has been done before. Work accidents..."

    The Silhouette changes to show nothing more than the head floating up at the top, and it's SLOWLY growing out a new body, arms, legs, much like growth in a womb might look except for starting with a developed head. "Since the subject's own DNA is used for the process, rejection is completely unheard of. The only downside is being stuck, immobile, within the Medical Vat for some time. I'm not sure that doing it from just a brain alone is something the built-in AI can do without checking. A trained technician and doctor might have to oversee that process!" And she doesn't sound happy about the latter. ".. With little time to prepare... keeping a brain in complete stasis until that can be done IS possible though. What... exactly is the patient suffering from?"

    The display now changes to show a list of hundreds of files about medical cases, and a search prompt.

    The Ecto - the PDA - also comes alive to show the prompt. If Demetrios wants to type it in, he can!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Overseeing the process? Well, that isn't as much of a problem for the doctor as it is for Rory. He seems fine with that. The fact the process is 'risky' barely even gets him to bat an eye. At the question of what the patient is suffering from, Vasilikos pauses, and turns to the PDA to see if there's some kind of database that might have an actual cure. But he already knows that's unlikely. This is something spawned of both alien origins and his own world. The chances of an exact match in anything short of an alternate universe of some kind are... Low to say the least.

    He decides to just describe it instead. "An extraterrestrial micro-organism, which we now believe to have been altered by monstrous beings known as the Devouring Earth, has been crystallizing the patient's cells throughout his body. Most of his body is now composed of these organic crystals. Until recently, when we attempted to use a serum based upon retroengineered Devouring Earth toxins, the crystallized tissue continue to perform the same basic functions as their flesh counterparts as far as sustaining life, though immobilization was still an issue. The sabotaged toxin seems to have started killing the crystallized tissue as well as any remaining human tissue. We managed to counter the serum's contaminated agents, but now the crystals are 'dying' as well."

    Demetrios shakes his head. "Over 90% of his body is comprised of crystal now. Getting inside the head to extract the patient's brain for transplant without getting crystal fragments spilling inside is going to be tricky enough on its own. We may need to search for healizing-specialized super beings." He pauses and considers. Maybe Cortex could use his telekinesis or something? He would have to ask. He didn't know how precise the psychic hero could be.

    But they needed someone VERY precise.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Nanosweepers could hunt for fragments to remove, but this already sounds tricky enough." Rory shakes her head, shoulders sagging. "So long as the brain is intact I can help. There's also a chance the Ego Bridge might be able to make a successful Ego transfer. If it can't, no harm done, but if there's crystals in the way I am not sure whether it will be able to attempt a read operation or not. I wonder if putting him in some kind of stasis to buy a little more time isn't warranted?"

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Dr. Vasilikos nods and says, "If you have the means, we could attempt that. Stasis could buy time, depending on how it works. That's not exactly a science I'm familiar with, though it would probably help quite a bit." And could have been immensely helpful long before now, if only he had thought to ask. But the idea didn't even occur to him. Would his father have thought of it in Demetrios's shoes? He doesn't know. For all his supposed brilliance and experience, his father has been a doctor treating heroes for far longer than him. Demetrios still has much to learn.

    "Thank you again, Miss White. To be blunt, I can use any help and hope I can get. The patient is... Very close to me. And the world will be a much darker place for many heroes without him. Would you believe I've even considered the possibility of investigating magic?" He smiles, but it's a humorless smile. He is a scientist. He should not be seeking 'supernatural' powers. "If this Ego Bridge procedure can be attempted without risk, there is no reason not to attempt it as soon as is viable. Please let me know what I need to do to prepare, if there are any expenses involved, or anything of that nature. I will... Do my best to consult with the patient and see if he will consent to the attempt. He is not always lucid, but perhaps there is still time to communicate."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Considering that 'magic' is much more reputable in the Multiverse... why would that surprise me, doctor?" Rory does sound honestly cuirious instead of wry about it, but well... she's a bit weird that way. "It may operate on principles understood by a few, but electricity once fell under that category. Researching 'magic' is one goal of mine when there's some time to spare." And she's very proud of that. It brings a smile to her face.

    "As for preparations... there's no expenses. Life and health are basic rights and the technology to promote them should be freely available. That is the Argonaut belief, and I adhere to it. Wheeling a Medical Vat in and ensuring it has an ample power supply should be all that's needed for stasis."

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    How heartening to see that organizations like the Argonauts exist. If only he had reached out to them sooner. But there may still be time. The doctor smiles and says, "At least here, there is a distinction between science and magic. As a doctor, I am not really supposed to endorse unproven methods like drinking strange concoctions of dubious ingredients or chanting over a patient while wearing masks or anything of that nature. People are welcome to their beliefs, but it is not my purview to encourage magic usage in this hospital. And yet here I am, considering just that."

    Given he has been researching some extremely unproven methods so far, that might explain why magic isn't too far of a leap for him. Not that anyone is really familiar with what he's been researching. Except maybe Cortex.

    Vasilikos climbs to his feet wearily and says, "Thank you. I'll go talk to the patient as soon as we're done here. If you could begin making preparations at your earliest convenience, it would be appreciated."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory also rises. "I'll bring it in right away, just make sure there's room and sufficient power. It will need an industrial power source. I'll bring in a small generator later if that proves unlikely to work out." She executes another bow. "Hopefully your patient can recover. Feel free to keep the Ecto, it has a complete copy of the standard Argonaut database. Maybe something in it will be of use."