Nano-Nano

[DrDMatthews 0]

Debbie Matthews kept her concerns to herself. The procedure to remove hundreds of nano-probes from Jon Shamor's body was proceeding at a snails pace but it was proceeding. They'd attempted to allow Jon to remain awake and aware but the pain proved more than he could tolerate. He probably could have survived it if absolutely necessary but his constant twitching was hindering the surgical team's efforts to collect the probes and extract them. Shamor's groans and moans didn't help any either. He was now peacefully sleeping through the process.

 

They were already half way through the process. They used tiny magnetic fields to corral the probes into several different areas of the body. Then a medical device similar to a transporter was used to extract them. They were removing approximately thirty to fifty of the little devils at a time. Unfortunately, there was no way to completely separate the probes from bodily fluids so Jon was loosing a little blood as well. It was probable Shamor could withstand the blood loss but the team was preparing to replace it to minimize any stress to the Zemun's body. He'd already suffered a heart attack. They didn't want to risk anything else going wrong.

 

It would take longer than she'd hoped but Deb was confident all of the probes would be removed. She wasn't too concerned about that aspect of this puzzle. What did bother her was how these microscopic nano-probes avoided detection until now. It wasn't like Jon had never undergone an extensive biologic scan. He had routine physicals every six months. And in his case, there were interim scans performed due to his heart condition. Add to that the automatic scans used during transporter usage and Jon Shamor had been thoroughly viewed from the inside out more times than one could count. Yet, through it all, the mysterious nano-probes had never been detected.

 

Why now? she wondered silently. And where did they come from? Jon insisted he had no idea who seeded his body with nano-probes. Nor could he come up with a time line for when it might have happened. He was ancient and he'd spent his protracted lifetime around highly sophisticated civilizations. These critters could have been planted in him at any time during the past two thousand years.

 

One step at a time. Deb reminded herself to focus on the task at hand. Don't allow curiosity to distract her during the middle of tedious and delicate procedure. There would be time enough to examine the probes after Jon was in recovery. They had copious samples, enough to provide both science and medical with ample subjects for research and testing. She was pretty sure security would want to know about them as well.

 

The CMO sighed as another batch of the nano-probes disappeared from under one of Jon Shamor's two hearts and reappeared in a secure container a few meters away. They still had a long way to go. Deb estimated there were more than four hundred of the tiny devices wandering around the Zemun's abdominal area, his arms and hands as well as his neck and skull. Eventually, he would be free of all of them. Then Deb would have to deal with the paperwork.....and there was sure to be a ton of it surrounding this mess.

Edited July 28, 2009 by DrDMatthews