| abstract
| - Dr. Tarquin Memorial Hospital: Caspar Overwhelmingly modern and clean-cut, a spacious room spreads out around you. The main lobby is on a tiled, broad walkway, and all the important rooms are arranged around it, branching off of it, separated by heavy, lightly tinted glass. A nurse's station sits in the middle of the building at the end of the walkway, acting as a registration and processing point. Each treatment room, or wing, is unique, and one in particular is full of observed bacta tanks. The clean look of polished stainless steel is everywhere, complimented by tiles of matte green and soft blue, interspaced with a pleasant off-white. Currently, Twi'lek 'Water's Cadence' symphony is being played on the stereo. The lighting is currently at 10%. The room is currently a comfortable temperature, perhaps on the warm side. It's perfect if coming in from a cool winter day. The surgical theatre at the hospital is prepped and all the possible trays are sterilized and set neatly aside for easy use. Lynae is brought in and arranged on the table, draped neatly from shoulder to ankles at first, the surgical site clearly marked. All the monitors are up and running, the surgical assistants standing out of the way but ready to render what assistance Dr Tanner might possibly need. Lynae is not sedated as of yet, clear headed and speaking quietly with one of the surgical nurses. Xar'on steps forward, covered in a surgical gown and wearing gloves that cover him up to his elbows, and indicates the surgical table to Lynae. "Alright, Doc...go ahead 'n lie down. We'll get some high rez bioscans for our tech friend to look at. I'm gonna want you concious fer this, to provide yer input as well. That sound okay fer both of you?" He asks, looking from Lynae to Bodan. Bodan was not a surgeon or doctor. While he knew a little bit about medicine, primarily it came from studying the programming of medical droids and not from formal training in the field. He was, however, one of the leading scientists in the field of droid and computer technology as well as a known wiz at cryptographic systems. "Show me the object in question, and I assure you that I will do my best to assist in this matter. I am afraid though, that medicine is a bit out of my field, and without the proper equipment, the video imaging may not be as detailed as we may need. I will likely require the view of it physically to deconstruct the item in my mind. Do you know who made the item, Doctor? That might help." "Basically how it works is fairly simple," Lynae explains, "I need to remain calm. No strenuous exercise. No extreme emotion. My pulse needs to stay at a constant rate, no more than 120. At one-twenty, the device will begin beeping. I can, of course, mute it by pressing the button. At one-forty-four, it will deliver a lethal charge to my heart. That doesn't mean certain death, of course, but it means resuscitation, but each time is damaging," she explains. "Yes, this is the price for treason, for not being executed, along with exile. Lynae sighs then quietly explains about the re-wired pacemaker that was connected to her heart, wired to sound off at a specific pulse rate then shock her heart at another slightly higher rate. "Subsequent jolts from the pacemaker will damage the cardiac muscle," she pauses, skipping over the fact that the damage is already taking place, "and eventual jolts will cause the muscle to weaken beyond repair. Eventually it will cause irreparable damage. Taking it out will also cause my heart to stop, and with the weakened tissue there's a chance that it might not be safely restarted. I am currently searching for a cardiac surgeon to remove the device, but it is a challenge as the stress of the procedure is going to make the device go off again. It's a classic catch twenty two moment," she adds with a faint smile. Lynae extends one hand to Xar'on first then Bodan, "I want to thank you both in advance for even attempting this," she says simply before arranging herself on the table like some sort of odd piece of decoration. The look on her face says she isn't comfortable with this but does it anyway, "Being awake is certainly less stressful than being knocked out," she remarks as the nurses converge on her for a moment. "The unit is Dierka-corp, Libre-Line, model twenty-two point five, if that'll help. You should find specs of it easily enough." Xar'on readies the bioscan as the nurses ease Lynae onto the bed. He grunts, "We'll do some wide shots to get you a good idea of placement 'n connections, then move in fer more detailed scans of the device itself." He then starts to go over the equipment and medicine inventory with a nurse. Immediately, Bo starts punching data into his micro-computer, which he has linked to the hospital's mainframe. "I'll start searching for schematics and such. I assume though that this is either a customized model or the surgeon could likely deactivate it with the proper schematics or guidelines." "The model was standard, they just rewired it to basically the same thing, but at the wrong signals," Lynae explains as she nods towards Xar'on again. She watches Xar'on and eyes the machinery with renewed self promise to never get into a situation like this again. Xar'on hits a few buttons on the control panel and murmurs, "Startin' the scan now. If you can," he says, addressing Bodan, "Find out if this damn thing is rigged to go off if it's tampered with." The initial scans of the chest cavity reveal the cardiac muscle working properly along with the position of the pacemaker exactly where it should be. A detailed scan reveals the fine layer of scar tissue that has already formed on the pericardium, but the worst of it was healed previously by Brandis Finian. The next set of scans, that of the device inset in her wrist, reveal the monitor one layer at a time. From the scans, however, it looks like it was perfectly positioned as well, but nothing on the scan indicates any sort of explosive device hardwired to be triggered by tampering. "There is no boobytrapping that I see, but you are the doctor," Bo explains. "If her body should be suddenly cut off from the device, what might happen?" Bodan's voice is cold and calculating, as he closely scans and commits each crosscut view to memory. "Well, you deactivate the device and the wiring will take over in the programming that my heart must've stopped. I believe the fall back will be another jolt which will - in theory - cause my heart to take more damage. But I really can't guess, at this point. They didn't provide me with specs," Lynae adds with a soft chuckle. "I do know that when the device is disconnected from my heart that my heart will stop for sure. That's the only thing I can speak with any amount of confidence on. I'd suggest cutting both connections at the same time, if that's possible." Bodan thinks for a moment then replies. "It's relatively old technology still. More refined, but the principle hasn't changed in the original device in a very long time. You say that it constantly damages your heart by firing electrical surges? It doesn't seem to draw it's power from any bio-electric means, as it contains an internal power supply. What if we were to simply deplete it's energy source? Electromagnetic pulse could do that easily with nearly no effect on your own bio-chemistry unless of course you have cybernetics that I have not been informed of." Xar'on nods. "Agreed. Okay, since our friend here may not know the details, I'll fill him in while I dope you up, doc. Right now, I'm gonna pump you full o' antihistimines 'n IGe inhibitors. Hopefully, this'll take care of yer allergy problem while I work on the damage to yer ticker." As he completes in the injections, he explains for the bith's benefit. "The device is workin' as a pacemaker now to keep her heart beatin'. However, the dirty little trick is if that monitor detects her heartrate climbing to a certain level, her heart gets a massive shock. So," he places the injector back on the tray and starts jabbing the bed's control panel," what I plan on doin' is pumpin' the good doc here full of thanatizine. That'll get her heartrate down to less than one beat a minute, givin' us the room we need to yank it and the monitor out." He listens to the bith's suggestion, then shakes his head. "Good idea in theory, but an EMP will kill all the monitorin' instruments in here, as well as the equipment I'm gonna need to restart her heart, if necessary." Lynae's eyes close briefly as Bodan and Xar'on discuss the options, "I'd be most appreciative if you'd restart my heart, guys," she says and laughs quietly as the injections are administered. "I hate injections," she mutters quietly, which makes one of the nurses laugh as Lynae proves herself to be the typical doc-equals-worst-patient stereotype. "Once it's removed and my heart is started again it should take up the work normally, it's just a matter of removing the two pieces of hardware, starting my heart again, and making sure that I don't go into anaphylactic shock. Which would be bad." "Not if the EMP has a very small radius and is focused," Bo decides to drop it and think of another route. While he could easily disassemble half the instruments in this room and create a micro-pulse projector, he doubts the hospital would allow him. He then looks to Lynae and gives a nod. "The devices should be no problem, though I will know for sure when they are exposed." Already, the Bith is formulating the proper technique for disabling the power supply. Xar'on nods. "Alright, let's get started." He walks to the head of the bed and gently fits breathing apparatus over her nose. "The thanatizine will be administered intravenously, but we're gonna give you a mild general anesthetic to put you to sleep first. Once yer heartrate drops below 10 beats a minute, I'll make the first incision. By the time I have yer chest cavity open, you should be below one beat a minute. Bodan will then do a visual inspection of the devices. If he thinks I can pull them as is, I'll do so. Otherwise, we'll have to disable them before removal." He nods to the assistants, who scramble to places, then nods to Bodan. Turning back to Lynae, he winks and stands up. "See ya in a few, doc." A faint hissing can be heard as he a nurse starts the anesthetic. Lynae offers a brief smile, a thumbs up gesture and a hastily spoken, "See you on the other side," before the affects of the anesthetic take hold and her eyes slowly close. The monitors reflect the changes as the occur, her heart rate dropping steadily, smoothly even, not the uncontrolled crash that tends to so upset the nursing staff. Her body relaxes visibly, and as her heart beat continues to drop her coloring also fades until she's nearly as pale as the sheets draped over her body. Bo settles into a chair. "Until you have a visual, doctor, I will be formulating the best way of disabling the device without causing damage to surrounding tissue." Xar'on nods, but remains silent as he monitors Lynae's vitals. He moves to her arm, propped up to best expose the monitor, and waits a moment before murmuring, "Making the first incision." With an agility and nimbleness that seem at odds with his gnarled and calloused hands, he makes precision cuts with the laser scalpel, eventually exposing the monitor and its connection to her wrist. "If you would, Bodan," he says quietly, indicating the device before moving to Lynae's chest. He makes the initial incision down the center, over the sternum. Eventually, he murmurs, "Opening chest cavity...now", and with small retractors, he separates the bone, exposing the inside of her upper chest. The initial stages of the surgery progress smoothly, all the monitoring equipment showing the intended read outs and Lynae's heart rate steadily trending downward to hover in the expected single digits. The surgical staff work quietly with Xar'on, handing him anything he needs while working to minimize the bleeding, though with the slow heart rate there isn't a lot of bleeding to deal with. The device, as it was intended, is clear and imbedded in her wrist and easy to spot, it's the connections and the trigger response that has proven so dangerous. Bo moves over to the first part of the process. "Before acting, I would like to see both portions of what we are dealing with. I am pretty sure I know what needs to be done." Bo reaches into a robe pocket and pulls out a micro-cutter, designed primarily for working on micro-circuitry in droids. "Once I can see both objects, it should be a matter of simply severing the power feeds simultaneously, or it might short and send a burst of energy to the heart, which we don't want at the moment." Xar'on nods silently again, as he continues to expose the main device attached to Lynae's heart. He works calmly, his hands and fingers moving with precision and even grace. Expect for calling out simple commands or for certain tools, he's silent. Once her heart is exposed, he glances over at the monitor, watching the single pulse on the monitor with a slow contraction of the exposed muscle. Nodding in satisfaction, he glances over at Bodan examining the device on the wrist before muttering. "3D scan...high rez. All bands. I want to see every connection." While the doctor relies on the machinery to perform the scan, Bo uses his own extremely key senses to look over the object in Lynae's chest. "Would you prefer to sever the connections doctor, or would you prefer I performed that portion of the surgery. I assure you that it should not be that complex." Bo keeps glancing over the device and pulls out a datapad with a pair of external wireless leads. "First though, I would like to link with the object and check for alternate programming from the normal routines. I may be able to disable the programming itself prior to severing the connection. I assure you, it won't have any clue that I am linked." Both requested scans are called up on the above-head monitors. First a detailed scan of the device inset in her wrist then side-by-side a scan of the pacemaker itself. Small windows open up that reveal each in individual layers that can be cued up as needed. Xar'on steps aside while examining the scans, before turning to the bith and answering, "Good idea. Go ahead 'n link up." He glances over at the monitor, particularly the time and vitals, and nods. "Take yer time, but don't get too comfy in there." With the experience of a highly skilled technician, Bo links to the device. "Now, just to hide my movements inside, in case there is remote monitoring," He runs a small subroutine on the datapad. "I believe I can reprogram this without a problem. Technically, that should be all that is required, though I assume you'll still wish to remove the device." Xar'on nods. "That's right. She doesn't need that thing in there. I aim to yank it and get her heart back to doin' it's job." Bo has no problems establishing the link. "The programming has a few slight alterations to it, but the person programming it was not a highly skilled slicer. We are lucky in that. The programming itself should be disabled now," Bo responds, almost talking to himself as his delicate fingers punch codes into the datapad. "I'd like to leave the leads attached during removal, if you do not mind, doctor. That way, I can monitor any exterior power spikes or other such phenomena. Right now, I have the programming set up so that it constantly loops a fixed heartrate of 5 beats per minute. I could sever the power feed, but in doing so, unless the two power leads were severed simultaneously.... even a milisecond of delay between the two could send a small shock through her system, as could a static discharge. I believe it would be safer to simply take it out while it is fooled that it has no reason to perform any task." Xar'on nods. "Alright then." He steps back up to the bed and examines the device and new connections for a moment. "Removing the device...now," he murmurs, as he gingerly lifts the device and begins disconnecting it from her heart. Bodan watches carefully as the devices are removed, monitoring the datapad's transmissions for any signs of alteration of the pacemaker or it's sensing unit. If there was a problem, it was dealt with without a response from the Bith. "If you do not mind, doctor. I would like to keep this device as part of my payment." He then unhooks his probes and sits back down. Once both devices are completely unhooked, the monitors indicate what was predicted and her heart rate drops from the single digits down to a flat line, stopping entirely. The nurses move into position, waiting for the doctor to give the necessary orders. Xar'on calmly says, "Micro paddles" and holds his hands out. Two small instruments are placed in his hand, and he quickly, but calmly, goes to work attaching them to specific muscle groups on her heart, taking care to avoid damaged areas. "Charging...and clear," he murmurs, as a small jolt of electricity contracts the muscle. While the medical staff goes through the procedure of re-awakening Lynae, Bo sits quietly, examining the device and it's trigger. He rehooks his datapad and starts downloading it's schematics into his archives. To the Bith, all things technological were intriguing. While most were bored with wiring diagrams and schematics, Bo could sit and study them for hours. Had it not been for the repairs that Finian affected through the use of the Force, there would not have been any undamaged tissue for the micro paddles to be attached too. Lynae will never remember this part of the procedure, nothing from start to finish actually, but her heart gives a half a beat, and in the continued whine of alarms and monitors beeping it's just a faint blip on the screen. Another pause, and her heart starts again, sluggishly at first and hesitantly, but it does begin beating again. Xar'on keeps the paddles ready, but away from the slowly beating heart. He watches the monitors carefully for several moments, before handing the paddles off. "Okay. The sluggish rhythm is from the thanatizine, and is expected. Administering kolcta and chromostring patches now. Small dosage of kolcta and the chromostring should help repair any other damage. Patches will dissolve on their own and be absorbed." The patches are quickly applied, and once satisfied, Xar'on mutters, "Closing now," and begins the long process of closing Lynae up, applying kolcta when necessary, all the while, monitoring her vitals.
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