Tempus Genesis
Page 13
Another recruit. There could never be enough recruits. Head shaved and wearing only a soft light surgical gown, prostrate on the operating table. Despite his ‘abilities’, despite all their abilities, enhancement implants were always needed.
Leather straps of a kind bound his hands and feet. Another faceless recruit, now no longer of a family or a place. Now part of the great movement.
The robotic surgical arms whirred into life. The room was white, lit by ceiling high lamps. The robot had two arms, one dormant holding the black box implant, the other a small drill. It extended towards the recruits skull. He was neither asleep nor awake but immobilised by the powerful sedative injected moments before.
The drill burst into life, spinning at several thousand revolutions though the technology was so developed it made little sound. The drill was made of the brightest silver metal, sharp as a blade at its finest point.
The robotic arm positioned the drill exactly one millimeter from the recruits’ temple. It then quickly and finely drilled into his skull, through the bone and into the soft tissue of the brain. It heated to two hundred degrees and cooled again in a split second, enough to cauterize any bleeding. It did this twice then retracted.
The second arm lifted the small black implant and guided it towards the two neat holes in the side of his shaved head. As it closed in on his skull the implant activated, two electric conductors extended, one with a fine syringe running down its length. The robotic arm guided the device into the holes. Clamps appeared from inside the implant and gripped the skin either side of the holes. The robotic arm released the implant and it automatically sealed itself into place.
A second passed. The implant switched itself on, lights down each side flickered green and red. It then delivered its first enhancement shot, engendering a jarring fit like reaction in the recruit. His eyes opened and he stared impassively at the ceiling lights. The procedure complete he was now prepared and able to support the cause.
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