Old Blue Eyes | Rinn

[Natasi Fortan]

​

The medical facility was in a secluded section of Halm, shielded from the prying eyes of civilization by the inhospitable desert and the fact that hardly anyone knew that a small, far-flung research facility was not doing the boring, humdrum work of archaeological research as one would expect on Halm, but rather advanced technological and biological research. It suited the staff there fine, and especially the head of the project -- the head of everything at Anover Chase, technically, along with her twin brother Janus -- especially well. Juno Chase sat in her office, enjoying the frigid air being buffeted around by the room's air conditioning emitters, a necessity in such a climate, as she reviewed the paperwork from the three experiments that were ongoing at the facility.

Project Aurek was an old brainchild of Juno's. The mysteries of the Force had always been locked away and kept out of reach. They still didn't know quite how it worked, after all these years. Juno herself was Force sensitive -- so she had been told -- but not trained in its use. But even the skeptical scientist within her had to recognize the faint whispers of warning, the intuition that she occasionally felt, were beyond the explanation of science. How did it work? Why did it work? Why was she gifted with it, and not the next person? Inquiring minds wanted to know. Project Aurek proposed to take the brain of a Force sensitive individual and transplant it into the brain of a normal person, and vice versa, to see if it was something solely in the mind.

The trouble was they kept dying, and this was round of testing was no different. The two patients from Project Aurek had died without regaining consciousness following the transplants.

Juno sighed and made a mark in her file.

The next file to review was, predictably, Project Besh. This was a study in pheromones, to determine whether adjusting certain chemicals in the drinking water of a settlement could alter pheromones to allow for a reversible method of birth control applied on a grand scale. Sometimes a country just couldn't afford more mouths to feed, and other times there were needs for more manpower projected, so to be able to turn the knob and adjust the flow, so to speak, would be worth millions. The problem was that the chemicals used, while giving the desired effect of nearly eliminating the reproductive instinct in a nearby settlement, it had also turned the people there aggressive and angry.

Rerun experiment in temperate climate to control for heat on the attitude, she jotted in the margin of that report.

The last project was more of a curiosity for her; she didn't expect to make millions from it, but it did satisfy a curious itch. Could she turn an average, ordinary man into a walking, talking computer, capable of the most intricate calculations -- lightspeed trajectories -- without killing him? The surgery had been completed -- plus a little extra -- and a series of flash education had been completed which, hopefully, would give the man the metaphorical user's manual for the new bits of his brain. He should be coming around shortly, Juno noted after glancing at her wristwatch. She picked up her communicator. "Where are we on Project Cresh?"

"He's in post-op. Moving to a recovery room shortly."

"Good. I'm going to take a look." Juno hung up and stood, pulling a stark white lab coat on over her simple black sheath dress, then pinned her badge to the breast pocket before strolling out of her office. When she entered the recovery room, she took the medical chart from one of the techs there and studied it without looking at [member="Rinn Bledh"]. She flipped the first page over and examined the next, brow furrowing with thought. "How are you feeling, Mr. Bledh?"

 

[Gren Blidh]

They said he would feel different. But they never elaborated beyond that. Different could mean almost anything.

But when Rinn first felt the glow of bright lights above him, ushering in cold, sterile beams between his fluttering eyelids, he began to understand. Though he had only a vague notion of what biological enhancement entailed, he could sense its after-effects almost immediately as he came to. As his eyes widened, so too did his state of consciousness. The bright light above shrank his pupils and he recoiled. A breath, as if his first, entered his lungs and filled him with life again. He sat up suddenly, exhaled, and looked down at the monitors taped to his bare chest.

It wasn't that he felt smarter - after all, they said there would be no actual artificial implants in his brain to pump him with knowledge. Rather, he felt more like he had entered a heightened state of awareness. It was as though the rest of his life was a half-conscious slumber by comparison, somewhere between asleep and awake. Now, as Rinn reached out a hand, testing his digits, and absorbing the contents of the sterile room, he was simply aware of more than he had ever been. Minute details which would have escaped him before, were now cataloged in his mind at light speed for later processing. He remembered everything, even memories which were long forgotten, were now vivid. If this was living, then whatever state of being he had been in before now must surely have been death.

Rinn's eyes trailed to the crisp blonde standing next to him, studying him. It wasn't that he hadn't heard her question. He simply needed time to gauge what his answer would be. He canted his head at [member="Juno Chase"].

"Awake."

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"That's better than a sharp stick in the eye," said Juno dryly, flipping the chart back to its front page. She made a mental note of his vitals and examined the tracker readouts from the equipment connected to the man before finally turning her attention to the man himself. Rinn Bledh. As far as the unwashed masses went, he seemed to be the reasonable sort. A man making his way in the universe and all that rot. If she had a little more capacity for self-delusion, Juno might have been able to convince herself that this experiment was something designed to make life better for people like him. The truth was she didn't care a fig for people like Rinn Bledh -- either specifically him or generally. The experiments she was running were designed for the purposes of furthering the field of science, and making credits.

That's it. End of list.

If Rinn Bledh found his life improved by the developments, it was as useful to Juno as if he had died. Well -- perhaps not quite as useful, although most lay people did tend to underestimate the value of crossing potentially successful items off a list, so a corpse was, in some ways, as good as a success. Still, it was less paperwork this way.

"Look this way, please." She produced a pen from her breast pocket which, it turned out, also featured a small flashlight. She flashed it in his left eye, then his right, checking the reflexes of his pupil. "It's normal to feel some pressure after a procedure of this nature," Juno told him. "Often behind one or both eyes, or near the ears. It may a few days for the nominal swelling to go down." She tucked her pen away again and raised a slim index finger. "Follow my finger with your eyes -- don't turn your head." She waved her finger back in forth in front of him, examining his eyes closely.

[member="Rinn Bledh"]​

 

[Gren Blidh]

Rinn didn't have much time to further process his surroundings or examine his acute sense of focus. The blonde woman in front of him grabbed for his attention.

A flashlight beamed a bright ray into his eyes, darkening Juno's face behind it and causing him to squint. He blinked, seeing blue spots behind his eyelids, remnants left behind from the intrusion. Other than her dispassionate appraisal of his vitals, Rinn felt completely normal. This was a better type of normal than he had ever felt before. It was as though nothing at all had been done to him, save for a sixth, seventh and eighth sense that had been awakened in his brain.

"Swelling?" The smuggler responded, focusing his gaze on [member="Juno Chase"] once the flashlight was out of the way. Their blue eyes met. "What exactly would cause that? I know your doctors explained that there would be no implants, only a natural awakening of my mind's full potential. But they explained nothing beyond that."

Probably information that they figured would be lost on a smuggler, even a reasonably intelligent one.

"Can I expect more serious complications?"

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"There were certain..." She paused as she studied his face for a moment, as if her cold blue eyes could pierce his flesh and skull like an x-ray and see within. After a moment, she allowed a half-smile -- meant to seem reassuring, but could easily be seen as condescending -- to grace her features. "...structure alterations that were necessary to open your mind to the information we needed to flash into your memory. Completely routine, of course, and nothing to be concerned about. Still, you'll want to take it easy for the next couple of days to ensure that all the synapses are firing correctly, that sort of thing."

Dr. Chase pulled up the rolling stool and sat, primly crossing her legs and resting his chart on her leg. "Now then. Let's talk about math. What we've done, essentially, is to remove some of the inhibitions present in the human brain -- some evolutionary accident, I suspect, but the jury is out and it's really neither here nor there -- that prevents it from processing information too quickly. To put it in terms you might find intuitive -- it's... it's like a landspeeder with a dampener installed. It still moves, but it's not nearly as efficient or fast as it could be. All you really need to know is that we've removed the dampeners."

She smiled faintly at his question. "Complications? I doubt it. In the near term, you may have headaches and a feeling of increased pressure, but your chart looks good as far as healing indicators go. Are you in any pain now?" Juno adopted a look of mild concern and leaned forward, studying her patient closely. "If you have concerns, now is the time."

[member="Rinn Bledh"]​

 

[Gren Blidh]

Rinn could compute faster with ease, that much was true. A hundred thoughts raced through his mind all at once, and he heard and answered every single one of them clearly. But there was more to this feeling than what [member="Juno Chase"] had said. Moments in his life, even insignificant once that had faded from his memory with the passage of time, were now seen with a clarity as though they had happened yesterday. A lifetime of memories that had been stored in the brain were not overwritten, simply filed away to some inaccessible part of his mind. But now, new synapses were connected and firing, and he could recount the days of his life as though he were writing a holobook. Rinn remembered being born.

The smuggler looked up again at Juno, finally acknowledging that she had asked him a question.

"No," He shook his head. "I suppose Lord Arktos will want me back in service again soon. I assume I can look at star charts while I'm waiting."

The pads that monitored his vital signs suddenly irritated him, scratching his breast while the heart monitor next to him ticked away steadily, he narrowed his eyes at Juno.

"You never told me who you were."

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Juno furrowed her brows critically. "Don't do that," she said firmly, reaching over to place a cool hand on the man's wrist. "This is a critical time in your recovery and it's necessary that we monitor your vital signs." Juno withdrew her hand and stood, pacing away from him to examine the readouts on the nearby computer that stood on a small medical cart nearby. "Your vital signs look good, but that doesn't mean you couldn't have complications anyway. You must be rearing to go; your dampeners are off, obviously. But just like in the model of speeder or a ship, if you don't get acquainted with the controls in their newly liberated state, you'll crash into a tree or a -- I don't know -- a neutron star or something."

She leaned over the computer, checking a few of the confidential tabs. One of them displayed the room, but through a different point of view; [member="Rinn Bledh"]'s, perspective, actually. She could see her head from over top of the computer, and resisted the urge to straighten up and primp, but damn did she ever look good. The doctor closed the tab and shut off the computer, bio-locking it with her fingerprints before coming back around.

"Me? Just your friendly neighborhood doctor. Chase," she said, coming to a stop in front of him again. "Nice to meet you, Mister Bledh," said Juno, affecting her most genial bedside manner. "Has anyone ever told you you have beautiful eyes? I don't think I've ever seen quite that shade of blue before. Now -- do you have any more questions before I get them to move you over to your room?" She folded her arms around her slim frame, fixing her subject with an inquisitive look.

 

[Gren Blidh]

Shifting uncomfortably at the touch of Juno's hand on his wrist, Rinn recoiled. He had always shriveled at being controlled and disciplined, especially by a stranger, and was about to mount a repose, but thought better of it. He felt perfectly fine, and was likely more than capable of leaving the hospital bed immediately, but he relented to laying back in bed. [member="Juno Chase"] could have it her way. Rinn wouldn't turn down some extra hours of sleep, so different as it was to his usual schedule.

The science behind the process was still vague, but Rinn could begin to understand what Juno was talking about - perhaps better than her. It wasn't as though anything was added to him; rather, the procedure enhanced what was already there. Even a short analysis of Juno's stiff features and movements, including her quick compliment about his eyes, broadcast to him that she was hardly sincere.

"Well, thank you, Dr. Chase," He replied.

Any more questions? Yes, in fact.

"So, all this," Rinn gestured around the unblemished white room, then to himself. Corporations often consorted with underworld magnates, that much wasn't a surprise. But they chose to spend their resources in one place, and on one man in particular - him. "What's in it for you?"

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Juno closed her eyes, suppressing an eyeroll. At this point there was little she could do to disguise her impatience. What was it with these little people and questions of motivation? Juno was not an inherently dishonest person, but the incessant needling questions of the people and their governments and their regulatory agencies and their moral quandries -- it was as exhausting as it was stupid, and it maneuvered Juno into having to employ the teensiest bit of artifice when responding. "I'm not acting out of the goodness of my heart," Juno said briskly, "which as far as I'm concerned is a muscle that exists solely for the purposes of pumping blood to carry oxygen to the organs and tissue of the body."

She paused, rolling her neck as if to soothe and stretch a pulled muscle, keeping her eyes shut. "What am I after? In a word: science," said Juno bluntly in response. "Whether I can improve your life or career is not so important to me as what it means for what we now know is possible, and things we can build upon the scientific discoveries involving the human consciousness."

She resumed her seat on the stool and crossed her legs again. "A man like you should have some understanding of how the world works. There's no such thing as altruism, not really, and this certainly isn't altruism. It's in the service of science and knowledge -- my knowledge. Not to mention the credits, when we find a way to market it." She regarded him frankly. "I trust that assuages any of your concerns about my motivations."

[member="Rinn Bledh"]​

 

[Gren Blidh]

Well, Rinn was pleased that he had [member="Juno Chase"] figured correctly.

"Altruism exists," He countered, "It's just hardly found in my line of work. I expected much the same from a doctor who consorts with people like my employers."

Sitting back, the smuggler placed his hands behind his head, laying back while still studying Juno's dismissive demeanor.

"All I ask for is honesty."

He hadn't expected Dr. Chase, or her namesake company, to be angels - otherwise they wouldn't be cutting deals with the likes of Lord Arktos. A 'normal' doctor was out of the question, and beggars couldn't be choosers. Rinn understood that perfectly well.

"We walk different paths, but really, we're after the same thing, Dr. Chase. Knowledge. But then, I don't have anything like a hippocratic oath that theoretically ought to hold me back."

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"If you say so," Juno said airily. It wasn't her job to disabuse this rube of his notions on altruism. Life would do that soon enough. Or, if hope sprung eternal, he would be taught the lesson over and over again without ever actually learning it. It was all very much below Juno's pay grade anyway. She continued jotting notes on her chart, flipping from page to page and scribbling into the fields. She let the jibe about her association with his employers pass; this Lord Arktos person was unknown to Dr. Chase. She had received a brief, a challenge, and resolved to achieve it. The morality -- or lack thereof -- of the client was not a concern for Juno. People had their reasons. They didn't matter. The opportunity to expand her scientific prowess -- and the credits -- were what mattered.

"Yes, theoretically," she agreed absent-mindedly. "But you spend enough time in my line of business and you discover that first, do no harm leaves a wide berth." She concluded with her notes and stood up. "Shall I schedule your follow-up appointment while you're here, or would you prefer to do that on checking out?"

[member="Rinn Bledh"]​

 

[Gren Blidh]

[member="Juno Chase"] didn't seem to care one bit whether he lived or died.

That was comforting.

It was clear from the trajectory of this conversation that the doctor was being inconvenienced by such talk, and so for his part, Rinn decided not to press it upon her any further. She had answered his questions plainly enough - and that was it. It was no wonder his employers had chosen Dr. Juno Chase for such a task. She was cold and ruthless, and would ask no questions. Such qualities would get her far in the underworld.

"I don't need a follow-up," Rinn exhaled softly, his relative irritation also apparent on his stiff expression. Juno's unfriendliness was answered in kind.

"I suppose I'm not getting out of here any time soon. Very well then. Where's the recovery room?"

 

[Natasi Fortan]

"You do need a checkup, Mr. Bledh," said Juno firmly. She sighed and sat back, pushing away on her wheeled stool a few inches. "Listen. I understand that you're a certain type of man and now that you've had this procedure you've got this feeling of exhilieration, of having the capacity to understand all that there is to know in the universe. I'm pleased. That was my intent. It has done much for you -- more than you know at this moment, probably -- but here's what it has not done for you: it has not given you a medical degree or the years of experience that myself and my team have spent our lives building. We need to keep track of the impacts that this change has made and will make to your psyche, your body, and your overall health."

She stood up and beckoned him forward. "I can't force you, obviously, but if you have some kind of episode in space and there's no medical personnel nearby, I really don't want to think of what would happen to you." She shrugged her shoulders, the languid motion reminiscent of a cat waking from a nap to find that its sunbeam had moved. "Well anyway -- you signed a waiver and I got paid, so do what you like I suppose. The recovery room is this way." She led the way out of the room and down a sterile corridor to another room; this one was more comfortable, featuring a comfortable bed, a sofa, a holovision, a computer, and a minibar.

"Help yourself to anything you'd like. If there's anything you need, use the call buttons." Juno pointed at the buttons -- one on the bedside table, another mounted to the wall by the door. "Meals can be served whenever you like, but the nurses will be checking in periodically. Is there anything else you need?"

[member="Rinn Bledh"]​

 

[Gren Blidh]

The white walls of the corridor betrayed no information, nothing for his new brain to analyze. Rinn desperately wanted to reach out and find something - any sort of stimulation, be it audial, visual, or tactile - to latch on to, but could find nothing in the blank walls of the corporate maze. He came to the conclusion that this place was devoid of insight or creative thought. [member="Juno Chase"] wasn't helping matters. She was concerned with his health only insofar as her contract obligated her to be. There was no point in resisting, so Rinn followed, and followed some more. Finally, they arrived at their destination, finding a room that was much more casually decorated than his previous quarters, almost able to mask the appearance of a medical facility. Rinn sat on the couch.

"I don't require anything at this time, Ms. Chase," He answered her. She would go on her way, and he would likely never see her again. All the better for the both of them, because Juno was clearly not interested in him in the least, except as another data point in one of her experiments.

Once left to his own devices, Rinn was allowed a few moments of introspection. The thought never crossed his mind as to whether this was the right decision; he knew it was. This was what he wanted. Knowledge was not just an end in itself - knowledge would make him free.

His thoughts were interrupted by the airlock door opening to his chamber, and a male nurse stepped through. Carrying a datapad in one hand and a beverage in the other, he approached the smuggler.

"Just checking your vital signs. Take this, it will help with any muscle spasms," He held the glass out towards Rinn.

Taking it, the smuggler knew better by now than to offer resistance. Rinn brought it up to his lips and took a sip. As the oddly strawberry-flavored liquid coarsed through him, obviously masking another less pleasant taste, Rinn let his eyes wander. A flicker in the nurse's datapad caught his eye. Rinn focused on it momentarily. A small screen in the corner of the datapad displayed a familiar image - the image of his own vision. Rinn brought a hand up to his brow to test his theory. The image responded in kind, before the datapad disappeared from his field of vision as the nurse turned.

"Please, drink all of it, Mr. Bledh."

Stifling all intuitions of panic, Rinn took hold of the cup again and drank. The strawberry tasted worse this time - more sinister. He handed the empty cup back to the nurse and watched the man leave the room without another word. The nurse's last facial expression before he turned and left hung in his mind. Was that fearful realization he had sensed on his face?

Rinn counted the seconds impatiently, letting a few more minutes pass before he pressed the call button again.

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Juno was watching.

She would always be watching.

Perhaps not literally, but life was never totally literal. But she just so happened to be watching the live feed when the orderly came in. She saw it all happen, in slow-motion, as if it was unfolding on an old-fashioned cinema screen and the reels were misaligned, causing the image to distort. It became obvious that Bledh had seen enough; his lack of reaction was commendable but his vitals shifted in a tell-tale way. "Kriffing idiot," she snarled, her face contorting with rage. She picked up the phone and dialed the nurse's station. "Send Alsey in when he gets back to the station," she snapped. There was chittering from the other end of the line and Juno, cheeks flushed with rage, calling into the line: "Find someone else to cover the rest of his rounds. He will not be seeing patients again. Now send him in."

She waited, turning her chair away from the door and slouching into it so that she could collect herself. She regulated her breathing but nothing had calmed her down by the time Alsey walked in. "You wanted to see me, Dr. Chase."

She turned in her chair, fixing him with a deadly cold blue gaze. "Are you familiar with what we are trying to accomplish with this experiment, Alsey?" She pushed herself up to sit up straight, bracing her elbows on the armrests of her chair and clutching her hands together beneath her chin. "Do you understand what it is the experiment was done to achieve? What we hoped to continue to develop with Mr. Bledh?" She stood up and walked over to him. He tried to answer but Juno shut him up with a shouted: "Do not speak!"

Juno snatched the datapad from his hand. "We've made Bledh ten times more observant, twenty times more efficient at processing data than the average human. Do you understand that? Nod your kriffing head, you imbecile. Then why is it, exactly, that I just watched you bring this monitoring datapad into the patient's quarters? So that he could see the feed from his own kriffing surveillance device? Here, I'll play it back!" She rewound the feed and then held it out to him. When he leaned in for a closer look, she backhanded him with the datapad as hard as she could, and felt immediately satisfied when she heard the glass screen shatter. Pieces off it tinkled down the front of his uniform, followed by some blood.

"You're not to see patients again until I say so," she said quietly. "In fact you'll be restricted to quarters for the time being. Now... get out." She watched him leave before there was a ping from her comlink. "What?" she snapped.

"Mr. Bledh's call light is on. Shall I send another orderly?" asked the head nurse. Juno rubbed the bridge of her nose. "No. I'll be right there." She inhaled unsteadily through her nostrils, and then pulled a fresh lab coat from her closet and shrugged it on, heading out into the patient wing. Juno found her way into Bledh's room, still unsure of how she would deal with the situation unfolding before her. She had to think fast, but until she could she put on a businesslike smile. "Yes, Mr. Bledh, how are you feeling?"

[member="Rinn Bledh"]​