Genomorph

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

Susan logged into the secure email account Ryan had set up for her to see if there was a message from Brandi and instead found one from Ryan himself.

You need to see this!

Ryan

“Damn you, Ryan, if they catch you doing this ….” Susan muttered under her breath as she opened the attached file. She had tried to get Ryan to leave the project when she did, but he had insisted that he could be of more use on the inside.

The file was additional information that had been deciphered, pertaining to the Genomorph Protocol. More specifically it described in some detail exactly how the machine transformed the subject.

They already knew that the Forerunner machine used the glowing purple plasma to affect its repairs. The plasma’s energy was able to alter the subject in a variety of ways when applied over a period of time. Simple repairs, even something as major as restoring a severed limb, took relatively little of the energy.

By applying slightly more of the energy, the machine could affect genetic repairs. Genetic errors, whether due to birth defects, age or some kind of damage, could be completely erased. The machine, which the report said was called a Genetic Manipulation Unit, was capable of removing years of aging, as evidence by Brandi.

To cause more radical change, such as altering the subject’s gender, the machine applied a large dose of the energy. Because the dose was so large, the subject’s cell structure remained saturated with the energy for a period of many years, making a basic change of gender long term. To attempt another gender modification too soon would destabilize the subject’s genetic structure, with horrific, and likely fatal, results.

Then, there was the Genomorph Protocol, which saturated the body with massive amounts of energy. The level was well beyond the point at which the subject’s genetic structure was destabilized, and that destabilization was part of the process. But it continued beyond altering the genetic structure, actually altering the Genomorph at the sub-atomic level. The very molecular structure was changed, making muscle, bone and sinew stronger. This massive dose of transforming energy was also what gave the Genomorph her hyper attuned senses and altered the structure of her brain, giving it the ability to process vast amounts of data at incredible speeds.

Once these alterations were completed, tiny cybernetic organisms were introduced into the subject. These were actual living machines, part organic and part mechanical, capable of reproducing and repairing themselves indefinitely. These nanocyborgs were charged with the same plasma the device used to affect genetic change, and each one carried the complete genetic pattern of the Genomorph within them. They acted to augment the Genomorph’s innate regenerative abilities, and as long as some of them remained functioning, any damage suffered would be repaired. The only way to destroy a Genomorph for certain was to inflict so much damage that the body and its nanocyborgs were utterly destroyed. That they had found records that spoke of the heavy rate of attrition among Genomorphs made it clear that the Forerunner’s enemies had possessed weapons capable of inflicting that kind of damage.

It was even possible for the Genomorph to introduce these nanocyborgs into another person to repair damage suffered. In small numbers the machines were unable to sustain themselves for long outside the Genomorph’s body and could not reproduce. If the injury was serious, the Genomorph could only stabilize the patient, as her built in self preservation programming prevented her from introducing too many nanocyborgs and thereby reducing her own ability to self-repair.

There was one instance in which the Genomorph could transfer a vast number of nanocyborgs. The data spoke of something that was translated as the ‘Bonding’. It was entered into by a Genomorph and a person they loved deeply, and was in a very real sense a wedding. The Genomorph in this case could introduce a massive number of nanocyborgs into the other person; nearly half of those currently in her body. This meant that until the missing machines were replaced, the Genomorph was dependent almost entirely on her innate regenerative powers, which while far greater than normal human healing was considerably slower than with a full compliment of nanocyborgs.

After this sharing, the nanocyborgs in the ‘bonded’ person were at the critical mass necessary to reproduce outside the Genomorph’s body, and they would begin making alterations in the person based on their programming. The data was incomplete and lacked any real details on this process, but the sketchy information indicated the result would be that the bonded individual would share the Genomorph’s accelerated ability to heal and with it their immunity to disease and aging. In effect, it allowed the Genomorph to fall in love, and never have to face watching the one they loved grow old and die.

Brandi would need to know about this, even though it appeared this ability could not be used accidentally. Still, she was going to be meeting people and making friends, maybe very close friends, and she needed to be informed of every aspect of her new body.