Victoria

The small conference room that the Scott family was sitting in had a tense feeling in the air.  The flat screen television in front of them was showing a digital rendering of the spinal replacement surgery.  A pair of technicians were explaining the procedure.

“The process is actually much simpler than it would seem.  Since our neurosynth fluid is able to act as a conduit for nerve signals in much the same way the nerves of the spine are all that is necessary is to remove the existing spinal column and replace it with the artificial one.”  The young female technician knew she had been chosen largely because of how close in age she was to the subject.  This was a big break for her though; Dr. Arlington was seen as a visionary in the medical prosthetic world and if she could impress him maybe she could get on his team.

“How exactly does the spine attach to the existing tissues Dr. Jackson?  I see a lot of data on the pre and post-surgery procedures but virtually nothing regarding the grafting procedure.”  Victoria knew this would seem to be an advanced question from someone her age but she was genuinely interested.

“Well, I actually can’t tell you all the specifics because some of the medical procedures and equipment used are classified military data.”  Here she paused for a moment, “It was a surprise to me too, but I’ve seen it in action for some of our other prosthetic integrations and it is nothing short of miraculous.”

“That’s not exactly a satisfactory answer Miss Jackson.”  Victoria managed to take a superior tone despite being wrapped in an acrylic immobilizer and barely able to move.

“What Dr. Jackson is trying to say is that even if we had the clearance to get the specifics ourselves we would be violating our contract by telling you the details.”  The second doctor surprised the others in the room by speaking for the first time.  “Honestly, I’ve seen this stuff in the field and I still find it hard believe.”

“Thank you Dr. Sims.”  Dr. Jackson gave him an ingratiating smile, “Miss Scott, if you would like we could show you some video of successful implementations.  You could even visit the recovery ward where a patient has agreed to talk with you about his experience.  Of course it wouldn’t be exactly the same, we used the process to attach a prosthetic hand not a spinal column but the grafting procedure is very similar.”

Victoria tried to shake her head and grimaced in pain, “Maybe afterword, I don’t want to get up and leave right now, I’m just stressing out about this whole thing.  Please continue with your demonstration.”

Dr. Jackson picked up right where she had left off, “Right, so the main difficulty with this operation is keeping the body and the brain from going into shock when we begin the operation.  It’s always troublesome with complex and invasive operations, but even more so in this case.  In order to maintain the body systems integrity we will place you in a chemically induced coma, and then hook your brain stem up to a machine that tricks it into believing it’s still connected with your body.

“The next phase is where our specialized AI unit comes in.  We connect it to the brain stem and it immediately begins interpreting and transmitting signals as though it were the spine, allowing the brain to continue as normal despite being more or less disconnected from the rest of the body.  All the time basic body functions are maintained by the AI until the operation is complete, then we switch the AI over to operational mode from maintenance mode and it interfaces with the brain, allowing for transmission of brain signals to the body as would occur normally.”

The screen was changing, showing simplified images of the nervous system, surgery, the image of the artificial spine, a few images of the AI and its integration with the brain stem all scrolled by as the two doctors continued to describe the process.  Victoria could tell that the more they learned about it the less her parents wanted her to have the procedure performed.  In fact, she was terrified of it too, and although listening and watching wasn’t doing anything to assuage her doubts about it; she was still determined to go forward.

“Have there been any problems with the integration process with any of your test subjects?” Mr. Scott had his doubts about the doctors, the technology and the whole procedure. “It just seems like an operation of this magnitude can’t possibly be as simple as you are making it out to be.”

Dr. Sims shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably, “Well as you know Dr. Arlington hasn’t yet done a human trial with the prosthetic spinal column.  However, his team has had a one hundred percent success rate with every single test subject he’s had thus far.  Also of note is that their recovery rate was a thousand times faster that of the control subjects.”

“Look, doing these kinds of tests on dogs and rats is one thing; this is my daughter you’re talking about here!”

“I understand your concern, but it was your daughter who requested we explore this method of treatment in the first place.”

“Daddy, this is my only chance at a normal life.  I know it’s risky but so is chemo and the rewards for success with this operation far outweigh the rewards with conventional treatment.”  Victoria turned her torso to fix her parents with a determined, if nervous look.  “I want to go forward with it.  I’m eighteen and you can’t stop me but I would rather do this with your blessing.”

At this rather abrupt and unexpected statement, her father stopped and gave her a steady look which she returned with more steel than he was accustomed to seeing in his young daughter.

“Shall we go and look at one of the other implementations?”  Dr. Jackson asked, “The prosthetic recovery wing is attached to the R&D division.  It’s a short walk from here, and I have a wheelchair for Victoria.”

“Yes!”  Victoria said with real enthusiasm, “I’d love to see what you’ve been able to accomplish and maybe it would set our minds more at ease.”

“Honey, are you sure-” Her mother started, but stopped when Victoria looked at her with imploring eyes.  Her father helped her from the table, lifting her easily and setting her in the wheelchair.

“I will agree to this only if the science and the implementation appear to be a valid option.”  He said, giving the doctors a meaningful look.

They made their way through some sterile corridors with recessed lighting that glowed from hidden fixtures.  Dr. Jackson waved her security badge in front of a door and it opened smoothly, revealing a room with wide windows on one wall and a bank of computer monitors on another.  A man sat in an adjustable chair, his right leg ended just above the knee.

Instead of a fleshy stump, smooth metal ball protruded from the cut off leg of his hospital gown.  Next to the chair was a complex carbon fiber prosthetic with a steel cup that looked like it would match the ball.  He looked up with a smile as Dr. Jackson entered.

“Katherine!  I’ve already had my checkup today, but damn me if it ain’t good to see you!”  Spotting Victoria and her parents behind her, he quirked an eyebrow.  “Hello there, who’s this?”

“Lance Corporal Stewart Donnahue, this is the Scott family.  Victoria, Richard and Lorraine, Stewart was injured during a mission in Iraq.  An IED took his leg among other things, but with our reconstructive efforts and the miracle of Dr. Arlington’s technology he is able to walk.”

The man reached out, grabbing the prosthetic and spreading some gel from a tube into the cup before sticking the two together.  They melded with an audible snap, tiny LED lights twinkling to life around the ball and the socket.

“Pretty darn cool eh?”  He said with a grin, running his right hand over his crew cut.  “Super powered electro magnets they tell me, all I know is I can walk again!”

“Wow…” Victoria was staring at it with a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.  It was a lot like the feeling of anticipation she got just before running onto the floor to perform with Torrent.  “Do you mind if I get a closer look Lance Corporal?”

“Of course not!”  He beamed, “And call me Stew.  Christ, it’s not like I need any formalities here; I’m done with that crap!”

Victoria wheeled herself closer and awkwardly bent in her brace.  Reaching out a hand she pushed his shorts up to look at the spot where the metal joined with skin.  There was a ring of black rubber or neoprene or something similar that his skin disappeared underneath.

“How does it feel?”  She asked, removing her hand quickly and blushing as she realized how far up his thigh she had been touching.  “I mean does it get sore?”  She blushed even deeper, but he was kind enough to ignore it.

“Well, I’ve only had it for a couple weeks, but I can already walk normally.  If anything I’ve gotten increased mobility, although I need to make sure I charge it at least twice a day.”  He grinned, “Man, the first time I forgot that will be the last.  I was running on the track  and it just fell off.”

“But it doesn’t hurt?  It doesn’t give you any trouble?”  Rich said, coming forward to pull Victoria’s wheelchair back.

Stewart seemed to notice Victoria’s brace and the wheelchair for the first time.  “What happened to you?”  He asked, “Oh man, are you thinking about getting new legs?  I tell ya I can’t say enough, this thing is … well it’s amazing.  I can’t even tell you.  At first there was a little bleeding around the socket and I had a mild infection but those were honestly just because I wouldn’t take it easy like the doc told me to.”

“What did they say the recovery time would be?”  Victoria asked, “I’ve had a rather major injury…”

“They said maybe a month, but I had full mobility in just a week.  If I’d taken things slower I probably would have been out of here by now.”  He said with a grin that made him look like the kid he really was, “Man Katherine, are you gonna show ‘em Jake?  You gotta show ‘em Jake.”

“Jake?”  Rich asked, giving Dr. Jackson an inquisitive look.

“Jacob lost his arm just below the bicep.  His prosthetic has restored more than full mobility to his arm and hand.”  She said with a slight smile.  “I’m afraid he isn’t available right now though; he’s getting the upgrade.”

“No shit?”  Stew’s eyes widened, “The new AI?”

“Yes, we just finished the coding this afternoon.”  She said, “That’s where I’ll be going once I’m finished here.”

Stew stood up, the carbon fiber of the leg flexing under his weight.  The ‘foot’ was a cluster of four metal prongs with sturdy looking rubber ‘toes’ that moved to help him balance.  At the joint, the sphere on his leg moved smoothly acting like a knee that could flex far beyond any normal appendage.

“Oh man that’s awesome!”  He said, “Man, I can’t wait until you can do the same for me.”

“Upgrade?”  Victoria asked, “What’s it do differently than what you have now?”

“Just some enhancements.”  Dr. Jackson said, giving Stewart a pointed look. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Thank you for answering my questions.”  Victoria said to Stewart, “I really appreciate you letting me take up  some of your time.”

“Aw hell.”  He said, grinning again and getting a little pink, “Ain’t like I was doing anything anyway.  Come by any time.”

They turned to go and he spoke up again.  “Hey Victoria, what operation are you considering?”

“I have bone cancer.”  She said, “I’m getting a prosthetic spinal column.”  He still hadn’t managed to shut  his mouth when the door closed behind them.

Victoria

Victoria had always hated hospital gowns.  They felt like they could fall off at any moment and she always got so damn cold.  The fact that she had to wear the huge solid polymer brace that kept her entire upper body immobilized was adding insult to injury.  She felt like a dog wearing one of those cone things.  Snapping her gum irritably she waited for the two doctors to come back and give her a prognosis.

Trying to glance at her mom who was anxiously tapping her foot she sighed and had to settle for rolling her eyes because of the damn brace.  “Mom would you knock it off?  You’re making me nervous.”

“What on earth could be taking them so long?  I mean it was just a stress fracture in your neck right?  This is why we had men on our cheer team when I was in high school; girls just aren’t strong enough to catch you when you are coming down from that high basket toss.  I hope this doesn’t make you miss the finals; you’ve worked so hard – “ She trailed off as there was a knock at the door and the older of the two doctors returned.

Without preamble, he walked around to where he could look Victoria in the eye, “Miss Scott, I’m Dr. Frederick Stephenson.  I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”  Victoria knew it was bad now, her heart started to pound.

“OK.” She said, proud of how steady her voice was. “Lemme have it then, I hate long waits.”

Frederick nodded in approval at her calm attitude. “I like to be frank when it comes to things like this, I apologize if it seems like I’m not being tactful.  You have a rare form of bone cancer and it is in a rare location.  The stress fracture in your upper thoracic vertebra was a result of the bone being weakened by the cancerous cells.  It is only a matter of time before your spine becomes so brittle it will no longer support the weight of your body.”

He paused and his tone became lighter, “Thankfully you are young and that expands our treatment options.  It also significantly raises the likelihood of your survival, especially since we caught it so early.  Unfortunately the state of deterioration of your spine leads me to believe you will be restricted to a wheelchair but you should be able to retain the majority of your mobility.”

“What do you mean cancer?  Vicky doesn’t even smoke!  You don’t smoke do you sweetheart?  Of course not.  How could she have cancer?”

“Ma’am, if you want to come with me into the other room I can go over some initial treatment information with you.  Your husband has arrived and is waiting in the next room.”  He turned and gave a sympathetic glance in Victoria’s direction, then walked out with her mother.

Tears leaked out of the corners of Victoria’s eyes and she took a deep breath to keep herself from bursting into tears.  “Oh God, this has to be a joke.  I can’t believe this is happening to me.  Restricted to a wheelchair at eighteen?  My life is fucking over.”

She tried to put her face in her hands but due to the restriction of her brace she had to settle for wiping her eyes.  The door opened again without warning and this time admitted the second, younger doctor.

“Before you let your parents make any decisions for you I want you to look at this.”  He had a laptop in one hand and a pet carrier in the other.  “I’ve been working on this project for seven years now and I have finally perfected it to the point where it’s ready for a human trial.”

She blinked away tears and looked at him.  “What on Earth are you talking about?”

“Sorry, my name is Eugene and I work in the Prosthetics and Neuroscience departments here at the hospital.”  He set the pet carrier down on a table across from her, “I know that might seem like a strange combination but it’ll be clear once you see what I have in this.”

Eugene opened the carrier and Victoria suppressed a cringe before it caused her neck to spasm inside her brace.  Inside was a large white rat; all along its spine was a mass of metal and brightly colored wiring protruding from the skin in an unhealthy looking tangle.  One of its legs was missing and replaced by a jointed metal limb with a blunt rubber “foot” that it employed with apparent ease despite the macabre appearance it had.

“Ohmygod what is THAT?”  She exclaimed, crinkling her nose and leaning back slightly.  Oblivious to her disgust, Eugene continued.

“This is Megan.  She was a lost cause a few short months ago after the rack her cage was on collapsed, crushing her spine and severing her left front leg.  With the technology I have been developing she is now able to function more or less normally although the function of her limb and flexibility of her spine is limited.  The human-sized prototype I have created has approximately a hundred times the mobility that this smaller version does.”

“Wait you want to put one of THOSE in ME?”  She pointed a shaky finger at the mangled looking mess that comprised the spine of the rat.  “I think I’d rather be in a wheelchair.”

“Of course not, the human model is a work of art.  Poor Megan was just my test subject; with the funding I was able to secure recently I have been able to create a perfect and beautiful finished product.”  He set the laptop down and his face became sober.

“What they aren’t telling you is there is no guarantee with the chemo.  In fact your condition is by far the most advanced we’ve seen especially for someone so young.”  The zeal he had displayed while showing off his creation was replaced with grim determination.  “That’s why Dr. Frederick wanted to talk to your parents separately.  They didn’t think you could handle how dire the situation really is.  In fact we aren’t even sure that the cancer hasn’t invaded your other bone tissue.”

He walked forward and took her hands.  His were dry and surprisingly rough, “I’m going to be honest with you right now; even if chemo was completely successful your odds of survival are still pretty grim.  That said, your chances with my spinal replacement aren’t much better.”  He shrugged, “I just thought you might want to know that you could be a part of something bigger.  You know, that you might be able to further medical science instead of just walking down the same boring old road.”

Releasing her hands he opened the laptop and turned it so she could see what was on it; a rotating three-dimensional image of a rather complex steel and rubber spinal column.  “Take this and read my research notes.  Someone who scored as high on the SAT’s as you did shouldn’t have a problem understanding most of what’s on here.  My personal cell is on this card; call me if you have any questions.”  Eugene handed her a business card with a phone number written on the back in a small tidy script, picked up the pet carrier and walked toward the door.

“Hey!  How do you know about my SAT’s?”  Victoria had recovered enough from the shock of what he was suggesting to be indignant about the invasion of her privacy.

Eugene paused with his hand on the door handle, “Because I was on the alumnus board that voted to approve your full ride to MIT last week.  It would honestly be criminal to waste a mind as brilliant as yours Miss Scott.”  With that he walked out the door and closed it behind him.

Awkwardly juggling the laptop to a position where she could read it with the brace on Victoria looked at the summary notes and had to admit it was pretty intriguing stuff.  The idea that electrodes could be hooked up directly to nerves wasn’t a new one; what was revolutionary was that he had managed to isolate nerve function by frequency.

Victoria scrolled through the document, noting in passing that it seemed to have a custom OS she hadn’t ever seen before.  It was very simple to operate though and within a couple of minutes she was scrolling through the technical specs with ease.  By touching the screen she opened a short video titled ‘Neurosynth Wavelength Interaction’ and a complex molecule rotate in 3D on the screen.  Eugene’s voice was narrating in the same intense tone he had been using before.

“Different commands actually have varied pulse lengths; this anomaly allows my technology to interpret nerve messages with relative speed and ease.  Not only that but it means complex connections are now irrelevant.  The connective fluid between the flesh and the machine will transmit the signal through the skin.  Preliminary testing shows it to be effective and to have little or no physical therapy time.

“Larger nerve function could be problematic as the amount of memory needed to operate even the most basic muscle or body function is astronomical; however our test subject has been able to adapt.  My future recommendation is to integrate the AI directly into the brain stem, allowing unused biological memory to compensate.  This would help to eliminate bulky and expensive hardware.”

Looking back at the initial graphic of the prosthetic, Victoria found there were several more CG images showing the prosthetic, how it could look integrated with a person and the neuro-connective fluid.  The finished concept was a smooth interlocking series of polished steel plates with black rubber spacers.  Not unlike a normal spine, except for the obvious fact that it was all above the surface of the skin.

The last graphic was an actual picture of the prepared modular spine.  All of its connections and interlocking parts polished and gleaming under bright halogen lighting as it lay submerged in a tank of some sort of fluid surrounded by an array of computer screens, each with different unintelligible output.

Victoria found herself wondering what life in a wheelchair would be like.  No more cheer team.  No more early morning runs in the wooded trails behind her parent’s house that she loved so much.  No more volleyball.  She would never be able to swim again, she’d be lucky to even be able to dress herself.  “No way, I think I’d rather die.  If there’s a chance I can stay out of a wheelchair I’m taking it.”