Shadowrun General > Fan fiction

Jerin Therapy Part II (WIP) Any thoughts welcome.

(1/1)

IC3H4MM3R:
   “Yes, sir.  Right this way, Jethro.” She led him up and into the small VTOL’s cargo compartment that had been fitted with bench seats.
   Several medical crates were scattered about the compartment, as well as numerous devices that Jerin was unfamiliar with. There was a man working to secure them, garbed in scrubs that marked him as a nurse or intern. Another man was sitting there as well.  The seated fellow was dressed in a patient’s gown and had an IV line attached to his arm.  His head lolled against his chest as if he were asleep.  Poly Ann nodded to him.
   “Don’t mind him, Jethro.  That’s Devon.  He had a violent reaction to one of the treatments and he is sleeping it off.  We will be dropping him off before we continue on to our destination.
   Jerin nodded.  He barely felt it as the VTOL lifted off and the roof of the building dropped away.  He watched Poly Ann cautiously as she opened a crate of supplies next to the seat.
   “Well, Mr.McCard. We have a few preliminary tests to take care of before we arrive at the main compound. Do you mind?” The interior of the VTOL had excellent sound dampening.  Poly Ann barely  had to raise her voice to be heard. Jerin’s throat tightened.  What would they do if they found he had lied?  What would they do if they found out he was Jerin and not Jethro McCard.  Would they withdraw the help?
   Poly Ann took out a digital clipboard and began asking him questions while filling out sections of some kind of official looking form.  Jerin answered them as if he was his brother, Jethro, but he knew that as soon as they scanned his SIN the lie would come out. The questions were just basic information, and Mr. Johnson had said they were not interested in his past, so maybe they wouldn’t scan him.
   The questions wound down as the landscape flashed by outside the tiny round window set in the side of the plane.  Jerin looked around as Poly Ann finished with her questions.  ‘Devon’ seemed to coming out of his sedation.  Jerin was a little un-nerved by the groaning sound he was making.
   “Is he okay?” He indicated Devon.
   “He will be. His IV was full of meds to help.  Just let me scan your SIN and we will be completely finished with your enrollment.” This was the what Jerin had been worried about the whole flight.
   “Yeah, about..”  Jerin started to make some excuse, but at that moment Devon came startlingly awake.   
   With a loud yell Devon kicked out, trying to leap to his feet.  The kick connected with Poly Ann’s wrist, knocking the portable SIN scanner out of her hand.  It clattered to the floor and skidded over into the corner.
   “Drek!” Poly Ann shouted for the other guard as she attempted to subdue Devon. “Bring another hypo!”
   The fellow in scrubs grabbed a hypo from the supply crate sitting there and rushed over to help.  In a few moments ‘Devon’ had calmed back down, gibbering to himself, but looking like he did when Jerin first saw him.
   “Sorry about that.  The reaction to the treatment caused him severe paranoia, some possible psychosis.  We’re not sure yet. We’re keeping him sedated so he won’t hurt himself.”
   Jerin nodded, but still looked uneasy.
   “Where were we. Oh yes. We needed your scan.” Poly Ann retrieved the portable scanner, and before Jerin could react had hit the scan trigger.  She looked down at the screen and scowled.
   “What is it?” Jerin asked, unable to hold his tongue. Poly Ann scowled down at the screen for several more minutes before replying.
   “The screen is busted.  All I can read is J. McCard, but we already knew that, right? I’m just mad because it’s probably coming out of my pay.” she glared over at Devon, shaking her head.
   Jerin let out a little sigh of relief while she was distracted. She had turned the screen enough that the could make out the gray slab of discoloration across the left half of the tiny screen.
   “I thought everybody was using holographic displays or AR nowadays.” he said.
   “The higher ups like to cut costs.  These are almost relics, but they do the job.  Besides.  The scan is just to verify what you’ve already told us.  It’s not like its a high priority or something.”
   They landed somewhere in Redmond that Jerin was unfamiliar with and off-loaded Devon without incident.  After that Poly Ann assured him they were headed to the compound for some more tests and blood work.  That was her words, so that confirmed Jerin’s suspicions that Mr. Johnson had already gotten a sample of his blood before waking him up.  Strangely, this eased Jerin’s mind a little.  If they hadn’t been on the up and up they could’ve just kidnapped him and done whatever they wanted to him.  He tried very hard to ignore the voice that was whispering in the back of his mind.  That little voice that sent shivers down his spine. “
   “It’s easier when the victim cooperates”  it said.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, and they finally touched down at a compound that looked like a medical facility. The sign on the wall read Tencharu Pharmaceuticals, and was back-lit by a cool blue. Poly Ann accompanied him inside where they were greeted by several doctors.  Jerin noticed that a lot of the hustle and bustle going on were people setting up all kinds of equipment.  The whole compound seemed to be brand new.
   “Doctor Kurtis,” Poly Ann greeted a human of average height with tridstar features and blonde shoulder length hair “this is Jethro McCard. Mr. Johnson said that his original readings were...very favorable. Jethro, this id Doctor Kurtis.  He will be taking you the rest of the way.  Good luck, and hopefully we will meet again.”
   “Well now,” Doctor Kurtis turned to greet Jerin with a smile plastered across his face that would have disarmed most normal people “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Jethro.  We are going to go slow with this, so there is very little to worry about.  We’ve been researching this procedure for several years now, so there’s not much to worry about at all.”
   The man’s voice was smooth as silk, and he conveyed an air of confidence that puts people at ease.  Relax, it said we’ve got everything under control. Jerin wasn’t fooled, but he played along to see what the hook was.
   “Yeah,” he said “about that.  I wasn’t really told much of anything.  What exactly is going on?”
   Doctor Kurtis glanced at Poly Ann’s retreating back.  It did not look as if he were thinking pleasant thoughts.
   “Well, that is an interesting question, my friend.” He said, never missing a beat. “A lot of it is very technical and I won’t bore you with medical terms and theories.  Let me see if I can explain it in such a way that it doesn’t take a medical license to understand.  This line of study opened up as Goblinization first started occurring.  The people that funded our research were very interested in the fact that most people that were affected by it’s mutating properties were gaining certain, shalll we say, benefits from the transition.  Physically, I mean.  Mental health was a whole separate issue.”
   A small lady in scrubs came over, interrupting the doctor’s explanation to ask where to set up another technical looking gadget that Jerin had never heard of, and Doctor Kurtis stopped long enough to give her some instructions.  He motioned for Jerin to follow as he continued on.
   “Where was I? Ah, yes. Goblinization.  The benefits were of interest to a lot of researchers and they were working to find a way to halt what was happening to those people that were afflicted.  There has been a lot of progress in that field.  Like the fact that there is a dormant gene in the victim’s DNA that is, touched by the mystical force that is known as magic.  The gene itself, when activated starts a chain reaction that mutates the host, sometimes rather painfully rescripting the way the body is built.  This rescripting usually carries with it many benefits.  We have been studying how to attain these benefits without the subject having to suffer the disease known as Goblinization.”
   Jerin was fascinated by the explanation, but he was still wondering what that had to do with him.  They had traveled on into the compound, passing a lot more hustle and bustle, but finally coming to a stop in front of an elevator.  The doctor pressed an unlabeled button and continued talking as they waited for the elevator to respond.
   “The technical details of what we are doing here takes a long time to explain, and are, quite frankly very boring. I won’t punish you with them, but to put it simply, we are trying to take those benefits received by such creatures as orks and trolls, and grant them to normal people like you and me.”
   “Oh.” Jerin said.  That didn’t sound like a bad deal.  Although this Doctor Kurtis was coming off as very elite minded.
   “There are other branches of study looking to isolate and ‘cure’ the condition, but it looks as if those studies have hit a brick wall.  What we have found in our research is that certain individuals have a similar gene that has an...affinity...shall we say, to the mutating gene.  It has the ability to be coded.  As it turns out, you have this gene.  Lucky you.” The way he said lucky made it sound as if he meant right the opposite, but he continued on smoothly and Jerin thought that maybe he had imagined it. “Basically, what that means is we are going to see if we can give you those extra abilities that the metahumans have.  If we can do that successfully with no side effects, then we are going to see if we can somehow isolate and synthesize that gene.  If we can do that, we will be able to grant those some abilities to anybody.”
   “Is it, dangerous?” Jerin had the feeling that it was.   That was why it was paying so well.  He knew he was going to do it anyway, though.  After all, what did he have to lose?
   “Not terribly so” the Doctor continued “but it could be painful.  And some of the side effects could be uncomfortable.  Trust me.  We have ran this procedure through weeks of simulations, as well as taking into account years worth of accumulated data.  We have theoretically accounted for almost every possibility.  It should be a walk in the park from here on out.”
   Jerin stared at the man’s back as the elevator doors opened into an empty corridor.  I know some pretty rough parks, he thought as they stepped off of the lift. They walked down the corridor with the doctor leading the way.  This area of the building looked new.  As if they had built this particular section just for their research.  And perhaps they had.  There seemed to be no shortage of nuyen backing them.  After a few turns, Jerin lost his way and just simply followed Doctor Kurtis.  Finally they came to a room.
   “Here we go.” Doctor Kurtis said. “This will be your new home for the next couple of weeks. Everything you need is in the footlocker.  If you should need anything else just buzz the intercom by the door and someone will see about fetching it for you.  For the next few days, you will need to stay on this floor while we prep you.  The tests require we keep you in isolation. Now, I have a ton of things to do to get this facility up and running.  I’ll check back in with you later to see how you are settling in.”
   Without another word, the doctor vanished, and Jerin was left there to ponder what he had gotten himself into. The room was about the size of his apartment.  It had a bed, a tiny food rehydrator, a small smart fridge, a bathroom, a closet slash dresser combo, and of course the footlocker.  Jerin moved over to it and slowly lifted the lid.  Inside were four jumpsuits that looked like they would be loose fitting on him, a couple of blankets, a portable trid player, and a box containing snack items. Two pairs of shoes that looked like the soles had never touched the floor were also in the bottom of the locker.
   Jerin stepped over to inspect the bathroom.  It had a toilet, a sink and over the sink was a mirrored medicine cabinet.  All of these things were luxury items compared to most of the places in the  Barrens.  The sink had two knobs and he was shocked to discover he had hot water as well as cold. Steam from the hot water drifted up and fogged the mirror.  Jerin reached up and wiped it away, flinching as he saw his reflection in its depths.  He had two black eyes and his nose was puffy and swollen.  They had cleaned the scratches and scrapes on the trip here, but they still looked red and raw.  All in all, he looked like someone had beaten the drek out of him.  It had been four somebodies, but who’s counting?
   Thinking that he might see if there was some kind of lounge, he walked to the door.  He expected it to open automatically, as it had when they had arrived, but it didn’t.  Jerin was even more concerned when he didn’t see any way of opening it.  There was only a flat cover plate where the door control panel would normally be.  Apparently, the doctor had been serious about the isolation part of his welcome speech.  Well, that was a problem for later on.  He stepped back into the bathroom and began stripping off his clothes.  He threw them back out into the main room beside the footlocker and then got into the shower.
   Twenty minutes later, he forced himself to shut off that glorious stream of hot water.  He stepped out into the bathroom and put on one of the jumpsuits.  It fit remarkably well.  Better than he had thought they would when he first looked at them.  The shoes were just slip-ons, but they were very comfortable.  When he returned to the main room, he noticed his clothes had disappeared.  He hadn’t seen or heard anyone.

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