At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Remembered

Goodneighbour
July the 21st, 2288
20:00

In the over forty years since she had begun work as a doctor, Dr. Madeline Rebecca Amari had never once been asked to handle any parts of a corpse other than on the rare occasion of having to perform an autopsy. Being asked to do so almost completely out of the blue was, understandably, far from ideal.

Ensuring one last time the doors into her laboratory were locked, Amari walked over to where, still in the cryogenic storage box it had been brought to her in, Kellogg's head was sitting on top of a table. Discomfort taking hold of her body, she pulled on a pair of nitrile examination gloves and, cautiously, began to unlock the box. Her nose wrinkled at the scent of death emanating from the head and, delicately, she lifted up and turned it to take a look at the state of the man's skull and, within it, his brain. To little surprise though to her disappointment, a few bullet holes were visible in the skull through the scalp and neck. Trying not to dwell on the fact the head had been severed from the neck down, Amari pursed her lips and, picking up a small surgical drill, began to drill a few holes in the top of the head to make removing parts of his skull easier. As she carefully removed pieces of his skull, she set them aside in a container marked Biohazard and, eventually, she was able to get a good look at what was left of the man's brain inside his skull. More of it than she had expected remained, though significant degeneration was still present. What caught her attention, however, were the cybernetics attached to his brain, as had been told to her.

"I don't know if I should say this is better or worse than I anticipated," Amari finally said, turning to where Nora and Nick were anxiously standing a few feet behind her. "On the one hand, the preservation was sufficient in keeping what you had from degenerating further, but, on the other, the degeneration is still significant and, most importantly, irreversible. I practise neurological medicine and science, not fantastical whims, never mind what Irma and her...interesting décor choices would have you think."

"But do you think there's any way to work with what we have?" Nora said, her voice wavering. "I know it's desperate, and I wish there were more but I..."

"These cybernetics are remarkable and do appear to have had a part in preventing degeneration of the brain matter they're connected to," Amari cut in, glancing to Nick. "This appears to be a neural interface. Institute technology, of course."

Nick frowned. "Those circuits look awfully familiar."

"I'm not surprised. From what I've seen, all Institute technology has a similar architecture," Amari said, examining the brain. "As I said, the decay on the brain matter it's attached to is significantly less than what the interface isn't attached to, which means the tech is probably preserving the tissue, injecting some kind of compound into it to keep it stable. However, there's no way to access anything within it – memories or not – without a compatible port."

"You talking about me? I'm an older model synth, so, if the Institute built me out of similar parts, we might have an in," Nick said, surprised. "Is there a chance you could remove it from the merc's head and connect it to mine?"

"What?" Nora exclaimed, turning to him, horrified. "Couldn't...wouldn't doing something...couldn't it kill you?"

"There's plenty of room in my head," Nick dryly replied. "Why not?"

"For one thing, there could be long term side effects," Amari pointedly informed him. "I don't even know where to begin with listing the risks, considering I'd be wiring something to your brain."

"Don't worry about me, Amari," Nick shook his head. "I'm well past the warranty date anyway. Your hands are the safest place a brain can be."

"Nick, there's..." Nora fell silent, unsure of what to say. "Do you really think this will work?"