Upgrades!

Posted on Sun Jul 29th, 2018 @ 5:18pm by Lieutenant Renee Salchin & Lieutenant JG Siobahn Fallon

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: PRIOR To Blast From The Past: Seeing Ghosts

Renee had been very careful to monitor the readouts of who was where at what time. She needed help with something, but she couldn't just ask anyone, no, not indeed. So she'd done her research and ruled out almost everyone. Janice was good, yes, but it appeared she worked more with animals than humanoids and she didn't know her surgical skills and hadn't gotten a good look at her hands. Odelle Lin was really an unknown, somewhat cute, but not a surgeon in particular. Hailey would have been a good choice, surgery was her specialty and she also worked with sensitive projects, buuuuuuuut she was a trauma surgeon, she did hack and slash jobs and she needed someone delicate, with smaller hands that could manipulate the really fine tools, so there was only one true choice.

And she was alone.

It was almost like skulking into the sickbay after hours, just about like she was about to pull a prank. Renee tucked the small box into the crook of her arm as she looked around the sickbay before clearing her throat to get the attention of the young redhead still making herself busy.

Not expecting anyone, Siobahn almost jumped at the sudden noise, spinning around quickly to see Renee standing there. "Aye... are you tryin' to scare the bejeezus out of me?" she asked with a quick shake of her head before she cast a discerning gaze over Renee. There was no immediate sign of broken bones or other injuries, and she didn't at first glance appear to be obviously unwell. "Is everythin' alright Renee?"

"Absolutely!" Renee said cheerfully, "But I need your help, if you wouldn't mind." She tried not to ogle Siobahn's hands, "Hooooow are you with surgeries? I need someone who can do some really delicate and precise work."

Siobahn shook her head again. "I did well on field tests, but I'm a first year graduate, honestly, you would be better off asking Hailey, or even Lieutenant Soran. I mean, in theory I can do it, but, well..." her voice trailed off for a moment as she tilted her head to one side slightly. "What surgery? You don't look like you're unwell enough to require a tylenol let alone surgery!"

Renee shook her head, "Hailey is a butcher, she's good at the biiiig things." She stretched her hands out as far as she could while her elbow stayed clamped, "And Janice is about half and half animal doctor as well and despite what several people would say, I'm really not a bitch!" She smiled slightly at a memory, "But It's not that I'm unwell... I just need... An upgrade."

There was an obvious double take as Renee's words sunk in. Siobahn motioned for Renee to take a seat on the bio bed next to her and pulled up a stool. "Okay, you've piqued my interest, tell me more!"

Renee settled herself on the biobed and placed the box on the bed next to her, "Well, I'm one of those wondiferously amazing people who come up with the new stuff, but you knew that already, I'm sure. But, I'm not just the creator of fun new gadgets and technology, I'm also one of the primary testers of it, including some things like.." She pressed a series of buttons on the small case, then opened it, "A retinal implant. I have one in my right eye, enhancing the vision as well as providing a database accessible through a neural interface. Really very useful in my field. This one here is an upgrade."

"And now you want them changed out so you can trial the upgrade," Siobahn surmised. She grabbed a tricorder and stood up, flipping it open and scanning around Renee's head carefully. "The neural interlink doesn't appear to be incredibly complicated, but you're right, it is awfully delicate." She closed the tricorder and sat back down on the stool. "I mean, in theory I could do it, but I've never done anything like it before, and I couldn't even begin to quantify the risks if something were to go wrong..."

"The interlink itself isn't going to be touched." Renee said, "That itself was a rather not-so-fun surgery that had genuine dangers to it. This is going in to swap out the old one for the new one, but I need someone with smaller hands and really really precise movements. And don't worry, I understand the risks involved." She smiled softly, "But this one has some really neat upgrades to it and I don't want to wait for a couple years to get it installed. If it helps, the original installation was through the temple."

"So you literally just want the units swapped out?" Siobahn asked quietly. "I mean... I guess I could do it..."

"I'm sure you could do it!" Renee pronounced jubilantly, "Let me deactivate this one first..." Her right eye defocused as if looking at something past Siobahn's head, then the eye semi-twitched a couple times and Renee blinked twice, "There we go... Now, if you want me to, I can stay awake during this if you have any issues, but obviously a local anaesthetic because otherwise it would hurt... Or you could put me under and not have to listen to me whining or stuff."

Siobahn laughed softly. "I think I'd prefer if you were awake, that way I can at least ask you questions if I need to." She paused for a moment, watching Renee carefully. "Are you really sure you want me to do this? I mean really, really sure?"

"Well, I think it would be silly if I tried to do it myself." Renee giggled, trying to put Siobahn at ease. She herself was just fine, "Yes, I'm very sure."

"Okay, well... I guess we're goin' to do this then... I'll give you a local anesthetic to start with, and I might give you a mild muscle relaxant as well, just in case you get twitchy and try to move during the procedure. You shouldn't feel any pain at all, but if you do just tell me, okay? You are likely to feel some mild discomfort or pressure though..." Siobahn explained as she turned around and grabbed two hyosprays from the counter behind her, loading them both with cartridges. "Ready?"

Renee laid down on the biobed, "Yes indeed." She was really excited about the added features, "I trust you, Siobahn, I wouldn't ask you otherwise!"

With a slight nod Siobahn pressed the first hypospray into Renee's temple and delivered a dose of local anesthetic, then pressed the second hypospray to her neck, administering the muscle relaxant. "Okay, they're going to take a few minutes to start to kick in, so while we're waitin' I'll get everything else ready. Quietly she moved around, placing devices and instruments on the tray in front of her.

"I'm really sorry to spring this on you this late in the day." Renee said apologetically, "This is just sensitive stuff... Proprietary material and all, things that would technically be on the official secrets list, I guess? I'm sure if they knew it were out there, most engineers would be wanting to get one of these implants, and I'm sure at some point they'll become 'standard' equipment upon request, but just like anything else, we have to work the bugs out of them."

"The thought of this kind of technology in some hands is very scary indeed... alright, can you feel this?" Siobahn asked quietly, poking Renee's temple gently with the tip of one finger nail.

“Nope!” Renee said, seeing the motion from her peripheral vision, but unable to move her eye or even blink, yet remarkably calm about the fact, “This is always disconcerting, not being able to blink and all, but the docs always said it’s easier to do it this way, awake and all, but instead of them initiating the initial boot procedure, I’ll be able to do it. At least, once I get control back again.”

"Okay... well, I guess we should get started then." Siobahn drew in a deep breath as she picked up the laser scalpel, feeling increasingly glad that her hands weren't shaking with how nervous she was feeling. "Just remember if you feel anything, anything at all, just tell me."

Carefully, Siobahn made an incision across Renee's left temple. "Renee, I'm going to try and do this laparoscopic, there is going to be no way I can get proper access to the area to get even my hands in there. You're going to feel a little tugging or a little pressure, but if it actually hurts tell me."

Using a small pair of forceps to open the incision as far as she dared without damaging the surrounding tissue, Siobahn used a very small pair of grips, using one edge as a lever between the interface and the module, levering it out carefully. "Okay, the old interface is out," she said, dropping it onto the tray with a small 'ting' sound. "I'm going to try and fit the new device now."

A few moments later Siobahn exhaled softly. "I think it's installed properly. Do I need to turn it on or boot it or anything?"

"Nope." Renee would have shook her head, but she couldn't. "I didn't really feel a thing, and if you'd be so kind as to reverse the relaxant a bit, I can bring it up and even have it run a local diagnostic to see if there was anything that went even slightly off or any adjustments needed."

Loading a hypospray, Siobahn pressed it gently to Renee's neck, administering the dose. "You should get movement back in a few moments," she said gently. "I haven't closed up the incision so please don't move too much, just tell me if it's working correctly so I can close it up properly."

After a few minutes, Renee closed her eyes and moved her eyes around to see if anything didn't feel right, then scrunched her nose and twitched it to the right. "We're good on the connection, initial startup diagnostics are running... Looking good." She blinked twice then kept her eyes open, "Whoa..." Her right eye defocused and began to flit here and there as if tapping things, "Yeah, the sensitivity needs to be adjusted, but that's easy enough to do... Running mounting diagnostic... No problems at all." Her eye refocused and she grinned over towards Siobahn, "Perfect!"

"So it's all good? Are you happy for me to close up?" Siobahn asked, holding the dermal regenerator up. "Or is there something else you need me to do first?"

"Well, that's all done, the other thing is really easy, I could do it myself if needed, but I prefer to have someone professional do it instead." Renee smiled, letting the doc do her work, "The other thing in the box just needs to be implanted along the middle finger of my left hand, from the last knuckle to the cuticle. It's just a small little strip, a holoprojectory thing to project a phased virtual screen that only I can see and interact with, with the retinal implant."

With a quick nod, Siobahn activated the dermal regenerator and starting running it slowly over the open incision. "Does it need to be connected to anythin' or literally just implanted?" she asked.

"Literally just placed along the dorsal aspect to the bone." Renee said, "Nothing special or complicated, not like the eye!"

"Well that should be easy enough, could do it much the same way one would do an IV catheter insert, so long as you aren't squeamish it should be fine," Siobahn replied with a smile.

“Once you hit a certain level of engineering, enough things go wrong that it isn’t for the squeamish.” Renee smiled with a hint of sadness, “So, to say it, hun, no, I’m not squeamis.”

“Well, that’s good, but it shouldn’t be too terrible any which way. Alrighty this is all closed up, how does it feel? No issues?” She asked as she grabbed another hypospray and loaded it with a local anaesthetic. “Which finger do you want this in?”

Renee curled her hand and then brandished her middle finger and laughed, “Near the end by the cuticle?” She asked through the giggle, “I already handled the subdermal chip on the forearm, that was easy... And if you wanted to see the end result... Let me think on how to do that for a moment.”

"You know what, I suspect the hypo is going to be pretty much useless, give me a second, I want to try something else." Unloading the hypo and dropping it back onto the counter, Siobahn opened one of the storage units and rummaged around, finally returning with a triumphant "A-ha!" With a grin, she brandished a tube of ointment in front of Renee, unscrewing the cap and applying a liberal amount over the top of Renee's middle finger, around the cuticle and down to the first knuckle. "It shouldn't take long to work, but I strongly suggest you keep it well clear of your mouth. Tastes like manky feet and will leave you drooling like a baby." She laughed at herself as she returned the ointment to where she had retrieved it from before she opened a field trauma kit to retrieve a size 14 IV catheter and setting it up with the device from the box. "Okay, even with the ointment this is likely gonna tickle a little, so just let me know when you're ready."

With a very brief wiggle of the finger, Renee averted her eyes for this one, then nodded, "Ready whenever you are... At least with the eye, I don't have to see it"

"Well, just don't look!" Siobahn quipped as she slowly inserted the catheter into finger just to the side of the cuticle. Once the catheter was in, she grabbed the device, carefully sliding it through the catheter so it sat just below the skin. "You all good?" she asked with concern.

"Yup." Renee said, studying the imaginary spot on the wall she was looking at, "Doesn't even raise the skin pretty much, right?"

Siobahn laughed gently. "Honey by the time I'm done with it you wont even know it's there!" Moving carefully she used her fingertips to maneuver the device into place as she withdrew the catheter and reached for the dermal regenerator. "Do you need to test this before I close it up or are you all good now?"

"Go ahead and close it." Renee said absently, taking her right hand and swiping her left forearm towards the hand and her face brightened, "Yessssssss..." Her right hand swiped across apparently blank space in front of her as Siobahn finished up and then began to type in the air. Renee pulled out a PADD from her belt, then swiped something from blank space down towards it. "Use that like camera and you should be able to see it." She said with excitement.

"Let me close up first, I am more concerned about infection risk than seeing your goodies!" Siobahn replied with a laugh as she activated the dermal regenerator again and ran it over the finger until the tiny would was healed. "Alright, so, what am I looking at here?"

"If I set it up right, you're about to see the virtual display I have up here. It's visually phased to my retinal implant, but since that's mostly just a programming related problem, I set the PADD up to filter the visual to that frequency." Renee grinned, "Not quite three dimensional, yet, but I can turn the views easy enough. Probably just need to set up some additional micro-projectors in other spots to hit that three-D mark."

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer, most everything you just said may as well be double dutch!" Siobahn dropped the dermal regenerator back on the counter and scooted the stool closer. "Break it down for me into terms I can understand easily."

Renee handed the PADD to Siobahn, then glanced around it and adjusted it to face precisely in the right direction, "See that 'console'? That's not a physical thing, it's the holoprojection from the cuticle projector you just put in. But you can't see it without the PADD, because it's on a phased frequency set to the eye implant." She swiped around with her left hand, moving one of the displays around on the virtual console.

"Okay, wow... that is suitably impressive. So what can you do with it?" Siobahn asked, her voice filled with awe.

"My dear, dear Siobahn, the right question is: What can't I do with it?" She grinned widely, "The retinal implant has a tenfold increase in storage space, which means I can access anything I want from it and work on it anywhere! In Engineering, in the bathroom, on the planet, anywhere! And that's just the firewalled data, the secure stuff. There's a separate commo band so I can interact with information and devices in Engineering and elsewhere on the ship and move around with that as I troubleshoot issues."

"So you can literally access the ship from anywhere at any time, no matter what?" Siobahn asked incredulously. "I'm assuming that this isn't standard technology?"

"Well, the ship from in the ship, it isn't a remote control yet." Renee chuckled, "And right now, only the 'normal' and 'confidential' stuff, I need to make sure the encryption channels are full functional and unhackable before I can really delve into the ship with it. And no, it isn't remotely standard. I'm sure if we gouged peoples' eyes out and replaced them with cybernetic eyes, we could do it, but they have their own issues as well. The retinal implant both guarantees that it's an authorized officer with both the retinal and genetic scans as well as the neural pathway link so it can't just be ripped out and reimplanted in someone else. How many people would willingly subject their living eyeball to a surgery to copy, replicate and connect a new experimental implant? I'm one of... I think thirty-three people at the moment?"

"Yeah, I don't think they would be lining up in droves, I know I wouldn't, but then again, I'm a complete sook when it comes to pain," Siobahn laughed. "But this is seriously cool, I would love to see what you can do when you get it fully up and running!"

"It will definitely make my life a helluva lot easier." Renee said, swiping back towards her left elbow and the display disappeared, "And I need to figure out a way to switch the phase for others to see too, but that shouldn't be too overly difficult, I don't think."

"Too complicated for me, I'll stick with medical," Siobahn replied with a shake of her head. "Right, you should be good now, but because of the changes to the neural interlink I would prefer if you sit here for a little longer, even another five or ten minutes, just to make sure you aren't going to have any kind of a reaction. Do you want me to replicate you a tea or a coffee or something while you're waiting?"

"Coffee would be a baaaaaad thing right now, though it's just sooooo good..." Renee twiddled her fingers around, "Apple fritter? And then some orange-cinnamon tea? That should work pretty well."

"Sure, I'll get right on it," Siobahn replied with a smile as she headed over to the replicator.