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From: Any Pseudonym <anypseudonym@yahoo.com>
Subject: {ASSM} RP: Life With Alpha - Chapter Ten: Discovery (MFF, MC, SciFi, anime, cartoon, comic book)
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Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:10:01 -0500
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<1st attachment, "Alpha10.txt" begin>

Life with Alpha

by A. Pseudonym


Chapter Ten: Discovery


Codes:  MFF, MC, SciFi, anime, cartoon, comic book

Disclaimer:  All artificial persons herein are based on characters owned by 
their creators, not the author.


Authors Note:  The first part of this chapter takes place before Chapter Nine.  
Also note that this chapter is very light on the sex and heavy on the story.


Dramatis Personae:
Frank _____ - Lead character, inventor of Alpha
Alpha - First A.I. in existence
Kasumi Tendo - artificial woman based on character from Ranma 1/2
Daria Morgendorffer aka Daria Morgan - artificial woman based on character from 
	Daria
Jane Lane aka Jane Lannister - artificial woman based on character from Daria
Kara Zor-L aka Power Girl aka Karen Starr - artificial woman based on character 
	from DC Comics
Rei Ayanami aka  Rei Ayanami Ikari - artificial woman based on character from 
	Neon Genesis Evangelion
Anna Marie aka Rogue aka Anna Marie Raffen - artificial woman based on character 
	From Marvel Comics
Princess Diana aka Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince Walters - artificial woman 
	based on character from DC Comics
Zatanna Zatara aka Annabelle Tara Zane - artificial woman based on character 
	from DC Comics
Beta aka Bayonetta aka Elizabeth Alana Franks - cyborg copy of Alpha in body 
	based on video game character from Bayonetta




	Late that summer, a major hurricane hit Texas.  When the tracking showed 
it was incoming, Diana took Anna down to meet it.  Not to fight the weather, of 
course, but to fill sandbags and help people during and after its landfall. 
According to Alpha's household video feed, Kara was chosen to stay with me by 
drawing straws, though I think she may have cheated. I guess they figured at 
least one of the super-strong ladies needed to stay behind as bodyguard.  (It's 
both very flattering and very annoying that they've decided they're my 
bodyguards.  I suppose it's natural to a degree, since I'm also their entire 
financial support.)

	By the time the storm reached the DFW Metroplex area it was greatly 
reduced but still disgorged well over a foot of rain in less than six hours, 
which caused severe flooding all over the place.  It cut us off from easy access 
to the metroplex for almost an entire day, but we had plenty of food stocked up.

	The house itself was never in danger.  What?  You think I'd build a house 
with a heavily computerized basement in a location where there was any realistic 
chance that it could be flooded?  Nope, the house was most definitely on high 
ground.  It would take a Noah-level flood to threaten us.

	Anyway, during the height of the storm in the middle of the night, Alpha 
woke me up.  Well, woke us up.

	The screen in my bedroom started flashing red and Alpha's voice came over 
the speakers repeating, "Attention, please."

	I shot upright in bed, giving a look to Kasumi and Rei on either side of 
me.  They were definitely waking up too, but not quite as quickly as I did.  I 
reached over Rei, grabbed my earpiece off the charger stand and inserted it into 
my ear.

	"Alert off.  Status report."

	The ladies watched me curiously as I listened to the earpiece.

	"There has been a two car accident directly in front of the property.  One 
of the vehicles has impacted the wall approximately 20 meters south of our front 
gate."

	"Any injuries?  Have you notified the police?  Kasumi, get dressed.  We 
may need first aid.  There's been a car accident out front."

	Kasumi quickly got out of bed and slipped out of the room.

	"The physical status of the occupants is unknown, but none of them have 
yet to exit their vehicle.  I am currently on the line with an emergency 
dispatcher using your voice.  However it appears that flooding has cut off 
access from any ambulances and wind strength is such that helicopters cannot 
fly."

	"Okay.  We'll go down and see how we can help.  Wake up Kara too.  Tell 
the dispatcher that we have someone here who has Red Cross first aid training 
and we're investigating the crash."

	I got out of bed and started rummaging through my drawers for clothes.

	"Rei, you should get dressed too.  Wake up Daria and Jane too, just in 
case we need extra hands."

	She nodded, grabbed her nightdress from the floor and left the room.  She 
nearly ran into Kara, who showed at my door wearing nothing but a large T-shirt.

	"What's going on?  Your computer just woke me up, said there was an 
emergency."

	"Car accident out front, and it appears the access roads are flooded.  Go 
get dressed.  We're heading out to investigate."

	I had shirt, jeans, shoes and rain poncho on a minute later and spent 
another couple minutes downstairs gathering flashlights.

* * * * *

	By the time I was outside, Kasumi and Kara were both nearing the street 
ahead of me.  The weather was pretty bad.  Rain was coming down in nearly 
horizontal sheets from the strong wind.  Regular flashes of lightning lit the 
area.

	An SUV had smashed into the brick wall surrounding my property, though 
from the look of things, it had first hit the white pickup that was in the ditch 
on the far side of the road.

	The pickup had one person in it, a man who was obviously very dazed.  
Kasumi appropriated one of my flashlights and was shining it in his eyes.

	The SUV on the other hand, had a mother and two children in it.  Kara was 
prying open one of the smashed doors to give us access to them.  One of the 
children was a baby in a car seat and, from the strong wails, seemed to be 
scared but fine.

	Kasumi had wadded up part of the man's jacket and was pressing it to his 
head.  When Rei showed up a moment later, she had her hold the fabric in place.  
He was obviously seriously in pain, but he seemed to be insistent on getting out 
of the rain and wind.  Or maybe he just needed good lighting for an examination. 

	"He has a concussion and a bad cut on his scalp.  I'm worried there may be 
internal bleeding.  Rei, keep him awake and get a clean cloth to use on his head 
wound.  He shouldn't be walking, so get him sitting down right away."

	A grinding crunch behind us announced Kara's victory over the smashed car 
door, and we hurried over to see what the situation was like.

	Kara reached in to unlock the driver's side passenger door, then moved to 
work on actually prying it open.

	The mother was not looking very healthy, but was awake.  She was weakly 
moving an arm and trying to swing her legs out of the car.

	Kasumi quickly went to her and started asking her questions.  Apparently 
First Aid response is more along the lines of don't-move-the-victim-until-help-
arrives than get-them-out-of-the-car-in-case-it-explodes-like-on-TV.

	A man's voice from behind me said, "We should wait for the paramedics."

	I looked and saw the man from the pickup, with Rei hovering anxiously 
behind him.

	"Paramedics aren't coming.  Not soon anyway.  We already called for help, 
but the flooding is too bad in the area and it's too windy for choppers to fly 
safely. You should get inside."

	"I'm a doctor.  Well, a psychiatrist.  Been a long time since I did any 
first aid, but I thought I could help."

	"Kasumi said you have a concussion and possible internal bleeding.  Can 
you even focus properly."

	"No, not really.  Internal bleeding?"  He seemed really out of it.

	"Kasumi is first aid and CPR certified from the Red Cross.  Let Rei take 
you inside where it's dry."

	Apparently satisfied, he let her lead him away.

	The woman had started frantically trying to reach her children, but one of 
her arms was obviously broken.

	Kara got the second door open and was unbuckling the infant seat.  She 
handed it to me, baby and all, and turned back to look at the young boy who sat 
unconscious in the seat on the other side of the car.

	Kasumi said, "Kara, come here.  Keep her from moving around much.  Frank, 
take the baby inside, but keep him in the seat until we can examine him."

	I adjusted my poncho so it covered the crying baby and awkwardly carried 
it up the drive to the house.  Inside, Daria and Jane were dressed in robes, 
trying to figure out what was going on.

	"Daria, Jane, here.  Take care of him.  Leave him in the car seat until 
we're sure he isn't injured."

	The psychiatrist was clutching his side while talking on his cell phone, 
and I glimpsed Rei at the top of the stairs.

	I handed the baby off to the girls and hurried back out to the car.

* * * * *

	Kasumi gave me a status report.  "I think she has a serious concussion.  
Her pupils won't respond to the light.  The boy is unconscious, with mildly 
labored breathing."

	"What should we do?"

	"Normally, we wait for paramedics.  If they can't make it?  I don't know."

	"Alpha, any suggestions?"

	"No one here is qualified to perform surgery to repair the damage.  I 
could possibly stabilize them with nanites."

	Damn.  Using nanites on an accident victim was just asking for trouble, 
but at the same time, I couldn't just let them die, could I?

	"Frank, the psychiatrist has fallen unconscious.  Daria just commented 
that his skin is cool.  I believe he is dying from internal bleeding."  I 
relayed the information to Kasumi.

	"Alpha, start prepping for treatment.  Mam?  We have a bad situation 
here..."

	I trailed off when I noticed that she had fallen unconscious.

	"Dammit.  Kasumi?"

	She did a quick status check on her.  "Her pulse is still strong.  I'll 
keep a close eye on her.  I think her son's pulse is getting weaker though."

	"Damn, damn, damn."  I took a deep breath.  "Okay.  Kara, go get some 
boards from the garage and something to strap them down.  The man first, then 
the boy.  I'm going to have to try using the nanites to repair them."  

	She took off sprinting to the garage.  Speaking of which, "Alpha, open the 
garage door for Kara.  Kasumi, when Kara get's back, you two strap the boy to a 
board and bring him down to the basement."

	I took off running for the garage as well.  I saw Kara gathering rope and 
headed into the house and down to the basement.

	I quickly threw a tarp over the body of the next lady being grown, 
unhooked her connections, and wheeled the pod into the corner.  It didn't stand 
out much because about a third of the machinery in the lab was covered up at the 
moment.  I was still hooking up the second pod when Kara arrived, carrying the 
man tied down to a board.

	"Untie him and strip him naked.  Carefully.  Alpha, are the nanites 
prepped?"

	"Yes, they are linked with the goo tube, ready for use."  The 'goo tube', 
as I call it, filled a pod with a neutral goo which allowed the nanites easy 
access to a body.  It was much more efficient than my earliest methods of 
pouring out a vial of nanites.

	Once he was untied and naked, Kara lifted up the board and we slid him 
into the pod.  I snapped on the oxygen mask, started the goo injection and sent 
Kara upstairs for the boy.

	By the time Kara was back with the kid and had started stripping him, the 
nanites were inside him and Alpha was doing her work.

	The first group of nanites provided a body scan, similar to a localized 
MRI.  The second group were more mechanical in nature and could do things like 
form themselves into a patch over broken blood vessels or slowly pinch together 
broken ligaments or muscles.  The third group was the actual repair group.  They 
could stimulate cell growth and direct how those new cells connected up.

	I had Alpha ignore the bruising and head wound and just focus on the life-
threatening internal bleeding.  Fortunately he was too weak to thrash around 
because I had forgotten to strap him down in the pod.

	About 20 minutes later, his bleeding was stopped and the nanites were 
withdrawing.  Since we were in a rush for time, once the nanites were out of his 
body, we didn't wait for the goo to drain, just pulled him out of the goo and 
put the boy in.

	While Kara washed the man down, Alpha went to work on the boy.  Apparently 
he had smashed the side of his head into the window and had intra-cranial 
bleeding pressing against his brain.  This was actually much easier to fix than 
the psychiatrist's wounds.

	The boy actually woke up when we were cleaning him off.  Fortunately he 
was very dazed and confused and went back to sleep after a minute.

	I'd guess he was about 4 or 5, so I hoped any memories he might retain 
would be ignored by any questioning adults as dreams.

* * * * *

	Kara and I carried the man back upstairs, then covered the boy up with 
plastic sheets and carried him back out to the SUV.

	"Alpha, any update on getting an ambulance?"

	"No change on the flooding, but the main part of the storm has passed.  
The winds are starting to die down, so helicopters should be able to start 
flying again soon."

	Kasumi was waiting for us out at the vehicles.  We strapped the boy back 
in and used the tarps to keep things dry.

	"How are they," she asked.

	"We fixed the internal bleeding.  The kid bashed his head against the 
window or something like that.  Bad bleeding in the brain.  He should be fine 
too, though he could really use an IV drip or something.  Alpha says the wind is 
starting to let up, so we might get a chopper before too long."

	I looked around.  Sure couldn't tell the wind was lessening from here.

	"You two stay out here for a minute.  I'm going to go check on the two 
inside.  If she doesn't wake up soon, we'll let the nanites check her out too.  
And remember, they've been here all the time.  I don't want people asking 
awkward questions."

	They both nodded.

	I went back up to the house.  The man was still unconscious, and the baby 
had apparently cried itself to sleep.  The girls had provided them both some 
warm blankets.

	I left them and got myself a fresh cup of coffee.

	I had just started sipping when Alpha said, "Frank, a police cruiser has 
just pulled up."

	"They got through the flooding?"

	"Or around it."

	"Gotcha."  I put down the coffee after a single sip and headed back out.

	A single police officer was getting out of his car as I emerged.  Kasumi 
was telling him about their physical condition when I arrived.

	"...she was awake but passed out again after a few minutes.  Both have 
strong pulses.  The man from the truck refused to stay still.  He said he is a 
psychiatrist, but I never got his name.  He is up at the house, where he fell 
unconscious."

	"Is he still unconscious?"

	"Just a minute."  I touched my hand to my earpiece.  "Is he still out?"

	"He is showing signs of waking up, but is still unconscious."

	"Sorry, officer.  I'm told he's showing signs of waking up, but not yet."

	"How is she doing?"

	Kasumi answered, "I'm pretty sure she has a broken arm and a concussion.  
I'm worried that she couldn't stay awake.  We really need to get her to a 
hospital."

	"You said there was a baby?"

	"We have him in the house.  Since we could move his entire car seat, we 
thought it was better to move him somewhere warm and dry."

	"Thank you, Miss...?"

	"Tendo.  Kasumi Tendo."

	"Thank you, Miss Tendo.  I may need more information later."

	He turned to me.  "And you are?"

	"I'm Frank ______.  I own this house," I said gesturing.  "My security 
system alerted me to the wall impact and we called the police as soon as we saw 
the crashed vehicles."

	"So you didn't actually see the crash?"

	"No, just the aftermath, but we'll be happy to provide whatever help you 
need.  We might have caught some of the crash on our security video, but I 
haven't checked yet.  I'm just glad Kasumi was here, since she has Red Cross 
training.  How did you get through the flooding?"

	"I didn't.  I live about a mile that-a-way.  Just got called on duty a few 
minutes ago when someone remembered I live out here."

	"Would you like some coffee?  We just brewed up a fresh pot for 
ourselves."

	"Maybe in few minutes.  I have to call this in.  If someone can continue 
to stay out here with these two, I'd like to check in on the man and baby as 
soon as I finish my call."

	I caught eyes with Kara, who nodded and stationed herself by the SUV.

	"No problem.  Do you know when an ambulance will be able to get through?"

	"Word is it'll probably be a copter as soon as the wind lets up a bit."  
The officer moved back to his car for a couple minutes, talking into his radio.  
He got out, placed some flashing emergency lights by both vehicles, then 
followed me up to the house.

	Daria and Jane were whispering to each other with the baby seat sitting 
between them.  Rei was holding a cup, kneeling next to the psychiatrist who 
seemed to be somewhat awake.

	"Hey there.  Glad to see you're awake again.  How are you feeling?"

	He looked almost lost.  "How am I still alive?"

	I shrugged.  "You're just lucky?"

	The policeman stepped up.  "Hello, I'm Officer Linus.  What's your name?"

	"I could feel myself bleeding out."

	"Sir?"

	I jumped back in.  "You did lose a lot of blood, we think.  But the 
bandages seem to have stopped it for now."  I gestured toward his head, which 
had been rebandaged with actual gauze this time.

	He absent-mindedly touched the gauze wrap.  "No, not this.  I was cold... 
bleeding internally, I'm sure of it."

	"Well, then don't move around.  When help comes they can come in here to 
get you.  Why don't you talk to Officer Linus for a minute."

	"Do you feel up to answering a few questions?"

	"Sure."

	Officer Linus looked at him for a minute, then held up a pen.

	"Keep your eyes focused on the pen."  He moved it back and forth.

	"I'm not drunk.  Take blood samples if you want."

	"It's not that as much as making sure you can be focused enough to answer 
questions.  Now, what's your name?"

	"Dr. Benjamin Hilbourne, Psychiatrist.  133 West Monroe Rd.  My license is 
in my wallet."  He weakly reached into his pants pocket, dumping the wallet on 
the floor.

	Officer Linus retrieved it off the floor and fished out his license, 
copying the data down into his notepad.  He placed it all back next to Dr. 
Hilbourne.

	"Now, Dr. Hilbourne, how did this happen?"

	"I was driving home and kept getting cut off by flooding, so I started 
looking for a hotel or something.  The rain was so heavy I couldn't see more 
than 30 feet or so.  I'm pretty sure I was only going around 25 mph, when 
suddenly this black SUV shows up in my lights, heading right for me.  I turn the 
wheel too fast and start sliding.  She smashes into my truck which spins me out.  
I didn't see what happened to her, but she obviously bounced into the wall out 
there.  A minute later, Miss Kasumi was checking me out while the other lady was 
prying open the front door on the SUV."

	"She have a crowbar or something?"

	"No," I responded.  "Karen's a body builder.  Very strong."

	Not sure the policeman believed me, but hey, the doors were open.

	"Could you spell your name?"

	I left them to their interview and fetched a cup of hot coffee for Officer 
Linus.

* * * * *

	On the way back down to the road, Officer Linus asked, "So how many people 
do you have living in your house?"

	"Right now?  Let's see.  Kasumi runs the household.  Daria and Jane are 
renting a room while they attend college.  Kara is an old friend who on an 
extended visit.  There are a couple of her friends too, but they're out of town 
right now.  Oooh... I forgot to wake Z.  She's gonna be pissed she missed out on 
the excitement."

	He stopped walking for a minute and stared at me.  "How many?"

	"Hmmm... 6 of us at the moment, I think.  What can I say?  I have the 
room, and I like having lots of company."

	"Right.  Sounds like they're all pretty young ladies too."

	Knowing I was doing nothing wrong, I just smiled at him.  "You don't see 
me complaining.  And Karen and her friends would love to hear you call them 
young, especially since they work so hard at staying in shape."

	He kept sipping the coffee as we made our way back down to the road, 
shielding it from the rain with his hands as we went.


	Kara was still on guard down at the accident site, with Kasumi sitting by 
the mother who was still asleep.  He asked some more questions, got out a little 
roller measure on a stick and walked off the brake skid marks, made lots of 
notes.

	He looked up at the sky.  Still raining, but definitely less.  He sipped 
the coffee with obvious relish.  "The dispatcher said that the copters should be 
flying again within half an hour."

	It was actually more like an hour before the chopper arrived.  Both mother 
and son were awake again, and we had fetched the baby back outside so the mother 
could see him.  The 5 year old boy was moving around, hovering near his mother 
who was not doing well at hiding her pain.
	
* * * * *

	For a few days, that was it.  When the flood waters went down, the cars 
were hauled away.  There was a small note of the incident in the papers, but it 
was lost in the other stories of the flood.

	Alpha made a copy of the security footage for the police, with the trips 
to the basement edited out.

	I made an insurance claim and scheduled a repair crew for the wall, which 
wasn't too badly damaged but still needed fixing.

	Zatanna was indeed annoyed that we didn't wake her up for the accident, 
and she did her best to make sure she wasn't left out again.

	Two days after the accident, the police set up surveillance on the house.  
Alpha noticed a car with a couple men in it parked down from the house driveway.  
She was able to get clear enough photos of them to match them up with police 
from news footage.  They were vice cops.  I'm guessing that Officer Linus was 
worried that I might be running a house of ill repute or something.  Alpha and I 
agreed that we should just ignore them for now.  The lack of illegal activity 
should discourage them sooner or later.  As long as they didn't look too deeply 
into the past or financial records of some of the ladies, we should be fine.  
(They gave up their surveillance after a week.)

	Diana and Anna called in with a couple interesting stories of helping 
people out.

	And Dr. Hilbourne showed up on our doorstep three days later.

* * * * *

	At that particular moment, only Kara, Rei and myself were home.  I opened 
the gate and met him at the front door.

	"Dr. Hilbourne!  Come on inside.  It's good to see you up and around.  
What did the hospital have to say?"

	"That's part of why I'm here, Mr...?"

	"Oh, just Frank is fine."

	"Frank.  One of the reasons I'm here is that according the hospital, I'm 
perfectly fine."

	"Well, that's good, right?"

	"But I wasn't fine after the crash.  After Miss Kasumi said she thought 
that I was bleeding internally, I checked myself out.  My pulse was getting 
weaker, and my temperature was dropping.  I passed out.  But at the hospital, I 
was fine.  I needed fluids, but there was no internal bleeding."

	"So you and Kasumi were wrong, which sounds like a good thing in this 
case."

	He was not to be deterred.  "But the thing is, they checked me out 
thoroughly for bleeds.  And afterwards, one of the doctors asked me when I had 
had surgery up here."  He gestured to his chest where the worst of the crash 
impact had been.
	"I've never had surgery, and I told him that.  He insisted that there was 
scarring, like after surgery.  But the scarring was the most perfectly done 
stitching he'd ever seen that he wanted to know who did it so he could ask them 
about their technique.
	"So what I want to know is, what happened here that night?"

	My alert level had been rising ever since he showed up at the door, and I 
was close to sweating at this point.  I tried not to show it, but I'm not 
entirely sure how well I was hiding it.

	"I'm not sure what you mean.  We applied pressure to your head wound, kept 
you from bleeding too much and kept you warm."

	"Look Mr... Look Frank, at the time I was willing to write it off as some 
strange, accident-induced dream, but I remember waking up naked, covered in 
something weird and itching like crazy in my chest.  I only remember being awake 
for a minute or so.  I tried to open my eyes, but it stung badly.  But the point 
is, you did something to me."

	"What?  What did I do to you?"

	"I don't know."

	"Did I perform surgery on you?  Did the hospital find any evidence of 
recent surgery?"

	"No."

	"Did I give you drugs of some kind?  Did the hospital find any strange 
drugs in your system?"

	"No."

	"So what did you think I did to you?"

	"I don't know!"  He was almost yelling at this point.

	I took a breath.  "Look, why don't you sit down and calm down a bit.  Can 
I get you something to drink?"

	He sat down heavily.  "Maybe some water or tea?"

	"Sure, I'll be right back."

	As I was getting us a couple glasses of iced tea, I subvocalized to Alpha, 
"Any thoughts?"

	"His body contains sufficient evidence to prove that something was done to 
him.  It is unlikely that he can prove nanites were used, but he can 
theoretically prompt an investigation by the FDA or AMA."

	"Any suggestions?"

	"He is threatening you enough that I can suggest we kill him.  This would 
be significantly more difficult to do without repercussion since the police are 
currently watching the house."

	"No killing."

	"Then look for a way to control the situation and avoid an investigation 
or publicity."

	I carried the glasses back to the front room where Dr. Hilbourne was 
sitting, head in hand.

	"Here you go, Doctor."  I handed him the drink and sat down across from 
him. "So, aside from not knowing how you survived, you're feeling well?  
Healthy?"

	"Well, I have some massive bruising and my head's still sore, but there 
seems to be no lasting damage."

	"Good.  So let's sum up.  You were bleeding internally.  No surgery was 
done and no drugs were administered, but you were saved somehow anyway.  And 
you're upset that you were saved?"

	"Yes.  I mean, no.  I'm glad I'm alive, but I've got to know what 
happened?"

	"Ummm... I'm a faith healer?"

	That broke part of the tension and he laughed.  "Nope, try again."

	"I'm a mad scientist with psychic healing ability?"

	"Probably not."

	"I'm a sane scientist with nanite goo."

	"Maybe something less science-fiction-y."

	"Well, then I'm tapped out of ideas."

	"I'm being serious.  I need an answer.  I'm ready to schedule laproscopic 
surgery to get video proof."

	I sighed.  "Look, I might be able to help you with your questions..."

	"I knew it!"

	"BUT I really don't want any publicity."

	"What did you do?  Are you licensed for surgery?"

	"There were no drugs and there was no surgery..."

	"Then how...?"

	"Please let me finish.  There was no surgery as you would recognize it. 
Remember my last joke suggestion?"

	"Ummm... psychic surg... no, nanites?  Seriously?"

	"Seriously.  Nanites.  They're nothing like TV or books, but I've been 
developing them for years."

	He looked at me for a moment with an incredulous gaze.

	"And you decided to experiment on me?"

	"Huh?  No, of course not.  I've been testing them for years.  Used them on 
rats and myself and a few of the ladies in the house.  They're perfectly safe."

	"Then why haven't I heard about them?"

	"I don't want to go public.  It may sound trite, but seriously, the world 
isn't ready for what they can do."

	"Aren't you worried about them... I don't know... escaping?  Causing 
damage to other people or things like that?"

	"Okay, time for a little Nanite 101.  They have no internal power source. 
Their power has to be broadcast to them.  Same with controls.  The amount of 
memory they can store is ridiculously tiny.  They have to be controlled with an 
external computer, monitoring and guiding them.  They can't replicate or work on 
a molecular level.  If you want a nanite to do more than one type of job, you 
have to design and build a second type of nanite.
	"Compared to SciFi, nanites in the real world are EXTREMELY limited.  But 
they can work on living creatures."

	"What can they do?"

	"Remember when I said the world isn't ready for them?  That's what they 
can do."

	"Oh come on!"

	"Well, they can link together to create a patch, like they did for your 
internal damage.  They can guide and stimulate cell growth, which they also did 
for you.  They can search out and destroy cancer and tumors and such.  Beyond 
that, I'm not going to say."

	"But that would revolutionize surgery!  Why haven't you published this?  
Have you even patented it?"


	"You need to understand.  It wouldn't stop there.  For someone without a 
conscience or someone who can justify their actions, you could do truly terrible 
things to yourself or other people.
	"If I were to release this technology, even under the strictest controls, 
far more people would be hurt than I could ever save with it.
	"Maybe someday I'll be able to develop a version that would definitely be 
controllable, but limited as it is, what I have now is still much too 
dangerous."

	He was still ready to protest and argue.

	"Look.  I couldn't stand by and let you or that boy die when I had the 
means to save you.  It's obviously backfired on me here because, you were right, 
your body contains enough evidence to prove that something was done to you.  But 
I'd like to ask you to stop and think about it for a moment.  Think about it 
overnight if you'd like.  What could you do with controlled nanites?  And I'm 
not talking about curing cancer or disease.  Try to come up with the worst 
possible things you could do with it.
	"You could create a literally unstoppable virus.  You could kill without a 
trace.  You could wipe someone's brain completely clean.  You could turn people 
into undetectable human bombs.
	"These are the thoughts that wake me up at night.  If you go public, then 
this technology will get out.  It may take years or decades, but dangerous 
people will get their hands on this.  You think September 11th was bad?  Imagine 
a terrorist walking around an international airport exhaling an airborne virus 
with a 100% infection rate and a 100% fatality rate.  Or walking through all the 
metal detectors on capital hill only to explode on the floor of Congress as if 
he was made of C4."

	He sat there silently.

	"I'm asking you... I'm begging you.  Think before you act."

	"Can I get a demonstration?"

	"Sure, I'll... I'll tell you what.  Bring an animal of some kind tomorrow. 
It can be a mouse or a dog or anything in-between.  Oh, and something to knock 
it out. The nanites itch like crazy when they're working, and animals won't hold 
still for it."

	"What are you going to do to it?"

	"Whatever you want.  I can make all of it's hair fall out, then regrow it 
as a different color.  Or we can just check it for health problems and see if we 
can fix them.  I could do really nasty things that would give PETA nightmares, 
but I'd really rather not if it's all the same to you.
	"And think about what I've said, please.  Oh here, read this while you're 
at it.  Maybe it'll give you a few nightmares about what could happen."

	I handed him a copy of Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.  A lot of the 
book describes what can happen if post-singularity technology is introduced to a 
more primitive society.  (Yeah, yeah, for those familiar with the series, 
Accelerando is better, but I thought the first book was more appropriate.  Not 
that Alpha is post-singularity, but I am worried that she might end up as the 
singularity trigger event.  Actually, I think Vernor Vinge argued in his 
"Technological Singularity" essay that A.I.'s will be the trigger event.  I've 
had this discussion with Alpha more than once.)

	He left a minute later, leaving his iced tea untouched.  I started walking 
to the basement door, intending to have a long talk with Alpha, but Kara 
intercepted me first.

	"I overheard your conversation.  Could you really do all that your 
nanites?"

	I sighed and collapsed into a nearby chair.

	"Theoretically?  Yes.  There would be a lot more to actually doing it than 
I implied, but yes, things like that are possible."

	"What are you going to do about him?"

	"Hopefully convince him that he needs to keep his mouth shut."

	"Want me to 'lean on him'?"

	I laughed.  "That would probably backfire.  He'd think I created you with 
my nanites, meaning I abused their use to modify a human being with unnatural 
strength and beauty."

	She smiled and gave an exaggerated modeling pose.  "I could see that.

	She gave up the posing and sat down on the arm of my chair.  "Are you sure 
you aren't worrying too much?  I mean, there are a lot of labs in my world with 
a lot worse tech that hasn't been abused like that."

	"Are you sure?  I mean, where do some of your supervillains get their 
powers? Haven't there been threats of gray goo nanites in your world?"

	"A few, I suppose, but they were always stopped."

	"By heroes like you.  Which is part of my point.  There are no people like 
you in my world.  As best I can tell, right now in this world, we have me, you 
and some of the other people in this house.  And none of you are at full power.  
Maybe there are a few more special people around the world, but if so, they 
aren't public heroes.  If the tech gets in the wrong hands, we're in no position 
to stop it from going bad."

	"So what do you plan to do about Hilbourne?"

	"Well, he's a psychiatrist, that means he thinks everyone who's bad or 
crazy can be fixed with the right therapy or drugs, so he may want to use my 
tech to help his patients.  But he's also had some medical training, so maybe I 
can frighten him away with the possibilities."

	"And if he goes public?"

	"Then I might have to patent everything to try to keep it under control.  
But doing so means I'll have to release the actual technical data on how to do 
everything, which means it will never be completely under control again. 
	"I know that sooner or later someone else will develop this tech, but 
Alpha's best guess is that it's at least 20-40 years down the road for anyone 
else.  Unless they build their own AI, of course, but Alpha is 97% sure that 
she'd be able to pick up indications of the existence of any other AI's online 
and she hasn't yet."

	"Huh.  I never thought about it before.  Have you considered talking to a 
lawyer about this stuff?"

	"I probably should.  I'd have to be 100% certain of his ethical integrity 
first though.  Another thing to add to the to-do list."

	I stood up and kissed her on the cheek.  "I have a few hours of work to do 
to get ready for Dr. Hilbourne tomorrow.  Hopefully I'll be out for dinner."

	"Poor baby.  Want some help?"

	"Thank you for the offer, but it's all very technically specific.  See you 
later."

	Actually her company would have been pleasant, but the half-grown body 
would have been very difficult to explain.

* * * * *

	I spent the rest of that afternoon prepping for animal testing tomorrow, 
researching Dr. Hilbourne and had Alpha start sorting through the best possible 
lawyer to confide in.

	I was emotionally exhausted that evening and made it clear I wasn't up for 
sex that evening.  Surprisingly Zatanna knew some massage techniques and offered 
to relax me.  (I think the knowledge was part of her escape artist training.)

	Kara joined us, and after Z had worked my body into a soft putty, Kara 
gave me a quick super-vacuum blowjob to put me to sleep.  Given the stresses of 
the day and thoughts of tomorrow, I had a relatively restful sleep sandwiched 
between the two super-heroines.

	The next day was spent continuing the work from the previous day.  The new 
body was locked up behind a heavy closet door.  The various nanite types were 
prepared.  I read everything I could about Dr. Hilbourne, and started sorting 
through possible lawyers.

	About noon Alpha alerted me that the psychiatrist was at the front gate 
again.  I had her let him in and went up to meet him.

	It looked as though he had slept much worse than I, but he tried to greet 
me cheerily.

	"So, Doctor, are you ready to go down the rabbit hole?"

	"Well, I'm ready to let you try and prove yourself to me."

	For a psychiatrist, he seemed a little bit confrontational... but at least 
he wasn't trying to humor me.

	He was carrying a cage with a frightened guinea pig hiding in one corner.

	I let Kara tag along quietly as we went down to the lab.  Dr. Hilbourne 
was wide-eyed as we entered, looking at about $40 million of equipment that 
looked like it belonged either in a brand new hospital or a college lab.

	"Dr.... may I call you Ben or Benjamin?"

	"Sure... Ben is fine."

	"Ben, do you have something to knock out the guinea pig?"

	He fished out a small box with a syringe inside.  "I don't normally do 
this, let alone with an animal, but this should be the correct amount."

	It took us a few minutes to hold the guinea pig solidly enough, pull up a 
fold of flesh and inject the drugs into the victim.  We put the sleeping pig 
into the vat with a small amount of goo, and I started loading in the nanites. 

	I tried to keep up some informative patter as we waited for the nanites to 
load and start feeding back information.  I had moved a large screen into place 
so we could easily see the data feeds.

	"Okay, it looks like we're ready.  Did you have anything specific in 
mind?"

	"You said you could change the fur color?  How about writing something in 
the fur?"

	"Sure.  What do you want it to say?  Something short will be easier to do 
and to read."

	"How about GP for Guinea Pig?"

	"No problem."

	Alpha was actually doing most of the work, but I made a good show of 
inputting information.

	"The first step is to load up what I call scanners.  Nanites that can feed 
back information on the actual body.  Since we're not looking for injuries, 
that's not as important as in other cases, but we still need to know the 
internal layout of the subject so the systems can correctly guide the devices.
	"The second step is to direct what I call workers to release the fur in a 
GP pattern along his back.  They're actually killing the hair follicle cells 
which releases the hair itself.
	"Finally, we load up growth units.  They're designed to stimulate cell 
growth.  It's a little harder in this instance because we want to grow cells 
which only produce black hair follicles.  But see,"  Here I pointed at the 
screen.  "They have a black hair cell set they they're going to duplicate for 
the new cells, then they manually move the new cells into place."

	"How... how do they make cells grow?"

	"Well, cells divide naturally on their own.  The nanites just reach into 
the cells and prod them to do so on demand.  It's complicated, but the theory 
has been known for quite a while."

	"How do you even make machines that small?"

	"That's... I'm sorry, Ben, but I'm not going to tell you that.  The 
control is actually the more difficult part, but the whole point of today is to 
convince you that this needs to stay secret.  Which means I don't want to tell 
people the details of how this works."

	"Yeah, I remember what you said yesterday.  I didn't sleep very well last 
night.  If this actually works, I think I might lose a lot more sleep.  But 
still, I think you're probably being a bit pessimistic.  It sounds like 
developing and using nanites is so difficult that the odds of people being able 
to abuse nanite technology is miniscule."

	"Oh, so just because there's only, say, a 5% chance of ruining the world, 
that means it's okay to take that chance?"

	"I think 5% is a pretty high estimate."

	"I don't.  More specifically, it's 6.8% +/- 3.2%, and that's assuming the 
major world governments react to nanite tech in the most intelligent possible 
way.  Once a technology is available, production and support will develop allow 
that tech to be available to the public.  I can see nanites being restricted, 
but think about how difficult it is in today's world to keep nuclear technology 
restricted.
	"Or view it this way.  I'm sure the army would love the idea of being able 
to physically enhance their soldiers.  What would the ethical problems be with 
growing the perfect soldier from a fetus?  With nanites it would easy.  
	"Or what if an athlete could use nanites to rebuild their physique so it's 
as perfect as possible?  No blood or urine tests would ever pick it up.
	"I could theoretically create and implant a control in someone's brain to 
turn them into a remote-controlled puppet."

	"You've given this a lot of thought."

	"Well, this is one of my projects."

	"If it's so dangerous, why keep working on it?"

	"I haven't worked on it to any significant degree for a couple years."

	"Oh... I... I guess I just assumed that you were still developing it."

	"Nope.  I mean, I have all the basics working, but you and the little boy 
were the first time I did anything with it in a long time.  Before that... let's 
see... I stopped experimenting when I killed a test rat.  I gave it an improved 
heart, much stronger and theoretically much longer lasting than normal.  But 
when it became agitated, the heart blew out all the blood vessels throughout its 
body."

	"Ouch."

	"Yup."

	"So what are you working on now?"

	"See earlier answer.  Not really planning on sharing."

	"What could be worse than nanites?"

	"Oh, it's not worse, I just like to develop my stuff privately."

	"Do you have many patents?"

	"By my estimate, I could have 2,316.  But I've never applied for any.  You 
have to submit the technical data to apply, and I prefer to control the 
technology by not letting it out at all.  It's not like I need the money.  I'll 
probably apply for a few patents later this year... a few minor things I could 
release safely."

	"That doesn't sound very healthy.  You're cutting yourself off from the 
rest of the world..."

	"Sorry to interrupt you, doctor.  I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm not 
one of your patients.  I'm not cut off from the rest of the world.  I just like 
playing around with experimental technology.  
	"Maybe I'm relying too heavily on my own judgment, but the stakes are just 
too high for some of the issues I deal with for me to be willing to submit the 
work for group consensus."

	"But isn't peer review essential to the modern scientist?"

	"This isn't experimental science, this is engineering.  Submitting the 
work for review by others is only needed if I plan to release something for 
public consumption.  You know, for safety reasons and such."

	"And you used these unreviewed techniques on me?  That makes me feel 
good."

	I smiled faintly.  "I would never have done so if your situation wasn't so 
dire.  But we were cut off from the hospital, and we were pretty sure you were 
dying.
	"Beside, safety review or not, I've never had any problems with the basic 
techniques I used on you."

	"I'm alive, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.  But you do realize that if 
you can develop this, so can other people.  Just because you don't want to 
release the technology won't prevent other people from doing exactly that."

	"I was just discussing that with Kara yesterday.  I'm actually fairly sure 
that a few other people or companies around the world can build the same 
nanites, but they wouldn't.  Without the controlling technology, the nanites are 
useless, and my controlling technology is... unique.  I'm not going to get into 
the details, but it will probably be 20 to 40 years before anyone else will 
develop equivalent controlling capabilities."

	We sat awkwardly in silence for another 15 minutes until the nanites were 
finished.  I had the nanites exit the body and goo, then took the guinea pig out 
and washed him off.  A lot of fur washed off too, leaving behind patches of 
short, black fur spelling out "GP" on its back.  I could have grown out the fur 
to full length, but decided short hairs would be enough for demonstration 
purposes.

	"Ta da!" I exclaimed, handing it over to him.

	"Wow.  It really worked!  Even after all this talk, I wasn't sure.  Will 
it grow this way from now on?"

	"Yes, the change is permanent.  Now you can see nanites are real.  Can I 
count on you to keep this secret?"

	"I...  I think I'd like time to think about all of this."

	"Sure.  Take a few days.  Call me if you have any more questions or 
concerns. Just please don't make this go public."

	I walked him out, and we exchanged polite goodbyes.



	Then I collapsed onto a convenient couch and rolled my head back.  Kara 
sat down next to me and reached over to start a neck rub.

	She said, "I think that went as well as could have been expected.  Think 
he'll agree to keep quiet?"

	"Probably for now.  He doesn't believe my doom-and-gloom predictions, but 
he's not certain enough to risk it, I think.  I guess we'll see."

	"So what are you working on now?"

	"I want to see if it's possible to actually build one of Tesla's proposed 
Death Rays."  And I gave a generic evil laugh.

	She gave my neck muscles a bit of a squeeze.

	"Ow!  All right, all right already.  I'm trying to build a practical 
artificial eye."

	This was actually true, but I should point out that it was a side project.  
Alpha and I had long ago worked out the basics of connecting human nerves and 
computer circuits.  The eye was just a specialized version of that.

	"That sounds good.  Can I see it?"

	"Most of it consists of computer simulations.  I have a mostly working 
model, but it's not to scale.  But if you really want to see it..."

	"Of course.  I'm always curious about what you're working on down there."

	"Most of the time, it's just me pounding away on the computer or talking 
to Alpha.  Boring to watch, and I'm easy to distract."

	After another couple minutes of neck rubs, I took her downstairs and 
showed her the six-inch diameter, half-built eyeball.  It was fun demonstrating 
how we would look through its video feed and such.  (It actually looks kind of 
wrong.  Only the center of the viewed image in a human eye is actually in strong 
detail.  The brain and quick eye movements fill in the rest of the image sent by 
a human eye.)

	I didn't get any more work done that day, but at least it was fairly 
relaxing.

* * * * *

	I heard back from Dr. Hilbourne the next evening.

	I was having fun with Daria and Jane that evening.  I attached a strap-on 
to Jane, lube to myself and planted my cock in her ass.  

	"So Jane," I asked, flexing my cock in her ass, "are you ready to be used 
as a sex toy for our pleasure?"

	She just moaned.  I motioned for Daria to lay back and prepare, then 
maneuvered Jane and myself between her legs.  I placed her hands on Daria's 
breasts and told her to keep them there.  Daria was still sopping wet from our 
oral fun as I reached around and slowly inserted Jane's dildo in Daria's cunt.  
Daria started deep kissing Jane as I used Jane to fuck Daria.

	We both moved slowly at first.  I would pull back with my hands on Jane's 
hips to pull her back as well, then hold Jane's hips in place as I pulled my 
cock partly out of her ass, dragging her anal sphincter along my bare cock 
slowly, feeling every inch of the movement.  Then I'd push us both back forward, 
my cock fucking into Jane's ass, and Jane's dildo into Daria's cunt.  Once Jane 
was nicely stretched out enough to allow free movement, I decided a change-up 
was in order.

	I spoke directly to Daria, trying to ignore Jane as if she really was just 
a sex toy.  "Daria, I think we're ready to try using our toy like a tennis ball.  
What do you say?"

	Daria broke off the kiss and looked me in the eye.  "Sounds good to me.  
Server her up."

	I started thrusting down hard into Jane, but not following her movements 
all the way down into Daria.  Then Daria would raise her hips to meet Jane and 
force her to move back up to me.

	Without my physical support holding up her hips, Jane had to remove her 
hands from Daria's breasts, but I didn't complain.  But when she murmured "Oh 
god" to accompany her next orgasm, I reached down and pinched one of her 
nipples.  "Hush.  Sex toys don't talk."

	"Bite me."

	"If you insist," I responded, and leaned in to start lightly gnawing on 
her shoulder.

	Jane was a limp, quivering, sweaty mass by the time we finished, and I'm 
pretty sure Daria was well-sated too.  I had enjoyed a really strong come 
myself, my second of the evening.  (Hardly a record, but enough to sate me for 
the night.)

	As I laid back myself, I heard a chirp from my earpiece which was sitting 
in its charging station.  There was no flashing alert, so I wasn't worried as I 
placed it back into my ear.

	"Pardon me a moment, ladies.  What's up?"

	"Dr. Hilbourne has sent you an email."  

	"What's it say?"

	"It says he will keep your secret for now, but he requests that you call 
him to talk about one of his patients."

	"Well, that's mostly good, I guess.  Thanks for the heads-up.  I'll call 
him back tomorrow."

* * * * *

	"Doctor, don't you understand that this isn't something that you would ask 
for just this one time?  If I say yes, you're going to call me again for someone 
else next year or next month or next week."

	We were talking to each other in mostly hushed tones over lunch, sitting 
at the back of a small restaurant.  The very good food was being left mostly 
untouched.

	"And why shouldn't I ask?  With your nanites, fixing physical problems is 
nothing to you!  It takes you, what?  A few minutes.  A few minutes to save a 
life."

	"First of all, the costs are significant.  The little guinea pig 
experiment alone cost me about $8,000.  Second, I can only fix problems where I 
know exactly what the problem is and where.  Third, your patient sounds like he 
may not have enough heart muscle left to keep him alive once the tumor is 
removed."

	"Mr. Stone is fairly well off, I'm sure he could finance it."

	"That's only one issue."  This conversation was enormously frustrating, 
and I'm sure it showed in my voice.  "The more people who know about this, the 
more likely it is that this will get out."

	"So we don't tell them what you're doing.  If I can convince them to try 
your method without telling them how, you can fix them and we can just call it a 
miraculous remission."

	"And when he goes to the press to trumpet his miracle cure?"

	"I'm sure we could convince him to keep quiet.  If you'd just meet him..."

	"And when he has a friend that needs a miracle cure?  And that friend?  
This is never going to end."

	"So we keep you anonymous.  It'll all go through me."

	"That only...  ugh."  I grunted in frustration and sat back.  I took a 
drink of iced tea, signaled him for a moment to think and closed my eyes.

	This was what I was afraid of.  He was convinced that I owed it to the 
world to make my tech available to the public.  Maybe he wouldn't use those 
specific words, but that was the end result.

	Dr. Hilbourne worked with, among other patients, people dealing with 
oncoming death.  He now saw a way to cure those patients.

	The problem was that this was a snowball rolling downhill.  Every person 
who finds out about the nanite tech or even about a mystery miracle cure was 
another nail in the coffin of my privacy and secrecy.  

	And all because I didn't want to let this person die when I knew how to 
save him.  I gambled that no one would know what I did, and I lost.

	Time to man up and deal with it?  I guess.  But at least I might be able 
to get a few more years of control and secrecy.

	"Okay.  My VERY STRONG preference is still for you to forget that I even 
exist and go home.  It would be better for me and the future as a whole."

	"I understand your points, but I think the vast array of benefits outweigh 
the risks."

	"You're not the expert on this, Doctor.  A degree in psychiatry does not 
qualify you pass judgment on the risk-benefit analysis of nanites.  However, 
you've obviously decided to force me to do this one way or another."

	"I'm not forcing you to do anything.  I'm trying to convince you.  I just 
can't understand how you can be willing to save one complete stranger and 
completely ignore another."

	"I didn't ignore your problems because it was an extreme situation.  You 
were almost certainly going to die and the odds of anyone finding out what I did 
were tiny."

	"So would you be willing to help out if we could keep you and your methods 
completely anonymous?"

	I thought silently for a minute.  Despite his protestations, I was pretty 
sure he'd eventually decide to force me or out me if I said no.

	"Realistically, it's not possible to keep me completely anonymous.  Tell 
you what, give me basic information on him and a copy of a recent medical 
report, and I'll take a look."

	"You won't regret it."

* * * * *

	As it turns out, Mr. Stone did need an almost entirely new heart, so he 
wasn't a viable candidate.   Mrs. Carmine two months later was the first 
"official" patient that I accepted.

	Mrs. Emily Carmine was a 33 year old widowed mother of two who was dying 
of T-cell prolymphoctic leukemia.  She had gone into remission briefly after 
months of treatment, then the leukemia returned, with little hope of recovery.  
Her insurance was running out and her parents were spending their retirement 
savings to pay her bills.

	Dr. Hilbourne talked to me about her, and I had Alpha do a background 
check on her just to be sure.  She checked out, but had no real funds available.  
(I was toying with the idea of making prospective patients donate a few thousand 
dollars to charity before I'd treat them.)

	My request was that she be blindfolded on the drive here.  Somehow, Dr. 
Hilbourne talked her into secretly visiting my lab for an experimental, 
unauthorized treatment.  I think his arguments were along the lines of, 'what do 
you have to lose at this point?'.

	She arrived on a cold, rainy Friday morning in early December, Dr. 
Hilbourne driving.  I had them pull into the garage and closed the door before I 
let her remove her blindfold.  I was wearing large dark sunglasses, a baseball 
cap and cheek inserts to change the look of my jawline.

	"Hello, Mrs. Carmine.  Let's go down to the basement before we get 
started."

	"What's your name?"

	"I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in giving out my name or any 
information about my technology," I said as I led her down the stairs.  "I don't 
know if Dr. Hilbourne explained things, but I want to keep everything secret."

	"That's what he said, but I don't understand why."  She was getting out of 
breath just walking down the stairs to the basement.

	"I think the possibility of this technology being abused is way too high. 
Dr. Hilbourne disagrees with me about the risks, but my goal here is to keep 
things as secret as possible.
	"This is my lab, and that pod there is where you'll be treated.  Strip 
down please."

	She was looking at my lab with wide-eyed curiosity.

	"So if you want to keep it secret, why are you helping me?"

	"That's between him and me."

	Once upon a time, she may have been beautiful.  Now she was wasted away, 
with dark, sunken eyes, a sallow complexion and very little hair left.

	"I'd recommend being unconscious for this.  Otherwise this is going to 
itch so much you'll have nightmares about it."

	"I'm taking an awful lot of this on faith because I'm desperate, but I 
draw the line at drugging myself while naked in a stranger's basement."

	I gave her a faint smile.  "I understand, just giving you fair warning."

	I helped her into the pod.  She looked tiny inside it.  She was only 5� 
feet tall to begin with in the 7ft long pod, but she was so skinny that the 
effect made her look like a pale-skinned starving child from a third world 
country.

	She was resistant to being strapped in, but I explained that I needed to 
remain as still as possible, which would become very difficult when she started 
to itch.

	I attached the oxygen mask and closed the pod lid.  When I started adding 
goo to the pod, she started to look scared.

	"It's okay.  The goo is completely neutral and non-toxic.  You could eat 
it and be fine.  It wouldn't really digest very well, but it wouldn't hurt you.  
It help speed things up."

	About 5 minutes after the nanites worked their way into her system, she 
started jerking a bit.

	"I know how it feels.  Literally.  But please try to keep still."  I 
wasn't sure how well she heard me through the pod and goo, but she started to 
hold herself rigid.

	I was doing my best to appear busy running the program.  Alpha, of course, 
was bearing the weight of the nanite control.

	Dr. Hilbourne had remained quiet through all of this.  During her 
treatment, he wandered back and forth between me and the pod, encouraging her 
and trying to make small talk with me.

	It was actually looking pretty good for Mrs. Carmine.  It would be easier 
and better if the cancer was localized, but the nanites seemed to be clearing 
her blood and bone marrow and lymph nodes, etc. of cancer cells.  Fortunately 
Alpha understood leukemia a lot better than I did, and she was 95% certain she 
could cure Mrs. Carmine.  (She also stimulated some new bone marrow growth to 
help her recovery.)

	The whole thing took about an hour and a half.  By the time I was draining 
the goo, I'm sure she wished she had taken the offer of drugs to knock her out. 
When we released the straps, she immediately started scratching and rubbing 
herself all over.

	"Dear god, you weren't kidding about the itch.  I was about to go crazy in 
there.  So what was that?  Some kind of radiation?"

	"No, no radiation... well, technically, there was some, but less than what 
you'd get from walking by a cell phone tower.
	"The good news is that I can give a 95% likelihood that we cleaned out all 
the bad blood and bone marrow from your system.  There's an excellent chance 
that you'll be feeling perfectly healthy again very soon."

	"But how did you do all this?"

	"As far as I'm concerned, you went to church, prayed and received a 
miracle. There's a shower over there."  I pointed to my emergency wash shower in 
the corner.

* * * * *

	By the second patient, I was having them sign a basic waiver, saying that 
they understood this treatment was not officially approved or reviewed and did 
not involve surgery or drugs.  And that they agreed not to go public with any 
information about myself or the procedure.  Not really very legally binding, but 
Alpha and I crafted it fairly well, I think.

	Over the next year, I treated an average of one of Dr. Hilbourne's 
patients every month.  Actually let me clarify that statement.  Only about a 
third of them were his patients.  Somehow he got out the word among his 
colleagues that a possible off-the-books miracle cure was out there if names 
were quietly passed around.  A patient would give his psychiatrist the okay, and 
he'd pass the name around.  This way there was no direct link for most of the 
patients and all the psychiatrists could deny direct involvement.

	Alpha kept track of the patients after their treatments and most of them 
kept quiet.  A couple of them blogged about a mystery doctor who gave them some 
kind of experimental treatment, but aside from being cured, they had no physical 
evidence of surgery or drug treatment.  One actually smuggled out a sample of my 
goo, which led him nowhere when he had it analyzed.  (You can actually mix it up 
out of kitchen items.  Completely non-toxic.)

	In the meantime, I had set up a small company and had applied for approval 
of my artificial eye, as well as a few other more minor patents.  The eye was 
causing a bit of a publicity stir, but I was using the dummy corp to shield 
myself from the public eye.  Anyone could do some basic digging to get my name 
as the sole owner of the company, but there was nothing to say I was the actual 
inventor and I refused to give interviews.

	Within a couple years we started getting offers to buy the company, but we 
weren't publicly traded so there was nothing they could do.  Oh sure, one 
unnamed corporation tried some strong-arm tactics.  They started using their 
influence to create bad publicity for us, have approval slowed down, things like 
that.  I had Alpha respond by making their strong-arm methods public.  Somehow 
the press got ahold of emails from members of their board directing their 
tactics.  We stopped getting harassed, 3 public officials eventually lost their 
jobs in disgrace, and their stock price dropped 20% in one week.  (Yes, there's 
a lot more to the story, but here isn't the place for it.  Besides, that 
particular nasty episode took place well after the events in this chapter.)

	My first serious threat to be exposed to the public came with the 13th 
patient referred by Dr. Hilbourne... the first undercover reporter.

* * * * *

	With Diana and Bayonetta waiting in the van (rented under a fake 
identity), Kara and I went into the restaurant where I was to meet with Mr. 
George Wescott, aka Gerald Winthrop, reporter for the Dallas Morning News.

	Alpha picked up on the deception almost immediately.  The cover identity 
was a real person, but that person had died years ago.  The medical reports were 
apparently real, but belonged to someone else.  The whole thing was obviously a 
setup to entice Dr. Hilbourne into setting up a meeting with me. 

	I discussed it with Alpha/Bayonetta, Kara and Diana.  Eventually we 
decided that the best thing to do was to convince him to bury the story.  I knew 
my arguments about the possible end of human civilization wouldn't sway a 
reporter, so I had Alpha do some in-depth research.

	All of this led to Kara and I, in disguise, to meet with "Mr. Wescott" at 
a public restaurant at 10pm when it was mostly empty.

	He was waiting for us at a table, and it was difficult to recognize him as 
Winthrop.  I guessed he was heavily made-up to look like he was sick and dying.

	He rose from his seat to greet us.  "I'm so glad you agreed to meet me.  
I'm desperate.  The doctors only give me a couple months to live at this point."

	As we sat down, I said, "So I see from your medical chart, but I think we 
need to be frank with each other, Mr Winthrop."  He started at little at the use 
of my name.

	"I don't know what you're talking about.  Who is Mr Winthrop?"

	"I'll be brief.  You are Gerald Winthrop, reporter for the Dallas Morning 
News.  The medical information passed along to us appears to come from a Hurley 
Trench of Abilene from a year ago.  You really don't understand much about what 
you're investigating in this case, and you're going to stop now and drop the 
investigation."

	His demeanor changed as I spoke, going from confused to defensive to being 
a reporter.

	"Is it true that you're using unauthorized and illegal medical procedures 
to secretly cure cancer patients?  Do you have a cure for cancer that you're not 
sharing with the world?  Are you afraid of being arrested?"

	"Arrested?  Not really for a few different reasons, most of which I don't 
feel inclined to share with you.  But I will share this with you."

	I slid a manilla folder over to him.  He opened it, pulling out a number 
of his own clippings, each clipped to different print-outs.

	"You have on three different occasions published other people's work as 
your own.  You have on two different occasions perjured yourself when giving 
depositions related to stories you had worked on.  And on two different 
occasions you aided-and-abetted a known fugitive.  Oh, certainly not in a major 
sense, but buying food for a fugitive you're interviewing does count."

	He interrupted me at this point.  "Hey, I convinced him to turn himself 
in!"

	"Which I assume is why you weren't prosecuted... unless of course the 
police never knew you bought him food."

	"Where did you get all this?"

	"It's all out there in the public domain for anyone who looks.  It took me 
about a day to uncover this much.  Imagine if I looked into your work history 
for a full week? 
	"Now, I know you're wired and transmitting this conversation to an 
exterior source.  I don't know if it's just a recorder in your car or if someone 
is actually watching, and I don't really care.  That recording will not reflect 
our conversation, and you will no doubt be surprised to listen to yourself 
talking about the food."

	Alpha had enough samples of his voice to fake it and was overriding the 
relatively weak signal coming from his bug with an entirely different 
conversation broadcast from the van.  I suppose I should be glad he wasn't a TV 
reporter.  Replacing a video feed would have been much more difficult.

	"How are you doing this?  And you're just going to keep a cure for cancer 
secret?  The first amendment..."

	As he spoke, he leaned over to grab my wrist.  Kara intercepted his hand 
and held him steady.  He was obviously startled at the strength of her grasp and 
stopped mid-sentence.

	"Mr. Winthrop!  Please calm yourself.  This is not a cure for cancer, and 
it can't help everyone.  Believe it or not, I am generally in favor of freedom 
of the press.  However in this particular case, it is likely that very bad 
things could happen if my technology gets into the hands of public.  That is not 
a threat... well, not directly.  I'm speaking of the welfare of the public.  The 
world is literally better off if certain technologies are kept secret for now."

	"Even if I believe you, then why are you healing terminally ill people if 
you have to keep things secret?"

	I smiled to myself.  "I thought you'd probably ask me that.  The problem 
is I can't answer it without creating more problems for myself."

	"That's... that's not an answer!"

	"Well, this isn't an interview.  I only came so that you'd understand that 
if you pursue this, your credibility as a journalist will disappear very, very 
quickly."

	As Kara and I stood up, I think he was probably trying to take quick 
pictures of us... or at least his left hand was definitely trying to click 
something.  I let him, knowing that we were both wearing wigs, sunglasses, cheek 
inserts, and I had on a fake beard and mustache.

	"Wait, so what am I supposed to tell my editor?"

	"Well, if you don't want to have to find a new profession, tell him I 
didn't show or I made you as a reporter and refused to talk.  Whatever you want.  
We'll be able to head off any other reporters the same way."

	When we got into the rented van, Diana drove us out of the parking lot, 
down the block, then pulled over and stopped. I looked quizzically at them as 
Beta got out of the van.  She reached under the back bumper and pulled off a 
small transmitter, which she tossed aside.

	As she re-entered the van, she said, "Someone put it there after you 
entered the restaurant.  I'm sure they thought they were being stealthy."  She 
grinned at me as we pulled out.

* * * * *

	Dr. Hilbourne was profusely apologetic when he found out he had been 
duped. I told him I was expecting this sort of thing to happen sooner or later, 
and I had it covered.

	I never heard directly from Winthrop again, but he was followed by two 
other attempts to find me.  We headed them off early, not even meeting with the 
reporters directly.  Eventually they published a lackluster article about a 
secret doctor miracle-worker in the area.  No names were mentioned, but the 
number of proposed names funneled my way quadrupled within a couple months.

	The problems with the whole scenario finally let me convince Dr. Hilbourne 
that we had to stop doing this for a while until things quieted down...  Which 
turned out to be a good thing, since Alpha eventually picked up on a federal 
investigation into the mess.  Oddly enough, for all the trouble it caused, the 
article helped us dodge a serious bullet.

	Meanwhile Alpha and I had been working on a version of the nanite surgery 
system that was limited enough for public release.  Theoretically we could 
design and sell a version without actual nanites.  Instead, while the patient 
was held still, nanite-sized wired probes would be inserted through the skin to 
perform some of the same medical functions as our normal nanites.

	The big hurdle was how to control the wires.  If we went for control via 
EMF broadcasts (as with the nanites), the slightest movement of the patient 
could cause the wiring to shred things up internally.  Eventually Alpha and I 
developed small, flexible little tread-like motors to work into certain points 
in the wiring.  They were larger than any nanite we had ever made, but smaller 
than any motor in commercial production.

	It would basically be an upgraded version of laproscopic surgery with a 
lot more options and effectiveness.  True, using it for surgery would take a lot 
longer than Alpha would take, but it would still be an improvement over pre-
existing methods.  And best of all, it was limited enough that my nightmare 
scenarios were not going to be applicable.

	It took years before the machines were approved for actual surgical use, 
but eventually they were put out into circulation.  Though far from cheap, they 
could allow surgery inside the brain without damaging it or work inside bone 
marrow or the eye.  They could literally go anywhere in the body without causing 
any noticeable damage and could repair their own entry point.  Not that they 
took over all aspects of surgery.  Using them to remove tumors or do liposuction 
or do anything on a normal scale would be like using an exacto knife to cut 
through jungle underbrush or do logging.

	Still, within ten years they became standard equipment in hospitals.  We 
hired out for production of the main control units and produced the nanite wire 
and loaded the control software in-house to keep the production methods secret.  
That and the artificial eyes were our two big sellers the first few years. 

	Alpha and I were still debating whether or not we should release her 
gasoline-creating bacteria.  Economy versus environment debates are never fun.  
But there were other projects in the works too, like the lightning catcher and 
even a more efficient and safer design for the next generation space shuttle.

<1st attachment end>


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