"The Real Deal" - Chapter 11
"The Real Deal"
(C) 2017 Sinclair Diavante
Chapter 11.
"Dr. Lam will be able to see you shortly, he's consulting another patient at the moment, but he's been eagerly expecting you," informed the secretary seated behind a desk, a tiny female terrier Rhenthar mix, she had a white and gold coat, floppy ears, and large gold hoops dangling from them. Overweight, perhaps even pregnant, but Mist's nose said no to the latter, merely sedentary and complacent. She indicated a row of chairs in an otherwise empty room for he and Tony to wait in.
Mist scanned the area with his wetware, searching for hidden electronic threats, but found none. He eyed the chairs with deep suspicion and unease. He didn't like chairs... he would stand.
What a foreign concept, Mist decided. He had never the opportunity to be sedentary, nor complacent, not for his entire life. It had always been one struggle after the next, constantly driven since he was little, and even now, such a past lingered in the forefront of his mind, inescapable but for the quiet times when he was either asleep or high on mind altering substances. Both were automatically self limited, one by his physiology, the other by his previous conditioning. It simply wasn't possible to indulge too much in either, so he enjoyed them both whenever he could, insofar as his training would permit.
With a gesture, Tony sat. Mist stared at him with a pained expression, he had a 'site calming ring around his sheath, and that seemed to have quieted it... for now. But what was growing inside of him was a stark problem. His fur continued transitioning to white in various areas, which really wouldn't look bad on his heavily muscled body, not if it wound up even. He could have it colored to anything from the original pattern he'd been born with to neon shades of blue, for all Mist cared, he only wanted to know that such represented the entirety of the side effects of the Source venom which had flooded Tony's body.
Venom, which even now was circulating in trace, residual quantities, his autodoc had spotted it right away. It had successfully rendered the venom benign and inactive via the appropriately administered antivenom, repeatedly so, but it was unusual, for it kept coming back, this whole situation was off kilter. Tony was absolutely not himself at the moment, he was passive and distant in mind. The venom was a paralytic and a disassociative... so...
Mist paused when his sensitive hearing picked up on a one-sided conversation in the next room, his ears pricked forward and he listened in, as was his nature.
"Oh, I get it. Zach! You're doing too much. That's normal. Uh huh. Yeah. Well... do you really think that's a good idea? I don't think that's a good idea." A pause. "What? No... you're going to have to associate it with something else." Quiet laughter. "That's for you to figure out." Silence. "Right, oh I know. Easy for me to say? I'm not the one obsessed with someone so far out of my league." A chuckle. "I think you need a vacation, like maybe some time up north." He paused. "Well. Ok, that wasn't fair, but life is never fair. Look, I have another patient waiting, I need to take this consult or my secretary is going to start asking you about harnesses for me. Alright. Alright, chow!"
Mist was already staring at the open doorway when a very tall German Shepherd Rhenthar stepped into it, he had calm brown eyes and wizened gray fur on the sides of his muzzle, his whiskers were trimmed to equal length with razor precision, and he was wearing the white and green smock doctors did so favor. An antique digital stereoscope hung over his neck, probably just for appearance's sake, Lam was old school on many things, but Mist doubted he relied on such old technology.
"You're my one o'clock." It was a statement more than a question, his scent carried antiseptic cleanser, he was curiously guarded, professional, with just the slightest hint of amusement, he enjoyed his job.
Mist approached him and Lam tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck. It was an old motion, probably done without a thought. Mist mirrored it but he was more reserved, he didn't enjoy showing his neck to anyone like that, it was difficult to break eye contact while doing so. An old gesture from older times.
Lam was a reproductive specialist and plastic surgeon, a master in his field, he'd extensive experience studying 'site biology, he was discrete and wouldn't judge the personal lives of his patients, enjoying a doctor-patient-owner confidentiality that extended deeply into amoral and atypical civil liberties. Such discretion didn't come cheap, but because of whom he often did business with, he had access to unique areas of research, and the opportunity to treat exotic things, like 'sites.
"Come right on in. Mist? I remember you from a few years back. Kelly?" The doctor peered around Mist at his secretary. "Cancel my appointments for the rest of the day, please. I was uncertain if these two were going to show up. Come on in, you guys, lets see what the problem is."
Mist eyed Tony, pausing so he could follow behind him and the doctor. Mist remained in the doorway with his arms crossed like a hulking security guard, of course, he did spend years as one at one point in his past. It was an old habit to break, and he had to remind himself to take a more active role in the situation and not merely zone out to ignore those under his protection.
"Tony, hop up on my table there, I call that my comfy chair. Wait, you're a p-quad, hold on." Lam raced over and adjusted the stirrups, raising them slightly. "No sense hyper-extending your hip sockets if you don't have to. Any pain when standing like you are right now? Hip displaysia is treatable, not everyone knows that." Tony shook his muzzle in the negative.
"I know, you wouldn't think hips are an area I'm an expert on, until you consider particular... activities which certainly involve them." Lam grinned shamelessly.
Tony was being quiet and sullen, Mist had decided to leave his collar at a five the moment things had gone awry. This situation had turned serious, and what was going on in his head was too important to overlay with a more-basic artificial canine head-space. He could knock him down a few levels, sure, save him from the awareness of this situation, but he wasn't ready for that just yet, there were still too many questions that needed answers.
The 'table' looked more like a dentists chair, though on second thought, it was probably the exact same thing Kelly out there might need the day she popped her puppies out. Mist blinked, reminding himself that she was not in fact pregnant. Amazing.
Tony sat down on the padded platform and set his ankles into the supports, he leaned his head back on the padded rest and stared up at the ceiling.
"He always this quiet?" Lam asked.
"No, there's still venom in his blood, I've dosed him with the antivenom a few times since he got 'sited, it brings him back around temporarily, but... a sort of baseline amount keeps returning. Here's the autodoc data." Mist transmitted it to Lam's wetware.
"Hunh," Lam said, vigorously washing his paws at a small sink and inserting them into an auto-drier. It quietly zapped the water off his hands, transitioning it to vapor. He unplugged a portable scanner from its charging holster on the wall and turned to look at Tony. The compact gray metal device had a brightly lit holo screen that displayed a few centimeters above its surface, but he paused before looking close at it, and cocked his head, still deeply immersed in his wetware. "Well that's a first..."
Lam sat down on a small wheeled stool and scooted it close to Tony. With a gentle touch, Lam spread his knees a little wider and peered closely at the black tendrils exiting his sheath. "Mmm. Hmmm," Lam said to himself.
The scanner in his paws beeped a few times, he unpackaged a one-time use sampler, it resembled a pencil but was all white, he held it up to Tony's furry sheath, and carefully inserted it down between it and the 'site, fishing it around until his scanner beeped again.
"Tony, I'd like to pull that calming ring off. Would you mind?"
Tony shook his head.
The doctor carefully slid it free, and no sooner had he pulled it off, Tony's back arched and he let out a harsh grunt. Lam became more animated, moving his scanner close and touching Tony's sheath with his fingertips as his body shook and quaked. Lam paused to stare at Mist with a cryptic expression, he turned the calming ring in his paw and stared at it closely, inspecting it, he shrugged. Rotating it just so... he slid it down Tony's sheath to rest at the base.
Tony's hips bucked once, and then he let out a long breath, relaxing.
"Did you notice the ring doesn't catch on his knot?" Lam asked Mist.
He narrowed his eyes, considering the question, wondering at the importance of such. "No. Why?"
"That's because it's so tightly compressed, he can't even get an erection. That actually isn't a 'site, really. That... is the organism that makes them." Lam paused to let that sink in. "I've never seen one outside of the digestion pod that a Source plant uses to house its victims. How you got him, out of that, with it, is beyond me." He quickly held up a paw, palm out fingers spread, "I truly don't want to know. I've never seen one alive, but... it's similar enough to a 'site that I already know what I need to know."
Lam rose and clipped his scanner back onto its charger, he slid his wheeled stool out of the way and stepped close to Mist, staring at him.
"It's killing him, you see that, right? The white fur, the venom, there's an immature 'site right now in his colon just waiting to hatch, I'm not even comfortable with him being in my office, you need to make some hard decisions and you need to make them now."
Mist stared at him without any trace of emotion. "What are the options?"
"Pretty much only two. You can leave him like he is, and he'll be dead in a week. Or, we can operate and remove the organism. You should already know that there's normally only about a twenty percent chance of survival, though this would be more complicated. Like a 'site, that organism has some very crafty adaptive neurotoxins in it. We'd amputate his penis, extract the mass in his rectum, replace his urethra and bladder. If he responded well to the treatment, we could clone a replacement organ and attach it, then he'd be physically back to normal at that point. However, the likelihood of brain damage is high, unfortunately. There's no way we can entirely isolate the neurotoxin when it's released. Most of my patients whom I've performed a similar operation on became feral as a result, some for months, some for years, while their brain healed. The neurotoxin mostly affects the hippocampus, running right up along here..." Lam was running a finger along the side of his head, showing the region of brain he was referring to.
Mist quit listening at that point, deeply considering his failure to such a great extent, chastising himself for being a fool. His previous owner would be so incredibly disappointed with these results, Mist felt highly ashamed.
"...of course will all remain as a white as snow."
"Snow, I'm sorry?"
"His fur, that's a done deal, he won't really be like an albino, his nose pigmentation for example will remain black, and his eyes yellow. But that's not the end of the world, he could have it colored if he wanted, but a white wolf with yellow eyes, is that so bad?"
Mist turned to stare at Tony.
"I look forward to having to deal with that minor complication, for it will mean we have succeeded at the harder, riskier parts." Mist paused, considering, lost in thought, tallying the numbers.
"Let me ask you something, doctor. If I got you the Source plant this organism came from... and, lets say... you had access to the funding and research and lab space required..."
Lam's eyebrows rose but he remained silent as Mist continued.
"Would you then be able to more effectively, and safely, perform this operation at a later point in time?"
"Well," Lam laughed. "Yes, the answer to that will always be yes, but there's a couple of problems with that. One, that isn't going to help Tony, he needs help right now, and two, I doubt you can afford to monopolize my time quite like that."
"Tony could wait in stasis, yes? And you should not presume to know what I can and cannot afford."
Dr. Lam ran a fingerclaw under his chin absently.
"I can't say the idea doesn't intrigue me, Kelly knows I was just turned down by an application for a grant that would fund some of my other research." He sat back and thought for a moment.
"Mist, it's not my position as a doctor to question your morals or ethics, I don't get involved with judgement when I see one of those collars around my patients neck, they all receive the same level of care, and it's always the best that I can do. Still, are you so sure you'd be willing to ice him for... five.. ten... even fifteen years? That's the scope of what you're suggesting. I don't know what kind of life Tony leads... but what you're proposing would end it all."
"No family, no friends," Mist responded, ticking things off his fingerclaws. "No job, no purpose. I took him from prison. His body is his sole possession, the one thing he cares about, and I made it right when I stepped into his life. Now I have made it wrong. It is my decision to make it right again, and I am making it."
Lam stared at Mist for what felt like minutes.
"Kelly?" Lam called out through the doorway. "Why don't you head home for the day? I'm going to need you to come in early tomorrow morning."
END OF "THE REAL DEAL"
I hope you enjoyed this novella, I certainly had a good time writing it.