CYGNUS DIVISION // INTERNAL MESSAGING SUITE // LOG START
This is an audio transcript of the chatlogs between Platinum rank Dr. Bayne Miller and Steel rank Dr. Evelyn Barna
DR.MILLER: Good day Ms. Evelyn.
DR. BARNA: Good day to you, Dr. Miller.
DR.MILLER: How goes the ongoing research on the… "nano-reactive medicinal implants for emergency internal correction," as you insisted we call them?
DR. BARNA: It's going fine.
Unfortunately, the side effects aren't.
Three of the test units triggered inflammatory loops when exposed to elevated cortisol.
DR. MILLER: So… stress. Our brilliant little creations panic when the patient panics.
DR. BARNA: Yes, Bayne. Like interns.
DR. MILLER: Don't compare my prototypes to interns. They're far more capable.
DR. BARNA: Wow. Brutal.
DR. MILLER: I say it with love. Anyway, your assessment?
DR. BARNA: We may need a dampening layer between the implant and the patient's endocrine responses.
Something like a soft-lock to prevent the implant from overcorrecting.
DR. MILLER: Hm. And the side effects you mentioned in your last report? You left them… conspicuously vague.
DR. BARNA: I was being responsible. I didn't want a Platinum poking into my inbox every ten minutes for clarification.
DR. MILLER: Then consider this minute eleven.
DR. BARNA: …The implants work. Too well.
They're reading micro-injuries before they matter, and that overactivity is causing tissue fatigue.
Like having a medic constantly preemptively tackling you to stop you from stubbing your toe.
DR. MILLER: Evelyn, you have a poetic way of describing biomedical catastrophes.
DR. BARNA: I'm trying to keep it fun so I don't scream.
DR. MILLER: Fair. Now, one more question—was there any reaction when you used Firo's samples as a comparison baseline?
DR. BARNA: …Bayne.
DR. MILLER: What? This is a scientific inquiry.
DR. BARNA: This is you trying to dip your hands into Ichor research again.
DR. MILLER: I merely want to know if the implants recognized his… substance.
DR. BARNA: Fine. Yes.
The implant didn't know what to do with it. It didn't register it as foreign, but it also didn't classify it as biological.
It froze.
DR. MILLER: Froze?
DR. BARNA: The code-layer in the Ichor forced the implant's diagnostic system into a recursive identification loop.
Like it was trying to read a language that kept rewriting itself mid-sentence.
DR. MILLER: Fascinating.
DR. BARNA: Horrifying.
DR. MILLER: Same thing.
DR. BARNA: Bayne. If the implants can't classify his Ichor, it means the "data-compression" theory is more likely than we thought.
DR. MILLER: Meaning Firo's blood is not only not from here…
…it might be storing information from wherever "there" is.
DR. BARNA: And that information can override our tech if it tries to interpret it.
DR. MILLER: So the question becomes:
Is the Ichor protecting itself from analysis…
or protecting us from whatever it contains?
DR. BARNA: I hate the way you phrase things.
DR. MILLER: It's part of my charm.
DR. BARNA: Debatable.
DR. MILLER: Evelyn, you're one of the few who doesn't flinch when talking about this. I value that.
DR. BARNA: Stop being nice, it makes me nervous.
DR. MILLER: Very well. Your implants are misbehaving, your subject is rewriting biology, and you need sleep.
DR. BARNA: I'm logging out.
DR. MILLER: Good. When you wake, I'd like to discuss a joint proposal for expanding Ichor research under CYGNUS. You'll be the lead author—don't hide.
DR. BARNA: I will hide. Watch me.
DR. MILLER: I look forward to dragging you back out.
[LOG END]