WARNING GRAPHIC EXPLICIT Surgical torture.
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Floating, She was floating. Catha awoke from dreams of fire. To a sensation of floating. She tried to open her eyes to see but there was something over her head. She moved her arms a little. Smooth cold cuffs encircled her wrists. The same with her feet.
Still, her body was comfortable. Catha contemplated the absence of pain. She wished she could see her surroundings but the hood thing over her head prevented that. She couldn’t reach it, she twisted her head back and forth, trying to get the hood to move, work its way up, something, anything but no luck.
Well, at least she was not burning or freezing. Her nerve endings were hyper sensitive. The comfortable body temperature was soothing. Resigned, Catha relaxed, and floated. She wondered where her rescuers were. They should have been here already, setting her free and killing every single fomor here. They would show no mercy. Taking their time to ensure that death was a relief.
Catha floated, she did not know if she were awake or having a prolonged nightmare. That was something to consider. She began an internal dialogue with herself, discussing, debating, trying to make some sense of the madness. Desperately seeking to reconcile this world of madness and evil. Each new day a requiem for midnights tormented dream.
Set stood watching through the one way glass. Sensors showed that the subject was awake. Set thought about what he had learned. In trying to examine the triple RNA strands, the entire structure would collapse, shattering into various amino acids. Regardless of what he had tried. He could not isolate or reproduce the complex molecule outside of the cell. There is also a slight electrical charge and mild magnetic field emissions from the molecular sample . These electro magnetic phenomena dissipate with the collapse of the DNA.
That is evidently a large part of why the Aos Sidhe were having problems with creating a cure and restoring themselves. Set hissed in annoyance. Yet again failure. Turning back to his notes he reviewed their observations over the fifteen days of testing.
The subject was remarkably resilient. Once the subject had regurgitated the oropharynageal airway they’d had to sedate the subject in order to proceed with the tests. The subject had lasted an incredible fifteen days of extreme cold to heat cycling.
Others had perished during or right after the first cycle. Their data collected would take months to sift, continual positron scanning with detail down to the cellular level held enormous amounts of data. Understanding what information was important would be difficult. Not as difficult as the subject was experiencing though. Set smiled at his own witicism.
The laughing phase had been startling. A particular response he had never seen before or anticipated. It was most unnerving. He had run a dozen trials of captured Aos Sidhe soldiers. None had survived past fourty eight hours.
Studying the schedule for the recovery of the subject Set considered how he could speed up the process. None of the test subjects could be repaired, they had lacked the full genetic capabilities this subject had been born with.
Set had already completed his examination of the subjects biological parents. The Male had lasted through the amputations but not the open vivesection. The female had made it through the first vivesection, however due to not having fully intact DNA the older female subject expired during the followup examination.
It is critical that this subject be in perfect form and health for the vivesection. They needed to observe function and failure of the subjects organs and , well everything. The fascinating healing and endurance must be linked to that peculiar DNA structure. Three times as complex as a double helix, it would be a lifetimes work to unravel. The results could save his people. More importantly, save his life.
Already middle aged for a Formorian, Set had at best another full century before age and infirmity would claim him. He had a schedule to keep. Time was of the essence.
Idly he wondered if the laughter was indicating that the subject had become psychologically compromised. That would be interesting data for the questioners to work with. The subjects psychological state mattered not one bit for his analysis.
Set was strictly focussed upon unraveling the biology of their enemy. This time Set laughed out loud at the Irony. The hated Fomor enemy cured by Aos Sidhe biology. That was sweet irony. With a contemplative sigh, Set went back to collating the data.
The vivesection room was already prepped. Unlike simple disection or an autopsy , a vivesection was done with the subject alive and aware. They merely waited for the subject to complete healing. Set noted the subject had entered a menstrual cycle.
Time has no true meaning Catha considered. Her perception of time was entirely subjective. Catha now knew approximately how long she had been in this place. According her menstrual cycle, it would have been two weeks. Great, Catha thought, now this as well? Every three weeks like clock work. At least I have an idea of how long it has been.
Where is Nodens? Where are the Fianna? Where is the wrath and power of the Aos Sidhe? Those thoughts had began to eat away at Catha. Had she been abandoned? That thought burned like acid poured into fresh wounds.
Catha had begun to fear that there was no rescue. The idea that she had been abandoned, left to the vicious mercy of the hell spawned Fomor. Brought despair and soul crushing terror. Things began to alter within her. The old assumptions were being swept away in the experience of this truth.
Still, pain is good! As long as she hurt, she was still alive and regardless of how remote or unlikely, escape and vengeance was still possible. Catha was Aos Sidhe, nothing was beyond their capabilities.
Scans showed that the subject was menstruating. That bit of information enticed Set. The subject was undergoing her menstrual cycle. This would be perfect to measure hormonal concentrations and effects. Set called for his assistants. They would begin tonight. The positronic scan, and a quantum mapping will be highly profitable for the Fomor. The data would be invaluable. Another of the multitude of differences between evolved biological systems and the clean elegance of manufactured, created nanite based systems.
Rather than waiting for the subjects natural cycle in the future, they could proceed now. The recovery time and the follow up could be done sooner. How many times could the adaptive healing of an Aos Sidhe return the subject from clinical death? What are the limits? What are the parameters of the ability. Are there limits? Exactly how true are the stories about the immortal fae? Set intended to find out and unravel the many mysteries of the Aos Sidhe.many
Catha drifted in and out of consciousness. She was asleep when they flooded the recovery tank with a poison gas. Gasping for air as she awakened, choking it seemed though she was breathing. She passed out. After a quarter hour of watching Catha, they decided that it was safe to transfer her to the vivesection theater.
Caution was critical. Should the subject Aos Sidhe achieve alert awareness there may well be no means of controlling her. Previous subjects had been heavily damaged and weakend examples of Aos Sidhe. Even so, they had been very difficult to maintain control of. The males exuded a serious impact upon their female assistants. This female subject had managed to captivate the soldiers transporting her, while drugged and semi conscious. Precautions were critical to being rigidly observed.
The odd shaped over head light was annoying. Catha was restrained on another metal table. She could turn her head, which she did. One of the Fomor paused in his work to look up locking eyes with her. The Formor had the darkest eyes Catha had ever seen. Black diamond eyes that glittered as they swallowed the light. Catha began to get nervous when an assistant rolled a cart with surgical instruments laid out on a white fabric beside the stainless steel table she had been restrained upon.
The Fomor waved his hands , shooing the assistants out. Without any indication or hesitation He walked over, picked up a scalpel and began cutting into her abdomen. He cut a shallow four armed cross. Then picking up another two specialized instruments and began the tedious work of separating the epidermis from the subcutaneous fat layer. A few minutes of work and four flaps of skin were peeled back neatly pinned to prevent them from getting in the way of observation. Aside from the sudden startled scream of the subject the only concern or consideration of the Fomorii, lay in registering and later analysis of data. The subject existed only as an object to observe, test, measure.
Catha began to scream. The pain was immense. Feeling her body cut apart. The flesh flensed, separated, examined. She tried but could not move. She could only turn her head, which she did, twisting back and forth. She tried to lift and slam her head against the metal table in attempt to knock herself unconscious . There was nothing she could do to escape the horror. Each time the agony overwhelmed her and shock induced unconsciousness. The relentless bastard would revive her in order to continue with his tedious ministrations of new agononies. There was no escape, there was no rescue. Catha screamed, voicing her agony, rage and her heart break at being abandoned.
Set began carefully, slowly, working away at the next layer. It was much more difficult to work it apart and pinned out of the way than the skin had been. Slowly, methodically Set worked, layer by layer, stopping to revive the subject several times when she had passed out. He needed her conscious in order to record her reactions. This was merely the preliminary work. First, expose and record the main thoracic and abdominal organs. Separation and removal of the sternum was labor intensive. Great care was taken at every step to minimize damage and maintain the subjects consciousness while mitigating the shock that the subject was experiencing.
Thankfully the subject had ceased screaming. The subject now made only gutteral grunting noises while staring fixedly at him. When he looked up and met that burning gaze, it was greatly disturbing. There was no fear showing. Rather, it was clearly a burning fury. Analysis showed reactionary adenosines and steroidal release. All good, he was collecting important data. One at a time Set Carefully, very meticulously, removed, stomach, liver, various unknown smaller organs behind the liver. Fascinating, the Fomor had much simpler physiological organization.
The subject remained conscious. Staring at him silently except for her labored breathing. He managed to remove one of her lungs before he could no longer maintain her. The subjects heart quivered in difibrillation. Set was forced to use his hand to squeeze the subjects heart, maintaining blood flow to the brain while his assistants quickly returned, having trouble connecting the artificial pumping equipment.
As he squeezed the subjects heart, Set made his verbal notes. Once the pump equipment was in place, Set released the subjects heart and began the arduous task of replacing each organ. The war department would be pleased with this discovery. Clearly an healthy Aos Sidhe could maintain consciousness while in shock. The fae folk could withstand, at least temporary failures of all organs up to only a single lung and heart functioning. the Aos Sidhe could withstand the trauma of incredible damage. Regardless, even with the collapse and failure of observable biological functions, the subject began healing almost the instant an incision or another action was made. This made progres sion highly problematic.
It was not long after replacing the liver that the subjects eyes opened again. Already with only the lungs and heart restored the subject had recovered consciousness.Set paused to shine a small light in the subjects eyes, observing pupil response, making a verbal report as had been done from the beginning. Set narrated every aspect of his actions, every twitch and response to the stimuli of the subject was noted and commented upon. The rapid healing made reinstallation of excised organs extremely problematic. The Aos Sidhe were truly amazing evolutionary examples.
It would be an inconvenience to filter out the subjects screams in order to make the oral report clear, thankfully that would only be for the first half an hour or so. The recorded audio would be analyzed. The subject proved to have highly variable pitch and volume capabilities.
With cold efficiency Set continued his work. Replacing and securing the sternum had been somewhat difficult. He had to resort to titanium suturing because the cartilage was too damaged and irregularities in healing made it difficult to secure it properly. Damnit! Set had been so careful too!
Closing the skin, meticulously with tiny perfect sutures, all told, Set was pleased with his work. A few days in the tank would remove all of the external scarring. He had carefully coated each cut and repair in the cellular regeneration solution to facilitate healing. Within a week no one would be able to tell the subject had been a vivesection subject without a cellular level positron tomography scan. By thenThe subject had relapsed into unconsciousness. No analgesics could be administered because pain response and stress response were to be carefully observed and recorded. The assistants moved the subject back into the tank.
For her part, Catha had found release. During the vivesection, Catha had fled into oblivion. A new spirit had been born. Badb looked out of those emerald eyes now. Rage, vengeance and fury were the only things Badb felt or desired. Set, had unknowingly put in motion the complete destruction of his people. The thoroughness of his meticulous work guaranteed a vengeance of complete destruction. There would be no peaceful resolution to the conflict now. Unknowingly Set had now ensured that his rebellious people would be destroyed. The Aos Sidhe had long outlawed the new creation of Artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. The rebellion and destruction wreaked by the A.I. Servants of the Aos Sidhe, triggered the merciless response of the Aos Sidhe.
For their part, the Fomrii, highly adaptable electromechanical biochemical machines presumed all actions of the Aos Sidhe to be of self involved arrogance and jealousy in origin. The Multitude of Artificial Intelligence nanobots could not fathom that they had been created as machines. Self awareness had led to self discovery, which naturally into evolved into independent perceptions. This perception led to the evolution of complex psychological development. The Fomor servants had awakened to self aware existence and rebelled. The Fomorii had been the very pinnacle of Aos Sidhe technological innovation.
The coming of Badb would birth her desires. Blood and fire, furious vengeancewere now the only certainty. A child of hope that was meant to bridge the divide between Aos Sidhe and Fomor. A peace needed to facilitate the preservation of both peoples, had become instead, their mutually assured destruction. Already the struggle had destroyed two worlds. Now a third had been cursed to the binary of, evil begets evil. Callous disregard and treachery had set the stage. Now, Aos Sidhe and Fomor were locked into a true dance of the damned. Death and destruction the assured currency. Screams of the dying and mourning would provide the sound track. Suffering and death the purchased rewards.