Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen Memories ❯ Chapter Seven ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter Seven

Several hours later and Sally opened the door to the examination room.

"You may want to come and look at this." She said grimly.

Quatre was still unconscious on the table, and had sensors stuck to pulse points on his body. An ECG machine was to one side with a print out hanging out one end. An echocardiogram machine was next to it with a frozen fuzzy image on the screen. X-ray plates hung on the wall showing Quatre's skull. The pilots looked at the various machines with mounting concern. Sally held her hands up.

"Don't worry about those." She said, "I wanted to do a full check up on him. He is physically in great shape, no evidence of drugs in his system. I did an x-ray of his skull just to be sure that Wufei's blow didn't cause too much damage".

"So you are saying that there is nothing wrong with him?" Heero frowned.

"Well, not exactly wrong." Sally said, "We have found something that shouldn't be there."

"Explain." Said Trowa.

"It's cutting edge technology." Sally said "I think that Dr J would be best explaining it to you, it was he who suggested we look there for the cause of Quatre's behavioural change."

They all looked at Dr J expectantly.

"Well, its exciting stuff. It appears that young Quatre has been the recipient of nanobot technology. Very interesting stuff, as I said. Someone has introduced a very specialised nanobot to his brain." Dr J started a little too enthusiastically, but he coughed and tried to hide that enthusiasm when he saw the reaction of the pilots "

"I thought nanobots were designed to attack rogue cells in the body, like cancer." Wufei commented.

"Yes, that is the common use of nanobots. That and to widen narrowed arteries, target such things as gallstones and kidney stones and such like. Some scientists are even trying to get them to alter DNA, to reprogram the DNA of a person who has a bad gene, say someone who is genetically predisposed to diabetes or heart disease." Dr J said nodding.

"But these nanobots aren't doing something good, eh Doc?" Duo asked, looking at Quatre frowning.

"Singular Duo. As in one nanobot, for that is all that is needed in this case. No, I would say that this particular bot is not benefiting Quatre. I have never seen a nanobot like this before, although I have heard that a certain Doctor was experimenting along these lines. Yes, the benefits that this technology could bring could be immense."

"Get to the point." Heero said, glaring at Dr J. "What does this bot do?"

"Well, the theory is that you could use a nanobot, program it with a database of knowledge, for instance the contents of an encyclopaedia. Then the bot could be implanted into the area of a persons brain that deals with memory and the person would have instant access to this knowledge without having to read it or memorise it. Now the nanobot that Quatre has in his brain also has a database contained within it. The database contains instructions, data, information that over-rides Quatre's memory."

Duo whistled "So Quatre has been brainwashed." He said.

"Exactly." Said Sally "We have managed to interface with the bot and had a look at the instructions that Quatre had been given. Basically it states that we are the bad guys and that Quatre should avoid us at all costs."

"Can you fix it?" Trowa asked.

"Yes" Dr J said "We can, and we have. It is just a matter of sending the bot a message telling it to stop sending the data to Quatre's brain."

"What's to stop someone turning it on again." Heero asked.

"If they have the correct frequency, nothing." Dr J said "But they would have to have access to Quatre and we have altered the frequency that the bot operates on as well as deleting the instructions. So if it were turned on, Quatre would not experience any change of personality. And anyway, even as we speak the bot is extracting itself from Quatre's brain because of instructions we have given it. It will travel gradually to a blood vessel and then more or less navigate itself to a point where Quatre's natural bodily functions will cause it to be ejected. Very clever little thing…"

"I would recommend that we restrain Quatre until he comes around." Said Sally, and she proceeded to wrap Velcro belts around Quatre's wrists and ankles. "We don't know for sure how he will react when he comes around. I am sure he will be a little disorientated. Other than that, he could have residual memory from the bot, or worse case scenario the bots data may have overwritten his own memories. As Dr J said, this is cutting edge technology. To our knowledge there have been no human subjects prior to this."

"So this Dr is performing experiments, using Quatre as a proto-type." Heero mused

"Ah, yes" Dr J said "Young chap, was a promising heart surgeon at one point, but during the war the hospital he was in was hit by cross fire. He received a blow to the head and afterwards began to have epileptic fits. Cant be a surgeon if you suddenly start fitting. So he left that profession and went into research. Now, what was his name…"

"Let me guess" said Trowa grimly "Dr Basil Holt."

"Yes, I do believe you are right." Dr J said, "How did you know that?"

Heero stood up and walked to the door.

"I have to contact Relena." He said.

He went to the communications unit in the next room, and dialled Relena's direct line. Relena's secretary answered the call.

"I'm sorry, but Ms Dorlian is unavailable at the moment." She said a little too enthusiastically with a bright smile on her face.

Heero glared at the woman and her smile faded.

"Get Relena now" he ordered.

"I'm very sorry sir, but she is busy at-" Heero cut her off.

"I don't care if she is busy, this is of the utmost urgency. I need to speak to her. Now!" Heero growled. The secretary's eyes darted to the left of the screen, then she suddenly stood up and moved to one side. Relena stood in her place and Heero suddenly felt very relieved.

"Relena" he started, almost smiling.

"Mr Yuy." Relena spoke coldly. "I do not care for the way you speak to my staff. You have been told on a number of occasions that I have not been available to speak to you. I should have thought that someone of your intelligence would have got the hint by now. I do not wish to talk to you. Period. Please do not call this office again. If you do so I will refer your calls to the police and file a suit of harassment. I will not hesitate to take out a non-molestation order. So please, Mr Yuy, do us both a favour and do not call again". Relena glared out of the screen, and then terminated the call.

Heero sat back stunned.

"Wow, Heero" Duo said "What did you do to piss Lena off?"