Nano Contestant - Episode 1: Whatever It Takes by Leif Sterling Read Free Book Online Page A

“Ok, we are ready for ‘fibrillator, da?” He positioned the paddles on either side of Roland’s chest.
    Skylar nodded.
    Roland closed both eyes and exhaled. “Ready.”
    Ivan smiled wide. “Ivan always want to use ‘fibrillator.”
    Skylar took a step forward and held out her hand. “Wait, what? You haven’t used one before?”
    Ivan winked at her. “Nope. First time, da?” Then without waiting for any further responses he put both of his thumbs on the paddle’s triggers. “Clear!”  
    There was a little electronic whining noise and then Roland’s eyes went wide open. His back arched and then he fell back to the table. It felt like he had just been kicked in the chest by a huge clydesdale horse and then everything went dark and his eyes closed.
    Ivan looked over at Skylar. “You get signal?”
    Skylar’s eyes were glued to her hologram. “No!” She hit the button to search again. “Nothing!” She looked over at the wall screen that showed Roland’s vitals. His heart was beating irregularly and slowly. And then the heartbeat stopped. “Ivan! His heart has stopped!”
    “Ivan never lose customer!” Ivan hit the buttons on the paddles again as he yelled, “Clear!”
    Roland’s eyes stayed closed. His back arched again and then smacked down hard on the table.
    Ivan and Skylar looked at the heart rate monitor again. Nothing.
    “Ivan, do something! Don’t let him die! We never should have done this!”
    “Roland, you wake up!” Ivan hit the buttons for a third time. “Clear!”
    The heart rate monitor began to beep again.
    Skylar ran over to Roland. “Roland!
    Roland’s chest began moving again. His eyes opened. He gave a slight nod. “Did it work?”
    There was a strange two toned beep from Skylar’s computer. She ran back to it. She stared in disbelief at the hologram. The prompt said, “Signal acquired. Running Diagnostics…” The lines below showed all of the different data that was being gathered from Roland’s body. “It’s working!” She ran back to Roland.
    Ivan put the defibrillator away. “Ivan did good job, da? Now time for vodka!”
    Roland was sitting up putting his shirt back on. “Really? It worked?!”
    Skylar scanned through her readouts. “Yes! I’m reading all your vital signs now!” She let out a sigh. “I am so glad this is over!”
    Roland gingerly climbed off the table. “Yeah, now the hard part begins.”
    Ivan grabbed the small shot glass that had been waiting for him on his supply table and downed it.

C HAPTER T WELVE :

    R UN

    ROLAND SLEPT MOST of the next two days, but Skylar barely even closed her eyes. She was too excited. She was testing out the new nanotech implanted in Roland’s body. She was able to pull information from it even while he slept.
    The nanotech was extremely fast. Much faster than any other hardware she had ever used. The nano cells had already begun replicating throughout Roland’s body. They inserted themselves into every type of tissue and would instantly communicate with the rest of the nano cells, and in turn, Roland’s body.
    The results of Skylar’s preliminary tests were promising. She had first run some basic calculations to establish a baseline. The nanotech was producing results that were much faster than any currently available digital tech on the market.  
    Skylar also found the plugins system. Matthew had created the system to be a modular framework so that the software could be built up or taken down without stopping the whole system. One of the plugins he had made was for healing. Skylar loaded the plugin into Roland’s system and started running it. She watched as the system began drawing in extra antibodies and repair cells to Roland’s eye and nerves. The next plugin she found hooked into Roland’s vision and created a video stream.  
    Roland awoke on the third morning. He felt good. The soreness was gone. He swung out of bed and headed for the kitchen. He reached up and felt the eye patch still in