Another recruit. Always more recruits. This one was weak, death was approaching. However, there was still life left and where there was life there was hope and a contribution that could be made.
There was a need for replenishment, a boost to extend life, build strength. Sufficient strength to make a contribution, to support the cause. Even one mission could make a difference.
The surgical robot approached the faded figure on the DRE surgical table, which hovered in the centre of the white room. Though weak there was a need to strap the recruit into restraints. The boost was painful, the surge of energy could induce rage or madness. A large syringe extended and aligned to the arterial vein in the crux of the elbow. Sensors scanned the area. The husk that was a person was emaciated, the vein here inaccessible. The robot glided down the naked torso and aligned with the saphenous vein in the lower leg. The sensor bathed the area in red light, detected the vein, a strap below the knee tightened to achieve more prominence and the syringe rapidly and accurately inserted its hypodermic needle into the vein.
Blue fluid was pumped into the vein, around a litre entered the venous system. Through osmosis the treatment washed through the body.
Whilst this recruit would live longer than expected at that moment they would have wished they were dead. If they had been capable of rationale thought. The body went in to shock, the flesh filled out, the muscles pumped up as the whole body engorged from the treatment. The heart enlarged and pumped at over one hundred and fifty beats a minute. The recruit screamed, and screamed, and would continue to scream for around thirty minutes. The pain so severe they should pass out, the treatment so powerful they could not.
From outside the room two men observed this latest recruit. They were charged with leading for hope, to finding a solution to the ills that had befallen upon them all. The elder more senior of the two spoke.
“The stock is getting weaker and the contribution less, we will be lucky to get two missions from this one.”
They both watched impassively as the recruit endured unimaginable pain. They did not care, they had one single goal, which had to remain their exclusive purpose.
The younger (though still very old) colleague offered reassurance, “we are stepping up recruitment, the legislate are considering enforcing conscription for those whose test confirms their status. Not just the sick anymore. We need numbers, an incremental expansion to make our army vast.”
“Can we influence the law makers further? Do they understand the risks of not making progress?”
“Yes I believe so. They are increasingly possessed of greater understanding, more now than ever, even the High Dean for the Legislate.”
“The High Dean?” the older man asked incredulous, “what has changed his hardened mind?”
The younger man out stretched an open hand toward the screaming figure, writhing on the table in the room.
“This recruit,” he explained, “is the High Deans grandson.”
The older man raised a pleased eyebrow, “Good, good, it is just something like this that will aid our quest to expand.”
They both watched impassively as the fifteen year old boy on the operating table emitted a never ending desperate scream.
15.
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