3G: the Glowing Green Goo

The first step was easy and familiar to Zax: meditation. With his training, he could put himself in the right mindset regardless of his turmoil.

Put all stray thoughts aside. Focus solely on the meridians. Every meridian you can find.

His own. Migo's. The peapod's.

Let the programs do their thing. Don't try to follow.

The neural interface was reduced to bare essentials. Whatever his nanites were doing, he would see none of the process. Only its effects. It felt weird, knowing something was happening without seeing it.

It's merely closing the back office. No big deal.

He put his unease aside.

Migo's meridians were the most important. His attention narrowed to them. He could see the differences and similitudes with his own.

Focus on what matters.

Migo.

His awareness sharpened on the wolf. It was a lot of information. Awareness of his own state was quickly overshadowed.

During meditation and experiments, his own body had always been the centrepiece. He didn't even see it, so deep in thought he was.

He was now a pure spirit. Only tethered to his own body by his ongoing diagnostic nanites. A ghost, floating in a lupine body. A body too complex and too heavy to rearrange it on his own.

Everything was laid out in front of him.

The way meridians reflected on Migo's body, and reciprocally.

His breathing. His heartbeat. His muscle spasms.

His decay.

Using the dim awareness of his own body he had left, Zax synchronised his vitals with Migo's. His respiration. His emotional state. They had to be as similar as possible for his ideas to apply.

His nanites, pre-programmed to help in this endeavour, manually pushed things along. They still had access to every information going through his brain, including those he was not aware of.

He couldn't tell how much, but exposing himself to ambient radiation had definitely helped. His body mirrored the beginning of Migo's sickness. Combined with Migo's own ongoing diagnostic nanites, what he had to do was crystal clear.

It also helped tie them to the pod. It was supposed to only have one patient per divot, so it was confused. Fortunately, as their vitals got close, they were easier to consider as a single entity. Unfortunately, only one part of said entity was salvable.

The pod did its best to heal, to absorb remnants of radiation and support cellular growth. The usual bond was in place, the connection trough the breathable gel, but the work was going slowly.

As expected. Good.

The handlers' warnings were proving true. More than one patient per pea slowed its work down considerably, to the point even a low amount of irradiation took days to heal, as opposed to the usual minutes to hours. Its gel's action was spread to a wider area; diluted, if it made sense. If the patients were in different conditions, it was worse. The pod barely did more than dull the pain. Occasionally.

"We figure it tries to heal a sick organ, but then sees a healthy version and think it's done, then sees the sick one again; and so on." One of the oldest handlers had drunkenly explained, when Zax had asked.

Normally, it was a bug. Now, it was a feature. Zax was counting on it to push and maintain his similarities with the wolf.

It's working.

He didn't know how, but he could feel it. Their synchronisation increased with each heartbeat. He could nearly perceive Migo's body as his.

The pod pushing the same chemicals at the same time.

His vitals and Migo's vitals.

His nanites and Migo's nanites.

His meridians and Migo's meridians.

Something clicked.

[Resonance detected]

SUCCESS!

Elation nearly made cost him his grip on himself.

Resonance between nanites and resonance between meridians were two distinct phenomena, possibly related. More importantly, they were not mutually exclusive. They followed similar principles, so Zax had theorised they could actually support each other, drastically strengthening the effect.

They were.

Migo's nanites reacted to Zax's programming. Migo's meridians reflected Zax's. It was an effect of normal resonances. He could perceive both of them as one being.

He focused his thoughts on Migo's meridians. His nanites followed without active input. Migo's nanites followed his, increasing his influence. Migo's meridians were pushed by his direct thoughts and his own nanites. From outside and inside.

As a result, Zax's perception, his control, his accuracy, everything about Migo's meridians was a magnitude better than it should be. It required more work than ever before, but the compound resonances had a better effect than he could have imagined.

He did not allow himself to be elated. The difficult and risky part was coming.

Migo's body was too damaged for mere healing. He had to be remodelled.

On their own, his nanites pulled the modulable blueprint to the front of his consciousness. His will had never been so focused.

The meridians.

The target blueprint.

The radiation sickness and its symptoms.

The expectation of being more exposed in the immediate future.

The imminent, inevitable doom.

The imperative need to learn how to resist it.

The sheer factness of it all.

Words were an obstacle to pure thoughts. He stopped using them. His brute will pressed on the meridians with the need, the idea, the concept of protection against radiation and healing from radiation sickness.

Concept, singular. It was a single idea. The simplest, rawest notion he could formulate without vocalising.

Slowly and carefully, he nudged the metaphysical twine. It resisted, an unmovable sculpture.

The double resonance let him encompass the whole network at once. Cajole it into following the detailed blueprint his mind was forced to heed. It resisted, stalwart.

He wanted to protect against the hostile environment. It resisted, sturdy.

He wanted them to survive. Still it resisted.

Something stirred, somewhere.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

He couldn't tell what it was or where it was, but it was unmistakable. Emboldened, he pushed harder.

I want you to live.

The thought pushed through, unbidden. The egg, the giant knot in the centre of the blueprint… unfolded. It didn't hatch or break, it didn't fall apart, but it was slightly looser. No doubt about it.

The change was minuscule. He would not have noticed had he not been so focused. But it lowered the resistance in the whole network. Made it a smidge closer to malleable.

It would have to suffice.

Not daring to be relieved, barely daring to think, Zax maintained his mindset and pushed the meridians to match his blueprint. It still felt like pushing against a mountain bare-handed, but this mountain willingly leaned into it. Somewhat.

First, the heart changed.

Zax poured all his strength, all his awareness on the task.

Second, the bones.

He was not even aware of his own body anymore. Something was telling him, he was in pain? Convulsing? Asphyxiating?

Third, the lungs.

He had planned on progressively affecting all the meridians at once, but this sequence felt natural. Following the meridians' logic, his subconscious figured. Move the rivers, the forest follows. Move the forest, the wildlife follows. Until the whole landscape is reshaped.

Fourth, the kidneys.

Who was he working on again? How many layouts? Didn't matter. All that mattered was to complete this one. It was his only conscious thought.

Fifth, the liver.

To survive.

Even in this state, he realised this thought was the key to everything. It was the reason the meridians complied, if barely.

Sixth, the blood. No, the intestine?

Less than a second of doubt. Two side meridians crossed and merged. They were not compatible types. They should have never touched. They reacted.

Violently.

This section did not exist anymore. Two pairs of dangling ends on the edge of the network. An opening. A minuscule hole. In his current state, Zax should be able to close it. To tie them up. Maybe bind them together, as if nothing had happened.

He couldn't.

The loose ends were… fading. Dissipating under his perception. No matter how hard he pressed, how he twisted them, where he grabbed them, the hole in the blueprint kept growing. He wasn't cognisant enough to understand why, but every part of him knew it was a catastrophe.

The hole reached larger meridians. It made everything worse. The hole reached more pathways, spread faster.

The network was unravelling, and there was nothing Zax could do about it. Meridians merely disappeared in a cascade reaction. He grabbed a section, and there was nothing to grab anymore.

The effect on the body was as impressive as it was gruesome. Swiftly amalgaming in a homogenous mess of undifferentiated cells.

Is that fleshy dough?

The though burst naturally and snapped him out of his trance. He was back in his body, fully aware of how right he was. Parts of his body were in shapes they should not be, they could not be, and Migo's was the same. He could feel them. He didn't dare open his eyes. It was not painful, merely disorienting, but he could not tell where his body ended and his friend's began.

Zax and Migo were melting, and the melted parts were flowing into each other.

So that's what fleshy dough is.

No wonder I could never stop it. There's no meridian to grasp in there.

It had always been the main risk of his plan. He had done his best to minimise the possibility, but he had found no countermeasure if it did happen. Now he knew there simply was nothing to do.

We're both dead. Or worse.

Strangely, the thought came with an acute clarity of mind.

No more thinking. No more doubts. It was do or die.

He did not want to die.

He did not want Migo to die.

He could only do.

Inspiration. An idea.

One desperate attempt.

One last gamble.

Pushing everything aside, he put all his mind, all his attention, all his will to the core of their blueprints. Their egg. The meridians there were so compact, so tightly knitted, it should have the best chances of resisting the unravelling. Maybe if he pressed hard enough? Tightened it even further?

From past experiences and the current melting speed, he had thirty-seven seconds left before they were totally melted. The calculation had been made automatically and a countdown appeared in a corner of his awareness.

[0:37]

He needed the mental state from earlier. The double resonance.

Breath, focus, meditate.

He tried, but the stress was too much. For all his training, he still needed time to get in the right mindset. He was aware of his skill; he could tell he wouldn't succeed.

Precious seconds, wasted.

[0:30]

I'll do without.

No time to second guess himself. He surrounded the egg with his will, like a cloak. A glove. A fist.

He clenched this fist, softly but as tight as he could.

It had too many openings. He could not compress and isolate simultaneously.

Failed. Next.

[0:25]

He couldn't afford to waste energy between meridians. He changed the cloak in weave, a wire grid, pinching the meridians to block them. Twine strangling a hose.

There were too many. Some were too large and sturdy. His focus was still too dispersed to amount to anything.

Failed. Next.

[0:15]

His focus narrowed to the five largest meridians. One for each type.

He choked them as previously. They gave more, but their resistance was fierce. Sending them desperate survival feelings only helped so much.

Something was happening, but Zax couldn't last long enough against such opposition.

Failed. Next.

[0:10]

Instead of blocking the main meridians, he pulled them. The massive knot was a hint tighter. He could even act on one at a time.

The melting slowed. It was working. It was doing something.

It didn't last. When he stopped pulling, the meridians simply went back in their original place, slowly.

Pulling on all five at once gave weaker results, and he wouldn't last either.

Failed. Progress. Next.

[0:05]

He couldn't last because those meridians were too large and too sturdy.

He tried on the smaller ones. They were easier to pull, he could go further and take several at once, but they didn't have much effect. Still, what effect they had was piling up. It lasted longer, too.

Wait, what?

It didn't make sense. They were easier to pull because they were more mobile and flexible. It should make them go back more easily too, their effect that much shortened.

Still pulling everywhere, he looked in more closely. When he was pulling the smallest ones, they behaved like indestructible elastics; getting longer and thinner but never breaking, until he couldn't pull any further. When he released, they slowly snapped back in place. Uncanny, but nothing shocking. But not all their length did so.

The part closest to the egg stayed taut, even after everything else was in its original position. It was like… a threshold keeping it tight. The same was true for the larger meridians, merely less noticeable because they were harder to pull.

The change happened at the same place on neighbouring meridians. Marking all of them, an ovoid shape was drawn. A delimitation slowing any movement from the meridians.

The clearest border he had seen. The shell of the egg.

[0:03]

Not daring to think twice, Zax grabbed all the meridians he could, exactly at the shell, and yanked.

He could catch it shiver in complaint, or was he imagining it? Not heeding anything, Zax gritted teeth he didn't have anymore, grabbed other meridians and wrenched once more.

The melting slowed to a crawl.

[0:02]

The main meridians. He grabbed them at the shell and tugged a final time.

As the melting reached completion, it stopped.

The egg's meridians were the only ones left in the whole body, but they held on.

[0:01]

[0:01]

[0:01]

Zax didn't dare to let go, but he was mentally exhausted. He had reached his limits long ago, and kept going. He couldn't even feel time passing anymore.

Print… Blue…

Nanites detected the hardly coherent thoughts and pulled the blueprint to the front of his mind again. He was not aware enough to realise.

[Resonance detected]

Something else did.

[Skill detected]

[Copying unknown skill]

[Sleep learning activated]

Out of nowhere, maintaining the egg felt… easier, somehow. More natural. As if an external pressure he had not been aware of had been lifted. Was being lifted. Then, incredibly, the egg pushed back. The shell, its position nearly obvious now, wasn't moving, but Zax was aware further and further from it.

The meridians were pushing. Growing. Pushing back against the hole. The melting reversed.

A new blueprint was forming. Zax could tell it was following the layout carved in the deepest part of the shell, the one it had before activations, its natural one. Part of him didn't care for it, so it moved differently.

He could push the meridians as they grew. It was nearly easy. He only needed a better idea than what they were doing. The blueprint in his mind was the best idea he had. He didn't remember why it was better anymore, but he knew it was.

He felt the fleshy dough reform as he went. Bones forming and attaching to each other. Tissue growing around them, differentiating in sinew and muscles. Blood vessels among them, joining the blooming heart. Already beating even as it was forming. Lungs. Liver. Kidneys. Skin. Eyes. Ears. Hairs and fur. Even facial features.

It was too much to follow, but he didn't have to. One meridian led the others around it, following their natural rules, making healthy functional organs into a complete organism. Mistakes still happened from his clumsiness, but meridians simply wouldn't let ill effects happen.

He kept the nervous system for last. The nerves. The brain. It was the point he expected pain to arrive, but there was none.

He was not aware of the duration it took, but finally, it was done.

The network was complete. No dangling end. No instability.

Finally, he could allow himself to faint.