Page 51 of Immortal By Morning
When she just stared at him silently, absorbing his words, he rushed on, “You see the scientists programmed the nanos with a map of both a male and female body at their peak condition. Which is basically twenty-five to thirty years old,” he informed her. “They then programmed the nanos to return their host to that condition. Unfortunately,” he added with a grimace, “the scientists who came up with that assumed that they could be injected into the human body, and they would—Well, I mean, imagine somebody got shot,” he tried. “The nanos were supposed to go to the site of the injury, recognize that the bullet did not belong, force it out of the body, and repair the wound without ever having to have somebody cut them open to dig out the bullet, or sew anything up. It is all taken care of by the nanos.”
He paused briefly, looking pleased with himself for the explanation, but Abril was staring at him with confusion. She still had no idea what this had to do with the fangs in the jaw of the skeleton in the indoor garden.
Pushing that concern aside for now, she clarified, “So, these nanos would go and repair wounds, and—what? Surround and kill cancer cells, illness, and anything that didn’t belong?”
“Yes. Basically,” he said with obvious relief and then sat back.
Abril simply stared at him, waiting. Not sure that the conversation was over yet. Finally, she raised her eyebrows and asked, “Is that all you wanted to tell me? I mean itisa lot,” she assured him. “It sounds like a brilliant invention. If they ever get it working properly, or get it approved by Canada Health, or the FDA or whatever, then that would be amazing. A real boon to mankind. You should be very proud of your family.”
Crispin began to frown at her words and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could there was a thump on the office door that made them both jump. It was followed by Lucian Argeneau’s voice through the door, barking, “Dear God, Nephew! You are worse at communication than your father. Do you need me to come in there and explain things to her? Or are you going to finish this properly?”
“I can do it!” Crispin snapped. “Just get away from the door and stop eavesdropping.”
They waited in silence, but when no other sound followed, Crispin apparently decided Lucian had left and turned back to her with a very long and weary sounding sigh. Offering a weak smile then, he said, “I apologize. What I just told you was only part of the story.”
“Have they done human trials with these nanos yet?” Abril asked.
“Much more than just trials,” Crispin admitted. “Adozen or so patients were treated with them when they were first developed.”
Abril’s eyebrows flew up at that. Not because she didn’t believe him, but because she couldn’t believe that it hadn’t made the news that these nanos existed and were being used. Finally, she said, “I guess they didn’t work.”
Crispin gave a start, obviously surprised by the comment. “What would make you think that?”
She shrugged and then said reasonably, “Well, I haven’t heard anything in the news about bioengineered or miracle nanos, so I assume they did not work well.”
“Actually, they worked very well,” he assured her, and then hesitated and reluctantly admitted, “Not exactly as they expected though.”
“How so?” Abril asked with interest.
“Well, they intended for the nanos to do their chore, cure whatever illness or injury their host had, and be done. They were programmed to self-destruct once they finished restoring their host to peak condition. Then they would be flushed out of the body just as any other waste leaves.”
“But that didn’t happen,” she suggested, and when he looked surprised, she pointed out, “You did just say it didn’t work as expected. So, I presume if they expected them to do their job and then disintegrate...” She shrugged.
“Right,” he said and then nodded. “And yes, you are correct that the nanos did not self-destruct and disintegrate on completing the repairs to injuries or healing illnesses that they were injected into the patient to deal with. It was not the fault of the scientists,” he saidquickly, apparently concerned that she might think less of his relatives for the perceived failure. But then he frowned and admitted, “Although... I mean, I suppose, ultimately, it was their fault for not considering that the human body is constantly in need of repair in one way or another.”
Abril’s eyebrows rose. “How so?”
Crispin frowned and then said, “Cells are constantly dying because of age and environmental factors, etcetera. I guess the scientists did not consider that the nanos would see those issues as something they needed to repair as well before self-destructing. But they do, so that they just never self-destruct and leave the body.” Seeing her expression, he explained, “Sunlight damages the skin and the nanos take care of it. The simple passage of time causes cells to die and the nanos take care of that. Pollution does damage to the lungs and skin microbiome and—”
“And the nanos take care of that,” Abril said for him.
“Yes,” he said and added, “Ultimately, there is always something to repair or fix, so the nanos just never self-destruct and leave the body.”
Abril merely nodded, but didn’t really see a problem with that. It sounded pretty good to have nanos in your body ready to heal should you have an accident or get stabbed or something. You wouldn’t even have to wait for an ambulance to arrive and the paramedics to inject the nanos, she thought and then Crispin spoke again.
“And that is how we came to be immortals,” he finished with a gusty sigh, and then straightened from kneeling in front of her, and moved to sit on the couch beside her instead.
Abril automatically started to nod, and then stopped and shifted sideways on the couch to face him. “Wait. What? Immortals? What are you talking about? I thought these nanos healed wounds and stuff?”
Crispin’s satisfaction drained away like runoff water. Frowning, he shifted to sit sideways to face her as well and thought for a moment before saying, “Well, you see because the nanos do not die and leave the body, they remain.”
“Of course,” she said dryly. “But what was that about how you becameimmortal?”
“Not me,” he said quickly, and then frowned and said, “Well, yes I am too, but I didn’t become immortal. I was born immortal.” He paused briefly and then explained, “My mother was an immortal, so I was born with the nanos from her and the nanos make anyone they reside in young, healthy, and immortal.”
Abril stared at him blankly for a moment, and then said, “Young? You didn’t mention anything about them making their host young.”
“They were programmed with the anatomy of both a human male and female at their peak condition, which is twenty-five to thirty,” he reminded her. “The nanos thought they were supposed to...”
