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Chapter 9 – What is Power Anyway?

Someone asked me once why I got into my field. I told them, “I’ve always liked

the human body, but I didn’t want to cut people open, get weird diseases, and I hate

looking at films. So I went for what was left.” Life sometimes has different ideas.

The sky was getting dark by the time I squeezed through the protest and got to my

car. Then there was the hour-long crawl through a mere five miles of traffic. Finally I

arrived at an old hospital. It stood 5 stories tall, and seriously showed every one of its 50

years. The white paint was cracked and falling, and one wing seemed half-demolished.

Then again, they might have been renovating. A vinyl banner hung from the roof –

Maharin Institute.

As I exited my car, I could hear the sound of nearby protests. With their

bullhorns, I could tell they were complaining about the Institute. However, they seemed

to be blocks away rather than right outside the gate. I contemplated this as I walked up a

set of cracked, concrete steps.

Dr. Maharin met me at the front entrance. Despite looking like he could use a

good night’s rest, he stood tall and gave me a firm handshake. Somehow, I instantly

forgot every doubt about this situation when he shook my hand.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. We don’t have a lot of time.” He

then turned and zipped through the halls with me right on his heels. “Mr. Benjamin’s

being prepped for surgery right now. He suffered a heart attack earlier, but we don’t have

a lot of options. That’s why you’re here.”


Dr. Maharin led me into an x-ray viewing room. A team of doctors stood in front

of the films discussing something really serious. I slid in and joined their huddle. Oddly

enough, the films seemed interesting to me.

“Even he survives tonight, he’s dead in two weeks if we don’t fix this.”

“But if his heart doesn’t get him, it won’t be long before his liver goes too. And,

thanks to his immuno-suppressed state, there’s no way he’d be able to survive that

invasive of a surgery.”

“Not to mention the fact that he’ll bleed out long before that. And, who are you?”

Only now did they notice me. I had already looked over the x-rays, MRIs, and

Doppler studies. I couldn’t read everything, but I knew enough to know that Mr.

Benjamin was on his last legs. “His coronary arteries are toast. He needs some major

bypass work.”

“True, but he won’t make it off the table in his condition. And who are you

again?”

Dr. Maharin stepped into the middle of our huddle. “This is Dr. Shao, who I told

you about. Don’t you remember, Dr. Carter?”

Dr. Carter nodded, but he didn’t look happy. Then again, with his face showing

the signs of 20 years of long surgeries, he probably never looked real happy. Looking me

over, he said, “Oh yes, the magician.”

“I am a Doctor, though I’m not sure what I can do. This isn’t my specialty, but

Dr. Maharin asked me to come.”


All eyes turned to Maharin. The look on our faces screamed confusion – none of

us had any clue why I was here, nor what we could do to save him. Yet, he stood tall and

relaxed. “Dr. Shao here is going to perform the surgery.”

Dr. Carter held back a laugh. “Surgery’s impossible.”

“Then Dr. Shao will perform the impossible.”

“Hang on,” I said. “I’m not licensed to do surgery, not to mention that I have no

idea how to do this surgery.”

“You’ll be working under the supervision of Dr. Carter. He’ll walk you through

the procedures, but you’re the only one who can do this.”

Dr, Carter jumped in place. “Impossible. I cannot train a doctor to perform such

a complicated procedure on such a compromised patient.” He turned his glare from Dr.

Maharin onto me. “What’s your specialty, anyway?”

“I got my Doctorate in Chiropractic.”

“So, you expect to heal him by cracking his back? Good god…”

“No, I treat tendonitis, arthritis, and stuff like that with machines and deep tissue

work to get everything moving. I wish I could fix him by cracking his back, but life ain’t

that easy.”

People started pacing, and everyone looked like they were about to bail. But a

simple, “Ahem,” from Dr. Maharin drew all our attention. “Dr. Shao will perform the

surgery because he can do the procedure without an incision. That is his magical ability.

The rest of you will assist him and tell him what he needs to do, but his hands will do the

work.”

“How can you do a quadruple bypass without opening up ribcage?”


Dr. Maharin was ready for this question. “You do it by altering your structure and

phasing through the patient.”

“Can you do this? Really?”

Now all eyes were on me. “Uh, well, yeah… I think. How did you know I could

do that?”

Dr. Maharin just chuckled to himself. “Are we going to pow-wow here all night,

or are we going to be doctors?”

Now, the surgery itself wasn’t too complicated. Think of an artery like a hose or

tube. What happens if a rock gets stuck in the hose? Well, water can’t get through. So,

what the surgery does is cut a hole downstream from the block, attach another hose there,

and then screw the new hose onto the water source. Then water will flow through the

hole without any problem. The only problem here is that it’s the human heart. Screw that

up and the patient is dead. Poke a hole in the wrong place and the patient is dead.

Basically, the challenge is getting in and out without causing death.

Oh, and then you need to find the tubes to use for this surgery. Normally, they use

small arteries from other parts of the body that hopefully you won’t miss too much. But

in this case, it could be more complicated. I asked Dr. Maharin about this.

He seemed unconcerned. “We’ve gotten a hold of the newest technology for this

procedure. Artificial epithelium, synthesized in a lab to be completely free of rejection,

it’s perfect for this situation.”

Something about this seemed a bit too familiar. “Artificial epithelium. The ones

from MIT?”
Dr. Carter seemed surprised at my response. “Why, yes. They’re the newest

thing, I didn’t know they were published yet.”

“You found out too. Not the biggest secret I guess.”

“I suppose.”

We all left the viewing room and moved to scrub in for surgery. I wasn’t sure if

this was completely necessary, but they figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Oddly,

the artificial skin on my hand survived the scrubbing process without a hitch. Too bad it

wasn’t a bit tougher about other things.

We went from there into the OR. Even in this old hospital, the operating room

was spotless. It was also crowded, with nurses and equipment everywhere. And sitting

in the middle of the room, the person of interest – Mr. Benjamin. “Hey, docs. I’d get up

to shake your hands, but I seem a little tied up right now.”

IVs, monitors, and everything imaginable was hooked up to that guy right now,

yet he still had his sense of humor.

“Lighten up, guys. This ain’t a funeral. You, new guy, what’s your name?”

He was looking at me. “I’m Dr. Shao. I’ll be performing your surgery, and it’s my

job to make sure this ain’t a funeral.”

“See, he gets it. The rest of you could learn from this guy.”

The rest of the room had more on their minds. They were rigging monitors and

echocardiograms – sonar pictures so I could at least kind of see what I was doing.

Information poured from the monitors, keeping watch over heart rate, blood pressure, and

anything else that could indicate a problem. Maybe I looked more relaxed than anyone

because I had the least to lose. I was a last minute hail-mary, and at the time, I didn’t
have a chance to get nervous or anything. I was still in partial shock, and trying to figure

out exactly how to make the magical steps necessary to do the surgery. And I wasn’t

even thinking about my skin at the time.

Mr. Benjamin seemed more relaxed than even me. “What is power, anyway?

What’s money? What’s wealth? Let me tell you this. Five years ago, I could buy

anything or anyone I wanted. Yesterday, my bank account was bigger than ever, but I

couldn’t even take a crap without help.” He looked me straight in the eye. “You might

be able to save my life. There ain’t no one else on earth who can do that. Now, there’s

some power for you.”

His words didn’t sink in until way after the surgery. Dr. Carter nodded to me.

“We’re ready, Dr. Shao.”

I nodded, trying to focus on the task at hand. “Is the anesthesia ready?”

“You think I’m going to sleep through this?” I turned to Mr. Benjamin, seeing

only a pair of determined eyes. “I’ve lived through a lot, but I’m always up for a new

experience. Just do your thing. They got me tied down for a reason.”

“Alright.” And with that, I phased out my hands and placed them into his chest.

Now, I’m not sure what he was thinking when he saw that. I’m sure Mr.

Benjamin had never thought that he’d see someone slide their hands into his chest, but he

didn’t faint. I tried to focus on the monitors and orient myself.

It’s weird when you’re phased. You can feel solid matter. Kinda. Like you know

it’s there, you can feel it, but the sensation feels more like sticking your hand into a bowl

of pudding, and the different levels are like the pieces of fruit or tapioca. So, it took me

almost a half hour before I knew the difference between the heart, pericardium, and
everything else in his ribcage. Then there was another twenty minutes figuring out how

to move the heart around and orient myself using the monitors. Finally, I took one of the

artificial arteries and wrapped it around the heart.

“Just like doing paper mache,” said Dr. Carter.

“I’ve never done paper mache.”

“No kids, eh?”

“I didn’t even do it when I was a kid. And I’m sure they’re not doing it half

blind.”

Dr. Carter just chucked. “You’re doing fine.” Apparently any of the apprehension

he felt at the beginning was now gone. Maybe I earned his trust?

As I took a breath, I noticed Dr. Maharin standing in the back of the room. He

didn’t seem to be doing anything, but his presence seemed to inspire confidence

somehow.

The weirdest part of the procedure was trying to see the artificial artery. I could

de-phase it a bit, which would bring it into view. Sort of. But I didn’t want it sticking

through something, like say, the heart. Finally, I managed to get it wrapped around the

heart and completely inside the pericardium. That wasn’t easy.

“Now for the hard part, Dr. Shao. You need to connect the new artery to the

heart.”

“Alright. I have no clue how to do that.”

“Normally, we just suture it.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen here.”


“Well, a suture’s really just a fancy piece of duct tape. Can’t you just phase a strip

into the heart muscle?”

I thought about that for a moment. When I phased a stick into a rock, the rock

split into two. But living tissue was softer, and theoretically, it could work. Still, I wasn’t

about to test this theory on a living person. I took my hands out and tried phasing two

strips of artificial artery together. Sure enough, I was able to get them to connect. I then

practiced phasing a probe, and then de-phasing it in the middle of the connection between

the two arteries. That punched a perfect hole, just like what he’d need.

“Perfect,” said Dr. Carter. Perfect on the outside, but perfect inside the body

would be more difficult.

Well, actually, just more time consuming. Connecting the artificial artery was

easy enough. Making the hole to let blood through was a lot harder. I was afraid to make

too big of a hole, so I just made a tiny hole to start. Then I’d slowly widen it until

enough blood flowed through. That’s making it sound too easy. I’d be sweating as I

opened the hole a tiny bit, praying that it wouldn’t make a leak, and scouring the

monitors for any sign of damage.

Finally, I was done. The monitors showed blood moving around that one

blockage without a single leak. I turned my attention to Mr. Benjamin’s face. “How’re

you feeling?”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“I’ll try to keep it that way.” But I had no time to rest. Dr. Carter was already

pointing at the monitors. There were still three other arteries to bypass.
I didn’t even know what time it was when I finally exited the OR. I stumbled

through some doors, threw off my gloves, and rinsed off my hands. Then I washed my

face. My eyes stung, like they’d been overused for hours and hours. There was probably

a good reason for that. It took me a bit to realize that my hands were a mess of black

junk with bits of skin peeling away. But it wasn’t a problem. I just snapped on a new

pair of gloves. Everyone in the OR was wearing gloves so hopefully no one would be

alarmed.

No one noticed. They were too busy attending to Mr. Benjamin. I wasn’t

surprised. I was attending to him earlier, and well, we were all here to attend to him.

Still, he noticed me in the back and gave me a nod, as if saying thank you for my hard

work. But he looked tired. A moment later, they wheeled him out of the OR and out of

sight.

I found myself alone in the OR. A feeling hit me - a sense of unwelcome, like I

was in a place where I didn’t belong. I had never wanted to be a surgeon, nor wanted to

spend hours in scrubs and a small, sterile room. Yet, I had spent hours in this room

treating a patient, performing a procedure I had never done using a method I’d never

thought possible. I thought about this as I exited the OR. A clock on the wall said I’d

been in there for 8 hours. I turned to exit the building when a voice called out behind me.

“Dr. Shao?” It was Dr. Maharin. And somehow, I turned and walked back to

him.

“How’s the patient?” I asked.

“He’s sleeping now, but he’s doing well. We have you to thank for that. But it’s

late and I know you’ve had a long day.”


I mumbled something.

“Get some sleep. Don’t worry, we’ll get you paid for this.” Dr. Maharin patted

me on the back and I was headed out the door.

I was halfway to my car before his words hit me. Paid. I never thought about

payment for my work tonight. What would I charge? I mean, I’d have to spend the night

in the reactor. And why didn’t I think of this earlier? I just ran into the room and went

about doing doctor stuff. Stuff like this gave me a lot to think about while I drove home.

It also gave me plenty to think about inside the reactor. Fortunately, I was dead tired. I

finally was able to sleep inside that thing. I guess questions could be answered

tomorrow.

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