Mantrid's Story

O'Quinn nodded and signed the required forms, made sure everything was correct, then handed back the piece of paper. This woman didn't really seem to care all that much, or was too engrossed in her work to really put much care into it. Whatever, he thought. It happened to everyone, eventually. He took his file, and headed through the back door where, hopefully, Dr. Mantrid would be waiting for him.

"Ad Victoriam, Dr. It's a pleasure to meet you." he greeted upon seeing the man, quickly taking in the surroundings of the room around him as well. His eyes in were sharp and took in almost every detail at a glance. Part of why he was chosen, no doubt. He exhaled softly and then raised his chin slightly. Better to look tall and proud than unsure and afraid.

On the other side of the door, which opened with a pleasant chime, was some kind of commotion, an older man in a white lab-coat seemed to be berating a technician, his words echoing through the sterile walls of the laboratory.

"Should snake venom swell your limbs to bursting!" The older man shouted. "Should Spider poison cause your brain to explode! Should your bodily fluids drain out through pustulant sores!"

The man craned his neck at the entrance of O'Quinn.

There was a hungry grin that crossed his face as he smoothed down his coat, and he placed a pair of forceps down onto an aluminum surgical tray.

"Ahhh... the specimen..." Mantrid said, walking over to him, grabbing him by the chin, and inspecting his face. "Yes... You will do! But!? Will you do!? Ah that is the question!" Mantrid said cryptically, flipping a switch, and turning on a nearby holoscreen. "Your service record... impressive, but irrelevant! Your enhancements are minimal, untainted! A pure specimen!"

"Up!" He said, pointing to a metal surgical table in the center of the room. "Lie down on the table."

There was an almost imperceptible twitch of his muscles as Mantrid grabbed him by the chin. The man nearly reacted instinctively through his training, to dislocate the offending hand and snap the arm in three places, but he didn't. His eye twitched, but remained open. He glanced to his service record, frowned that it was deemed irrelevant, and set his things down where he stood. There was no time for games, it seemed, and the Dr. was so engrossed in things that he likely wouldn't answer too many questions.

Sort of like boot camp.

Sighing, he smoothed his uniform and complied, hopping up onto the table, kicking off his shoes, and then laying down as instructed. 'The doctor works fast... hopefully not too fast - I'd hate to lose an eye or something.' he thought to himself.

Mantrid waited quietly for O'Quinn to get up on the table. The doctor was certainly abrasive, and his bedside manner was greatly lacking. But Mantrid was a brilliant scientist.

"You have been chosen both for your genetic predispositions, and your loyalty to the state. You have demonstrated your willingness to follow the lead of your superiors without question and you will be rewarded." Mantrid said.

He prepared an IV, and a nearby Technician took a syringe, and drew up a clear liquid into the syringe from a vial.

"You will be uniquely disposed to dispense great misery upon the enemies of the Empire." Mantrid said, taking the syringe.

Mantrid hesitated, before he took the syringe, and then Theodore's arm.

"Are you ready to join the elite ranks of Project Daedalus?"

O'Quinn looked at the syringe, the doctor, and then at his arm. He flexed his hand into a fist, relaxed it, and then blinked. "Yes. I'm ready." Everything Theodore had done led up to this point. His selfless service to the Empire, his unquestioning loyalty to the Empire, had led him here.

"Yes." he repeated. He was never going to be more ready than right now.

"Marvelous." Mantrid said, as he double checked the Syringe.

He slid the liquid into a prominent vein on O'Quinn's arm, and injected the contents, which would produce an odd, tingling sensation. Mantrid moved over to the other side, and drew another syringe, this one was filled with an unsettling blue liquid, that seemed iridescent, and shimmered.

Mantrid slid the second syringe into O'Quinn's other arm, injecting the contents which produced a hot, burning sensation, and the blue liquid could be seen turning his veins a brilliant blue under his skin as it spread throughout his body.

The more the liquid spread, the more painful things seemed to get, bones began to change, muscles began to reassert themselves, everything began to quickly culminate into an excruciating sensation until the sedative that Mantrid had introduced began to kick in. The Sedative introduced a sudden, and profound state of unconsciousness.

---

When O'Quinn came back to consciousness, the first thing he would likely notice was the hyper-awareness that surrounded him. The ballasts inside the fluorescent lights, did they always buzz so loudly? There was another strange sensation, visions would flood O'Quinn's mind, visions of Mantrid handing him a spoon.

Mantrid quietly waited for the drugs to wear off, checking his pupils, his natural eyecolor remained in one eye, while the other was an unsettling blue.

"How do you feel?" Mantrid asked.

The lights seemed strangely bright, and every pore, and every wrinkle in Mantrid's face was all the more prominent.

He took a moment to answer, adjusting to these hyper sensitive senses and adjustments. Why was he seeing a spoon? He sighed and blinked a few times as he tried to ignore the unbearably sharp look at the man's face.

"I feel... great, actually." He answered.

"Was life always this chaotically noisy? Or did i have to be enhanced to notice it?"

There was a fly approsimately twenty two feet to his right, rubbing its greedy little hands together as it sat on the wall.