<h4>Chapter 28: Why Me II</h4>
Trantor: Irene_ Editor: Perriemix
Basement 10.
I lit a cigarette up and took a puff. Other than the smoke in my lungs, there was a gush of coldness within.
I took another puff before throwing it on the ground and stepping on it.
“I’ll do it but I need assistance,” I said faintly.
“No problem. These people don’t have an A but they’re all talented in their own fields,” Professor reassured.
I nodded, slightly frustrated. “Who’s the best with their hands?”
Only two out of ten people raised their hands.
I nodded again. “Other than them, the rest may leave.”
The rest of them looked at each other, clearly not wanting to leave.
Professor waved them away. “Listen to him.”
Only then did they withdrew from Basement 10, leaving only me and my assistants.
I smiled. “What’s the situation?”
One of the assistants exined, “There’s a total of sixty-three frozen bodies and sixteen are women. After screening them multiple times with X-ray, we found out that only two wombs are suspected to contain ovum cells.”
I pointed to the sealedpartment before me. “These two?”
The assistants nodded.
I looked at the implement beside me. Everything I needed was avable.
After some thought, I instructed, “Let’s do it one by one. Disinfect first. I’ll open thepartment and we’ll defrost the bodies. We have about five minutes to extract the ova but don’t be anxious.”
I opened a can of sterilizing gas, filling the whole room with it.
A simple sterilization consideredplete.
I instructed the assistants to put thepartment t on the ground and as they did that, I noticed that its electric power source was still on.
Nuclear energy-poweredpartment.
I pressed the activation key and liquid nitrogen poured out from holes on both side.
The sound of a machinery opening up could be heard.
A nude female body appeared before our eyes.
This is a woman?
She looked different from images in scientific books.
The assistants were stunned, too.
“Alright, let’s do it.” I pressed the defrost button.
Instantly, thepartment started warming up and I aimed the knife at the woman’s lower body.
Since I was extracting ova, I couldn’t preserve her body perfectly.
It was actually a simple procedure.
I made a slit, which was very hard since the body had yet to defrostpletely.
I had a full view of her womb.
It was pretty much as depicted on television programs. I started slitting the womb.
“Get an x1000 magnification ready,” I shouted.
The assistant immediately ced a magnifying ss on my eye. The electrical magnifying ss recorded and disyed what I saw on the screen.
I started searching for the ova.
Wait. ck cells emerged before my eyes.
I tensed.
“Suction tool,” I shouted.
The other assistant handed it over to me immediately.
I aimed it at the small ck lump before activating it.
Looking at the disy screen, I dered, “This shouldn’t be ovum cells.”
“Yeah, but what exactly is that ck thing?” the assistant asked.
Through the screen, they had seen the ck cells that were being sucked out.
“Might be cancer cells,” I decided after some thought.
I cut open the whole ovary. Its core was already rotten and diseased.
Of course, the X-ray couldn’t detect this, but upon cutting it open, the situation became clear.
“Anyone has a data cable?” I asked.
“Me. Is your phone out?” one assistant asked.
“No, but I’d like to see the data in thepartment.”
I took the cable and I connected it to my phone. After searching for a long time, I saw a small jack on thepartment.
There was only one document in thepartment.
Written in English.
I tranted it on the.
My name is Anna and I have stage 4 womb cancer. I chose cryonics because my husband and I had been trying for a kid but unfortunately I have cancer. Upon hearing about this, we decided to use this method to preserve our future. As such, we gave up our family fortune for this. I hope that my husband and I will be awakened when medicinal science is advanced enough. Enough to cure my illness and bear a healthy baby for my husband and me.
I quivered, unsure if it was due to the cold or because of the letter.
I sent the operation screen and this document to Professor before writing, “I’ll rest for ten minutes before moving on to the next.”
A minuteter, he replied, “Continue.”
Learning from my mistake, I connected the data cable to the secondpartment before anything else.
Simrly, there was only one document.
It started with a UBS, followed by two rows of numbers, one long and the other short.
Below were some English words again.
Is there immortality now? If yes, will this money be sufficient to revive me? If it’s not enough, take it as my deposit. I have more money to offer upon revival, as long as you let me live forever.
I keyed UBS into the search engine and found out that it was the abbreviation of a bank in Switzend.
The two rows of number are the user and pin?
I tried logging in.
Zero bnce.
Looking at the records, I found out that thest withdrawal was 200 years back.
1 zero, 2 zeroes, 3 zeroes...
A whole 20,000,000 dors had been taken out.
Not only was he cheated of his life, he was also robbed clean of his money.
The assistants were staring nkly at the freshly operated female corpse.
With a bitter smile, I said, “Let’s start.”
We ced the secondpartment t against the floor again and opened it. The woman inside was breathtakingly beautiful.
But no matter how beautiful she was, it was still just a corpse.
Again, I carried out the same procedures, but this time I managed to extract this richdy’s ovum.
I also knew that there was a slim chance of reviving it.
The ovum was no longer active because even with the current technology, frozen ova could only be preserved for 15 years
There wasn’t any technology to preserve frozen ova from 200 years ago.
It was going to be really difficult to revive it.
I opened the door of Basement 10 and handed the test tube to Professor.
Things ended this way.
Two monthster, I got promoted.
I was still idling away in theboratory.
Plus, I no longer needed to deliver coffee to Professor.
There was no news about the ovum.
The government work contract would always start with the words ‘strictly confidential’.
As such, I kept it from everyone.
It was a Sunday, also my resting day, when my mobile rang.
It was Professor.
“Xiaowei,e to Continent C’s prison. Bring two cups of coffee, one with additional sugar,” Professor instructed before hanging up.
I was stunned.
Prison? Why me?
Did the ovum extraction fail? Why is he bringing me to jail?
Why wasn’t he arresting me but asking me to deliver coffees instead?
“I’m clearly already a scientific researcher and not an assistant. Why me?” I mumbled grudgingly.
There was only one prison, located in Region C, shared among all three continents.
The crime rates in a wealthy era were indeed pathetically low.
However, desperation did drive some tomit errors.
Continent C’s prison was in a deste area outside town, not far away from me actually.
I arrived there with two cups of coffee and three sugar cubes after a four-minute ride.
There was a huge and impermeable perimeter wall running along Continent C’s suburban district.
This was the world’sst prison.
The safest and most reliable.
I redialed Professor’s number because there wasn’t any way for me to get in.
There were two serious-looking guards standing outside the entrance. The submachine guns in their hands made my hair stand.
There was no answer. A few minutester, he came out to get his coffees and sugar cubes.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave,” I said.
“There’s something. Come with me. One cup is yours,” he replied.
I drank a sip before following him in.
“Why are we here, Prof?”
“Because the ovum you extracted has failed.”
I quivered and turned back to look at the main entrance.
The guards were slowly closing the doors.