Chapter 14
Brainy stared into the microscope. The nanites weren't surviving the attack of the white blood cells. He'd had a thought and drawn a sample of Lillian's blood but had yet to try what he was thinking. The color of the blood made him nervous, instead of being the red color it should have been it was turning darker and darker, heading for something that was almost black. The removal from stasis had proven that Lillian wouldn't have long outside of her containment unit. The Nth metal was replicating even faster than he'd anticipated.
"I can hear the gears grinding from over here," Sandy said without looking up from her own work just a few feet away. She'd had given up on her idea about coating the nanites in organic material and was trying to figure out a different method of how to make it work with material similar to those put in stents. Stents remain in arteries to keep them open so that blood can flow through and blockages could not occur. This material hardly ever caused the body to have any issues for years. They wouldn't need it to last nearly that long – just long enough to avoid the white blood cells and cure the poisoning.
"My gears do not grind. They are like a well-oiled machine," the Coulan said.
"Uh huh so then why is it you've been staring thru the microscope for so long?" She asked.
"Well, I was wondering if we could inject the nanites directly into the Nth metal inside the blood sample that I brought over," he told her.
"But we can't separate the Nth metal from the blood, can we?" Sandy was confused and this time did look up from her work.
"What I meant was - we said we needed the tissue to already be under attack, to slow the body's response. What if we injected the nanites into this small sample? Then if the nanites survive, we could reproduce it this blood sample. Those nanites would be covered in the fluid from the sample and already recognized by the white blood cells in the sample," he explained.
"I see. Then we could perform a transfusion on Lillian, which would already contain her own cleaned blood with nanites. I like it. Take only half of the sample you took, just in case it doesn't work. I'll keep seeing if I can get this to work for a Plan B," Sandy said. Brainy nodded and quickly took some of the blood sample and put it into a petri dish. He quickly returned the rest of the sample to the refrigerator before placing the petri dish under the microscope. After that, he introduced the uncoated nanites into the sample before peering into the microscope.
"Ok guys, lunch is on its way and I handled a few business items. Where are we?" Lena asked, walking into the lab, and up to the Coulan's station.
"Brainy had an idea and I'm working on my idea. Hopefully between the two…" Sandy was hopeful and that didn't escape her boss.
"The nanites are actually getting a chance to fight but the Nth metal seems to be fighting back," Brainy was a little discouraged.
"Introduce more nanites. The Nth metal might need to be completely overwhelmed," Lena suggested. Brainy injected more nanites into the blood sample and then quickly watched through the microscope. The nanites successfully beat back the Nth metal and the color of the sample began to shift back to a lighter more natural color. The Coulan was very excited until he saw what was happening next.
"As soon as the Nth metal has been cleaned up, the nanites are being attacked by the white blood cells," he heaved a sigh.
"Perhaps we need to combine our two methods. I have coated this batch of nanites. Let's try and see if they survive the white blood cells in your clean sample," Sandy suggested. She brought her little petri dish over and Brainy took a clean needle, sucked up some of the nanites, and then injected them back into the sample. Putting his face over the microscope again, he watched as the white blood cells ignored the coated nanites, which had changed in color from their uncoated siblings.
"It seems to be working. We need to see if we can repeat it in the remainder of the poisoned sample," he said.
"Well, it's going to take a bit to coat more nanites," Sandy told them.
"Let's get to work," Lena had a smile on her face. This was a huge breakthrough if could really work.
To Be Continued…