Chapter Ten: Transplants, Considerations and Negotiations

"Whoa, you guys look like you had a surprisingly bad time." Stan said.

"I don't really want to talk about it."
"Good. Cuz I don't want to hear about it." Stan said.
"Stanley! What happened?" Ford asked. Mabel tried to hold back.
"We got like super high or drunk or whatever on the steam from the hot spring and I ended up having sex with Dipper!

"I might have also had sex with Wendy and Pacifica, I don't really know…" Mabel said helplessly. Ford nodded.

"I see. Well, I don't have any drugs for birth control. But I think that an injection of nanomachines might prevent pregnancy as well as any STDs, though I'm assuming you're all clean.
"This was my first time. So if I have an STD, I got it from one of you." Pacifica said.

"We'll give you the multipurpose nanomachines. Or I could simply implant you with bionic organs.

"I was hoping to ask you all if you'd be my test subjects in that regard. The nanomachines would still need to be applied to prevent pregnancy. But with the bionic organs, one of the organs would be a nanomachine organ, which would prevent disease in the future. I'm 98% certain that it will work." Ford said. Stan laughed.

"You're such a nerd, Sixer!" Stan teased.

"A nerd with a patent pending on the bionic organs and dozens of organizations considering sponsoring me to keep research on them going." Ford said.

"I've been offered 35 million to continue my research on bionic organs and nanotechnology. You should see the prosthetic legs I've developed." Ford said calmly.

"Why don't you guys come down to the laboratory and I can at least show you the benefits of the bionics I have." Ford said, taking them downstairs.

"Okay, let's start with girls on one side of the curtain and boys on the other. Sorry I don't have a female doctor here. But you don't need to get any lower than your underwear." Ford said, loading up four vials with nanomachines, programming an injector gun and putting the first vial in.
"Okay, let's start with Wendy." Ford said, tapping her inner thigh. Wendy hissed lightly. She was still a bit sensitive from whatever was in the steam in that cave.

"Sorry." Ford said, sticking Wendy and injecting the nanomachines.

"You should be fine." Ford said, ejecting the needle and putting on a new needle. The gun was highly efficient. It didn't waste anything unnecessarily. The metal needle was ejected after each injection and a new vial would be put on. Other than that, everything could be reused. He injected Pacifica, then Mabel.

"There. You should all be good." Ford said. He then injected Dipper to prevent STDs. He was 92% certain that nobody had any, but he'd rather be cautious.
"Okay. Now let's talk about the bionic organs." Ford said, explaining what each of them did.

He talked for almost an hour how they were superior to organic organs and how they worked well together.

"Well, I'm willing to try it." Wendy smiled.

"Yeah, Totes McGotes!" Mabel said. Dipper shrugged.
"I guess I'll take them. It's not like they can kill us. Our regeneration will probably avail us." Dipper said, feeling like a bit more of a risk taker than he usually would be.

"And you, Ms. Northwest?"
"You're sure they're safe? And they won't leave scars?" Pacifica demanded.
"I can't promise that they won't leave scars. But I've tested them on various primates. Never a full set, but I've tested a heart-lung bloc on a Bonobo, which is the closest primate species to humans." Ford said.

"I'm going to invest Dipper with the bionics first. That way he can help me with the rest of you." Ford said, having Dipper lie down on the table.

"Okay, Dipper. I'm going to inject you with nanomachines laced with sedative. That will prevent your regeneration from driving it through your body too quickly." Ford said, taking out the injector gun and injecting Dipper.

"You should be asleep in about… Ten seconds." Ford said. Dipper felt his eyes growing heavy and he finally fell asleep.
"Good." Ford said, taking a laser saw and drawing it along Dipper's chest and stomach.

"Ladies, I need you to leave the room." Ford said, pulling out his heart first and putting in the bionic heart, connecting it to his arteries and veins. Wendy, Mabel and Pacifica went to the new break room and waited for it to be their turn. Ford slowly went through Dipper's body, replacing each organ with the care and precision of a licensed surgeon. He started with the heart, moving to the lungs, having found that those were the best organs to start with, being the ones most central to survival. He then moved onto the stomach and intestines, going from there to the kidneys and liver.

Once each organ in the chest and stomach was implanted, he moved onto Dipper's throat, putting in a new voice box and vocal chords, sending a minor electrical current through them, listening to how they worked. He made some tweaks to them, putting another current through, testing the sound of his voice box and chords against a recording of his voice and fine tuning it until it was identical. Ford couldn't allow his first human test subjects to have anything amiss with their new bionics.

He then moved onto Dipper's eyes, taking out his organic ones and putting them in a regenerative solution like the rest of his organs, testing the size of the eyes and programming in the right size, causing a pair of bionic eyes to slightly enlarge. He then connected them to his optical nerves and put them in, making sure they stuck properly before testing their effectiveness, having them open and display on a computer screen what they saw. He tweaked the image a little bit, making sure that they really were perfectly coordinated. He then moved onto the nose, tongue and inner ears.

For the nose and tongue, he simply implanted nanomachines throughout them to enhance their sense of smell and taste. For the inner ear, it was a tiny machine, larger than a nanomachine, about the size of Dipper's own inner ear, which would enhance his hearing and allow him to do things with his ears that he never would have been able to before. When he was done with the organs, he took out a pump machine and filled it with a greyish-white liquid and turned it on. A loud whining sound came from the needles and he inserted the needles into Dipper's bones.

The machine announced that it was injecting the liquid into Dipper's bones. That took about ten minutes to fully do as the pumping action moved slowly to prevent any bubbles or other anomalies from taking place. Once that finished, it announced the cooling process, where the liquid solidified fully and hardened.

"Bones now 225% as dense and 350% stronger. Body weight increased between 20-25%." The machine said.

When Ford was finished implanting everything, he typed in some commands into the computer and had it run a diagnostic, which took about ten minutes and after some minor adjustments, he ordered the nanomachines to wake Dipper up. That took another five minutes to fully do.

"You're doing fine, Dipper. Just stay there for about… I want to say half an hour while your body fully adapts to the new machines and your new bones. You're going to feel a little stiff over the next few days and a bit heavy. But that will all work out as you get used to the new body.

"In fact, over time, you may find that your body becomes even stronger, thanks to the nanomachine organ and your body's newly enhanced efficiency as a result of the organs themselves." Ford said.

"Wait, wait… What was that about my bones?" Dipper asked.

"I injected an ultra-dense organic liquid into your bones that was then cooled and hardened within your bones. Your bones are now… Approximately 3.5 times stronger as a result of the liquid." Ford said.

"Whoa… And that won't… I dunno… Make me heavier?"

"How much did you weigh before?" Ford asked.

"I dunno… 170 pounds? I've always been pretty thin, even now that I've built some muscle." Dipper said. Actually, it took him a long time to build muscle. He wasn't what some might call a Mesomorph, a body that tended to be very athletic and build muscle easily. He was more of an ectomorph. He was slender and had less body fat and muscle. But he found a workout regimen that worked for him and he stuck to it.

"Good, good. That's a pretty healthy weight for someone who's… Are you 6'2"?" Ford asked.
"Yeah, about." Dipper said.

"Yes, so you might weigh between 204 and 213 now. It'll take some time to get used to. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. You'll be a little stiff because of your newly denser bones. But things will even out. And yes, I have already tested the liquid on primates who we wanted to see if they would respond well to the newly denser bones.

"Physically, they responded fine. Unfortunately, socially they didn't respond as well. They tended to have more trouble climbing trees, swinging from branches and whatnot. But my experiments were no less unethical than what I did for Reagan's masters, if you remember that mind control tie." Ford said.

"Anyway, let's get a look at you. Wow! You're already fully healed externally. Computer, run diagnostic on subject Dipper Pines. Diagnostic Code 44-B/25892.87BH-F." Ford said.

"Confirmed. Diagnostic on subject Dipper Pines, Diagnostic Code 44-B/25892.87BH-F."

The computer spoke this in a slightly mechanical but feminine voice.

"Subject Dipper Pines bodily efficiency increased 300%, physical potential increased 220%, healing potential increased 200%. Internal stability fully realized in five minutes. Recommended course of action, remain in a reclining position until full internal stability is realized." The computer said.

"Thank you." Ford said, doing some clean up and labeling each of Dipper's organs, including putting down the blood type on each and adding any uncommon alleles that the blood had.

"Dipper, you don't mind if I donate your organs to science, do you? I doubt they would make for good donations to be implanted. You know, the immortality and regeneration and all that. It could cause some trouble. But I would like to see them studied." Ford said, though he wondered how safe that would be. He didn't want scientists to get curious about why Dipper's organs kept regenerating and track him down and possibly turn him into a laboratory specimen. That would be hell in terms of a life for his own great nephew. Dipper seemed to have the same thoughts.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. Even if we don't transplant the organs, anyone who received my organs might start developing similar abilities to mine. Even if the abilities don't fully manifest, it could still cause problems, especially if the regeneration causes extended lifespans. Imagine a man who looks like he's in his 30s, but is really in his 70s. His wife has died, his friends are all getting old and retiring and he's still in his physical prime.

"He heals faster from any wounds he gets and seems to never get sick or tired. Who knows the extent of our abilities? Right now all we know is that we heal fast and that the healing seems to get faster still, at least up to a point." Dipper said. Ford nodded. He was glad to hear Dipper say that, actually.
"Well, we'll keep the organs in the lab and study them ourselves. Maybe we can figure some things out about your new abilities by studying and dissecting the organs." Ford said.

"It's an unprecedented opportunity, really." Ford said. Dipper nodded.

-0-

The rest of the day went on and Ford and Dipper worked together to implant identical bionics in Wendy, Pacifica, Mabel Stan and in the end, Ford as well. Dipper was terrified as he was working on Ford. But the computer aided him and even steadied his hands when necessary, telling him step by step exactly what he needed to do. It wasn't ideal, but Ford assured Dipper that there was nobody that he'd rather have working on him than him.

Finally, they were all finished and went upstairs to rest and snack together.

"Okay, so you said something about not needing to eat as much, right?" Pacifica asked, still looking under her shirt, making sure that she was right about there being no scars. There were none. The scars had healed better than perfectly. In fact, any scars that may have been there were now so faint as to not even be noticeable except perhaps under a magnifying glass, and even then it would take a trained eye.

"Paz, you look perfect. You look hot even." Mabel said, winking at the blonde.

Pacifica blushed heavily.
"Okay, one. Don't call me Paz. Two, don't call me hot. Three, don't flirt with me. I'm straight." Pacifica said, though they could all tell that even assuming that Pacifica was in fact straight, that she was flattered by Mabel's flirting. Mabel wasn't really that interested in Pacifica. Not romantically anyway. But it was fun to get Pacifica's goat as it were.

"Can I tell my parents about my bionics?" Pacifica asked.

"I would prefer if you didn't. Surely, they'll find out about them eventually and with their wealth, even diminished as it is, they'll have access to a full set. But I don't want to make it easy for them and I don't want them to get them before anyone else, whether by hook or by crook. I wouldn't put it past them to steal the secrets of bionics from our Grunkle Ford." Dipper said. Ford shrugged. He didn't know the Northwests very well himself, except what he'd heard of them. But he trusted Dipper's assessments on the matter.

Little did they know that the Northwests had already gotten a much bigger secret than simple bionics. The mercenaries were speaking to Preston that very moment about what they had discovered.

"So, you're telling me that… In addition to making the bathers… Heal faster… The steam from the water also causes sexual arousal and apparent drunken behavior." Preston said. He was finding this interesting, but it didn't quite rise to the level of paying ten million dollars for the information.

"Yes, Mr. Northwest."
"And how do you know that it was the hot spring that caused their healing to increase? Are there other plants within that area? Did you test their healing abilities to make sure that they all are enhanced? Surely you have guns and knives with you." Preston said.

"Sir, all due respect, you're paying us a lot of money. But may I speak freely?" Allan asked.

"Yes, of course." Preston said.

"This seems like a very silly mission. Fast healing? Some people simply heal faster than others do. And this… Red headed girl… Might just be one such person. And I'm not inclined to shoot a 20 something child just to test whether some hot spring they bathed in causes them to heal faster." Allan said. Preston chuckled, sitting down.

"Please, sit. Blake, bring us some tea." Preston said. A young woman curtsied and went to the kitchen.

"Allan… I understand your hesitance to harm literal children.

"If it turns out that my theory is wrong, I will of course pay their medical expenses in full. We wouldn't want it getting out that we let young adults be killed. You don't have to shoot them anywhere vital. You don't even have to sink the bullet. Graze them for all I care. But figure out a way to test the veracity of the source of their healing or if they even all have faster healing than normal." Preston said. Allan grimaced.

"No, sir. I got you the information that I was asked to bring you. I could demand the money from you, sue you if you didn't give it to me. But really, what would that solve? You'd beat anything I brought.

"So please, pay me what you promised me and let me and my soldiers go home." Allan demanded. Preston stared calculatingly at Allan.

"Hmmm… Very well." Preston said, surprising Allan with his sudden change of heart. Preston took out a checkbook and wrote out a check for ten million dollars.

"Here you go. Signed and everything. Have a good day." Preston said. Allan cautiously took the check and put it in his pocket, taking his soldiers and leaving with them.

"Bring in Marty and Drew." Preston said as soon as Allan and his men had left. Marty and Drew had far fewer scruples and were much more likely to be willing to run a test that might have fatal results. They'd changed their names, faked their deaths and went underground no fewer than five times in their careers because of deaths they'd caused or laws they'd broken. Needless to say, testing how fast children healed from bullet wounds or whatever wouldn't be something they'd hesitate to do.