As well-known a Terat as the Hell Kraken would find it simply impossible to get into a Utopia facility, but Kraken Pharmakon was the third (or first, if you disregarded the market share attributable to ED pills) largest pharmaceutical company worldwide, just ahead of Merck and just behind Novartis, and his fellow novas had need of his medical and scientific skills so he'd found a way. A tracked MEDBOT had been parked in the conference room since before anyone had arrived. It awoke as soon as people started milling about. Gleaming stainless steel limbs bearing biopsy needles, ultrasound transducers, scalpels, and the like unfolded, performed a power-on self-test, and stowed themselves. A flexible, thin-film OLED monitor folded out of the back of the bot and unrolled, flashed once, displayed a screen of scrolling text, then shifted over to a video display of the Kraken suit in an immaculately white room. The screen was obviously intended to improve the bedside manner of the bot, but given the inexpressiveness of the Kraken suit and the array of pokey-prody objects immediately below the screen, it didn't have the desired effect.
"If the gas smelled of anything at all it certainly wasn't GB. From what you have described, the individuals responsible were not amateurs. They would not have used contaminated nerve agent. I doubt there would be any discernible odor or taste with the pure agent."
The final statement wasn't exactly true. Wilhelm thought that Sarin tasted kind of like phosphonates, but then again what didn't? He oversimplified to avoid having to explain Sarin's peculiar flavor to anyone without super-olfactory and super-gustatory senses. It was like explaining green to someone who could only see in the ultraviolet. Maybe it was like rancid olive oil?
"It seems the first step in finding a solution, an antidote, is determining the agent used. Chemicals that inhibit the functioning of the M-R node are not unknown, after all, though the persistence of this particular agent does seem peculiar. Moxinoquantamine, for instance, disrupts intranode signaling if administered in the appropriate dosage. An experience with which you are all likely familiar."
Wilhelm was relying on reports from literature in describing the effects of Mox. He'd never been in a Rashoud Facility, though Utopia agents had "encouraged" him to go with enough vigor that he'd felt the need to disappear into Central Asia for a while, and Mox had always reacted rather explosively with his personal biochemistry. He hadn't the slightest idea what the chemical's effects would be like. He didn't really want to find out either.
"A sample will have to be obtained. You have collected residual samples of the gas used, correct? If not, well, some portion of the agent must remain or else you would not be experiencing symptoms."
The MEDBOT mimicked Wilhelm's video-conferenced body language with its biopsy arm in a strangely human fashion, most likely under the control of some sort of haptic feedback system integrated into the Kraken suit. The sample source Wilhelm intended to exploit was obvious.
"A few simple tests and you should know what you're up against, if not how to deal with it."
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I've spent XP to add more Mega-Int and Medical Prodigy, which should hopefully be of some use here.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:25, Sun 30 Oct 2011.