Stories from the Future-Part 1
Rain battered the windows. A framework of stem cells rested itself on a carbon fiber table set in the center of the lab. Vials of red, blue, green, and yellow hung from above. Others were colorless. The effects of each substance were contained by each specially designed translucent container. These were only for special circumstances. Perhaps a malignant tumor obstructing typical cell growth needed to be chemically purged with a cytotoxic T lymphocyte serum. Perhaps the stem cell framework was not likely to be viable for organ completion and had to be eliminated with a hydrofluoric dilution solution. No matter the vial, it would only be used in unlikely circumstances.
The only substances to be used frequently were glucose and oxygen. “Every stem cell framework is to be placed under a glucose containment panel” Julius always used to say. “And don’t forget to fill the framework with oxygen every day. You don’t want them to suffocate do you?” There was no longer a need to manually fill the framework with oxygen. Everyone knew the gas exchange sensors could recognize when oxygen was low and immediately alert the S.E.N.T.I.N.E.L system to establish equilibrium through the carbon fiber filters surrounding the framework. In the olden days, oxygen used to be stored in high pressure cylinders. Now, it was unimaginable to contain such highly reactive gas in primitive vessels. What would scientists do without oxygen converters and recyclers? Perhaps in the olden days labs simply burst into flames on the daily. Society could not handle such an imperfection anymore. Millions of people depended on frameworks, and if just one was destroyed, hundreds of the organ deficient would have to be transferred to the exchange facility. Julius would be taken to the high council of medicine, and the ORI would be defunded again.
Watson analyzed the framework to make sure it was on track to synthesize all 300 organ samples and distribute their cell data to the integration facility. The framework system had been invented by Xia Wei about a hundred years ago. It allowed for the formation of organ samples that matched the exact DNA samples of patients. The framework made it almost impossible for patients’ bodies to reject transplanted organs and allowed for patients to receive transplants immediately upon doctors‘ orders. As Watson evaluated the last few samples, a door knock rang through the lab.
