While Mobius and Durandal spoke, Klein had already given Big Orange an anesthetic. The old tabby was near death, and now it lay unconscious, secured to the operating table.
With Durandal's approval, Mobius had regained her usual calm. She stepped up to the table and began shaving the fur from Big Orange's ear.
This would let her see the veins, though she also had to rub the skin to warm it and make them swell. That'd help her inject the prepared stigma serum.
Once she'd finished the prep work, Mobius held the syringe almost parallel to the cat's ear. She eased the needle into the vein beneath the skin, then slowly pushed the serum into Big Orange's body.
The whole process took just ten minutes, but sweat beaded on Mobius's brow as though the central air wasn't even on. Klein had already wiped it away several times. Durandal stood by, poised to step in if anything went wrong, but the procedure went smoothly, without a hint of trouble.
As soon as Mobius finished the injection, she hooked Big Orange up to several nutrient drips. They'd provide the fuel its body needed to evolve under the stigma's effects. All they had to do now was wait for the change to finish and for it to wake up.
Though nothing had gone wrong, Mobius felt so drained once she'd finished that she almost sank onto the operating room floor. Klein spotted the signs and slipped a stool beneath her just in time, saving her from that loss of composure.
"Dr. Mobius, you've put yourself under too much strain over this operation."
Durandal couldn't help saying it when she saw how spent Mobius looked. The doctor barely seemed to have the strength to sit up.
"Well, this is the first time I've used the finished stigma technology on anything other than mice, rats, rabbits, or monkeys. Besides, this counts as its first real use, not just another test. This operation matters, so of course I had to give it my full attention. It won't be like this next time."
Mobius's voice was weak from fatigue, but her tone and words still held a fierce drive. She even sounded eager to start the next operation.
"We still don't have enough Honkai Beast gene samples to extract and use in stigmata," Durandal said.
"Humanity's only been through three Honkai Eruptions, after all, and most of our samples came from the third. We've traded with Fire Moth for samples from the first two, but I doubt they've handed over everything they have.
"So there's no rush to push ahead with stigma implants for Schicksal's members, especially those whose genetic compatibility is still low. We can consider scheduling operations soon for anyone with a match above 90%, though."
A stigma implant wasn't set in stone after the first operation, but any later upgrades would take a great deal of work. That was why Durandal had drawn the line there.
Anyone with a match above 90% was close enough to the best possible fit that they likely wouldn't need an upgrade, so they could undergo the procedure and gain strength now. Everyone else could wait.
As the expert here, Mobius knew all this far better than Durandal, whose grasp of the field was patchy at best. Yet her answer wasn't what Durandal had hoped to hear.
"I've already chosen the next patient."
Durandal frowned. She'd just told Mobius to slow down, and now the doctor was saying she'd picked the next person already. Had any of that advice sunk in?
"This person's a 95% match for a stigma we can make right now. A larger gene bank might give us a better match later, but a gap of around 5% is small enough to ignore. What do you think, Boss?"
"Who is it?"
What else could Durandal say? With a 95% match, she could hardly stand in the way. Still, she wanted to know who'd been so lucky.
Could it be Kevyn? The first Honkai Beast she'd originally fused with was Parvati, a fairly common kind. If they used a stigma instead, one made from the key segments of Parvati's genes should be a strong match for her.
But if it really was Kevyn, Durandal wouldn't approve the operation. A 5% gap might mean little for most people, but for someone with Kevyn's vast potential, that gap alone could span heights others would never reach in a lifetime.
As far as Durandal was concerned, Kevyn shouldn't have the procedure until they found a match above 99%.
"You're looking right at her."
Far from confirming Durandal's guess, Mobius pointed at her own nose. At last, understanding dawned on Durandal's face.
"So you're going to use it on yourself for the second operation? But you can't operate on yourself once you're under. Will Klein do it?"
Mobius shook her head. "Klein's more than capable of performing the procedure, but she couldn't handle doing it on me. The stress would raise the risk of failure, and I don't want to put her through that. I plan to have Mei perform the operation that transforms me."
"Mei? Yes, she'd be a good choice."
Durandal nodded, giving the plan her verbal approval. Still, her mind lingered on Kevyn and Parvati, so she asked, "How well does Kevyn match the samples in our current gene bank?"
She'd expected a fairly high number. Instead, Mobius gave her one so low that it caught her off guard.
"Right now, Kevyn's best match in the gene bank is below 30%."
Mobius had a good idea why Durandal paid so much attention to Kevyn. By now, anyone with eyes could see which people held great promise, and Kevyn stood out even among them.
When she'd run the genetic matching tests, Mobius had given those rising stars priority. Yet the results had shocked her just as much as they'd now shocked Durandal.
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T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL