Chapter Five
First Impressions
“You look surprised?” Ben said to Matthew. They both stood in the room next to Matthew’s lab, watching as the technicians connected up all the equipment. “I told you we would get you a suitable subject for your test, didn’t I? Were you beginning to doubt me?”
Matthew stared at the woman in the bed surrounded by all the medical equipment. “No, it’s just that I didn’t expect it to be a woman, that’s all,” he said, swallowing loudly.
“Does it make a difference?”
Matthew heard the worried tone in Ben’s voice and quickly shook his head. “No, not at all. It’s just that I didn’t expect it.”
“Does it make a difference to you?”
Matthew looked up at Ben, his expression rather obvious. But before he could say anything, Ben smiled at him. “Look, Matthew,” he said putting his arm around his shoulders. “I know what you’re thinking, but don’t go soft on me. Planning all this was one thing, wasn’t it, but now that it’s for real, and now you’re suddenly faced with a real body, it’s shocked you, hasn’t it?”
Matthew nodded.
“Well, alright,” Ben went on. “So this is a dead woman, officially anyway. But don’t let that put you off. All the papers have been signed and filed with the appropriate authorities, so she’s no longer a real person. She, it, is the field trial for your research. You knew that you would have to work with a human subject sooner or later. For God’s sake, you’ve been moping around the offices waiting for one for long enough. Now we’ve finally got one, you should be excited!” He pointed to the bed and said with emotion, “This is what we’ve both been waiting for, Matthew! This is exactly what you asked for! The damage to her brain has been minimal, and she has been off the life support machines for less than thirty minutes. Everything’s ready.” Ben then shook his head sadly before adding in a more subdued tone, “But, if you’ve got cold feet. Well, all you have to do is say the word, Matthew, and we can call it all off, right now. I’ll get a pasting in the board room, and it could mean my job, but if you’re not sure....”
Matthew had started to protest before Ben had finished. “I want to go on, Ben! I do! I’m sorry, it’s just that, faced with a real person, a young woman, I—”
“Yeah, I know. You weren’t expecting it. You told me. But you were very clear on your requirements, and male or female wasn’t one of them. This was what you wanted, so this is what you got. That’s why it took us so long. Now, let’s leave these people to do their job while we go back into your lab and you can show me that implant.”
Matthew looked over his shoulder as Ben led him away, and stared one last time at the young woman in the bed, and at the way the MedTec technicians handled her so casually. It was as if they had already come to terms with her lack of humanity, and that to them, she was only a laboratory experiment. Somehow that worried and alarmed Matthew.
As the door closed behind them, and they stood alone together in the corridor, Matthew suddenly said, “I can’t do it, Ben.”
“What?” Ben looked at him in shock.
Matthew smiled. “No, I don’t mean I don’t want to go on with the field trial,” he said quickly. “I mean I can’t just think of her as an object, a thing, you know?”
Ben sighed. “You had me worried for a moment,” he said. “Let’s go inside your lab where we can talk in privacy.”
They walked the few paces to the door marked ‘Mat’s Den’ and went inside. As soon as they were inside, Matthew started to explain his feelings and his fears. “I guess I was being naive,” he began. “I was too detached. I knew I needed a human guinea pig, but I didn’t really think of the consequences until I saw her in that bed. She’s still a person, Ben. To me, she’s not dead. She’s living and breathing, and she’ll have to be fed and looked after.”
“My people will do all that, don’t worry.”
“But I do worry, Ben, because they think of her the way you do. They’re just technicians, not nurses. I saw the way they touched her and treated her. They didn’t care about her feelings, or her dignity.”
“But she’s dead!” Ben exclaimed.
“No she’s not!” Matthew insisted. “Not to me anyway. For my experiment to have any success at all, I have to believe that she’s still alive. If at any time I begin to think of her as dead, then it’s over. Do you understand?”
Ben looked at him in silence for a moment. Matthew was obviously very earnest in his fears, and the last thing Ben wanted was for anything to put him off at this most vital stage. He took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll talk to everyone. I’ll make sure that she’s treated properly.”
“Hire some proper nurses, don’t just leave it to the technicians. And does she have to be naked?”
Ben smiled wryly. “You’re right,” he said, slapping Matthew on the shoulder. “You’re absolutely right. Maybe it’s me that’s got too detached. I’ll see that a proper nurse is hired to look after her, and that the surgical team carries out the operation this afternoon using the correct medical practices. From now on she’s a patient and not just a subject for the field trial.” Ben then paused for a moment as he took a calculated risk. “Her name’s Jayne,” he said with sudden resolution. “I’ll have her complete file sent over to you so that you can learn all about her. Okay?”
“Jayne,” Matthew repeated, nodding slowly at first, and then more strongly. “Yes. Thank you, Ben. I know it might cost a bit more money, but it means a lot to me. Thank you.”
Ben smiled. “And the success of your work means a lot to me,” he said. “Come on, show me that implant that cost me so much. I’d like to see it before the surgeons put it into Jayne’s head.”
Ben saw how the use of her name relaxed Matthew, and knew immediately that he had made the right decision. As Matthew showed him the implant and slowly explained for the hundredth time how it would work, Ben hardly listened. He just smiled and nodded as if he were listening, while all the time he was hoping that it would be this easy at the end of the field trial. But now that Jayne had been established as a person, he knew that that would be impossible. If the experiment was a success, and Ben knew that it had to be, for all their sakes, then terminating the field trial was going to be very tricky indeed.