enlarged." And she told Sunny about their conversation in the bar four days before.
Sunny couldn't believe it; it just couldn't be true. "No, Eile would never do anything like that!"
"She not only did, she felt compelled to."
"Compelled? How? Why?"
Medb gave her a stern look. "Because she had become convinced you did not find her as attractive as women with large bosoms."
"What?!"
"You did not treat her the way she would have expected you to, considering how you react when you see such women. She believed that if she had larger breasts, you would show her greater appreciation, more excitement."
Sunny actually felt mad, which surprised her a bit. "That's ridiculous! I love her just the way she is! I wouldn't want her to change a thing!"
"Apparently, she does not know that."
That shocked her. "She–she...doesn't? But I show her a lot of affection. Well,...she knows how I feel about her! Or...she should."
"Perhaps she should, but it would appear she does not."
And that hurt more than if Eile had screamed she hated her. "But I don't understand!" she wailed. "How could Eile not know?!"
"That is not important right now --"
"Not important!? I love Eile more than life itself! You tell me she doesn't see that, and you say it's not important --?!"
"Sunny!" Medb roared at her, her face darkening, as thunder clapped. Scared out of her wits, Sunny jumped back, her heart leaping into her throat, but all other thoughts fled into hiding.
Medb calmed immediately. "We have no time for this, we must find Eile before anything happens to her."
A dark resolved filled Sunny as her mind focused on saving her partner. "Right! Where do we start?"
"The most obvious place to begin is at the surgeon's office."
"Yeah. Let's go tear that place apart!"
Medb smiled in grim amusement. "Take it easy, tiger, we need a plan."
"We can discuss it on the way," Sunny said as she grabbed her house keys. "Well, come on!" she ordered as she opened the front door. "Let's get our hineys in gear!"
Medb grinned as she went outside. "Whatever you say, White-Lion."
Eile was carried for some time before they reached whatever destination they were headed. The first leg of the journey involved a descent in an elevator, of that much she was certain, but the rest was incomprehensible. Eventually, however, she felt herself laid on a padded table. Her clothes were cut away and removed, even her underwear, and she was left naked. However, she could see bright light shining through her eyelids, and she felt the warmth of lamps on her skin. Then she was strapped down, first across her upper chest just under her arms, then across her waist, hips, upper and lower arms and legs, wrists, ankles, and neck, and last of all her forehead.
A shadow fell across her vision. "Eile, listen to me." It was Mabuse. "I'm going to give you an antidote for the immobilizer. I need to give you an examination and I don't want the drug interfering with the results. You'll be able to move and talk, but if you're uncooperative, abusive, or even aggressive, I'll put you under. I'd rather not, but if you give me no choice, I will."
Mabuse then lifted an eyelid, and Eile stared into her face. "Signal your understanding by rolling your eyeball up."
Eile did so, and Mabuse smiled and nodded. She closed the eyelid, and shortly thereafter Eile felt something press against her thigh. She heard a hiss, felt a sting followed by a mild burn, and in moments she found she had control over body again.
She snapped her eyes open and looked around. She found herself in what looked like an exam room in a doctor's office, but with no window. She couldn't move her head, but with her peripheral vision she could see cabinets, a sink and wash station, and various instruments along the walls. Above her were a couple of parabolic mirrors, each with a lamp at the focal point. The lamps shined their light into the mirror, which reflected it back down onto the table Eile lay on. She tested the straps and found she was tightly secured. She doubted she could have broken free, but she couldn't get any leverage against them in any event.
Mabuse appeared on her left side, and she glared at the mad scientist as she tilted the head of the table up a couple of dozen degrees.
"What're you up to?" she asked.
"You are privileged to be part of a research project that has the potential of saving the lives of countless millions," Mabuse replied, as she slipped a plastic cup over the probe of a hand-held instrument and ran it over her forehead.
That took Eile by surprise. She and Sunny had encountered Mabuse six times over the past year. Granted, on two of those occasions she had helped them, the first time to cure Eile of vampirism and the second to cure Sunny of lycanthrope. However, the other times she had involved them in one of her research projects, and none seemed particularly beneficial. They first met her when she tortured Snowshoe Kitty in an attempt to get her to reveal that she was a self-aware being. Later she used a device to rewrite Eile's Schrödinger wave function to replace her vagina with a penis. After that, she shrank her, Sunny, and Medb down to the size of Barbie dolls, and the last time she tried to substitute Eile with a clone. It hadn't occurred to her that Mabuse could have a humanitarian streak; in fact, it seemed downright laughable.
"What are you talking about?"
Mabuse raised the table to sixty degrees, then took an ophthalmoscope and examined Eile's eyes. "I've discovered a source for an incredibly wide variety of biopharmaceuticals and protein therapeutics that have the potential for treating or curing a whole host of human ailments, anything from Aagenaes syndrome to zygomycosis." She replaced the ophthalmoscope with an otoscope and examined Eile's ears. "As well, some of them have properties that offer possible uses as tissue regenerators, broad-spectrum antibiotics, cancer-specific therapeutics, and more." She moved to Eile's nostrils. "If I can isolate and characterize these agents, and clone their genes into a suitable eukaryotic vector, they could revolutionize medicine. Say 'ah'."
Eile opened her mouth to let Mabuse examine her throat, and she wiped the inside of Eile's cheeks with a brush.
"Yer gonna test these drugs on me?" Eile asked as Mabuse lowered the table to horizontal.
"Heavens, no, I'm nowhere near that stage," she said as she probed Eile's neck with her fingers, "and besides, I would need to conduct suitable double-blind studies to determine their efficacy." She fingered Eile's breasts, looking for lumps. Her touch wasn't erotic, but Eile still found it uncomfortable. "No, I need you to cultivate more of the source." She moved down to her abdomen. "I used up the last one a week ago. Also, I'm having trouble creating a sufficiently pure source. I figure with your increased strength and constitution, you should be able to tolerate the incubation process better." She applied lubricant to her right gloved hand and stuck her fingers into Eile's vagina.
"AHH!!" she cried, but more from surprise than pain.
"Interesting, you have an intact hymen."
"What? No, not possible, I had sex once, back in undergraduate school." Then she cringed mentally. Why was she telling her that?
"It is possible to have sex without breaking the hymen," Mabuse explained as she wiped a swab around inside. "However, it most likely was restored with your vagina last year. Which shouldn't have happened. I'll have to recheck the decompiler's recorder." She stripped off her right glove and slipped on a new one, and then tilted the table again, this time raising the foot sixty degrees. That left Eile lying head-down, and she felt the blood rush to her brain. She also felt part of the padding drop away under her butt.
"This will feel somewhat uncomfortable, but it shouldn't hurt. Try to relax."
Horrified, Eile blurted out, "Yer not gonna -- AHH" she screeched as Mabuse inserted a probe into her anus.
"I said relax! You're only making it worse by resisting."
Eile squeezed her eyes shut to staunch the tears. She'd be damned if she'd give Mabuse the satisfaction of seeing her cry. "Just get it over with!" she yelled as she willed herself to loo
sen up.
"That's better. Just take it easy, this won't take long."
Eile gritted her teeth as she felt Mabuse move the probe around inside her. It actually didn't hurt, not quite, but she hated the feel of it.
"There," Mabuse said as she withdrew it, "that's done." Eile felt her wipe lubricant off her butt, then close whatever hatch in the underside of the table she had previously opened.
Eile felt the table tilt back to horizontal. Glowering at Mabuse, she growled, "Why are you doing this?"
Mabuse began to attach sensor pads to various places on Eile's body, from forehead to ankles, including her outer labia. "I need to make certain you can tolerate the incubation period fairly well."
Eile felt he skin crawl as her gut turned to ice. She remembered the other hints the mad scientist had dropped earlier. She didn't like the sound of any of them. "What's that suppose ta mean?"
Mabuse went around the room turning on various devices and instruments. "The source of the drugs is a biological organism that requires a human host to grow to maturity. I refer to that as the incubation period."
Eile wasn't sure she heard right at first, then a jolt ran through her nerves when she realized Mabuse wasn't kidding. "What are you saying?!"
Mabuse came back to the table and looked down at her. "That the organism will need to be implanted inside your body."
Eile exploded. "Holy shit!" Panicked, she fought against the restraints, trying to get loose. "Yer not stickin' anything in me!" she