The room had the ever present scent of ozone and acid that made most people turn up their noses and retreat upon entering. However, for Giulia she found them to be welcoming and calming odors. In fact, as she spent more and more time in that room, she found it increasingly difficult to concentrate without those smells.

The room itself was rather large, with storage shelves, gas canisters, and larger pieces of equipment stored along the walls whereas the center of the room was packed with tables, running in long rows with barely enough room between them for Giulia to walk through. 3d printers, CNC machines, laser cutters, and so forth made up the bulk of her equipment. Many of the tables were similarly functional for making, shaping, and assembling various components but it was the center row of tables that held the real focus of all her work. Large tanks covered the majority of those tables, filled with preserving fluids. Tubes and wires ran into and out of them, though the fluids were too opaque to discern exactly what they were connecting to. Only vague, shadowy forms could be seen within. Several of the tanks bubbled steadily and all of them had a dense, green, mist that hovered over their surfaces that the high walls of the tanks kept contained from spilling over.

Giulia loved working in the room. The sheer thrill of creation was omnipresent and everything she did in there brought her one step nearer to…well, to everything she wanted.

As she entered the room that morning, she made her rounds to the various tanks, inspecting them and checking the displays on the little monitors she’d set up beside each one. The numbers and graphs would have been meaningless to anyone else, but Giulia knew what they all meant and she brightened with each successive reading, making notes in her ledger as she went. Next she checked on the most recent batch of 3d prints. Most were made from plastic or metal, though a few others were distinctly more organic in texture and remained suspended in the artificial amniotic fluid she used to maintain them until she could get them into a proper tank. She was just about to put on her gloves and really get to work when the door opened and her patron, the one who supplied her with all of this equipment and materials, walked in.

Marisol Palacios was the only other person besides Giulia who didn’t seem bothered by the smell of the room. She looked around appreciably at the progress Giulia had made since her last visit and she gave a satisfied smile.

Giulia felt a slight thrill. Marisol was not a woman of many words, and rarely did she speak praise, but her expressions communicated everything and such a look from her was high praise indeed.

“Things are progressing well, I see,” Marisol commented as she strode among the tanks, running her finger tips along their glass surfaces.

“Yes,” Giulia agreed, “very well!”

“I didn’t see any materials requests from you last week,” Marisol said with a hint of concern. “Do you have everything you need for now or was that an oversight?”

“No, I’m well stocked for now,” Giulia assured her. “It’s been a full month since a graft failed and all current specimens are growing exceptionally well.”

“If nothing’s failed,” Marisol observed, “then why have you printed a new graft?”

Giulia looked to the organics printer and her excitement only increased. She’d been hoping Marisol would come by today, if only so she could show this new advancement off to her.

“This is something new,” Giulia told her eagerly and Marisol raised an eyebrow.

“New?” Marisol asked. “In what way?”

Giulia finished pulling on her gloves, stretching them nearly to her shoulders, and then hurried over to one of the larger tanks and, using a step ladder to get high enough so that she could reach down and into the tank. She felt around in the murky liquid for a moment and then carefully lifted its contents out.

The head and shoulders of a man came into view with the tubes and wires running all throughout. Below the shoulders were a number of odd mechanical components that melded smoothly into the skin, though the area around where they joined was clearly aggravated. Marisol’s expression intensified as she looked upon the thing and she stepped even closer

“Even though we’ve gotten them to accept the grafts,” Giulia explained, “there’s still too much cellular degradation around the graft itself. Over time, outside of their tanks, the grafts would be too weak and prone to infection.”

“So this new organic deals with that in some way?” Marisol asked.

“Precisely,” Giulia replied. “You see, the issue is that the organic material is it’s too soft when placed up against the hard metallics for extended periods of time, the soft tissue tends to bruise and weaken over time. This new organic, however, will change all of that.”

“By toughening the organic tissues?”

“No, by healing them as fast as they are being injured.”

Marisol waited a moment and Giulia let the anticipation hang in the air.

“Go on,” Marisol said and it was all Giulia could do not to clap her hands out of excitement at hearing those words.

“The organics already have the capability to heal themselves much in the same manner as you and I,” Giulia began, “That healing process is primarily achieved through cellular division as new cells divide and take the place of damaged or dead cells, while the cardiovascular system helps flush out the dead or damaged cells. People in the past have theorized about using lizard or salamander DNA to enhance healing and regeneration, but the human genome already has the building blocks necessary for all of that and this new organ unlocks that potential. You see, this new organic produces stem cells, and it’s been designed to interface directly with the nervous system so that as soon as an injury is detected, it can administer the stem cells along with the appropriate RNA so that it’s taken and used precisely where it needs to be used.”

Marisol stood for some time as she took in what all Giulia had just said, and to Giulia’s immense satisfaction, Marisol looked impressed.

“Are you installing it today?” Marisol asked at last.

“Yes,” Giulia replied. “Would you like to observe?”

Marisol shook her head. She never stayed to watch but Giulia hoped that one day she would accept.

“I look forward to your success,” Marisol stated, turned, and began walking towards the door.

“Are you going to go check on Shanice now?” Giulia asked and she heard the jealousy in her own voice.

Marisol turned back to Giulia and nodded again.

“And how’s she doing with her project?” Giulia asked, unable to stop herself.

“She’s doing well,” Marisol stated simply and then left the room before Giulia could ask more questions.

As a rule, Marisol didn’t really discuss the other projects with Giulia, just as she didn’t discuss Giulia’s project with any of the others. Still, as time had worn on, and more and more of the projects got cut due to lack of progress, Giulia was growing somewhat concerned. As far as she could tell, only Shanice and herself remained. Did Marisol give Shanice the same complimentary looks? What if Shanice’s project proved more valuable? What would she do if, one day, Marisol came in not to check on her progress, but to inform her that she was being let go?

Giulia lowered the specimen back down into the tank and climbed back down from the ladder. It was best not to dwell on such things and just focus on her work, but still those thoughts festered in the back of her mind. She moved back to the organics printer and began the draining process so she could remove the newly printed organ. In appearance it was very similar to a stomach, with its gentle pinks, reds, and whites. The bulbous form was currently deflated since it hadn’t produced many stem cells as of yet, but once she had it fully integrated she hoped to see it plump out after a few days.

Back at the table with the specimen tanks, she laid out the new organic onto the sterile work surface and began connecting the requisite electrodes and artificial cardiovascular systems that it would need in order to function. It was a long and complicated process, but one that she was becoming fairly expert at these days. She’d long ago learned how to print the organics so their connection points bore the appropriate markings so she didn’t have to guess where the nerve endings and such were. In many ways it was a lot like when she was younger assembling toy models. Each piece was carefully labeled and had its place and all she had to do was patiently attach everything.

She smiled to herself as she worked, relishing the growing frequency with which the new organic began to twitch and shift beneath her hands as it began to truly come alive. After a few hours she was able to set it aside in a smaller tank while she pulled the head and shoulders from before out of its tank and laid it out onto the work surface.

There were sores here and there on the skin but nothing too serious. The expression on the face was neutral, as usual. There was no neural activity. Giulia set to work preparing the section where she intended to graft in the new organic, just below the base of the skull so it would have immediate access to the spinal column. She began the slow and methodical work of opening up the area, cutting and pulling back the skin. From there she began to insert and attach the tubes and wires that would provide the interface between the new organic and the existing one. Over time they would grow together more naturally and she would be able to remove those temporary aids.

While she worked, Giulia wondered to herself why Marisol rarely asked questions. She was spending a fortune on this research, and yet beyond her occasional visits, she just let her work. Giulia had offered to meet more regularly with Marisol, to give her a more in depth breakdown of her work, but she had always refused. Sure, all of Giulia’s notes were made available to Marisol so Giulia presumed that Marisol was at least reviewing those, but even still it was an odd arrangement.

It took the greater part of the day, but at last Giulia had the new organic connected to the specimen. All of her preliminary tests looked good and so now it was just a matter of waiting to see if the specimen would accept it, not to mention see if the new organic functioned as intended.

The rest of the day was spent going through her usual upkeep and the other specimens, adding more organic material that they would use as a sort of food, as well as cleaning out the waste they excreted. It was a bit tedious but digestive systems were complicated to say the least and she had yet to produce an organic system to handle such things. For now, she let the mechanical systems take their place in providing nutrition and filtering out the waste.

By the end of the day she was tired and her feet and back ached but she felt good about what she had accomplished. Tomorrow would show her whether her efforts on this new organic had been worth it or not, and with any luck, Marisol would be there to witness her tremendous success.