Hercules's augmentation surgery officially began.
The laboratory lights had been deliberately dimmed, leaving only a few precisely directed beams of cold white light focused on Hercules inside the cultivation chamber.
He floated spread-eagled in the deep blue life-support fluid, his powerful muscles sharply defined by the liquid's refraction. He looked like a heroic sculpture from antiquity, awaiting its final finishing touch.
Like a composed conductor, the Legion Apothecary stood before the main console, his fingers gliding rapidly across the faintly glowing interface. His gaze was sharp as a hawk's as he monitored Hercules's slightest vital signs on the high-resolution display.
Several slender mechanical arms made of metal and ceramic moved and positioned themselves silently inside the chamber like living metal tentacles, the surgical instruments at their tips gleaming coldly.
The lead mechanical arm carried an incredibly sharp miniature vibrating scalpel, its cutting edge visible only under a high-powered microscope.
It first hovered over the left side of Hercules's chest, roughly two finger-widths above his heart.
The life-support fluid seemed to ripple slightly, accommodating the instrument's intrusion.
"Beginning implantation of the thoracic gene-seed," the Apothecary announced over the internal communications system.
With micron-level precision, the vibrating scalpel gently sliced through the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and pectoral fascia.
The incision was tiny, resembling a thin red line.
The highly effective clotting agents in the life-support fluid took effect immediately. Combined with the scalpel's high-frequency vibrations, which instantly sealed the tiny blood vessels, they prevented blood from gushing out and provided a clear, bloodless surgical field for the mechanical arm's next operation.
Almost the instant the incision was complete, another mechanical arm was already in position.
Its tip held not a blade but a precisely engineered miniature implanter containing the pearl-sized gene-seed.
The slender probe at the front of the implanter entered the