The heavy doors of the operating room slid open without a sound, releasing a thick smell of preservatives and ionized air.
The red-robed Biologis emerged, his mechanical limbs still stained with traces of biological fluids mixed with coolant. His optical lenses flickered faintly, revealing a complex emotion: a hint of technical satisfaction mingled with regret at having fallen short of perfection.
He walked straight toward Malcador the Sigillite, who waited in the outer hall, and the Emperor, who stood silently beside him. His mechanical vocalizer produced a steady electronic voice:
"My lord, the operation is complete. There is good news on the technical front, and bad news on the biological front."
Malcador accepted the Dataslate the Biologis handed him. His withered fingers swept rapidly over the densely packed charts of biological indicators, neural network maps, and analyses of residual foreign matter.
He spent a few seconds scanning them, his aged brow tightening almost imperceptibly, then passed the Dataslate to the Emperor beside him.
The Emperor accepted it. His golden eyes swept over the cold data and images without any change in his expression.
The Biologis continued his report, his voice still steady, but every word clear and weighty:
"The bad news is that we have done everything possible to remove the vast majority of identifiable, separable physical circuitry and implanted nodes belonging to the foreign AI system within the subject's skull, without causing permanent, catastrophic damage to his cerebral nerves."
"However, approximately seven percent of the microscopic interface structures have undergone deep symbiotic fusion with his native brain tissue at the cellular and even neuronal levels."
"The degree of entanglement exceeds the safe separation threshold of current surgical techniques. Forced removal would carry a probability of over eighty-three percent of causing severe, irreversible impairment of the subject's brain function, and