There was a lot of additional preparation to be done, setting up and calibrating the equipment, talking and consulting with the doctors who had provided care thus far and finally, preparing Mrs. Acharya for the procedure. Working with her doctors was an interesting experience, once Mrs. Acharya had given her consent to share the medical data. Normally, there would be some expectation of professional arrogance, the attitude that they, as the premier physicians of an entire nation, would have the ability to provide the best care, no matter what some masked individual claims. They had their justified pride, and took pride in explaining their previous efforts and why their efforts had been fruitless, trying their best to understand what I could provide. It was somewhat difficult for me, the people working with me earnestly tried their best to glean insight into my abilities, while I consistently and consequently stone-walled them on the details, simply because I did not share my abilities, unless I absolutely had to.

All in all, the preparation took three days and on that fourth day, after we had landed in India, I was ready to begin my work. Mrs. Acharya had been placed in an artificial coma beforehand, to make sure that she did not move around during the procedure, thus potentially messing up the imaging, a nurse and a doctor were on stand-by to provide whatever help necessary and I was ready to begin.

Closing my eyes, I placed my replaced hand above her neck, using a few strategically placed and prepared lamps to create a soft, silvery glow shining down from my hand. It was pure showmanship, something I did to conceal the thin mist of nanites that floated down invisible to the naked eye, before the swarm slowly seeped through her skin and into her carotid artery. From there, they would be carried with the blood into her brain, before moving to the affected tissue.

Just that process took me an hour, providing enough nanites to assure success and after that hour, I sat down next to her bed, taking her hand in an effort of continued showmanship, while my mind fully synced up with Galatea, my body merely an empty shell that provided energy to my brain. In many ways, we turned into a bio-electric dual-core processor, my brain acting as one processor, the countless nanite-clusters spread over my body providing another processor. If we needed more processing power, we had some additional clusters within the equipment and if the need was truly dire, we had an encrypted connection to Accord Island, though I would loath to use that. I trusted that the encryption Galatea and I used was impossible to crack, but I was also aware that there might be Powered who could break the rules I was operating under and, in turn, my encryption. Not that I anticipated the need for additional power, but Galatea and I had planned for eventualities.

Under our careful watch, the nanites slowly attacked the tumor, carving it apart cell by cell, before moving it through the body, making sure that nothing got stuck or reduced the overall blood-flow. It was a tedious task, the way from the brain, through the bloodstream and her kidneys until Galatea and I could finally deposit the dead tissue in her bladder, for later emission.

It was impressive just how long it took, the tumor was small when viewed on a macroscopic-scale, but when working on a microscopic level, even a single cubic-centimeter contained a thousand cubic millimeters. And the cells I was working with were far smaller than that.

After a good twenty-four hours of constant work, we had managed to get rid of the initial tumor and it was time for the second process, hunting for metastasis. The doctors had discovered that her cancer had spread to the liver, apparently something uncommon for brain-tumors, but had also formed colonies in her brain-stem and further down her spine. Those growths were even smaller than the primary cancer, but that only meant I had to carefully hunt for them, meticulously checking every minute part of her body to make sure I did not miss any, to kill her at a later date. Certainly, with the removal of the primary tumor, her life-expectancy had increased, maybe by an order of magnitude, but the metastasis in her brain-stem and spine would kill her within a couple of years and I doubted normal treatment would be easy or pleasant. No need to half-kill the patient with chemo-therapy if I could simply continue what I had been doing and get rid of it all in one fell swoop.

Minutes stretched into hours as I continued my hunt through her body, finding tiny problems here and there, fixing most of them in the process. Simply living for decades slowly damaged the body and if it was no great matter to provide a fix, I could easily do so, especially as I had to make sure there were no more growths anyway.

Finally, after three days of constant, mental work, there was no cubic-centimeter of her body that had not been scanned, nothing that could have been hidden from Galatea and me. We were done, and from the signals my body was sending me, that was a good thing. It also revealed a glaring, idiotic flaw in our preparations, namely to maintain my own body, just like we had made plans for Mrs. Acharya’s body.

My body was dangerously dehydrated, physical exhaustion pushing its limits while the mental strain was somewhat held at bay thanks to my connection with Galatea. It was quite possible that my Power had played a role in things as well, as my trances had been similar to the state I had drifted into while working on Mrs Acharya’s body and I had survived those, too.

Retreating from the mental space Galatea and I shared, the connection between body and mind returned and what had previously been simple data turned into sensation, as thirst, hunger and pain assaulted me, all at the same time.

“It is done.” I announced, my voice only audible due to the fact that it was electronically produced. If I still had vocal cords, I would have sounded like a cantankerous bird. The two medical professionals that had been on stand-by immediately jumped into action, while I continued speaking.

“Anath, I will need water, a bit of food and a place to rest.” I added, not even trying to stand, while slowly trying to move my body, one muscle at a time. Another advantage of having Galatea control my spinal cord was that the pain-signals could be dampened, allowing only a part of the sensation while she took over the warning-function that pain normally served. We had decided to leave some of the sensation in an effort to keep my mind linked to my human body, so I would not drift into the electronic dimension that Galatea was existing in. Together, we had decided that I should remain human, with her as my link into that mode of existence.

“Mrs. Acharya will need to be woken up, will need water and some care. While I am certain the cancer is gone, I would ask you to verify my work.” I advised the care-takers, getting nods in response. I could also see some hope on their faces, something that might be in short supply in the terminal cancer ward.

As I was trying to slowly waken and loosen up my muscles, Nisha entered the room, quickly moving to her mother.

“She is still sleeping.” I quietly told her as I decided to try standing up. For a moment, my legs held me up before the muscles spasmed for a moment and I started tumbling sidewards. Luckily, Anath was right next to me, catching me before I could hit the ground. Nisha let out a soft gasp, moving over to help.

“I’ve got you.” she quietly whispered, pulling me a little tighter.

“Thank you.” I replied, letting her pull me to a nearby couch where I could rest. “Please, take care of the equipment. I’ll have to rest.” I added, before taking the bottle of water she handed me and started drinking, despite having to remove my mask with people in the room. My body simply needed the water, before I would pass out from exhaustion.

Watching the hustle in the room, a smile appeared on my face, right before I leaned back, falling into unconsciousness, my mind and body both shutting down.