Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary

Doctor Raiti’s hypothesis did not come as too much of a shock to Avery.
He had already theorized that the special organ had something to do with his internal transformation.
While he had not changed much on the outside other than becoming clearly more muscular, what was inside of him was now no longer the same.
"You didn’t notice anything strange, or wrong with me though, right?"
"No, your blood and cells may have undergone some reconstruction, but from what I can tell its all positive. Honestly, it’s a bit vexing to me. It’s as if your body is undergoing peak physical augmentation on its own. I did some of my best work on you. Yet what is going on with your body is so much more impressive."
Of course, this was only the data that she had collected from a few samples of skin, blood, and hair.
There was still a lot more to go through before they were done.
Mercedes planned to thoroughly examine each of Avery’s organs with the latest imaging technology.
"There are also your bones. I already know that they’re tougher than an average human since I did some work on them. But there’s no telling what sort of strengthening they’ve undergone since then considering what I’ve already discovered." Doctor Raiti said, pulling out a device that could take a small bone sample.
"Let’s just start with the imagining scans. I’d rather you not start taking out pierces of my body."
"Yes, you told me that when we spoke in the cpatial system. However, your regenerative prowess is far more impressive than I could have expected. I’m pretty sure I could get away with removing most of your organs and you’d still bounce back."
Doctor Raiti wore an expression that sent a shiver down Avery’s spine as she talked about removing his organs.
It almost made him want to get up and run away right that instant.
Still, he kept his calm and asserted that if she was going to be taking anything else from his body, that she had better ask for his permission first.
"Fine, I won’t remove any of your organs. As much as I would like to." Mercedes said with a downcast look on her face.
Had anyone else been observing without hearing what the conversation was about, they might have thought that she was a maiden in love who had just had her heart broken.
Naturally, Avery knew better and remained firm in his boundaries. Though, he was a bit concerned with the way Doctor Raiti had worded her response. She made it sound like she would only be leaving his organs alone, and that anything else was still on the table.
Nevertheless, Avery pushed his trepidations aside and followed her instructions.
So far, he had been wearing his clothes, but now he needed to take everything off except for his underwear.
"Just lay down here and relax. This won’t take too long; I’m just going to scan you now."
Avery lay down on the cushioned table, and a few moments later he was pulled into the advanced imagining machine.
Inside he found that the device was lit up and several wide beams of light continuously passed over him.
With nothing else to do, Avery just waited with only his thoughts to occupy him.
’How long has it been? It feels like forever.’
In all actuality, he was only inside the machine for about ten minutes. But considering that every second that went by, he worried that Doctor Raiti might have found something wrong with him, the time he sent waiting felt elongated.
Eventually, the scan was over and the table he had been laying on moved out from the inside of the machine.
"Okay, we’re done with that. I checked over your brain, heart, and lungs already, and everything looks good. Better than good actually."
Just as she had seen from Avery’s blood and cells, his organs were functioning at a higher level than they should have been.
Nothing major had changed about his organs’ functions or structures. They were simply all more optimized than before.
"Ah, there is one thing that is odd. The special organ that I implanted in you that is able to create regenerative blastema cells has grown a bit larger and changed shape. From what I can tell, it is the cause of the transformation within your body. It’s what has been creating the stronger cells and been replacing your old ones with new ones at a rapid rate. Frankly, it is turning you into something that is not quite human." Mercedes said, telling Avery her findings with an excited tone in her voice.
For him though, this caused his anxiety to shoot through the roof.
If he was becoming something that was no longer human, what did that mean for him?
"Is there anyway to stop it?"
Doctor Raiti looked surprised when Avery asked this question. As if she could not fathom why he would want to do such a thing.
"No, it’s too late for that. I could remove the organ, but the new type of cells have already propagated through your body and are replicating on their own. They’re a lot more efficient and tougher than your old ones, so it’s only a matter of time until the process is fully completed. Though, I’m not sure why you would want to stop it in the first place. Whatever you’re becoming is a lot greater than a human."
Avery slumped back upon hearing this.
It was a bit hard to accept that he was not really a human anymore. He may have looked the same still, but he was ultimately something different now.
While he sat there in silence, Doctor Raiti did some more tests and eventually shouted out loud when she figured something out.
"I found it! This must be the cause! I can’t believe that I missed it this first time."
The sudden yelling jolted Avery from his stupor.
Learning that he was already shifting into something that was not human had been a lot to take in.
"What is it that you found?" Avery asked.
"The secret to why your body is changing." Mercedes said, puffing out her modest chest proudly.
She then pulled up a holographic rendering of Avery’s DNA and highlighted several areas within it.
"These genes were all inactive when you first came to my lab for augmentations. That’s nothing unexpected. There are plenty of vestigial pieces of human biology that lay dormant in our DNA. I’m sure that you’ve heard of people that are sometimes born with tails or have hair all over their bodies."
Avery nodded along as he listened to Doctor Raiti. He was no expert on the subject, but he at least a baseline amount of knowledge on it.
"Yeah, it’s called atavism, right?"
"Yep. And that’s what’s going on here. Normally, these genes would not be able to become active, but the augmentations that you received, and especially the organ I crafted for you, allowed for them to now only become active, but dominant. I also need to tell you, that in all of my records, there are no humans, or any other species for that matter that have these genes."
This was all a lot for Avery to take in. How could he have genetic information that not even someone as renowned as Doctor Raiti knew about.
Certainly, there were trillions of people living in the Dramid Alliance and dozens of different species. Some that were also made up of many races.
But Avery was just an average colonist. Or at least, that was what he had known until very recently.
’This must have something to do with my mother. These strange powers we both have must come from these hidden genes. Both of seemed to be normal humans until they activated.’ Avery thought, trying to organize the information he had just learned.
There was one little discrepancy between the two of them though.
While they both had extraordinary abilities, his mother’s body was still otherwise that of just a regular person.
She was not immensely strong, nor did she possess superhuman recovery.
These traits were unique to Avery. And while some of them could be attributed to the initial bionic enhancements he had received from Doctor Raiti, not all of them could be.
’It must be from the different methods in how we both awakened. Mine came about because of a new organ introduced into my body, while she was essentially tortured until her body adapted.’
Avery figured that he had fully awakened the dormant genes within him, while his mother had likely only done so partially. Although, this was only a guess and not something he could say for sure without having his mother thoroughly examined as well. Something Avery had no intention of putting her through considering what had happened in her past.
"So, what are you thinking about?"
Mercedes had gone quiet in contemplation for a bit. But now that Avery had collected his own thoughts, he wanted to know where her head was at right now.
"Well, I believe that it’s likely that at some point you had an ancestor that was not human. And they’re a species that I don’t have in my database. Which I didn’t think would be possible. I was very thorough when collecting my data. I even have information on species not found in the Dramid Alliance that live beyond the far borders of the Reswen Theocracy, Zatis Consortium, and Vanmir Republic."
Doctor Raiti looked frustrated that she had not been able to find an answer to Avery’s mysterious lineage.
"I’ll just have to keep digging and studying your samples." Mercedes said before turning back to face Avery.
"To that end, there are a couple of other things that I want to collect. I promise that it’s not too invasive. Just take a seat again, and I’ll finish up swiftly."
Nodding his head, Avery did as he was asked.
Yet, the moment that he sat down, restraints popped out of the chair and held him in place.