Snow fell softly over Boston Memorial's rooftop helipad, blanketing the hospital in eerie stillness.
Inside OR-3, Katherine lay beneath a web of wires and chilled saline drips. Her chest was open, rib cage retracted, the polymer heart prototype cradled in a sterile basin beside her.
Zahra Patel's voice cut through the comms headset. “Vitals dropping. Systolic 82. She's bleeding slower than expected—vascular resistance is high."
Aiden, scrubbed and steady, adjusted the catheter line. “Switch to micro-pulse pacing. She's fibrillating."
“Beginning rhythm stimulation… now," Zahra said.
The synthetic heart fluttered.
Then flatlined.
Aiden didn't blink. “Override rhythm software. Manually pace using auxiliary node sensors."
A tech gasped. “That's never been done in-vivo."
“Then start no
