Victor's clinic was busy. Not unusually busy. Just the normal Night City kind of busy, where the waiting room contained three people who looked exhausted, one person who looked dangerous, and at least one patient Victor was fairly certain was lying about why they were there. The television in the corner ran muted news footage. Nobody watched it. Victor looked up as the Triad entered. Then immediately narrowed his eyes. "Nobody's bleeding." "Sorry," Ace said. "Disappointing." Shammy laughed. Mai rolled her eyes. Victor pointed toward the back room. "Come on." --- A few minutes later the four of them sat around Victor's workspace. Victor leaned against a cabinet. Ace sat on the examination table. Mai occupied the only sensible chair in the room. Shammy had somehow folded her nearly two-meter frame into a space clearly designed for someone much smaller. Victor looked between them. Then back again. "Okay." He pointed. "Who's asking?" Three fingers immediately pointed in different directions. Victor sighed. "Fantastic." --- Mai cleared her throat. "We have a question." Victor nodded. "Good. That's usually why people come here." "It concerns fertility." Victor blinked once. Then twice. Then stared at them. "That's it?" The room went quiet. "Yes," Mai said. Victor looked genuinely confused. "You three walked in here looking like somebody had discovered a new plague." "It is an important question," Mai replied. "It is." Victor nodded. "But that's also the easiest thing I'm going to solve all week." --- Ace frowned. "What do you mean?" Victor pointed at his own arm. "Subdermal fertility capsule." Silence. "What?" Victor looked at her. "A fertility capsule." "That explains nothing." "It literally explains everything." --- Mai leaned forward immediately. "What exactly does it do?" Victor smiled. There was the question he expected. "It suppresses fertility." "How?" "Hormonal regulation, ovulation suppression, biometric monitoring, feedback correction." Mai nodded slowly. "Reliability?" "Ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent." "Removal procedure?" "Five minutes." "Recovery?" "A few days." "Long-term effects?" "None worth mentioning." Victor paused. "Assuming the implant isn't bought from somebody selling cyberware out of a van." --- Shammy tilted her head. "So people just... install one?" Victor stared at her. "Yes." "And that's it?" "That's it." --- The room went quiet again. Victor looked between them. Then started laughing. Not mocking. Just genuinely amused. "You thought people in Night City were still relying on luck?" Ace crossed her arms. "Maybe." Victor pointed at her. "You carry enough hardware to buy a small apartment." "Not the point." "You fight anomalies." "Still not the point." "You literally have a shadow thing that makes my diagnostic software complain." Ace looked away. Victor nodded. "Yet somehow fertility control was where you assumed technology had limits." --- Shammy was openly laughing now. Mai was trying very hard not to. Ace looked mildly offended. Victor ignored it. --- "Look." Victor opened a drawer and pulled out a small sealed package. Inside sat something barely larger than a grain of rice. The capsule was almost disappointingly ordinary. Victor held it up. "That's it." Ace stared. "That's tiny." "Because it doesn't need to be large." Victor set it back down. "One small procedure." "Under local anesthetic." "Five minutes." "Done." --- Mai looked thoughtful. "So if somebody eventually wanted children?" Victor nodded immediately. "Then I remove it." "And fertility returns?" "Normally within days." "That's all?" "That's all." --- Shammy exchanged a glance with the others. The conversation had apparently been much larger in their heads than in reality. Victor noticed. Of course he noticed. "You three spend too much time fighting monsters." "We do not," Ace said. Victor raised an eyebrow. Nobody argued further. --- A few moments later Victor folded his arms. "So." The Triad looked at him. "If you want the capsules, I can install them today." "All three?" Shammy asked. Victor shrugged. "Some people prefer everyone involved to have the same safeguards." Mai nodded immediately. "Reasonable." "Very." Victor pointed toward the examination table. "And now we're discussing this like adults instead of treating it like a world-ending mystery." --- Ace sighed. "I hate when the solution is simple." Victor grinned. "That's because you're a merc." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means if a problem can't be solved with swords, explosions, or existential horror, you become suspicious." Shammy nearly choked laughing. Mai covered her mouth. Ace glared at all of them. Victor looked entirely too pleased with himself. For once, however, nobody could actually argue with him. --- Victor was still smiling. That alone should have been a warning sign. Ace knew that look. It was the look Victor got whenever he discovered somebody had spent days worrying about a problem that modern medicine had solved years ago. "All right," Victor said, grabbing a tablet from the counter. "Since nobody taught you this apparently, let's do the full briefing." Mai immediately straightened. Ace immediately regretted asking. Shammy looked interested. Victor pointed at the tablet. --- "First rule." He tapped the screen. "The capsule is not a contraceptive." The room paused. Ace frowned. "You literally said it prevents pregnancy." "It does." "Then it's a contraceptive." "No." Victor pointed again. "It's a fertility lock." Mai's eyes narrowed. "The distinction matters." "Exactly." Victor nodded approvingly. --- He brought up a diagram. A tiny glowing marker appeared beneath the skin of a forearm. "The capsule continuously monitors hormone levels, fertility cycles, biological changes and a few dozen variables you don't care about." "How many?" Mai asked. Victor smirked. "Sixty-three." "Reasonable." Ace groaned. Victor ignored her. --- "The important part is this." He zoomed the diagram. "The capsule doesn't guess." "It doesn't rely on schedules." "It doesn't rely on memory." "It doesn't rely on somebody remembering to take medication." "It simply prevents the biological conditions required for conception." --- Shammy tilted her head. "So it can't fail because somebody forgot something." "Exactly." Victor pointed at her. "Thank you." Then he pointed at Ace. "Unlike some people." "I haven't forgotten anything." "You forgot to eat lunch three times last month." "That's different." "No, it really isn't." --- Mai was still studying the diagram. "What about combat stress?" "No effect." "Chemical exposure?" "No effect." "Cyberware interference?" "No effect." "EMP?" Victor laughed. "No." --- He set the tablet down. "Listen." "This thing was designed for Night City." That immediately explained everything. Victor continued. --- "It assumes the owner may be shot." "It assumes they may be stressed." "It assumes they may spend three days awake." "It assumes they may replace half their organs." "It assumes they may make terrible life decisions." Ace nodded. "Now it sounds like Night City." "Exactly." --- Victor leaned back. "The capsule's entire purpose is simple." "If you want children, it comes out." "If you don't want children, it stays in." "No surprises." "No accidents." "No gambling." --- That last word hung in the air for a moment. Mai nodded slowly. That was probably the answer she had actually wanted. Not technology. Predictability. Control. A clear decision. Victor saw it immediately. Of course he did. --- "So," Victor said. "Let's discuss the important part." Ace narrowed her eyes. "There was an important part before this?" "There always is." Victor folded his arms. "Communication." --- Now all three of them were listening. Victor continued. --- "Technology solves biology." "It does not solve people." The room went quiet. --- Victor pointed at the three of them. "If one of you changes your mind someday." "Talk." "If two of you change your minds." "Talk." "If all three of you change your minds." "Talk." He paused. "Do you see the pattern?" --- Shammy smiled. "Talking." "Correct." Victor looked relieved somebody had understood immediately. --- "The capsule makes pregnancy a choice." "Nothing more." "Nothing less." "It does not decide for you." "You decide." Mai nodded. Ace nodded. Shammy nodded. --- Victor looked at all three for a moment. Then his expression softened slightly. Not much. Just enough. --- "You three are actually in a better position than most people." "Why?" Ace asked. Victor shrugged. "Because you're asking before it becomes relevant." "Most people ask after." --- Nobody had a good answer to that. Because he wasn't wrong. --- Victor finally picked up a sterilized instrument tray. "Anyway." "Enough philosophy." He pointed at the examination table. "Who's first?" Three heads immediately turned toward Ace. Ace stared back. Slowly. Dangerously. --- Victor sighed. "Yep." "Definitely a functional relationship." Shammy started laughing again. Mai looked suspiciously amused. And Ace was beginning to suspect that coming here had been a mistake. Not because of the capsule. Because Victor was enjoying this far too much. --- Victor noticed the thought almost immediately. That was the problem with Victor. He spent all day looking at people. Eventually he got very good at noticing things they had not actually said. "Let me guess." Ace looked at him suspiciously. Victor pointed at her. "You think this conversation should've happened earlier." Silence. Which, in this room, was basically an admission. --- Victor grinned. "Yeah." "Probably." --- Shammy leaned back in her chair. "In our defense, we've been busy." Victor immediately started counting on his fingers. "Reality incidents." "Foundation nonsense." "Night City." "Anomalies." "Corporate wars." "Multiple near-death experiences." He pointed at Ace. "Whatever the hell happened in Detroit." Ace pointed back. "See?" Victor nodded. "Fair." --- Mai sighed. "Still." Victor tilted his head. "Still what?" --- Mai considered the question. "Normal people have these conversations much earlier." Victor burst out laughing. --- "Mai." "Yes?" "You lost the right to compare yourselves to normal people years ago." --- Shammy immediately started laughing. Ace groaned. Mai pinched the bridge of her nose. --- Victor pointed at all three of them. "You know what most normal couples do?" Nobody answered. --- "They avoid the conversation." "They postpone the conversation." "They assume somebody else already thought about it." "They make guesses." "They panic later." --- Victor shrugged. "You three walked into a clinic and asked directly." "Honestly?" "That's already better than most people." --- The room fell quiet for a moment. Not awkward. Just thoughtful. The kind of silence that appeared when somebody said something annoyingly reasonable. --- Ace eventually broke it. "So we're not completely dysfunctional." Victor looked at her. Then at Mai. Then at Shammy. --- "Let's not get carried away." --- Shammy nearly fell out of her chair laughing. Mai covered her face. Ace looked like she was considering homicide. --- Victor pointed toward the examination table. "Anyway." "Before this turns into group therapy." He picked up a sterile instrument. "Who's first?" --- This time the silence lasted only a second. Then Ace sighed. Long and dramatically. And raised her hand. "Fine." Victor nodded. "Good." --- Mai glanced sideways at her. "Nervous?" Ace stared. "It's a capsule." "Yes." "It takes five minutes." "Correct." "There is literally nothing dangerous about this." "Also correct." --- Mai smiled. "You're nervous." --- Ace pointed at the door. "Leave." --- Shammy was completely useless by this point. She was laughing too hard to contribute anything productive. --- Victor, meanwhile, looked entirely too pleased with himself. Not because of the procedure. The procedure was routine. He had done thousands of similar implant installations. No. What amused him was something else entirely. --- He was watching three women who had fought anomalies. Three women who had survived corporate wars. Three women who had stared down things that should not exist. Three women who routinely walked into situations sane people ran away from. --- And somehow... Somehow... They had managed to turn a tiny fertility capsule into a full-scale operation requiring research, planning, discussion, and a medical consultation. --- Victor shook his head. "Night City never stops surprising me." Ace narrowed her eyes. "You're enjoying this." "A little." "A little?" Victor smiled. "A lot." --- Ace groaned. Mai laughed quietly. Shammy's laughter started all over again. And for the first time in several minutes, nobody was thinking about anomalies, corporate conspiracies, or the end of the world. Just a small clinic. A simple medical procedure. And a problem that turned out to be much less complicated than any of them had expected. --- Victor snapped on a fresh pair of gloves. "All right." He pointed at the examination table. "Arm." Ace offered her left arm. Victor immediately shook his head. "Other one." "Why?" "You draw with that hand." "I fight with both." "Congratulations." Victor pointed again. "Other arm." --- Ace switched arms. Victor scanned it once with a handheld diagnostic wand. A faint blue light passed beneath the skin. The display chirped. Victor nodded. "Good." "No conflicts." "No compatibility issues." "No weird anomaly interactions." He paused. "Which is honestly refreshing." --- Mai immediately looked interested. "You checked for that?" "Of course." Victor tapped the scanner. "Modern implants don't care if somebody has cyberware." He glanced at Ace. "They care if somebody is weird." --- Ace sighed. "I'm sitting right here." "Exactly." --- Shammy snorted. Victor ignored both of them. --- A small injector appeared in his hand. Not much larger than a pen. Ace looked at it. Then at Victor. Then back at it. --- "That's it?" Victor looked offended. "What were you expecting?" "A surgery." "It's an implant." "It looked more dramatic in my head." Victor pointed at the injector. "Most medicine is disappointingly boring." --- A brief press against the skin. A soft click. Done. --- Ace blinked. "...that's it?" Victor removed the injector. "That's it." --- The entire procedure had taken less than three seconds. --- Shammy stared. Mai stared. Ace stared. --- Victor folded his arms. "You three are not helping my ego." --- Mai looked genuinely confused. "That was the entire installation?" "Yes." "No incision?" "No." "No recovery?" "No." "No post-operative restrictions?" "No." --- Victor grinned. "It's Night City." "If every implant required surgery nobody would get anything done." --- Ace rotated her arm. She couldn't feel anything. No pain. No pressure. Nothing. --- "Can you even tell it's there?" Victor shook his head. "Nope." "Can somebody scan for it?" "Only if you want them to." "Can it be hacked?" Victor actually laughed. --- "No." --- That answer came so quickly all three noticed. Victor saw it. --- "Seriously." "This thing isn't connected to the Net." "It doesn't broadcast." "It doesn't communicate." "It doesn't need updates." "It doesn't have a personality." He paused. "Which already makes it smarter than half the software in Night City." --- Even Mai laughed at that one. --- Victor pointed toward the chair. "Next." --- Mai stood immediately. Of course she did. No hesitation. No drama. No questions. She had already asked all of them twenty minutes ago. --- Ace watched her sit. Victor watched Ace watching her. Victor smiled. Ace noticed. --- "Don't." Victor's smile widened. "I didn't say anything." "You were about to." "I absolutely was." --- Shammy's laughter started again. And Victor decided not to waste the opportunity. --- "Good." He prepared another injector. "At least one of you is behaving like this isn't a life-or-death operation." --- Mai sat down. Victor didn't even bother asking if she was ready. She clearly was. --- The second injector clicked. Done. --- Mai looked at her arm. Then at Victor. --- "That's it." Victor nodded. "Still that's it." --- Mai looked mildly offended. "I expected more." Victor pointed at her. "See?" He looked at Ace. "She gets it." --- Ace folded her arms. "No, she doesn't." "Exactly." Victor sounded entirely too pleased. --- Mai examined the tiny mark left by the injector. A faint dot. Barely visible. Within a day it would probably disappear entirely. --- "Anything I need to monitor?" "No." "Maintenance?" "No." "Checkups?" "No." Victor paused. "Unless you suddenly decide to grow an extra arm." --- Mai nodded. "Reasonable." --- Victor blinked. "Mai." "Yes?" "You have a worrying definition of reasonable." --- Shammy was next. Mostly because Victor pointed at the chair and she immediately stood up. --- The chair looked almost comically small once Shammy sat down. Victor glanced up. Then up a little more. Then finally met her eyes. --- "You know." "What?" "You're still the only patient I have to physically look upward at." --- Shammy smiled. "I apologize for being tall." "You absolutely do not." "No." "I thought so." --- The third injector clicked. Done. --- Shammy looked surprised. --- "Oh." Victor nodded. "Exactly." --- For a moment the room became oddly quiet. Not because anything dramatic had happened. Quite the opposite. Nothing dramatic had happened at all. --- Three people had spent weeks—possibly months—occasionally worrying about a problem. They had finally come to ask about it. And the entire solution had taken less than ten minutes. --- Victor removed his gloves. "There." "Finished." --- Ace looked around. "That's really it?" Victor stared. --- "Do you WANT complications?" "No." "Then stop looking disappointed." --- Mai actually smiled. A small one. But Victor noticed. --- "You're relieved." Mai considered it. Then nodded. "Yes." --- Victor pointed at her. "That's the correct reaction." --- Shammy stretched her arms overhead. "So now what?" Victor leaned back against the counter. --- "Now?" "Now you leave." --- Ace blinked. "What?" --- Victor pointed toward the waiting room. "There are actual patients out there." "We are actual patients." "No." Victor shook his head. "You're a discussion group that occasionally requires medical supervision." --- Shammy nearly doubled over laughing. Mai lost the fight and started laughing too. --- Ace looked betrayed. --- Victor pointed at the door. "Go." --- "Victor—" "Go." --- "Victor." "Out." --- "We paid for this." "You paid for five minutes." "You spent an hour talking." "That part was free." --- The three of them eventually stood. Still smiling. Still looking faintly ridiculous now that the problem had evaporated. --- Victor watched them reach the door. Then spoke one last time. --- "Oh." The three turned. --- "If you ever decide you want them removed." Victor shrugged. "Same procedure." "Make an appointment." --- Mai nodded. Simple. Practical. Exactly the answer she'd wanted from the beginning. --- Victor smiled. --- "No pressure." "No deadlines." "No expectations." "Just your decision." --- For a second the room grew quiet again. Not awkward. Not heavy. Just honest. --- Then Shammy opened the door. Noise from the waiting room flooded back in. Night City returned. --- Ace headed out first. Mai followed. Shammy ducked through the doorway behind them. --- Victor watched them go. Three women. Three anomalies in completely different ways. Walking back into a city that never stopped trying to kill people. --- The clinic door closed. Victor shook his head. Smiled to himself. And called for his next patient. --- "Next."