Army Ants

Yesterday, Dr. MINIMCOM turned off the artificial gravity in his cargo bay so that his patient, Rei Beirak, could be weightless. Now I have no idea whether surgical operations would truly go better in space than here on Earth but Rome's Evolution is science fiction so why not. MINIMCOM is poised and ready so let's see what happens:

     “Very well,” MINIMCOM said. He set the syringe down on Rei’s bed and reformed one of his fingers into a very short range PPT thrower. He drew it carefully along the cast encasing Rei’s arm. In one smooth motion, the cast split in half and MINIMCOM removed it. The livetar retrieved the syringe and inserted the needle into Rei’s bicep. He pressed on the plunger gently and the fluid level decreased slightly.
     “I am going to knit your broken arm first,” MINIMCOM said. “This is the simplest test I can think of such that the VIRUS units can learn to work with my miniature null-fold.”
     “Whatever,” Rei said. “Get to it.”
     Two holographic projectors lit up and showed a blood-red field with a milky white rod passing through.
     “I have equipped these constructors with multi-spectral sensors,” MINIMCOM said. “I am synthesizing their imagery as we would with the star-probes.”
     The image in the air shifted and a dark grey, jagged line appeared. “By using infra-red imagery, we can discern structures within the space. I am using false color but that is the actual bone fracture,” MINIMCOM said. “I will transport random bone cells from the undamaged portion of your arm to the fracture. The constructors will move them into final position. Watch.”
     Like an army of tiny ants, little grains of white appeared in the dark area. Slowly but surely, the areas of dark became light and soon there was no evidence that a break ever occurred.
     “The bone is set,” MINIMCOM announced. “However, there is no actual rigidity yet. You will have to wait several hours for the amalgam to cure. It will take a day or two until the bone returns to its normal state.”

The portion in bold is important. I have heard, mostly through injury reports on football players, that broken bones have to go through a "sticky" period as they are knitting and forming a solid structure. I had a long term plan on why I needed this to be true but it feels right here so we'll just let it go. There is plenty more drama coming.