Synthesis
- As for your sister...... I truthfully cannot provide you with a conclusive answer about her whereabouts. The few remaining of us that weren't infected scattered around, aimlessly, with the panic, searching for safe locations.
The..... last time I remember seeing her was when we were trying to rescue some fellow workers of the debris caused by a rock cave-in, over that drive way headed towards the W wing. We were then surprised attacked by some of these beasts and we got separated. I barely got away. That was the day before yesterday.
It's difficult to say what happened.... but I reckon chances aren't very favorable.
Dan, agitated, asked Sagi to elaborate further, to which the latter replied:
- In any case, you said that Mr. Sadha was awaiting for you at the station, did you not? So it means that he knew that Ms. Autumn had established contact with you and when you were to arrive. And where. It isn't much of a leap to conjecture that this man, whenever he is, may know, better than anyone else, about her current status.
- Darn, that was my theory as well.... If he did something harmful... - Dan muttered, furiously.
Sagi kept looking in the notebook, trying to find helpful answers:
[- Here, it's mentioned the matter of the lymphatic liquid increase. A trouble which was also implanted in our seminal experiments. It describes the attempt at resilience of the host's body to the extraneous infected cells. Trying to shut them down.]
Dan stared at the ceiling; he was, himself, clouded with thoughts.
- So.... supposing that a human implants himself, deliberately or not, with some if this so-called potion. Is it possible that, without reverting to some kind of animal form, such a person could be..... have, evolved.... in a sense?
Sagi put a very serious, straight face right away:
- The result.... the consequences of such is, to me, purely unfathomable... Although I do suspect that this improved toxin is susceptible for dependency. The situation you've hypothesized is something that eludes me completely; Who knows, as you see, the variables are so immense. With these restored formulas, the effects are, simply, unpredictable. At best....
Silence. A dramatic silence, for considerations...
- What about that odd square, with the moving statue? Named... Sahankra Tumhina?
Sagi frowned his face, making a clear non-sequitur expression:
- What... are you talking about? What kind of statue? There is a statue depicting a man of the Prussian army riding a horse, but did you say.... moving? It's nothing I know about.
- Yes... definitely a moving statue.... It saved my life, back there!...
Sagi tried to come up with an explanation:
- Very curious. Such "artifact" should be, in my best guess, the work of a third-party company. This remote place was more than adequate to conduct our highly confidential experiments on our findings. Which means.... it was someone else, possessing intelligence detailing the stages of our own R&D.
Probably.... someone of the acquaintances of Sadha. Perhaps an industrial sabotage attempt of a rival that backfired. It isn't all that uncommon.
- Could it be..... the work of your friend, Mikusu?
- Unlikely.... I can tell you some things about Amin....
[- Regarding Amin... he, Mr.Medetre, was the Cassandra of the team, always prone to raise his discordant voice in all committees.
- Cassandra...?
- Yes.... like the mythological queen, his concerns with the project came to be prophetic.... his foresight ignored, or even scoffed upon.
He was against the project going forward since the very beginning, when the news of the finding circulated in the board talks.
The stockholders actively disagreed with his opinions in every committee meetings and started implementing measures to oblige him to comply with the situation, accusing him of wanting to hinder the eventual growth of profits. He was even dismissed as a haughty kind of person, despite the fact that all of his critics were all well-intentioned.
After all, the unknown always poses a danger. No one knew what that thing, which was to be dealt with, was. But, you see, the potential that could come of fully comprehending the workings of this alien being was something that one couldn't let go so easily.
Insight into biomolecular engineering and ways to turn Man into a more perfected creature, advancement in the creations of mechanisms for human subsisting in space; perhaps research in new kinds of fuels. I have it as one of the foremost discoveries in the history of humankind.
And they were aware of such. The holding's president of operations, covered by the stockholders, who were emphasizing the priority of an eventual use of the specimen, disliked his tries to shut down the operation and threatened to fire him, as well as lawsuit him for financial losses, harassment and fraud. And they were demanding his insurance policies.
The scandal would be total ruin, for him and his reputation: condemned to fulfill severances pays and other charges, he wouldn't be able to find work at ease. Mikusu's supporters were dwindling and dwindling at each passing day. His confrontations, he realized, were a lost cause and he gave in, always under the pressure of the board.]
Dan could try to understand. It really was like if he had taken a trip to another world; jarring, intense, cold-blooded.
- Anyway, we've stood here for long enough! - Sagi declared - For the time being, we'll be alright, however we must find a way to communicate with outer marker posts. These monsters managed to rip out all wires leading outside. We can't have our cell phones in here, as the electromagnetic radiations of high frequency could be able to interfere with our experimentations.
- And what about landline phones?
- The wires were all cut off.
- What a story...! - Dan let out, crushed - This is really..... heavy stuff!.....Worthy of two lifetimes -- An alien denizen, right out of faraway space? Wow, who could have guessed it? Not in a million of years.
- You can see it for yourself, Mr. Medetre, what no one could see coming.
Dan felt like a beam of electricity flooding his insides. The cause of the entire turmoil, at only a few feet of him. The old scientist stood up. And Dan went after him.
They moved backwards, heading to the adjoining room, sealed by another blocked passage; this door seemed like the reinforced door of a safe -- iron and steel.
It was locked by an alphanumeric keyboard, which was at the midst of an inclined electric panel right on its right side, on which Sagi digited some buttons, forming a code, to which the door responded with a buffering sound of a lock turning itself open.
Dan helped his partner rotate this other, weighty and bulky, frame door.
There it stood, in the middle of the insipid room, inert inside the stasis acrylic tube, curvaceous and larger than what Dan had imagined, almost of the size of a very small jackfruit.
There it was, immersed in paraffin.
Dan could almost hear some kind of organ, playing a sinister theme in the background. Through the translucent liquid, one could notice some stripes similar to those of a jackfruit; seeing a pastel green tone.
- This proto-sample.... it's a menace to humanity, a hazard to doom us all! This stuff must be destroyed, right away! What was caused here, if it spreads to further regions, it's the end! It's unavoidable.
The..... last time I remember seeing her was when we were trying to rescue some fellow workers of the debris caused by a rock cave-in, over that drive way headed towards the W wing. We were then surprised attacked by some of these beasts and we got separated. I barely got away. That was the day before yesterday.
It's difficult to say what happened.... but I reckon chances aren't very favorable.
Dan, agitated, asked Sagi to elaborate further, to which the latter replied:
- In any case, you said that Mr. Sadha was awaiting for you at the station, did you not? So it means that he knew that Ms. Autumn had established contact with you and when you were to arrive. And where. It isn't much of a leap to conjecture that this man, whenever he is, may know, better than anyone else, about her current status.
- Darn, that was my theory as well.... If he did something harmful... - Dan muttered, furiously.
Sagi kept looking in the notebook, trying to find helpful answers:
[- Here, it's mentioned the matter of the lymphatic liquid increase. A trouble which was also implanted in our seminal experiments. It describes the attempt at resilience of the host's body to the extraneous infected cells. Trying to shut them down.]
Dan stared at the ceiling; he was, himself, clouded with thoughts.
- So.... supposing that a human implants himself, deliberately or not, with some if this so-called potion. Is it possible that, without reverting to some kind of animal form, such a person could be..... have, evolved.... in a sense?
Sagi put a very serious, straight face right away:
- The result.... the consequences of such is, to me, purely unfathomable... Although I do suspect that this improved toxin is susceptible for dependency. The situation you've hypothesized is something that eludes me completely; Who knows, as you see, the variables are so immense. With these restored formulas, the effects are, simply, unpredictable. At best....
Silence. A dramatic silence, for considerations...
- What about that odd square, with the moving statue? Named... Sahankra Tumhina?
Sagi frowned his face, making a clear non-sequitur expression:
- What... are you talking about? What kind of statue? There is a statue depicting a man of the Prussian army riding a horse, but did you say.... moving? It's nothing I know about.
- Yes... definitely a moving statue.... It saved my life, back there!...
Sagi tried to come up with an explanation:
- Very curious. Such "artifact" should be, in my best guess, the work of a third-party company. This remote place was more than adequate to conduct our highly confidential experiments on our findings. Which means.... it was someone else, possessing intelligence detailing the stages of our own R&D.
Probably.... someone of the acquaintances of Sadha. Perhaps an industrial sabotage attempt of a rival that backfired. It isn't all that uncommon.
- Could it be..... the work of your friend, Mikusu?
- Unlikely.... I can tell you some things about Amin....
[- Regarding Amin... he, Mr.Medetre, was the Cassandra of the team, always prone to raise his discordant voice in all committees.
- Cassandra...?
- Yes.... like the mythological queen, his concerns with the project came to be prophetic.... his foresight ignored, or even scoffed upon.
He was against the project going forward since the very beginning, when the news of the finding circulated in the board talks.
The stockholders actively disagreed with his opinions in every committee meetings and started implementing measures to oblige him to comply with the situation, accusing him of wanting to hinder the eventual growth of profits. He was even dismissed as a haughty kind of person, despite the fact that all of his critics were all well-intentioned.
After all, the unknown always poses a danger. No one knew what that thing, which was to be dealt with, was. But, you see, the potential that could come of fully comprehending the workings of this alien being was something that one couldn't let go so easily.
Insight into biomolecular engineering and ways to turn Man into a more perfected creature, advancement in the creations of mechanisms for human subsisting in space; perhaps research in new kinds of fuels. I have it as one of the foremost discoveries in the history of humankind.
And they were aware of such. The holding's president of operations, covered by the stockholders, who were emphasizing the priority of an eventual use of the specimen, disliked his tries to shut down the operation and threatened to fire him, as well as lawsuit him for financial losses, harassment and fraud. And they were demanding his insurance policies.
The scandal would be total ruin, for him and his reputation: condemned to fulfill severances pays and other charges, he wouldn't be able to find work at ease. Mikusu's supporters were dwindling and dwindling at each passing day. His confrontations, he realized, were a lost cause and he gave in, always under the pressure of the board.]
Dan could try to understand. It really was like if he had taken a trip to another world; jarring, intense, cold-blooded.
- Anyway, we've stood here for long enough! - Sagi declared - For the time being, we'll be alright, however we must find a way to communicate with outer marker posts. These monsters managed to rip out all wires leading outside. We can't have our cell phones in here, as the electromagnetic radiations of high frequency could be able to interfere with our experimentations.
- And what about landline phones?
- The wires were all cut off.
- What a story...! - Dan let out, crushed - This is really..... heavy stuff!.....Worthy of two lifetimes -- An alien denizen, right out of faraway space? Wow, who could have guessed it? Not in a million of years.
- You can see it for yourself, Mr. Medetre, what no one could see coming.
Dan felt like a beam of electricity flooding his insides. The cause of the entire turmoil, at only a few feet of him. The old scientist stood up. And Dan went after him.
They moved backwards, heading to the adjoining room, sealed by another blocked passage; this door seemed like the reinforced door of a safe -- iron and steel.
It was locked by an alphanumeric keyboard, which was at the midst of an inclined electric panel right on its right side, on which Sagi digited some buttons, forming a code, to which the door responded with a buffering sound of a lock turning itself open.
Dan helped his partner rotate this other, weighty and bulky, frame door.
There it stood, in the middle of the insipid room, inert inside the stasis acrylic tube, curvaceous and larger than what Dan had imagined, almost of the size of a very small jackfruit.
There it was, immersed in paraffin.
Dan could almost hear some kind of organ, playing a sinister theme in the background. Through the translucent liquid, one could notice some stripes similar to those of a jackfruit; seeing a pastel green tone.
- This proto-sample.... it's a menace to humanity, a hazard to doom us all! This stuff must be destroyed, right away! What was caused here, if it spreads to further regions, it's the end! It's unavoidable.
posted by tensayoki @ 01:11
