Chapter 39: Sharing My Secrets
The next day, Orcille went to the main Carvaress Laboratory to start his new job. Pardi was waiting for him in his personal laboratory room.
‘I have some very interesting work for you,’ said Pardi.
‘More interesting than developing fertilizer for plants!’ Orcille exclaimed sarcastically.
‘Way more diverse. You won’t be focused on just one thing. You will be overseeing several projects,’ said Pardi.
‘Like a supervisor role. Sounds like a promotion,’ said Orcille.
‘Better than that, you will be my number two,’ said Pardi.
‘Wow, so much good news. Next, you’ll be saying I’m part owner,’ said Orcille.
‘Not right now. You need to show me you can handle leadership at this level,’ said Pardi.
Pardi led Orcille to a room connected to his personal laboratory room.
‘Take a look at this?’ said Pardi to Orcille.
Inside a large glass case, there was a reptile-like creature. Orcille gazed at the creature through the glass casing.
‘I bet you’ve never seen a Sape like this before,’ said Pardi.
‘Looking at the shape of her jaw, I’m guessing she’s carnivorous,’ said Orcille.
‘Spot on, it eats almost half its body weight in a day,’ replied Pardi.
‘How old is she?’ asked Orcille.
‘Only four days,’ replied Pardi.
‘Oh my, she is going to be big,’ said Orcille.
‘I agree with you. It’s growing at an incredible speed,’ said Pardi. ‘It’s amazing to think it came out of this shell just four days ago,’ he said as he showed Orcille the broken shell that looked no larger than a coconut.
‘Where did you find the egg?’ asked Orcille.
‘We have been sending out vessels into the great ocean. We found this egg on a small, uncharted island several hundred miles off the south coast,’ replied Pardi.
‘Looks like you have discovered a completely different species of creature,’ said Orcille. ‘I can’t imagine she is related in any way to the Sapes.’
‘It is the start of the most amazing discovery,’ said Pardi.
‘I feel we need to act with caution,’ said Orcille.
‘Don’t worry, we will take all the necessary precautions,’ said Pardi.
Orcille frowned a little disbelievingly.
‘Come over here. I want to show you something even more remarkable,’ said Pardi. Pardi turned on a computer monitor to play a video. ‘We did this just two days ago,’ said Pardi proudly.
The video showed a robot arm making incisions into the creature. It removed small portions of skin and flesh.
‘I see nothing amazing about your typical cruelty,’ said Orcille.
‘It’s not cruelty. Did you see any marks on it just now?’ said Pardi.
‘I did not, but I can hear her screeching in the video. That is an indication of pain and distress,’ said Orcille.
‘There is more. Two hours later, we did this,’ said Pardi as he started another video. This time, the robot arm was burning the upper thigh of the creature. ‘This was later that day. Now the burns have healed. It is truly remarkable,’ said Pardi.
‘So you plan on using this discovery to help injured or burnt patients?’ asked Orcille.
‘There is a good chance this discovery could heal you,’ said Pardi.
‘That seems like a long shot. My body has healed, but it has healed wrongly,’ replied Orcille in an annoyed tone.
‘It is probably too late for your external appearance, but it could heal you internally and greatly reduce your dependence on medication,’ said Pardi.
‘I feel your motivations for these tests are beyond helping me,’ said Orcille.
‘Of course, this is a scientific breakthrough that could save our species,’ said Pardi. ‘It could be used to genetically modify us so that we are stronger and more resilient.’
‘Genetic modification is dangerous. Let’s not forget the past,’ replied Orcille firmly.
‘Testing will be extremely rigorous. Trust me,’ said Pardi.
‘That’ll lead to more suffering,’ said Orcille.
‘Seriously, I can’t win with you,’ said Pardi.
‘Yes, sacrifice for the greater good, right,’ said Orcille.
‘In this case, a very small sacrifice for a much greater good,’ said Pardi.
‘What are you going to do when she gets bigger?’ asked Orcille.
‘It won’t get much bigger. We’re terminating in four days,’ said Pardi.
‘What about your further research and testing?’ asked Orcille.
‘That wasn’t our only egg. We have plenty more we can test on when they hatch,’ said Pardi with a smile.
‘So you’re not acting with caution? You could be attracting the adults with your little egg thieving,’ replied Orcille in an annoyed tone.
‘They live in the great ocean. They’re not coming here,’ said Pardi.
‘I can’t imagine anything stopping them. She looks very comfortable on land,’ replied Orcille.
‘Yes, it seems perfectly adaptable to living on land,’ said Pardi. ‘It is strange that they greatly prefer the ocean.’
Pardi led Orcille to the other side of the room. He opened a large refrigerated cabinet. ‘Our next round of tests is going to involve these,’ said Pardi as he pointed to the test tubes in the cabinet.
‘You’re going to infect these babies with all these diseases,’ said Orcille.
‘Of course, we need to see how their genetics combat all forms of disease,’ replied Pardi.
‘Even if they are immune to everything, it does not mean it is possible to genetically transfer all or any of these traits to us,’ said Orcille. ‘They do not seem compatible with us in any way.’
‘That might be the case, but you don’t know until you try,’ replied Pardi.
Pardi led Orcille into a small room. ‘In here we have a volunteer,’ said Pardi as he pointed to a small bed with a sedated female Sapien lying on it. ‘She is suffering from skin deterioration from exposure to a strong alkali and a serious stab wound to the stomach,’ said Pardi.
‘Shouldn’t she be at the medical centre!’ said Orcille.
‘No, she volunteered. All of this was self-inflicted,’ said Pardi.
‘Yeah, okay,’ said Orcille in disbelief.
‘We have injected her with genetic material from the creature,’ said Pardi.
‘She doesn’t look well,’ said Orcille.
‘Well, the first trial hasn’t had an impact. I am hopeful for the second trial we are doing today,’ said Pardi. ‘We aim to combine her DNA and the DNA of the creature so that her DNA will adopt the relevant properties of the creature’s DNA.’
‘Are you saying we can alter someone’s genetics through a simple injection?’ asked Orcille while sounding a little perplexed.
‘Yes, absolutely. These injections contain the technology to enable us to change the DNA of any adult,’ replied Pardi with enthusiasm.
‘Right, I trust what you are doing. This is your life work,’ said Orcille.
‘This is only a glimpse of the potential. Follow me,’ said Pardi as he led Orcille out of the small room.
Pardi led Orcille to a secret room. At the back of the secret room was a lift. The lift dropped to the third-floor basement level. They walked along a corridor before entering a massive room. There were thousands of incubator-like machines.
‘What is happening in here?’ asked Orcille as he gasped at the sight.
‘This is the future of our species,’ said Pardi proudly. ‘Each of these artificial wombs can facilitate the entire gestation period of our species. They also enable us to modify the genetic code at the earliest possible age.’
‘Why so many?’ asked Orcille.
‘I want to make sure we get it right,’ said Pardi. ‘We need as many as possible so we can ensure that we have perfected the genetics. DNA from that creature upstairs could be the essential ingredient to perfecting our species.’
Orcille walked between the machines. He noticed some were older than others, and some appeared to have already been used.
‘Genetic engineering is arguably a cornerstone of our species,’ said Pardi. ‘We have been doing it for centuries. We have had success and, of course, failure. We were too reliant on chance because we didn’t fully understand what we were doing. Over the past few decades, our knowledge has greatly improved. We know what is likely to work and what isn’t. We know where failures are likely to occur, and we know how to test to ensure they won’t happen.’
Orcille continued to look around the room. He had a very bad feeling about his father’s intentions.
Future of Social Media
Captain Hive is here
Remember to catch me on Spectrumecons, click link below.
