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Post by Galadare on Dec 26, 2005 13:52:59 GMT -5
Dr. Hernandez's office is clearly designed to accommodate his notorious all-nighters. It is a large room with desk space for six individuals, and chair space for twelve. The desks are arranged in a ring around the room. In one corner are two small cots, each with a hammock suspended over it. A small refrigerator, about the size of a nightstand sits near the cots. On top of the frige rests a microwave and an alarm clock. The floor is clear of debris, as are the desks. However, small patterns of dust on the desktops indicate that this is not the normal state of affairs. The center of the room is kept clear and is dominated by a holo-emitter suspended from the ceiling which is networked to laptop-sized computers that rest on each desk.
Dr. Hernandez and ZB are soon joined by Duane Edwards and his brother Doug Edwards. The two Edwards' are identical twins who are distinguishable only by Duane's preference for orange hair and Doug's preference for blue. Apparently, no Edwards has been happy with his natural color since 1976.
Duane snickers while Doug complains about having been sent on a wild goose chase to Congo Interplanetary Spaceport to pick up ZB. Duane reminds Doug of the incident involving the maple syrup, forcing Dr. Hernandez to intervene.
They are soon joined by Dr. Han Qing-Jao from Beijing, and Dr. Louis Bandeau from MIT, each of which brought a pair of grad students. After brief introductions, the party begins.
Not a geneticist, ZB quickly becomes lost in Dr. Gardener's notes on the behavior of nucleotides or some such under unusual conditions. Idly thumbing through the gibberish, she unexpectedly hits upon something she recognizes.
It was a hard copy of a detailed report on the biological makeup of the Gog'tha (gog'th in the singular), a race of chimp-like primates from the second planet of Gliese 75. Dr. Gardener had made extensive notes regarding the gene sequences of a gog'th compared to a human, including which sequences governed what, and how they are affected by other genes. On the last page of the document is a circled note that reads: "It might be possible."
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Z. B.
Rookie
Egghead
E's hud y bylevecd; E's y Qahupeumukecd. Drana'c y tevvanahla.
Posts: 42
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Post by Z. B. on Dec 28, 2005 14:27:31 GMT -5
Z.B. makes sure to take advantage of one of the cots before digging into the files - it's been a long time since she slept, even though she is used to the longer days of Maisha. She only sleeps for about an hour though, before the relative cold and lack of humidity of Texas' winter gets to her and she goes looking for something to drink. Having given up on sleep, she is halfway through her second 'chimichanga' as she peruses the document.
"Hmm..." she ponders aloud, "This looks like research for that gene therapy project he was so enthusiastic about." She pages through the document once more, looking for any other notes, or perhaps a date or something. Setting the papers down on the desk, she calls Dr. Hernandez over, asking, "You said there was a letter adressed to me? I'd like to atleast look at it, even if it is blank. I need a break from all this technical gibberish. No offense," she adds with a smile.
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Post by Galadare on Dec 28, 2005 15:12:48 GMT -5
"Sure," he says and fishes the paper out of his stack, "What have you got?"
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Z. B.
Rookie
Egghead
E's hud y bylevecd; E's y Qahupeumukecd. Drana'c y tevvanahla.
Posts: 42
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Post by Z. B. on Dec 28, 2005 15:22:50 GMT -5
Z.B. shrugs and picks up the document again. "Nothing, really...looks like old research notes from that pet project of his...you remember?" She flips the page over to where Dr. Gardener circled his note in the corner. "There's no date on it...I was wondering whether he was still doing research for it, but I can't tell. I hope that wasn't what he wanted me to come down and take a look at." She grimaces, taking the mostly blank sheet of paper from Dr. Hernandez.
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Post by Galadare on Dec 30, 2005 1:42:40 GMT -5
Dr. Hernandez thumbs through the document for a second then stops, transfixed by what he sees on the page. He runs to his desk, turning on the holoprojector on his way past and begins calling up files.
"Son of a..." he trails of and collapses into his chair, "That dirty little son of a motherless goat!"
Of course, by this time Dr. Hernandez has the attention of the entire room. He strikes a few keys and the projector comes to life with two, color coded DNA molecules, labeled 'A' and 'B'. The display then highlights large sections of the two molecules that are identical.
Dr. Han is the first to lose patience with the lack of an explanation. "And, what exactly are we looking at?" she prompts.
"They call it a flu. But all of us here, except ZB, are familiar with the fact that the virus' victims are actually dying of massive rejection syndrome. The virus scrambles the victim's chromosomes until his own immune system kills him. The DNA sequence labeled 'B' was taken from one of the victims in Quebec. The sequence labeled 'A' was taken by a survey team on Gliese Seventy-Five dash Two. It is from a race called the gog'tha. As it turns out, the gog'tha have 23 chromosome pairs; just like we do.
"Now watch this," 'B' changes to 'C' and again long, matching sequences are highlighted. Then 'C' changes to 'D'. 'D' changes to 'E'. Each time with long chains of matching nucleotide pairs. "C, d, e, f; they're all samples from Quebec Flu patients."
"I remember reading something Dr. Gardener published about what he termed a 'splicer virus'," Doug ventured, "Can it be that the Quebec Flu was engineered by Dr. Gardener? There's a creepy thought."
"It's certainly looks that way," Dr. Bandeau replies, taking the words right out of Dr. Hernandez's mouth.
(OOC: Stupid Dr. Gardner, confusing himself for Dr. Hernandez)
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Z. B.
Rookie
Egghead
E's hud y bylevecd; E's y Qahupeumukecd. Drana'c y tevvanahla.
Posts: 42
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Post by Z. B. on Dec 31, 2005 18:09:18 GMT -5
Z.B. shakes her head, not willling to accept the idea at first. "That's impossible...Dr. Gardner wanted to help people with his research. Not kill them! There must be some kind of mistake." She waves her hand back and forth, a gesture of agitation picked up from living among the Tesaad, the blank letter slipping out of her hand and landing upside-down on the floor.
As she reaches down to pick it up and set it on the table though, doubt begins to creep in, and a look of dismay crosses her face. "Shessla virreh..." she whispers, watching Dr. Hernandez flash through more and more sequences. "...What has he done?"
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Post by Galadare on Dec 31, 2005 18:39:06 GMT -5
Dr Han opens her mouth but whatever she was about to say sticks in her throat when the room is filled with the sounds of screaming and gunfire coming from the atrium.
Three bellows of rage follow and Doug, who happens to be closest to the frosted glass door, opens it to take a look. He immediately slams it closed and locks it. He grab the nearest desk, ZB's, and slides it against the door. As soon as he does, the shatterproof glass spiderwebs as something large and organic runs into it and snarls.
"Jones ain't himself," is all he can say on the subject.
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Z. B.
Rookie
Egghead
E's hud y bylevecd; E's y Qahupeumukecd. Drana'c y tevvanahla.
Posts: 42
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Post by Z. B. on Dec 31, 2005 19:42:05 GMT -5
Z.B. jumps at the sudden crash, moving back from the glass door and looking around for something to defend herself with. Taking a deep breath, she tries to calm herself down even as possibilites flood her mind.
"Dr. Hernandez...you said something about the virus rewriting people's DNA?" she says, surprised at how calm her voice sounds. "...Just what exactly is it t-trying to rewrite it to?" So much for calm.
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Post by Galadare on Dec 31, 2005 19:54:50 GMT -5
"At first we thought it was just random," Dr. Hernandez replies, as he can't think of anything else to do, "But now it's beginning to look like some kind of hybrid, isn't it?"
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Z. B.
Rookie
Egghead
E's hud y bylevecd; E's y Qahupeumukecd. Drana'c y tevvanahla.
Posts: 42
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Post by Z. B. on Jan 3, 2006 13:24:25 GMT -5
Z.B. eyes the atrium exit warily, waiting for another attempt to break through. She glances about the room quickly, looking for other ways out as she asks, "And assuming not all of the mutations are fatal to the victim...what would we be looking at, exactly?" There...no wavering, this time.
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