from promising to has-been. He could almost present to Marlon, the head of the biology department, with some form of proof with which he could reactivate oceanic research. Which meant he had a lot of work to do.
He quickly returned home to collect what was left of the most amazing popsicle he’d ever seen and head out to the lab in the Cabriola building.
As it was Sunday, his colleagues were concerned with academic grading and grilling, not his discovery. He would have total privacy while working and could slip vastly unnoticed.
The chunked frozen tissue was still in the glass stein in his freezer, awaiting examination.
For safety, he filled a beer-cooler box with ice and set the stein square in the middle, assuring its refrigeration on his way to the campus.
Finally he reached the Cabriola building, in front of which he ran into his tenured rival,
Dr. Hector Weiss.
Despite the unfortunate name, Weiss’ findings were based in fact but always differed from Frank’s.
He was always two steps behind.
The forty-two year old notorious for making inappropriate advances on his students, bartering to propel them academically. Frank favored the idea that global oceanic developments were a result of global warming, while Weiss' view was more geared towards man’s effect on the oceans through over-fishing
and thus tampering with the food chain.
“What’s that you got there, Cabella?
Having a picnic?” Hector said mockingly. He and Frank were never on a first name basis, actually, Frank had never even learned Weiss' name until he heard about the scandals from several colleagues.
“A Humboldt specimen from last night’s tagging … ” he quickly retorted, hoping to avoid further questions, but Weiss couldn’t care less. He was never threatened by Frank and was already on his way home to microwave his TV dinner.
Once again Frank’s alcohol consumption caught up with him on top of the third floor staircase. It did not slow him down however.
The building was empty.
The only person around was a friendly japanese security guard who was busy playing Mahjongg with beautiful ivory pieces underneath the reception desk.
The hallways always seemed to repeat, with the only varying factor being what announcements were stapled to the cork boards, and even those were mostly the same. When he finally reached 22G, the genetics lab, he breathed a sigh of relief and had to sit down for a few minutes before continuing. His physical shape was worse than he realized as he failed to exercise and only filled his body with poisons of various kinds.
After a short breather he got three vacuum containers from out of the fridge to store his specimen and kept one outside to defrost. He set aside a tiny sample of tissue on a petri dish and another small sample between two sheets of glass under the microscope. Up close, it seemed there might have been cells at one time, which have since imploded into bits. In the corner of the sample the cells changed as they thawed. This explained how the body decomposed, but why so quickly?
The DNA sequencer was there and it barely made any sounds. To tell what genes a tissue is made of was the in a sense the pinnacle of the human evolution. To question oneself and have the power to alter was a responsibility too big.
He sent another small sample through the DNA sequencer. The process took up to 40 minutes, so he had time to spare. As the tissue exposed to air defrosted, it changed color to purple, possibly due to oxidization , Frank noted, while the samples in vacuum tubes remained a constant azure blue.
As it was done, he sent a small sample of the skin that came off. Most of the skin he still kept that was the only thing containing the almost-liquified alien, otherwise he’d be all over the place.
Frank withdrew a human DNA chart and compared the two against a light-board on the wall. The chart of the creature matched that of a human perfectly. At least in the parts that weren’t blank on
He quickly returned home to collect what was left of the most amazing popsicle he’d ever seen and head out to the lab in the Cabriola building.
As it was Sunday, his colleagues were concerned with academic grading and grilling, not his discovery. He would have total privacy while working and could slip vastly unnoticed.
The chunked frozen tissue was still in the glass stein in his freezer, awaiting examination.
For safety, he filled a beer-cooler box with ice and set the stein square in the middle, assuring its refrigeration on his way to the campus.
Finally he reached the Cabriola building, in front of which he ran into his tenured rival,
Dr. Hector Weiss.
Despite the unfortunate name, Weiss’ findings were based in fact but always differed from Frank’s.
He was always two steps behind.
The forty-two year old notorious for making inappropriate advances on his students, bartering to propel them academically. Frank favored the idea that global oceanic developments were a result of global warming, while Weiss' view was more geared towards man’s effect on the oceans through over-fishing
and thus tampering with the food chain.
“What’s that you got there, Cabella?
Having a picnic?” Hector said mockingly. He and Frank were never on a first name basis, actually, Frank had never even learned Weiss' name until he heard about the scandals from several colleagues.
“A Humboldt specimen from last night’s tagging … ” he quickly retorted, hoping to avoid further questions, but Weiss couldn’t care less. He was never threatened by Frank and was already on his way home to microwave his TV dinner.
Once again Frank’s alcohol consumption caught up with him on top of the third floor staircase. It did not slow him down however.
The building was empty.
The only person around was a friendly japanese security guard who was busy playing Mahjongg with beautiful ivory pieces underneath the reception desk.
The hallways always seemed to repeat, with the only varying factor being what announcements were stapled to the cork boards, and even those were mostly the same. When he finally reached 22G, the genetics lab, he breathed a sigh of relief and had to sit down for a few minutes before continuing. His physical shape was worse than he realized as he failed to exercise and only filled his body with poisons of various kinds.
After a short breather he got three vacuum containers from out of the fridge to store his specimen and kept one outside to defrost. He set aside a tiny sample of tissue on a petri dish and another small sample between two sheets of glass under the microscope. Up close, it seemed there might have been cells at one time, which have since imploded into bits. In the corner of the sample the cells changed as they thawed. This explained how the body decomposed, but why so quickly?
The DNA sequencer was there and it barely made any sounds. To tell what genes a tissue is made of was the in a sense the pinnacle of the human evolution. To question oneself and have the power to alter was a responsibility too big.
He sent another small sample through the DNA sequencer. The process took up to 40 minutes, so he had time to spare. As the tissue exposed to air defrosted, it changed color to purple, possibly due to oxidization , Frank noted, while the samples in vacuum tubes remained a constant azure blue.
As it was done, he sent a small sample of the skin that came off. Most of the skin he still kept that was the only thing containing the almost-liquified alien, otherwise he’d be all over the place.
Frank withdrew a human DNA chart and compared the two against a light-board on the wall. The chart of the creature matched that of a human perfectly. At least in the parts that weren’t blank on
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