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Paths of the Mind: Chapter One-The Birth
Posted By: Covie_Lover<shansen@sonic.net>
Date: 15 January 2005, 6:08 PM
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Paths of the Mind: Chapter One-The Birth
ONI specialist scientist Dorsey Smythe walked down the long, metallic hallway, the sound of his boots echoing faintly in the distance. Click. Click. Click. He came to the high security door at the end of the hallway. It was large, deeply embedded into the surrounding walls, about two feet thick, and the first of two. The material of the door was Tetrasteel, an alloy made, not coincidentally, by ONI. It could resist nearly endless amounts of shock without even denting. In addition, it had such a high melting point that even sustained plasma fire would merely heat it up a bit. In the center of the door were several identification devices, including a retinal scanner, and full handprint and voice analyzers. All of this was complimented by multiple infrared and regular light spectrum cameras controlled by an AI to ensure that no one but the person being identified are present in the hallway.
Dorsey placed his hand in the handprint analyzer. A line of light shined through his fingers as the his hand was scanned. A few seconds later, a small red light at the top handprint analyzer turned green. A monotonous feminine voice said "Please place your eye within a foot of the retinal scanner, and state your name, occupation, and current project."
He complied, putting his eye close to the retinal scanner and said, with as little emotion as possible "Dorsey Smythe, ONI specialist, Cerebral Modification." There was no light this time, but seconds later, the same voice said "Identity Confirmed. Entrance accepted."
The huge Tetrasteel doors opened diagonally, smoothly and quietly, in different directions, creating a diamond-shaped opening just wide enough to admit one person. Dorsey stepped through, and they closed just as silently behind him.
Tina Lehin, Lead Scientist in the Cerebral Modification project, stared disgustedly at the results. Billions of dollar were spent on this project. Billions of dollars that ONI could have used elsewhere, wasted. And not wasted for some thing worthwhile, oh no! Wasted for some silly fools' dream. A false, impossible dream! Why she had even endorsed this project she did not know. One hundred test subjects, all of them grown from zygon to birth in sterile, contained glass habitats, all of their genes tampered with, at the cost of huge amounts of money. And for this. She glared again at the results. Seventy-three of them dead within hours of removal from their glass uterus. Seventeen, alive, but with abnormally low brain activity, in a permanent delta sleep. Five others, also alive, but showing the early signs of mental retardation. Two more, again alive, but with underdeveloped limbs, nothing more than flippers. Finally, three, only three, normally functioning children. Two girls, one boy.
Tina seethed with anger. All that money, for three children. Three children who, for all she knew, would have nothing special about them.
Dorsey, having passed the security door, proceeded to room 32C of the ONI top-secret facility. He had been summoned from his quarters, because the results for his experiment were in. He had an important meeting elsewhere, so was unable to watch his test subjects be removed from their homes of nine months.
He approached the door, featureless except for 32C printed in silver letters slightly above eye level, and placed his hand on another handprint analyzer. The same light flickered through his fingers, and he heard a click as the door unlocked. He opened the door, and walked inside.
Inside was a disheveled-looking Tina Lehin, hair a mess, looking like she hadn't slept in days, sitting in front of small stack of papers. As he walked in, she turn to look at him. When she saw who it was, her look turned hostile. The right side of her mouth twitching, she glared at him.
"Is..is something wrong?" he asked nervously
"Is something wrong?" she she echoed in a whisper, "Is something wrong? Oh no, nothing... except possibly for this!" she continued, the last word a shriek, crumpled up the papers in front of her, and threw them violently at Dorsey.
He caught the wad of paper, and uncrumpled it. He skimmed through the results, and after a minute or two, he looked up and said "What's wrong with this?"
"What's wrong with that?!?" she shrieked, working herself into a rage "I'll tell you what's wrong!! Ninety-seven test subjects, each costing ONI one hundred million, are useless!! Three surviving test subjects!! That is abysmal!! Even the Spartan projects had a better success rate!! And with them, you could tell if anything had worked!! Here, for all we know, these three children could be absolutely normal!! In fact, neural scans show us nothing unusual about them!! Give me one reason why I shouldn't pull funding from this project right now!!"
Dorsey shrank into the corner under the barrage. He winced at the reference to the Spartan projects. When she was done, there was a silence for a half minute, after which he responded "What if they are what we want? Then the billions we spent on this project might be worthwhile. If we drop the project now, we might lose any possibility of success. Maybe something will show up later..." he added hopefully.
Tina glared at him for several moments. Then she said, grudgingly "Alright. I'll extend funding for ten more years. At least this won't cost us as much, even if it fails to show any positive results. Now get out of my sight."
Outside the door, Dorsey sighed with relief. Then winced. This was going to be a long ten years...
I hope you liked the first chapter!
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