[Sodium_noir] A Snapshot in the Night

[Spikey]

Dr Lei
Synthetic Biology lab
Melcom Complex

Dr Lei was tired, exhausted in fact. But there seemed little reason to stop working. They were so close now and he had no reason to go home. His daughter wasn't there anymore and if he went home he'd be plagued with phone messages from his dead wives brother wanting to visit. As the years had progressed he had been less and less sympathetic of relatives. When he had lost his wife their platitudes had just upset him. When his beloved son was killed, they had managed to disgust him. He hadn't even attended the Police funeral for his son because of al the well wishers.

He Turned to his assistants desk and looked over the young woman's shoulder. Her screen displayed an image of a helix as figures and a bar graph fluctuated in one corner. 

"The bacteriophage has removed close to 87% of the junk DNA doctor!" She reported in a bored voice. "Together with the repeated function it has restructured, the cells are at 93% operative. Not the best batch we've had."

Five almost identical screens displayed similar information and their green glow lit up the darkened Lab for a few feet in every direction. Gurgles and the hum of the electrics seemed afraid to disturb the low light and the experiments being carried out.

"We'll crack the 95% mark sooner or later Alison, don't you worry."

"A pity we can't publish that though!"

"The world is unhappy about the thought of designer prokaryotic systems Alison, if they knew we had moved on to Eukaryotes and multi cellular organisms they would be the usual outcry. I don't know about you but I'd rather not have my house decorated with words like Frankenstein and accusations of playing God when all I am doing is developing better and faster ways to make vaccines."

A hiss sounded behind them as the tanks were flushed with new embryonic fluids and the waste tubes were emptied. Dr Lei wandered over to the bank of glass containers; the Tanks. Inside the body of the child floated in saline and other biological matter without movement or distress. Already its athletic frame was clearly evident and its perfect structure plain to see. Just like the four other bodies in identical tubes, it was growing rapidly to adulthood. Devoid of inherited deformities of health conditions, no tendency to congenital weaknesses or imperfections. 

The perfect body biologically, simply awaiting a tenant.

"Is that really what we are doing Doctor?" The assistant asked. "I know the others have developed Bacteria that can discover land mines and Cells that record and destroy Cancers but behind these doors ..."

"We are scientists Alison, not philosophers. Our job is to push back the threshold of possibility not question the morality of what others do with it. That's why Melcom works so closely with the commission."

The girl, clearly in awe of her employer, was satisfied. She finished runningher tests and programmed the tanks to administer the next dose of nutrients in the hope that Dr Lei would cal it a day afterwards.
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