Unauthorized ProjectsBen, one of the many lab technicians had been assigned to go over all the formulas and run inventory on all the serums and serum components that they did have, and should have had.
Ben figured it was the most pointless job ever. I mean, there was nowhere to go on this island. They weren't allowed to leave or interact with anyone. What good would it do to take anything from here. Why couldn't he be doing camera duty? He heard some of the people in charge of that got to watch the islanders have sex.
That'd be an awesome job, Sam thought.
He got to one of the cabnets, and after inventorying it the first time he found a problem. "That can be right." he said and rechecked three times. Then he checked the surrounding cabnets.
Flipping up the walkie talkie he spoke directly into it as he held down the button. "Dr. Moreau... we have a problem down here."
....
Shortly after...Moreau stormed into the lab room that housed the many serums he and the other technicians had created since the island's inception. Each was specially marked with a letter/number combination that only Moreau and the other high ranking staff were privy to.
"What is going on... why wasn't this found sooner." Moreau checked all the vials and flipped through the inventory that was here. He'd had it all checked rechecked three times.
"Who signed off on the inventory previously?" Moreau said irately. He flipped through the detailed records looking for a name.
"Sabin..." Moreau said through gritted teeth.Sabin, meanwhile, was deep downstairs in one of the labrooms where he had been... conducting some of his own experiments. Well, more precisely Sabin had been working on some experimentation for some time - before having been given the final piece of the 'dragon puzzle' from Moreau on his return from things shore-side, Sabin had been hashing out how to address the problem from a slew of angles. And had several not-so-pleasant results from them.
Most of those projects had been culled a long time ago, but others had had some margin of success, and Sabin had considered them bold steps forward. However, when he HAD finally gotten that 'magic' set of formulas from Moreau, the mechanism that allowed him to make Zachary's serum - to select where the foreign DNA would express itself in the situations of more than one admixture, or even adding on sets altogether different, Sabin had not been able to resist ... tinkering with his new toys. It would be months before he was given another subject personally, at best. And he wanted to fully explore his options. Honestly, going against Moreau's will never even really occurred to the white-haired man in his enthusiasm at creating some of the creatures in living, breathing form that had dominated his research - or even just imagination - for years.
So he had requisitioned one of the slews of yet-unused labrooms, and some of the lab animals, and set to work. Some of the earlier experiments were finalized, perfected, with Moreau's serum - even 'saved' if it were from culling as he was able to fix what he had done wrong. And another one was altogether new - a brilliant excercize in the plausibility of the serums.
At that very moment Sabin was, in fact, in the laboratory, feeding his projects... no, he would call them his pets. His triumphs. While ... many were in miniature compared to their legendary inspirations, they were triumps nonetheless. There was a black cat, but with a set of legs too many, and sporting a pair of squid tentacles from its shoulderblades. Sabin was tickled that most of the personality was even unchanged, as he watched it, chin on his hands, eating from an opened can of Fancy Feast.
Joining it in a nearby cage was once a cockerel, but now that had several undeniable reptilian features - including a long scaly tail, and some reptilian scaling in other areas, and
teeth in its beak. In another cage was another animal that had once been a lab cat, but this one had been more drastically changed, as the front half seemed almost entirely avian - a hawk of some sort completely overshadowing the tawny tabby hindquarters.
Finally, off in another cage was a canine that had been at one point running about the Island. Sabin had happened across it eating out of the several-week old garbage behind the cafeteria during the lockout. Long neglected, underfed, and running the risk of becoming one of the less sane islanders' meals, Sabin had taken it into the labs. It was only later, after Sabin got his claws on Moreau's 'recipe' did he decide what to do with Brutus. It didn't even involve any foreign DNA - which was the real kicker, but a reconceptualization, some very tricky anatomywork planning, and a lot of growth. He had already thought of the moniker "Cerbrutus", to the point where he had etched "Cer" in front of the 'Brutus' on the canine's metal nameplate. He was also eating - from three bowls to keep the heads from fighting or snapping at each other.
It took Moreau a few hours to track down Sabin. He'd apparently snuck off to one of the lesser used labs. He turned on the cameras in that area (normally not on since it was not an active room). What he saw through the video footage made him furious.
Moreau turned on the personal door override and hurried to the elevator. He found the room where Sabin had been conducting his unauthorized experiments.and as he walked to the door it opened for him. "How... dare you..."
Moreau's eyes shon furiously.
Sabin turned around, understandably surprised as he heard a voice that he had not heard now in some time. Moreau was a recluse - and most of Sabin's official business had recently been done with Aubrey, as Moreau was off working on his own projects. It had likely been weeks now since he had seen him in person.
He spun, a mildly confused look in his eyes as he saw the redhaired doctor in the flesh. "Moreau..? I..." He shook his head. "How dare I what??"'
"You used serums and DNA samples on... pointless creatures. Do you have any idea how much this has cost us." Moreau looked so angry that his face almost matched his hair.
He moved closed into Sabin's personal space. "Besides that, this research is completely unauthorized by me. You should be working on the projects I gave your team to do not your own silly games."
Sabin unconsciously took a step backwards away from the enraged doctor. This was the island's owner. Upset at
him! for his projects!
"They
have been working on the assigned projects. We've got a slew of labmice and rats testing the agressive sideeffects of the serums - and I've got a folder full of findings... but... I didnt' see the harm... I mean..." Sabin made a sweeping gesture at the four cages. "These are phenomenal findings as well! The potential with the advanced combination formula... being able to direct what features are expressed where - and even in 'unnatural' places! I wanted to run some more experiments-tests! I mean... before trying it on a subject - I was also thinking - what if we worked out the kinks in a parent organism first - create, say, a griffin from a bird and a cat - and then use THAT as the base of a new serum instead of a combination serum directly on a subject?!" Sabin summoned a wide, excited grin
Moreau did not look amused. "Considering the volitile nature of the DNA we were working with. You knew that we could do this, besides, I authorized a few test similar projects done with simple, inexpeinsive, lab animals. We were satisfied. This is a waste of time, and money. I want it destroyed."
Sabin's jaw hung open. "D... destroyed?" The word seemed to hit him like a steam engine. "But-" He looked back at them. In some humane portion of Sabin's soul, he had started to like them... consider them pets. He even had names for a few of them.
"But there IS some use to it! And... you mean you have done some other tests with using already altered animals as a base?" He shook his head. "But that's not the point! I mean... I was hoping to use some of THESE as a base! And... besides... there IS new research here!" Sabin turned back to his projects, grasping for one when his eyes lit on Brutus, sniffing at the empty bowls.
"Extra heads!" He clambored to the cage. "There haven't been any other successful tests of this... but building off of the directed combination serum... and with some tinkering with some of the old research I had been doing that had eventually gone off in the wrong direction! Look!"
The anger that Moreau was feeling did a bit to mask his otherwise interest. Though there was some. "Even if you did gleem so modicom of actual research and success in your idiotic tests. That does not change that these were completely unauthorized and the amount of rare serums to do this."
"If you were so certain about this research, why didn't you submit your report."
"I didn't think I
needed authorization to run some side tests!" Sabin protested. "You've been so difficult to reach, and I didn't see the harm in these further confirming the applicability of the new research to make doubly certain of no future side-effects. Besides, we've all had our pet projects - I didn't see the difference!"
Sabin paced a moment in frustration, looking at the cages. "Besides, I only used a few serums - I kept the numbers of the projects down to concentrate the efforts on them."
"This is my island, I don't need authorization for my projects. You on the other hand are an employee, despite anything else you might want to believe in that deluded mind of yours." Moreau was leaning close, but calming down slightly.
Moreau turned and showed Sabin a list, while Sabin might have thought it was only a few serums Moreau also showed Sabin the price tag beside each Serum.
"Do you understand now you fool?"
Sabin gritted his teeth at the chastizement, eyes narrowing slightly at the insults, but he wisely held his tongue until Moreau had stopped speaking, taking the tablet and finally looking down. His eyes widened, and he swallowed as he saw the final value of each completed serum. He knew they were expensive, he just didn't know they were
that expensive.
Suddenly, retrospectively, Lily's 'accident' and her subsequent punishment made a little more sense to Sabin. She had dropped a whole trayfull, to boot.
"I wasn't aware of the values." He said with a breath, and then, defensively. "We've been ecouraged to work on projects until now that could benefit the research.... the advanced combination serum... that was the solution to many of the problems that I had been having with my teams' research up till then..."
"But this..." Moreau said eyeing Brutus. "Was for the most part pointless. Your being completely and totally reckless."
"I'm temporarly suspending you and your research, destroying those, tests, as they are finished with at this point." Atleast in Moreau's eyes. "I'll give your team over to that girl, Robin. Atleast she knows how to not abuse her privledges." Moreau stormed off after saying this.
"What?!" Sabin trailed after him. "My team?! My research? But... they're not pointless!" He protested. "And the dog - it could be used for research - I dont' know exactly what your primary goal is to all of what is going on, but perhaps that could be used on a subject!" He followed him out the door, not willing to just let this happen.
"I didn't think I was
abusing anything! I'm trying to do the same thing you are here!" He declared. "And there's as little point to destroying them as there is letting them live! Please! Reconsider!"
"It's a temporary suspension Sabin. Get your act back in line." Moreau stood there as the elevator door started to close.
"Take a blood sample and get rid of that stupid dog. I don't want to see it here again. At all." The elevator door closed as Moreau began to move up inside it.
Sabin let out a seething, growling breath through clenched teeth as the elevator door slid closed. After it had completely closed and the lights started to flash as it retreated, Sabin planted a fist in the wall to his side - the THUD reverberating down the hall as he walked back to the room, shaking his hand after the impact.
Sabin was likewise pissed. He had never stopped to consider that what he was doing might be against policy. Hell, from Sabin's impression there wasn't a great deal OF a policy here at all, given the work he had been doing. This was a betrayal of sorts. He looked forlornly at the group of animals caged around him. His successes. His mythical creatures. They were going to be put to death. He frowned deeply, refilled their foodbowls with treats - good nutrition didn't matter much at this point, and slammed the door closed, stalking back to his room with a slew of curses in French on his tongue. As he exited the room, a small heard of labtechs whisked in after him, taking the animals, Sabin knew, to their doom.
Aubrey peeked out of the lab she was working on, thinking she heard something. She thought she heard arguing, but ignored it, but then the sound of impact made her worried. She saw Sabin stalking her way, looking very upset. "Dr. Duvert...?"
Sabin turned quickly to the brunetted, shaking his head with a growl. He was red in the face and there was a commotion of labtechs in the room behind him. "Yes, what now? You going to chastise me more, too?"
Aubrey simpered, everyone seemed to assume the worst with her recently. "What's going on?"
Sabin took a breath, actually surprised that she wasn't abreast on the most recent news. He gesticulated angrily to the lab room. "They... Moreau.... he just stopped a project. And he's culling everything. The successes!" His voice was clipped, very angry.
Aubrey looked down the hall, towards the techs filing into the room. "What.. uh, project?"
He huffed. "I was..." She'd probably be angry at him too. He didn't care. "I was testing some other options with the directed combination formula. Making sure that it worked the way we wanted it to with other situations. I was even doing so with the intent of perhaps using a finished animal-subject as the basis for a single serum. And I was even testing some new features... extra heads~! I succeeded in the growth of extra heads in a subject! From its own DNA! Do you realize what that could mean?"
Aubrey blinked, taking it in. "So why did Moreau pull the plug?" she asked, not exactly grasping at the severity.
"Yes! He pulled the plug! He's killing the projects - AND I'm suspended. And.. Because... it was 'unauthorized' - I didn't think I needed his permission to do tangential research on my own. I had been doing it before when he presented me the formula to do the directed combination solution."
Aubrey looked very confuzzled. "Uhm... there must have been something wrong, Doctor..."
Sabin growled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dark slacks. "Apparently the cost of the serums. No one ever showed me how much the damn things cost him. But there is NO reason to kill the animals! My cockatrice! My griffon! My... Cerbrutus."
It all clicked. "Griffon, Cockatrice...? Sabin were you making mythical animals just for the hell of it.. - wait. What the hell is a Cerbrutus?"
Sabin's face fell. That was the reaction he was afraid of. "It wasn't just 'for the hell of it!'" He protested. "I was going to see if we could use a pre-combined animal as a base for a new serum. But apparently NOT anymore! And Cerbrutus... sorry, Cerberus. I called it that based on the name on his collar. I rescued the dog from starvation during the lockout." Sabin explained.
"Wait... you don't mean Brutus do you??"
Sabin paused, backtracking. "It.. uhm.. that's what was on his collar. I found it eating out of two-week-old trash during the lockout. Lucky he hadn't been eaten himself already."
Aubrey's eyes widened. "Thats VASILE's dog. He's worth... god knows how much. Vasile's been worried sick abuot him to... oh god, what did you DO to him?"
"Vasile's?" Sabin looked honestly surprised. "hunh, I figured he must have belonged to someone, but I didn't know who. Well, not like he was going to be bred here on the island. And he's fine!" Sabin frowned. "Yeesh, I took good care of him. He's just got... extra heads now." He glanced to the side. "But Moreau's slated them all for destruction." Sabin looked
honestly saddened by this fact.
"Extra heads?"
"I already told you this!" Sabin exasperated. "It's an amazing breakthrough! Used his own DNA! Can you imagine the uses? Directed growth of extra limbs... from someone's own DNA? Could be used for regrowth or whatnot in hospitals... but anyway - he's fine. He is still friendly and eating. Well... until he gets gassed." He sighed, eyes lingering on the door, a frown on his mouth.
Aubrey frowned. "I won't allow that to happen. At least not to him. Vasile would be heartbroken."
He took a breath and nodded. "I wish I could save ALL of them. They're not in pain, they're not 'failures'... In fact I think that the displacer cat even was starting to LIKE me." He disparaged.
"What the hell is a displacer cat?" she asked, heading quickly towards the lab
Sabin followed, a bit behind her, not wanting to somehow take any MORE blame for the following. "It's... a long story - black cat with six legs and a pair of tentacles coming from its shoulders."
"My goodness, Duvert, really," she said with dissapointment, throwing open the door. The techs were going cage to cage with a cart of syringes- lethal injections. Several black plastic bags lay on the push cart, obviously animals already have been put down. Only the said Displacer Kitty and Cerbrutus remained. "Wait!" she said quickly, breezing into the room
He frowned. "I don't see the harm in what I did." At the sight of the bags, his shoulders slumped and in a rare show of humanity he turned his back and crossed his arms. "I should go. I don't want to draw even MORE of his ire."
Aubrey frowned and walked over to the untoched cages, her eyes going WIDE as she saw what used to be a pedigree min pin. Now it looked...well, like three of them huddled very close together until it turned to its side. "My god, Sabin, that's amazing..."
He paused, surprised until he turned around and saw she wasn't being sarcastic. "See! That's what I was saying! It's a blazing success - and opens the door for a lot of possibilities!"
Aubrey sighed, opening the cage and taking the animal into her hands, scratching its chest. "Look... you should give this back to him. You'll have to answer for what you did, but I'm sure he'll be happy he's alive."
"I'm not going to. I've already been suspended. If I do that, I'm likely to wind up with Lily. No thanks. If I was going to go against him, I would have saved them all."
"Look, I'll talk to Moreau, okay. Do this, and I'll let you keep you're... displacer thing."
Sabin hesitated, eying the brunette. 'Aubrey told me to' was a decent excuse to Moreau... he hoped. Besides, he said he didn't want to see them again, not necessarily to kill them. "... Fine." Sabin agreed, scooping up the three-headed-minpin. "Please do - his... declarations weren't fair. And I want to continue my research!" He eyed the displacer kitty, patting it quickly on the head.
"I... see what I can do," she sighed, not liking anything a bout the situation. She layed an almost mournful, respectful hand on the small pile of black bags and headed quickly out of the lab, scouting for Moreau.
Concludes here:
http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?page=5&t=1285765#57914713
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