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 Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 8:40 pm
"There are risks... but what scientific venture doesn't involve... risk." Moreau smiled and looked back as he pulled the jeep out towards the lab.
"We are doing great things here Dr. Frost... impossible things... and your going to be a part of it." the jeep sped bumpily through the underbrush and towards the lab facilities.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 8:43 pm
Marlena arched a brow at Moreau's words, and she shifted in her seat. She fingered the handle of her briefcase. Her most important items were inside, as she simply did not trust anyone else to transport them for her. Several vials of her latest hallucinogenic, her case notes on human responses to various stimuli, her records of torture techniques to make a victim trust and obey their tormentor, and other such lighthearted fare.
"Impossible things, Doctor? I can't even imagine what you must be doing here. Curing cancer? AIDS? Bioweapon research?" Those were about the most impossible to do things she could conceive of that might require the skills of a biochemist.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 8:51 pm
"Perhaps... all of the above? The research has many applications." the jeep pulled up to the lab facilities as the gates opened up.
Many armed guards stood on the inside and outside of the eletrified fence as Moreau pulled the jeep into a parking place. He then helped Aubrey out and led Marlena towards the facility.
The connected buildings towered the area, and at the top of it all, resting on the mountain above the buildings was Moreau's mansion itself.
"I think your going to like it here..." Moreau smiled again.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 8:55 pm
Her head swivelled to take in the facility as the jeep pulled up. She stared intently, memorizing every view, trying to piece together just what might be going on there. The mansion's impressive expanse held her gaze for a long while, as did the electrified fence. She pondered what it was meant to keep out, were there large predators roaming the island?
"I think I shall as well, Doctor. At least I hope I will. I shouldn't cling too closely to my hopes of enjoyment until I know more about the project." She eyed the armed guards in passing. The security was extremely tight for so remote a location. She followed Moreau and Aubrey curiously.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:01 pm
Moreau lead Marlena and Aubrey into the elevator. "Floor 2" the elevator rose. "I've set up everything in there. Dr. Lockheart and I will be able to take you through everything."
The elevator door dinged open and Moreau lead her down a hallway to a specific door. "In here." Moreau opened the door and the lights came on. A digital projector came on automatically with the Feral Labs logo and the slogan "Research Today. Change Tomorrow." on the screen.
It would have been a logo Marlena would have been familar with.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:03 pm
Marlena idly pulled on her lab coat as she entered behind her employers, making her already business-like appearance that much more formally doctor-ish. She tucked one hand into a pocket, the other still clasping the handle of her briefcase.
As the projector kicked in, she smiled faintly at the logo and slogan on the screen. She supposed she should have expected an orientation video, it seemed to be the way of all new jobs. She watched the screen with interest.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:12 pm
"You seem like a woman of results, so I'll just get to the point." Moreau pointed at the projector. "Show village facilities."
The projector flickered and the digital picture changed to various rotating shots of the village from many different angles. The duplexes stacked on top of each other, and the various other buildings surrounding the lake.
"We've termed it The Village it provides individual living space, recreation facilities, a cafeteria, and everything else that our subjects need to find some level of comfort." Moreau grinned. He'd wait a moment for reactions to go on.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:14 pm
Subjects....if they were living in duplexes, they were most certainly humans. Human testing. Live human testing. That in and of itself gave Marlena giddy chills which she carefully hid behind her Icy expression. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, sparing a glance at Moreau.
"It appears your subjects have all the niceties. Quite impressive." But subjects for what? Her mind worked at a rapid pace, trying to piece together everything she'd seen thus far.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:31 pm
"Show Subject 003... Cassidy Smith." Moreau said aloud, his grin growing bigger.
The screen displayed the images.
"This is Miss Smith apon her original arrival to the island. Before this picture was taken she was given her first injection." Moreau grinned. "Next."
"This is Miss Smith after her first injection. Our serums have begun a process of transforming her DNA to be partially that of a Green Tree Python to be exact. As you can see she is already showing signs, but they are normally subtle in this stage." Moreau grinned again. "Next."
"As you can see here, the changes have become more serve and pronounced. Specific parts of Scarlet Macow DNA was also introduced into her system to make her resemble a mythological Quetzalcoatl. This was one of our first attempts at going a step beyond and combining more types of DNA into one subject. At this stage she had more internal changes as well, and lost the ability to walk for sometime. We had prosetics made for her, and she also made use of a wheel chair." Moreau nodded to Aubrey in hers.
"Miss Smith is one of our first islanders and one of the furthest along. As you can see at this stage. She has even gone as far as to feed on full blown live animals whole at this point when she... wasn't quite in her proper frame of mind anyway." Moreau smiled and turned off the projector.
"She still has one more injection to go... but I think you can get the idea."
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:34 pm
Marlena paused, her steps halting in surprise. Her eyes widened ever so slightly, then narrowed, focusing in on just what it was she was seeing. A forked tongue...scales...then feathers and the loss of legs. Her lips parted as her jaw dropped open.
"One...One of the first? There's more than this? Only reptiles and avians or have you managed mammals as well?" Her eyes were almost glowing in their intensity, the hand that had been in her pocket now in front of her, clenching and unclenching in barely concealed excitement. A village full of subjects being transformed into things like this. It was...beyond imagination.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:44 pm
Aubrey smiled, remembering when Moreau first explained to her what they would be doing here. Of course, it was hard to imagine what it would be like to walk in the experiment when it nearly a year in. She had been there when the first subject changed..watching it live as it happened.
But to be plunged head first into something so grand. Aubrey rubbed her arm slightlym getting a tiny chill and a few goosepimples.
She gazed over to her lover and got lost in his enthusiam. Showing someone new is work had to have been exciting. For a moment she felt she was in college again with him.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:47 pm
"We've done more than that. We've engineered specific details. We've regrown limbs. We've sped healing" Moreau nodded over at Aubrey and smiled at her expression. "We've combined humans... with plants even."
"Show Subject 18 Anjali Frangipani 50%" The screen flickered and changed again.
"Sundew, to be specific, a carnivorous plant." Moreau leaned back. "How do you feel about the project now Dr. Frost?"
Everything came down to this reaction. Moreau needed people he could trust, if he didn't feel he could trust her, she'd end up on the otherside of that fence in a heartbeat.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:53 pm
Marlena gazed at the screen with something akin to wanton lust, if such a thing could be applied to scholarly pursuits. Her tongue flicked out to wet her lips as her throat felt suddenly parched. She tore her eyes from the screen to look at Moreau, the light from the projector highlighting the flush of her skin from the excitment of the project.
"I would want to interview the subjects individually, to get a sense of their state of mind, what makes them tick, what buttons can be pushed or what weak spots prodded...make baselines of their personalities to map changes based on the injection stages. Have you documented any significant behavioral alterations yet other than the eating habits? Do they take on the instinctual urges if the base creatures?"
Oh yes, she was more than a little onboard. Whole ladders of research were dancing around her mind, concepts branching like an orchard in full bloom. She looked brilliantly alive in the moment of possibilities.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 9:59 pm
"Actually yes," Aubrey said. "Quite a few behavoiral changes. Mostly towards the negative, but not all, I suppose. A subject injected with a combination of wolverine, grizzly, and tasmanian devil is exhibiting boughts of extreme agression. SO is the man with white tiger DNA."
She paused, scrating the medican tape that still concealed some wounds on her neck. "We're concerned about some of the mental effects. We feel some patients are exhibiting psychosis that we're not certain is related to their animal as well. One subject injected with a a large combination of - mostly - non-agressive animals is having mental instabilities. Have moments of rage and destruction, especially after just being injected."
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 10:03 pm
Excellent, just the reaction Moreau was looking for. He waited for Aubrey to finish, obviously she had a bit of a personal connection to some of this.
"Some of them have gotten too far out of hand. We need to know though, in many of them if this is actual psychosis that came from previous, or a stronger reaction to the serums. It's been the cause of many headaches. I'm not object to instinctual changes, I almost think they are nessesary but we can't have 30% of the subjects going stark raving mad." Moreau's tone was a bit more serious at this. He didn't want to negate the mental effects, he wanted to understand and to a point, control them.
"You'll be given a team of scientists, and responsible for some individual monitorings, as well as the possibility of newer serums that might take some of your theories and apply them." Moreau walked over to a cabinet which opened as he waved his hand over it. He pulled out a thick binder that had copies of all the important research, kind of a catch-up course.
"Of course, there is a chain of command to understand here. I of course head this facility, what I do is my business, your to do as I ask when I ask it. Dr. Lockheart is my second in command, unless it directly contridicts something I have said her word is as good as mine. If that's not clear, you'll never see this." Moreau smiled and layed the book down on the table, his hand over it.
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