by Chris Hechtl
He'd wanted to get in to one of the big zoos. Get in to work with the gorillas, chimps, and other great apes. Instead he was in Gentek's lab. At least they were handling the animals properly; they had plenty of room in their outdoor enclosures and a lot of enrichment activities.
He shook his head as the female yawned. She had pretty good teeth, not the spectacular fangs of the adults but still big. He watched her groom her shoulder, flip her tail, and then nuzzle into his knee and doze herself to sleep. Her soft snores made him snort.
“Great,” he muttered as the others took the cue from the eldest female and settled themselves on or around him. Mory tried to climb his shoulder to fall asleep there but gave in. He tempted the little guy into taking a bottle and curling up at his hip. Soon the little guy was asleep.
One thing that did bother him was this. Company policy was to separate the babies from the parents to closely monitor their initial development while also conditioning them to human handling. In a way he shouldn't complain he thought, running his one free hand up through his short black hair. He got hands-on time with the animals after all; something good to go on his resume for when he graduated. Not a lot of the members of his class could say that he thought smugly.
He wasn't sure why Gentek was tinkering with the genes of the baboons anyway. They weren't willing to tell him either. Just shut up, change diapers, pooper scoop, and keep the animals fed. Watch for illness. He made a soft puttering sound and then checked his phone watch. He had another hour until his shift ended.
“One more hour, fifty-eight minutes to go,” he said. He wrinkled his nose at the smell. They said you'd get used to it, but some things he never wanted to get used to. One thing was for sure, he was pretty much turned off of having a kid of his own for the next decade. Maybe two he thought with a twist of his lips. But he did have plenty of baby experience to also go on his resume, when he ever did decide to settle down.
Mom and dad wanted him to settle once he had his career off and running. They actively discouraged any long-term attachments he had tried to make during high school and during the early years of college. He still wasn't sure if that was a psychological trick of theirs or not. Reverse psychology? After all, they settled down when they met in college! It wasn't fair. But rules were rules. He had to respect them.
He looked up when the door off to his right opened suddenly and a being started to come in. At first he thought it was one of the juniors, but the frame was massive as it passed through the light. Drowsiness departed as he realized it was an adult. One of the females wouldn't be a problem but …. His eyes widened in shock when he realized it was Brutus, the alpha male.
He fought his fear and terror down as he watched the great beast stop and stare at him. He looked away, watching the animal's hands. He knew better than to make eye contact. Brutus had the silver-white cape of a Hamadryas but a white muzzle and a yellow beard. He had a pointed hair too. His rear was bare with the trademark calluses that baboons had to allow them to sit comfortably.
Toshi wondered why Doctor Ishigna had toyed with the genomes of the great monkey. His breath caught as Brutus yawned then snuffled.
Behind him two of the young male juniors came in. Now he knew why Brutus had been allowed in; he was gentle with the younglings and protected them from the over rambunctious juniors of the troop. Would he extend the same courtesy and protection to Toshi? A lot was riding on that, possibly his life he thought.
Brutus bristled a bit as he sniffed the air, then flashed his teeth again. Toshi's arm went up to protect his throat, not that it would do him much good if Brutus went on the offense. The monkey was ninety centimeters long and weighed a good thirty-one kilograms. He wasn't as big as Thoth or Babi but close enough to make anyone nervous. No one crossed him lightly, especially with those fangs.
Brutus like all of the genetically engineered subjects had human-like hands instead of monkey paws. He had an opposable thumb which meant his ilk had to be carefully watched. They were also smart, a lot smarter than Toshi was comfortable with, though he wasn't exactly sure how smart.
Brutus snorted again, then sneezed. He saw the baby on the intruder's arm hang on as he raised it. The baby sat up with his eyes closed, blinked, yawned, and then went back to hugging the human's arm. After a moment he went back to sleep, tail wrapped around his bicep.
Brutus snuffled then went over and smacked the human on the leg. Toshi moved over as far as he could. Brutus eyed him, then turned and sat with his back to the human. When the human didn't make a move, he grunted, looking over his shoulder expectantly. Tentatively Toshi reached out with his one free hand and groomed the baboon male.
The juniors looked on, then went and picked through the food and toys. After a few minutes, one went back the way he'd come. The other settled down but kept yawn displaying in front of Toshi. Toshi did his best to ignore it, focused on Brutus and keeping him happy.
When he heard a noise on the other side of the glass, he looked over to see Sai standing there, staring in shock and dismay. Toshi just looked back to Brutus and kept grooming his shoulder and back.
Sai hadn't expected Toshi to be in the infant quarters; he'd thought the guy would have popped in and out. Apparently not. He stared through the viewing window for a moment. Apparently Toshi was okay, uninjured as far as he could tell. He followed protocol anyway and hit the alarm, then grabbed the nearest trank pole from the cabinet.
Toshi saw what Sai was doing and did his best to wave him off. The last thing he needed was for the techs to come in all hot and bothered with him and the babies caught in the crossfire. They essentially had a hostage situation, and he was going to be a good hostage and keep his captor happy. Captors, he thought, looking down at the babies asleep around him. Even the junior was getting sleepy in the sun.
Toshi continued grooming Brutus, but when the junior got jealous, he tried to divide his attention. That didn't go over well with Brutus who smacked the junior away.
Meanwhile the techs arrived on the scene from all over the compound. They gaped at Toshi. “You okay?” Sai asked.
Toshi just looked at him, gave a thumbs-up, and then tried to hand sign to them to give a treat to the monkeys. Sai was clueless though, even when Toshi pantomimed eating. He sighed and gave up and went back to grooming.
“What's going on here?” Doctor Ishigana demanded as she came in. She looked at Toshi, surprised. “What's he doing in there?”
“I didn't know he was in there. I let Brutus and the others in but …”
“Can you get him out?” the doctor demanded. Preferably without getting the kid killed she thought. He was keeping a steady nerve she observed in approval. Good. And it was Brutus, the gentlest of the alpha males.
“You okay, Nakumora?” she asked, rapping the glass gently with a knuckle.
Toshi looked at her and then pantomimed food and eating then pointed to the door through which the males had come in. The doctor instantly caught on. She agreed with a nod.
“Get them a treat, some fruit. Brutus likes strawberries; get him some of those.”
“I've got some candy,” Sakura said, holding up a candy in a wrapper.
“Good. Go down to the end of block 1 and see if he will be drawn in by the small. Sai, Kibba, get the treats.”
“But it's not …,” Kibba stopped protesting at her stern look. “Okay, Doc,” he said hustling to obey.
They slipped the treats into the corridor, and tossed bits through the holes to create a bread crumb trail.
The sight of a piece of fruit being tossed in got to Brutus. He sniffed, but he couldn't smell anything due to the baby's stink. He coughed, then went over to the piece of fruit, picked it up, examined it briefly and then popped it into his mouth.
“It's working. Another,” the doctor ordered.
The junior saw a piece of fruit come into the corridor they had come through and went after it. Brutus followed, he wanted first dibs of course. The moment they passed through the lock, doc triggered the
door dropping it.
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Toshi managed to disengage himself from the babies and then climb wearily out of the chamber. He felt like he'd run a marathon in only a few minutes. He checked his watch phone. He'd been in the chamber a good half hour with Brutus. Wow.
“You are one lucky SOB, you know that, right?” Kibba asked him as he passed through the lock. “Gah! The smell!” He coughed, waving a hand in front of his face. “My eyes are burning.”
“Yeah, it is kind of rank,” Toshi said as Sakura came rushing up, stopped, then waved at him from a safe distance. He snorted.
“How can you stand it?” Kibba demanded as Doctor Chan arrived on the scene with security right behind him.
“I try to remember to only breathe through my mouth,” he answered.
“That was stupid. Monumentally stupid. What were you thinking?” Doctor Ishigana demanded, hands on her hips. “Do you realize you could have been killed?”
“Well, I didn't expect someone to let the alpha male in while I was in there,” Toshi said mildly, looking at Sai. He should be shook up he thought with a distant corner of his mind. He wasn't sure why he wasn't. Steady nerves? Or shock? He didn't feel scared. Awed maybe, but not scared.
Sai sputtered. “Moushiwake arimasen,” he apologized and then bowed low to Toshi before also bowing to the doctor.
The scientist studied the young man. “Well, other than the smell and … crap you seem none the worse for wear. You did good keeping calm and using your head,” she said.
“Thank you.” She wrinkled her nose at the smell. It was quite ripe.
Toshi shrugged it off. “Kids are kids. They tend to make messes; after all, they don't know any better. My sister's kids got me often enough. I'm used to it.”
“I suppose you are. I'm curious why he didn't challenge you,” Kika said. He shook his head, one hand holding his nose. “You're lucky to be alive, you know that, right? That was very dangerous.” She thought briefly of the liability, the …. She turned a glower on Sai.
“Either I stank so much he felt sympathy, or he was amused. I don't know what goes on in that mind.” He looked over to the baboon who was looking at them.
“Well, go get a shower. A thorough one,” Doctor Chan ordered, pointing to the door. “And burn those clothes,” he said.
“Funny,” Toshi said.
“Who's joking?” Doctor Chan turned on Doctor Ishigana. She glowered at Sai but her expression froze and realigned into a polite mask as she noticed her colleague's look. “Perhaps someone can explain what just happened?”
“I believe we can discuss it in my office. Kibba, see to the babies while Sakura makes sure Brutus and the other males get back into enclosure two,” Doctor Ishigana ordered. “Sai, why don't you come and let us know how exactly you failed to follow protocol to make certain the chamber was clear before you let Brutus in there?” she asked sweetly. Sai winced. The other interns and techs looked at him and then away. They each knew that it could have easily been one of them in there, and the outcome could have been very different.
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Toshi's shakes hit in the shower. He wanted to ride it out, blow it off, get some saki and get blind drunk but he refused. A Nakumora didn't act that way he reminded himself. Tempting as it was to relieve stress, it wasn't his family's way. Instead, once the shower was over he passed over eating to meditate.
Apparently Doctor Ishigana didn't need his report. He wondered briefly if the video cameras had been on to record it or what had happened to Sai. One thing was for certain, Sai wouldn't be so lazy as to let the animals through while walking along the hallway anymore. Never again he thought. Nor would he let himself be put into that position. Not without letting Sai and others know where he was.
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Sakura Haruno glared at Kibba Inuzuka. “Not now,” Kibba hand signed to her then walked off. She had no idea why he and Sai had done what they had done. She had no doubt they had done it on purpose though. Their job was to lay low, to provide eyes and ears to the clan's customer. Getting a kid mauled wasn't a part of the deal.
She glanced at Sai following in Doctor Ishigana's wake. If her expression was any sort of guide, she was fairly confident he was either going to be severely reprimanded or worse, sacked. That would be inconvenient for the team. They had been fortunate to get three of their team so deep into Gentek. Losing one would be unfortunate and could destabilize the others. They would have less cover and warning as they attempted to spy. It was inconvenient.
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“We could use this,” Doctor Ishigana stated.
“We're lucky it didn't blow up in our faces. What was the boy thinking?” Doctor Chan demanded.
“He wasn't at fault. The young man who was so sloppy has been terminated.”
“I see,” Chan said slowly.
“I think our attempt to blend wild and human social interaction was in error. Or at least, it should be terminated. We have the data we need on their wild interactions; now we need to accelerate their social development. It is past time to do so,” Doctor Ishigana stated.
Doctor Chan frowned. He was still perfecting the hand structure and didn't want to move on from there. He was glacial, wanting to take each system, perfect it, before moving on. But he was feeling the pressure from the board for more results—for faster results. The latest intelligence from Lagroose Industries own efforts was troubling.
The only reason the company had authorized the long-term experiment was because Lagroose had invested so much into it. If he had, it was reasoned it was for a reason. Now they had found the reason or at least one of them. According to the latest intelligence, Lagroose had started to explore using the dolphins as navigators of their proposed starships. The dolphin's natural navigational abilities coupled with their inner ear structure made them exceptional pilots it seemed.
Unfortunately, he hadn't gotten a chance to tinker with the genetics of cetaceans. The board had limited him to seals and sea lions since the animals were semi-aquatic. Their ability to handle being on land was an asset.
“What do you propose?” Doctor Shima asked.
“We've always socialized the babies in the crèche to get them used to human contact and handling during the early stages of their development.”
“It's allowed us easy access, yes. So we can monitor their health at such a critical time,” Doctor Chan stated.
“Right. What I'm proposing is that we extend that time period right into adulthood if possible. That we begin running more than the basic intelligence tests and go beyond the basic tool using tests,” she said, eying Chan. “I think they can do more if we push them.”
Doctor Chan worked his jaw. She could tell he was being stubborn. Doctor Shima frowned thoughtfully but didn't seem to lean either way to be helpful and break the deadlock. That was to be expected; Shima was getting more and more wrapped up in the cybernetics of the project. That part bothered her. The very idea of taking an animal, mixing in human traits, then going straight to a brain in a box? Without any sort of testing as to see its mental state? How it would function in a body? Madness. Utter madness.
“How do you propose we proceed?”
“Well,” Ishigama was a bit surprised about Chan's opening. It was just a request, but it was a small crack in his normally concrete stubborn wall of refusal to move more than a glacial pace. “ I was considering young Nakumora actually. He has some training in primatology. Not a lot of hands-on, but we could use that.”
“Apes are a little different than monkeys. And Baboons are unpredictable.”
“But we can use some of it—the grooming for instance.”
“Interesting,” Doctor Chan murmured. Doctor Shima seemed bored. He waved a dismissive hand. “Why has Lagroose invested so much into their Moreau projects?”
“That we're not sure of. Different experiments in genetic engineering? Gene sculpting for clients like we've been doing?” Ishigama shook her head. “What we know is from a few disgruntled techn
icians or from people who talked a bit too freely from time to time. All of it low level. Most of that has dried up since the Neos have been steadily replacing the techs.”
“The Neos? The subjects themselves? Are they a subject race of some sort? An experiment in alien psychology?” Shima asked, frowning. He resented that Lagroose was so far ahead of everyone else in the genetic engineering as well as cybernetics. They had an incredible budget to burn due to all the different departments of the company. The company seemed to have a finger in every pie as the saying went.
“Yes. They prefer to be called Neos, not Moreaus. That's a sticking point we did hear about from several sources,” Ishigama stated.
“Fascinating that they are up to that level of social interaction,” Shima murmured, eying Chan.
“Unless it's all a big smoke screen. A play to get others like us to invest money into chasing a dream,” the veterinarian insisted.
“We're past that.”
“We did get a bit of good news this morning. We have a hair from a chimp.” Ishigama stated with a slight smile of triumph.
“A chimp?” Shima asked, sitting upright. “We've been trying to get samples for a while!”
“Apparently they are about to come forward with the Neos publicly. Another year, perhaps less if our sources are correct. The Neos themselves are getting impatient.”
“So how did they get the sample? Does it have the follicle?” Chan demanded. The follicle was the real source of genetic material. “And have they verified it?”
“Just how did they get it?”
Ishigama held up a hand. “That they have it is enough. We've had other samples; this one we can compare to the earlier ones as well as normal chimp DNA for a baseline. But corporate wants us to move forward quickly.”
“Move forward how?” Chan asked slowly. He didn't like the sound of where the conversation was leading.
“Once the DNA strand has been sequenced, corporate wants the genetics department to pick apart the changes. They want us to create a simulation on how they did what and why. They also want a blueprint for application of the changes to our own subjects.”