Stepping Stones (Founding of the Federation Short Stories Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  “To bootstrap them? In one generation? Are they aware of the species differences? The risks involved?” Chan demanded.

  “You know they only see the bottom line. Results. We're not giving it to them. Not fast enough for their sake or the shareholders. And,” she stamped on his attempt to protest, “they aren't willing to put up with anymore foot dragging or justifications for the slow pace. We have a hard deadline to give them definitive results.”

  “How hard a deadline?”

  “Well, let me put it this way. It's now a race to see who can come out first, Lagroose or us. And they've got the lead on us.”

  “Chikush?” Chan muttered. He inhaled and began to rant. “They can …”

  “Ii kagen ni shiro. Ayumiyoru,” she told him flatly, eying him sternly, telling him not to be stupid and to step up. “That is direct from the board from Sako san himself.”

  Shima looked at the still Chan then to Ishigama. Apparently, the time for foot dragging was indeed over; the lords had indicated they were losing patience. “Then we have no choice,” Shima breathed, nostrils dilating as his face schooled into a proper mask. “When will the sequencing be complete?”

  “Tomorrow. I suggest you get the older genetic databases ready. We've already run the comparisons to the base sample, so that is a start. We can run the new sample against them. That should shorten things.”

  “If they didn't make extraordinary changes,” Chan murmured.

  “True,” Ishigama murmured, nodding slightly to him. “You are on board?” she asked him.

  “Saranari.” Of course.

  “Arigatou,” she stated.

  “In the meantime we will move to what, start socializing and taming the baboons?” Shima asked.

  “And the other subjects. We're going to need to break down barriers quickly. Nakumura is one.”

  “And if he is hurt in the process?”

  “He is young. Better to risk the young than someone older and wiser,” Chan said with a cold look.

  “Hai.”

  (0)^(0)

  Toshi went through his usual routine; he felt a bit of relief that no one treated him differently. He'd heard about Sai's dismissal in passing, but he was too busy to talk. He'd been given new orders through his email, apparently the lab was set ablaze by the CEO's new mandate to move forward to the next phase, whatever that was. He thought everything would get back to normal but was surprised when Doctor Chiang called him in for a talk after his morning tea break.

  The senior staff had offices in the administration side of the lab complex, above the reception area. Each had shoji style door with a plaque near with the occupant's name. The doors were designed to look like traditional style, but he knew the plastic they were made out of had sound deadening qualities to them.

  He took his shoes off at the entrance to administration then padded nervously down the wood laminate hallway to the right door.

  “Sir?” Toshi asked, knocking gently on the open door. He nodded to the veterinarian. “You sent for me, Sensei?” He peaked inside and dropped his eyes. The Vet's office walls might be that of a Washitsu, but he had a western style desk and chairs within.

  The older man looked up and schooled his face into an appropriate mask. “Come in, close the door,” he said, setting his tablet down on the blotter in front of him and then shutting the hologram the desk was projecting off.

  “Yes, sir,” Toshi said softly, complying.

  “Have a seat,” the vet said, pointing to the chair across from his desk. When Toshi sat nervously, he waved a hand. “This isn't a reprimand, Nakumora; what happened wasn't your fault. Quite the contrary. And you did an excellent job holding yourself together under pressure without warning.”

  “I have some primate training, sir. Very little hands-on though.”

  “I see. Sims?” the sensei asked.

  “Hai,” Toshi replied, echoing the other interns and staff. His background had most likely been the deciding factor in getting him into Genetek. Just about everyone was Asian, and a majority were from Nihon, the Japanese home islands. His family had migrated from Seattle, but apparently some were racist enough to only care about the slant of his eyes. Whatever, it had gotten his foot in the door, so he really shouldn't complain he thought.

  “Good. But we want to take it a step further contrary to some belief I have been wanting to extend the hands-on program to the adults. To follow through with the animals for their full life cycle and train them so it would be easier to do hands-on vet work when required. But safety became a major issue for the daigenin upstairs,” he said with a slight trace of a grimace. “They thought of it as a liability issue. Which it was. But …,” he shrugged such considerations off. “It doesn't matter now. What does matter is Sako San himself has directed us to move forward at an expedited pace. So, you are going to be taking on new duties.”

  Toshi thought rapidly. His internship was nearly up. He wasn't sure what to make of this news; he hadn't planned on reapplying. “So, I am to stay on, Sensei?”

  “Hai. A problem with that?”

  “No, Sensei,” Toshi said, already reordering his priorities. He would need to talk to his college counselor to work out the changes to his class schedules. One good thing, it would look great on his resume! He frowned mentally. Were they doing this as some sort of reward for what happened in the baby room? He hoped not.

  “Since you have some hands-on experience, you and I will be working with the animals more. Not just the babies but also the adults. We wish to reintroduce human contact with them. Regular human contact which means daily interactions with them. You'll need to brush up on their body language.”

  “Hai, Sensei,” Toshi replied, now nervous. Was he being asked what he thought he was?

  “Thoth will be the most difficult one,” Chaing sensei mused. “So we'll have to work up to him I suppose. You'll have to work around some of the juniors. I've got someone else in mind to handle the other projects.”

  Other projects, Toshi wondered. He nodded curtly though, as expected.

  “If necessary we'll work around Thoth. Getting in with the females is the important thing.”

  “Hai,” Toshi replied with another nod. That was true. Baboons were matriarchal with one-two males as alphas. The alphas considered the females as their harem. The females saw it differently of course. Most of the young males kept to the outskirts of the troop and were eventually driven off by the adult males when they reached sexual maturity and therefore became a threat. That was usually the time they were separated from the troop by the humans.

  The juniors were also known to try to kidnap young females too. He'd read about it in the wild after Doctor Ishigana had told the interns that they kept them apart for their safety as well as handling. Apparently males would offer rides to the young females and then take them away. The young would be abused and would die of malnourishment or dehydration. The humans’ intervention had put a stop to that as well.

  “So, in addition to your usual duties, you are to interact with the troops more. Any ideas?”

  “I'd like to get back in with the babies at first Sensei. To make sure I haven't lost my nerve,” Toshi replied wryly, “and to build up to interactions with the others. Some of the younger females, perhaps?”

  “Under the theory that they would be easier to handle?” Doctor Chaing asked. He cocked his head and then slowly nodded. “Understandable. I find them a bit excitable. They tend to settle down more as they move onto adulthood.”

  “We seem to be on the same page there then, Sensei,” Toshi said before he could stop himself.

  The old vet snorted. “Shinsei,” he said looking away with a slight smile. He schooled his face once more after a moment and looked into Toshi's eyes. “Think you can handle it?”

  “I will need to adjust my schedule, Sensei. And speak to my school counselor soon. But I am willing to try.”

  “Choujou, excellent. That is the spirit,” the vet replied with a curt nod. “I'm sending you t
he new schedule in your inbox. You start after lunch.”

  “Hai, Sensei,” Toshi replied with a slight bow.

  “You can go.”

  “Hai, Sensei,” Toshi replied, rising in a smooth motion. He exited the room and then let out a sigh of relief as the Japanese style door closed silently behind him. It looked like he would be calling his counselor right away he thought as he settled himself.

  (0)^(0)

  Sakura was dismayed that Sai had been sacked for his stupidity. It was probably inevitable, but she wished he had been smarter about how he'd set it up. More careful about how he'd set that distraction up. “I keep telling you Sakura, it wasn't a distraction,” Kibba insisted when they got back to their apartment complex. It was Friday so they had to go out clubbing even though she didn't want to do so.

  “You mean you didn't get anything?” she demanded.

  “I didn't know he was doing it! He was so in character.” He shook his head.

  “Sloppy you mean?”

  “Yes. At least now he can go home, get reamed, and then go back to drawing like he wanted to do. He hated being stuck in the sterile lab.”

  “Great. So, he didn't so much as take one for the team as cop out,” Sakura said acidly. Kibba winced. Sakura ran a hand through her pink hair. “So now what?” she demanded, using a ribbon to tie her hair up out of the way.

  “We stay on mission of course. Observe, report, and help security if we have to.”

  “Yes, but there are only two of us now. Are the clans going to send in backup?”

  Kibba shook his head. “Genetek isn't in a hiring cycle. They aren't interested in replacing Sai right off either, or so I've heard. Which means we're on our own.”

  “Great,” Sakura sighed.

  “What about that Toshi kid?”

  “What about him?”

  “Think we can use him?” Kibba asked, eying her.

  “I don't know. What do you mean?”

  “Well, if he's rattled enough, and he quits … that might get Genetek to open up the hiring cycle early.”

  “Yeah, but do we have anyone in place? You know they have to build the covers over time. That's why we're here. Genetek security's background checks are thorough.”

  Kibba groaned. “Yeah. I forgot that,” he sighed as he put his face paint on. They were getting ready to go out clubbing, their usual Friday night haunts. It was all a part of the routine they had established for their characters. He liked to put slitted contacts in his eyes and draw fang face paint on either cheek. He popped the canine caps off to reveal sharpened teeth on top and bottom. “So we're stuck with him,” he said, voice getting gruff.

  “He's a good kid. Let it be. I still can't believe …,” Sakura said hotly.

  “Just drop it Sakura, leave it be. He's alive, he's safe.”

  “Right.”

  “And he's breaking ground, moving the project along. Something we didn't do.”

  “We're not supposed to. Observe and report, remember?” Sakura asked. “Blend in and don't stand out.”

  “Ah, but we're also intern students right?” Kibba asked. She grunted. “So we have to have some ideas. Just not really good ones.”

  “And advancing the cause may help our client—who we don't even know. We don't know their objectives either, just what we're told. They could want us to help; I mean, our orders were to back up security, right?”

  “Hai,” Kibba said with a nod.

  “For all we know Genetek could have hired us in some sort of double blind thing. I don't know,” Sakura mused. That made Kibba go cross-eyed as he thought through the double and triple logic of that statement. “For now, if you get an idea, give it to Toshi somehow. Maybe it will help, and maybe it won't. But he'll get the credit, and we can stay on mission,” she said, finishing her makeup. She glanced at herself in the mirror, nodded once, and then turned to leave.

  “Hai,” Kibba murmured, following her out.

  (0)^(0)

  Toshi did some rapid fire research during his lunch. He set the search engine to look for how to handle the animals successfully, and what was dangerous. The smart program in his tablet analyzed what he had entered, calculated his probable intent, and then uploaded the query to the station net. A second later he got the filtered results.

  He wolfed the roll down quickly as he watched videos on how to approach primates while also reading as much as he could on behavior. He found that if he backed up to a baboon it was the best way to approach one, but it left him vulnerable to attack. Apparently eye contact made them nervous. They saw it as a threat. So, he had been right to follow protocol and his instincts.

  He was amused to find that the video was nearly sixty years old, back when baboons were plentiful in Africa. The man explained how to approach a wild baboon by moving backwards. It seemed dangerous, but it obviously worked.

  How much of the animals’ psychology was instinct and how much was social learning he wondered. How did they differ due to their environment from the wild? He shook his head. He didn't know. But in a few minutes he was going to get back in the ring.

  It was like his martial arts sensei said, you had to get back onto the mat to not give into your fear. He really was afraid; he knew that. The fear wasn't something to be denied either. But he had to use it, study it, and confine it and not let it overrule his actions. Caution would be natural, but he had to take chances.

  It was tempting to go into the enclosure with the females wearing full body armor like Sensei Chaing did. But he thought that was the wrong approach. Each time they did, the animals knew something was up. That one of them or more would be singled out by the nets and tranquilizer guns, shot, chased, netted, held down, and in their purview, tormented by the humans. They didn't understand it was for their own good. He shook his head.

  “Almost done?” Kibba asked, looking his way.

  “Just about. I'm doing some last minute research.”

  “A project? What's it about?”

  “Staying alive,” Toshi said simply as he rose to his feet. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled as he policed his tray. “Okay, let's do this,” he said. Kibba watched him leave and then turned to Sakura. She too was watching the departing young man.

  (0)^(0)

  Toshi passed Thoth's troop, paused, and then looked within. The old male looked back so Toshi looked away. He looked around, checking the enclosure out. There were rocks within, sticks and logs for the animals to climb on. Some were up on them, but he'd seen that they didn't like to be treed. In the wild they would outrun a human. Here they didn't have far to run.

  He put his hand on the window and was surprised to see Thoth look at the hand, then come closer. The baboon alpha sniffed the air then put his own hand up to match Toshi's. The young man felt a thrill. Something was there; something he knew he had to trust.

  Still, he couldn't risk it just yet. His headstrong initial instinct, the wild urge to throw it all away and get it over with in Thoth's enclosure ended abruptly as the primate yawned. The long canines in the dog-like muzzle sobered him instantly.

  Instead, he let his hand drop, and he went to the nursery.

  Sakura stood watch as he entered. She smiled briefly, bobbed a nod in return to his own, and then watched as he went in. Toshi took to the young after a moment. He inhaled gratefully and then coughed.

  “What?” Sakura asked, concerned.

  “Someone needs a diaper change,” he said, coughing again. He waved a hand in front of his face. She snickered.

  “Breathing through my mouth. Okay,” he said, scooping the first baby up. He checked her over, tickled her, then set her down with another baby then scooped up another. When the other babies moved away he knelt to minimize his profile. He also tried the backing-up trick with some of the older younglings. It worked. As long as they didn't see him as a threat, he was ignored. A few complained loudly when he caught them, but one seemed relieved. He checked him over and shook his head. “Found the culprit,” he said. His instincts were to h
old the stinky baby at arm's length but the baby needed reassurance. Instead he held him to his chest and moved to the changing table.

  “They are cute,” Sakura said.

  “You don't handle them?”

  “I do. It's not my shift though,” Sakura said defensively.

  “Do you play with them?” Toshi asked as he changed the diaper. The baby kept squirming until Sakura used a waldo arm to pass him a bottle. He took it, popped the nipple into the young primate's mouth, and the little guy settled down to suckle instantly.

  “You're good with that,” he said as she put the waldo back.

  “Practice.”

  “I'd try more hands-on,” Toshi replied. When he finished up the baby was half asleep. He set him down on a toy baboon surrogate and then went to the toys someone had put up on a shelf. He pulled a ball out and dropped it. It bounced. Sakura opened her mouth to object, but Toshi wasn't looking at her. All the babies were however. The ball's motion and bright colors were magnetic to their eyes. He bounced it again, then rebounded it off a wall and caught it. He did that a few times more before one of the older younglings came to investigate. That turned into a game of keep away and catch until the little rascal finally caught the ball and took off with it.

  “Imp,” Toshi muttered. He pulled another ball out of his pocket. This one had a rattle inside. He rolled it to a baboon. The baby started, eeped, and jumped away.

  “Oops, sorry little guy,” Toshi said softly, taking it back. He tried again. Finally he got another interested player.

  “They are going to make a mess,” Kibba said from outside. Toshi looked over his shoulder then back. “And you'll have to clean it up.”

  “So? I'll clean it up. Or teach them to. They are kids. They need enrichment,” he said, playing. He had one baby wrestling with his left hand while he rolled a ball back and forth between a couple of other babies.