The Ant - Chapters 3 - 5 (792 hits)
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Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2005-01-16 18:24:39 EST
(Chapter 1 http://www.ubersite.com/m/56777)
(Chapter 2 http://www.ubersite.com/m/56855)
CHAPTER 3 - Side Effects
There were five stories in the Pfaltzer Institute building, housing administration, the computers, the library, and the therapy/counseling centers. Below the manicured lawns and the visitor parking lot were seven other levels.
The first two were employee parking, and the loading docks. Below that, accessible only by a special elevator, were the research and development laboratories.
When asked, employees at the Institute would invariably say that the building design was for aesthetic reasons. Keep all of the unsightly labs with their intense technicians and chemical smells away from the public. The real reason was containment.
A lot of the agents the Pfaltzer Institute toyed with were classifiable as biohazards. A leak of something lethal and transferable five floors up was harder to contain than a leak in a fourth level basement lab. The doors and air circulation could be sealed off, and if necessary in an extreme case, a virtual flood of decontaminating agents in an antiseptic bath could be dumped down from a series of huge storage tanks on the roof into one or more lower level laboratories.
Security was easier to maintain as well. With fewer and fewer access points to the labs as one moved lower into the higher security areas, the chances of a break-in, either by thieves or corporate spies, were reduced.
In B7, the lowest, and most vital area of the Institute, Doctor Schroedecker was down on his hands and knees cursing and shaking his fists.
It was a few minutes after midnight, September 18th. Unable to get much sleep these last few nights before the new drug trials, he had been working late and had gone to check on what Pfaltzer referred to as the 'graduating class,' a group of twelve diabetic white mice which had been injected with Pi/c95A three months ago, the group which had demonstrated to the FDA that there were no mortal dangers involved in the practical use of the drug.
Schroedecker had opened the door to the lab, passed through the airlock (for use in emergency situations), switched on the lights, and froze.
The mice were gone. They should have been in plain view, on a low workbench, in a massive cage of special design. The mice were gone. So was the cage. The many bolts which had held the cage against the wall had been torn free. On the floor was a trail of plaster dust, water drops and assorted seeds from the various feeding apparatus, bits of straw and shredded newspaper from the bottom of the cage, and droppings.
The trail led across the lab, through a set of swinging doors (which were battered and scarred at about the level of Schroedecker's knees,) and into a smaller room filled with steel cabinets and refrigerators, used for the storage of gene and tissue samples, chemicals, and various conductor viruses.
There was a ruined grill in the far wall, behind which was a ventilation shaft. If any of the chemical sniffers or fire alarms were triggered, the ventilation system was shut down.
Schroedecker could see that the system was still operational. When he stuck his head and shoulders into the gaping tear in the metal grille and looked down, he could feel the airflow against his face. When he looked up, he could see the long, dark throat of the shaft leading to the roof. He could also see... he squinted, then shook his head.
He went to the far wall and switched off the lights. As the dull glow of the amber security lights filled the room, he returned to the shaft. He found a box of wooden matches in his pocket and lit one, dropping it when the flame was strong. Before the flame winked out Schroedecker saw the bottom of the shaft. There were seeds down there, and a large piece of the torn grille.
Schroedecker turned around and looked up. As his eyes adjusted he saw little glimmers of light at the end of the shaft. With a shock he realized that he could see the stars.
He rushed to the roof and ran across its tarred and graveled surface with a flashlight in one hand.
Walking towards the spot on the roof which corresponded with the laboratory many stories below, Schroedecker found the end of the ventilation shaft. The elaborate metal housing which had capped the shaft was torn free and lying in a twisted heap a few feet away.
Closer to the shaft was the cage, its tempered steel bars pried apart in a half-dozen places. Schroedecker examined the area carefully.
Of the twelve mice which had been in the cage he found only two. One was in the wreckage of the cage, and one was near the edge of the roof. Both appeared to be unconscious, or comatose.
Holding them carefully, Schroedecker raced back to his office. He placed the mice in a Plexiglas incubator used for young or sick animals which needed extra attention and a strictly controlled environment.
He went to his computer, dashed off a quick e-mail message to Pfaltzer, and then returned his attention to the mice. There had been a video camera recording the activities of the mice when they had made their escape- standard after-hours procedure. He played the tape again and again, carefully zooming in and locating each mouse by its numbered ear-tag, and studying their actions.
He knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep this night. Sleep did claim him though, in the quiet hours of the morning, while he sat in front of his computer, waiting for the results of the blood work on the mice,
CHAPTER 4 - Pfaltzer Deletes
At exactly 8am on the morning of the 18th, Pfaltzer made his rounds of the Institute.
He saw that some of the volunteers for the human trial of Pi/c95 were already being briefed on the short time they would soon spend in the salon, which was nothing but a pleasantly decorated room filled with comfortable couches upon which reclining volunteers would be injected with Pi/c95 after having signed a document stating that they had read through and fully understood all of the terms and conditions of The Agreement to be a test subject.
The Agreement was a twenty-thousand words-plus malpractice-proof when signed document assembled by twelve Pfaltzer lawyers, printed in eight-point type on flimsy paper and containing such little hidden gems as, "...the subject shall not be able to seek damages from, and Pfaltzer shall not be liable for, any unanticipated effects of any experimental solution which become apparent after the agreed upon period of intensive care and monitoring preceding the period of institutionalized observation..." Which meant in short, that after the two-day intensive care observation period, Pfaltzer was not legally responsible for any negative indications of the prognosis of the patients.
They would have been at least morally responsible, had Pfaltzer given a fuck. He did not. Schroedecker did care, and was a perpetually bleeding heart, which was one of the reasons Pfaltzer made sure that his partner was always in the lab with his nose buried in the guts of a mouse instead of taking the time to read the fine print on any Pfaltzer documentation.
He went down below, saw activity as usual in the lower labs -and found Schroedecker asleep on a workbench before an incubator in which were two of the graduating class. The rest of the lab was a mess, and Pfaltzer left with a grimace of distaste.
Upstairs in his own office, he came across Schroedecker's e-mail message:
Ernst! You must halt the procedure today! Important developments with graduating class! Come and see me at once! No human testing until then! I don't know what has happened, but it is not good!
Pfaltzer frowned, and then deleted the message.
By the time he finished tending to a few administrative details and went down to the salon, the fifteen volunteers were resting comfortably on their couches and waiting for their injections.
CHAPTER 5 - Schroedecker Awakens
Schroedecker woke up. Looked at his watch. Read the results of the bloodwork on the computer screen. And ran out of his office.
User Reviews
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-08-03 11:29:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Supreme Overlord damage control...
Submitted by Supreme_Overlord (user info) at 2005-07-21 22:20:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
shite
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-02-08 12:18:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-01-19 16:14:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-01-19 14:40:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Falconer (user info) at 2005-01-16 18:39:13 (#)
Ranking: 2
The whole series so far = fan-fuckin'-tastic. You rule dude.
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-01-17 11:30:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I went back and read the other chapters.
This is great.
Submitted by FuckTheArmy (user info) at 2005-01-16 22:05:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Anime!
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-01-16 19:47:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by metroidkillah (user info) at 2005-01-16 19:24:22 (#)
Ranking: 2
Have you considered publishing this when it's done?
--
Self-pub would be the only way to go with this. It gets very strange. It might make a good piece of anime, though. Stay tuned for further installments. Rob is about to face off against some unusual opponents...
Submitted by metroidkillah (user info) at 2005-01-16 19:24:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Have you considered publishing this when it's done?
Submitted by Mister_Fahrenheit (user info) at 2005-01-16 18:46:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
very good!
Submitted by Falconer (user info) at 2005-01-16 18:39:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The whole series so far = fan-fuckin'-tastic. You rule dude.