Exterminator : The Dark Beneath

“If you have to keep a secret it’s because you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

- One Day by David Nicholls

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” ― Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac

16:00 Upper ARC Executive offices

So far the meeting had progressed pretty much as Malcolm expected, with Holmes demanding to know how Malcolm could have been incompetent enough to allow a specimen to be removed without his knowledge. That set the tone of Malcolm’s reply and pretty soon the conversation had descended into a shouting match between the two men.

“Quiet!“ Carter suddenly shouted, slapping her perfectly manicured hand down on the table and cutting of Holmes’s latest tirade. ”If you’re both done arguing like children, I believe Mr Rinehart has compiled a report on the matter.”

The grey suited man moved from his seat in the corner and tapped on the wall mounted clear screen, pulling up camera feeds from the lab, alongside log-in records and lab visitation data.

“From my team’s analysis we can conclude that several times during the last month, an unknown individual has entered the second laboratory space for unknown purposes. It appears that during the last system update a digital back-door was added to the security software, allowing our unknown party to edit out their presence from records and video feeds.”

Rinehart tapped another key and streams of data started to roll down one of the items in the screen.

“My computer specialist believes that whoever did this was using a version of the Hack-space virus developed by the Matsumoto cooperation during their last skirmish with Arklight back in 2085, but modified to better target Gentech software. Also, before you start trying to assign blame it should be noted that this software is highly efficient, difficult to get hold of and complex to use. Only someone with considerable resources could obtain it, and the way it was introduces to the system suggest a high level of intelligence and familiarity with our systems. Due to the nature and professionalism of the insertion I believe it was the work of the Agent of another Corp or possible a sovereign nation. I did look into the back grounds of all Professor Malcolm’s Lab staff, but none strike me as an agent or plant. However, my men and I will be continuing our investigations.”

The Fixer sat and there was a moments silence as the rooms occupants considered this Revelation, before Mrs Carter spoke up.

“All right. Our top priority is the retrieval of the specimen. Mr Rinehart’s team have already begun a clandestine search of the facility, and although we cannot notify security of the exact nature of our missing property, I have alerted them that one of our labs is missing a valuable commodity. They will be monitoring all movement of goods in the ARC and will notify me if anything suspicious is found. One factor in our favour is that with the solar storm in full force, movement outside the ARC is impossible for at least another 10 days, giving us time. Now, Malcolm, as Mr Holmes and Mr Rinehart are as yet unaware of the significance of the specimen, could you please give us an overview of the creature and its importance?”

Malcolm took a deep breath and stood, making his way over to the clear screen and flicking across some files from his smart pad, at this point they were far beyond worrying about a small digital footprint. “As you know, the aim of our research is to develop the use of EVO for future generations. The ban on its further development was pushed forwards by fear of progress and political back dealings and should never have..”

“Malcolm,” Carter said sharply, ” Please focus on the facts!”

“Of course. EVO was developed to allow the human body to rapidly undergo physiological adaptations to environmental changes, such as moving to a higher elevation ,whilst also presenting biological degradation of muscle tissue due to prolonged misuse or extended time in micro gravity. However it has the potential to do so much more, but modifying it to allow human enhancement beyond its current limitations is difficult. ” He paused and pulled up a new set of graphs and charts.

“One of the Key stumbling blocks in developing EVO’s ability to aid biological adaptation is the risk of mutations. Altering the human phenotype to better withstand a new environment is a delicate procedure, requiring the modification of gene expression, and sometimes the inclusion of new genetic material, and if not carefully controlled and monitored this can cause debilitating or life threatening mutations. In our earliest tests we used Rats as subjects, injecting them with EVO and then carefully monitoring and tailoring their environment. For the experiment we tailored the EVO’s effects to produce increased muscle and bone mass in the subjects. Obviously in human subjects this wouldn’t be the changes we aimed for, but we wanted distinct physiological changes to ease of analysis. We confirmed that with constant monitoring the subject’s physical capability’s could be greatly increased “

He pulled up some pictures of the test subjects, showing the progression in size and physiological readings after several days of exposure.

“Unfortunately the amount of time and effort required per individual was untenable. Constant monitoring and micromanaging of their genetic makeup was required. If the EVO persisted in the subjects’ system for too long without us controlling it, mutations began to occur rapidly, leading to a breakdown in subjects morphology and physical makeup.“

His next set of slides caused Holmes to blink and Mrs Carter to glance away, only Rinehart appeared unaffected by the hideous mass of deformed limbs and tissue shown on the autopsy slab”

“In a attempt to reduce the amount of outside monitoring required we decided to create a symbiotic microorganism, designed to monitor and tailor the EVO’s constituents to reduce the risks of potential harmful mutations.”

He tapped the screen and pulled up a magnified image of a microorganism on the screen.

“This is a modified plasmodium created by us in the lab, picked for the depth in which its genome, phenotype and cell biochemistry was analysed in the early part of the century. We removed much of its genetic material and replaced it to allow the biological synthesis of EVO to occur inside the subject’s body, and for the symbiont to release it as required. We used the organism’s own biological systems to aid us, and the results were promising to begin with, showing similar improvements to the original subjects. Unfortunately, the symbiont’s control of the EVO was not perfect, and soon mutations began appearing again and it soon became obvious that the symbiont alone was insufficient as a control source. Which is where Doctor Jeffrey’s’ contribution became key.”

He pulled up a third set for pictures, showing a small implant lying on the surgery table next to a young anesthetized rat.

“Our stage 2 subjects were implanted with a cybernetic implant containing the symbiotic organism. The implant continues a small but powerful AI which monitors the symbiont and the subject, and modifies the symbiont’s behaviour to better tailor its responses to outside stimuli. It also contains a small but powerful nanobot forge, which it uses to target and destroy cancerous growths in the subject.”

He pulled up as series of pictures, showing the adolescent rats growing in size and statue.

“The results of the stage 2 subjects were astonishing, all quickly grew to maturity and exited remarkable increases in not only muscle fibre size and density, but also in muscle contraction efficacy. Their bone mass also increased beyond base norms and exhibited improved physical resilience, including increased tolerances to many toxic compounds and poisons, the EVO either allowing the subjects to rapidly heal any cellular damage, or counteracting the causing agent” He said, voice speeding up in excitement ” just think of the possibilities in humans subjects..”

“Malcolm” Mrs Carter Interrupted again” tell us about 2B5 specifically.”

He took a breath and reluctantly pulled up his last picture, showing 2B5 in his cage. Holmes gasped under his breath and even Rinehart sat up in interest. The subject sat hunched in its cage, its overly developed shoulders almost brushing the roof of the half metre height space, its black scales making it look like a void in the world, outlined by the metal behind it, and its red eyes glaring balefully out through its bars.

“2B5 is our greatest success, but also a marked failure. Early on in our observations we noted the subject displayed marked increases in appetite, even compared to its siblings, ravenously devouring its food and constantly searching for more. At first, due to space constraints, we kept the three stage 2 subjects in the same cage, but soon that wasn’t a issue as one night 2B5 devoured its companions.” He flicked to another picture showing the aftermath of the attack, causing Holmes to turn away suddenly.

“We considered terminating the specimen, but its progress and the success in its adaptations were too fascination to lose, so we increased the strength of its cage and continued testing. We subjected 2B5 to a range of tests, including pain and lacerations to its skin to ascertain its healing levels, and over a few days it produces the scales you see before you”

“How?” Mrs Carter asked pointedly. “Nothing in the implant or symbiont’s programming would account for that!“

“Indeed! However, we began to believe that there was an error in the implant. Apparently some mutations that occurred were being allowed to persist. My conclusion was that the AI was simply obeying its programming in a way we didn’t foresee. Its base command is to ensure its hosts survival and health, so we believe it allowed the scale formation as it increased the hosts ’defence against our tests. More worryingly, one of our tests revealed that the symbiont had somehow managed to spread imperfect versions of itself into the creature’s blood and saliva, potentially allowing cross contamination. At this point we decided to terminate the subject.”

“And then you lost it! This horror!“ Holmes shouted in dismay. “Why didn’t you kill it as soon as it began to mutate?”

“Because of what it could tell us!“ Malcolm shouted back. “Science isn’t a straight line, sometimes you learn as much from what went wrong as from your successes. 2B5 was displaying the ideal of EVO’s core target, to adapt and improve to its environments. Yes it wasn’t perfect for our goal of human integration, but it allowed us to study its development to tell us what to avoid later!”

“ENOUGH!” Rinehart bellowed, shocking them all into silence as his cold gaze pined each in turn before finally settling on Malcolm. ”All of this is beside the point! We need to recover or destroy this thing now. Professor, why would someone want to steal it?”

“Well” Malcolm began, his voice wavering at first before he controlled it “Another company could use it to learn a huge amount about our work on EVO, and also the groundbreaking innovations we’ve developed in bio/cybernetic integration. Scientifically it’s a gold mine.”

“Or” Holmes interjected “they could present it to the UN to embarrass the company.”

“And what if they released the creature?” Rinehart said, his eye boring into him. Malcolm gaped at him for a moment before stuttering “ wh..why would they do that? It’s an animal, and a dangerous one at that”

“Yes, both of those things are true, but what if they released it, say, in the mines? I’ve been picking up reports of strange behaviours in the Rats. Could this have something to do with 2B5’s disappearance?”

Malcolm looked at him in shock for a moment, thinking of the implications.

“Oh my God!” he said weakly “in theory it could breed with a native Rat, but I don’t know...”

Rinehart stood suddenly. “ Mrs Carter, I need your authorization to mobilize my men. We need to head down into the mines and ascertain if the specimen has infected other rats down there now!”

“OK!“ Carter said, looking to Rinehart. ”I want you to gather your team and head to the Lab tomorrow. I’ll have Technician Holden use the mainframe to design you a path from the lab to the nearest lift down into the under works, where you and your team will search for any trace of either our mystery spy or the specimen. You will also track down the nearest Rat population and ascertain if there is any exposure. Understood”

Rinehart nodded and stood, striding swiftly from the room. Holmes taped away at his smart pad, leaving Malcolm to suffer Mrs Carters glare alone.

“This is a disaster Malcolm. If this thing has been taken off planet, or worse, released, the project could be in peril.”

“I know,” he said wearily, running a shaking hand through his hair” But I couldn’t have predicted this. Security isn’t my area. Should we inform the other overseers?”

“Not yet!“ Carter said firmly, ”There is still a chance we can contain this without any need to reveal the project’s existence. I need you to go back to work as normal, try and keep the new staff unaware while Rinehart works. Who knows, if the creature was released maybe it died from some disease down in the mines, and if not Rinehart’s team will kill it before it has a chance to embarrass us”

Malcolm nodded, but didn’t believe it for a second. 2B5 was the pinnacle of his work, designed to adapt to almost any environment. If it was down in the mines he could only guess at the changes it had undergone after exposure to so many potential mutagens. Whatever it had changed into, he doubted it would be as easy to deal with as Carter predicted.