A diffuse and gray light filtered in through the apartment window. Air smelling of smog from the great smokestacks down the block in the King Garment Works permeates the room even though the building had an air conditioning system. Suddenly there was a blaring noise coming from the alarm clock next to the single bed. Alex leapt to wakefulness and almost fell out of bed. No more pancakes ma he mumbled before realizing that he was in his own apartment. Slowly Alex got out of bed and went to the small bathroom to get himself ready for work.
Each morning he skipped breakfast because he felt he never had time for it. The real reason being that as a child living with his parents and grandmother, she always made him eat everything on his plate and always made a breakfast fit for Henry the VIII. A white complexion, almost ghostly, with long blond hair gave him the look of a geek of some sort. It was almost like he worked in a laboratory. Right on the money, Alex thought to himself. Truthfully, he was a biochemist employed by Crey Industries. He worked in the pharmaceutical department trying to concoct the next wonder drug that would cure almost anything. What with the Rikti advanced technology, there werent many things that couldnt be cured already. Still Crey had to be the one to get that cure first so they could corner the market. No matter that monopolies were broken up by the government, they somehow found ways around that.
Alex current project was a cure for a particularly virulent strain of Ebola that was combined with cancer cells to give it a robust and resistant structure. No one knew exactly who came up with this bioterrorism weapon, but it got out somehow. He was working on using Rikti technology to fuse starfish cells with many marine and arachnid toxins that could have healing effects. So far the results were quite promising. Subject one and two are almost completely rid of the engineered cells. Three is beginning to come out of the worse stages of the virus, Alex notes into the recorder. In less than 24 hours the modified Ebola seems to have completely reversed its progress through the patients bodies. He had to notify the board of the treatments success.
Alex dialed the number provided him should the treatments work. Reporting on project number one hundred twenty eight. Project is an unmitigated success. Virus in remission and symptoms reversing in under 24 hours. Voicemail is how things are handled in Crey so that you can concentrate on your work and only the review committee is bothered with reports. Alex knew that hed probably not get his name on anything connected with the project, but he had accepted that when he started. Not that the pay wasnt good. It definitely was, but he would have preferred the recognition. Ah, whats recognition as long as it saves lives, he thought to himself.
Just then, an explosion ripped through the building knocking Alex to the ground. There was a sound of metal being ripped open and Alex looked up to see the wall of the room being torn apart by a huge creature the wasnt even vaguely recognizable. Its strength was tremendous as it tore its way into the room. My research! Alex screamed as he picked himself up and tried to save what he could of the formula.
Alex never even saw the blast that killed him. The monster had thrown a table into some Rikti technology that Alex had been using to splice the toxin and cell molecules together. The beam from the device struck Alex in the back just below his heart and darted upwards. Just before he died, he had a chance to wonder why his serum was glowing. The serum had absorbed the energy from the Rikti device and spilled down Alex chest and into the wound when the beam had ruptured the vials.
Stay tuned to catch the follow up to THE START OF THINGS TO COME next week!
THE START OF THINGS TO COME
A diffuse and gray light filtered in through the apartment window. Air smelling of smog from the great smokestacks down the block in the King Garment Works permeates the room even though the building had an air conditioning system. Suddenly there was a blaring noise coming from the alarm clock next to the single bed. Alex leapt to wakefulness and almost fell out of bed. No more pancakes ma he mumbled before realizing that he was in his own apartment. Slowly Alex got out of bed and went to the small bathroom to get himself ready for work.
Each morning he skipped breakfast because he felt he never had time for it. The real reason being that as a child living with his parents and grandmother, she always made him eat everything on his plate and always made a breakfast fit for Henry the VIII. A white complexion, almost ghostly, with long blond hair gave him the look of a geek of some sort. It was almost like he worked in a laboratory. Right on the money, Alex thought to himself. Truthfully, he was a biochemist employed by Crey Industries. He worked in the pharmaceutical department trying to concoct the next wonder drug that would cure almost anything. What with the Rikti advanced technology, there werent many things that couldnt be cured already. Still Crey had to be the one to get that cure first so they could corner the market. No matter that monopolies were broken up by the government, they somehow found ways around that.
Alex current project was a cure for a particularly virulent strain of Ebola that was combined with cancer cells to give it a robust and resistant structure. No one knew exactly who came up with this bioterrorism weapon, but it got out somehow. He was working on using Rikti technology to fuse starfish cells with many marine and arachnid toxins that could have healing effects. So far the results were quite promising. Subject one and two are almost completely rid of the engineered cells. Three is beginning to come out of the worse stages of the virus, Alex notes into the recorder. In less than 24 hours the modified Ebola seems to have completely reversed its progress through the patients bodies. He had to notify the board of the treatments success.
Alex dialed the number provided him should the treatments work. Reporting on project number one hundred twenty eight. Project is an unmitigated success. Virus in remission and symptoms reversing in under 24 hours. Voicemail is how things are handled in Crey so that you can concentrate on your work and only the review committee is bothered with reports. Alex knew that hed probably not get his name on anything connected with the project, but he had accepted that when he started. Not that the pay wasnt good. It definitely was, but he would have preferred the recognition. Ah, whats recognition as long as it saves lives, he thought to himself.
Just then, an explosion ripped through the building knocking Alex to the ground. There was a sound of metal being ripped open and Alex looked up to see the wall of the room being torn apart by a huge creature the wasnt even vaguely recognizable. Its strength was tremendous as it tore its way into the room. My research! Alex screamed as he picked himself up and tried to save what he could of the formula.
Alex never even saw the blast that killed him. The monster had thrown a table into some Rikti technology that Alex had been using to splice the toxin and cell molecules together. The beam from the device struck Alex in the back just below his heart and darted upwards. Just before he died, he had a chance to wonder why his serum was glowing. The serum had absorbed the energy from the Rikti device and spilled down Alex chest and into the wound when the beam had ruptured the vials.
Stay tuned to catch the follow up to THE START OF THINGS TO COME next week!