Maximum Ride Fan Fiction / Maximum Ride Fan Fiction ❯ If I Asked You To, Would You Kill Me? ❯ From Type A to Type What the Crap? ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Irene Sharda
Jeb has been studying Fang's samples and has discovered some astonishing new facts.

Non Anime: Maximum Ride Fan Fiction / Maximum Ride Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Suspense / Sci-fi / Romance / Adventure / Action | Type: Divergence | Uploaded On: 05.22.2008 | Pages: 2 | Words: 2.2K | Visits: 207 | Status: Work In Progress

Chapter 3
Jeb Batchelder sat down, and looked at the slide once more through the microscope. Could this actually be happening?
Looking once more at the slide, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. “Nancy?”
His lab assistant was immediately at his side, “Yes, sir?”
“Get me the blood samples from five years ago, Group AD2563.”
Nodding, she left out the door to get what he'd requested.
Leaning his head on his steepled fingers, he thought back to his time with Fang. He had expected the boy to be trouble, and had objected to Anne's request of him being brought back. Let the flock take care of their own until the selected time came. But now, he would have to reconsider his previous disposition. This was far more troubling than he, or even Anne had been led to believe…
“Here you are, sir.” Nancy said as she returned, placing a box on the table.
Taking off the top, Jeb glanced over rows of labeled microscope slides and vials of blood—some dusty, some not.
He first went through the slides, knowing their labels by heart: M1199, I1099, G0699, F1099…here it is! Taking F1099 slide from the box, as well as the slide from the microscope, he walked over to the bigger, comparison electron microscope. Placing the slides in their separate, but parallel spots, he took a glance through the lens. After a minute of adjusting and studying, he stood up straight and stretched his back. “Just as I thought. Nancy?”
She immediately came to his side, “Yes, sir?”
He moved over, giving her space to come forward. “Look at this and tell me what you think it is.”
Stepping up, she looked as instructed, though she had no idea why. Jeb knew more about these slides and things than anyone.
After having studied the two slides for a while, she stood back up and looked at her boss, who looked back at her inquisitively.
“They're two slides of red blood cells, sir.”
He nodded, “Blood cells from what, Nancy?”
She shrugged, “I-I don't know sir. You're comparing the compatibility of two species to see if they can be combined?”
He nodded as he walked back to the table. “So, I'm comparing two different species' blood?”
She watched him take out a vial from the box and begin ejecting the red plasma liquid from it, with a needle. “Yes sir, that's all I can gather from it. What species are they?”
Looking at the blood in the hypodermic chamber, Jeb answered, “What if I was to tell you that both samples came from the same source?”
A look of utter surprise came over her face. “That's impossible.”
“Impossible, but true nonetheless.”
Putting down the hypo, he picked up one of the slides. “This, is a blood sample I took from Fang an hour ago.”
Handing this one to her, he then picked up the other one; the one he had retrieved from the file box. “This, is a blood sample I took from him, five years ago.”
Handing this one also to her, he went back to the hypodermic and began preparing a fresh slide.
She flipped through the slides in her hand, still in astonishment. “But how can that be? No one's DNA, not even his, can mutate like that in only five years!”
“It shouldn't have mutated like that period. But it has, and I have reason to believe, that it's because of Project: FIFTY ONE.”
She looked up from the microscope lens. “Project: FIFTY ONE? But I thought that was a failure.”
He simply nodded, “Look at it again, and give me some other explanation.”
Dr. Nancy Sarano looked again at the slides under the comparison microscope. The one to the right, was the sample from five years ago. It showed normal, healthy, if a little anemic, red blood cells—completely typical for the experimental avian group.
The one to the left, Jeb had gotten from the bird-child that had been apprehended about a week ago. The blood cells here were much darker than normal, almost grey rather than bright red. They were also shaped differently. Instead of the normal saucer-shape, they were contorted into the shape of diamonds! A condition she had never seen before! I mean, she'd heard of sickle cell, but this was ridiculous! And that wasn't where the differences ended. These cells had a thick, transparent outer layer, that was not part of normal red blood cell anatomy. One which was silver in color, and dense enough that it seemed to protect the cell from any kind of intruder; unlike normal human blood cells, which were susceptible to things like bacteria and viruses. Looking at the two, side by side, she would have never believed that they had come from the same species, let alone the same body.
Without an answer to give him, all she said was, “I'll get these down to the genetics lab, sir.”
Her boss was busy getting an in vitro needle from the glass cabinet. “Have them take both samples apart. I want to know the genetic code of both, top to bottom. Have them compare the differences. I want to know how they're different, and why. And I want to know yesterday. Got that?”
A/N: An in vitroneedle, is of course used in in vitrofertilization (when sperm is injected into a woman's egg through a ultra-thin hypodermic), but also many experiments that deal on the cellular or molecular level. The needle's tip can not be seen with the naked eye.
She nodded hurrying out the door, completely perplexed.

Taking the in vitro needle, Jeb went under the electron microscope. Using the computer screen and a brain surgeon's hands, he plucked two small blood cells from Fang's recent sample, using the needle's ultra-fine, infinitesimal tip. Hmm, I think this is the same equipment we used to mix the flock's DNA to begin with.
He inserted the two minuscule cells, onto the slide he had already prepared. In this instant, Fang's two recent cells were mixed with a sea of his old ones. Now if the rules of biology served, his new cells—as different as they were—would be rejected by his old ones; judged as foreign intruders, like a virus or parasite.
He began to study the screen, judging that the faster the two cells were destroyed, the bigger the estimate of dissimilarities.
Yet, as he watched the silent actions of the living cells, his nonchalant visage changed from interest, to confusion, to utter shock. The words for what he was seeing practically dried up in his throat. “Oh…my…God…”
Picking up his files, he rushed from the room, heading toward the observation quarter. I thought Hell would freeze before I saw something like this. Man, it must be an ice cube down there according to what I've seen. What the HECK is going on?

On the electronic screen, the two diamond-shaped cells had multiplied themselves by a hundred! And the sea of normal red blood cells—had become a sea of death. Every cell, had shriveled and was being consumed by the supposedly foreign intruders. It seemed that nature, sometimes broke its own rules…