with music blaring, “I wonder where they could be, they’re late,” coming from Janelle. “There they are” pointing, Cher frowns “it looks like they are engaged in a serious discussion”.
Eric walks into his lab preparing for some experiments when he notices Dr. Fintao, his superior.
“Dr. Fintao do you mind if I ask you a few questions,”
“Good morning to you also Eric,”
“I’m sorry, good morning, it’s just that I heard a rumor last night and want to se if you know more on the subject.”
The Doctor pulls up two chairs.
“Sit and let me guess,” The two sit down and the doctor rubs his chin.
“You are friends with Tim who is a pilot, he heard from the scouting party talk about our voyage possibly nearing the end, is this correct?”
“How can you know what I was going to ask?”
“Eric, I get paid, so to speak, to do my research and know all that is going on. You will learn to put, what did they used to say? Two and two together,”
“So what do you think Dr.?”
“I think that the scientists have a grasp on what they are doing and they will know more after conducting further research, and will let us know when they have more solid and direct information, till then we continue our own research.”
I am just excited and apprehensive at the same time to think that we can be so close after such a long journey.”
“I feel the same way; do you ever stare out the window into the blackness of space Eric?”
“Every night there are no planets and very few stars, no life, this can mean that we are approaching another solar system with more planets and possibly, the scientists believe, that at least one is habitable.”
“I sure hope so Dr. but that will be the day when the hard work really begins.”
“You are right about that, speaking of work…”
“I know sir; we need to continue with our human DNA research.
At the Helm of the Ship
“Sensors are picking up planets in sector Bravo Zero Nine and Alpha nine X-ray seven!”
The captain on the helm suddenly has an attack of goose bumps. “Excuse me ensign, did I hear you correctly? I don’t see anything.”
“That’s correct sir we are still far out but thanks to those worm hole jumps we are approaching a new solar system,” pointing to the long range radar.
In the Situation Room
“I believe we are approaching a new solar system,” opens the meeting, Dr. Darren Knight, “we have seen nothing but darkness for so long, it is refreshing to learn that the probe ships have returned with compelling evidence.”
“It is indeed excellent news,” coming from Dr. Mathew Steward PHD. But we must continue our testing to be sure,” Speaking with a lisp.
“We need to make sure the area consists of at least one sun and the astronomical objects bound to it by gravity, at least one planet has to be oxygenated by diatomic gas,” putting in his two cents; the 80 year old Dr. Ron Munsee lee. The other scientists nod their heads and rolling their eyes, knowing the obvious.
“Yes, we have to be able to breath, snickers Doctor Knight.
Don’t Mess With DNA
Dr. Fintao and Eric continue with their research, they have grown a test tube baby which was birthed by one of the volunteer women. The human body was a mixture of DNA injected into the egg; trying to create a worker human for the new planet.
Dr. Fintao working with chemicals and speaking into a comm. Recorder continues, “I am experimenting on what I have labeled ‘New Worker’, which demonstrates that genes from different chromosomes can be bound together in the nucleus, and that this may facilitate and speed up their coordinated regulation, “stepping to his right slightly bumping into Eric, like a bull in a china shop.
The Dr. continues as he mixes some more chemicals together, “The human Genome is often represented as a one dimensional sequence, but an entirely different perspective is required for understanding how the Genome actually functions.” Pointing at a chemical mixture for Eric to hand to him, “The Genome is the entirety of an organism’s heredity information. It is encoded either in DNA, or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The Genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of DNA/RNA.”
Eric looks at the doctor reminding him of a mad scientist in some old movie he remembers watching as a child.
“Roughly 2m of DNA is contained in a nucleus and this maze is negotiated by features, like chromatin proteins. Machines that remodel chromatin transcribe DNA into RNA, process RNA transcripts or replicate DNA in preparation for cell division. Far from being chaotic these activities appear to be ordered, with particular direct activities like transcription or replication this taking place at specific locations within the DNA or RNA for example, ‘transcription factories’ churn out multiple different transcripts and “replication factories’ initiate DNA replication at several origins.” Adjusting his comm. Recorder as Eric looks at the doctor’s sweat beading face. “While the spatial organization of the Genome within the nucleus has been described in considerable detail, the outcome is not fully known at this time and what functional significance it has, and with moving DNA signatures around, with and between different species will cause.”
The Doctor removes the recording equipment with Eric’s help. “Now we need to find a human test subject and inject the DNA.”
“But doc you said the outcome of this is not known.”
“How will we know, until we try Eric,” Again reminding Eric of a mad scientist.
“The doctor speaks further, “Don’t you see that we can replicate DNA and RNA? RNA contains amino acids which turn into protein? We can also mutate a virus through the RNA, I wouldn’t do it, but I am just saying that we could inject a virus into the RNA strand to kill a creature, or a hundred creatures!”
“Or on humans” Eric butts in.
“Yes, humans could be attacked in this way also, but we wouldn’t let our research fall into the wrong hands. This is for creation not destruction, I am just pointing out the many ways in which to use this.”
“I am here to create, not destroy and that is the only thing that I want to focus on.”
“We are creating, but with creation comes much responsibility, and we have to be made aware of all of the possibilities not just one, the body is a maze of changes like the sands of the desert, or the tides of the ocean, when testing we have to be prepared for a tidal wave.
Especially on a hostile planet, son you have to be willing to do both when you are testing subjects, now get me a test subject from our DNA database.”
“I won’t do it; if you’re talking about killing someone!” Eric storms out of the lab.
“We
