Scientific Conundrum   von UniverseHeart
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                      Kapitel 1: The Secluded Laboratory
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The sound of the helicopter was deafening to her ears, but she resisted the urge
to cover her ears from the onslaught of sound. Her loose hair swayed in the
strong wind as she made her way down the ramp to the landing deck, where their
vehicle had just landed. Her escort followed her out, carrying her suitcase for
her.
As the young woman looked up, she saw that she was already expected. At least
five people were standing there, having waited for her arrival as well as the
arrival of other goods necessary for living on this deserted island in the
middle of the ocean.

"Greetings to you, Miss Rogowska", the oldest of the people there said in
greeting, just seconds after the engine had died down. A man with greyish hair,
a large nose and glasses on his face approached her, dressed in a white lab
coat. The woman recognized this person immediately from their last encounter,
which had happened not too long ago on the mainland during an arranged job
interview. She had participated in this interview in the hopes of gaining a new
employment, and the prospects offered here certainly seemed interesting to her.
It was not any day that one got the chance to work on a top-secret project on an
island and as per regulation, had to stay, work and live there for the entire
duration of it. It fit her, the woman thought, as she always had preferred to
live in seclusion from others. An island would be the perfect place for her.

"Thank you, Doctor Fuji", she replied, reaching her hand out for him, which he
accepted and briefly shook. "New Island certainly looks interesting at first
glance." "That it is, Miss Rogowska", said the older man in agreement, "now,
since you just arrived here, we will first give you some time to rest. Your
journey must have been exhausting." "Yes, but I think I will be back to full
capacity with a little rest." "Very good. We will make an in-depth introduction
of your co-workers as well as these facilities at a later date." With a clap of
his hands, another woman with black hair approached them, carrying a clipboard
in her hands. From the first glance, she seemed to be an assistant of some sort
- she had a slender figure and dark eyes, giving off a serious air about her.
Dr. Fuji introduced her as well
"This is Dr. Yumiko. She will show you your new living quarters. In the
meantime, I must attend other matters, but I am sure that we will see and talk
with each other very soon." With a polite bow, Dr. Fuji turned around to go and
speak with the operators of the helicopter, probably to discuss the recent
shipments. The woman looked up into the blue sky and the helicopter behind her
briefly, before grabbing ahold of the suitcase that contained all of her
important belongings. Dr. Yumiko waited for her patiently, before she simply
stated "Now, please follow me." Without many words, the young woman followed.

************************

Monika Rogowska had been in this laboratory complex for two days now, located on
a secluded natural island out in the open sea. The buildings, containing living
quarters for the researchers as well as the various parts of the laboratories,
were built right on top of it.

There was a very good reason why they were currently living in such a remote
location, as the research that was currently conducted in their laboratories
might be deemed by most to be risky and highly controversial; but it was like a
dream for any geneticist who has ever seriously considered putting their
knowledge to practical use and create a living, completely artificial being.
Such a chance was only ever offered here; out in the open sea, in international
waters which did not belong to any country, the laws of them didn't exactly
apply here. Hence, the ban of creating living clones and keeping them sustained
even way past the embryonic stage was not in use. The seclusion and the fact
that any and all workers were only allowed to work on New Island if they had a
top-secret security clearance only helped the research conducted there to
blossom. A handful of workers were permanently stationed, while others were
flown in periodically by helicopters with black and covered windows. Their
island was also not marked on any existing map, and any workers who were flown
in here were thus prevented to know their exact location.

The brunette woman with red glasses had only recently been stationed on this
remote island and was supposed to become one of its permanent residents. She
came here after having successfully undertaken the strict hiring regiment, and
now belonged to the few chosen ones who will be putting their knowledge to use
in order to obtain every last secret that life itself holds. Their group leader
was Dr. Fuji, an experienced scientist in the field of cloning and genetic
engineering, and Monika was scheduled to meet this man soon to get a tour of the
facilities and further discuss her participation for the project ahead.

Monika has had the last two days after her initial arrival to herself, in order
to rest from her long journey as well as to get accustomed to her new living
quarters. She had been busy unpacking her belongings and rearranging her room,
when she got a call on her telephone.

"Mrs. Rogowska, I call to remind you of your scheduled meeting at 1 pm. Mrs.
Westervelt will be coming to show you the way."
"Thank you."

A click on the telephone and this short exchange was over. The woman looked to
the electronic clock, displaying that she had maybe 15 minutes left before
someone would come to fetch her, and bring her to her new colleagues for a
formal introduction and a subsequent tour of the facilities. Even Dr. Fuji
himself will be introducing himself to her and personally explain what tasks
will lie ahead of her. To say she was nervous would be the understatement of the
year. In fact, she never had thought that she would be able to actually get the
job here. It has taken her almost a year of applications everywhere before she
had been able to land this new job. And while she had a huge fear of potential
failure, she also told herself that she will give it her all, no matter what.
This is also why she agreed to moving to New Island as a permanent resident. If
this is what the job asked of her, then she would do that. Monika just hoped
that she would get used quickly to her new environment and to the new people
here.
A knock on her door startled her, but with a quick look at the clock, she had
realized that her time was already up. She stood up to answer the door, and was
met with a fellow researcher - a woman dressed in a white labcoat, with blonde,
shoulder-long hair awaited her. She had a wider frame than Dr. Yumiko, but
seemed friendly and almost cheerful.
"Hello, I am Natalia Westervelt."
"I am Monika Rogowska, and have just arrived here two days ago."
Monika didn't know what else to say.
"I am aware of that", Natalia said, slightly stepping into the room, "You are
one of the newbies who just arrived here."
The blonde woman took a look around the room, and then focused her gaze on
Monika.
"I know that life here on the island can be pretty overwhelming at first, but
you will get used to it in time."
Monika smiled at that. "I sure hope so. So far, it seems pretty lonely. Well,
lonelier than usual, since I don't know anybody here yet, except for our boss.
That is, if Dr. Fuji IS your boss as well - I don't know anything about the
internal hierarchy of this place yet either." Natalia smiled back.

"I can confirm that Dr. Fuji is my boss as well. He is the one who runs this
entire island after all, which of course include all of our projects and
side-projects. You do belong to group C, right? So you will be working very
closely with him. And lucky you, I belong to this group as well, so you will
have at least one face you know around here."
"I am glad about that, thank you, erm.."
"You can call me by my first name, if you want."
"Thank you, Natalia. You can call me by my first name as well"
"There is nothing to thank me for, Monika. Just keep close to me, and I will
explain everything to you about this place, if you'd like. I hope we can become
friends, you seem to be a very nice person."
With this, Natalia stepped out of the room, indicating for Monika to follow
her.

***************************

Monika was very impressed by this place. She could hardly believe that she
currently was located on an island. The place looked very modern, albeit a
little bit cold, as the two women walked along several corridors which seemed to
be pretty convoluted and mostly grey in color. The brunette just knew it would
be a pain in the ass to remember which way to go back later on. Natalia must
have noticed her deep sigh that she had exhaled at that thought.
"Haha, I know this place is very large and that it is easy to get lost in here.
Hence why we give THIS to newbies."
She stopped, and searched around for something in her lab coat, giving it to
Monika as soon as she found it. The woman noticed that it seemed to be a
pamphlet of some sort, and upon opening it, realized that it was a map of this
place.

"The New Island Laboratory is home to many different sections of labs", Natalia
explained. "Besides our group, there are several others who have slightly other
projects they work on. We, from Team C, are working specifically on cloning.
There are other groups who for example focus on researching breathable liquids
and stasis possibilities, methods to keep living organisms in suspended
animation."
Monika took a look at the map and frowned. Looking up from the map, she noticed
a sign nearby, which told her the number of the corridor they were in. Level 7.
Huh, now the map made sense to her once she found it on the map.

"Thanks, Natalia. Say, how long did it take until you didn't need the map?"
"Oh, at least a few weeks. Until you get a feeling for this place, you will
probably need the map for a while, so don't lose it. But you will get used to it
eventually. The routes to the laboratories of our team will be pretty easy for
you to remember."

"The other projects sound interesting too!", Monika remarked, "what other things
are going on here as well?"

"Hmm, for some reason, one of our groups is studying brain activities, neural
connections and memory retrieval", Natalia answered, "It's a bit creepy isn't
it? Our group is supposed to create clones, and sometimes the people from this
group come in to measure the brain activity of our subjects. One could think
that one possible application would be to combine their research with ours!
Imagine, clones running around who share your memories! Creepy!"

She said this with an amused tone, and Monika noticed that her new acquaintance
seemed to have a taste for the unusual, but she liked that. Hopefully they would
become closer friends as they continue to work on their project. In any case, it
made her feel way better to know now that there was someone with whom she could
talk. All the better that Natalia seemed to be a very nice woman.
As they continued walking, they came across a corridor which contained
laboratories that allowed a look inside the labs. Several people seemed to be
hard at work inside, standing by machines, checking their readouts, or pipetting
something into tubes on their work benches. Other scientists seemed to be in a
deep discussion, and she could see several huge glass containers, filled with an
amber liquid that caught her interest - especially since something seemed to
float inside of them, though she couldn't make out what exactly it was due to
the distance. She could only assume it must be some of the experimental subjects
here. In other word, clones. A slight shiver went down her spine at the sight.

She was woken from her fascination with a slight startle as Natalia came to an
abrupt halt before her. She hadn't noticed the big doors they both were standing
in front of now.

"Here it is. This is one of he smaller room by far. I was instructed to bring
you to Dr. Fuji, as he would now like to discuss the project with you in further
details. I was also told by him that after he introduced you to it, we will be
having a meeting with the entire Team C, to get to know each other. Several
other newbies will also attend the meeting. I'll be back soon to fetch you for
that, okay?"
Natalia smiled at her, giving her a pat on the back.
"And don't worry, Dr. Fuji is actually a nice man, even if he sometimes seems to
be very strict. I am sure he will also give you a small, more detailed tour of
our facilities as well. Anyway, I have to head back to my experiments for now,
see you soon!"

Natalia opened the door for Monika and gestured for her to come in. As soon as
Monika had stepped inside, Natalia turned around and closed the door behind
her.

The brunette woman had stepped into one of the smaller laboratories. Dr. Fuji
had seemed to be talking with another man, but then noticed that she had arrived
to meet him, so he excused himself and went to talk to Monika.

"Oh, Hello. It is nice to see you again. As you know, my name is Dr. Fuji and I
am the lead scientist of New Island", the older man said as he extended his hand
towards the woman, who gladly took the handshake.

"I am Dr. Rogowska, and I want to thank you for inviting me to join your
research group", Monika replied. Dr. Fuji nodded and offered her a warm smile in
return.
"I hope that you were able to get used to island life during the last two days.
I know it can get pretty lonely out here, as the usual pleasantries of our
civilization aren't available."
"Yes, I noticed. There aren't any supermarkets around", the woman replied
jokingly, earning a slight laugh from Dr. Fuji.
"I can assure you though that even if supermarkets are missing, everything that
is needed is shipped to us on a regular basis. As for the other needs, we have
several recreation rooms in this facility as well. A good rest is of a high
importance in our field, especially if we use our brains so extensively."

Monika followed dutifully behind Dr. Fuji, who has been leading her through
several corridors, pointing out all the different rooms to her as well as
explaining in short words what kind of equipment was to be found inside. One of
the rooms contained everything needed for DNA analysis: an automatic DNA
extraction machine, and a sequencer that was able to analyze the exact
composition of the DNA. The woman tried her hardest to memorize where each room
was found and what they contained, but found that it was almost impossible to do
for the first time. With a glance at her, Dr. Fuji could tell of her small
problem.

"I know that all of this might be a bit much at first and that you might get
lost inside of our facilities for the first few days. Then again, so far
everyone of our group did during their acclimation time. If you ever have any
questions or get lost, you are welcome to ask any of your colleagues."

The Doctor came to an abrupt halt in front of a heavy set of doors.

"Now I think is the time where I explain to you what your task is and what we
have hired you for. The thing is that we needed additional staff for our next
big undertaking."

He reached out for a panel right next to the door, putting his thumb on a thumb
print scanner. With a quiet whizz, the heavy doors opened and revealed a large
room, containing several incubation tanks filled with amber-colored liquid. A
little bit to the left side of the room was a huge machine, five times as large
as a human and shaped like an ammonite, grey in color. Three different screens
were mounted on the machine, and Monika noticed several researchers intently
discussing something right in front of them. Out of this machine, a connection
to several incubation tanks was protruding. The tanks were currently
un-occupied, but the woman had a feeling that this will not be the status quo
forever.

"One huge step in the advancements of genetic engineering was the discovery of a
manufactured form of amniotic fluid which allows us to grow artificial organisms
in the incubation tanks you see here."

The Doctor took a few steps forward, until he reached one of the large
incubation tanks. With one hand, he reached out, touching the glass and turning
to Monika.

"These are our incubation units. As you can see, they are currently filled with
a special formula of synthetic amniotic fluid. I think that you are well aware
that genetically altered embryos are normally to be destroyed after a time of 6
weeks has passed. During this time, the embryos are usually too small to be put
into such large tanks. However...", Fuji paused, "Our facility doesn't destroy
these young embryos. Instead, once they reach a certain age, they are
transferred into the incubation units you see here for further gestation. The
see-through glass allows us to directly study the gestation process and has so
far provided us with invaluable knowledge of embryogenesis."

The brunette woman was in awe as her brown eyes focused on the tanks. Her mind
was already flooded with all the possibilities that such incubation tanks might
hold for research. Having the ability to grow beings independent of a uterus
would make it possible to provide thousands of infertile couples with the
children they had always wanted, should this technology ever be in use for human
beings. But even if not, this would revolutionize Pokemon breeding, if the
manufacturing technique is advanced enough for serial use. It even provided a
tool to directly study the phonotypical aberrations of genetic diseases and can
utilized for new methods of genetic therapy. Her heart pounded when she just
thought of all the possibilities. But one certain question also popped up in her
mind that she blurted out almost immediately:

"Do you grow the engineered beings to completion?"

"Ahhh", Dr. Fuji said, "Now you have come to the crux of the matter."
He let out a deep sigh and shook his head.

"Unfortunately, this is the main problem we have so far encountered. We have
been focusing on cloning specimens from different Pokémon species, but
throughout the years, none of them have made it to completion. Every single one
of them perished, due to unknown reasons. We can't even begin to understand
why."

"And it's not because some major component is missing? Maybe something that only
a mother Pokémon can supply? Like, some maternal proteins or hormones?"

"We have considered this possibility also and have made several upgrades to our
formula of amniotic fluid in the past to account for this", the older man
replied, "Yet our clones still perish if kept in a tank for too long. This issue
is the most pressing however, given the next project we are supposed to take
care of."

Monika carefully looked at Dr. Fuji, who seemed to be distant and lost in
thoughts. It seemed that something else entirely seemed to occupy him as well,
and for a split-second, she could have sworn that she saw a dark and sad
expression on her superior's face before it quickly faded. The project that was
mentioned made her feel even more curious now, but she could tell what it might
be. Obviously, a clone would have to be made and had to survive the entire
process of its creation. But which Pokémon would they use? They had so many to
choose from.

"Sir, I assume you want to bring a clone to full maturation, so that it can
leave the tank, right? But which Pokémon do you want to use as the base?"

Dr. Fuji nodded, with a gleam in his eyes when he noticed that Monika could
follow his hints so well.

"That is a very good question, Dr. Rogowska. The base itself is also a
problematic case, as it will most likely be incomplete."
Monika took a breath to ask a further question, but Fuji interrupted her with a
raised hand.

"To answer your question, the base is a fossil. However, it is not just any
fossil. It's what we think to be the fossilized eyebrow of the Legendary
Pokémon Mew. The truth is, we have been commissioned by someone to create a
replica based on this fossil. However, not an exact replica, but a modified
one."

"So, has the DNA of this fossil already been sequenced?"

"Yes, that is correct. The gene structure of the sample is very interesting.
While there are certain gaps, we can assume that Mew might be the ancestor of
all Pokémon. While this is not exactly a proven fact, a first look at it has
led to this hypothesis."

The young woman frowned. She has never heard of this elusive Pokémon named Mew
before, however, if they already have a fossil to use as a base for cloning
attempts, that meant that this Pokémon was indeed real. It was a bit ironic
though that the base contained gaps, as this might well play into the plan to
alter the clone according to the specifications given by whoever the
commissioner was.

"And I guess you need me to help you with designing the genetic structure of the
modified clone?"

"Indeed. I want you to help my team to think about what we want to use to fill
the gaps and how we want to alter the given sequence of Mew according to our
commissioner's wishes. Once we have the initial design, I want us to focus on
solving the problem of maturation."

Monika was intrigued by this project. They would be going on to create not only
a clone, but one that will most definitely be a hybrid containing genes of
various beings within him.

"Now, I have only one condition here that I want my research team to
incorporate: I want to also use human genes to fill the gaps."

That took the woman aback.

"Human genes as filler? Why?", she blurted out in surprise.

"One of the conditions of the commission. This is something I must insist on."
She could tell from the look on Dr. Fuji's face that he meant that seriously.
And somehow she had the feeling that were was some darker, other reason behind
this insistence.

He raised both his hands and patted Monika's shoulders lightly. He smiled at
her, as he said: "Now, we need to discuss this matter in more depth with your
group. Please follow me."

The older man has seen the utter surprise on the face of this young woman, but
he knew that she would follow along. It was something he needed to do, and he
had a reason for it that he could not tell anyone else on this island. It was a
bold-faced lie that human genes needed to be implemented, but he had a
deep-seated personal reason for this.

They both stepped out of the huge room, their steps thudding on the metal floor
beneath them as they went on their way.

Unknown to almost everyone, deep inside the facility a young human girl was
sleeping in an incubation tank, eagerly waiting for the return of her father.

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