The Lab (Closed for Forthinu)

[LadyCara]

I had a restless night, I never did sleep well the first night in a strange place.

On waking I looked at my watch and saw I had plenty of time before I was expected in room 112 by Dr Wolf.

I washed and got ready and then made my way to the cafeteria in search of breakfast.

 

[Forthinu]

Eric Gatland - Security manager

I took my time to have breakfasts, there were enough people out on duty. The new "girl" walked in, and she really did not look bad. I wonder if Luke, that slimey broad, had laid her already in the first night. I did not see him here, but he might show up later. I watched her, but not giving any sign. I just watch all te pople around me - that is my job.

 

[LadyCara]

As I entered I noticed the Security Manager, but there wasn't anyone else I knew.

I helped myself to a cooked breakfast and then picking up one of the morning papers I made my way to a spare table and began to eat and read the paper whilst I did so.

 

[Forthinu]

Luke Woods

I had a phonecall in the morning, so I got late to the cafetaria. I found her sitting at the table - good she wasn't gone already.
"Good morning. Slept well?" I sat done before her, putting my plate on the table.

 

[LadyCara]

"Good morning. Slept well?"

I inwardly groaned, not who I wanted to meet this morning, but as it was a small world here, I knew i'd probably have to get used to it.

I put the paper down and smiled at my breakfast companion.

"Yes thank you." which wasn't quite true, but I didn't want to go into the fact first nights in strange places were never good.

"How about you?" I asked as I took another bite of toast.

 

[Forthinu]

Luke Woods

"Oh, I felt a bit loneley, but I had nice dreams." I grinned my inresistable smile and gulped down my toast, spilling it down with orange juice.

 

[LadyCara]

I smiled at him, unsure of how to answer his comment.

I ate the last of my toast and took another sip of tea.

"Do you have a fun filled day ahead of you?" I asked curious at whether he worked mainly in an office or roamed the corridors.

 

[Forthinu]

Luke Woods

"So far, not so much. There arenÄt a lot of pretty ladies in the office, so I do most phoning, talking and filling papers." I wondered if I should add that I might have a fun-filled night, but I waited with that proposal.

 

[LadyCara]

"Give me a lab any day to an office. I like the excitement of discovery." Let him take my last sentence as he will, I thought, guessing he'd probably take it as meaning him.

"I must admit, i'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into a new project."

 

[Forthinu]

Luke Woods

Now I knew I had her on the hook, and I had to grin wide. This references were just to obious. "I would be just to happy to give you a project to get your teeth into."

 

[LadyCara]

"

I would be just to happy to give you a project to get your teeth into."

"I'm sure you can." I smiled at him, though the smile didn't reach my eyes and I quickly glanced at my watch.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to meet Dr Wolf."

I collected my breakfast depris and disposed of it at the counter and quickly made my way to my room where I cleaned my teeth and prepared to meet my new boss.

Wearing my lab coat and ensuring I had the electronic door keys Mr Gatland had given me I quickly made my way to my meeting with Dr Wolf.

 

[Forthinu]

Lucian Wolf

I nerly forgot our new worker, as I feeled a bit dizzy again, lacking sleep. But je just turned up in the right moment to remind me. I would not tell her what we were doing in detail - if she was good, she would figure out herself. We were working on a temporarily changing of the DNS in a grown specimen - the side-affects could be drastic, but the possibilities amazing. This was as good as making life - impossible yet to say where it would stop. I would let our new employer start with more routine work, just to watch how she would perform.

"A, hello. I will show you your working place for the beginning. Let us see... There was this test going on, surely it will not be a problem for you."

 

[LadyCara]

"A, hello. I will show you your working place for the beginning. Let us see... There was this test going on, surely it will not be a problem for you."

"Hello. No a test will be find, do you want me to look for anything in particular or would you like me to tell you what I see?" I asked as I moved over to the work place he indicated and took in the vials and dishes wondering what was going on here and what they were doing.

 

[Forthinu]

Lucian Wolf

"You can have a look through a microscope and tell me what you see." I placed some of the cells we were working with under the display. This were unstable cells, as we tried many different approaches to alter them. This one was rather spectacular, but not really usable. I wonder what she ould make out of it.

 

[LadyCara]

I looked into the microsocope.

"Interesting. The genome are mutated, but the variations here mean they're unstable cells."

I looked up at him.

"When genes involved in replicating or repairing DNA are mutated, a cell with an unstable genome is often the result. I would be interested to know what kind of DNA manipulations you are trying to achieve and if you know the location of the DNA that you are targeting?"

 

[Forthinu]

Lucian Wolf

"Imagine a bacteria that can survive under extreme condiditions, for example boiling water. It is part of its DNA. Now imagine there is another bacteria in another enviroment, that has never adapted this ability. But this bacteria has the ability to change his DNA and some of it's structure, so it will be adapted to the conditions and can survive. What do you think of that?"

 

[LadyCara]

"I think that would be amazing and the potential, kinda blows the mind. it would allow for all sorts of adaptations." If that was the sort of research they were doing here, then I could see it had far reaching possibilities from adapting animal DNA to, in the far future, to possibly adapting human for space travel or even the deep sea.

"Have you had any success with the research so far." or was this chasing rainbows, I wondered.

 

[Forthinu]

Lucian Wolf

"We do have results, but of course, we are yet in a very early stage yet. Your job will be to check the samples."
I did not mention that this was a very loneley job that could boring quite well. The main thing to do was to walk around all the time through endless corridors, some of them in the cellar, some even in hardly lit rooms. As this work could be done by one person and being restricted, she could spend many hours without seeing anybody. But that's the way it is. As scientist she should know that the work wasn't exciting all the time. Of course, the samples she would supervise would be the less important ones, the really valuable stuff was in hands of people working for a long time here.

 

[LadyCara]

"We do have results, but of course, we are yet in a very early stage yet. Your job will be to check the samples."

Checking samples was one of the most boring jobs going, though if you found anything it could also be one of the most exciting too.

"I can do that." I told him, giving him a smile. "Will the samples be brought to me, or will I have to collect them from their storage?" I asked. I had already spotted the neat books with which I would have to annotate the results, guessing this lab was to be my new 'home from home'.

 

[Forthinu]

Lucian Wolf

"You will check them at their storage places. This will involve a lot of walking, but surely this is no problem for you. You will have to pass several security gates, but your card will give you access." I showed her the map and the places before I walked her around to see all places she would work on. After a brief checkup, she should well be able to handle this all alone, even on the first day. It was a routinejob and surely far below her qualification, but she had to start somewhere.

 

[LadyCara]

I was glad to be given a map and it all looked fairly straight forward and appreciated the tour, trying to memorise all the places I would need to know. I noticed the lack of people, but as I wasn't in the main lab so it wasn't surprising to me.

Some of the doors between the storage sections looked heavy duty, no doubt with emergency protocols in case something was accidentally released into the air. Next to each card reader was an emergency intercom, so even if you got stranded, technically, you wouldn't be still cut off.

"I will start immediately." I told him when we'd returned to the lab at which i'd made the initial analysis, hoping he would appreciate my eagerness, that and wondering around the facility held no appeal for me.

 

[Forthinu]

Lucian Wolf

"Good, good. I don't think this will provide a problem for you. Once you have worked in well into our enviroment, we can see if we find more interesting tasks for you."
I left, but was not worried. Many years ago I had spent countless hours in narrow, often dark corridors all alone, and it did me no harm.

 

[LadyCara]

I pulled over the book listing the ones I needed to check and I made a note and then went in search of them.

With no one else there, the empty corridors seemed eerie and a couple of times I thought I heard a sound, but dismissed it as nothing more than the air circulating through the ducts, afterall, a place like this wouldn't have rats.

Before long, I had my first batch and made my way back to the lab to check. These two had all become unstable and I annotated the records accordingly and put them in the fridge ready for them to be disposed of safely.

I then made my way down the corridors to get the next batch promising myself I would bring my mp3 player with me tomorrow,

 

[Forthinu]

Unknown

I knew she was going into the unlit corridors next. These were samples that had to kept out of hard light, so that there were only tiny redlights, dimly illuminating the probes and shelf, but nothing more. I crouched backwards, waiting until she would pass.

 

[LadyCara]

I checked the sample numbers that I was supposed to check next as I made my way down another corridor. In the half light I felt nervous, but shrugged it off as an over active imagination, afterall, who would be down here and if there was someone then surely they would make themselves known.

I stopped at a door and double checked it with my map, still unsure of my way around and after checking I was at the right one I slid my card into the security lock.