Chapter 30

This room looked even less like a laboratory than the other areas. It was very modern-- with diffused lighting, and even carpeting on the half of the floor. The other half of the room was taken up by the tank and the machines that supported it. The tank, of a black acrylic-like material, was far more formidable than the haphazard-looking machines connected to it.

The machines would exchange the fluid in the tank several times a minute, replacing the “dirty” solution with a fresh supply. The solution had most of the characteristics of human blood in that respect, in that it carried everything that blood did, but would not easily support certain kinds of life, and was perfectly clear.

The other machines would manufacture, and add to the solution, the “viruses” carrying the new genetic code to be installed. As the virus could not reproduce itself, there had to be a continuous supply of it. There were a number of stages in the genetic modification treatment, each having its own genetic code. The stages allowed the changes to happen in an orderly manner. You couldn’t just dissolve everything and rebuild it at once, for the creature inside the tank wouldn’t survive.

It only took a minute for Jason to set up and insert the cartridge including the design of the new body into the computer. He switched on the machines connected to the tank. It would take only a few minutes for the genetic material to be created for each stage. Then the machine would wait until the subject was in place.

Those few minutes weren’t long enough. There was too much to say and too many feelings to express in the short interval before the machine was ready for them. They were all rightfully nervous, Elsa especially so, because she didn’t know what she’d do if something went wrong. She’d stay there, in the Lab, for the few hours the process would take.