Chapter 1: Beginnings?

It was getting late, and the background hum of the labs extensive equipment was much quieter than it had been earlier in the day. Jenna worked on, if she was to present a paper with any impact she needed to find a compound with much more controlled activity than she had seen so far!

This final batch of slides did seem to hold some promise; there was plenty of vasodilatation localized to the rat's clitoris, which was enlarged. Pretty hopeful; could this be the female equivalent of Viagra she had hunted for months for? Jenna quickly e-mailed Jeff the crop manager to ask for increased stocking of the source of the compound. Her excitement was limited however, there was a problem; too much non-specific binding, worse still the autoradiography indicated this had clustered, sequestered even, around the brain stem.

Damn! What the hell was the drug associated with erectile vasodilatation doing affecting nervous tissue deep in the brain? The question haunted her, her tired brain mulled over the issue, but it was no use, nothing surfaced. A sudden frustrated crash from the cage behind Jenna reminded her that Taylor the chimp was still waiting for her supper. Tay was clearly impatient!

"O.K, O.K., I get the hint just hang on and I will get your bowl"

That was when the mistake happened, it was simple overtiredness, and Jenna left the lab without securing the sample vials. Taylor took the opportunity, the closest yellow vial was reachable, only just, but with determination the primate's fingertips flicked the container into the cage. In a second the slimy yellow contents were gone. Taylor grimaced, finding the taste bitter and scurried away from the other vials.

Jenna walked back through the door to uncustomary silence, why wasn't Taylor going "ape shit" as usual when the fruit bowl appeared? Glancing in the cage, Jenna could see Taylor huddled in the far corner, as far away from the labs lights as possible. Then something shiny rolled towards the cage centre, something instantly recognizable!

"Oh shit, are you O.K. baby..." Jenna sprinted to the Taylor's side.

Jenna looked closely at Taylor, "It's O.K. Tay, I'm only mad with me" Taylor chattered softly back, head hung shamefully down. The light was better now and Jenna could clearly see a pale yellow dampness glistening on the chimp's lips. Jenna now knew the night would now be even longer; she would need to observe Taylor for the next four hours to be certain of the chimp's reaction to the compound. The rats had responded within minutes, but this was a primate, it could take much longer...

Jenna busied herself, titrating the compound on to transdermal patches, a serial dilution from left to right. The first rat would get an enormous dose on to its shaven back, the next nine progressively less. This would be the first skin adsorption test, subcutaneous injection had always been used in previous testing, but if this was to be viable for humans a more acceptable formulation had to be found. Out of the blue Jenna yawned, and stretching looked up to the lab clock,

"Jesus, 2am..." Six hours had whisked by.

Cautiously Jenna sidled up to the cage, and then laughed at her own fear; Taylor was peacefully snoring in her straw matting bed, having polished off the fruit hours ago. "Me too amigo" Jenna quipped as she headed for the lab door, "See you in the morning"