Disclaimer
Tenchi and all associated characters are the property of AIC and Pioneer LDC. I don't own any rights to them. Any other characters are property of their respective copyright holders, not me.
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A Scientist's Tale
Chapter 1
The Project Begins
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"And that, my lords, is why you should allow funding for my project."
I thought my presentation was superb, as befits the greatest scientific genius in the universe. At least it seemed to be much better and more thought out than that idiot Clay's. I mean, a mechanical soldier, an android. Pah! Anyone can build one of those; the techniques had been refined centuries ago. Still, the idea of a mutable mecha held merit… Nah, my biologic model held much more promise, after all, it could easily be made self-replicating, it would require no artificial power source, and with the proper genetic manipulation could be made to resemble any known species. Mechanical soldiers, indeed! I turned and looked down the table, giving Clay my best scowl. He smiled benignly back at me, but I could tell he was sweating under that grotesque beard of his. Now, if only the Juraians would see things my way, my victory over that fool would be complete.
The large viewscreen on the far wall lit up again, showing the Holy Council of Jurai in all their obscure glory. By now it had been over an hour since they had gone into deliberation over our proposals. Even I, in my infinite confidence, was beginning to worry. What if they chose Clay's project? What if they chose neither? Or even worse, what if they actually chose mine? All I had to work with were theories; at least Clay's proposal was based upon active technology.
The head of the Council said something that I missed, being totally lost in my thoughts. How embarrassing. "Excuse me?" I said. "Could you please repeat that?"
"Certainly Professor Hakubi," he said condescendingly. "I said that the council has reached a tentative decision. That's all." He smiled at me the way one would smile at a wayward child. Not that I blamed him, given the form I'd chosen to adopt. But still…
"First of all, we would like to thank both of you, Doctor Clay and Doctor Hakubi for responding to our request. Out of all the submissions, yours are the most promising. It pleases us to know that we have two such great minds with our best interests at heart."
Yeah right, I thought, Clay's nothing if not totally altruistic. Hah. Even I have an ulterior motive. Not that I wouldn't try my best.
"Both proposals have merit so we'd like to take this one step further. We've agreed to approve tentative funding for a prototype from each project."
I was stunned. Both projects? Then I realized what was happening. They liked mine better, but it was untested technology. They weren't going to put all their money into something that might not work. At least Clay's proposal used ideas they could understand. Prototypes huh? That was ok with me; I'd ever only intended to build the one model anyway. Still, it'd be interesting to see what Clay came up with. It shouldn't be a problem for me or one of my two assistants to hack into his research notes. The man wasn't really an idiot; he might actually have something that I could use. Goddess knows he'd be trying to steal or sabotage my work if given the chance.
"Professor Hakubi?"
Once again I hadn't been paying attention. This was a habit I'd have to learn to break or it would come back to bite me sometime. "Yes?" I replied, raising my face to the viewscreen.
"We can supply you with a suitable DNA sample if you wish."
"Uh, no thanks," I said, pretending to actually consider the offer for a moment. "Maybe for the final model if it gets that far. To save time I'll use a sample I'm already familiar with for the prototype. If that meets with your approval?" There was a long pause.
"That will be acceptable. Now, we will need monthly progress reports for both projects and a cost analysis of…" He droned on about details for a few minutes. I breathed a sigh of relief. That had been close, I'd thought for a moment that they'd insist on my using their sample and that would've blown the whole thing. I couldn't wait to get started.
Leaving the conference room I found my two assistants waiting for me in the lounge. "So Washu, how did it go?" Kagato, the brighter of the two asked with a solemn look on his long face. "Yes Professor, did they pick your project?" piped in Yakage, jumping to his feet.
I gave them both a glare that reminded them who was in charge, then tempered it with one of my famous grins. "Almost; they ordered a prototype. C'mon you two, we've got a lot of work to do." Out of the corner of my eye I saw them give each other a high five and I couldn't help but chuckle. Although I felt like joining in, my celebration would wait until the end of the project came and I had what I wanted. Then I would celebrate, yes indeed.
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"So Professor, where do we start?" asked Yakage early the next morning.
I pointed to the liquid nitrogen container I'd just set on the worktable. "You'll find an ovum frozen in there. I already have the DNA sequenced, let's start by running a few computer simulations on it to see what enhancements we'll need to make and where we should make them. Then we'll do a bit of genetic manipulation and start the growth process."
"Is it fertilized?" Kagato asked, picking up the container and squinting at it as if he could read the codes through the metal and insulation.
"Nope," I said. This is going to be a cloning process. We'll fill in the empty half by replicating the existing part."
Kagato chuckled. "So the mother will also be the father? How drole. I suppose you know that by doing a straight replication the result will be female?"
I reached up and smacked him on the back of the head. "Who's the senior Doctor here? Of course I know that, you have a problem with it?"
He put the container down and rubbed the sore spot. "No, not really. But what will the Juraians say when you present them with a female super soldier?"
I laughed in his face. "Nothing. The Juraians aren't that backwards, they already have female soldiers serving in combat roles. Geez, you make it out like a female in combat is a bad thing. How medieval."
Yakage put his arm around Kagato's shoulders. "C'mon, I don't see a problem with it. Let's get busy and start programming those simulations, it's going to take months to finish them all."
"You wouldn't have a problem, you're Juraian," Kagato muttered loud enough for me to hear. He picked up the container and followed Yakage into the sequencing room. Before he allowed the door to close he turned back to me. "Washu, can we get more samples if we need to? Not that anything should happen, but if it does I'd hate for the project to fail because we relied on a single sample."
"Now you're thinking like a scientist," I told him. "Sure, there's plenty more where that one came from. But the procedure to extract them is mildly painful so I don't want to ask the donor for more if I don't have to, get it?"
He nodded. "I understand Professor, we'll take good care of this one. I just needed to know, just in case you understand."
I smiled and shooed him out of the room. Sighing deeply, I took a seat at my computer terminal and started to make a list for them of the enhancements I wanted to include and what the Juraians expected. The only one that evaded me for the moment was that the Juraians requested that the being be self-transporting. But I'd come up with something. I always did.
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To be continued?
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Author's Notes
This takes place in the OAV universe although I will be mentioning and using a few characters from the manga, like Yakage. Their lives will just take different directions.
The idea for this one came to me while I was cutting grass. Strange how things pop into your mind at the oddest moments. I decided to write it in first-person just to see if it could be done, let me know if it works or not and whether I should continue it.
Before anyone asks: yes, this does fit into my other stories. It just takes place 5000 years before them. Sorry this first part is so short but it's the only piece that's complete. I have portions of the rest (up to Washu's imprisonment by Kagato) worked out, but they're still in my head. I'll try to get them out as soon as possible, but I have two other stories in the works, one that has yet to be posted (the Ayeka's pregnancy story; it may never be posted if I don't come up with some more ideas for it)
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BobR
5/26/2002