Cytla reentered the lab floor with a seething mind, but the last person she had wanted to contact was Colress. He ghosted into the corridor, as usual, but he immediately addressed her with the most stone-faced countenance she had ever witnessed from him. Great, here's a treat, she thought and proceeded to curse in the back of her mind. "Cytla, what the Hell went on out there?" She moved to speak, but he would not grant her the satisfaction yet. "Did I not warn you of the protestors? Did we not agree that you would produce even a shred of self-control that would separate you from the apes? I seem to remember these agreements, so why didn't you?" She wanted to speak again, burned for it, but she used her superior judgment and logic to retain her silence. When Colress spoke, no other human creature joined. "Our lab—no, our lives depend on the government giving us grants every two years. I can only write so much and convince so many people of the positive gains of our research. But that shit that just occurred today is a setback in our reputation. In our research, reputation is a key element. Do you agree?" She remained silent for his safety and slowly nodded her head. "Very good. I don't like seeing my lab in jeopardy, Cytla. It reflects badly upon us all. It could even cost you your place as my partner in this endeavor. You'd be missing out on the glory of our endgame. But what irked me even further was that you distorted our primary aspirations for Project ETHEREAL." Her lip twitched, but she held back any sign of a desire to talk. "We are not setting morals here. We are not proving or disproving that morals can be achieved without a god. We are associating this with neither religion nor morals. We are scientists. We are interested in what science can do. We will utilize the database for the knowledge of the database only. I will not have my lab turn into a church. Do you agree?" She found the checkpoint for talking as Colress seemed to calm himself by spouting out the bulk of his ideas first. However, she would have preferred that the discussion hadn't occurred at all.
"They were de-ranking the importance and the prestige of this project, Colress. Some even commented that we were doomed to create mole babies! I can't stand back and let them tread all over us and the years of our hard work. They are ignorant people, and I only offer the light of wisdom." She glanced at his face and flinched at the cold paleness it had adopted, but it became a true concern when his arms folded across his chest. She knew he was getting impatient and longing for the lab again, it was the only environment that was his nirvana, his paradise, but she was keeping him from it, and that meant death in a sense. "But how can you say that this project has nothing to do with morals? Colress, we're creating human beings here! Even if the database is a success, what will we do with the humans we had just created? They need emotional support, mental growth, basic materials and a friendly environment where they can establish some sort of bond with us. They will think that we are their parents. Therefore, we have to treat them like our children." He was silent during her whole speak and gestured her onwards to fully disclose her views on the matter. The why he considered the most important speck of knowledge he could gain. "We programmed them to be completely virgin, we erased all signals of carnal desires, and we increased their life expectancy. If we treat them correctly, life will figure itself out. They will be the perfect role models in morals for generations to come! We finally have the tools to give the world what it has asked for consistently." He was as silent as a stone, but his eyes were sharp as numbers and words and images circuited just before his pupils as he gazed upon her. He disagreed whole-heartedly with her, claiming that the perfection she seeks from her peers and strangers is regrettably impossible due to the sheer number of free will forces acting upon the billions and billions in the world. But he was thinking something quite deliberate, something that would slightly harm his own convictions but he hoped that it would completely destroy hers.
When Cytla finished speaking, there was calm about the air. But Colress was not through and blocked her way further into the corridor. "Why did you even engage them? Did you truly want to spout this moral nonsense and jeopardize this lab's credibility? In the past, you never would have even looked twice at the protestors or anyone else in general. What coerced you to commit that outrageous display of a lack of discipline?" She hesitated for a moment as she remembered the voice of Cheren ringing through her ears like the church bell, but she still held doubts about the truth. Yet, Colress was staring her down; his eyes burned though her skull to find the truth until she decided to end the torture and confess.
"I talked to Cheren right before the event. I didn't agree with him at first, but he suggested that I should gain some tolerance of this god-awful people. Apparently, I need to practice my honesty. Well, I practiced my honesty, and now look where it got us! We are in some deep shit here, Colress." He was quiet and contemplative for a few moments, allowing his private plan to ferment and promise him of all the success that he'll have at the cost of some of his honor. Within seconds, he de-folded his arms and waved her off aloofly.
"I've grown out of patience on the topic. Do not let me see another outburst like that again. I do not even want another verbal assault against these people to seep through your lips. If I find that you jeopardize the lab and our reputations again, your services will no longer be required. Is that understood?" She nodded but refused to say anything further since the finality had already been established. In triumph and concentration, Colress walked off toward the lab for more developmental maintenance, but Cytla found herself speechless. She bitterly disliked Colress's detachment to a project so human, but despite the warning previously assigned, she went on believing that the project was for greater morals and would stay that way, long after the completion of Project ETHEREAL. It was the silent force of a new age of being. Still, even she had her suspicions of an ever present harbinger.