Chapter Three

There's Something Inside

Catherine felt like screaming as the cold tip of an instrument probed across her bare back. She had spent four hours under the intensive examination of the Biohazards people and she couldn't help thinking of all the other things she could have done in that time.

"Is that it?" She asked the stocky woman, dressed in the yellow bio-protection suit.

"Yep." She replied dismissively.

"Am I clear?"

"Hang on a minute." She raised her index finger as her radio cackled. Murmuring in a low voice, she was over even before Catherine could figure out what she was saying. The woman turned towards her, her face indeterminate behind the huge mask. "Yeah, you are good. But just in case you feel nauseous or any strange body pain, be sure to notify us."

As soon as Catherine got dressed and stepped out into the main corridors, she was greeted by an eager Hodges.

"Heard you saw an alien." He struggled to keep up to her pace.

"It wasn't an alien."

"C'mon. Worm-looking, parasitic, breathing, indeterminate thing; who are you kidding?"

"I don't know what it is, but it's not an alien." She said shortly. "And don't you go spreading it around."

"Too late."

She noticed with some weariness how Nick and Warrick were waiting for her outside her office. Curiosity was etched on their face. She didn't doubt Greg would be far. Sure enough, he poked his tousled head out of her office.

"Hi guys." She greeted, after she shot Hodges a withering glare.

Obviously they didn't get the message because Greg all but pounced on her with questions.

"So, how did it look like?"

"Did you touch it?"

"Did it smell? Did it make a sound? Did it try to communicate?"

"Did the Doc find any non-IUPAC chemicals in its structure?"

"Everyone, stop!" She shouted, effectively quieting them. "Don't you guys have something better to do? Cases? Paperwork? If you don't, I have a pile waiting in my office."

Greg muttered another one of his jokes. Nick flashed his charming Texan smile, hoping it would appease her. Warrick didn't want to get caught in the Willows temper and wisely stepped aside.

Catherine continued her way to the break room to get a much needed dose of caffeine. When she saw Sara already in there, she hesitated by the doorway. The last thing she needed right then was another confrontation. But strangely, she felt like talking to the brunette. Must be her suicidal instinct, she thought.

"Hey." Sara looked up, her earlier coldness replaced by the curiosity that – Catherine knew – must have infected the entire lab by now.

"Hey Sara, and no, I'm not telling you what it looked like."

Sara pretended shock. "I never asked."

"But you were going to." Catherine smiled a little before stepping towards the coffee machine. "Besides, I'm not really sure how to describe it. Fleshy, green and alive don't quite seem to fit it."

"Oh, but it does sound familiar. E.T. anyone?"

"Not really E.T. But one of his organs, sure." She took a sip from the beverage and reveled in the hormonal alertness it spiked.

"Well, you've got the case of the year."

Catherine looked up to see if the woman was being sarcastic, but all she saw was genuine interest, tinged with a slight amusement. She shrugged, "It could just be a bad lunch, for all we know."

Sara's pager beeped and she quickly excused herself, half-running, half-walking out. Catherine watched her disappear out of sight, not aware that she was sipping an already drained mug.

For as long as Doc Robbins remembered, he had wanted to be a medical professional. He didn't quite make a physician, because his bedside manners were thought to be a little too blunt and insensitive. He realized a career examining corpses would be much suited for him. After all, the dead don't hear, don't mind and don't complain. But they sure have a lot to reveal and he loved trying to decipher it.

However, as each year progresses since the first time he stepped into a morgue, he learns more and more of the world that is inhabited by the so-called science academia – not all of them good. Science, like every other field in this world, has become a commercial trade market. You have dazzling talkshow-ready people spewing scientific jargon and dishing out bestseller books. You have eminent scientists who have sold their ideas like a common whore. You have large, mammoth corporations charging obnoxious prices for medications. For the pop culture consumer, science has become synonymous with the Phils and Atkins and Cruises of today. There is no integrity left amongst scientists as they indulge in unfair battle for their grants and patronages. The meek and idealistic are trampled and left to crawl.

While such news is enough to condemn a self-respecting scientist into depression, there's also a fraction of individuals who have upheld the traditional honor of this area. And that is what keeps Al Robbins continue in hope.

But as he was perusing through his reports, he couldn't stop the flood of disgust.

"Hey Doc." Catherine walked in, trying to appear calm, but the anxiety was clear on her face.

"Catherine, I have good news and a bad news."

"The good news, first." She said, without skipping a beat. "I think I could use some of that now."

"Well, the UNLV School of Life Sciences examined the organism, and they have cleared it from its database of known epidemics."

"Well, just because it's not in the database, doesn't really mean it's not dangerous." She reasoned. "It could be an unknown pathogen, or even a mutagenic form of other pathogens."

"Yes, but the thing is that they do know what it is."

"Oh?"

He sighed. "Here comes the bad news. They were able to identify a specific gene marker in its structure. It didn't take too long, the marker was for all to see and hard to miss, since it serves the same function a hologram logo does."

"You mean," She lifted her eyebrows. "That thing was manufactured?"

"In the basic terms, yes. But since it's a living entity, it grew on its own."

"Whoa, whoa, hang on. So, are you saying that someone created this thing and put it in the guy's stomach?"

He picked up the file in front of him and flipped to the first page. "This month's Nature has an article about two doctors, Dr. Connor Greenberg and Dr. Reetha Chaudhary. They were the heads of the team that has been trying to find a vaccine for HIV."

"How noble." Catherine murmured dryly. "And I sense a but coming."

"Well, the thing is that they were actually quite successful, or so their trials claim. Apparently, they were able to clone an antagonistic form of this retrovirus that would imitate much of the same reproductive and transport patterns as its parent, except for one major difference. While the HIV attacks macrophages and T cells, major components of the human immunity, this new clone would attack the virus itself."

"What happens if and when all the viruses are eliminated?"

"You get our dead guy." Doc Robbins replied grimly.

She stared back blankly.

"They had an extensive and probably ingenious way of disrupting the growth pattern of the virus, but they overlooked the fact that they are inserting a replicating, a very rapidly replicating, foreign substance inside the body. If the virus growth stops, so will this entity's. But that doesn't discount the fact that there is a huge mass of something inside and the body has no way of knowing or fighting it. Their justification was that once the immunity levels return to its previous capacity, it will automatically deplete the body of these unwanted leftovers. But the bone marrow takes time to recover its lost immunity. But even if we assume the T-cells will leap back to its original high, it is still a living thing that these people have made. Like everything that reproduces, there are mutations. And with a rate this fast, the mutations are visible and functional in a matter of days. They knew what they created, but they had no idea what it could become."

"So, it turned into a parasite?" Catherine was so overwhelmed, she didn't know what else to ask.

"Maybe. Or maybe, just the fact that it was disrupting the normal digestive process, it wreaked havoc for our guy."

"Well, so now that we know this, we can take it with the correct authorities and stop these doctors from continuing, right?"

"I'm afraid, it's not that simple. The consequences have been pointed out and by all accounts their experiment should have been thrown out of the window. But, you see, GenSyn, a major player in the world of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, is backing them up. It will do anything, and I mean anything, to get FDA approval. I don't know why the FDA's even considering giving these people a second chance when the risks are clearly highlighted."

Catherine noticed how irked the Doc looked and she empathized with him. "Was our guy a volunteer for their research?"

"I doubt it, since he was one of the brains behind this whole project. His name was Connor Greenberg, AWOL for the past six months."

Catherine was sure she heard her jaws dropping.

Author's Note: The whole HIV vaccine thing is pure fiction. It's not based on any science journal or ongoing scientific experiment. Any resemblance with actual events is just coincidence. So too is GenSyn a fictional corporation and does not reflect anyone or any company. But it does try to address some issues. My intention isn't political, so hope none was offended. That being said, it's still a CSI Catherine/Sara fanfic ;D