3-2. Promise

The damp air of the laboratory was almost a relief after the growing heat of early summer; it pressed against Lucrecia's skin like a cool compress, calming the dizziness and nausea that had marred her morning. Her fainting spells were under control now; once in a great while she'd lose consciousness after one of the weekly Mako treatments, but the original crippling vertigo had quieted to a faint dizziness accompanying daily episodes of nausea. At least that much isn't the treatments' fault…at least not technically, she thought with a trace of sarcasm, as she set her books down on her workbench.

The apparatus she'd set up the day before stood on the workbench, its unattended test run complete, the results developed and ready to record. She'd prepared a routine analysis of the proteins in the experimental cells, expecting little more than a dull profile to include in the official Shinra report. Gast had requested this, intending to pacify the jealous protein biochemistry specialists in the Corporation. He had spent much of the last six months placating Shinra officials, making several trips back to Midgar as well as spending hours on the telephone in his office.

It's just as well, Lucrecia thought. She opened the tank of developing fluid where the protein profile, no more than a thin sheet of gelatin, floated. If he saw what really goes on here he'd probably give the whole thing up...

Half lost in thought, Lucrecia lifted the fragile layer of gelatin from the developing fluid and spread it on the small viewing platform under the stationary camera. She turned on a light, illuminating the translucent film of proteins and dyes from below, and snapped a few pictures. Setting the pictures aside to develop, she slid the gelatin into a pan of water, to be preserved later.

Slowly the photographs emerged from a gray haze, a pattern of dark dashes against the light background of the gelatin. Each represented a protein from the original cells, pulled into a standard formation by electrical charges and dyed an unnatural blue with chemicals. Lucrecia opened her notes to her previous studies on cell proteins and picked up a black pen, labeling the proteins on one of the photographs. All seemed to have proceeded as expected; the pre-infection, during-infection, and post-infection cells followed the expected profiles. During-infection showed an increased amount in some common proteins, as well as some useless "junk" product. As Shinra had reported, the virus seemed to vanish after infection; pre-infection and post-infection looked almost identical.

Lucrecia finished labeling the three samples and looked them over again. Her pen hovered over an unlabeled band of dye, representing a large protein—seen only in post-infection cells.

Almost identical…

Trying to keep down the instinctive leap of excitement, she scanned her notes once again. There was no mention of any proteins of this size in pre-infection cells. No one had yet bothered to do an analysis of the Project cells' proteins; that was to have been a task undertaken by the biochemistry student…

She marked the spot with an arrow and a note, "Unknown protein…?" before slipping one unmarked copy of the photograph into her notebook. The second she put in her folder of materials to send to Midgar; then, standing and walking down the hall—her dizziness cleared by a hum of anticipation—she tossed the last, labeled photograph on the desk of Dr. Gast.




Dr. Gast insisted on The Den in northern Nibelheim for a celebratory dinner, for its privacy as well as for its good reputation among the villagers. The room was dim and cool in the early evening, the air disturbed only by a low murmur of dinner conversation. The calm atmosphere settled Lucrecia's stomach a bit—her nausea was caused not by pregnancy at this hour, but by nervousness. There was much that Gast still did not know, and she feared he would not stay oblivious for long.

"May I take your order, sir?" the waiter asked, appearing from some unnoticed corner of the room.

"Steak for me, medium well, a bottle of your best champagne, and whatever Ms. Gainsborough wants…?"

The waiter and the anthropologist watched her expectantly; Lucrecia felt a flush spread over her cheeks. I can't drink champagne now, that's for sure. "Uh, a salad, thanks. And nothing else to drink, just water."

"Very well." With a nod, the waiter retreated.

The scientist's eyes crinkled as he smiled. "You've never seemed to be the dieting type, Ms. Gainsborough."

Lucrecia felt an involuntary smirk stretch her mouth. "I'm not; I just haven't felt very well lately."

Gast's gaze turned a bit critical as Lucrecia took a sip of ice water; she wondered if he could see her too-pale skin in the dim light of the restaurant, or the faint hollowing of her throat and face. "Have you seen a doctor about it?"

Well, Ms. Gainsborough, we have good and bad news. The good news is that you're not dead yet. The bad news is that you're overworked, sleep-deprived, and half-poisoned. Oh, and pregnant with an alien baby. Congratulations. Lucrecia suppressed a giggle.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just a strange thought."

"Hm. Are you sure you're all right? You do look a little…odd."

"I'm fine." Relatively speaking. "I've been dizzy a lot, and…well, you probably heard about the fainting."

Gast set his water glass down with an abrupt thunk. "Fainting?"

How could he not know?… "I just passed out a couple of times. In the lab, mostly." She felt a flush creep up into her face as she spoke. "I'm all right though. It hardly ever happens anymore."

"It still doesn't sound healthy. Maybe you should take a few weeks off and get some rest."

"Now? After what I found today? Besides, it wouldn't help. Trust me."

Gast took another sip of ice water, watching her skeptically. "How can you be sure?"

"Well…" The blush deepened, and she nervously traced circles on the tablecloth with her fingertip. "It's, uh, guaranteed to last at least a few more months."

"What…?"

Lucrecia closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to picture green light. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly. She swallowed, then looked up to Gast's surprised face.

"Y—wh—when are you due?" the elder scientist stammered.

"After the new year."

Gast's look of shock dissolved into a bright smile. "Well—congratulations, then! I had no idea."

Clearing his throat quietly, the waiter reappeared with Gast's champagne and poured it into two flutes with graceful etched patterns. He noted that their dinner would be ready momentarily and vanished again. Gast picked up one of the flutes and raised it. "To the happy parents. Does Vincent know yet?"

Lucrecia smiled, a little ironically, as she clinked her glass against Gast's. "He knows."

Gast drank a sip of the champagne; Lucrecia left hers on the table. "Splendid. I don't mean to be rude, but are you two planning to get married?"

"I think so. Someday, after the Project's over. I…don't think I'm ready yet." Her throat tightened as she remembered Vincent's stricken face, his quiet voice as he looked down at the ring she'd returned. "Partly because of work…"

Gast nodded. "Understood; I don't think any of us could leave the Project at this stage. We're all too involved in it." If you only knew, Lucrecia thought darkly. "Are you sure you'll be all right, though, with all those long hours, constant strain, working around chemicals?…" I'd rather work longer, she thought. Work gets me away from the chemicals… "You can always take a few months' leave; they allow that for new mothers now."

"Only if I have to," she answered truthfully. "I'd rather not leave my work."

Gast laughed. "Spoken like a true scientist." Lucrecia felt an echo of a smile cross her face at the joke. Gast lifted his glass of champagne and drank. "Well then, here's to the newest member of the JENOVA Project." Lucrecia struggled not to look alarmed at the unwitting aptness of his words.

The waiter reappeared, carrying a tray laden with food, and set down their respective meals. Gast thanked him, and he nodded and retreated once again. Lucrecia found that her original nervous tension had subsided quite a bit; she scattered dressing over her salad and swallowed the first few bites without incident. Gast dug into his steak with enthusiasm, pausing for a drink of water and, to Lucrecia's mixed relief and dread, a continuation of the conversation.

"So," Gast began, "what do you plan to do after the child is born?"

Lucrecia swallowed and took a drink of the cool water. "Well… the Project will probably be over by then." She kept down a smile at the irony in that. "I think we'd like to move to Kalm and stay on with Shinra. Vincent wants to get out of Midgar, to somewhere more quiet, which is fine with me."

"Really?" Gast chewed a bite of steak thoughtfully. "I've been thinking more of the quiet life myself, recently. I've been wanting to move back to the country for a few years now, for some peace and quiet, and after this assignment I think I'll need it." He smiled, a warm spark in his blue eyes. "There's a house in Icicle Inn that I've been looking into—it's a village up north, not far from where I grew up. Some tourists, but overall a nice, quiet town. Seemed like a nice place to study."

Lucrecia tapped a forkful of greens against her plate. "That's pretty far from Midgar, isn't it? And Shinra…"

Gast's smile took on an edge of sarcasm. He took a sip of champagne and wiped his mouth on a napkin. "That's more or less the point, Ms. Gainsborough." Lucrecia was too surprised to answer; Gast went on. "It's not far from the Knowlespole, either, or from the last known settlement of the Ancients. I've been researching their culture quite a bit during the past year; it's absolutely fascinating."

The anthropologist continued talking, but Lucrecia's vision blurred, overtaken by a vision of—what was it? Green light, swallowed by a shadow and a spreading taint of red… A shiver of terror seized her body; the shadow was so silent, and swift, and unstoppable…

"Lucrecia?" She looked up suddenly. Gast was leaning over the table, touching her shoulder. He relaxed back into her seat as her vision cleared. "Are you all right?"

She swallowed. "I'm fine, my mind was just…wandering."

Gast's smile returned slightly, and he took another bite of steak. "I'm boring you? Please forgive me, I have a tendency to ramble on about my favorite subjects."

"No, no, trust me, I'm very interested in the Ancients myself. It's just…a momentary fugue, I guess." Embarrassed, Lucrecia returned to her half-finished salad.

"Well, you have a lot on your mind lately, of course."

"That's true." And you don't know the half of it, she thought. I wish I could tell him…but he wouldn't understand. And I've let him down. Me, his favorite student! It would kill him if he knew.

"Well, it's understandable to worry at this stage," Gast said comfortingly. "I hope when I have children of my own, I can stay as calm as either of you." He smiled and refilled his champagne glass. "Still, worries or not, there's a lot to celebrate tonight. First a breakthrough in the Project, and now this, news of yours and Vincent's first child. Wonderful." Lucrecia's heart sank at the mention of Vincent's child, but she managed to smile back.

"So do you think this will really lead somewhere?" she asked, wishing to turn the conversation away from that subject for a while. "From what I've seen, it could mean a complete turnaround in Shinra's view of the virus."

"It very well could," Gast agreed. "Although it's never easy changing the Corporation's stance on anything. With a few more conclusive tests, though, they can hardly deny it. This is monumental, Ms. Gainsborough. Absolutely monumental."

Lucrecia let a genuine smile break through. "I hoped so. In all this time, we never believed that the virus remained dormant after infection—and especially not in some new form. If it is what I suspect, and the virus somehow becomes dormant as a protein, this could be a new concept for all of virology. This has literally never been seen before, Dr. Gast. I can hardly believe it myself."

"Do you think that's what happened?" Gast asked.

Lucrecia nodded and finished off the last of her salad, absorbed in the topic. "As I see it, we may be able to figure out a better picture of the virus' life cycle. Like a normal virus, it invades the body and enters the cells. Then, as we already know, it starts to mutate the cells into a similar but genetically distinct form. Up until now, we thought the virus died out at this point. But apparently, somehow—maybe by transcribing all of its genetic material into one protein, if that's possible—it becomes dormant in protein form and lives on, undetected until now."

Gast shook his head in disbelief. "So… you think all those cells we've used until now…"

"…actually carry live Jenova virus, yes. That's one of the main implications of this. The other is that we may be able to bring back the virus by manipulating or reproducing the protein. We haven't seen live, pre-infection viruses, ever. As far as we knew, they never existed within our lifetimes. All we've seen is tissue that's been infected with the virus, never the actual bug itself. This could change our whole approach to Jenova research."

A thought intruded into her mind, murkier and sludgier than the clean, efficient race of reason. Hojo already changed the approach to Jenova research…three months ago, with some needles and chloroform and seven tanks of Mako…

Now…with this new finding…is that even necessary…?

Don't think about that now.

"Amazing," Gast marveled. "We'll have to get word of this to Midgar as soon as possible."

A half-smile slipped over Lucrecia's face. "Yes, sir. It's an exciting prospect."

"And one those money-minded slow thinkers back in Midgar should pay attention to, if they have any sense." Gast finished the last piece of steak and drank the rest of the champagne in his glass. He filled it one more time, halfway, and held it up. Lucrecia picked up her own untouched glass, now mostly flat.

"To the future," Gast said. "Shinra's, the Project's, mine, yours, everyone's. Cheers."

"Cheers," Lucrecia replied, not wanting to repeat the original toast. She clinked her glass against Gast's and set it down carefully.

He really doesn't know…

Of all things, the future is one of the few I truly fear.