A knock at the door startled Ariana awake. She had gone back to her room on Giovanni's orders, but ignored his instruction to rest. Or she had intended to ignore them when she spread out a second copy of the files on her bed.
Instead, sleep had gotten the best of her, she conceded, plucking off a sheet of paper stuck to her bare forearm. Judging by the light outside, that nine-thirty on the clock wasn't at night. She hoped this was the first runner sent for her today and that she hadn't slept through others.
"One minute!" she called to the courier outside. In a scramble, she peeled off the clothes she'd fallen asleep in and slipped into clean everything. She brushed her hair aggressively, reapplied her eyeliner and lipstick, and, as a final act before leaving, stuffed the loose papers around her room back into her satchel.
The runner outside caught her up on the happenings since her meeting with Giovanni. He chatted amiably, blocking his eyes against the sun's glare as he turned to talk to her.
Her computer parts were ready to be installed after she signed off on their condition, he said. Several specimen samples awaited her as well. The runner had collected some of them himself and it had been the first time he'd actually seen a Lapras in person and apparently he about shat his pants because it was s'dang huge.
Ariana let the boy chatter as she ran calculations in her head. With the upgrades he mentioned, her computer could execute more comparison scans at once, but it still wouldn't parse more than three or four genome sets a day. She would have to hope for a lucky match, and on a Pokémon Giovanni would approve of.
She found Giovanni's concern for the general Rocket staff equal parts respectable and frustrating when it came to playing with their genetics. Eyeing up the runner walking ahead of her, still blathering on about his experiences with new Pokémon, Ariana wondered why she couldn't just snatch up some of the more talkative ones and have at it.
Inside the lab, Ariana noticed that not only had items been delivered since yesterday, but the whole area had been cleaned again. There was no trace of soot. The computer cables were coiled, or slickly managed. Best yet, someone had rolled over one of the high-quality chairs and made sure no one else around the expansive laboratory helped themselves to it.
Once the runner pointed out all the new inventory and got her to sign a few forms, he took off. Ariana collapsed into the cushioned office chair and scooted herself in front of the scanner's massive monitor.
There was much to do.
The first few hours, she spent on her equipment. She had to write some changes to the programming and there was more soldering required than she had expected, but she eventually got the hardware and software cooperating with no apparent issue.
After tuning the machine, Ariana focused on the DNA samples provided to her. She laid them out in an invented priority order, then carefully opened and prepared each one.
The process was delicate and time-intensive. It required sterilizing each sample, separating them into tubes, vortexing and centrifuging the tubes, heating, diluting, vortexing again, transferring, centrifuging, transferring, centrifuging, emptying, centrifuging, incubating, and centrifuging again before they were ready to to be tested.
When she fed the first prepared sample into the reading chamber on the left of the machine, the larger instruments sprung to life.
"Well, look at it go."
Ariana turned around to see Miyamoto watching through the glass wall. There wasn't much happening for an untrained eye to see. The clear-sided injector box lit up now and then as the arm inside moved, and the transilluminator glowed, but the slides and material were concealed within the machines.
Pulling off a pair of sterile gloves, Ariana rounded the corner and joined the woman outside the doorway.
"Miyamoto," Ariana bent briefly towards the executive, then raised her eyes. Tired met tired. "I've made a lot of progress on the project since Friday's meeting."
The taller woman looked over Ariana's head, around the room of updated machinery and reorganized server racks. "Apparently," she said appraisingly.
"We're close to finishing the set-up. Once we isolate one of our new genetic matches, Giovanni says we can run it."
The prospect had Ariana grinning. She eyed the suspension chamber that dominated the right side of the small room, where her experiment results would be contained. It stood as tall as the ceiling, and could hold more than 1200 liters of fluid. A fully grown male could float freely without touching the top or bottom.
Miyamoto was eyeing the chamber too, Ariana noticed. She found Miyamoto so hard to read. But then again, she wasn't great at making sense of other people in the first place. Did the woman have doubts about Ariana? She was grateful she'd had a chance to sleep a little - she could operate without tears threatening at the edge of every minor or imagined frustration.
"Have you decided who you will choose for the experiment? To give the powers to?"
Ariana started to pick up what Miyamoto was putting down. Did she think she should be the candidate, that there would be some prestige in that? There might be, if the splice went off without a hitch. But that was a lot of pressure, to run an untested experiment with a top Rocket executive's life at stake. Ariana would rather not murder anyone important if something went wrong.
"Not yet," she replied honestly, "but personally, I wouldn't want to be one of the first few in line for this ride. My goal is to prove that I can transfer certain Pokémon-specific abilities to human vessels. It'll take me many more tries before I'll be certain what specifically to take and how to precisely apply it….for a truly desirable result."
Miyamoto nodded thoughtfully. Ariana got the sense she was doing some reconsidering.
"There's a disciplinary system, mostly for grunt staff. There may be some listed with excessive infractions."
It was Ariana's turn to nod. Up until this conversation, she had really just considered the human specimen a line item, like the sticks of RAM and the Rapidash hair. She hadn't put much thought into doing her own procurement.
"I suppose I was hoping Giovanni would help me with that. He seems more like the type to decide who lives and who dies."
As soon as Ariana said it, she felt Miyamoto's mood shift again.
"Mmm... He takes credit, Ariana, not initiative. Best not rely on him entirely."
Miyamoto started stalking around the space, pausing to peer at the giant sequencer monitor or slide around some papers left out on a surface.
"I'm still here to help you too. Let me know what you're looking for."
The offer was thoughtful, and Miyamoto smiled when she gave it.
It touched Ariana deeply to feel the woman's support. Rested or not, tears still threatened. She bit her tongue until the urge subsided.
"Thank you, Miyamoto. I would extend the same offer of assistance to you, if I could ever be helpful to your work." Something occurred to Ariana. "If I can ask, what is the nature of your work in the Rocket Labs?"
Miyamoto smirked. She looked confident again. Her hand went to her waist, then disappeared under the hem of her tailored blazer.
She withdrew a Pokéball. Ariana flinched.
"Not a fan?" Miyamoto observed. "Don't worry. I specialize on keeping them in the balls."
Then, immediately contrary to what she said, Miyamoto released her Tangela. Ariana tried not to be nervous. The pile of writhing vines stared up at her from Miyamoto's feet and she shivered.
Miyamoto was still holding the Pokéball. The bottom half hung on its hinge from her hand, kept open by her pinky. She pointed the concave halves at Ariana.
On the interior of the Pokéball, tiny curved mirrors flashed between soldered grid lines.
"You ever look inside these things?" She turned the open ball to herself to look, then showed Ariana again before moving her finger and allowing it to swing shut. "Tangela, return." And it did, reentering the ball in a zap of red light.
"I- no, I can't say that I have," Ariana replied, recovering her composure.
"Humans have been capturing and summoning Pokémon for thousands of years. We've long understood the basic physics of the process, but just recently... well let's just say that your lab department isn't the only one making breakthroughs."
"That's exciting!" Ariana empathized.
"It's not what I thought I'd be doing with my physics degree… But it has been so, so rewarding."
When Miyamoto spoke of her work, she wore a smugly satisfied expression.
Ariana wanted that. She was already excited about her achievements now, but she could not wait to be earnedly vainglorious about them. And soon.
The eagerness pushed Ariana from behind, urging her to action.
"As soon as I have the suspension fluid, I can start preparing a subject." She glanced out the lab's floor-to-ceiling windows to gauge the yellowing light, then checked a precise readout on the nearest computer screen. It was nearly seven-thirty. Her progress in the lab made the day fly by. But it was significant progress.
"We're so close... This may just work out." Ariana didn't want to Jynx-curse her own project by speaking too optimistically, but she couldn't help letting a little hope slip out. "And I have you to thank for so much, Miyamoto."
Miyamoto appeared lost in thought. When she noticed Ariana looking at her, she offered an encouraging nod, but still seemed distracted.
She approached Ariana, drawing from her pocket a plastic card similar to the one Giovanni had given her.
"If you need me, don't hesitate to call through. You can tell the operator your name and they'll connect you."
Ariana received the contact card with two hands. Respectfully, she inspected both sides, then placed it into the pocket of her lab coat. When she looked up again, Miyamoto was already walking away.
"Thank you!" she called after the woman. She wanted to say more. To clasp Miyamoto's hands in hers and sincerely express her gratitude. To explain how much it meant to be supported when she was on the verge of losing everything. But she was gone.