ID: 00010203_dolly
Source: Intercepted videotape (transcript)
Project: Preventive Surveillance
Date: 2005/06/13
Status: Active
The target sets the camera in an even surface and sits down. The location is unspecified.
Target: Hello… I- (hesitates). I don't know why I'm recording this. I just wanted to… vent, I guess. It's almost been two years since I started working in the lab, and things are… not quite as I expected.
My wife… (censored), she was right. The project has undergone some critical changes, which were quite rushed, in my opinion. Dr. Richards is- Well, he claims orders have been issued and that we cannot do anything but follow them. His work is top tier, there's nothing I can say about that. However, when we discovered how to use the fetuses' cells to help us replicate tissues, the whole situation turned around. Procedures started to lose attention to detail, deadlines started to get tighter, the team got pressured… I don't know, it all started to get messy.
(Sighs.) We have been working double shifts for a couple of months. It's too much. There are days I think I'm too exhausted to- to pursue whatever dream we're trying to pursue here. The commander has been particularly insistent on the importance of our job. He says we're shaping the future but… Sometimes I'm afraid that what we're doing here may have repercussions that escape my understanding of morality.
What I'm trying to say is… I mean, cells brought us to tissues, and then we progressed to organs. After that, we started with small animals. Rats and the like. But Dr. Richards' research- He's just brilliant. Genetics is his specialty. He found a way to alter the DNA chains of several subjects and combine them using CRISPR, a new methodology discovered by Mojica, a Spanish microbiologist. He's been trying to transfer certain traits from a given subject to another. The main goal is to imbue adult subjects with the characteristics of the original body. It's hard to explain… It's- (Silence.)
If we replicate an organism from scratch, the said organism has to undergo all the biological phases up to adulthood. What Richards has been prompted to do is to try and have adult tabulae rasa that can be imbued with the characteristics of the subject we want to replicate. The prospect is good but, we still have a lot to do. Commander Ikari decided the first test would have to be done through the path of least resistance, so we've planned to replicate the subject from scratch. This means that- (Interference.)
(…) clone a human. I- This is huge but, it falls out my scope. We have just replicated a few big mammals. If the circumstances were normal, I venture we'd have to wait around a couple of years, at the very least.
This organization… The UN would never allow such a controversy. It was the commander's doing, or some foreign power or- The soldiers came. They had that suit with him, the one that got me onboard. He handed me some documents. They stated that the lab was being transferred to a new organization, Gehirn. I had no choice but to sign them, and now… I feel trapped. It was a very restrictive contract. I can't talk about our work to the media, and I'm starting to wonder if, with all that I know, they would let me resign.
(Silence.)
I miss my wife. Should I send this to you?
(Target looks to the door.)
This was a bad idea.