New Birds

The Facility Part 16

The laboratories were immaculate. Everything was white. A brilliant, shiny, sterile white from floor to ceiling. Every wall, fixture, stool, table, thermal cycler, microscope, trashcan, and the hooded suits of the employees were all a glistening white. So much so it was throwing off Tilly's depth perception as she walked between Jason and Malti. They were all given white coveralls to wear at the start of the tour, and hers were so roomy the collar scraped her ears, every time she turned her head to study a name tag or office door plaque they passed, hoping to discover that a Dr. Carol Stojanovic was indeed employed here.

They strolled through the many corridors of the facility, stopping often, but Keitin still lagged. He had been quiet all morning. They had visited several lab rooms of similar design, plus three large refrigeration rooms, where they were given a warmer white coat to wear over their coveralls before entering. Twice she helped Keitin get into his. One refrigeration room was three stories high, with white spiral steps leading to steel wire walkways that circled each level.

It was Malti in a pleasant, sing-song voice that gave the walking commentary.

"We have sperm from over 35,000 species, eggs from 30,000 species, over a million unique seeds and close to a billion unique cells. All viable, many from defunct laboratories that had the foresight to upgrade to self-regulating thermal generators before the chaos hit. We have everything from mole rat to blue whale. Although, the blue whale is something we won't be tackling any time soon."

They entered one corridor with glass viewing areas that looked down into many smaller rooms, most of them empty except for the occasional desk and chair. They kept walking until the same corridor became suddenly windowless. Just a stretch of white walls and closed doors. A few of the doors had heavy looking handles that appeared to require a manual on how to open. If there were any questionable experimentation going on around here, this looked like the area that might house them.

"May we look inside one of these rooms?" Tilly asked.

"Afraid not," Mr. Anson answered. "A sterile and quiet environment is of the utmost importance in this section. But come along. Next stop is our REVEAL rooms, where we display what the growth labs produce. It's the highlight of our tour. A tour, I might add, that only a few outsiders have actually ever taken. You should feel honoured." They took an elevator down to another corridor, which intersected and even wider corridor. They took the wider corridor to a set of large doors, which automatically opened as they approached. Tilly stopped in her tracks. Mr. Anson lightly touched her wrist, "Are you okay?"

She stared straight ahead, offering him only the slightest of nods as she readjusted her glasses to further marvel at the organic display inside.

"Come then. No need for us to hover at the entrance. We wouldn't want the bees to escape," he said with a smile.

Once they entered, the doors closed behind them, enclosing them in a miracle. The room was massive, and Tilly pivoted slowly in a complete circle, trying to look everywhere at once. Life, in all its colourful, loud, aromatic diversity, clung to the walls, brimmed the top of every container, and virtually took up every spare inch of the room. Birds from white doves to gold finches to what may have been budgies flitted from branch to branch, all with their own version of birdsong. It so contrasted the rest of the white, sterile, quiet facility that it had her giddy with the visual loudness of it. She laughed and looked back at Keitin, who gave her a weak smile. "Can I touch any of it?" she asked as she breathed in a mixture of scents from fragrant to pungent.

"Certainly. Our REVEAL rooms are yours to explore. This is only the first room. It contains flora and fowl, along with necessary insects. Pollinators, decomposers, parasites. Unfortunately, some of the display fowl that are usually here are still en route from the Late Minister. Room Two, which we will visit next, contains mainly fauna, plus a mixture of grass and grain plants."