LINKAGE (boyxboy)

CHAPTER 113: THE WEIGHT OF KNOWING

Angelina faced a camera fixated in front of her in a good distance. She was about to start filming her first interview as The President's Force, so a lot of anxiety was surrounding her being. She wore an elegant dark blue dress, having her long black hair behind her shoulders. She sat in a black armchair – which was in a delightful touch with her body – waiting for her interviewer, Mrs. Pleyna Samenteth, owner of a show similar to Prime Talking, that Gavin participated once. The ground below her heels was white stone having a layer of glass on top of it, having stripes of lightning adorning its composition.

Angelina was just waiting for Mrs. Samenteth to get back to the studio. She had to pick up a call and they didn't have a live audience watching them so it could wait a little bit. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Mrs. President." Pleyna said once se returned and sat in front of Angelina.

"That is alright, Mrs Samenteth."

"We will start rolling... now!"

"Welcome everyone. Good evening. Tonight we have someone more than special, someone you already know, someone who is in everything and everywhere. The first non Malone leader of Qorjal, Angelina Bethervan! How are you doing, Mrs. President? You look stunning by the way. This dress is gorgeous."

"Thank you for having me tonight, Mrs. Samenteth. l am nothing but happy today. Actually, I am still recovering after the launch of that ship, but oh, what an incredible moment we are living."

"Right? A lot of things happened so fast in the past months and that makes us wonder about the new reality we are in. It takes time for realization, but now it is clear that it came for good. Well, Mrs. President, you have become a long way to be in the highest position today. Tell me. How do you feel?"

"Honestly, wearing this specific color of leadership never crossed my mind, ever." She let out a soft, quite disbelieving laugh. "It doesn't feel real yet, but after seeing and living so much of the unreal, I believe anything is possible. I started my career as a political scientist and pharmacologist. With that, I always thought I would keep on that track forever, because I was deeply passionate about the work. In one side I was inside a laboratory with my amazing and talented team developing medicines, vaccines, cures for diseases – while on the other side, I was presenting projects to the State Union, bringing discussions to the improvement of our scientific community as a whole, and it worked very well. Later I was asked to be the Director of the ICS department of the State Union and here we are."

"What an interesting track record, Mrs. President. Continuing in this matter, as a current vaccine developer, you know better than anyone how the delicate balance between speed and safety works. Given the constant viral threats, what steps are you taking to ensure rapid immunization and develop solutions quickly, if the need knocks at our doors? Do you think the political process is slower than the drug development timeline?"

"Oh, that is a marvelous question, Mrs. Samenteth - something I think constantly, actually. The political process, is, without a doubt, slower than focused efforts inside a lab. While in the laboratory, you are surrounded by data and physics; in politics, you see much of opinions and ideas to be heard. However, my position as a scientist, is committed to merge these two worlds better than ever. My primary focus is on establishing a preparedness initiative so we de-risk the development phase and do not let these viruses and diseases grow. My lab is working on a project that consists in a rapid response platform technology, where our scientists will be able to jump from viral sequencing to a clinical candidate within days, not weeks. All those years of work taught me that the biggest bottlenecks are not the science itself, but the lack of immediate manufacturing capability. The MTVI-00 virus took away 45 million lives and the vaccine was developed in two weeks only - a record for the category. However, it was a tragedy. Qorjal was in ruins back in those months. Our former President did not care that much about it and his neglect was the major causer of these 45 million people passing away. It was a strong and smart virus we never had before. The vaccine came quickly, but we need to improve and become even quicker."