HALF: The 2.0 Human

Chapter 1: San Francisco Genetics Corporation

    It was dark outside of the San Francisco Genetics (SFG) corporation and it had started to rain. Located 15 miles out side the heart of the city and on top a hill overlooking the city skyline. The corporal building was large with many Windows and an odd, irregular shape about its structure. There where still a few lights on, even though the working hours for the staff had ended a few hours before. 

    Doctor Santiago Perez; a tall, intelligent man of 39 with dark eyes and a bushy black moustache resided in one of these still lit spaces. He looked up from his work for a moment to acknowledge the drizzle that had started to fall onto the window of his office. He looked away from the glass and back to his computer. He checked the wall clock. 9:30 PM. He had stayed in his office for an extra 3 hours after his shift had ended! Shocked at how completely engaged he was in the project, he then sat up and began gathering his things, recalling all the details of the project.

    He and his group of associates had been working on project with (at least in his opinion) a rather unoriginal name: "The Reanimated" which had been taken up by several universities and private organizations (thanks to private donors) over the past decade. This project had been compiled of bringing back recently extinct animals such as the dodo bird and the wooly mammoth. The latter had successfully been accomplished 5 years earlier by some genetics and bio-engineering students at Harvard University. It was celebrated as one of the most impressive feats of the 21st century's new stand on genetic engineering and it was awarded with a Noble Prize to prove it. It hadn't been a complete success though, with the baby being born perfectly fine though lacking acidic gastric acid. As so, the baby couldn't consume foods with a PH of 3 or lower. The baby couldn't even survive without expensive medication to maintain a standard balance of the acidity of its stomach. This, of course, was left out of their report, and it wasn't until they had succeeded a second time nearly 3 years later was their failure shared with generalized public.

    Dr. Perez had been assigned to work with over 50 other scientists at SFG to attempt to bring back an extinct species of ground sloth from extinction! This is what he was recalling before Emily Becker, an intern from Britain, ran in with a pencil in her mouth, her white lab coat stained with black blotches along with her hands full of papers, her brown hair a tiny bit sweaty.

"I finished collecting the contracting slips for the new building from Dr. Young!", She yelled, forcing Perez to turn with surprise and knock the jar full of pencils and pens he kept on his desk onto the floor.

"Dr. Becker!", He screeched in his thick Hispanic accent. "Don't startle me like that!"

"Sorry sir.", Replied Becker, out of breath. "It's just that we ha-"

"Emily, I am sure that anything that you have to say is important." He said sarcastically, his eye twitching slightly from him trying to stay calm from the mini-heart attack he had received. His health wasn't in the most pristine shape even though he was still fairly young. "So say what you need to say. And, what, may I ask is all over the front of your coat? And God damn it woman, why are you still here at this ungodly hour?" He asked, pointing to the growing black stain.

   Becker then told him about the contract for construction on the small dome-shaped greenhouse with turrets that SFG had recently purchased to house extinct plant samples once they had successfully reanimated. Dr. Perez listened with a lack of any enthusiasm and a stern, impatient look on his face. Becker then explained that she had gotten ink on herself as she was trying to complete a print job when it ran out of ink and she got the replacement cartridge all over herself. She then told him about one of the men who said he was from sector 3 of the vicinity who wanted to speak with him the next morning. As soon as she had finished Perez paused a moment, as if processing what he had just heard, got his things together and quickly turned to leave.

"That's all very interesting, but I must be leaving now." He said leaving his office and heading for the exit, "It's late now. Goodbye! Oh and please don't stay this late again if you simply think you are going to get paid on the overtime!" He said sternly.

Emily watched as he ran through the rain and disappeared into his car.

"He forgot to turn off his computer.", She said, walking back into the building to get her things muttering to herself as she went.

"What was in such a hurry about?" she wondered to herself as she walked back to his office and picked up the pencils and pens scattered amongst the floor. When she had finished she turned off his computer, turned off the light, and left.