Under the Cover of Darkness

Chapter 10 - The Company

Baby Fitch was laid down on the cold granite counter of the laboratory with a fierce shiver that rocked his whole body. He was still swallowed in the baby blue blankets that Jasper and Douglas had found him in when they brought him upstairs to their workplace. The little infant had done nothing but laugh and giggle as the married couple carried the mysterious humanoid baby up their ladder to examine just what it was.

Douglas unwrapped the blanket from the infant boy and spread it across the table for Fitch to lay on. The naked baby squirmed around as the gentle breeze of an overhead fan made him shake with discomfort. A grin creeped its way onto Douglas's face as he watched Fitch fidget around on the table. The boy shook his hand back and forth and pumped his legs excitedly while Jasper prepared their examination of the eight pound enigma.

"Douglas, honey, let's let the little guy fall asleep for now. We have no idea how old he might be, and I'd rather not want to harm him while he's awake," Jasper called.

"Fine, but for the record, when he grows up to wonder how he got a scar on his body, all fingers are going to be pointed at the woman who wanted some of his skin cells not the man who abstained from such torture," Douglas joked sarcastically.

Matching his sarcasm, Jasper replied saying, "Yes, because a little prick will give him a life-lasting scar. My word, we've examined all types of animals, and I doubt this will harm the guy."

"I know, but it seems weird. We've never seen anything like this. He doesn't look to be a Brefave, Saxten, Cumaro, Etherlen, Wedlen, or Jempole. Rather, he looks like a mixture of all six, Douglas added, his brow crossing as his face turned stern.

Once Fitch had calmed down and started resting happily on the table's counter with his thumb in his mouth, Jasper inserted a small needle into the thigh of the infant and extracted two milliliters of blood. From there she put the sample in a machine to spin it at an incredibly high speed, resulting in a separation between the fluids and the cells. Next, she added a special solution and detergent to help extract the DNA of Fitch from the white blood cells, and lastly, by adding alcohol to the mixture, she was able to isolate the DNA strands.

Carefully, she split the DNA in order to make a DNA fingerprint that highlighted Fitch's genetic code. Then she examined the genetic markers of the child before him while Douglas pulled multiple samples of DNA from a fridge in the back corner that helped keep the samples isolated and safe. These strands were of the six humanoid beings that populated Netueeia, both male and female strands as well. As he laid them out for Jasper to compare to Fitch's, Douglas noticed that Jasper had a shocked look on her face. She quickly compared each one with an exasperated look on her face.

"Jasper, what is it? Are you okay?" Douglas worriedly asked after a couple hours of wondering what she was seeing.

"This boy, this boy. He is a mixture of each species. He's a Brefave, a Saxten, a Cumaro, an Etherlen, a Wedlen, and a Jempole. His DNA strands are almost one hundred percent identical to each species whilst his genetic markers has something directly in common with each species, some attribute that the six don't share with each other. He has more in common with each of the six than they do with each other. That means that whoever this baby is, he's the genetic parent of this planet's intelligent life forms."

__________________________________________________________________________________

The morning of September 4 was a peacefully pleasant time of the day. The multiple story tree house that resided in the Silver Forest was quietly basking in the rising rays of the offset autumn sun. A slight breeze trickled through the air and delicately fluttered the browning leaves to the ground with a soft touch like a mother with her child. For a moment, peace and tranquility had filled the trees like an unknown presence. The clouds were sporadically placed throughout the bright blue sky as the unfamiliar presence cast them aside from itself.