For Honor or Glory

Routine

Chapter 17

The following morning, Alex was standing outside professor Rayleigh's office at 08:00. She knocked briskly and wasn't shocked to hear the woman answer. She opened the door with a smile as she said, "Good morning, Professor."

Alex waited until the door was closed before she held out the thin packet of papers she had been carrying. "Here is the initial list of what I think I may need. I assume I will have them by next week?"

Rayleigh thumbed through the list before she looked up and answered, "These are all standard. There should be no reason why they cannot be delivered to your cubicle by tomorrow morning."

Alex raised a brow but wasn't about to argue. Instead, she gave the woman a grin. "Great! I can't wait to get started."

Rayleigh chuckled at her exuberance but didn't comment. Instead, she shuffled through a pile of papers on her desk before she pulled out a file and handed it to Alex. She toned her smile down as she explained, "That file holds the details about an ongoing experiment of mine. I expect you to go every two hours and annotate any changes and pull any specimens that fall outside the given parameters. Some you may need to bring to my attention, but the others will need to be destroyed after you thoroughly detail the circumstances."

Alex glanced at the papers inside the file. It seemed like it was a lot of paperwork, but that was nothing she wasn't already familiar with. Once she had a good idea of what was required, she looked back up. "You said you expect me to put in at least four hours. This will not take up the whole time."

Rayleigh smirked back. "Not for just two visits, no. However, since you currently do not have any other job, I was hoping to hand this off to you. I will still monitor the results, of course, but this will be an excellent opportunity for you to make or break your chances. Whatever you do in-between visits is up to you, as long as you make at least four visits every day, and let me know if you need to leave early."

Suddenly Alex felt a touch of nervousness to go along with her excitement. This assignment was more important than she realized. She hadn't expected to be given something with this scope right off the bat. Hell, she had almost expected to have to make coffee runs and do filing work.

Despite how troublesome the work could become if she messed up, her excitement was winning out, and she grinned at the professor. "In that case, when should I complete the first visit? Are there strict times each specimen must be observed, or is a window of time for them all the preferred method?"

Rayleigh's eyes flashed as her smile widened a hair. "A window of time is acceptable. Have the first set done by 08:30 and the results back to me no later than 09:30."

Alex raised a brow. That was a generous amount of time, but given the number of specimens listed, it could well take that long to document everything. It would be best if she didn't get ahead of herself before she saw what was needed. Instead, she gave the professor a nod as she turned to the door. "I'll see you in a little more than an hour."

It did not take Alex long to figure out where she needed to go. Now that she had figured out most of the warren of halls to get to the central lab, the rest was easy. By the time she got to the specimen cabinet, it was almost time for her to check them. She took a few extra minutes to read through the material more thoroughly.

Once she better understood what she was looking for, she opened the cabinet and eyed the multiple shelves with a bit of trepidation. It was just as expansive as the paperwork suggested it would be, but that didn't stop her for long. She didn't have time to dally if she was going to make it back in time.

Thankfully the shelves were labeled, so she pulled the nearby microscope closer and gently brought down the first specimen to check. It was more than forty-five minutes later before she put the last tray back into the cabinet with a sigh. It took her longer than she had hoped it would to go through them all. At least she could tell that the more she did it, the less time it would take. Especially now that she had a better idea of what to look for.

There had been two specimens well under the expected growth rate, so she noted their failure to thrive and placed them in the incinerator. Once that was done, she grabbed the file and headed toward the professor's office. She frowned at the thought that she wouldn't have much time to focus on any of her own work if she didn't get faster at this task. Still, she knew she could at least get everything set up. She didn't have most of her supplies anyway.

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It was after 17:00 when Alex made it back to her cubicle after her fifth visit to professor Rayleigh. She was slightly frustrated that the project she had been given made it so difficult to focus on anything else, but that didn't mean she was giving up.

The professor had been pleased that she volunteered for the fifth visit but assured her going forward, it would not always be necessary. They had a person checking them overnight. Alex was more than tempted to let the last visit go to the night person but decided to go ahead for that day. She could switch her focus going forward.

Instead of gathering her things to leave, she started to prepare a set of slides. She was interrupted before she got far when Peter popped his head into her cubicle. "I thought I heard you in here. You know it's after hours, right? Aren't you leaving?"

Alex turned to him with a wry smile. "Not yet. I didn't have much time today, so I want to at least get a little of my own work done before I head out."

She was pleased to see that the young man seemed to have gotten over his nervousness, even if he was frowning at her as he said, "You know it won't do you any good to burn out. Don't let the work become your life. There are already too many of those around here."

Alex chuckled as she waved off his concern. "Don't worry. I don't mind putting in a few extra hours, but I would get an earful if I let it get out of hand. I promise I'm not going to burn out."

Peter looked like he wanted to add something else, but instead, he just shrugged. "I'll see you in the morning."

She waved absently as he walked out. Despite what she had told the man, her mind was already whirring with her plans. She knew she might not have time or opportunity to search for the Jenova project files until after becoming a full-time employee, but that didn't mean there weren't other things that she could check. First would be her own blood. She had never had a reason to do so before, but now, it was the best place to start.

She barely flinched when she pricked the end of her finger and let a few drops fall onto the waiting slide. She absently fisted her hand with a piece of gauze over the tiny wound while she set the microscope up with the other. Once everything was in place, she took a deep breath. Despite her will to see this through and knowing approximately what to expect, she was still nervous about having it confirmed.

With an irritated shake of her head, she let go of that worry and leaned down. She couldn't afford to be squeamish. When she finally got the microscope focused, she was surprised to see the cellular structure seemed normal. At least at first.

It was only a matter of moments later that she noticed the first odd thing. A few of the cells had been damaged during the preparation. That wasn't shocking, but the fact that they were almost immediately absorbed by the healthy cells was. That was not normal behavior for human blood cells. It was even more surprising that after several seconds, the cells that had absorbed the damaged ones split into two healthy cells.

Alex sat back with a gasp. Her hand covered her mouth as she tried to wrap her head around what she had just seen. That certainly explained her faster than average healing rate, even without potions. It would be difficult to do extensive harm to a person whose cells could replicate at such a tremendous rate. Despite how sick it made her to think of why it was possible, she couldn't help being fascinated by the process.

It took her a few minutes to gather herself. She had barely started; this was no time to get distracted. She might not be able to see the strands of DNA without the computer imaging available in the central lab, but there were still many tests she could run on the cellular level. How would the cells react to radiation? Were there any materials that could slow or speed the process? How would they respond to extreme temperatures?

It was not long before she had several more slides prepped and set to work completing what she could. It wasn't the answers she needed. Not yet. But that didn't mean it was pointless. Any information she could glean about what they were all facing could only help.