Monsters of new Earth

Closing in

“Dr. Turner?”

Emily turned around, peeling her eyes from the monocular microscope she had been peering into over the past half hour. That was the voice of her assistant Toby. She gave him a weak smile. Toby had been Emily’s assistant for seven months now, and he had proved himself invaluable to her.

Toby who started as a brilliant science intern, had seamlessly blended curiosity with intellect in the lab. His adept problem-solving and innovative approaches caught the attention of the research team. Recognizing his potential, Emily had swiftly recommended him to the board and they had offered him a permanent position. He had the unwritten duty of looking after her lab affairs which most times included telling her when to take a break from lab work.

“You have been working too hard these past few weeks”, Toby said. Emily smiled again, but this time the smile was big and cheerful.

“I know Toby, but all these will benefit mankind. These findings will be talked about for years to come”, Emily said. “Picture this Toby, me and you making the front cover of the scientific journal of evolution with a header saying, scientist and her young assistant change the course of humanity forever.”

Toby laughed. “That was very typical of Emily to make a joke about changing the world whenever he brought up the topic of she working herself too hard.”

“Just make sure you are in the future that you are trying so hard to build”, he replied her. Emily laughed again.

“Does it matter if I’m not there? Evolution always takes its course”.

Toby gave up. They had had similar arguments like this over the course of months now as she had worked on this project tirelessly. Toby had now learned that it was a fool’s errand to argue with a renowned bookworm like Emily.

“I’m going home”, he announced. “Don’t evolve too much before we meet again tomorrow. I don’t like the idea of talking to a human turned computer when I walk in here tomorrow”.

With that, he walked out of the room. When he had gone, Emily turned her mind back to her work.

Alexis her friend and scientist would be visiting tomorrow. Emily had promised to reveal her findings to Alexis, but even now as she looked at the room marked private that housed her discovery, she felt a wave of guilt run over her.

“Was man really ready to handle what she was about to reveal?”, she thought. For months now Emily had been working on this project she had termed “Evolution X”. she smiled. 

“Not so much “X” anymore”, she thought, “The world will soon become enlightened.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the lab door opening. Toby walked in wearing the head to toe protective gear that was standard procedure when working in certain high level bio-risk chambers in the lab.

“Forgot to shut down the chambers”, he said, pointing to the door marked private.

He sounded a bit different Emily thought, but Toby was a cheerful lad who sometimes found pleasure in mimicking different people who worked in the huge lab complex. “I wonder who he trying to mimic”, Emily thought vaguely. Probably Dr. Harris. Toby and Harris had been friends ever since he had begun working in the complex.

Mimicry! She thought to herself. Another evolutionary force. “Even Toby who wasn’t a big fan of evolution himself, was playing out the very basis of survival she reasoned. She made a mental note to remind him of these when next he queried her about how hard she worked.

She turned back to the microscope on the stand and peered into it again, trying to remember what she was looking at again. Through her subconscious, she noticed that Toby was walking towards her instead of the door marked “private” which was at the far end of the room.