A Better Me Through Genetics

***Okay, this is a departure for me. It is a whole new genre and I hope you all don’t mind. I am doing this by request. Hopefully it meets with your approval. Thank you Mr. F for sharing this idea with me and acting as a sounding board while we hashed it out. There is an intro to this story, but it was necessary for future chapters, if they are desired. Please rate the story for me, although comments are especially welcome. Thanks.***

I was running late again. I knew that Dr Hollister was going to be hugely displeased with me. He was so close to finishing his DNA Sculpting formula, Project Pinnacle, and considered me a barely tolerable assistant.

Not to say it was all one sided. I had been worked damn hard on my Phd in Genetics and dealing with this man was not easy. He was definitely a fringe researcher. He had a really problem being ethical and we had quite a few arguments over it. When he casually suggested we bring in a “Street Person” to help as our human subject I could not believe what a sick person I thought he was. I was going to report him, but he had me in a bad position when he showed that I had apparently signed his official notations. I was not pleased at all but kept my mouth shut. He then surprised me by telling me that it would be worth all the efforts we had made and gave me two weeks off, saying he was taking a trip to Mexico for vacation. That was weird, he never took trips.

He had a lot of money to burn on this. Dr Hollister held several patents on formula’s the cosmetic industry was making a killing off. Of course that meant he was rich as well.

As for me, I was a pretty normal woman, in most respects, but my appearance was lacking. I was not attractive and knew it. Flat chest, no real butt to speak of. I was 28 years old, single, and my only long standing relationship was with my cat, Chimo, Siamese with personality plus who loved me to death. I dressed plainly, wore glasses and had the definite air of a person who had escaped from the Library and was afraid of anything that wasn’t a book. Even geeks avoided me. I could not even claim I was exotic looking. Despite being Japanese, I lacked any luster that would ever allow me to be judged exotic.

My landlord was a real bastard. He had no time to fix anything in my crappy apartment, but helped out the hottie down the hall all the time. Even the smelly guy at the opposite end of the hall could get him to do work.

I got to Dr Hollister’s private research facility and eventually got inside.

As expected he was waiting for me. As I rushed in he said “Ayumi how nice of you to finally arrive, but don’t worry. Your tardiness is not fatal.” and he laughed.

Okay, I hate the way he laughs. It makes me think of someone dragging their nails over a chalk board while kicking a puppy.

Gesturing me over to him he said “I want to show you something.” and he lead me over to a side chamber. He gestured me in ahead of him and I walked in. This room was where he had kept animal testing subjects, yet another point of contention between us. Some testing would eventually be needed, but when I argued with him he got angry and cut me out of that part of the work. I had not set foot in this room in over three months.

When I walked in I expected to see cages. There were none. What I saw was on each of the six large flat tables the cages had rested on, was something that took my breath away in horror. Each was occupied by a clearly human body that was covered with a white sheet.

I stopped walking and said “What the hell is this?”

He laughed and said “I didn’t want to trouble you with the details of my testing of the formula. The tests progressed as expected. Subject 6, a female suffered some adverse reactions. I believe that may have been due to damage done to her body by drug abuse previous to her joining the experiment.”

“An adverse reaction?” I said as calmly as I could he was insane and no fucking way was I going to be part of this. I was going to get out of here and report it. My cell would not be able to get a signal in the lab so I would have to placate him.

“Yes… everything was proceeding so well. Good response to the restructuring, but then for a reason I was not sure of at the time, her cell membranes began breaking down and as a result Subject 6 died from massive blood loss and asphyxiation.” he said calmly.

He then walked around with me telling me how the other “Subjects” had died. He was very clinical but all I could think was that he was an insane murderer and needed to be stopped. I managed to cover and appear to approach all this information calmly. I was surprised how detached and clinical I sounded.

He lead me back to the door and said with great pride “However, all this effort was not wasted. I addressed the cellular breakdown and I’ve added made a few other changes. I’m very happy to tell you that I have managed to manufacture a viable final formula. You will be pleased to know that as my assistant you will also reap some benefit from this.” I was almost nauseated. This sick bastard saw nothing wrong with what he did to these people. These human beings had suffered terribly, he would give them nothing for pain in order to better observe them while their bodies rebelled and finally died.

He took me over to his new central terminal and test station. It was complex and the subject was placed inside a chamber before being tested upon. The chamber had full containment capabilities, to avoid any risk of an unexpected biological contaminate either being introduced or escaping.

I looked at it as a death chamber. Those people had died in there while he calmly watched, recording it, probably enjoying a cup of Earl Grey tea. Sick bastard.

“Now we can proceed with a final and conclusive test. Finally all my years of dreaming and toiling will come to a successful conclusion. All those Ivy League amateurs, with their little self aggrandizing cliques will finally have to admit that I have beaten them. What they scorned as impossible I have made possible.” he ranted waving his arms about gesturing at the lab.

“And you, my dear Ayumi, you are going to help make this all possible.” he said with a big smile and he turned to face me.

I swallowed and said “How exactly do I do that Doctor?”

“Why, you are going to help secure Subject 7 for me of course.” he said very in a very matter of fact tone.

“How?” I asked feeling a sickening feeling creeping up my spine.

He picked up and aerosol cylinder from the table and walked over as if to hand it to me. As I was reaching he suddenly turned it and sprayed something into my face. It was very cold and when I drew a quick breath, shocked by the cold, he started to laugh.

The room started to tilt in my vision and I tried turning away but I felt like I was walking against a river current. I could not stay on my feet and fell against a work station, slumping to the floor as my legs would not help. I fell onto my back, my legs folded under me.

Dr. Hollister stepped into my vision looking down at me and said “Ayumi… you are Subject 7. That is how you will benefit. By enjoying the fruits of our many hours of labour.” he was standing there with a smile on his face as my world began sliding into darkness, the floor seeming to fall out from under me, leaving me tumbling into a void. Oddly, one of my last thought as I went under was “Who will feed my cat?” What a sad comment that with my life about to end all I could think of was a cat. How pathetic and what did that say about me?

When I regained consciousness I was inside the chamber, strapped vertically. My head was held in place and I was staring straight out at Dr. Hollister who was busy typing away on a computer.

I could not speak as a breathing mask was being held over my mouth by a robotic arm. I tried to struggle and that set off the medical monitors, causing Dr Hollister to stop typing and look up at me.

He took off his glasses and walked toward me. As he was walking I saw all my clothing and my glasses were sitting on a desk in a pile. Wait… my glasses… I should not be able to see anything past ten feet clearly. What the hell I thought.

“This is Dr. Hollister” came a voice through a speaker. “Its now day 19 since Subject 7 was first introduced to the F31-2 formula. Subject is now awake and appears to be looking around at her environment. Just prior to the Subject regaining consciousness the full battery of testing as stipulated in Appendix 27 of the Report was conducted. Subject 7 has demonstrated a dramatic increase in overall health and physical conditioning. These changes have not yet fully occurred but are expected to conclude within 36 hours. There is no sign of any of the negative effects which manifested with Subject 1 through 6. Judging by Subject 7’s efforts to free herself from the restraints she has full control of her body, however the exact extent of this control is not yet known.”

He took of sip of tea and continued “I will now speak with Subject 7 directly to help assess her condition from her perspective.”

He approached the Chamber controls and pushed a button. The mask over my face drew away, and I licked my lips and glared at him.

“Subject 7 how do you feel?” he calmly asked.

“How the hell do you think I feel you asshole, let me go!!!”

He frowned and said “Subject 7 how I think you feel is not really relevant, I am asking you. How do you feel?” It occurred to me he was not using my name. Oh shit, he didn’t even consider me a person anymore. I was just a big lab rat to him. If I did not cooperate and appear to be useful to him he would kill me for sure and I didn’t want to die. I had something he needed still and from what I heard he would need me for another 36 hours. It was up to me to try and extend that time.

“I can’t move my head”. I said calming myself down.

“That’s because it is restrained. I did not want you to suffer positional asphyxia and placed your head in that position to ensure you airway stayed open. I think given the circumstances we can forgo that particular protection.”

He pushed another button and the steel bands holding my head up slid back and away. I leaned forward and rotated my neck. Looking down I was shocked. I was still naked and what the hell had he done to me. I could not see my feet anymore, which was never a problem before, because I had two large, full and very firm looking breasts blocking my view.