"We must not treat the body with anything but the utmost respect!" Kitridge mumurs dramatically, as he drives the scalpel in for the first incision. His voice resonates across the sterile room. The profound effect that this has on the bug-eyes gaggle of first year under grads and "community interest" observers is not
lost on him. He suppresses a tiny smile. Here it comes, he thinks. Any minute now.
Time to end the showboating, he sets the scalpel down.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he begins crisply.
"As you can see our experiment has worked. We have successfully produced a complete and quite fresh body from a miniscule bone fragment of the sample. This marks a high point in the development of our cloning technology."
He leads the group away from the cadaver and gestures to a glass display case cointaining the desiccated remains of a mummy.
"Our breakthrough was achieved in collaboration with the Synergy Corporation. Their temporal flux technology was key in partially animating each specimen, to achieve the results you've witnessed here today; vessels that bleed and flesh that is soft even while the specimen retains all of the traits of the original sample. As you can well imagine, this will go far in perfecting our understanding of humankind's gradual evolution over the past two hundred thousand years."
Amidst the impressed "oohs" and sycophantic "aahs" of the eager Eugenics first year students, the hesitant throat clearing brings down a sudden hushed silence. It's the blonde Reporter, Alyssa Shinya again. Her turbulent blue eyes betrays her ultra professional, plastered on smile.
"This sample," she points, lips curling in obvious distaste at the use of the word "sample."
"This," she queries crisply, "is the mummy of Hechepsut, is it not?"
Kitridge smiles coldly and with no small measure of disdain.
"Why yes it is. I see you've done your homework. I must say, I am quite impressed."
He smirks a little as dozens of reproachful eyes are suddenly trained on her.
She doesn't even flinch.
"Hechepsut was once queen of all of Ancient Egypt. She was a cunning opportunist, a politician and a brilliant military strategist. The woman who would be king."
"And?
Her brow furrow.
"Are you really trying to tell us that the best use to which all of you brilliant scientists can think of to put this incredible technology, is to culture corpses from her remains and hack her to pieces repeatedly, until there's nothing left? You're really suggesting there is nothing more meaningful that we could possibly learn from her?"
He watches her with suddenly avid eyes. This one is no fool, even if her questions seem simple enough.
"You seem to be saying that we can and should use this technology to bring the sample back to life."
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Well, no Miss Shinya. That would entail breaking several very serious Laws, would it not?"
There is an uneasy, collective laugh. It washes over them and the tour continues. Blond reporter, Shinya melts away into the background but she is never very far from Kitridge's uppermost thoughts. Her harebrained theory, isn't so far from the truth. How long will it be before other minds take the same leaps and bounds as hers? How long before Mensa Research and Synergy Corporation's dirty laundry is hung out and left to flap about in the wind?
© Tonya R Moore
