Bloody Buisness

[moira]

As the post arrived two days later, Moira could not quite hold in her excitement and signed for the package quickly, nearly ignoring the postman who she often made pleasant conversation with. But not today. Today there was no time for pleasant conversation. "Thank ye," she said quickly and hurried back into the lab, package cradled in her arms like a precious child.

The precious child was immediately set upon by a scalpel as she fished the chilled blood out of the box. Holding up one of the three vials she'd ordered, her eyes gleamed in a slightly mad-scientist kind of way, and she immediately gave the vial to one of her techs to begin genetic sequencing. The second one went with another tech for various various tests, and the third she took back to her own personal lab just for a quick peek.

Pipetting out .2cc of the red liquid, she placed it on a slide, and set it under the lens of the microscope. There they were, all those red blood cells, little innertubes of pink. If not for his Factor IX they would just keep coming and coming, in little streams of red, shunning each other from coagulation and eventually bleeding him to death. Even something so small as a papercut (or a needle) could kill him.

She was in her lab most of the afternoon, scanning, testing, writing down numbers and notes to herself. God this was exciting. It was noon before she knew it, and then time to shut down most of the lab. But the tests would still run in the background, and the sequencing would continue on through the night and the next few days, the hum of all the various machines soothing as she closed and locked the door behind her.

It wouldn't be long now. Not with the information on the false cure that they'd already found. They knew the gene, knew what could possibly repress it. They just had to find a way to repress them both at once. Surely they could find a way.

[moira]

[This thread continues after DP came to see her]

Another vial of blood was in her hands as the magnetic doors shut softly behind her. Moira was grinning like a fool, the possibilities of this new sample dancing busily through her mind. This could be the answer to Lar's problem. This could be the answer to the permanancy of the cure. Sure, she'd try her best to help the man out and get back his pretty face, but she had bigger fish to fry just now.

Once again she pippetted out three vials and handed two to her lab assistants for sequencing and testing, keeping the third for her own use. A look under the microscope would undoubtably show her nothing useful, but she couldn't help the temptation. The worst part was always waiting for the sequencer, but she found the time went faster when you were actually doing something, even if it were not particularily useful.

[moira]

Moira pushed her glasses up onto her forhead and leaned down into the microscope's eyepiece, adjusting the wheel on the side until the slide below her came into view. The familiar pinkish stain of blood covered the viewing area and the little red innertubes slided by on currents under the plastic coversheet. She scrolled along, pulling specs of cells into and out of view as she perused until she came across one such cell and watched intently as it exploded, and miniscule particles came floating out towards the other cells in the fluid.

Not a pathology lab by any means, Moira didn't at first recognize what she was seeing. She dealt mostly with genetics, dna, particles too small to see with this microscope, but she switched to a higher magnification and suddenly saw what she had began to suspect. The particles had barely come into view before she shoved her rolling chair away from the microscope counter and slid over to the desk where she pushed the red button on the intercom.

Her voice rang clear through the entire clinic:

Personel working with blood sample numbers 8263DP-1 through 3, please use extreme caution. Sample is infected with a retrovirus of unknown group; possibly HIV.

My god, who would have transmitted it to that man? she thought suddenly. It was hard to imagine anyone being able to stand his personality long enough to even get through the suit to the diseased skin beneath it, much less actually have sex with the man.

Hold all further tests until a pathology can be run and the retrovirus identified. I repeat, sample numbers 8263DP-1 through 3 are contaminated and should not be used in any further tests until a pathology can be run. Please save all samples, clearly marked, in the appropriate storage areas until further notice.

Christ, she thought, now I'm going to have to put everything on hold and send this off to a pathology lab. Moira released the intercom button and leaned back in her chair, frowning.