When the blood analysis results of the lab mouse were displayed before them, the entire room fell into a heavy, unbroken silence. Not a single person dared to break the stillness.
The outcome delivered by this particular test subject defied everyone's expectations. The mouse was simultaneously infected with Oripathy yet entirely untouched by its usual destructive effects.
Originium particles were undeniably present within its tissues—at a concentration that firmly classified it as an infected subject. Yet this infection carried zero destructive hazard.
It was as though the Originium inside its body had somehow gone dormant, remaining completely unresponsive to external stimuli. Furthermore, the presence of these inert particles had successfully halted any further crystalline proliferation throughout its body.
"As far as current indications go, this is a viable avenue," Kal'tsit murmured, glancing down at the lifeless mouse inside the sealed chamber. "However, the compound's performance falls short of our expectations. Once the subject expired, the expected reaction still occurred—the environmental concentration of active Originium surged the moment it died."
"Perhaps it's an issue with the formula's balance?" the Doctor chimed in, walking into the laboratory accompanied by Alina. As one of individuals holding the highest clearance levels on Rhodes Island, no security could bar her entry.
She had deliberately hung back until the tests concluded simply because she wanted to avoid catching the brunt of Kal'tsit's temper if the experiment crashed and burned.
"You should have run through the decontamination cycle before bringing people in here," Kal'tsit frowned slightly, turning toward the Doctor. "Otherwise, you're just walking around as a giant bio-culture dish, introducing variables that could skew our data. While the margins might be minor—"
"Oh, save the lecture," the Doctor brushed off the critique with a wave of her hand. "I stayed outside precisely to avoid listening to you lecture about contamination protocols. Now that the test is over, rehashing procedure is pointless."
Showing a rare flash of stubbornness in front of Jeanne, the Doctor slipped past Kal'tsit before the Feline could respond, leaning over the diagnostic console to inspect the numerical data. Her eyes widened in genuine astonishment.
"Even if it can't eradicate Oripathy completely, this represents a major step toward resolving the plight of the infected!" the Doctor announced, raising her voice so everyone could hear. "Cheer up, everyone! To yield these kinds of results on our very first trial proves that this path is viable. Let's celebrate our progress!"
Seeing the surrounding researchers still caught in a daze of lingering disappointment, the Doctor injected her trademark optimism into the room, lifting the operators' spirits with an infectious, upbeat cheer.
Just as the Doctor asserted, achieving such promising results right out of the gate meant that with subsequent refinements, developing a preventative drug that stopped transmission from infected to non-infected individuals was entirely within reach.
Moreover, the observed suppression of Oripathy suggested that tweaking the formulation could eventually yield an advanced suppressant. That possibility was no longer mere fantasy.
"We are one step closer to conquering Oripathy, and that alone gives us reason to celebrate!" the Doctor declared, her voice ringing with charismatic encouragement that sent a wave of excitement through the lab staff. Even knowing she was playing cheerleader to boost morale, the operators couldn't help feeling galvanized.
As the team began responding to the Doctor's call, cheers broke out across the laboratory. In the corridor outside, off-duty operators exchanged bewildered glances, wondering if the medical department had suddenly thrown an impromptu festival.
Amidst the bubbling enthusiasm, only Kal'tsit remained tight-lipped. She stood quietly near the main console, watching the Doctor wave her arms triumphantly atop the platform, biting her lower lip without offering a word of endorsement.
Though Kal'tsit deeply disliked such unprofessional displays of revelry inside a sterile research facility, she chose not to interrupt. After all, the Doctor's morale-boosting antics served a vital purpose—morale was often more powerful than sheer willpower, frequently determining whether a complex research project survived its darkest hours.
The festive atmosphere persisted until the operators gradually dispersed to their respective duties, leaving only Jeanne, Alina, the Doctor, and Kal'tsit behind in the lab. The Doctor strolled over with a jaunty spring in her step, humming a cheerful tune.
"Well? My ability to rally the troops hasn't rusted a bit, has it?" the Doctor beamed. "I'm not criticizing your methods, Kal'tsit, but showing a rare smile every once in a while and letting people celebrate is simply good leadership—"
She began offering a cheerful self-review of her motivational speech, blissfully ignoring the sharp, exasperated glare Kal'tsit was shooting her.
The Doctor was well aware that Kal'tsit was hardly gifted in the art of gentle encouragement; keeping her colleagues from losing their minds was usually the best one could hope for.
Still, the Doctor wasn't trying to appease Kal'tsit—she simply wanted to remind everyone of her brilliance and bask in a bit of well-earned self-adulation. Besides, opportunities to openly flaunt her cleverness in front of Kal'tsit were remarkably rare. She secretly prayed that her fellow researcher wouldn't resort to physical violence.
"Let's set aside these trivial displays," Kal'tsit sighed, her tone heavy with frustration. "You understand that this project has hit a stubborn bottleneck. The compound's efficacy falls well short of our baseline requirements."
Despite utilizing Rhodes Island's most advanced laboratory infrastructure and dedicating countless hours of grueling analysis, the final output remained a frustratingly flawed prototype.
For a project that had drained substantial financial and material resources from the landship, settling for a mediocre baseline was unacceptable to Kal'tsit—even if a flawless result wasn't expected on the first try.
While the formula possessed undeniable suppressive qualities, its failure to prevent terminal activation upon the subject's death meant a critical oversight remained hidden in their methodology.
Furthermore, reproducing these results outside of Rhodes Island was practically impossible. No other nation on Terra possessed analytical machinery capable of rivaling the landship's capabilities.
The most advanced laboratories across the major continental powers lagged behind Rhodes Island's tech base by at least a century—a gap that could not be bridged without a massive, uninterrupted technological revolution.
"Isn't this entirely normal?" the Doctor remarked smoothly, stepping closer to Kal'tsit. The Feline instinctively took a half-step back, though the Doctor pressed forward like sticky caramel, refusing to give her breathing room.
Unless Kal'tsit wanted to resort to outright physical force, shaking off the persistent researcher proved surprisingly difficult.
"I admit I grew impatient with these results," Kal'tsit conceded softly, releasing a long breath. "Perhaps seeing the dawn of true Oripathy containment within our grasp made me rush the process."
The eradication of humanity's greatest terror carried profound personal meaning for Kal'tsit. Getting even a glimpse of that light had briefly short-circuited her usual clinical detachment.
"Take a breather," the Doctor said gently, patting Kal'tsit's shoulder before stepping back. "We'll resume analysis tomorrow. You've buried yourself in that lab for days—Amiya was practically ready to send out a search party."
Seeing Kal'tsit acknowledge her own strain, the Doctor offered a reassuring smile before turning to leave.
Meanwhile, Jeanne remained standing near the test platform, staring thoughtfully at the pile of lifeless white mice.
An instinctive spark of intuition drew her gaze toward a stray stack of experimental protocols lying on the adjacent desk—documents Warfarin had evidently left behind, marked by a playful sketch of a tiny white bat drawn across the cover folder.
"What is it? Are you trying to figure something out?" Alina asked, noticing Jeanne staring at the papers with a contemplative gleam in her eye.
"I have a sudden hypothesis," Jeanne murmured. "Perhaps the answer to why this experiment fell short of expectations is right in front of us."
Without waiting for a reply, Jeanne picked up a marker from the desk. Holding a handful of plastic darts left by the researchers, she stood a few paces away from the pinned experimental logs, closed her eyes, and let her instincts guide her hand.
She began throwing the markers one by one, relying entirely on her unexplainable combat intuition.
As the final marker struck the paper with a dull thud, the document was peppered with holes of varying sizes. The chaotic pattern formed by the impacts strangely mirrored the exact structural flaws that had caused the experimental compound to fail.