“If there are no major mishaps, I would say it will be between six to twelve months before we test a human. Keep in mind the other two spaceships are also beginning to test this process. We will compare results with them.”
Bob then said, “I guess the million-dollar question is, do you have any idea who the first human subject will be? I am sure you will not test anyone until there is a ninety-nine per cent chance that the person will live through the experience.”
“You are correct that I will not allow a test on a human until I am absolutely sure this will work. I would never forgive myself if we lost someone, regardless of who it was, during this research. As of right now, I do not have anyone in mind to be the first person on board to undertake this procedure. I presume when the time comes, I will ask for a volunteer. If all goes well, it will probably happen in six to twelve months.”
Tom said, “That is fine. I do hope we are successful with cryopreservation. It would be nice to slow our lives down once in a while. Next, what will we be doing regarding cloning? If things go well, when do you think you will test the first human?”
“I am working with two other specialists on this procedure. As you know, animals have already been cloned, but no humans have gone through the process with the exception of Epoh, who did not exactly turn out the way I would have hoped. We are practicing and researching how to take a DNA sample in a petri dish and watching the cells grow into a living thing. It will be a while before we produce a human. To ensure maximum success, we need to test for how fast or slow we can clone someone. Will it be two weeks, six months, or one year to successfully clone a person? We probably do not have to wait nine months for cloning to be successful.
“I am sure we may have some failures with this. Luckily, we have DNA from over one million people in storage. We will probably try the first on someone that is already deceased. We are also researching how to improve stem cells that can be implanted into people on board if they need a new organ or face an incurable disease. This may also take a while until we show some success. In short, there is a lot of work to do between the everyday medical examinations and the research we are doing.”
Tom said, “That was an excellent overview. We do appreciate all the hard work you have done and will be doing in the future. You are probably the most important person on board the Imagine. Your team is certainly going to be the busiest on board for the foreseeable future. I may be able to fly the Imagine so that it avoids hitting anything, but if we do not live long enough eventually, we will all die before arriving at any destination.
“Speaking of humans and cloning, how are Dr. Kintain and Epoh? As you know, we agreed to keep Epoh a secret and limit his area of movement to the medical area. By the way, where is Dr. Kintain?”
Dr. Sato suddenly appeared a little bit annoyed. I requested that Dr. Kintain come to this meeting so he could give you his report on Epoh, as he is the person that spends the most time with him. I have not seen Dr. Kintain for the last several hours. I paged him on the communicator but received no answer.”
Tom’s mouth opened as if to say, ‘uh oh.’ “Dr. Sato, please take me to the area or lab where Dr. Kintain works with Epoh. I have a bad feeling about this, but I hope I am wrong. The rest of you, please return to your duties or go to the cafeteria. Once again, I must remind everyone not to speak of Epoh to others on board the ship. I do not want to alarm anyone.”
Dr Sato led Tom to a room that was supposed to be locked. A ’Do Not Enter’ hung off of it. However, the door was open. Dr. Sato and Tom entered the room and looked around. After two minutes, they found Dr. Kintain on the floor. They ran to him.
“Dr. Kintain!”
Dr. Sato checked on him. He seemed to be all right and there was no bleeding. He was awake but had a few bruises on his arms and face. Dr. Sato attended to him while Tom started talking to him
“Where is Epoh? What happened?” Tom asked.
Dr. Kintain told Tom that he was doing a routine exam of Epoh when suddenly there seemed to be a loud noise coming from other places on the ship. Epoh wanted to know where the noise was coming from. Dr. Kintain tried to get Epoh to forget about the noise, but Epoh refused to listen to him and demanded that they go find the noise together. When Dr. Kintain refused, Epoh started to attempt to open the door and leave. Dr. Kintain tried to stop him, but Epoh just overpowered him, pushed him down, and left. Dr. Kintain just hoped nothing was going to happen to either Epoh or anyone on the Imagine.
Tom immediately got on his communicator to contact his officers about Epoh. Tom had kept Epoh secret from all of them, but now he had no choice but to ask for their help in locating Epoh. Their orders were to find him without killing him, unless he was a danger to others. Truth be told, Tom did not know how people would perceive Epoh if they saw him and how Epoh would perceive people on the ship. He just hoped the situation would not escalate.
Sam was one of the officers that received the alert. He was in the busy cafeteria. The mood was giddy and elated before they broke orbit and things got more serious.
Just as Sam got on his communicator, they both heard a loud gasp from several people in the cafeteria.
“What is it, Sam?”
“Dad, you’re not going to like this. I found him.”
“I’ll be there in a flash!”
Tom ran into the cafeteria as everyone saw Epoh for the first time. Epoh looked like a Tarzan version of Dr. Kintain, but without hair. Tom wasn’t sure what had happened to his hair. Dr. Sato had never described that there had been any alterations made to the clone. Except for his loin cloth, Epoh had no clothes on. He was also much whiter than any person he had ever seen.
Epoh seemed nervous and unsure of what he had just walked into. Tom figured Epoh had no idea if the people in the cafeteria were his friends or enemies. After all, this was his first contact with many humans all at the same time.
Tom instructed everyone to quietly move away from Epoh.
While they were doing that, Dr. Sato raced to the cafeteria along with several security people and officers who were told to meet there. Dr. Sato had a large syringe filled with enough tranquilizing medicine to knock out a horse. Since Dr. Kintain needed to rest from his bruises, they couldn’t rely on his help. It also appeared that Dr. Kintain might not be able to apprehend the clone any longer using his techniques.
Epoh recognized Dr. Sato.
Dr. Sato said, “Epoh, please sit down where you are and we can give you some medicine.”
Epoh did not like the sound of that. He suddenly spoke, “No, I will not sit down. I want to know where I am and who are these people. What is happening here? What was that loud noise?”
Dr. Sato looked at Tom. Tom stepped forward and said, “Epoh, I am Tom Burns, the commander of the ship you are on. I am a friend of Dr. Kintain’s and Dr. Sato. I need you to do what Dr. Sato asks, and everything will be all right.”
Tom also motioned for everyone to stay back to give Epoh the opportunity to listen to Tom. Epoh could probably hurt just about anyone in a one-on-one fight and even kill someone, depending on his behavior and how he reacted to the person coming at him.
Epoh stood his ground. He asked, “Where is Dr. Kintain? I want to talk to him. He gave life to me, right?”
A few people started laughing nervously. Epoh did not like the laughing and started moving toward them.
At that point, Tom had no choice but to tell security not to shoot him, but to move in and try and wrestle him down to the ground so that Dr. Sato could give him the tranquilizer. Four security personnel moved to intercept Epoh and tried to detain him to prevent him from hurting anyone.