ataraxion | 001

[ ENCRYPTED 75% TO MEDICAL AND XENOBIOLOGY/GENETICS STAFF + BRUCE BANNER: ]
I took the liberty of checking out the blood samples we were able to get from the creatures at the end of the maze. Some of them seemed to have bacterial infections, which isn't surprising, but I also checked them against known DNA samples from Earth.

I don't want to alarm anyone, which is why I've encrypted this for now, but so far the results are all coming back in essentially the same manner. The DNA of these creatures is a mix between Earth creatures -- the lion is a large component, and there are also what appears to be genetic material from the Australian dingo and some sort of crocodile. However, at the present time it appears as though the largest genetic contribution comes from human beings.

Obviously the samples may have been compromised, as I've really only been able to work off their blood and some hair. I'm going to request a larger sample, preferably an entire specimen -- dead, obviously. Hopefully we can get more answers, and hopefully the human genetic material was just cross-contamination.

[ OPEN: ]
I've heard a few things about people returning to the end of the maze to clear out the rest of the creatures, in addition to a possible salvage operation. My name is Elizabeth Ross -- I'm a cellular biologist and university professor back home. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to request a mostly intact -- though definitely dead -- specimen of the creatures. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are wondering just what they are and how they got here, not to mention how they've survived the jumps, and I'm hoping that an entire specimen might be able to give us some answers.

How is everyone feeling?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Groggily, because guess who just woke up and found this surprise. Also, he eavesdropped on your conversation with Miles, so when he speaks his voice is rough. ]

I have only known great evil that is capable of twisting the bodies of Men into wraiths that are barely alive, but not even the Enemy is capable of joining humans with animals. A creature with a beast's scent-sense and the intelligence of a human seems formidable indeed.

[ A quiet clatter, he's sitting up. ]

Do you know the manner by which they can accomplished this?

They don't think like humans.

[ She just wants to make that clear, since both Charles and Tyke impressed that fact upon her. ]

There are theories, but it's not my area of expertise. To have actually been able to pull it off, to make not just one short-lived creature but multiple... That's beyond me. It might have even been an accident.

[ The way the Hulk was an accident. ]

[ ... An accident. Aragorn breathes out quietly. ]

Nay. [ The word is like a sigh. ] I have not seen such a creature, but I know what damage its claws can wrought. A creature such as that was not created by mere accident.

I didn't think so. But I was told to try not to pin down one theory so quickly.

[ There's her own sigh now. ] I think someone was trying to play God.

[ Softly, as if to himself: ]

Such is the arrogance of Men.

[ Then- ] How many have been injured by these beasts? [ A beat. ] Can any of them be turned back into Men?

I'd have to get the numbers from medical.

The creatures? It might be possible, but I don't know that I'd recommend it. Physically, maybe, though it sounds like they've all had their eyes scratched out. Mentally? Even if we could get them to think like human beings, the trauma might be too great.

... The transformation must be one of great pain, if it caused them to blind themselves.

If that was the reason they did it in the first place. But I'd assume the transformation would be painful anyway. It's rewriting what makes them what they are.

'Rewriting'?

Imagine that the human body is a book. It's made up of the spine, the pages, chapters, paragraphs, sentences, words, and letters. If I were alter even some of the contents, it wouldn't be the same book.

These creatures... it's like someone took a book called "human beings" and then took out some chapters, replacing them with chapters from "lion" and "dingo" and "crocodile".

... Out of those three beasts, I know none of them. [ A little wryly. ]

Where can I find out more of them?

I'm not sure if there's anything on the ship that could help, but you might be able to find something. I'm not sure we have any zoologists, either.

They're all predators, though.

[ A long pause as he considers this. ]

Perhaps we are a warship instead. [ Softly. ] And these Men who created the beasts wish to create an army.

It wouldn't be the first time people have tried it. Even if this isn't a warship, it's possible that they thought the genes would have benefits.

Or they were out of their mind. I don't know.

Nay, I do not think mad Men would be able to accomplish the complexities needed to mix the blood of Men with that of beasts. [ Softly. ]

'Tis an ill thought, but I believe that these creatures are created for a purpose. Though what it is, I know not.

People can be utterly insane and still achieve things. They're just... usually terrible.

I don't know either. Whatever it is, it either didn't work, it backfired, or they weren't able to see it all the way through before they disappeared.

You believe that the makers of these creatures were taken from here, then? That they did not leave voluntarily?

I don't know. But apparently there's blood all over the labs of the science department.

... Whose blood? Can you tell?

No, but it's human.

If the ship's medical records from before we arrived were intact, I could check. But they're all gone.

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