Chapter Text
“Mix one thousand four hundred and eighty one… is a success.” Virimulum breathed out, in awe of the words themselves.
His timeless work was finished. Brandt was going to be satisfied at last. He hadn’t imagined results would come so soon, and for such a steep request. The human beside Virimulum adjusted his goggles, joining the Vox’s stupored stare at the jar in front of them. The liquid inside fractaled, hundreds of miniscule snowflakes and patterns coalescing and dissolving each second. A light glow bathed the countertop, shimmering and swirling across it.
“I honestly can’t believe it. I mean, this has been- this-this has taken…”
Virimulum’s partner trailed off, casting his gaze to the massive room around them. Large lights embedded into the ceiling cast a dim blue sheen over every inch of what could be seen. Rows upon rows of pods were standing, lining the walls and cutting pathways around the floor. Each one was filled with an incredibly similar, but imperfect liquid.
Unfortunate test subjects floated in the hundreds of pods spread across the room. primarily apes. Many were deformed, inverted, sizzling, or afflicted with all manner of atrocities in the name of science. Ever since space travel was achieved, humanity had never ceased to experiment on primates. It was cruel, but necessary, and they were the closest in genome to humans, let alone incredibly easy to produce.
It had taken a long, long time for this to finally work, and this was by far the most unpredictable and dangerous testing he had ever done. Regardless, he was all but finished now.
“Call Brandt.” Virimulum shrilled. His partner didn’t look towards him, but pulled his phone from his coat pocket. He dialed half of the number, before pausing.
“Do you really think they’ll pay us?” He asked.
“Of course they’re going to pay us.” Virumulum snapped. “Were you not here for the past year of intense surveillance and coercion? They wouldn’t waste all this time, waste all these resources if they don’t want to be absolutely certain. And who are the only two people in the universe that know, with absolute certainty, how to stabilize this?”
“Us….” His partner mumbled. Virumulum nodded with a reassuring smile.
“Us, correct. They need us, Sam. Call Brandt.” He ordered once more. Sam reluctantly punched in the latter half of his number, and a ringtone began to play. Almost immediately, Brandt picked up. Sam put the phone to his ear, listening with a cringe.
“Y-Yes sir, we’ve finished the project… Yes sir, I know that setback was ‘fucking annoying’, but we didn’t cause it! We already told you that someone deleted th- Y-yes okay, yes…. Yes.” Sam looked to Virimulum with a pleading expression. Virimulum sighed and took the phone from him, Brandt’s aged, rumbly voice cutting in as he levelled it to his ear.
“-inging him around 2 PM, is that doable?” He asked.
“Yes sir, that’s fine. We have the finished mix ready to be applied, and calibrations for the device will be done once we get a scan of him.” Virimulum answered.
“Good.” Brandt said, ending the call without so much as a goodbye. Virimulum scoffed.
“Was that so hard?” He asked.
“It’s scary talking to him!” Sam cried. “This whole thing is scary. It’s shady. I’ve never done nothing like this before. Why can’t we just sell what we have to an actually decent company and make a living for ourselves?”
“Are you serious? If they found out we flaked on them after all this work, they’d have our heads sawn off our bodies while we’re alive and mounted on a pike outside their front door! It’s so much easier to just finish the deal, we’re right there!” Virimulum squawked.
“We have to operate on his kid! What if we mess it up!?” Sam worried. Virimulum shook his head.
“Don’t think like that! You’re only going to hurt yourself, take some pride! Look how far we’ve come! I’ll be there helping the whole way. And if it goes sideways… we’re dead anyways.”