The Modern Bird

The moonlight shines off of the glass door. David pulls open the door and walks in, his coat was slowly falling off his shoulder. He goes up to the check-in computer and clocks in for the night shift. The computer flashes a green text on the black screen “Have a good night, Dr. Smith”. The Mendel foundation logo appears on the screen. David switches off the computer and walks to the lab door.

The door had yellow tape on the top and bright, red letters read “Only classified personnel allowed beyond this point”. David looks through his bag pockets to find his notes on important passwords. Documents fall out of the bag and fall to the floor. After checking every pocket he found his little notepad full of passwords. David flips through the notes till he lands on the second to last page. He starts to key in the Numpad on the door. “One two three four,” he told himself, trying to keep in his head. David has been working for three years at this lab and ten total years for the Mendel Foundation.

As David starts to walk down the hallway to his laboratory his thoughts chase around his mind. Flashes of the prizes for his work in genetics and the help he did for humankind. He thought about the first genetically modified organism that he had raised to adulthood. A brown crested gecko with armor scales that looked like a turtle. The species was named C. Armis but he and his colleagues called the little animal Tank. David’s mind flashed images of Tank’s poor life, the experiment the poor thing was put through. David’s face turns to a small frown as he opens up the genesis room door.

David’s coworker Jackson was sitting in his chair playing on his phone. Jackson turns around and glances at David “Hey doc, what’s that frown for?”. David flashes a small smile “Don’t worry about it. How are the eggs coming along?” Jackson turns to his desk and points at the computer screen. It has a video feed of eight eggs on a table in a makeshift nest.

He was wearing a lab coat with a bright red shirt underneath with a cap with the logo of the Mendel Foundation that he got as a gift from the CEO. Jackson had dark brown hair and gray eyes like that of a cloudy day. He was highly skilled in animal design.

David looks at the chart on his cluttered desk. “Based on my estimate, each egg only has about a thirty-six percent chance of hatching. That’s the highest rate we could get with the modifications you requested and the changes already made to the species. We used a Secretary Bird as our base as it had the closest behavior of Velociraptor mongoliensis.”

Jackson opens a drawer in his desk. He pulls out a bunch of papers and places them on his desk. His face was smiling with glee as he flips through the papers. Images of different bird feathers and animal mouths flash by as he turns page after page. Jackson in his rush of papers hit some of the dinosaur figures on his desk.

David sat in his chair and starts to power on this computer covered in wires. David opens up his bag and fidgets with his password book. He flips through the pages till he got to his computer login. David slowly types it in to make sure he didn’t miss anything or hit the wrong key. The computer boots up its slow-loading screen

David looks to the left of his desk at the button in the center glowing red. It was encased in a glass box that read “Terminate”. David looks at Jackson and starts to say “Hey, what do you plan on doing with the specimens if any of them hatch?” Jackson looks at one of his drawings and replies “We’re going to raise them, test them, and when the FDA gives us the ok on the animals we will show it to the public. If they fail to meet what the FDA sees fit we will come back to you and make a further prototype.” David’s face curls into a frown. Jackson, remember they are still animals, Just because we created them doesn’t mean they’re lives don’t have value.”

Jackson turns to face him “Doc, I know you can care about animals, but these are products. We produce them, we sell them, and we get rid of them if they don’t work. Just like an old pair of shoes you can only use them till they don’t work anymore. These animals are what are funding our projects. You have your animal preserve and I have my gene therapy research. Just smile and think about the help you can do.”

David looks away, his face still frowning. “Jackson, listen to what I’m going to say and listen well. During my years of making animals I have made mistakes, and one of those was thinking they were nothing, but products”. David looks down for a minute and starts to speak again. “It’s different when they’re alive in your hands, they’re not just their DNA anymore they’re alive, The first time you touch one it’s different you just want it to live it’s the best life.” David looks at his desk at a picture of Tank. “Jackson I know you haven’t made something like this, So please show humanity before you regret it.” Jackson got up from his desk and moves to stand next to David.

Jackson places his hand on David’s shoulder “What do you think will happen if you didn’t make them? In the end, someone else would and they might not be so caring for these little guys, You are the one who does the experiments, You can control their environment, and You can take care of them. David, it’s up to you to give them a comfortable life.” Jackson looks at the picture on the desk. “Learn from your mistakes.”

Cracks and cries from the video footage. David and Jackson both turn to the video screen. Two of the eggs were shaking with cracks starting to form. When one last big push a little head pops out. The animals are covered in white feathers and their faces were lined with teeth with limps covering them. As the critter walks out of its eggshell its front foot had one large claw that strikes the ground where it walks. Its large tail is covered in feathers with some large feathers on the tips.

Jackson jumps up in joy “We did it! A living dinosaur just looks at it and it has claws and everything!” David got up from his chair. “Calm down Jackson.” David picks up his chart and starts to write things down. “On February 23th, 2034 Subject VR-04 hatched.” Jackson interprets David as “We should give him a nickname.” Jackson grabs one of his papers from his desk. “How does Victor sound?” The paper was an art piece of a velociraptor that Jackson’s son made. David smiles “Victor will work” He quickly goes back to writing “On February 23th, 2034 Subject VR-04 nicknamed Victor hatched, He has all the desirable traits like that of a tail and front enlarged claw.”

As David marked boxes and wrote notes, images of Tank flashed in his head. As Jackson watches the other egg hatch. David slowly lifts the glass of the terminate button. Jackson turns around just in time to see David try to push the button. Jackson grabbed David’s hand and pulls it back. “Doc, don’t press that button!” David looks at Jackson and starts to raise his voice “I’m fixing this! I’m doing what’s best for these animals! I let them live then what will happen to them a life of pain and fear!”

Jackson pushes the glass case back down “They haven’t had a chance to live yet! You’re just going to send them to death. Doc you know what will happen when you press that button? It’s just going to give them a painful death, and for what? To make you feel like you did the right thing.” David looks at the video screen and starts to frown.

The second egg starts to shake. Victor came over to the egg and helped push the eggshell off. The hatching pushes its head out to greet her brother. As it walks out of the shell Jackson taps David. “Look, the second one is hatching.” David turns to watch the Tv screen. The Hatchling was covered in dark gray feathers. She was slightly larger than her older brother however, the iconic claw on the feet was missing.

Jackson turns to look at David “Hey, where’s its foot claw? David grabs his bag and looks through his notes. “We didn’t know the best way to insert the gene for enlarged claws into each of the eggs so we chose to leave it out of the females. Looking at my notes, that’s Subject VR-02. Its genetic code had a mix of eagle and shrike inserted into it improving its tracking behaviors.” Jackson looks back to the video screen. “What’s Victor’s genetic code inserted with?” David flips through his notes more. “It had a mixture of Hoatzins and Cassowary to help with persistence hunting.”

Jackson points at the screen “Let’s name VR-02 Luna. Look here her wings” David put his notes back into his back and looks at the video. Luna’s Wings were covered in little black dots. Jackson turns to look at David “They’re likely hungry. Why don’t you go feed them?”

David went to the lab door and opens it. He starts to walk down the hall. His lab coat was almost to his forearms. David goes to the door and labels “Food Storage”. He grabs the door and quickly pushes the door open. He pulls his coat back up to his shoulders before entering the room.

The room was dimly lit by the swaying ceiling light. Shelves cover the wall, each one labels different food types. The shelves were covered with boxes, David walks over to the shelf labeled meats. He looks through the boxes till he found the box labeled crusts baby meat. He grabs the box and pulls it down. David unlocks the box led and lifts it. The smell of meat covers the room. The box had six buckets of crushed meat. David quickly grabs one of the buckets and closes the box.

After stacking the box back on the shelf he walks out of the room and moves back down the hallway. David’s face looks sickly as the smell of the meat covers the hallway. After a minute of walking, he got to the incubation room. He grabs the handle and twists it down. The door slowly opens. The room was all white with a small makeshift nest covered by glass covers.

The hatchling cry out in hunger as he came up to him. David clicks up the indicator’s glass cover. Victor jumps around to explore the area. Luna stays in the nest and watches David as he grabs the food. David places some of the crushed meat in his hand and tries to get Luna to eat it. “Come here, girl. Eat this.” Luna slowly walks to the food, her eyes locked on David’s hand. When she got close to the crushed meat. Luna grabs the meat and jumps onto the ground to hide.

Victor was walking around the lab looking at all the shiny computers. His eyes shine like marbles. He sniffs and tries to play with everything he could find. David follows the little one to try and keep him out of stuff. He found himself having to put him back in the indicator to keep him out of trouble. David chases Luna down trying to catch her. Luna ran under a desk and bit his finger when he tries to reach her. David grabs a pair of gloves and tries again. Luna bites the glove in a desperate attempt to get away. David finally got Luna and places her with her brother in the incubator.

David places some meat in the nest before he left the room. He walks out of the room making sure to safely lock the door. He walks down the hall and his mind starts to wander. His mind was focused on what will happen to Victor and Luna. How they will be tested day and night, ever getting to live as animals should. If they do fail to meet the expectations of the FDA then they will most likely be terminated. His lab coat fell down his shoulder as he walks to the door.

David opens the door and sat at his desk. He turns to Jackson messing with the incantation lab’s buttons. David got up and starts to reach for the termination button. He lifts the case and went to push it down. Jackson turns around and jumps in front of David. He pushes David’s arm aside.

David pushes Jackson away and went for the button “Jackson you told me to fix my mistakes, That’s what I’m going to do.” Jackson pushes his hand away from the button “I’m begging you please don’t do this. You and I have things to lose if that button is pressed. Please reconsider, you were just in there with them” David with one last big push moves Jackson to the floor. He slams the button down and the lights start to flash red.

Dark purple poison gas starts to fill the incubator case. Jackson stands up and in a desperate attempt to save them, he opens all the cases. Victor cries out in pain and falls to the ground. Luna tries to hide from the gas, but it’s too late. Victor’s eyes look into the camera and cry for mercy. Jackson watches in horror as the animals breathe their last. David shakily picks up his chart and writes “Terminated.”