Recognition

Quick History Lesson Everyone So Bear With Me...

Anyone out there seen The Swarm with Michael Caine from 1978 well Forget Africanized Killer Bees. In 2164, In The Republic of Taribia in what was formerly (before May of 2126) The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, An Underfunded Venezuelan Lab Artificially Created a **** Fusion Hybrid involving Spider and Parasitic Wasp to use as a Form of Pest Control. However, One of The Queens Eventually manged to Escape the next year when Scientists working there weren't able to take Proper Containment Procedures and from that Single Queen, A Huge Swarm of Killer "South American Spider-Wasps" began to ravage much of South America and in just Eight Short Years, The Rogue Queen and her Brood moved more than 4,000 Miles North leaving a Path of **** and Massive Devastation in its Wake encompassing South America, Central America, The Caribbean, and The Southern Portion of North America. The City of San Angeles (A Megalopolis formed from the merger of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara) where New Beverly Hills is located was hit the worst.

Right about this time you're probably wondering what makes The Spider-Wasp so dangerous... Well Let's See, How About a Communal Insect that Swarms in numbers measuring in The Hundreds of Thousands with a Wingspan of up to One Foot, An Immunity to All Known Pesticides, Large Barbed Stingers containing a Highly Potent Necrotic Venom Equivalent to roughly 90 Ordinary Bee Stings and the ability to eat through Walls “Rendering Most Buildings Extremely **** To Attack.”

Scary Enough for Ya?

It had been almost Two Years since Aaron had solved the problem of The Venezuelan Spider-Wasp and he still had Families coming forward Thanking Him. Aaron had developed a enzymatic inhibitor that was coded to the enzymatic binding agents used to bond The Spider-Wasp's Hybrid Genes together causing them to die within seconds of exposure.

The people were happy and this was not a new occurrence for Aaron but it was no less embarrassing. During Aaron's last employment cycle he was inundated with Thank You's and Gifts from Men and Women whose lives he had saved or whose children's lives he had saved but again he refused to take credit. Better Men and Women than him had paved the way and it didn't feel right to take the credit when he had done little more than take their work to it's logical penultimate conclusion but I don't expect you to know what I'm talking about so I will explain. The Families that were lavishing praise on him during the day in question were doing so because in this Future Time and Place Mankind was virtually immune to Poisons and Disease but only those Diseases and Poisons that were Discovered or Developed prior to Genetic Engineering becoming The "Norm."

There is in any Constantly Expanding Universe always new things to threaten The Health and Lives of those that live in it. Aaron had used his Considerable Intellect and Resources, Namely Gog and The Fantastic Wonders of his Private Lab in Knowhere which the rest of The World wasn't ready for to Develop Vaccines for 8 of The Deadliest Diseases currently known to Man, Most of them caused by some form of Virus. They were Lampington's Disease, MacGregor's Syndrome, NDS (Neurological Degeneration Syndrome), NOS (Neuro Overstimulation Syndrome), Wexler's Curtain (Autotoxic Hematosa), MEV-1 (MeningoEncephalitis Virus One), Lazar's Disease, and HCD (Human Cortico-Deficiency) Virus.

It was remarkably simple once Aaron had the findings of The Scientists working on these Diseases in front of him along with each Viral Strain's Gene Code and painstakingly procured samples of Each Virus or in the case of a Non-Viral Disease, Extensive Blood and Tissue Samples from multiple people infected representing every possible Ethnic Background and age group to better tailor The Cure and avoid potentially Disastrous side-effects or unforeseen consequences.

The Vaccines while important were merely a test of a Revolutionary New Genomic Sequencer he created not long after beginning work at Omen. The technology was so new and so advanced that it required a Powerful New Form of Bio-Software to drive The New Medical Technology he created. It was so Revolutionary in fact that the software alone would have taken decades to duplicate if anyone got a hold of it.

Aaron patented The Vaccines to hopefully help prevent Misuse but he provided them to every Hospital and Medical Organization in The World for Free. He could have sold The Patents to The Corporations or held them for Ransom and The Countries being ravaged by these Afflictions would have sold their own Children to pay whatever price he asked for them but he had the power and the means to help them without all the costs and red tape normally associated with such an endeavor and having nearly lost his Life to a Disease that Doctors still had not been able to explain to him or His Family he was not about to withhold something so desperately needed even if it amounted to giving away several lifetimes of Wealth. Unlike his step-father, Aaron had learned early in his life that while Wealth was important and even necessary to effect real, lasting change, It was not The Measure of a Man.

Now I would be lying if I said a part of Aaron wasn't enjoying basking in The Attention and Admiration of the Families and Friends of Families who had benefited from his work but he also found it very uncomfortable. I mean some of them looked at him like he was a God or something and anytime he was besieged by people like this he half expected one or more of them to start worshiping him but maybe that was just his Ego talking. Maybe it was all in his head and they really were just saying Thank You. Though The rather provocatively dressed Redhead looking at him from over the shoulders of several lines of people desperately clamoring to shake his hand while she bit her lower lip did look more than a little suspicious.

Our Boy Aaron is a Guy after all and subject to all the flaws that condition entails. Even more so since many of The Supposed Personality and Character Defects that had long been associated with Men were mitigated if not out right eliminated by Prenatal Genetic Engineering which was also another factor which lead to Women becoming The Dominant Gender in Much of The Civilized World. Of Course, As You already know Aaron was unable to receive this Engineering and if not for his Keen Intellect which took everyone by surprise he would have been consigned to a life of Mediocrity as an Inferior "Nat" (Derogartory Slang for a Natural Born Human). Instead he was a "Nat" with a Brain and he had been lucky enough to land his dream job working for one of the biggest and best bio-tech companies in not just The Union but The World. When he thought about it he couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all then when the moment of Levity passed he wanted to cry as the phrase, "A Freak By Any Other Name" Inevitably entered him mind. Fear was something that was almost foreign to Aaron with a few extraordinary exceptions because of all he had been through but He could so clearly see his Own Family and Neighbors dragging him kicking and screaming from his home and burning him alive or putting him on trial for crimes that had happened hundreds of years before he was even born. Aaron told himself that he was just being Paranoid but it had happened before which meant that it could and most likely would happen again. If not to him than to some other poor innocent soul somewhere in The World.

Aaron wasn't afraid to die, He had spent much of his early years making peace with the fact that he was going to die before he even had a chance to live but the thought of his Mother and Sisters participating and even reveling in his **** was soul crushing but with the growing number and seemingly endless diversity of SupraNormals in The World, How long would it be before he was listed among their number. Hatred for SupraNormals was for the most part growing with only a few being allowed to remain "Free" if you could call constant monitoring Freedom and interact with The World around them outside of a Hospital Ward or Fortified Prison Cell and even fewer were permitted to use their powers to help The Public. How much longer that would continue was anybody's guess.

But let us not get too far away from The Present. Aaron just smiled and accepted the gifts he was offered as graciously as he could even as he cursed The Doctors that had released his name and work address to the recipients of the treatments he had designed without his permission or consent.