Talk with Susanne and the Professor

Ten minutes pass. Susanne sits at a desk writing notes. She occasionally looks at you, but then lowers her gaze to her writing. The professor comes back into the lab with a tray full of beakers and vials of strange liquids. Also steaming cups of tea. She places the tray down.

"Right. How's your research going Susanne?"

"Hm well, it's only been ten minutes. Can't expect me to do much in that amount of time."

"Alright, alright, I get the picture."

Susanne taps the butt of her biro against her cheek. "This DNA segment is tricky. I don't have a diverse enough sample size to reach anything conclussive. If we had our own sample to test on, I'd be able to do my research much faster."

"You know they wouldn't let us have our own sample..."

"I know, I know, I'm just complaining that's all," Susanne clutched her forehead, "bah but look at this chart! The protein count spikes from 5 to 134 in a matter of seconds with nothing in between! What happens there? I don't know, cause the boys at the labs don't send up competent data!"

You sip your tea, sitting outside their area of conversation.

"Well you just have to assume it's a gradual smooth line."

"But what if it isn't?"

"Maybe it isn't, but we don't have data for that," the professor shrugs, switching her computer back on from sleep mode, "I admire your thoroughness, but you'll just have to accept it until we can prove it otherwise."

Susanne looks back at her notes, frustration painted on her face. She continues to tap her pen. She slurps her tea, and then looks at you.

"I'm guessing you have no idea what were talking about huh?"

You shake your head.

"Basically, in biology, there are three organisms that cause disease: bacteria, viruses, and parasites. The problem with this "virus" that's plaguing us right now, is that somehow it has taken traits from all three! So really nothing we have right now is even remotely close to being able to combat this, this... well we call it a "virus" but it's not."

"Well said. I'm happy you still remember your high school lessons," the professor doesn't even look away from her monitor, "in reality we don't really know what it is, or how or why it came about. All we know is the surface stuff; how it spreads, how quickly, what it does... although even that we're not 100% sure of."

"I mean, we do have theories-"

"You have theories," the professor butted in.

"-I have theories as to what it is."

You cock your head to the side in curiosity.

"It's alien."

Up until now you thought Susanne was a relatively reasonable woman, but now you have doubts about that. You look at her with a skeptical face.

"No I'm serious! It'd make sense!"

"Susanne, it cannot possibly be alien. It uses DNA! DNA we can prove is from earth!"

"Sure, maybe, but there is a lot of junk cells in it we can't explain! What if it is some kind of mutagenic alien simbiote parasite virus?"

"I'm not even going to humour the idea. Too many prefixes." The click-clacking on the keyboard intensifies. You can't help but agree that the idea is a little 'out of this world'. They both look at you deadpan, before turning back to their work. No appreciation for humour it seems.

"Susanne, I just printed out a couple pages, mind fetching them for me?"

"Fine fine," she nods in your direction, "come with, it'll be less boring."

You shrug and follow her out the door. The corridors are abandoned, even by the guards. Susanne looks both ways before sneaking off towards a side door labeled 'DO NOT ENTER, AUTHORISED STAFF ONLY'. It seems she is not interested in fetching those papers. She rummages around in her pocket, and procures herself a key card which she swipes down the reader. 'Beep-beep!' The red LED turns green. She looks both ways again to be sure then beckons you over.

"I didn't bring you here just to fetch papers. Come on!"

You go through the door. There's a concrete staircase that goes down, but you can't tell exactly how far it goes. The door closes behind you. Susanne starts the descent. She echoes even though she speaks in a hushed voice.

"Sorry, I didn't really mean to trick you. We would've gone here immediately, but I had to go off and "borrow" this key card from a friend," she pauses and turns around to look at you, "there's something fishy going on here, and I needed... help from someone that wasn't from the campus. I can't even trust my professor."

You tell her to explain herself.

"Doesn't it seem strange to you that this campus is like a makeshift fortress? Militarised guards, high walls all around, strict rules? They're up to something. Why they're not doing this in their own hidden underground military laboratories I don't know, but whatever they're doing here, I want to know what it is."

You both reach the bottom of the staircase. There is an ominous red door.

"Listen, I don't fault you if you want to turn back now. I just need someone to watch my back... think of yourself as my muscle!"

You grimace but then relent. You tell her that you're already this far, might as well go further.

"Thanks. Means a lot to me."